Defining a Successful Delivery

Delivery is "real" when the speaker is honest and talks with the audience without acting.

Learning Objective

List the four main qualities that make a speech "real" and describe their use

Key Points

Ethical--Audiences expect a public speaker's life to be a reflection of his or her message.
Conversation--Audiences in North America seem to respond more favorably to public speaking that is a natural conversation.
Interactivity--Audiences feel connected to speakers who talk with them, rather than at them.
Eye contact--North American audiences expect the speaker to look them in the eye.
Voice--Each audience member expects a conversational tone but also wants to hear and understand the speaker. Public speakers should always use a microphone to make sure everyone can hear.
Gestures--Audiences expect to see gestures that feel natural, maintain interest, and help convey the message. Gestures may include movements of the hands, face, or other parts of the body.

Term

ethics
The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.

Example

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is airing his opinions about the proper manner of speaking upon the stage. HAMLET'S SPEECH Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Oh, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. Oh, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready.

Full Text

Keeping it "real"

Successful delivery has two components according to Quintilian 9 . A good man (or woman), speaking well has to be "real", firstly you need to know and speak the truth; and secondly, you cannot be posing or acting when you speak.

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35 – c. 100), Roman rhetorician

Quintalian with hand raised to speak to a crowd.

Ethics of the speaker

Being a real person is the ethical nature of public speaking. Quintilian considered the ethical nature of the speaker first. The speaker is obligated to be a person of good character and speak the truth.

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. It comes from the Greek word "ethos," which means "character". Not only must the speaker deliver the speech well but he/she must be a person of good character. From the very early days of studying rhetoric, ethics were important. The speaker could not just say one thing and then do something different; he/she was called upon to live by what the he/she was saying. Speaking well, also means speaking justly, where eloquence, wisdom and goodness combine. The Greek philosopher Socrates suggested that evil or bad actions are the result of ignorance and that any person who knows what is truly right will automatically do it. What do you think?

Socrates Teaching

Socrates using his socratic method with a student.

How does the speaker keep it real?

Let's look at two important aspects of speaking well, which may serve as a guide.

Speaking as magnified conversation

In general, audiences in North America seem to respond more favorably to public speaking which is modeled as a natural, but magnified conversation. Public speaking is a conversation with the audience. Working with this model, you will find that certain behaviors will be more successful than others.

Interactivity--Rather than talking "at" the audience, it's better to be speaking directly "with" the audience. You should, at least mentally, conceive of the audience as responding, asking questions and approving or disapproving of what you are saying. In essence, you are not lost in your own train of thought while ignoring the thoughts of the audience. There is interactivity or a perception of give and take between the audience and yourself as the speaker.
Eye contact--This is an important aspect of successful delivery for North American audiences. They expect you to look them in the eye. Here and in Western Europe, eye contact is interpreted the same way: conveying interest and honesty. People who avoid eye contact when speaking are viewed in a negative light, as withholding information and lacking in general confidence. However, in the Middle East, Africa, and especially Asia eye contact is seen as being disrespectful and even challenging of one's authority. People who make eye contact, but only briefly, are seen as respectful and courteous.
Voice--you want to speak naturally but loud enough to be heard by all the members of the audience. At a minimum, you need to be intelligible to the audience so that they can comprehend the message. If you are not able to be clearly heard by the audience, then you will want to get special help to improve pronunciation, stress and emphasis.
Gestures--You are not an actor who takes on or plays a role, but rather, one who enlarges the gestures so that everyone can see. A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together with and in parallel to words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Today, the conversational speaker, unlike the old school elocutionist who focused more on technique than substance, strives for natural gestures, which develop out of what is being said. As a conversational speaker you do not want to use planned or fixed gestures for dramatic effect. Additionally, you want to avoid any gestures that, out of nervousness or habit, might distract the audience from the message.

Requirements of the occasion

Conversational speaking or dialog with the audience does not mean that you are always informal or use casual speech. Different speaking occasions have different degrees of formality. The audience will judge, as so you need to adapt the appropriateness of dress, posture and word choice associated with how formal or informal the occasion may be. Ultimately, the successful speaker is really true to self and receives the desired response from the audience.

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