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99 Descriptive Public Speaking Words You Should Know

8/1/2019

Authority:
Authority is speaking about a subject as if you are the expert, or experienced enough to share your knowledge as someone who’s been there and done it. That is Les Brown for motivation, Tony Robbins for transformational strategies and Kanye West for his music.
Authenticity:
Coming from the heart, the audience knows that truth is being told and it’s effortless. This is the opposite of ‘Fake it till you make it’ and you’re presenting yourself as you are with all your strengths and weaknesses. This allows the audience to really get to know you and know that you’re sharing from a genuine place.
Anxiety:
Any fear that builds up inside your body and generates friction which leads to nervousness, uncertainty and being worried about the outcome. Anxiety can stem from something as small as meeting a new person for the first time or as big as facing a large audience for the very first time. It’s very personal and often difficult to share anxieties with others.
Body Language:
Non-verbal, using your body as a communication device. ‘First impressions’ are a form of using body language to build up a character sheet for the person we’re dealing with. A closed, static body tells us that the person is shy or has something to hide. On the other hand, animated body language is a sign of energy and enthusiasm. To see the effectiveness of body language, look at a mime artist who exclusively uses body language to narrate a story without using words. Check out this video https://youtu.be/6EnkEm2egIM
Bridge:
Transitioning smoothly from what you don’t know to something you know quite well. In competitions, a speaker may start out by repeating the question then say something like ‘let me tell you about this story’ thus creating a bridge from what they don’t know to something they’re well rehearsed in. ----
Conversational style:
A natural style of speaking; as if you were talking to a friend. We naturally use more gestures, vocal variety and expressions in our everyday conversations. However, when we’re conscious of being on stage we hold back on these gestures and emotions which creates a watered down experience for the audience. Conversational speaking style is effective for humorous and entertaining speeches because it lightens the mood in the room and makes it okay for people to join in the fun.

