Three things you need to know before you write a speech
There are a lot of reasons to give a speech - you have an upcoming presentation at work, you’ve been invited to give a commencement speech, maybe you’ve been asked to give a TEDx talk. For many of us the first thing we do is open up a Word doc … and proceed to stare at the cursor. What’s a good opening line? How should I start my speech?
These are NOT the questions to ask as you are getting started creating your speech or presentation. There’s some pre-work to do before you draft a script.
what to know before you draft a speech or presentation
Ideally, you’ve been given the topic and know the general subject you need to discuss. (Very few of us get invited to speak based on our name alone.) You’ve been invited to speak because you know something. You have experience with a topic, and maybe you’ve spoken about it before.
With your general topic in mind, you should be asking yourself (or others) three questions before you start writing your speech:
1) Who is your audience?
Who are you talking to? What do they know about your topic? How do they feel about it? There are a lot of factors that come into play here, but you can think about who your audience is in terms of their knowledge on the subject, their demographics, or even their excitement (or lack thereof) of being in the room.
If you are giving a presentation at work, are the people you are speaking to in your department or from another department? Are they young employees or seasoned leaders? Are they there because they chose to learn more or are they required to be there to complete a training?
Knowing your audience can give you insight into how familiar they may be with the topic, helping you understand where you need to begin your presentation. For instance, if you are talking about a new finance policy, you can tailor your level of detail based on which department you are speaking to. If it’s the sales department, you’ll want to share how this policy affects the sales team. If you are speaking to the finance department, you may go into far more detail about the specifics of the policy and how it affects various parts of the organization.
2) What do you need to tell this particular group?
Sure, you know your general topic. But the devil seems to always be in the details, and knowing your audience helps you know what you need to tell them. Note that I said need, not want. It is so tempting to stand in front of an audience and drone on and on about details that matter to you. You must ask yourself: What will matter to them? What do they need to know?
You’ve figured out who they are, their probable interest in your topic, and what they already know (or don’t know). Based on this, what information does this group — your audience — need?
For example, let’s say you need to deliver a speech on fundraising for your nonprofit. The information you share might be vastly different if you are talking to colleagues versus donors. For nonprofit colleagues, you might talk about how you are raising funds and how they help raise them. But if you are talking to donors, you might express the importance of donating and how you are using their contributions.
Those are two very different speeches because they are two very different audiences that need to know two very different sets of information about the same general topic.
3) What do you want your audience to do?
Before you start writing your speech, you need to know what you intend for your audience. Do you want them to leave with more knowledge about something in particular? Do you want them to do something specific? Do you want them to feel a particular way?
Sticking with the nonprofit fundraising example: Do you want donors to leave feeling informed about your nonprofit and why they should support it? Or do you want them to understand how their contributions helped fund an entirely new program, and feel appreciated for their support?
You may have a hard time narrowing this down, but generally there will be a primary purpose and perhaps a secondary purpose as well. You may want donors to know how their funds were used and feel good about that use. You need to know where you want to take your audience so you can create the road map to get them there, so it’s important to know the purpose before you put pen to paper writing a speech.
Recap: what to know before you begin writing your speech
Once you 1) know a little about your audience, 2) you’ve determined what they need to know, and 3) what you want them to do with that knowledge, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out what to write when you get back to your computer and face the blinking cursor.
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