Extemporaneous speaking

Extemporaneous speaking is speaking without notes. This gives your speech or presentation a more natural feeling but just because you're going to speak without notes don't think you don't need to do any background work.

You really need to understand what you are going to talk about.so do your research.

A lot of people who appear to be giving extemporaneous talks are relying on past speeches and experiences so don't be fooled into thinking they are really doing it without any preperation.

You need to practise, practise and then practise a bit more.

If you're in a work situation or college situation where you know you might be asked to give a talk with no preparation time allowed, practise a few stock talks at home. If you keep them fairly general in content you should be able to amend them to fit the topic you're asked to talk about.

For example if you're a history student, pick out a couple of important periods or people and practice talking about them., have a beginning, middle and an end. If you work in insurance and are in a position where you might be asked to give an extemporaneous talk, pactise a few topics at home.

When you're speaking without notes it's important to give yourself time to think.

Make sure that you don't speak too quickly, it's natural to want to try and say everything quickly before you forget what it is you want to say but it's essential that you pace yourself.

Pause after each new thought, this not only gives you a chance to put your thoughts in order but gives the listeners a chance to take in what you have said.

Opening your mouth a bit wider than you normally do will help you project your voice as well as slow you down.

Make sure that you sound the final consonant in each wordso that the people sitting near the back can differentiate between words such as 'bed' and 'beg'. For more information about generally improving your speaking skills click here.

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