How to Write a Speech – Step By Step Guide (Updated for 2023)

Engage Your Audience with Perfect Speech Writing

Do you think writing a speech is a daunting task? Do you often search for tips on how to write a speech to keep your audience interested and engaged? 

If so, don’t worry! 

To compile a comprehensive speech, you need to consider the audience, length, purpose, or topic of the speech. Focusing on these factors helps you retain the audience’s interest and prevent them from dozing off. 

But there’s more you can do to deliver a thought-provoking speech. This detailed blog features helpful information about how to write a speech regardless of the purpose and occasion.

Let’s begin.

What is a Speech?

A speech serves as an excellent medium to deliver whatever message you’ve got for your audience. You can take the speech to convey ideas through communicating to a group of people. 

While writing a speech, ensure that it contains logical ideas. The speech also has sufficient evidence to support those ideas. 

Moreover, it is always written focusing on purpose or message that needs to be delivered to the audience or public. 

What Makes Speeches Different?

Writing for the public isn’t exhausting. It’s pretty similar to other types of writing. For example, you would want to communicate your message in a speech or need the audience’s attention.

However, some writing qualities might favor others, depending on the public speaking conditions. For instance, when your audience listens to you, they understand and process the information as you speak. 

So it’s essential to opt for a speech writing services for your speech to be well structured and easy to understand. More importantly, your speech information and delivery must align with the audience. 

The Purpose of a Speech

When the public gathers to listen to speakers on a particular issue, they expect you to talk about the essential information immediately. On the other hand, as a speaker, you want to have an immediate effect on your audience. 

Hence, the purpose of speaking to a group of people is to get the response you need. And most speeches encourage listeners to react in the following ways:

• Acting
• Thinking
• Feeling

For example, college lectures enable students to see a topic from a different perspective; protest speeches encourage an audience to take action, and eulogy examples stimulate an emotional response from the listeners. 

Questions to Achieve your Purpose

To attain the purpose of your speech, don’t hesitate to ask yourself the following questions:

• If you’re presenting an argument, why do you want your audience to agree to it?
• Which points or ideas would be beneficial for your audience?
• Do you want your audience to learn anything from your speech?

Understanding How to Write a Speech

There’s no denying that speech writing is the art of communicating your message through words. These words captivate and keep listeners engaged. If you’ve written essays, you might find it easier to compile a meaningful speech. 

But it’s imperative to understand your speech’s purpose. Factors such as required length, purpose, and analysis of the audience are necessary to consider.

It’s true that writing an effective speech is a time-consuming activity. Therefore, it’s best to follow proper guidelines and maintain the format to develop a great speech, leaving your audience to think about something significant. 

Different Types of Speeches

If you’re wondering, speech writing has three types; informative, persuasive, and special occasions. 

Before understanding how to write a speech for school or any other place, let’s discuss each type in detail.

Informative Speech

The type of speech informs and teaches your audience about a particular topic. 

Informative speeches could be a few minute-long overviews on the causes that lead to the American Revolution or an hour-long speaking session on technologies to clean space debris. 

Don’t forget that an informative speech focuses on telling facts or narrating a story, maintaining the audience’s attention.

Persuasive Speech

If you want to convince your audience about an idea, go for the persuasive speech type. 

It could be a short or long one, defining the advantages and disadvantages of a topic that favors a public office’s representative. 

When writing on persuasive speech topics, you need to use facts and opinions to convince listeners to focus on what you’re thinking. 

Special Occasion Speech

Special speeches are what you hear at funerals, parties, or weddings. You can use this type of speech to entertain and pay tribute to a person or institution. You don’t use special speech to inform your audience. They were intended to celebrate the person or place being commemorated at the occasion without the persuasion involved.

For instance, writing a eulogy speech is the perfect example of this category. It is a special speech that allows you to pay a final tribute to your loved one, perfectly by showing the love and affection in words.

How to Write a Speech Outline?

If you want to compose a speech that will create a lasting impact on your audience, you need to work on the speech outline. 

When you begin writing an outline, you will focus on introducing yourself, the topic, and the points you will be highlighting. 

Working on a speech’s outline will help you appear authoritative, save time and organize your thoughts, ensuring that you follow a proper structure. If you don’t know how to write a speech format, an outline will also give you an idea about it. 

It’s also essential to understand who you’re addressing through the speech, what the speech will cover, and how long it will continue.

Following tips will help you to know how to write a speech properly. 

01. Take Time to Write a Speech

This step enables you to choose your topic and points that your speech will address. It would be helpful if you know your audience and understand what they have been living for. 

Try to focus on their needs. More importantly, you need to define the speech’s purpose and structure it correctly. 

02. Write a Compelling Speech Introduction

To make your introduction stand out, you can opt for a strong statement and grab the audience’s attention. And you can incorporate something that builds credibility.

Take introductory lines as an opportunity to discuss something significant and keep your audience engaged. 

03. Focus on Body 

The body of your speech contains main ideas and supporting statements. You can also include examples, facts, and other essentials to compile a great speech.

