give the speech

• Home →
• Delivery Techniques →

How to Give a Speech: 10 Tips for Powerful Public Speaking

When we start preparing to give a speech, it can be a nerve-wracking experience. It’s completely normal—most of us feel a combination of excitement and nerves when we’re about to take the stage.

However, with some strategic planning and practical advice, you can make sure your speech is powerful and effective. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to give a speech that will leave your audience engaged and inspired.

We’ll examine 10 tips to help you build a powerful speech, from outlining your points methodically to crafting captivating introductions . Whether you’re a beginner or experienced public speaker, these nuggets of wisdom will help you take your next speech to the next level. Let’s get started!

Quick Review of Key Points

Preparing ahead of time is the key to giving an effective speech. Make sure to structure your speaking points, rehearse your delivery, and be aware of the needs of your audience for maximum impact.

How to Prepare for a Speech

Preparing for a speech is an essential step to public speaking success. It can help to build your confidence, create content that reaches the audience, and reduce performance anxiety.

Although it can be time-consuming in the beginning, preparation will ensure less stress and more comfort during delivery. Here are some tips to consider when preparing for a speech:

Practice : Before delivering a speech, practice it out loud several times. This will allow you to gain experience in speaking without an audience and increase your confidence when you do have one.

Practicing also helps to identify awkward moments in the speech or any difficult phrases which then can be changed or removed altogether. Additionally, it helps you determine where to pause for effect. Research : Depending on the topic of the speech , research should be done beforehand to gather information that is relevant and interesting for the audience. It is important to get acquainted with the language typically used by audiences to ensure a clear understanding of what is being said.

Additionally, relevant statistics and stories concerning the topic are a great way to draw in listeners and make the presentation more engaging .

Know Your Audience : When preparing your speech, be sure to consider who will be listening. For instance, if giving a presentation at work, include industry jargon that members would understand and include relevant topics from publications that might be familiar to the employees.

On the other hand, if consulting business professionals in their field then technical language may be easier for them to comprehend than laypeople or students.

By gathering valuable information about the topic and getting comfortable with a speech’s content and delivery through practice, speakers will gain more assurance during their talk as well as respect from their audience.

Preparing beforehand not only gives insight into how to engage listeners but also encourages more meaningful conversations after the event. Now that we have discussed how to prepare for a speech let us move on to creating an outline which will provide structure during delivery.

Create an Outline

After determining the audience and purpose of your speech, the next step to effective public speaking is to create an outline .

An outline serves as a roadmap to ensure that your speech has a logical flow and contains all important points. It also can help keep you on track during the speech itself, allowing you to stay focused and organized.

When constructing an outline, consider drawing up both a main point and sub-points for each portion of the speech. Both should be relevant to the goal of the presentation and backed up by facts and research.

Brainstorming can help in this process; try grouping your ideas together in clusters to make sure you cover all possible angles.

Furthermore, writing out exact quotations or figures can prove beneficial in forming a cohesive argument. At this stage, it is also wise to decide where transitions, humor, stories, or other engaging techniques will be included.

While there are differing opinions as to whether outlines should be memorized or simply used as a reference while speaking, many agree that they should serve their purpose – not only articulate the main thoughts of the speech but also assist the speaker with maintaining focus and preventing distractions.

The debate between those who advocate for memorization versus casual consulting touches upon issues such as rehearsal time, risk of errors in delivery, ease of practice versus actual performance and more.

Each side has valid arguments that should be weighed prior to deciding what type of approach best suits your needs.

Having a firmly constructed outline acts as a valuable tool when it comes time to deliver a powerful public speech. By actively utilizing this tactic, speakers may not only enhance their clarity and coherence, but also add structure and vibrance to their presentations.

Now that we have explored what goes into crafting an effective outline, let’s dive deeper into how we can best collect resources and research our topics for maximum impact.

Collect Sources and Research

Collecting sources and research is a crucial step for any public speaking engagement. It ensures that you have the necessary information to make strong points and back up your statements.

Before writing your speech, take time to research your topic to gain familiarity with different perspectives, facts, and counterpoints. This will help you to craft an argument that can stand up to scrutiny while also adding a breadth of knowledge to your speech.

Interviews can be a powerful source of evidence and anecdotes, so try to include one or two relevant interviews in your research process. Relying solely on secondary sources such as books and articles can lead to a narrow scope of understanding.

Interviews provide an opportunity to hear directly from an expert and create an interesting dynamic in your speech by adding personal experiences as well as commentary from a professional.

In research it is important to stay objective. Gather a variety of perspectives and be open-minded about their merits. Don’t forget to consider both sides of the argument when researching for your speech.

Doing this allows you to understand the opposing perspective and enables you to anticipate potential counter arguments from your audience.

By acknowledging them beforehand, you may increase the persuasive power of your speech by showing confidence in the points you make.

Once you have collected all sources, review them carefully and separate the most pertinent information from the less useful material.

Synthesising this information into concise yet impactful points is a critical part in delivering powerful talks without overloading your audience with too much data or going off track during your speech delivery.

Organizing Your Speech

Before you start putting your words together, it’s important to consider how the different parts of a speech fit together. By taking the time to organize the ideas in your speech , you’ll be able to deliver a presentation that is well-constructed and easy to understand.

One way to help with organizing your speech is to write an outline . An outline is like a map or plan that will provide you with a framework for each section of your speech.

Start by writing out your main points and then include additional details underneath each one. This will help keep your speech focused and provide direction for where you are going next.

Another approach for organizing your speech is known as the “inverted pyramid” method. This structure starts with your conclusion at the beginning of the speech, and then works backward by providing more explanation and detail as it moves toward the introduction.

This method can be helpful when speaking about topics that are unfamiliar to the audience since it doesn’t require them to wait until near the end of the presentation to learn what you’ve been talking about.

No matter which organization approach you choose, make sure to practice it before giving your speech so that you are comfortable with its flow. Lastly, remember that it’s ok to adjust things while you speak if they don’t seem or feel quite right.

Now let’s take a look at how we can use these organizing techniques to actually put our speeches together – starting with structuring our speech.

Structure Your Speech

Creating a strong structure for your speech will ensure that the audience stays engaged and understands your main points. As you are developing an outline, map out how you want to begin and end your speech.

Break up the information into smaller sections with either verbal or visual cues so that your audience can clearly see how you are transitioning between topics . Consider adding humor judiciously throughout your presentation as this could help engage the audience and lighten any tension.

The length of your presentation is also important. You will want to make sure that you include all of the necessary information without going over time.

Oftentimes less is more; if you can say it in five minutes why use ten? Make sure that you practice timed rehearsals so that you can gauge how long you’re actually speaking.

In contrast, avoid trying to pack too much content into one presentation as this could overwhelm both you and the audience. If needed, offer supplemental reading materials for those who may be interested in delving further into the subject matter.

Paragraphs can also be helpful when organizing large amounts of content within the body of your presentation. Utilizing paragraph breaks gives your audience a break and helps to highlight key ideas or summaries before moving onto a new topic area.

Finally, it is crucial to remember what your desired outcome is from the presentation; plan accordingly by ensuring that the beginning, middle, and end serve their respective purposes and adhere to that goal.

With careful deliberations, structuring a successful presentation can be achieved with relative ease.

Having established a solid structure for your speech, it’s important to focus on another key element: rehearsal. The next section will discuss the benefits of practicing before delivering a powerful public speaking performance.

Rehearse Your Speech

Rehearsing is integral to giving a successful speech. When you rehearse your presentation, you give your mind an opportunity to become familiar with the notes and concepts that you are presenting. It also increases your confidence and reduces anxiety or self-doubt.

In fact, studies have found that those who rehearsed their presentation had higher scores in public speaking performance and language proficiency evaluations.

When it comes to how much rehearsal is enough, opinions are divided. Some people believe that over-rehearsing can lead to a more robotic speech with less natural emotion and connection with the audience .

On the other hand, others argue that no matter how well-versed someone is on the topic, additional rehearsal time improves both the delivery of the speech and memorization of key points and facts.

Ultimately, it’s important to practice until you personally find the most comfortable level for yourself, as this will ultimately result in a more engaging delivery.

Finally, if at all possible, try to practice in front of a friend or colleague for honest feedback on any elements that need improvement before the big day. Rehearsal dedication may be tedious, but it results in big rewards on stage–enabling you to deliver your content with clarity, confidence, and poise.

With thoughtful preparation complete, it’s now time to step into the spotlight and give your speech!

Giving Your Speech

The key to success when giving a speech is to be well prepared and confident. Every individual’s preparation process will vary, but the basics should stay the same.

Start by studying your content, understanding the material and being able to repeat it in your own words. Clarify any potentially difficult points. Create visual aids like PowerPoint slides or handouts that supplement the key ideas in your speech.

Practice your public speaking skills with informal conversations with friends and family or rehearse it alone in front of a mirror. Use visualization; imagine yourself confidently delivering your speech. Consider addressing a practice audience if possible to become more accustomed to a live size group.

On the day of the event, arrive early and plan for any potential obstacles: What if my computer doesn’t work? What if I forget something? Allow sufficient time for setup and check-in.

When you are ready to give your speech, take some deep breaths, focus on the positives, and distract yourself from any anxious thoughts with positive affirmations. Remember you have prepared diligently for this moment, you are well prepared and you will succeed!

Start strong by engaging the audience immediately with an attention grabbing opening statement. Speak clearly and make sure that everyone can hear and understand your message.

Slow down and emphasize points as needed throughout your presentation. Be aware of pace, volume, and tone of voice: too fast/monotone can confuse/bore listeners while pauses add a dramatic effect that keeps their interest piqued.

Ultimately, giving a successful speech will depend on knowing your material well enough to speak confidently in front of your audience without hesitation or missteps.

When you do make a mistake (and they happen!) don’t panic – know that mistakes are inevitable but don’t be discouraged; get back on track as soon as possible and continue at the same energy level you had before the mistake occurred.

Having successfully given your speech, take a moment to reflect on what went well and what could be improved upon for next time before transitioning into the next step: mastering delivery.

Master Your Delivery

Mastering your delivery is the key to an effective speech. Without purposeful body language and careful emphasis on certain words , your speech may lack wow-factor and prevent listeners from tuning in. Following these simple tips can help you get started with delivering an engaging and memorable speech:

The most important part of delivery is practice. Rehearse and perfect your speech ahead of time – this allows for more natural flow and confidence during your presentation. It also helps to create pauses between sentences for clarity, emphasize key points, and not be too casual or stiff.

Practicing inflections and varying tones adds interest to your speech by keeping listeners’ attention.

Additionally, it’s important to project your voic e so everyone in the room can hear you; make sure you’re speaking loud enough but don’t feel pressure to shout or yell at any point unless that’s part of the atmosphere of the event.

It’s also crucial to maintain good posture while speaking – stand tall with both feet on the ground, keep your back straight, hold yourself up without gesturing too much or leaning against a podium if applicable.

To further engage listeners, use purposeful hand gestures as they help emphasize certain points and add visual interest – however, avoid overusing them as it can hinders communication.

Make meaningful eye contact with audience members throughout the presentation – otherwise you might come across as unenthusiastic or bored with what you’re saying which deters attention away from the content itself.

By mastering your delivery, you can boost the impact of your presentation considerably – providing a memorable experience for your audience that stands out from others’. As such, it’s worth investing time into practicing ahead of time until delivery feels comfortable and second nature.

Having said this, making use of visual aids such as PowerPoint slides can greatly improve the impact of a speech once delivery has been mastered – let’s look into that next.

Use Visual Aids

Using visual aids can help presenters express concepts more clearly and engage the audience.

Visuals are particularly useful when conveying complex information, such as data, trends, or statistics — they impart meaning at a glance. But some public speakers may wonder if visual aids can be distracting or unnecessary.

Even though visuals can attract attention away from a presenter’s verbal delivery, carefully designed visuals can actually support the speech and help provide clarity. If done well, visuals are effective for capturing an audience’s interest and helping them to better understand the content being presented.

For example, a graph or chart should relate to the points made in the speech and should be discussed in more detail during its appearance onscreen. The presentation can also include larger images that effectively reinforce the ideas conveyed in the speech.

Videos and sound clips are other powerful forms of multimedia that could be employed to make the speech more meaningful.

To ensure that visuals enhance the message of the presentation, key factors to consider include relevancy to topic, good graphic design or aesthetics, accurate size to prevent distortion or blurriness, and seamless integration into the keynote slides or printed handouts .

In this way, visuals offer an opportunity for presenters to demonstrate their creativity and keep their audiences interested in what is being said. Thus, used wisely and aptly, visuals can add tremendous value to speeches by presenting arguments more efficiently and driving home important points. Now let’s explore effective techniques for speech giving that will allow you to craft and deliver your speeches with confidence.

Effective Techniques for Speech Giving

There are a number of effective techniques for giving a speech that will help you deliver it with confidence and poise.

First, practice your delivery in advance. You should practice both in front of a mirror or recording device to check for any distracting habits such as talking too quickly or mispronouncing words.

Second, use simple, clear language and short, concise sentences. Avoid overly technical terms and jargon that may leave your audience confused.

Third, work to establish a connection with your audience by using appropriate facial expressions and hand gestures while speaking.

Fourth, utilize effective persuasive techniques such as presenting evidence, strong arguments supported by facts, personal anecdotes and vivid metaphors.

Finally, articulate an organized structure for your speech. Your speech should have an introduction, body and conclusion to clearly communicate the main point and provide the audience with the necessary context to understand it better.

While these techniques may sound intimidating at first, they can be learned over time with practice and will make all the difference in how successful your speech delivery is received by your audience.

To build on these skills further , the next section will provide tips on how to build confidence when giving a speech.

Building Confidence

Building confidence is key when giving a powerful speech, as it will enable you to deliver the speech in a more poised and credible manner.

To create this confidence , start by understanding that any hesitation or butterflies prior to your speech are completely normal and should not be feared. Instead, view them as natural states of anticipation for something exciting, knowing that you are about to give an amazing speech.

Next, understanding who your audience is and tailoring your speech to meet their expectations will help build your confidence.

Familiarizing yourself with their interests and knowledge on the subject matter ahead of time can equip you with the understanding needed to respond appropriately if questions arise or objections surface during the speech.

Further, practice is key when building confidence for a public speaking engagement . Rehearsing with friends or colleagues before hand will give you an opportunity to learn where problem areas are within the content of your speech, as well as help solidify your delivery by becoming more comfortable with each step.

Checking sound levels in the room you’re presenting in coupled with learning where exits/emergency locations are located within that space can also help alleviate stress levels and boost self-assurance while delivering the speech.

Finally, wearing comfortable clothing and dressing professionally adds an extra layer of confidence when speaking in public.

If possible, bring an additional outfit on hand during the presentation in case of spills or accidents that would require a quick change between sections of the talk. Having this back-up plan in place can aid in keeping peace of mind at ease throughout the speech.

In conclusion, building confidence prior to a public speaking event can mean the difference between a good and great delivery of your message.

By taking into account each of these tips you can ensure that this part of your preparation runs smoothly and sets you up for success when delivering powerful speeches.

With a well-crafted note card of talking points and strong sense of self-assurance, it’s time to start speaking with passion!

Speaking with Passion

As a public speaker, your audience expects you to engage not only with your words but also with your emotions. To share the most impactful message, it is important to speak passionately about your subject.

Doing so will make your speech more memorable and thereby more effective in convincing your audience of its legitimacy.

The power of speaking authentically with emotion lies in its relatability and connection. Showing feelings allows people to connect with you as a person rather than just a speaker. It opens the door to understanding through empathy and active listening .

Examples might include adding personal stories , telling jokes, or displaying your feelings openly during the delivery of your message.

However, not all topics lend themselves easily to expressing emotion. If the subject matter is overly complex or technical there may be less opportunity for emotional expression—but this doesn’t mean those conversations can’t incorporate emotion.

Even if faced with a difficult situation such as death or financial turmoil, emotions can still be conveyed in a respectful way that keeps audiences engaged.

Remember that how much emotion you show depends on the type of audience you’re sharing it with—using sensitivity when delivering passionate speeches helps avoid awkwardness or embarrassment for any attendees who may find opinionated language uncomfortable for whatever reason.

Striking the right balance between being straightforward and showing compassion takes practice, so take the time to develop a style that works best for you and improves upon each performance.

Finally, incorporating passion into a speech gives it life and makes it relatable and engaging—which are essential elements to speaking effectively.

Having passion means giving ourselves permission to take ownership over our stories, making them deeply personal in order to reach our goals and touch people’s hearts in meaningful ways. With that said, let’s move on to discussing how we should tackle dealing with challenges while giving a speech.

Dealing with Challenges

The process of delivering a speech can be challenging, but it is also rewarding. Difficulties can arise during the process that may threaten to derail your success. To ensure you are adequately prepared for these possible pitfalls it is important to consider strategies for proactively mitigating the risk of encountering these challenges. 1. Public Speaking Anxiety: Many people experience some form of anxiety when asked to speak in public. There are a number of techniques available to combat this fear and increase confidence, such as deep breathing exercises, mental rehearsal, positive self-talk and visualization of success.

Learning about the audience, creating an engaging presentation and using props or visual aids can also help reduce anxiety levels and create a better overall experience for both the speaker and the audience. 2. Unfamiliar Topics or Audiences: When presenting on unfamiliar topics or to an unknown audience it can be difficult to prepare effectively.

In this situation it is important to conduct research on the topic and familiarize yourself with the needs of your audience so that the content is tailored accordingly. It is also helpful to use humor or stories related to the topic in order to engage your audience and make them more receptive to your message. 3. Lack of Support: If you lack support from family, friends, colleagues or mentors, it can be difficult to push through difficult conversations or speeches without any additional motivation.

To overcome this challenge, seek out peer mentorship opportunities or find compatible online communities where people discuss similar topics or objectives. Here you can share ideas, provide feedback and learn from others who have experienced similar issues. 4. Time Constraints: One of the biggest challenges when giving a speech is managing your time effectively in order to deliver an effective message without going over allotted timeslots and boring your audience .

To successfully address this challenge try setting manageable goals for each section of your speech and practice regularly. Replicating real-time conditions as closely as possible will help you stay within time constraints when delivering your speech on the day itself. In conclusion, there are many potential challenges you may face when giving a speech or taking part in a public speaking event – but with proper preparation and practice they are easily managed if approached correctly.

With knowledge of techniques for dealing with such scenarios comes increased confidence when stepping up to the podium – further improving your chances of delivering an effective speech that resonates with your audience members.

Responses to Frequently Asked Questions

How should i end my speech to leave a lasting impression.

The best way to end your speech is by reinforcing your main point and summarizing the key takeaways. You should also encourage the audience to take action, whether it be to sign up for a newsletter, make a donation, or visit your website for more information. This final call to action will not only leave a lasting impression on the audience but will also help you achieve any goals you might have had when making your speech in the first place.

What techniques can I use to keep my audience engaged during my speech?

One of the best techniques for keeping an audience engaged during a speech is to keep it interactive . Ask questions throughout the presentation, as well as allowing for audience input and discussion. This can help to keep people’s attention and create a more engaging experience.

Another great tip is to use humor. Even if you don’t consider yourself a natural comedian, sprinkling in a few jokes here and there can break up the monotony of long speeches and keep people interested. Humor can also help to make points stick in people’s minds, making them easier to remember.

Finally, try to be enthusiastic about the content of your speech. If you show too much indifference or lethargic behavior, it will discourage your audience from paying attention and taking your message seriously.

Instead, be passionate about what you are saying so that the energy of your words carries into the room and engages your audience with excitement.

How can I use storytelling to make my speech more interesting?

