Quality Factors in Speech Writing by Saudat Abdulbaqi
After thoroughly choosing your topic and considering all that needs to be considered at the previous stages, i.e., you, your audience and the occasion, the next thing is to write your speech with the following qualities in mind:
Content:
Make your write-up to be interesting, surprising and informative but avoid trying too hard to be impress in your perspective or reasoning as this may bore your audience. Enrich the content of your write-up with anecdotes from your own experiences, experiences of people that you know of personally or through your readings. The content should reflect a thoughtful analysis of issues or a critique of the argument presented.
Cogency:
Express your thoughts and point of view about the subject in the context of what you know and what you have been able to uncover through research. Whatever you put across must be compelling and convincing. Develop your ideas early, persuasively and logically, using insightful reasons and relevant examples.
Clarity:
Be explicit in your choice of words. Avoid vague, ambiguous and general words. Try to use concrete, specific examples and simple language to avoid wordiness, e.g., “scenes depicting violence on many television entertainment shows have a bad influence on viewers, particularly the young” could be better written as: “Scenes depicting the raping of a young girl by a gang of teens in an episode of “end time” movie encourage violence in young people because they rarely show the consequence of violence, such as broken limbs or bloodied face of the victim…”
Coherence:
Assess your write-up for compliance with grammatical rules and mechanics. All ideas explored in your write-up must be related or connected to generate intending meaning. It is important that you systematically move from one idea to another clearly by the use of connecting words that are appropriate to your thoughts to gain fluency. The connecting, transitional words or phrases can express opposition or contrast, addition or amplification, result or effect, relations in time or place, time sequence, etc. Some of the more frequently used transitions are:
Opposition: But, however, contrary to, although, nevertheless, in opposition to, on the other hand, etc.
Addition: Furthermore, in addition, moreover, also etc.
Result: consequently, thus, as a result, therefore, so, etc.
Time: sometimes, often, never, seldom, after, now, before, frequently, at the same time, etc.
Place: here, there, above, somewhere else, further on, below, at this juncture, etc.
Time sequence: first, second, last or lastly, then, before, next, finally, etc.
Basic Steps
There are four basic steps of writing a speech:
Topic:
This is to determine the issue to which you are to respond and reaffirm the relevance of the topic to the issue. You must know your topic well; and have more than a superficial knowledge of it by studying it in-depth. Consult books, magazines, internet sources and conduct interviews with experts, if the need be, to have a proper grip of the topic.
Planning:
This guides you in determining what your position is, what your main points are and what examples or information you will use to explain your points. Planning includes keeping up with developments in the topic of interest to enhance your reputation and credibility. Engage in mind mapping, keep a note paper at hand and always jot ideas down as they occur.
Writing:
Once you have the basic plan, you are ready to begin. Put your basic plans together in the structure of the introduction, body, and conclusion. Organize your speech well because poorly organized speeches reduce the impact of the message. The introduction must be clear, strong and effective. It may contain an opening grabber such as a quote or shocking statistics, an agenda, the purpose or main message of your speech. The body bears the main gist of the speech while conclusion briefly restates your position and summarises the main and supporting ideas. In the summary, “tell what you are going to say, say it and then tell what you have said”. Give a closing grabber to live a long-lasting impression in the mind of your audience.
Proofreading and editing:
You proofread to check for and correct possible errors that can arise from omission, repetition, unclear or ambiguous expressions, punctuation marks that are either misplaced or left out, transposed letters, wordiness, etc. You can also edit words or phrases that you feel do not express your ideas clearly. It is important to cite the sources of any information you have used in your speech. This earns you credibility and appreciation for conducting rigorous research and obtaining materials from reputable sources.
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A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Saudat Salah AbdulBaqi is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Ilorin and an Adjunct Lecturer at Kwara State University and Summit University. A Chairperson of NIPR Kwara State Chapter, she attended Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Lagos and Universiti Utara Malaysia for her qualifications.
