Speech Writing, With Model Speeches
Chapter Sixty-Five
Syllabus topic 3.2.2, "Formal Speech (Oral & Written)"
Pages 317 to 320 of 406
In one line
A speech written for an examination is judged on its form: the salutation, the occasion, the guest, the substance, the thanks and the close, in that order, in about three hundred words.
The form an examiner is looking for
Length. For six marks, about 250 to 350 words. Long enough to have a middle, short enough to be a speech and not an essay.
Layout. Write it as continuous prose in paragraphs, opening with the salutation on its own line. Do not use bullet points. Some candidates add a line at the top naming the occasion, which is acceptable and looks organised.
The six parts.
- Salutation. Address everyone present, in order of precedence.
- The occasion. Say what the event is and why the audience is gathered.
- The guest. Introduce the chief guest and say why this person and not another.
- The substance. One idea about the activity being celebrated, developed for two or three sentences. This is what separates a good answer from a form filled in.
- The thanks and the invitation. Thank the guest for coming and invite them to address the gathering or to inaugurate the event.
- The close. A definite last sentence.
And the one rule that decides the mark. A welcome speech must contain something that could not be said at any other event. Names, the activity, the specific occasion. A speech that would fit any function on any campus scores as a template.
Model one: welcoming a chief guest at a Moot Court Committee event
This is the February 2026 question. The names, courts and figures are specimens: put your own college's in their place.
Welcome Address: Inauguration of the Intra-Collegiate Moot Court Competition
Respected Chief Guest, Justice A. B. Sharma, Honourable Principal, members of the faculty, distinguished judges of today's rounds, and my dear fellow students.
It is my privilege, on behalf of the Moot Court Committee, to welcome you all to the inauguration of our annual intra-collegiate moot court competition. Twenty-four teams have registered this year, and for the next two days this building will be full of first-year students discovering how difficult it is to say a simple thing clearly while somebody interrupts them.
We are especially honoured by the presence of our chief guest, Justice A. B. Sharma, who has served on the bench of the Bombay High Court for twelve years, and who is known to every student of this college for insisting that an advocate's first duty is to be understood. We could not have asked for a guest more suited to an occasion of this kind, because a moot court is, before it is anything else, an exercise in being understood.
A moot is often described as practice for the courtroom. I would say it is more than practice. It is the first occasion on which a student is answerable for what they have said: for a proposition they cannot support, a case they have not read, and a submission they cannot defend when a judge stops them halfway through it. Nothing else in our three years teaches that, and no textbook can.
Speech Writing, With Model Speeches
Sir, we are grateful that you have given us your time, and we look forward to your address, which we hope will be a little kinder than your questions will be this afternoon.
With that, I request our chief guest to inaugurate the competition, and I wish every participant a good hearing and a fair bench.
Thank you.
Why this model works. It names the committee, the event, the number of teams and the guest's court and reputation; it contains one genuine idea about mooting rather than praise of it; it has one line of light humour appropriate to the occasion; and it ends by doing something, namely requesting the guest to inaugurate.
Model two: vote of thanks
Vote of Thanks: Legal Aid Camp, Shirwal
Respected Chairperson, honoured guests, members of the faculty and dear friends.
We have come to the end of a long day, and it falls to me to thank the people who made it possible.
Our first thanks are to Advocate C. D. Menon, who conducted the camp and answered questions for six hours without once making anybody feel foolish for asking. Our thanks go also to the Sarpanch and the residents of Shirwal, who gave us a hall, a public address system and their patience.
I must thank the members of the Legal Aid Committee, who registered two hundred and ten queries today, and the faculty coordinator, Dr E. F. Rao, who has now organised nine of these camps and has never once been thanked by name until this moment.
Finally I thank all of you for staying to the end. A camp of this kind is judged by whether people came back after lunch, and today they did.
Thank you.
The rules a vote of thanks follows. It is short, under two hundred words. It thanks people in descending order of formality but ends with the audience. It names individuals and says what each of them actually did. It never introduces new material, and it never becomes a second speech.
Model three: introducing a speaker
Respected all.
Our speaker this evening needs an introduction only because the custom requires one.
