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How to Prepare for a Speech: Strategies for a Successful Speech

how to prepare-for-a-speech

Are you nervous about your first public speaking experience?

Or are you excited and can't wait to express your thoughts to the audience?

Whatever the case, it is crucial to learn how to prepare for a speech so you can deliver a successful, heartfelt oration.

Whether speaking in a seminar, a board meeting, or a classroom, the better you prepare, the more confident you feel.

So, what are different useful strategies that can help you prepare better? Let's find out!

Things to Consider Before Preparing the Speech

There is a lot more that goes into preparing a speech than simply writing some notes and reading them out loud in front of the audience.

Here are some crucial things to consider before starting to write your speech.

Learn Your Audience

Knowing your target audience is essential to prepare an excellent speech that adequately conveys its message. You first need to check where you will deliver the speech and who your audience is. 

Learn about your audience's different backgrounds and cultures . Avoid making cultural remarks during the speech, as what seems insignificant to you may stir others' emotions.

Try to find out their interests to make your speech light and relatable. Find out the age range of your audience. Speaking to young students requires a different game plan than speaking to experienced professionals.

children-laughing

Learn about the audience's knowledge and expertise on the subject of the speech. Is it something new, or are they well-versed on the subject?

It is best to avoid using thick jargon if the audience is inexperienced and new to the field, whereas with an experienced audience, you can take things to the next level.

Knowing your audience will also help you include relatable experiences from your own life, making the speech more interesting and fun to listen to.

Furthermore, from the audience's point of view, there must be a reason to listen to someone speak. In essence, you have to make sure that the speech you're going to give will offer value to the audience and their current situations. This feeds directly into the next point.

Understand the Purpose of Speech

What do you wish to achieve with this speech? What message do you need to deliver? The answer to these questions will help you shape your speech.

Take your audience on a step-by-step journey with your speech, and in the end, ensure they understand your end goal.

Sometimes, you want to deliver specific messages as is, whereas other times, you only wish to convey a thought-provoking speech.

Knowing the purpose or purposes of the speech will help you include interesting and relatable anecdotes that draw the audience's interest.

Try Out the Speaking Medium Beforehand

Technological advancements have touched every medium. You may present the speech to your audience face to face or via a virtual medium .

For instance, in the recent past, many companies and organizations conducted their conferences, meetings, and interviews via Zoom .

plans-meetings

It is best to know what your speaking medium is beforehand. Knowing whether you will be presenting on the stage in front of a live audience, speaking via video platform, or going on the TV or radio can help you prepare accordingly.

Calculate the Duration of Your Speech

Knowing the duration of the speech is essential to prepare a targeted, engaging speech. The preparation for an hour-long speech is different from that of a five-minute-long speech.

Knowing the time duration will help you understand how many anecdotes, interesting facts, or examples you can include and how to structure your speech, so you keep the audience's attention throughout.

How to Prepare for a Speech

Next comes up writing the speech. A speech consists of the introduction of the subject, the main body, and a conclusion. 

An engaging and meaningful speech contains a mix of facts, statistics, interesting anecdotes, fun phrases, and loads of relatable content. Here are a few easy and valuable tips for writing a powerful speech.

Step #1: Thoroughly Research Your Topic

A full grasp of the topic is essential to delivering a successful speech . Knowing every detail of the subject matter will give you the confidence to stand in front of your audience.

Whether you are presenting as a student in your classroom or as a president in your board meeting, the topic's knowledge will give you authority over the listeners. The same goes for presenting a subject with other group members.

You must thoroughly know the issue, whether you are presenting the introductory, central, or concluding parts of the speech. This knowledge will also help you later in the question/ answer session.

Step #2: Start With an Interesting Story or Question

Capture your audience's attention with an enticing and ear-catching introduction. Avoid going straight up to introduce your subject. Instead, start your speech with something fun, light, and breezy. 

You can share an interesting fact, include any amusing little personal incident, or propose a mind-boggling idea.

tall-tales-fantasy-story

The first few minutes of your speech are essential as they can make or break the audience's attention to what comes ahead. Deliver the most important pointers of your speech within this period and let the audience know they are in for a treat.

You might also like: 10 Engaging Ways to Start a Speech

Step #3: Take the Hook Down the Body of the Speech

Indeed, the first impression is the last impression . But all the high of the attention-grabbing introduction can go down the drain if the body of the speech lacks meaning, pull, and purpose.

Hence, it is necessary to give every part of your speech equal importance during preparation and at the time of delivery as well.

You will present your speech's main idea or purpose in the body. Therefore, you must make your content clear, easy to understand, intentional, and well-organized. Avoid adding unnecessary information.

Here's how to ensure the body of your speech is as good as your introduction.

How to Ensure Interest in Your Speech

  • Make a String of Ideas : Create a chain of thoughts leading to the main idea or purpose of the sitting. An unorganized and haphazard speech will distract your audience, and they will lose interest. Aim for this part of your speech to connect with your audience .For instance, if you are preparing for a motivational speech , then this part should allow the audience to connect with your speech emotionally. They should start thinking about the main idea and purpose of this speech.
  • Be Logical and Coherent : You should be logical, to the point, and clear while introducing and connecting different concepts. Make a central connection point of additional facts, statements, and ideas in the speech, and combine them with the main topic.
  • Repeat Your Main Point Several Times : Repeat your main point throughout the main body without being obvious. Let the idea sync in the back of the audience's minds. Avoid using the same words repeatedly; use synonyms or relatable analogies instead. Listening to the repetitive logic will help the audience grab the core idea.
  • Avoid Adding More Than Three Points : Try adding no more than three points to make the speech simple and easy to remember. Plus, include relevant examples explaining these points. 
  • Properly Arrange Different Ideas : Go through the central part of the speech and check if all the ideas or pointers are arranged systematically. The central part should take the listener on a journey that concludes with the final part of the speech.
  • Write Main Part Before Introduction : The body comes next to the introduction of the speech. But it is best to research and write this part before the introduction. Writing this part will give you a clear idea of what you will say in the introduction and the conclusion.

Step #4: Remind the Audience of the Speech's Purpose in the Conclusion

A well-written and efficiently delivered speech keeps the audience captivated throughout.

If it's effectively presented, a speech hooks the listeners right from the introductory sentence, goes hand in hand through the central body, and becomes part of the memory with a great ending.

Hence, continue working on the speech's conclusion with the same zeal and effort as you have worked on the introduction and the body.

character-and-goal

The primary purpose of the conclusion is to wrap up the whole speech. Recap your speech here and convey the main idea in simple and understandable words.

Create a little summary of the pointers you spoke about in the main body and condense them into simple phrases that the audience can remember more easily.

As stated earlier, every part of the speech holds immense significance.

So, prepare a coherent, clear, and firm conclusion . Adding lousy or unnecessary comments in this section can break the spell you created with a powerful introduction and body.

Useful Tips for Effective Delivery Style

After preparing a well-researched and well-written speech comes the delivery style. Public speaking is especially challenging for introverts and shy people. On the other hand, enthusiastic and lively people may need to tone down a little.

No matter your personality, you can confidently present before any audience after learning a few basic tips and tricks for an effective delivery style.

Work on Your Body Language

Before you even say a single word, the first thing the audience will judge you on is your body language. How you present plays a crucial role in how the audience will remember you.

Many people are naturally confident and can lead the room with their charming presence. Contrarily, many people need to work on their body language, gestures , and delivery style. Whichever category you fall into, it is essential to practice.

speaking-infront-of-mirror-to prepare for a speech

You can practice your speech in front of the mirror to learn how your body moves. Stand straight and upright, move around, use your hands and show your authority. Learn where you can improve and keep on practicing until you're satisfied.

Practice With Your Friends

Indeed, practicing before a mirror is a fruitful exercise; but practicing before a group of people can boost your confidence.

With this practice, you won't be overwhelmed by the live audience when you present your speech.

Moreover, this practice will help you observe the reactions of the people. Plus, your friends can give you feedback on your speech and body language .

A Toastmasters club is perfect for this.

Use Visual Aids

Visual aids such as PowerPoint slides, short videos, or pictures can help convey the message effectively.

Instead of only imagining what you are saying, the visuals aid people see what you are saying.

If you plan to use any visual aid during the speech, rehearse with them beforehand.

Maintain Eye Contact With the Audience

Look directly into the eyes of your audience when speaking. This gesture will reflect that you are confident about what you are speaking. Plus, your audience will remain engaged with your content.

The audience will lose interest if you start fumbling or looking timid. So, don't remain standing in a single place; move around, and move your eyes all over the room.

Related: Importance of Eye Contact in Public Speaking

Be Natural but Interesting With Your Voice

Use the rise and fall of your voice wisely. But try not to be overdramatic. Avoid sounding too mechanical, and use your natural tone.

Many speakers get over-excited during delivering the speech and increase their speed. Don't go too fast or too slow; neither sounds pleasant. Try to add natural pauses while speaking.

Try to add relevant expressions in your sentences using your voice. If you are asking a question, it has a question mark at the end. Similarly, when there is an exclamation mark at the end, then exclaim.

Remember Good Looks Always Grab Attention

If there is a dress code, then follow that dress code. Otherwise, be well-dressed and look smart and sharp.

If you dress up too casually or inappropriately, you will lose the audience's interest without speaking a single word.

Final Thoughts: How to Prepare for a Speech

Public speaking can be thrilling for some while difficult for others. Whether you are shy or are brilliant at expressing your thoughts, delivering a triumphant speech requires preparation.

At first, it may seem exhausting to deliver the best speech possible.

But once you get a grip of the basics of speech preparation, it will be a seamless journey ahead. Following the strategies mentioned above can help you deliver the message effectively.

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How to write a speech that your audience remembers

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Whether in a work meeting or at an investor panel, you might give a speech at some point. And no matter how excited you are about the opportunity, the experience can be nerve-wracking . 

But feeling butterflies doesn’t mean you can’t give a great speech. With the proper preparation and a clear outline, apprehensive public speakers and natural wordsmiths alike can write and present a compelling message. Here’s how to write a good speech you’ll be proud to deliver.

What is good speech writing?

Good speech writing is the art of crafting words and ideas into a compelling, coherent, and memorable message that resonates with the audience. Here are some key elements of great speech writing:

  • It begins with clearly understanding the speech's purpose and the audience it seeks to engage. 
  • A well-written speech clearly conveys its central message, ensuring that the audience understands and retains the key points. 
  • It is structured thoughtfully, with a captivating opening, a well-organized body, and a conclusion that reinforces the main message. 
  • Good speech writing embraces the power of engaging content, weaving in stories, examples, and relatable anecdotes to connect with the audience on both intellectual and emotional levels. 

Ultimately, it is the combination of these elements, along with the authenticity and delivery of the speaker , that transforms words on a page into a powerful and impactful spoken narrative.

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What makes a good speech?

A great speech includes several key qualities, but three fundamental elements make a speech truly effective:

Clarity and purpose

Remembering the audience, cohesive structure.

While other important factors make a speech a home run, these three elements are essential for writing an effective speech.

The main elements of a good speech

The main elements of a speech typically include:

  • Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your speech and grabs the audience's attention. It should include a hook or attention-grabbing opening, introduce the topic, and provide an overview of what will be covered.
  • Opening/captivating statement: This is a strong statement that immediately engages the audience and creates curiosity about the speech topics.
  • Thesis statement/central idea: The thesis statement or central idea is a concise statement that summarizes the main point or argument of your speech. It serves as a roadmap for the audience to understand what your speech is about.
  • Body: The body of the speech is where you elaborate on your main points or arguments. Each point is typically supported by evidence, examples, statistics, or anecdotes. The body should be organized logically and coherently, with smooth transitions between the main points.
  • Supporting evidence: This includes facts, data, research findings, expert opinions, or personal stories that support and strengthen your main points. Well-chosen and credible evidence enhances the persuasive power of your speech.
  • Transitions: Transitions are phrases or statements that connect different parts of your speech, guiding the audience from one idea to the next. Effective transitions signal the shifts in topics or ideas and help maintain a smooth flow throughout the speech.
  • Counterarguments and rebuttals (if applicable): If your speech involves addressing opposing viewpoints or counterarguments, you should acknowledge and address them. Presenting counterarguments makes your speech more persuasive and demonstrates critical thinking.
  • Conclusion: The conclusion is the final part of your speech and should bring your message to a satisfying close. Summarize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and leave the audience with a memorable closing thought or call to action.
  • Closing statement: This is the final statement that leaves a lasting impression and reinforces the main message of your speech. It can be a call to action, a thought-provoking question, a powerful quote, or a memorable anecdote.
  • Delivery and presentation: How you deliver your speech is also an essential element to consider. Pay attention to your tone, body language, eye contact , voice modulation, and timing. Practice and rehearse your speech, and try using the 7-38-55 rule to ensure confident and effective delivery.

