Public speaking is not an easy task. Sometimes the nerves are so great that they cause the throat to dry up, cause stomach aches and a perennial feeling of nausea, cause the knees to wobble, the tongue to lock, and the face to turn pale and cold.
In reality, expressing your ideas in front of others can be paralyzing, it is quite a challenge. Insecurity leads us to doubt ourselves and what we know. In such circumstances, it would always be good to have help that allows things to flow in a better way.
What can you do to express yourself confidently and naturally in front of others? Is it necessary to be a professional speaker to achieve it? Of course not! Regardless of whether you will be speaking in front of your class, in front of your employees, or if you will be giving a speech in front of a very large and specialized audience, it will always be very helpful to use an outline. This can be writing or metal.
But do you know what a sketch is? Simply, it is a method of organizing ideas, which allows each of them to be expressed in a logical and coherent way. On the other hand, it works as a guide that will allow you to remember the main ideas of your dissertation.
Actually, it turns out to be a very practical and interesting tool. But do you know how to make a sketch? Would you like to learn how to do it? What ideas should you include? What are their characteristics? How is it used when speaking in public? If you want to know the answers to these questions, you cannot stop reading this article.
Thanks to these tips, when speaking in public, you will go from being a shy and insecure person to a professional speaker. In addition, you will have the certainty that you will be transmitting your ideas correctly, without fear of falling into misinterpretations.
Instructions for making a sketch
Although this term is sometimes related to drawing and is used as a synonym for the word sketch. On this occasion, the meaning of this word will be explained with respect to your written text.
In such circumstances, a sketch is nothing more than a work strategy where the ideas that serve as a reference for carrying out a study are reflected. In general, these ideas are expressed through titles and subtitles, giving us an overview of how the information on the topic to be considered will be distributed.
The purpose of an outline is to establish the parameters that will shape the speech. That is, what it will cover and what will be excluded. It also allows you to organize the information that has been collected in a logical order. Likewise, it allows detecting which are the areas where material is missing, in order to make the necessary corrective measures.
According to the purpose of its use, an outline can be simple or compound. However, it should be noted that it should always include the objective or purpose of the study, as well as its main ideas.
A simple sketch is one where only the main ideas appear, while the compound one covers both the main ideas and the secondary ones and the relationships that exist between them.
But how to make one? You just have to follow the following steps:
- Create a title that expresses the central idea you want to convey, without leaving aside the angle or approach from which you are going to approach the subject. To do this, do your research with an open mind. If you do it this way, surely you can find very good ideas. In case you have a previously established title, take enough time to analyze what are the main words that make it up and thus understand it well.
- Once you’ve managed to establish a title, the next step will be to investigate further and more specifically. Focus on the aspects that are of greatest interest to your audience in order to make the presentation more attractive. Instead of focusing on general points, look for concrete, informative, and practical aspects. Of course, of course, you won’t be able to use all the information you get. Therefore, it is important that you make a good selection.
- Determine which are the main points that you must cover in order to develop the topic and its purpose, since these will be the ones that will make up the structure of the scheme. For a short and simple presentation, two main points will suffice. But, if the exhibition will last more than an hour, with five main points you can work. Of course, keep in mind that the fewer main points you use, the better they will stick in the minds of your audience.
- Structure the collected data. Separate those that are closely related to the main points. Then, add details that add special appeal to your exhibition. Arrange each of these elements under the corresponding main point and discard those that do not fit with any.
- Organize the information according to the stated objective. In such a case, you may choose to use a chronological or a thematic system. You can also follow the cause and effect or problem and solution relationship.
- Write an introduction that arouses the interest of the audience and that makes them see that what you will say next is something important.
- Finally, make a conclusion that motivates action and that goes in harmony with the objective that you set at the beginning.
By following these instructions, you will be able to create a good outline, one that will help you convey your ideas clearly. But what else do you need to know? Let’s see it.
What do you need to make a sketch?
