How to Rehearse Your Speech Effectively

Just exactly how should a speaker rehearse their next speech?
Just exactly how should a speaker rehearse their next speech?

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Note: This article has been provided by Jonathan Li. Jonathan is a School Presentation Coach who helps college and university students overcome fear, transform presentation skills and launch their dream career. For more information, go to SpeechXpress.com

To give a great speech, it’s important to rehearse well. In the next few minutes, you will learn the awesome REA formula for your rehearsal success. REA stands for Record, Evaluate and Apply. Remember to use this sequence for all rehearsals, and you will see great results quickly.

Record

When you record your speech, you can see how you will look in on stage. Now, do you have a smart phone or video camera? Great, because that’s all your need. So here’s what you can do: Record your rehearsal in video. Later on, you will discover how you look on in the real presentation. So carry your video camera all the time and get ready to record your speech rehearsals.

Evaluate

You have recorded your speech. Now what? It’s time for you to relax, grab some popcorn and watch your video rehearsal. Why? Because you can evaluate your speech from the audience’s perspective and make good improvement. When evaluating your video rehearsal, focus on the areas that you like and not-so-like. If you like your natural body movement, awesome! Keep it. If you want to improve your eye contact, no problem. Just write that down, “improve eye contact” and pay more attention to this area in your next rehearsal or real speech. This is one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve your speech delivery.

Apply

This is the most important step in the REA formula. To improve our speech, we need to apply what we’ve learnt. This will help finish your speech on time and give a great speech. In short, apply your next steps. Let’s say you want to improve your eye contact. Good. So practice how to look at your notes, look up, make your point with warm and friendly eye contact, and repeat the process. After all, Applying is the key to giving great speeches.

What Does All Of This Mean For You?

In summary, use the REA formula for your speech rehearsals every time. Record, evaluate and apply. Then you will rehearse effectively and give a great speech.

Now, let’s do an exercise on rehearsing your speech. Use 5 minutes to reflect on these 3 powerful questions:

  1. How could you record your rehearsal in video?
  2. What could you improve on your video rehearsal?
  3. How often could you practice in order to finish on time and get good results?

    – Dr. Jim Anderson
    Blue Elephant Consulting –
    Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

    Question For You: How many times do you think that you should practice your next speech?

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    Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

    What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

    The next time that you give a speech, what can you do to boost your chances of the speech being a success? We all know about the importance of public speaking and since none of us want to waste our time or the time of our audience, long before we take the stage or the front of the room we need to figure out what we can do to make the speech that we’re going to give a great speech.