5 Ways to Prepare a Speech

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Preparing a speech is not difficult if you know which procedure to follow. To put one together, there are already tested, bomb-proof steps: relax and read on how to prepare your speech and how to keep related anxiety at bay.

Steps

Method 1 of 5: Start with Your Audience

Step 1. Be clear about what opportunity you are facing

To start off on the right foot, it's important to know what kind of speech you are about to make and why your audience has gathered to come and listen to you. Find out if your speech is meant to be personal, informative, persuasive, or ceremonial.

• Personal narration. "Narration" is simply synonymous with "history". If you are asked to tell a story about yourself, find out with what intent: is it to use something that happened to you to teach a lesson, to lead to a moral, to offer inspiration or, simply, for entertainment?
• Informative speech. There are two types of informational speeches: the technical process and the explanatory type. If you have been in charge of giving a speech on a procedure, the idea is that you have to explain how something is done, how something is built or how something works, accompanying your audience through the whole process, step by step. If your speech is to be descriptive, your job is to take what could be a complex subject and break it down into sections: it is a specific way to educate your audience on the subject.
• Persuasive speech. If you are going to persuade, your job, then, is to get your audience to adopt a particular way of thinking, belief, or behavior that you advocate.
• Ceremonial speech. The ceremonial speeches cover the entire range from those of the graduation ceremony to those of farewell, from wedding toasts to panegyrics. Many of these are meant to be brief and are often focused on entertainment, inspiring or increasing the audience's appreciation for someone or something.

Step 2. Choose a topic that will interest your audience

If you get the chance, choose to talk about something your audience will find interesting or enjoyable. Sometimes you don't have the opportunity to choose your topic: you find yourself having to talk about something in particular. In that case you will have to look for specific ways to keep your audience engaged on what you have to say.

Step 3. Set yourself a goal

Write a one-sentence statement about what you want to achieve for your audience. It can be something as simple as "I want my audience to learn those four things they need to pay attention to when buying a diamond" or "I want to convince my audience not to eat fast food for a month". It may seem simplistic, but jotting down this type of mission statement stimulates two things: it helps keep you on track as you put your speech together, and it helps you remember to keep your attention on your audience as you go through the process of preparing your speech.

Step 4. Always keep your audience in mind

It would be a terrible waste of time and effort if you dedicated yourself to putting together a speech and the audience had a loss of attention or if, once the intervention was finished, they could not remember even one of the words you said. Constantly think about how to make what you need to say interesting, useful, relevant and memorable to your audience.

• Read the newspaper. If you can find a way to connect the topic of your speech to something that is currently happening, you can highlight the importance of what you have to say to your audience.
• Translate the numbers. Using statistics in your speech can be impactful, but they can be more meaningful if you translate them in a way that the audience can understand. For example, you could say that around the world 7.6 million people die annually from cancer, but, to make it more understandable with an association, you could add that that number represents the entire population of Switzerland.
• Express the benefits. It is a good idea to let the audience understand exactly what they will draw from your speech so that they are willing to listen. If he learns how to save money, tell him. If the information you are about to share with listeners will somehow make their life easier, make this clear. If they will gain the revaluation of someone or something, let them know.

Method 2 of 5: Research and Write Your Speech

Step 1. Get to know your topic

In some cases, you may not need more than to sit down, put your thoughts together and write all your ideas on a piece of paper. In others, the theme will not be sufficiently familiar to you: you will have to do research to be able to talk about it with knowledge of the facts. Most of the time you will fall back somewhere between the two extremes.

Step 2. Do some thorough research

The Internet can be an important source on the topic of your speech, but don't necessarily stop there. If you are a student, use your school library or databases of books and newspapers. Many public libraries subscribe to databases that host thousands and thousands of articles. If you have a library card, you have free access to those databases. Think about interviewing someone who is an expert on the topic you have to deal with or conducting an investigation. The more ways you take action to gather the information you need, the easier it is for you to be successful. Furthermore, using various sources of research gives breadth to your speech.

Step 3. Avoid plagiarism

When you use information from an outside source in your speech, expect to give credit to that source. To do this, keep track of where your information comes from so you can quote it later.

Step 4. Decide whether to do a rough draft or write a script

Narrative, informative and persuasive speeches lend themselves well to being schematized, while those relating to ceremonies are best written in detail.

• Schematize. When drafting, you are simply organizing and structuring your speech as a series of points. For example, if you were giving the speech quoted above, "I want my audience to learn those four things to pay attention to when buying a diamond", you could dedicate one point to "Cut", one to "Color", a third to "Limpitudine" and the last to "Carati". Under each of these points, you would offer your audience more information and details.

  The schemes can be composed of complete sentences or they can be a series of abbreviated sentences and notes. Another approach is to start writing complete sentences and then transfer your outline onto cards where those sentences are shortened, using only the necessary words and memoranda

• The script. One reason that it makes sense to write ceremonial speeches is that the words chosen to express themselves in these types of speeches are particularly important. You are bound to inspire, entertain, or pay homage to someone - saying exactly what you mean and have prepared yourself increases your chances of success.

