WRITING A SPEECH

Parents should pay for us to do chores

Beauty is more than skin deep

How to take the road less traveled

Poverty, child labour, child soldiers, etc.

The effects of Coca-Cola on you

Three reasons to play with Lego

A tribute to a favourite person (friend, relative, parent, sibling)

What the world may be like in 100 years

How the wolf turned into the domestic dog

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss

How to be yourself, build confidence, etc.

It’s best to be yourself

The Organization of a Speech The Joke The man says, “Great, and this will help my

seasickness?” He says, “Doctor, I’m going on a sea cruise for my honeymoon and my problem is I get seasick!” A man goes to his doctor. Just before you get on the ship, eat all this stuff whole without chewing.” The doctor says, “No, but it’ll look really pretty in the water.” The doctor says, “No problem, just slice up one yellow pepper, one green pepper, and quarter 4 tomatoes.”

The Organization of a Speech Tell them what you’re going to tell them Tell them Tell them what you told them

1. Introduction(tell them what you’re going to tell them)

Open with a quote or anecdote, story, some kind of hook

State the main reason for your speech Summarize your three principle points

First point Second point Third point

2. Body (tell them)

First point – start with one of your strongest points. Give your listeners something to grab on to.

Second point – this is the weaker or weakest point. Sandwich it between the stronger points.

Third point – come back with another strong point (the strongest is best for last).

3. Conclusion ](tell them what you told them)

Re-state your three main points First point Second point Third point

Summarize the idea you’ve presented Conclude with a compelling remark or a call

to action: “Now go out and ….”

Make an outline!

Speech Types Logical or topical (5 paragraph essay) Chronological (biography or historical events) Classification: 3 categories Tourists in Hawaii can

enjoy three water sports: snorkeling, surfing, and sailing.

Problem-Solution: The problem is X. The solution is Y. Spatial or geographic: an entertaining travel speech Problem-Solution Cause-effect: Because event A happened, event B

occurred Comparison-contrast (advantages/disadvantages,

pros, cons)

Ah, Writer’s BLOCK

Tips for Writing the First Draft

Set a deadline. If you know your message and you have an outline, there’s no reason why you can’t produce a rough first draft in a single sitting. A deadline is motivational magic.

Write in bullet form. Write in sentences if you can, but if sentences aren’t flowing from your mind, then start with key words or phrases in bullet form or point form.

Write out of sequence. You don’t need to write the blocks of your speech in the order they appear on the outline. Quite often, speakers get hung up on trying to write the perfect opening. If the opening isn’t coming to you, start with a section in the body of the speech.

Don’t worry about transitions. If your first draft doesn’t flow from one outline point to the next, don’t worry. Those can be fixed later. Often, my first draft contains notes to myself like this: “[Whoa... need bridging between these ideas.]“

Don’t worry about words. Just get the ideas down using whatever words first come to you. You can edit for precision and better words later.

Don’t worry about the length. It’s okay if your first draft is way too long. (It’s also okay if it is way too short, although most people don’t tend to have this problem.) This is an issue to solve in the editing phase.