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can be used to make any speech more interesting. Telling stories in your speech will help engage the audience and make your message stick. Here are some tips for using storytelling in your speech:

1. Choose stories that are relevant to your message and audience. Think about stories that will best illustrate the point you are trying to convey, or evoke emotions in your listeners. 2. Use vivid descriptions and visuals when telling your story. Be sure to include details such as setting, character descriptions, dialogue and plot points. This will help to bring the story to life for your audience. 3. Make sure the story you are telling has a strong conclusion or moral at the end. This will help add emphasis to your message and make it memorable. 4. Practice telling stories out loud before delivering a speech with them. Rehearsing will help you deliver your story more effectively and with more confidence in front of an audience. By using these tips, storytelling can be an effective tool to make any speech more interesting, engaging, and persuasive!

How can I prepare for my speech effectively?

Preparing for a speech effectively is essential to delivering an impactful and memorable presentation. Here are some tips: 1. Have a clear goal in mind. Before starting to prepare, ask yourself what the purpose of giving the speech is: what message do you want to convey? Defining this will help to structure your content and focus your research. 2. Research thoroughly. Make sure you understand the subject matter well, so that your delivery sounds confident and inspiring. Using facts and data will strengthen your arguments and make your talk more convincing. 3. Outline your speech. Make a rough outline of how you want it to go – from beginning to end – well in advance of the actual presentation. This will give you a strong foundation upon which you can craft an engaging talk with an effective narrative arc that keeps audiences interested and engaged. 4. Practice regularly. Rehearsing your speech out loud several times is key to ensuring that you know it well enough to feel comfortable when delivering it live in front of an audience.

5. Time yourself. Record how long it takes for you to go through your entire speech, so that you can adjust the length as needed before delivering it live – remember that most speeches should last no more than 10-15 minutes. 6. Identify potential questions from the audience and prepare answers before hand. Knowing ahead of time what kind of questions people may ask can help reduce the anxiety of not knowing what comes next, enabling you to stay confident when speaking in public. 7. Work on building up confidence levels before delivering a speech. Visualize yourself succeeding in delivering a great presentation; practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or positive self-talk; or use props during practice sessions such as water bottles or stress balls if needed to remain calm during the real thing!

What strategies can I use to reduce my anxiety when giving a speech?

1. Plan Ahead: Create an outline of your speech beforehand and practice it multiple times to become familiar with the content. Doing a trial run with the audience can also help you get used to speaking in front of people.

2. Visualize Success: Positive visualization is a great way to reduce anxiety before giving a speech. Imagine yourself confidently delivering the speech while feeling relaxed and composed.

3. Get Organized: Make sure you have all the materials necessary for your presentation, including notes, slides, etc., to reduce any additional stress that may come from not having what you need when you speak.

4. Take Deep Breaths: Before and during the speech, take a few deep breaths as this will help calm nerves and make sure your breathing is regulated throughout the duration of your presentation.

5. Speak Slowly: It is common to feel anxious while giving a speech and try to rush through it too quickly. Speaking slowly helps maintain composure while delivering your message effectively and clearly.

6. Pay Attention to Your Body: Your posture, stance, movements , facial expressions can all influence how confident you appear to your audience and how nervous you may be feeling inside. Check in with yourself frequently throughout the presentation and correct any tense body language or physical actions if needed.

7. Focus on the Audience: If you notice that your anxiety levels are growing as you present, shift your focus onto the audience instead of yourself as this will help refocus your attention away from negative thoughts that may arise from fear or insecurity.

8. Make Eye Contact: Establishing eye contact with your audience is a key confidence-builder for public speakers—it shows that you’re strong, engaged with them, and receptive to feedback or questions they might have regarding your speech topic .

9. Practice Positive Affirmations: Positive thoughts will boost your self-confidence as well as your mood which can help increase performance quality significantly during speeches or presentations in general—so don’t forget to tell yourself “you can do it!” several times throughout the day leading up to the event!

10. Seek Support of Friends & Family: Many experienced public speakers suggest seeking support of close friends & family members prior and during their speeches—not only does it allow helpful critique regarding content but it also creates a more comfortable atmosphere while speaking which can reduce pre-speech jitters drastically.

• EXPLORE Random Article
• Happiness Hub

How to Give a Speech

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Deb DiSandro . Deb DiSandro is the Owner of Speak Up On Purpose, an organization dedicated to improving and teaching public speaking. Deb has over 30 years of experience as a national speaker and has presented at the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Conference and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. She was awarded the National Speakers Association Member of the Year 2007 and has been published in Writer's Digest, Daily Herald, Women's Day, and Better Homes & Gardens. This article has been viewed 268,937 times.

It's time to tackle what people are afraid of more than death: public speaking. Luckily, there are several strategies to help you get through this nerve-wracking event. Preparation is key and can help you speak confidently, no matter what the topic!

Preparing the Speech

• So what's yours? Did your teacher give you a specific topic to cover? If so, what's your stance? Or is it more personal? Two or three personal stories with a connecting theme can be quite the vivid speech.

• Who are they? Age? Gender? Beliefs?
• How much do they know about your topic? This will determine the amount of complicated language you can use (hint: if they don't know much, don't use it!).
• Why are they there? To be taught something? Because they have to be? Because they're genuinely interested? If your audience has to be there, try to create an opening that’s sympathetic, supportive, and fun to get them engaged.
• How long have they been there? If you're 17th of 18th speeches, take that into account!

• Have at least three points to support your message (that one succinct sentence you're working with). Address the counterargument, but don't focus on it.
• Only complicate it as much as your audience can tolerate. Stay away from jargon and technical terms if it's gonna leave your listeners scratching their heads and feeling out of place.

• Self-deprecating humor (making fun of yourself) has its place. Again, this comes down to knowing your audience and the format of your speech. A best man speech? Totally appropriate. Addressing the president of your company about budget locations? Maybe not.
• Antithesis is about using opposites. Clinton said, "I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside" in his speech about Barack Obama. Pretty vivid stuff.

• Opt for strong, descriptive verbs instead of adverbs.
• Think active, too. "When we have the manpower, we can force change," is much more powerful when it's turned around -- "We can force change when we have the manpower." Make 'em sit up in their seats, you know?

• So no hemming and "hawwing", no apologizing, no "I wondered...," no "Thank yous," just brass tacks. Get right in there. Don't talk about painting -- get right in there and start creating an image for them. They're there for your speech, not how you felt about it or how you feel now. Hook 'em from the get-go by starting strong outta the gate.

• Take notes on paper or using an app as ideas come to you.
• You should have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction and conclusion should both be brief and to the point, the conclusion being a reiteration of the intro. And the body? Well, that's everything else.

Practicing the Speech

• Get to the point where you're comfortable delivering it just with the notecard. The more comfortable you are with the speech, the more it'll show when you're delivering it.

• Be sure to memorize the most important aspects, such as a funny story, quote, or memorable turn of phrase so you can deliver them exactly as you imagined.
• This doesn't mean that you have to go out there unarmed. No, you'll be taking your notecard with you! If your mind blanks, you can take a look-see at it and go right where you need to. You ran over it with the notecard 10 times for this reason.

• Delivering it to someone helps you get used to someone looking at you while you're talking. Public speaking can be pretty terrifying, so having a practice audience will help calm your nerves.
• Have them actually pay attention. At the end of your speech, ask them what questions popped up in their mind. Were there any holes in your argument? Or did anything confuse them?

• Practice in front of the mirror so you can see your body language. What gestures work where? How do you feel about the pauses and what do you do during them?
• Practice in the shower because it's probably one of the few times during the day where you can mindlessly go over it. Does your mind blank on any part? If so, review it.
• Practice while you’re doing other things as well, like driving, walking your dog, or mowing the lawn.

Delivering the Speech

• Your speech conveys a certain amount of emotion, right? (Correct answer: Yes.) Take those moments and move with them. You use your hands every day to express emotion -- this speech is no different. You're still communicating to people, just on a bigger scale. Though the scale is different, the gestures remain the same.
• For a great example of how to move on stage and use your hands while speaking, check out Bryan Stevenson's Ted Talk on Equal Justice.

• This should be used carefully, though. Don't whip out a different prop every sentence. Stick to one really effective prop, like the brain. Telling a story about your dad's last burning building he ran into? Take out his burned firefighter helmet. Talking about the time you ran into Will Ferrell at your local Starbucks? Whip out your autographed grande, coffee-stained cup when you get to the part about how you fainted after asking. Use them sparingly, but effectively.

• Use graphs to illustrate your points, especially if they're hard to understand. Pictures can be more memorable than just being told factoid, regardless of how pivotal it may be.
• Don't face the pictures when you're talking! You know what's on there -- keep delivering the speech to your audience, not the screen.

• Show emotion in your tone, too. Don't be afraid to chuckle a bit or show a bit of grief or frustration. You're human. Your audience is looking for a human connection, not a robot spitting words at them.

• Take your speech and literally write in the pauses if it'll help you. Draw a big ol' slash through the text to indicate a break. Once you have it down, you'll be able to feel where the pauses will go.

• Take a deep breath. You did it. Next time you'll be giving a speech on how to give speeches. What were you so nervous about in the first place?

Sample Speeches

Community Q&A

Reader Videos

• Take a deep breath, look confident, smile and walk onto the stage. Thanks Helpful 46 Not Helpful 2
• Practice on tape and listen to yourself until you are used to your voice and delivery. Thanks Helpful 27 Not Helpful 4
• Be prepared for questions. If you do not know the answer, there is no need to panic. Be honest and tell them upfront that you don't know but will find out. Do not invent answers. Thanks Helpful 27 Not Helpful 12

Things You'll Need

• Source material
• Notecard(s)
• Tape recorder

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/powerspeak/ch03.html
• ↑ http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Speech.html
• ↑ http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/16/public-speaking-speeches-communication-leadership-careers-advice.html
• ↑ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282524
• ↑ https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/public-speaking-tips/preparing-a-speech
• ↑ https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/16/public-speaking-speeches-communication-leadership-careers-advice.html#5dc92b8410cf

About this article

To give a good speech, try to practice it as much as possible beforehand, like in the shower, when you're running errands, or in front of a mirror, since you'll be more confident going in if you have it memorized. When you're delivering your speech, stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart so you look confident. You should also use your hands to naturally gesture throughout your speech instead of holding them at your sides. Also, make eye contact with random people in the audience, and avoid scanning the room or staring at the back wall. For more tips from our expert co-author, like how to write a speech, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

Reader Success Stories

Mahina Betty

Aug 14, 2018

Did this article help you?

Ankit Kumar Mishra

Jul 10, 2016

Aug 13, 2016

• About wikiHow
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

How it works

Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.

Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.

We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.

Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.

Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.

Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.

Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.

Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.

Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.

See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.

Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.

Daring Leadership Institute: a groundbreaking partnership that amplifies Brené Brown's empirically based, courage-building curriculum with BetterUp’s human transformation platform.

• What is coaching?

Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.

Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.

Types of Coaching

Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.

Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.

Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.

Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.

Find your coach

Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.

Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.

View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.

The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.

• BetterUp Briefing

The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.

Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.

Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance

We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.

Join us and create impactful change.

Read the buzz about BetterUp.

Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.

For Business

For Individuals

How to write a speech that your audience remembers

Whether in a work meeting or at an investor panel, you might give a speech at some point. And no matter how excited you are about the opportunity, the experience can be nerve-wracking . 

But feeling butterflies doesn’t mean you can’t give a great speech. With the proper preparation and a clear outline, apprehensive public speakers and natural wordsmiths alike can write and present a compelling message. Here’s how to write a good speech you’ll be proud to deliver.

What is good speech writing?

Good speech writing is the art of crafting words and ideas into a compelling, coherent, and memorable message that resonates with the audience. Here are some key elements of great speech writing:

• It begins with clearly understanding the speech's purpose and the audience it seeks to engage. 
• A well-written speech clearly conveys its central message, ensuring that the audience understands and retains the key points. 
• It is structured thoughtfully, with a captivating opening, a well-organized body, and a conclusion that reinforces the main message. 
• Good speech writing embraces the power of engaging content, weaving in stories, examples, and relatable anecdotes to connect with the audience on both intellectual and emotional levels. 

Ultimately, it is the combination of these elements, along with the authenticity and delivery of the speaker , that transforms words on a page into a powerful and impactful spoken narrative.

What makes a good speech?

A great speech includes several key qualities, but three fundamental elements make a speech truly effective:

Clarity and purpose

Remembering the audience, cohesive structure.

While other important factors make a speech a home run, these three elements are essential for writing an effective speech.

The main elements of a good speech

The main elements of a speech typically include:

• Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your speech and grabs the audience's attention. It should include a hook or attention-grabbing opening, introduce the topic, and provide an overview of what will be covered.
• Opening/captivating statement: This is a strong statement that immediately engages the audience and creates curiosity about the speech topics.
• Thesis statement/central idea: The thesis statement or central idea is a concise statement that summarizes the main point or argument of your speech. It serves as a roadmap for the audience to understand what your speech is about.
• Body: The body of the speech is where you elaborate on your main points or arguments. Each point is typically supported by evidence, examples, statistics, or anecdotes. The body should be organized logically and coherently, with smooth transitions between the main points.
• Supporting evidence: This includes facts, data, research findings, expert opinions, or personal stories that support and strengthen your main points. Well-chosen and credible evidence enhances the persuasive power of your speech.
• Transitions: Transitions are phrases or statements that connect different parts of your speech, guiding the audience from one idea to the next. Effective transitions signal the shifts in topics or ideas and help maintain a smooth flow throughout the speech.
• Counterarguments and rebuttals (if applicable): If your speech involves addressing opposing viewpoints or counterarguments, you should acknowledge and address them. Presenting counterarguments makes your speech more persuasive and demonstrates critical thinking.
• Conclusion: The conclusion is the final part of your speech and should bring your message to a satisfying close. Summarize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and leave the audience with a memorable closing thought or call to action.
• Closing statement: This is the final statement that leaves a lasting impression and reinforces the main message of your speech. It can be a call to action, a thought-provoking question, a powerful quote, or a memorable anecdote.
• Delivery and presentation: How you deliver your speech is also an essential element to consider. Pay attention to your tone, body language, eye contact , voice modulation, and timing. Practice and rehearse your speech, and try using the 7-38-55 rule to ensure confident and effective delivery.

While the order and emphasis of these elements may vary depending on the type of speech and audience, these elements provide a framework for organizing and delivering a successful speech.

How to structure a good speech

You know what message you want to transmit, who you’re delivering it to, and even how you want to say it. But you need to know how to start, develop, and close a speech before writing it. 

Think of a speech like an essay. It should have an introduction, conclusion, and body sections in between. This places ideas in a logical order that the audience can better understand and follow them. Learning how to make a speech with an outline gives your storytelling the scaffolding it needs to get its point across.

Here’s a general speech structure to guide your writing process:

• Explanation 1
• Explanation 2
• Explanation 3

How to write a compelling speech opener

Some research shows that engaged audiences pay attention for only 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Other estimates are even lower, citing that people stop listening intently in fewer than 10 minutes . If you make a good first impression at the beginning of your speech, you have a better chance of interesting your audience through the middle when attention spans fade. 

Implementing the INTRO model can help grab and keep your audience’s attention as soon as you start speaking. This acronym stands for interest, need, timing, roadmap, and objectives, and it represents the key points you should hit in an opening. 

Here’s what to include for each of these points: 

• Interest : Introduce yourself or your topic concisely and speak with confidence . Write a compelling opening statement using relevant data or an anecdote that the audience can relate to.
• Needs : The audience is listening to you because they have something to learn. If you’re pitching a new app idea to a panel of investors, those potential partners want to discover more about your product and what they can earn from it. Read the room and gently remind them of the purpose of your speech. 
• Timing : When appropriate, let your audience know how long you’ll speak. This lets listeners set expectations and keep tabs on their own attention span. If a weary audience member knows you’ll talk for 40 minutes, they can better manage their energy as that time goes on. 
• Routemap : Give a brief overview of the three main points you’ll cover in your speech. If an audience member’s attention starts to drop off and they miss a few sentences, they can more easily get their bearings if they know the general outline of the presentation.
• Objectives : Tell the audience what you hope to achieve, encouraging them to listen to the end for the payout. 

Writing the middle of a speech

The body of your speech is the most information-dense section. Facts, visual aids, PowerPoints — all this information meets an audience with a waning attention span. Sticking to the speech structure gives your message focus and keeps you from going off track, making everything you say as useful as possible.

Limit the middle of your speech to three points, and support them with no more than three explanations. Following this model organizes your thoughts and prevents you from offering more information than the audience can retain. 

Using this section of the speech to make your presentation interactive can add interest and engage your audience. Try including a video or demonstration to break the monotony. A quick poll or survey also keeps the audience on their toes. 

Wrapping the speech up

To you, restating your points at the end can feel repetitive and dull. You’ve practiced countless times and heard it all before. But repetition aids memory and learning , helping your audience retain what you’ve told them. Use your speech’s conclusion to summarize the main points with a few short sentences.

Try to end on a memorable note, like posing a motivational quote or a thoughtful question the audience can contemplate once they leave. In proposal or pitch-style speeches, consider landing on a call to action (CTA) that invites your audience to take the next step.

How to write a good speech

If public speaking gives you the jitters, you’re not alone. Roughly 80% of the population feels nervous before giving a speech, and another 10% percent experiences intense anxiety and sometimes even panic. 

The fear of failure can cause procrastination and can cause you to put off your speechwriting process until the last minute. Finding the right words takes time and preparation, and if you’re already feeling nervous, starting from a blank page might seem even harder.

But putting in the effort despite your stress is worth it. Presenting a speech you worked hard on fosters authenticity and connects you to the subject matter, which can help your audience understand your points better. Human connection is all about honesty and vulnerability, and if you want to connect to the people you’re speaking to, they should see that in you.

1. Identify your objectives and target audience

Before diving into the writing process, find healthy coping strategies to help you stop worrying . Then you can define your speech’s purpose, think about your target audience, and start identifying your objectives. Here are some questions to ask yourself and ground your thinking : 

• What purpose do I want my speech to achieve? 
• What would it mean to me if I achieved the speech’s purpose?
• What audience am I writing for? 
• What do I know about my audience? 
• What values do I want to transmit? 
• If the audience remembers one take-home message, what should it be? 
• What do I want my audience to feel, think, or do after I finish speaking? 
• What parts of my message could be confusing and require further explanation?

2. Know your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for tailoring your speech effectively. Consider the demographics of your audience, their interests, and their expectations. For instance, if you're addressing a group of healthcare professionals, you'll want to use medical terminology and data that resonate with them. Conversely, if your audience is a group of young students, you'd adjust your content to be more relatable to their experiences and interests. 

3. Choose a clear message

Your message should be the central idea that you want your audience to take away from your speech. Let's say you're giving a speech on climate change. Your clear message might be something like, "Individual actions can make a significant impact on mitigating climate change." Throughout your speech, all your points and examples should support this central message, reinforcing it for your audience.

4. Structure your speech

Organizing your speech properly keeps your audience engaged and helps them follow your ideas. The introduction should grab your audience's attention and introduce the topic. For example, if you're discussing space exploration, you could start with a fascinating fact about a recent space mission. In the body, you'd present your main points logically, such as the history of space exploration, its scientific significance, and future prospects. Finally, in the conclusion, you'd summarize your key points and reiterate the importance of space exploration in advancing human knowledge.

5. Use engaging content for clarity

Engaging content includes stories, anecdotes, statistics, and examples that illustrate your main points. For instance, if you're giving a speech about the importance of reading, you might share a personal story about how a particular book changed your perspective. You could also include statistics on the benefits of reading, such as improved cognitive abilities and empathy.

6. Maintain clarity and simplicity

It's essential to communicate your ideas clearly. Avoid using overly technical jargon or complex language that might confuse your audience. For example, if you're discussing a medical breakthrough with a non-medical audience, explain complex terms in simple, understandable language.

7. Practice and rehearse

Practice is key to delivering a great speech. Rehearse multiple times to refine your delivery, timing, and tone. Consider using a mirror or recording yourself to observe your body language and gestures. For instance, if you're giving a motivational speech, practice your gestures and expressions to convey enthusiasm and confidence.

8. Consider nonverbal communication

Your body language, tone of voice, and gestures should align with your message . If you're delivering a speech on leadership, maintain strong eye contact to convey authority and connection with your audience. A steady pace and varied tone can also enhance your speech's impact.