  • Take out your old English textbooks and review topics such as similes, metaphors, alliterations and other figures of speech. These types of language tools can increase the impact of a ceremonial speech.
  • Beware of a particular stumbling block in written speech: having a page full of words in front of you can make you fall into the trap of mere reading from your script without ever looking up, without any eye contact or without engaging with the audience in any way. Careful practice should help you eliminate the likelihood of running into this misstep.

  

  Step 5. Make sure you have all the pieces in place

  A speech comprises three fundamental pieces: an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Make sure your speech includes all of these elements.

  • Introduction. There are two things that most good introductions include: an attention-grabbing component and a preview of what will be covered in the speech.

    • Insert a part that attracts attention. The most important thing you need to do in your introduction is to grab the attention of your audience. You can do this in several ways: ask a question, say something surprising, offer alarming statistics, use a quote or proverb related to the topic of your speech, or tell a short story. Take the time to understand how you grab your audience's attention - it's easier to hook them in the beginning than trying to get their interest as your speech progresses.
    • Offer a preview. Think of a preview as a sort of "Coming Attractions", a carousel of the attractions of your speech. Plan to inform the audience of the main points you will be talking about in your speech. There is no need to go into detail here - you will get there when you get to the body of your speech. You can write a simple sentence length preview to cover what you need to say here.
  • Body. The body is where the "pulp" of your speech is. The points you have outlined or the information you have detailed make up the body. There are several ways to organize information within the body of your speech: in time sequence, by steps, from the most important to the least important point and problem with its solution, to name but a few. Choose an organizational model that makes sense based on the goal of your speech.

  • Conclusion. There are two goals to achieve in your conclusion: the idea is to wrap things up in a way that is memorable and definitive. However, this is not the right place to introduce any new information.

    • Make a summary. One of the ways an audience remembers the content of a speech is through intentional repetition. In your introduction, you gave a preview of what you were going to talk about. In the body of your speech, you talked about those things. Now, in your conclusion, you remind your audience what you talked about. Simply offer a brief review of the main points you touched upon in your presentation.
    • Finish with a trump card, a trump card. A clincher is a memorable, definitive statement that gives your speech a sense of closure. An easy way to do this is to write a defining argument that references what you said in the part of your speech that attracted attention. This helps bring your presentation 360 degrees and provides a sense of closure.

    Method 3 of 5: Choice of Visual Aids

    

    Step 1. Choose images that benefit the audience

    There are many good reasons for using visual aids. They can help make things easier to understand, help the audience remember what you said, like those who learn visually, and can help the audience see you as more convincing. Make sure you are clear about what you hope to achieve with each image that is incorporated into your speech.

    

    Step 2. Choose images that fit the speech

    It's a great idea to use visual aids in your speech, but make sure you've selected the ones that make sense. For example, in the above speech where the speaker wants the audience to learn those four things to check when buying a diamond, it might make sense to show a diagram of a diamond illustrating where a jeweler operates cuts in preparing the gem. It would also be helpful to display the photos side-by-side of clear, white and yellow diamonds so that the public can recognize the color differences. On the other hand, it would not be very useful to show a photo of the exterior of a jewelry store.

    

    Step 3. Use PowerPoint with care

    PowerPoint can be a great gripping medium for visual aids. It can be used to easily display photos, tables and graphs. But there are common mistakes speakers sometimes make when using PowerPoint. These are easy to avoid once you pause to think about them.

    • Don't write everything you mean on your slides. We have all suffered from lectures where the speaker did little more than read their own slides. This is boring for those who listen, who soon lose interest. Instead, use text graphics to preview, review or highlight key information. Remember: the slides should be a supplement to what you are about to say, rather than an exact copy of it.
    • Create readable slides. Use a font size that is easy for the audience to read and don't overcrowd your slides. If the audience cannot see or understand through the material on the slides, they have served no purpose.
    • Use animations sparingly. Having graphics that flutter, zoom in and out and change color can be engaging, but it can also be a source of distraction. Be careful not to overdo the special effects. Your slides need to be a support player rather than the star of the event.

    Method 4 of 5: Test Your Speech

    

    Step 1. Give yourself plenty of time

    The more time you have to rehearse your speech, the more prepared you will feel and, as a result, you will feel less and less nervous. The indication of how long to take to prepare a speech ranges from one to two hours for each minute you speak. For example, you may want to take five to ten hours to prepare a five-minute speech. Of course, those hours include ALL the preparation from start to finish; your proof would be only a portion of that time interval.

