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.

If you take the time to become comfortable with the words you’re going to say, your speech will improve dramatically. So don’t just practice by reading your speech to yourself. Read it aloud. Read in a way that’s going to reflect how you’re going to have to say it to the audience. Consider taking these few steps in working on delivery:

Read the speech aloud to yourself at the same pace you’ll read it to the audience. Identify any lines that don’t sound correct and rewrite them. You may want to time yourself to get an idea if you’re speaking for too long.

Next, deliver the speech standing in front of a mirror, trying to address yourself as you go. Say the speech all the way through without having to back-track or pause and correct yourself. The sooner you simulate the real experience, the easier the time will be when you have to deliver the real thing.