Speech Organization Tips

How to Give a Better Speech and Be a Better Listener

The significance of speech organization is the importance of understanding the points that the speaker is trying to make. If the speaker himself is unprepared, the job of listening becomes all the more difficult. A strong, definite outline is always a nice start and is useful in showing how the flow of the speech should be assigned. If possible, writing a full-scale, word for word script should always be done even when you know you won't be reciting it by rote. It gives you the foundation upon which you can improvise without fear of getting lost or digressions masking the true import. Naturally, anyone giving a speech should check all his facts for up to date inclusions and exclusions before taking the dangerous step of offering them as cold hard facts to a roomful of people. I know from experience that hearing one factual error in a speech can often lead to a sourness of the rest of the message. A careless inaccuracy can often completely sacrifice the integrity you've already built up.

Starting off your speech with an attention-getter is probably the advice you'll get about making a speech more than any other. There is a reason for this unanimity of opinion. If you can't get an audience's attention right away, your chances of getting it later are almost nil.

While getting the audience's attention is incredibly important, I believe that of equal importance is being able to successfully relating the topic to the audience. There's no getting around it: If a person has a personal stake in what you are saying, he will be more readily available to open himself up to any new information you have to give him. Speeches are often lost on over-reliance of vague, nebulous generalities to which the audience doesn't personally relate.

Part and parcel with this, of course, is relating the speaker to the topic. An audience has to have the confidence that you know what you are talking about. If you seem ill informed from the beginning, or uninterested in the topic yourself, you will face only an uphill battle in trying to win their attention.