On the other hand, you know a weak speaker when you see one. They tend to speak without any  emotion. Worse, they may mumble or read the speech from the page in its entirety without ever making eye contact with the audience. This is almost as painful for the audience as it apparently is for the speaker. This is where delivery makes a big difference in the success of your speech.

One key issue is how much material you should memorize for your speech. Let’s make this clear off the top - don’t stress yourself out with trying to memorize a speech completely.  Some people like to have the speech in front of them in its entirety while others prefer to work from cue cards containing the essential points of their speech. If you can speak off-the-cuff, congratulations. That’s an impressive talent, but few people have the ability.  If not go with the cue cards or have entire text infront of you to increase your comfort level.