Not every speech can be conversational although, even a scripted speech delivered word to word can have elements of conversational breaks to ease the audience.
Clarity:
Clear purpose or aim with which you’re delivering your speech, using signposting, props and visual aids you could make it very clear at every stage what the center of focus is. The reward for clarity is improved retention rate with your audience. It’s much easier for us to remember one key point repeated throughout the speech than to try and cram months of data into our heads.
CRC:
Standard feedback technique in Toastmasters, CRC stands for Commendation, Recommendation & Commendation. Also known as the feedback sandwich or the sandwich method, you first tell the receiver something good that they did, then a method for improvement and finally what you liked the best about their speech. CRC is the perfect balance between flattery and overwhelming someone with too many things they can improve on.
Conclusion:
The closing part of your speech, to conclude is to bring home everything you’ve been building up to and leaving your audience with something they can take away with them. This could simply be a summary of what you talked about or you may ask them to take a particular action (sign up now or visit this website). A conclusion brings your material to a full circle and instead of finishing abruptly you could use conclusion to remind the audience what the main purpose of the talk was and what you’d specifically like them to act upon or remember. This could also be a project conclusion where you explain the results or learnings from a specific project that you worked on.
Context:
Taking into account your surrounding, the date, time, location or the events that happened before you started speaking. These can have an impact on how well you deliver your message. The more in tune you are to the surrounding, the more you’ll be able to use the elements around you and relate to your audience. Think about a speaker who was promised an audience of 50 people and timed the structure to work with 50 people however, only 5 people turn up to the seminar. This speaker will have to be dynamic enough to change the structure to make it work for these 5 people as the context of what was expected is no longer relevant.
Call to action:
What would you like your audience to do with the information you’ve just given to them, make it very clear using a call to action. Is it sign up for a class before they leave, subscribe to my YouTube channel (link) or buy a course. Without a call to action your audience will be left wondering what the point of your speech was? To avoid any confusion a speaker will get to their conclusion and just say ‘sign up’ or ‘who’d like to...’ that is a call to action or CTA.
Cue card:
Similar to a bullet point on a powerpoint slide that reminds you to speak about the next topic, a cue card is usually a piece of paper you use as part of your presentation so you can quickly look at the next thing you want to talk about. Index cards work best for this as they’re equally lined and come in really funky colours. Quizlet has a flashcard app which allows you to place things on flashcards and try to memorise them.
Clicker:
A clicker is a device that allows you to change slides from anywhere in the room. By not using a cable mouse you open the whole space to be used for your talk and you don’t have to keep finding the cursor. A decent clicker has a good wireless range and allows you to send a signal from any angle and distance within the room. It’s worth investing in one that won’t fail you in the middle of a talk. I recommend the Kensington Wireless Presenter .
Curated:
To select, organise and present the information from different credible sources. A government Census is curated information that tells us how the majority behaves in a given area. In speaking you may curate a research piece, a review or an interview to form your own opinion and then deliver it in your own style.
Death by powerpoint:
Hiding behind creative slides or showing too many slides while leaving out the presenter leads to death by powerpoint. Using too much information on your slides can also leave your audience baffled, bored and you’ll lose their attention. Hard data without interpretation is available online and so there is no reason for you to get in front of an audience to share that. We’d like to know what this information means to you, us and the organisation, what can we do about it and all this in a distilled method that takes the big data and compresses it into a single answer or a couple of options.
Distraction:
Anything that takes the audience attention away from the speaker and their message, it could be a certain gesture that we repeat too often, loud sound in the background, people talking in the back row thinking that no one can hear them (you know who you are). To avoid distraction it may be necessary to set expectations by asking audience members to turn off their devices, leave questions till the end and write down any questions they have so you can batch process them at the end of your talk.
Dialogue:
Two or more people talking to each other, it could also be one person imitating or pretending to be someone else. The opposite of dialogue is monologue which is just one person talking.
Eloquent:
A word used to describe a confident, polished and smooth speaker. Someone who takes the time to think carefully, plan well and delivers with ease. The meaning of eloquent is subjective but usually means a well polished speaker delivering with ease.
Eye Contact:
The eyes are the window to the soul and there are levels of eye contact, each with different meanings attached to them. Different cultures interpret eye contact differently; in India staring into an elder’s eyes is seen as rude whereas in England, not maintaining direct eye contact is rude. Check out this blog for 9 levels of eye contact for attraction.
Engage an audience:
How well the audience is interacting with your content or your message. A fully engaged audience will give you their full attention, whereas a distracted audience will be secretly checking their phones or passing notes to one another
Evaluation:
Structured feedback. Typically given by a mentor or someone who has done what you’re trying to do, an evaluation is a systematic way to determine how well you delivered your message and what changes can be made for next time. If done properly it can empower you to find out more, tweak and enhance your next delivery.
Glossophobia:
Translates to a fear of public speaking and is used by the pharmaceutical industry to prescribe drugs to patients. Xanax being the most common one. These antidepressants come with their own set of side effects and usually a temporary solution to a permanent issue. There are ways to overcome glossophobia and with training you can learn to control the fear and use it to enhance your speech instead of letting it hold you back.
Examples:
Showing what you mean by giving a tangible illustration, clarifying the point for the audience. A demo is a form of an example where you literally walk your audience through stages so they can see how something is done.

