Speak Up! 10 Tips on How to Improve Your Speaking Skills

You know that feeling before a presentation or an interview, where you’re just sitting there with sweaty palms, a racing heart, and nervous tics? All you can do is wait in silence as you listen to your own heartbeat and start imagining all the ways you could mess up in the future. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that feeling ever fully goes away. But you can learn to cope with the dread and ensure a strong performance with enough practice. So, here are 10 tips on how to improve your speaking skills.

Tip #1: Relax a little (Easy, right?)

This tip can sound counterintuitive, like asking someone to be happy when they are sad. Still, it definitely helps alleviate the pre-presentation nervous breakdown that I’m sure many have experienced. Just ask yourself this simple question: Why am I nervous? You have spent hours creating your presentation and even longer practicing it; so why the fear? The truth is, there is nothing to fear. Most of the stage fright we experience before a presentation is irrational and self‑induced. You just have to let that irrational fear go and focus on the audience. So take a deep breath and relax.

Tip #2: You failed. So what?

In that short moment of stage fright before a presentation, most people will keep imagining scenarios where they fail. They might imagine themselves mispronouncing a word, repeating the same line twice, or blanking on an important slide. But if we are going to imagine that far, let's imagine what would happen after the failure. Let’s say you mispronounced a word in your presentation. All that would happen is that you would slow down, compose yourself, pronounce the word properly, and then continue with your presentation. See? The consequences are minimal. If you are going to spend so much time imagining how you fail, you might as well imagine how you will move past that failure.

Tip #3: Body Language

Body language is a vital part of communication in general. It allows you to emphasize points and draw people’s attention without requiring too much effort. So when speaking, you should definitely try to incorporate body language! Use your arms and fingers to emphasize the information you are already saying, and make sure to point to graphs and walk the audience through your explanation with your body language.

Tip #4: Don’t Stand Still (Only applicable in certain scenarios)

If your presentation allows you to move around on a stage, you should make full use of that opportunity. Navigate the space given to you and try to engage as many audience members as possible. Motion will make your presentation more animated and interesting. But make sure not to overdo your oscillation around the stage. Your movement should be timed with either key information in your presentation or a natural transition.

Image Courtesy of New Horizon Educational Institution

Tip #5: Use a Strong Voice

This tip might be the most common of them all, but that only reinforces how important it is. When listening to a speaker, the audience will not want to listen to a meek‑voiced presentation because it shows that the speaker is not confident in themselves. Now, confidence is a whole other issue, but you can at least create a sense of confidence by using a strong voice. So speak loudly and clearly. Also, make sure to emphasize words like “important” or “greatest” when speaking so the audience can feel the impact of your statement.

Tip #6: Focus on One Audience Member

When giving a presentation to a large crowd, it can be difficult to understand which section to focus on. But instead of letting your eyes roam the audience, focus on a single audience member who’s not too far away but also not too close. Directing your attention to one person will let you gauge what everyone else is thinking of your presentation. It will also allow you to speak earnestly and powerfully. But make sure not to stare at this person for too long (that’s creepy). Move your gaze around and find someone else after a while so you can repeat the process.

Tip #7: Use Humor

No one wants to listen to a boring presentation. Unless you are forced by guidelines to create a humorless presentation, definitely add a joke or two. Humor is a powerful and commonly used rhetorical device that not only strengthens the connection between the speaker and the audience but also adds color to a dreary presentation. Let’s say you are making a presentation about the state of pumpkin sales in Fall 2025. That’s not exactly the most traditionally interesting topic, but you still have to make your audience absorb your information. So what do you do? As Cornell University English professor Paul McHenry Roberts wrote, “Can you be expected to make a dull subject interesting? As a matter of fact, this is precisely what you are expected to do. This is the writer's essential task.” And one of the best ways to make your audience care about your presentation is to sprinkle in some humor.

Image Courtesy of The Emotion Machine

Tip #8: Don’t Memorize (Value of this tip is subjective)

When I say not to memorize a presentation, I mean that you shouldn’t restrict yourself to a script. For example, you are giving a Google Slides presentation with eight different slides and talking points. Don’t memorize a script on what to say; memorize the talking points and the slides they appear on. If you are knowledgeable enough about your topic and can articulate your points clearly, you won’t need a script. Of course, you still need to understand the order of your talking points and the information you have to cover, but you will only need a guideline. Scripts make you sound inauthentic and monotone, but being able to speak freely without a script can show both audiences and yourself that you understand your material well.

However, this is not an easy skill to develop, and some people might be uncomfortable with the idea. So this tip is subjective. Try it out the next time you have a presentation and see if it helps you.

Tip #9: Have Fun (Wait! It sounds cringey, but I promise it makes sense)

Have fun with your presentation, especially if it’s with a larger audience. Presenting and public speaking in general is kind of like a thrill ride. You get to do something exciting, and while it is scary before you do it, the relief and satisfaction you feel afterward is incredible. When you’ve calmed down after your presentation, you’ll be able to marvel at what you just did.

Tip #10: Learning Curve

One important thing to understand about public speaking—or any skill in general—is that it takes time to improve. But if you practice diligently and continuously, you can and will get better. Thank you for reading, and I hope these tips are helpful in any way.