The ability to speak in public has been a useful skill at all times. People who have excellent public speaking skills will always be in demand by society and will be able to find work. It's no secret that there are few such people; they always stand out among others. They turn out to be successful leaders, politicians, businessmen, journalists, writers, teachers, since in many professions knowledge of rhetoric plays a vital role. The purpose of this public speaking course is to provide everyone with the opportunity to learn free online materials, lessons, exercises, techniques and rules for mastering the basics of rhetoric.
And if you want to understand the topic in as much detail as possible, sign up for our “Modern Rhetoric” program.
What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric is a word that is of ancient Greek origin (Greek rhetorike), and literally means “ oratory .” What is “oratory”? And how to develop your abilities for it?
Each of us has had the opportunity to speak in public at least several times in our lives. And, for sure, no one doubts that in order to be fluent in the art of oratory, you need to know and be able to do a lot
. It can be said that the ability to speak in public reflects our intellectual development and our social skills.
Martin Luther King's famous speech
According to the definition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, “ oratorical speech ” is a type of monologue speech used in a situation where the speaker addresses a large audience with the aim of persuasion or suggestion. Oratory is often identified with eloquence, so a good speaker must be well-read, have competent speech, and be able to clearly express his thoughts. But the speaker also needs to be able to cope with his anxiety, control his diction and have a well-trained voice. In addition, it is important to master speech improvisation, be able to answer questions, maintain contact with the audience, pronounce the text with the necessary intonation, and much, much more.
Most of the skills described, which together form public speaking, can be learned. To do this, it is important to work on yourself, to realize, analyze and correct the unsuccessful moments of your own and others’ public speaking, and most importantly, to train your skills in practice. Our training will help you work through all of these difficult steps towards developing excellent public speaking skills.
Want to test your knowledge?
If you want to test your theoretical knowledge on the topic of the course and understand how suitable it is for you, you can take our test. For each question, only 1 option can be correct. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question.
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Oratory of the Renaissance
Oratory moved to a new stage of development during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was the heyday of judicial oratory and commercial eloquence. The art of rhetoric of the Renaissance period was expressed in literary works and supplemented by live speech, further moving away from the use of book Latin.
The personality of the speaker in the rhetoric of the Renaissance was of fundamental importance. The idol for the public was the philosopher and brilliant orator Cicero.
The main conditions for a person performing for the public in the Renaissance were benevolence and charity. These qualities helped to win over the audience, there was complete mutual understanding and the formation of public trust in the speaker. For speeches, a speaker's platform was used. The Renaissance became a new stage in the development of people's spiritual life.
Online Rhetoric Lessons
The public speaking training posted on this website is an integration of many techniques described by public speaking experts. Each of the lessons involves the development of a specific skill that contributes to the development of your public speaking abilities. Naturally, each person can master these skills differently, so try to pay attention to those lessons that seem most useful to you.
Lesson 1. Preparing a speech
This lesson provides general guidelines for preparing a public speech. Speech preparation is the most important secret of oratory. Many rhetoric experts call preparation the main rule of successful speech. Dale Carnegie wrote that a well-prepared speech is nine-tenths a delivered speech. However, the process of preparing a speech is not only good content material, but also a set of certain stages of its design, structuring, and presentation, which allows you to avoid standard mistakes of a novice speaker.
Lesson 2. Speech plan
As you learned from the previous lesson, to prepare a good speech, it is important to know what to talk about and how to convey your thoughts to the audience. To do this, you need to draw up a plan for your speech, based on which you will be able to deliver an excellent oratorical speech. Naturally, the structure of each public speech is individual and depends on many things, which include: the number and characteristics of listeners, their interest, time of speech and much more. This lesson shows the basic rules for creating a public speaking plan that you can apply under any circumstances.
Lesson 3. Oratorical techniques
Having collected the necessary material and understood what you want to talk about in a public speech, as well as drawing up a plan, you can move on to the substantive design of the speech. To do this, it is useful to use special oratorical techniques that are aimed at improving the perception of information by listeners. There are a lot of oratory techniques. This lesson describes the main and most popular of them. In addition, here you will find examples and recommendations for using these techniques to develop your public speaking skills.
Lesson 4. Speech technique
In the last lesson, you were introduced to rhetorical techniques that help better reveal the content of your speech. In order to give a speech in front of an audience, it is important to use methods of presenting material from which speech technique is created: intonation, diction, articulation, tempo, gestures, etc. This lesson covers oratorical techniques that will help you when delivering your speech.
Lesson 5. Memorizing text
In the process of preparing for a speech, you often have to memorize important parts of your speech, the structure of the speech, various facts and quotes. Sometimes there is a lot to remember, and this can cause some difficulties. In addition, during a speech, due to anxiety, important things can simply fly out of your head. The ability to keep key details of a speech in mind and attention is a very useful skill for any speaker. This lesson provides important techniques and programs for memorizing the text of a public speech, and also suggests some useful techniques for developing memory.
