Every speaking situation fulfills some sort of professional, social, or relational function, and that function determines what is or is not appropriate behavior in he speech. Knowing the purpose of your speech will allow you to decide on your persona and attitude that you want to present, as well as the content of your speech itself. The following are some examples:
- Speaking for professional reports:
- Your words need to be informative and accurate; not including very much of your own opinion.
- Your information needs to be very clear and direct, without any distraction from the main idea.
- You need to dress in professional attire, looking organized and clean.
- Speaking to pitch an idea or product:
- Your words are a friendly argument in favor of your product or idea. Your opinion is welcome as long as you have facts and examples to back it up.
- It is still good to be direct, but it helps to tell a story in which your product or idea is the star.
- Dress as nicely as the best-dressed person in your audience.
- Speaking at family events:
- Your words need to provide the comfort or affirmation that your family needs. You are with family, therefore you need to show emotion that matches the audience.
- Your family’s culture will determine acceptable it is for you to be informal and/or opinionated in public display.
- Depending on the event, once again: Dress as nicely as the best-dressed person in your audience.
- Speaking to train or teach others:
- Choose words that are understandable and culturally familiar to your audience, and as much as you can, give them more than one chance to understand your points.
- In your speech and dress, provide the example that you want your audience to imitate.
- Speaking in a public speaking class:
- The golden rule for speech classes: Do what your teacher tells you.
- Remember that speaking in a class gives you the opportunity to get rich feedback from your teacher and your classmates. Make friends in your class, and work with them to build everyone up.