The ability to deliver a great speech in public is a highly regarded skill. It’s a skill that does not simply require knowledge of the topic but the ability to inform and keep the audience interested during the speech. A great public speaker could even invoke emotions and could trigger reactions from the audience.

That is why public speaking is more than just getting in front of everyone and talking about what you know. There are many things a speaker should consider before delivering a speech. The speaker should have enough knowledge, practice the delivery and know the audience well to avoid offending remarks and actions. These considerations could take some time to prepare before they could actually deliver the speech.

But even with all the preparations, the speaker is still prone to certain mistakes to public speaking. In fact, all the preparations will go to waste if some mistakes were made during the public speech.

Word Fillers

Word fillers such as “um” or “ah” are unavoidable especially for 1st time pubic speakers. But using too many word fillers during the public speech is a fatal mistake for any public speaker. Your knowledge about the topic will go to waste if most of your sentences start with word fillers. Word fillers would oftentimes mean that you are not sure about what you are talking about or you haven’t prepared at all.

While word fillers are hard to avoid for many beginners but the best way to prevent too many word fillers is to practice. It is also important to organize your speech carefully so that ideas will flow easier.

A relative to word fillers are words that lessen the veracity of your sentences. The two classic examples in this category is “like” and “you know”. For example, “I was, like (or you know), trying to explain the significance of productivity but no one was listening.” Although you are trying to explain something important, the presence of “like” and “you know” will make your statement unimportant.

Self Bragging and Bashing

Insulting anyone during your speech is highly discouraged. Bashing anyone in public could only cause inconvenience to the audience especially if you bash someone when you don’t have any facts to back it up.

Since bashing anyone in public is highly discouraged, you should also be careful in bashing yourself in public. Self-bashing is often done to amuse your audience or to connect to them since they also have the same experience. But self-bashing could easily go overboard. Instead of boosting your image, your reputation is ruined.

Along with self-bashing, bragging about what you have done in your public speech is also discouraged. It’s important to let the audience know your authority on a certain subject but your accomplishments to gain this reputation should not become a big part of your presentation. Even though bragging will not ruin your reputation, talking a lot about yourself will never teach the audience anything.

Not Knowing the Stage and Equipments

The stage and equipments have big roles in ensuring the success of your speech. For that reason, it should be your habit to check where you will conduct your speech and the necessary equipments you need. Do not assume that all audio visuals have projects so that you can use your computer for a PowerPoint presentation. Without the necessary equipments, you can never have the presentation you have in mind or, worse, you can never have any presentation at all.

The stage is equally important since this will greatly help you in effectively communicating with your audience. Check the stage at least a few hours before your speech so that you can determine the need to walk or stay in one place during the speech. Coming in unprepared for the stage will prevent you from connecting to as much audience as possible.

Your careful preparation could be easily ruined by small mistakes during the speech. Avoid these small inconveniences to ensure that your speech will be informative and even entertaining.

Of course, you can prevent these from happening through practice. But to decrease the chances of mistakes it also recommended asking someone to assist you to prepare for the speech. Through their feedback, you will be made aware of your certain mistakes and their presence during the speech will serve as a reminder to avoid the mistakes you might do.