An example brings home the point for your audience so if you were talking about fear, you may talk about World Trade Center, if you were talking about rags to riches you may use the example of celebrity that had nothing and now has everything. Anecdotes and metaphors are examples of literary device used for giving an audience something tangible to relate to.
Extrapolate:
Probably my favourite word in this list, it means taking something that works in one area and applying it to another. So if someone delivers a really nice story about fishing and the audience is moved, you could use the way the talk was delivered, just change the topic. Parody videos are great at taking something that already works just adding the element of humour to cater to a different audience. Extrapolation is not the same as copying, which takes the elements as is and copy and pastes them.
Entertain:
To entertain is to interrupt the thought train inside their head and providing them an escape. Think about the last good movie you watched in cinema, chances are the directors and producers planned intensively to give you a good time and make you forget about your own worries and problems. Entertainment usually takes us into an imaginary world full of stories, visual eye candy, and positive and moving alternative universes.
Feedback:
Getting another perspective on your delivery and your content. Although it is possible to progress without feedback, getting it allows you to check your blind spots and ensure your work is perceived in the manner you intended it to be. A positive feedback loop keeps you moving in the right direction with incremental improvements whereas a negative feedback loop (inner voice) can make us feel worse about who we are. It’s always good to surround ourselves with people we trust so we can get quality feedback that helps us grow faster and in a positive way.
Fear:
A physical change in our body due to a perceived threat or danger. Our brain has evolved to protect us from things that could lead us into hot water and so the physical changes affect our behaviour and causes us to freeze, hide, become nervous or flee the situation. The definition of fear changes depending on your own personal upbringing and experiences.

Our brain is really good at exaggerating tiny things into a huge problem. A fear of spiders for example, yes a black widow can kill you but ordinary spiders are no match for a grown human being. Yet, many people fear spiders. Similarly, being scared of the unknown stops us from saying yes to a keynote or hosting a workshop, even though we know that the results are likely to be positive.
Facilitate:
Co-creating an environment of learning by using your audience and providing some input to keep the interaction going. A workshop facilitator will explain the task and then allow the attendees to get on with it, only dropping in to provide assistance where required. A good facilitator will create a fun environment where everyone feels like they’re part of the creation and everyone has an equal part to play in the session.
Flow:
The general direction, speed and comfort at which a speech is delivered. A smooth flowing speech introduces one element at a time peppered through its length for greater attention and interest. Break the flow where a sudden jolt is necessary, like a scary story or to create laughter and maintain the flow when taking the audience on a smooth journey across different points.
Filler:
Thinking audibly, hesitating between words or dropping in meaningless words are all forms of pause fillers. Uuuuum, sooooo, buuuuuut, these are types of filler words you’ve seen many people use. A simple pause at the end of every sentence allows a speaker to catch their breath and allow the information to sink in for the audience is the recommended method which is simple yet requires practise to successfully incorporate it in front of an audience.
Gestures:
Using our hands, face or other parts of body to communicate a particular message. Using our hands while talking is quite natural, the trick is to implement it as a storytelling element so it enhances your speech.
Humour:
The experience your audience gets which provokes laughter and amusement. Good humour is infectious and builds more rapport than a truck full of salesmen. I’ve tried!
Hook:
Similar to a hook used to catch a fish, a hook is used to catch an audience’s attention. Once hooked, they’ll pay full attention to what is being said. When two people geek out over their favourite hobby they’re hooked for hours on end. You just have to find a hook that catches most people in the room. A few examples:
1. Entrepreneurs- 10x your income, outsourcing, motivation
2. Salespeople - Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins or Les Brown
3. Fitness buffs - Gym workouts
4. Scientists - The next big invention or whatever else they like
Handouts:
Usually a printed piece of paper or booklet given during or after a talk so people can follow up, take notes or just glaze over the main points delivered.
Impromptu/ improv:
Being spontaneous with your response. In speech this is handling any questions from the audience or creating stories on the go that support the point you’ve made.

