You need to know your subject well to talk about it confidently. Although you should not pack too much material into a short speech, you need to speak knowledgeably to engage your audience. In preparing your speech, do some research to gather evidence—facts, statistics, visuals, expert testimony—to support your points. The more you know about your subject, the more comfortable you’ll be in speaking about it. You will show that you are both knowledgeable and logical in your thinking (in other words, you will establish your ethos).

In addition to being knowledgeable, preparing a speech involves planning how you will organize your presentation. What visuals you will use, and how you will remember what you intend to say?

The key planning activities are these: