Preparing Your Speech

How To Organize Your Speech

So you know what you want to talk about. Now it's time to consider how to organize your speech. Organizing your speech will do wonders for your effectiveness. In general, make sure that your speech has a clear purpose. For every part of your speech, you should be able to answer the question: Why is this important? Making an outline of your speech is a great tool because you can layout the main sections, fit in supporting evidence, and build in transitions from section to section. As for laying out the structure of your speech, here are a few types of organization you may like to try:

Type of Organization	Description
Problem and Solution	This is a good approach if you are making a recommendation in your speech. Start with a description of the problem. Then propose the solution.
Story Telling - Past, Present, Future	If you want to expain something, try telling its story. Start with the past, then the present, and finally, the future. Using this structure makes it easy for the audience to follow along.
Cause and Effect	The Cause and Effect approach is another useful way to describe an event. You can start with either the cause or the effect, but be clear about which one you are discussing.

Doing the Research

Good research can go a long way in making a good speech. There are two main reasons to do research. First, do research to develop the meat of your speech. The audience will appreciate it if you speak as if you are an expert on your topic. You can do this if you do a little research. Second, do research to make your speech interesting. You can spice up your speech with statistics, jokes, and interesting facts. You don't have to be Mark Twain to write something interesting. If you're not a creative genius, do some research, find something interesting, and add it to your speech. Here are a few websites to get you started:

http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/ - A great site for famous quotes

http://www.factme.com/ - A site loaded with interesting facts

http://www.lotsofjokes.com/ - Good site for jokes

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ - Authoritative site for population and economic statistics