Weekly GrammarTip

Speaking in Public

Election Day in the USA has come and (thankfully) gone. But we know that some of our readers are running for various offices in local upcoming races in cities and towns across the country. We remind you that it's never too late to brush up on your public speaking skills. So we dusted this tip off again and made some more minor adjustments for you this week.

Studies show that the fear of speaking in public ranks higher in most people's minds than the fear of dying. Today's tip combines some advice for speaking in public with a dab of encouragement to carefully proofread what you would say to your listeners. With control of your local taxes at stake, or perhaps what dogs will be rounded up and held in the town pound, let's spend some time talking about how you'll prepare for your final big speech, assuming your campaign is going right down to the wire. While we specialize in the advice in bullet four, we wish you well in taking all of the following points seriously as you prepare to wow your constituency, get out the vote, and measure the curtains for your new City Hall office.

Nervousness, speech anxiety, stage fright, platform panic - it's known by many names, but it's a problem every speaker must confront. Actually, feeling nervous before a speech is healthy. It shows that your speech is important to you and that you care about doing well. But unless you can manage and control your nervousness, it can keep you from becoming an effective speaker.

Here are some ways you can make your "butterflies" fly in formation:

• Recognize you're not alone. You're in a room full of people just like you. They have their own sets of fears, yet everyone is still living and growing and succeeding!
• Realize that people want you to succeed. Well, most of the people, anyway. Your opponents are hoping you goof up your grammar, confuse your thoughts, and have spinach stuck in between your teeth when the camera closes in on you. Ignore them and think of your listeners as strident supporters of you personally and your cause generally.
• Speak about what you know. Select speech topics that are within the realm of your knowledge and experience. This will build your confidence and make you less nervous.
• Prepare thoroughly. If you are well prepared and have rehearsed your speech, you will have more confidence and less anxiety. Part of preparing well is to ensure you have no awkward grammar mistakes in your delivery. It's well known that educated audiences turn their ears off after just two grammar blunders. Don't let this happen to you! ProofreadNOW routinely proofs speeches for clients before delivery time. We check everything at least twice, too. Practice speaking your words aloud to anyone who will patiently listen. Work on your volume so the person in the last row can hear you clearly. Hint: As you practice, try forcing yourself to make some mistakes and then practice recovering. This will give you extra confidence when it's time for the real speech.
• One big rule of speaking: Every word has a right to be heard on its own. Do not slur words together.
• One more rule: Do not end every sentence on a down note or an up note. Vary your speech to avoid a monotone delivery. People who end every sentence on an up note sound terribly insecure. People who end every sentence on a down note are boring.
• Concentrate on the message, not the medium. Focus your energy and attention on your message and your audience and away from your nervousness.
• Turn nervousness into positive energy. The same nervous energy that causes platform panic can be an asset to you. Harness it, and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.
• Gain experience. Experience builds confidence -- your anxieties decrease with each new presentation you give. [If you'd like, you can call ProofreadNOW and deliver your speech over the phone! We'll listen and applaud.]

Adapted from Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Program manual.

Test Your Vocabulary!

Shoutout to Holden Caulfield

On July 16, 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was published. Why high school English teachers ever made kids read this dreary, depressing book is a mystery to us. It sure made the author happy, though! Try today's quiz and let's see if a body catch a body coming through the rye.

1. bowery: (a) a man's stiff felt hat with dome-shaped crown and narrow brim; (b) a confusion of sounds or voices; (c) a usually rectangular space (as in a city) enclosed by streets and occupied by or intended for buildings; (d) a city district known for cheap bars and derelicts.

2. Manhattan: (a) borough of New York City; (b) a beach in California; (c) vermouth, whiskey, and sometimes a dash of bitters; (d) all of the above.

3. cosmopolis: (a) a city regarded as a center of a specified activity; (b) a cosmopolitan city; (c) a very large city; (d) a central section of a city.

4. ekistics: (a) a science dealing with human settlements and drawing on the research and experience of professionals in various fields (as architecture, engineering, city planning, and sociology); (b) a collection of quantitative data; (c) a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data; (d) a woman's bust, waist, and hip measurements.

5. exurb: (a) the near vicinity; (b) a short publicity notice; (c) a region or settlement that lies outside a city and usually beyond its suburbs and that often is inhabited chiefly by well-to-do families; (d) a suburb with Internet connectivity.

6. Knickerbocker: (a) Hansel K., second mayor of New York City; (b) K'Sai K., first African-American member of the New York Comets; (c) Phillippe K., Dutch-born governor of New York; (d) Diedrich K., fictitious author of History of New York (1809) by Washington Irving.

7. necropolis: (a) cemetery; (b) city hilltop; (c) barbershop; (d) city park.

8. Ashcan: (a) popular and famous NYC restaurant of the 1940s; (b) of or relating to a group of 20th century American painters who depicted city life realistically; (c) nickname for the battery of the 1951 New York Yankees, specifically, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra; (d) of or relating to a group of 19th century American painters who depicted suburban life.

9. not a New York City borough: (a) Bronx; (b) Queens; (c) Yonkers; (d) Staten Island.

10. never a mayor of NYC: (a) Rockefeller; (b) LaGuardia; (c) O'Dwyer; (d) Lindsay.

Here are the answers to today's test.