Courses! Oratory and public speaking for all. Why do I need rhetoric courses and where to take them

The image of the head of the company, his leadership qualities and sales skills determine the success of the enterprise. This is known to PR specialists who write speeches for leaders, think over their appearance, teach them to speak in public and correctly place accents. However, even the best PR specialist will not be able to independently make a bright personality out of an ordinary person, a hero of public speeches.

The book by James Humes - a famous writer, former speechwriter for five American presidents - reveals some of the secrets of public speaking and building charisma. Having mastered the techniques offered by the author, you will gain confidence and learn how to easily and successfully cope with public speaking.

1. Pause

Where should any successful performance begin? The answer is simple: pause. It doesn't matter what kind of speech you have: a detailed speech for a few minutes or a short introduction of the next speaker - you must achieve silence in the hall. After stepping onto the podium, look around the audience and fix your eyes on one of the listeners. Then mentally say the first sentence to yourself and after an expressive pause, start talking.

2. First phrase

All successful speakers attach great importance to the first sentence of a speech. It should be powerful and be sure to evoke a positive response from the audience.

The first phrase is, in the terminology of television people, the "prime time" of your performance. At this moment, the audience is maximum in size: every person in the hall wants to look at you and find out what kind of bird you are. In just a few seconds, the dropout of listeners can begin: someone will continue the conversation with a neighbor, someone will turn to the phone, and someone will fall asleep altogether. However, everyone will listen to the first phrase without exception.

3. Bright start

If you do not have in stock a bright, suitable aphorism that can grab everyone's attention, start with a story from your life. If you have an important fact or piece of news that your listeners don't know, start right there with it ("Yesterday at 10 o'clock in the morning..."). In order for the audience to perceive you as a leader, you need to immediately take the bull by the horns: choose a strong start.

4. Main idea

Even before you sit down to write your speech, you must determine its main idea. This key point that you want to convey to the audience should be concise, capacious, “fit in a matchbox”.

Stop, look and make a plan: first of all, highlight the key thoughts, and then you can supplement and explain them with real life examples or quotes.

As Churchill said, a good speech is like a symphony: it can be performed at three different tempos, but it must retain the main melody.

5. Quotes

There are a few rules, the observance of which will give strength to quoting. First, the quote should be close to you. Never cite the statements of an author who is unfamiliar to you, uninteresting, whom it is unpleasant for you to quote. Secondly, the name of the author should be known to the listeners, and the quotation itself should be short.

You must also learn how to create an environment for quoting. Many successful speakers use similar techniques: before quoting, they pause and put on glasses or, with a serious look, read a quotation from a card or, for example, a newspaper sheet.

If you want to make a special impression with a quote, write it out on a small card, take it out of your wallet during the speech and read the statement.

6. Wit

Surely you have been advised many times to dilute the performance with a joke or an anecdote. There is some truth in this advice, but do not forget that a joke for the sake of a joke only offends the listener.

There is no need to start your speech with an anecdote that is not related to the situation (“It seems that it is customary to start a speech with an anecdote, and so. Somehow a man comes to a psychiatrist ...”). It's best to sneak into your funny story in the middle of a speech to defuse the situation.

7. Reading

Reading a speech from a sheet with eyes downcast, to put it mildly, does not delight the audience. How then to act? Is it really necessary to memorize a half-hour long speech? Not at all. You need to learn how to read correctly.

The first rule of reading a speech: never say a word with your eyes on the paper.

Use the SOS technique: look - stop - say.

For practice, take any text. Lower your eyes and mentally photograph a few words. Then raise your head and stop. Then, looking at any object on the other side of the room, tell what you remember. And so on: look at the text, stop, speak.

8. Techniques of the speaker

It is known that Churchill recorded his speeches like poetry, dividing them into separate phrases and writing each on a separate line. To make your speech sound even more convincing, use this technique.

