Quickly recap your points and refer back to your introduction

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Whatever the purpose of your speech, it’s important to organise your points in a way that effectively conveys information and engages your audience. People are 40% more likely to retain information that’s presented in a structured way.

The most basic (but still effective) structure to use is the classic ‘Introduction – Points – Conclusion’. Grabbing your audience’s attention at the start makes the introduction particularly important. Humans love stories, and many great speakers choose to start with one. Just make sure the anecdote you tell is interesting and appropriate for the occasion.

Drawing a common theme through all your points, or thinking of the entire speech as a austria phone number resource story that needs to hang together, can also help you write a more powerful speech.

The conclusion is about drawing all of the speech together. If you started with an anecdote, mention it again; if you posed a question, answer it. And end strongly, with a memorable sentence or a call to action, and then thank your audience.


Practise
If you want to make an effective speech, just reading out what you’ve written isn’t enough; you need to give an engaging performance. Being really familiar with your material and keeping your note cards to a minimum is part of this.

Try speaking through what you’re written a couple of times to check that it flows well. Then you can try focussing on sections of the speech one at a time; it’s more efficient and less tricky than trying to learn it all from start to finish at once. Practise the transitions between each section as well, so that these moments don’t trip you up.

Being able to recite what you wrote words for word isn’t necessary – in fact, as you run through it, you might find that you naturally alter some sections to make them easier to say. What’s most important is remembering the points you want to make and the structure of your speech; no one but you will know if you’re ad-libbing the words.