is the first step in preparing a speech or presentation

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Steps in Preparing a Presentation

Planning your presentation, step 1: analyze your audience, step 2: select a topic, step 3: define the objective of the presentation, preparing the content of your presentation, step 4: prepare the body of the presentation, step 5: prepare the introduction and conclusion, practicing and delivering, step 6: practice delivering the presentation.

The first step in preparing a presentation is to learn more about the audience to whom you'll be speaking. It's a good idea to obtain some information on the backgrounds, values, and interests of your audience so that you understand what the audience members might expect from your presentation.

Next, if possible select a topic that is of interest to the audience and to you. It will be much easier to deliver a presentation that the audience finds relevant, and more enjoyable to research a topic that is of interest to you.

Once you have selected a topic, write the objective of the presentation in a single concise statement. The objective needs to specify exactly what you want your audience to learn from your presentation. Base the objective and the level of the content on the amount of time you have for the presentation and the background knowledge of the audience. Use this statement to help keep you focused as you research and develop the presentation.

After defining the objective of your presentation, determine how much information you can present in the amount of time allowed. Also, use your knowledge about the audience to prepare a presentation with the right level of detail. You don't want to plan a presentation that is too basic or too advanced.

The body of the presentation is where you present your ideas. To present your ideas convincingly, you will need to illustrate and support them. Strategies to help you do this include the following:

• Present data and facts
• Read quotes from experts
• Relate personal experiences
• Provide vivid descriptions

And remember, as you plan the body of your presentation it's important to provide variety. Listeners may quickly become bored by lots of facts or they may tire of hearing story after story.

Once you've prepared the body of the presentation, decide how you will begin and end the talk. Make sure the introduction captures the attention of your audience and the conclusion summarizes and reiterates your important points. In other words, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them."

During the  opening  of your presentation, it's important to attract the audience's attention and build their interest. If you don't, listeners will turn their attention elsewhere and you'll have a difficult time getting it back. Strategies that you can use include the following:

• Make the introduction relevant to the listeners' goals, values, and needs
• Ask questions to stimulate thinking
• Share a personal experience
• Begin with a joke or humorous story
• Project a cartoon or colorful visual
• Make a stimulating or inspirational statement
• Give a unique demonstration

During the opening you want to clearly present your topic and the purpose of your presentation. Clearly articulating the topic and purpose will help the listeners focus on and easily follow your main ideas.

During the  conclusion  of your presentation, reinforce the main ideas you communicated. Remember that listeners won't remember your entire presentation, only the main ideas. By reinforcing and reviewing the main ideas, you help the audience remember them.

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Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little time practicing it. When you practice your presentation, you can reduce the number of times you utter words and phrases like, "um," "well," and "you know." These habits can easily diminish a speaker's credibility. You can also fine-tune your content to be sure you make your most important points in the time alloted.

In addition to planning the content of your presentation, you need to give advanced thought to how you want to deliver it. Do you want to commit your presentation to memory, use cards to guide you, or read from a script? Or, you might want to use a combination of methods. To help you decide, read the advantages and disadvantages of the four delivery methods described below.

Speaking from Memory

A distinct advantage of speaking from memory is your ability to speak to the audience without relying on notes or a script. This allows you the flexibility to move away from the podium and to maintain eye contact with the audience. However, speaking from memory has disadvantages, too. Presentations from memory often sound rehearsed and the possibility exists that you'll forget an important point, present information that's inaccurate, or completely lose your train of thought. If you decide to deliver your presentation from memory, have notes handy to jog your memory just in case!

Speaking from Notes

Many people like to speak from notes. Typically these notes are either on cards or paper in outline form and contain key ideas and information. If you are using an electronic presentation tool, you may be able to include your notes in the presentation itself. The benefit of delivering a presentation from notes is that you sound natural rather than rehearsed and you can still maintain relatively good eye contact with the audience. The down side is that you might not express your key ideas and thoughts as well as you may have liked had you planned your exact words in advance.

Speaking from Text

Speaking from text involves writing your speech out, word for word, then basically reading from the text. As with speaking from memory, an advantage of this method is that you plan, in advance, exactly what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. A disadvantage is that you might appear to the audience to be stiff or rehearsed. You will need to make frequent eye contact and speak with expression to maintain the audience's interest.

Using a Combination of Methods

You may find the best method to be a combination of all three. For instance, experts suggest you memorize the first and last ten minutes of your talk so that you can speak flawlessly and without notes. Notes may be suitable for segments of your presentation that you know very well, for example, relating a personal story. Finally, speaking from a text might be appropriate when you have quotes or other important points that you want to make sure you communicate accurately and completely. You can make a smooth segue to written text by saying something like: "I want to read this quote to you verbatim, to ensure that I don't distort the original intent."

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How to Prepare for a Presentation, with Examples

February 15, 2021 - Dom Barnard

This guide covers everything you need to know to prepare for your presentation. including what you need to think about beforehand, during and after the presentation.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse (always aloud)

Once you have your presentation worked out, you will need to practice it, but even though you might think it’s the best way to have a flawless presentation, don’t memorise what you’re going to say.

That might sound like incredibly bad advice, but here’s why:

• If you memorise your speech, you’ll get stuck in thinking you can only deliver your ideas in that way, and that stifles your creativity, and the chance for new thoughts and ways to put things that come up as you speak.

Not only that, but every  audience is different . Sometimes they laugh out loud, sometimes they sit and smile, and you never know which type of audience you’ll have until you’re live.

Practice Presentation Skills

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If you’re going off a memorised presentation, it’s much more difficult to break away from that to go with the flow on the day, and respond naturally to your audience.

• If you forget your speech in the middle of it, you will be thrown, and you’ll have more chance of complete brain freeze, which really will knock your confidence.
• Memorising your presentation gives you a false sense of security, which could leave you high and dry if something goes wrong. If you’ve only got your memorised speech, for example, what will you do if your PowerPoint freezes or your props break, and you can’t do what you were going to do?

Rehearse in front of colleagues, friends, a mirror, in virtual reality – always aloud. Make sure you spend plenty of time practising your presentation, it will make you feel much more relaxed if you know your material.

Courses where you can rehearse with interactive exercises:

• Essential Public Speaking
• How to Present over Video

Video showing how you can prepare for your presentation using virtual reality.  Learn more about virtual reality training .

2. Memorise your opening line

Do, however, memorise your opening line. If you know how you’re going to begin, you’ll get a strong start and that will build your confidence.

Many speakers and stage actors find that the minute they’ve actually delivered their first line, the nerves are gone and they’re well into their stride.

3. Practise your speech from written notes

Writing your presentation out in your own handwriting will help you clarify your ideas and may well bring you new ones.

• How to Write a Speech to Engage your Audience

4. Practise presentation flow

As well as practising for the ideas and what you want to say, practise how you want your presentation to flow. Think of it almost as a symphony, with high points, slow movements and crescendos. If it’s important, think about how you want your audience to feel, what emotions you want them to have, and when.

5. The power of silence

Don’t be afraid to pause and use the power of silence. A good pause can have a huge emotional impact. It allows people to really absorb what you are saying and react, and it’s vital to pause if you’re using humour so that the next part of your presentation doesn’t get lost underneath people’s laughter.

For more on the ‘Power of the Pause’, watch this short from video Brian Tracy:  The Power of the Pause

• 10 Effective Ways to use Pauses in your Speech

6. Have a backup

There’s nothing worse than the projector dying or finding that your laptop won’t communicate with the projector for some reason. If you know you have a backup, even if it’s only a pre-prepared flip chart, you’ll feel better, and you’ll be more confident.

7. Arrive early

Following on from that, arrive at least half an hour early so you aren’t feeling rushed, and so you have time to check your equipment and get your notes laid out ready to go. That gives you time to breathe and relax before you go on, knowing everything is as set as it can be.

8. Use physical props for a demo

Use physical props, if possible, for a demo. This can make you stand out and be more memorable among all the other speakers who only use PowerPoint, and it can add greatly to the impact of your presentation.

Video showing an example of using physical props during a live demo.

9. Structure your presentation

First, find out how much time you have to present, is it 10 minutes, 15, an hour? Prepare enough material for this time and have a couple of extra slides as backup – we tend to speak much quicker when nervous so you might find you finish your presentation too early. At some large conference events, timings may change on the day, be aware of this have a shorter version of your presentation in mind (i.e. know which slides to skip over).

• How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples
• Examples of Corporate Presentation Structures

10. Prepare for questions

Have a few backup slides for questions you think will arise from your presentation. It is sometime a tactic to explain a section briefly in your speech, so that you get a question about it afterwards. If you don’t understand the question, ask for it to be rephrased.

If there are no questions, it is not an indication how good or bad your presentation was. You many have explain your material extremely well, or simply that people are tired at the end of the day and want to go home.

• Guide for Handling Questions after a Presentation

11. Prepare for where you are presenting

If you can, go to the room you are speaking in before the actual event. It gives you an idea of furniture layout, podium height, location, room size, audience size and lighting. You can then visualise the room while practising and avoid the shock of suddenly being faced with a huge room when you expected a tiny one.

Ask the organiser if you need any particular props, for example a table to help with your live demo.

Additional planning to think about before your presentation:

1. Purpose  – what outcome are we trying to achieve? How can results be measured? What will success look like?

2. Topic  – Novelty? Complexity? Technical?

3. People  – Who should attend? What do they already know? How are they going to help?

4. Timing  – When will it happen and how long will the presentation take?

5. Location  – Where will the presentation be held? Do you have access to the correct facilities for the presentation?

6. Papers  – Who is keeping minutes? Do you need to send out an agenda before the presentation? Background information required?

7. Visual aids  – Is a  projector required ? Boards?

8. Style  – Structure or unstructured, discussion style? How assertive should you be? How should the meeting items be organised?

12. Choose the signals to give to your audience

Before the presentation, think about these 5 topics:

• Eye contact
• Facial gestures
• Body language

Decide how you will use each of these to reinforce your message. Use the table below for help.

Additional courses to help you prepare for your presentation:

• Presentation Skills Training Courses

Example from Steve Jobs

Think about these 10 techniques while you are preparing your presentation..

• Planning in Analog.  Tell a story, create stunning visuals and videos to complement video, use demonstrations and other speakers, keep the audience engaged.
• Creating a Twitter-Friendly Description  Single description sentence, condensed his message into 140 characters.
• Introduce the Enemy  Story needs villains or a problem to be solved. Jobs highlighted IBM and useless mobile phones (during iPhone release) as his villains.
• Focusing on Benefits  Keep reinforcing the benefits of your product, create top 10 lists, understand this is what customers care about.
• Sticking to Rule of Three  Classic Literary technique, things are best remembered and reinforced in threes. Read this article on  Literary Techniques  for more detail.
• Sell Dreams, Not Products  Create a vision people believe in, create a vision which will make people’s lives better
• Create Visual Slides  Use as few words as possible and use colourful graphics on the slide to highlight points.
• Make Numbers Meaningful  Compare large numbers to things people understand.
• Use Plain English  Use easy to say and easy to remember words, keep it simple.
• Large Reveals  Due to Apple secrecy, Jobs was able to deliver unexpected products to the world at his product launches.

Before your next presentation or speech, here’s the first thing you must think about

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The next time you’re preparing to speak to a group, remember to keep your audience at the center of your communication, says Briar Goldberg, the director of speaker coaching at TED. One way to do this is to ask yourself: “What gift are you giving to your audience?”

TED recently partnered with Marriott Hotels to offer a special day-long seminar on public speaking for Marriott Bonvoy members. Briar Goldberg — TED’s director of speaker coaching who has helped prepare hundreds of people for the TED stage — gave them tips and tools to be better communicators in their own lives.

Below, she takes a deeper dive into one aspect of public speaking that many of us overlook when drafting our speeches and presentations: our audience.

Let’s be honest, there’s no shortage of public speaking advice out there. There are countless books, blog posts and YouTube videos offering you instructions on how to tell engaging stories, make eye contact, use hand gestures, and more. I think that’s great, although I’ll admit I’m biased. I’ve spent my career teaching public speaking and coaching executives, and since 2015, I’ve been working with TED speakers. I truly believe that everyone benefits when we communicate more effectively.