While the order and emphasis of these elements may vary depending on the type of speech and audience, these elements provide a framework for organizing and delivering a successful speech.

Man-holding-microphone-at-panel-while-talking--how-to-give-a-speech

How to structure a good speech

You know what message you want to transmit, who you’re delivering it to, and even how you want to say it. But you need to know how to start, develop, and close a speech before writing it. 

Think of a speech like an essay. It should have an introduction, conclusion, and body sections in between. This places ideas in a logical order that the audience can better understand and follow them. Learning how to make a speech with an outline gives your storytelling the scaffolding it needs to get its point across.

Here’s a general speech structure to guide your writing process:

  • Explanation 1
  • Explanation 2
  • Explanation 3

How to write a compelling speech opener

Some research shows that engaged audiences pay attention for only 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Other estimates are even lower, citing that people stop listening intently in fewer than 10 minutes . If you make a good first impression at the beginning of your speech, you have a better chance of interesting your audience through the middle when attention spans fade. 

Implementing the INTRO model can help grab and keep your audience’s attention as soon as you start speaking. This acronym stands for interest, need, timing, roadmap, and objectives, and it represents the key points you should hit in an opening. 

Here’s what to include for each of these points: 

  • Interest : Introduce yourself or your topic concisely and speak with confidence . Write a compelling opening statement using relevant data or an anecdote that the audience can relate to.
  • Needs : The audience is listening to you because they have something to learn. If you’re pitching a new app idea to a panel of investors, those potential partners want to discover more about your product and what they can earn from it. Read the room and gently remind them of the purpose of your speech. 
  • Timing : When appropriate, let your audience know how long you’ll speak. This lets listeners set expectations and keep tabs on their own attention span. If a weary audience member knows you’ll talk for 40 minutes, they can better manage their energy as that time goes on. 
  • Routemap : Give a brief overview of the three main points you’ll cover in your speech. If an audience member’s attention starts to drop off and they miss a few sentences, they can more easily get their bearings if they know the general outline of the presentation.
  • Objectives : Tell the audience what you hope to achieve, encouraging them to listen to the end for the payout. 

Writing the middle of a speech

The body of your speech is the most information-dense section. Facts, visual aids, PowerPoints — all this information meets an audience with a waning attention span. Sticking to the speech structure gives your message focus and keeps you from going off track, making everything you say as useful as possible.

Limit the middle of your speech to three points, and support them with no more than three explanations. Following this model organizes your thoughts and prevents you from offering more information than the audience can retain. 

Using this section of the speech to make your presentation interactive can add interest and engage your audience. Try including a video or demonstration to break the monotony. A quick poll or survey also keeps the audience on their toes. 

Wrapping the speech up

To you, restating your points at the end can feel repetitive and dull. You’ve practiced countless times and heard it all before. But repetition aids memory and learning , helping your audience retain what you’ve told them. Use your speech’s conclusion to summarize the main points with a few short sentences.

Try to end on a memorable note, like posing a motivational quote or a thoughtful question the audience can contemplate once they leave. In proposal or pitch-style speeches, consider landing on a call to action (CTA) that invites your audience to take the next step.

People-clapping-after-coworker-gave-a-speech-how-to-give-a-speech

How to write a good speech

If public speaking gives you the jitters, you’re not alone. Roughly 80% of the population feels nervous before giving a speech, and another 10% percent experiences intense anxiety and sometimes even panic. 

The fear of failure can cause procrastination and can cause you to put off your speechwriting process until the last minute. Finding the right words takes time and preparation, and if you’re already feeling nervous, starting from a blank page might seem even harder.

But putting in the effort despite your stress is worth it. Presenting a speech you worked hard on fosters authenticity and connects you to the subject matter, which can help your audience understand your points better. Human connection is all about honesty and vulnerability, and if you want to connect to the people you’re speaking to, they should see that in you.

1. Identify your objectives and target audience

Before diving into the writing process, find healthy coping strategies to help you stop worrying . Then you can define your speech’s purpose, think about your target audience, and start identifying your objectives. Here are some questions to ask yourself and ground your thinking : 

  • What purpose do I want my speech to achieve? 
  • What would it mean to me if I achieved the speech’s purpose?
  • What audience am I writing for? 
  • What do I know about my audience? 
  • What values do I want to transmit? 
  • If the audience remembers one take-home message, what should it be? 
  • What do I want my audience to feel, think, or do after I finish speaking? 
  • What parts of my message could be confusing and require further explanation?

2. Know your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for tailoring your speech effectively. Consider the demographics of your audience, their interests, and their expectations. For instance, if you're addressing a group of healthcare professionals, you'll want to use medical terminology and data that resonate with them. Conversely, if your audience is a group of young students, you'd adjust your content to be more relatable to their experiences and interests. 

3. Choose a clear message

Your message should be the central idea that you want your audience to take away from your speech. Let's say you're giving a speech on climate change. Your clear message might be something like, "Individual actions can make a significant impact on mitigating climate change." Throughout your speech, all your points and examples should support this central message, reinforcing it for your audience.

4. Structure your speech

Organizing your speech properly keeps your audience engaged and helps them follow your ideas. The introduction should grab your audience's attention and introduce the topic. For example, if you're discussing space exploration, you could start with a fascinating fact about a recent space mission. In the body, you'd present your main points logically, such as the history of space exploration, its scientific significance, and future prospects. Finally, in the conclusion, you'd summarize your key points and reiterate the importance of space exploration in advancing human knowledge.

5. Use engaging content for clarity

Engaging content includes stories, anecdotes, statistics, and examples that illustrate your main points. For instance, if you're giving a speech about the importance of reading, you might share a personal story about how a particular book changed your perspective. You could also include statistics on the benefits of reading, such as improved cognitive abilities and empathy.

6. Maintain clarity and simplicity

It's essential to communicate your ideas clearly. Avoid using overly technical jargon or complex language that might confuse your audience. For example, if you're discussing a medical breakthrough with a non-medical audience, explain complex terms in simple, understandable language.

7. Practice and rehearse

Practice is key to delivering a great speech. Rehearse multiple times to refine your delivery, timing, and tone. Consider using a mirror or recording yourself to observe your body language and gestures. For instance, if you're giving a motivational speech, practice your gestures and expressions to convey enthusiasm and confidence.

8. Consider nonverbal communication

Your body language, tone of voice, and gestures should align with your message . If you're delivering a speech on leadership, maintain strong eye contact to convey authority and connection with your audience. A steady pace and varied tone can also enhance your speech's impact.

9. Engage your audience

Engaging your audience keeps them interested and attentive. Encourage interaction by asking thought-provoking questions or sharing relatable anecdotes. If you're giving a speech on teamwork, ask the audience to recall a time when teamwork led to a successful outcome, fostering engagement and connection.

10. Prepare for Q&A

Anticipate potential questions or objections your audience might have and prepare concise, well-informed responses. If you're delivering a speech on a controversial topic, such as healthcare reform, be ready to address common concerns, like the impact on healthcare costs or access to services, during the Q&A session.

By following these steps and incorporating examples that align with your specific speech topic and purpose, you can craft and deliver a compelling and impactful speech that resonates with your audience.

Woman-at-home-doing-research-in-her-laptop-how-to-give-a-speech

Tools for writing a great speech

There are several helpful tools available for speechwriting, both technological and communication-related. Here are a few examples:

  • Word processing software: Tools like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word processors provide a user-friendly environment for writing and editing speeches. They offer features like spell-checking, grammar correction, formatting options, and easy revision tracking.
  • Presentation software: Software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides is useful when creating visual aids to accompany your speech. These tools allow you to create engaging slideshows with text, images, charts, and videos to enhance your presentation.
  • Speechwriting Templates: Online platforms or software offer pre-designed templates specifically for speechwriting. These templates provide guidance on structuring your speech and may include prompts for different sections like introductions, main points, and conclusions.
  • Rhetorical devices and figures of speech: Rhetorical tools such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, and parallelism can add impact and persuasion to your speech. Resources like books, websites, or academic papers detailing various rhetorical devices can help you incorporate them effectively.
  • Speechwriting apps: Mobile apps designed specifically for speechwriting can be helpful in organizing your thoughts, creating outlines, and composing a speech. These apps often provide features like voice recording, note-taking, and virtual prompts to keep you on track.
  • Grammar and style checkers: Online tools or plugins like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor help improve the clarity and readability of your speech by checking for grammar, spelling, and style errors. They provide suggestions for sentence structure, word choice, and overall tone.
  • Thesaurus and dictionary: Online or offline resources such as thesauruses and dictionaries help expand your vocabulary and find alternative words or phrases to express your ideas more effectively. They can also clarify meanings or provide context for unfamiliar terms.
  • Online speechwriting communities: Joining online forums or communities focused on speechwriting can be beneficial for getting feedback, sharing ideas, and learning from experienced speechwriters. It's an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and improve your public speaking skills through collaboration.

Remember, while these tools can assist in the speechwriting process, it's essential to use them thoughtfully and adapt them to your specific needs and style. The most important aspect of speechwriting remains the creativity, authenticity, and connection with your audience that you bring to your speech.

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5 tips for writing a speech

Behind every great speech is an excellent idea and a speaker who refined it. But a successful speech is about more than the initial words on the page, and there are a few more things you can do to help it land.

Here are five more tips for writing and practicing your speech:

1. Structure first, write second

If you start the writing process before organizing your thoughts, you may have to re-order, cut, and scrap the sentences you worked hard on. Save yourself some time by using a speech structure, like the one above, to order your talking points first. This can also help you identify unclear points or moments that disrupt your flow.

2. Do your homework

Data strengthens your argument with a scientific edge. Research your topic with an eye for attention-grabbing statistics, or look for findings you can use to support each point. If you’re pitching a product or service, pull information from company metrics that demonstrate past or potential successes. 

Audience members will likely have questions, so learn all talking points inside and out. If you tell investors that your product will provide 12% returns, for example, come prepared with projections that support that statement.

3. Sound like yourself

Memorable speakers have distinct voices. Think of Martin Luther King Jr’s urgent, inspiring timbre or Oprah’s empathetic, personal tone . Establish your voice — one that aligns with your personality and values — and stick with it. If you’re a motivational speaker, keep your tone upbeat to inspire your audience . If you’re the CEO of a startup, try sounding assured but approachable. 

4. Practice

As you practice a speech, you become more confident , gain a better handle on the material, and learn the outline so well that unexpected questions are less likely to trip you up. Practice in front of a colleague or friend for honest feedback about what you could change, and speak in front of the mirror to tweak your nonverbal communication and body language .

5. Remember to breathe

When you’re stressed, you breathe more rapidly . It can be challenging to talk normally when you can’t regulate your breath. Before your presentation, try some mindful breathing exercises so that when the day comes, you already have strategies that will calm you down and remain present . This can also help you control your voice and avoid speaking too quickly.

How to ghostwrite a great speech for someone else

Ghostwriting a speech requires a unique set of skills, as you're essentially writing a piece that will be delivered by someone else. Here are some tips on how to effectively ghostwrite a speech:

  • Understand the speaker's voice and style : Begin by thoroughly understanding the speaker's personality, speaking style, and preferences. This includes their tone, humor, and any personal anecdotes they may want to include.
  • Interview the speaker : Have a detailed conversation with the speaker to gather information about their speech's purpose, target audience, key messages, and any specific points they want to emphasize. Ask for personal stories or examples they may want to include.
  • Research thoroughly : Research the topic to ensure you have a strong foundation of knowledge. This helps you craft a well-informed and credible speech.
  • Create an outline : Develop a clear outline that includes the introduction, main points, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Share this outline with the speaker for their input and approval.
  • Write in the speaker's voice : While crafting the speech, maintain the speaker's voice and style. Use language and phrasing that feel natural to them. If they have a particular way of expressing ideas, incorporate that into the speech.
  • Craft a captivating opening : Begin the speech with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a relevant quote, an interesting fact, a personal anecdote, or a thought-provoking question.
  • Organize content logically : Ensure the speech flows logically, with each point building on the previous one. Use transitions to guide the audience from one idea to the next smoothly.
  • Incorporate engaging stories and examples : Include anecdotes, stories, and real-life examples that illustrate key points and make the speech relatable and memorable.
  • Edit and revise : Edit the speech carefully for clarity, grammar, and coherence. Ensure the speech is the right length and aligns with the speaker's time constraints.
  • Seek feedback : Share drafts of the speech with the speaker for their feedback and revisions. They may have specific changes or additions they'd like to make.
  • Practice delivery : If possible, work with the speaker on their delivery. Practice the speech together, allowing the speaker to become familiar with the content and your writing style.
  • Maintain confidentiality : As a ghostwriter, it's essential to respect the confidentiality and anonymity of the work. Do not disclose that you wrote the speech unless you have the speaker's permission to do so.
  • Be flexible : Be open to making changes and revisions as per the speaker's preferences. Your goal is to make them look good and effectively convey their message.
  • Meet deadlines : Stick to agreed-upon deadlines for drafts and revisions. Punctuality and reliability are essential in ghostwriting.
  • Provide support : Support the speaker during their preparation and rehearsal process. This can include helping with cue cards, speech notes, or any other materials they need.

