Good speech writing is an art. It’s not just knowing what to say but knowing how to say it and present it. Your speech could be the difference between an audience buying into your vision or walking away uninspired.
Writing a speech can be a daunting task. There are multiple ways to start, whether you start with the overall theme or the specific points. But from here you need to come up with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. In between, you may have to take a few detours to support your arguments.
In the end, you need to make sure that you are looking at it from your audience’s perspective. Here we take a closer look at how to write a great speech.
How to Write a Great Speech
Public speaking is a skill that every professional has to develop at some point in their career. The first step to public speaking is writing a speech. A great speech can change your life and impact the audience, but writing a speech that people remember can be a difficult task.
Most of us can write a decent essay or article, but when the task is to present our ideas in a speech to a live audience, many of us struggle. You can overcome this if you know the right way.
In an ideal situation, any speech should have its purpose clearly defined. However, we all know it’s not always the case. Therefore, it can be really tricky to write a great speech.
Getting Started With Speech Writing
Speech writing is somewhat different from writing articles or other types of copywriting. The primary difference is that speech writing is not meant to be read, so it must be read aloud in order to determine if it flows well and makes sense.
In addition to writing a speech, you’ll also need to consider its delivery. Don’t write something that’s impossible to say or read aloud. If you’ll be using visual aids, ensure that they are appropriate to the speech and are easy to find when you need them. If the audience will have access to copies of a speech, be sure to make your presentation easy to copy.
How to Research and Plan
The first step in preparing for a speech is to do the research on what you’re going to talk about. Create a list of points you want to include and consider creating many different versions of your speech. Next, begin to organize the information you found into a logical sequence. The speech should have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
It is best to start research two or three weeks before you have to give the speech. Therefore, you can be prepared for the overall flow of the speech. You can also start collecting information from a variety of sources. This will give you enough information and ideas to incorporate into your speech.
Writing a Great Introduction
The introduction is the most important part of your speech. It first of all catches the attention of your audience. It should be able to make the audience curious about your speech.
The introduction of the speech should be able to tell the audience the basic idea but you have to do it in such a way that it doesn’t appear as if you are just giving out the conclusion of your speech.
The key is to leverage your audience’s emotions. What’s their biggest problem? How can you connect to them? How can you grab their attention and make your content relevant to them? Finding the answers to these questions will dramatically improve your introduction.
Writing a Great Conclusion
A conclusion should summarize the main idea of your speech and outline the action that the audience needs to take. A conclusion should be brief, and it’s important not to add new information or new arguments at the end.
You should either explain why the audience should take the action as suggested or why the audience should not take the action as suggested.
A conclusion is the final part of a speech that ties all the ideas together. It is often overlooked, but the conclusion has a huge impact on the audience’s perception of the speaker and their speech. Therefore, if you want to leave a great impression, you should definitely pay attention to your conclusion.
FAQs
How long should a speech be?
Long enough to get your idea across, but short enough to hold your audience’s interest. The true answer will depend on what type of speech it is and the audience.
If you have an allocated time to speak, remember that you don’t need to fill up that whole slot. Cut out any filler and have a streamlined speech that will keep your audience’s interest throughout.
Is it important to use humor in a speech?
It is important to use humor in a speech because it makes people more attentive, it creates a relaxed environment and it makes people feel comfortable. It is important to strike a balance between informative, comical, and memorable when you use humor in a speech.
You can entertain the audience by inserting a few jokes and then move on to your topic with minimum interruption. It is not always necessary to use humor in a speech but it is a good idea to sprinkle a few jokes and funny lines in your message just to keep the audience involved.
What’s the best way to organize a speech?
The most common way of organizing a speech is by grouping your main points under a general theme. The theme would be the one that you want to convey in your speech. Once you have chosen a theme, you would have to choose the points that you want to make in support of that theme.
These points can either be direct or supporting in nature. The supporting points would provide credibility to the speech. Some people would also use stage notes to organize their speeches. This is essentially a summary of the major points that you want to make.
Final Thoughts
When writing your speech, it’s important to include engaging and interesting stories, anecdotes, and humor to captivate your audience. It’s also important to have a clear, concise introduction and conclusion.
The introduction should grab the audience’s attention and the conclusion should leave them with a lasting impression. Using personal stories and anecdotes can help accomplish this. Good luck with your speech!