How to Give a Speech

A.   What is a speech?

 Speech is an oral expression that conveys communication. Speech are commonly listened through a certain event. Speech is an act of speaking on which it involves  the speaker and the audience.

There are four main types of speech. They are:

1. Informative speech – This speech informs interesting and useful information to the audience.

e.g. Teacher is giving his/her speech about earthquakes.

2. Persuasive Speech - Kind of speech that pursue and convince people to start doing something that they are not currently doing. Its all about convincing the audience to believe such information.

e.g. Someone is giving his speech in the certain champaign. He also tells the disadvantage and advantage of voting him. This speech must sound convincing!

3. Special Occasion Speech - Kind of speech that delivers established certain objectives.

e.g. Giving some speech in a High School Graduation ceremony. It gives acknowledgements, accomplishment and praises.

4. Demonstrative Speech – This has many similarities with an informative speech. A demonstrative speech also teaches something. The main difference is in including a demonstration of how to do something. Some examples of demonstrative speeches:
1. How to start your own blog
2. How to bake a cake
3. How to write a speech

B.   Preparing our speech

To any kind of speech the speaker/presenter must be well-prepared of the topic that we are going to deliver. Ideas and opinions must be delivered well. Effective preparation requires identifying the purpose of your speech. After  identifying the purpose, we can move on to the objective of our speech.

There are several things should be prepared. They are:

1.       Select a topic for the speech.

2.       Compose the specific purpose statement, central idea, & main points.

3.       Research the materials of speech.

4.       Outlining the speech. Use the basic informative outline to organize materials.

5.       Supporting the speech. Use support materials that are: Pertinent; Varied; Sufficient; Detailed; Appropriate.

6.       Audience analysis. Who is the audience and what are their needs?

7.       Select visual aids for the speech.

8.       Making presenter’s biodata.

9.       Practicing the speech. Practice makes perfect.

Example of how to make presenter’s biodata:

PRESENTER’S BIODATA

1.     Full Name                            : Prof. Dr. Sadewa, S.Kom., MTI

2.     Present Position                 : Minister of Riset and Technology

3.     Complete Address and Phone Number

a.      Office                            : Jalan Pandawa no.17, Semarang

b.     Home                             : Jalan Sidoluhur XVII no.21, Semarang Telp.xxxxx

4.     Work Experience              

Year                        Position

2009 – now              Minister of Riset and Technology

2000 – 2008             Chief of Programming Department, Microsoft corp.

1995 – 1999             Managing Director in Production Department, Trans corp.

5.     Educational Background    :

Year            Education

2001             Doctor’s Degree in Public Speaking from Oxford University

1994             Master’s Degree in Information Technology from Manchester University

1991             Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting from ITS

When it’s needed, we can make a presentation guideline or presentation outline in order to help us making an effective speech/presentation. The following is the example of presentation guideline :

PRESENTATION GUIDELINE

1.     TITLE OF PRESENTATION

“ The prospect of SMK in Semarang, Central Java”

2.     OBJECTIVES OF PRESENTATION

a.      To give information about the nature of SMK in Semarang.

b.     To give information about the prospect after graduating from SMK

3.     MAIN POINTS OF PRESENTATION

a.      The possibility of developing SMK in Semarang.

b.     The constraints faced by SMK in Semarang

4.     AUDIO – VISUAL AIDS USED

Overhead Projector (OHP)

5.     PRESENTATION STEPS

a.      Background

b.     Information on problems

c.      Information on solutions

6.     EXPECTED QUESTIONS FROM AUDIENCE

What is the government policy in that issue?

C.  Introducing our speech

The purpose of an introduction is to secure favourable attention and to orient the audience to the subject of presentation. The main purpose of speech / presentation should be briefly told in the opening part of presentation. The informations that we need to give in the introduction are :

1.                     Greeting and thanking (and personal introduction)

v Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

v First of all I’d like to thank the moderator for giving me a chance to deliver my speech

v My name is ...... from........... (optional)

2.                     Title of our talk

v Today, I’m going to talk about .............

v Today, I want to talk about............

3.                     Purpose statement

v The objective of my presentation is to give brief information about.............

v The goal of my speech is ...........

4.                     Outline of the presentation (Main Ideas)

v There are three main points I would like clarify today. The first,  I’d like to explain the background. Then I”ll discuss the problems. After that, I’ll discuss about the solution. I’ll finish with a conclusion.

5.                     Summary

Summary here means the summary of introduction, it’s not summary for all materials. This is the example:

v So, that would be the overall organization of my talk; three main points and a conclusion

 

D.  Concluding The Talk

The purpose of conclusion is to provide satisafactory end to the audiences. This is because the conclusion hods the most strategic element in our speech / presentation.

When concluding our talk, we should tell to the audiences the important message. And if necessary we can repeat any ideas you want the audiences to remember. The conclusion should summarize the mini points and avoid introducing new materials

What does a conclusion consists of ?

1.     Signaling to end

a.      That brings me to the end of my speech

b.     That covers all I wanted to say

2.     Summarizing the talk

a.      Let me just turn over the key points again.

b.     I’ll briefly summarize the main points.

c.      To sum up, I.......

3.     Concluding the talk

a.      In conlusion

b.     As you can see.....(conclusion)

4.     Recomending

a.      In my opinion, we should...........

b.     So I suggest that we.........

5.     Closing

a.      Thank you for your attention

b.     Thank you for listening

6.     Inviting for questions.

a.      Any questions?

b.     I’d be glad to try and answer any questions.

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