Directed Writing: Format of Speech Writing

Directed Writing: Format on Speech Writing.

1. Speeches are to inform, share, support or persuade your audience on certain topics/topic given to you in section 1- directed writing.
2. Beware that you have to write exactly how you speak before your audience. In  fact, it is the easiest in its writing style.
3. Start with opening your speech marks.”   “,or ‘     ‘ both are fine.
4. Begin with greeting your audience.Keep in mind the type of speech being delivered (formal or informal). Eg. ’Good morning friends’, ‘hello’, ‘greeting my dear fellow peers’, ‘good evening ma’am, respected teachers’ e.t.c.
5. A greeting should be followed by a brief introduction. E.g. ’My name is Sara and  I am representing my class…’,’I am a student of O-level and my name is Awab’,’I am speaking on behalf of my staff members or I hereby speak on behalf of my residential community’ e.t.c.(depending on the type of speech, either formal or informal).
6. Do not confuse it with a debate. (I happen to give a question on speech writing to my class, many students involved in debates, they commenced their speeches on the same lines as done in debates’ ‘The motion of the house is…’).
7. Proceed by informing the audience about the purpose of your speech. What is the speech about? ‘I am here with you to discuss/inform/share/ask your views about the raising  rates of the edibles at our school canteen’, ‘I would/will like talk on increasing issues on misconduct of my fellow peers on campus’ e.t.c.
8. Speech should be written in a way as it must be spoken. Thus, it is the only genre in directed writing where the candidate is permitted to experiment with the  pattern of sentence structure (SVO)  used as a standard in English language. e.g. ‘ On behalf of my class I would like to speak on some imperative issues  never discussed before.’ could be written as ‘There are some  imperative issues, never been discussed, ever, before here on campuson, so on behalf of my entire class, I would like to speak on those, today’.
9. A speech is a genre where the candidate can use the ‘ing’ form wherever he desire.e.g.‘I am speaking  here in front of you..’,’today we will be discussing…’,’I  am representing  my class…’.
10. In an informal speech the candidate can use ellipses of fillers to give it a realistic flavor. E.g. ‘hmm, Good morning! friends… my name is SSara’. The repetition of the letter  ‘s’ highlights a stress given by the speaker. And the speech begins with ‘hmm’, another technique that shows whether the speaker is hesitant or either preparing himself to begin his speech.
11.  Moreover,this technique may help to identifya sense of anxiety or tension projected in the speech. Furthermore, these are best suited in writing an informal speech.
12. NOTE:The fillers and ellipses should be used sparingly, otherwise, it would give an impression to the examiner that the candidate is deliberately using these tools to show the examiner of his awareness of this technique.
13. A speech must have rhetorical questions (those questions that do not make your audience think hard about something) to show the speaker is in immediate interaction with his audience. E.g. ‘I hope you understand what I mean?’, “I hope you all are doing well?’, ‘do you have any questions on this matter? I would love to answer those’.
14. Writing a speech does not permit you to add ‘slangs’ or any nonstandard form of English words like ‘I wanna talk too ya’,’you gotta luv it’,’Hiya chicks’.
15. Contractions are included. E.g.’ I’m here’ instead of ‘I am here’.
16. Certain colloquial words could only be included in an informal speech for instance ’hey fellas’, for ‘Hello fellow friends’, ‘This campus is great deal’, in place of, ‘This campus is a great place’.
17. In speech writing make use of exclamation marks. This would show stress being laid on some spoken words.
18. The candidate can italicize the words or use upper case like ‘ARE YOU with me!’. Other variations like underlining the sentence or a particular word would suggest a rise and fall in intonation of the speaker. And this would add a realistic feel to your speech.
19. Remember you have to write as if you are speaking to your audience at present.Hence, whatever you write must show as if you are infront of your audience and aware that speech writing differs from other forms of written genres in this respect.
20. End your speech by thanking your audience for listening to you.’Thank you all for being with me today.’ In an informal speech you could add a joke stating how the audience put had up with you for so long.
21. You may also end with asking them to present their queries on the matter.e.g. ‘would you like to ask some questions? I would appreciate to have a question answer session with you all’.
22. Another way of signing off can be by adding a ‘quote’
23. In the end a simple ‘Thank you and good evening’, ”Thank you and see you all again’ would do.
24. Remember not to exceed the word limit.
25. Do not forget to close the speech marks at the closing of your speech, students often tend to forget it in the end.