9. Engage your audience

Engaging your audience keeps them interested and attentive. Encourage interaction by asking thought-provoking questions or sharing relatable anecdotes. If you're giving a speech on teamwork, ask the audience to recall a time when teamwork led to a successful outcome, fostering engagement and connection.

10. Prepare for Q&A

Anticipate potential questions or objections your audience might have and prepare concise, well-informed responses. If you're delivering a speech on a controversial topic, such as healthcare reform, be ready to address common concerns, like the impact on healthcare costs or access to services, during the Q&A session.

By following these steps and incorporating examples that align with your specific speech topic and purpose, you can craft and deliver a compelling and impactful speech that resonates with your audience.

Tools for writing a great speech

There are several helpful tools available for speechwriting, both technological and communication-related. Here are a few examples:

• Word processing software: Tools like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word processors provide a user-friendly environment for writing and editing speeches. They offer features like spell-checking, grammar correction, formatting options, and easy revision tracking.
• Presentation software: Software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides is useful when creating visual aids to accompany your speech. These tools allow you to create engaging slideshows with text, images, charts, and videos to enhance your presentation.
• Speechwriting Templates: Online platforms or software offer pre-designed templates specifically for speechwriting. These templates provide guidance on structuring your speech and may include prompts for different sections like introductions, main points, and conclusions.
• Rhetorical devices and figures of speech: Rhetorical tools such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, and parallelism can add impact and persuasion to your speech. Resources like books, websites, or academic papers detailing various rhetorical devices can help you incorporate them effectively.
• Speechwriting apps: Mobile apps designed specifically for speechwriting can be helpful in organizing your thoughts, creating outlines, and composing a speech. These apps often provide features like voice recording, note-taking, and virtual prompts to keep you on track.
• Grammar and style checkers: Online tools or plugins like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor help improve the clarity and readability of your speech by checking for grammar, spelling, and style errors. They provide suggestions for sentence structure, word choice, and overall tone.
• Thesaurus and dictionary: Online or offline resources such as thesauruses and dictionaries help expand your vocabulary and find alternative words or phrases to express your ideas more effectively. They can also clarify meanings or provide context for unfamiliar terms.
• Online speechwriting communities: Joining online forums or communities focused on speechwriting can be beneficial for getting feedback, sharing ideas, and learning from experienced speechwriters. It's an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and improve your public speaking skills through collaboration.

Remember, while these tools can assist in the speechwriting process, it's essential to use them thoughtfully and adapt them to your specific needs and style. The most important aspect of speechwriting remains the creativity, authenticity, and connection with your audience that you bring to your speech.

5 tips for writing a speech

Behind every great speech is an excellent idea and a speaker who refined it. But a successful speech is about more than the initial words on the page, and there are a few more things you can do to help it land.

Here are five more tips for writing and practicing your speech:

1. Structure first, write second

If you start the writing process before organizing your thoughts, you may have to re-order, cut, and scrap the sentences you worked hard on. Save yourself some time by using a speech structure, like the one above, to order your talking points first. This can also help you identify unclear points or moments that disrupt your flow.

2. Do your homework

Data strengthens your argument with a scientific edge. Research your topic with an eye for attention-grabbing statistics, or look for findings you can use to support each point. If you’re pitching a product or service, pull information from company metrics that demonstrate past or potential successes. 

Audience members will likely have questions, so learn all talking points inside and out. If you tell investors that your product will provide 12% returns, for example, come prepared with projections that support that statement.

3. Sound like yourself

Memorable speakers have distinct voices. Think of Martin Luther King Jr’s urgent, inspiring timbre or Oprah’s empathetic, personal tone . Establish your voice — one that aligns with your personality and values — and stick with it. If you’re a motivational speaker, keep your tone upbeat to inspire your audience . If you’re the CEO of a startup, try sounding assured but approachable. 

4. Practice

As you practice a speech, you become more confident , gain a better handle on the material, and learn the outline so well that unexpected questions are less likely to trip you up. Practice in front of a colleague or friend for honest feedback about what you could change, and speak in front of the mirror to tweak your nonverbal communication and body language .

5. Remember to breathe

When you’re stressed, you breathe more rapidly . It can be challenging to talk normally when you can’t regulate your breath. Before your presentation, try some mindful breathing exercises so that when the day comes, you already have strategies that will calm you down and remain present . This can also help you control your voice and avoid speaking too quickly.

How to ghostwrite a great speech for someone else

Ghostwriting a speech requires a unique set of skills, as you're essentially writing a piece that will be delivered by someone else. Here are some tips on how to effectively ghostwrite a speech:

• Understand the speaker's voice and style : Begin by thoroughly understanding the speaker's personality, speaking style, and preferences. This includes their tone, humor, and any personal anecdotes they may want to include.
• Interview the speaker : Have a detailed conversation with the speaker to gather information about their speech's purpose, target audience, key messages, and any specific points they want to emphasize. Ask for personal stories or examples they may want to include.
• Research thoroughly : Research the topic to ensure you have a strong foundation of knowledge. This helps you craft a well-informed and credible speech.
• Create an outline : Develop a clear outline that includes the introduction, main points, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Share this outline with the speaker for their input and approval.
• Write in the speaker's voice : While crafting the speech, maintain the speaker's voice and style. Use language and phrasing that feel natural to them. If they have a particular way of expressing ideas, incorporate that into the speech.
• Craft a captivating opening : Begin the speech with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a relevant quote, an interesting fact, a personal anecdote, or a thought-provoking question.
• Organize content logically : Ensure the speech flows logically, with each point building on the previous one. Use transitions to guide the audience from one idea to the next smoothly.
• Incorporate engaging stories and examples : Include anecdotes, stories, and real-life examples that illustrate key points and make the speech relatable and memorable.
• Edit and revise : Edit the speech carefully for clarity, grammar, and coherence. Ensure the speech is the right length and aligns with the speaker's time constraints.
• Seek feedback : Share drafts of the speech with the speaker for their feedback and revisions. They may have specific changes or additions they'd like to make.
• Practice delivery : If possible, work with the speaker on their delivery. Practice the speech together, allowing the speaker to become familiar with the content and your writing style.
• Maintain confidentiality : As a ghostwriter, it's essential to respect the confidentiality and anonymity of the work. Do not disclose that you wrote the speech unless you have the speaker's permission to do so.
• Be flexible : Be open to making changes and revisions as per the speaker's preferences. Your goal is to make them look good and effectively convey their message.
• Meet deadlines : Stick to agreed-upon deadlines for drafts and revisions. Punctuality and reliability are essential in ghostwriting.
• Provide support : Support the speaker during their preparation and rehearsal process. This can include helping with cue cards, speech notes, or any other materials they need.

Remember that successful ghostwriting is about capturing the essence of the speaker while delivering a well-structured and engaging speech. Collaboration, communication, and adaptability are key to achieving this.

Give your best speech yet

Learn how to make a speech that’ll hold an audience’s attention by structuring your thoughts and practicing frequently. Put the effort into writing and preparing your content, and aim to improve your breathing, eye contact , and body language as you practice. The more you work on your speech, the more confident you’ll become.

The energy you invest in writing an effective speech will help your audience remember and connect to every concept. Remember: some life-changing philosophies have come from good speeches, so give your words a chance to resonate with others. You might even change their thinking.

Understand Yourself Better:

Big 5 Personality Test

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

Use a personal SWOT analysis to discover your strengths and weaknesses

How to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), is being ego driven damaging your career being purpose-driven is better, put out-of-office messages to work for you when you’re away, how to send a reminder email that’s professional and effective, what’s a vocation 8 tips for finding yours, create a networking plan in 7 easy steps, setting goals for 2024 to ring in the new year right, how long should you stay in a job this guide will help you figure it out, how to write an executive summary in 10 steps, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, 8 tips to improve your public speaking skills, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, how to pitch ideas: 8 tips to captivate any audience, how to give a good presentation that captivates any audience, anxious about meetings learn how to run a meeting with these 10 tips, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, 6 presentation skills and how to improve them, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702

• Platform Overview
• Integrations
• Powered by AI
• BetterUp Lead™
• BetterUp Manage™
• BetterUp Care®
• Sales Performance
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Case Studies
• Why BetterUp?
• About Coaching
• Find your Coach
• Career Coaching
• Communication Coaching
• Personal Coaching
• News and Press
• Leadership Team
• Become a BetterUp Coach
• BetterUp Labs
• Center for Purpose & Performance
• Leadership Training
• Business Coaching
• Contact Support
• Contact Sales
• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy
• Trust & Security
• Cookie Preferences

• Getting Started
• Best Practices

How to Give a Great Speech Every Time

August 8, 2020

How to give a great speak required practice and a specific skill set. And starts before you even step foot onto the stage. It comprises of three main categories: Getting Ready, Segments of the Speech, and Delivery. A good speech gives you the opportunity to leave the audience with the message you want to get across.

Getting Ready

Delivering a successful speech and the overall impression you give, depends on how well you prepare. This requires having a thorough understanding of your topic and a well-developed presentation. Additionally, it helps to know the stage, what you wear, how you stand and gesture, and how you will handle questions.

Know Your Topic

You probably have a good grasp of the topic on which you have been asked to speak or you would not have been asked. But just knowing the topic isn't enough of a strategy for giving a great speech. If you are still relatively new to the subject area, consider talking to others who have more expertise and doing more through research to prepare.

Being familiar with related topics and pertinent current events or trends is important, particularly if you will be answering questions. If speaking out of town, find out if any local issues or events are related to your speech topic.

Know Your Audience

Depending on the context of the speaking engagement, you might be able to some broad generalizations about the audience. However, don't make too many assumptions. Consider how much the audience already knows about your topic. Consider these questions:

• Will there be anyone who has a special or niche interest?
• Depending on your topic, will there be a contingency who have already taken a position about the topic?
• Will your approach be considered neutral, for, or against?

Answers to these questions should shape your speech and prepare you for follow-up questions.

Script Preparation

Many public speaking experts recommend writing out your speech, even if don’t plan on using notes. Doing this makes it easier to determine whether you are within your time limit and gives you something to edit.

Often speakers end up cutting their original manuscript in half to stay within the allotted time. If you intend to memorize your speech, you will need something to read and memorize.

EXPERT TIP If you use your written speech during delivery, make the font extra-large, in all capital letters, and on half of an 8-1/2 x 11-inch piece of paper or 5 x 7-inch cards. Mark pauses with a slash (/) and circle or underscore words and phrases requiring emphasis. Make sure to number the pages or cards.

The make-up of your audience should influence the language you use in your speech. Don't use technical terms with a nontechnical audience. Avoid phrases or nomenclature your listeners might not understand. Never use acronyms; they may exclude some audience members from your message. Use short sentences.

Above all, speak in a way that is natural for you. Stay away from compound sentences, multisyllable words, parenthetical phrases and qualifications, clichés, and overused phrases such as "you know."

Segments of the Speech

Your speech should have a clear opening, body, and ending. This not only lets the audience focus on what you are saying but it helps you convey the message you want to convey. Each segment provides an opportunity to engage the audience and build upon your overall message.

A strong opening statement will grab attention and set the tone for the rest of the speech. Right away establish the purpose and importance of your speech. There are several strategies you can use.

• Express your main point in an assertive manner   e.g. The company believes...
• Ask a rhetorical question   e.g. What is really needed to beat the pandemic?
• Include one or a series of startling facts   e.g. Are you aware that... ?
• Use a human-interest story
• Tell a joke or humorous anecdote One that bridges smoothly into the body of your speech will not only attract your listeners' attention, but also help you to relax.

No matter how you choose to begin, be sure it's pertinent to the topic of your speech and launches you toward making your main points.

Side Note: If you’ve been invited to give the speech, acknowledge the person who introduces you and thank the group for attending.

The body of your speech needs to support your topic, main message, and key points. There are many ways you can deliver the information you want to convey. However, avoid trying to use all of them as some may not be appropriate for the situation.

Anecdotes and Humor

Anecdotes and jokes, when chosen carefully and delivered naturally, are good tools to connect to your audience. Of course, humor should always be in good taste; in no way should it offend your audience.

Keep your humor relevant. Some apt humor within the speech can help maintain your rapport with your audience. A totally irrelevant joke will be recognized for what it is.

Not everybody can handle humor without some practice. Memorize and practice delivering anecdotes and one-liners because they fall flat if you read them. A pause is essential before the punchline and at the end of an anecdote.

Generally, if you are good at telling jokes privately, you will be able to joke publicly. If you're not a funny person, don't try to be funny at the podium.

Like humor, statistics are desirable, but too much data is hard for a listener to absorb. Save large tables of data, charts and graphs for a handout or packet the audience can take with them. For your presentations, use statistics and date to create complete thoughts or comparisons.

Good visuals add impact to your words. They should, however, support your speech and not overpower it.

Most people today use slide decks that can include charts, maps, and pictures along with text. However, don’t rule out the use of printed jumbo charts, maps, pictures, or other "show and tell" items. They can provide variety to your presentation but make sure everyone in the audience is able to see what you are showing.

Avoid complexity. Each visual should, at a glance, convey a single idea. The more "pictographic" a visual aid is, the better. With data and statistics only show the specific numbers or percentages that you mention.

Ending / Conclusion

The ending of your speech should be synopsis of what you covered by summarizing your main point and repeating your objectives.

A good strategy is to clue the audience that you are about to wrap up. For example, "Before I finish, there's one point I want to emphasize."

End compellingly or give your audience something extra like "In conclusion, let me add just one bit of advice."

Let your audience know how to connect with you via a website, email, or social media. If you will be presenting at at future meetings or seminars, it is appropriate to mention them at this point. Be open to answering questions, if the event is structured to include them.

A speech is only as effective as its delivery.

No matter how much time you spent writing your speech, your effort will be wasted if...

• You appear overly nervous
• You speak in a monotone
• You appear ridge or unmoving
• The audience can't hear you
• Your visuals can’t be seen by everyone

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice multiple times. To give a natural delivery, you need to be as familiar with the text you’ve written as possible. It helps alleviate nerves the more accustom you are with the flow of the speech.

Practice delivering your speech by yourself in front of a mirror, in front of a family member or co-worker, and/or before a video camera.

This give an opportunity to test your anecdotes and jokes, as well as your stance and gestures. It allows you to check that your visuals are clear, pertinent, and emphatic.

Remember the Clock

Unless you are giving a keynote speech and have been asked to speak for a longer period of time, the best time frame for most speeches is 15 to 20 minutes, with another 10 minutes for questions and answers. Regardless of the subject matter and delivery method, you will lose your audience if you go on longer than this.

If you been given a specific amount of time to speak that is shorter than 15-20 minutes, be vigilant about staying within that time limit. Exceeding your time limit will only create a dissatisfied audience and risk losing their respect.

Your Stage and Props

Arrive at the speech site early so you have a chance to check the ambiance, chat with your hosts and the person who will introduce you and meet the other speakers if there are any.

Note the location from which you will be speaking. If using a slide deck take note of the screen and projector location. Find out how much of the set up you will be responsible for. If using other visual aids, be sure they can be seen by everyone in the audience.

Take time to be sure your presentation slides are in the right order. If possible, see if you can run them through the projector before the audience arrives to identify and address any technical malfunctions.

Your Appearance

Your speech actually starts the moment you enter the room. Dress in a manner that makes you comfortable. However, be aware of nature of the event and audience. For instance, you may be most comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt but that might not be appropriate at an awards ceremony.

Check your clothing and overall appearance before going on stage. That will give an opportunity to catch spinach in your teeth or a coffee stain on your shirt.

Eye Contact and Body Signals

Think of your audience in three segments‚ left, center, and right. Look at, and speak directly to, individuals in each segment.

When speaking from behind a lectern, don't grab onto it and hold tightly with both hands. Your body will tense up and you'll appear even more nervous than you are. If the microphone is removable, you may wish to pick it up and move about.

Gestures can help you look more relaxed and add emphasis to what you are saying. However, like every other element of your speech, they need to be controlled and pertinent. Don't "dead pan." Smile, nod, shrug your shoulders‚ move naturally and appropriately. Stand tall, with your head level and your shoulders square.

While you are speaking, be aware of the signals your audience is sending you. Are they looking right at you or are their eyes wandering? Are they sitting up and listening or slouched and dozing? If you begin to lose too much of your audience, you may have to change your style.

Voice and Diction

A clear, strong voice sets off a speech just as an attractive frame enhances a picture. The general tendency is to speak too softly, so speak louder than you consider normal. Good volume communicates confidence.

A monotone is boring, so change volume and pitch during your speech. Absorb this technique by listening to newscasts and commercials on radio and television. Note how they create interest by changing voice pitch and emphasis. Work to develop enthusiasm and "sell" in your voice.

Diction is important. You need to enunciate without going overboard and appearing stilted. The bottom line is to be clear while appearing natural.

People tend to speak too fast. Pacing and pausing are among the most effective techniques for public speaking. Change speed: go faster for excitement and slower for suspense. You do not have to keep talking. Pauses attract attention and may even trigger applause after strong statements.

Related Posts

How to Build a Purpose-led Masterclass / Webinar Strategy

Video conferencing vs. webinar platforms: 5 key features to choose the right tool, the first 10 minutes: how to keep your audience hooked, 14 virtual event formats and how to choose which one to use.

Jennifer Sharkey is known as the Virtual Presentation Specialist. Being passionate about seeing people shine and be heard, she leans into her 20+ years of public speaking experience and uses what she has learned from presenting, both in-person and virtually, to small groups all the way up to 5000 people. Jennifer draws from her experience as an associate professor, academic librarian, and coach to help holistic coaches master virtual presentations to grow their business. Her unique immersive program provides practical strategies and methods to build confidence, engage audiences, and generate authenticity and authority.

Your Signature

Privacy Overview

• PRESENTATION SKILLS

Giving a Speech

Search SkillsYouNeed:

Presentation Skills:

• A - Z List of Presentation Skills
• Top Tips for Effective Presentations
• General Presentation Skills
• What is a Presentation?
• Preparing for a Presentation
• Organising the Material
• Writing Your Presentation
• Deciding the Presentation Method
• Managing your Presentation Notes
• Working with Visual Aids
• Presenting Data
• Managing the Event
• Coping with Presentation Nerves
• Dealing with Questions
• How to Build Presentations Like a Consultant
• 7 Qualities of Good Speakers That Can Help You Be More Successful
• Self-Presentation in Presentations
• Specific Presentation Events
• Remote Meetings and Presentations
• Presentations in Interviews
• Presenting to Large Groups and Conferences
• Giving Lectures and Seminars
• Managing a Press Conference
• Attending Public Consultation Meetings
• Managing a Public Consultation Meeting
• Crisis Communications
• Elsewhere on Skills You Need:
• Communication Skills
• Facilitation Skills
• Teams, Groups and Meetings
• Effective Speaking
• Question Types

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and start improving your life in just 5 minutes a day.

You'll get our 5 free 'One Minute Life Skills' and our weekly newsletter.

We'll never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

However many presentations you have given as part of your job, nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you are required to make a speech. This might happen if your friend has asked you to be his best man, or you are getting married, or your son or daughter is getting married.

You may have been asked to give an after-dinner speech at a formal function or, less happily, to give the eulogy at a funeral. You may also have to give speeches if you are taking up politics.

Fortunately, although there are differences from presentations, there are also a number of similarities. This page provides some tips about giving a speech.

The Difference Between a Speech and a Presentation

Some people use the terms ‘speech’ and ‘presentation’ interchangeably. However, for the purposes of this page, a speech is assumed to consist of speaking only. There is little or no interaction, and no slides or other visual aids.

Preparing for your speech

As with a presentation, so with a speech: prior preparation and planning prevents poor performance.

Having to give a speech for a wedding is not something that is exactly sprung on you at the last minute. You usually have plenty of time to prepare, and it's a good idea to use it. The reason that so many presenters use visual aids is because just speaking to people is a very inefficient means of communicating. It’s using only one of your audience’s five senses. So when you’re giving a speech, you need to grab their attention quickly, and then keep it.

