At every point in the speech making process, you need to ask yourself: “Self, what does my audience want from me?” It is the audience and situation, and not you (the speaker), that should determine the object and form of your speech.

To that end, your first goal is to meet audience expectations. Probably the most important of these is their time expectation for your speech. If you fall significantly short of that time, they will feel shortchanged. If you go significantly beyond that time, they will feel murderous. Make sure that you don’t violate the audience’s time expectation.

The next audience expectation to worry about is their topic expectation. Have they been told that you will speak on a certain topic? If so, you need to stick (within reason) to that topic. If you switch topics on them unexpectedly, even a great speech will be met with mixed reviews. People like to know what they’re getting into, and resent the “bait-and-switch”.

The final audience expectation to worry about is their tone expectation. Do they anticipate a funny speech? A deathly serious speech? Something in between? Once again, deviating significantly from their expectations will spell disaster for your speech.

Once you know what your audience expects from you, you need to learn some more about them in order to customize the speech to their needs. Of course, the standard demographic information comes in to play here, characteristics like: age, education, gender, race, occupation, economic status, and religion. These characteristics are important to know and understand because they can greatly impact a person’s experience and perspective. You need to approach your speech with the audience’s experience and perspective in mind.

At this point you also need to gather some additional information about your audience. You need to find out:

How much do they know about your topic? Will you be able to discuss advanced or technical information, or do you have to start with the basics? This can be tricky, you will lose the audience’s interest if you tell them what they already know or speak “over their heads”.

What other speakers have they heard? You don’t want to cover a topic that’s already been exhausted or step on the toes of the next speaker. If other people are speaking to this audience, it is critical to know what those other speakers are speaking on.

What are the audience member’s attitudes and motivations? Are they attending the speech by choice? If not, some extra motivation may be required (see the article on writing introductions). Are they against what you’re speaking about, neutral towards it, or for it? You must know all of this before you begin crafting your speech.

It’s no accident that most good Hollywood movie scripts follow this pattern: exciting opening (think Saving Private Ryan), an interesting and easy to follow story line, and a memorable finish (think Shawshank Redemption). Screen writers realize that their audiences put a lot of stock into first and last impressions. Guess what? Your audience does, too. Because of this is, your introductions and conclusions always need to be exceptional.

An exceptional introduction will do all of the following:

1. Gain the audience’s attention

2. Establish credibility/rapport

3. Preview the speech

4. Motivate the audience to listen

5. Clearly indicate that the body of the speech has begun

Gaining the audience’s attention is always the first thing to do in your speech. People generally don’t tune into speeches beginning in the middle, so you’ve got to capture their attention right from the start.

There are a number of different devices that work well for gaining the audience’s attention:

a. Jokes- People love to laugh. By telling a good joke early in the speech, you not only build your rapport with the audience, you also motivate to listen with the promise of more humor. Just make sure that the joke isn’t offensive and that it fits well with the rest of your speech.

b. Quotations- Quotations are great attention-getters. Typically, if a quotation has stood the test of time, it offers some sort of humor or insight that will interest the audience. Also, a good quote by a known author will enhance your credibility.

c. Anecdotes- A good story is a very effective attention-getter. If you tell a story about yourself, you can build your credibility, and the story will probably be more relevant to your audience.

d. Statistics- It’s a public speaking myth that statistics shouldn’t be used in speeches. If you use too many statistics, perhaps, it could be problematic. However, if you select a few really startling statistics that illustrate your point, they can be quite effective. If you are going to use a statistic as an attention-getter, make sure that it’s relevant and has a lot of impact.

e. Facts- Just as with statistics, you’re looking for relevance and impact.

f. Props- A visually interesting prop can be a good attention-getter. If the audience can’t figure out what it is or can’t figure out what the significance to your speech is (and you eventually explain of course) then you have a potentially effective attention-getter.

g. Audience Involvement- This involves asking the audience to become part of your speech. That could mean asking them a question (rhetorical or otherwise), asking them to do something physical (raise their hands, close their eyes), or asking them to think about something related to your speech.

Establishing credibility and rapport begins with your attention-getter and continues throughout the rest of your introduction. The basic formula for credibility is this: COMPETENCE + CHARACTER = CREDIBILITY.

“Character” basically refers to the audience’s perception of your goodwill and trustworthiness. Some ways to enhance your perceived character in the introduction include:

-Smiling: Smile at your audience and guess what happens? They smile back. Smiling is a good idea in 99% of all speech situations, even business presentations and other “serious” speeches. It’s the easiest way to show your character to the audience.

-Show enthusiasm: This is the second easiest way to show your character. Besides, if you can’t get excited about your speech, your audience certainly won’t.

-Demonstrate similarity: In most cases, audiences prefer speakers whom they feel are similar to themselves. Even if your not similar to your audience on a superficial level, there is always some area of commonality. Stress it.

-Compliment, thank, or show knowledge of the audience: Make them feel important, because for the rest of your speech they are very important.

-Be truthful: Simple enough.

Perhaps the audience will know of your credentials before you begin speaking, whether through a separate introduction of you as a speaker or through your reputation on your topic. If they don’t, you can mention your competence by simply stating your experience and expertise relative to the topic. Of course, you don’t want to damage your perceived character by bragging, but if you just state the facts it shouldn’t be a problem.

The average audience member asks themselves this at the beginning of every speech: “Why should I care?” It’s up to you as the speaker to show the audience how the speech you are about to give is relevant to their lives. Think in terms of the audience’s needs and let them know how your speech will help them fulfill those needs.