Use rhymes and internal consonance in a phrase to give the sound of your speech a poetic force of influence (for example, Churchill's phrase "We must follow the principles of humanism, not bureaucracy").

It’s very easy to come up with rhymes, just remember the most common of them: -na (war, silence, needed), -ta (darkness, emptiness, dream), -h (sword, speech, flow, meetings), -oses / wasps (roses , threats, tears, questions), -anie, -yes, -on, -tion, -ism, and so on. Practice these simple rhymes by making sonorous phrases.

But remember: the rhymed phrase should be the same for the whole speech, you do not need to turn your speech into a poem.

And so that the rhyme does not go to waste, express the key idea of the speech in this phrase.

9. Questions and pauses

Many speakers use questions to connect with the audience. Don't forget one rule: never ask a question if you don't know the answer to it. Only by predicting how the public will react will you be able to prepare and get the most out of the question.

10. Final

Even if your speech was inexpressive, a happy ending can fix everything. To impress in the finale, tune in, call on your emotions to help: pride, hope, love and others. Try to convey these feelings to your listeners in the way that the great speakers of the past did.

In no case do not end your speech on a minor note, by doing this you simply destroy your career. Use uplifting quotes, poems, or jokes.

In today's world, the key to success is mastering the art of public speaking. This is a special art in which each person will be able to rediscover himself. He will speak beautifully and correctly, feel confident in front of any audience, be interesting in communication. Of course, there are people who are born with this ability, but there are very few of them. Therefore, a person deprived of God's gift should not worry; if desired, oratory can be learned. At the same time, age does not play a special role, because it is never too late to acquire new knowledge and skills.

Of course, there are professions that simply oblige to thoroughly know the art of public speaking. These include politicians, judges, teachers, actors, announcers, etc. Even if you do not consider yourself to be in these categories, such skill in any case cannot harm you. Other than the benefits, nothing else is out of the question. In life, it can be useful, for example, when applying for a job, and when making new acquaintances. Thus, this art in a variety of situations can provide an invaluable service.

What is oratory?

This is the art of the living word. A person who owns it can easily convey thoughts to others. At the same time, his sentences line up beautiful and clear. He feels confident, because his speech is attractive and interesting. This is what the art of oratory teaches. The degree of ownership of it may be different, but you need to work on yourself in any case. Often in life we are faced with such situations when we have to think about how to say or give an answer to a question. To look convincing, you cannot do without important tricks of special skill.

Oratory and rhetoric participate in the formation of style and logical statements. They help to avoid unwanted pauses and develop memory. Ordinary speech turns into an attractive one and is filled with the necessary emotions. A real speaker is always more interesting for the public than one who does not know how to correctly formulate his thoughts. In addition, timely arguments and facts contribute to the successful resolution of controversial issues. And this is a kind of guarantee of the best way out of conflict situations. Unprepared people will only rarely be able to form their phrases clearly and correctly at the right time.

History of oratory

Chronicles of oratory are transferred to Ancient Greece. It was here that great attention was paid to great craftsmanship. From here come the roots of stylistic patterns and the development of speech, because before the advent of writing, thoughts were expressed orally.

Greek orators skillfully influenced the public, as they owned the laws of logic and the rules of oral speech. They were able to achieve eloquence served as their main weapon from a political point of view. Oratory, being the queen of the arts, could very effectively influence the decisions of state affairs.

It was in ancient Greece that the first school of oratory. Its outstanding masters were Demosthenes, Philocrates, Hyperides, Aeschines and other public figures. Among them, Demosthenes was able to achieve the highest achievements. Without his contribution, it is difficult to imagine the practice of oratory and the basics of the theory of rhetoric, where the word was given great importance. His speeches were studied not only in antiquity, the surviving theories are relevant today. They are included in the golden fund of rhetoric as a separate science.

