When faced with having to make a speech and you have little or no experience of speaking in public, it is inevitable that you will want to pick up as many tips on speech building and presentation as you can. In fact, if you could only discover those hints and tips that were able to convey some sort of 'magic furmula' you would be overjoyed!

Real life, however, is generally somewhat different.

No matter how much effort might go into preparing your speech, three common but mistaken assumptions are likely to creep in, making your task all the more difficult.

Assumption No.1:

That all audiences are hostile towards speakers and that in order for your speech to be successful, you will need to win their approval.

In fact, quite the opposite is frequently the case. Consider this:- your audience actually wants you to make a great speech! Our human nature is such that our natural empathy with another person means that we will feel that person's embarrassment and discomfort when we see it. If you are experiencing nervousness or unease on stage, then your audience will be sharing in that experience too.

No audience wants to feel bad on your behalf, so instead of being hostile towards you, they are actually willing you to make a really good and confident speech.

Assumption No.2:

That one of the main tips on public speaking is that you need to include a number of jokes or anecdotes in every speech you make.

Wrong - although you will find this assertion high up on nearly every list of public speaking tips you might come across. A successful speech really does not depend on the inclusion of jokes and anecdotes.

After all, not everyone feels comfortable telling jokes and stories and most of us have the greatest difficulty in even remembering a punchline, let alone be able to deliver it with perfect timing! Why then, should you be required to make delivering your speech even more stressful than it already is by having to shoehorn in jokes just because some tips list says you should?

Assumption No.3:

That you must posess expert knowledge on the topic you are speaking about or your audience will discover your deception and boo you off the stage

Again, this is an extremely common assumption and way off the mark. In reality, you aren't required to hold expert status for your topic in order to deliver a confident and informative speech.

What you do need to know, however, is how to go about researching your topic in order to discover the best and most relevant material to deliver to your audience. If you can get this right - and it is just a matter of learning the correct research technique - you will be able to put together a speech on any topic, for any audience easily and successfully, time after time.

So, before you start your search for a list of 'magic' tips on public speaking to set you on your way, rid yourself of these three, completely misleading speech-making assumptions.

Keep in mind that your audience isn't automatically hostile towards you - they are willing you to do well and deliver the best and most satisfying speech they have heard in a long while. After all, they want to leave the auditorium feeling good about themselves - not bad.

Secondly, that there is no absolute requirement that you need to include jokes and stories in your speech. Unless you really do feel at ease telling anecdotes and can deliver punchlines faultlessly, don't put yourself under extra stress trying to be a comedian as well as a speech-maker.

And finally, don't become despondent believing that you need to be an expert on the subject you are to speak about. Your sole duty is to make your speech well and confidently. If you do this, your audience will naturally accept that you know your subject well. You can achieve this by thoroughly preparing and executing your research before actually writing your speech - a much more achievable task than attaining true, expert status, wouldn't you agree?

So, when searching for tips on public speaking, look first to rid yourself of these three, common misconceptions and you will have already gone a long way towards your goal of delivering a successful, confident and satisfying speech for your audience.