But even with so much advice available, I still see one big communication mistake made all of the time. It’s this: Most people communicate in the wrong direction .

What is the wrong direction? Too many of us write our scripts, build our decks, or compile our talking points before we think about our audience and what they need or expect to get out of our communication. This has serious consequences. When your audience doesn’t feel like your words apply to them, when they don’t understand what you’re trying to say, or, worse yet, they don’t care about your ideas, then your carefully-crafted slides, agenda or jokes simply don’t matter.

My earliest mentor in this work, Jim Wagstaffe always tells speakers to practice their ABCs: Audience Before Content. I love that acronym so much because it captures the essence of what communication is really all about — it’s not about you, the speaker; it’s always about your audience. Your audience’s needs should always be your central focus.

At TED, when we’re helping speakers prepare their talks, we ask them to identify the “gift” they’re giving the audience. In my opinion, this is what every communicator should be asking themselves before any kind of communication — whether it’s a keynote or a TED Talk or something smaller like a pitch to your boss or a statement at a community meeting. What gift are you giving the audience?

The good news is, understanding how to put your audience at the center of your communication isn’t rocket science. And when you do it correctly, I can almost guarantee that your next speech, presentation or meeting will be a success.

What does it really mean to know your audience?

You’ve probably heard the phrase “know your audience.” I’ve even seen lists floating around that offer a series of questions designed to help you do this, with queries such as: “What’s the gender breakdown of your audience?” “Are they executives or middle-managers?” “Where are they from?”

While demographic information like this is important — for example, you should probably rethink a joke about swiping right if the average age of your audience is 76 — the kind of knowledge I’m talking about goes much deeper. It goes beyond the superficial to zoom in on these two key things: “What are my audience’s goals?” and “How do they make decisions?”

How to really understand your audience’s goals

This means you’ll need to ask a different set of questions — ones that get at your audience’s needs and expectations. These include:

“Why are these people taking time out of their busy schedules to listen to me speak?”

“What do they hope (or need) to gain from this presentation/speech/address/meeting?”

“What are their expectations coming in?”

“What can I say in order to meet or exceed those expectations?”

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can craft a communication that is tailored to your audience; when you do, your audience is more likely to stay focused, remember what you said, pass on the information you shared, and remember you as a good speaker.

But what happens if your goals as a speaker don’t align with the audience’s goals?

As a communicator, you will have your own goals. Perhaps you’re an executive and you have an important message that you need the rest of the company to hear. Maybe you’ve designed a new product that you want your customers to get excited about. Getting clear on your own communication goals is important because then you can evaluate if your goals line up with your audience’s goals. If they do, that’s great — and you can start crafting your communication.

But sometimes they won’t. When this happens, it’s your job to figure out how to close the gap and persuade the audience that your goals can — and should — be their goals, too. I’m not talking about manipulation or asking you to trick people into thinking something different. What I am advocating is that you work to understand your audience well enough to know how they make decisions and what kind of information they need to have to be persuaded of their own accord.

One of the most persuasive TED Talks this year was delivered by sleep expert Matt Walker . Everyone has different goals when they decide to watch a talk about sleep. But Matt was clear on his goal: to convince people to prioritize sleep above all else. To get the audience on his side, he had to persuade them that getting enough sleep is the single most important thing they could do with our time.

Understand how your audience makes decisions

You can’t effectively persuade anyone unless you know what kind of information they need to make a decision. Think about it this way: If a salesperson was trying to sell you a new computer, you wouldn’t decide to buy it until they told you the price. With your audience, you can’t expect to influence them until you provide them with the information they need to decide if they want to change their minds.

But every audience is different. How do you know what kind of information you need to offer in order to sway them? There are entire bodies of research that cover audience persuasion strategies. But let me offer a simple framework to get you started.

In general, audiences can be broken down into three types: expert, novice and mixed. An expert audience understands your topic and they might already know you, the speaker. If you’re a real-estate broker addressing an annual meeting of the nation’s realtors, you’re speaking to an expert audience. A novice audience doesn’t know much about the topic and doesn’t know anything about you. An example of this would be a real-estate broker speaking at an open-house for community residents interested in buying a first home. But more often than not, your audience will be a mix of experts, novices and everyone in-between. The large, international TED audience is a perfect example of a mixed audience.

When you’re speaking to an expert audience: Use logical/quantitative arguments to persuade them.

In general, expert audiences are more likely to be persuaded by logical arguments and quantitative information. If you’re a real-estate broker trying to convince your expert audience to invest in a new kind of property, you’re more likely to be successful if your presentation is built around data and statistics that support this plan.

When you’re speaking to a novice audience: Lean into your own credibility.

Because a novice audience doesn’t know much about you or your topic, they tend to make decisions based on your credibility and the credibility of your sources. Therefore, it can be important to build up your reputation and credentials so they’ll trust what you’re saying and follow your recommendations.

When I’m giving a lecture on public speaking to a group who doesn’t know me, I always mention the universities I’ve taught at and some of the names of executives I’ve coached. This isn’t to brag — and let me be clear, you’ll need to use your judgement to figure out how much information to give so it doesn’t sound like you’re bragging — but it’s a quick way for me to get my audience to accept that I’m a solid source of communication advice and that they should listen to me. In some cases, I’ll tell my audience where a particular piece of information in my lecture came from. By saying “Harvard published this study last year…” I’m referencing a respected source, which reinforces my credibility as a speaker.

When you’re speaking to a mixed audience: Appeal to their emotions.

Emotional appeals can be very persuasive, especially when you’re speaking to a mixed audience. After all, everyone has made a decision based on their emotions at one point or another in their lives. Last year, TED speaker Nora McInerny shared her own experience with death to teach us about moving forward with grief. It was an A+ example of an emotional appeal.

OK great, but how do I find out all this information about my audience?

Well, that’s part of the fun. OK, maybe it’s not always fun but it is your responsibility to take a deep dive into your audience, their needs, and their motivations and — trust me — this work will pay off ten-fold. If you’re speaking at an official conference or meeting, I recommend starting with the person or organization who asked you to speak. What can they tell you about the audience? Are they willing to share any of registration information? How did they market the event? If you’re speaking on an earnings call, what about the analysts who follow your company — have you ever asked them what they need or want? If you’re speaking at your company’s town hall, can you talk to your team and find out what they expect to hear from you? If you’re speaking at an event in another country, can you find a translator or local who can help you better understand the expectations of that audience?

The information is out there — you just need to find and use it. You’ll know when you’ve done it right, because your audience will stay engaged and, when you’re done speaking, they’ll help pass your message along.

This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

About the author

Briar Goldberg is the Director of Speaker Coaching at TED.

• briar goldberg
• business advice
• communication
• public speaking

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Preparing a Speech

• 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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.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices 5 essential preparation steps for a successful presentation

by Tom Rielly • June 15, 2020

Keeping your presentation visuals minimalistic, simple, and clear is just one important step to remember when designing a hit presentation. Leaving nothing to chance, great presenters prove quite methodical as they prepare. Here’s a checklist for everything you need to keep in mind before your next presentation:

1. Choose the right software for your needs

The easiest way to select the right presentation software for you is to simply find the one that is native to your device. For example, if you have a Mac, use Apple Keynote, if you work on Windows, use PowerPoint. Google Slides is recommended if you’re working with someone, as it makes collaboration very easy. Another software option is Prezi: a specialty tool called Prezi that creates a presentation using motion, zoom, and panning across one giant visual space.

2. Organize your files

As you develop your script and visuals, you will need to start assembling all the assets for your slides. Create a unique folder on your computer to hold these items. Keep the folder organized by media type (presentation drafts, photos, videos, scripts) and back them up frequently to the Cloud or external disk. Label each file with a specific descriptive name, e.g. “Susan Johnson singing magpie 2020”, as opposed to “IMG_4043.jpg”, which can make it confusing to find your assets. The more organized you are up front, the easier preparing for your presentation will be.

3. Prepare your presentation materials

Make sure your presentation materials (script, graphics, actual slides) are saved in at least two safe spots (for example, your computer and an external USB drive) and are backed-up frequently. If you are using an online presentation software, such as Google Slides, be sure to also download a copy of your presentation in case the internet connection is unreliable. Having all the individual assets on hand in addition to your presentation slides can be helpful if you experience tech issues before presenting, or if you need to make any last minute changes. Make sure to label your final presentation with the title and your name so it’s easy to find.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

Remember, practice makes perfect. People often run out of time making their presentations and have no time to practice. Most TED speakers practice at least ten times. Neuroscientist Jill-Bolte Taylor gave one of the most successful Talks in TED history with nearly 27 million views. How did she do it? She practiced her Talk over 40 times! By rehearsing multiple times you will naturally memorize your Talk, which means you won’t need note cards when you give your final presentation.

5. Do a final test run

Before presenting, make sure the equipment you need is working properly. It’s generally good practice to rehearse standing on the exact stage with the exact lighting using the exact computer that you will be using in your final presentation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what to look for when testing your equipment:

• If you're not using your own computer, the one provided might be slower and have trouble playing media. If you have videos or other media, make sure they play correctly
• Test the projector to make sure it’s HD
• Make sure images are clear
• Test the sound of any clips you use, as this is what goes wrong most frequently
• If you’re using a mic, test the volume

Don’t let technical issues or other blunders overshadow your presentation. By following these guidelines, and with a little preparation, you can engineer out the problems BEFORE they happen.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

Moxie Institute

How To Prepare A Speech

Preparing a speech may seem a bit overwhelming when you are first faced with the task—but the rewards of doing it right are always worth it.

Fortunately, there are proven steps you can take to prepare a speech, deliver it with impact, and impress your audience.

We are going to share with you our top seven tips so that next time you need to deliver a well-prepared speech, you’ll know just what to do!.

Table of Contents

1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

The most important question you must ask yourself while preparing for a speech, or any public speaking opportunity, is not “what is my topic?” but “who is my audience?”

Understanding your audience will help you prepare a presentation that will connect with them in a meaningful way.

Your first step to achieving your goals with an audience is knowing who you’re dealing with. These three questions will help you understand who you are speaking to:

• Why are they here? There are many reasons why someone could be attending your speech. You need to understand why your audience is spending this time with you.
• Who are they? Interns at a firm have different characteristics than C-Suite executives. To connect with your audience, your speech needs to relate to them.
• What are they expecting to gain? It is essential to be clear on the end goal of your speech. Does your audience want to learn from you? Are they looking to be motivated? Or do they want to be entertained? The entire tone of your speech will change dramatically depending on this answer.

It’s also essential that the content and delivery of your speech adapt to your audience’s:

• Level of knowledge/experience
• Demographic

You also need to consider how they will use the information you provide.

By doing detailed research and audience analysis, you’ll find it much easier to prepare your speech. You will present the exact content that your listeners want to hear with increased confidence, and you’ll also elevate your professional reputation as an expert.

2. DEFINE THE PURPOSE OF YOUR SPEECH

Once you understand your audience , you must determine the purpose for your speech that will resonate with them most. In short:

Build your presentation around one big idea and only one.

Think back on every speech you’ve ever heard. Can you remember what the speaker’s main point was?

If you can’t, well, in our book, that speech wasn’t a complete success.

A great speech has a central message so clear, concise, and catchy that the audience can’t help but remember it.

The Narrative – Your Story

In his book TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, Chris Anderson writes, “One of the biggest reasons we turn down applications to speak at TED is when we’re offered compelling anecdotes but no central idea that wraps that narrative together.”

That matches our experience at Moxie. Yes, all great talks infuse clear storylines, but they also are tied intimately to the purpose and overall message.

The talk has a point, and the story provides the emotional hook that sells it to the audience.

Why? Because we all love a good story and because good stories are drawn from the heart. The ideal narrative establishes authority, captures the heart and mind, and illuminates your topic.

Like Anderson, we’ve found that compelling presentations need good stories. Narratives aren’t just something you throw in, dispensable parts of the speech—they’re the glue that binds the whole presentation together.

Whether your speech is built around your personal story, testimonials, or even new studies, dive in deep to find the human truth in the narrative.

