Unlike LAMDA’s Acting and Speaking Verse & Prose exams where students present the work of other writers, students present their own writing in LAMDA’s Speaking in Public exams. In this blog post, Liane shares some important tips for writing a speech for any Speaking in Public exam
When my students have decided on their speech subject matter, I always get them to think about their speech purpose. I ask them, “What do you want your audience to think or feel as a result of listening to your speech?”
It’s really important that students are 100% clear on their speech purpose as this will guide their research and the development of their speech. For instance, if my speech purpose is to encourage my audience to visit Italy, including a section in my speech about Antartica will not be needed and it needs to be cut. Always ruthlessly cut anything which doesn’t serve the speech purpose and make sure that everything in your speech is there for a reason.
Many young writers make the mistake of telling an audience what they’re going to do before doing it by writing things such as, “now I am going to tell you about”, or, “Hi, my name is Liane and I’m here to talk to you today about…”
I encourage my students to ruthlessly cut all of these sentences. This makes their use of language much more active and engaging.
Speech Structures
I also encourage my students to pay special attention to the way they open and close their speeches. The opening of a speech makes or breaks the impact of the message on the audience in 30 seconds. Therefore, use punchy language which will grab the audience’s attention and make them sit up and listen.
For example:
I want you to imagine a world where dinosaurs once again roam the earth.
The ending of the speech is equally important. I get my students to think about the lasting memory they want to leave their audience with. Is there a take-home message they want them to remember when they wake up tomorrow? If so, how are you going to get them to remember?
For example:
The story of Jurassic Park has an important message for us all. Life cannot be contained, it will always find a way.
The rest of the speech is equally important and I encourage my students to play around with their speech structures. Using flashcards, I get my students to break down their speeches into one topic per card. I then encourage them to play around with the topic order to see if they make any interesting discoveries. For instance, you might find it’s more effective to move the ending of your speech, right up to the beginning.
Choose Your Audience
From Grade 4 onwards, students must tailor their speeches to a specific target audience. I always encourage my students to pick a target audience who are diametrically opposed to the speech topic. For instance, one of our students spoke about the power of advertising to a group of anti-capitalists! Picking an audience where you won’t be ‘preaching to the choir’ can give your speech some drama or conflict, which is very compelling to watch.
Most importantly, I remind my students that a speech is meant to be heard, not read. We therefore need to put ourselves in our audience’s shoes and hear and see the speech through their eyes. Always use vocabulary and language which will be understood and will persuade your audience and always ask yourself, “does this serve my speech purpose?”
Are you or your child looking to gain important lifelong skills through studying LAMDA? Get in touch or call +44 (0)20 8064 0549.
