I'm going to write a series of blogs on how to put together a great speech, since I've heard a number of bad ones lately. 

Let's begin with first principles.  A great speech puts the occasion, the audience, and the speaker together in an unforgettable way.  All three pieces of the rhetorical puzzle are important. 

When Churchill was going to give his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech after WW II, he didn't go over to the House of Commons, where he delivered most of his orations.  Churchill knew that the speech would be controversial, since the post-war world was not in the mood to hear that war-time ally Stalin was launching the Cold War.  So instead, Churchill traveled to Fulton, Missouri, Harry Truman’s home turf, with the President in tow.  He wanted the imprimatur of the U. S. Presidency so that people would be forced to take the speech seriously. 

The gambit worked.  The speech took a pasting in the press, as Churchill knew it would, but it began a discussion that alerted the world to the dangers of the USSR.  And Churchill’s prescient words remained relevant until the Berlin Wall came down, more than 4 decades later. 

But what if you have to give a speech and you want it to be well-received now, not forty years after the fact? 

You need to consider the audience’s needs.  A great speechmaker possesses great tact.  You have to be prepared to speak to a particular audience on a particular occasion.  Ultimately, then, a great speech is only partially about you.  It’s also about the audience and the occasion.

If you keep that rule in mind, you won’t go wrong.  Ask yourself, who is this audience?  What does it want?  What does it fear?  Why has it invited me to speak to it?  What aspect of my message is relevant to it? 

And then ponder the occasion.  What’s happening right now that will be on the minds of everyone in the room?  What should I not talk about?  What does that audience need to hear?

The first rule of great speechmaking:  consider the audience.

Comments

[chris]

hey can any one give me some tips on how to write a basic but good speach for some one in year eight and yes i have done ok speaches in the past but now i have no clue ? ples help

[Terry Gault]

Nick,

Thanks for the advice.

You are right: connecting with the audience is the first step.

Since you brought the topic up, I want to examine what it means to connect with the audience a little bit more.

Connecting is a lot of things: communicating, associating, relating. Connecting with your audience involves them in the core of what you are saying in your presentation, in the ideas and information you are giving them. At a deeper level, you’re not just giving a speech; you’re creating a two-way interchange based on common interests.

When we connect with something, we bind it to us. Before you start feeding information to your audience, take in some information from them. They are always talking to you — non-verbally. Ask them questions and involve them in the process. Really listen to their questions; paraphrase them for understanding. To influence an audience, thereby getting your message to them, they must trust you. We all tend to trust people we feel connected to. In your presentations, create a sense of shared experience with your audience, so you’ll both get something out of it.

Thanks again for the insight