Speaking in front of an audience

Visual perception and appearance

Speaking to the public, the speaker must prepare not only his speech, but also diligently work on appearance. It is no secret that the speaker is first of all greeted in appearance. It has long been proven that appearance plays an important role in first impressions. Based on statistics, 55% of the persuasive power comes from the appearance of the speaker and visual perception listeners, for tone of voice - 35% and only 10% for words.

Listeners are first and foremost spectators. They will consider the speaker very carefully. Especially the female half pays close attention to detail. Outfit, hairstyle and demeanor will not go unnoticed. A person who is insecure, ill-prepared, or indecisive quickly catches the eye. The public will not want to concentrate and delve into the essence of it speeches. And no matter how hard the speaker tries, it will be very difficult to win over the audience.

Attention retention

The art of public speaking it just includes the ability to convey a prepared report or a speech built on the go. A real master knows how to quickly navigate and build logical sentences. In addition, he knows how to entice his listeners and interest in his performance.

For keeping attention the speaker uses special techniques that allow not only to win over, but also to tune in to the same psychological wave. At the same time, gestures and facial expressions, voice and intonation play an important role. It is one thing to listen, but quite another to be heard. The well-known poetess M. Tsvetaeva also spoke about this. Under no circumstances should the public be given the slightest cause for irritation.

Contact with the audience

Most of the speaker's speech is a monologue. However, the speaker needs to be able to find contact with the audience. He should try to establish a connection, even an imaginary one. Only in this case he will be able to count on a response. A good speaker is able to capture the mood of the audience and correct his speech at the right time. He seems to read the thoughts of the listeners and does not allow them to be distracted from the information presented. This is similar to a mental dialogue in which the other side does not say out loud their wishes. In turn, this does not distract the speaker, but it does not exclude two-way communication either.

So art public speaking- This is an imitation of live communication. It is difficult for a beginner to achieve this, but it is quite possible when mastering the basic rhetorical techniques. Among them: direct appeal to the audience, filling the speech with emotions, adhering to colloquial syntax. Do not worry in advance, everything comes with experience, you just need to make efforts and patience.

Another important means of establishing two-way communication is eye contact with the speaker. If you read the prepared text and do not look up from the paper, the interest of the public will quickly disappear. In this case, the speaker independently builds a wall that protects him from the audience. It is not recommended to look at one corner or the ceiling. Only by shifting his gaze from one listener to another, the speaker can count on uniting the audience and achieving the effect of communication, even at a mental level.

You need to be able to read the reaction in the eyes. In this case, the speaker will be able to control the audience. As soon as he notices the first signs of overwork of the listeners, he will be able to use one of the proven methods to defuse the hall. For example, it can be a recollection of a funny incident, an insertion of an aphorism or a proverb. It is desirable that they be close to the topic of the speech. You can generally step aside from the report and tell a funny anecdote, endearing the audience to yourself. Emotional discharge during fatigue will best recreate a friendly atmosphere. All this will allow to continue the performance, the interest in which will only increase.

Oratory in other types of speech communication

The multifaceted art of oratory includes not only speaking in front of a large audience, but also conducting a dialogue with an interlocutor, debates, discussions, and other types of speech communication. At the same time, the speech of the speaker should always strike with iron logic, but at the same time be sincere and sensual. Only in this case, you can count on the interest of the listener and his location.

In any verbal communication, one can show oratory and leave an indelible imprint, a good opinion and earn respect by striking an interesting conversation. At the same time, great importance is given not only to the literacy and erudition of the speaker, but also to his emotionality, interest and ability to listen to the interlocutor. Of course, natural data also help in this, but the experience gained, the culture of speech and intelligence are not secondary.

Oratory training

Anyone can learn public speaking. The main thing is to have a desire and focus on results. One should not be afraid of the difficulties that may arise in the learning process. Only patience and diligence will bring the expected results. Even many famous people who were able to achieve good luck in public speaking initially encountered difficulties. For example, Margaret Thatcher managed to change her shrill voice, which was naturally such. Her hard work in studying acting has paid off. The politician of France, Mirabeau, learned to present memorized texts so much that they began to seem like a real improvisation.