Remember that successful ghostwriting is about capturing the essence of the speaker while delivering a well-structured and engaging speech. Collaboration, communication, and adaptability are key to achieving this.

Give your best speech yet

Learn how to make a speech that’ll hold an audience’s attention by structuring your thoughts and practicing frequently. Put the effort into writing and preparing your content, and aim to improve your breathing, eye contact , and body language as you practice. The more you work on your speech, the more confident you’ll become.

The energy you invest in writing an effective speech will help your audience remember and connect to every concept. Remember: some life-changing philosophies have come from good speeches, so give your words a chance to resonate with others. You might even change their thinking.

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How to Prepare a Speech

Last Updated: March 11, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 727,920 times.

Preparing a speech isn't difficult if you have a process you can follow. There are tried-and-true steps for putting together a talk, so relax and read on to get your speech in order and your speech anxiety under control.

Sample Speeches

what is the first step to preparing a speech

Starting With Your Audience

Types of speech broken up by their occassion.

  • Personal narrative. A narrative is just another word for story. If you're asked to tell a story about yourself, find out if the intention is to use something that's happened to you in order to teach a lesson, convey a moral, offer inspiration or simply to entertain.
  • Informative speech. [3] X Research source There are two kinds of informative speeches: process and expository. If you're charged with doing a process speech, the idea is for you to explain how something is done, how something is made or how something works. You take your audience step-by-step through the process. If your speech is meant to be expository, your job is to take what might be a complex subject and break it down into sections as a way of educating your audience about the topic.
  • Persuasive speech. [4] X Research source If you're meant to persuade, then your job is to convince your audience to adopt a particular way of thinking, a belief or a behavior that you advocate for.
  • Ceremonial speech. [5] X Research source Ceremonial speeches run the gamut from wedding toasts to eulogies, from graduation speeches to farewell addresses. Many of these speeches are intended to be short and the focus is often on entertaining, inspiring or increasing the audience's appreciation for someone or something.

Step 2 Pick a topic that will interest your audience.

  • Read the newspaper. If you can find a way to link your speech topic to something that's happening in the news, you can highlight the relevance of what you have to say to your audience.
  • Translate numbers. Using statistics in your speech can be impactful, but they can be even more meaningful if you translate them in a way the audience can understand. For example, you could say that worldwide, 7.6 million people die of cancer every year, but to make it more relatable, you might want to follow it up by saying that that number represents the entire population of Switzerland.
  • Express the benefits. It's a good idea to let an audience know exactly what they'll get out of your speech, so that they're primed to listen. If they'll learn how to save money, tell them. If the information you're about to share will make their lives easier in some way, make that clear. If they'll gain a new appreciation of someone or something, let them know.

Researching and Writing Your Speech

Step 1 Know your subject.

  • Outlines can be written in complete sentences or they can be a series of abbreviated phrases and reminders. Another approach is to begin by writing complete sentences and then transferring your outline on to note cards on which you abbreviate those sentences using just the words and memory prompts you need.
  • Pull out your old English textbooks and review things like similes, metaphors, alliteration and other kinds of figurative language. These kinds of devices can add to the impact of a ceremonial speech.
  • Beware one pitfall of the scripted speech: having a page full of words in front of you can cause you to fall into the trap of simply reading from your script without every looking up, making eye contact or engaging with the audience in any way. Thorough practice should help to eliminate your chances of falling into this trip.

Step 5 Be sure you have all the pieces in place.

  • Offer a preview. Think of a preview as kind of the "coming attractions" of your speech. Plan to tell your audience the main points you'll talk about in your speech. There's not need to go into any detail here; you'll get to that when you come to the body of your speech. You can write a preview that's simply one sentence in length to cover what you need to say here.
  • Body. The body is where the "meat" of your speech resides. The points you outlined or the information you scripted make up the body. There are several ways to organize the information within the body of your speech--in time sequence, in step order, from most important point to least important point, problem-solution, to name just a few. Choose an organizational pattern that makes sense based on your speech goal.
  • Give a summary. One of the ways an audience remembers what a speech was about is through intentional repetition. In your introduction, you gave a preview of what you'd be talking about. In your speech body, you talked about those things. Now, in your conclusion, you remind your audience what you talked about. Simply offer a brief review of the main points you touched on in your speech.
  • End with a clincher. A clincher is a memorable, definitive statement that gives your speech a sense of closure. One easy way to do this is to write a clincher that refers back to what you said in the attention-getter of your speech. This helps bring your presentation full circle and provides a sense of closure.

Choosing Visual Aids

Step 1 Choose visuals to benefit the audience.

  • Don't write everything you plan to say on your slides. We've all suffered through speeches where the speaker did little more that read off of his or her slides. That's boring for the audience, and they soon disengage. Instead, use word charts to preview, review or highlight key information. Remember, the sides should be a supplement to what you're going to say rather than an exact copy of it.
  • Make your slides readable. Use a font size that's easy for your audience to read and don't overcrowd your slides. If your audience can't see or get through the material on your slides, they won't have served any purpose.
  • Use animations sparingly. Having graphics fly around, zoom in and out ,and change colors can be engaging but can also be distracting. Be careful not to overdo the special effects. Your slides should be a supporting player rather than the star of the show.

Rehearsing Your Speech

Step 1 Give yourself plenty of time.

  • Leave yourself time to practice. If you're given to procrastinating, you could find yourself with very little or no time to practice before you deliver your speech, which could leave you feeling unprepared and anxious.

Step 2 Practice in front of people.

  • Look at your audience. Almost nothing does more to keep an audience engaged than eye contact from a speaker. As you rehearse your speech, be sure to look at the family members or friends who've agreed to be your audience. It takes a bit of practice to be able to look at your outline, script or note cards, capture a thought or two and then come up and deliver that information while looking at your audience. It's yet another reason why rehearsal time is so important.
  • If you don't have the opportunity to practice in front of people, be sure that when you do rehearse, that you say your speech aloud. You don't want your speech day to be the first time you hear the words of your speech coming out of your mouth. Plus, speaking out loud gives you a chance to double-check and correct any mispronunciations, practice articulating your words clearly and confirm the timing of your speech (We speak more quickly when we simply recite a speech in our heads).

Step 3 Be OK with changes.

Reducing Speech Anxiety

Step 1 Get physical.

  • Clench and release. Ball up your fists really, really tight and hold for a second or two and then release. Repeat this a few times. You can do the same thing by squeezing the muscles in your calves very tightly and then releasing. With each release, you should feel a reduction in your adrenaline-induced symptoms.
  • Take deep breaths. The adrenaline in your system causes you to take more shallow breaths that, in turn, increase your feeling of anxiety. You need to break the cycle. Take a deep breath through your nose and allow the air to fill your belly. Once your belly is full, let your breath fill and expand your ribcage. Finally, allow your breath to move fully into your chest. Open your mouth slightly and begin to exhale starting first with the air in your chest, then the air in your ribcage and finally the breath in your belly. Repeat this inhale-exhale cycle five times.

Step 2 Focus on your audience.

  • Negative thoughts are incredibly powerful--one estimate is that you need five positive thoughts to counteract every one negative thought you have, so steer clear of them.

Expert Q&A

Patrick Muñoz

Reader Videos

Share a quick video tip and help bring articles to life with your friendly advice. Your insights could make a real difference and help millions of people!

  • Use your own language style. Do not use the words that you have never said in your life. Take it easy. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 0
  • Try to keep the majority of your topic entertaining, or at least interesting, so that the audience won't get bored. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
  • Make sure your speech hangs together well and makes sense. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0

what is the first step to preparing a speech

You Might Also Like

Write a Demonstrative Speech

  • ↑ Patrick Muñoz. Voice & Speech Coach. Expert Interview. 12 November 2019.
  • ↑ https://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/powerspeak/ch03.html
  • ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/informative-speaking
  • ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/persuasive-speaking
  • ↑ https://opentext.ku.edu/speakupcallin/chapter/chapter-15-ceremonial-speaking/
  • ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/oral-comm-lab/audience-analysis
  • ↑ https://liu.cwp.libguides.com/c.php?g=913567&p=6581500
  • ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/5-most-effective-methods-for-avoiding-plagiarism/
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/speeches/
  • ↑ https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/public-speaking-tips/preparing-a-speech
  • ↑ https://counseling.uiowa.edu/self-help/30-ways-to-manage-speaking-anxiety/
  • ↑ https://fscj.pressbooks.pub/publicspeaking/chapter/benefits-of-visual-aids/

About This Article

Patrick Muñoz

To prepare a speech, start by writing an introduction that grabs the audience's attention with a surprising or interesting fact, quote, or question. Then, include your most important points in the body of your speech, making them as clear and easy-to-follow as possible so your audience stays tuned in. Finally, wrap up your speech with a conclusion that summarizes your main points and ends with a memorable, definitive statement. To learn the best ways to research and outline your speech, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Preparing a Speech

Thinker

  • Organize your speech in a logical sequence: opening, main points, summary.
  • Practice and rehearse a speech frequently prior to delivering it. Ask friends to be your audience, or practice in front of a mirror. Be sure to use a timer to help you pace your speech.
  • Become familiar with the stage or the setting where the speech will take place. Get a sense of the size of the stage, where any steps or obstacles might be, and where to enter and exit.
  • Choose comfortable clothes to wear , but always maintain a professional appearance.
  • Visual aids should fit a speech, whether they are funny, serious or technical. The main goal of visual aids is to help the audience understand what is being said, and reinforce the points of a speech in unique and interesting ways.

Helpful Resources

5 simple tips to better speechwriting.

An easy formula for figuring out what to say.

How to Build a Speech

Structure, stories, and word choice are all key to crafting a compelling presentation.

Speech Topics Are Everywhere

Pay attention to your life and the ideas will come.

10 Tips for more productive speech practice.

Building a Great Speech

Gain valuable tips for constructing a presentation from start to finish.

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what is the first step to preparing a speech

7 steps to prepare a speech in a surprisingly short time

Most of my clients are entrepreneurs, CEOs or working in other leadership positions. I also meet many small business entrepreneurs. One common thread is that they’re very busy. Successful leaders are mindful about how they spend every single minute.

It’s no surprise then, that when these leaders are asked to speak in public, the one thing they are thinking is:

How do I prepare a speech in as little time as possible?

They realise very well that speaking well is important , and that preparation is necessary to deal with speaking anxiety . They just want to do it efficiently.

Today I’d like to share with you an excerpt of my CEO playbook for delivering speeches. The section on preparation contains tips that are useful to anyone looking to prepare a speech in half the time while doubling their impact .

I’ve compiled them into a handy list of 7 steps:

The 7 steps to efficiently prepare a speech

The steps are:

  • Identify your purpose . Why are you speaking?
  • Know your audience. What are their aspirations, pains, …?
  • Add significance. Why should the audience care?
  • Define your clear message. What should your audience remember?
  • Establish your structure . Develop a middle part with one or two points supported by an anecdote, story, and preferably backed up by facts and data.
  • Prepare a strong opening and a strong ending .

1. Define your purpose

For a speech to be effective, it must have a clear goal. A goal also helps you focus while creating the speech.

Ask yourself: do you mainly want to…

Note: these goals may overlap, and one does not exclude another. But one must be your main goal.

2. Know your audience

In order to connect with your audience during speeches, it is important to be able to place yourself in their shoes. Only from this perspective can you truly communicate understanding and establish rapport.

To know your audience is to engage your audience.

The Empathy Map is a handy technique from the world of user experience and marketing, where it is used to better understand potential or existing customers. It works remarkably well when you prepare a speech, too.

empathy map

The big idea is to go over the different areas in the map and come up with the elements that create your listeners’ mental world in relation to the topic.

