How to become a good public speaker?

I've done a lot of public speaking and i love it. So for me, the best things I've found is to: Keep Eye Contact. Don't just read off your cuecards. Your cuecards are really supposed to just be prompts. Look around at your audience. If you find that you can't, pick a point just above their heads and focus on that. Just move your eyes around to different points of the room so it isn't as obvious. Practice in front of family or friends to help get your confidence up. Plan out what you are going to say as early as you can & rehearse it. Body language is key: If you pace - keep it to a minimum - it can sometimes be distracting and the audience will be paying more attention to you loping like a gazelle instead of what you are saying. Fake confidence - Keep your arms uncrossed and body language open. Stand with one foot slightly out. It always works. You look confident, it's a stance that screams confidence so people pay attention. Vary your tone. Don't sound monotonous. It can be boring. Emphasize some parts, soften for others. You'll figure out at what points in your speech to do this. Be engaging. Interesting but cater your professionalism to your audience. Know when to be casual and when to be formal. Don't forget to breathe! Smile every now and then. It can relax you and also your audience. Visualise the types of people who make you feel comfortable. There is always someone sitting in your audience who smiles or nods their head and looks interested in what you are saying. Even if they are just being nice. If you find yourself getting nervous. Keep going back to them. Or, pretend there is someone in the audience that is like that. Dress the part. 90% is how you look 10% is what you say. How you look also sends a message your audience. It's important to remember that. That's it really. The rest just comes with practice. Good luck!

Practice is essential as well as preparation because it is the key to your success public speaking.. Write first your speech., think deeply with it. read your speech and time it. you must rehearse everything in your speech in a place where there is a mirror so that you could view yourself how you talk and etc. In here, you will be aware of your posture, facial expression, mannerisms as you speak and lots of more. Just have confidence with in yourself so that everything will turn allright =) Godbless!

I have the opposite problem - I go on and on without any trouble at all. And end up feeling embarrassed at how much I've babbled. Three things I've picked up along the way (totally non-professional advice) are: 1. Planning. Make sure you have cue-cards with each major point. You don't have to write the whole thing out (unless it's a political/legal speech which will be recorded and the terms you use analysed - then you need to be very careful what you say). 2. Pacing. Nervousness can be overcome (or ameliorated) by pacing. Talk slower than you would normally, as if to the beat of a song that makes you feel good. It works for people who stutter, as well. If I'm not mistaken, this was part of the method used to sort out King Bertie's speech problem ("The King's Speech"), but I've also seen it used for people with very bad impediments (on documentaries) and it works well. 3. Talk to one person. Pick out a person in the crowd who looks interested and direct the majority of your words to them. Not everything - don't stare at them. Look around at other people, of course, but direct what you say to one of them. Change the target every cue card or every 30 seconds or so (or you might look a bit too intense). This helps you cut down the number of scary people you see gawping at you, hanging on your every word... Hope they help (and work for you).