What your audience wants is authenticity and vulnerability here. If you’re talking about difficult and painful experiences or exciting and triumphant tales, they’ll understand—and most will also relate. Most importantly, you will form a deeper connection with them.

You will be building empathy with the audience depending on the route you’ve taken, for example:

• Personal Story – “I’ve been in your shoes; I’ve had the same problems. I’m here to tell you how I figured it out so you can too.”
• Testimonials – “We’ve all experienced X before. We’ve all felt the same frustration. But what if I were to tell you that you may never have to feel that way again? Here are the stories of people who did the unthinkable and what we learned….”
• Studies – “The data has confirmed what many of you have likely believed your whole life. Not only were you right, but we uncovered something unexpected and exciting in the process that will change the entire industry. Here’s what happened…”

Drawing an audience in with a relevant, purporse-driven narrative is powerfully persuasive. Of course, that’s just what you say. How you say it is important too.

3. PLAN YOUR DELIVERY

The best presentations target both the right brain (emotion) and the left brain (logic). They inform and entertain the audience.

Consider the following three foundational steps to a great speech delivery:

Establish Credibility

Establishing credibility is essential to getting your message across. An audience’s perception of your credibility is based on three different components :

• Body language – 55%
• Tone of voice – 38%
• Content – 7%

Naturally, we can see that a big emphasis should be placed on body language, followed by your tone of voice.

It is not to say that your content is not important after all; it is the foundation of your speech. Keep in mind that your delivery can either amplify your message or undermine it.

As you prepare your speech, make sure to prioritize how you will deliver for optimum impact.

Here are some tips to demonstrate credibility while you present:

Body Language

• Maximize the space your body takes up on stage. Turn to face different sections of the audience
• If you’re telling a story, use physicality to bring it life
• Don’t hunch or get small! Use an expansive body posture to demonstrates confidence
• Do a vocal warm up to give your voice more strength before speaking
• Raise and lower your voice to match the emotions you’re conveying. Be loud and passionate, quiet and serious—vocal variety is the spice of a good speech
• Avoid using filler words or sounds. We’ve all sat through a speech where every other word is “umm” or “er” or “like” that is a sure credibility killer! The best antidote: pausing. Pauses give your brain space to catch up and add effect to your talk
• Practice so your speech is fluid and with proper enunciation.

Engage Emotions

Don’t speak like a robot. Tap into your audience’s emotions.

We lead textured emotional lives: we laugh, we cry, we bristle at injustice, we root for the hero. Your words should engage that entire emotional range.

Just remember: nowhere is authenticity more essential than with emotional appeals. The only feeling stirred by canned jokes and insincere stories is awkwardness.

So, how do you find the right emotional words for your speech? One simple and convenient way is by drawing from the core of who you are and your own emotion-related experiences.

From stoic CEOs to ex-marines, we’ve coached many people who have wrongly said they don’t feel much. But the second we ask them to think about important family, best friends, and significant memories, they realize just how significant a role emotions play in their life.

When preparing your speech, think about the emotions you want your audience to feel, and find a way to talk about it so that you feel those emotions yourself.

Because if you feel the emotions while talking, studies have shown that mirror neurons in the brains of your audience will fire off, making them feel those emotions too.

Though you may be tempted to skip the pathos, it’s also important to know that it’s emotion that triggers memory . And we know you DO want your audience to remember you after you are done.

4. PLAN THE OPENING OF YOUR SPEECH

You will gain or lose your audience’s trust and attention from the very moment you start speaking (in fact, from the very moment you step on stage.)

The introduction to your speech has one goal: to persuade the audience to give you their most precious resources—their time and attention.

Your intro doesn’t need to solve world peace or sound like Shakespeare. It simply needs to convince your listeners that you’re someone worth listening to.

This makes it even more critical to ask the question, “How should I open my speech?”

Speech writing is an art and a science. Your intuition and creativity will give you some ideas on what may work. And through experimenting and testing, you can land on the ideal opening.

So experiment. See what works for your setting and message. Maybe it’s eliciting emotional reactions through music , or maybe a poem, or maybe a shocking statistic from your latest whitepaper. Try them all out on colleagues or friends to determine what’s most effective for you.

If you need help with some ideas, try the P.U.N.C.H. method:

You’ll know your audience is hooked when they’re ready for more. When they’ve decided your message makes it worth sticking around. Another clue is when they are not looking at their phones.

The key to a killer opening, then, is this: make it worthy of your audience so that they know it’s worth their time.

5. ORGANIZE THE BODY OF YOUR SPEECH

Build the main points of the speech around your one big idea. Make sure the central idea is stated in the introduction. Support it throughout the body, and finally, restate it at your closing.

Warning: If you’re giving a presentation with slides, DO NOT start the entire process on the presentation software. Many clients start making their presentations in Powerpoint immediately, which is the worst way to order your thoughts.

For any speech, start on paper, then move to the screen only once you’ve scribbled and edited and finalized the outline and structure of your speech.

Do you want to change hearts and minds through your presentations? If your answer is yes, then you also need to think specifically how you will engage, entice, and entertain your audience.

You don’t have to immediately enroll in public speaking training or become an Oscar-worthy actor or actress. But you do need to incorporate things like:

• Improvisations
• Or literally, any other engaging ideas you have that go beyond information delivery.

You need to actively keep your audience hooked and enjoying every minute of your speech.

6. EDIT YOUR SPEECH

Once you have the initial draft of your speech, it’s time to edit. This is where you cut down your content so it is clear, focused, and concise.

When editing, avoid falling in love with any portion of your speech. You may have beautiful paragraphs you labored over, slides you poured your heart and soul into, but you must be prepared to cut them out if needed.

Follow these steps to guide you in editing your speech:

• Make sure your paragraphs and sentences are all centered around your core message
• Avoid jargon or industry terminology that may lose your audience because they don’t relate to it
• Eliminate sentences if your point can be made without them
• Cut out any words that do not add clarity of meaning to the sentence
• Use short words that are easy to understand
• Avoid abrupt transitions by using appropriate transition words and phrases to make your speech flow
• Make your speech light and engaging by breaking up long stretches with levity
• Balance theory and logical arguments with stories and practical applications
• Use rhetorical questions, analogies, and metaphors
• Create vivid images and appeal to the senses
• Active = Take charge of your life to make an impact
• Passive = Taking charge of your life can make an impact
• Simplify your sentences and make paragraphs coherent
• Condense closely related material

It may be difficult to part with some of your content but remember that your speech is not for you. Ultimately, it needs to serve its purpose and serve your audience.

7. CONCLUDING YOUR SPEECH

A good closing moves your audience. This is your final opportunity to drive the purpose of your presentation home.

This is also where you nudge them to take whatever action you may have planned for them to take.

Did you start the talk with a story about the company’s founder? Reintroduce that person at the end in a new, slightly different way and in a way that mirrors the journey you’ve led the audience through in your talk.

Has there been a recurring joke throughout the presentation? Rather than overusing it, turn it on its head at the end—it’ll be unexpected, and it’ll make the audience rethink what’s come before.

Here are five tips to end your speech:

• Be Meticulous In Planning Your Closing Don’t be the athlete who starts celebrating before they’ve crossed the finish line. A stronger conclusion is vital to your speech’s success. This will be the last thing they will remember about you; make a lasting impression.
• Summarize And Restate The Purpose Of Your Speech Summarize the big important idea and key supporting points. You are building to a crescendo so help your audience see how everything ties together.
• Finish Your Story Or Bring It Back Whatever narrative you have woven throughout your speech, it’s important that you bring it to an end or tie it to your final points. This will help everything stay in your audience’s mind..
• Use A Call To Action If your speech had a purpose that included the audience taking a step towards something, make it clear. If you’ve engaged them throughout, they will be emotionally invested and ready to take action. This is the crucial point to give them directions on exactly what they can do after your speech.
• If You Can, Stay Afterward To Talk To The Audience When people hear a fantastic speech, they often want to meet the speaker immediately. They want to ask questions, share their compliments, and sometimes offer new business opportunities. It’s always worth your time to do this as it helps grow your network and elevate your reputation.

It helps to visualize your closing. Practice in your mind the entire closing part of the speech. This will help you find your comfort level with some of these five tips. Use what is appropriate for you.

Bonus Advice: How To Speak With Clarity And Confidence

Since you spent all that time preparing an incredible speech, it would be a shame if your public speaking skills weren’t up to par to bring it to life. We have a public speaking ultimate guide that goes into greater detail, but here are some quick tips to follow below.

We have all been there, sitting in the audience, and the speaker comes to the podium. In less than 60 seconds, we are mesmerized. The speaker seems larger than life, they fill the room with their persona.

The speaker is articulate and succinct, yet effective. No word is wasted. The message is crystal clear and connects with the audience. They are leaning forward, listening intently.

That is mastery of confidence and clarity. How do YOU get there? Here are five tips:

• Let Your Voice Dance! Use the full range of tone of your voice. The highs and lows can be very effective in emphasizing parts of your speech.
• Enunciate Your Words Properly Don’t mumble or run through your words at 100 miles an hour! Pace your speech, and pay particular attention to finishing your words. Pay particular attention to words that end in “T”, “K”, “P”, “D” to make sure you finish the word and not just slide right into the next.

You need to be very comfortable with pausing. It helps you by giving you a second or two to gather your thoughts for the next sentence. Pauses, when done correctly , also help your audience digest what you just said. “Drinking from a firehose” type delivery of speeches is not the most effective.

As we mentioned previously, your tone of voice accounts for 38% of the effectiveness of your speech; using the right breathing technique can help you nail that key element of your speech!

Prepare And Deliver With Confidence

Preparing a speech will give you the confidence you need to connect effectively with your audience and deliver your message with impact.

Whether you are someone who frequently speaks in front of audiences or someone doing it for the first time, you now have a roadmap to follow.

Now that you know how to prepare a killer speech, learn how to deliver it with expert style with our Speak with Moxie e-book. Get the full ebook full of expert techniques and advice immediately at your fingertips by filling out this form !

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How to Prepare For a Speech: 7 Practical Tips

• Nathan Mixon
• June 12, 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Glossophobia, other than being a very fun word to say, is an anxiety disorder that affects nearly a quarter of the world’s population. Glossophobia refers to the fear of public speaking . As much as 75% of the population feels some level of anxiety when faced with public speaking . Even those of us who have been speaking for decades still get nervous before getting onstage. But we also have learned the importance of preparing for a speech and how that preparation can turn anxiety into confidence.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the essential steps to prepare for a speech, ensuring you feel confident and ready to captivate your audience. From exercise and breathing techniques to diet, rest, and outfit choices to affirmations and mental preparation, there are many steps that go into preparing yourself to give a great talk. Let’s get into them!

Step 1: Exercise and Physical Preparation

Exercise and physical activity is a great way to reduce stress and improve performance, not only in speaking but in general. Keeping in good shape will help keep down anxiety in general, so try to get into a routine if you’re not already. Exercise releases endorphins and endorphins can help calm nerves. Let’s look at some examples of exercises you can do to help prepare yourself to deliver a speech.

Other than having a general exercise routine, there are a few exercises you can do just before a speech to reduce your feeling of nervousness. You could do some light cardio – maybe you’re speaking at a conference and the hotel you’re staying at has a gym with a treadmill. Take a walk, go for a run, swim laps, whatever feels right to you. Don’t overdo it though – you don’t want to be limping up the steps onto the stage!

If you don’t have the time, space, or desire to do cardio, then maybe some stretching or light yoga could do the trick. Both of these activities help to center the body physically and regulate your breathing. Breathing is a key point to focus on when preparing to go on stage. There are loads of great apps that have quick five- or ten-minute-long yoga routines and stretching circuits that you can try.

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Step 2: Breathing Techniques

Just like physical exercise, getting your breath right is a great way to get ready to deliver a talk. Using different breathing techniques can help give you a sense of calm and help you arrive and stay in the present moment. Deep breathing increases oxygen flow and can help steady your voice. It’s pretty hard to nail a speech when your voice is shaky and you’re out of breath.