Suppose you are to deliver a speech on the use of sugar in processed foods. Some questions the empathy map would trigger are:

  • What do they think about the use of sugar and how does it make them feel ?
  • What do they hear about sugar from their environment or in the news?
  • What do they see when it comes to sugar, e.g. in terms of advertising or packaging?
  • What do they say about sugar to their peers? What do they do – what actions do they take (or not take)?
  • What  pain, or significant disadvantages, do they associate with sugar?
  • What  gain, or significant advantages, do they associate with sugar?

Note that the answers to some of these questions will overlap. Don’t worry about that — this is just a brainstorming tool to trigger relevant information stored in your memory. The point is not to organise information in any neat way.

Try it, even if it’s for 5 minutes! You’ll be surprised how helpful the answers are for:

  • finding an angle
  • finding the right words
  • creating goodwill
  • overcoming resistance
  • and much more.

3. Add significance

Why significance is key when you prepare a speech.

Crafting any good story starts with the why . What’s the point exactly?

There’s a saying in public speaking: you win the heart before you win the mind. Knowing the  why of your speech is essential in accomplishing that.

Speakers engage an audience by being significant; by creating meaning. Audiences feel engaged when they have the feeling the talk is also about them. A great example is Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. The audience did not come to see Martin Luther King, they came because they identified with his ideas. They felt his speech was about them, their lives, and their dreams.

That explains the importance of step 2: Know your audience. You can only add significance if you have a clear image of the receiving end of your speech.

How to find your speech’s significance

To find the significance of your speech, ask yourself the following questions when you prepare a speech:

  • Why am I giving this speech?
  • What do I believe, that I want to share? What do I stand for?
  • So what?! Why should my audience care?

4. Define your clear message

Today, people are flooded with information. There is an image circulating on the web which goes so far to say that a person today receives more information in a day than a person in the middle ages in his entire life!

True or not, we can all agree that in a device-rich world, the information intake has never been more intense.

How does that translate to speeching? Well: to make your speech memorable, I suggest you focus on extracting one key message .

Your key message should be as simple as possible, regardless of the complexity of the issues and topics at hand. It will consist of one or two phrases that express your main point.

If that sounds daunting, let’s look at a model that can help.

The Message House model is a time-tested PR tool to condense complex stories into a thematic ‘house’. This house is made of a set of three messages that together form the overarching key message (called the Umbrella Statement in the model).

The Core Messages on the second level represent your Umbrella Statement, but in greater detail. They can be supporting arguments, sequential steps to take, conditional statements, descriptive (think: who, what, where, when, why and how), or of another kind.

Finally, the lower part of the house provides evidence, proof points and support. This is the foundation of your story.

what is the first step to preparing a speech

How to use the Message House

In some cases, your Umbrella Statement (that’s your key message) will be very clear to you. If that’s so, it’s useful to come up with the 3 Core Messages that make up the Umbrella Statement.

At other times, you’ll have 2 or 3 messages in mind as you prepare a speech. In that case, consider those your Core messages and start to look for the single Umbrella Statement.

Examples of Umbrella Statements and their Core Messages

  • Employees lose time and energy in traffic.
  • Some employees report they feel less productive in larger office spaces.
  • Candidates for jobs that are hard to fill, are not attracted to our current policy.
  • First, I will introduce the idea at the annual shop owner’ meeting.
  • Then, I will have the team communicate the exact steps to each shop owner.
  • Finally, our sales representatives will check each shop they visit.
  • The Polish and Swedish teams did exceptionally well.
  • May and June were top periods for sales.
  • Orange bicycles are super popular and account for a large part of the profits.

5. Establish your structure

The way you organise information is essential if you want your audience to follow and understand your speech. Ideas must be put together in an orderly manner.

I therefore recommend every speaker to use an  outline as the backbone for their speech.

An outline is simply 10,000 feet view of your speech. It’s as if you would zoom out completely and see the major turns your speech takes.

Why use an outline?

That’s easy: our brains are simply not capable of creating quality content from beginning to end.

Compare it to cooking a meal. Imagine yourself standing in front of different foods. Without thinking ahead, you grab a couple of ingredients and start cutting, cleaning and preparing them.

Unless you’re an experienced chef, that won’t result in a remarkable meal, will it? Without a gameplan to prepare a speech, the end result of your creation will be underwhelming.

Here are a few general directions your outlines can take. These are based on effective storytelling principles:

  • Problem – pathway – solution
  • Problem – solution – reasoning
  • Situation – complication – solution
  • Past – present – future

After you’ve decided on the general direction, flesh out your outline. See if you can describe your speech in ten to fifteen bullets. Refer to your Message House (see previous point) to make sure your outline includes your Core messages.

What structure works best for your purpose? Do you have a preference? Try a few structures for your speeches and choose the one that is most persuading.

Related article: How to structure a victory speech in three steps

Next, integrate even more storytelling. Your bigger picture might be represented by a story, but can you integrate ‘mini-stories’ to illustrate specific points?

6. Prepare a strong opening and strong ending

Scientific research shows it again and again. If you ask people to rate a certain experience they had recently, they will base a lot of their opinion on how it began and how it ends. Looking back at an experience, whatever happens in the middle seems to carry less weight for us.

A classic example is a visit to a restaurant. Smart restaurant owners focus extra on doing two things impeccably: the welcoming and the dessert. Although they pay great attention to the overall experience, of course, they know that a sloppy greeting of their guests, or a below-standard dessert, can easily spoil their guests’ memory of the whole evening.

For you, it means it’s smart to think twice about how you open and how you close.

Ideas for a strong opening

Here are a few angles to inspire you in crafting your opening:

  • ‘Start with a bang’: use a quote, bold claim or striking fact, or ask a question.
  • ‘So what?’: Go straight to the point and open with why your audience should care.
  • ‘Introduce yourself’: But do it in a compelling way. Tell a juicy story. What would the tabloids write about you?
  • Make the purpose clear – What impact do you want to achieve?

Ideas for a memorable ending

  • Repeat your Key Message. Think ‘key takeaway’. This is a natural-feeling and effective way to make a firm point.
  • Refer to the beginning. Most good stories develop in a circular way. A problem introduced in the beginning gets solved in the end. Balance gets restored; etcetera.
  • Present a call-to-action . If you want your audience to take a certain action, always end with that.

7. Rehearse

1. write out, practice and tweak (optional).

At this point, you could write out your speech in full text – if you have the time.

Read your text out loud for a few times until you’re comfortable with the content. You will probably still tweak a few parts.

If you don’t have the time, or you feel comfortable working with just bullet points, feel free to skip to step 2!

I do highly recommend you write out your opening and ending.

2. Bring back to bullet points and practice again

Once on stage, you don’t want to hold the full text of your speech in your hand. You will be tempted to look at it often, which will break your connection with the audience.

So now, reduce your text to a list of main points, keywords, facts and anecdotes. And practice your speech again. Refer back your outline from step 5 for the general structure.

This will also help you memorise the speech completely by heart faster.

Do I have to know my whole speech by heart, you ask?

My answer is: not necessarily. But as just mentioned, do know your opening and ending from the inside out.

3. Take your practice to the next level

Here are my rehearsing tips for the best results:

  • Record yourself . Most beginning speakers find this tough, but it’s an essential way of spotting weaknesses in your speaking and improving them.
  • Practice for real people. The gap between practising in front of a mirror and practising in front of a crowd is just too large. Practice for a small group of colleagues or family members to get used to the stress that comes with having an audience.
  • Ask for specific feedback. If you practice in front of people, help them evaluate you by asking them specific questions. It could be the content, your body language, or your opening. Anything you feel you need feedback on.
  • Rehearse often. Once you’re happy with your speech’s content and your performance, practice your speech ten times – if you have that luxury of time. If you need more practice, go for it. There’s no better confidence booster as knowing you’ve rehearsed your speech until it hurt 🙂

That’s it!

Although I could elaborate on each on the above points, this provides you with a larger plan to optimally prepare a speech.

Are you a busy professional looking for a speaker coach to get you from good to great in the most efficient way. Look no further. I am here to help all my clients achieve exactly that.

“I knew that Elizabeth really understands what I want to achieve and whom I want to reach, and that she is a bad-ass coach with mad skills. When I was asked to give a keynote at an event, I was determined to really take my talk to the next level. So it was a no-brainer to work with her. Could I have done it on my own? Perhaps, but it would have taken me more time, stress and effort and I would not have achieved the same results. Working with a coach who you can trust, like Elizabeth, creates an extremely comfortable starting position, which made me step onto the stage on the Big Day without any nerves.” – Anouck Meier, CEO of Ampersand

Book your free call via this link. 

Frantically Speaking

How to prepare your voice for a speech: Step-by-step guide

Hrideep barot.

  • Body Language & Delivery , Presentation , Public Speaking

what is the first step to preparing a speech

You step on the stage and are about to start your speech. As soon as you utter the first word you are shocked by your voice, all squeaky and hoarse, and you wonder what went wrong.

Maybe the reason is you forgot to prepare your voice!

Now, you might ask what is voice preparation? How can you possibly make your voice ready?

But, believe me, all the successful public speakers, politicians, news anchors, even singers, and anchors never skip this step!

They ensure that they pamper and protect their voice until the last minute of beginning their performance!

So get ready to embark on a journey with our step-by-step guide to develop your voice effectively!

Here is our schedule for preparing your voice!

1. Record Your Voice

2. analyze your recordings, 3. ask for feedback, 4. experiment with your vocal style, 5. train your voice, 6. practice, things to do to improve your voice before giving a speech.

  • FAQ's on preparing voice

Examples of speeches with good vocal tonality

Before we proceed with the schedule, there might be some of you wondering: what is even the need to go through the steps? Just practice and perform it.

But here’s why you might be wrong.

Why is there a need to prepare your voice for a speech?

Even though you have a wonderful script, it does not mean that you will have a wonderful speech!

You need to take in all aspects of your performance, such as your vocals and your body language.

Just rehearsing your speech over and over will also not do.

This will do more bad than good. I’ll tell you why:

When I was a freshman at college, my friend and I decided to participate in the annual talent hunt competition.

We had a few rehearsals together, and we were good to go for our performance, which was on the next day.

But, my friend got nervous and she practiced way too many times, and she wasn’t even able to speak!

Our whole practice was fruitless, and eventually, she decided to withdraw her name from the competition.

Apart from this reason of worsening your voice, there a lot more reasons all mentioned in this article, so read till the end!

Now, let’s get started!

It is okay if you do not have a professional recorder! Your phone is enough!

Your first step in developing your voice for your upcoming speech, presentation, or performance is to record your voice.

You can record it on your phone through a voice recorder or any other app.

At this point, just read out your speech or draft and record it.

Half of step one is completed!

Next, record an impromptu speech of 1-2 minutes. It doesn’t have to be related to your speech. Just talk about anything you feel like.

With this done, store both these set of recordings for our next step.

Analyze by making notes!

The second step is to analyze your previous recordings.

For this step you would require a paper and a pen, along with your recording.

As you hear your first recording, take down points on how you speak when you read a script. For example, what are the characteristics or qualities of your voice?

Is your voice deep or high pitched? Is it clear or has an airy or breathy quality? Is it soft or loud?

Make points for the tone of your voice as well.

Do you speak in a monotonous manner or with vocal variations? Do you speak too fast or too slow?

For your next recording, you simply observe how you speak.

So, in this case, make note of what kind of fillers words you use in between, such as “uh…” or “um…” or do you happen to use repetitive words or phrases.

When you analyze all of these, you will have the qualities, characteristics, vocal patterns, and the strengths and weaknesses of your voice.

This step will make you understand your voice better, so that you can work on them constructively.

Record, analyze, evaluate, and improve results!

The third step is to ask for a feedback about your voice from others.

They can be your colleagues, friends or family members.

Ask them what quality or characteristic they like and dislike about your voice.

Note down all the points given by people.

This will help you comprehend and paint a real picture of your voice, so you can practice and improve them effectively.

Experiment to improve and find your voice!

This step will give you the exposure and freedom to experiment with various styles of speaking and come up with one you are most comfortable and confident in.

You will need the help of your notes for this step.

Now, the key is to try out different styles. This means you would speak in a way completely opposite to what is the notes.

So if you have written that your voice is high pitched, then try out reading in a lower pitch than usual or if you use too many filler words, use as less as possible.

This step will help you find your natural voice and you will understand what difference does a mere change in the quality of voice does to your speech.

Once you find your comfortable voice pattern and type, the next step is to train them.

Train your voice daily and see the development!

For this step, first you need to do a warm up.

