ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

A.H. Banzon St., Ibayo, City of Balanga, Bataan

COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

SPEECH AND THEATER ARTS

Week 7- LECTURE

The Making of Speech

PREPARING THE SPEECH

Choosing the subject. The first step in preparing a talk is the choice of the subject. You have to
consider three important factors: yourself, your audience and the occasion.
Choose a topic that you know enough about and in which you are truly interested.
Choose a topic that will catch audience interest.
Choose a topic that fits the occasion.
Limit the subject. Don't try to cover too much ground in one short talk. Know the time allotted to
you.

Questions to test your choice of topic:*

1. Will the subject appeal to the audience? Is it suggested by their needs, interests, knowledge,
attitudes?
2. Is the subject appropriate to the occasion?
3. Is the subject timely?
4. Is the subject important?
5. Does the subject add to the listener's knowledge?
6. Does the subject grow out of my experience, interest, observations or knowledge?
7. Do I have a genuine enthusiasm for the subject?
8. Have I properly limited the subject?
9. Does the subject meet my purpose (to explain, entertain, impress, convince, persuade or
deliberate with an audience)?

___________
*Adopted from Craig Barid and Franklin Knower, Essentials of General Speech, New York,
McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1960.
GATHERING MATERIALS

Start with your own ideas on the subject, adding those which you have gathered by listening and
discussing. Read to gather more ideas, collect details and pin down the meanings of terms related to
your subject.

Research Guidelines:
1. Check requirements before starting. This preliminary step will save you a lot of backtracking later
on.
2. Get only the gist. Avoid indiscriminate copying.
3. Use cards or paper of a uniform size. Cards are easier to shuffle when you are organizing your
material.
4. Place only one fact on each card or paper.
5. Write the topic at the top of each card.
6. At the bottom, cite the exact source accurately and completely.
7. Quote accurately.
8. Get more facts than opinions.
9. Start out with a plan which you may modify later as your work progresses.
10. Gather more materials than you expect to use. It will serve as your reserve-power resource.

ORGANIZING YOUR MATERIAL

The following simple steps will help you organize your material for most short speeches:

1. List all possible relevant points. You will discard some of these later.
2. Use only 2-4 points. The limitation will make it easier to sustain the audience's attention.
3. Analyze the interest value of each point.
4. Arrange your points from good, better, best. Your audience is most likely to remember the end of
your speech rather than the beginning.
A slightly more detailed procedure is recommended for the longer speech.

1. Decide the objective.

Having selected your subject and having gathered your material, you will next consider the
purpose in relation to the audience. Do you plan to instruct, entertain, or persuade them? Perhaps
you have two or more of these aims, or some other purposes. The way you frame your speech
objective will be influenced by your understanding of your listeners -- their interests, needs, motives,
attitudes and sentiments.
2. Express your objective in a topic or thesis sentence.

A precise statement of your specific objective will guide you in writing. It will be the basis of your
organization. You may also insert it from time to time in the actual speech to help your listeners
follow your drift.
3. Divide your subject into two or more main divisions.

Other points may become subdivisions under these main headings, which will be the backbone or
framework of the body of your talk. Follow a consistent method of classification or approach. The
most common are:
a. time order
b. space order
c. topical pattern, such as politics, economics, religion,art
d. logical (cause and effect) pattern
e. problem and solution method

4. Review your tentative divisions. Check for the following:

a. No obvious overlapping of main divisions.
b. Effective sequence - smooth, flows from one aspect to the next
c. Audience appeal
d. Unity
e. Effective emphasis

5. Organize the introduction. See that it gets the audience ready for your topic.
6. Organize the conclusion. See that it reinforces your purposes.
7. Check if there are no gaps between the introduction, the body and the conclusion.

LANGUAGE
Speech is primarily verbal communication. Therefore, language will greatly determine your
effectiveness as a speaker. In writing your talk, strive for the following: proper adaptation of your
language, accuracy and clearness, interest and vividness.

