Common Speech Structures
Remember when planning your speech that less is more. There’s only room for three or four main ideas, supported by evidence, case studies and anecdotes.
LOGICAL SEQUENCE
You can start from the beginning or first step and move logically through to a conclusion or final point. For example, if you’re talking about marketing, you could talk about clarifying your purpose, identifying your audience, determining your budget, choosing marketing tools and writing an action plan.
PROBLEM AND SOLUTIONS
A useful structure, particularly for persuasive speeches, is to present a problem and then identify the solution. Using this structure, you can tell your audience what is wrong, explain why it is wrong, suggest how the situation could be corrected, and explain what they can do about it.
CHRONOLOGICAL
With a chronological order you present your ideas according to the time they occurred—starting at either the beginning or end point. For example, you could look at the history of technology in personal communications, from the telephone through to emails and mobile messaging systems.
Q&AS
You know what your audience is interested in from the questions you’re frequently asked about your area of expertise. In your speech, pose these questions and then answer them. For example, ‘The question I’m most frequently asked about running a restaurant is . . .’
