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2. Practice not once, not twice, but many many times
The saying “practice makes perfect” is an exaggeration as no one is perfect, but, practicing is a way to learn what timing is appropriate when you talk, when practicing you are familiarizing yourself with what you have wrote, meaning that you have to read out loud your piece once you finish it, along the way you might find yourself correcting your written speech. I advise you to practice your speech on a printed copy so you can quickly mark down changes you want to make or certain tones you want to make to emphasize your point. When you feel comfortable with your revised speech it’s time to stand up and practice delivering your speech standing up and walking around slowly incorporating gestures while doing so as well. In my opinion it’s better to practice while recording yourself with a phone or any device you have on you to monitor the time length of your speech and in that way you will be able to replay the video and pinpoint on which parts you have to fix on another practice session.
3. What if you can’t practice? You may be thinking “what do you mean I can’t practice it I have to write down a speech first right?”. Wrong. There are some speeches that require you to just pull up to the venue and they will give you a prompt that you had no prior knowledge of or simply your teacher assigns the class impromptu speaking. When that happens no matter what you do do not panic. These events usually give you at least 10 seconds to collect your thoughts and organize them. In that critical 10 seconds try imagining a tower with three levels going top to bottom. From the top think of your intro and quickly move to the second level thinking of at least two main ideas that support your intro and main point. Finally in the third level simply summarize both intro and body. You can simply think of key words for each level and expand on them as you speak. Try to be specific and do not speak too quickly when expressing your viewpoint, try to not fidget and instead gesture instead, and finally do not let yourself get lost in the moment meaning don’t let your words be astray and ramble. Instead remember to be straight to the point and expand on it but go back to it afterwards.