Understand speech structure and connect with your audience!

How do you effectively educate, motivate or inspire an audience through a short speech? It turns out there IS a formula to it, although one that is endlessly modifiable to fit your goals. Let’s break it down.

In the club, you will often see members use the A-B-C structure. Here it is:

A = Introduction, in which you list in outline form what you will be talking about.

B = Body of the speech, in which you go through these elements in detail, in the same order as your outline.

C = Conclusion, in which you recap, or summarize, the main points that you made.

This structure is sometimes summarized, “First, tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em; then tell ’em; then tell ’em what you told ’em.”

Before we return to the A-B-C structure, know that there are two main types of communication in speech: story-telling and disseminating facts. Let’s look at the strengths of each of these:

STORY-TELLING	DISSEMINATING FACTS
Easy to pay attention to	Enables rational decision-making
Engages imagination, sometimes multi-sensory	Can build actionable skills
Audience is more patient because they want to hear the conclusion	Counters mis- and disinformation
Can create an emotional bond between speaker and audience	Establishes speaker’s expertise

Do you always need to use the A-B-C structure? Not at all. But the more your speech is fact-based rather than story-based, the more an audience needs the support of the A-B-C structure. It’s easy to drift off when a lot of facts are presented, and you don’t want the audience to be thinking, “Where is s/he going with this?” or “What part are we in now?” Every moment that the audience is disoriented their attention is divided. The A-B-C structure helps to keep them anchored to your purpose during each section of your talk, especially if you don’t have the visual aid of presentation software.

In addition to giving them a heads up in the Introduction as to what you will be talking about, if your points/sections are long or technical, it’s a good idea to announce what each point is as you get to it. For example, “Next, I’ll address water quality in the Tijuana River Estuary.” 

For maximum orientation, you can even tell them what section you just finished followed by what section you are starting. For example, “We just talked about how rapidly AI is being integrated into our lives. Now, let’s turn to how AI is being used by health insurers to approve or deny claims from enrollees.”

By contrast, story-telling doesn’t require this kind of work to keep the audience oriented; it’s naturally engaging and easy to pay attention to. In fact, you may want to create an immediately immersive opening, and not distract from that by talking about your speech structure. For example, your first sentence could be, “There I was, hiking in the Sierra Nevadas, lost and with night falling.”

The initial words you say in a speech are called, “the hook.” People often decide within the first few seconds how interested they are in what you have to say; a strong hook will grab your audience’s attention and convince them to stay with you throughout your talk. Initiating with a story is just one way to present a powerful hook.

What are other ways to create a hook that will grab people? Here are a few:

·      Ask the audience a question, especially one that requires them to respond, such as raising their hands or entering their answers in Chat.

·      Start with a compelling quote. People will want to see how you tie that into what you say next.

·      Say something counterintuitive, such as, “Statistically, winning the lottery makes people no happier than they were before.” The audience will be curious as to how you justify this surprising statement.

·      Be unusually personal, such as, “All my life I’ve struggled with overeating. Tonight, I’m going to share with you its impact on my life and how I finally overcame it.”

Don’t think that the term “story-telling” requires a major movie plot. Tiny wisps of story do a lot to make you relatable and keep your audience interested. For example, our member, Egor I., recently talked about a work trip in which he discovered he didn’t have his Kindle with him, so he went to Target and saw only one book that looked interesting. This anecdote about casually discovering a book contrasted nicely with the body of his speech in which he talked about the major impact this book is having on his outlook and mindset.

Can you mix story-telling with disseminating facts? Absolutely and it’s recommended! Facts add value to the content that you wouldn’t achieve with story-telling alone; conversely, story-telling keeps the interest level up for your audience, which allows greater recall of the facts later. For more on this, see article 1 or article 2. 

Here’s where your personal creative touch comes in – you can weave story and facts together in almost any arrangement. Here are just a few of many possibilities (note reference to A-B-C structure):

Example 1:

·      A = Introduction outline

·      B = Body

o   Fact 1, possibly with short example story

o   Fact 2, possibly with short example story

o   Fact 3, possibly with short example story

·      C = Conclusion summary

Example 2:

·      Initial story as hook

·      A = Introduction outline

·      B = Body

·      C = Conclusion summary which includes a different story

Example 3:

·      A = Introduction outline

·      Begin a story but leave it unfinished at a dramatic moment

·      B = Body

·      Finish the story you began

·      C = Conclusion summary

Hopefully, you’re feeling enthused by now about the creative art of speech-writing. Here are some ways you can build your skills in recognizing and understanding speech structure.

·      Diagram out your speeches, similar to what I’ve done here. Pay attention to which parts are story and which are facts.

·      Work with a mentor to get feedback on what are the most effective ways to organize your speech.

·      Watch short speeches online and try to analyze them.

·      Listen to Speech Evaluators closely, and sign up frequently to be a Speech Evaluator yourself. Instructions on how to perform this role can be found in Level One of each Pathway. Go to the Evaluation and Feedback module; scroll down to the bottom under “Resources”; open up “Print the Evaluation and Feedback Project” and go to page 11: “Part 3: How to Be an Effective Evaluator.”

o   Be sure to get credit in Pathways when you complete the Speech Evaluation project!

·      Read books that analyze speeches, such as Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo.

Elaine P.

(Thanks to Patrick K. for a helpful discussion on this topic)