How to Structure a Speech

5 Steps to Impact – Powerful Speech Writing Made Quick and Easier

Introduction

Speech writing might be painful for you: perhaps you struggle in endless hours of speech preparation and still wind up with a speech that is unfocused, unclear with a meandering train of muddled thoughts. With minimal preparation, you can make your presentations clear and memorable. Do this using the “5 Steps to Impact” process.

1. Thesis

Avoid the urge to start drafting your speech. Thrashing at a keyboard or scribbling endless thoughts with pen or pencil might be great exercise for your hands and creativity, but might distract you from the objective of writing a good speech quickly.

Some say to write the conclusion first because that what the audience remembers. The conclusion might be what the audience remembers best, but I disagree with writing it first. What they really mean is write the one idea you want the audience to hear, remember, and act on, which happens to appear in the conclusion. That one idea sounds a lot like the thesis, doesn’t it? The thesis is the proposition, the premise, the treatise. Instead of starting with the end in mind, start with the thesis.

Write one sentence that presents the thesis of your speech. If the audience tuned out and ignored everything else, what one idea do you want them to remember? Express this idea in one clear, concise sentence. If this is difficult for you, remember that if you cannot figure it out, the audience never will. The thesis for this article is, “Write clear, memorable speeches with minimal effort using the 5-steps to Impact process.”

The thesis is driven in part by your idea and by your audience’s interest in that idea. For example, a speech on how to resolve problems with our educational system would have a different thesis for a group of students than for the school board and different again for a group of parents. Always tailor your thesis to audience interests.

2. Headings

With the thesis clearly identified, build a structure for its delivery. Start by identifying the points, stories, examples, or headings that support the thesis and make it come alive. These ideas must add to the thesis, not conflict with it. They should relate to the thesis and not meander in different directions. At this point, just identify them with as few words as you need to remember what the story is about. Do not yet write the stories. You will find it far easier to think about, and sort the few words in headings than many words in the speech details. Any time lost at this point if you do not use a heading is miniscule vs the time lost drafting a story and not using it for this speech.

The idea is to “chunk” information into pieces that you can focus on. For more information, read “Mapping Hypertext”, Robert E. Horn or visit http://www.infomap.ca/IM/TheMethod.

Feel free to brainstorm headings for a couple of minutes. Then select the few that you feel are the most powerful. A 5-7 minute speech will allow fewer points than a 45-minute keynote. Save the other ideas in a computer or paper file. I call my computer file Stories.doc.

Some people say that in speeches, you must apply the rule of threes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(writing)). While I understand and use the principle, do it mindfully. You can achieve success with speeches in two parts, which will allow more time for more details. There are too many dependencies to detail in this article.

Organize the headings you chose into a sequence such as problem-cause-solution, past-present-future, step-by-step, they-me-you, far-closer-near. There are many sequences. Pick the one that seems to fit your thesis.

3. Details

With your headings identified and sequenced, next write the details that go under each heading. With a clear thesis and headings, writing the details is relatively straight forward, almost like filling in the blanks. Within a body section below each heading, you can use different structures. A basic structure works well for most speeches:

Give the premise of the section

Substantiate or support the premise with examples, stories, statistics, etc.

Tie-in the section premise to the speech thesis

Transition to the next heading.

Draw on your experiences, research, or collection of stories to support the thesis. If you already know the story, don’t bother writing it. That will save a lot of time! Use stories that you already know, that you could tell to a colleague at a café, or to your family at the dinner table. Feel free to write out the story, but I want you to recognize that you are not obliged to, that you can tell the same unwritten story hundreds of times, every time differently, and every time perfectly. The benefit of writing it out is you can publish the story in articles, books, or your web site.

Transition between each heading to provide continuity. For example the words, “With your headings identified and sequenced, ” transitioned us into “writing body details”, above.

This structure doesn’t necessarily apply to storytelling, where the whole speech is one story and the main idea, or moral, might remain unclear until the end. The challenge is to ensure the audience remains engaged throughout the story.

5 Steps to Impact doesn’t cover all the wordsmith techniques that go into world-class speech writing. You must learn and apply that separately.  5 Steps to Impact is about getting you a good speech quickly.

4. Introduction and Conclusion

After you write the body details, package the material, like a gift for your audience, between the Introduction and Conclusion. If you write the introduction and conclusion after the body details, it is very easy to ensure they support the thesis. The Conclusion must introduce no new information.

Introduction	Conclusion
Arouse audience interest in the speaker and the subject; credibility; curiosity;  provocation; break preoccupation	Map: Summarize the headings to confirm what you covered while avoiding triteness
Clearly present the thesis	Clearly present the thesis in different words
Map: Summarize the headings that you will cover while avoiding triteness	Arouse audience interest in their application of the thesis; encourage, inspire, motivate, call to action

 

5. Title

Selecting a title isn’t really the fifth sequential step.  It might come to you anytime before, during or after writing your speech and it might change several times before you settle on one.  Make it short and catchy, creating audience curiosity.  It should point to the thesis without giving it away.  Consider a subtitle like I did for this article: “Powerful Speech Writing Made Quick and Easy”.  Maybe sprinkle the title throughout your speech for emphasis and maybe humor.

Conclusion

Writing good speeches is simple, quick and easy (okay, easier) if you use a repeatable method, 5 Steps to Impact. On a couple of occasions, I was called upon to deliver a 5-7 minute speech with 15 minutes notice. I wrote a thesis statement and the headings then ad-libbed the introduction and conclusion from those notes. Obviously, we prefer more preparation, but we are often called upon to “say a few words” on short notice at work or at social events. This technique will help you do that more successfully.

With enough practice, the model will stick in your mind as a shape. As you formulate your thoughts, you will fill in the blanks, with words and maybe even sounds and images. As you deliver the speech, it will magically flow, like watching a movie.

Look in the Resources section of my blog for a Speech Worksheet and a Speech template.

If you identify the Thesis, the Headings, fill in the Details, write the Introduction and Conclusion, and give the speech a Title, you will have mastered a technique many struggle with for years. You will achieve the 5 Steps to Impact!