Professionals and advanced speakers will often prepare short stories and quotes that they can use for impromptu challenges and situations. A bridge is used to go from the first thought to a well rehearsed story or anecdote.
Inspire:
To move someone away from their way of thinking by showing them the larger vision or a difference in approach or perspective. To inspire is to instill hope in an individual about the outcome and showing them the end goal without even knowing how to get there. John F Kennedy inspired a whole nation by planting a seed of space exploration and not only did America succeed in their space exploration but children today are still looking forward to continuing that mission and becoming astronauts when they grow up. Check out this animation short of a little girl with a big dream here.
Educate:
Making space for learning. The best facilitator/ trainers co-create the learning environment in which the students feel like they are exploring a topic at the same time as the presenter and the conclusions are reached together. As an educator, this means distilling down the information in an easy to digest form, making it interesting and then planting twists and turns to keep everyone engaged. May take some hard work at first but if done well completely changes the trajectory of the receiver.
Introduction:
What do we know or need to know about a person before they get up in front of an audience. Usually done by an MC or Toastmaster, a great introduction is like a social media bio giving us access to a gamut of information in less than a few lines.
Icebreaker:
Breaking the barrier between you and others for the very first time. We only work with people who we understand a little about and an icebreaker is one way of finding out the things you and others share in common.
Inform:
To give someone information. The main difference between informing and persuading or storytelling is that you seperate yourself from any biased opinion and allow the audience to make their own decision without taking a stance either for or against a subject.
Leading the Applause:
Building up to the big moment just before someone appears on stage. This sets up the room for the speaker and gets the whole audience prepared for the showdown at the front of the room. The MC or Toastmaster usually builds up excitement in the room and then transfers the authority over to the speaker (sometimes with a handshake) at which point the spot light goes to the only speaker on stage. Without this a speaker walks on stage to a cold audience that is busy talking away and the speaker has to waste precious time getting attention.
Memorise:
The ability to remember information like lists, data, quotes, names etc. Having a good memory is a learnable skills proven in a book by Joshua Foer called ‘Moonwalking with Einstein’. There is also a link to a complete memory workshop I delivered recently where I talked about a few methods used by memory experts to remember everything from a shopping list to a whole deck of cards in a few seconds check out Toastmasters: Advanced Memory Techniques Workshop (Complete).
Motivate:
To motivate is to get people into action. Similar to inspire, to motivate is to get people from thinking stage to doing stage. A motivational speaker will often quote verses and quotes from influencers or leaders from the past to illustrate a point and get us excited about action. They’re tasked to get us over the obstacle and keep on pushing in the face of defeat and failures. Famous motivators include Les Brown (storytelling), Tony Robbins (strategy) and Gary Vaynerchuk (straight talk with lots of swear words).
Message:
The main purpose of your speech and the reason you’re delivering it in the first place. Message is the overall package that the audience receives and when asked they can usually distill it in a line or two like ‘That was a speech about climate change’ or ‘she persuaded us to think differently about recycling’.
Mentor:
The person responsible for pointing you in the right direction, helping you clarify things and provide you a unique perspective. A mentor has walked the path that you’re embarking on so could point out the potholes ad dead ends to save you some time.
State:
Your mental focus before and during a speech. What are you focused on? if you’re focused on prosperity, delivering value and helping others you’ll be in the different state to let’s say, if you’re nervous, scared and in a state of fear.
Notes:
Written text on a piece of paper or index cards to jog your memory when in front of people. It’s ‘cool’ to deliver a talk without notes but depending on the seriousness of the situation it might be more sensible to use notes then to rely on your memory. Winston Churchill famously used notes but the impact of his words demanded it.
Oratory Skills:
A retro phrase used to describe someone's ability to communicate an idea to a large group of people. Check out 7 Ways to Improve Your Oratory Skills for some examples and Top 9 Characteristics of Effective Public Speakers here.
Opening:
The first minute or two of a presentation or speech. It’s important because your audience is searching for the purpose of the talk and deciding whether they should stay tuned or zone out. A great opening combines elements such as dialogues, questions and quotes to relate to and hook the audience. Also check out 15 Ways to Start a Speech by Brian Tracy.
Originality:
Being original simply means approaching things from a different angle, perspective or viewpoint and showing your audience something they haven’t seen or heard before, at least not from this angle.

