While on campus, I have had to sit through many student council speeches. Some of them I really enjoyed listening to, while others were a complete bore. Being a student leader, I had to finesse my art of writing and delivering speeches. From that, I learned some few tips that can make you a better speech writer.

Tips for Preparing a Quality Speech

Whether you are preparing a speech for student council meeting or the entire student body, you need to do so adequately. Preparing a speech of any kind requires substantial prior planning to ensure that you don’t embarrass yourself in front of everybody.

As a speech writer, there are some specific things you need to consider when preparing a presentation. Each of these tips is discussed below.

1. Focus all your attention on the audience.

Take time to first understand your audience. You need to know what the council wants and how best to capture their attention. By doing so, you all able to focus all your attention on making sure that they understand everything you say in your presentation.

2. Highlight all your ideas.

As a smart speechwriter, start your preparation by highlighting all your main points. The most crucial part of drafting a presentation is the preparation part. Making sure that the final draft focuses on all the parts that you need to address becomes easy if you have all ideas listed before writing. It gives the talk flow.

3. Be time conscious

From one writer to another, do this work early in advance. When you have adequate time to prepare a speech, you are able to perfect it before you get to deliver it. This also gives you time to polish and change some things to make it more appealing.

4. Be conscious of language

You have to realize that there is a specific language that appeals to students. When working on an interesting student council speech, it is wise to look at several examples of student council speeches and the language used in them. This gives you more insight into the choice of words to use and the tone to adopt.

5. Don’t be afraid to write more than one draft

You can’t be perfect in your first draft. Sometimes, it would take me up to the seventh draft to get the quality of presentation that I felt is good enough. This much effort always made my talks more memorable and relatable because they were well done.

Do not get tired of editing your draft or writing another copy. The more you edit, the more refined your draft gets.

6. Don’t overstretch your presentation

One thing I learnt about students is that they hate long and boring presentations. No matter how captivating your speech is, if you make it too long, it will end up being boring. I learnt this lesson from all the student council speeches examples I came across when trying to be a better writer.

Whenever you are in a student council meeting, make your presentation short, precise and straight to the point. However, strongly emphasize the main points.

7. Give reliable information

More often than not, students are keen during student council meetings. Therefore, do not contradict yourself in any way when delivering a presentation. Get your data and information from reliable and credible sources. Lay facts before the council.

8. Always proofread your final draft

I liked reading my speeches out loud to myself before delivering them. This would help me eradicate mistakes therein and check that each statement was sensible. It also helps note and remove irrelevant info.

This definitely made me a better writer and public speaker because I was conscious of what I was putting across. This tip can change your speeches for the better.

Conclusion

Why do students zone out when listening to your talk? Maybe you don’t focus on specific points, or you don’t focus on the choice of words and tone. Whatever it is, you now have something to work on and be better.

I can promise you that you will definitely nail it in your next speech for student council if you follow all the above tips. You can become a proficient speech writer if you give it your all.

Martin Dade - freelance writer