The writing of a speech can be time consuming and frustrating. With the right approach it can be a simple, worthwhile and an enjoyable experience for you and your audience. A step by step process to speech writing will assist in relieving some of the anxiety of public speaking.
Having great content with a worthwhile purpose makes the job of delivering your speech much easier. This knowledge also builds self-confidence and makes the process more enjoyable. Content that is interesting and worthwhile to the audience will be received favourably by them. Preparing your thoughts and writing them down in a structured way puts you in control of the process.
Step 1: Know Your Audience – Find out as much as you can about the audience and the organizers of the event. Ask the following questions: Why have I been invited? What would they like to hear from me? How many people will be there?
Step 2: Determine the Purpose – The circumstances and situation can dictate the purpose especially in a work or business environment. The question the purpose of the speech should answer is “What benefit will the audience gain from the speech?”
Step 3 Determine Your Theme – How are you going to achieve your purpose? It is the central idea you will build your speech around to accomplish the purpose of the speech e.g. the purpose of the speech may be – To get members of the audience to vote in the upcoming election. The theme to support this could be – Voting is the duty of every citizen in a democracy.
Step 4: Decide on Delivery Style – The purpose for speaking and the nature of the audience will help determine the type of delivery. Your delivery style will probably be a mixture of styles but with one style dominant depending on the audience and purpose of your speech. The styles are:
Humor and narrative – For providing entertainment
Informative – To help the audience understand something
Persuasive – For the audience to form an opinion, change their mind or strengthen a belief
Motivation – To inspire the audience to take action
Step 5 Research – You need to thoroughly research your theme so that you are an authority on it. There are 4 general sources to find information to support your speech:-
1. Your own personal knowledge and experience
2. Reading
3. Talking with others
4. Writing to experts
Step 6 Select and Arrange Your Speech – You will probably have more information than you need for your speech. To select the information to be included in your speech chose the research that is the best support for your theme. Arrange your speech into the introduction, main body and conclusion. The main body information is best arranged into a logical pattern of thought e.g. chronological, problem and solution etc.
Step 7 Write Your Speech – Start by outlining your speech – this is the blueprint. This will give you the structure and make it easy to see how your speech fits together. When writing your speech use words and sentences that make it easy to read and speak. Use spoken language when writing out your speech especially if you intend to read the speech. Written language can be difficult to listen to and understand. Language that sounds great on paper does not always sound great when spoken.
Step 8 Practice and Edit – Make time to practice. By speaking your speech you will discover phrases that don’t work well, whether it flows properly, do the timings work etc? Edit your speech as required.
In following these steps you will be able to deliver speeches that are valuable to your listeners. When your speech includes worthwhile your poise will increase and your delivery will be more confident.
Tags: Great, Proven, Publc, Speaking, Speech, Steps, Writing
Before you start to write the eulogy, think about the person and their life. You might want to include a memorable event you shared or mention their passions in life – or not. It’s up to you. No matter how you choose to write the eulogy, remember to paint a picture of the dearly departed in a positive light rather than a negative one.
1. Where Should You Start?
In order to write a good eulogy, you will want to start by thinking about what it is that you want to say. Chances are, if you have been tasked with writing the eulogy you were very close to the deceased and know them very well. You should think about what that person held as important in life, what they chose as their profession, and how they affected the world around them.
2. Decide On A Theme
In the end, it won’t matter what theme you choose so long as it is done in good taste. The most common themes include a narrative story, a comical outlook upon the life of the deceaced, or even a collection of memories and poems.
3. Get Involved
One of the most overlooked aspects of writing a eulogy is making sure that it remains pertinent to not just you but the audience. For example, recounting a great time just the two of you had together won’t have as much impact as one that included more people. For this reason, mentioning events in the persons life that were experienced by more people will have greater effect than mentioning an experience that only you and the departed had together. Your audience will get more involved this way.
4. Pace Your Speech Appropriately
Now, mind you, unless you are writing a narrative type of eulogy that goes over the life of the individual chronologically, something that most people are advised not to do anyways because those kinds of eulogies can become quite dull and are often seen as unemotional, you will want to stick to a series of points or stories connected in logical fashion. Be sure to have a first draft of your eulogy proofread by a friend or family member before you move on to writing your final draft.
5. Make Sure It Is Perfect
Finally, be sure that your eulogy, like any public speaking, has points connected in a logical order. Moreover, because it isn’t just what you say but how you say it. For this reason you will want to practice several times beforehand. Some people feel that memorizing a eulogy is necessary but this isn’t the case. You are free to bring a flash card along to help you remember what you want to say.
