Productos del curso de Introduction to Speech impartido de Julio a Agosto 2014. Public Speaking. The act of speaking before an audience for a specific purpose is called pubic speaking, and it involves a series of elements in the content and the structure that will make it a weapon to success aside from being ludic for many. The intention behind engaging in public speaking is to inform, influence and or entertain a group of people of a certain profile of characteristics; that group of people can vary in age, gender, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, and any other category that could apply. When we engage in public speaking to inform, we need to make sure to anticipate the answers to the who, what and when questions as well as to evidence what medium was utilized to achieve that, and what effects are or were expected of that action. It is important to know the order of our message to feel more comfortable and to avoid mistakes and confusion. An audience expects the best from the individual delivering the message; therefore that person is accountable to become an authority in the subject by mastering the topic and the presentation. There is another excuse for public speaking and it happens when we want to influence our audience. At this point is valid to say that the concept of the word influence could have several meanings or synonyms that could lead to misinterpretation according to how they are applied; some of those synonyms are persuade, convince, induce, cause, inspire, motivate, and so on and so forth; each of these meanings hold a intention, a message and an action which can be seen with motivational speakers, community leaders and opinion leaders like Tony Robbins, Louis Farrakhan or Bill Gates, to name a few. We could also make use of public speaking to entertain, tell a story or amuse a large audience or to fit in in a small group of people. In any event we need to make sure that we need our topic and that the audience has some interest is hearing what we have to say. We can see this in story telling for kids in the library, or in a social gathering with old or new friendswhere we get a chance to talk about our adventures. The best example is with stand-up comedy where comedians or performers need to know their act and make you laugh your soul out. As we can see, the appropriate use of the language will allow us to communicate in all circumstances, but public speaking was designed to impress others and it requires acquiring certain skills that Jay, from Toastmasters, shows in the video “Time-tested Tips”. In that video, Jay gives easy to understand advice and procedure to become a better public speaker, and tells that we need to know our subject and our speech as well as to know our audience and the location. In other words, knowing what we are talking about, the background or profile of our audience and the physical location are the blueprints of our speech when we want to inform, influence or entertain our audience. Angel Gurrola.