BNET highlights 5 tips for improving public speaking from a Harvard Business Review blog entry by Dan Pallotta (who offers 8 more tips).
Dave Johnson writes (excerpt):
Know the goal of the speech. . . .
. . . Memorize your speech word for word. Because only then can you add emotion and emphasis to it. . . .
Practice your transitions. . . . [K]now exactly how to get from one main point to the next.
Don’t rely on PowerPoint as your notes. The PowerPoint slides are for your audience, not for you. . . .
Don’t speak in abstractions. . . . Put your speech in plain English, as if you were talking to actual human beings.