One of the best ways to do this is to use stories.

Your preparation time should therefore be used in two ways:

• To work out the central message of your speech, which should be simple and straightforward; and
• To gather four or five stories that illustrate this through talking to others, or reading and researching for yourself.

Suppose you are giving the best man’s speech at your friend’s wedding. The central message of your speech is fundamentally what a good bloke your friend is, and how wonderful it is that he is marrying his bride ( not all the embarrassing things that he has ever done). You then need to choose two or three good stories that illustrate this and, as a bonus, will amuse the assembled group.

For a eulogy , it’s the same idea. Talk to friends and family and find two or three stories that really illustrate the life and/or values of the person you are eulogising. It is a tribute, not their life story.

Writing your Speech

Once you have gathered your material, the next step is to put it together.

Speeches need to be carefully structured. They must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning needs to grab your audience, the middle needs to hold on to them, and the end needs to finish off nicely.

You may find it helpful to have a ‘hook’ to hang the whole speech on. Ideas for wedding speech ‘hooks’ include events on that day in history, which may give you a starting point, or perhaps the initials of the bride or groom might lead you to expand on other things with that same initial that remind you of them?

Keep it simple. Three main points or stories are enough. You want to focus on the essentials, and get your message across.

You also do not want to offend anyone.

This brings us to the second important issue. As with presentations, it is important to know your audience .

The rugby club might be amused at the story where your friend took all his clothes off and was caught naked in a fountain by the police in a compromising position with a statue. The bride’s mother may not find it quite so funny.

If in doubt, leave it out.

If you're not easily offended then watch John Cleese read his eulogy to Graham Chapman.

Close your speech clearly. At weddings it’s easy: a toast to the bride and groom, or to the bridesmaids, will do nicely. But it’s an important point for other speeches too.

Experienced raconteurs may feel comfortable with sketchy notes.

If this is your first speech, however, you’ll probably want to write it out in full. Try, if you can, not to read it word-for-word, though, as it will sound a bit stilted.

As a rule of thumb, aim for a speech that is about five to seven minutes, and certainly no more than ten.

Practising your Speech in Advance

You may feel uncomfortable doing so, but it is helpful to practise by reading your speech out loud, preferably to a small audience you can trust.

When doing so, look out for:

• Moments when your audience glazes over, gets a bit bored, or starts to shift in their seats; and
• Bits of the speech that are awkward to say, either because of the content, or because of the words that you are using.

Consider amending these bits, deleting the first, and revising the second until you are comfortable with all the words you are using, and the ideas that you are expressing. This is especially important at funerals, because you do not want to become over-emotional.

Giving your Speech: On the Day

There is one really important rule here: be yourself. That’s why it’s important to practise in advance so that you are relaxed and comfortable with what you are saying. Don’t forget to make eye contact and smile, just as you would in a presentation.

If you’re a bit nervous beforehand, concentrate on keeping your breathing steady, and think of the adrenalin as something that will help you perform. For more about this, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

Remember to speak slowly and clearly .

You are unlikely to have a microphone for speeches at weddings and funerals at least, so you will need to concentrate on projecting your voice across the room. Speaking slowly will help you with that.

Also be prepared to adapt your speech a bit as you go. For example, if your early jokes fall a bit flat, be prepared to skim over any others lightly or miss them out. If you sense that you are losing your audience, or that you are taking longer than you expected, cut out a story or two.

After all, while nobody ever complained that a speech was too short, history is littered with complaints about over-long ones!

Remember, when you’re giving a speech, the audience is (usually) on your side (the exception might be in politics). As a general rule, they want you to succeed, to amuse them, and to make everyone smile.

But there is one very useful rule of thumb to bear in mind:

Stand up, speak up, shut up, sit down.

Abide by that and you will find your speeches are likely to be much more successful.

Continue to: Effective Speaking Self Presentation

See also: Why Public Speaking and Communication Are So Important to Your Career How to Become a Better Public Speaker Inspiring TED Talks (And What You can Learn from Them)

Give a Successful Speech Every Time

Sean d'souza outlines the effectiveness of the 13 box system..

Posted July 17, 2017

• Understanding Attention
• Take our ADHD Test
• Find a therapist to help with ADHD

Can you give a speech that actually inspires action? According to expert communicator Sean D’Souza, that’s exactly what every speech should do. Sean teaches us how to use the 13 Box System for constructing informative, engaging presentations that get people to take specific actions. Discover the best way to organize your speech, how to grab (and keep) your audience’s attention , and what to say in your conclusion to really ensure follow-through. Listen here.

Peter : Welcome to the Bregman Leadership podcast. I'm Peter Bregman, your host and CEO of Bregman Partners. This podcast is part of my mission to help you get massive traction on the things that matter most. With us today is Sean D'Souza. Sean was introduced to me by my friend Howie Jacobson. Howie has introduced me to a few really interesting people. Sean is among them. And I don't exactly know how to describe Sean. I will say that I learn a lot from him. He's a tremendous communicator.

When I was just talking with him recently before the show, and we were sort of talking about how to describe him ... He's a dancer, he's a chef, he's a cartoonist, he's a writer, and all of those things are true, and what I think we have to learn from him today on the podcast is is in his role as communicator because everything I've read from him I've really enjoyed, and I've learned from. And specifically years ago I read something that he wrote on the 13 boxes method of writing speeches, and I think he has a lot to say on the topic that could be useful to you as listeners. So Sean, welcome to the Bregman Leadership podcast.

Sean: I don't know how many times I've heard you say that on the podcast, but it's a pleasure to be there. It's a pleasure to be here.

Peter: I'm glad I say it with your name this time.

Sean: Well thank you.

Peter: So you and I both have a very very strong belief in communicating effectively and I want to start with the content in the 13 boxes method of organizing a speech because I think it's really useful and I also know that you have some views on why create a speech in the first place. So why don't we start there and we'll go into some detail, and we'll see where the conversation takes us?

Sean: Sure. So why do you create a speech in the first place? The reason why I think anyone should create a speech in the first place is to get one action. So you start off with the end of the speech. You go, "What is that end point?" And there'll be many books on this topic about the end point, but so many speeches that I hear, I listen to, I know that the presenter hasn't done their homework because they don't have a specific end point. What they have are a bunch of slides. What they have is fancy graphics. But what am I going to do at the end of it? What is the audience going to do at the end of it? That should be absolutely clear. And that can only be clear if the presentation itself is very clear.

When I say the presentation is very clear, it means that technically speaking, the audience should be able to recall everything you said which means you can't say a lot, and you're going into a lot of depth into one, two, or three things that you've covered. So to put it down, now I just said two things. See how confusing it is already. So people see 25 things on a presentation and if you were to nail it down to one thing, it is what is the audience going to do when the presentation is done?

Peter: So in terms of a presentation to just share knowledge, or to be interesting, or to give someone a wider perspective, all of those things don't necessarily demand action.

Sean: Correct.

Peter: Some of them are perspective. But you're saying that mostly when you're giving a speech you want to drive some kind of action. And if that's true, then the question is that you have to start with before even thinking about what you want to say is, what is the action that you're trying to drive?

Sean: Yeah. You think of yourself as a parent. Right? Every time you give a lecture to your kids. It's not like you want to give them a lecture. It's not like you just want to give them information. You have to be back ... You want to be very precise. You're saying, "I want you to be back home by 10 PM," right? And then all the preview to that is leading to 10 PM and all the dangers of not getting home by 10 PM, or whatever. Now you can give information. That's not difficult. But if I give you information on clouds, say "These are cirrus clouds, and cumulonimbus clouds," and all these clouds. And then, what do I want you to do at the end of it? I want to go out there and look at a cloud and go, "I know that cloud. I know what that cloud does."

So essentially everything does lead to one action when you think about it. If you don't think about it then you put a whole bunch of slides together. You put a whole bunch of information together. And by and large information causes confusion in people's heads. That's why their scribbling so many notes. If you have ten speakers you should have ten points. That's the end of the story. But instead you get three, four, five pages of notes and then no one acts on them and that's the whole point. You have to act on it.

Peter: So we could do a whole podcast on how to listen to speeches too because I think what ... Because so few people give good speeches and so few people are that focused. There's a whole conversation that says, "When you're listening to someone's circuitous, filled with complexity speech, how do you find that one nugget that you can pull out of it that would help you act in a way that would bring you closer to your objectives?"

Peter: So I think there's a whole conversation in that and maybe even just saying it is useful, because maybe we'll start listening to speeches slightly differently.

Sean: Well the short short version of that is very simple. I'm going to speak in Sweden in two days, but there'll be other speakers as well. And I keep all my points down to a single page. If I have to go to the second page, I don't need it. I mean, just one page. That's it. All the points down to a single page.

Peter: And you're making one main point. What's your one main point that you're making in Sweden?

Sean: You can increase your prices 15 minutes after you leave the room.

Peter: You can increase prices 15 minutes after you leave the room.

Sean: Yes, and not lose any customers.

Peter: Meaning when you're selling to somebody.

Sean : When you're selling to someone. So if you're selling ... Say you're selling a product or service, you can leave the room. In 15 minutes ... 15 minutes later, you can increase your prices on your website, on your documentation, and clients will pay the higher price and you don't lose customers.

Peter: Okay. So you've intrigued us and maybe we'll ask you ... Maybe I'll ask you a little bit at the end of the conversation how you do that. But let's go to the 13 boxes method because it's a method that puts some structure on what you're saying. How do you give a speech that leads people to take an action at the end of the speech predictably?

Sean : So the first thing you've got to realize is that you can't cover many points. You have to cover a maximum of three points. And the way I look at it is you have topics and you have subtopics. So say your topic is, I don't know, photography. Right? Now that's Now that's too broad a topic. And so you go down to a subtopic. And we're not going into the 13 boxes yet. We're just on the topic level. How do you choose a topic? And you say, "Okay I'm going to talk about photography." And then you go, "Okay I have all these nine points to cover in photography." Now this becomes very hard for the audience to follow. This is why they start scribbling notes. But if you say, "Well we're only going to talk about aperture, and then we're going to cover these three points in aperture." Now you have this clarity because at the end of it you want people to go, "Here's my camera. I'm going to turn the aperture to, I don't know, F2.6, or F16, or whatever, and this is the result I'm going to get."

Peter: Now wouldn't you want to take one step back from that and say, "The real topic of the speech is going to be how to make a subject pop in your photography, and in order to do that the one piece of the puzzle that I'm going to focus on is aperture." Don't you have to take that step back to say "What is the larger picture that we're trying to achieve?"

Sean: Yes. You have to do that. But your end point is going to be, "Okay this is how ..." When they step out of the room, what is that superpower that you've given them? What is that action plan that you've given them? And from there on you're going to go, "Okay. Here are the three points that you have to cover." So the 13 boxes really start off with an opening. And the opening is almost like a documentary. Sometimes when you're driving home and you listen to the radio and they give you these points, when they're doing documentaries, they go these very titillating points about what's going to show up. And so what you're starting out is with a story. I often start off with a story. And the reason why you start off with a story is because the audience is distracted.

They are always thinking about something else. They're always checking their Facebook . They're always doing something else, and you go on stage and say, "Did you know how Will Smith created blockbuster, after blockbuster, after blockbuster in a row? You would think that he was a great actor, but he science." And immediately no one is looking at their phones because you've started to tell a story. So you're first job is to tell a story or create a case study, or something that snaps the audience out. Because as long as they're still locked in their world, they're not in your world.

Peter: So you have to do something that grabs their attention. Can you do something other than tell a story? Are there other ways of grabbing attention?

Sean: You can do a lot of things. You can disagree with the point you just said. For instance you say, "How to make your audience faces stand out," whatever, and then you go the opposite way. You go, "Here's how you take a really rad photograph." And that contrast creates drama. So essentially what you're doing is you're always creating drama. The story and the case study are easier ways than just ... Say this pricing seminar I go, "Here's what I'm going to talk to you about. I'm going to tell you to reduce your prices by 50%, and then I'm going to tell you to reduce it by another 25%. What's going to happen to your business?" And immediately they go, "No no no. We don't want to reduce our prices. We're here to increase our prices." So now they're focused. And that's the first box in that 13 box thing which is, you're trying to get them to focus.

So you start off with the drama. You go on to the points that you're going to cover. You go into a bit of an agenda. The audience actually needs to know, "Hi, I'm Sean D'Souza. I'm speaking to you today and I'm going to cover three topics. These topics are ..." And how long is it going to take. Just very little stuff that gets them to know "I don't have to sit for an hour and a half. He's going to be 35 minutes."

Peter : Right. So the first thing you do is you grab their attention in a way that says "I'm going to put down my phone, and I actually kind of want to listen to this guy, or this woman."

Peter : And then the second thing is you give them a map of what you're about to do so they know they're not going to be stuck in their seats lost.

Sean : Correct. And this is all the first box. So you have to see this visually, and unfortunately we can't see visually but visualize a box and all of this information goes in this box. And what you then need to do, is you're now going into a phase where you're introducing the topics. So you're saying "What we're going to do today is going to make these faces look really grand on your camera. What we're going to do is cover point one, point two, and point three." And it's very important that you first announce the three things that you're going to cover. "You have to come to Auckland. In Auckland you get wine, food, and sightseeing." Now I know this is my map. This is my clarity. You're not talking about wine, or food, or sightseeing, you're just saying, "This is the overview."

Peter : Are you at risk of losing people because you're giving them a table of contents and they might look at it and say, "I don't really need to know about food and drink in Auckland," but really you're ... I mean that's the focus of your speech, but you're going to do it a more interesting way than the table of contents seems to convey.

Sean : Yes. And again what you're doing is you're always enticing. You're going ... So if you were to say, "What we're going to cover is food. Where do you find the cheapest food," or "Where do you find the most expensive food? Where do you find the most exotic food? The second thing we're going to cover is," say, "Drink. There are some wines in Auckland that you get nowhere else in the world." Right? So, again what you're doing is you're creating this ... Always the audiences, they want to be entertained and informed. They don't just want to be informed.

Peter : Interesting. And so every move you make at the beginning of the speech opens a mystery.

Sean : Correct.

Peter: So you're going to say ... You're going to tantalize the audience in effect. You're going to grab their attention, and you're going to share the pieces that you're about to share with them with a question. So it might be, if this was a corporate presentation and you're talking about budgets ... I'm trying to take something that listeners might find potentially a little boring .

Then you might say, you might frame it in terms of, "We've got a big challenge here in terms of closing the gap, in terms of being profitable." Right? "Closing the gap between our ..." Or, "Creating more of a gap between our income and expenses where a gap doesn't necessarily exist." This is a situation where you actually want a gap. You want much higher income than you have expenses. "And we're going to see in the next 20 minutes of this conversation, we're going to see why the money we're spending on toilets might be the ..." So you're trying to pitch it in a way that you're engaging their interest and you're showing some gap of sorts, or some opening where they might want to know where you're going with it. And you want do that in the very first box in the very beginning of the speech.

Sean : So the first box is about introducing what you're going to say. But the next three boxes they're your table of contents. How you make them interesting is totally up to you but you have to be careful that the audience doesn't get lost in that chatter. So often you may sound really boring to just have a table of contents, but if you've done a really good opening your audience will give you that chance. Like you've entertained them with a story about Will Smith when you were going to talk about budgeting. You've entertained them with how Japan was closed for 200 years and now you're going to talk about budgets. So when you start off with something that's very interesting in a case study or a story, they will give you that extra time and you can just stick to the three ... The next three boxes you can just go, "Okay what we're going to talk about is one, two, three." Right? "And let's start off with the first one."

You can go very quickly over those first three boxes. I'm sorry. The next ... These boxes are crazy when you talk about them but you give the introduction. You go, "I'm going to cover one, two, three. Let's start off with the first box." You can go very quickly over to that next box. That's when all the good stuff happens.

Peter : Why three?

Sean : Because I can't remember more stuff. So you need to actually test your presentation if you have the chance to do so by getting the audience. So what I do is at the end of my speech I will get the audience to repeat what I just said. And I'll go, "Okay, here's the summary. And what did we cover the first thing?" And they go, "Yeah, this and then that." And that's when you know it's not installed. It's not installed in their books, it's installed in their brain. And if you cover more than three, then ... So even when you're covering these three, you're not really covering three topics. You're covering three subtopics. "We're going to talk about the budget, increasing the budget, lowering the budget, driving the budget crazy."

Peter: And if you had only two, would that be okay? Or is there some magic to three?

Sean : Of course there is a magic to three. That imbalance is good. I mean we've always known there is this magic to three. It's like "We're going to fight them on the beaches. We're going to fight them on the land. We're going to fight them ..." Whatever. There is this sort of imbalance about three that two seems to land with a thud. It's like "I'm going to talk about this and this."

Peter: And one is too simple so you really want three.

Sean : Yeah. One is your main topic anyway. The three subtopics. So three is -

Peter : Is there a rule of thumb in terms of how to choose the three subtopics?

Sean : What I tend to do is go deeper. So when I choose a topic I go, "Okay how can I go one level down? And then another level down?" So I'm not just trying to go ... The broadest topic is, "Okay we're going to talk about," I don't know, "Lamps," or, "We're going to talk about real estate," or, "We're going to talk over budgeting." And that becomes very hard for the audience to go, "Oh this is a really interesting topic." So you go down from budgeting to hard nosed budgeting. And then hard nosed budgeting in difficult times. And now you've got a focus.

Peter : So as you're describing this I'm realizing for listeners it would probably be useful to have specific example that you're talking through. Can you think of a speech that, either the speech that you're giving or that you have to give, or that you had to give that fits this model so that they have a concrete example as you're discussing it?

Sean: Yeah. So for instance this pricing thing, I will start off with the first section. And now I'm going to talk about the three topics. So what are the three topics? "What I'm going to talk about today is first of all why you need to increase your prices. Secondly, how to go about a systematic way to increase your prices. And the third is, pricing sequencing. How people tend to choose products and services based on a dinner sequence. Just how they go out to dinner. So let's start off with why you have to increase your prices." And that's when I go into the next box. So now I've covered four boxes. I'm now into my fifth box where I'm talking about the first topic which is why you have to increase prices.

Peter: Or the first subtopic.

Peter: So you wake them up, you grab their attention, you tell them the main area that you're talking about which is increasing prices, and now you're going to go into three subtopics of that that you've told them to expect which is ... The first one of which is why to do it. So now what? Now what we do in ... So now we're in that first subtopic.

Sean : Correct. So no you have to really make your point. And what I tend to do is I use three here as well. I'm going, "Why do you have to increase your prices?" And then I will cover three points there. It's not very clear so I don't announce those points, but I cover three points. So I will say, "First of all, why you should increase prices is one, it helps in your ... You attract customers because higher prices actually attract better customers." Then I will cover the second point, and the third point. In that first subtopic I will cover three specific points, but not make it over that "Okay I'm covering three points again here." Because that will confuse the audience. It's like, "Three at the top, three in the middle." No. But I know in my own brain that this is what I'm covering. Three points.

Peter: It's a way also for you as a speaker to have grounded authority in a way too because it's very simple. I mean I'm not giving the speech, but I get the structure which is I'm going to grab their attention. I want to focus on raising prices, now I've got three pieces and I can go deep. It's a way of organizing in my mind that allows me to not get lost in my own talk-

Peter : Which I will sees sometimes people do.

Sean : Yeah. And you get depth as well. So you're not just making a point. But because you have to cover three points in that point, that subtopic ... If we were to take it a subtopic A, B, C, now under A you have one, two, three. Under B you have one, two, three. Under C you have one, two, three.

Peter: And I imagine that in those subtopics, why you need to raise prices, you're going to be telling stories, you're going to give examples, you might give references, you might show times when it didn't work and still paid off. You're going to ... That's where you do a little bit of a dance-

Peter : In exploring and painting a picture of this particular topic. And then you tell them you've done that topic and you're going to the next topic.