Oratory training you can do it yourself, but in specialized schools and centers, classes will be more effective. The developed programs and psychological trainings are popular ways to get rid of the fear of speaking in front of the public, develop thinking and memory, replenish conversational stock and gain self-confidence. Here you can learn how to correctly formulate thoughts, quickly interest the listener, gain artistic skills and speak beautifully on any topic, including impromptu. Specialists will teach you how to choose the right intonation and skillfully use different speech techniques. They will talk about how to benefit from communication, introduce unproductive conversation patterns and reveal ways to avoid "uncomfortable" questions.

Who is a good speaker?

Master of Oratory is the person who easily owns the living word and can use it to influence the interlocutor or the whole audience. Speaking of such a professional, it is impossible not to mention the high level of speech culture. Good diction eliminates any fuzzy pronunciation of words and individual sounds. The speaker is pleasant and easy to listen to, because there are no tongue twisters and lisps. The power of the voice is manifested not only in loudness, but also in the mental impact on the consciousness and will of the listeners. In other words, the speech technique of a real speaker approaches perfection.

A successful speaker skillfully uses various techniques. For beautiful speech, the use of popular expressions, well-known proverbs and sayings is of great importance. When they are unexpected, but said to the point, the performance seems more interesting and better remembered. Speech culture of the speaker always judged by the richness of his vocabulary. The more words in the arsenal of a professional, the more interesting it is to communicate with him. And if, in addition to all this, the sentences are concise and well-constructed, observing the accuracy of word usage and language pronunciation norms, then such a speaker has no price.

Anyone can learn public speaking. At the same time, it is important to tune in to luck and in no case deviate from the goal.
You should never show your excitement to outsiders, and even more so talk about poor preparation.
Avoid monotonous speeches, pause properly and highlight the right words. Be mindful of intonation when raising and lowering your voice.
Spend more time training, it is advisable to rehearse a pre-prepared speech at least 3 times.
Try to keep your audience interested from the very beginning of your speech by coming up with an intriguing title.
When speaking in public, try to connect with your audience.
During the speech, change your position, use gestures.

The main advice is this: to master the art of the living word, you need to learn to think beautifully.

Rhetoric is the science of speech, correct and beautiful methods of communication that can convince anyone that the speaker is right, create the basis for further convictions. This art is taught in modern educational institutions because the word is a powerful tool if used correctly. The main goal of rhetoric is to teach how to communicate in order to feel confident in any situation.

History of occurrence

The emergence of rhetoric is considered to be the 5th century BC. e. Ancient Greece was the first in modern Europe to form the foundations of science. At that time, stylistics and grammar were studied in ancient Greece. The Greeks were the first to systematize knowledge of rhetoric and created a large number of treatises on this topic, and some of them are studied even in our time.

Cicero is one of the most famous orators of ancient Rome.

The Romans became interested in the art of rhetoric after the conquest of Greece, when the traditions of these countries began to mix, and the empire actively borrowed the knowledge of its provinces. Art began to flourish in the Senate, courts, public meetings.

There were some differences between the styles of rhetoric, as the Romans were less educated than the Greeks. Among the conquerors, speech was littered with digressions, stories, stylistic nuances. Despite this, eloquence was still a powerful tool for orators. There were cases when in ancient Rome high government posts were occupied by people who were skillful in speech, and this was their main advantage in the political struggle, as we can learn from historical references.

Appearance in Russia

In ancient times, this art was modified, supplemented with useful techniques. Church leaders also began to use rhetoric, actively luring a new flock into their faith and citing irrefutable verbal evidence against heretics. The concept of rhetoric came to Russia from European countries in the 18th century.

Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov

The emergence of oratory coincided with the spread of Christianity. It was often called "the gift of eloquence." A little later, Lomonosov created the Russian Grammar, which included the Rules of Eloquence. Such politicians as Stolypin and Trotsky were considered good speakers. A little less, but still succeeded in the knowledge of this science and Lenin.

Oratory skills can be developed independently. For the development of speech, training is required, accompanied by constant comments to oneself, corrections and additions to skills. You need to notice all the mistakes that are made in order to try to correct them in the next conversation.

use the right pace. An important feature that needs to be mastered. It is imperative to monitor the speed of the conversation, since too fast speech does not have time to be absorbed by the listener, slow speech puts you to sleep, makes you become inattentive to phrases. Try to highlight important points with intonation, change the pitch of your voice. It attracts attention, does not let the interlocutor get bored;
communicate with people. Talking about things at home is not enough to improve communication skills. It takes practice to communicate live. To relieve the accumulated tension during a long story, you need to use jokes that can be prepared in advance;
use retreats. Sayings, humor, quotes of great people make speech less dry, allow you to make speech more conclusive;
put a vote. The pronunciation must be clear and correct. Consonants should be pronounced, any sounds should be pronounced cleanly;
talk about topics that interest others. You can start with one true statement, and then smoothly lead to another, necessary to achieve the goal;
maintain neutrality. The speaker should strive to reach agreement with everyone. Even if the interlocutor or several people are wrong, you should say “Yes, right, but ...”, after which you can prove your point of view.

Improvement of speech

To develop public speaking skills, you need to practice. Otherwise, you won't be able to master them. To improve, there is a set of exercises:

Release from muscle tension. The point is to make the conversation easier. To execute you should:
- knead the shoulders, neck with rotational movements. The head should move as if under its own weight;
- warm up as often as possible the forearms, hands, rotate the joints in the shoulders;
- use circular movements of the hands in the elbows;
Articulating. Develop and train lips, cheeks, tongue, hard and soft palate, lower jaw. The flexibility of the speech apparatus is developed, the muscles necessary for better pronunciation of sounds are strengthened. The tension is removed from the muscles, their relaxation occurs. You need to do the following:
- clean the gums with your tongue in both directions. Make "injections" in the cheeks, pull it as far as possible, change the shape. Make sounds similar to a horse jump;
- rotate your lips in different directions, pull them out. Grab air with outstretched lips, strain and relax. There will be ease and clarity when talking;
- inflate the cheeks, roll the air in the mouth from one cheek to the other. It is imperative to knead them, otherwise the voice will be flabby;
- to yourself, without opening your mouth, pronounce various words, sounds. The pharynx is trained, as a result of which the sound becomes loud and deep;
- hands gently open the jaw. Relieve muscle tension and excess tension.
Improving pronunciation, increasing vocabulary. List of exercises:
- reading aloud. It is considered the best way to improve public speaking skills. Diction improves, vocabulary increases, speech brightness, emotional coloring increase. Read slowly, pronouncing each word. The text is pronounced not in a reader's tone, but in a colloquial one;
- pronunciation of phrases. Diction is effectively trained by pronouncing words and sounds at maximum speed. Correct articulation is developed, reservations occur less frequently.

When reading, each sound is clearly pronounced, the speed increases gradually. The main thing is to follow the correct pronunciation, only then speed up the speech. For convenience, you need to create a picture of what is happening in your head, try to understand the words you read. You should not stop working on one phrase until the errors completely disappear.

If possible, keep a dictaphone record of both the material read from the book and tongue twisters. Thus, speech defects found after listening can be eliminated.

There are many exercises that develop pronunciation and improve the skills of a speaker. These options are quite enough for beginner speakers. With their help, you can achieve great success. The main thing in oratory is not to stop developing, constantly improve skills, and speak as much as possible.

