The Basic Structure of a Speech

All speeches contain at least three parts:

An Introduction

A Body

A conclusion

In the Introduction, you state the topic of your speech. You tell the audience the main points of your speech. In other words, you say what you are going to speak about.

In the Body, you speak about each point in detail. For each point you must give the audience some evidence or information that will help explain and support each point. The Body is the longest of the three parts.

In the Conclusion, you should summarise the main points of your speech, and emphasise what you want the audience to remember.

Making a Simple Outline

An outline is a way to organise your ideas logically and clearly. Without making an outline your speech will probably lack structure, and so be difficult to understand. By using a presentation outline, you can "see" the structure of your speech. In addition, It can also serve as your speaking script.

The following presentation outline is a very simple way to organise your material into a speech format. If you have time, you should look at the detailed speech outline. When making an outline you should not write full sentences, but just key words and phrases.

1. Introduction

What is the topic of your speech?

Why should the audience listen to your speech ?

What will your main points be?

2. The body

What are your main points and ideas (sub-topics)?

What is your supporting evidence and information (sub-sub-topics)?

3. The conclusion

What were the main main points of your speech, and what do you want the audience to remember?

Note that the presentation outline is not a word-for-word script for the speech but an outline of ideas to serve as an organisational and presentation tool for the speaker.