Mostly good guidelines, although I disagree with this one: > Will you be reading a prepared, written copy of the speech? I feel that when a speaker reads thei

Mostly good guidelines, although I disagree with this one: > Will you be reading a prepared, written copy of the speech? I feel that when a speaker reads their speech word-for-word, especially if they are visibly reading, then it takes away from their ability to communicate. People like to make eye contact, and feel like a speaker is talking to them--when a speaker is reading, it has a distancing effect. Better to write the speech out (either word-for-word or in bullet form), learn it deeply, and then say it without looking at the text. This lets you phrase things in a natural way in the moment, to make eye contact, to adjust the rhythms of speech to make the communication more effective.