Preparing and Planning Your Speech
There are no hard and fast rules for preparing speeches, everyone has to discover what works for them. But there are some general principles that work for everyone.
Have a Plan
We have all heard speeches that ramble on and seem to go nowhere, making us wonder, “what is all this about?” It is an easy trap for a speaker to fall into; after all we all have our favorite little barrows we like to push. But is not effective communication.
A better approach is to have a clear purpose in mind for the speech, whether that is to persuade an audience or to motivate them or simply to entertain them. The best way to achieve this is to start by writing down the objectives of the speech, in one simple sentence, and keep referring to it throughout the preparation. Any material that does not further the objectives should be scrapped.
Keep it Simple
It is easy to have your central message lost in a maze of facts and ideas. Enthusiastic speakers usually have many ideas that support their message and often they share them all. This is often not an effective approach because an audience will absorb only a limited number of ideas in a given time. If people are given too many ideas they will edit some out and, unfortunately, they will edit differently from you.
If you do not want your central message to be edited out then present it with the minimum number of supporting ideas, but with sufficient to make a strong case.
Connect quickly with your audience
Members of an audience give a speaker about 30 seconds before deciding how much attention they will give, 20% or maybe 80%. It is a subconscious process and it is something we all do as audience members.
Therefore speakers have 30 seconds to create an interest within their audience, a reason for listening intensely. This can be done by engendering an emotional response in an audience such as laughter, shock or curiosity. Telling an interesting story can also work.
Often the order of material can be changed to put the most attention getting item first. Remember also the principle of primacy, where people are more likely to remember items early in a speech than in the middle.
Use stories to illustrate
We all enjoy hearing a story, and speakers can use this to make a point with impact. An effective way to do this is to tell a story and then draw from it the point you are trying to make, in much the same way as Jesus told Parables or Aesop told fables.
End on a High
The end of a speech often determines how an audience will make its judgment. It is the last chance to make an impact and, under the principle of recency, what an audience is likely to remember most. It is a good place to have the biggest laugh or a restatement of the main point or a call to action, depending on the purpose of the speech.
© 2005 Eric Davies - Peninsula Toastmasters
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