Before making a sketch, you need to know that there are different types, each of which fulfills a different function. Some of the sketches that we can use are the following:
- Chronological: it has the purpose of presenting the events according to the time in which they occurred. In some cases, it can be done in reverse. That is, from the culmination of a matter, to its beginning.
- Geographic: in this case, the main points are focused on the geographical sites or places where the events took place.
- Thematic: in it, the ideas are structured according to the topic to be discussed, without necessarily having to follow the logical order of the speaker’s thought. This is one of the most commonly used sketch types.
- Homiletic: It is very different from a study outline, since it requires an introduction, illustrations and an application. Its purpose is to communicate, through orality, a message of a religious nature.
- Logical: its purpose is to move towards a defined goal, which aims to prove whether an argument is true or not. Therefore, it is based on the relationship between the elements that make up the exhibition and the progressive development of the author’s thought.
Besides this, to know the length of your sketch, you need to know the time you have to cover the ideas. If you include too many, this will make you have to speak very quickly, and even run over the words, so as not to exceed the allotted time.
On the contrary, if you use few ideas, it is likely that you will have time and have to improvise new ones, which would break the structure you were using.
You also need to turn to reliable sources of information. The credibility of what you say will depend on it. Therefore, avoid the temptation to use what you know on the subject. The best thing, in this case, is to do enough research to provide true and interesting data.
You may also need to support some ideas with statistical data, experiences, illustrations, or expert commentary. This will give weight to your exposition and a more attractive nuance for the audience.
But, what other recommendations should you take into account for the preparation of a good sketch? How can you use it?
Tips for making an outline
The goal is not only to learn how to make an outline, but also to know the correct way to use it. While it is true that writing everything you have to say, and then reading it, makes you more precise and uses more correct and specialized vocabulary, it is much more difficult to reach listeners, to motivate them. Since we usually adopt a rhythm that lacks naturalness.
Also, reduce eye contact with the audience. By focusing on paper, the audience is likely to lose interest in what we say. Therefore, the best thing will always be to improvise the words through the use of an outline. However, this seems to be a somewhat risky task.
However, to use an outline correctly, it is essential that you prepare in advance. To do this, you can use the following steps:
- Read the title, as well as all the main points, and stop to think about how each one of them is related to the topic you are addressing.
- Distribute the time you have in each of the ideas you plan to cover.
- Stop at one point and review the arguments, examples, quotes and anecdotes that you are going to use to develop it. Repeat this action several times until you have managed to remember every detail well.
- Repeat the same procedure in each of the other main points, thinking about what you can eliminate in order to meet the time established for this section.
- Then, go over all the content of your presentation. Try to focus on ideas and not on words. In this way you will not have to memorize word for word, but you will be able to express the ideas using a more flowery and fluent vocabulary.
- You won’t be paralyzed if you forgot a phrase because, since you already know the idea, you can improvise words that meet the original objective.
- As you may have realized, improvising the words using a brief sketch is easier than stealing a sweet from a child, and the advantages are many.
- For example, you will be able to maintain better eye contact with the audience, there will be a better interaction, you will speak from the heart and, therefore, your tone will be natural, just as if you were speaking with your friends and, as we have already mentioned, not you run the risk of going blank if you forget a memorized word.
DO NOT FORGET…
Putting these tips into practice will help you use a sketch correctly:
- Be aware and recognize what are the advantages of improvising words through the use of a simple outline, according to the topic you want to address.
- In your daily conversations, first try to organize the ideas in your mind, before you are going to express them.
- To build confidence when speaking, be more participative in group conversations and speak up whenever it’s safe to do so.
- Practice making a simple forest using any theme, making sure it is easy to read and follow at a glance.
- Prepare to speak in front of others taking into account the ideas that structure your presentation and not memorizing every word that makes it up.
- Talk in front of your mirror, record yourself rehearsing, or ask someone you trust to listen to you when you rehearse. That way you will know what things you are doing well and what you should give more attention to improve as a speaker.
Of course, it is likely that in the first experience not everything is rosy. Perhaps nerves make you think that you are not doing well. Remember, however, that speaking from an outline will always be the most beneficial in achieving a true connection with your listeners.