Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson agrees that being able to communicate effectively is critical to success.

Speaking Tips :

Talk Yourself Through Processes: Say what you’re doing out loud. For example, “Now I’m cutting up the onions. Uh oh, my eyes are starting to water!” Your instructions are a kind of “cheat sheet” to help you along the way. They will help you talk continuously, without having to stop and think about what to do next.

The best critic in the world - Your Video Camera. Record yourself for 30 minutes and compare yourself to the World Top Communicators like Obama. Note the difference. Work on the difference.

TRY THIS TECHNIQUE

• Take any 10 topics randomly
• Speak Extemporaneously for 5 minutes on each topic
• Record yourself
• Once you have spoken for 10 topics and recorded it - look at yourself speak
• Write down WORD-FOR-WORD what you spoke about
• Review what you have done
• Look at the words used & spoken
• Ask yourself how could you have done better
• Then speak ON THE SAME topics once again
• Video tape yourself again
• Watch the video
• See how much more better you are
• Keep repeating this process until you feel now you are perfect

author : I spent couple of hours doing it but believe it'll be usefull for many people out there!

General Tips 101:

• Never use absolutes — “You never wash the dishes” | “You always forget to close the door”
• Ask open-ended questions — “How was your day today?” | “Why do you love psychology?”
• Use “I feel” in conflict resolution — “I feel sad that you didn’t bring me along to eat” | “I feel upset that you didn’t wait for me earlier.”
• Apologize specifically when it’s your fault — “I’m sorry that I forgot to take out the trash” | “I’m sorry for not calling you earlier”
• Compliment — “You look stunning” | “I love that dress/shirt on you”
• Don’t reply with one word answers every single time — “Yes” | “Cool”

A few hygiene factors: Quora Tips

• Omit needless words: I picked this from Strunk and White’s classic on writing. Unnecessary words are like dust on a glass window - they muddy up the beauty of your writing.

A few examples Instead of ‘In order to achieve our goals’, just say ‘To achieve our goals.’ Don’t write ‘In my opinion, we should do blah…’ Just say ‘We should do blah…’ Your writing is your opinion, anyway. Use active voice: Instead of, ‘The project was done by two interns,’ make it, ‘Two interns did the project.’ Cut down the use of adjectives/adverbs: Don’t say, ‘The exam was very hard.’ Just say, ‘The exam was hard.’

• Show, don’t tell. “The journey to the peak was an arduous climb” - this ‘tells’ the reader, who has to recreate the feeling in his head.

“Halfway up the journey, my calf muscles were on fire” - This is better as the reader can feel that it was arduous. We don’t have to tell. Stick to the rules, but not all the time. When you break the rules, it should be intentional, and it should hit the reader.

• Edit mercilessly. The punch comes from editing, not from the first draft. Ask yourself, ‘What is the key point.’ Delete all the other words. Then add back words only if they really change the meaning. See example below:

A bad, verbose example: “Based on the facts and our past experience, we have a few corrective actions to recommend. We suggest that the client at least starts with the following three initiatives - A, B, and C.”. Better, tighter writing: “To conclude, we recommend three initiatives - A, B, and C.”

After a round of editing, take a break and come back after a few hours, or a day. You will be surprised at the number of mistakes you will catch.

If you are just starting, try cutting down the word count of the first draft by 50%. Trust me - it will become better. Some people say ‘Write only when you are angry.’ Don’t wait for the right mood, but feel the rage, the excitement, or the fear if you want to move the reader.

• Specifics over generality: Instead of saying, ‘The affluence level in country A has gone up a lot in the last 50 years’ Try saying something like, ‘Today, every family in country A has two cars on average. Fifty years back, only the king had one.’

• Don’t be afraid to offend. Don’t please everyone. Hit hard. Storify it. Facts and data don’t move people. One thousand people dead or 100,000 people dead - it is just a few more zeros. But stories evoke emotion.

