Writing a Speech
Did you know that when a speaker is giving aspeech that they are the least importantperson in the room? If they’re the leastimportant, who’s the most important?
•ANSWER: The audience of course!
Before you Write…
1.Choose your topic.
-- In this class it’s assigned.
2. Consider your audience.
-- For this project, your audience is yourclassmates and me.
3. Write down all your ideas.
-- First, think of everything you know or wouldlike to know about your topic and write it down.Second, organize those ideas in outline form.
While you write… Introduction
1. Use a SHOCK FACTOR!
-- A SHOCK FACTOR! is the first thing you say to youraudience, and it gets their attention. It can be a shockingstatement, or it can be a joke or an interesting question.
2. State your main points and your thesis after the SHOCKFACTOR!
3. Try not to repeat yourself too much, but you still need to letyour audience know the general idea of what you’re going totell them.
4. The thesis statement will explain how all your main points fittogether to explain your topic. It’s the statement that statesyour one main point that puts all your points together.
Practice Introduction
•Write an introduction for a speech aboutMOVIES.
•The first sentence: shock factor
•The second through third sentence stateinteresting things about movies
•The last sentence is the thesis statement. Declaresomething about movies and list facts.
Practice thesis
•Format: declare something because fact 1, 2, and3.
•Write a thesis statement for each of these topics:
•Traveling to foreign countries
•Transportation
•The great outdoors
While you write….
6. Write your main points with supporting details. 1 bodyparagraph per 1 main point. You will have three mainpoints, so you need three body paragraphs.
-- This is the longest part of your speech. Spend the mosttime working on writing this part.
-- Make sure you keep the speech interesting! Let youraudience know that you still know that they are the mostimportant people in the room! Throw in a joke or makethem think about something new and exciting.
7. Finish with a conclusion that restates your main pointsbluntly and in a new way.
-- When you come to the very end of your speech, leaveyour audience with something to think about.
Practice Body and Conclusion
•Write one body paragraph about how dogs aregood pets because they fetch.
•Write one conclusion that sums up the mainpoints of dogs being good pets because they arefriendly, fetch, and are active animals.
When choosing your topic, choose acategory too
•Informative:
•This type of speech gives information about thetopic. It teaches the audience about the topic.
•Persuasive:
•This type of speech is meant to get the audienceto support one opinion or the opposite opinion.This speech takes one side or the other andargues that it is the best side.
Categories continued
•Descriptive:
•This type of speech will be similar toinformative, but there will also be includeddetails that show the audience the topic with thefive senses: smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound
•Demonstrative:
•This type of speech is showing the audience howto do something. It will include all the steps tomaking or doing something in detail. (The stepsto baking a cake for example)
Summary
•The Pieces together:
•Shock Factor
•Audience
•Thesis statement
•Main Points
•Supporting Details
•Conclusion
•Something to think about