Tags: Eulogy, Great, Techniques, Writing
Posted by on Jun 18, 2010 in
Writing Skills Want to know how to improve your writing skill? It would ultimately depend on your motivation. There can be many reasons why you would want to learn how to improve your writing skill.
Others do it for the love and others may do it for the money. The important thing here is that you should have the proper motivation to write and to write well in order to even gain some ground on what you set out to do. Having the wrong motivation as you set out on learning how to improve your writing skill would get you nowhere. Only the right motivation will send you on the right path.
You may have heard of quite a number of tips on how to improve your writing skill. The very basic of those would be learning how to open up your mind more. One of the roadblocks to great writing starts with the development of ideas. Most people seem to have this trait of being selective and critical even with ideas that come to mind. This might be good for other aspects in life, but this would not work well in writing.
If you want to learn how to improve your writing skill, you must put off your “editor” side for a moment. Try to be more open to even the outrageous ideas that come to your mind, especially when you are trying to generate new material to write about. This will take time to get used to since the mind may already have developed its critical nature all of these years. A good writer is one that has gone over this and has opened up his more creative side.
If you still find it hard opening up your mind a bit, you may need a bit of mind exercise. You can do brainstorming exercises about a certain topic. Try to think of words and images that come out from your mind. List everything. Refrain from not including a certain word or image just because you think that it is too outrageous. That would be your critical side working in the sidelines. Don’t let your critical side take over. Let your mind go free instead. This simple exercise may help in trying to open up your mind.
Learning how to improve your writing skill may take more than just knowing the rules. Getting better at writing requires more than just that. The most important tip that you can get is to practice, practice and practice. That is the best way of improving your writing.
At first, you might think that your writing may either be too simple or contain a lot of errors. That is just part of the process. With every error that you make, you learn. As you learn and correct your errors along the way, you will notice that your writing is gradually improved.
Tags: Great, Improve, Skill, Writer, Writing
Posted by on Jun 8, 2010 in
Writing Skills Have you ever wanted to get into writing, whether for fun or a hobby, but perhaps debated on trying because you felt you weren’t a great writer? Or have you often questioned yourself about posting something you’ve written only to retract it or never post it to begin with? Do you find this happening more and more to yourself, even though you crave getting into writing?
I’m sure at some point, we’ve all had a feeling of doubt within ourselves, whether with writing, singing, painting, dancing, or any other avenue of creative arts. To some of us, it seems that being creative flows like the waters of the Niagara Falls, and with others, it feels as frustrating as going for a job interview after years of working at one place. But of course, as with anything, if you give up, you’ve already defeated yourself from achieving it to begin with. I’m sure you’ve heard of people that said “Man, I wish I could hit the lottery!” but never play it? How would it be possible to win if you’re not part of it?
The same holds true for writing. The more you do it, the more you’ll excel at it. Of course, there are all kinds of things you can do to shape your writing to where you’ll enjoy it more, and not even doubt on your own skills to write. You’ll also find that it comes to you more the more you try it. Just like riding a bicycle, the more you do it, the less you fall off, and the better you become. With that said, I wanted to share with you, six things you could do that will help you better your writing skills. Grant it, I’m not the best writer alive by any means. But, with confidence, and with learning, I’ve enjoyed to post more and more articles or creative stories or other works.
With the above tips under your belt, and practicing them over and over again, you’ll find that in time, you’ll feel really confident about your writing skills, and more confident to post or submit your articles or stories online for others to read and enjoy. Remember, if you have creative thoughts flowing about you on a regular basis, then you’re already ahead of the game. Hope this article has helped you to feel more confident about writing, and to be ready to post a new article or story as soon as you finish reading. Good luck with your writing pursuits.
Tags: Boost, Great, Skills, Ways, Writing
Posted by on Mar 19, 2010 in
Essay Paper My acquaintance with compare and contrast essay writing happened recently. My younger sister came from school one day and said that they were assigned a compare and contrast essay paper, and that she was in despair. I was a little confused, too. But there was no way I was going to let my kid sister fail her homework.
I knew that any essay writing begins from choosing a topic. Well, that was easy… sort of. But when I asked my sister what she would like to write about, she said, “About a lot of things”. Okay, maybe it was not that easy. I thought about a lovely Chinese-style shirt that we bought her for her birthday. My sister was really into Asian culture. “Hey”, I said, “how about foot binding?” She looked at me and said, “Comparing to corsets, for example!” This was the beginning of our essay paper.