    Give yourself time to practice. If you allow yourself to linger, you may find yourself with very little or even no time before giving your speech and this could give you a feeling of unpreparedness and anxiety

    

    Step 2. Practice in front of people

    Whenever possible, present your speech in front of your family members and friends. If you want their opinion, offer them specific guidelines on what you'd like them to comment so you don't feel overwhelmed by a flood of collaborative comments.

    • Look at your audience. Nothing is more effective than the speaker's eye contact to keep an audience gripped. When rehearsing your speech, be sure to look at your family or friends who have agreed to be your audience. Being able to look at your outline, your manuscript, or your memos, grab a thought or two, and then come up with that information while you observe your audience takes some practice. This is yet another reason why rehearsal time is so important.
    • If you don't have a chance to practice in front of people, be sure to say your speech aloud when you review it. You do not want the day of your speech to be the first time you hear the words of your speech come out of your mouth. Also, speaking out loud gives you the ability to double-check and correct any incorrect pronunciations, practice articulating words clearly, and confirm the timing of your speech. Remember that we speak faster when we just recite a speech in our head.

    

    Step 3. Be okay with the changes

    One thing that hearing your speech allows you to do is to make any necessary changes. If it lasts too long, you need to cut some material. If it's too short or if some sections look skimpy, add a little extra. Not only that, but every time you rehearse your speech out loud, it will come out a little different. This is perfectly correct. You are not a robot, you are a person. It is not necessary to get your speech perfectly, word for word - what matters is to convey the information in an engaging and memorable way.

    Method 5 of 5: Reduce Speaker's Anxiety

    

    Step 1. Take care of the physique

    It is common for people to experience physical symptoms of nervousness - rapid heartbeat, fast breathing, and shaking hands - before giving a speech. This is a perfectly normal response caused by a release of adrenaline in the body, which happens when we feel threatened. The key is to engage in physical activity to help move the adrenaline through your body, allowing it to dissipate.

    • Squeeze and release. Really interlock your fists, very tight and hold for a second or two and then release. Repeat this exercise several times. You can do the same thing by contracting the muscles in the calves very tightly and then releasing them. With each new release, you should feel a reduction in the symptoms induced by adrenaline.
    • Take deep breaths. The adrenaline in your system causes you to take shallower breaths which, in turn, increase the sense of anxiety. It is necessary to break the cycle. Take a deep breath through your nose and allow the air to fill your belly. Once your belly is full, let your breath fill and expand your rib cage. Finally, allow the breath to move fully into your chest. Open your mouth slightly and begin to exhale starting first with the air in the chest, then with the air in the rib cage and finally with the air in the belly. Repeat this inhale-exhale cycle five times.

    

    Step 2. Focus on your audience

    Although it may seem difficult to believe, a good speech does not really depend on you as the speaker. Plan to focus all your concentration on the audience through your speech, especially at the beginning. Really involve them and discover the non-verbal messages they are sending you: do I understand what you are saying? Do you need to slow down? I agree with you? Would they be more open to you if you approached them to create a stronger connection? If you put your full attention on your audience, you won't have time to think about your nervousness or anxiety.

    

    Step 3. Use audiovisuals

    You're probably planning on using visual aids anyway, but, if you haven't thought about it, now you might want to consider it. For some people, using visual aids reduces their anxiety, because it makes them feel less at the center of attention: they feel as if they are sharing the spotlight with the audiovisuals.

    

    Step 4. Practice visualization

    When you use visualization, you simply create a mental image of yourself while presenting your speech in a winning way. Close your eyes and watch yourself sit down before your speech. Listen as your name is said or as your presentation is made. Visualize yourself confidently standing up, taking your notes and walking to the podium. Watch yourself when you take a moment to check that your notes are in order and try to make eye contact with the audience. Then imagine yourself presenting your speech. Watch yourself move successfully throughout your surgery. Observe the end of the speech, see yourself as you say "Thank you!" and confidently return to your seat.

    

    Step 5. Be optimistic

    Even if you feel nervous, do your best not to engage in a bunch of negative speech. Don't say, "This speech will be a disaster." Instead, think, "I did my best to prepare this speech." Replace "I'm a nervous wreck" with "I feel nervous, but I know this is normal before a speech and I won't hold back from doing my best."

    Negative thoughts are incredibly powerful: it is estimated that it takes five positive thoughts to counterbalance the effect of a single positive thought, so stay away from them

    Advice

    • Use your natural language style. Don't use terms you've never uttered in your life. Take it easy and easy.
    • When you review, speak clearly and loudly, so that everyone within the range of your presentation is ready to listen to you.
    • If you need the notes, use them. But come back. Practice by talking to your mother, your spouse, your daughter, your cat or your mirror.
    • Be sure your speech fits together and makes sense.
    • Dress appropriately. Appearance can be everything.
    • Ask people to ask you questions. Let's say you are making a speech on cell phones. Ask the audience: "Have you seen the latest Apple iPhone?" or "Has anyone seen the GPS on the LG 223?"
    • Keep your speech lively and lively and try not to read from your notes.