Sean : Correct. So what you're doing now is now you're a full blown entertainer. Right? It's not just information. The examples, the stories in between, what they create is this entertainment factor. And people ... Why you have to ... You got to recognize why people's attention goes down. Now we can talk for a while and if I switch over to a story, immediately your attention goes up again. I switch away from the story, it stabilizes again. Again the story comes up ... So what

I tend to do is I tend to put in examples and stories at intervals within those sections. The one, two, three.

So I'm going, "Okay this point is about blah blah blah," and then I will have either a story a demonstration. Now in this pricing I have to show them that a T-shirt costs $150. And I go, 'Who's going to pay $150 for a T-shirt?" And I show them a T-shirt. Well that gets the attention up again.

Peter : Right.

Sean : And here, and so -

Peter : So you're asking them questions, you're showing them surprising evidence, you're again kind of them giving them the unexpected in a way that supports the story you're trying to tell them.

Sean : Yeah. I mean it's unexpected but you can also have something that they already know. For instance, the basic objection of increasing prices is that clients will go away. And what I show them is a Coke bottle. I show them the big Coke bottle, and I show them the can. And I say, "You know the can costs more than the big bottle. How much sense does that make to you?"

Peter: Right.

Sean: Right? And they go, "Oh. Never thought of that before but I've seen it a million times." I say, "You know, you're saying that everything has a fixed price, should have a fixed price based on the marketplace. Well you bought a house, right? So the real estate person says that the house is worth 200,000. You want 250,000. The buyer wants to pay 180,00. The council says it's 120,000. This is a documented historical perspective of the house, and you have four prices there."

Peter: So you're using examples that illustrate the point that you're trying to make.

Sean : Right. But then as you're going through you also have to make sure that you bring up ... You have to consider their objections.

Peter : And you raise their objections for them.

Sean : Yes. You always do that. Yes. Because if you don't raise the objections and kind of demolish them, then they're stuck on that. You've gone to the next point and they're still stuck on the old one.

Peter : Great. So now we've done the three ... You've woken them up, you've given them the major topic, you've broken it into three subtopics, you've now gone into depth in each one of those three one at a time using story and entertainment and sort of surprising facts, now are we coming in for a landing?

Sean : Yes. You're coming in for landing. Essentially you're doing exactly. So every speaker that goes to any speaking place they tell them, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them what you are telling them. And them tell them you what you just told them." And the summary is extremely crucial. It's the opposite of the contents. So we started off with, "We're going to cover three topics. One, two, three." Then you cover those three topics in detail. And then you tell them, "What we just covered was this. Under A, we covered one, two, three points. Under B we covered, one, two, three points. Under C we covered one, two, three points." And-

Peter : And any way to wrap it up beyond that?

Sean : Yeah. And then there's the last box which is now what do you want them to do? How do you want them to do it? So it depends on what you're presentation is. It depends on, "Okay, now here's what you need to do. The next thing you need to do is break up into groups and find out the uniqueness of this company based on what I've just told you." Right? Or, "You say, okay go to the ground floor and pick up a Coke can and look out it." What do you want them to do so that they're going to take a next step? If you're in a ... All presentations are not from the stage. Some presentations you're in the room. You're selling to investors, you're selling to people. You want them to do something. You don't want them clap here.

Peter : So be explicit. You're saying be explicit about what it is exactly that you want them to do and tell them. Be upfront and straightforward about it.

Sean : Yeah. I tell the audience, "You know 95% of this audience is going to raise their prices within the next few minutes or within 24 hours." And they go, "Why 95%?" I go, "Because 5% will listen to everything and do nothing."

Peter : Right. And obviously that incites the 95% to want to be part of the 95%.

Sean : Exactly.

Peter : Or it incites the 100% to want to be part of the 95%.

Peter : Sean if we, on our site, could we create a link to a 13 boxes form something that people ... Because they've heard us talk about it, now is there a template or something that they could use to think about this?

Sean : Yes we can do that. For sure.

Peter : Okay. That'd be great so that people will-

Sean : Now I just want to make sure that this is not my invention. Okay. This is the work of my friend Eugene Moreau, and he came up with the 13 box system. We were sitting at a café and I came up with the name for it but that's my whole contribution to it other than other stuff that I've added to it along the way.

Peter : Right. And it's ... Thank you for that, and it's a great framework. And it's a framework that I use that, again Howie who introduced me to you sent me a book on it maybe ... Probably around the time that I came out with 18 Minutes and I structured my 18 Minutes, my book 18 Minutes I structured the speech that I'd given that and it's such a simple, clear approach to organizing my thoughts. It also takes an hour speech and it cuts the timing so I know what I'm doing in these first five minutes. And each section takes about ten minutes, and it makes something that otherwise might feel unmanageable into something very manageable.

So thank you for sharing with the guests, with our listeners today. And thank you for sharing it with me years and years ago. And I'm glad that it's spreading, and thank you for being on the Bregman Leadership podcast.

Sean: It's a pleasure. It's always a pleasure speaking to you.

Peter: I've been speaking with Sean D'Souza who was kind enough to, he's in Australia-

Sean: New Zealand.

Peter: New Zealand. Sorry. That's a terrible mistake to make. He's in New Zealand. When we're recording this it's 5 AM, so Sean I appreciate you waking up early in order to to do the podcast, and thank you always for how generous you are with everything that you create because a lot of it is out there for people to just read, and I appreciate it.

Sean: You're welcome. Thank you.

Peter: I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Bregman Leadership podcast. If you did it would really help us if you subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. A common problem that I see in companies is a lot of busyness. A lot of hard work that fails to move the organization as a whole forward. That's the problem that we solve with our Big Arrow process. For more information about that, or to access all of my articles, videos, and podcasts, visit peterbregman.com. Thank you Clare Marshall for producing this episode, and thank you for listening.

Peter Bregman is recognized as the #1 executive coach in the world by Leading Global Coaches and is the best selling author and contributor of 16 books, including his most recent, Leading with Emotional Courage.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

It’s increasingly common for someone to be diagnosed with a condition such as ADHD or autism as an adult. A diagnosis often brings relief, but it can also come with as many questions as answers.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Save £500 when you enrol by 30th September!

• 11 Tips for Giving a Great Speech

Chances are you’ll be asked to give speeches or presentations in classes at school. If you get involved in volunteer groups, brief speeches to open events or thank participants are a must. Then there are the speeches at events such as weddings, as well as speeches that you might have to give in the workplace. That amounts to the average person being required to give quite a lot of speeches, even if they don’t get involved in an area such as politics where the ability to give a good speech becomes even more important. You might also have suffered through quite a number of bad speeches from other people – whether that’s at family events where the microphone squeaks the whole way through or a school presentation where the headteacher can’t quite make the jokes work. If you don’t want to inflict the same sort of experience on others, here are our top tips for giving a great speech.

1. Practise your microphone technique

2. Keep it short

Particularly at something like a party or a wedding, no one will be unhappy if your speech runs a little short; it’ll just give them more time to investigate the canapés. If you are giving a speech for a class in school, and it’ll be assessed, you need to prioritise keeping it within the required time limits. But even under these circumstances, if you’ve been tasked – say – with giving a 10-15 minute speech, it’s usually better to come in nearer the 10 than the 15 minute mark. Put simply, even if your speech is terrible, your audience can probably tolerate it for 10 minutes. Much longer, and they’ll be struggling. This shouldn’t limit what you can cover; in the film Up , the whole of Carl and Ellie’s heartbreaking love story is told in under 12 minutes. Do you really need longer to make your points? Achieve brevity by writing out the speech you would give if you had all the time in the world, and then cut anything that seems extraneous or boring.

3. Consider what your audience wants to hear

If you are giving a speech in class because it’s your assignment, what your audience wants to hear is likely to be “the bell ringing for lunch”; you can’t help them there. But under other circumstances, consider what your audience wants to hear and what you want to say, and strive for there to be as much overlap as possible. In the context of a political speech, for instance, what you want to say might be why your party should receive votes; what your audience wants to hear is what your party would do for them, if they won power. Hopefully it should be possible to write a speech that meets both sets of needs, rather than focusing solely on whatever it is that you want to say and leaving your audience disappointed.

4. Pick a theme and stick to it

Here’s a goal for giving a speech: someone sitting near the back, who’s messing around on their phone for at least two-thirds of it and focusing mainly on how long it will be until lunch, should nonetheless be able to give a reasonably accurate answer to the question, “what was it about?” If you’re supposed to be giving a speech in defence of the nuclear deterrent, for example, both the topic and your position on it should be clearly identifiable. This means – to stick with the nuclear deterrent example – not talking for a while about jobs, and then the wider economy, and then the North-South divide, and then Scottish independence, and then Ukraine with a brief digression into South Ossetia before rounding off by squeaking out “and that’s why we should renew Trident!” seconds before you run out of time – no matter how relevant that cornucopia of topics may feel (and they are all relevant, albeit tenuously). It means that even if you do have to take a while to explain a more complex idea, you need to be concise, and bring it back to your theme as quickly as you can.

5. Speak slowly

Most people speak more quickly than they realise when they’re on stage, especially if they’re nervous. But no one will be able to follow your speech if you’re jabbering it out. Thankfully, this one is easy to fix with a little effort and practise. First of all, figure out how quickly you’re actually speaking: do a word count for your speech and then time yourself saying it. A fast speaker will speak at maybe 160 words per minute, a slow speaker at 100 wpm and an average speaker at 130 wpm. For a formal speech, you want to be speaking on the slow side. While this will vary by culture and environment, 120 wpm is a reasonable target to aim for; slow enough that everyone should be able to understand you, and fast enough that you hopefully won’t be sending them to sleep.

6. Tell a couple of jokes

This is a tricky tip because there are lots of pitfalls in the world of telling jokes. For instance, there’s the temptation to include an in-joke that three of your friends will understand and find hilarious, that is utterly baffling to everyone else in the room. Avoid this – if you include any jokes, witty references or anything along those lines, make sure they are accessible to everyone present. All the same, if you can manage a joke or two, it can be a useful way to break up a speech and retain the audience’s interest. A little self-deprecation (not too much!) or the use of classic joke formats such as “the scene was chaotic; it looked as if a bomb had hit and we didn’t know where to start on repairs – but that’s enough about the hen party…” work nicely even if you’re not very confident. Don’t turn it into a stand-up comedy sketch if you’re not a comedian, don’t wait for ages for laughter that’s not showing up, and don’t make jokes at the expense of anyone who you don’t know for sure can take it.

7. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself if you need to

If you follow US or UK politics at all, you’ve probably heard some of these phrases recently: take back control, make America great again, long-term economic plan, son of a bus driver. Three of these have already led the party or people they’re associated with to electoral victory; the fourth remains to be seen. To take the ‘son of a bus driver’ as an example, this refers to Sadiq Khan, now Mayor of London. There can be hardly anyone in London who doesn’t know what their Mayor’s dad did for a living. Meanwhile, many of them probably can’t remember his rival Zac Goldsmith’s name, let alone anything he said during the campaign. The point is that repetition works. In pursuit of point 4, if you want people to remember your key theme, you’re going to have to say it more than once. Don’t assume that everyone will have paid attention to everything you’ve said, unless you’re in a classroom setting where they’ll get told off if they don’t.

8. Only use the visual aids you need

This tip applies to two things: PowerPoints and notes. If you can do without either (and your assignment allows it), then do. Every time you’re glancing over your notes or up at the screen, fiddling with the laptop to get the slide to move on, fighting with a video that isn’t working or struggling to read your own handwriting, is time that you’re not spending engaging with your audience. A well-written, clear speech delivered without notes is always going to be better than someone awkwardly reading aloud the bullet points on their PowerPoint slides. If you must do a presentation – for instance, because there are photos that need to be included – have as little text on it as possible, preferably none. That way, if there are people at the back who can’t really see the screen through the sea of heads in front of them, they’ll still be able to follow what you’re saying.

9. Get a friend to check for awkward mannerisms

Mannerisms that are entirely fine in normal life become awkward and strange when you’re speaking in public. Perhaps you’re inclined to fiddle with your hair or your cuffs, you rock back and forth on the balls of your feet, or you have a habit of reaching your hand to your cheek when you’re talking. No one would notice in everyday conversation, but when you’re on a stage, it’ll become all they’ll see. Some of this is easily avoidable – for instance, if you have long hair that you’re inclined to twirl or otherwise fiddle with, tie it up. For other mannerisms, get the critical friend who helped you sort out your microphone technique to tell you what they are, and do your best to suppress the more annoying ones.

10. Look around the room

Talking about eye contact usually has the effect of making normal eye contact a lot harder, and so does giving a speech. All of a sudden, you’re up on stage, and you have no idea what a normal way to look at a group of people is. Some speakers deal with this by picking a point in the middle distance and speaking to it; others by picking a particular person near to the back and addressing their entire speech at them. This is obviously no fun for that person, who probably spends the whole thing feeling extremely uncomfortable, but it’s not too weird for everyone else. Better still, though, if you can manage it, is to look slowly and steadily around the room, trying to make eye contact with a decent range of people, before returning to the middle distance for a while, rinse and repeat. This needs to be slow and steady, or you give the impression that you’ve just smelled smoke and are casting about for a fire exit before the stampede beings.

11. Don’t be scared of a good reaction

If your speech is genuinely engaging, funny, inspiring or any of the other things you might hope it would be, your audience will react to it. There might be laughter, or applause, or even a bit of cheering depending on the setting. This can be daunting because when you’re practising your speech in front of your bedroom mirror, there’s no way to prepare for it. And it’s where even the best speakers can go wrong, by launching straight into what they were going to say next without waiting for the laughter or applause to stop, or by looking painfully awkward while it’s going on. It’s a pitfall that’s mostly solved by being aware it might happen. If your audience is applauding you or otherwise reacting well, it’s OK to smile, look up, wait for them to stop and then keep going with your speech – it’s as simple as that. You could even throw in a “thank you” before you continue in the knowledge that it’s all going well. Image credits: microphones ; audience ; boy with microphone ; clock ; winding road ; enjoy a joke ; sticky notes ; 

Unsupported browser

This site was designed for modern browsers and tested with Internet Explorer version 10 and later.

It may not look or work correctly on your browser.

• Presentations
• Public Speaking

The Best Source for PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Use)

Before we dive into how to make a speech, let's look at a powerful tool that can help you design your presentation.

Envato Elements is a great place to find PowerPoint templates to use with your speech. These presentation templates are professionally designed to impress.

Envato Elements is an excellent value because you get unlimited access to digital elements once you become a subscriber. Envato Elements has more than just presentation templates . You get:

• stock images
• and much more

To become a subscriber, just sign up and pay a low monthly fee.

Sample Public Speaking Scenario

Here's a possible public speaking scenario:

You've just opened a small web design business in your town, and you join the town Chamber of Commerce. As a result, you're invited to give a short, five-minute presentation at the next Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Coming up with a public speaking speech for the scenario described above could be a challenge if you've never written or given a public speech before. Fortunately, there are some speech-writing steps that you can use that'll make speech writing easier.

Let's use this example and walk through the steps for writing a speech.

7 Steps for Writing a Speech

The steps for writing a speech for public speaking are like the steps for writing a presentation in general. But at each stage of the writing process, you need to keep your audience in mind:

1. Research Your Audience

Whenever you do any type of writing you need to consider who you're trying to reach with your writing. Speech writing is no different. The more you know about your target audience, the more effective your writing will be.

In the example above, you know that your audience is going to be the other members of the Chamber of Commerce. They're likely to be small business owners just like you are.

What to Do After You Research Your Audience:

Once you've defined your audience, you can gear your speech towards them. To do this, ask yourself questions like:

• What does this audience need?
• What problem can I solve for them?
• Is there anything else I need to consider about my listeners?

In the example we're using for this tutorial, most small businesses in your town fit one of the following three situations:

• They've got a website that works well.
• They've got a website, but the design is outdated or doesn't work well.
• They don't have a website.

2. Select a Topic

In this example your topic is already given. You've been invited to introduce your business. But you also know that the speech is going to be fairly short--only five minutes long.

While it's always a good idea to keep a speech focused, this is especially important for a short speech.

If I were writing the public speaking speech for the scenario we're working with, I'd narrow the topic down like this:

• Create a list of the strengths of my business.
• Compare the list of business strengths to the problems I observed with the other members' websites in the previous step.
• Focus my presentation on the areas where my business strengths meet weaknesses (needs) of other Chamber of Commerce members.

Let's say that I noticed that quite a few members of the chamber have websites that use outdated fonts, and the sites aren't mobile-friendly. Instead of listing everything my web design business could possibly do, I'd focus my short speech on those areas where I observed a need.

You can use a similar process to narrow the topic down any time you need to write a speech.

Avoid the temptation of trying to cover too much information. Most people are so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new data they receive each day that they can't keep up with it all. Your listeners are more likely to remember your public speaking speech if it's tightly focused on one or two points.

3. Research Your Topic

In the example we've been going over, you probably don't need to do a lot of research. And you've already narrowed your topic down.

But some public speaking situations may require that that you cover a topic that you're less familiar with. For more detailed speech writing tips on how to study your subject (and other public speaking tips), review the tutorial:

4. Write Your Speech

Once you've completed the steps above, you're ready to write your speech. Here are some basic speech writing tips:

• Begin with an outline . To create a speech your audience will remember, you've got to be organized. An outline is one of the best ways to organize your thoughts.
• Use a conversational tone . Write your speech the way you would normally talk. Work in some small talk or humor, if appropriate.
• Use the speaker notes . Typically, speaker notes aren't seen by the audience. So, this is a good place to put reminders to yourself.
• Be specific . It's better to give examples or statistics to support a point than it is to make a vague statement.
• Use short sentences . It's likely you're not going to give your speech word for word anyway. Shorter sentences are easier to remember.

In this example scenario for the short speech we're preparing for the Chamber of Commerce, your outline could look something like this:

• Introduction . Give your name and the name of your business. (Show title slide of website home page with URL)
• Type of Business . Describe what you do in a sentence or two. (Show slide with bulleted list)
• Give example of a recent web design project . Emphasize areas that you know the other businesses need. (Show slides with examples)
• Conclusion.  Let the audience know that you'd be happy to help with their web design needs. Offer to talk to anyone who's interested after the meeting. (Show closing slide that includes contact information)
• Give out handouts . Many presentation software packages allow you to print out your speech as a handout. For a networking-type presentation like the one in our example, this can be a good idea since it gives your listeners something to take with them that's got your contact information on it.

That simple speech format should be enough for the short speech in our example. If you find it's too short when you practice, you can always add more slides with examples.

If you've been asked to give a short speech, you can change the speech format above to fit your needs. If you're giving a longer speech, be sure to plan for audience breaks and question and answer sessions as you write.

5. Select a Presentation Tool

For most presentations, you'll want to use a professional presentation tool such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, or a similar package. A presentation tool allows you to add visual interest to your public speaking speech. Many of them allow you to add video or audio to further engage your audience.

If you don't already have a presentation tool, these tutorials can help you find the right one for your needs:

Once you've chosen a presentation tool, you're ready to choose a template for your presentation.

6. Select a Template and Finish

A presentation template controls the look and feel of your presentation. A good template design can make the difference between a memorable public speech with eye-catching graphics and a dull, forgettable talk.

You could design your own presentation template from scratch. But, if you've never designed a presentation template before, the result might look less than professional. And it could take a long time to get a good template. Plus, hiring a designer to create an original presentation template can be pricey.

A smart shortcut for most small business owners is to invest in a professional presentation template. They can customize it to fit with their branding and marketing materials. If you choose this option, you'll save time and money. Plus, with a professional presentation template you get a proven result.

