How to Write a Speech

[Rasputin]

As you hang up the telephone, the icy fingertips of panic grip your stomach; your heart races. Your most recent project was delivered on time, within budget, and is approaching payback one year ahead of schedule. As a result, your industry association wants you to address their annual convention. Relax! They believe you have something to offer. Here are ten steps to ease your palpitations.

Steps

Remember that all great speeches, and even some good ones, require shape. The old saw is hard to beat: "Tell them what you will tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them."

"Shake hands with the audience." You have something worthy of being said. Former Ambassador Robert Strauss used to begin his addresses like this: "Before I begin this speech, I have something to say." This passage was always composed in a style that enabled him to reclaim a powerful tone for the instructive portion of his remarks. Put on your smile; calm your nerves, then get to work.

Rise to the occasion. In other words, feel passionately about your topic. Recall old Uncle Ned's tear jerking toast at the wedding? Even ordinary folks can deliver great moments of oratory if they rise to the occasion.

Build clear and sensible transitions (segues) from one thought to the next. The biggest mistake speakers and writers make is to assume people will follow their leaps of logic. Spell out to the audience when you are taking a turn in your thoughts with phrases like: "As an example of this" or "This brings us to the larger problem of," and so forth.

Focus. A "great" speech does not need to start out great and stay great to the finish. It engages the listeners. It makes allowances for a dip in interest in the middle. Then, it gathers anticipation for its key moment. John Stuart Mill, the political economist, defined the orator's art this way: "Everything important to his purpose was said at the exact moment when he had brought the minds of his audience into the state most fitted to receive it."

Add purpose. A speech should be made for a good reason. To inspire, to instruct, to rally, and to lead are noble purposes. To sound off, to feed a speaker's ego, to flatter, or to intimidate or not.

Know your theme. If you cannot answer the question "what do you want to say?" in a single, declarative sentence, do yourself and the audience a favor: decline the invitation.

Write with one particular person in mind, someone you actually know. This helps you to keep the message real and personable. (I always imagine I'm talking to my neighbor lady, a no-nonsense person.) This helps you anticipate reactions and keep your language down to earth.

Deliver the goods. Delivery is the essence of eloquence. It requires practice, discipline, drill, and timing. You can be your own trainer. As you develop self-confidence, you put the audience at ease, or make them sit up. Your eye is in contact with the people, not the page. Your professional passion is contagious.

Give your audience a sense of completion. Bring them back to the beginning, but with a louder spirit. This can be done by starting the last paragraph with a quiet, declarative sentence; it should build in a series of semicolons; it should employ the puissance of parallelism; it should reach to the farthest rafter and reverberate with the action and passion of our time, and, forgetting all else, it should connect with, no, grab each listener by his or her lapels and shout to their hearts and souls to say, "This is the end of the best speech you will ever have the good fortune to experience!"

[Rasputin]

Tips

You may experience instant, sustained applause punctuated by the occasional "Bravo" and the ever-present pundit punk who wrinkles his brow and wonders aloud, "But what was really said?"

Each person in the audience experiences your speech as an individual. Speak to them as individuals, by using words like "you" and "your" instead of "all of you" or "everybody here"; it is more direct and compelling, and will engage each member of your audience, whether it be five or five thousand.

Focus your attention on one individual at a time, just as you would in normal, everyday conversation. This will help to relax you, and mitigate the fear of speaking to very large crowds. Shift your focus around the room, to different sections of your audience. By including every area, even when you might not be able see them individually, each person will feel as if you are speaking directly to them, not at them.

Consider your audience's frame of reference. A simple way to do it is to think about: Who's in the audience? Why are they here? And after hearing your speech what's the first thing you would like them to do or say to someone else perhaps?

Don't read your speech. Speak it from memory. You may miss a couple minor points (and even a major one), but if you can't remember it long enough to say it, why would anyone else remember long enough to act on it?

You can fight off stage fright and fear of failure by knowing your subject. Having a commanding knowledge of your topic will show in you, just like not knowing your topic will show-even more so.

[Parinaz_M]

redwine joon tiphaye khobi bood,
but i just hate writting a speech and i hate giving a speech
last term speech class dashtam, har dafe mikhastam speech bedam sooratam mesle laboo sorkh mishod, i don't why b/c i am not a shy person.

dafe dige ke khastam speech benevisam hatman az tipaye ke dadi estefade mikonam