Organizing a Speech
Any form of communication can be organized to become more effective. Let’s look at the best way to organize a speech. There are 5 main parts to a speech.
1. Opening
· An opening is a short statement at the start of your speech. It can be a short statement, question, fact, quotation, joke, story, personal experience, statistic, news issue and so on. Can you think of anything else you can use as an opening?
· The main objective of your opening is to set the tone for your speech and create a good first impression with your audience.
· It is important because the start and end of your speech is when your audience is naturally paying the most attention (this is also true of students - they pay the most attention at the start and at the end of class). A good speaker should take advantage of this. Don't waste your opening saying things that are irrelevant or unoriginal.
· Ensure it is relevant to your speech - don't talk about the weather if it has nothing to do with your speech!
2. Outline
· An outline is a short and quick list of the things you will be talking about in your speech - like the a list of contents at the start of a book.
· The objective is to give your audience a quick preview of your speech. This will help the audience maintain attention and remember the contents of your speech
· It is important to give your audience a quick preview of your speech. A speech, unlike written or recorded media, cannot be paused or re-played. If a listener missed something, it is gone forever and they will not understand the rest of the speech. Therefore, it is important to give them a preview, to create expectation of what is to follow (this is also why you give a summary at the end of the speech).
· Don’t explain the ideas on your speech, just state them. This part should only take 20 seconds.
3. Content
· This is the main part of your speech. This is where you explain your ideas in detail.
· Be sure to explain your ideas according to the order you presented them in the Outline (part 2 of the speech structure) else your audience will become confused!
· Each idea in this part should be organized in the structure of an idea
· Name - this is a short name to help your audience understand and remember your idea
· Explanation - logically explain your idea.
· Evidence - give proof that supports your idea. Logical explanation is great people it helps people understand, but logic cannot be seen or felt and therefore feels less "real". People need evidence in order to truly believe your ideas.
4. Summary
· This is a repetition of the names of all the ideas and emphasis of the major ideas in your speech. Often it will sound exactly the same as your Outline.
· This reminds the audience about the main ideas of your speech and ensures that they didn’t forget anything. It makes your ideas stronger!
· A good summary can save a messy speech, so even if you feel your speech is going badly, don’t forget to do a summary. Remember, your audience will often lose their focus in the middle of your speech, but they will always remember the ending.
5. Closing
· This is very similar to the opening - anything that can be used in the opening can be used in the closing.
· This is the last impression you will leave on your audience - if you end your speech in a weak, soft and shameful way, the message you are sending your audience is that you are not proud of your speech. But if you are not proud of your speech, then your audience will also not be. You must be proud of yourself before other people are!
· Also remember that the attention of the audience on your speech at this point is very high.
· A simple but effective way to end your speech is to repeat the same thing you used in the opening of your speech or repeat the topic and your position.
In Summary, your Speech Will Look Like This
Opening
Outline
1st Idea
2nd Idea
3nd Idea
Summary
Closing
Additional Explanation on Why Structure is Important
The objectives of speech organization are:
ü to make it easier for your audience to understand and follow your speech
ü to use your time in the most efficient way
To make it easier to understand and follow your speech...
The speeches you make in a debate or any other kind of persuasive environment is usually full of complex ideas (just like a speech for a company presentation or during an interview). Therefore it is important to be able to easily take notes and understand your speech.
The solution is to plan and present your speech in the most logical manner and in the way you would like your audience to take down their notes. One thing that helps is to clearly tell your audience how your speech is organized. This is called presenting your speech “outline”.
So for example, tell your audience at the beginning of your speech what the speech is about and what are the ideas in it. For example:
“This speech is about why the best way to manage our debt is to privatize...”
“In my speech, I will tell you 3 reasons why we should privatize. Firstly, ....., secondly...., and thirdly....”
Telling your audience what you are going to do creates expectation among your audience. When you get to what you have outlined, you fulfill that expectation. At the end of your speech, you summarize and remind your audience what you told them. This cycle – create expectation, fulfill expectation, remind audience – helps your audience remember the main points of your speech and makes the speech very clear and easy to follow.
Outlines and Summaries are a lot like the table of contents and summaries of a book – the beginning of the book lists all the chapters in the book, then there are the chapters, then there is a summary at the end of the book. The table of contents and the summary help explain to readers what is in the book. Often, before deciding to buy a book, readers will look a the table of contents and the summary. The is same with your speech – audiences decide at the start of your speech if it’s going to be interesting and at the end of your speech if it was interesting. So make your Openings and Closing, and Outlines and Summaries as interesting as you can!
To make the best use of your time...
In any speaking situation, you will always have a limited time to speak. Also, audiences often have expectations of speaking time and limited attention capacities which you have to meet. If you speak for too long, you will bore your audience, but if you speak to too short, they will feel something is missing. A good speaker must know how to measure and balance his speech.
The most important thing is balancing all the things you need to do in your speech. In order to do that, you must
· KNOW all the things you must do in your speech. What are the important things that must be said in this speech? Do you have enough things to talk about for the amount of time you have?
· PLAN well and stick to your plan. What do you want to talk about first, second and third? Which is most important?
· JUDGE when your audience has understood or have been persuaded enough. Does is seem like my audience is confused? Or do they agree with me? Do I have to explain more about this idea?
Let’s Practice
Topics
1. We should not eat meat
2. We should give people the right to have euthanasia
3. We believe university education should be free
4. We will ban anonymous users on the internet
1. For the topics above, find 5 different ways you can start the speech (opening) and end the speech (closing)
2. Imagine you are speaking for the 4th topic. What openings and closings can you use if your audience are
1. Children?
2. University Students?
3. Mothers?
4. Politicians?