There are several different helpful breathing exercises that you can utilize to prepare to deliver a speech. Diaphragmatic breathing is one example.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

The diaphragm is your most efficient muscle when it comes to breathing. When first learning diaphragmatic breathing, start by lying on your back with your knees bent and head supported, placing one hand on your chest and the other below your rib cage to feel your diaphragm move. Breathe in through your nose, letting your stomach rise while keeping your chest still, then tighten your stomach muscles to exhale through pursed lips. Once you have this down, you can try this exercise while sitting in a chair. Just make sure that your knees are bent and your upper body is relaxed, with the same hand placements and breathing pattern.

Box Breathing

Another exercise you can try is “box breathing.” Box breathing is a simple technique that anyone can learn to help re-center themselves and improve concentration in stressful situations, such as giving a speech. Follow these four steps: breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, slowly exhale for four seconds, and repeat until you feel re-centered. Just thirty seconds of deep breathing can make you feel more relaxed and in control before sharing a message.

4-7-8 Technique

Finally, a third breathing exercise that might be worth trying out is the 4-7-8 technique. To use the 4-7-8 technique, follow this breathing pattern: empty your lungs, breathe in quietly through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds. You can repeat the cycle up to 4 times. Now, there isn’t a ton of strong data to support the benefits of this technique but a 2020 review found some evidence suggesting that it may improve heart and lung function and reduce blood pressure.

Step 3: Diet and Hydration

You may not think your diet would have a significant impact on your speaking performance, but diet and hydration can actually strongly influence your energy levels and voice. Many speakers fail to pay attention to what they are putting into their bodies before a speech and it can show. To properly prepare you need to know how what you eat and drink impacts your energy and voice.

In his book, The Successful Speaker , Grant Baldwin stresses that you should avoid eating a heavy meal before talking. Eating a heavy meal, such as meat and pasta, can make you sluggish and devoid of energy. Try to eat light, balanced meals that will give you energy without weighing you down too much. Salmon, eggs, or different fruits and vegetables could do this for you. Some speakers even avoid eating at all on the day of a speech! Figure out what works for you.

It’s not only what you eat, but also what you drink. Stay hydrated! You don’t want to show up to a talk with a dry throat and lips. However, if you’re literally about to step on stage, don’t drink too much. Take a couple of sips of water to tide you over for your talk but don’t overdo it – you don’t want to have a serious urge to use the toilet once you’re up there. Often, you can carry a bottle or cup of water on stage with you if you feel it’s necessary.

Step 4: Rest and Relaxation

It goes without saying that you don’t want to step on stage coming off of a night with no sleep. Adequate sleep and relaxation techniques help improve focus and reduce anxiety. In his book, Grant Baldwin says, “Don’t stay up late the night before. This seems obvious, but it’s very important to get a good night’s sleep before you speak. Sleep works wonders and can be the difference between you being kind of slow and groggy during your talk and being ‘on.'”

But sometimes you can’t really help it if you’re feeling anxious about a big speech. It may be those very nerves that keep you from sleeping. So how do you address that?

Strategies for Better Rest

There are a few strategies you can implement to help ensure being well-rested before gigs. It is worth pointing out that pretty much all of these methods won’t work as one-off practices – they need to become habits. Establishing a regular bedtime routine is key. Don’t stay up light, as Grant says, and try to go to bed at a similar time every night. This helps your body get accustomed to a consistent sleep schedule and develop strong circadian rhythms.

A comfortable sleeping environment is also important. A darker room and cooler temperatures has been shown to support better sleep, as well as minimizing sound disturbances. It’s pretty well-known that using screens right before going to bed affects your sleep. Try setting limits on your phone usage or Netflix time. Give yourself at least an hour before bed without screens.

How to fill that terrible, screen-less void? Read a book. Journal. Read through your speech once. Listen to some calming music. Do a crossword. Stare at a wall. Do whatever. Just try not to scroll if you can avoid it.

Another good way to fill your final hour before sleep is through meditation. There are several different forms of sleep meditation that you can try: breathing exercises, visualizations, mindful body scanning, even counting sheep (or just counting in general). Try a few methods and see what works for you.

Step 5: Choosing the Right Outfit

Dress for success. How you dress can really affect your confidence and comfort. Try picking out your outfit the night before your speech (or when you’re packing if your gig requires travel). You don’t want to be putting on your outfit the morning of your talk and find that a button is missing from your shirt or that you packed two right shoes. Plan ahead.

Wearing something comfortable and appropriate for your speech can really boost your confidence and increase your relatability or credibility with your audience. Don’t wear something too flashy or distracting. You want your audience’s attention to be on your words, not your Hawaiian shirt.

Step 6: Mental Preparation and Visualization

So far we’ve touched on a lot of ways to physically prepare for a speech ahead of time – exercise, meditate, sleep well, dress well, eat the right stuff, etc. But another equally important, if not more important, facet to your preparation is being mentally prepared. When it comes to overcoming fear, reducing anxiety, and boosting your own confidence, mental preparation and visualizing your own success can be a remarkable method.

Mentally walk yourself through your speech. Maybe stand in front of a mirror and observe yourself giving your main points. Analyze your body language so you can see just what your audience will observe. Even without a mirror, just picture yourself giving a great speech with confidence and poise. Imagine your audience responding positively and recognizing your public speaking skills.

If you can tell yourself that you will have a lasting impression on your audience, your message will come across with more confidence.

Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations are another way to prepare your mind for a talk. Write some affirmations that remind yourself of your specific purpose and points and tell yourself that you’re going to do a great job. Remind yourself of your value – you were hired to give that presentation because you’ve got a big idea and your overall message is important.

Say something like this: “I am a magnet for positive energy when I speak. I am always focused and in control of my narrative. I am a voice of reason and wisdom. I am always prepared, rehearsed, and ready to deliver.” The first step is confidence and everything else will follow.

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Step 7: Final Day Preparations

All the tips above can be done in the days and weeks leading up to a gig. They are all habits that you can establish and have as a part of your routine and structure all the time. But how do you handle the final hours before delivering your presentation and sharing your main ideas and message?

Create a day-of-speech checklist. Here’s what we recommend, but feel free to adjust it to your needs and practice:

• Eat a healthy, light meal. We talked about this earlier. Eat something light that will give you the energy you need. Avoid pastas and heavy carbohydrates that will make you sluggish.
• Review your talk one more time. Practice your speech at about 50 percent energy one last time to boost your confidence and increase your comfort level. Why only 50 percent? You want to save your full energy for the stage and avoid exhausting yourself right before the performance. Now that you’ve seen the room, visualize the stage and setup. Think through your pauses, movements, and gestures to build muscle memory, so your delivery feels natural. If you’re driving, practice by speaking out loud to yourself on the way.
• Run a tech rehearsal (if time and venue allows). Some larger venues might schedule a sound check or tech run-through, but regardless, you should always check your sound before all of your speeches. Don’t take their word for it – check it yourself to be sure. It doesn’t matter how great your message is if your audience can’t hear your words and ideas.
• See how the stage is lit. During a mic check, the house lights will likely be up. However, if special stage lighting will be used, ask the tech crew to show you what it will be like. Getting a feel for the actual lighting is helpful to avoid being unexpectedly blinded, which can seem unprofessional to an audience. You want to know if you’ll be able to keep eye contact or not.
• Review slides if you’re using them. Slides can be a great way to organize and outline your speech and provide images and visual aids that give greater detail than just your words. But if you’re using slides and therefore a ‘clicker,’ you’d better check on that before speaking. Make sure your transitions and slides are well-timed.
• Walk the stage. Get a good feel for the size of the stage you’ll be sharing your ideas from. Maybe there will be cameras – know where they are and where you should stand and walk.
• Arrive early! No need to add unnecessary stress to your day by showing up last-minute, or worse, late. That won’t make for a good story to tell future event planners.
• Drink some water – but just a little bit of water. Will an audience remember if you have to take a bathroom break mid-speech. Uh, yeah, you bet they will. That would make for a good story, though.
• Check your teeth – and your fly. Does this really need an explanation? Just don’t embarrass yourself like that. A toothpick and a quick fly-check should solve this potential disaster.

Step 8: Backstage Preparations

You’re about to step on stage. The audience is waiting for you to deliver your speech and it’s main ideas. You have a key message and strong opening to deliver. What can you do in these last few moments to prepare for public speaking?

Basically, all of these habits that we’ve discussed and that you have hopefully taken up in your daily routine are also great immediate pre-speech techniques. Breathing exercises to center yourself; power poses and affirmations to boost confidence and remind yourself of your capabilities and past successes; a quick mental rehearsal and visualization; and some light stretches or some quick pacing to release tension.

All of these practices will help you engage your audience, tell your stories, and deliver your big ideas effectively. Now it’s your time to actually get on stage and make your points to your audience.

Preparing for a speech goes beyond mastering your content – it combines physical and mental preparation to ensure you’re at your best when you take the stage.

By incorporating strategies such as diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing, and the 4-7-8 technique, you can manage anxiety and stay calm. Paying attention to your diet, getting adequate rest, and choosing a confident outfit can further enhance your readiness. Taking time to practice your speech with a focus on energy conservation and familiarizing yourself with the stage setup and lighting will boost your confidence and make your delivery smooth.

What works for some people may not work for you. Use the methods we’ve gone over and create some of your own. Remember, thorough preparation is key to delivering a compelling and memorable speech.

• Last Updated: June 4, 2024

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Presentation Guru

The 4 most important steps when preparing your speech.

Preparation is the key to a good speech or presentation

The best speeches and presentations – the ones that are delivered effortlessly; the ones that we remember; the ones that make an impact  – are usually the result of thorough and careful preparation.

An iceberg is an excellent metaphor for a good speech or presentation. Most of an iceberg lies under water. Thus, we have the expression, “the tip of the iceberg”. The speech or presentation is like the tip of an iceberg because that is what the audience sees. What the audience doesn’t see – the preparation – is like part of the iceberg beneath the water.

In an ideal world, we would have days or even weeks to focus on an important speech or presentation. But we live in the real world. Time is often short and we have many obligations. Nevertheless, you owe it to your audience to give a speech or presentation that is worthy of their time.

With that in mind, I would like to share with you a simple, but powerful, four-step exercise that I do every time I have a speech or presentation. The exercise usually takes between 25 and 45 minutes. It is time well spent because, at the end of it, you should be much clearer about the things that you will cover in your talk.

Before you begin

Before you begin the exercise, you have to do something that might seem counterintuitive: turn off the computer. Yes, you read that correctly.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not a Luddite. I love technology. I have a Smartphone, tablet and laptop. I have helped develop an app and use a Fitbit. I am active on social media and fairly up to date with the latest trends in the tech world. But the computer is a tool, and like any tool, it has to be used for the right job at the right time in the right way.

Too many people make the mistake of firing up PowerPoint or Keynote or Prezi and adding slide after slide full of details. You have to resist that temptation and take a step backwards to get some perspective on your speech or presentation.

Alan Kay, the renowned American computer scientist said it well:

If you have the ideas, you can do a lot without machinery. Once you have those ideas, the machinery starts working for you. … Most ideas you can do pretty darn well with a stick in the sand.

This exercise is all about getting the ideas right . So put away the computer and get some good old-fashioned paper and a pencil or pen.

Step 1 – Have “eagle vision”

An eagle’s eye is a marvel of nature, up to eight times more powerful than a human eye. As it flies, an eagle can survey a large amount of territory. It can spot a rabbit or fish at a distance of up to three kilometres and when it does, it can keep that prey in perfect focus as it swoops in to catch it.

As a speaker, you can do the same thing – metaphorically – as you prepare for your talk.

There are three cornerstones to any speech or presentation: the speaker; the subject; and the audience. On a sheet of paper, make a large triangle (Δ). At the top, write your name; at the bottom left, the name of the audience; and at the bottom right, the subject of your speech or presentation.

Now, think about the relationships between the three cornerstones and write a few notes along the sides of the triangle about each. For example:

Speaker – Subject : What do you know about the subject? Why are you speaking about it? What expertise do you have? What insights can you share with the audience? Etc.

Audience – Subject : What does the audience know about the subject? Do they like the subject? Are they afraid of it? Are they bored by it? How is the subject relevant for the audience? Etc.

Speaker – Audience : What do you know about the audience? What do they know about you? Do you have authority over them? Do they have authority over you? Etc.

