How to Write a Speech in 5 Minutes

• Making a really great speech or presentation requires a great deal of preparation and practice. In an ideal world, you would always have time to plan, rehearse and perfect your words of wisdom. However, sometimes things don’t work out that way.

• A number of times in my speaking career I have had to pull something together at very short notice, either because another presenter dropped out, or because I was visiting an office where the local manager unexpectedly asked me to make a speech to all of the local staff. Here is a simple process to enable you to prepare a speech at very, very short notice (or presentation - its a presentation tip too)…

Sharing our culture internationally. Cherish global communication.

San Antonio, Texas 1995

Building human capacity academically. Promote Chinese culture internationally.

Getting Started on the Speech

• Ideally you will need eight post it notes. If you haven’t got them, just grab a sheet of paper and fold it in half. Fold it in half again. And once more. Quickly, there’s no time to waste! Now, tear along the folds. Either way, you now have eight pieces of paper, and hopefully a pen. You’re ready to star(t).

Who is the Speech for…

Oral Presentation (Evaluation)

of the ESL Writing Class

June 15, 2005

Develop public speaking skills with abundant knowledge and ample confidence. Go for it.Practice makes perfect.

What is the Speech for…

• Does the audience or the person who invited you have an expectation of what you will talk about? Be sure to meet it, or cover it as best you can. Failing to do so will definitely cause angst.

• Now think about what will be in the speech. Let your brain free wheel for a minute. Write each of your main ideas on one of the remaining pieces of paper. You don’t want more than seven. Research suggests that we can deal with 7 things in our head at once, plus or minus two. This isn’t the time to go stretching your cognitive abilities, so stick with 5-7 main ideas.

• If you come up with more than seven, look through your earlier ideas, then find the weakest one and cross it out, replacing it with the better new one. It is a neat way to refine your speech.

• Think back to what you were expected to cover and sanity check what you have written. That clock is still ticking, so…

Non-verbal behavior: hand gestures: R. Nixon, T. Blair

When and Where

• Check how long the speech should be. 7-15 minutes is a great length. It will seem substantial, but shouldn’t drag on. Check where you are. Can you link your speech in to the location? Perhaps based on a piece of local news you have read.

• Now, to the when and where of each of your main points. Lay out the pieces of paper. They should fit one of three structures: topical, chronological or spatial. That will give you a natural order for them. In a topical structure you will see that some things must be covered before you touch on the other topics, or that some link together. In a chronological structure you probably want to start at the beginning and more forwards from there. In a spatial one there will also be a natural flow too. You now have your main points arranged in order.

How

• Now you have the sequence, think about how you will make each point, and how you will bridge between each point. Jot down your proof points, or for a longer speech your sub-points, on the relevant piece of paper. At the end of the piece of paper for each point, make a note of your bridge to the next point. The bridges should help to create the story, and will make your points more memorable if done well. If you can’t think of a bridge, the next step may help…

Why is the Speech Relevant

“Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Then tell ‘em again.”

Say it!

Shih Hsin UniversityOct. 8, 2007

Chen-ching Li (李振清 ), Ph.D.Department of English, SHU

ccli@cc.shu.edu.twhttp://cc.shu.edu.tw/~cte/gallery/ccli/

The Art of The Art of Public Speaking & Debate (3)Public Speaking & Debate (3)

Public Speaking and Communication (Ref. D. Zarefsky 1999: 6-11)

When you give a speech, you and your listeners are involved in COMMUNICATION, meaning that you interact in order to build some sort of connection whereby you can understand each other and recognize common interest. How does this happen? And how does public speaking differ from other forms of communication such as personal conversation and written essay?

Your comments/idea/understanding?

1. It’s a two-way COMMUNICATION. (Not a one-way message dissemination.)

2. The audience participates with the speaker in creating shared meaning and understanding, much the same as my teaching to you in this class.

3. The speaker’s ideas and values are tested and refined through interaction with the audience, and the listener’s knowledge and understanding are modified through interaction with the speaker. Thus, public speaking is a continuous communication process in which messages and signals circulate back and forth between the speaker and listeners.

4. Public speaking creates feedback, and the “Rhetorical Situation” will have to take into consideration. (The occasion, the speaker, the speech)

ERICSSON, Stockholm, Sweden, 1998

The act of public communication involves a transaction between a speaker and an audience. You may think that public speaking is something that you do not need to be concerned about, but this is not the case. In fact, a surprising number of persons do speak to audiences of ten or more people fairly frequently. No matter what your college major or current positions, odds are that you will be doing some type of public speaking, in one way or the other.

Public Speaking:Planning and Presenting the Message

Preparing a SpeechPreparing a Speech

1. Decide on a topic, or accept the topic assigned to you.

2. Formulate a statement of central idea (theme).

3. Collect research that develops the statement of central idea.

4. Finalize the statement of the central idea, the specific purpose, and the goal that adapts to the listeners and setting of the presentation.

5. Formulate and organize the body of the presentation so that the goal can be achieved.

6. Prepare the necessary aids, such as audio, visuals, and PowerPoint, etc.

7. Develop an introduction that previews, and conclusion that summarizes the main points of the presentation.

8. Polish the introduction and conclusion. The introduction should grab the attention of the audience. The conclusion should wrap up the presentation and clinch the purpose expressed in the central idea.

Who is going to be the Nobel Prize winner? Guess.

Al Gore is a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize -- if you believe some experts.

The Nobel awards being announced this week cover the range of human behavior,

from peacemaking to scientific discovery to literature, yet share a tradition of mystery

and wide speculation about who might win.

This year, with world attention fixed on global warming, giving a joint prize to Gore,

the former U.S. vice president, and Inuit environmental activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier of

Canada, could be an appealing choice for the prize committee.

Another possibility would be to honor the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC).

The peace award is announced in Oslo, while the other prizes – medicine, physics,

chemistry, literature and economics – are announced in Stockholm.

Each award carries a cash prize of 10 million Swedish kronor, which this year is

worth about $1.54 million.

The announcements begin on Monday with the medicine. (AP 10/06/2007)

The Harvard-educated economist and grandmother promised to rid her country of corruption, and set the stage for recovery from Liberia’s bitter and violent past. Johnson Sirleaf promised Monday to unite her people. “We know that your vote was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security and stability, a vote for individual and national prosperity, a vote for healing and leadership,” she said. “We have heard you loudly.” (USA Today Jan. 17, 2006)

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia Jan. 17 2006

Your Tentative Topics to be presented in the class – Oct. 22, 2007

1. Bracing for the alarming GLOBAL WARMING and its impact on deteriorating environment worldwide. What ate the strategies?

2. World peace starts from good understanding. (Economic cooperation, nuclear weapon removal)

3. Quality Assurance of higher education in your country: What is the biggest challenge? How should we improve it?

4. What is the solution?

5. Is international education essential to college students and national development? Why?

6. Crime rate is rising in our society. How can we curb the spreading crimes?

7. Traffic safety is everybody’s business.

8. The relationship between countries. What should we do to alleviate the tension and enhance peace?

9. How can college students improve their English?

PresidentDrew FaustHarvard Univ