How to Write a Good Speech?
If you have a hard time trying to understand how to write a good speech, then this article will be very helpful for you. The experienced and proficient academic writers have created a simple guide that includes all the important stages of writing a speech. So, let's get started!
If it is your first speech, be ready that the writing process will take much time and effort. Undoubtedly, having no sufficient experience, you will find it pretty difficult to understand what should be done. However, we assure you that following our helpful suggestions, you will polish your speech writing skills and will obtain the knowledge that will help you tackle similar assignments in the future.
Basically, there are several stages in the process of writing a speech and each of them is based on the previous one. We know that it may be very tempting to rush and write your speech in an hour. But if you are concerned about your reputation and want to get positive feedback, it is not an option. Of course, gaining more skills and becoming more proficient, you will be able to write speeches faster. However, now you need to pay attention to every detail because a single mistake may lead to the failing result. Before you start working on your speech, you need to answer three basic questions: Who? Why? What?
- Who is your target audience?
- Why you are writing this speech?
- What are you going to tell in your speech?
Any successful project has a plan. As such, we highly recommend you to create the speech outline that will include all important ideas and arguments that will be discussed in your speech. Structure your ideas and findings in the form of a plan to check the completeness and consistency of information in advance. Speaking figuratively, writing a speech is like going through the dark forest. You may come across many irrelevant and meaningless things but you should follow your goal and include the most important information. Basically, any speech includes three main parts:
- An introduction (a warm-up for the audience that introduces the topic and explains the purpose of the speech);
- Main body (the part that includes a bulk of information);
- A conclusion (a brief summary of the key points discussed in the speech).
If you think that you may just write one draft, you are mistaken. When the speech is written, you need to revise it many times making sure all the ideas discussed in the speech are appropriate.
How to Start a Speech?
Before you find out how to start a speech, you need to do everything needed on the preparation stage.
First and foremost, you need to brainstorm the ideas and carry out some research if necessary. For instance, if you are writing a speech for the wedding of your best friend, additional research is not needed. However, if you are writing a speech about global warming that should persuade the political leaders to take certain actions, you need to make some research and gather impressive facts and statistics. Undoubtedly, the work on an informative or compelling speech requires an in-depth study of the issue but we assure you that such a professional approach will allow you to write a reliable and convincing text. Look for information and arguments in reliable sources such as books, scientific journals, newspaper articles, and government sites and you will show to your audience that your speech has a great theoretical and practical value.
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After the research is done, you need to brainstorm the ideas and try to understand which of them should appear in your speech. Having decided on a topic, highlight the main accents in it. Indeed, in any topic, one can say a lot of useful things, but the core of speech, as a rule, should be in the foreground so that the listener can understand the main idea the speaker is trying to convey.
When you are sitting in front of a white sheet or an empty monitor and it is difficult for you to start, feel free to change your approach. No need to try to write the whole speech at once because such a speech will be difficult to write and pretty challenging to listen to. To get started, highlight three key pieces. Ideally, if you write three blocks, each dedicated to a key thesis.
Inform the audience in advance what structure your speech will have. Telling people what you are planning to report is always a good idea because people love the announcements and the illusion of control. However, you should not overburden your speech with sophisticated concepts and unknown words. In order to follow your ideas, your listeners should clearly understand what you are talking about.
A great start is half of success. We assure you that when it comes to speech writing, an introduction is particularly important because it should engage your audience. The first sentence of your speech may be the most important because, at this moment, people decide whether to listen to you. Depending on the topic and purpose of the speech, you may say something funny, sad, frightening, or shocking. Alternatively, you may provide an interesting fact to immediately attract the attention of listeners. In other words, your introduction should be pretty short but informative and impressive.
So, you have all the information you will include in your speech. Now, it is time to write it.
When you finish working on the text of the speech, read it several times and identify the weaknesses that can be improved.
How to End a Speech?
If you want to succeed with speech writing, you definitely need to know how to end a speech. You should understand that although the main body is the most informative part of your speech, your introduction and conclusion are particularly important as they need to make an impression on the audience.
When the speech essay is written, make sure to consider the following points:
- Check the tone of your language. Does it fit the occasion? If you find any controversial moments, make sure to fix or delete them;
- Check the length of your sentences. Pay attention that your sentences should not be too long as it will significantly compromise the quality of your speech;
- Check the vocabulary. Make sure you use the right words in your speech. Pay attention that using jargon or slang, you will never reach the anticipated outcome;
- Check whether your speech has good transitions. In order to get the best feedback from your audience, your speech should be smooth. For this purpose, you need to use the right transitions. The words besides, moreover, furthermore, on the contrary, after all, and many others will help you move gradually from one idea to another. The lack of transitions will make your speech abrupt, which will not bring any emotional pleasure to your audience.