Warming up your vocal cords

Just like how you do a quick warm-up before exercising or practicing your dance routine, you have to warm up your vocal cords too to avoid straining them and becoming hoarse.

Vocal warm up usually begin with relaxing your body first.

So, do some basic body stretches, such as slow head rolls, followed by arm rotations clockwise then anti-clockwise, and so on.

If you want to pace up a bit, do spot jogging or march for a minute, followed by knee lifts.

For a better understanding, follow this clip:

Did you feel a rush of blood and energy after doing this warm-up? I certainly did!

Vocal warm-up

So, let’s get to the vocal warm-up.

A vocal warm up can be anywhere around 5-10 minutes long and is the most fun part of all the steps!

You can begin by making a sound while rolling your tongue, known as tongue trill, or hum in ascending or descending pitch.

You can also chant a word and sustain that note for as long as you can.

Vocal exercises

Now that your body and vocal cords are all warmed up, let’s begin with our vocal exercises.

Doing these will make your vocal cords stronger and resist losing voice, which would be a nightmare!

Hence, don’t skip this step.

Some of the important exercises you can do include sustaining notes, trying to sustain a word or sound for as long as you can.

The other involves breathing exercises such as breath holds and deep breathing, to strengthen your lungs for better air flow during speaking, giving your voice a pleasant tone.

Let’s look and follow the demonstration below for a better understanding:

That was an intense vocal workout!

Now, let’s explore some tongue exercises.

Tongue exercises

These will help in speech articulation, make your voice clearer sounding, and make your pronunciations clearer!

You can start with stretching your tongue as far out as you can and notch up with a note!

The key is to make your tongue stronger, hence try to hold it in the same position!

You can do tongue holds, such as sticking your tongue to the roof of your mouth or pointing it outwards, keeping your tongue as straight as possible, for 10-15 seconds each.

Now you may begin with practicing your speech without straining your voice whatsoever!

Practice may not make perfect but can definitely improve your vocal skills!

This step is the most important step of the whole routine, so make sure to take out ample time to practice your speech.

Maintain a video or an audio journal, where you can go back and introspect the strong and weak elements of your voice.

Remember that your vocal cords are made of muscles, which means you can develop them if you regularly exercise them correctly.

Hence, take out at least an hour to practice and rehearse how you are going to use this powerful tool.

However, do not overdo your practice!

This can have disastrous consequences! Instead of developing your cords, you might strain and damage them!

How to talk without losing your voice?

There can be situations where you may lose your voice or experience a bad throat.

What to do in such situations? Don’t panic! Stress will make the vocal cords more tensed than before, increasing the issue!

If you have some time, say 2-3 days, rest your voice and don’t use them at all or to the lowest extent possible.

You probably overworked your voice or practiced the wrong way.

What you can do is engage in relaxing exercises such as body stretches, which will relax your mind and body for a speedy recovery.

You can also drink some homemade herbal tea or warm water to fasten the recovery process.

How to stop straining your voice while giving speech?

If your voice is still not healed, practice a bit on the day before your speech, and take the help of a microphone, so that even if you speak softly, your voice will be heard by others.

If your voice is back to normal, practice for about an hour, and just perform similarly on stage. Don’t talk too loudly as it will strain your voice.

Warm-up your body, voice and mind!

It is essential to warm up before your speech as you did before in your practice sessions.

Loosen up your body and take deep breaths to keep your mind and body calm and relaxed.

You can follow along any vocal warm-ups of your choice. Here are some recommendations:

  • 5-minute vocal warm-up: Jacob Vocal Academy
  • 5 vocal warm-up exercises before meetings, speeches, and presentations: Vanessa Van Edwards

2. Be hydrated

Stay hydrated to give your best!

It is essential that you drink sufficient water, not just to ace your performance but to stay healthy as well.

Drinking water an hour before your performance and a few sips during your speech would keep your vocal cords hydrated and you will avoid cracking your voice.

But how much water is the right amount for your body?

Look at the chart below:

Are You Drinking Enough Water? Know How Much Water To Drink In A Day!

You can easily understand how much water is sufficient by locating your weight and the number of glasses.

So, if your weight is 54, 6 glasses of water are the minimum amount you should consume daily.

What other fluids to consume before speech?

Although water would be more than sufficient to hydrate your throat and vocal chords, you can keep other options as well.

Drinking warm herbal tea or infused water may help in getting that soothing and clear voice.

However, avoid beverages such as coffee, cold drinks or alcohol as they stick to your throat longer, affecting your vocal quality.

3. Eat healthy

Healthy eating and moderate consumption is the key to a healthy voice!

Eating healthy food is a major contributor to maintain a healthy voice and body.

A balanced diet and having foods such as garlic, ginger, citrus fruits, green veggies, etc., lower the rate of mucus formation in your throat.

Hence, consuming these foods would keep your throat and voice clear and healthy.

However, avoid consuming oily or sweet food, dairy products, cold food such as ice-cream or cola, etc., since these foods increase the production of mucus, making you more vulnerable to throat infections and cold.

Eating at least 2-3 hours before your performance will give you the required energy and also keep you away from burping on stage!

4. Sleep well

Sleep well to do well!

Sleeping is the most crucial thing to do if you want to give your best on stage.

However, most of us are either too excited or too nervous the night before our performance, and we end up sleeping for only 3-4 hours.

This causes us to feel tired and binge-eat fast food snacks to gain energy, but end up feeling even more tired.

It can also cause forgetting important details and most importantly, your speech!

To avoid having this nightmare, it is better to have a sleep schedule a week before your speech and follow it religiously.

Avoid exposure to any kind of light including your phone at least an hour before your bedtime.

You can do relaxing activities like body stretches or some meditation to have a better quality of sleep.

FAQ’s on preparing voice

This section will expose you to different situations which require a slightly different approach when it comes to preparing your voice.

We curated some of these here as follows:

How to clear your throat before a speech and have a clear voice?

Although we all have unique voices, some voices sound more clearer than husky or baritone ones.

We can’t change our voice types, but we can certainly learn and adapt to sound more clearer.

Here are some tips to have a clear voice:

  • Avoid straining your voice, such as over practicing, or speaking too loudly to maintain a healthy and clear voice.
  • Have a proper schedule for drinking water and avoid carbonated drinks.
  • Engage in a vocal warmup just before the speech to clear up your voice.
  • Ensure that you let your voice rest, to avoid inflammation.
  • Eat a balanced and healthy diet, avoiding too oily or spicy food.
  • Drink herbal tea or warm drinks to clear up your voice.

To clear your throat right before you go on stage for your speech, a few of the exercise mentioned here will help you keep your throat clear. For example, before going for your speech, purse your lips, don’t smile and hum a note to yourself for a few seconds. It will help relax your vocal chords.

Also, simply keeping yourself hydrated (preferably with warm water will do just fine in keeping your throat clear.

How to prepare your voice for a presentation?

what is the first step to preparing a speech

This is the most commonly asked question, and is indeed a very important one as it concerns the work environment.

Your voice quality and delivery can determine whether you would get selected for your dream job or promotion, as well as progressing your organization through business pitches.

Your focus should be on making your voice clear and loud for showing that you have the confidence and capability of fulfilling your job requirements.

Hence, practice more on the diction and pronunciations, and make sure to have a slightly polite tone in your voice.

How to prepare your voice for a public speaking event?

what is the first step to preparing a speech

You might be asked to give a lecture as a guest in colleges or organizations, or are going to host a show.

For such situations, your voice has to be expressive and not neutral and monotonous, especially for giving lectures.

If you want to explain a concept well, have some variations in your vocal tone and pitch to have an expressive voice.

Practice speaking clearly and slowly when giving a lecture.

As for hosting an event, avoid any rudeness in speech or manner, and try to have a polite tone all through the event.

You should also try to make your voice seem energetic, and have a good vocal warmup before the event.

How to prepare your voice for an audition?

what is the first step to preparing a speech

For all the budding artists over there, I have been in your place!

From my experience, practice till you make it, be it for a voice-over artist, vocalist, actor, etc.

However, do not overdo it!

You will lose your voice or not be able to perform your level best as a result!

Also, while practicing don’t just try to emulate the artist, add your own flavor to increase your chances of getting selected!

The keys to a great conversation: Celeste Headlee

This small but effective speech by Celeste Headlee is a good example of vocal tonality.

She uses clear speech and the words pronunciations are not muffled, but clean and clear.

The tone also raises at appropriate places and gives a conversational feel to her speech.

The next outbreak? We’re not ready: Bill Gates

Now, some of you might have come across this video during the lockdown of how Bill Gates actually predicted the pandemic!

This speech might have awed you and wanted to hear more at the end of the speech, but the secret is his voice!

He is well-known for his speeches and all have a common trait: his narrative tone.

He uses his voice effectively to present his ideas in the form of a story, which mesmerizes many, including me!

 Let the paint dry: Daniel J. Watts

This is one of the most unique type of speech that I’ve ever come across.

While watching his speech, you might get a bit confused of what the speech is about.

But later when you join the dots, the picture will be clearer.

The technique of bringing a prop, along with body language is incredibly used in his presentation.

Most importantly, the voice makes a difference. He uses a lot of pauses without making it seem awkward, and his storytelling complements the speech a great deal.

So, these were the steps that I personally found helpful and would recommend to anyone who is about to give a speech, presentation, or any performance!

Just be sure to keep the things to do before giving your speech in mind before going on stage.

Hope you gained some knowledge through this article!

Check out our related articles:

How to Present without Sounding like a Robot?

What To Do Right After A Speech: A Step-By-Step Guide

6 Ways You Can Evaluate Your Own Presentation

Hrideep Barot

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9.3 Putting It Together: Steps to Complete Your Introduction

Learning objectives.

  • Clearly identify why an audience should listen to a speaker.
  • Discuss how you can build your credibility during a speech.
  • Understand how to write a clear thesis statement.
  • Design an effective preview of your speech’s content for your audience.

Puzzle pieces

Erin Brown-John – puzzle – CC BY-NC 2.0.

Once you have captured your audience’s attention, it’s important to make the rest of your introduction interesting, and use it to lay out the rest of the speech. In this section, we are going to explore the five remaining parts of an effective introduction: linking to your topic, reasons to listen, stating credibility, thesis statement, and preview.

Link to Topic

After the attention-getter, the second major part of an introduction is called the link to topic. The link to topic is the shortest part of an introduction and occurs when a speaker demonstrates how an attention-getting device relates to the topic of a speech. Often the attention-getter and the link to topic are very clear. For example, if you look at the attention-getting device example under historical reference above, you’ll see that the first sentence brings up the history of the Vietnam War and then shows us how that war can help us understand the Iraq War. In this case, the attention-getter clearly flows directly to the topic. However, some attention-getters need further explanation to get to the topic of the speech. For example, both of the anecdote examples (the girl falling into the manhole while texting and the boy and the filberts) need further explanation to connect clearly to the speech topic (i.e., problems of multitasking in today’s society).

Let’s look at the first anecdote example to demonstrate how we could go from the attention-getter to the topic.

In July 2009, a high school girl named Alexa Longueira was walking along a main boulevard near her home on Staten Island, New York, typing in a message on her cell phone. Not paying attention to the world around her, she took a step and fell right into an open manhole. This anecdote illustrates the problem that many people are facing in today’s world. We are so wired into our technology that we forget to see what’s going on around us—like a big hole in front of us.

In this example, the third sentence here explains that the attention-getter was an anecdote that illustrates a real issue. The fourth sentence then introduces the actual topic of the speech.

Let’s now examine how we can make the transition from the parable or fable attention-getter to the topic:

The ancient Greek writer Aesop told a fable about a boy who put his hand into a pitcher of filberts. The boy grabbed as many of the delicious nuts as he possibly could. But when he tried to pull them out, his hand wouldn’t fit through the neck of the pitcher because he was grasping so many filberts. Instead of dropping some of them so that his hand would fit, he burst into tears and cried about his predicament. The moral of the story? “Don’t try to do too much at once.” In today’s world, many of us are us are just like the boy putting his hand into the pitcher. We are constantly trying to grab so much or do so much that it prevents us from accomplishing our goals. I would like to show you three simple techniques to manage your time so that you don’t try to pull too many filberts from your pitcher.

In this example, we added three new sentences to the attention-getter to connect it to the speech topic.

Reasons to Listen

Once you have linked an attention-getter to the topic of your speech, you need to explain to your audience why your topic is important. We call this the “why should I care?” part of your speech because it tells your audience why the topic is directly important to them. Sometimes you can include the significance of your topic in the same sentence as your link to the topic, but other times you may need to spell out in one or two sentences why your specific topic is important.

