Speech Writing - Writing Exam Preparation

Structure of speech

• Strong, persuasive introduction 
- Address your audience clearly, use of the pronouns 'you' and 'we' to maintain direct links with the audience
- Clear opening/ introduction: statement of purpose

• Paragraph 1 - clear explanation and development of your point of view with supporting
evidence, facts/statistics, factual information – try to give 3 different reasons to justify your POV

• Paragraph 2 – attack the opposing argument – explain why it is not true

• Strong conclusion – repeat your point of view – appeal to audience

Persuasive speech techniques

• Inclusive personal pronouns (we, us, you, your, our)/ directly appeal to the reader

Have you ever considered what we are doing to our planet?

•Rhetorical questions

Can any educated adult seriously question the blatant reality of climate change?

•Facts and statistics

Since 1870, global sea levels have risen by about 8 inches.

•Emotive language

We are killing, chocking, drowning our world.

•Repetition

•List of three

Melting ice caps, hurricanes, droughts, floods – who is responsible for this?

•Knock down/destroy the counter argument

Useful phrases

Expressing and supporting opinions

I believe/do not believe that ... (because) ...

Personally I feel that ... Let me explain why.

In my opinion, ... Just consider ...

As I see it, … The reason is ...

It seems to me that… This is because ...

I would argue that for the following reasons.

I feel very strongly that ...

I am convinced that ...

I am of the opinion that ...

I am very much in favour of/against ...

I am completely opposed to ...

The reasons why I believe that ... are as follows.

Opening phrases

People (sometimes) claim that … but I feel that ...

It is often said/argued that ... However, it seems to me that ...

It is a fact that ...

Over the past few months/years, it seems that …

Recently, we have all become concerned that …

Nowadays, we are all realising that ...

In the past, people used to …, but now ...

These days, it seems that ….

Making statements

It is clear that ...

On the whole, it appears/seems that ...

We must take into account the fact that ....

It goes without saying that ...

It is important to remember that ...

Explaining/Expanding ideas and giving examples

... This means that ...

... This is largely due to ...

…For example/For instance, ...

…In other words, ...

Take, for example, the situation in ...

Listing arguments

Firstly/In the first place / To begin with, …

Secondly/A second area to consider is …

Another point to remember is ...

Finally, ...

In conclusion, ..

Last but not least, ...

Evaluating ideas, Dismissing contrary arguments

I think it is true that ...

I totally disagree/agree with the point that…

It is questionable whether …

I am sure/I doubt whether …

It is true that ... On the other hand, ...

While nobody can deny that ... , I would like to point out that …

It could be argued that … However, I would like to point out that ...

Despite all the arguments, I still feel that ...

Notwithstanding the claim that ... , I would argue that…

It may be true that ... , but all too often ...

Persuading

I would urge you to consider…

I am sure you will agree that…

Surely you must agree that…

Summarising

All in all, I think that ...

To sum up, I believe that ...

In conclusion, the facts suggest that ...