04. Concluding Lines 

In the end, you need to summarize the essential points of your speech. And you need to end your speech with a relevant closing statement. If there’s a need, you can think about incorporating a call to action. 

How to Write a Speech Introduction in a Few Steps?

You can divide speech writing into different sections to make the entire process smooth and streamlined. However, you need to keep your audience in mind at each level of speech writing. 

Here’s how to write a speech considering these points.

Write a Speech with Audience Research

It’s best to know your audience before writing a speech. The more you know about your audience, the more it becomes easier to reach them. 

For example, you’re already a member of a Chamber of Commerce of your town, and you’ve started a small eatery in your neighborhood. 

You’re invited to an annual dinner where you’ve 10 minutes to speak to the audience and talk about your new venture. 

It might seem stressful if you haven’t interacted with a public gathering. However, to streamline the speech writing process, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• What does the audience want to know?
• Which problems do I need to solve for them?
• Is there anything important I can incorporate in the speech for them? 

Choosing a Topic

In this scenario, you’re familiar with the topic that you’re invited to provide a overview of your business. But you’ve only 10 minutes to speak about it. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep your speech short and focused.

You can create a list of strengths of your food business. Discuss challenges and how you overcome them. You will get 10 minutes, so use these minutes to highlight unique factors that help your eatery stand out. 

Research on your Topic

As a food business owner, you may be familiar with the core areas of your business and don’t need a lot of research before writing your speech. 

But it’s good to be aware of what’s going in the industry or what your competitors are up to. Therefore, spend some on research and include essential points in your speech. 

Compile your Information

This step includes writing your speech once you get the essential information. Here’s how you can ace it.

Stay Organized

Gather all information, facts, or quotes in front of your eyes. And try to be as organized as possible. You can also create an outline to ensure that you don’t miss anything. 

Focus on Using a Conversational Tone 

You need to write your speech in a tone that you use in everyday communication. Incorporate a relevant incident or humor – if it goes well with your topic.

Think about Speaker’s Notes

Your audience can’t see these notes. Therefore, you can use them for self-reminders. 

Try to Be Specific

Avoid providing unnecessary information and incorporate examples or stats to support your point. 

Keep Sentences Short

To make speaking hassle-free, it’s best to use shorter sentences with the rule of three in speech writing. They are also easy to use and can help people to understand your point quickly. 

Choose a Presentation Tool

Depending on your topic and occasion, you can use a professional presentation tool to make the entire session visually interesting. 

Go for a Template

If you prefer, you can use a template to display eye-catching graphics. A good template design can transform an average speaking session into a memorable public speech. 

Speech Writing

Deliver a memorable speech with our
expertly crafted speeches!

Inspire Your Audience

Tips on How to Write a Persuasive Speech

Following tips will help you to know about how to write a speech with a persuasive tone. 

Work on Speech Introduction

You need to work on the introductory lines to keep your audience attentive. If you’re wondering how to write a speech introduction, you can think about the ways that make your listeners relate to your core points.

You can connect with your audience and get their attention by talking about concerns. Moreover, you can try starting with anecdotes to grab your audience’s attention. 

And you can also try other tactics, such as adding interesting facts, realistic stats, and asking questions to make your audience curious to listen more. 

Build a Motive or Context

As a speaker, you need to describe why your topic is significant. Talk about your purpose and factors that made you speak to a particular audience. 

Keep it Well Organized

If you don’t organize your speech, it might turn into a terrible one. Having a structured speech will keep the readers engaged and help you stick to the main points or ideas. 

When you start promisingly outlining the essential factors, challenges, and other relatable things, try to continue your speech in the same manner so that your audience will know where you’re heading and why. 

Stick to a Point

It’d be helpful if you stay relevant and focused on the topic. Don’t provide irrelevant or unnecessary information that might make your audience lose interest. 

More importantly, it takes several minutes to deliver introductory lines. If possible, try to move from introducing a body of the speech quickly to retain the listener’s interest. 

Repeat Important Factors

It’s a good idea to repeat crucial information or buzzwords, especially if your speech is long. For example, you can link an idea that you discussed initially while wrapping or concluding your speech.

Add Summaries and Previews

Adding verbal cues allows your audience to connect pieces of your speech. And they will likely connect with the rest of your speech. 

You can talk about issues in the educational system. For example, I’m here to highlight the so and so issues that have been threatening our educational system for years. 

Go for Strong Transitions

At this level, you can present new information that relates to what your audience has heard. You can always demolish a counter argument by saying, “but this argument doesn’t appear weighty when you think about…”

Use Short or Simpler Sentences

When you want your audience to remember whatever you say, use simpler and shorter sentences. You need to avoid using subordinate clauses, places, and verbs together. 

Don’t Overuse Pronouns

Listeners might need time to understand what “this” or “it” refers to. Therefore, it’s best not to use pronouns and be clear by using nouns. 

Add Rhetorical Strategies

You can incorporate rhetorical strategies of logos, pathos, and ethos to convince your audience to trust you. These strategies also make your argument stronger. 

