Writing a good speech quickly is not as hard as it sounds.
You just need to remember two lists of three words each: agree, but, so; and present, past, future.
But first: what is a good speech?
Before joining the speechwriting team at NATO, I studied speechwriting with the help of media expert Susan Jones. Her book, Speechmaking, is a concise and cogent analysis of how to deliver a good speech. (Full disclosure: she’s not aware that I’m plugging her work, but I hope she benefits from it!)
In the first pages, Jones defines a speech as an attempt to persuade through the spoken word.
The word persuade is key. To persuade anyone of anything, you have to inspire their trust. The quickest way to build trust is to convince the audience – in the first few paragraphs – that you’re a decent human being who shares their concerns.
A good speech, then, buys something before selling something. It buys the audience’s trust, and uses that trust to sell the speaker’s argument to the audience.
All this is in contrast to a presentation that simply lays out information, like a bus schedule on PowerPoint slides. A presentation that tries to be a speech is usually a bad speech.
Our two lists of three – agree/but/so and present/past/future – refer to a speech’s structure.
The speaker begins by saying we all agree on something in a way that creates trust between the speaker and the audience.
But there is some problem that must be resolved.
So this is what the audience must do to solve the problem. The so points the audience’s attention to the shiny item on the shelf that the speaker is trying to sell.
An example: We all agree that transatlantic security is important. But our defences are not as strong as they need to be. So we must invest more to strengthen them.
This brings us to our second list of three: present, past and future.
Typically a speech is divided into three large sections.
The first third deals with the present, describing the current situation and problem.
The middle third diagnoses the problem’s origins.
The final third restates the speaker’s proposed solution, and how only this solution can remedy whatever ills afflict us.
The agree/but/so structure occurs in the first third of the speech, in the present. We agree on something now; but there’s a problem now; so here’s what to do now.
The middle third often takes a step back into the past, dissecting the problem in a way that leads the audience inevitably to the speaker’s solution.
It’s like a pharmacist examining your symptoms and declaring that only his or her expertise can cure your disease – devious, but effective.
The final third of a speech repeats the solution offered at the start but describes the way forward. The so repeated here often becomes a how, telling the audience what they must do to implement the so.
This formula is far from describing all the ways a speech can be written or delivered. Speakers with talent can plow through their points on confidence and charisma alone.
But for us mortals, these two lists of three can help write a good speech quickly. About Coca-Cola, for example.
After all, everyone agrees that Coca-Cola is very tasty.
But some say that the sugar in the drink makes you fat.
So it’s time we drank more water instead.
Before we all drank Coke. I liked it. You liked it. Our kids liked it. Our ancestors liked it. Those were great days.
But we drank so much of the stuff that bad things started to happen.
We bought larger and larger jeans until only jogging suits fit. We felt tired all the time. We got type 2 diabetes.
Now even our kids are fat.
It’s time for a change.
So let’s look to the future, and rekindle the passion of our lost youth!
Let’s fit into the old jeans!
Let’s make the world a slimmer place for our children, and our children’s children!
May the word go forth, that all the peoples of the world may hear –
Water is the new Coke!
I hope you enjoyed this post. In the next one, I’ll explore a few common rhetorical techniques you can use to write a good speech.