Public Speaking Education
More resources on Public Speaking

This section Public Speaking Education gives you some recommendations of public speaking books that will help you become a more effective speaker.

Feel that you need more books and resources to improve your communication ability?

Fret not, there are a lot of resources out there that can help you become a better speaker.

The best way to learn public speaking is to observe other great communicators: their tone, pace, body language.

Monkey see, monkey do applies very well in the arena of public speaking.

Great communicators like Tim Elmore, John Maxwell, Stephen Covey are people whom you can observe and learn from.

However, if you’re not very good at picking up cues and tips from good speakers, then a good way is to read public speaking books.

These books, while they don’t show you how its done, they give you precious tips about how you can become a better public speaker.

List of Books
Public Speaking Education

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These are some public speaking books I do recommend to help you:

1. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Public Speaking by Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.

This book is useful for the public speaking novice, especially in the preparation of a speech.

It first explains that the fear of public speaking is normal, and it lays out many useful tips to teach you how you can overcome the initial fears that come with public speaking.

If you are someone that needs help to overcome your fears, then this book should be on your shelf.

The author’s writing style is very readable and each chapter is concise and easy to grasp and understand.

It also gives you some speech drafting tips, whether it is a persuasive, for entertaining or informative speech you are preparing for.

2. Public Speaking for Success by Dale Carnegie

This is probably the most original and best book on public speaking and communication.

This book was first published in 1926 and updated in 2005. Dale Carnegie offers a lot of timeless principles and diction exercises in this book to help you become a better communicator.

Unlike the book above, it’s not a book of tips and techniques, but more a book to be read religiously and text by text because there’s so much good material in it.

However, at 448 pages, it can get a little dry at times so you really need the discipline to plow through.

But the rewards for reading this will be great because Carnegie is the real father of the study of modern day public speaker.

3. The 7 Principles of Public Speaking by Richard Zeoli

Richard Zeoli, a PR professional, gives us his insight about the principles that make a good public speech. He believes that 99% people suffer from the fear of public speaking, whether in front of an audience or 1-to -1 with another person.

The 7 principles he mentions are as follows:

Perception – You need to be yourself and not try to be another person.

Perfection – Public Speaking is ultimately a mental game that can be won.

Discipline – You need to rehearse and rehearse to eliminate any mistakes.

Visualization – Think about success again and again and conquer yourself

Description – Present your speech as story, and take the listeners on a journey with you.

Inspiration – Focus on building up the audience, not yourself in your speech.

Anticipation – Learn to end your speech in such a way that people want more.

These principles are easy to understand but they are hard to master. This is a good book to review time and time again in between your speeches to evaluate how adherent you are to them.

More than Books
Other Public Speaking Education

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This list of books is only the beginning for your public speaking journey.

But really, much of it must be learnt through practice. Ultimately, no matter how much you read, you need the practical experience.

There is a difference between knowing a lot about public speaking and actually doing it well, because ultimately, public speaking is a mental game too.

On top of these books, once again I recommend you watch tapes and videos on how great communicators do it, and practice, practice, practice.

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