Do not underestimate the fact that a good conclusion is always highly memorable. If you want your messages conveyed in your speech to be remembered, you need to finalize your speech with a powerful ending. Refer once again to the purpose of your speech and emphasize it. If you were going to persuade the audience to take some action, you need to finalize your speech with a call to this action.
For instance, if you are writing a speech seeking support for your initiative, you may finalize your speech as follows:
“We are agreed that the major changes are necessary. You have a wonderful opportunity to be a part of these changes. Just sign a petition as you leave.”
The audience will remember the best what they have heard last. As such, you need to complete unfinished thoughts, express the last inspiring idea that will encourage people to think differently and end with a memorable and spectacular statement. If you manage to connect the last words with the beginning of the speech, then it will be perceived as completed.
At the end of your speech, listeners should be passionate about the topic and ready to take action. Your task is to motivate people to learn more and take part in solving the described problem explaining how they can do it. As such, the final part of your speech is a good opportunity to share resources and set a direction.
All in all, we assure you that the proper work on the text of the speech will strengthen your self-confidence. Thoughtfulness and attention to detail will allow you to create an informative, convincing, motivating or entertaining speech, So, do not hesitate to allocate the necessary amount of time to work and practice to make an impeccable speech.
No matter if you are writing an introductory speech for a school project, a graduation speech, or a speech for a business conference, you should always follow the common rules. Your speech should be accurate, interesting, informative, and focused on your target audience. A distinctive feature that makes a speech essay different from other academic papers is that you get feedback on it in real-time. Thus, you need to make your speech maximally interesting and catchy.
The structure of the speech essay resembles the structure of any other academic essay. Let us discuss this structure in detail:
In your introduction, you need to explain who you are, what is the purpose of your speech, and what is your thesis. As such, regardless of the purpose of your speech, you need to introduce yourself and your aim. If you are writing a wedding speech, do not expect that everyone will know who you are. It is always better to write an introduction that will serve as a warm-up for your audience. Also, the introduction should include some background information that will help your audience understand the topic of your speech better. If you do not want to revise your introduction many times, you may just start with writing the main body of your speech and work on the introduction at the end of the writing process.
Make sure to discuss all your ideas gradually starting from the most important ones. Pay attention that your listeners are the most attentive at the very beginning so you need to start your speech with the most persuasive and appealing arguments. In case you are writing an informative speech essay, you need to support your arguments with credible evidence. Pay attention that the primary goal of your main body is to explain a thesis statement suggested in the introduction. Here, the speaker’s proficiency defines whether they can vividly convince, argue, inspire and motivate the public. All arguments, strong emotions, and revealing facts are presented to the audience in the main body. All in all, the speaker’s task in the second part of the speech is to convince the audience of their views, to make the audience emotionally ignite and believe in what was just said.
If you want to get positive feedback, you need to make your conclusion truly impressive. As such, along with summarizing your ideas and arguments, you need also to emphasize their importance.
How Many Words Is a 5 Minute Speech?
Undoubtedly, when working on the speech, you want to know how many words is a 5-minute speech. If you are talking in a typical speaking pace, your speech will include 130 words per minute. A such, if you are going to write a 5-minute speech, you will need to write approximately 650 words.
The easiest way to create a 5-minute speech is to write a 600 to 650-word essay. Then, you need to read your essay to make sure you meet the time limit. If you exceed it, feel free to delete some sentences that are less important. If you still have some seconds, just add one-two meaningful sentences to your speech essay.
Do not forget that a speech is a rather concise presentation that does not tolerate long rants, and bringing hundreds of examples from life. As such, you should do your best to make it maximally concise and laconic. Do not even try to include everything you know about the topic because even a short laconic performance can produce an indelible effect on the public, impressing the audience with its significance and relevance.
The following table will help you understand how many words is a 5-minute speech. So, if you are trying to find out how many words should your speech contain, make sure to check the table below:
|Speech Length||Slow (100 wpm)||Average (130 wpm)||Fast (160 wpm)|
|1 minute||100 words||130 words||160 words|
|5 minutes||500 words||650 words||800 words|
|10 minutes||1000 words||1300 words||1600 words|
|15 minutes||1500 words||1950 words||240 words|
|20 minutes||2000 words||2600 words||3200 words|
|25 minutes||2500 words||3250 words||4000 words|
|30 minutes||3000 words||3900 words||48000 words|
|45 minutes||4500 words||5850 words||7200 words|
|60 minutes||6000 words||7800 words||9600 words|
|120 minutes||1200 words||15600 words||19200 words|