Adaptation. Just as you have done in choosing the topic, you will adapt your language to your
audience, the occasion, your purpose and your own personality. You talk differently to older persons
from your usual manner among your peers or with younger members of your family. A pep talk at a
sports rally will require a different language from a valedictory address. You use a more emotional
approach in pushing a fund drive than you would in explaining how a new gadget works.
And, definitely, you have to sound like yourself. If you are naturally reserved, you can't convincingly
shift to a “hail-fellow-well met" style of speaking.

Accuracy and clearness. To get your message across and the response you wish from your
audience, you have to be understood. To achieve your objective, be concise, not verbose.

Use an oral style, not language suitable to a dissertation. Choose concrete and specific words rather
than the abstract and general.
Avoid: ambiguity and inconsistency of meaning
exaggerated or hasty generalizations
barbarisms and improprieties
 emotional distortions
pretentiousness and indirectness

Interest and vividness. To get and sustain attention, you have to create a strong impression on
your listeners. Use imaginative and emotional language (without overdoing it). Also, be friendly and
show respect for your audience.

Some devices and structures:

Figurative language like simile, metaphor, personification.
e.g.: An iron curtain has descended upon the continent.
Phoenix-like, the city rose again from the rubble.
Many expressions which have become part of common usage originally started as metaphors,
like "Lend me your ears,' 'look daggers at his enemy,” “snake in the grass."

Balanced structure
e.g.: He talks intervention; he votes isolation.
Practice what I preach,not what I do.

Rhetorical question
e.g.: Do you wish to be led to the slaughter?
Are you a man or a mouse?

Parallelism
e.g.: We are saddened; we are stunned; we are perplexed.
Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it.

Repetition
e.g.: Look behind the paint; look behind the sure thing; look behind the glitter.
A word of caution: As in all good things, moderation is the key.

Use each of these devices only as they truly express your feelings. Exaggerations or "put on"
emotions will spoil, rather than enhance your talk.

Improving your language: You want to improve your command of the language; you want to have
these devices and techniques at your finger tips. It can be done, with patient and correct practice.
You have to work at it constantly.

1. Read various good materials like biographies, history, science, literature.

2. Listen to good radio and TV speakers, lecturers and other guest speakers in school, in church or
in the town square.
3. Study representative oral and written communication sources like collections of speeches. Take
note of their organization plans, use of supporting facts or arguments, use of attention-getting
devices, vocabulary and sentence structure.
4. Watch good films, especially documentaries. Incidentally, these also supply you with informative
material as well as a better grasp of situations and issues.
5. Study words. Use the dictionary often. When in doubt, check.
6. Write at every opportunity.
7. Check your written work for its "readability" and "listenability."

WRITING YOUR TALK

1. Write an introduction that will get your audience's interest.

2. Avoid an apologetic opening.
3. Develop the body of your talk according to your planned approach.
4. Liven up your talk with apt illustrations, examples, and anecdotes. Avoid too long anecdotes.
5. Don't copy someone else's style. Your talk should reflect your personality. However, study other
speeches to get ideas from which you can evolve your own style.
6. Avoid jargon. Use terms that are familiar to your audience. If you have to use some technical
terms, explain, them in layman's language.
7. Avoid meaningless words and phrases such as: etc., and so forth, something or other.
8. Avoid useless expressions such as: Before I begin, I would like to say... I could talk on this for
hours.
9. Prefer concrete words to abstract; specific terms to general; familiar words to the unfamiliar.
10. In using enumerations, guide your listeners by saying: First, Second. Avoid using: Firstly,
Secondly....
11. Prefer shorter words and simple sentences. Long sentences may be effectively presented in
parallel structures.
12. If appropriate, use emotional appeal.
13. Write an effective conclusion to reinforce the main thought. Conclude only once. False
conclusions will render the real one anti-climactic.
14. Edit your draft.
a. Are there gaps in your presentation? Supply the necessary transitions and additional information
or explanation
b. Check errors in grammar, structure and logic.
c. Does it repeat words unnecessarily? Note: Some repetitions may be used for greater effect.
d. Liven up dull parts.
e. Omit all irrelevant examples and quotations.

15. Read it aloud for fluency. Some phrases may be hard to understand in oral communication.
Rephrase them.
16. See that the length of your talk is within your allotted time, with allowance for adlibs and
repetitions that you might wish to make during your talk.