Planning And Writing A Successful Speech

Public speaking, according to dictionary definitions, is the act of speaking or presenting a lecture to a group of people, often in a structured manner that aims to influence, inform and even entertain an audience. In academic settings, various degrees of public speaking are utilized to deliver information to students and faculty members on a regular basis.

Students may be assigned the task of curating and performing a public speech in front of their peers during their academic career. In order to successfully deliver a speech that can inform and influence their audience, students need to learn ways how to effectively plan and write a successful speech.

Planning a successful speech

Writing a public speech in an academic setting isn't different from any other type of writing for academic purposes. Speeches, however, do need to actively engage an audience.

A successful speech is one that actively engages an audience, expresses its ideas in logical way and uses evidence to support its main points. Besides those traits, the most important aspect of a successful speech is its ability to help listeners understand its overall message. To accomplish that, students need to write and organize their speech to be better understood by their audience.

Planning a speech involves organization. A speaker needs to organize their ideas in logical manner to effectively convey their ideas to an audience. Finding the purpose of the speech helps accomplish that; the purpose of a speech is often its main topic and emotional resonance (how the speech makes the audience feel). Purpose can help a speaker effectively organize their speech before they start writing.

Writing a successful speech

According to academic resources, writing a speech is like writing any other academic work. There's an introduction, body and conclusion in speeches. Writing them effectively, however, can take some effort.

Effective introductions in successful speeches often have a hook to interest listeners. It also helps establish the context or motive of the speech, which informs the audience of the speech's purpose.

The body of the speech relies on repetition in effective ways. As the speech goes on, key points (or buzzwords) should be repeated to remind the audience about the topic of the speech (the purpose). It's also effective to write the speech in shorter sentences, allowing the audience to easily grasp the contents of the speech. The rhetorical strategies ethos, pathos and logos are also utilized in successful speeches.

The conclusion of a successful speech often contains a reiteration of the main points with a call to action. The closing words should remind an audience about the purpose of the speech, and then encourage them to take action depending on the circumstances of the topic.

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