Luckily, at that period of time she was reading Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. We decided to take some of facts from there. Trust me on this one: nobody knows a history of a particular country better than its citizen.
After that we went online, searching for interesting information about corsets. One thing that is absolutely great about compare-contrast essays is that they let you learn useful and interesting information on at least two issues at a time. My kid sister was absolutely fascinated by the materials she discovered.
After obtaining information, we sat on the floor to organize our notes. If you ever decide to look for the best essay writing tip, consider this one: treat yourself with sweets when writing an essay paper. They enhance the mood greatly and also set an informal atmosphere of productive creative writing. As to our information, we wrote it on separate cards and sorted into two different piles: similarities and differences between wearing corsets and binding feet.
My sister decided to pose the main accent on health damage done by both of these actions, that’s why our essay paper got a heading “The Price to Pay”. We started essay writing by saying that women of all times have always been concerned about beauty, and could even sacrifice their health for it. The beauty issue was so powerful that it managed to unite two absolutely different cultures – Asian and European.
In the main body of her essay paper my sister gave light on similarities between beauty motivations for both Asian and European women: corsets and foot binding were called to alter the body, make it more small, gracious, and fragile. She even included a term from the book that compared women’s bound feet to “three-inch golden lilies”.
As to the contrast part, sister decided to put the fact that while wearing corsets was what fashion demanded for those times, foot binding was a tradition that was several thousand years old.
After giving this information, she made a neat conclusion for an essay paper, which said that no matter what the traditions and fashion stood for, both corsets and foot binding resulted badly on women’s health, and were their ultimate torture throughout centuries.
When she was done with essay writing, she read it aloud to see if there were any mistakes or clumsy passages that had to be eliminated. She also showed it to our parents, and I can tell you they were impressed.
All in all it appeared to be a great and useful evening for both of us. Sooner or later I had to face the necessity of writing compare and contrast essays, so it was a good practice for me. As to my little sister, she got one more opportunity to conduct researches on the topic she loved the most – Asian culture. Moreover, now she was able to share her knowledge and thoughts with a bigger audience. If you will be given a chance to spend an evening as joyfully as we did, don’t even think about rejecting it.
Tags: Essay, Evening, Great, Ingredient, Writing
Posted by on Mar 13, 2010 in
Essay Paper Writing an essay can be frustrating and difficult. However, if planned properly and chosen wisely, your essay can stand out from the crowd because of its quality and richness in content.
The first thing your essay should have is an introductory paragraph. This paragraph has to be able to show exactly what your essay is about in only a couple of sentences. A great opening paragraph of an essay will show the reader exactly what they are going to read about and capture their interest straight away. This paragraph is also known as a thesis statement.
The next parts of your essay are the supporting paragraphs. These particular paragraphs make up the formation and the body of your written essay, and should be able to link together the different points you are making. A good tip here is to make a simple list of the points you are making in your essay. You can then develop your essay from this list by creating a supporting paragraph for every point made.
The final part of your essay should be the summary. This summary will conclude everything you have just written about in a few sentences. It differs from the introductory paragraph as that tells you what you are going to read; the summary paragraph tells the reader what they have already read.
You may already have your topic assigned to you for your essay or you may have to choose yourself. If you choose yourself, it is very important to be able to write fluently and confidently about your subject. Don’t pick a subject you know nothing about or are not very confident of. So, brainstorm a few ideas and pick your topic for your essay.
Then, prepare an outline or a diagram of your topic and any ideas you have for your specific essay. This structures your ideas and your essay by giving it a clear and well defined path to follow. If you feel that the structure you have prepared doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to tweak it here and there to make it work for you and your topic.
Write your thesis statement/opening paragraph and tell the readers what you as the writer are going to be showing them throughout your essay. What they will learn from it and the point you are trying to make within your essay.
Then you write your supporting paragraphs that make up your points list that you made earlier. Make a paragraph for each point and show your findings clearly and with solid facts, and possibly quotations or interviews.
Write the conclusion at the end, not during or at the beginning. Many people make the mistake of writing the conclusion before they have even finished and read through the final draft of the essay. Never do this as you may have written something else or become aware of other facts and figures later on in the essay writing process.
Once you have done all of this, you can go on to proofread what you have written. If you have the ability to do so, leave the essay overnight or for a couple of days and back to it with fresh eyes. This makes it easier to spot any spelling, grammatical or any other errors you may have made. If you can, let someone else go through it and proof it for you.
