Preparation for any task is essential, and public speaking is no exception. Although it is possible to 'ad lib', or talk without any preparation, this is often a dangerous choice, even for experienced speakers. Although I occasionally speak ad lib, I always have done at least a minimum of preparation beforehand.

Thinking about just getting up there and talking? Think again!

Before you start...

Just as you would not write an essay or a short story without any idea of what you plan to write, you cannot just get up in front of people and expect to be able to talk to them. In a normal conversation, two or more people interact, and have pauses in which they can think of what to say next. In a public speaking situation, you do not have the luxury of thinking of what to say next.

The first thing to do is to think about what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to tell your audience a story? Do you want to make them laugh? Or are you attempting to convey information. Once you have decided what you want to do, you can then decide on how you will achieve this.

By this stage you should have a fairly good idea of what you are trying to do. Try to boil down this idea into one central concept. This will help you as you progress to writing your speech. The central concept could be as simple as "My dog is a really cool pet", or it could be much more complex.

Once you have a central concept, you can then work on how you will convey this concept to the audience. This could be telling a story or a joke, or using examples. Write down anything that comes to mind. You should also consider at this stage whether you will be using props or not. This can be a difficult issue. While props can convey a lot more information than words, they often can be a distraction. It is also important to consider if a prop will fit the occasion.

By now you should have a good idea of what you want to do, and how you will do it. There is one last factor you should consider at this stage, and that is your delivery. Do you want to be enthusiastic, serious, humorous...? Once you decide on how you wish to deliver your speech, then you can move onto the writing.

The Art of Writing a Speech

Once you have worked out what you want to say, and how, then it is time to write your speech. There are two main paths you can follow from here, and I will discuss each one separately.

Writing the speech in full.

Some people prefer to write out their entire speech. This is useful if you are inexperienced in impromptu speaking, or if you want to be certain of what you will say beforehand. Politicians have their speeches written out completely, to make sure they will not let slip anything they don't want to.

If you are going to write out your speech entirely, then there are a few basic rules you should follow. On a scrap piece of paper, outline the basic structure of your speech. Generally this will be on the lines of:

• Introduction
• Argument 1
• Argument 2
• ...
• Argument N
• Conclusion

When you are writing your speech, leave the introduction and conclusion to last.

The introduction is used to let your audience know what you are going to tell them. In it you should briefly outline each argument or topic in your speech.

The conclusion is to make sure your audience really heard what you said. Repeat each argument in order, quickly highlighting the main points. It is often useful to finish with a quote or joke, to make sure the audience will remember you.

Writing the speech in note form

The alternative to writing a speech out in its entirety is to write it out in note form. It is often a good idea to write out a speech in note form as a prelude to writing out the full speech. Choosing just to write notes places the burden of thinking on you when you are up in front of the audience. This allows you to be more dynamic and adapt your language and phrasing to the audience at hand. However, it is often more challenging.

A few speech-writing tips

There are a few techniques you can use when you are writing and speaking that will allow you to hold the audiences attention.

The Rule of Three

For some reason, people absorb things best in threes. This is true for speaking as well as many other disciplines. To effectively use this, you must repeat the same idea three times, but in three slightly different ways. Here are a few examples from President George Bush's address to the United States of America, just after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger.

Notice how President Bush uses three different images of the same idea to give emphasis.

Humour

Humour can be a two-edged sword. On the one hand, a good joke can bring the audience to your side, where they will have a greater tendency to shift towards your views. However, if the joke flops, then the audience will often become more hostile. The only advice I can offer is to be honest. Don't write a joke in because it looks good, allow your natural humour to come to life. If the audience doesn't find a joke funny, or laughs at something that you didn't intend to be funny, just keep on going, and they will think it was intentional.

Practice

There is one thing that I cannot stress enough, and that is practice. To become good at any discipline, you have to practice. Talk to the mirror, your family, or your pets. Talk until you can't talk anymore. Practice your speech in your head until you are sick of it, can say it backwards, then practice it some more.