How To Write A Speech – Structure (Part 1)

People who don’t know how to write a speech mostly lack two things: ideas and structure. If you know what you are going to talk about then you need to structure your presentation.There are many ways to do that. Here are the most common:

Problem/Solution: Tell about a problem and then offer a solution. It depends on your audience what to emphasize. Do you have to tell about the problem or is it already known? Are there other solutions than the one you are offerin?
Chronological: Are you going to speak about a series of events? Your presentation will be much more comprehensible if you are segmenting it into past, present and future.
Places: If you are talking about events taking place at different locations take this as your structuring method.
Cause and Effect: Mainly used for scientific speeches but can also be practical for blaming someone.
Deconstruct a quote: Thomas Edison once said “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” But how can we define success and what is considered a failure?…
Deconstruct a word: Today I’m going to talk about our new program EDGE. The E stands for efficiency…
Theoryand practice: Use it to talk about something that didn’t work out as planned.

Other variations are possible. You could split your speech into two parts that support or contradict each other. Strategies like the ones that are following are well known from our daily life and easily understandable:

pro – contra
either – or
positive – negative
advantages – disadvantages
past – present
comparison of two subjects

Try one of these simple structuring methods for your speech. If you like use one of these advanced two part patterns:

from general to special
from special to general
theory and reality
shock principle: present a pleasant thing first then follow up with its disadvantages
start with a quote then explain it
explain your intention first then continue with your arguments

What are your favorite structuring strategies that make it easier for you how to write a speech? Tell me in the comments.