Formal Speech: Preparing and Delivering

In one line

A formal speech is prepared in five steps, built in three parts, and delivered by a speaker who has rehearsed aloud, knows the first and last sentences by heart, and is looking at the audience.

What makes a speech formal

Four things, and any question about the difference between formal and informal speech should use them.

The occasion is official. A function, a meeting, a court, a class, a ceremony.

The structure is planned. It has a beginning, a middle and an end that the speaker decided in advance.

The language is more careful. Complete sentences, fewer contractions, no slang, and forms of address appropriate to the audience.

The roles are fixed. One person speaks and the others listen, and interruption is a breach of the occasion rather than a normal part of it.

Preparation, in five steps

Step one: settle the purpose in one sentence. Every speech does one of four things: informs, persuades, marks an occasion, or entertains. Write your purpose down as a sentence beginning "By the end of this speech the audience will..." If you cannot finish that sentence, you are not ready to write.

Step two: analyse the audience. Who are they, how many, what do they already know, what do they want, why are they there, and how long will they sit still? A speech to first-year students, to a bench of judges and to a college's alumni are three different speeches on the same subject.

Step three: gather more material than you need. Facts, examples, a story, a quotation, and figures if they help. Then discard most of it. A speech carries about one idea for every two minutes.

Step four: outline in three parts. Introduction, body, conclusion, dealt with below.

Step five: rehearse aloud and time it. Aloud, standing, at least three times. Timing is the commonest failure: a page of ordinary prose takes about two minutes to speak, and almost every speaker overruns.

The three parts

The introduction, which does four jobs.

1. Address the audience. The correct form for the occasion: "Respected Chairperson, honoured guests, members of the faculty and my dear friends."
2. Get attention. A question, a striking fact, a short story or a quotation. Not an apology, and not "Today I am going to speak about".
3. Say what the speech is about. One sentence.
4. Say why it matters to these listeners. One sentence.

The body, which carries the substance.

Two to four main points, no more. Each point is stated, explained, and supported by an example, a fact or a story. Arrange them in an order the audience can follow: by time, by importance, by problem and solution, or by cause and effect.

Signposting is what makes a speech followable. A listener cannot turn back a page, so you must say where you are: "There are three reasons. The first is...", "That is the problem; now the remedy", "Finally, and this is the point I want to leave with you".