Speech: Purpose

Speech: Purpose

Establishing the Purpose

  • The purpose of your speech should be clear from your opening lines. Whether it’s to inform, persuade, entertain or inspire, your audience needs to understand why you’re speaking to them.
  • Bear in mind that setting a clear purpose helps shape the content, organisation, and style of the speech overall.

Creating a Statement of Purpose

  • Create a concise statement of purpose that defines your intention. This will act as a road map for your speech, informing its direction and helping keep you on track.

Informative Speeches

  • An informative speech aims to educate the audience about a specific topic, such as an event, concept, or how something works. Its objective is to improve the listener’s knowledge and understanding.
  • In informative speeches, the speaker should act as a teacher, explaining complex ideas in easy-to-understand language.

Persuasive Speeches

  • A persuasive speech attempts to change the audience’s beliefs or actions. These speeches may use facts and logical reasoning, emotional appeal, anecdotes, or strong statements to convince the listeners.
  • To construct an effective persuasive speech, it’s useful to understand and address both sides of an argument.

Entertaining Speeches

  • The purpose of an entertaining speech is to amuse and engage the audience. This does not mean it shouldn’t have a meaningful message—it just presents it in a light-hearted and engaging manner.
  • Effective entertaining speeches blend humor with a well-crafted message and strong delivery.

Inspirational Speeches

  • An inspirational speech seeks to uplift and motivate the audience, often to spark change or encourage personal growth.
  • Inspirational speeches should be personal, filled with emotion, and capable of igniting passion in listeners.

Finding the Balance

  • It’s crucial to strike the right balance between content and delivery to ensure your purpose is achieved. This means using appropriate language, tone, and examples to support your purpose.
  • Remember, ensuring the speech is audience-appropriate is key to achieving your stated purpose.

Show, Don’t Tell

  • Rather than merely stating the purpose at the outset, use your speech to demonstrate it. Your audience should be able to discern your intent from the way you present your content and the information you choose to share.