Ms G. H. Iyer took her degree from this college in 2009, practised in the trial courts of Nagpur for eight years, and has since appeared in some of the most important environmental litigation in this state. Those of you who read the judgment in the Ulhas river case last year will have read her argument, whether or not you noticed her name at the top of it.
Speech Writing, With Model Speeches
She has agreed to speak to us today on public interest litigation and its limits, which is a subject on which she is entitled to be sceptical and on which most of us are not yet entitled to an opinion at all.
Ms Iyer, the floor is yours.
The rules. Short. Facts rather than adjectives. Establish authority to speak on this subject in particular. End by handing over in one line.
Model four: farewell
Farewell to the Outgoing Batch
Respected Principal, members of the faculty, and the class of 2026.
We are here to say goodbye to a batch that has run the moot court committee, the legal aid cell and, on at least two occasions I know of, the faculty's own timetable.
What we will remember about you is not the prizes. It is that when the first-year students arrived last June and could not find the library, it was your batch that walked them there. A college teaches its juniors mostly by showing them what seniors do, and you have taught well.
You leave us at a moment when the work is not getting easier. Courts are crowded, the profession is difficult to enter, and the people who need you most will be the least able to pay you. We are sending you out anyway, because you are ready.
Come back and tell us what it is really like. We will believe you more than we believe the textbooks.
On behalf of everybody here, thank you, and all the best.
The templates, reduced to skeletons
Learn these four openings and you can build any of the speeches under examination pressure.
| Speech | Opening move | Closing move |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Salutation, occasion, guest, one idea | Request the guest to speak or inaugurate |
| Vote of thanks | Name the first person to be thanked | Thank the audience for staying |
| Introduction | Say the introduction is a formality | Hand over: "the floor is yours" |
| Farewell | Name what the leaving group did | Send them off with one honest sentence |
What loses marks
No salutation, or a wrong one. It is the first line and the easiest mark on the paper.
A template with no names. If the speech would fit any college in India, it will be marked as though it did.
Turning it into an essay. A speech has a listener. Address them: "you", "we", "this evening".
No substance. Three paragraphs of praise is not a speech. One real idea about the activity is what an examiner is looking for.
Speech Writing, With Model Speeches
No ending. Finish with a definite sentence, and then "Thank you."
Overrunning. For six marks, a page is enough. Two pages will not gain more and will cost you time in Question 4.
A worked answer
Question. MU's own: "Write a speech in order to welcome a chief guest for the Moot Court Committee event of your college."
The answer is model one above, and this is how it was built in the examination hall.
First, thirty seconds of planning. Who is speaking: a member of the Moot Court Committee. To whom: guest, principal, faculty, judges, students. Occasion: inauguration of the intra-collegiate moot. Guest: a judge. One idea: that a moot is the first time a student is answerable for what they say.
Then the six parts, in order, with a name or a number in every paragraph so that nothing reads as a template.
Then the close, which does something rather than merely stopping: the guest is requested to inaugurate the competition.
Total, about 320 words, which is right for six marks.
Quick revision
Six parts: salutation, occasion, guest, substance, thanks and invitation, close.
250 to 350 words for six marks. Continuous prose, no bullets.
The test: could this speech be given at any other event? If yes, add names, numbers and one specific idea.
Vote of thanks: under two hundred words, names and what each person did, ends with the audience.
Introduction of a speaker: facts not adjectives, authority on this subject, hand over in one line.
Always end on a prepared sentence, then "Thank you."
Test yourself
1. What are the six parts of a welcome speech? Salutation, the occasion, the introduction of the chief guest, the substance, the thanks with an invitation to speak, and a definite close.
2. What single test tells you whether your speech will score? Whether it could be delivered at any other function. If it could, it lacks names, numbers and a specific idea, and it will be marked as a template.
3. How does a vote of thanks differ from a welcome speech? It is shorter, under two hundred words; it names individuals and says what each actually did; it moves from the most formal thanks down to the audience; and it introduces no new material and never becomes a second speech.
4. How do you end a speech? On a prepared sentence that does something, such as requesting the chief guest to inaugurate the event or handing the floor to the speaker, followed by "Thank you". Never trail off and never end with "That's all".
5. How long should the answer be for six marks, and why not longer? About 250 to 350 words, roughly a page. A longer answer earns no more marks for this question and takes time away from Question 4, where three essays of thirteen marks each are waiting.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.