The ability to speak in public has been a useful skill at all times. People who are fluent in oratory will always be in demand by society and will be able to find a job. It's no secret that there are few such people, they always stand out among others. They turn out to be successful leaders, politicians, businessmen, journalists, writers, teachers, since in many professions knowledge of rhetoric plays a crucial role. The purpose of this oratory course is to provide everyone with the opportunity to learn online materials, lessons, exercises, techniques and rules for mastering the basics of rhetoric for free.

What is rhetoric?

This word is of ancient Greek origin Greek rhetorike), and literally means " oratory". What is "oratory"? And how to develop your abilities for it?

Each of us at least a few times in his life had a chance to perform in public. And, for sure, no one doubts that in order to be fluent in oratory, you need to know and be able to do a lot. It can be said that the ability to speak in public reflects our intellectual development and our social skills.

Martin Luther King's famous speech

According to the definition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, " oratory"- this is a type of monologue speech used in a situation where the speaker addresses a large audience for the purpose of persuasion or suggestion. Oratory is often identified with eloquence, so a good speaker must be well-read, have competent speech, and be able to clearly express his thoughts. But the speaker also needs to be able to manage his excitement, master his diction and have a well-trained voice. In addition, it is important to master speech improvisation, be able to answer questions, maintain contact with the audience, pronounce the text with the necessary intonation, and much, much more.

Most of the described skills, which together form the art of public speaking, can be learned. To do this, it is important to work on yourself, to realize, analyze and correct the unsuccessful moments of your own and others' public speaking, and most importantly, to train your skills in practice. Our training will help you work through all these difficult steps on the way to developing excellent public speaking skills.

Do you want to test your knowledge?

If you want to test your theoretical knowledge on the topic of the course and understand how it suits you, you can take our test. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question.

Online rhetoric lessons

The public speaking training posted on this site is an integration of many of the techniques described by public speaking experts. Each of the lessons involves the development of a specific skill that contributes to the development of your oratory skills. Naturally, each person can master these skills differently, so try to pay attention to those lessons that seem most useful to you yourself.

Video

In this section of the training on the skill of public speech, you can watch videos of famous speeches by prominent speakers: Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, Vladimir Lenin and others. Also here you can find videos from various competitions, presentations and speeches of people in front of investors. In addition, the section contains video tutorials by leading experts in the field of public speaking.

4 rules of rhetoric

First rule. Start giving any speech with a strong desire to achieve your goal.
Second rule. Try to always prepare for the performance.
Third rule. Show confidence even if you don't feel confident.
Fourth rule. Practice more (this is true for any other skill).

These four rules of public speaking are, in fact, the foundation of any good speech. If you do not set yourself goals to achieve great success in rhetoric, but only try to prepare for a specific speech, then they may come in handy.

If you are planning a more detailed approach to the study of the art of oratory, we will be happy to provide you with useful and interesting information in the lessons on our website.

We wish you success in mastering the art of oratory!

"Speak so that I can see you..." Socrates

CORPORATE TRAININGS FOR ORGANIZATIONS AND TEAM!

Duration of classes: 5-8 weeks, at a convenient time for you

Course program ART-RHETORIC (download):

Konstantin Gnesin,

Of course, the time was spent with great benefit, and I received an excellent basis for further self-development. Even at this stage, I already had a desire to initiate and carry on a conversation, to give a mini speech, and not try to avoid it all. ”

You have a question: “How is acting expressiveness and Art-rhetoric related?”

Acting expression includes:

Body- gesture, posture, movements, initial posture, center of the body

Creative thinking- creation and transmission of images, movement of images

Acting, as well as the skill of the speaker is measured by the force of impact on the viewer

(listener)

act- ACTION

“Why is communication so essential to an Artrhetoric program?”

Communication is one of the basic human needs.

“First look who is listening to you, and then start talking” (Armenian proverb)

Different audiences and positioning (questions "Who? and for whom?") Speech is always a dialogue, an exchange of expectations. Eye contact. Meta message. Improvisations. Hooks. Interactive Stories. And interaction on the listener and partner.