Once you have made your notes, you need to need to think about the speaking situation and how it might affect your analysis above. Just as the weather can change from day to day, so too the speaking situation can change for a speaker or an audience.

For example, imagine a CEO who has to give a speech at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. In Year 1, the company has had a great year. Profits are up, the company is gaining market share and the stock price has doubled. In Year 2, the company has had a terrible year. The new product was a disaster, the company has lost market share and the stock prices has tumbled. Same speaker, same audience, same subject. Very different situations.

Here are some questions to ask when thinking about the speaking situation:

Are these good times? Tough times? How does the situation affect the subject of the presentation, if at all? Will the situation affect your delivery? What will happen – for you and the audience – if the presentation goes well? What will happen if it goes poorly? Etc.

As you think about these questions, review the notes that you made and add or amend them as necessary.

The purpose of this first step is to get as clear a picture as possible of the key components of your talk. Like an eagle, you want a broad vision of the landscape before narrowing your focus on your target.

Step 2 – Define your objective

At the end of your speech or presentation, the audience should be changed in some way. What is your objective for the talk? What do you want the audience to do when your talk is over?

Some possible objectives for a business presentation: (a) you want people to invest in a project; (b) you want people to take some action; (c) you want people to be aware of certain information; (d) you want to bring about a change in the company.

Sometimes speakers just want the audience to know something and that is fine. But the most powerful speeches and presentations are the ones that move people to action. If you can get your audience to take some concrete action, you will have made an impact.

When thinking about what you want the audience to do, be specific. Write out the objective as follows: “At the end of the presentation, I want the audience to                                    .”

There are countless objectives that a speech or presentation might have. Give it some thought. Just remember that the objective should be clear and realistic. Audiences need to know what, precisely, they have to do, and they have to be able to do it.

Step 3­ – What is your key message?

A speech or presentation should be built around a key message. It is fine to have more than one key message, but I would only have two or three at most. The more messages you have, the more complicated your talk will be; the more complicated the talk, the less likely it is that people will remember it .

Too often, a presentation rambles along, leaving the audience confused as to what the point was. Very often, this is because the speaker has not thought clearly about the message and so did not construct a coherent talk.

Think about what you want the audience to remember even if they forget everything else that you have said. Then, write your entire presentation in one or two complete sentences. Not bullet points! The purpose of this step is to help you get to the heart of what you want to say.

When you can condense your speech or presentation into a single sentence or two, the message is clear in your mind. Then, when it comes to building your talk, as you think about adding a slide, a statistic, a story, a chart, a graph, etc., ask yourself whether it supports the key message. If it does, it can stay. If it doesn’t, you might want to save it for another talk.

Step 4­ – Why should the audience care?

A speech or presentation is never about the speaker or her product or service or company. It is always about the audience . When speakers put the audience first, that’s when great things can happen with a speech or presentation.

The final step of the exercise is to be clear about why your audience should care about your key message? Why is it important for them? List the reasons. If you can’t think of any, you have a problem. Either you are giving the wrong talk to this audience or you are speaking to the wrong audience. But if you know the reasons why the audience should care, you have the basis for a meaningful speech or presentation.

In this regard, it’s worth remembering the humorous, but insightful, comment of the late Ken Haemer, former Manager of Presentation Research at AT&T:

Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: “To Whom It May Concern.”

Even if you do not have a lot of time to prepare a speech or presentation, the foregoing exercise will help you clarify your ideas about your talk. Ultimately, this will save you time as you design it and will help you deliver a message that is clear, memorable and relevant for your audience.

If you liked this, you might also like:

5 Easy Ways to Prepare Your Next Presentation

The 8-Step Guide to Approaching Presentations with a Journalistic Mindset

When it Comes to Presentations – Less is More

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Ariel Green

15th May 2018 at 2:34 pm

16th May 2018 at 9:06 am

HI Ariel. Thanks for the comment. Glad you found the post useful.

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How to prepare and deliver an effective oral presentation

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• Peer review
• Lucia Hartigan , registrar 1 ,
• Fionnuala Mone , fellow in maternal fetal medicine 1 ,
• Mary Higgins , consultant obstetrician 2
• 1 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
• 2 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin; Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine and Medical Sciences, University College Dublin
• luciahartigan{at}hotmail.com

The success of an oral presentation lies in the speaker’s ability to transmit information to the audience. Lucia Hartigan and colleagues describe what they have learnt about delivering an effective scientific oral presentation from their own experiences, and their mistakes

The objective of an oral presentation is to portray large amounts of often complex information in a clear, bite sized fashion. Although some of the success lies in the content, the rest lies in the speaker’s skills in transmitting the information to the audience. 1

Preparation

It is important to be as well prepared as possible. Look at the venue in person, and find out the time allowed for your presentation and for questions, and the size of the audience and their backgrounds, which will allow the presentation to be pitched at the appropriate level.

See what the ambience and temperature are like and check that the format of your presentation is compatible with the available computer. This is particularly important when embedding videos. Before you begin, look at the video on stand-by and make sure the lights are dimmed and the speakers are functioning.

For visual aids, Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Mac Keynote programmes are usual, although Prezi is increasing in popularity. Save the presentation on a USB stick, with email or cloud storage backup to avoid last minute disasters.

When preparing the presentation, start with an opening slide containing the title of the study, your name, and the date. Begin by addressing and thanking the audience and the organisation that has invited you to speak. Typically, the format includes background, study aims, methodology, results, strengths and weaknesses of the study, and conclusions.

If the study takes a lecturing format, consider including “any questions?” on a slide before you conclude, which will allow the audience to remember the take home messages. Ideally, the audience should remember three of the main points from the presentation. 2

Have a maximum of four short points per slide. If you can display something as a diagram, video, or a graph, use this instead of text and talk around it.

Animation is available in both Microsoft PowerPoint and the Apple Mac Keynote programme, and its use in presentations has been demonstrated to assist in the retention and recall of facts. 3 Do not overuse it, though, as it could make you appear unprofessional. If you show a video or diagram don’t just sit back—use a laser pointer to explain what is happening.

Rehearse your presentation in front of at least one person. Request feedback and amend accordingly. If possible, practise in the venue itself so things will not be unfamiliar on the day. If you appear comfortable, the audience will feel comfortable. Ask colleagues and seniors what questions they would ask and prepare responses to these questions.

It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don’t have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.

Try to present slides at the rate of around one slide a minute. If you talk too much, you will lose your audience’s attention. The slides or videos should be an adjunct to your presentation, so do not hide behind them, and be proud of the work you are presenting. You should avoid reading the wording on the slides, but instead talk around the content on them.

Maintain eye contact with the audience and remember to smile and pause after each comment, giving your nerves time to settle. Speak slowly and concisely, highlighting key points.

Do not assume that the audience is completely familiar with the topic you are passionate about, but don’t patronise them either. Use every presentation as an opportunity to teach, even your seniors. The information you are presenting may be new to them, but it is always important to know your audience’s background. You can then ensure you do not patronise world experts.

To maintain the audience’s attention, vary the tone and inflection of your voice. If appropriate, use humour, though you should run any comments or jokes past others beforehand and make sure they are culturally appropriate. Check every now and again that the audience is following and offer them the opportunity to ask questions.

Finishing up is the most important part, as this is when you send your take home message with the audience. Slow down, even though time is important at this stage. Conclude with the three key points from the study and leave the slide up for a further few seconds. Do not ramble on. Give the audience a chance to digest the presentation. Conclude by acknowledging those who assisted you in the study, and thank the audience and organisation. If you are presenting in North America, it is usual practice to conclude with an image of the team. If you wish to show references, insert a text box on the appropriate slide with the primary author, year, and paper, although this is not always required.

Answering questions can often feel like the most daunting part, but don’t look upon this as negative. Assume that the audience has listened and is interested in your research. Listen carefully, and if you are unsure about what someone is saying, ask for the question to be rephrased. Thank the audience member for asking the question and keep responses brief and concise. If you are unsure of the answer you can say that the questioner has raised an interesting point that you will have to investigate further. Have someone in the audience who will write down the questions for you, and remember that this is effectively free peer review.

Be proud of your achievements and try to do justice to the work that you and the rest of your group have done. You deserve to be up on that stage, so show off what you have achieved.

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: None.

• ↵ Rovira A, Auger C, Naidich TP. How to prepare an oral presentation and a conference. Radiologica 2013 ; 55 (suppl 1): 2 -7S. OpenUrl
• ↵ Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLos Comput Biol 2007 ; 3 : e77 . OpenUrl PubMed
• ↵ Naqvi SH, Mobasher F, Afzal MA, Umair M, Kohli AN, Bukhari MH. Effectiveness of teaching methods in a medical institute: perceptions of medical students to teaching aids. J Pak Med Assoc 2013 ; 63 : 859 -64. OpenUrl

• Testimonials

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.

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.

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. 

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Speech Writing

Presentation Speech

Writing A Presentation Speech In English: Tips And Examples

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Presentations are a common part of our personal and professional lives. Whether you're a student, an employee, or an entrepreneur, learning the art of presentations is a valuable skill.

A well-crafted presentation speech can inspire, inform, and engage your audience, leaving a lasting impact. 

So how can you craft an engaging presentation speech?

In this guide, we will walk you through the process of creating and delivering a compelling presentation, step by step. From writing your speech to mastering public speaking techniques, we've got you covered.

So, let's dive in! 

• 1. What is a Presentation Speech?
• 2. How to Write a Presentation Speech?
• 3. Ways to Start a Presentation Speech
• 4. How to End a Presentation Speech? 
• 5. Presentation Speech Examples 
• 6. Tips for Making Your Presentations More Engaging
• 7. Presentation Speech Topics

What is a Presentation Speech?

A presentation speech is a type of public speaking where the speaker formally delivers information, ideas, or proposals to an audience. This type of speech is typically structured to introduce a topic, convey key points clearly, and engage listeners effectively. 

The goal of a presentation speech is to inform, persuade, or entertain the audience. They often use visual aids, storytelling, and other techniques to improve understanding and retention.

Main Components of a Presentation Speech

The key elements that set a presentation speech apart are its intentionality and structure. Here's a breakdown of these crucial aspects: 

• Purpose 

Every presentation speech has a clear purpose, which could be:

• To persuade
• To entertain
• To inspire and motivate 

Understanding your purpose is the foundation upon which you build your speech.

A presentation speech typically follows the basic speech format that includes an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction lays out the context, the body conveys the main content, and the conclusion reinforces the key points. 

Effective presentation speeches are tailored to the needs and expectations of the audience. Knowing your audience helps you choose the right tone, style, and content.

• Visual Aids

Presentation speeches often make use of visual aids like slides, props, or multimedia elements to enhance the message and keep the audience engaged.

How to Write a Presentation Speech?

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you effectively write a presentation speech.

Step 1: Determine the Audience

The first step in crafting a presentation speech is to understand your audience. Consider their background, knowledge, interests, and expectations. Are they experts in the subject, or are they new to it? This information will shape the tone and depth of your speech.

Step 2: Choose a Topic

Select a topic that aligns with both your expertise and the interests of your audience. Your topic should be engaging and relevant. It could be a current issue, a problem-solving solution, or a subject of general interest. Make sure your passion for the topic shines through.

Step 3: Research and Gather Information

To build a strong speech, gather credible information from a variety of sources. Use books, articles, online resources, and expert interviews. Keep track of your sources and make note of key statistics, quotes, and examples that support your message.

Step 4: Make an Outline

Creating a structured outline for your presentation speech is essential for keeping your message organized and ensuring that your audience can follow your points easily. 

Here's how to construct a well-organized presentation speech outline:

Step 5: Review and Revise

After you've written your speech, review it for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Here are the steps you should take for reviewing your speech:

• Make sure that each point supports your main message and is easy to understand. 
• Check for grammar and spelling errors.
• Practice your speech in front of a mirror or with a friend. Pay attention to your delivery, pacing, and timing. Make necessary revisions based on your practice sessions.

Remember that a well-written presentation speech not only conveys your knowledge but also connects with your audience on a personal level. Your goal is to inform, persuade, or inspire, and the steps outlined here will help you achieve just that.

