UNDERSTANDING THE GENERAL

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE
DELIVERY
BY NORFAZLIKA ABD KARIM
 DELIVERING AN EFFECTIVE SPEECH
To present a speech effectively, the following skills should be developed:
CONTROLLING YOUR VOICE
 Voice's quality, articulation, rate, pitch, rhythm, clarity, and inflection
are the elements that are controllable by a public speaker and do
determine the overall success of your speech.
 Just as practicing the delivery of a speech repeatedly will increase your
ability to deliver an excellent speech; you can also practice voice
techniques that will improve the overall quality of your voice.
 i. Voice Quality

The first thing an audience will notice about your

voice is its quality. The quality of one's voice depends
on two criteria. 
 Is your voice easy to understand?
 Is your voice flexible in pitch, force, and rate? 
ii. Clarity and Articulation
How well you articulate words will determine the clarity of your speech. Some
things to notice regarding clarity and articulation are the following: 
 Contractions. Make sure you clearly pronounce each element of the
contraction. If, for example, you were slurring the contraction "wouldn't," use
the two words instead, would not.
 Reversed words. Some people mispronounce common words that sound alike
by reversing the order of some letters. For example, prescription
versus perscription. Only the first spelling, and thus, the first pronunciation, is
correct.
 Omitted letters. Good articulation means pronouncing all letters in a word
clearly. Do not omit letters. For example, pronounce the "t" in "mists" rather
than speaking a word than sounds more like "miss." 
iii. Rate of Speech

 Your rate of speech is a vital component of the

overall quality of your voice. So it is especially
important to monitor your rate.
 You should be speaking at the rate of approximately
150 words per minute. This is not a universal speed.
However, a rate of 150 words per minute is a
comfortable speed for most informational and
motivational speaking. 
iv. Pitch and Inflection

 Nothing makes a speech more boring than a speaker who

uses a monotone pitch and inflection.
 Pitch describes the level of deepness of your voice,
regardless of your gender. A person might have a very high
pitch if they are speaking excitedly or a low pitch if they
are reading a dramatic reading slowly.
 Inflection is the varying degree of emphasis that you place
on words during speech. 
v. Pace and Rhythm

 Just as it is important to alter the inflection of your

voice when you wish to emphasize a thought, it is
also important to pause appropriately between
thoughts.
 The pace and rhythm of your speech is determined
by how fast you are moving from one thought to the
next. You want to maintain a comfortable pace, which
means always using pauses when appropriate.  
vi. Avoid Fillers

 Fillers are unnecessary words that we utter in everyday

speech, most times unwittingly. Some examples are "like"
and "yeah" and expressions like "um" and "er."
Expressions such as "um" and "er" are usually uttered
when a speaker is nervous or unsure about that they are
saying.
 Proper rehearsal and full preparedness for a speech can
dramatically cut down on the number of times you use
such expressions.  
vii. Volume

 The volume of your voice is important, and it differs from

its pitch. While pitch is used to describe how deep or high
your voice is, volume describes how loud your voice is.
Volume can easily be controlled during a speech.
 If you wish to emphasize something, always remember to
use a higher inflection rather than a higher volume. A high
volume speaker will be interpreted as screaming to an
audience, and that should be avoided whenever possible.
 THE USE OF VISUAL AIDS
 There are instances when good visual aids are vital to a speech’s
success as we process information in a number of ways, most notably
visually and audibly.
 Visual aids comprise a wide variety of items, handouts, slides, moving
pictures, posters, models, objects etc.
 All of these visual aids are meant to reinforce our main message.
 For example, if you are giving a speech to a company’s board of
directors on the plans for a new building, it would be essential to have a
picture or some sort of visual aid to accompany your speech.
THE GUIDELINES THAT WILL HELP YOU TO
DECIDE WHEN VISUAL AIDS ARE HELPFUL
• Ensure that the visual aids you use are relevant to your speech.
Relevancy • Many speakers make the mistake of providing ‘additional information’ handouts during a
speech.

• Visual aids should be appropriate to the occasion because if they aren’t, they will distract an
Appropriateness audience.
• You should not, typically, use charts and graphs to give an entertaining speech.

• If you are not skilled at using the popular software products, typically used to create charts

Attractiveness and graphs, and other visual aids, it is best to hire someone who is.
• An unattractive visual aid will ‘speak’ poorly of you will lessen the impact of your message
delivery.
 • Not everyone in the audience will have 20/20 vision, and not
everyone in the back of the room will be able to see small text
Visibility regardless of their visual ability.
• Therefore, your visual aids must be appropriately sized and
legible.

• If you are going to use a great many visual aids (and this is
only recommended if you feel that it is vital to your message),
Variation you should try to incorporate different types of visual aids.
• Do not use graphs exclusively, for example. This will bore the
audience, and will surely distract them.
SOME RULES TO FOLLOW WHEN USING VISUAL
AIDS
GOOD PRACTICES
Do use color. Black and whites slides will look boring. Use
color even if it is just for a heading for the slide.
Make sure the visual aid you are using is visible from at least
8 feet away as it will be legible to an entire room when it is
projected using visual equipment.
Consider using clip art especially if you pick a theme for the
art and use a different image on each presentation. 
BAD PRACTICES
• Do not keep an image displayed for more than 10 minutes as the
audience will be bored looking at a stale image.
• Do not use cartoons or other "cute" additions to your presentation unless
it is appropriate for your audience.
• Do not experiment with different fonts throughout your presentation.
Use a single font, but you may use it in different sizes to set
off information that is more important. In addition, the use of bold
lettering is effective.
• Do not overuse colors, and make sure that the color is relevant to your
message. You should not use a wide variety of colors, as this will be
distracting to an audience. 
 USING CHARTS
Since charts are the most popular type of visual aids used in most speeches, here are some
guidelines for their effective use:

• Do not use all capital letters, ever. Even when you want to emphasize a particular statistic or fact,
use color or boldness to accomplish this goal.
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• Is the chart properly labeled? Do not assume that the audience will know little details that you
take for granted.
2

• Avoid emphasizing certain material with anything other than text; do not use any flashing
elements in your aid, boxes, arrows, or any other distracting element.
3