By: Susan Dugdale | Last modified: 05-04-2021
Planning your speech is where your success begins. I do not jest! ☺
In your imagination you may hear yourself being stunning, the audience clapping wildly as they rise to their feet to give you a standing ovation.
You may see yourself being deluged in red roses and offered several speaking contracts. Obviously, they are all lucrative but you choose the one with optional extras: an extended holiday in the South of France …
But first you have to begin at the beginning: planning your speech. Without a plan you are whistling in the wind, dreaming.
How to plan a speech step by step:
These notes are general guidelines for ALL types of speeches. I know they are long.
(Actually that's an understatement! They are very long.)
I also know if you take the time to go through them they'll give you a solid introduction to thorough speech preparation.
They cover the basics of good presentation planning, research, writing and rehearsal: aspects you’ll want to consider regardless of the type of speech you’re giving.
Once you have information about:
you are ready to make a rough or draft outline.
This will be your guide for writing.
You may alter the outline as you go along, as better or different ideas occur to you and that’s OK. It shows you’re flexible and thinking but before we can change anything we have to have something to start with.
To get to the outline stage in the speech planning process we first need to collect up all the "who", "what", "when", "how", and "where" information needed. And that begins with a brainstorm*.
Brainstorm is the name given to an extensively used technique for generating multiple ideas fast.
Using a heading as a prompt, quickly note everything you can think of relating to it. Do not edit yourself. Just let the ideas flow until no more arrive. There are no rights or wrongs!
Some ideas will be more useful than others and you will sort through and order them later.
I have several examples on my site. Here is one for a maid of honor speech.
On a large piece of paper or in a word document write these headings with enough space between them for notes:
Write down as much as you know about the audience.
This will give you ideas about what they will want to hear and be interested in. It will also be your guide when it comes to shaping your material. (More about this later!)
For now make notes covering: the number of people expected to be in your audience, their age group, gender, ethnicity, if appropriate, and the common or uniting
factors and specific interests they may have.
Find out more about why understanding your audience is so important. Check out building rapport.
Write down the title and/or type of speech you have been asked to prepare. Now using your notes from the WHO section of your brainstorm, begin another set.
This time you are looking to see how what you're going to talk about can be specifically shaped to meet and serve the interests
of your audience.
Meet Martha Brown.
She’s been asked to give a motivational speech to the group identified above. The organizer wants her to share her life story as a guide or inspiration.
Martha’s background is similar to many of the women she will be speaking to. She came from a family who struggled financially and is one of the few amongst her relatives who has maintained a marriage, raised children and now runs a successful business.
She developed a small catering firm specializing in delivering beautifully presented gourmet meals and finger food on demand. Martha is conscious of her good fortune but also knows the starting point, or the seed, lay within her. She desired the change of circumstances so much she enabled them to happen.
She doesn't want to overwhelm them with information so they can’t think straight or digest it. That will turn them off.
They will think it’s too difficult and beyond them. They may listen, be interested, but they won’t identify with it.
She wants them to feel they can take from her experience and use it to enrich their own lives.
It’s not a speech yet but you can see the beginnings of its shape and
how she’s used her knowledge of the audience to ensure giving them
something they’ll enjoy listening to and identify with.
There are two important 'hows'.
The first is how long the speech is to be.
The time you have been given will determine what you put into your speech and what you will leave out. If you have a relatively short time, 3-5 minutes, you will need to either focus on one major topic with examples to illustrate or settle for covering a maximum of three lightly.
The purpose of your speech and your audience will help you make the
most relevant choice. A longer time gives you more freedom to develop
several themes fully.
The second 'how' relates to the method of presentation.
For example:
When you consider this 'how' bear in mind the different needs of your audience. Most people have a preferred mode for receiving information.
Some people understand well through listening. They are called 'auditory'.
Some people get most of their understanding through looking. They are called 'visual'.
Others receive and understand information best when they can touch, feel or do what is being explained to them. These are the 'kinesthetics'.
A considerate speaker tries to include all three modes in their speech.
(For more on catering for learning styles with examples see the foot of the page.)
Your choices under this 'how' heading will be governed by the time
available. If it is short you may have to leave out a 'show and tell' or
a demonstration but you will always be able to include something to meet
all three modes satisfactorily.
Let’s return to Martha’s Notes to see what she does with the 'how' segment of her brainstorm.
How long?
Time available = 10 minutes. (Maybe some more but that depends on the
rest of the agenda of the meeting and how well it flows. Could be some
space for questions from the audience and answer.)
How to present?
Definitely with humor! Also take some fliers, business cards and
samples of finger food along. These can be available for people to pick
up at the end of the presentation.
The time, day and season you deliver a speech can have an impact on what you do and say.
For example:
You can use an early bird start in the middle of winter
on a wet Monday morning effectively by acknowledging the efforts people
have made to be there, and by making sure the heaters are on and there's hot
coffee available.
With a little bit of thinking you’ll always find ways of tying in what is happening in the 'here and now' with your content.
