Tips: How to Write a Stellar Speech Worth TED Talks

A speech is a specific assignment, which touches upon many spheres of the human life. There are school, college, business and political speeches but the principle of creation of this paper is almost the same. There are a few rules which must be followed if one wants to succeed in writing a successful and persuasive speech.

Step One: Think about the Time and the Audience

There are two major issues on the initial position of speech writing – the amount of time for the conversation and the type of the audience. It is obvious that if the student is limited in time, he will have to prepare a shorter and less informative speech. In this case he will need to condense the information and present only the most valuable and important facts which can still be useful and close to the audience.

See time-limit as an advantage. The advantage of the speech limited in time is that it will be more understandable for the listeners. Then, the type of the audience influences the character and the manner of presentation of the facts in the speech. The grownup audience requires more formal presentation, than the younger one.
Create at least one portrait of your listener. Don’t use standard approaches, like “middle age, married, college graduate, interested in technology.” That won’t take you anywhere! Come up with something much more creative and precise. For example, “Donald is 32 years old, he likes listening to music but always loses headphones, he is married, and is often concerned about whether he is or not a good husband. It concerns him because… He goes in for sports, etc.” It can sound strange, but you should create a vivid image of several people from your audience. This way you will understand what they want to hear, what will make them laugh and what will bore them. Find some pics too!

Step Two: Make a Brief Introduction

It is not a secret that no one enjoys listening to broad speeches, so the speaker should present the information in blocks and in the most captive and brief way.

Use standard approach if you don’t know where to start. In order to succeed in introduction, one requires just saying a few words about himself, the aim of the speech and the problems which will be discussed there. He can also add something about the relevance of the topic of the speech in the selected scope of human activity.
Try to capture attention immediately. Even your whole speech is not the best example of speechwriting, you should make sure that the introduction part and the last call to action are written up to the highest standards. To do so, pay attention to the most popular TED videos, but don’t waste time watching entire presentations — watch only first 3-4 minutes and last 2 minutes. Write down when the speaker makes his or her first joke, gives a personal example and what says in the end. Note it down and modify accordingly.

Step Three: Define the Main Points

It does not worth mentioning that it is quite difficult for the audience to catch the whole information presented by the speaker, so one should demonstrate no more than 5 main points which touch upon the problem of the speech. In this way there is a chance that the audience remembers something.

Make reasoning structure logical. Moreover, the student should present the points in the reasonable way: from the least to the most important one to leave the positive impression on the listeners and to make them remember the most important point in the end.
Repeat the same idea several times. Repeat the same idea several times. Students often tend to try putting more and more ideas in their speeches, more facts, more calls to actions. You should remember that you are not writing a research paper. People can remember a straightforward thought, maximum two, when it comes to listening to a speech. So, you should repeat the same thought just backing up with different arguments. Basically, all your arguments should leave to one theory, one crucial idea, one action you demand from your audience.

Step Four: Add Statistics

In order to persuade the audience in the truthfulness of the speaker's presentation, one should provide the listeners with the quality tables, graphs and diagrams, which demonstrate calculation and definite facts registered by the experts.

Don’t underestimate the power of statistics. People enjoy statistics and this trick can attract their attention. The speaker should keep to the style and lead the conversation in a bit informal way, sometimes introducing a joke or using funny metaphors, which can entertain the audience and keep them concentrated on the presentation.
Make statistics engaging. No one is interested in endless tables with numbers you present on the screen or talk about. More of it, there should be a simple example behind every statistical fact you use. Help your listeners visualize your ideas, and they will remember the information you want to present them with much better.

Step Five: Conclude the Speech

When the speaker is through with the presentation of the facts, he is able to finish the speech and summarize it sensibly repeating the major points of the conversation and emphasizing their importance to the audience. In the end, one should rehearse the speech in front of the mirror checking time and training the body language. Warning! We know that not more than 10% of students will really rehearse their speeches more than 1 time, so here are some tricks: make cards with key ideas types in large bold font, enumerate each card, don’t forget about breathing and you will be fine, we promise.