[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] EL Wow you seemed nervous and you were by yourself... Warning: Harsh Critism Coming Up You said [i]Um[/i] a few times. Try not to use these words; Um, like, so, because. You also paused a few times. I suggest a little joke prepared if no one wants to volunteer. Chances are no one will. Laughing is okay, it shows your not too serious and can relate to the audience. Trust me it relaxs them. My brother is a salesman and has had countless speeches when he was in college. He has taught me a few things. In fact I used to practice my speeches in my room with my knuckles in his hands and everytime I would use words like; um, so, like..etc. he would smack them with a ruler or a spoon. Your voice also changed tones. Weird. I know being in front of a crowd can be difficult. But I believe in you! You may also want to think about where your hands are gonna be and where your eyes will be focused.[/quote] I agree a lot with what EL said, I took a count of the filler words you used (um, like, and ok), and I don’t mean to sound overly critical but wanted you to know the number of times you used them. UM: 8 times. OK: 3 times. Like: 1 time. Not bad if I say so myself. As far as your voice, I didn’t hear anything wrong with it and feel that you did a good job of it. My only real suggestion are ,if you are allowed to, move around while you are giving your speech and don’t be tied to the podium. If you can walk around don’t leave any change in your pockets, due to the fact that it may cause noise and distract from what you are saying as well as not wearing anything that could cause a distraction as well i.e. a very loud shirt or something that you wouldn’t wear if you were to give the speech to an audience other than your fellow classmates. On a final note, if you have a video camera record yourself giving the speech so that you can actually see what your audience would. I hope this helps.