Writing 07 - Write a Speech
Who can forget two memorable utterances by former US President John F Kennedy in two good speeches that he made, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” and “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” These two stick in the listener’s minds and stay on forever. How does one go about writing and delivering a speech as enduring as these? In this quiz for Upper Primary English we shall find out!
Delivering speeches is an important way of communicating to a dedicated audience. You can have several types of speech such as informative, instructional, persuasive, entertaining or special occasion speeches. All these different types of speech are delivered to specific audiences and the subjects chosen depend upon the audience to be addressed.
A good example of subjects chosen when writing is the way current Indian Prime Minister Modi went about addressing rallies in different parts of the country during the run up to the general elections in May 2014. He chose topics that were dear to a particular state and captured the attention of the people he was addressing. His speech writers were well conversant with the subjects to be tackled and the audience to whom the speech was aimed at. On his part Mr Modi delivered the speech in a manner that captivated the audience and drew repeated applause from them, indicating that the speech was making an impact. Mr Modi was practicing all the rudiments of good speech writing and delivery.
Good speeches should have a strong idea if they are to be important to the audience. The idea should be encapsulated in an outline that encompasses a strong introduction, a cogent body and a firm conclusion. The other important aspect of speech writing that Mr Modi practiced was repeat principle. Important ideas were repeated to drive home the idea and make it stick in the listeners’ minds.
Speech writing can be made more meaningful and effective if, after the writing, the speech is read out loud. Reading out loud would help the speech writer to use better words choosing from an array of synonyms available in the English language.
The quiz that follows tests your knowledge both of speech writing and of speech delivering.