Typically, the preview of the speech will come near the end of the introduction. All that is required is just a few lines dedicated to outlining the main points that will be discussed in your speech.

Finally, the last goal of the introduction is to let the audience know that the body of the speech has begun. This can be accomplished with a signpost, a blatantly obvious transitional statement. Examples of signposts that can be used at the end of the introduction include: “my first point today”, “to begin with today”, etc.

Overall, your introduction should be about 10-15% of the total speech length. Any shorter, and you probably haven’t accomplished everything that you should. Any longer, and you are taking valuable time away from the body of the speech.

Every speech should have one central idea around which the speech is built. If your audience remembers nothing else, they should remember this, essentially the point of your speech.

To support the central idea, your speech should have between 3-5 main points. Trying to squeeze in too many main points will just confuse the audience. Your main points should be clear, meaningful, and memorable and an equal amount of speech time should be given to each point if they are all of equal importance.

Once you have your main points, they need to be organized in a manor which the audience can easily grasp and follow. There are a number of common strategies for organizing main points:

1. Time order- If you are speaking about something historical, someone’s life, or a process, it makes sense to organize your speech by starting in the beginning (first step, person’s birth, etc.) and finishing in the end (last step, person’s death, etc.).

2. Spatial order- Just like it sounds, this refers to organizing main points by physical location. For example, a speech about visiting New York city might have the five boroughs as the main points.

3. Problem/Solution order- Used mostly in persuasive speeches, the speaker presents the problem being discussed, then details a solution which addresses the problem.

4. Cause/Effect order- Also used in persuasive speeches, the speaker describes the source of a problem and then speaks about the problem itself.

5. Logical order- If no other organizational strategy fits, the speaker should develop a unique scheme for organizing the main points that will make sense for audience members.

The final consideration for main points is to find ways to transition between them effectively. Once again, as with the transition from the introduction to the speech body, the use of signposts (easily recognizable transitional phrases) is needed. Using numbers is a good way to transition between main points: “My first point…second point…etc.” or “First today….second today…etc.”. However you phrase your signposts, they should be perfectly obvious. Nothing about signposts should be subtle. Another great way to transition between main points is to use internal preview-review. This is a sentence which summarizes what you have just finished talking about and previews the next point you will cover. The next sentence on this page is an example of an internal preview-review.

Now that we’ve discussed main points, let’s move on to spicing up the language in your speech body. There are a few common rhetorical devices that can be used in this regard:

a. Hyperbole- This is exaggeration for effect. It’s not lying, it’s for the sake of humor or to drive home a point.

b. Allusion- This refers to drawing comparison between your speech and another literary work.

c. Metaphor- An implied comparison between the unfamiliar concept that you are speaking about and a concept with which the audience is familiar.

d. Simile- A direct comparison between the unfamiliar and the familar.

e. Repetion- The rhythmic repeating of a key phrase throughout a speech. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream”, for example.

Writing a speech is vastly different than writing a paper. When someone is reading written words, they have time to reflect on each word and go back to previous words to enhance their understanding. Therefore, written language consists of much longer, more complicated sentences. Unfortunately, almost all of our writing training in school deals with written language. Here are a few brief suggestions for writing for spoken language:

1. Deliver your speech extemporaneously, if possible. This means that you do your speech with a few written notes, but otherwise off the top of your head. This will naturally lead to a comfortable, conversational delivery style, free from long complex sentences.

2. If you must write your speech use short, simple sentences and try to not to edit yourself too much. Write the speech as a train-of-thought exercise.

3. Tell stories whenever possible. Not only do people enjoy hearing stories, they will sound natural and informal- exactly what you want.

To end your speech with impact, you can use a lot of the devices discussed in the attention-getting section of the introductions page such as: quotations, jokes, anecdotes, audience involvement, questions, etc.

One of the best ways to conclude a speech is to tie the conclusion into the introduction. For example, you might begin your speech by telling a suspenseful story that relates to your topic, but save the end of the story for the very end of your speech. Or refer back to the same quotation. Or refer to the joke that you told. Any of these strategies will give your speech a sense of connection and closure, and will leave the audience with a great final impression.

If you are delivering a persuasive speech, you might try a slightly different ending because your goal is not just to be remembered, it’s to inspire people to take action. One way to do this is to issue a call-to-action. This means that you specifically tell your audience what actions you expect them to take related to your speech. Another way to inspire action with the conclusion of your speech is to appeal to their emotions. If you create a desired emotion within your audience, and then leave them with that emotion, they will take that emotion with them. For example: If you leave them feeling guilty about not-recycling by painting a bleak picture about the state of the Earth that their grandchildren will live in, then they might recall that emotion the next time they choose not to recycle and alter their behavior.

Leaving a strong final impression is the most important aspect of the conclusion, but their are some other necessary steps as well:

1. Making a smooth transition from the body of the speech to the conclusion is crucial. To do this, use a signpost known as a concluding statement. The most common concluding statements include: “in conclusion”, “I leave you with”, “finally today”, and other similarly obvious endings.

2. Just as it is important to preview a speech in the introduction, it is important to summarize the speech in the conclusion. The more the audience hears your main points, the more likely they are to remember them. By previewing, discussing, and summarizing your main points your audience will be exposed to them at least three times during your speech.

A good conclusion should be about 5-10% of the total speech length. Anything shorter that 5% means that the ending has come too abruptly. Anything more that 10%, and the audience may become restless. This brings up another point: If it sounds like a conclusion, you need to finish your speech in a reasonable amount of time. The conclusion is not the place to add new material.