7 Steps to Writing a Successful Speech

The day will come when you'll have to prepare an important speech for yourself, your clients or senior executives within your organization.

Maybe to win a proposal ...

Maybe to promote your business ...

Maybe to minimize the damage done to your client's reputation ...

Whatever the reason for the speech, the majority of your success depends upon your preparation. If you don't prepare properly, you won't succeed ... period. If you've prepared speeches before, you know it can be a time-consuming, stressful and confusing process. It doesn't have to be that way. Instead, you can use a 7-step process that will help you save time, avoid unnecessary stress and eliminate confusion when you write your next speech.

Step 1: Research
When given the task of writing a speech, most people will begin by writing what they want to say. This is a mistake. Before you write one word, there are a number of things you'll need to research first. These include the topic, the audience and even the venue, city and date where the speech will be given.

Step 2: Define Your Purpose
The second step in preparing a successful speech is to define the purpose of your speech and prepare a purpose statement. Your purpose statement will help you determine what you want to do (educate, inform inspire) and what you want your audience to do with the information you give them.

Step 3: Decide Your Theme
Once you've defined your purpose and developed a purpose statement, you'll need to boil the statement down to a theme which will be woven throughout your presentation. Your theme should be stated in one word, phrase or sentence.

Step 4: Create an Outline
You've researched your topic, defined your purpose and decided on the theme for your speech, but you're still not ready to write it. Your next step is to create an outline for your speech. What will your main points be? What stories, statistics and other supporting evidence will you use to drive home your main points?

Step 5: Organize Your Content
After you've done all your research, defined your purpose, decided on a theme and outlined your speech, you'll need to decide how you're going to organize your content. In addition to organizing the content, you'll need to determine how much time you will spend on each main point.

Step 6: Write Your Speech
Finally! Now that you've done your research, defined your purpose, decided on a theme, outlined your speech and organized your content, writing your speech will be a piece of cake. Write with reckless abandon! You can edit later.

Step 7: Edit Your Speech
Once the writing is finished, you'll still have one more step before your task is complete. You'll need to edit the speech for timing and so it will be easy for your audience to listen to and remember. It may be tempting to skip this step, but resist the temptation. Editing is crucial to the overall success of your speech.

Following the 7-step process I've just given you will increase your chances of developing and delivering a successful speech.

To get your free "Successful Speeches Toolkit" visit http://www.wellwrittenwellsaid.com/freetoolkit.html

For more information on how to develop and deliver successful speeches, visit the "Successful Speeches Podcast" http://www.wellwrittenwellsaid.com/successfulspeeches and the "Successful Speeches Blog"

John Watkis is a Toronto-based freelance speechwriter who helps his clients use the right words at the right time in the right way so they can educate, influence and inspire their audiences.

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