E.g., the Syrian civil war killed lakhs, but it did not move anyone. But the photo of a toddler who died when his family was immigrating, changed the sentiments of Europe towards Syrian immigrants. Before that, tens of thousands of kids were killed, but nobody cared. Why? Because we can relate to stories but not statistics.

So okay― there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want - Stephen King

Once a lawyer in London told me when he considers a contract well-drafted: 'If you remove one word from the document, the contract should collapse', he said. Every word should have meaning. - Ex IPS

Reddit Tips:

• Take a few seconds to compose your thoughts before you start talking. Also, talk slower and remember to breathe. My issue was, and still is sometimes when I'm overexcited, that my mouth couldn't keep up with the speed of my brain, so I would talk so fast that my words would jumble together. Following the above steps really helped me articulate my thoughts much better, and also helped others understand me better.

• Read the book "Crucial Conversations." It completely transformed the way I approach difficult conversions and has helped me tremendously in both my personal and professional relationship. Highly recommended.

Public Speaking Tips [Toastmaster]

• know your subject in depth
• who is your audience ? [speak accordingly]
• never apololize during talk - assume people are rooting for you
• assume your message is Important

Quora Tips :

• “Never be left speechless again. Like a parrot, simply repeat the last few words your conversation partner says. That puts the ball right back in his or her court, and then all you need to do is listen.”

• “Look up some common words you use every day in the thesaurus. Then, like slipping your feet into a new pair of shoes, slip your tongue into a few new words to see how they fit. If you like them, start making permanent replacements. Remember, only fifty words makes the difference between a rich, creative vocabulary and an average, middle-of-the-road one. Substitute a word a day for two months and you’ll be in the verbally elite”

• “Acquiring this super vocabulary is easy. You needn’t pore over vocabulary books or listen to tapes of pompous pontificators with impossible British accents. You don’t need to learn two-dollar words that your grandmother, if she heard, would wash out of your mouth with soap.

All you need to do is think of a few tired, overworked words you use every day – words like smart, nice, pretty, or good. Then grab a thesaurus or book of synonyms off the shelf. Look up that common word even you are bored hearing yourself utter every day. Examine your long list of alternatives.

For example, if you turn to the word smart, you’ll find dozens of synonyms. There are colourful, rich words like ingenious, resourceful, adroit, shrewd, and many more. ”

Public Talk Tips : Dale Carnegie

• Don’t write out your talks. Why? Because if you do, you will use written language instead of easy, conversational language; and when you stand up to talk, you will probably find yourself trying to remember what you wrote. That will keep you from speaking naturally and with sparkle

• Never, never, never memorize a talk word for word. If you memorize your talk, you are almost sure to forget it; and the audience will probably be glad, for nobody wants to listen to a canned speech. Even if you don’t forget it, it will sound memorized. You will have a faraway look in your eyes and a faraway ring in your voice. You won’t sound like a human being trying to tell us something. If, in a longer talk, you are afraid you will forget what you want to say, then make some brief notes and hold them in your hand.

• Fill your talk with illustrations and examples.

By far the easiest way to make a talk interesting is to fill it with examples. To illustrate what I mean, let’s take this booklet you are reading now. Approximately half of those pages are devoted to illustration. My biggest problem in writing a book or preparing a speech is not to get ideas, but to get illustrations to make those ideas clear, vivid, and unforgettable

Exemplum docet. Not only does the example teach, but it is about the only thing that does teach. I have heard brilliant speeches which I promptly forgot because there were no examples to make them stick in my memory

• Know far more about your subject that you can use.

• Rehearse your talk by conversing with your friends. Will Rogers prepared his famous Sunday night radio talks by trying them out as conversation on the people he met during the week. If, for example, he wanted to speak on the gold standard, he would wisecrack about it in conversation during the week. He would then discover which of his jokes went over, which remarks elicited people’s interest. That is an infinitely better way to rehearse a talk than to try it out with gestures in front of a mirror.