Lesson 6. Working with the audience
Every occasion you give a speech is unique. If this is a work report at a meeting, you will be listened to by default. But it also happens when you need to fight for the audience’s attention, try to convey your views to them, and get support. The success of not only a specific performance, but also the realization of your global goal may depend on this. Remember how in the movie “Wall Street” the young broker, played by Ch. Sheen, had only 5 minutes to convince the “shark” of the stock market (M. Douglas) to take him on his team? And in fact, no matter how competently the speech is composed, no matter what artistic means and techniques are used, no matter what the preparation, the final success depends largely on how interested you are in the audience in perceiving what is said. Undoubtedly, the speech should be appropriate, but there are times when apathy, or even unfavorability, needs to be overcome not only by relevance or beautiful words. You need a strategy for working with the audience that will increase the significance of the speech, convey its message and turn the listener into a follower of your views. We want to talk about some mechanisms and tricks of interaction with the audience in this lesson.
Types of Speakers
Speakers vary in temperament and manner of presenting information. The following types of speakers are distinguished:
- Emotional type;
An emotional speaker is an impressionable person. The words are imbued with one’s own experienced emotions and feelings. He is capable of raising his voice or shouting. The monologue is filled with passion and does not contain a clear plan; there is active gestures. The emotional appearance tends to be exaggerated, so the audience does not take it seriously. A charismatic speaker of an emotional type is able to agitate, but is not able to inspire with words. Speech is intuitive in nature; it is not possible to predict the course of development of the speech.
- Rational type.
The rational type speaker is an emotionally restrained person who keeps his feelings to himself. The speech of a rational speaker consists of a predetermined plan and is filled with logically constructed reasoning and conclusions. She will easily lead listeners, influencing rational thinking and faith in the spoken words.
Appearance and image of the speaker
Any listener is also a spectator; this psychological feature of a person must always be remembered. Before the speech begins, the audience will carefully examine the speaker’s appearance and evaluate his qualities. Regardless of the purpose and content of the speech, appearance requires an attentive, thorough attitude.
The speaker's clothing should be simple and elegant, of good quality, appropriate for the event and leave a good impression. The color chosen is calm, preferably dark tones. The absence of smell, stains on clothes and an awkward appearance is the key to the public's favor with the speaker.
Every detail in clothing should be thought out, making up the overall image of the speaker as a successful, purposeful person. During a performance, you should not wave your arms chaotically, sway from side to side, or move your legs. Gesticulation should be in moderation. The speaker's posture should look natural. Extra movements and active gestures distract the audience from the speech and give the performance a frivolous appearance.
For speeches, a special elevation is used for the speaker so that the audience can better hear and see the speaker. The speaker's platform will also be needed for his convenience. You can put prepared notes on it.
In addition to the appearance of the speaker, his speech image deserves attention.
- The presence of moral qualities in the education of a speaker, knowledge of science, ability to speak;
- Knowledge of speech stylistics, the ability to competently use styles for their intended purpose;
- Ability to use intonation.
Types and styles of oratory
Oratory speech is divided into the following types:
- Socio-political;
The speech is aimed at solving social, economic and political issues, and represents the definition of tasks and goals. The speech provides the audience with practical recommendations for action. Political speakers organize reports or diplomatic speeches on relevant topics, enter into discussions with rivals, observing ethical standards and rules of conduct.
- Academic;
The speech is aimed at considering new facts, ongoing research, tests. The presentation takes place as a scientific report or lecture.
- Judicial;
Speech influences court decisions and forms the appropriate mood of judges and the public in the courtroom. The purpose of speech in a trial is to make a lawful decision, observing the rules that constitute the ethics of a judicial speaker. Judicial speech is divided into accusatory, lawyer, public and speech of the accused.
The ethics of a judicial speaker must correspond to the standards of morality and quality, since the words of the speaker have a direct impact on the fate of the accused, prove or disprove involvement in the case. The court speaker is solely responsible for the content of the speech.
- Household;
The speech illuminates the everyday life of the individual in a free style of presentation. The performance is held at anniversaries, feasts, and birthdays.
- Church.
The oldest form of eloquence, with a rich history. Church speech reflects interest in the spiritual world of man and touches on the topic of habits.
An oratorical speech is carefully prepared using book and scientific sources that determine the speech style of the speech. The following styles of oratory are distinguished:
- Business oratorical style of speech is aimed at conveying information to the audience. The main goal of the scientific style is to convey and prove the truth of the spoken information to the public.
- The artistic style is aesthetically oriented.
- Conversational style is very different from book style. Its goal is communication.
- Orally, the speaker reveals everyday and personal topics during his speech.
