I. Plan the Speech:
Identify the topic of your speech. Choose a single focused message rather than trying to cover multiple topics.
Pinpoint your audience. Are you speaking to children or adults? Are you speaking to people who know nothing about your topic or people who are experts on your topic? Understanding your audience will help you to target your speech appropriately.
Consider your motives. A good speech answers a need that the audience has. Are you trying to make your audience laugh? Are you trying to build their morale, or are you communicating a sober and direct message so that you can change their behavior? These questions will set the mood and tone of your speech.
Think about the setting. Is this a speech for a small group or a speech to deliver before a large audience? You can be more informal before a small audience, but write a more formal speech for a large audience.
II. Write the Speech:
1. Write a succinct, single-sentence statement about your subject. Try to write something that will hook your audience so that you immediately grab their attention.
Use an anecdote or a quote. Sometimes, someone else has already said it better than you ever will. Just be sure to credit your source.
Be cautious about opening with a joke unless you know your audience well. You may think that a joke is funny, but your audience may find it humorless or even offensive.
Choose 3 supporting points for your topic. Make sure that your points are concise and direct.
You can start by looking at generic sources like an encyclopedia or a reliable internet source, but you need to fact check your ideas with more authoritative sources after you generally understand your subject.
Draw on your own experience. If you have a long history with your topic, your experiences and personal stories can be great resources. Just keep these stories succinct so that you don't ramble and lose the audience's attention.
Decide whether you want to write out your speech or to...