Originality = tested concepts + your perspective = a fresh take on a familiar idea

A completely unique idea not derived from any other source is definitely 100% original but isn’t necessarily more engaging or entertaining than one which the audience knows a little about already.
Presentation:
Sharing your ideas in front of an audience. Typically done using a demonstration, lecture, introduction or a speech meant to inform, educate or persuade them around an idea or a product.
P.R.E.P:
Acronym which breaks down to Point, Reason, Example & Point. This provides a complete picture in the shortest amount of time. Effective for impromptu and short speeches- this method opens up with a definite Point you’re making. The 2nd step is to talk about the ‘why’ or Reason behind you making that point. The 3rd step is to give an example to back up what you have said. The 4th step is to remind everyone what the Point was and you’ve also repeated it twice for emphasis and clarity.
Pause:
Pauses are used to provide a break in thinking. It allows the audience to soak in the information and the speaker to gather their thoughts. It’s much better to pause than to use filler words and lose the attention of the audience.

Pausing is effective to build authority as it shows the speaker’s level of knowledge in their ability to take a break and comfortably pick up the next point.
Pace:
The speed at which your material is delivered. When a speaker finds their time is cut short they speed up to cover the whole material in half the time. A better approach is to just slice the material in half and then focus on the main points. You may then ask them to follow up by bringing you back for more or sending them a link to more information.
Props:
Using objects to compliment the oral words. Recently, at a seminar, the presenter used a bar stool by lifting it over his head and trying to carry it down the stairs to illustrate how we carry our past worries as a baggage that stays with us. He then used the same stool to illustrate a conversation with his wife by kneeling down onto the floor and looking up as if his wife was there on the stool. At some point he also used the same stool as an object to hit someone he didn’t like in a story and then stood behind it to illustrate a court scene. Comedians do this all the time using just a mic or bar stool.
Rule of three:
A device borrowed from literature and art, this composition gets rid of the symmetry and replaces it with thirds which give us a complete picture. Past, present and future or before, during and after. There is an opening, a body and a conclusion. Two provides us with stark contrast like black and white or good and evil but three is a complete image. The three little pigs is one example of a good story based on ‘contrasting three’ literary device.

Adding odds to your speech makes it more dynamic and adds interest. 3,5,7 are good numbers to use. However due to attention span for most people, 3 is a good number to keep someone engaged without boring them.
Pitch:
The highs and the lows in your voice, a high pitch is usually used to show child like, cartoony or funny characteristics while a low voice is used for seriousness and masculinity. If you were pretending to be a child or pretending to be a female celebrity you might enact a high pitch voice as a man and if you are a women trying to illustrate a man’s voice you’ll deepen your voice.

Changing the pitch of your voice is best used sparingly to add new characters or illustrate a dialogue between two characters. Extensive use can easily annoy your audience and/or offend people.
Phobia:
Another word for fear, ‘phobia’ is used by therapists to describe a person who is scared of something. Being scared of ghosts or spiders is a natural thing for many people but a phobia is when it starts to affect your life and it is definitely curable. Shock therapy, systematic desensitization and NLP are some of the ways that psychologists help their patients to cure their phobias.
Persuade:
Building a big enough desire so a person is compelled to take action. To persuade is to change the thought pattern a person has so they are in line with what it is that you want them to do. A salesperson will persuade you to pick their product over their competitors. Life insurance is an example of a product everyone needs but people don’t buy until something goes wrong. Life insurance companies have to persuade people to buy this product and they use persuasion.
Presence:
Your presence is how the audience feels when you are in the room and speaking to them. The overall feeling the audience gets after seeing you for a few minutes. It’s not that hard to see who is comfortable and who is trying too hard. Motivational speakers have a transparent presence that says ‘I’ve been there and I’m not afraid to tell you the truth’. That’s an authentic presence.
Practise:
The art of doing something before the real deal. It also means focusing on small parts to improve them for the final run. Practise includes delivering small speeches before the final big talk or standing in front of a mirror rehearsing a line at a time. Steve Jobs was known to spend hours and hours on stage a few days before the Apple keynote to painstakingly tweak the lights, the transitions between slides and double testing everything to ensure the final delivery and he impressed everyone.
Participation:
Taking part in an event or activity. If you have your audience’s participation, they’ll respond much better to what is being said and learn a lot more than if they are disengaged from the content. People learn in different ways so a hands on learner may need to play with the information before they understand it.
Point:
A single statement or opinion told in a way that draws attention towards a subject. A strong point could be controversial, like ‘Global Warming doesn’t exist’, whereas providing your perspective could be like saying Global Warming isn’t what it seems like.

