Manuals
/ Competent Communicator
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The Ice Breaker
- Time: 4-6 minutes
- Objectives:
- To begin speaking before an audience
- To help you understand what areas require particular emphasis in your speaking development
- To introduce yourself to your fellow club members
See below for some tips about the Ice Breaker.
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Organize your speech
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To organize your thoughts into a logical sequence that leads the audience to a clear defined goal
- To build a speech outline that includes an opening, body, conclusion
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Get to the Point
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To convince the audience of your earnestness, sincerity, and conviction on a subject that you thoroughly understand
- To confront and control any nervousness you may have
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How to Say It
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To select precisely the right words required to communicate your ideas clearly and vividly
- To avoid lengthy words and sentences and jargon
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Your Body Speaks
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To learn the value of gestures and body movements as part of a speech
- To explore the different ways of using body language
- To develop a sense of timing and natural, smooth body movement
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Vocal Variety
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To explore the use of voice volume, pitch, rate, and quality as assets to your speaking
- To achieve a pleasing natural voice quality when speaking
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Research Your Topic
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To bring together and apply the communication skills you have learned in the preceding projects
- To organize your speech in a logical manner, following one of the suggested outlines
- To research the facts needed to support your speech
- To make a personal evaluation of your progress
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Visual Aids
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To learn the value of props in speaking
- To learn how to use props effectively in your presentation
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Persuade With Power
- Time: 5-7 minutes
- Objectives:
- To present a talk that persuades the audience to accept your proposal or viewpoint
- To achieve this persuasive effect by appealing to the audience’s self interest, building a logical foundation for agreement, and arousing emotional commitment to your cause
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Inspire your audience
- Time: 8-10 minutes
- Objectives:
- To understand the mood and feeling of your audience on a particular occasion
- To put those feelings into words and inspire the audience, using all the techniques you have learned so far
Tips for New Speakers
The Ice Breaker
The Ice Breaker is the first speech in the Toastmasters Communications Manual. It is expected to run for 4-6 minutes. So the green light will come on at 4 minutes, the orange at 5, and the red at 6 minutes.
As above, you’ll see that the objectives of the Ice Breaker is just to introduce yourself to the rest of the members.
Most people do this as a “biography” style. So you just give a chronology of events in your life. “I was born in Melbourne and moved to Perth when I was seven. I went to high school at blah and did a course here. I’ve worked in here here and here”.
Some people talk about a specific event. I did my ice breaker about the first time I met my wife! Another guy had come to Australia when he was 21 from Pakistan, so he did his talk about his first impressions of Australia.
One guy (a big tough guy!) had a hobby where he grew Bonsai Trees. He did his whole talk about that. How he got into it, what it involved, people he had met through it, and why he was still doing it. It was very interesting.
This is your first time getting in front of the audience and you may find that you feel nervous once you get up there. So the best advice is just pick a topic that you feel comfortable about, whatever that happens to be.
For instance, you might want to tell us why you like ice cream, or where you went on holidays most recently and why, or tell us about your family, or where you work and what you do there. The main thing is to have something that you are familiar and comfortable with, so you can focus on how you deliver it.
At the end of the day, the objective is just to tell us something about you. Anything at all. You’ll be very surprised at how fast four minutes can whiz by!