7 Must Have Components Of A Speech

7 Must Have Components Of A Speech

A room of five, fifty, five hundred. A speech to promote, to warn, or to entertain. Here are 7 components of a speech.

You’ve done this hundreds of times, you’ve never done this before, you don’t know if you will do this well. The task of giving a speech will fall to all of us eventually, whether we want it or not. Many of the time, a good speech is the culmination of your hard work over a particular topic at school or the office where the very main point of your efforts is communicated and driven home. With all the time given towards what you feel needs to be shared to the world, to deliver a good speech is to transform what you believe into action in the world.

Before one goes about attempting to become a confident and articulate keynote speech-maker in the mold of a David Goggins or a Tony Robbins, a speech needs to be understood at its most fundamental level - of which there are seven:

Here are your 7 components of a speech you must have!

Component of a speech

1. The Speaker (that’s you)

First and foremost, we have the speaker, the man or woman who is stepping into the arena and taking on the risks incorporated into giving a speech. This is person who is responsible for how well a speech is accepted by the audience based on their previous experiences, knowledge, and preparedness to talk about the topic in mind. Before a single word is said, an audience can determine whether or not you are worth listening to based on WHO you are in the first place.

2. Your Ultimate Message

What you say needs to be what you mean to say so make sure your speech remains on-topic and does not needlessly stray away from the main point you are trying to make. The message needs to be communicated as clearly as possible whilst sharing an enthusiasm for the topic from the speaker to the audience.

3. Your choice of Channel

Today, the communication of a speech is not reserved exclusively for face-to-face events, we have today video and sound communications perhaps like in no other time in history. The channel is the platform that you use to give your speech and you will need to make sure all the technical components are on your side and ready work (as opposed to not working, and hurting your speech).  

4. Your Listeners, YOUR AUDIENCE

All of those in the crowd whether in person or virtually and whether intentionally or unintentionally are the listeners, your audience. A good speech is prepared with the audience in mind, by knowing what kind of information and emotions they are more receptive to.

Spend some time studying the personas, and of your listeners. Because we’re in the digital era, lucky us, we can do a presumptive study online. Here’s one way marketeers find out more about their audience. This will help you interact deeply, as you’ll have a general idea on sensitivity, culture, habits, beliefs and values.

5. Your feedback

A good nod, a frown, or a nice long yawn are all feedback from the audience in response to what you are saying in your speech. These are all cues as to how well your message is being received and whether or not something needs to be changed to better communicate the message.

6. Interference

Interference is anything that may affect the connection between speaking and hearing and can be either external or internal. External interference can refer to people speaking loudly in the same room while internal interference could be the speaker’s perception of the audience or the audience's perception of the speaker.

On a deeper level, internal interference may even relate to the speaker's perception of themselves.

7. The situation

Lastly, the situation is the physical time and place or platform that the speech is given in. Getting comfortable in your situation will only help you give your best speech with as few hindering nerves as possible and allow your message to FLOW. Critical thinking plays a massive role here. Here are 3 easy ways to improve your critical thinking.

Nina NasirComment