Speech writing

Hi everyone,
One of the objectives of the media advisors role at the COJ is to mange processes including media liaison, research, speech writing and media releases within the City of Joondalup. I have been working on writing a lot of speeches over the last couple of weeks and so I thought I might blog about what I have learnt from this experience.

The preparation of speech notes tends to be for the Mayor and Councillors, of which there are 13, and they can choose to read the speech word by word or just use it as a guideline on what they will say. The speech notes I have prepared have mostly been for the presentation of funds to community groups, for event welcomes, for openings of stores in the area and for other occasions.

A major point that has been emphasised to me about writing speeches for other people is that it doesn’t matter how great the speech is, if the speaker has no charisma or is just plain bad at speaking, it’s going to come across poorly. This is a point that I have been told to remember when I get into the “real” workforce, to ensure the speaker knows how to present and if not organise some training for that person.

The second most important point, I think, is that you should know who your audience is going to be and what it is the speaker is there to do. A lot of the speeches that I have written have been to present acknowledgements of community funding from the City to a particular club or organisation who are undertaking a program within the community and need the City’s support. In these instances the clubs tend to have younger members so the language needs to be quite simple, whereas if it is a more prestigious event the language can be more sophisticated to represent the level of education within the audience.

Research is a key component for speeches because it shows the audience that the speaker is educated in the topics they are talking about but it also saves embarrassment of saying incorrect information. For example, mispronouncing or using the incorrect name you are presenting to. It is also good to do research surrounding the speech topic to get interesting information

Short sentences are key components for speeches, because it will prevent the speaker becoming tongue tied and make the speech sound more fluent. Spacing the text of the speech and by putting it in a larger font also assists the speaker to find where they are up to easily and not get lost in chunks of wording then becoming flustered by losing “their spot”.

Acknowledgements are something that is very important in the land of government, and Councillors must acknowledge the presence of members of parliament before they commence the speech. This is a matter of being polite to the important people present before continuing to address the rest of the audience.

After doing a little bit of research the best tips of the trade I found on speech writing was in the PR Consultancy text book Strategic public Relations by Kim Harris, in the 5th edition the chapter starts on pg 247.

The thing I've found most true in relation to speech writing is "practice makes perfect" so happy practicing.

Katie.