Ways to Start a Presentation Speech

Now that you’ve written your presentation and its content, the time has come to deliver your speech. If you're thinking how to start a presentation speech that grabs your audience's attention right from the beginning we have that covered for you. 

Here are some simple yet powerful ways to hook your readers from the beginning:

• Ask a Thought-Provoking Question: Start with a question that makes your audience think about the topic you're going to discuss. 

For example, "Have you ever wondered how technology will shape our future?"

• Tell a Story or Anecdote: Share a brief story or personal anecdote related to your topic. Stories capture attention and make your speech more relatable. 

For instance, "When I was a child, I once..."

• Use a Surprising Fact or Statistic: Begin with an interesting fact or statistic that will surprise your audience. 

For example, "Did you know that over 90% of people use their smartphones within 10 minutes of wa king up?"

• Start with a Relevant Quote: Begin with a quote from a notable person that relates to your topic. Quotes can inspire and set the tone for your speech. 

For instance, "Steve Jobs once said, 'Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.'"

• Pose a Problem and Offer a Solution: Introduce a problem your audience can relate to, and then hint at the solution you'll discuss. 

For example, "Many of us struggle with time management. Today, I'll share some effective strategies to help you maximize your productivity."

How to End a Presentation Speech? 

Ending your presentation speech effectively is just as important as starting strong. Here’s how to wrap up with impact:

• Summarize Key Points: Recap the main ideas you've discussed. Remind your audience of the key takeaways to reinforce your message.
• End with a Memorable Statement: Leave a lasting impression by concluding with a powerful statement, a thought-provoking question, or a call to action related to your topic.
• Thank Your Audience: Express gratitude for their time and attention. A simple "Thank you for listening" goes a long way in showing appreciation.
• Invite Questions (if applicable): If there’s time for questions, invite the audience to ask any they may have. This encourages engagement and shows you value their input.
• Leave Them Thinking: End with something that makes your audience reflect on what they've learned or consider how they might apply your ideas in their own lives or work.

Presentation Speech Examples 

Taking help from good and structured presentation speeches will allow you to write and deliver the address smoothly. Here are some presentation speech samples for students that can help you write a well-structured presentation. 

Award Presentation Speech Example

Product Presentation Speech Example

Thesis Presentation Speech Example

Presentation Speech Script Sample

Presentation Speech Template

Famous Presentation Speeches 

Here are five examples of famous presentation speeches that have made a significant impact:

• Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth (2006) : Al Gore's presentation used slides and visuals to raise awareness about climate change, documented in the film "An Inconvenient Truth."
• Susan Cain - The Power of Introverts (2012) : Susan Cain's TED Talk celebrated introverted personalities and their strengths in a society that often values extroversion.
• Bill Gates - Innovating to Zero! (2010) : Bill Gates' TED Talk emphasized the urgency of reducing carbon emissions to zero to address climate change, proposing innovative solutions.
• Sheryl Sandberg - Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders (2010) : Sheryl Sandberg's TED Talk highlighted barriers women face in leadership roles and urged women to pursue their ambitions.
• Tony Robbins - Why We Do What We Do (TED Talk, 2006)? : Tony Robbins' TED Talk explored the psychology of motivation and behavior, offering insights into personal and professional development.

Tips for Making Your Presentations More Engaging

Here are some additional tips for giving better presentations:

• Use expressive body language: Gestures and movement can help highlight important points and keep your audience engaged. It shows your enthusiasm and makes your presentation more dynamic.
• Adjust your voice tone and pace: Varying your voice tone and speaking pace adds emphasis and maintains listener interest. It's like adding melody to your speech to keep things lively and engaging.
• Manage nervousness with relaxation techniques: Before your presentation, try deep breathing or visualization exercises to calm your nerves. Feeling relaxed helps you speak confidently and connect better with your audience.
• Add humor or anecdotes: A well-placed joke or personal story can lighten the mood and make your presentation memorable. It also helps to connect with your audience on a more personal level.
• Use visuals wisely: Visual aids like slides or charts should complement your speech, not replace them. Use them to illustrate key points visually and help reinforce understanding.
• Maintain eye contact: Look at your audience while speaking. It builds trust and keeps them engaged. It shows you're speaking directly to them, not just reading off slides.
• Speak naturally, avoid reading: Practice your presentation enough that you can speak comfortably without reading word-for-word from slides or notes. Natural speech is more engaging and shows your expertise.
• Stay focused and present: Practice mindfulness techniques to stay grounded and focused during your presentation. Being present helps you react to audience cues and adjust your delivery accordingly.

Presentation Speech Topics

Now that you know how to write and deliver an engaging presentation, you may be wondering about a topic to speak on. You need a strong and interesting topic to make your presentation speech impactful. 

Here are some presentation speech ideas to help you out:

• The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Job Market
• Climate Change and Sustainable Practices
• The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
• The Art of Time Management
• The Future of Renewable Energy
• The Psychology of Decision-Making
• Mental Health Awareness and Reducing Stigma:
• Innovations in Space Exploration
• The Art of Negotiation
• The Role of Music in Society

Need more ideas for your presentation speech? Our informative speech topics blog lists 100+ topics that are sure to inspire your next presentation.

To Conclude, remember, creating a successful presentation speech comes down to careful planning, delivering with enthusiasm, and understanding your audience. Outline your main points clearly, use visuals that grab attention, and practice confident body language to keep everyone engaged.

Need further help in making your presentation speech? No worries! 

MyPerfectWords.com is a professional speech writing service that provides versatile academic help. Whether you have a speech or a research paper to write, come to us. We have a team of experts to help you with all your writing needs. 

Place an order now to buy custom essay online at affordable rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to start a presentation speech in class.

To start a presentation speech in class, begin with a captivating opening like a question, story, or surprising fact related to your topic. This grabs your classmates' attention and sets the tone for your presentation.

How to introduce yourself in a presentation as a student?

Introduce yourself briefly by stating your name, grade, or class, and any relevant information about your background or interests related to the presentation topic. Keep it concise and focus on how your experience or perspective adds value to your presentation.

What are some effective presentation starting words?

Here are some good presentation starting words:

• "Have you ever wondered..."
• "Imagine a world where..."
• "Today, I'm going to talk about..."
• "Let's dive into..."
• "I'd like to begin by..."

How to speak during a presentation?

Speaking during a presentation involves several key techniques:

• Speak clearly and at a moderate pace to ensure your audience can follow.
• Use varied tones to emphasize important points and maintain interest.
• Practice pauses to allow your audience time to digest information.
• Maintain eye contact to build rapport and keep listeners engaged.
• Use gestures and body language to enhance your message and express enthusiasm.

What are some 'How to' speech presentation topics?

'How to' speech presentation topics can include practical skills or processes that are informative and engaging:

• How to effectively manage your time in college
• How to improve your study habits
• How to improve your public speaking skills as a student
• How to conduct meetings in the workplace
• How to develop strong leadership skills
• How to create an effective business plan
• How to create a budget and stick to it
• How to improve customer service skills in your role
• How to build a basic website
• How to negotiate a salary or contract effectively

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Preparing great speeches: a 10-step approach.

Laura A. Sullivan is head of public services at Northern Kentucky University, and a former part-time instructor of public speaking; e-mail: [email protected]

Communication skills are a standard re- quirement in library job announcements; speaking skills, however, can be more difficult to acquire and discern. Librarians are faced with a variety of speaking situations daily; we assist users at service desks, discuss problems with colleagues at meetings, present facts to library boards, and express opinions on committees, to name a few. Effective speaking skills are essential in these instances, but when faced with the formal speech or paper presentation many librarians, lacking public speaking expe- rience, are justifiably apprehensive at the prospect.

In working on my own public communication skills, I have relied on my past education, teaching experience, advice from various colleagues, and trial and error. For those testing the water for the first time, the following ten steps are suggested as an easy and organized way to prepare a speech or paper.

1. Know your audience

2. Know the occasion

3. Select a topic

4. Select a purpose

5. Gather potential content

6. Gather more content than actually used

7. Organize content

8. Phrase the speech

9. Prepare visual aids

10. Practice, practice, practice 1

The ten steps are from Steven Brooks, a former Communications Department faculty member at Northern Kentucky University. I have further developed these steps and hope the information you find here will be helpful to you as you prepare a speech or paper.

1. Know your audience. Whether you are presenting a paper or giving a speech, you need to analyze your audience first and foremost. It is easy to alienate an audience by not examining the characteristics of the group, what they know and what they want to know. Be aware of the audience’s attitudes and beliefs in general, toward you and the topic. Consider age, socioeconomic status, and educational level. For example, if you are addressing a veteran group of administrators on a management topic, covering the basics of management would undoubtedly be boring and possibly insulting. There are numerous other factors crucial to analyzing an audience, but the time spent on this background check is necessary for the success of your presentation.

2. Know the occasion. As you scrutinize the audience, think carefully about the occasion. Are you a keynote speaker? Presenting a paper? Introducing a speaker or chairing a panel? Each situation is different and requires preparation tailored to the occasion. Occasion analysis includes looking at room size (i.e., whether there are enough chairs for everyone affects the comfort level of the group which in turn affects its response to your message), the arrangement of space (can everyone see you?), and the acoustics (there’s nothing more exasperating than having to strain to hear a speaker). Be conscientious about time limits too—if you are allotted 15 minutes, then prepare your speech or presentation accordingly. Also, make sure your message matches the occasion. It would be inappropriate, for example, to speak about a serious topic at a happy event.

Madame Curie On The Cost Of Science.

She discovered radium. She coined the word “radioactive” and was the first to suspect it emanated from “atomic energy.” Twice winner of the Nobel Prize, her discoveries led to the development of radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer. Yet in spite of her wide acclaim, Madame Curie often had to beg from the wealthy to fund her research. She understood the painful cost of science.

So do we. Since 1876, when the American Chemical Society first began to publish scientific journals, we have consistendy offered them at affordable subscription rates. ACS journals cost, on average, about 50%* of the price charged for competitive publications in our discipline. And we are committed to continuing this tradition, without compromising the quality of science we publish.

Today, the chemical sciences are advancing at a staggering rate. And we’ve increased our page budgets and our publication frequencies to keep pace with the increased flow of critical research. Yet the price of our journals remains comparatively low, especially when you consider the quantity, timeliness and exceptional value of the information. Write or fax ACS Publications and we’ll send you the most recent cost analyses for our publications. Please include your suggestions about how we can serve you better.

We’re working hard to provide tomorrows landmark scientists with the means to afford today’s research.

* According to a report in the April 15, 1994 issue of Library Journal, the chemical sciences had an average price per journal of $1,106.

3. Select a topic. Selecting a topic can some- times occur first, stemming from the audience and occasion, as in the case of a paper being accepted for a conference. If you need to pick a topic, however, be sure it is one that is inter- esting to you. It is also a good idea to be a little more knowledgeable about the subject than your audience, but interest is crucial. If you do not have enthusiasm for the subject matter, neither will your audience.

4. Select a purpose. For this step, deter- mine the general purpose of your speech or presentation. Are you informing, presenting, or entertaining? Beyond the general purpose, decide on a specific purpose, what you want your audience to spe- cifically think or do (e.g., I want my audience to under- stand the three benefits of holding a faculty workshop on preparing library assign- ments). It is helpful at this stage to write down the central idea or thesis statement of your talk as well (e.g., library censorship is increasing).

5. Gather potential content. If you are presenting a paper, you have already done this step. If not, this is the research phase where you gather information through printed sources, interviews, discussion with others, and your own expertise.

6. Gather more content than actually used. Sort through your material choosing only the strongest and best material for your talk. This step allows you the luxury of editing and, if need be, recognizing any information gaps that need to be filled.

7. Organize content. The importance of this step cannot be stressed enough, for both speeches and paper presentations. Many presenters do not realize that presenting a paper does not mean the paper is read, word for word, at breakneck speed. Rather, the “information has to be recast for the new medium. Don’t be bound by the flow of your paper.” 2 This means organize your ideas based on the audience, occasion, and purpose of your presentation.

