2. ORGANIZE YOUR SPEECH

Writing a strong speech is so complicated, that we could write an entire SYW about it. First off, you need to organize your speech properly. Most speeches have three main components:

The introduction
The body
The closing

The introduction

This is possibly the most important part of your speech, because you want to grab your audience's attention from the start. So come up with something clever, shocking, or interesting right at the very beginning. Here are some possible techniques to use:

  • Be dramatic. Say something like, "I'm about to reveal a plan that will drastically alter the face of humanity as we know it!" when your presentation is really about a new brand of facial soap.

  • Tell a joke. Getting people to laugh will loosen them up and make them feel inclined to like you and hear what you have to say. Don't try this if your jokes are usually met by silence or groans. Test your opening out first on your most brutally honest of friends.

  • Tell a story. This will make the audience see you as a person instead of a boring public speaker, thus giving you an air of accessibility. Two things to keep in mind about opening your speech with your story: keep it short (under a minute) and keep it relevant to the rest of your presentation. The point of the story is to lead the audience into your speech, so if your anecdote ends with your dog saving the day, and your speech is about bank mergers, you might have a hard time segueing from the your intro into the rest of the speech. Unless that story serves as a kick-ass analogy.

  • Pose a question. Asking the audience for their input will make them feel involved, even if you're going to answer your own question.

The body

This is your speech. Everything you want to say should come out here, in an organized, untrivialized fashion. Here are some possible techniques:

  • Use a formal outline. You can prepare for writing the content of your speech by outlining your major points with those fun Roman numerals. Most good speeches have two or three main points, each of which has a couple of sub-points or examples. Formally outlining your speech will make sure that your logical flow makes sense and that your audience doesn't get lost. It will also help you figure our where the holes in your speech are, in case you have to do some last minute extra research.

  • Mind-map. A technique developed by a British brain researcher in the 1970s, mind-mapping is a less stiff version of writing up an outline. Instead of making a list, you write the main topic of your speech in the center of a piece of paper, and draw branches extending from it that highlight your key points. Then draw more branches from the key points to elaborate on the sub-points. The good thing about mind maps is that they don't confine you to listing your ideas in any particular order; you can just use your creative juices and let the ideas flow. Then once you've mind-mapped, you can create a more formal outline.

However you create your body, the key point is that you are ORGANIZED. The audience must be able to follow your thoughts.

The closing

The way you end a speech is almost as important as the way you begin it. The audience will be most restless at the end, and you have to find a way to tie everything together so that they don't walk away remembering how badly they were fidgeting. So sum everything up for them in approximately a few concise sentences and leave 'em with a witty line.

If appropriate, you should also ask for questions. This doesn't mean saying, "Any- questions?-No?-I-didn't-think-so," and then running away. Instead, after you ask for questions, give the audience at least 10 seconds to respond. If there are questions, keep each response short (under a minute), and never take a guess at an answer. If you don't know how to respond to something, take down the questioner's e-mail or phone number, and tell the person you'll get back to him/her soon. Or you could just say, "Honestly, I don't know," and leave it at that.