It’s speech writing time for many of our VCE English/EAL students!
If you’re struggling with persuasive speech writing, here are FIVE easy tips to help you improve your grades:
Check your contention
Contentions need a problem AND a solution. A common mistake students make is to simply identify a problem, without providing any kind of insight or balanced perspective on it.
An easy hack for this to make sure your contention includes both the problem as well as the solution. By suggesting a solution, you give yourself something to argue towards, and helps to structure your argument throughout the speech.
Without proposing a solution, you run the risk of simply ranting!
Use slang or jargon
Depending on your chosen audience, you need to engage them with your language choice. Using the slang or jargon familiar to your audience will enable your audience to relate to you, and give you credibility amongst that group!
Repeat yourself (in different ways)
Listening is hard work! ‘Hard’ evidence, such as numbers and statistics, are particularly difficult for audiences and listeners to remember. And if your audience can’t remember what you said, it becomes very difficult to persuade them of anything.
An easy hack is to rephrase or reiterate your information in a different way immediately after you first mention it. For example, if your evidence is ‘33% of the population believe’, rephrase it immediately in ‘that means out of the 300 people here today, 99 people believe…’
Don’t even try to say difficult words
Many people struggle to pronounce words like ‘statistics’, so don’t even try! Make sure you are using words you can easily say under pressure. Public speaking is stressful and anxiety-inducing for many people, so try to make your life as easy as possible. Write to your strengths!
Paraphrase your quotes
In essay writing, it is expected that students blend quotes into their writing seamlessly. However, this is not the case for speeches!
Your audience is listening to your speech, and won’t have access to a transcript, so bear that in mind when using quotes. Make sure you are introducing your quote to your audience through phrases like ‘according to Dr. XYZ…’ or ‘The University of ABC found that…’. These phrases signal to your audience that the following information is not your own work, but that of other, more expert, sources!
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