A point may also be told from a different angle or view and that is called a viewpoint. Like looking at the world from the eyes of a table lamp.
Posture:
The way in which you stand. It is a non-verbal communication to your audience that indicates your mental state.
Preparation:
To prepare is to have all the things you need in order for you to deliver a good presentation. Things like adequate practise, ensuring the room is booked well in advance and people are sent a reminder days before the event. To use a famous quote In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Question:
One of the best way to interrupt the thought pattern for your audience. It is effective because you grab the spotlight and point it towards them. They quickly re-focus their brains fearing that you may ask them to actually get up and answer it. The beauty in this approach is that it makes the audience listen to the information being delivered and a good speaker asks questions frequently to keep their audience in this state of thinking and evaluating everything that is being said. In seminars you may have heard a presenter use rhetorical question like ‘Does this make sense?’ or ‘do you agree with this?’ to gauge your level of engagement and quickly move onto the next point.
Quote:
A tried and test statement said by a credible source which helps connect different pieces together. “Where there is love, there is life” - Mahatma Gandhi. Quotes are like pieces of art and are open to interpretation. They are a good way to land a point by saying if it worked for Mahatma Gandhi, it’ll work for you and I.
Rooting Down:
To stand upright with your weight evenly distributed over both of your hips. Throwing your weight either side of the body will quickly tell your audience you’re nervous and not comfortable with speaking before an audience. When you’re worried or scared your body language drops and when confident you’ll be well rooted.
Rhetorical Question:
Writing techniques used to take audience on a melodic rollercoaster or to persuade them towards taking an action. They are woven within the fabric of our language (a metaphor because this fabric doesn’t exist) and when used properly can move a nation to unite. A quote used earlier “The eyes are the windows of the soul” is an example of a metaphor because it compares two things by stating one is another. More on Rhetorical devices in a future blog.
Research:
Finding out more about a given topic or adding facts behind opinions to ensure the source of your information is credible. The boring definition is to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
Retention:
How long an audience can remember something that was said by the speaker. Most of what you’ve said will be forgotten but it is a speaker’s job to ensure the information is laid out in a way that the audience can remember the main points even if they forget the details. Speakers will often summarise, conclude or say things like ‘the main take-away from this talk…’ to make sure the main point is not only delivered but emphasised for longer retention.

Props, visuals, handouts and checklists are other ways for a speaker to enhance the retention rate. This can be tested by asking your audience to repeat back what has been learned after the talk, one month later and six months later.
Reception:
How well the information is received. A comedian will plant a number of punchlines in their set and then count their effectiveness to see what the reception was like. It’s the one time you find if your material is playing out the way you wanted it to.

There are steps you can take to ensure the surprise works in your favour by building up to the final day and doing smaller gigs to test the material beforehand.