• Instead of worrying about your delivery, find ways of improving it. This rear admiral discovered just what you will discover when you get stirred up about a cause bigger than yourself. You will discover that all fears of speaking will vanish and that you don’t have to give a thought to delivery, since the causes that produce good delivery are working for you irresistibly.

Let me repeat: Your delivery is merely the effect of a cause that preceded and produced it. So if you don’t like your delivery, don’t muddle around trying to change it. Get back to fundamentals and change the causes that produced it. Change your mental and emotional attitude.

Tips from Book : How to talk to anyone

• Kill the quick ‘me, too!’

Whenever you have something in common with someone, the longer you wait to reveal it, the more moved (and impressed) he or she will be. You emerge as a confident Big Cat, not a lonely little stray, hungry for quick connection with a stranger”

• How to say about your work:

Don’t say ‘estate agent.’ Say ‘I help people moving into our area find the right home.’

Don’t say ‘financial planner.’ Say ‘I help people plan their financial future.’

Don’t say ‘martial arts instructor.’ Say ‘I help people defend themselves by teaching martial arts.’

Don’t say ‘cosmetic surgeon.’ Say ‘I reconstruct people’s faces after disfiguring accidents.’ (Or, if you’re talking with a woman ‘of a certain age,’ as the French so gracefully say, tell her, ‘I help people to look as young as they feel through cosmetic surgery.’)

Don’t say ‘hairdresser.’ Say ‘I help a woman find the right hairstyle for her particular face.’ (Go, Gloria!)

Putting the benefit statement in your verbal Nutshell Resume brings your job to life and makes it memorable”

“As a young girl, I wrote novels in my mind about my life. ‘Leil, squinting her eyes against the torrential downpour, bravely reached out the window into the icy storm to pull the shutters tight and keep the family safe from the approaching hurricane.’ Big deal – Mama asked me to close the windows when it started to rain. Still, marching toward the open window, I fancied myself the family’s brave saviour.”

Shut up, let the other person talk, repeat what they said, then respectfully make your point. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be in any kind of position of authority anyway.

• Never let the words thank you stand alone. From A to Z, always follow it with for : from ‘Thank you for asking’ to ‘Thank you for zipping me up.”

  Thank you for coming. Thank you for being so understanding. Thank you for waiting. Thank you for being such a good customer. Thank you for being so loving.” “Never the naked thank you

“Swiftly striding toward me in the same trail. I didn’t need to observe his high kick or his snazzy diagonal poling to let me know I was obstructing the path of a pro. While mustering the energy to lug my throbbing legs out of the track so Super Skier could soar past, he deftly sidestepped out of the groove, leaving the groomed trail all for me. As he whizzed toward me, he slowed slightly, smiled, nodded, and said, ‘Good morning, beautiful day for skiing, isn’t it?’ I appreciated his deference (and insinuation that we were equals on the snow!). I knew he was not thinking ‘Hey look at me. Here I am!’ but ‘Ahh, there you are. Let me make room for you.’ As I implied in the opening words of this book, the difference in the life success between those two types of thinkers is incalculable.” “Why was Super Skier able to pull off his move so gracefully? Was he born with the skill? No. His was a deliberate move that grew out of practice.

Practice is also the fountainhead of all smooth communications moves. Excellence is not a single and solitary action. It is the outcome of many years of making small smooth moves, tiny ones like the 92 little tricks we’ve explored in How to Talk to Anyone. These moves create your destiny. Remember, repeating an action makes a habit. Your habits create your character. And your character is your destiny. May success be your destiny.”

• Lead the listeners

No matter how prominent the Big Cat behind the podium is, crouched inside is a little scaredy cat who is anxious about the crowd’s acceptance. Big Winners recognize you’re a fellow Big Winner when they see you leading their listeners in a positive reaction. Be the first to applaud or publicly commend the man or woman you agree with (or want favours from).” “In less politically sensitive gatherings, the same principle applies. People who respond first to a presentation or happening, without looking around to see how everyone else is reacting, are men and women of leadership calibre.”

