How to Give An Extemporaneous Speech

of public speaking that gives professional speakers

that comfortable conversational sound.

It's called extemporaneous speaking

which is a misunderstood word.

The key reason to use extemporaneous speaking is

that it gives you the most versatility

and it's a flexible approach

and it's the one that most listeners prefer.

There are other speaking styles that audiences

do not tend to enjoy that many speakers often use

when they should not, so let's look

at some options to put extemporaneous speaking in context.

For example, most audiences don't wanna listen

to speakers who are reading word

for word directly from a manuscript.

This is called manuscript speaking

and it usually sounds dry and robotic.

The speaker barely makes eye contact

and stands motionless at a podium as they read.

It can be done well

but some speakers can read a teleprompter, for example

and you can't even tell they're reading.

They sound natural, but that takes talent, practice.

Those are typically professional politicians

or TV personalities who do this for a living

and they have speech writers who write like they talk

but when the average speaker reads right from their notes

and looks down, most of the time listeners don't like that.

You might remember what it sounds like

when a student is reading their paper assignment

in front of the class.

That's what most speakers sound like

when they use the manuscript style of speaking.

If you wanna lose your audience, as I say,

this is a great approach, but it is a useful point

of comparison for a video like this.

Another style that listeners tend not

to enjoy is memorization.

A memorized speech means