What Is Public Speaking?

& Why Is It Important?

If you've been asked to give a public speech, you may wonder: what is public speaking and why is public speaking important? Those questions are quite logical if you've never thought much about public speaking before.

What is public speaking

Public speaking is important in both business, education, and the public arena. There are many benefits to speaking in public whether you're an individual or a business.

In this article, we'll define public speaking for you. We'll discuss the importance of public speaking in general. We'll also cover the importance of public speaking in business. Plus, we'll share some resources to help you become a better public speaker. This includes some public speaking examples.

A Public Speaking Definition

What is public speaking? Basically, it's a presentation that's given live before an audience. Public speeches can cover a wide variety of different topics. The goal of the speech may be to educate, entertain, or influence the listeners. Often, visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow are used to supplement the speech. This makes it more interesting to the listeners.
 

A public speaking presentation is different from an online presentation. The online presentation is available any time. A public speech is typically limited to a specific time or place. Online presentations often use slideshows. Or they use pre-recorded videos of a speaker. This includes recordings of a live public speaking presentation).

Because speaking in public is done before a live audience, you need to consider some special factors. We'll touch on those shortly. Now you've got an understanding of the meaning of public speaking so let's take a quick look at the history of (and the importance of) public speaking.

A History of Public Speaking

What is the history of public speaking? And why is public speaking important?

Young woman public speaking

There's a good chance that there's been public speech, in one form or another, as long as there've been people. But most public speaking experts involved with public speaking in business communication, trace the origins of modern public speaking back to ancient Greece and Rome.

Of course, those societies didn't have slideshows to help with public speech. But they did have a need for speaking in public. As a result, they developed public speaking methods that are still studied today.
 
The ancient Greeks used public speech primarily to praise or persuade others. At one point, all Greek citizens had the right to suggest or oppose laws during their assemblies. This resulted in a need for skilled public speakers. Speaking in public became a desirable skill and was taught. Public speaking in the time of the Greeks was called rhetoric.
 
Later, when Rome came to power, speaking in public was used during the Roman senate sessions. The Romans adopted the public speaking rhetoric methods of the Greeks. In fact, most public speaking teachers of the time were Greek
 

The Latin style of public speaking was popular in the U.S. and Europe until the mid-20th century. After World War II, a less formal and more conversational speaking style of speaking became popular. Also, electronic tools became available to enhance public presentations. Towards the end of the 20th century, those electronic tools migrated to the computer. They evolved into the computer software tools. PowerPoint, is one of those tools that we know and use today.

Don't be fooled, though. Even though today's public speeches are less formal, they still need to be well organized. More on that later. Now let's take a look at the importance of public speaking.

The Importance of Public Speaking

If you ask most people, they'll probably say they don't like public speech. They may even admit to being afraid of it since fear of public speaking is a very common fear. Or they may just be shy or introverted. For those reasons, many people avoid speaking in public if they can. If you're one of those people who avoid speaking in public, you're missing out.

Over the years, public speaking in communication has played a major role in education, government, and business. Words have the power to inform, persuade, educate, and even entertain. And the spoken word can be even more powerful than the written word in the hands of the right speaker.

Whether you're a small business owner,  or a student, you'll benefit from improving your public speaking skills. Some benefits to speaking in public include:

  • improves confidence 
  • better research skills
  • stronger deductive skills
  • ability to advocate for causes
  • and more