Ethos refers to building your trustworthiness and authenticity as a speaker. When you opt for pathos, you appeal to your listener’s emotions. And logos refer to using stats and facts in the speech.

Use Quotations and Stats 

To support your perspective, it’s best to incorporate quotes and stats sparingly in your speech. This way, the words will stick to your listener’s mind for a long time. 

However, if you try to provide plenty of information, you may overwhelm your audience, and they may lose interest. 

Focus on the Tone

It’s also one of the essential factors associated with writing or delivering a thought-provoking speech. Therefore, the tone you use must align with your topic or audience. 

More importantly, you need to avoid using inappropriate humor or show over-excitement to grab the audience’s attention. 

Try to Be Memorable

It takes imagination and discipline to become a memorable speaker. As a speaker, if you’re looking for an example of a speech to appear memorable, you can consider the words of John F Kennedy from the 1961 inaugural address:

“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what can do for your country.” 

Try to Be Yourself

You and your message are the same. If your audience doesn’t consider, they might resist your message. Therefore, ensure that your body language and delivery will leave an impressive impression. 

You can focus on the ways that connect you and your audience. For example, you can talk about how speaking to the public makes you nervous, and some of the attendees might even relate to it. 

Wrap Your Speech Strongly

Knowing the above points about how to write a speech, now you might be wondering about how to end a speech? 

Well, it needs to be something that your audience would always remember. You can share a success story and try to link it with the topic.

You can also make a call to action if it goes well with your topic. And it’s also a good idea to appreciate their presence and time and mention it while concluding your speech. 

Tips to Ace Public Speech

No doubt, writing a well-structured speech is necessary. But how you deliver it plays an essential role too. Here are a few things you can remember to master the art of public speaking. 

Avoid Speech Reading

You can memorize your speech if it’s a possibility for you. But it’s fine to use keynotes or outlines to avoid any inconvenience. 

However, don’t read those notes or outlines and only refer to them when you forget a fact, quote, or when you feel stuck. 

Use Interesting Visuals

If your topic allows, don’t forget to use interesting but relevant visuals. These visuals will incorporate visual elements into your public speech. 

You can find various templates to use for your speech, and if you want to showcase your project work, you can display it too.

Speak and Appear Natural

Don’t worry if you feel nervous. You need to focus on appearing as natural as possible, even after making a mistake. 

Focus on your body language, stay alert, and talk like you normally would. 

Comfortable and Professional Clothing

Wearing comfortable clothing will keep you at ease. However, ensure that whatever you wear aligns with the dress code of the occasion. 

If you aren’t sure, you can always ask the organizer. The key here is to fit in and ace your public speaking experience. 

Try to Maintain Enthusiasm

If you’re excited about your topic, your audience will likely take an interest in it too. It’s essential to maintain enthusiasm as it will keep the readers engaged. 

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Let’s accept the fact that you can’t ace public speaking overnight. Apart from appearing confident and professional, you also need to deliver the speech in the given time. 

Therefore, you need to practice getting more comfortable with your speech and learn to deliver it without exceeding the time. 

If you are a fresher, you can take a look at various speech writing templates for students available on the web. These templates provide you ease in understanding the outline and deliver a speech perfectly in front of the audience.

Speech Writing Topics 

Writing a speech for a university’s orientation or eulogy for a mother required immense effort. Choosing the right topic according to your speech type may take most of your time. 

Here’s a list of some helpful topics to help you get started with your speech.

Topics for Persuasive Speech

If you have to write a persuasive speech, you can write on the following topics:

• Adverse effects of consuming junk food
• Why you shouldn’t text while driving
• A ban needs to be imposed on products containing tobacco
• Give stiffer penalties to celebrities who break the laws
• A society where women ride a bike without fears 

Topics for Special Occasion Speech

It’s challenging to put your emotions into a few lines or choose a topic that resonates with the occasion. You can consider the following examples:

• Volunteer projects and their impact on students
• I’m a proud son today
• No longer an eligible bachelor
• You’re a strong young woman

Topics for Informative Speech

When writing an informative speech, choose topics that interest the audience and encourage them to listen more. 

• Marketing practices in 2023 
• How tech will shape our lives in future
• Tiny herbs, bigger benefits
• Combating factors that impact public speaking

Summing it Up! 

Composing a speech won’t become a hassle if you invest time in researching a speech topic. Researching will help to get the necessary information. It’s up to you how to present that information to make your speaking session exciting and memorable. 

You can ace public speaking by focusing and working on the speech format. A well-organized speech will help your audience understand the purpose of the speech. 

Despite following the practical tips, if you still don’t know how to write a speech for script, don’t worry and consult with us. Our speech writers can help you convey your message by stating points that grab the audience’s attention.

Additional Resources:

• How to write a best man speech
• How to write a valedictorian speech

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

Unleash your brand story`s potential with eContentSol – your creative writing companion. We craft narratives that captivate. Ready to elevate your content game? Dive into creativity with us and let`s bring your ideas to life.