How to deliver a speech well

A good speech badly delivered fails, and a simple speech well delivered is remembered. Delivery is not acting. It is making it easy for people to hear you, follow you and believe you. These are the habits that do it.

Pace: slower than you think

Most people speak at about 150 words a minute in conversation. On a stage, aim lower, around 120 to 130. The listeners need time, and a large room needs time. If you finish your practice run much faster than planned, you are rushing. Our speech timer shows how long a draft should take at a calm pace.

The pause: your best tool

Silence is part of speaking. Pause after your greeting, before an important line, after a question, and between points. A pause gives the audience time to take in what you said and gives you time to breathe. New speakers fill silences with "umm", "so" and "basically". Replace each of them with a short, quiet pause, and you will at once sound more sure of yourself.

Volume and tone

• Speak to the last row. If they can hear you, everyone can.
• Do not shout into a microphone; let it do the work.
• Change your tone with the content: brighter for a happy memory, slower and lower for a serious point. A speech on one note, however loud, puts people to sleep.
• Stress the key word of a sentence: "Freedom is not only a gift. It is also a duty."

Eyes

Look at people, not at the ceiling, the floor or the paper. Hold one person's eyes for a full sentence, then move to another part of the hall. In a big hall, divide it into left, centre and right and give each its share. If direct eye contact unsettles you, look at foreheads; from the audience it looks the same.

Hands and feet

• Stand straight with your weight on both feet. Do not sway, pace or lean on the lectern.
• Let your hands move naturally to support a point: a count on the fingers for "three things", an open palm for a welcome.
• Avoid the nervous habits: pockets, pen clicking, touching the hair, gripping the microphone stand.
• When your hands have nothing to do, rest them lightly together at waist height or hold your note card.

Notes, not a script

Reading a full script word by word keeps your eyes down and your voice flat. Learning it by heart is risky: one lost word and the chain breaks. The middle way is a note card.

1. Write your full speech and practise it a few times.
2. Reduce each paragraph to a key phrase of three or four words.
3. Write these on one card in large letters, numbered.
4. Write the first and last sentences in full; those you should know by heart.
5. Practise from the card until a glance is enough.

For formal occasions where exact words matter, such as a citation or a list of names, reading is correct. Print in large type with wide spacing, and look up at the end of each sentence.

Using a microphone

• Test it before the programme, not when you begin. Never tap it or blow into it; say a few words instead.
• Hold a hand microphone about a fist's width from your mouth, pointing at your chin.
• If you turn your head, move the microphone with it.
• With a fixed microphone on a stand, adjust the height before you start, and do not wander away from it.

The first and last ten seconds

Walk up calmly, stand still, look at the audience and smile before your first word. At the end, say your last line, pause, say "Thank you", and wait for a second before you walk away. Do not rush off while still speaking. People remember how you arrived and how you left.

Practise like this

1. Three times aloud, standing, with a timer.
2. Once in front of a mirror, watching your face and hands.
3. Once recorded on a phone; listen for speed and for "umm".
4. Once in front of a person who will tell you the truth.

Nervous before the day? Read how to overcome stage fear.