Want to write a speech that your audience will never forget?

The thought of speaking in public is enough to cause fear to the best of us. Warren Buffet has a massive fear of public speaking - and he’s got about 70 billion more reasons than any of us not to, so don't feel bad! 

The key to beating the fear of public speaking is having a good speech prepared. And the good thing about writing a speech is that it's not as hard as it seems. 

Often the fear of speaking in public is a result of not having your thoughts organized. But when you know that your thoughts are organized in terms of how you would like to deliver a message to an audience, it becomes a bit easier to overcome the jitters and articulate your speech ideas.

Consider investing in online English tutoring as a way of improving your overall language skills. You’ll be rocking those toastmasters in no time.

A simple formula for writing a speech

When writing down a speech, you want to consider three points: who you are delivering your speech to, what the best way would be to effectively communicate the message in the speech to them and lastly, how do you ensure you hold their attention all the way through your speech. 

Audience

Identify your audience in advance and understand their nuances. For instance, if you’re a student speaking to parents, what’s appropriate humor? It’s certainly not the same as what you would have when speaking to fellow students, or what you’d use for a congregation at your local church. 

It’s important to know who you are addressing. Based on the audience, you then tailor the tone of your speech to suit your audience.

Main points

Because you already know the general message that you want to pass across to your audience, you want to break down the points in your speech so that the sequence of points naturally flows from one to the next.

They'll help organize your thoughts and the delivery of your points in an orderly fashion. 

Flow

Keep it simple - too many people overcomplicate speeches. A well-constituted speech will contain the following parts.

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

For your speech to flow well, it should have an introduction. This can be anything from greetings, welcoming the audience to an event or occasion to an ice breaker such a well thought out joke. The goal here is to set the stage for the speech - lay out the main points you'll be covering.

(Just, you know, make sure you practice the joke to make sure you can pull it off!)

The body of your speech contains the main points of your message. It guides you along as you talking-depth on each point, concludes it and transitions to the next point. A good approach to body writing is to take your intro and break it down into specifics, which you expound into more and more detail. 

The conclusion of the speech summarizes the content and brings the delivery to a close. There are many types of speeches but they all follow the same speech format - so again, keep it simple.

Oh, and refer back to your intro joke - a good way to wrap it all together!

Conclusion

To bring your speech ideas to life, hopefully, these writing tips offer some foundation. And again, if you want to become even better in your speech writing, browse through our list of Online English Tutors and book a session!