The Basic Structure of a Speech
All speeches contain
at least three parts:
An Introduction
A Body
A conclusion
In the Introduction,
you state the topic of your speech. You tell the audience the main points of
your speech. In other words, you say what you are going to speak about.
In the Body,
you speak about each point in detail. For each point you must give the audience
some evidence or information that will help explain and support each point. The
Body is the longest of the three parts.
In the Conclusion,
you should summarise the main points of your speech, and emphasise what you
want the audience to remember.
Making a Simple Outline
An outline is a way to
organise your ideas logically and clearly. Without making an outline your
speech will probably lack structure, and so be difficult to understand. By
using a presentation outline, you can "see" the structure of your
speech. In addition, It can also serve as your speaking script.
The following
presentation outline is a very simple way to organise your material into a
speech format. If you have time, you should look at the
detailed speech outline.
When making an outline you should not write full sentences, but just key
words and phrases.
1. Introduction
What is the topic of
your speech?
Why should the
audience listen to your speech ?
What will your
main points be?
2. The body
What are your
main points and ideas (sub-topics)?
What is your
supporting evidence and information (sub-sub-topics)?
3. The conclusion
What were the
main main points of your speech, and what do you want the audience to remember?
Note that the presentation outline is not a word-for-word script for
the speech but an outline of ideas to serve as an organisational and
presentation tool for the speaker.