The best way to write a speech is to build it around the one idea you want your audience to remember. Give it a clear structure and a strong opening, match the tone to the occasion, repeat your main point, and check the script for typos before you deliver it.
At some point, most of us have to give a speech, or at least help someone else write one. It could be a short speech at a farewell party, a best man's speech, a talk at a fundraising event or a funeral, a statement to the school board, an election speech, or one of many other occasions.
Many people imagine that an audience will simply sit there and listen to whatever they have to say. If that is what you expect, you will likely be disappointed.
When you have to give a speech, start from the understanding that the people in the audience do not have to listen to you. You have a chance to tell people what you think or feel about a topic. Do not waste it. Take the time to write a great speech.
1. Be memorable
This is the goal every time you write a speech: you want people to remember what you said. When you sit down to write, pick the one main point that you want people to remember, and then build the rest of the speech on it. In most cases, this point comes at the end, and you use the rest of the speech to build up to it.
2. Have a structure
Think of the speeches you have heard that lost your interest. Chances are that your mind began to wander because the speaker began to wander.
When you write a speech, give it an overall structure and stick to it. Use transitions from one point to the next, so your audience always knows where you are and why you are moving on.
3. Do not waste the opening
You have heard the phrase "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." This applies to a speech as well. Keep the introduction short, but use it to grab the attention of your audience right away.
Let them know that they need to pay attention, because there are good things to come.
4. Strike the right tone
When you write a speech, think about who you are talking to, who you want to win over, and what you are talking about, and then choose the tone that brings all of these together. Is your speech meant to entertain people, or do you need to motivate and challenge them? Sometimes you are simply giving information. Whatever the case, match the tone of your speech to its purpose and its audience. (For more, see using different tones in writing.)
5. Repeat yourself
This cannot be stressed enough. If you want people to remember what you said, tell them several times. It works especially well when you can boil a big idea down to a single phrase that you use in several places in your speech.
While you write, you focus on every single word, but your audience will probably not be as invested. If there is a specific idea you want them to take away, tell them. Then tell them again. Then tell them once more.
6. Spell check your speech
When you think your speech is ready, take the time to spell check it. This may sound like an odd step for something you are going to say out loud, but it is still important.
You may intend to be the only person who ever sees your written speech, but it rarely turns out that way. For a big speech, you may have to load it into a teleprompter. For a small one, someone from the organization you are speaking to may want to read and approve it. Someone else might see it lying around before or after you give it. If anyone sees your speech and it is full of typos and spelling errors, you lose credibility, and your brilliant speech is reduced to the fact that you cannot spell.
The other reason to spell check a speech is that when it is time to give it, you need to focus completely on delivery. If your script has spelling errors and typos, there is a good chance that you will stumble over a misspelled word while you read it out. Or worse, you might notice it, start wondering whether it was a typo, and lose track of what you are saying.
Do not risk it. Check your speech before you give it. And if the speech is for a wedding, here is what makes a memorable wedding speech.