Q&A for How to Memorize a Speech in One Night

To memorize a speech, map out the major points you want to make, then practice your speech. You could practice in front of a mirror or record yourself and watch it back, but to get the experience of delivering your speech to an audience, it's a good idea to rehearse your speech in front of a friend.

Pause if you need to, and repeat the sentence or from wherever feels comfortable. Don't make weird noises with your mouth, raise your eyebrows or give any other indication you have stuffed up. If you don't react, neither will your audience.

Just remember, if you trip up, you trip up. If you act confident and cool about it, no one will know you're nervous. Its all up to you. Take it one step at a time. Take it line by line. Dig deeper into the character, or yourself, for a speech, to find the next line and it will come naturally.

Just continue to relay your speech. Try to not be distracted by your mistake.

Yes. As long as it is good, don't be cheesy or give an old, not-funny joke. Test the joke on family, friends, anyone within earshot. Don't wait too long for the laugh, or too short.

Remember the audience is not out to get you. Slow down, take deep breaths, and if you feel like you're about to faint, wiggle your toes and bend your knees a little (don't lock your knees). If your hands start shaking, it's adrenaline, which is created by your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), so just hold your hands together.

Try a few different methods until one feels best for you, like making flashcards, listening to the speech or writing it out.

Just take it one sentence at a time, spell each one out phonetically to help you with pronunciation. Make sure you have each sentence down before moving on, then start putting all the sentences together.

Write out your speech and time it while you are saying it so you can make the speech longer or shorter if you need to. Then just practice it over and over. Once you've established a normal rhythm of performing your speech, it should last almost exactly the same amount of time each time you do it.

It depends on amount of time you have and how well you are able to memorize. Make the most of the time you have by splitting the speech into several segments. Focus on memorizing those individual segments, then piece them together. Practice as much as you can without psyching yourself out.

You can rehearse your monologue in front of a friend and ask them to critique your performance.

Both should help you remember, although drawing it won't help you to learn how to pronounce words or how you should transition, or even what tone you should use when speaking. Don't just rely on a visual scheme alone; try to speak it as well. If you practice both methods, you should be set to go.

Take what advice you can from them to improve your next speech, and disregard the rest.

Read it through as many times as you can to get it in your head. Next time, try not to do it so last minute!

Try looking up the words online or in a dictionary to get the correct pronunciation.

Practice it as much as possible and recite it to your friends and family. Make sure that you go to every one of your rehearsals.

Yes, of course. Just keep practicing and the nervousness will get better.

Try looking just above your audience's heads instead of making eye contact.

You can tell a couple or jokes and/or try to relate the subject of your speech to your audience's daily lives. Make sure to use everyday language that your audience will understand.

If you know the language well enough, you can still do it this same way. If you do not know it well, write the speech out phonetically in a way that you can understand, and then go about memorizing it.

You could use flash cards and use the above tips to learn. Just believe in yourself and focus on the task at hand.

Try checking out synonyms for that particular word.

It's actually very easy, and you would take the same approach as memorizing a speech. All you've got to do is read the story and understand it, so then you can narrate the story in your own words.

You can either record your voice and submit it to YouTube and download 'listenonrepeat.' You can loop your video without ads, or you can simply record yourself and download it onto your phone to listen to it on your phone's provided music player on loop. (You can probably loop the track.)

The same techniques can be used in any language.

Take a few slow, deep breaths. Remind yourself that you have important things to say that are worth hearing, and project that confidence to your audience.

Try making flashcards and go over them that night and the morning before. Visual aids are really helpful when it comes to memorizing something like this.

Yes, most of these methods should help if you are giving a speech in a different language. I used it for Spanish class.

Drink some water before presenting. Cold water helps you to focus and keeps your body a bit more cooler. Try to relax and just think of the fact the presentation soon will be over.

Whatever language the speech is in, all the above points are applicable to it.