PREPARING A SPEECH
“For every minute of
speaking I spend at least one
hour of preparation”
Winston
Churchill
Importance
The American
communications guru John Maxwell claims
that there are 4 things that an audience
won’t forgive you for, and one of these
is not to be prepared (the others are
not to be committed, not to be
comfortable and not to be interesting).
It’s imperative to be prepared.
Public Speaking requires
preparation and practice the same as in
other areas of life eg sport. If you
don’t prepare and practice it, you can’t
expect to deliver a speech as well as
you might.
Prepare
Early
Prepare early and not at
the last minute. There are no problems
with preparing a speech early and
leaving it. It will take little time to
refresh your memory, all the hard work
has been done. A benefit of preparing
it early is that you are unlikely to
leave it completely. You will
occasionally go through it in your mind
which means you will get to know the
speech thoroughly. Ideally you will
have decided what you want to say
several days prior to delivering it.
This will leave you these days to go
through it in your mind, under no
pressure of time. A thoroughly prepared
speech gives you the best chance of
delivering a speech well and this in
turn enhances your general speaking
confidence.
Steps in Preparing a Speech
The
first step is to plan the timing. In
the Tutorial on Speech Structure
you learnt that each speech should have
an Opening, Body and Closing. If you
have been allocated a 5 minute speech,
allow 30 seconds for the Opening, 4
minutes for the Body and 30 seconds for
the Closing. Allow 1 minute per main
point, this means 4 main points are
needed.
The second step is to
select a topic (refer to the Tutorial on
Selecting A Topic). Select it
and write it down. Make sure the topic
is specific and not general eg “my next
holiday” and not “holidays”.
Once the topic is
selected jot down a general plan of how
the speech may be shaped without
specifics eg:
Main Point 1: I’m not
going where I’ve been in the past, name
the places.
Main Point 2: I’m only going where I can
afford to go, name possibilities.
Main Point 3: List desired attributes of
a holiday destination.
Main Point 4: Announce where you are
going and what you will do there.
Brainstorm jotting down
any other main points for consideration
and all sub-points, which are directly
relevant to the topic, and that you
would like to include in your speech.
It’s a good idea to carry paper and a
pencil with you at all times because
sometimes ideas for a speech come at any
time.
Put together and
structure the speech, in point or
abbreviated form, as per the tutorial on
Speech Structure and consider a
joining phrase (for the example
above it could be “for my next
holiday…”). You may think of
this as your first draft.
Speech Notes
Remember that you are
delivering a speech, not a reading. At
the time of delivery, the speech notes
to be used should be in point form on
one piece of paper or on small cards
able to fit comfortably in the palm of
your hand. Point form means a key word
or key words to serve as a prompt for
you to remember the main or sub-points.
If you use cards, number them, in case
you drop them. If you will be using a
lectern, an A4 sheet will fit
comfortably on the lectern and not be
noticeable. However if there is no
lectern, cards should be used.
How you arrive at the
speech notes in point form may depend on
your experience. The inexperienced
speaker may want to write the speech out
completely, make adjustments and then
break it up back into point form. In
fact writing the speech out is a good
idea as it can give you a better feel
for the speech. Remember that
everything in the speech should relate
directly to the topic.
Practicing the Speech
Once in point form, start
practicing it. Never try to memorise
the entire speech word for word, that is
courting disaster. No matter how little
preparation time you have, always try to
practice it out loud at least once.
Practicing to yourself is good but you
will tend to go a lot quicker than out
loud. Remember that you have a time
constraint and particularly if you are
speaking at a seminar you shouldn’t
speak beyond your allotted time.
Find a target in front of
which you can practice at least once eg
friend, spouse etc. This will always be
more difficult than speaking to yourself
and you will certainly find out the
parts of your speech you know well and
parts you don’t know well. For the
other times, stick A4 faces on the wall
and speak to the faces.
Memorise the Opening,
main points and sub-points of the Body,
and the Closing. Go over these when you
are spending non-productive time eg
washing the dishes, driving home from
work. Memorising the opening is
vital as it is imperative that the
speech gets off to a great start.
When you are very
confident that you know your speech,
rehearse it in your mind backwards ie in
the order of: Closing, final main point
etc. This will guard against knowing
the start well but the end not so well
if you have a habit of practising the
start without often arriving at the end.
The last rehearsal should
be done as close as possible to the time
of actual delivery. It’s good that it
sits on your brain percolating. Go
through it in your mind just prior to
delivering the speech.
Audio Tape your Speech
I strongly recommend that
you audio tape the speech. On listening
back you will become aware of areas that
you thought were clear but that you now
think an audience may have difficulty
understanding. Also you may become
aware of words which aren’t pronounced
well, areas where it may be appropriate
to pause and areas where you are rushing
perhaps because there is too much
information. If you are to err on
providing less or more information, err
on providing less as the speech will
usually take a little longer than it
took practising. It seems to happen
that way.
After settling on your
speech you can listen to your speech on
a walkman from time to time. This will
assist in thoroughly knowing your speech
and it is not as hard work as saying the
speech to yourself.
Remember (your speech but also the
following)