Follow the standard organizational format of introduction, body, and conclusion, which translates into the standard public speaking formula:

• Tell them what you’re going to tell them;

• Tell them;

• Tell them what you’ve told them. 3

Outline the body of your talk first, limiting it to three or four main points with sufficient supporting material to back up those points. Too much information can lose an audience; well-organized key points help an audience re- member them and allow for easy note-taking. Also, if presenting a paper, your goal is to whet the appetite of the audience with key ideas so they will want to get a copy of the full paper to read at a later time. 4

After you have outlined the body of your speech or paper, prepare the introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should start out with an attention- getter which can be an anec- dote, a quotation, a question, a joke, or whatever is appro- priate for the topic and audi- ence.

The introduction is also your opportunity to build rapport between you and the audience; tell them why your speech or paper is relevant to them and that you are glad to be speaking to them. A colleague related to me an opening remark by a speaker which did not serve to build rapport between her and the audience, even though she probably intended it to. The speaker said, in essence, “I’ve been to a hun- dred of these and, to tell you the truth, I really don’t want to be here; my feet hurt; and I don’t know what I’m going to say, but we’ll get through this together.” Please, treat your audi- ence as if they are guests in your home.

Once you’ve told your audience why they should want to listen to you, lead into your talk by briefly previewing the major points to be covered in your speech (tell them what you’re going to tell them).

The conclusion should include the summary of the main points (tell them what you’ve told them) and a final statement that leaves the audience with something to think about or remember (this will depend on the purpose of your speech).

For your talk, I suggest you write the main ideas of your introduction, body, and conclusion on 3 x 5 note cards that are numbered (in case you drop them). Many speakers write delivery cues on the cards, i.e., “slow down,” “emphasize this word,” “look at audience.” You can also indicate transitions on the cards so you will move smoothly from idea to idea. Overall, be sure your note cards are just that—easy- to-read notes on easy-to-handle cards—and not the speech written in full.

8. Phrase the speech. The previous steps involved preparing the message; now you are ready to work on delivering the message. Usually, a type of delivery most appropriate is the extemporaneous delivery. With extemporaneous speaking, you are thoroughly prepared and practiced, but the exact wording of the speech is determined at the time you actually speak the words. You want to avoid memorizing your talk; instead, know your key ideas and translate them into words as you speak. This means you have to think about what you are saying as you are speaking. Each time you practice, you may say your speech a little bit differently, but this allows flexibility and the chance to adapt to your audience if needed. Speaking extemporaneously can be difficult to achieve at first, but this style of delivery creates spontaneity, which can affect the receptivity of your audience to you and your ideas.

9. Prepare visual aids. Visual aids, if appropriate for your speech or presentation, can help your audience remember your points and clarify information. Speech textbooks usually emphasize the following when covering visual aids: make sure the audience can see the visual aid; show the visual aid only when you are referring to it; and talk to the audience, not to the visual aid. Also, practice with the visual aid; using visual aids can add to the length of a talk and can cause you to become flustered if you run into difficulties. Additionally, if you have audience handouts, distribute them at the end of your talk if possible. An audience’s attention can shift easily to a handout instead of staying focused on you.

10. Practice, practice, practice. Practicing your presentation or speech contributes directly to your success as a speaker. As you practice, consider both your verbal and nonverbal delivery. Vocal delivery includes volume, rate, pitch. Strive for vocal variety which is the variation of these elements—loudness/softness (volume), fastness/slowness (rate), highness/lowness (pitch). An expressive voice will engage an audience; a monotonous, flat voice will lose one. Also, remember that nonverbal delivery carries as much weight as verbal. Eye contact with your audience is crucial, and this means actually looking at audience members. Hamilton Gregory says to look at the audience 95 percent of the time in a friendly, sincere way, using the other five percent of the time to look at your notes. 5 As for posture, don’t slouch, and avoid shifting your weight from foot to foot.

Also, movement is fine, but only if it is controlled—your audience does not want to feel it is at a tennis match. Gesturing can be an effective element to your talk, but only if it’s controlled as well. Many speakers indicate on note cards when to gesture or move in order to reinforce a point.

There are certainly other elements of verbal and nonverbal delivery to investigate when practicing your speech or paper. Your goal is to sound spontaneous and feel comfortable, so time spent practicing is necessary. It is a good idea to practice in a situation as close to the real one as possible, and in front of friends or with a tape recorder.

Even if you follow these ten steps, you probably will experience some nervousness before or during your talk. This “energy” is an asset and evidence that you care about the quality of your presentation. However, if you have prepared well and practiced enough, you will lessen your apprehension considerably. Also, think positively as you prepare, rehearse, and actually deliver your message. Positive thoughts can make a difference in the quality of your speech or presentation.

If you keep these ideas in mind and follow the ten steps, you can have a successful (and relatively painless!) speaking experience.

• “Ten Steps” in preparing a speech was part of a lecture by Dr. Steven Brooks in his class, “Teaching of Oral Communication,” 1986.
• Donata Renfrow and James C. Impara, “Making Academic Presentations—Effectively!” Educational Researcher 18 (March 1989): 20-21.
• Clare Martin, “A Woman’s Place Is on the Platform,” Assistant Librarian 80 (July 1987): 100-101.
• Renfrow and Impara, “Making Academic Presentations,” 21.
• Hamilton Gregory, Public Speaking for College and Career ( New York: Random House, 1987), p. 285.

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Speech Preparation #1: How to Prepare a Presentation

Speech preparation is the most important element to a successful presentation , and also the best way to reduce nervousness and combat fear .

The Speech Preparation Series is a series of articles examining each of the six steps which are necessary to properly prepare for a speech.

These steps are briefly introduced here, and investigated in more depth in later articles:

• How to Prepare Your Presentation
• Select Your Speech Topic
• Plan Your Speech Outline
• Writing Your First Draft
• Editing Your Speech
• Add Speech Impact with Rhetorical Devices
• Staging, Gestures, and Vocal Variety
• Practicing Your Presentation
• Self-Critique: Preparation for Next Time
• Winning a Toastmasters Speech Contest

1. Select a speech topic

This may seem like an easy task, but there are infinite public speaking topics. How do you choose the right one? How do you select a topic which is a perfect fit between you and your audience?

Your topic leads to your core message — the entire presentation aims to deliver this core message to your audience.

The second article in this series focuses on selecting a speech topic .

2. Create a speech outline

Your speech needs structure. Without structure, your audience will either wonder what your core message is or they will lose interest in you entirely. Sadly, this step is often skipped to “save time.” A planned outline is vital .

The third article in this series shows how to craft a speech outline and provides several examples .

3. Write the speech

Speech writing is an iterative process which begins with your first draft. Writer’s block can handicap speakers at this stage. The fourth article in the series discusses how you can avoid that trap to write your first speech draft .

Once the first draft is created, speech writing involves iteratively massaging your speech into its most effective form. Keeping your ego in check, you are wise to edit mercilessly . The fifth article in the series shows you how to edit your speech for focus, clarity, concision, continuity, variety, and impact .

Remember that speeches should be written for the ear ; adopting figures of speech will keep your speech from sounding like an essay or legal document. The sixth article in the series shows you how to add impact and beauty to your speech with rhetorical devices .

4. Apply gestures, staging, and vocal variety

At this stage, the words are ready, but that’s all you have — words. A presentation is not read by the audience ; it is listened to and watched.

The seventh article in the series explains how to choreograph your speech with vocal variety, gestures (micro movements), and staging (macro movements) . These elements should seamlessly complement your words and punctuate key phrases .

5. Practice and solicit feedback

Great speakers seem natural when they speak, almost as though they are speaking the words for the first time. Nothing could be more wrong. Rehearsing your speech makes you a master of the content. Soliciting feedback and acting on it gives you confidence that your presentation will be a success. The eighth article in the series explains how to achieve maximum benefits from your rehearsal time .

6. Self-Critique: Prepare for the next speech

Although listed as the final step in the process, it’s really the first step in preparing for your next speech. After you’ve delivered your speech, examine your performance objectively . This will solidify lessons learned as you prepare for your next speech challenge.

The ninth article in the series provides examples of questions to ask yourself as you critique your own speech .

The article series concludes with advice aimed at preparing to win a Toastmasters speech contest .

See the Six Steps in Action

Throughout this series of articles, I’ll be showing you how I applied these steps when preparing for one of my own speeches. My hope is that these practical examples will help you apply the techniques to your own personal presentation.

The speech I’ll reference is an inspirational speech I prepared and delivered for the Toastmasters International Speech Contest in 2007 titled Face the Wind .

Watch it now, and then read the articles to see how a short conversation with a friend months earlier led to this speech.

I would like to thank Chuck Denison for allowing me to use the Face the Wind video for this article series. Chuck has been the videographer for all recent Toastmasters District 21 contests. Videos are produced by Golden Memories Video Productions and available from him [ email ]. Chuck provides services to speakers who wish to produce a video to enhance their marketing strategy. On top of all that, he’s very friendly and professional.

Join the conversation. Share your experiences and describe what you do to prepare for a speech.

Next in the Speech Preparation Series

The next article examines how to select a speech topic which is the perfect fit for you and your audience.

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• Speech Preparation #6: Add Impact with Rhetorical Devices
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• Speech Preparation #2: Selecting a Speech Topic
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12 comments.

Great job~! I love the video. That speech is fantastic. Keep up the good tips.

This is a wonderful video. It held my attention the entire time.

Thanks so much. Madleyn O’Brien

This is a great speech and a great article. I would love a version of this article in PDF format that I could download and share with my English class. This is perfect for them.

Nice speech!!! I am learning MUCH from your articles. Dale

Ps. I appreciate your effort.

This is an excellent series of articles. Thank you for providing them to us.

I am very much interested in this topic as I do a lot of speeches in my church. This gives me opportunity to learn more appropriate way to prepare a speech to meet its occasion.

There is one more thing that person can do to get the ideas for speech. While speech can be written by a single alone, if you have your friends with you they can help you brainstorm the ideas. I think one of the steps to create a speech that makes an impact is do discuss with 2 or 3 people before you write it down. What do you say?

Yes, getting feedback from others is a great idea when planning your speech message. A thorough guide to selecting a topic is given here: The Secret of Choosing Successful Speech Topics

Structuring a speech is always difficult for us all. I think it’s one of the things that really distinguishes an outstanding speaker, particularly at organisations like toastmasters where so many speakers are already good deliverers. As Andrew recognises, the best speeches are often a cooperative effort, involving help from many other people. Jakub Pawlowski, Great Britain and Ireland speech finalist recently wrote his own blog entry on how to write a winning speech. A point he makes and I support is it often helps to involve other people. I know his success was partly founded on involvement from others.

Thank You,Wonderful Tips! I would really appreciate if it were possible to download these in PDF format.

This was the nice and really sensible tips about speech preparation. Thanx for the guidance

I appreciate your instructions on how to prepare and execute your speech. and I love your video of Face the Wind. very motivating.

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How to Prepare for a Speech in 5 Simple Steps

Want to know how to prepare for a speech? 

First, you need to understand that the ONE thing most successful speeches have in common is this:

The best speeches seem effortless. That is, most impactful speeches are often those that seem like they weren’t prepared for, as if they are impromptu, passionate talks that capture the attention of listeners. 

These speeches come across as eloquent, but not stiff. Conversational, but passionate. Clear, but with depth. 

Preparing for a speech means putting in hours of prep work to ensure your speech doesn’t feel stiffed and rehearsed for the audience, or for you. 

But the the reality is that successful speeches DO require consistent, careful preparation. From crafting a compelling message to perfecting your delivery, here’s a step-by-step process you can follow for preparing an impactful speech: 

• Define Your Purpose and Audience
• Narrow Down Your Message
• Polish Speech Structure and Organization
• Prepare the Opening and Closing
• Master Rehearsal and Delivery

BONUS Tips to Prepare For a Speech

#1 –  define your purpose and audience.

When preparing for a speech, clearly defining your purpose and understanding your target audience are essential steps. You first have to determine why you are writing the speech, and who the speech is for. This will help you build a solid foundation as you begin to write and prepare for your speech. 

First, define your purpose. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• Why are you writing this speech?
• What do you want to achieve with your speech?
• Do you aim to inform, persuade, entertain, or inspire your audience?

Depending on your answers to the above questions, you’ll want to ensure that you’re considering the purpose of the speech before you even begin writing. 