You can find some great-looking presentation templates at  Envato Elements  or  GraphicRiver . To browse through some example templates, look at these articles:

Even a short speech like the one we've been using as an example in this tutorial could benefit from a good tutorial. If you've never used a template before, these PowerPoint tutorials can help:

7. How to Make a Public Speech

Now that you've completed all the steps above, you're ready to give your speech. Before you give your speech publicly, though, there are a few things you should remember:

• Don't read your speech . If you can, memorize your speech. If you can't, it's okay to use note cards or even your outline--but don't read those either. Just refer to them if you get stuck.
• Practice . Practice helps you get more comfortable with your speech. It'll also help you determine how your speech fits into the time slot you've been allotted.
• Do use visual aids . Of course, your presentation template adds a visual element to your public speech. But if other visual aids work with your presentation, they can be helpful as well.
• Dress comfortably, but professionally . The key is to fit in. If you're not sure how others at your meeting will be dressed, contact the organizer and ask.
• Speak and stand naturally . It's normal to be a little nervous but try to act as naturally as you can. Even if you make a mistake, keep going. Your audience probably won't even notice.
• Be enthusiastic . Excitement is contagious. If you're excited about your topic, your audience will likely be excited too.

In the example we're using in this tutorial (and with many public speaking opportunities), it's important not to disappear at the end of the meeting. Stick around and be prepared to interact individually with members of the audience. Have answers to questions anyone might have about your speech. And be sure to bring a stack of business cards to pass out.

5 Quick Tips to Make a Good Speech Great (& More Memorable)

After reading about the basics, here are some more tips on how to write a great speech really stand out:

1. Have a Strong Opening

Start your speech with a strong opening by presenting surprising facts or statistics. You could even start with a funny story or grand idea.

Another way to start your speech is to open with a question to spark your audience’s curiosity. If you engage your audience early in your speech, they're more likely to pay attention throughout your speech.

2. Connect With Your Audience

You want a speech that'll be memorable. One way to make your speech memorable is to connect with your audience. Using metaphors and analogies help your audience to connect and remember. For example, people use one writing tool to put the speech's theme in a 15-20 word short poem or memorable paragraph, then build your speech around it.

3. Have a Clear Structure

When writing your speech, have a clear path and a destination. Otherwise, you could have a disorganized speech. Messy speeches are unprofessional and forgettable. While writing your speech, leave out unnecessary information. Too many unnecessary details can cause people to lose focus.

4. Repeat Important Information

A key to writing memorable speeches is to repeat key phrases, words, and themes. When writing your speech, always bring your points back to your main point or theme. Repetition helps people remember your speech and drives home the topic of your speech.

5. Have a Strong Closing

Since the last thing that your audience listened to what your closing, they'll remember your closing the most. So, if your closing is forgettable, it can make your speech forgettable. So, recap your speech and repeat essential facts that you want the audience to remember in your closing.

Five PowerPoint Presentation Templates (From Envato Elements - For 2022)

If you’re writing a speech for a presentation, save time by using a premium presentation template:

1. Toetiec PowerPoint Presentation

Toetic PowerPoint Presentation has 90 unique slides and 1800 total slides that you can easily add your information onto. There are ten light and dark versions that come with this template. Also included in this template are vector icons, elements, and maps.

2. Suflen Multipurpose Presentation

Suflen Multipurpose Presentation template has a professional design that can work for any presentation topic. This template comes with over 450 total slides. With this template, you've got five color themes to choose from. Also, this template comes with illustrations, graphics, and picture placeholders.

3. Virtually PowerPoint

Virtually PowerPoint template is a modern and minimal style presentation template. This template comes with over 50 slides. You can use this template for any presentation theme.

4. Amarish PowerPoint Template

Amarish PowerPoint Template comes with five color themes that allow you to choose the color you want. This template is another multipurpose template that can work for any purpose. Also, this template comes with over 150 total slides and infographics, illustrations, and graphics.

5. Qubica PowerPoint Template

Qubica PowerPoint Template comes with over 150 total slides and five premade color themes. Easily add images into your presentation template by dragging the image of your choice into the picture placeholder. Everything in this template is entirely editable.

Learn More About How to Write a Great Speech

Here are some other tutorials that provide more information on giving a speech:

Learn More About Making Great Presentations

Download The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations eBook now for FREE with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. Get your ideas formed into a powerful presentation that'll move your audience!

Make Your Next Speech Your Best Ever!

You've just learned how to write a good public speaking speech. You've been given a sample speech format and plenty of other speech writing tips and resources on how to write a good speech. You've seen some templates that'll really make a PowerPoint stand out.

Now, it's up to you to write the best speech for your needs. Good luck!

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Sarah Joy . Sarah is a freelance instructor for Envato Tuts+.

15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking , Speech Writing

Powerful speech opening lines set the tone and mood of your speech. It’s what grips the audience to want to know more about the rest of your talk.

The first few seconds are critical. It’s when you have maximum attention of the audience. And you must capitalize on that!

Instead of starting off with something plain and obvious such as a ‘Thank you’ or ‘Good Morning’, there’s so much more you can do for a powerful speech opening (here’s a great article we wrote a while ago on how you should NOT start your speech ).

To help you with this, I’ve compiled some of my favourite openings from various speakers. These speakers have gone on to deliver TED talks , win international Toastmaster competitions or are just noteworthy people who have mastered the art of communication.

After each speaker’s opening line, I have added how you can include their style of opening into your own speech. Understanding how these great speakers do it will certainly give you an idea to create your own speech opening line which will grip the audience from the outset!

Alright! Let’s dive into the 15 powerful speech openings…

Note: Want to take your communications skills to the next level? Book a complimentary consultation with one of our expert communication coaches. We’ll look under the hood of your hurdles and pick two to three growth opportunities so you can speak with impact!

1. Ric Elias

Opening: “Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D.”

How to use the power of imagination to open your speech?

Putting your audience in a state of imagination can work extremely well to captivate them for the remainder of your talk.

It really helps to bring your audience in a certain mood that preps them for what’s about to come next. Speakers have used this with high effectiveness by transporting their audience into an imaginary land to help prove their point.

When Ric Elias opened his speech, the detail he used (3000 ft, sound of the engine going clack-clack-clack) made me feel that I too was in the plane. He was trying to make the audience experience what he was feeling – and, at least in my opinion, he did.

When using the imagination opening for speeches, the key is – detail. While we want the audience to wander into imagination, we want them to wander off to the image that we want to create for them. So, detail out your scenario if you’re going to use this technique.

Make your audience feel like they too are in the same circumstance as you were when you were in that particular situation.

2. Barack Obama

Opening: “You can’t say it, but you know it’s true.”

3. Seth MacFarlane

Opening: “There’s nowhere I would rather be on a day like this than around all this electoral equipment.” (It was raining)

How to use humour to open your speech?

When you use humour in a manner that suits your personality, it can set you up for a great speech. Why? Because getting a laugh in the first 30 seconds or so is a great way to quickly get the audience to like you.

And when they like you, they are much more likely to listen to and believe in your ideas.

Obama effortlessly uses his opening line to entice laughter among the audience. He brilliantly used the setting (the context of Trump becoming President) and said a line that completely matched his style of speaking.

Saying a joke without really saying a joke and getting people to laugh requires you to be completely comfortable in your own skin. And that’s not easy for many people (me being one of them).

If the joke doesn’t land as expected, it could lead to a rocky start.

Keep in mind the following when attempting to deliver a funny introduction:

• Know your audience: Make sure your audience gets the context of the joke (if it’s an inside joke among the members you’re speaking to, that’s even better!). You can read this article we wrote where we give you tips on how you can actually get to know your audience better to ensure maximum impact with your speech openings
• The joke should suit your natural personality. Don’t make it look forced or it won’t elicit the desired response
• Test the opening out on a few people who match your real audience. Analyze their response and tweak the joke accordingly if necessary
• Starting your speech with humour means your setting the tone of your speech. It would make sense to have a few more jokes sprinkled around the rest of the speech as well as the audience might be expecting the same from you

4. Mohammed Qahtani

Opening: Puts a cigarette on his lips, lights a lighter, stops just before lighting the cigarette. Looks at audience, “What?”

5. Darren Tay

Opening: Puts a white pair of briefs over his pants.

How to use props to begin your speech?

The reason props work so well in a talk is because in most cases the audience is not expecting anything more than just talking. So when a speaker pulls out an object that is unusual, everyone’s attention goes right to it.

It makes you wonder why that prop is being used in this particular speech.

The key word here is unusual . To grip the audience’s attention at the beginning of the speech, the prop being used should be something that the audience would never expect. Otherwise, it just becomes something that is common. And common = boring!

What Mohammed Qahtani and Darren Tay did superbly well in their talks was that they used props that nobody expected them to.

By pulling out a cigarette and lighter or a white pair of underwear, the audience can’t help but be gripped by what the speaker is about to do next. And that makes for a powerful speech opening.

6. Simon Sinek

Opening: “How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”

7. Julian Treasure

Opening: “The human voice. It’s the instrument we all play. It’s the most powerful sound in the world. Probably the only one that can start a war or say “I love you.” And yet many people have the experience that when they speak people don’t listen to them. Why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?”

How to use questions to open a speech?

I use this method often. Starting off with a question is the simplest way to start your speech in a manner that immediately engages the audience.

But we should keep our questions compelling as opposed to something that is fairly obvious.

I’ve heard many speakers start their speeches with questions like “How many of us want to be successful?”

No one is going to say ‘no’ to that and frankly, I just feel silly raising my hand at such questions.

Simon Sinek and Jullian Treasure used questions in a manner that really made the audience think and make them curious to find out what the answer to that question is.

What Jullian Treasure did even better was the use of a few statements which built up to his question. This made the question even more compelling and set the theme for what the rest of his talk would be about.

So think of what question you can ask in your speech that will:

• Set the theme for the remainder of your speech
• Not be something that is fairly obvious
• Be compelling enough so that the audience will actually want to know what the answer to that question will be

8. Aaron Beverley

Opening: Long pause (after an absurdly long introduction of a 57-word speech title). “Be honest. You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

How to use silence for speech openings?

The reason this speech opening stands out is because of the fact that the title itself is 57 words long. The audience was already hilariously intrigued by what was going to come next.

But what’s so gripping here is the way Aaron holds the crowd’s suspense by…doing nothing. For about 10 to 12 seconds he did nothing but stand and look at the audience. Everyone quietened down. He then broke this silence by a humorous remark that brought the audience laughing down again.

When going on to open your speech, besides focusing on building a killer opening sentence, how about just being silent?

It’s important to keep in mind that the point of having a strong opening is so that the audience’s attention is all on you and are intrigued enough to want to listen to the rest of your speech.

Silence is a great way to do that. When you get on the stage, just pause for a few seconds (about 3 to 5 seconds) and just look at the crowd. Let the audience and yourself settle in to the fact that the spotlight is now on you.

I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about starting the speech off with a pure pause that just makes the beginning so much more powerful. It adds credibility to you as a speaker as well, making you look more comfortable and confident on stage. 

If you want to know more about the power of pausing in public speaking , check out this post we wrote. It will give you a deeper insight into the importance of pausing and how you can harness it for your own speeches. You can also check out this video to know more about Pausing for Public Speaking:

9. Dan Pink

Opening: “I need to make a confession at the outset here. Little over 20 years ago, I did something that I regret. Something that I’m not particularly proud of. Something that in many ways I wish no one would ever know but that here I feel kind of obliged to reveal.”

10. Kelly McGonigal

Opening: “I have a confession to make. But first I want you to make a little confession to me.”

How to use a build-up to open your speech?

When there are so many amazing ways to start a speech and grip an audience from the outset, why would you ever choose to begin your speech with a ‘Good morning?’.

That’s what I love about build-ups. They set the mood for something awesome that’s about to come in that the audience will feel like they just have to know about.

Instead of starting a speech as it is, see if you can add some build-up to your beginning itself. For instance, in Kelly McGonigal’s speech, she could have started off with the question of stress itself (which she eventually moves on to in her speech). It’s not a bad way to start the speech.

But by adding the statement of “I have a confession to make” and then not revealing the confession for a little bit, the audience is gripped to know what she’s about to do next and find out what indeed is her confession.

11. Tim Urban

Opening: “So in college, I was a government major. Which means that I had to write a lot of papers. Now when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.”

12. Scott Dinsmore

Opening: “8 years ago, I got the worst career advice of my life.”

How to use storytelling as a speech opening?

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” Steve Jobs

Storytelling is the foundation of good speeches. Starting your speech with a story is a great way to grip the audience’s attention. It makes them yearn to want to know how the rest of the story is going to pan out.

Tim Urban starts off his speech with a story dating back to his college days. His use of slides is masterful and something we all can learn from. But while his story sounds simple, it does the job of intriguing the audience to want to know more.

As soon as I heard the opening lines, I thought to myself “If normal students write their paper in a certain manner, how does Tim write his papers?”

Combine such a simple yet intriguing opening with comedic slides, and you’ve got yourself a pretty gripping speech.

Scott Dismore’s statement has a similar impact. However, just a side note, Scott Dismore actually started his speech with “Wow, what an honour.”

I would advise to not start your talk with something such as that. It’s way too common and does not do the job an opening must, which is to grip your audience and set the tone for what’s coming.

13. Larry Smith

Opening: “I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you’re going to fail to have a great career.”

14. Jane McGonigal

Opening: “You will live 7.5 minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”

How to use provocative statements to start your speech?

Making a provocative statement creates a keen desire among the audience to want to know more about what you have to say. It immediately brings everyone into attention.

Larry Smith did just that by making his opening statement surprising, lightly humorous, and above all – fearful. These elements lead to an opening statement which creates so much curiosity among the audience that they need to know how your speech pans out.

This one time, I remember seeing a speaker start a speech with, “Last week, my best friend committed suicide.” The entire crowd was gripped. Everyone could feel the tension in the room.

They were just waiting for the speaker to continue to know where this speech will go.

That’s what a hard-hitting statement does, it intrigues your audience so much that they can’t wait to hear more! Just a tip, if you do start off with a provocative, hard-hitting statement, make sure you pause for a moment after saying it.

Silence after an impactful statement will allow your message to really sink in with the audience.

Related article: 5 Ways to Grab Your Audience’s Attention When You’re Losing it!

15. Ramona J Smith

Opening: In a boxing stance, “Life would sometimes feel like a fight. The punches, jabs and hooks will come in the form of challenges, obstacles and failures. Yet if you stay in the ring and learn from those past fights, at the end of each round, you’ll be still standing.”

How to use your full body to grip the audience at the beginning of your speech?

In a talk, the audience is expecting you to do just that – talk. But when you enter the stage and start putting your full body into use in a way that the audience does not expect, it grabs their attention.

Body language is critical when it comes to public speaking. Hand gestures, stage movement, facial expressions are all things that need to be paid attention to while you’re speaking on stage. But that’s not I’m talking about here.

Here, I’m referring to a unique use of the body that grips the audience, like how Ramona did. By using her body to get into a boxing stance, imitating punches, jabs and hooks with her arms while talking – that’s what got the audience’s attention.

The reason I say this is so powerful is because if you take Ramona’s speech and remove the body usage from her opening, the entire magic of the opening falls flat.

While the content is definitely strong, without those movements, she would not have captured the audience’s attention as beautifully as she did with the use of her body.

So if you have a speech opening that seems slightly dull, see if you can add some body movement to it.

If your speech starts with a story of someone running, actually act out the running. If your speech starts with a story of someone reading, actually act out the reading.

It will make your speech opening that much more impactful.

Related article: 5 Body Language Tips to Command the Stage

Level up your public speaking in 15 minutes!

Get the exclusive Masterclass video delivered to your inbox to see immediate speaking results.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Final Words

So there it is! 15 speech openings from some of my favourite speeches. Hopefully, these will act as a guide for you to create your own opening which is super impactful and sets you off on the path to becoming a powerful public speaker!

But remember, while a speech opening is super important, it’s just part of an overall structure.

If you’re serious about not just creating a great speech opening but to improve your public speaking at an overall level, I would highly recommend you to check out this course: Acumen Presents: Chris Anderson on Public Speaking on Udemy. Not only does it have specific lectures on starting and ending a speech, but it also offers an in-depth guide into all the nuances of public speaking. 

Being the founder of TED Talks, Chris Anderson provides numerous examples of the best TED speakers to give us a very practical way of overcoming stage fear and delivering a speech that people will remember. His course has helped me personally and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn public speaking. 

No one is ever “done” learning public speaking. It’s a continuous process and you can always get better. Keep learning, keep conquering and keep being awesome!

Lastly, if you want to know how you should NOT open your speech, we’ve got a video for you:

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you

How to Brag Like a Pro as a Speaker

Less is More! Tips to Avoid Overwhelming Your Audience 

What does it mean to Resonate with the Audience- Agreement, Acceptance, Approval

• [email protected]
• +91 98203 57888

Get our latest tips and tricks in your inbox always

Copyright © 2023 Frantically Speaking All rights reserved

What this handout is about

This handout will help you create an effective speech by establishing the purpose of your speech and making it easily understandable. It will also help you to analyze your audience and keep the audience interested.

What’s different about a speech?

Writing for public speaking isn’t so different from other types of writing. You want to engage your audience’s attention, convey your ideas in a logical manner and use reliable evidence to support your point. But the conditions for public speaking favor some writing qualities over others. When you write a speech, your audience is made up of listeners. They have only one chance to comprehend the information as you read it, so your speech must be well-organized and easily understood. In addition, the content of the speech and your delivery must fit the audience.

What’s your purpose?

People have gathered to hear you speak on a specific issue, and they expect to get something out of it immediately. And you, the speaker, hope to have an immediate effect on your audience. The purpose of your speech is to get the response you want. Most speeches invite audiences to react in one of three ways: feeling, thinking, or acting. For example, eulogies encourage emotional response from the audience; college lectures stimulate listeners to think about a topic from a different perspective; protest speeches in the Pit recommend actions the audience can take.

As you establish your purpose, ask yourself these questions:

• What do you want the audience to learn or do?
• If you are making an argument, why do you want them to agree with you?
• If they already agree with you, why are you giving the speech?
• How can your audience benefit from what you have to say?

Audience analysis

If your purpose is to get a certain response from your audience, you must consider who they are (or who you’re pretending they are). If you can identify ways to connect with your listeners, you can make your speech interesting and useful.

As you think of ways to appeal to your audience, ask yourself:

• What do they have in common? Age? Interests? Ethnicity? Gender?
• Do they know as much about your topic as you, or will you be introducing them to new ideas?
• Why are these people listening to you? What are they looking for?
• What level of detail will be effective for them?
• What tone will be most effective in conveying your message?
• What might offend or alienate them?

For more help, see our handout on audience .

Creating an effective introduction

Get their attention, otherwise known as “the hook”.

Think about how you can relate to these listeners and get them to relate to you or your topic. Appealing to your audience on a personal level captures their attention and concern, increasing the chances of a successful speech. Speakers often begin with anecdotes to hook their audience’s attention. Other methods include presenting shocking statistics, asking direct questions of the audience, or enlisting audience participation.

Establish context and/or motive

Explain why your topic is important. Consider your purpose and how you came to speak to this audience. You may also want to connect the material to related or larger issues as well, especially those that may be important to your audience.

Get to the point

Tell your listeners your thesis right away and explain how you will support it. Don’t spend as much time developing your introductory paragraph and leading up to the thesis statement as you would in a research paper for a course. Moving from the intro into the body of the speech quickly will help keep your audience interested. You may be tempted to create suspense by keeping the audience guessing about your thesis until the end, then springing the implications of your discussion on them. But if you do so, they will most likely become bored or confused.

For more help, see our handout on introductions .

Making your speech easy to understand

Repeat crucial points and buzzwords.

Especially in longer speeches, it’s a good idea to keep reminding your audience of the main points you’ve made. For example, you could link an earlier main point or key term as you transition into or wrap up a new point. You could also address the relationship between earlier points and new points through discussion within a body paragraph. Using buzzwords or key terms throughout your paper is also a good idea. If your thesis says you’re going to expose unethical behavior of medical insurance companies, make sure the use of “ethics” recurs instead of switching to “immoral” or simply “wrong.” Repetition of key terms makes it easier for your audience to take in and connect information.

Incorporate previews and summaries into the speech

For example:

“I’m here today to talk to you about three issues that threaten our educational system: First, … Second, … Third,”

“I’ve talked to you today about such and such.”