Recording the audience while delivering a speech is a good idea to gauge how well the material landed and to make changes.
Repetition:
The art of repeating something several times to emphasise certain words or sentences, helping your audience retain it for longer. ‘I have a dream’ repeated with passion by MLK still echoes around the world. #MeToo is a more recent example of a campaign which made it really easy for people to relate to a set of words that were then repeated all around the world. The power of simple words repeated effectively can be felt in campaigns like ‘Just do it’ by Nike or ‘Because you’re worth it’ by L'Oréal Paris.
Show and Tell:
Instead of just telling an audience what to do, show and tell means walking your audience through steps required to get the results. It’s also an effective way to tell your audience you can walk the talk and not just iterate theory in front of them. Ultimate authenticity.
Stage Presence:
Overall command of the stage, a presenter with a good stage presence will use the stage as a prop to illustrate their point and deliver a theatrical performance.
Storytelling:
The art of using stories to lead the audience to a conclusion or persuade them to adopt a different perspective. Stories are used by brands to make us connect with their products. Apple uses the innovation angle, Dove uses the beauty from within angle and Nike uses the underdog angle.
Signposting:
Builds anticipation and provides clarity by giving your audience a preview of what you’re going to be talking about. This gives your audience a structure to hold onto and helps you stay on track.
Structure:
The foundation that holds your material together. A good structure provide a framework for the speaker to build material on and for the audience to have clearer understanding. It makes recalling the speech easier as the speaker knows that they for example, have an opening, three main points and a conclusion. This helps to prevent waffling and filler words.
Speech:
An idea presented to take the audience from Point A to Point B. It could be a Persuasive speech, Informative speech or Entertaining speech. Russell Conwell’s ‘Acres of Diamonds’ was a very famous speech delivered over 5000 times between 1900-1925. Check it out here. He was collecting donations for a school he was running and delivered his speech to collect donations for the school. The words within the speech resonated with people so much that he was asked to deliver it again and again.
Strategy:
A plan of action to help break down the workshop or presentation into actionable steps. You may have a strategy for your workshop so at each step of your workshop you know exactly what is going to happen. A strategy helps you isolate a particular aspect of your program and it also helps clarify what is going to happen when. An example of strategy might be to break down your speaking gig into 5 steps and each step starts with a letter like A.P.P.L.E. Now when you begin speaking you can talk about Association, Productivity, Planning, Leadership and Entertainment.
Style:
The way in which you deliver your material. You can give the same essay to two different people and perhaps only one of them will deliver it in a way that makes the message memorable for the audience. We crave style because it tells us a little bit about the speaker and how they use or interact with the same material. If this wasn’t true, we’d just ask Alexa or Siri to deliver a seminar on our behalf.

Les Brown’s dramatic storytelling style makes his words really powerful and trendy on YouTube but not everyone can take the same words and deliver it with that same power and emphasis.
Spontaneous:
Grabbing hold of an opportunity and following it fearlessly. Having the time to prepare over a long time is a luxury that we don’t always have. By being spontaneous you could make the most of what you have wherever you are. It’s also daunting for a lot of people to analyse things in great details, by being spontaneous you could just respond and resolve it in the moment.
Surprise:
To do the unexpected, usually to provoke a laughter or shock or simply to get an audience to the ‘aha’ moment.
Steve Jobs used this brilliantly in his talks by holding the key ‘reveal’ moment as long as he could and then he’ll pull the tiny phone out of his pocket.
One of the speakers in my club once talked about his nephew and the struggles his family had to go through to be his legal guardian. At the top of the suspense he pointed at the door and his nephew walked through the door- what a pleasant surprise.
Sequence:
The order in which the information is presented to the audience.
Table Topics:
A quick, off the cuff session where a speaker is asked a question and has have to deliver a timed response on the spot.
Ted Speech:
A speech delivered to an audience in an organised Ted event. This speech is usually delivered on a subject you know quite a lot about and it's essentially free marketing. Ted speeches are booked weeks or months in advanced and are hosted all over the world.
Theme:
A theme is the umbrella idea or the through-line that your whole speech is linked to. Extinction of pandas and the rising sea levels could be two topics under the theme of Global Warming. Storytelling and Persuasion could be under the theme of Leadership. If you had a banner for your event your theme would be the one word or phrase based on which all the designing will be arranged, like ‘Masquerade Ball’ or ‘Halloween’.
Transition:
The area between the end of one idea and the beginning of another. A smooth transition is barely noticeable and allows the audience to focus on the message whereas an abrupt transition will have the audience asking more questions and may distract from your message.
Target Audience:
The audience to which your speech is targeted. Delivering a speech about Atheism to a room full of pastors is probably not such a good idea, whereas talking to tech junkies about the latest smartphone is a good use of their time. I once delivered a speech about the basics of Public Speaking in Toastmasters and it missed the mark because this group already had the basics covered. A few weeks later I delivered an advance speech and it landed nicely because the audience wanted to hear about how to go to the next level. Get this wrong and you’ll completely miss the mark!

