Structure

The simple answer to how you construct a speech is to have a beginning, a middle and an end. But there's more to it than that and there are various ways in which you can structure your presentation.

Opening

Like the best novels, the first line should always grab people's attention so your audience is hooked. There are three principle ways of doing this:

Statement:

"Fifty percent of you in this industry are going to be out of a job in 5 years time because of one simple thing you're not doing."

You can then follow it with: "That's why I'm here to tell you how and why you're going to be the ones who keep your jobs and prosper."

Such a stark opening is going to hit home with all of them. You can see them worrying about the mortgage, the school fees and such like and then, having made them sweat a little, you tell them how they can escape this fate. They'll listen because they want to learn where they could be going wrong, how they get it right and how they are therefore going to keep their jobs and certainly how they can prosper.

Question:

"How many people here today have knowingly called in sick because they couldn't face going to work?"

This can then be followed with:

"Recent statistics reveal that at least 85% of us have! It's costing the economy hundreds of millions of pounds a year. So, as employers, how do we reduce that statistic so our staff are happy and committed to their work so they don't falsely claim to be ill? Because, if we don't, then it will put more pressure on your bottom line and therefore more pressure on the workforce and therefore more of them are likely to call in sick."

You have made people think and, in this instance, made many of them feel privately guilty as the chances are they may well have been one of the 85% at one or more points in their career! It relates to all of them directly or indirectly. Raising the spectre of a threatened bottom line will present them with a problem they'll want you to answer.

Joke:

Humour is a great way of starting a speech. But it has to be appropriate to the occasion and audience and, just as importantly, you have to feel happy delivering the line which you must practise repeatedly to make it sound good.

You could start with something along the lines of:

"When I started selling our products, I was so keen to make a sale that, after a while, I started saying to customers that they could have them at below cost. And, when one asked me how on earth I was going to make money out of that, I replied: 'By repairing them!' They laughed so much I got the deal."

You have made your audience laugh and got them hooked through humour. They will warm to you and will therefore be more receptive to what you've got to convey to them.

Your opening should include:

• Your hook (see above)
• Telling them what you are going to tell them, like how they're going to benefit from bsomething or have their problems solved
• Tempt them with brief snapshots of some of the gems coming up in your speech which should possess a varied mixture of light and shade

Middle

This is the where you dress up and present the gems that, in your introduction, you've promised your audience you are going to tell them. This is the main act of your performance - the body of the speech which needs to be suitably dressed and presented. Remember to:

• Research your subject so you have more than enough information at your disposal. This can be useful if there are questions afterwards
• Be clear on what your objectives are
• Be aware of the audience's needs before writing the speech and their reaction during it
• Make a few keys points during the speech, having said at the beginning what they are, so people don't get lost as the speech goes on. But don't make too many. Four or fiveshould be a maximum.
• Use a logical sequence to illustrate your point(s)
• Weave in interesting stories, anecdotes and, if applicable, humour to the fabric of the speech for added colour

Stories are key to the main body of your speech. People love stories because of the pictures they paint and because they bring added colour and enlightenment and even inspiration to a subject. Keep them short and simple but scintillating. Tailor a story to your audience so they can relate to it and therefore you and your theme more easily. Employing the following principles will help make your stories compelling for your audience:

• First line: The first sentence you use, as in a novel, should immediately capture the imagination of your audience. It has to be one of the strongest sentences in your tale. It's the hook to help you reel in those whose imagination you're trying to capture
• Characters: The people about whom you speak should have a clear purpose in your monologue, whether they're good or bad, inspiring or uninspiring or winners or losers. Paint a picture and describe them in interesting detail. For instance, don't just tell an audience how a man conquered Mount Everest and that it made him feel great. Tell them (if this is truly the case), for instance, that he had a fear of heights, had spent his life feeling a failure after being bullied at school, that he lost the father, he felt he had struggled to impress, in a climbing accident and that he cried for joy on the summit
• Context: Always give context to your story and describe it to your audience. To take the Mount Everest example above, explain (if this is truly the case) how the weather was the worst it had been for years, how one in six people who try to tackle the summit die in the process, how long it takes to get from Base Camp to the summit and what effects it has on the human body above a certain altitude
• Point/Moral: The story should have a moral or point which the above elements should have illustrated and which should be directly related to your audience

Ending

This is just as important as your opener. You need to end on a high note and therefore the close has to be as compelling as the opening. In fact, a brilliant close to a speech can, like a knock-out punch at the end of disappointing boxing match, alter the audience's whole perception of the speaker and what they said, particularly if it hadn't had them on the edge of their seats for whatever reason. The conclusion needs not just to sum up what you have said, as a reminder to your audience of what you have been saying, but it should also promote their thought, inspiration and action.

There are two main ways of doing this:

Anecdote:

Use a pertinent tale that encapsulates your talk or that can be related effectively to it. This can be used to sum up what you have been saying and act as a call to action or some such. Think of something inspiring, whether it's one of Aesop's Fables or an item you're read in the newspapers or a magazine or heard on the radio or seen on the TV. But always relate it to your audience.

Joke:

Effective and relevant use of humour can end a presentation on a high note. Even if you're giving a serious and/or a rabble rousing message, lightening the load will leave your audience in a more positive frame of mind. Of course, if you're telling everyone that they're fired, a joke will have the complete opposite effect and will make matters worse. In fact, in that case, either don't make a speech - make a short statement - or get someone else to make it for you!