COMM140- SPEECH WRITING

 As far as the history of public speaking is concerned, the

Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, great speakers of our time and
technology all have important roles to play.

 Some believe the history of public speaking began with the

Greeks. Few teach that it lied with the Hebrews.

 Structure and development of speech lies with the Greeks and

Romans.
 One of the earliest of such prophets was the prophet Moses.

 He constantly had to address the Israelites as he led them out

of slavery from Egypt. He had to inform, inspire and at times
rebuke them.

 The first known book about public speaking was written about
2,400 B.C.E by an Egyptian official named Ptahhotep. He was
vizier (minister) to Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi of the fifth dynasty.
 On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry gave the famous “Liberty of
Death” speech. His famous phrase, “Give me freedom, or give
me death!” had a great impact as he proclaimed the cause of
freedom.

 In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave the famous

“Gethyburg Address”.
 1908 was the year public speaking was first taught in America
by Dale Carnegie.

 In 1963, Martin Luther King called for the end of racism in

America when he gave the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
This is one of the most famous speeches in American history.
 To inform
 Entertain
 Motivate or persuade
 To solve problems
 ELEMENTS OF THE PROCESS

◦ Speaker
◦ Listener
◦ Message
◦ Channel
◦ Feedback
◦ Interference
◦ Situation
 Perception: Stop trying to be a great “public” speaker
 Perfection: When you make a mistake, no one cares but you
 Visualization: If you can see it, you can speak it
 Discipline: Practice makes perfectly good
 Description: Make it personal
 Inspiration: Speak to serve
 Anticipation: Always leave them wanting more
 Never distort the information
 Respect your audience
 Reject stereotyping /racial comments
 Enrich the listeners’ lives
 Take every speech seriously
 Impromptu
 Extemporaneous
 Manuscript
 Memorized
 Definition  Speech to influence
 Descriptive thinking
 Expository  Speech to motivate action
 Process/Technical

Informative speech Persuasive speech

 Extends the dictionary definition of a concept with
examples

◦ Purpose statements
 The explain to a foreign audience what is liming
 To explain what is turbidity to an audience..
 Describes extensively a vivid picture of a person, place, object
or event

 Purpose statement
◦ To describe to my listeners a typical Police sting operation
◦ To description working conditions at the emergency room of the
Scarborough General hospital
 Explains the steps or stages of something
◦ HOW TO PERFORM A PROCESS
◦ HOW TO DO SOMETHING

◦ Purpose statements
◦ To teach my listeners how to make a music video
◦ To explain how guide dogs are trained
 Oral report or lecture explaining a concept or situation to an
audience
 Research is often required

◦ Purpose statement :
◦ To Inform your audience on DNA result and its use in court
◦ To explain to your listeners recent information on cancer and fish
 Relate the speech to the listener’s self interest

 Make information interesting

 Assess the knowledge of the listeners

 Use the familiar to explain the unfamiliar

 Convincing persons to adopt your position
 Information is most times new to the audience
 Counter-argue a concept put forward by others

Purpose statement
◦ To persuade an audience that psychic cant predict the future
◦ Convince the audience that marijuana is a good medicine
 Win listeners over to your way of thinking and take
action
 Lead them to start an action based on your speech
 Continue a behavior
 Stop a behavior

◦ Purpose statement
◦ To convince my audience to eat only fish
◦ To convince my audience to stop taking on the cell phone
whilst driving.
 Motivated sequence- grab attention, show importance,
present solution, paint results and call for action
 Problem-solution – identify problem and the various
solution
 Statement of reason- justification for reason
 Comparative advantage- audience already agrees with your
solution but not sure which solution is best
 The Art of Public Speaking- Stephen Lucas

 Public Speaking-Hamilton Gregory

 Speaking By Doing- A Speaking-Listening Text- William

Buys