• “The great scorecard in the sky

Any two people have an invisible scorecard hovering above their heads. The numbers continually fluctuate, but one rule remains: player with lower score pays deference to player with higher score. The penalty for not keeping your eye on the Great Scorecard in the Sky is to be thrown out of the game. Permanently.”

Charles called with halfhearted apologies and a semiplausible excuse. His car broke down. ‘Gee, I’m sorry,’ I said. (I wanted to say, ‘Did Martians capture you? Were you transported to another planet where there were no phones to call me?’ I resisted the sarcasm.) However, he did sound contrite so I was almost willing to forget it. Until his next question. He obviously wasn’t aware of how he’d slipped in the Great Scorecard in the Sky because, instead of inviting me for linguine with pesto at a fine Italian restaurant to make up for his blooper, he asked, ‘When can we reschedule at your house?’ Never, Charlie.”

• A complimentary letter

“Hmm,’ I began to think. ‘I may be on to something.’ A premature letter of commendation for favours not yet received could be a clever tactic.”

“ ‘Leil, of course. This is news to you? A complimentary letter to someone’s boss – or the promise of one – is a great insurance policy. It’s as good as a written rider that you will be well taken care of in the future.”

“Dear (name of supervisor), I know how important customer service is to an organization such as yours. This letter is to commend (name of employee). He/She is an example of an (employee title) who gives exceptional customer service. (Name of store or business) continues to have my business thanks in great part to the service given by (name of employee). Gratefully, (signature)”

“Mea culpa!’

• Leave an escape hatch

Big Winners leave an escape hatch for the small foibles of friends they wish to keep by taking the blame themselves. If a friend gets lost and is an hour late arriving at your house, tell her ‘Those directions I gave you were terrible.’ He breaks your Limoges bowl? ‘Oh I shouldn’t have left it in such a precarious position.’ It’s the old mea culpa routine that endears you to everyone, especially when they realize it wasn’t your fault.”

Ineffective talks are usually the ones that are written and memorized and sweated over and made artificial. Good talks are the ones that well up within you as a fountain. Many people talk the way I swim. I struggle and fight the water and wear myself out and go one-tenth as fast as the experts.

English Speaking tips from Blogs :

Learn and Study Phrases

Speaking English fluently means being able to express your thoughts, feelings and ideas. Your goal is to speak English in full sentences, so why not learn it in full sentences? You’ll find that English is more useful in your everyday life if you study whole phrases, rather than just vocabulary and verbs. Start by thinking about phrases that you use frequently in your native language, and then learn how to say them in English.

Many students learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. It amazes me how many words some of my students know, but they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didn't study phrases. When children learn a language, they learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases.

If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker.

The English Speaking Basics section is a great example of making numerous sentences with a single phrase. So don't spend hours and hours learning many different words. Use that time to study phrases instead and you will be closer to English fluency.

Record Yourself Reading Material That You Want to Learn

Use the same technique described above to learn English in general while also practicing your speech. For example, let’s say that you’d like to get better at talking to waitstaff. Maybe you see a FluentU post that includes examples of English conversations to have in restaurants. Instead of just reading the post and trying to remember the examples, record yourself reading it! This will give you multiple opportunities to remember the material: when you first read it, when you read it out loud and when you listen to yourself reading it later.

Record Your Own English-language Audiobooks

How do you speak English fluently and confidently? When we think of practicing a language, we often think of putting ourselves in situations where we have to use the language. But the truth is, a lot of confidence and fluency comes from actually speaking. This technique can help you do a lot more of that.

Take any English-language book that you already enjoy, and record yourself reading it in English. This will take you a while, of course. But it will give you a way to practice your English pronunciation every day in a way that’s fun and interesting for you. Once you finish recording the book, you’ll have a homemade audiobook of it to listen to, which will give you a way to practice your listening skills, too. But the truth is, a lot of confidence and fluency comes from actually speaking. This technique can help you do a lot more of that.

Reading and Listening is NOT enough. Practice Speaking what you hear!