Tags: Essay, Great, Tips, Writing
Posted by on Mar 12, 2010 in
Research Term Papers Writing a term paper can be a disheartening and frustrating thing for a student to do nowadays. Often, papers are given on short notice, and one only has a brief amount of time to complete the work. To make matters worse, students feel that they do not have enough time in their schedule to write papers. However, if one is familiar with term papers and how to write them, they do not need to be so intimidating.
People often underestimate the importance of term papers. All of them together make up a large portion of one’s final grade, and doing poorly on just a few can have a significant impact. Therefore, it is important not to brush off term papers as unnecessary and not worth the time. In addition to being worth a lot of points, they also expand your knowledge and help you do better in the class as a whole.
Most term papers are long, detailed, and require multiple sources and documentation. In essence, they are advanced research papers, and are usually only given out in college and other higher level institutions. Several different perspectives are utilized to attempt to prove a point or explain something intimately. Even though many of the ideas of a term paper come from external sources, it is critical that plagiarism be avoided. Some students accidentally commit plagiarism, as it is still plagiarizing if you paraphrase text and do not cite it. As long as one is consistent with paraphrase and citations, plagiarism can be avoided easily.
It is not easy to write a term paper, and thus, the process is broken down in to several manageable steps. Trying to write a term paper in one fell swoop will leave you frustrated and unaccomplished. The first step is choosing the ideal topic, which is usually made easy since a teacher often gives the topic. If they do not, and rather give an overall subject, you can deduce a topic by thinking about something that could be proven or argued for.
Once you have the topic, you must start gathering notes and doing research about it, gathering as many perspectives as you can in order to develop your argument as fully as possible. After all your notes are ready, the outline of the paper can be drafted. An outline follows the form that utilizes Roman numerals, capital letters, and numbers to structure the document.
It is best to include any citations that you are going to use in the outline, so they are all ready to be placed in the paper. It is only once all of these preliminary steps are completed that the paper can actually start to be written. y this point, writing it is not so hard, as you have the outline to follow and you only need to make minor adjustments. The initial attempt at writing a term paper is known as the first draft. When the first draft is done, the final step is to read over it, edit it, and transform it into the final draft. The final draft includes everything, and should be ready to be turned in for a grade.
As long as you take a term paper bit by bit, it is quite easy to complete. With the Internet, you have an almost limitless amount of resources, so writing a term paper is easier now than ever.
Tags: Great, Paper, term, write
Posted by on Mar 12, 2010 in
Essay Paper Writing an essay can be frustrating and difficult. However, if planned properly and chosen wisely, your essay can stand out from the crowd because of its quality and richness in content.
The first thing your essay should have is an introductory paragraph. This paragraph has to be able to show exactly what your essay is about in only a couple of sentences. A great opening paragraph of an essay will show the reader exactly what they are going to read about and capture their interest straight away. This paragraph is also known as a thesis statement.
The next parts of your essay are the supporting paragraphs. These particular paragraphs make up the formation and the body of your written essay, and should be able to link together the different points you are making. A good tip here is to make a simple list of the points you are making in your essay. You can then develop your essay from this list by creating a supporting paragraph for every point made.
The final part of your essay should be the summary. This summary will conclude everything you have just written about in a few sentences. It differs from the introductory paragraph as that tells you what you are going to read; the summary paragraph tells the reader what they have already read.
You may already have your topic assigned to you for your essay or you may have to choose yourself. If you choose yourself, it is very important to be able to write fluently and confidently about your subject. Don’t pick a subject you know nothing about or are not very confident of. So, brainstorm a few ideas and pick your topic for your essay.
Then, prepare an outline or a diagram of your topic and any ideas you have for your specific essay. This structures your ideas and your essay by giving it a clear and well defined path to follow. If you feel that the structure you have prepared doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to tweak it here and there to make it work for you and your topic.
Write your thesis statement/opening paragraph and tell the readers what you as the writer are going to be showing them throughout your essay. What they will learn from it and the point you are trying to make within your essay.
Then you write your supporting paragraphs that make up your points list that you made earlier. Make a paragraph for each point and show your findings clearly and with solid facts, and possibly quotations or interviews.
Write the conclusion at the end, not during or at the beginning. Many people make the mistake of writing the conclusion before they have even finished and read through the final draft of the essay. Never do this as you may have written something else or become aware of other facts and figures later on in the essay writing process.
Once you have done all of this, you can go on to proofread what you have written. If you have the ability to do so, leave the essay overnight or for a couple of days and back to it with fresh eyes. This makes it easier to spot any spelling, grammatical or any other errors you may have made. If you can, let someone else go through it and proof it for you.
Tags: Essay, Great, Three, Tips, Writing