How to become a more confident and engaging public speaker

Voice support

 

Meet the course leader

Andrea Lewis is a Vocal Coach and Director with over 15 years of experience in the Performing Arts.

She has a wide range of training and skills including, a Masters in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; over eight years of teaching in prestigious drama schools and universities as well as coaching in professional Fringe and West End theatre.

Andrea is committed to supporting learners in finding confidence, finesse and joyful expression in their own voices.

About the course

  • H Part-time, online short course
  • & Six weeks: 2 February – 9 March
  • c Tuesday: 7-9pm
  • * Cost: £320

What will I learn on this course?

Public speaking is a skill that can be learnt, enjoyed and put to good use in interview situations, meetings, when hosting a work event, speaking at special occasions like weddings or if you’re in a job like teaching where you’re public speaking throughout your working day.

  • Learn how to take care of your voice and avoid vocal fatigue and injury from overuse.
  • Develop the tools to help prepare your voice for public speaking.
  • Gain the confidence in your delivery and the tools to engage your audience in the most effective and authentic way.
  • Become a more confident and engaging speaker.
  • Work towards presenting a short speech of your own choosing to put into practice the techniques you’ve learnt.

Course structure

Week one

Vocal health – preparing and maintaining your voice.

This session will focus on how to take care of your voice and use it sustainably in any environment. Through a clear progression of exercises, you will develop techniques to ensure a healthy and effective voice.

Week two

Status – entering a space with confidence.

This week we will explore our habits good and bad. Through careful observation and feedback, we can begin to explore what does and does not allow us to be our most expressive selves. This session will look at the first impression we give off when we enter a room and develop techniques to enable us to make a positive first impression. As well as finding ways to make us feel present and at home as a presenter.

Week three

Text detectives – using the punctuation to help you.

In this session we will begin to look at how marking up your speech and paying attention to the punctuation can support you in delivering a clear and well-paced presentation.

Week four

Text detectives – using the text to help you.

This week will focus on exploring how to find key words and ways to make your speech sound more interesting and engaging.

Week five

Body and voice – body and gesture and how it can help deliver your message.

This week will be a chance to explore gesture and how it can support and, if done effectively, enhance your presentation. By trying out some exercises that combine voice and gesture we will develop strategies that allow us to find gestures that directly match our words.

Week six

Presentation.

Our final session will be an opportunity to share the pieces that you’ve been working on, in an online presentation. This will be for an invited audience only and will be a work in progress showing.

How to apply

  • / To book on please email hpashortcourses@plymouth.ac.uk