People in today’s world are very busy, and they do not like their time wasted. Nothing is worse than having to sit through a speech that has nothing to do with you. Imagine sitting through a speech about a new software package you don’t own and you will never hear of again. How would you react to the speaker? Most of us would be pretty annoyed at having had our time wasted in this way. Obviously, this particular speaker didn’t do a great job of analyzing her or his audience if the audience isn’t going to use the software package—but even when speaking on a topic that is highly relevant to the audience, speakers often totally forget to explain how and why it is important.

Appearing Credible

The next part of a speech is not so much a specific “part” as an important characteristic that needs to be pervasive throughout your introduction and your entire speech. As a speaker, you want to be seen as credible (competent, trustworthy, and caring/having goodwill). As mentioned earlier in this chapter, credibility is ultimately a perception that is made by your audience. While your audience determines whether they perceive you as competent, trustworthy, and caring/having goodwill, there are some strategies you can employ to make yourself appear more credible.

First, to make yourself appear competent, you can either clearly explain to your audience why you are competent about a given subject or demonstrate your competence by showing that you have thoroughly researched a topic by including relevant references within your introduction. The first method of demonstrating competence—saying it directly—is only effective if you are actually a competent person on a given subject. If you are an undergraduate student and you are delivering a speech about the importance of string theory in physics, unless you are a prodigy of some kind, you are probably not a recognized expert on the subject. Conversely, if your number one hobby in life is collecting memorabilia about the Three Stooges, then you may be an expert about the Three Stooges. However, you would need to explain to your audience your passion for collecting Three Stooges memorabilia and how this has made you an expert on the topic.

If, on the other hand, you are not actually a recognized expert on a topic, you need to demonstrate that you have done your homework to become more knowledgeable than your audience about your topic. The easiest way to demonstrate your competence is through the use of appropriate references from leading thinkers and researchers on your topic. When you demonstrate to your audience that you have done your homework, they are more likely to view you as competent.

The second characteristic of credibility, trustworthiness, is a little more complicated than competence, for it ultimately relies on audience perceptions. One way to increase the likelihood that a speaker will be perceived as trustworthy is to use reputable sources. If you’re quoting Dr. John Smith, you need to explain who Dr. John Smith is so your audience will see the quotation as being more trustworthy. As speakers we can easily manipulate our sources into appearing more credible than they actually are, which would be unethical. When you are honest about your sources with your audience, they will trust you and your information more so than when you are ambiguous. The worst thing you can do is to out-and-out lie about information during your speech. Not only is lying highly unethical, but if you are caught lying, your audience will deem you untrustworthy and perceive everything you are saying as untrustworthy. Many speakers have attempted to lie to an audience because it will serve their own purposes or even because they believe their message is in their audience’s best interest, but lying is one of the fastest ways to turn off an audience and get them to distrust both the speaker and the message.

The third characteristic of credibility to establish during the introduction is the sense of caring/goodwill. While some unethical speakers can attempt to manipulate an audience’s perception that the speaker cares, ethical speakers truly do care about their audiences and have their audience’s best interests in mind while speaking. Often speakers must speak in front of audiences that may be hostile toward the speaker’s message. In these cases, it is very important for the speaker to explain that he or she really does believe her or his message is in the audience’s best interest. One way to show that you have your audience’s best interests in mind is to acknowledge disagreement from the start:

Today I’m going to talk about why I believe we should enforce stricter immigration laws in the United States. I realize that many of you will disagree with me on this topic. I used to believe that open immigration was a necessity for the United States to survive and thrive, but after researching this topic, I’ve changed my mind. While I may not change all of your minds today, I do ask that you listen with an open mind, set your personal feelings on this topic aside, and judge my arguments on their merits.

While clearly not all audience members will be open or receptive to opening their minds and listening to your arguments, by establishing that there is known disagreement, you are telling the audience that you understand their possible views and are not trying to attack their intellect or their opinions.

Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a short, declarative sentence that states the purpose, intent, or main idea of a speech. A strong, clear thesis statement is very valuable within an introduction because it lays out the basic goal of the entire speech. We strongly believe that it is worthwhile to invest some time in framing and writing a good thesis statement. You may even want to write your thesis statement before you even begin conducting research for your speech. While you may end up rewriting your thesis statement later, having a clear idea of your purpose, intent, or main idea before you start searching for research will help you focus on the most appropriate material. To help us understand thesis statements, we will first explore their basic functions and then discuss how to write a thesis statement.

Basic Functions of a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement helps your audience by letting them know “in a nutshell” what you are going to talk about. With a good thesis statement you will fulfill four basic functions: you express your specific purpose, provide a way to organize your main points, make your research more effective, and enhance your delivery.

Express Your Specific Purpose

To orient your audience, you need to be as clear as possible about your meaning. A strong thesis will prepare your audience effectively for the points that will follow. Here are two examples:

  • “Today, I want to discuss academic cheating.” (weak example)
  • “Today, I will clarify exactly what plagiarism is and give examples of its different types so that you can see how it leads to a loss of creative learning interaction.” (strong example)

The weak statement will probably give the impression that you have no clear position about your topic because you haven’t said what that position is. Additionally, the term “academic cheating” can refer to many behaviors—acquiring test questions ahead of time, copying answers, changing grades, or allowing others to do your coursework—so the specific topic of the speech is still not clear to the audience.

The strong statement not only specifies plagiarism but also states your specific concern (loss of creative learning interaction).

Provide a Way to Organize Your Main Points

A thesis statement should appear, almost verbatim, toward the end of the introduction to a speech. A thesis statement helps the audience get ready to listen to the arrangement of points that follow. Many speakers say that if they can create a strong thesis sentence, the rest of the speech tends to develop with relative ease. On the other hand, when the thesis statement is not very clear, creating a speech is an uphill battle.

When your thesis statement is sufficiently clear and decisive, you will know where you stand about your topic and where you intend to go with your speech. Having a clear thesis statement is especially important if you know a great deal about your topic or you have strong feelings about it. If this is the case for you, you need to know exactly what you are planning on talking about in order to fit within specified time limitations. Knowing where you are and where you are going is the entire point in establishing a thesis statement; it makes your speech much easier to prepare and to present.

Let’s say you have a fairly strong thesis statement, and that you’ve already brainstormed a list of information that you know about the topic. Chances are your list is too long and has no focus. Using your thesis statement, you can select only the information that (1) is directly related to the thesis and (2) can be arranged in a sequence that will make sense to the audience and will support the thesis. In essence, a strong thesis statement helps you keep useful information and weed out less useful information.

Make Your Research More Effective

If you begin your research with only a general topic in mind, you run the risk of spending hours reading mountains of excellent literature about your topic. However, mountains of literature do not always make coherent speeches. You may have little or no idea of how to tie your research all together, or even whether you should tie it together. If, on the other hand, you conduct your research with a clear thesis statement in mind, you will be better able to zero in only on material that directly relates to your chosen thesis statement. Let’s look at an example that illustrates this point:

Many traffic accidents involve drivers older than fifty-five.

While this statement may be true, you could find industrial, medical, insurance literature that can drone on ad infinitum about the details of all such accidents in just one year. Instead, focusing your thesis statement will help you narrow the scope of information you will be searching for while gathering information. Here’s an example of a more focused thesis statement:

Three factors contribute to most accidents involving drivers over fifty-five years of age: failing eyesight, slower reflexes, and rapidly changing traffic conditions.

This framing is somewhat better. This thesis statement at least provides three possible main points and some keywords for your electronic catalog search. However, if you want your audience to understand the context of older people at the wheel, consider something like:

Mature drivers over fifty-five years of age must cope with more challenging driving conditions than existed only one generation ago: more traffic moving at higher speeds, the increased imperative for quick driving decisions, and rapidly changing ramp and cloverleaf systems. Because of these challenges, I want my audience to believe that drivers over the age of sixty-five should be required to pass a driving test every five years.

This framing of the thesis provides some interesting choices. First, several terms need to be defined, and these definitions might function surprisingly well in setting the tone of the speech. Your definitions of words like “generation,” “quick driving decisions,” and “cloverleaf systems” could jolt your audience out of assumptions they have taken for granted as truth.

Second, the framing of the thesis provides you with a way to describe the specific changes as they have occurred between, say, 1970 and 2010. How much, and in what ways, have the volume and speed of traffic changed? Why are quick decisions more critical now? What is a “cloverleaf,” and how does any driver deal cognitively with exiting in the direction seemingly opposite to the desired one? Questions like this, suggested by your own thesis statement, can lead to a strong, memorable speech.

Enhance Your Delivery

When your thesis is not clear to you, your listeners will be even more clueless than you are—but if you have a good clear thesis statement, your speech becomes clear to your listeners. When you stand in front of your audience presenting your introduction, you can vocally emphasize the essence of your speech, expressed as your thesis statement. Many speakers pause for a half second, lower their vocal pitch slightly, slow down a little, and deliberately present the thesis statement, the one sentence that encapsulates its purpose. When this is done effectively, the purpose, intent, or main idea of a speech is driven home for an audience.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

Now that we’ve looked at why a thesis statement is crucial in a speech, let’s switch gears and talk about how we go about writing a solid thesis statement. A thesis statement is related to the general and specific purposes of a speech as we discussed them in Chapter 6 “Finding a Purpose and Selecting a Topic” .

Choose Your Topic

The first step in writing a good thesis statement was originally discussed in Chapter 6 “Finding a Purpose and Selecting a Topic” when we discussed how to find topics. Once you have a general topic, you are ready to go to the second step of creating a thesis statement.

Narrow Your Topic

One of the hardest parts of writing a thesis statement is narrowing a speech from a broad topic to one that can be easily covered during a five- to ten-minute speech. While five to ten minutes may sound like a long time to new public speakers, the time flies by very quickly when you are speaking. You can easily run out of time if your topic is too broad. To ascertain if your topic is narrow enough for a specific time frame, ask yourself three questions.

First, is your thesis statement narrow or is it a broad overgeneralization of a topic? An overgeneralization occurs when we classify everyone in a specific group as having a specific characteristic. For example, a speaker’s thesis statement that “all members of the National Council of La Raza are militant” is an overgeneralization of all members of the organization. Furthermore, a speaker would have to correctly demonstrate that all members of the organization are militant for the thesis statement to be proven, which is a very difficult task since the National Council of La Raza consists of millions of Hispanic Americans. A more appropriate thesis related to this topic could be, “Since the creation of the National Council of La Raza [NCLR] in 1968, the NCLR has become increasingly militant in addressing the causes of Hispanics in the United States.”

The second question to ask yourself when narrowing a topic is whether your speech’s topic is one clear topic or multiple topics. A strong thesis statement consists of only a single topic. The following is an example of a thesis statement that contains too many topics: “Medical marijuana, prostitution, and gay marriage should all be legalized in the United States.” Not only are all three fairly broad, but you also have three completely unrelated topics thrown into a single thesis statement. Instead of a thesis statement that has multiple topics, limit yourself to only one topic. Here’s an example of a thesis statement examining only one topic: “Today we’re going to examine the legalization and regulation of the oldest profession in the state of Nevada.” In this case, we’re focusing our topic to how one state has handled the legalization and regulation of prostitution.

The last question a speaker should ask when making sure a topic is sufficiently narrow is whether the topic has direction. If your basic topic is too broad, you will never have a solid thesis statement or a coherent speech. For example, if you start off with the topic “Barack Obama is a role model for everyone,” what do you mean by this statement? Do you think President Obama is a role model because of his dedication to civic service? Do you think he’s a role model because he’s a good basketball player? Do you think he’s a good role model because he’s an excellent public speaker? When your topic is too broad, almost anything can become part of the topic. This ultimately leads to a lack of direction and coherence within the speech itself. To make a cleaner topic, a speaker needs to narrow her or his topic to one specific area. For example, you may want to examine why President Obama is a good speaker.

Put Your Topic into a Sentence

Once you’ve narrowed your topic to something that is reasonably manageable given the constraints placed on your speech, you can then formalize that topic as a complete sentence. For example, you could turn the topic of President Obama’s public speaking skills into the following sentence: “Because of his unique sense of lyricism and his well-developed presentational skills, President Barack Obama is a modern symbol of the power of public speaking.” Once you have a clear topic sentence, you can start tweaking the thesis statement to help set up the purpose of your speech.

