Delivery is one of the elements of Public Speaking conveying ideas and thoughts. Delivery is the physical medium through which the speaker’s mind makes contact with the audience’s mind. It is considered as the strongest determinant of the success or the failure of the speech, thus, it is usually given a high percentage in speech contest.
Delivery consists of voice, facial expression, gestures, posture, diction and movements unified in a single pattern of expression. These elements of delivery are unified and controlled by a central idea in the speaker’s mind at any instant and by his desire to communicate this idea.
ELEMENTS OF DELIVERY
Voice, together with speech, is an important tool with which the speaker works. Voice is the oral representation of the speaker’s personality, age and sex. It also express the speaker’s emotional and mental states.
Properties of Voice
Volume
It is the loudness or the softness of voice. It is the carrying power of the voice. The speaker must be able to modulate his volume to be effective and audible to the audience.
Pitch
It is the relative highness and lowness of tone. This makes the speech interesting and eliminates monotony. If a speaker can use his pitch rightly, he can achieve a conductive speech pattern and enhance melody that can hold the audience attention.
Quality
It distinguishes one tone from another when the volume, pitch, and health of the tone are the same. The quality of voice indicates the speaker’s mental and emotional reaction to his own ideas and his desire to express them. They physical structure of the throat determines the voice quality. A relaxed speaker can produce a pleasing quality of voice while a tense and nervous speaker produces a constrained quality of voice.
Duration
It refers to the rate of words per minute and length of pauses. It is determined by the rate of the speaker’s speed of thinking, and the audience’ ability to comprehend the ideas conveyed.
As a rule, speaker’s rate must be a little faster than the ordinary daily conversation, but the rate is also dependent on the speaker. Some speakers use a fast rate at the beginning on the speech to establish rapport and then try to moderate the rate as they go along. The purpose of such is to cultivate audience’s attention and interest.
