What type of Public Speaker are you?

Most of us are lucky to be blessed with the power of speech. It is probably the most important and the most engaging tool for communication. Many of us are fond of speaking and indulging in conversations in general, and love to refer to ourselves as people’s person. But this ability is actually put to test when one has to perform the daunting task of public speaking.

Public speaking is employing this power of speech to speak confidently before large crowds to have an impact on them. To facilitate this effectiveness the speech produced during public speaking must be structured to have a continuous flow for it to be interesting and comprehensive to the type of audience.

Let us now talk about the types of public speakers. The different types can be categorized on grounds such as occasion and purpose. The general categorization is usually as the following four types of public speakers:

Rhetoric Speaker ‘The Persuader’

This is the most popular type of speaker, one that indulges in persuasive speaking. This kind of speaking can be witnessed across all fields and is especially specific to marketing. It is intended to influence people’s opinions and notions. Thus the speech delivery is much more than a monologue; it is rather a conversation and hence requires the speaker to possess the knack of keeping the audience interested and putting them at ease to be participative during his speech. Advertising companies, political and religious leaders fall under this category; using experience and life events to create a leveled ground and stir the audience’s emotions is their specialty!

Informative Speaker ‘The Illuminati’

This one’s simple, here the speaker is as though a genius in the concerned sphere. It refers to a speaker whose motive is to give useful information over a topic, some product or services that he has thorough knowledge of; backed up with facts and statistics. Here the motive is to bring about awareness rather than convincing the audience.

Demonstrative Speaker ‘The tutor’

The speaker here aims at explaining or teaching something substantial to the audience through practical demonstration. These include speakers at educative seminars and workshops, where verbal speeches and presentations (e.g. PowerPoint Presentations) may be used.

Ceremonial Speaker ‘The Sage’

He is at times referred to as a sage since he speaks the best things about the person and the occasion during the ceremony. A priest delivering a sermon and the best man making a wedding toast are fine examples of ceremonial speakers.

A good speaker however does more than one type of public speaking in his life. It is therefore difficult to classify the best speakers to belong to one specific category.