Add Your Argument, Viewpoint, or Opinion

This function only applies if you are giving a speech to persuade. If your topic is informative, your job is to make sure that the thesis statement is nonargumentative and focuses on facts. For example, in the preceding thesis statement we have a couple of opinion-oriented terms that should be avoided for informative speeches: “unique sense,” “well-developed,” and “power.” All three of these terms are laced with an individual’s opinion, which is fine for a persuasive speech but not for an informative speech. For informative speeches, the goal of a thesis statement is to explain what the speech will be informing the audience about, not attempting to add the speaker’s opinion about the speech’s topic. For an informative speech, you could rewrite the thesis statement to read, “This speech is going to analyze Barack Obama’s use of lyricism in his speech, ‘A World That Stands as One,’ delivered July 2008 in Berlin.”

On the other hand, if your topic is persuasive, you want to make sure that your argument, viewpoint, or opinion is clearly indicated within the thesis statement. If you are going to argue that Barack Obama is a great speaker, then you should set up this argument within your thesis statement.

Use the Thesis Checklist

Once you have written a first draft of your thesis statement, you’re probably going to end up revising your thesis statement a number of times prior to delivering your actual speech. A thesis statement is something that is constantly tweaked until the speech is given. As your speech develops, often your thesis will need to be rewritten to whatever direction the speech itself has taken. We often start with a speech going in one direction, and find out through our research that we should have gone in a different direction. When you think you finally have a thesis statement that is good to go for your speech, take a second and make sure it adheres to the criteria shown in Table 9.1 “Thesis Checklist”

Table 9.1 Thesis Checklist

Preview of Speech

The final part of an introduction contains a preview of the major points to be covered within your speech. I’m sure we’ve all seen signs that have three cities listed on them with the mileage to reach each city. This mileage sign is an indication of what is to come. A preview works the same way. A preview foreshadows what the main body points will be in the speech. For example, to preview a speech on bullying in the workplace, one could say, “To understand the nature of bullying in the modern workplace, I will first define what workplace bullying is and the types of bullying, I will then discuss the common characteristics of both workplace bullies and their targets, and lastly, I will explore some possible solutions to workplace bullying.” In this case, each of the phrases mentioned in the preview would be a single distinct point made in the speech itself. In other words, the first major body point in this speech would examine what workplace bullying is and the types of bullying; the second major body point in this speech would discuss the common characteristics of both workplace bullies and their targets; and lastly, the third body point in this speech would explore some possible solutions to workplace bullying.

Key Takeaways

  • Linking the attention-getter to the speech topic is essential so that you maintain audience attention and so that the relevance of the attention-getter is clear to your audience.
  • Establishing how your speech topic is relevant and important shows the audience why they should listen to your speech.
  • To be an effective speaker, you should convey all three components of credibility, competence, trustworthiness, and caring/goodwill, by the content and delivery of your introduction.
  • A clear thesis statement is essential to provide structure for a speaker and clarity for an audience.
  • An effective preview identifies the specific main points that will be present in the speech body.
  • Make a list of the attention-getting devices you might use to give a speech on the importance of recycling. Which do you think would be most effective? Why?
  • Create a thesis statement for a speech related to the topic of collegiate athletics. Make sure that your thesis statement is narrow enough to be adequately covered in a five- to six-minute speech.
  • Discuss with a partner three possible body points you could utilize for the speech on the topic of volunteerism.
  • Fill out the introduction worksheet to help work through your introduction for your next speech. Please make sure that you answer all the questions clearly and concisely.

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A speech generally needs to be written further in advance than a research paper so that adequate practice and revision can occur. Preparing for your speech will help with the very common fear of public speaking.  Here are some steps and links to guide you through the process.

Step 1: Understand Your Assignment

  • Read your assignment and ask  your instructor you have questions on what is required.
  • Who is your audience?  What is your purpose?  This this guide your topic, tone, and style.
  • How long is the speech?  Are you using presentation software such as PowerPoint or do you need visuals or props?  How many sources are required?

Step 2: Select and focus your topic. Begin preliminary research

  • See the Topics Research Guide
  • ProCon.org: Hot Topics in the News
  • Locate background information
  • Locate information in books and e-books
  • Consult some databases
  • Locate journal articles
  • Locate visuals (graphics and films)

Step 3: Get Organized

Begin to organize or outline your speech.Group your remarks and evidence to create an informal outline. It may be useful to include: 

  • An introduction (including purpose and overview)
  • Content or body
  • Begin crafting a strong title, opening and key sentences.
  • Speeches from University of North Carolina Writing Center
  • Writing an Effective Title  from U of M's Center for Writing.

Step 4: Step 4: Draft any visuals. Gather additional research.

  • Select evidence to support your ideas such as quotations, statistics , facts, anecdotes, etc.
  • Gather your evidence from credible sources.  Include the source in  your speech.  This will make your speech more authoritative.
  • Do you need help in locating materials?  Ask the librarians for help via chat, e-mail, or phone,
  • Visit the Free Images, Music, and Videos Research Guide
  • Learn more about creating effective visuals
  • Citation help

Step 5: Compose Your Talking Points

  • Start with your most important points.
  • What is the "take home message" you want your audience to understand, believe, accept or do after they hear your speech? Write this out in one or two sentences.What evidence supports your "take home message?"
  • Novelty: an unusual fact or surprising image
  • Conflict: an opposing viewpoints on the issue
  • Humor: an amusing play on words or exaggerated remark
  • Suspense: such as asking a provocative question
  • Consult your outline
  • Create index cards (be sure to number cards)
  • Organize your visuals
  • On the Lisle campus, get help at the Student Success Center to go over your speech or outline for structure, clarity, tone, etc.

Step 6: Plan the Timing of Your Speech.

  • Add timing to your talking points
  • Revise your talking points, PowerPoint slides and transitions.
  • Delete talking points and/or PowerPoint slides that are not crucial. Paring down or eliminating content will enhance clarity and improve the speech overall.  

Step 7: Rehearse Your Speech for Content and Timing.

  • Be aware of your body position, foot placement, breath and eye movement.
  • Videotape or record a rehearsal to identify problems, distracting habits, etc. 
  • Avoid reading every word--you should be presenting not reading.
  • Avoid common verbal habits such as "um", "like", "you know", "kinda", etc.
  • Practice your speech many times until you feel comfortable with the content and timing.
  • Review your assignment to be sure you are meeting all the requirements.

Step 8: Rehearse Your Speech in Front of an Audience.

  • Gather a few friends or classmates and deliver your speech.
  • Try to avoid the following common behaviors: fidgeting, looking at the computer or screen not at audience, rustling your papers, chewing gum, gesturing too much, or pacing.
  • Ask for feedback on your delivery (such as eye contact, hand gestures, speech habits, etc.) and content
  • Ask what they identified as the most important points. Do these match yours?
  • Edit or revise speech based on the feedback.

Step 9: Continue Revising and Prepare for Anticipated Questions

  • If your speech includes a question and answer session with your audience, spend some time to anticipate questions and briefly plan answers.
  • Ask for clarification if you don't understand a question when you are presenting

Step 10: Final Preparations

Continue to rehearse. Prepare to deliver you speech.

  • Make sure you have all your materials together including note cards, outlines, visuals, handouts, bibliography, PowerPoint on Flash drive, etc.
  • Arrive early
  • Practice on the day of your speech so you are comfortable with the content.

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Preparing to Write a Speech

Quick links, understanding the speech genre.

As you begin writing your speech, you must understand the speech genre , conduct research , and develop an outline .

Understanding the type of speech you’re giving is the first step in the speech writing process.

If you already know the genre of your speech, then feel free to move on towards the next step. If not, start with the prompt. The prompt often identifies the genre of speech. Does your prompt give the speech genre?

If not, here are a few principles to help you figure out the speech genre:

  • Highlight keywords. Words such as analyze , explain , and argue tell you something about the nature of the speech. Look up the keywords in a dictionary to be precise.
  • Look for goals laid out in the prompt. Does the prompt tell you to “ Update the classroom on the political events in Syria,” “ Report your research on the Epstein–Barr virus,”or “ Explain how to do something you do well”? These prompts exemplify informative goals. “ Persuade the audience of what you think is the best way to succeed on a mission trip” is explicitly a prompt for a persuasive/argumentative speech.
  • If you’re completely lost, ask your professor or visit the Rhetoric Center—and bring your prompt!

The two most common types of speeches are informative and argumentative.

For further information on the fundamentals of these different types of speeches, we recommend Public Speaking - Oakland Campus: Types of Speeches by University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. Click on either “Informative” or “Argumentative.”

However, because more speaking genres exist (stories, tributes, eulogies, etc.) it’s imperative to highlight keywords , look for goals in the prompt , and seek help when needed .

After understanding the assignment you’ll know better what you need to research. At this stage it’s important to remember principles and goals of information literacy. Ensuring credibility of the resources used is a primary goal of information literacy.

It’s important that when researching, you consider the credibility of the resources you’re using. Unreliable sources will send your audience a message that you are unreliable. This Tedx Talk breaks down how to identify a fake news article; the principles can be applied to any research.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Who is this publication and are they credible?
  • Who is the author? Do they have accessible information about them and are they a credible source?
  • With both of these in mind, is this article/journal/website credible? If you have any doubt, then err on the safe side.

In addition, you’ll need to find enough sources with enough varying perspectives that you can build your own expertise and credibility.

The resources available on Hekman Library will prove useful in the research process. In particular, we recommend you use the following links on Hekman’s page :

  • “How to ‘Search Start’”
  • “Finding Databases”
  • “Accessing Articles”
  • “Research Help”

Additional Resources Related to Research

  • Yale College Writing Center : Eight Strategies for Using Sources.
  • Colorado State University, WAC Clearinghouse : Evaluating Sources.
  • Calvin University—What Not To Do : a document about what not to do while researching.
  • Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) : Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing.

For most speech classes, the outline is the closest thing to a full script you will have. Some speeches are read from a printed text; some are memorized. But most academic speeches are extemporaneous: the speaker knows the speech well enough to deliver it without reading it, and an outline makes this possible.

(Please note: we’re talking about the final structure of the full-bodied speech, not the keyword notecards you deliver the speech from.)

The outline is a version of the complete speech and is your most important planning document. It is your draft of the full speech, just like a full draft of a paper. For papers an outline simply guides the writer in the writing process. For speeches the outline is reasonably identical with the speech (with slight wording changes).

A speech outline includes the general wording of every sentence, including transitions, and is written in complete sentences (the exact format may different from one teacher to another). If you’re turning the speech in to an instructor, the instructor will usually ask you to include a “specific purpose” and “thesis” before the introduction.

You don’t use the speech outline during the speech. For information regarding the version of the outline used during the speech itself, please see the notecard section on Delivery.

This is an informative speech on the differences between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This outline isn’t perfect: it should include more transition sentences, and the introduction and conclusion are too short. But overall, it displays the content and structure.

This next outline , on the medicinal and culinary properties of dandelions, was put together by the Calvin CAS department as an example outline. Notice how this outline identifies the transition sentences and provides further information for the supporting points.

Your outline doesn’t have to look exactly like either of these examples as long as it accomplishes the main function of an outline: to set out a full written version of your speech.

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A Five-Step Model for Speech Preparation

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10 Process of Speech Making

Learning Objectives

Public Speaking students are often surprised at the amount of work that goes into delivering a strong speech.

  • Develop an extemporaneous speech by following the steps of preparing a speech.

Process of Preparing a Speech

Many students are surprised by the amount of work that is required to deliver an extemporaneous speech. Public Speaking requires students to choose a topic, consider their audience, analyze the audience, consider their own biases to avoid ethnocentrism, research their topic, craft an outline, and practice the delivery of the speech. If you are thinking, “Oh! My!” You are right, “Oh, My”. This chapter will break down the importance of each step and highlight best practices for strong speech delivery.

Choosing a Topic

There is no “right” topic for a speech class; however, there are topics that are more suitable for a particular audience, the occasion of the speech, and the type of speech. Therefore, it is important for students to spend quality time in the brainstorming phase of selecting a topic and narrowing in on the scope of their speech.

Analyzing the Who, Why, and Where

Knowing and understanding your audience is one of the most important parts of developing an effective speech. The next steps in the speech making process include knowing and understanding your audience. What are their motives, intentions, and goals? You will be required to engage in an audience analysis process in order to learn your public speaking audience and tailor your speech to this particular audience. Stay tuned!

Topic Research: Gathering Materials and Evidence

You now have a topic and an understanding of the audience – you are ready to begin researching! You will use the library (your institution’s library, the local library, online databases, etc.) to begin researching. Researching takes time and skill. Simply going to Google, typing in a few keywords, and choosing the first three results, is not research. You will need to carve out hours of time to gather materials and evidence to support your claims. These skills will be introduced in the research section for both informative and persuasive speaking.

