The 3 Ps in Speechmaking - Pace, Poise and Polish.
Sep 24th, 2008 by Jane K.Thomas
If someone were to ask you how many Ps there are in speechmaking, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there is only one. Strictly speaking, of course, you’d be right. But if you intend to make a speech, you had better remember that there are, in fact, three Ps in speechmaking - Pace, Poise and Polish.
And if you can remember to make use of all three in your speechmaking then you are guaranteed to impress each and every audience that you address.
Pace. This is a ‘make or break’ P. Get this wrong and your audience will either be bored to tears and will be struggling to hide their yawns from you OR they will be nudging their close neighbour to ask whether he heard what you said because they missed it.
If you have ever had the misfortune to be listening to a presentation being made by a slow speaker, you will already appreciate just how tedious too slow a pace can be. The audience will be itching to shout “speed it up, won’t you? I have to be in work tomorrow morning!”
Delivering your speech too slowly is guaranteed to make even the most polite audience lose their patience with you.
On the other hand, if your pace is too fast, many people in your audience will simply lose the thread of what you are saying and listening to you will become too much like hard work. Your responsibility is to make the audiences’ task of listening to your speech easy, not difficult and you should be striving to give your audience the luxury of simply relaxing and letting your words seep effortlessly into their minds.
Deliver your words slowly enough for your audience to be able to easily absorb what you are saying yet fast enough to avoid your delivery becoming tedious. Remember that by varying the pace of your presentation, you will be able to retain the interest and attention of those listening to you.
Poise. Most speakers believe that the subject matter of their presentation is all that is important and spend most of their time worrying about the actual construction of their speech. They are happy to spend hours collecting snippets of information, organising it into an acceptible order, selecting an appropriate opening and closing style and making sure that the rhythm and flow of their words is just right.
And of course, all that work is essential if you are to give an excellent speech. But the effort doesn’t stop there. How you present yourself is just as important as how you present your words.
Take a moment to run through this checklist before you step out in front of your audience:
1. Is your clothing smart, clean, appropriate and arranged correctly? 2. Is your hair neatly combed? 3. Does your body language convey the right impression?
Always bear in mind that your audience will start forming their opinion of you from the first moment that they see you and long before you have a chance to woo them with your words. Your poise - that is, the visual impression given to the audience - will influence their first impression of you and that is something that you must pay great attention to .
Make sure that your impression is a positive one.
Polish. This is what will make a good speech great! It is also the element that will be of the most help in ridding yourself of any pre-speech nervousness. Proper preparation is the key to most things in life and when speaking in public thorough preparation is nothing less than vital.
Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror, or better still, in front of your friends and family. Become very familiar with the content of your speech, the most effective style of delivery, the incorporation of suitable gestures - anything that you feel needs to be practised until it becomes second nature.
Take time to scrutinise your stage outfit and pay close attention to your posture. Don’t lean, don’t hunch, don’t slouch and don’t allow yourself to display any outward signs of tension. Polish your performance until it shines! You must strive to appear relaxed, confident and in control at all times - even if you don’t feel it.
If you can remember the three Ps in ’speechmaking’ - Pace, Poise and Polish, you will be certain that your speech will be delivered in such as way that any audience will be enthralled, entertained and enraptured by your performance.
