"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"
             "Practice, practice, practice!"
             This old joke is also a good, short answer as to how to give an effective oral presentation. Proper preparation and practice are essential, even though the speech should look spontaneous to the audience. First of all, a good speaker should know his or her audience. Is the audience young or old? Are most of the audience members well-informed about the topic or is the audience composed of a group of novices? Even the size of the audience and the place where the speech must be given will affect the level of formality and the type of gestures and visual aids the speaker will use. It is also essential to tailor the subject of the speech to the audience. Even if the audience is hostile or possibly uninterested in the subject, it is all the more necessary to use humor and stress aspects of the topic that the audience might find interesting or personally relevant.
             The purpose of the speech is also important to consider. Is it a persuasive speech or an informative speech? Or is it for entertainment, to warm the heart like a toast at a wedding? This will affect the speaker's tone and the presentation of the material. Regardless, the speech should be organized. Instead of speaking from a written text, the speaker should have a general outline of important points, beginning with a joke or hook like a startling statistic to gain the audience's attention and win the audience's respect. To be able to use a speech outline, it is important to do research beforehand, so that the speaker feels comfortable with the material. Even if facts and statistics are written on the page, the speech should never feel like the speaker is reading from a textbook.
             Ideally, the speech should have some striking and memorable visual aids to highlight key points, or, in a shorter speech, at least use effective gestures and vocal inflections to make th...