Unit 4: Public Speaking

When you begin to select and narrow down your topic, you need to remember that it has to be a topic that you are familiar with, that is interesting to you, and will be interesting to your audience. After you have selected the topic and narrowed it down, you should be able to express the main idea of your speech in one or two sentences. It needs to be presented towards the end of your introduction.

Some of the topics are too broad to be covered extensively in a short presentation and you need to narrow them down. For example, Universities in Poland is a very broad subject and by narrowing it down to What you need to know if you want to study at the Poznan University of Technology, you will be able to focus on something that may be important to your audience. It will also make your preparation easier.

After you have successfully verbalized your topic, you need to brainstorm and gather material for your speech and research the topic thoroughly. You may want to consult primary sources, which will supply you with first-hand information. These might be interviews with people who know a lot about the topic, or journal writers, etc. The secondary sources of information available are parts of basic reference found in your local library (encyclopaedias, dictionaries, library indexes) or part of the internet: news archives, government information. It goes without saying that one needs to approach online information with caution. It is a virtual jungle of info-rmation, and some of it may be misleading or simply wrong.

Throughout your presentation you should use a variety of supporting info-rmation: not just numbers, but also quotes and stories. If you use stories in your speech, do it for a specific purpose, not just for the sake of filling in the body of your speech.

For a greater impact, you may want to use quotations, definitions, analogies and examples. All of these, though, should be short and to the point.

Remember to make a list of references to document your sources!