Writing and Presenting a Speech

Making a good speech is an art which needs a lot of practice.

Like all arts, in writing and presenting a speech, you must put your heart into it and have the will to do it.

Here are some key points in speech writing.

- It’s not all about you: Don’t use the word ” I ” too much in your speech(Unless the speech’s topic is about you). Even though putting “some” and only some of your personal experience would make the speech a bit more interesting, dont use too much of it (people can chat with each other for that). Remember that people doesn’t really care who you are or what you do. The thing that the care about the most is your speech topic.

- Know your audience: Write about what your audience likes to hear. Write only with the vocabulary that your audience understands ( but dont get too street talk style cause that won’t work either ) . E.g. You certainly don’t want to put LMAO, osmosis or electromagnetic spectrum when talking to a class of kindergarden…

- Know your topic: Know what you are writing about and don’t get off topic. Use vocab that’s appropriate for the theme you choose. You may relate other interesting facts on other subjects but just dont get off topic.

- Use your heart to write: Sometimes,the word from our hearts is alo more powerful than the ones that comes out of our brain, especially when you are expressing your opinion, feeling or pursuing people to accept your idea. It is easy to do so at nights since most people are more “profound” then (for some reason…).

Now that you finished writing your speech, let’s try to present it.

Here are some tricks that can help you.

- Practice is key: Try to present a speech to yourself through a mirror. Vary your posture and your facial expression. Try to get a friend to help you with your speech.

- Use vary the tone of your voice when you present: Just like music, if you keep playing Forte (loud in music language) through Marriage de Figaro, it would become boring and no one would like to listen. But if you change the loudness, it would become much more interesting and puts life and emotion in your playing. I don’t mean by going from very quiet to very loud every 4 or 5 sec but a bit of variation would be nice.

- Try to move: During your speech, movement of hands that accompanie your speech would make you look more natural and keep peoples eye on you. If you were there not moving, or repeating the same movement over and over again, people would just stare at the floor or the ceiling. Don’t exagerate though. People aren’t here to see a talking mime.

- Use your heart: Express your idea with your heart like if you mean it. People likes to listen to a person that’s confident and that talks with his/her heart.

- If you forget anything, do not pause. Invent sentences that is appropriate to your speech and try to link and go to your next keypoint as fast as possible. ( if possible, try to come back to your keypoint later )

- If you are nervous: Look at people forehead, this would make you look like if you are looking at peoples eyes. Also remember that people are there to listen to you. Remember your speech is unique and you are the best. Don’t shake since that would make you look awkward and if you have a piece of paper in your hand, it would make some sound. If you do shake, think somewhere relaxing while you read or memorize through your speech. ( if you practiced well, this wouldn’t be neccessairy.

I hope this helped and good luck with your speeches.

Best wishes.