At some point in your career, you will find it necessary to do a speech or presentation. Sound scary? Something you're not sure you can do? Let's take a look at how to write a successful speech that will get the results you want.
Getting Started
When preparing your presentation, make sure you have a clear topic in mind. For example, if you are asked to do a speech on writing manuals for model QRX desktop computers, you may want to narrow it down to writing online installation instructions or converting legacy manuals to CD-Rom format. Next, know your audience. When preparing a speech, keep the following in mind:
Who am I speaking to?
How am I going to present this?
Why am I presenting this?
And, most importantly, what do I want people to do as a result of hearing what I have to say?
Do you want your audience to:
Buy a product or service you are selling?
Invest in an investment fund or a startup company?
Learn how to effectively write online installation instructions?
In other words, what do you want to teach, convince or persuade people to do? When you are starting to prepare your speech, it's a good idea to find out as much as possible about your audience:
Age
Gender
Professions
Social Class
For example, you would write a different speech about writing online installation instructions to a group of technical writers and a group of executives at their company. For the former you would focus on the how-to part of the topic, while the latter is primarily interested in the potential benefits involved.
Writing Your Speech
There are five basic parts to any speech:
Opener
Preview
Body
Review
Close
The opener gets people interested in what you have to say. Remember that we live in a clicker culture where the average person is only going to pay attention to something for 60 to 90 seconds and beyond that, will tune you out unless it relates directly to him or her. You need to try to make the beginning of your speech of value to your audience. Here are some ideas:
Ask a question and get people involved.
Tell a short story that will get their attention.
Use a quotation that is well-known but not a clich?.
Tell people how what you have to say will personally benefit them
Remember, it is your responsibility to get people interested in what you have to say.
The preview leads into the body by giving the topic and objective of the speech. The body should have no more than three key points. Professional speakers call this "The Rule of Three."
The purpose of the review is to restate the three key points of the body. Here are three ways to do that:
Metaphors: "Beware of small expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship." Benjamin Franklin
Similes: "A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder." Robert Carlyle.
Humor: Helps people to remember your main points.
By using one of these three methods, you will help your audience remember what you have said. It also shows the audience that your speech is almost over.
Finally, close the sale. Ask your audience to do something. To help do this, make sure to end on a positive note-most people will remember something positive as opposed to something negative!
Time Frame
Very important! The vast majority of speeches last about 30 minutes. Try to follow the schedule below:
Opener: one to two minutes
Preview: three minutes
Body: 20 minutes
Review: two minutes
Close: three minutes
If you have a different time frame, adjust each section accordingly.
Using these guidelines to developing a speech or presentation, will make things go much smoother. Don't forget to practice, practice, practice. The more you practice the more comfortable you'll feel about your speech. Remember: The more you know your material, the easier it is to give a presentation.