These kinds of verbal cues permit the people in the audience to put together the pieces of your speech without thinking too hard, so they can spend more time paying attention to its content.

Use especially strong transitions

This will help your listeners see how new information relates to what they’ve heard so far. If you set up a counterargument in one paragraph so you can demolish it in the next, begin the demolition by saying something like,

“But this argument makes no sense when you consider that . . . .”

If you’re providing additional information to support your main point, you could say,

“Another fact that supports my main point is . . . .”

Helping your audience listen

Rely on shorter, simpler sentence structures.

Don’t get too complicated when you’re asking an audience to remember everything you say. Avoid using too many subordinate clauses, and place subjects and verbs close together.

Too complicated:

The product, which was invented in 1908 by Orville Z. McGillicuddy in Des Moines, Iowa, and which was on store shelves approximately one year later, still sells well.

Easier to understand:

Orville Z. McGillicuddy invented the product in 1908 and introduced it into stores shortly afterward. Almost a century later, the product still sells well.

Limit pronoun use

Listeners may have a hard time remembering or figuring out what “it,” “they,” or “this” refers to. Be specific by using a key noun instead of unclear pronouns.

Pronoun problem:

The U.S. government has failed to protect us from the scourge of so-called reality television, which exploits sex, violence, and petty conflict, and calls it human nature. This cannot continue.

Why the last sentence is unclear: “This” what? The government’s failure? Reality TV? Human nature?

More specific:

The U.S. government has failed to protect us from the scourge of so-called reality television, which exploits sex, violence, and petty conflict, and calls it human nature. This failure cannot continue.

Keeping audience interest

Incorporate the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos.

When arguing a point, using ethos, pathos, and logos can help convince your audience to believe you and make your argument stronger. Ethos refers to an appeal to your audience by establishing your authenticity and trustworthiness as a speaker. If you employ pathos, you appeal to your audience’s emotions. Using logos includes the support of hard facts, statistics, and logical argumentation. The most effective speeches usually present a combination these rhetorical strategies.

Use statistics and quotations sparingly

Include only the most striking factual material to support your perspective, things that would likely stick in the listeners’ minds long after you’ve finished speaking. Otherwise, you run the risk of overwhelming your listeners with too much information.

Watch your tone

Be careful not to talk over the heads of your audience. On the other hand, don’t be condescending either. And as for grabbing their attention, yelling, cursing, using inappropriate humor, or brandishing a potentially offensive prop (say, autopsy photos) will only make the audience tune you out.

Creating an effective conclusion

Restate your main points, but don’t repeat them.

“I asked earlier why we should care about the rain forest. Now I hope it’s clear that . . .” “Remember how Mrs. Smith couldn’t afford her prescriptions? Under our plan, . . .”

Call to action

Speeches often close with an appeal to the audience to take action based on their new knowledge or understanding. If you do this, be sure the action you recommend is specific and realistic. For example, although your audience may not be able to affect foreign policy directly, they can vote or work for candidates whose foreign policy views they support. Relating the purpose of your speech to their lives not only creates a connection with your audience, but also reiterates the importance of your topic to them in particular or “the bigger picture.”

Practicing for effective presentation

Once you’ve completed a draft, read your speech to a friend or in front of a mirror. When you’ve finished reading, ask the following questions:

• Which pieces of information are clearest?
• Where did I connect with the audience?
• Where might listeners lose the thread of my argument or description?
• Where might listeners become bored?
• Where did I have trouble speaking clearly and/or emphatically?
• Did I stay within my time limit?

Other resources

• Toastmasters International is a nonprofit group that provides communication and leadership training.
• Allyn & Bacon Publishing’s Essence of Public Speaking Series is an extensive treatment of speech writing and delivery, including books on using humor, motivating your audience, word choice and presentation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Boone, Louis E., David L. Kurtz, and Judy R. Block. 1997. Contemporary Business Communication . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Ehrlich, Henry. 1994. Writing Effective Speeches . New York: Marlowe.

Lamb, Sandra E. 1998. How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write . Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Giving a speech to or giving a speech for?

I just read this tweet: “Timothee Chalamet gives a HELL OF A SPEECH for @JOSH_BENNY at #NBR for Best Original Screenplay”

I am wondering if it’s correct to write “gives a speech for” I tough it should be “gives a speech to”. Am I right?

• Sure, it means just that. The guy was speaking to praise another at an event. –  Lambie Commented Dec 2, 2021 at 22:43

Either of these sentences would be valid, and while technically they have different meanings, they will be interpreted very similarly by most English speakers. You are correct that "(speaker) gives a speech to (audience)" is the most direct way of expressing that the speaker speaks, with the intent that he be heard by the audience.

The phrasing "(speaker) gives a speech for (beneficiary)" has a different meaning; here, instead of describing the subject of the speech (the people intended to here it), we are giving the motivation of the speech (why is he speaking?). Often, the primary purpose of a speech is to entertain, motivate, inform, or otherwise affect the audience. In this case, the two sentences have essentially the same meaning. This phrasing could also be used in other circumstances, however; for example, one might give a speech "for the environment" to convince people not to pollute the oceans; in this case, the audience is not the beneficiary, and it would be inaccurate to say the speech was given "to the environment." In practice, it can usually be assumed that the audience is the beneficiary unless context suggests otherwise.

Regarding the example you cited, the reason the more ambiguous wording was chosen was likely (though maybe not consciously) to add an emotional impact to the tweet; saying someone did something "for someone", that they provided service, inclines the audience to think positively of the person described. As such, people who are adept at (or reliant on) influencing others' opinions will often use emotionally charged language like this in their writing or speech.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged grammar ..

• Featured on Meta
• Bringing clarity to status tag usage on meta sites
• Announcing a change to the data-dump process

Hot Network Questions

• I'm rewriting a 2019 oneshot and am up to 37,000 words already. Should I make them chapters or keep it as a long oneshot?
• Could an empire rise by economic power?
• Nausea during high altitude cycling climbs
• Does the USA plan to establish a military facility on Saint Martin's Island in the Bay of Bengal?
• Etymology of 制度
• Can I counter an opponent's attempt to counter my own spell?
• Stained passport am I screwed
• A seven letter *
• What does "dare not" mean in a literary context?
• Transform a list of rules into a list of function definitions
• How do I learn more about rocketry?
• What's the benefit or drawback of being Small?
• What are the most commonly used markdown tags when doing online role playing chats?
• Matrix Multiplication & Addition
• Can I Use A Server In International Waters To Provide Illegal Content Without Getting Arrested?
• I'm a little embarrassed by the research of one of my recommenders
• Would an LEO asking for a race constitute entrapment?
• How can I play MechWarrior 2?
• DateTime.ParseExact returns today if date string and format are set to "General"
• A checkered cross - Colombian Sudoku
• Current in a circuit is 50% lower than predicted by Kirchhoff's law
• Deleting all files but some on Mac in Terminal
• Is it possible to recover from a graveyard spiral?
• Does the average income in the US drop by $9,500 if you exclude the ten richest Americans?

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

• give speech

verb as in address

Strongest matches

Strong matches

• memorialize
• pontificate

Weak matches

• deliver speech
• deliver talk
• get on a soapbox
• take the floor

verb as in talk

• deliver a speech
• give a talk

Example Sentences

It seemed as if her tongue could not give speech to the thoughts which crowded her brain.

He did not merely give speech to a pair of scissors, he gave character too.

The madmen were not heeded by the others; but allowed to totter about, and give speech to their incoherent mumblings!

The thought occurred to all three almost at the same instant of time; though Terence was the first to give speech to it.

Is either Herbert nor Cubina could trust themselves to give speech to it.

Related Words

Words related to give speech are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word give speech . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

verb as in speak to a formal gathering

verb as in address group

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Happiness Hub Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• Happiness Hub
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• Communication Skills
• Public Speaking

How to Evaluate a Speech

Last Updated: October 7, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 135,417 times.

Evaluating someone else’s speech and offering feedback is a great way to improve your own public speaking skills, but what should you be focusing on? This wikiHow will teach you how to listen actively to a speech, break it down, and analyze the most important elements, like tone, content, and organization. You’ll also find tips on how to offer your feedback in a constructive, encouraging way.

Listening Actively

• Turn off all electronic devices and put away any distractions. Look at the speaker while the speech is being given. You shouldn't have anything in your hands but maybe a notepad for taking notes.
• Don't ever evaluate a speech based on the text alone. In other words, don't read the speech and offer feedback. Have the speaker perform the speech. If something is designed to be spoken, it needs to be heard if it is to be appropriately evaluated.

• If you can't find the main idea of the speech, try to guess what you think the speaker is trying to prove. Write it down. When you're evaluating the speech later, this will be helpful feedback.
• For some speeches, like a toast, a tribute, or a thank you, the main idea might be obvious, but play dumb. Is the speaker getting across the idea clearly? Or is the occasion doing too much of the work? Could the speaker do more to make the point of the speech obvious?

• If you’re listening to a persuasive speech, try to come up with responses, questions, and retorts that you might use for feedback later. What was confusing? Were there any supporting points that could be made more clear? Did you find any holes in the argument?
• If you’re listening to an informal speech, like a toast or a congratulatory speech, focus on the organization of the information that we’re getting. Does it make sense? Does it follow? Does it seem to jump around?

• Write down particularly memorable quotes or moments from the speech to praise. Write down any time the speaker gets a good crowd reaction, or a negative response.

Evaluating Specific Details

• Was the content clear and well-articulated?
• Was the argument supported with research? Good examples?
• Was the content made clear to the audience?
• Did the speaker prove their point?

• Was the supporting argument logically structured?
• Was the speech easy to follow? Difficult? Why?
• Do the speaker’s points flow logically from one to the next?
• What could be included to clear up the speech for you?

• How would you describe the style of the speech and the speaker?
• Did the style of the speech work for the content, or against it? Why?
• How convincing was the speaker?
• How was the timing of the speech? Was it easy to follow?

• Who is the audience for the speech? What are their expectations of the speech and the speaker?
• How would you describe the tone of the speech?
• Did it match the content? How?
• If not, how might the tone be improved?
• How well will the tone match the audience for the speech?

Giving Constructive Feedback

• For some speech classes, you may have to fill out a rubric or assign a grade to a speech. Follow the specific class instructions regarding this and assign a grade appropriate.

• Try to start your response with things like, “What I heard you saying is…” or “What I got from this speech was…”
• A good summary should be several sentences in the evaluation, perhaps slightly less than half of your feedback. Identify the main idea and the main supporting points of the speech. The summary should focus on content only.

• If the speaker is mostly a wet blanket, focus on how the content could better match the speaking style and how the tone might be changed to match. These are changeable things. Telling a speaker to be "more dynamic" or "funny" isn't good feedback.

• If you thought the speech was boring, instead learn to say something like, "It was subdued, which I think works well for the occasion."
• If the speaker seemed nervous, try to reassure them with some compliments, "You seemed confident up there. The material really speaks for itself."

• Don’t say, “I didn’t like the jokes you used,” say, “Next time, I think you could leave the jokes out and the speech would move a little quicker.”

• Focus first on content corrections, the organization of the speech, and the tone before you focus on anything else in the speech. These are the most important categories for improvement, and the best ways to quickly improve the speech. Think of these as the highest order of concern.
• Worry about the specifics of the delivery later. Whether or not the timing of the joke at the end of the speech works should be one of the last things a speaker worries about. If the speech is already very good, feel free to move onto these secondary concerns.

Community Q&A

• Refer to your notes only if you are giving a formal or written evaluation. Thanks Helpful 15 Not Helpful 1
• Always begin and end your evaluation with praise. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Patrick Muñoz. Voice & Speech Coach. Expert Interview. 12 November 2019.
• ↑ https://www.uiltexas.org/speech/extemp/criteria-for-evaluating-informative-speakers
• ↑ http://erie.cce.cornell.edu/resources/4-h-public-presentation-speech-rubric
• ↑ http://docencia.ac.upc.edu/master/MIRI/PD/docs/11-PresentationEvaluation.pdf
• ↑ https://www.wheaton.edu/academics/services/writing-center/writing-resources/style-diction-tone-and-voice/
• ↑ https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/Evaluating%2520Handout%2520Final%2520PDF%25202020.pdf
• ↑ https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/blogue-blog/methode-sandwich-method-eng

About This Article

To evaluate a speech, start by listening attentively to the speaker and taking notes to help you identify the main arguments they are trying to make. Then, determine if the content of the speech was clear and supported by examples. Additionally, consider whether the information was organized so that it was easy to follow. Next, identify strengths and weakness in the delivery of the speech, including the tone and style of the speaker. Finally, write down your feedback, focusing on 3 areas to improve on and at least 1 thing the speaker did well. For tips on giving feedback to the speaker without offending them, keep reading. Did this summary help you? Yes No

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Chio Valdez

Jan 23, 2018

Did this article help you?

Ravish Kumar

Oct 4, 2016

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Get all the best how-tos!

Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter

Election highlights: Trump supports Elon Musk-backed government spending plan; Harris travels to Pittsburgh ahead of the debate

Coverage on this live blog has ended. For the latest news, click here.

What's happening today on the campaign trail:

• Vice President Kamala Harris is in Pittsburgh, where she will prepare for next week’s debate. After extended negotiations, she and former President Donald Trump agreed to the rules for the debate , which will use the same format as the June face-off between Trump and President Joe Biden.
• Trump returned to his former home state to deliver remarks at the Economic Club of New York where he announced he would adopt an Elon Musk-backed government spending plan if re-elected. He also appeared virtually at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual leadership summit in Las Vegas.
• Their running mates also hit the trail today. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio blasted the late Sen. John McCain's son for backing Harris in comments to a crowd in Phoenix, while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spent the day in Pennsylvania and delivered remarks in Erie this evening.
• Biden's son Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to all the federal tax charges against him. His sentencing is scheduled for December. Meanwhile, the judge in Trump's election interference case in Washington, D.C., has yet to set a trial date .

Asian Americans have largest voter registration increase, new analysis shows

Sarah Poontong, 49, became a citizen late last year and one of the first things she did was register to vote. 

She’s part of a notable trend — Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have had the largest increase in voter registration of any racial group in the country from January to June, compared to the same period during the 2020 election cycle. That’s according to analysis first shared with NBC News from the civic engagement nonprofit APIAVote and the research company TargetSmart. 

Read the full story here.

How some of the internet’s most popular pro-Trump pundits ended up as paid messengers for Russian propaganda

Brandy Zadrozny

Ryan J. Reilly

The video introducing Tenet Media  hit many common conservative tropes: Mainstream media couldn’t be trusted. Free speech was under attack. Independent and uncensored voices were sorely needed.

It featured the six commentators who would be the faces of the operation, already some of the most-followed voices in the increasingly crowded and influential world of online conservative punditry. Over a dramatic electronic music track, each of them offered a brief reason why Tenet was needed now more than ever.

Walz lays into Trump and the Republican Party with some of his harshest campaign rhetoric

Megan Lebowitz

Isabelle Schmeler

Democratic vice presidential nominee  Tim Walz  used some of his sharpest language on the campaign trail Thursday in remarks going after both former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Speaking at a rally in Erie, Pa., Walz borrowed a line from Josh Shapiro, the state’s Democratic governor by saying that “whenever Donald Trump’s talking about America, he’s s--- talking America.”

Judge Juan Merchan expected to rule tomorrow on Trump's bid to delay sentencing

The Manhattan District Attorney's office said in a letter to an appeals court tonight that Judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule tomorrow on Trump's lawyers' motion to postpone his sentencing until after the election.

Trump had been scheduled to face a sentencing hearing on Sept. 18, but the former president asked for it to be pushed back .

Deep divisions in battleground Pennsylvania over proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese company

Gabe Gutierrez

Reporting from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania

It’s one the few things Vice President  Kamala Harris  and former President  Donald Trump  agree on: opposing the sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel.

But the proposed deal is shattering party loyalty in parts of western Pennsylvania where some steelworkers feel they’re being used as political talking points.

Vance on Georgia shooting: ‘I don’t like that this is a fact of life’

Zoë Richards

Nnamdi Egwuonwu

During a campaign rally in Phoenix this evening, Vance said that the school shooting in Georgia this week that left four people dead was "awful," and he referred to the shooter, identified as a 14-year-old boy, as "an absolute barbarian."

“No parent should have to deal with this. No child should have to deal with this. And yes, after holding these folks up in prayer and giving them our sympathies, because that's what people deserve in a time of tragedy, then we have to think about how to make this less common," Vance said before arguing that strict gun laws were not the solution.

"I don't like that this is a fact of life," Vance added.

The vice presidential nominee vouched for efforts to "bolster" security at schools which he described as "soft targets."

"If these psychos are going to have to go after our kids, we've got to be prepared for it. We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality that we live in. We got to deal with it," Vance said.

When reached for comment about the remarks, Vance spokesperson William Martin criticized Harris on school safety and said her “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”

Walz called Vance's comments "pathetic," saying on X that kids "deserve better.

Harris also criticized Vance, saying on X that shootings "are not just a fact of life" and calling for action.

Vance's comments echo those of some Republican lawmakers in response to past school shootings, woh have urged for beefing up school security and in some cases arming teachers in an effort to thwart school shootings.

Republican Jewish voters explain why they back Trump

Reporting from Las Vegas

At the Republican Jewish Coalition Summit, an annual gathering of Jewish community leaders, donors and GOP politicians, voters told NBC News why they're backing Trump this November.

“We're talking about somebody who has had a record of success in everything he's done," said Bill Cohen, who's from Sioux City, Iowa. "Whether it was protecting Israel, whether it was straightening things out with the United Nations, we could go through a whole list of 50 things of why he why he was good for the United States," the 77-year-old added.

Rosalie Thompson, a retiree from Miami Beach, Florida, said Trump's record speaks for itself.

“The two candidates have a record, and Donald Trump's record is better for the economy, for the country, for the free world,” she said.

But not all of the attendees were on board the Trump train. Madison Friedman, 32, from Los Angeles said that as of now, he's sitting this election out.

"I would say that you have to really love the candidates you’re voting for," said the software consultant. "I’m still learning about both of them for now."

Putin says Ukraine’s incursion failed; claims he supports Harris in U.S. election, citing her ‘infectious’ laugh

Yuliya Talmazan

Russian President Vladimir Putin  said Thursday that  Ukraine ’s gamble to  seize his country’s territory  has backfired by boosting his own military’s advance, a boast he paired with a teasing claim of support for  Vice President Kamala Harris  in the upcoming  U.S. election .

Speaking at an economic forum in the far-eastern city of Vladivostok on Thursday, he said it was the “sacred duty” of the Russian army to do everything to “throw the enemy out” of the border region of Kursk and protect its citizens after  last month’s stunning assault .

Yet, Putin also said that Moscow’s main goal remained capturing the Donbas region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland where  Russian troops have been pushing forward for months .

Despite the family drama, Tim Walz’s mother says she believes her son will be VP

Kelly O'Donnell

Darlene Walz, the mother of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, remains supportive of her son’s bid to be vice president, even as other members of the family are divided, she told NBC News in a brief phone conversation today.

Darlene Walz made clear that she has grown tired of the public scrutiny of her family and believes her son “is going to be in the White House.”

Familial divisions over Walz’s role as the Democratic vice presidential nominee came into public view last week after a Facebook post and several subsequent comments from his estranged older brother, Jeff, were amplified by  multiple   media outlets .

Read the full story here

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly explains why he criticized Trump's Medal of Freedom comments

Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly elaborated today on why he criticized the former president's comments about the Presidential Medal of Freedom being "better" than the Medal of Honor.

Speaking at a Colorado State University event, Kelly said "when someone says that one medal is more important than the other, I just corrected the record."

"I believe the president had it wrong, and we just needed to correct that," he added.

Kelly also emphasized that Medal of Honor recipients "did something that was irrationally brave, that the assumption would be when he or she did it, that you would be killed. That's kind of the level."

