This website talks about how to choose a good speech topic. During my speech preparation, i felt that if i am comfortable about my topic or i know my topic well, it takes care of half of my nervousness about the speech delivery. So, i think having an interesting speech topic makes speeches enjoyable for the speaker as well as for the audience.

As I am a ESL speaker and i found it a good resource for understanding the anxiety of speaking and overcoming it for ESL speakers. I learned about speak slowly and clearly, and also about word choice for the speech that i am comfortable in speaking.

A very good point discussed in this article that says "Focus on your most powerful Experience" when you feel nervous before your presentation. Thinking about positive experiences helps to divert our mind from fear of speaking.

This article talks about the correct posture, smile, pitch of sound, eye contact, and long pauses as the five main points to consider for speaking with confidence. I like the idea of long pauses to minimize the fillers like "uh...,and...". This was my big problem during my speeches. I practiced my speeches with optimum pauses and it worked well for my last speech.

I liked the five points mentioned here to overcome the fear of public speaking, especially the idea of "You Don't Have to be Perfect." I have experienced during my speech preparation that aiming for the perfect speech leads to procrastination in work and further increase in the anxiety level. So, presenting the content of the speech with passion is the good strategy for making positive impression on your audience.

I liked the points outlined on this website because we have already discussed some of this ideas during the class discussion. Also, I feel like i performed little better in my last two speeches when i worked on the points like "Expect to be nervous," "Breathe," "Connect with your audience," and "Act confident."