To give a speech without rehearsing it, is to miss out on a vital step that can immediately make our delivery more effective.
Delivering our speech out loud by ourself will help us:
1. understand and improve our timing – we may need to cut back or add material,
2. allows us to try out phrases and wording that may or may not sound right (especially if we are not reading it verbatim),
3. allows us to memorize the main ideas and connect these ideas with natural sounding speech, and
4. work on the dynamics of voice, body, and emotion.
Delivering our speech to a friend or family member affords us immediate feedback to tweak our speech to make it better,
I have often given my speeches to my son and/or entire family for feedback and I always came away with a stronger speech and helpful ideas.
Why would we give our speeches cold turkey with no practice when we can usually find a warm body to be a sounding board for us?
Can’t find anyone? Record yourself on video and then watch your recording to look for improvements.
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!