(This speech exercise is part of the Speak For Success Course. While you can use this exercise to work on your speech skills at any time, it’s designed to work on a particular speech skill that you can find out more about at Speak for Success Speech Lesson 4.)
Because the pace of speech and comprehension are so closely linked, this exercise focuses on speaking at the optimum pace for making your message understood.
You will need a partner to work through this speech exercise. His or her task is to comprehend what you’re saying and give you feedback about your speech pace.
As the speaker, your task is to tell him or her how to do something in five steps. You may jot down the five steps you’re going to use as speaking points on a piece of paper before you begin, if you wish. Choose one of the following speech topics and think of five steps describing how to do it. Then tell your partner how to go about it.
Speech Topics:
- How to perfectly boil an egg
- How to plant a tree
- How to send an email
- How to handle a customer complaint
- How to send a fax
- How to evaluate an employee
- How to replace a printer cartridge
- How to impress a client
- How to give a good speech
- How to make the perfect cup of coffee or tea
When you’ve finished speaking, ask your partner to repeat the five steps you spoke of. Did he or she get all of them?
If not, why? Did you speak too quickly or too slowly or was there some other speech problem that interfered with communication?
Rerun the exercise with a different topic as many times as you like.