The Thesis Statement

In any opinion piece, written or spoken, the main argument – the thesis statement – comes at the end of your introduction. You want your audience to know right away the point you are trying to make. It is important to remember that your thesis statement only addresses one main issue; the ways in which you choose to support your thesis add complexity and depth to your speech.

Preparing Supporting Materials

Once you have solidified your position in your thesis statement, you want to back up your thesis with a variety of supporting ideas and examples. To do this, there are several ways you can support your claims while adding variety and interest to the overall story of your speech. In order to prepare supporting materials, you will need to consider elements of your research and determine how the research (facts, statistics, anecdotes, testimonies, etc.) fits into the main points of your speech. The main points will carry the main message of your speech; it is important to construct strong supporting materials.

Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

Now that you have decided on your topic, analyzed your audience, arrived at your thesis, and determined how you will support your claims, it is time to organize your notes and research into one coherent speech.

You  did  keep all of your notes centrally collected and easily accessible, right? If you put all of your research notes and thoughts onto notecards, it is particularly helpful to lay them out in front of you and begin to organize your points and sub-points in ways that make the most logical sense.

The main points of your speech will be supported by research; however, you will need to determine the order of the main points and how you present the information. In public speaking, we call these “organizational patterns”. The stronger the pattern, the easier it is to listen to a speaker AND the easier it is for the speaker to remember what comes next – it is like a road map! You should choose an organizational pattern that works for your speech topic and builds logically from one point to the next. There are several patterns to choose from; you will learn key differences between the patterns and the strategy behind utilization.

Creating Presentation Notecards

Public Speaking professors often lament that college students just simply read their outlines word-for-word. NOTE: This is NOT public speaking, it is public reading. There is very little skill involved in reading an outline in a public speaking class. The intention of this course is to deliver an extemporaneous speech. Therefore, it is recommended to take your polished outline and turn it into keyword note cards. Your note cards should have a few words or phrases to remind the speaker of what comes next. You should avoid long sentences and word-for-word phrasing. Less is more. After you have created your note cards, you should begin practicing your speech aloud.

Practice Makes Darn Good

Perfect does not exist in public speaking. However, pretty darn good DOES! The bolded concepts, when built upon, will allow a public speaker to begin the speech making process. Once you have gone through each step, you can then begin to put the pieces together. Then, when you are ready, you can practice your speech in front of a mirror, record yourself and watch your speech, or ask a peer to practice with you. You should practice using the method of delivery. Face to face? Practice in a classroom-type setting. Virtual? Practice on Zoom or Google Meet. You will also want to practice with your technology and/or props – forgetting to add this step is detrimental to students and their success. Practice as if your intended audience is in front of you.

Speech Making Steps

As crafting a speech is a process, there are steps that must be followed – in order – to be successful. Below is a roadmap of the steps that will be addressed in the following readings.

what is the first step to preparing a speech

As speech making is a process, this process will require time, effort, and pre-planning to execute effectively. Use the tool below to plan out your process to meet project deadlines (note: you will be delivering your informative speech in week 4).

Key Takeaways

Preparing a speech requires time, research, practice, and skill.

  • Remember to plan ahead and give yourself enough time to plan and execute on your speaking expectations.
  • Extemporaneous speaking requires a step-by-step process to be successful.

Public Speaking Copyright © by Dr. Layne Goodman; Amber Green, M.A.; and Various is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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New York AG takes 1st step toward possibly seizing Trump's assets as part of $464M fraud judgment

Trump's lawyers say he faces "insurmountable difficulties" in obtaining a bond.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken an initial step toward laying the groundwork for a possible seizure of former President Donald Trump's assets in New York's Westchester County as part of the $464 million judgment in Trump's civil fraud trial.

State officials have entered the judgment from Trump's civil fraud trial in Manhattan with the county clerk's office in Westchester, which would allow James to move to take possession of Trump National Golf Course in Briarcliff Manor and Seven Springs, a private estate in Bedford, if Trump fails to secure a bond.

His lawyers this week said Trump is facing "insurmountable difficulties" obtaining a bond to cover the $464 million judgment imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron. They have asked an appeals court for permission to post a smaller bond or none at all.

MORE: Judge in Trump's civil fraud trial imposes monitor to oversee Trump Organization's finances

If Trump does not secure a financial guarantee by Monday's deadline, James could begin the legal process of seizing Trump's bank accounts and physical assets in Manhattan and Westchester through liens and foreclosures.

A representative from the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

On Thursday, lawyers for Trump doubled down on their claim that securing the bond is impossible, according to a letter sent to New York's Appellate Division Thursday.

Trump attorney Clifford Robert described James' suggestion Wednesday that Trump secure multiple smaller bonds or hand over property to the court as "illogical," "unconstitutional," "impractical," and "unjust."

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, OH, March 16, 2024.

"Perhaps worst of all, the Attorney General argues that Defendants should be forced to dispose of iconic, multi-billion-dollar real-estate holdings in a 'fire sale,'" Robert wrote in the letter.

Pushing back on the suggestion that Trump could hand over properties to the court, Robert said that the proposal was impractical and "functionally equivalent" to the Trump Organization's court-appointed monitor.

He argued that James' suggestion that Trump procure a series of smaller bonds would fail to resolve Trump's current predicament because lenders are still unwilling to offer a bond using both cash and property as collateral.

"As explained in Defendants' Affirmations, those separate bonds would still require a total collateralization of cash or cash equivalents in excess of $557 million, regardless of how many sureties were involved," the letter said.

"It would be completely illogical -- and the definition of an unconstitutional Excessive Fine and a Taking -- to require Defendants to sell properties at all, and especially in a 'fire sale,' in order to be able to appeal the lawless Supreme Court judgment, as that would cause harm that cannot be repaired once the Defendants do win, as is overwhelmingly likely, on appeal," Robert wrote on Thursday.

New York Judge Arthur Engoron in February ordered Trump to pay $464 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest after he found the former president and his adult sons liable for using "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate his net worth in order to get more favorable loan terms. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has appealed the decision in the case.

MORE: What happens if Trump can’t secure a bond for his $464 million civil fraud judgment?

Earlier this week, Trump's lawyers argued that the former president is unable to secure a bond for the judgment, having been rejected by over 30 insurance companies due to its size and his need to post properties as collateral.

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As Moscow bureau chief, Guy runs coverage of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Before Moscow, Guy ran Brexit coverage as London bureau chief (2012-2022). On the night of Brexit, his team delivered one of Reuters historic wins - reporting news of Brexit first to the world and the financial markets. Guy graduated from the London School of Economics and started his career as an intern at Bloomberg. He has spent over 14 years covering the former Soviet Union. He speaks fluent Russian.

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Putin Warns the West a Russia-NATO Conflict Is Just One Step From WW3

Reuters

FILE PHOTO: A Yars intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile is fired during training from Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Arkhangelsk region, Russia. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that a direct conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario.

The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future, with many Western countries distancing themselves from that while others, especially in eastern Europe, expressed support.

Asked by Reuters about the Macron remarks and the risks and possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO, Putin quipped: "everything is possible in the modern world."

The Latest Photos From Ukraine

TOPSHOT - Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade Kholodny Yar monitor the sky from their positions in the direction of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 20, 2024. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP) (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

"It is clear to everyone, that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War Three. I think hardly anyone is interested in this," Putin told reporters after winning the biggest ever landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.

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A Maka Indigenous woman puts on make-up before protesting for the recovery of ancestral lands in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Leader Mateo Martinez has denounced that the Paraguayan state has built a bridge on their land in El Chaco's Bartolome de las Casas, Presidente Hayes department. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Putin added, though, that NATO military personnel were present already in Ukraine, saying that Russia had picked up both English and French being spoken on the battlefield.

"There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers," he said.

BUFFER ZONE

Ahead of the March 15-17 Russian election, Ukraine stepped up attacks against Russia, shelling border regions and even used proxies to try to pierce Russia's borders.

Asked if he considered it necessary to take Ukraine's Kharkiv region, Putin said if the attacks continued, Russia would create a buffer zone out of more Ukrainian territory to defend Russian territory.

"I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain 'sanitary zone' in the territories today under the Kyiv regime," Putin said.

He declined to give any further details but said such a zone might have to be big enough to preclude foreign made armaments from reaching Russian territory.

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering major European war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

Russia Viewed as a World Threat

Elliott Davis Jr. Sept. 7, 2023

Russian soldiers march toward Red Square to attend a Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, marking the 78th anniversary of the end of World War II. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Putin said he wished Macron would stop seeking to aggravate the war in Ukraine but to play a role in finding peace: "It seems that France could play a role. All is not lost yet."

"I've been saying it over and over again and I'll say it again. We are for peace talks, but not just because the enemy is running out of bullets," Putin said.

"If they really, seriously, want to build peaceful, good-neighbourly relations between the two states in the long term, and not simply take a break for rearmament for 1.5-2 years."

U.S. DEMOCRACY

Putin dismissed U.S. and Western criticism of the election, which the White House said was not free and fair, saying U.S. elections were not democratic and criticising the use of state power against Donald Trump.

"The whole world is laughing at what is happening there," Putin said of the United States. "It is just a catastrophe - it is not democracy - what on earth is it?"

When asked about the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in unexplained circumstances at a Russian prison in the Arctic on Feb. 16, Putin said he had simply "passed away" using Navalny's name for one of the first times in public.

Putin said he had agreed several days before Navalny's death to swap him. Reuters reported in February that a prisoner exchange deal had been agreed for Navalny shortly before his death.

"I said: 'I am agreed'," Putin said about his approval for the prisoner swap. "I had one condition - we exchange him but he never returns."

Navalny's widow, Yulia, has accused Putin of killing her husband. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that claim was simply wrong.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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In First Post-Election Speech, Putin Threatens NATO With World War III

V ladimir Putin warned that a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO would be “one step away from a full-scale World War III” in a speech following his reelection on Monday.

“I think hardly anyone is interested in this,” Putin added.

The three-day vote, which wrapped up Sunday, saw Putin face no credible opposition. Western countries and election watchdogs have been quick to call it a “sham” contest .

Putin’s comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron said last week he could not rule out the deployment of French troops in Ukraine if Russia’s invasion continues.

Putin also raised the prospect of taking Ukraine’s Kharkiv region as a buffer zone between the two countries. Ukraine had reportedly increased its shelling on Russian border regions during the vote.

With no viable alternative candidates permitted to participate in the three-day election, Putin claimed 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation. That figure is an increase from 2018, when Putin claimed 76.7% of the vote with a voter turnout of 67.5%. The latest result extends Putin’s nearly 25-year rule with a fifth term that will last until 2030.

The White House said the election was “obviously not free nor fair,” while Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky , said Sunday that Putin had become “addicted to power.”

During his Monday address, Putin also acknowledged Alexei Navalny for the first time since the opposition leader’s death in a Russian penal colony on Feb. 16. Putin said the 47-year-old “passed away” and that he had agreed to a prisoner swap with the U.S. that would see Navalny freed on the condition that he never returns to Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden has blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, saying last month, “Make no mistake, Putin is responsible.”

Navalny’s death had sparked unprecedented protests in Russia and his widow Yulia Navalnaya had called for demonstrations at polling booths dubbed “noon against Putin.” The plan had been endorsed by her late husband before his death.

On Sunday, Navalnaya shared that she had written “Navalny” on her election ballot paper. “You give me hope that everything is not in vain, that we will still fight,” she said of her supporters.

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  1. How to Prepare for a Speech: Strategies for a Successful Speech

    Step #1: Thoroughly Research Your Topic. Step #2: Start With an Interesting Story or Question. Step #3: Take the Hook Down the Body of the Speech. Step #4: Remind the Audience of the Speech's Purpose in the Conclusion. Useful Tips for Effective Delivery Style. Work on Your Body Language.

  2. How to Write a Good Speech: 10 Steps and Tips

    Create an outline: Develop a clear outline that includes the introduction, main points, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Share this outline with the speaker for their input and approval. Write in the speaker's voice: While crafting the speech, maintain the speaker's voice and style.

  3. 6 Ways to Prepare a Speech

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  4. Toastmasters International -Preparing a Speech

    Preparing for a speech is one of the best ways to ensure you give an effective presentation. Try these tips to help you properly prepare: Organize your speech in a logical sequence: opening, main points, summary.; Practice and rehearse a speech frequently prior to delivering it. Ask friends to be your audience, or practice in front of a mirror.

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  9. How To Prepare A Speech

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