Building a Speech with any Topic

Writing a speech sounds simple – you start with an attention grabbing opening, move on to some really interesting stuff, and then finally end with a strong conclusion. Now, it might sound simple, but where do you go for the ideas?

Many friends have told me, “Zenith I have chosen a topic, but don’t have ideas to develop it”. This is the truth, and most of us get stuck at some place, unable to make progress, having faced with ‘writers block’. How often do you face with ‘writers block’ while trying to write a speech, article or even an email to your colleague? If you haven’t faced with ‘writers block’ yet, then, this article is not for you. It is meant for those who keep thinking, chewing and eating the back of the pen, without much of ideas.

A fortnight ago, the President of Creek toastmasters club, Mr.Kishor Mathew met me at the DTAC, in Abu Dhabi and said, “Zenith, we have a problem. We want to know how to choose a topic and further, how to develop it into a speech”. Can you do an education session to our members?” I liked his passion, the glint in his eyes, and the desire to help his club members. I accepted the call, and developed a three step formula to build a speech from any topic. It was Mr.Kishor, who created the impetus in me to produce a specially tailored presentation for creek members. I am sharing the very same presentation with you in this blog. Read on and see if this technique works for you. If it does, I would have the fulfillment that I have touched another life. If it doesn’t, at least I have shared a method that works for me and some of my friends. I have been using this technique, and it has worked for me most of the time.

First, before we proceed to the three steps, we must understand one thing, ‘the doom’ – doom is a little voice sitting in our head and telling all the time, your ideas are stupid. The key to success is to find a way to make that ‘little voice’ shut up for a while and then putting ‘something’ on a blank of paper. Good or bad, some ideas listed on a paper are better than a plain blank paper. And, the best way to do this is by allowing your mind to wander free. When you stop trying to control your thought, ideas surface gradually.

Now that you know what the ‘doom’ is, and you know what to do with it, let us start the three steps:

One, Getting Ideas
Two, Choosing Ideas and
Three, outlining your ideas

Getting Ideas, for this to happen as said earlier you must allow your mind to wander freely. Never try to control your conscious brain and force a thought. No, instead allow it to wander, and to your surprise you will find that, suddenly from some where the ideas start flowing. This happens because your ‘conscious’ brain is switched off and the ‘unconscious’ brain is switched on. It is the ‘unconscious’ part that gives you prolific ideas. The unconscious brain is like the 2/3rd of an ice berg that is below water and bolsters the 1/3rd that is above the waters.

Ideas could be listed freely in a piece of paper or may be placed in small ‘idea bubbles’ that develops in to a ‘cluster diagram’ or a ‘spider group’. Messier the clusters, better your ideas and writing would be. Believe me, it works fabulous for me. Now, research each of the ideas from the list or cluster diagram using search engines, books, or real time experience of people. This real time experience would add value to each of your ideas and also would add another dimension. A research could convert your ‘ordinary and lifeless’ speech in to a vivid one that is believable. I searched google with the words ‘speech title’ to find 29.8 million pages. Ask.com threw 24.4 million pages on the same topic. This demonstrates the plethora of information that is available for us today in this scientific world.

Once you have the ideas, the next task is to choose the ones that will work for you and discard the ones that may not work. Let me tell you something, this is your writing, and no one is going to see it unless you show it. Hence, do it with no inhibition.
To choose the right ideas, I use three tests to determine if they qualify for my speech. I place the acronyms, ‘F’, ‘S’ and ‘D’, against each of the ideas. The letters expand as below:

F = Feeling test
S = Story test and
D= Description test

Idea passes the ‘F’ test, if you get an answer to the question, ‘Could I use this idea to get the reader’s feelings involved to make them amused, frightened, angry, or pleased?’.

An idea passes ‘S’ test if the idea is a part of any ‘event’. And, an idea passes the ‘D’ test if you are able to draw a picture out of it.

Once you have chosen your ideas and discarded the ones, that fails the above tests, you are almost ready to move to the next step, called outlining.

‘Outlining’ is nothing but a plan. You need a plan in place, before you start writing your first draft. I used the power of ‘outlining’ to write this article. Outlining can be done using Index Cards. Writing one idea in one card is a great idea, as it gives the flexibility to shuffle and rearrange the ideas in the sequence you desire. Writing and re-wring may take hours, while index card could be moved around to see those connections that you would never have seen otherwise.

Now, before moving the cards to arrange, I suggest to use a theme that is flowing from these cards. The ideas are developed from one ‘word’ and then you progress with supporting ideas. If you take the example of ‘water’ which is what I used at the Creek Toastmasters, because one of the speakers did a good speech on water. The word ‘water’ could be developed further in to types, advantages, purifying and cleansing effects, its presence in human body, and its presence in earth etc etc.

You have the index cards; you have the theme, now I suggest you use the ‘Burger’ method to arrange your cards. Few cards for the beginning, few for the middle and few for the end. The beginning and end referred here are not the ‘Attention Grabbing Opening (AGO)’ and the ‘Powerful Conclusion (PC)’. Never overdo your burger, or it will look something like this…

Never ever start writing with AGO and PC, as these are normally perfect sentences and written with care in the end after forming a structure. If you are determined to start writing with AGO and PC, then I can assure you that, you will have a tough time with your own ‘Doom’.

Having organized your sequence using the index card, in line with the theme, using the burger method, you are now ready to write your first draft. Write it without stopping and turning back from start to end, with good or bad grammar, whatever it is, keep writing sentence after sentence till you reach the last index card. Once done, you can edit, proof read, polish and finish a well structured speech. This is the time you embellish the speech with an ‘attention grabbing opening’ and a ‘powerful conclusion’.

The aim of this article is only to touch upon the three steps; getting ideas, choosing the ideas, using the ‘FSD Tests’ and outlining the ideas to tailor an appealing speech by helping you reap ideas from your own ice berg that is hidden beneath. For full presentation in PDF format, please click the below link.

If you like this article and if you feel it has made some sense, please post your views. On the other hand, if you feel this article could be improved, please post your suggestions.

http://www.scribd.com/full/16359838?access_key=key-19d3lu9rwvmeszcrrwbc