“PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH WRITING”

CHOOSING A TOPIC
 KNOW YOURSELF AND YOUR AUDIENCE
-The first strategy is to identify an area of knowledge or an issue that deeply interests
you. Talking about what you know will make you a more credibility speaker but it must clearly
connect with your employer’s goals for your presentation.
APPEAL, APPROPRIATENESS AND ABILITY
-These are three main factors to consider when choosing a topic. All three factors are related to one
another, but by systematically focusing on each one you will help address the strengths and weaknesses of
your chosen topic.
 APPEAL
-You will need to consider an appealing way to start your speech, and will look for ways
throughout your speech to reaffirm that appeal to the audience. When considering a topic,
also think about the visual or auditory images that come to mind, or how you might represent
it to an audience in ways other than your words.
 APPROPRIATENESS
-Appropriateness is important because some topics do not work as well in a classroom
setting as others. Regardless where you give a speech, you should always choose topics
that will not promote harmful or illegal actions. It is also important to consider whether your
topic might offend members of the audience.
 ABILITY
- If you want to develop a speech on a particular topic but you find information hard to
come by, this will make your job even harder and could possibly have a detrimental impact
on your speech. You may find that two similar topics interest you but your ability to gather
information from more diverse sources, from places that are more readily available, or from
your background and experience make one topic more attractive than the other.

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
-Audience analysis involves identifying the audience and adapting a speech to their interests,
level of understanding, attitudes, and beliefs. Taking an audience-centered approach is important because a
speaker’s effectiveness will be improved if the presentation is created and delivered in an appropriate
manner. Identifying the audience through extensive research is often difficult, so audience adaptation often
relies on the healthy use of imagination.

-As with many valuable tools, audience analysis can be used to excess. Adapting a speech to
an audience is not the same thing as simply telling an audience what they want to hear. Audience analysis
does not mean ‘grandstanding’ or ‘kowtowing’ to a public. Rather, adaptation guides the stylistic and content
choices a speaker makes for a presentation. Audience adaptation often involves walking a very fine line
between over-adapting and under-adapting – a distinction that can be greater appreciated by understanding
the general components of this skill.

“AUDIENCE ANALYSIS FACTORS”

1. Audience expectations
-Violating audience expectations can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the
speech.
2. Knowledge of topic
-Never overestimate the audience’s knowledge of a topic. If a speaker launches into a technical
discussion of genetic engineering but the listeners are not familiar with basic genetics, they will be
unable to follow your speech and quickly lose interest.
3. Attitude toward topic
-Knowing audience members’ attitudes about a topic will help a speaker determine the best way
to reach their goals. Imagine that a presenter is trying to convince the community to build a park. A
speaker would probably be inclined to spend the majority of the speech giving reasons why a park
would benefit the community.
4. Audience size
-Many elements of speech-making change in accordance with audience size. In general, the
larger the audience the more formal the presentation should be. Sitting down and using common
language when speaking to a group of 10 people is often quite appropriate. However large audiences
often require that you use a microphone and speak from an elevated platform.
5. Demographics
-The demographic factors of an audience include age, gender, religion, ethnic background, class,
sexual orientation, occupation, education, group membership, and countless other categories. Since
these categories often organize individual’s identities and experiences, a wise speaker attends to the
them.
 6. Settings
-The setting of a presentation can influence the ability to give a speech and the audience’s ability
and desire to listen. Some of these factors are: the set-up of the room (both size and how the audience
is arranged), time of day, temperature, external noises (lawn mowers, traffic), internal noises (babies
crying, hacking coughs), and type of space (church, schoolroom, outside).
7. Voluntaries
-Audiences are either voluntary, in which case they are genuinely interested in what a presenter
has to say, or involuntary, in which case they are not inherently interested in the presentation. Knowing
the difference will assist in establishing how hard a speaker needs to work to spark the interest of the
audience.
8. Egocentrism
-Most audience members are egocentric: they are generally most interested in things that directly
affect them or their community. An effective speaker must be able to show their audience why the topic
they are speaking on should be important to them.

SOURCING THE INFORMATION

-Newspapers, magazines, books, journals, search engines like Google or any reading
material and the best resource which is the people. A way to increase your knowledge when it comes to
certain topic, it helps you to know what you are saying and understand more about what you want to convey.

OUTLINING AND ORGANIZING THE CONTENT OF THE SPEECH

“Helps you provide a clear message for your audience. Every speech includes four key parts: introduction,
body, transitions, and conclusion.”

-The body of the speech comprises most of what you'll present: your main points and
supporting materials. The working outline, with a rough sketch of your specific purpose, thesis, and initial
ideas for main points, guides you in making the final selection of the main points for your speech. As you
select and then develop your main points, apply the principles of clarity, relevance, and balance. Your main
points must support your specific purpose and clearly indicate the response you want from your audience. In
addition, main points must be relevant both to your topic and to one another, and they must be balanced in
terms of their relative importance.

-Six patterns of organization are commonly used to organize a speech: chronological,

spatial, topical, narrative, cause-and-effect, and problem-solution. The chronological pattern orders points in a
time-based sequence. The spatial pattern indicates the physical or directional relationship among objects or
places. The topical pattern divides a subject into its components or elements. The narrative pattern entails a
dramatic retelling of events as a story or series of stories. The cause-and-effect pattern demonstrates how a
particular action produces a particular outcome. Finally, the problem-solution pattern describes a problem and
then offers possible solutions to the problem. An effective pattern of organization complements your topic,
specific purpose, and audience.

-Transitions link together the elements of your speech. Types of transitions include ordering,
reinforcing, contrasting, chronology, causality, and summarizing or concluding. Transitions provide signposts
for audience members so they know where you are in your speech. Internal summaries are longer transitions
that remind listeners of the points covered previously. Key places to use transitions are between the
introduction and the first main point, between main points, and between the last main point and the
conclusion.

-The complete-sentence outline is where you record all the parts of your speech. The most
detailed outline you'll produce for your speech, the complete-sentence outline includes your topic, general
purpose, specific purpose, thesis, introduction, main points, subpoints, conclusion, transitions, and
references. You'll revise and rework this outline as you research your speech and identify appropriate
supporting materials. Developing this comprehensive outline clearly identifies each bit of information you want
to include in your speech and helps you visualize the order of your ideas.