Because there are so many different reasons and occasions for making a speech, there will often be different approaches depending on the circumstances. There are however, a number of considerations that are common to all speeches and by knowing them you’ll stand more chance of your speech being accepted well and of your message being clearly understood in the way you intended it to be.
What am I trying to do?
The key to preparing a good speech can be covered in just four questions:
- Who is my audience?
- What do they want from me or need to know from me?
- How long am I allowed to talk for?
- How long do I need to talk for?
If you’re asked to make a speech, hopefully you’ll have been given a few days or weeks to prepare it.
One of the first things you need to do as soon as you have been asked to give a speech is get yourself a notepad so you can jot down thoughts as they occur to you.
Make sure that you have a good idea of the themes or topics you intend to talk about.
Research any relevant facts and figures that you may need.
Depending on the subject matter and type of speech you intend to make, you may find it useful to adopt ‘time-line’ approach where you take your audience back in time then bring them up to the present. This can help you to emphasise the points you are trying to make. It also helps to keep the attention of your audience for longer as well as giving you the opportunity to include facts that they didn’t know or give them an insight into things they might not have been aware of.
If your speech is of a business nature then it may be that the subject matter will prompt your audience to want to ask questions. You should either pre-empt this by telling them at the start that you will be taking questions at the end or building in your own Q&A segment at some point during the speech to deal with any questions. Alternatively you might want to deal with questions you know will be asked by saying something like "When I do these presentations I'm always asked..." and then list the four or five questions which you can the proceed to answer in turn.
Depending on your own confidence and your knowledge of the audience you may wish to 'throw' certain questions to the audience. This will have the effect of waking them up and giving them a sense of involvement. However, this can be risky. Unless you’re confident and can control your audience, you may find that your speech has suddenly become a debate and you have lost control.
Your Speech
If you are lucky and have the option of using autocue, you will be able to read your speech word for word as it is displayed for you. However, using a autocue in a natural way isn't easy and requires practise. If you haven't done it before you may want to give it a miss if you can't get an opportunity to practise. If you’re not well-versed in using autocue, your speech can often sound stilted, unnatural and even boring and any humour you may be looking to inject, will not have the same effect as if you were to speak more ‘off the cuff’. Halting the proceedings so they can rewind the autocue is unprofessional and it will kill the impact of your speech.
There are two ways you can 'read' your speech; By reading our the full document or by preparing some notes or bullet points which you can refer to now and again and using them as memory prompts which you can then flesh out naturally.
Regardless of which of the above you finally settle upon, it is vital that you actually learn your speech. Think of yourself as an actor and your speech as your script. Knowing your speech off by heart means that when you are delivering it your mind will be free to concentrate on the method and the delivery, making sure that all the pauses, inflections and inotations are correct.
And now for the big finish... Professional raconteurs and speech makers will tell you that it’s the first and last 30 seconds of a speech that the audience will remember the most. So having started on a high it is just as important to finish on one. This will serve to reinforce what you have said and can be used to add additional motivation or generate inspiration in your audience if desired.
Rehearsals and Final Checks
It’s not just that it's a good idea to rehearse your speech before you deliver it - it is an essential! You may wish to record it and play it back so you can hear for yourself any weak points and errors and correct them.
You should also time yourself (if you have a limit on the amount of time you can talk for) and deliver your speech at the same speed as you intend to on the day. That way, you’ll be able to add to it if it’s too short or edit out bits if you’re going to run over time.
By doing your editing in a rehearsal you can make sure you edit appropriately cutting out the less important bits rather than doing it 'on the fly' and omitting important bits or talking too quickly in order to try to squeeze everything in. If you end up rushing it to get everything in, you’ll have the opposite effect as you’ll lose your audience near the very beginning.
It's also an idea to practise in front of another person who can give you their opinion.
The Big Day
Prepare Yourself!
By preparing yourself you will be able to; maintain your composure, ensure any nervous trembling is barely detectable. Speak in a way that your careful and well thought out words don't sound too rehearsed, even though they were. You won't embarrass yourself or anyone else.
As you get close to delivering your speech for real, try to relax. If you’ve had to walk up to a stage or platform to deliver it, take a pause and a few shallow breaths, just to regulate your breathing first and this will also help to calm any nerves you might have. If you’re not using a microphone, make sure you speak clearly and precisely and project your voice so that you can be heard by everybody. If you aren't behind a lectern or table then try to move around the stage or platform a little to command everybody’s attention.
If you do have a microphone, speak at your normal voice level but speak a little more slowly and distinctly and, unless your microphone is handheld or attached to you, remember not to move around in this instance or else your voice will be lost.
Smile and look enthusiastic and try to look around at the audience at least as much as you look at your notes or script. If you don’t glance at the audience from time to time and you don’t look enthusiastic, you’ll soon find that the audience will get bored and switch off.
As you deliver your speech don't forget to vary the pitch and tone of your voice to convey different emotions and to speed up or lessen your delivery pace as these skills can be used to great dramatic effect.
All in all, you should try to enjoy the experience whilst maintaining focus. If you do make an error don't ignore it, either correct it or adlib a short phrase and then move on.
