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)