Reading, listening, and speaking are the most important aspects of any language. The same is true for English. However, speaking is the only requirement to be fluent. It is normal for babies and children to learn speaking first, become fluent, then start reading, then writing. So the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing.

Memorize Conversation Starters (and Use Them!)

You might miss out on opportunities to practice English speaking if you just can’t think of anything to say. An easy solution to this is to memorize conversation starters, or ideas for beginning conversations. You can find lots of these online. For example, here’s a list of 250 conversation starters from Conversation Starters World.

Stop Being a Student

The right attitude can make the difference between failure and success. Stop thinking of yourself as someone who is learning English, and start thinking of yourself as someone who speaks English. It’s a small change, but it will make you feel more confident and help you to use the English you already know more effectively.

Problems

First Problem : Isn't it strange that schools across the world teach reading first, then writing, then listening, and finally speaking? Although it is different, the main reason is because when you learn a second language, you need to read material to understand and learn it. So even though the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing, the order for ESL students is reading, listening, speaking, then writing.

Second Problem : The reason many people can read and listen is because that's all they practice. But in order to speak English fluently, you need to practice speaking. Don't stop at the listening portion, and when you study, don't just listen. Speak out loud the material you are listening to and practice what you hear. Practice speaking out loud until your mouth and brain can do it without any effort. By doing so, you will be able to speak English fluently.

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How to give a presentation !

Link

Start

1. Do not start a talk with a joke.
2. Promise - Tell them what they gonna learn at the end of your talk.
3. Cycle – make your idea repeated many times in order to be completely clear for everyone.
4. Make a “Fence” around your idea so that it can be distinguished from someone else’s idea.
5. Verbal punctuation – sum up information within your talk some times to make listeners get back on.
6. Ask a question - intriguing one

Place and Time

7. Best time for having a lecture is 11 am. (not too early and not after lunch)
8. The place should be well lit.
9. The place should be seen and checked before the lecture.
10. The place should not be full less than a half, it must be chosen according to the amount of listeners.

Tools For teaching.

1. Board – it’s got graphics, speed, target. Watch your hands! Don’t hold them behind your back, it’s better to keep them straight and use for pointing at the board.
2. Props – use them in order to make your ideas visual. Visual perception is the most effective way to interact with listeners.

For Job Talk. Exposing, Slides

3. Don’t put too many words on a slide. Slides should just reflect what you’re saying, not the other way around. Pictures attracts attention and people start to wait for your explanation – use that tip.
4. Make slide as easy as you can – no title, no distracting pictures, frames, points and so on.
5. Do not use laser pointer – due to that you lose eye contact with the audience. Instead you can make the arrows just upon a slide.

Informing

Show to your listeners your stuff is cool and interesting. You have to be able to: -show your vision of that problem -show that you’ve done particular things (by steps) All of that should be done real quick in no more than 5 min. Persuade your listeners you’re not a rookie (Prof. Winston contrived to do that from the very first seconds of his talk)

Getting Famous If you want to your ideas be remembered you’ve got to have "5 S"

• Symbols associate with your ideas (visual perception is the best way to attract attention)
• Slogan (describing your idea)
• Surprise (common fallacy that is no longer true, for instance, just after you’ve told about it)
• Salient Idea (not necessarily important but the one that sticks out)
• Story (how you did it, how it works…)

How to End

• Don’t put collaborators at the end, do that at the beginning.
• Question’s the worst way to end a talk.
• It’s good to end with a Contribution slide – to sum up everything you’ve told with your OWN decision.
• At the very end you could tell a joke since people then will leave the event feeling fun and thus keep a good memory of your talk.
• "Thank you (for listening)" isn’t good ending, it’s trite at least. You can end with a quote of a prominent person (my own knowledge), with a salute to people (how much you valued the time being here, the people over here..., “I’d like to get back, it was fun!”

That part actually I find the hardest one, since saying “Thanks” is a kind of a habit and it’s really difficult to make people clap if your talk wasn’t fascinating, so you’d better do this great and you won’t have to worry about how to end!

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