Since we rarely need to do them, few of us have much experience when it comes to writing speeches. Unless you’re working for a political figure who constantly needs to address a crowd, you’ll likely have little practice putting one together. As such, I’ve found it of immense value to use the pre-made templates from English writing software (which includes several formats for speeches) whenever I need to write one.
In case you’re pressed for time and need to prepare a speech, I’ve found this format to be extremely helpful. I consider it my default structure, the one I immediately resort to when a complete speech is needed without enough time to prepare for it.
Figure out early on how long the speech needs to be. Will it be 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000 words? Once you have the number, it’s time to begin writing it with the following structure:
- Introduction (10% of the word length)
- First fact
- Supporting evidence for the first fact
- Second fact
- Supporting evidence for the second fact
- Third fact
- Supporting evidence for the third fact
- Conclusion (15% of the word length)
We highly recommend stretching the speech to cover three issues instead of just one big subject. Transitioning from one subject to another is almost a guaranteed way to keep off being boring as the shift in ideas forces people to pay attention. If you need to discuss just one topic, you can subdivide it into three parts in order to achieve the recommended structure.
