Oration is the art of preparing and presenting a speech. When you hear the word ‘speech,’ an oratory speech is what will generally come to mind. Why? Because it is the most stereotypical of speech and debate events. When you want to persuade someone, or some ones, Oratory is normally what you will use. If it is on the fly, you will use Impromptu, but prepare before hand when at all possible. Every Oratory speech should have a ‘thesis,’ or a main point that they are trying to get across. The thesis should be introduced early on. The rest of the speech should be dedicated to backing this point up. 

To prepare an Oratory speech, first, you need a main thesis. The thesis is the main point or argument that the speech is trying to make. A thesis could be something as simple as ‘cats are better then dogs,’ to something more complex like ‘healthcare reform will destroy the United States of America.

The thesis should normally be one of the first things you state in your speech. There are, however, exceptions. An exception might be that the whole speech is focused on trying to “figure out” what your thesis is and then revealing it at the end of the speech. However, in most cases, you should state your thesis early on in the speech.

After you have done this, you move on to proving, backing up, and arguing for your thesis. This comes in a series of points and sub points. A point is a main argument that supports your thesis. A point for ‘cats are better then dogs’ might be something like ‘cats are less work.’ Your points are what make up your speech. Each point you have will also most likely have sub points to it. Sub points are arguments that support your arguments. A sub point to ‘cats are less work’ might be ‘cats look after themselves.’

There is no set number of points or sub points. In Oratory, the number will depend on how much time there is to present and the thesis. The only thing is you will want to make sure the speech flows well; that one point leads to the next, and it doesn’t matter how many points you have. You could have three, or twenty-three as long as the speech flows well and the audience doesn’t get bored. You have to remember this: if there were no audience, you wouldn’t be giving your speech.

When you have your points, sub points, and thesis, the next thing you need is facts. Proof. Information. Statistics. You will need this information to back up the claims you made with you thesis, points, and sub points. Do not make a claim that you can’t back up.  That would be classified as ranting. Facts, information, and statistics will make you sound like you know what you’re talking about and that you’re not just someone with strong opinions. When you sound like you know what you are doing, people are more likely to listen to you. Not only that, but facts will prove what you have said in your thesis, points and sub point. 

You might also consider bringing up an antithesis. An antithesis is an idea that opposes your thesis. The reasons to bring this up might be to argue against it, and throw it into a bad light, or to help you make your point. Quotes are also a great thing. When a really smart of influential person agrees with you, the audience will be more likely to agree with you. Quotes will, again, make you sound like you know what you are talking about, like you have done your research, and like you aren’t just ranting.  

On to presentation. Presentation is huge. It will make or break your speech. You could have the best speech in the world, but if you speak so quietly that the audience can’t hear you, what good is your speech?

First and foremost, talk LOUD! A lot of people giving speeches have trouble mumbling quietly.  When first giving a speech, you need to remember that conversational tones will not reach people in the back row.  When you are loud enough that you are feeling uncomfortable, then you are probably being loud enough; some people should probably go even a little louder.  With practice, you will become comfortable with speaking at higher volumes. 

The same thing applies with the speed at which you speak when presenting your speech.  Conversational speed is much faster then a good speed in a talk.  Most people tend to speak way too fast, but there are some people who will speak really slowly.  If you slow to the point that it is uncomfortable to you, then you should be speaking at the right speed. The reason for going slow is this: when you speak slowly, the audience can hear and understand what you are saying. When you go to fast, the audience doesn’t have time to process what you just said because the next point comes on to fast, and the whole speech just flies over the heads of the audience. 

Using different tones in speaking is another important thing.  This is one of the biggest problems many speakers have.  They speak in monotone, sounding like an emotionless robot. They don’t speed up or slow down. They don’t go higher or lower. This will slaughter your speech. A large part of speech presentation is drama. It keeps the audience’s attention. At the climax of your speech, you might want to get really loud speak more quickly. At other parts, you may want to quiet down and take on a more solemn tone, low and serious. Use emotion; feeling and emotion are what separate us from robots and mass murderers. It makes you look more human, it helps you connect with the audience.  These things help get your message across. Chances are, if you do it right, the audience will start to feel the same way you do about you topic. Emotion is one thing that all human beings have in common, so when you use emotion, the audience can see what you are feeling and better understand what you are trying to say. If you feel hopeful about something, and that is the thesis of your speech, then you will want to help your audience to become hopeful about the same thing. Portraying hopefulness will help with that a lot.  Use emotion and drama, they will really help your speech.

