Save Time and Reduce Stress with Brain-Friendly Speech Preparation

Last month we discussed two myths about speech delivery and two myths about speech construction. This month let’s take a closer look at speech construction.

Do you know why many people who have an upcoming speech don’t spend enough time practicing their speech delivery? It’s because they either put off preparing their speech or because they’ve spent too much time trying to get their speech prepared. Have you found yourself in that predicament? If you have, then you know that preparing a speech can be stressful, especially when you are starting from scratch. It’s easy to spend more time than you have when you are trying to get started writing a speech. So how can we reduce the stress and cut out the wasted time?

The solution is a brain-friendly speech preparation process I call “The Natural Sequence for Speech Preparation.” See the ten-step flow diagram below:
Select topic -->Identify General Purpose -->Write Specific Purpose -->Write Central Idea -->Brainstorm Ideas for Body -->Research Ideas for Body -->Prepare Body -->Prepare Conclusion -->Prepare Introduction -->Choose Title.

Topic: the subject of your talk. Without a topic, there is no presentation! Therefore, identifying the topic is the first step. Ideally the topic relates to the needs/wants of your audience, your expertise or knowledge, and your passion.

General Purpose: the broad objective of the speech in the form of an infinitive (a verb preceded by the word “to.”) Examples: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to inspire.

Specific Purpose: The precise goal expressed from the audience’s viewpoint. Complete this sentence: As a result of hearing my speech, members of my audience will ___________________________________. If you were giving a speech that had a general purpose ‘to inform,’ you would complete that sentence this way: As a result of hearing my speech, members of my audience will be informed about (the topic). If the general purpose of your speech were ‘to persuade,’ your specific purpose statement would be: As a result of hearing my speech, members of my audience will be persuaded to (the subject of the persuasion).

Central Idea: The essence of your message, the theme of the talk. Express this in one sentence or phrase. This is easier said than done, but it forces you to gain crystal clarity on the central message of your presentation.

Once you have decided on the specific purpose, you have a target for your speech preparation. You know the topic and the outcome you want. When you prepare the speech, you will build it around the central idea. This makes for a cohesive speech.

When you look at the above flow diagram, you will notice that before you do any research for the body of your talk, you should engage in brainstorming. There are three benefits from doing the brainstorming first: (1) most times you will find out that you know more about the topic than you thought you did; (2) the brainstorming will pinpoint areas you need to research; (3) your targeted research will save you time because you will be looking for specific information instead of doing broad research that can be very time consuming.

In this newsletter we covered the first six steps of ‘The Natural Sequence of Speech preparation.’ Once these first six steps are completed, you will be ready to write your speech in the order of Body -->Conclusion -->Introduction. Stay tuned for the March newsletter for insights and tips on how best to write the body of the speech!

If you found this newsletter helpful and would like more in-depth information directly from me, come join the Diamonds Club. Here is what you get from the Diamonds Club:

As a member, you will receive:

• A weekly video training sessionon how you can become a more competent and confident public speaker. This will run from 8-12 minutes and you can play it as many times as you want to extract the maximum learning from it.
• Free quarterly webinars,which will go into depth on public speaking skills as well as special communication topics that will help you reach ever-higher levels of knowledge and competence.
• Receive an evaluation of your upcoming speech. Submit a video clip or script of a speech you are preparing to give. Receive expert feedback that will inform you about what you are doing well and receive practical tips on how to improve your presentation.
• A Q & A Forumwhere you can submit your questions about public speaking and communication. Learn from the answers, not just to your questions, but also answers to questions posed by others.

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