A word of warning:
Be conscious about presenting difficult or
challenging material when people are either both tired and hungry (just
before lunch or dinner) or when they’ve just eaten! Concentration spans
are not at their best in either situation. If possible save this type of
content for a mid-morning or afternoon slot.
Martha’s Notes: 2.45pm, Wednesday, 2nd August – Summer heat
The environment you are to speak in can have a huge part to play in shaping the final presentation of your speech.
Points to consider are:
Many fully prepared, beautifully rehearsed speeches fail because insufficient thought has gone into where they are to take place.
It’s no fun when people can neither see nor hear you or the carefully thought through demonstration is stymied through lack of an electric socket in the right place!
Martha’s Notes: Church meeting room.
It can seat everybody
comfortably and there’s room for a table to put out a display of fliers
and trays of food, paper napkins etc. Arrange the chairs in a horseshoe
or semi-circle so everybody can see clearly.
OK. You’ve got all the notes ready; so let’s mix ‘n match and re-write until the outline is clear.
After you’ve completed this part of planning your speech you’ll be
ready to do any extra RESEARCH required, and then you’re on to the task of
WRITING your speech.
We’ll use Martha’s Finished Outline to give you the idea of how it could go:
Speech length: 10 minutes
Speech title: How to win a future for your family when the kids need feeding and the bills want paying
Introduction (1minute):
Thanks for coming today … Summer heat, we’d all rather be at beach
reading a book under a sun umbrella ….etc. But I’ve got something for
you that’ll more than make up for it. I look around the hall and I see a
lot of women just like me: women, who work hard, love their families,
etc., … want the best for them.
(Insert anecdotal humor, perhaps a small personal story about the checkbook … The only way I could manage it was to banish it the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Likewise I used my credit cards to test how sharp my scissors were.)
Main Idea 1 (3 minutes):
Introduce business and what it is.
Explain how it functions on a daily basis. Briefly outline long-term goals.
(Quick show-and-tell with flyers and food. Invite people to sample at end and ask questions.)
Main idea 2 (2 minutes):
My life before the business (tie to women in audience). My life after
business started. What I have achieved. The hardest part about starting,
staying in business. The best part about starting, staying in business.
People who have inspired me.
Main idea 3 (3 minutes):
What I’ve learned in the process about my family, others and myself … Examples.
How I keep myself inspired … goal setting, listening and learning from others
Summary: (1minute):
Very quick round up of principal points. The future – the way forward
for you, the women in the audience listening. Invite questions if time.
Remind them about the fliers and the food! Thank organizers.
That’s it! Very short, sweet and simple.
There’s nothing magical about planning your speech. It's just methodical - one-step-after-another. If you find yourself flustered go back to the core brainstorm headings and ask yourself the key questions once more.
Write your answers down and let them be your guide.
Remember this is not your finished speech.
It’s your outline – a map of what you’re going to cover. Don’t spend too much time trying to get it perfect. You’ll want that energy for researching, writing and rehearsing!
And guess what is coming up next?
Here are links on:
If you already know your subject thoroughly, inside out, back to front and sideways, there will be no need to research and you can skip this part of planning your speech.
BUT if you don’t, the outline should point up the gaps needing to be filled with specific information.
In our example it there seems little need for Martha to do any further research, as this speech is her personal story.
However, there are a number of ways she could strengthen her speech and add real benefits for her audience.
For example: she could bring along fliers from local training institutions providing courses especially geared for women setting up business on their own or she could provide a list of business women in the community willing to mentor and advise women in start-ups. A reading list would be helpful, as would an on-line resource list.
All of these ideas need researching before presenting.
Careful research adds authority to your work. It shows care, thought and dedication to getting it right. Your audience will appreciate and respect you for it.
NB. If you are presenting material as fact rather than as opinion, check it! Make sure you know rather than think you know. If you can’t find out, then say so.
Did you pick how Martha planned to meet each of them in her outline?
For the 'auditory' learners she would tell her story using her voice in a lively, interesting-to-listen-to way! Nothing turns an auditory focused person's ears off faster than a monotone drawl.
For the 'visual' people, she would provide fliers and food to see. Plus her appearance and body language would 'say' to them, this is a vibrant, purpose-filled person who loves what she does.
And lastly, she would use 'word pictures' to illustrate the points she made in her speech. The 'visual' would literally 'see' where she was coming from by using their imagination to recreate her images in their own minds!
For the 'kinesthetics', Martha planned to actively tell her story. She would use vivid 'action' words describing how she did things.
Example: 'I started a business.' is bland. It doesn't communicate any of the effort or feelings involved.
By contrast: ' started my own business. What a journey! I know you've watched your children learning to walk. Well, that was me! I fell. I bruised my self. I got up, took two steps and crashed again...'
You get the idea. This is action, living and real.
The 'kinesthetic' folk will appreciate and know what she is talking about.
Additionally, Martha's fliers and food will appeal too. They can hold them, actively read the fliers and taste the food.
Lastly, they will be aware of what Martha does
while she's talking to them. Is she conveying energy, excitement and
action in her body language? If so, she'll have them with her!