You can also gauge the audience to see how well they’re receiving the information being delivered. To use my own example again, I delivered a workshop to a group of CEOs and I noticed they were more interested in storytelling and less interested in the structure of a speech. So I asked them if I should skip that session and focus a little longer on the storytelling aspect to which they replied yes. A spontaneous decision that saved all of us some time and kept the CEOs engaged with the material they wanted to hear about.
Timing:
The time on stage is often longer or shorter in our head than in real life so timing is keeping to actual time according to a clock. This could be done by having an iPad in front of you, having a wall clock or just glancing at your wrist watch to make sure you’re hitting your objectives in a timely manner without going over or speeding through your material.
3 Acts - A structure often used in movies:
1. Act 1 introduces us to the world and its characters.
2. Act 2 builds up tension and the main character is met with obstacles.
3. Act 3 shows the character overcoming the obstacles and winning against all odds.
Topical:
A hot topic or a buzz word that everyone is already talking about, a topical subject often makes the front page of daily newspapers and a very hot topical subject dominates the pages over a few weeks or months. Christmas in December, Brexit in the UK and workout promises in January.
Takeaway:
The knowledge the audience walks away with. This could be a new perspective or just a new thought, a new level of awareness or steps to achieve a specific result.
Vocal Variety:
Changing the pitch, quality and strength of your voice to add variety to your speech. It can take your audience through the ups and downs of your speech. This can also be used to add characters into your narrative.

Pick a few words or areas in your speech and then pitch them up or down, say the words faster or slooooowwwwwweeeerrrrr to illustrate the points you are making. In Disney’s Zootopia, there is a sloth scene (click here) which shows the protagonist being annoyed by the slowness of the sloth. If you have a slot like character in your speech, this is a brilliant scene to model.
Visual Aids:
A tool that can be used to enhance the message of the speaker. This may be a presentation, a prop or an image.
Voice Projection:
Making sure that you can be heard from the very back of the room and raising or lowering the voice to suite the environment you’re in. This also means checking your environment before and during your presentation so a loud fan at the back doesn’t make it hard for people in the back row to hear you. This also means raising the volume if you suddenly find out that there is a wedding going on next door.
WIIFY - What’s in it for you:
When putting together your speech this ensures that you can step into your audiences shoes and see things from their perspective. Sometimes a speaker just needs to stop blowing their own trumpet and get off the ‘I’ train so the audience can take away something other than putting the speaker on a pedestal.
Workshop:
A mixture of theory and practise where the participants are learning as they go along rather than just listening to a trainer for a long period of time.
Zone:
A zone is a mental state in which things just flow in the way that they should. Artists do a lot of things to get into a zone including:
1. Listening to study music or Spanish guitar in the background
2. Getting enough sleep before getting up to speak
3. Having one to one conversation with people in the room
4. Getting comfortable on stage by asking good opening questions
5. Visualising a cozy massage or thinking back to your last holiday
6. Thinking about your big vision, something that excites you

Want more tips? Check out my YouTube channel here (do subscribe):
Interested in personalised coaching, get in touch for a FREE 1 hour discovery session: gagan@smartpublicspeaker.com

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99 Descriptive Public Speaking Words You Should Know

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