Kelly had previously rejected Trump's comments about the medals to CNN, saying that the medals are "not even close. No equivalency of any kind."

Vance: 'Who cares' what John McCain's son thinks about the 2024 race

Vance tonight dismissed a recent endorsement of Harris by the late Sen. John McCain’s youngest son .

"Look, who cares what somebody's family thinks about a president," Vance said in response to a reporter's question at a campaign event in Phoenix. "John McCain died, what, 5, 6, 7, years ago? And the media is turning into a story, what John McCain's family says about Donald Trump."

McCain, R-Ariz., died in 2018 a year after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Vance said he did not believe that John McCain would have backed “all the destruction” Harris has brought to security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

He also said that while he did not know McCain personally, the late senator and Trump likely shared commonalities, namely that "they didn’t let their personal grievances get in the way of the country."

Trump has repeatedly disparaged McCain over the years, including after his death.

Walz alludes to political differences with some of his family members

Katherine Koretski

Emma Barnett

Walz addressed the ongoing disagreements with members of his family after  photos  of Walz family members wearing “Walz’s for Trump” shirts while posing with a Trump flag surfaced yesterday.

“All of you know, I need to talk to my relatives, too," he told a Pennsylvania crowd today. "Trust me on this. Nothing makes you more middle Midwestern than having your family be on this stuff.” 

Trump  reposted  the photo on Truth Social, which shows distant cousins of the governor's wearing shirts announcing support for Trump, saying it was “a Great Honor" to have the endorsement of Jeff Walz, the Minnesota governor's brother. Jeff Walz has not officially endorsed Trump, but he has said he's "thought long and hard" about the possibility of doing so.

A slew of Facebook posts from Jeff Walz were picked up by the New York Post, in which he said his brother is “not the “type of character” who should make decisions about America’s future.”

Walz’s brother later went on News Nation saying he no longer wishes to be involved in any political campaign, saying, “It wasn’t my intent, it wasn’t our intent as a family, to put something out there to influence the general public.” 

NBC News has reached out to members of the Walz family for further comment.

Jack Smith seeks to streamline Trump’s appeals in election interference case amid delays

Daniel Barnes is reporting from the federal courthouse.

No date has yet been set for former President Donald Trump’s federal trial over his scheme to overturn his 2020 presidential loss by spreading what an indictment called his “ unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and ever-changing “ claims of mass voter fraud.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan held a status hearing in the case in a federal courtroom in Washington on Thursday, nine days after a new federal grand jury  returned a superseding indictment  against Trump charging him with the same four felonies he first faced in his  original indictment last August : conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Walz discusses efforts to appeal to red-county voters in Michigan

Walz appeared on local Michigan radio station WCMU this afternoon to make a direct pitch to “voters in deep red Michigan counties.”

“These are folks I know well,” Walz began. “It’s not only how I grew up in rural Nebraska, but it’s the districts that I represent in southern Minnesota. Ag districts, folks that care.” 

Walz said many rural voters have benefited from the policies of the Biden-Harris administration and would stand to benefit for Harris’ own proposals.

“I think the disconnect is trying to tell people that these are policies that make a difference to them. Whether it’s the strong infrastructure bill that happened, investments in them, investments in local schools, making sure their property taxes stay low,” he said.

“We just saw here recently Vice President Harris talk about tax deductions on startup businesses. People have their dreams that they want to get, they want to try and launch," he continued. "And the idea of a tenfold increase in tax credits for folks when they get started, those are the things that make a difference.”

'He’s pissed off about it': Vance fields question about Project 2025 at campaign field office

Alec Hernández

Reporting from Phoenix, Ariz.

Prior to his publicly announced campaign stop here this afternoon, Vance dropped by a Trump campaign field office in battleground Maricopa County for the second stop of his multi-day west coast campaign swing.

Accompanied by his family as he greeted assembled supporters and volunteers, Vance made a point to ask those in the audience about what they were hearing from voters as they made phone calls and knocked on doors on behalf of the campaign. One woman mentioned to Vance that she hears a lot about Project 2025 — a policy agenda compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation that both Trump and Vance have tried to distance the campaign from. 

“Kamala Harris is running dishonest TV advertisements because Kamala Harris is a dishonest person who doesn’t have a record to run on,” Vance said of Harris’ campaign’s effort to tie the two entities together. 

“I know from experience, nobody speaks for Donald J. Trump except for Donald J. Trump,” he continued, adding that Trump is “pissed off” about the association with the white papers, and reiterated that only Trump himself “will set a Trump 47 agenda.” 

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 , posting on his social media platform Truth Social in July that he knows nothing about the project. The Harris campaign, for its part, recently launched a new 30-second ad spot seeking to tie the Trump campaign to plan.

Teamsters says Harris will meet with union members on Sept. 16

Teamsters announced in a post to X that Harris would hold a roundtable with union members on Sept. 16.

The union has previously held roundtables with Trump and Biden, when the president was still running for a second term.

Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said in a statement that the group's members "appreciate" Harris taking the time to meet in person.

"We look forward to having a conversation on the direction of the country and the issues that matter to working people," he added.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all the charges in the federal tax case against him. The sentencing for President Joe Biden’s son is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Howling werewolf design crowned a winning 'I voted' sticker in Michigan

Michigan's secretary of state unveiled the winning designs for the state's "I Voted" sticker design contest.

At the top of the list is a sticker design by middle school student Jane Hynous depicting a muscular werewolf ripping off his shirt, howling in front of an American flag beneath the words "I voted."

Two other elementary/middle school category winning stickers said "I voted yay" and "I'm cool I voted."

Another winning design leaned into artist Breanna Tanner’s Midwestern roots with, “Ope, I voted.”

"I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and creativity from the people of our great state," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a news release . "Now, let’s use the same energy in casting a vote this November. I encourage every eligible voter to make a plan now to have your voice heard — vote with an absentee ballot, at an early voting site, or on Election Day — and feel proud to wear a sticker designed by a fellow Michigander."

The nine winning designs will be available for voters casting ballots in November, according to the release.

Harris campaign to launch a big ‘weekend of action’ around Trump and Project 2025 ahead of the debate

Yamiche Alcindor

Harris’ presidential campaign is planning to launch a weekend of action focused on what it calls the dangers of a potential second Trump presidency and Project 2025, a conservative governing agenda that Harris has repeatedly criticized on the campaign trail and plans to bring up during the presidential debate on Tuesday, according to campaign officials who shared the plans first with NBC News.

As part of the effort, which Harris’ aides said was the campaign’s biggest weekend of action to date, the campaign will have more than 2,000 events that it expects will reach more than 1 million voters. Volunteers, who plan to work more than 20,000 shifts, and key campaign surrogates will talk to voters “about Trump’s extreme plan to ban abortion nationwide, cut Social Security and Medicare, and spike taxes by $3,900 each year for middle-class families,” according to officials.

The efforts are also aimed at appealing to swing voters who may be drawn in by the recent endorsements of Harris by  former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. , and  Jimmy McCain , the youngest son of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Trump says he plans to ban mortgages for undocumented immigrants

Alexandra Marquez

Trump today blamed undocumented immigrants for "driving up housing costs," before promising to "ban mortgages for illegal aliens in California."

The comment comes after the California state Senate sent AB 1840 to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk last month. If Newsom signs the bill, it would amend the "California Dream for All" program, which gives down payment assistance to qualified first-time homebuyers, to include undocumented immigrants.

Trump's vow to ban mortgages for undocumented immigrants came during a section of his speech in which he promised to lower housing costs if elected, saying, "As soon as I get to office, we will make housing much more affordable."

Sen. Joe Manchin appears to endorse former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in Senate race

Annemarie Bonner

During an interview with Merit Street Media's "The News on Merit Street," independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin appeared to endorse former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in Maryland's Senate race.

"I'll give you one person who I know who's absolutely cut out to be a U.S. Senator: Larry Hogan in Maryland," he said.

Hogan, a popular two-term GOP governor, is running against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrook in a competitive general election race in the solidly Democratic state.

In response to the apparent endorsement, Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson said this race is about preventing Republicans from taking back the Senate majority.

“Angela Alsobrooks is proud to be supported by Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Wes Moore, and Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. Angela and those incredible leaders know that this race is about protecting Democrats’ Senate majority, and stopping Republicans from taking back the Senate Majority and passing an agenda that will take away our freedoms and harm hardworking Maryland families," she wrote.

Manchin's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

N.C. judge agrees to mail ballot pause as RFK Jr. fights to get off ballot

Jane C. Timm

A judge in Wake County, North Carolina, today refused to force state election officials to reprint ballots to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name, but agreed to order a brief delay so Kennedy can appeal the decision to a higher court.

North Carolina election officials were scheduled to start mailing ballots tomorrow morning to voters who requested them, but were told today by the state election board to table those plans. Kennedy was given 24 hours to seek appeal, and if that effort is denied, ballots may still start going out tomorrow afternoon.

“The bottom line is: make plans to not send ballots out tomorrow morning, but be ready if that situation changes and we need to send out ballots later tomorrow,” State Board of Elections General Counsel Paul Cox said in an email to election officials today.

As a third-party presidential candidate, Kennedy had fought to secure ballot access in North Carolina. But now that he has dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, he is seeking to remove himself as an option for voters in the battleground state.

Trump plugs Elon Musk-backed plan on government spending in speech

Jillian Frankel

Jake Traylor

Vaughn Hillyard

Trump announced today that if re-elected, he plans to adopt billionaire Elon Musk’s plan for a government efficiency commission to cut federal spending, adding that Musk has agreed to lead the commission “if he has the time.”

The announcement came as the former president delivered remarks before members of the Economic Club of New York in midtown Manhattan, where he outlined a seven-pillar economic plan. 

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” Trump said.

The former president continued, “As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars.”

This year’s Democratic playbook features a lot of football

Allan Smith

When Vice President Kamala Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her new running mate at their first rally together, she called him “coach.”

One of the first stops on the campaign’s pre-convention bus tour was to a town in Pennsylvania where Walz spoke to a high school football team.

And then, at the convention itself in Chicago last month, Walz received his own pep rally when a parade of his former players took the stage wearing their old jerseys.

Walz’s football ties are a lynchpin of the Democratic effort to brand itself as the “normal” party this fall, right up there with Walz’s love of hunting and Harris’ time working at McDonald’s. 

The first presidential debate between Harris and Trump is less than a week away. NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell takes a look back at Harris’ performances in past debates. 

Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson says muted debate mics limit Harris' ability to 'prosecute the political case' against Trump

Nicole Moeder

During an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said that the agreed upon rule over muted mics will be "challenging" for Harris.

“I think what’s really challenging and unfortunate about this debate format is that it limits the vice president’s ability to prosecute the political case against President Trump,” he said.

He said they agreed willingly agreed to the rule “because of the insistence by Trump’s campaign to have the microphones muted, up to what we believe was threatening to pull out of the debate.” 

Trump responds to Russian sanctions, accuses Harris of trying to 'interfere in and suppress the Election'

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump attacked Harris and the Justice Department, accusing both of trying to "interfere in and suppress the Election" in response to the Justice, State and Treasury departments' sanctions and criminal charges announced yesterday to target what the Biden administration says are Russian government-backed attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinions ahead of the election.

"Comrade Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice are trying to interfere in and suppress the Election in favor of the Democrats by resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE," he wrote. "In fact, President Putin would much rather see Comrade Kamala Harris in Office."

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT. They were accused of implementing a scheme that sent millions of dollars to right-wing commentators through a media company. The platform appears to match the description of Tenet Media, which is known for pro-Trump commentators.

Harris raised more than $300 million in August, extending cash windfall

Natasha Korecki

Carol E. Lee Carol E. Lee is the Washington managing editor.

Harris’ political operation raised more than $300 million in the month of August — more than twice as much as Trump’s operation gathered in the same period — two sources familiar with the Harris fundraising numbers told NBC News. 

The sources did not specify the exact fundraising haul, but the more than $300 million figure, which includes the campaign and related entities, signals that the breakneck pace of fundraising has not slowed since money began gushing in upon President Joe Biden’s July 21 announcement that he would step aside from seeking the Democratic nomination. 

The next campaign finance disclosure deadline for Harris’ campaign is Sept. 20.

Trump election interference hearing adjourns without new trial date

The federal judge presiding over Trump's election interference case said this morning that she intends to allow prosecutors to file an opening brief outlining their immunity arguments but did not make any scheduling rulings during today’s hearing, which adjourned after a little over an hour. 

It appears Judge Tanya Chutkan will not bother to set a new trial date at this time, as she and all parties agree that further pretrial appeals in the case are inevitable.

Chutkan said she will try to get a scheduling order out as soon as today.

Harris launches new ad tying Trump to Project 2025, targeting Black voters on NFL Sunday

Marquise Francis

Harris’ presidential campaign launched a new ad focused on “ Project 2025 ” today, taking direct aim at Trump and “his MAGA loyalists’ dangerous plan” that, it claims, will control Americans’ lives.

Developed by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and at least two dozen allies of Trump, Project 2025 is an outline of far-right policy proposals created as a blueprint for the next Republican president. The group has  wound down its policy work  amid criticism but Democrats have continued to make it a key campaign issue.

The Harris campaign’s new  30-second spot , which was shared first with NBC News, is aimed at Black Americans in key battleground states in hopes of making  inroads with a demographic  Democrats need to win over to be successful in November.

Hunter Biden intends to change plea on federal tax charges

Sarah Fitzpatrick

Dareh Gregorian

LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden intends to change his plea from not guilty to accepting a sentencing that would come from a guilty verdict in the federal tax case against him, his attorney Abbe Lowell said today.

The announcement was made shortly before jury selection was expected to begin in what would have been Hunter Biden’s second trial this year. The only surviving son of President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden is the first offspring of a sitting president to stand trial on criminal charges.

The conditions of the plea were not immediately disclosed, nor was it clear whether the judge will accept his attempt to avoid a trial and move straight to sentencing.

The news came after Hunter Biden and his attorneys had a private meeting before court today with U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who is presiding over the case.

Pro-Palestinian protests return to campuses adding election complication

Alex Seitz-Wald

Students are barely back on campus, but pro-Palestinian protests have already returned, putting a divisive issue back in the spotlight that Democrats had hoped Harris' nomination might allow them to move beyond it.

While few expect this fall’s protests to match the size or ferocity of last spring’s, when tent encampments roiled campuses and several university presidents lost their jobs amid criticism of their handling of the demonstrations, the new round of protests will come just as Democrats try to organize college campuses to mobilize voters for the November election.

“This isn’t going away. We’re not going away. Young people and their pursuit of justice and equity everywhere is not going away,” said Rania Batrice, a Palestinian American Democratic strategist.

Judge in Trump's election interference case says she's not considering the electoral schedule

Rebecca Shabad

Judge Tanya Chutkan said in court that the 2024 election is not a factor in her decisions about scheduling the proceedings in Trump's election interference case.

“I understand there is an election pending,” Chutkan said. “This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule. ... That’s nothing I’m going to consider.”

“This case has been pending for a year. We’re hardly sprinting towards the finish line here,” Chutkan added. “We can’t even really contemplate a trial date due to the looming appellate issues.”

Harris travels to Pittsburgh to prepare for debate

The vice president is traveling to Pittsburgh today, where she will spend time preparing for Tuesday's debate. She’ll be doing debate prep and making informal campaign stops during the day, several campaign officials said.

Pittsburgh was chosen because the location will allow her to make the most of her time in a key battleground state, they said. Past presidential candidates have also traveled to key states to prepare for their debates, including John Kerry, who spent several days in Wisconsin, Barack Obama who went to a resort in Henderson, Nevada, and George W. Bush, who stayed at a hotel near Miami, Florida.

Vance explains how he thinks day care costs should be lowered

Vance suggested ways to alleviate the high costs of day care in remarks yesterday at a conservative group's event in Arizona, saying that extended family could help out and that people shouldn't be required to obtain onerous certifications to become child care workers.

"One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for day care is make it so that maybe like grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more or maybe there's an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more. If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all of the resources that you're spending on day care," Vance said at Turning Point USA's event in Mesa, Arizona.

Acknowledging that families may not have that extra set of hands, Vance said people should be empowered to get trained in the skills needed to take care of children.

"What we've got to do is actually empower people to get trained in the skills that they need," he said. "We've got a lot of people who love kids, who would love to take care of kids, but they can't, either because they don't have access to the education that they need or, maybe more importantly, because the state government says you're not allowed to take care of children unless you have some ridiculous certification that has nothing to do, nothing to do with taking care of kids."

"Don't force every early child care specialist to go and get a six-year college degree where they've got a whole lot of debt," he said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , however, requirements to be a day care worker vary by state. Some states, for example, mandate that these workers have a high school diploma or the equivalent. Some states also require certain credentials and training.

Status conference starts in Trump's federal election interference case

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has begun today's status conference in Trump's election interference case, with scheduling for the trial the primary focus.

Trump and special counsel Jack Smith have proposed two dramatically different timelines for the future of the case, with Smith requesting the judge schedule proceedings to address questions about whether Trump should be immune from prosecution for certain actions leading up the the Jan. 6 riot, and Trump's lawyers asking her to first address his motion to dismiss the indictment.

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues county over voter registration forms

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton went to court to try to stop a large Democratic-leaning county in the state from mailing out voter registration forms ahead of November's election.

Bexar County, which is Texas’ fourth-most populous county based in San Antonio, voted this week to spend almost $400,000 to encourage voter registration by sending out paid-postage forms to unregistered Texans, despite threats from Paxton that he would sue if they did so.

Paxton, a Republican, has made combating voter fraud a central part of his legal agenda, even though those efforts have resulted in little proof of widespread fraud he has claims exists.

“The distribution of forms to unverified recipients could induce ineligible people—such as felons and noncitizens—to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release, noting that the election code does not specifically authorize counties to mail out registration forms.

Voter registration forms in Texas ask voters for their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Eligibility is later verified by the secretary of state’s office before the voter can be registered. The form also requires registrants to swear under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen of the United States and that they are not disqualified from voting by a felony conviction. 

Bexar County’s attorney, Larry Roberson, told the county commissioners that state law prohibits mailing mail ballot applications, but not voter registration forms. The latter are broadly available and routinely mailed out by third-party groups.

Harris heads to Pennsylvania for debate prep as Walz campaigns in the key battleground state

Harris will head to Pittsburgh later this morning, where she will begin several days of preparation for Tuesday's presidential debate against Trump.

Walz, meanwhile, will be campaigning today in Pennsylvania. He's scheduled to deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Erie at 6 p.m. ET.

Trump to speak at two events while Vance campaigns in Arizona

Trump is slated to give remarks at the Economic Club of New York at 11:30 a.m. and to virtually address the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership summit around noon.

His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, will be campaigning in the battleground state of Arizona and is scheduled to deliver remarks in Phoenix at 6 p.m. ET.

When Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her new running mate at their first rally together, she called him “coach.”

Jury selection gets underway in Hunter Biden’s tax trial

LOS ANGELES — Jury selection is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles federal court today for Hunter Biden ‘s trial on tax-related charges .

It’s the second-ever criminal trial of a sitting president’s son, and the second for Hunter Biden this year.

Hunter Biden, 54, was  indicted in December  on three felony and six misdemeanor counts alleging that he failed to pay his taxes during a period when, he has said, he was in the throes of drug addiction, as well as when he got sober. The indictment says that “rather than pay his taxes, the Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.”

Prosecutors say in the indictment that Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.”

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

How Biden is spending his final months as president

Mike Memoli

Monica Alba

Biden is launching a new phase of his presidency this week.

Liberated from the constraints of a re-election campaign , he’s in the beginning stage of a strategy that will take him over the next five months to places at home and abroad that he likely would have ignored as a 2024 candidate, but with the goal of keeping the White House , his legacy and some of his most significant accomplishments secure.

Trump and Harris campaigns agree to rules for ABC debate

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to debate each other next week for the first time after their campaigns yesterday agreed to the ground rules set by host network ABC.

The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and format as the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.