HOWEVER, do not over do it. Don’t take your emotions it to the point that it looks fake.  If you are actually feeling the emotion, it will help our audience to feel that.  Also, a note on passion: passion can be a very good thing and help your speech reach heights it could not reach without this passion. But, if done wrong, it will destroy your speech. There are certain parts of the speech I like to call climax moments. They are the parts of the speech that the rest of the speech builds up to, where the final point is normally made. These are the parts of the speech that are remembered most, such as the “give me liberty or give me death” in Patrick Henry’s speech. These are the parts of the speech when your passion will probably reach its peek. The whole speech, however, cannot be composed of these climax moments.

There are times, of course, when passion is the normal sense isn’t required or even acceptable. A loud, passionate speech that is supposed to have a calming, pacifying effect will not have much effect.  The same speech, if presented with a calm, levelheaded style, would have been much more influential.

Also, make sure that you enunciate. Speak clearly. Get your words across. Why? Because if the audience can’t understand what you are saying, then you can’t get your message across. Also, don’t say ‘uh’ or ‘um.’ It distracts from the speech and makes it look like you are not as prepared as you could be.

Now on to posture: stand up straight, don’t bend your knees, and don’t slouch. The more professional and nice you look, the more the audience is likely to listen to you. Don’t pace around when giving your speech unless you have a concrete reason to do so, such as to demonstrate a point. Don’t shuffle your feet. Stand still, tall, and professional.

Keep your hands still. Don’t’ fidget with your clothes, papers, jewelry, or let your fingers do anything without a purpose. But, do use hand gestures. They can help get your point across. When it comes to hand gestures, let your hands do what comes naturally. When you do it though, one thing to remember might be to free your elbow. In other words, don’t keep your elbows glued to your sides for the whole speech. It doesn’t look natural.  Rather, it looks rather comical.  Of course, it is not necessary to punctuate every single syllable with a hand gesture.

Make eye contact with the audience. It will help a lot. It makes the audience feel like they are involved in the speech. When you make eye contact, it brings the audience in. And, in all reality, it helps keep the audiences attention. As much as possible, be looking out over the audience and making eye contact. Some people say that you should stare at the back wall if you are nervous, but don’t. Make eye contact.

As much as you can, it is always best to have your speech memorized. It will leave your hands free of a paper so that you use them to emphasize important points, and it will leave your eyes free to make good eye contact with the audience.

Humor, use it, but don’t over do it. If you say something and the audience thinks it is funny, great. If not, that’s okay too, unless you are a comedian. But you are not; you are a public speaker. Don’t ever laugh at your own humor, and make sure if you tell a joke, that it is very appropriate to your thesis.

Finally, a bit on how to look. It’s simple, really. Dress in business attire. Look nice. Have your hair done nice. Take a shower. Look professional. They tell you not to make judgments until you get to know people.  But that doesn’t stop them.

            Audience is an important part of speaking.  The audience is who ever will listen to you and can do something with what you have to say. Really, the whole thing is about the audience. You are there to convince the audience of your thesis, so that they can do something with it. Trying to do anything else is beside the point. It is all about the audience, so make them feel important by doing the very best job you can. The better a job you do, the more likely the audience is to listen to you. And if the audience listens to you, and you get your message across to them, regardless of what they do with it, then you have done your job, and done your job very well indeed. So if the point is for the audience to listen, then make it easy on them, and stand up straight, make eye contact, look nice, and deliver the best speech you can in a clear, dramatic, educated way.  If you can do that, you will succeed every time.

Thanks to Preston Miller for his help with this article.  Acknowledgements