Public Relations and Social Marketing

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MARKETING 4(1+3)

Lesson 6 : Preparation of Public Speech

Building Steps of the Speech

1. Selecting and thinning the Subject
   The topic selection process is usually dictated by the circumstances or demands of the occasion.
   
   The most important step is narrowing the subject to a topic suitable for a speech, and also suitable for the length of time and type of audience that one have. The key is to remember that a speech is not an essay; it is an oral communication which must be kept simple and concise in order to be effective.


2. Determining the Purpose
   Decide exactly what it is one hope to accomplish with once speech. Is it to tell facts about a situation that are not aware of; to convince that a point of view is "right" or "wrong" or "misleading"; to amuse; to stimulate to do something; or what? Speech should support one basic objective and one must thus decide what this objective is.


3. Analyzing the Audience and Occasion
   To present an effective speech, one must know what kind of people will they be speaking to, roughly how many there will be, what sort of room will be in, the audience's intellectual ability and (likely) background knowledge on the subject, and what other speakers of the day may be saying about the same subject. Effective speeches are always keyed to a specific time, place, and audience.


4. Gathering Material
   Material can be gathered from books, magazines, newspapers, other speeches, and other media; from all possible sources. First establish basic objective, and then build supporting material around this objective in such a way that the speech is clear, sound, logical, appropriate, and understandable to specific audience.


5. Making an Outline
   An outline will help organize the skeleton of the speech, and establish the main points and balance the supporting material for each point. It usually makes writing the final speech easier.


6. Wording the Speech
   Attention should be paid to the educational level and other language competence of the audience in deciding the vocabulary. Consider also words which might be "special" and need explanation to be clear. Try to avoid words which may have more than one meaning, unless using them for that purpose especially.


7. Practicing Aloud
   After the speech is written and ready, one must practice it aloud in order to check the rhythm of phrasing and sentences, the pronunciation of words, the length of the speech, etc. This will also help one to be more confident in speech delivery, and lessen nervousness during the actual occasion.