For example, maybe you’re writing a speech for your best friend’s wedding. In this case, you’d likely want to create a memorable, touching speech that highlights your friend’s best qualities and elicits excitement for their marriage journey. You’d want to leave a lasting impression that makes everyone laugh , entertains, or inspires the wedding guests for years to come. Knowing the purpose before you start writing, will help you craft a speech that considers your end-goal.

Determining your speech’s purpose will help you guide your message towards a specific direction and ensure that your content remains focused and impactful. Clarity in your message is key to effectively conveying your ideas. By emphasizing one key message and structuring your speech around it, you can help your audience grasp the main point you’re trying to convey. 

Second, define your target audience. Ask yourself these questions:

• Who are you speaking to?
• What do they care about? 
• How do they fit into your speech’s purpose? 

Understanding the answers to these questions will help you prepare a speech that resonates with your target audience – the very people who will hear your message. Additional details such as their age, background, interests, and level of knowledge about your topic will help you tailor your speech accordingly.

Consider the previous example of writing a speech for your friend’s wedding. Your target audience in this case might consist of people from all ages and backgrounds who share a commonality: they love and care for the newly wed couple. They are there to witness a celebration of love, and want to be part of the couple’s special day. Therefore, as you prepare for your speech, you need to consider the audience and what you can say that will resonate with them.

Audience analysis plays a vital role in tailoring your speech to help reach your listeners. You can use strategies such as empathy mapping techniques , you can get more insight into your audience’s perspectives, thoughts, feelings, actions, pains, and gains. This understanding allows you to craft a speech that speaks directly to their interests and concerns which helps increase audience engagement.

Once you’ve determined your speech purpose and target audience, you can move on to the next step of the speech preparation process. 

#2 – Narrow Down Your Message

Sometimes, it can get overwhelming when you start to think of what to write. Maybe you don’t know exactly what you want to say, or how to say it. Or maybe you have an idea of your speech’s overall message, but you don’t know how to communicate it. 

Regardless of your situation, it’s important to get any and all ideas out first through a process of brainstorming. Then, once you’ve added all of your ideas to paper, you can prioritize the most important ones. 

Just like an effective conversation or presentation, a speech must have a central theme, or core message.

What is the keway you want your audience to remember after your speech?

The goal is to decide on one central core message, so you can build up your speech around it. 

Then, you can begin to craft a compelling message with clear significance. This will help you to captivate your audience and convey your ideas effectively.

Once you have your central message defined, you can start brainstorming which elements to include that help build that message. Here are some examples:

• Engaging anecdotes: Share personal stories or relatable experiences to connect with your audience on a deeper level and make your message memorable.
• Impactful quotations: Integrate quotes from reputable sources or well-known figures that support your key points and add credibility to your message.
• Emotional appeal: Appeal to the emotions of your audience by evoking feelings of empathy, joy, or even urgency to make your message resonate and leave a lasting impression.
• Credible research: Gather evidence like facts, statistics, quotes, or anecdotes to substantiate your points.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to move on to the next step. 

#3 – Polish the Structure and Organization

Now that you have most of your main ideas formulated, you have to consider the right placement of your content so that everything flows coherently.

The key is to help your audience follow along, so they can understand what you’re trying to say in your speech. The last thing you want is a speech that doesn’t have clear flow, or feels jumbled. This is the easiest way to lose your audience’s attention!

Writing a well-structured speech is crucial for effectively conveying your message and engaging your audience from the start.

Begin by outlining your speech, including your clear topic, purpose, and main points to guide your content arrangement. Ensure that your speech flows smoothly by incorporating clear transitions between ideas and emphasizing your main points.

Organize your content in a logical sequence to help your audience follow along easily. Structuring your speech in a coherent manner won’t only keep you on track but also aid in delivering your key messages effectively. By creating a solid framework for your speech, aligning it with its purpose, and maintaining a logical flow of information, you can effectively convey your message and engage your audience’s attention.

Here are some common speech structure formats: 

• Chronological: Organize your speech in a sequential order, following a timeline or series of events.
• Problem-Solution: Present a problem or challenge, then propose solutions or ways to address it.
• Cause and Effect: Discuss the causes leading to certain effects or outcomes, or vice versa.
• Topical: Group information by topics or themes, presenting each one separately.
• Comparative: Compare and contrast different ideas, concepts, or perspectives within your speech.

Remember that a well-organized speech sets the stage for a successful delivery and helps you make a lasting impact on your listeners.

Once your structure and organization is outlined, you can combine everything and begin the writing process. As you write and refine your speech, use clear and concise language. Avoid jargon and complex sentences that your audience might not understand.

Once you have a draft you can work with, move on to the next step!

#4 – Prepare Your Speech’s Opening and Ending

To captivate your audience from the start and leave a lasting impact, mastering the art of crafting a strong opening and ending is essential. 

Don’t underestimate the power of your opening and closing remarks. For many speeches, these lines are the equivalent of a “first and last impression” on your audience, so it’s important to take your time refining them. 

Your opening and ending should be written AFTER you’ve structured and organized your content – so don’t skip this process!

When preparing your speech’s opening and ending, keep in mind the following key points:

• Use an attention grabber: Begin with a compelling anecdote, a thought-provoking question, or a surprising fact to immediately capture the audience’s interest and curiosity.
• Leave a lasting impression: Your ending should summarize key points concisely, reiterate the main message, and leave the audience with a strong call-to-action or a memorable quote that resonates with them.
• Create connection: By using storytelling, personal experiences, or emotional appeals in both the opening and ending, you can establish a deeper connection with your audience, making your speech more relatable and impactful.

You might have ideas for more than one opening and closing statement – that’s okay! If that happens, try to narrow your selection down to two ideas. You can let your draft “simmer” and get insight and opinions from close family and friends that you practice your speech on. 

#5 – Master Rehearsal and Delivery

Once your speech is 90% written, it’s time to start practicing your rehearsal and delivery with your internal network of family and friends. Ideally, your practice audience should consist of your target audience, so that you can get the most effective and relevant feedback.

When preparing for a speech, prioritize thorough rehearsal and confident delivery to engage your audience effectively. Start by incorporating vocal exercises to warm up your voice and improve clarity. Pay attention to your body language, ensuring it’s open, confident, and matches your message.

Building confidence through positive affirmations and visualizing a successful delivery can help calm nerves. Utilize rehearsal techniques like practicing in front of a mirror, recording yourself, or seeking feedback from a friend. Remember to focus on key points rather than memorizing the entire speech to maintain authenticity.

When it comes to delivery, maintain good eye contact, vary your pace for emphasis, and use gestures to emphasize key points. Remember to breathe and pause when needed to allow the audience to digest information. By following these tips, you can deliver a compelling speech that resonates with your audience.

To summarize, here are some tips to master your speech rehearsal: 

• Practice in front of others: Get feedback and overcome any anxieties.
• Practice Regularly: Dedicate consistent time to rehearse your speech, ideally multiple times leading up to the event.
• Practice out loud: This helps you refine your delivery, timing, and flow.
• Record yourself: Use audio or video recording tools to capture your rehearsals and review them for improvement.
• Time yourself: Practice delivering your speech within the allotted time to ensure it fits the allocated slot.
• Focus on delivery: Pay attention to your tone, pace, and body language while rehearsing to enhance your delivery.
• Memorize key points: Memorize the key points or main ideas of your speech to maintain a natural flow and connection with your audience.
• Seek feedback: Ask trusted friends, family members, or colleagues to provide constructive feedback on your delivery and content.
• Rehearse in different settings: Practice your speech in various environments to adapt to different acoustics and audience sizes.

Tip #1 –  Manage your nerves

Sweaty forehead, shaky voice, stuttering, and word stumbling… we all know the feeling of being nervous during a presentation. And unfortunately, it’s not easy to hide nerves once the physiological response sets in, meaning your audience can pick up on your anxiety. It’s okay to be nervous, but you want to prevent yourself from being too nervous that your audience can pick up on your nervousness and anxiety. 

The good news? You can learn how to calm down before a presentation and avoid stage fright.

Here are some tips to combat nerves when preparing for a speech:

• Take deep breaths: Slowing down your breathing can help calm your nerves.
• Visualize success: Imagine yourself delivering a confident and impactful speech .
• Focus on your message: Remember, your passion and knowledge about the topic can overshadow any anxieties as long as you can stay focused.

Tip #2 –  Prepare delivery aids (optional)

A delivery aid, often referred to as a visual aid or presentation aid, is any supplementary material used by a speaker during a speech or presentation to enhance the audience’s understanding and engagement. These aids can take various forms, including slides, charts, graphs, props, videos, or handouts. The primary purpose of delivery aids is to complement the verbal delivery of the speaker and reinforce key points or concepts being discussed. If you’re incorporating technical concepts into your speech, or trying to explain scientific or abstract points, delivery aids can be helpful. 

Common types of delivery aids for a speech:

• Slides: Presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote allows speakers to create slides with text, images, and multimedia to support their speech.
• Visuals: Charts, graphs, diagrams, and infographics can visually represent data or concepts for easier understanding.
• Props: Physical objects or models can be used as props to illustrate points or add a tactile element to the presentation.
• Videos: Short video clips or animations can be integrated into the speech to demonstrate processes, showcase examples, or tell a story.
• Handouts: Printed materials such as handouts, worksheets, or summaries can provide additional information or resources for the audience to reference during or after the speech.

Tip #3 – Choose your speech outfit (and rehearse in it!)

When choosing what to wear for a speech , it’s important to consider professionalism, comfort, and appropriateness for the occasion. 

Your outfit should convey confidence, professionalism, and respect for the audience. It should also align with the tone and formality of the event. Choose attire that makes you feel comfortable and confident, allowing you to focus on delivering your speech effectively.

Here are some tips for choosing what to wear for your speech presentation: 

• Dress Professionally: Choose attire that reflects the formality of the event and conveys professionalism. Opt for well-fitted clothing in classic styles and neutral colors so you can look polished and put-together.
• Prioritize Comfort: While it’s essential to dress professionally, make sure your outfit is comfortable to wear for an extended period. Avoid clothing that is too tight, restrictive, or uncomfortable.
• Consider the Audience and Venue: Take into account the audience demographics and the setting of the event when selecting your outfit. Aim to dress in a way that’s respectful and appropriate for the audience while also considering factors such as the venue’s dress code and climate.
• Minimize Distractions: Avoid clothing with loud patterns, flashy accessories, or overly revealing styles that could distract the audience from your message. Opt for simple, understated attire that allows the focus to remain on your speech and delivery.
• Pay Attention to Grooming: Don’t forget to pay attention to grooming details such as hair, nails, and hygiene. Ensure your appearance is neat and tidy, and consider factors such as makeup and accessories to enhance your overall look without being distracting.
• Test Your Outfit: Before the event, try on your outfit and practice moving and speaking in it to ensure it’s comfortable and doesn’t restrict your movements. Make any necessary adjustments or alterations ahead of time to avoid last-minute wardrobe issues.
• Bring a Backup: As a precaution, consider bringing a backup outfit or accessories in case of any wardrobe malfunctions or unexpected changes in plans. This’ll give you peace of mind and ensure you’re prepared for any unforeseen circumstances on the day of the event.

You’ve laid the groundwork for a successful speech preparation journey. By understanding your purpose and audience, crafting a compelling message, organizing your content effectively, and practicing diligently, you’re well on your way to delivering a memorable and impactful speech.

Embrace the challenge, stay focused, and remember that the key to success lies in your dedication and commitment to delivering an effective, impactful speech that gets your core message across.

And don’t lose sight of what matters throughout the journey: Your speech matters, and you have the power to impact many lives with your message. No matter what happens, your efforts and persistence in overcoming any obstacles when it comes to preparing and delivering your speech will make it all worthwhile.

Good luck on your speech preparation endeavors!

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How to Prepare a Speech

Last Updated: July 10, 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 11 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 733,679 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

Starting With Your Audience

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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.

• 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).

Reducing Speech Anxiety

• 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.

• 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.

How Do You Practice a Speech Effectively?

Expert Q&A

Reader Videos

• 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

You Might Also Like

• ↑ 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://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

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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