Looking for how to write a speech in a few simple steps? Over the last 20 years, our instructors have dissected thousands of speeches. In that time, we’ve been able to identify simple things that can easily make or break a presentation. We’ve assembled a simple, step-by-step process that explains how to write a speech quickly and easily.
In fact, once you understand the concepts below, you can use our Online Speech Writer to organize and print your presentation. A little warning, though, the process is very simple if you follow every step. If you skip a step, you can get bogged down, and the process can take a lot of time. However, if you follow the steps, you can write an effective speech in just a few minutes (versus hours or days)!
This post is the second in a series designed to help people create a perfect speech from scratch. Last week, I gave you a few ways to start a speech. Next week, I will show you how to end a speech. We will also cover a few unique types of presentations in future posts such as writing a eulogy. We will cover a few other types of speeches that are common such as a wedding speech, a persuasive speech, and a graduation speech.
A Few Concepts You Need to Know Before Writing a Speech.
Remember that if you want to hold your audience’s attention, less is more. Short is better than long. No one ever said, “That meeting was so good, I wish everyone would have spoken longer.” So, a few concepts (bullet points) covered really well is much better than a bunch of stuff covered in a cursory way. Another great tip is that writing a presentation word-for-word and then trying to memorize your entire speech is hard. To make this writing process easier, people will often use note cards and try to practice in front of the mirror. This often will just make you more nervous. Instead, create a presentation outline and use literary devices to add “meat to the content.” For instance, examples and stories are fantastic reinforcement for your points or concepts. You can also use analogies, quotes, and visual aids to prove your points.
When you do practice, practice in front of an audience. Live audiences will let you practice making eye contact and make sure you are using proper body language when you present. A run-through in front of real people will also help you fit your speech into the proper time limit.
For additional details, see Create a Persuasive Speech Outline.
How to Write a Good Speech in Just a Few Simple Steps
Step #1: Narrow Down Your Topic First, and Your Speech Writing Will Be Faster and Easier.
The broader your speech topic, the more stress you will feel when you try to create a presentation for the topic. For instance, if you try to create a speech on “World Peace,” well, good luck. However, if you want to create a presentation about how to improve security in your neighborhood, that is much easier.
So, the first thing you want to do is narrow down your topic. An easy way to do this is to use the five W’s from journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
An Example of Using the Who, What, When, Where, Why Technique.
For instance, let’s say that I am giving a work presentation about our company financials last quarter. The who is the company. The when is last quarter. If I narrow down the where, I might want to focus on just the Midwest Region. So, now I have to ask, “What exactly happened with our company offices in the Midwest Region last quarter?”
Well. sales increased more in that region than anywhere else. The final question is, “Why?” Why was this region different from the other regions? They hired a new regional sales manager. She and her team focused on repeat business from past customers. After finding answers to each of these questions, I can create a much more narrow and focused title.
Financials from Last Quarter
Becomes…
A Focus on Generating Repeat Business from Past Customers in the Midwest Region Generated a Sharp Increase in Revenue Last Quarter.
If you have trouble narrowing down the focus of your topic, make sure to focus on the WHY? Why would your audience care about the topic that you are presenting? Why should they pay attention to you? If you can add the answers to these questions into your title, your presentation will be more narrow and interesting to your audience.
Step #2: Create a Speech Outline Out of Your Main Ideas.
Once you have a good topic, it is a good idea to make an outline of the main points of the speech. This is the first step when you create the body of your speech. Make a list of the top ideas or specific points that explain the topic. For instance, in the example above, what are the most important things that the Midwest Region did to generate that extra income? Write a list of the most important items related to the topic.
Keep listing these important points until you have five to ten of them. Then, rank them from the most important idea to the least important. The process here is to brainstorm possible concepts or different points to cover, and then sort them from most important to least important.
By the way, you won’t be able to effectively cover ALL of the points that you brainstormed. You will only want to cover three, four, or five of these items. That is why you want to sort them by importance. If you can only cover a few points, why not cover the most important?
The number of items that you cover will be determined by the required length of time that you have to speak. A good rule of thumb is to cover one item or bullet for every seven to 10 minutes that you have to speak. However, you definitely want to limit your bullets to just five per sitting. For a short speech (less than 20 minutes,) three points is a good number. If you have 45 to 50 minutes, you probably want to cover five bullet points.
Pro Tip! Go through the same process of determining the “Why?” for each of your bullet points. This will make your entire presentation something that the audience will want to pay attention to. Just read each of your bullets and ask, “Why does my audience need to know this?” Whatever the answer is, add that why to the statement that you made in the bullet point.
Now that you have your topic and your three to five bullet points, you have a great presentation outline. You can also use this outline as your slide or visual aid.
Step #3: Insert “Impact Ideas” to Add Content to Your Presentation.
The final step is to add impact or content to the presentation outline. Most people will make the mistake of adding “sub-bullet” points here. For some reason, we think, well, the best way to prove that a bullet point is true is to use a bunch of other bullet points as evidence. That is a huge mistake. It is also the mistake that makes most presentations really boring and really, really hard to deliver.
Instead, use what we call a Presentation Impact Idea to better explain each bullet point. Pretend that your audience members are a jury. The bullet points are the statements that you are trying to prove. And the “Impact Ideas” are the pieces of evidence that prove that each statement is true. Below are some of my favorite items, but anything that answers the question, “How can I prove this bullet point to my audience?” will do.
- Add a Personal Story or Example: Relay a quick story that occurred to actual people. These stories are solid proof that what you are saying is true because it happened before. The funny thing about stories is that most presenters avoid stories like the plague. But professional speakers use almost nothing but great stories to make their points. (That is why most speakers are boring and most professional speakers are interesting.) Going back to the jury analogy, a story about a personal experience is like an eye-witness testifying in court.
- Quotes: A simple quote from an expert that you can remember will add a lot of credibility to your speech. By inserting a quote, you are borrowing credibility from another expert. To continue with the jury analogy, this is like bringing in an expert witness.
- Analogy: After you have used a quote from an expert or a story to verify that your bullet point is true, adding an analogy can add flavor to your presentation and make your points memorable. If you recall from literature class, an analogy is a comparison. You can use these to compare a point that you are trying to explain to something that the audience can better relate to. (Like comparing a presentation to a jury trial.) For additional information, visit the post about how to insert analogies into presentations.
You may also like How to Design and Deliver a Memorable Speech.
If You Really Want to Learn to Write an Amazing Speech, Register for a Class
Obviously, this is a very abbreviated version of our turn-key process to help people design speeches. If you want a complete guide to designing and delivering presentations or need help preparing your final draft, you have a couple of options. You can purchase access to our Online Public Speaking Course for a do-it-yourself type of process. Or you can register for a seat in our in-person public speaking training sessions if you want access to a personal presentation coach. Remember that the Online Course is also included in the tuition for our presentation classes, so if you attend a class, you get lifetime access to the online course.
For additional help, make sure to visit our 101 presentation tips blog post.