Effective Speech delivery by Saudat Abdulbaqi
The success of a well-written speech is determined by the quality of its delivery. This refers to the presentation of the written document to an audience in oral form. There are four standardized ways of doing this (Abdulbaqi, 2004, Lucas, 2007, Adler & Rodman, 2009, Abdulbaqi & Arikewuyo, 2017), each having its strengths and weaknesses.
Styles of speech delivery
Extemporaneous style: the speech is planned in advance, well-researched, organized, and rehearsed but it is presented in a direct, spontaneous manner. It is a conversation in tone. The speakers jot down points from their readings, residual knowledge and rich personal experiences to guide their presentation. These points can be made into slides with few points on each slide in an orderly manner. The speaker then speaks to the points one after the other. Abdulbaqi and Arikewuyo (2017) submit that, adopting the extemporaneous style of delivery creates a positive image of the speaker as a brilliant scholar who exudes confidence in the minds of the audiences. Also, to the strength of this style, they add, is the flexibility that the speaker enjoys to buttress their messages with various relevant examples while relating with the points. They, however, cautioned that the speaker may face the challenge of insufficient time to deliver all that they have prepared by dwelling excessively on few points. An extemporaneous delivery may also difficult to transcribe.
Impromptu style: Speakers adopt the impromptu style of delivery when they do not have any prior knowledge of playing such role. Such is the case when a person is invited to give a short speech, prayer, goodwill message, etc. at events. The choice of the speakers is usually premised on their pedigree. Although this ‘off-the-cuff’ situation projects the speaker as being up to any task, it often creates feelings of anxiety and fright in the speaker as well possible lack of coherence in the presentation (Lucas, 2007, p. 34). Abdulbaqi and Arikewuyo (2017) stress that, speakers must have a deep understanding of their fields, be able to think on their feet, gather rich experiences to draw from and courage to succeed as an impromptu speaker.
Manuscript style: Speakers that intend to adopt this style will research the given topic or topics of their choices thoroughly and write out everything they intend to say. The speech is usually written in short paragraphs, bold type faces, typed on one side of the sheet and well-rehearsed. The speakers then read, word-for-word, from the well-prepared document to the hearing of the audience, at varied speeds. The completeness of the presentation is one of the high points of the style. Others are the ability of the audience to read along with the speakers as they make their presentations and keep the written speech for future reference. However, the style may bore the audience if devoid of some exciting illustrations. It can also encourage physical or emotional absenteeism on the part of the audience since they know they can always obtain the speech
Memorization style: here, the speakers commit all they have to say into memory and ‘pour down’ to the audience off hand. This is applicable in oratory contexts. If well mastered, the style attracts to the speakers, the admiration of the audience. But if otherwise, it can embarrass the speakers as they battle to remember words that have been committed to memory rather than ideas, thereby, leading to a brain block.
Aspects of speech delivery.
These refer to components that the speakers need to consider while preparing for their speech delivery.
visual aspects: you need to be mindful of what could be outwardly observed in you and in your manners. Your dress, gestures, facial expressions and your entire composure speak volume and compliment the oral content of your presentation.
a] Appearance: the speakers must dress to suit the occasion where they shall be delivering the speech and the audience to whom they shall be delivering their speeches. They must dress well, be attractive but not flashy nor distracting. They should dress to resonate their topics, audience expectations and their own bodies.
b] Movement: this depicts the amount of confidence in the speaker. Moving voluntarily, when necessary, helps speakers to maintain contact with their audiences.
c] Posture: the speakers must stand comfortably erect; good posture helps to control nervousness by allowing their breathing apparatus to work properly. They must not be caught fidgeting with their fingers, microphone, scratching their heads nor other parts of their bodies.
d] Eye contact: maintaining eye contact with the audience instils a sense of belonging in them. It also reposes confidence in the speaker as it injects life into the presentation. It can be used as a form of audience control by the speaker. The speaker must avoid fixing eyes on the floor, ceiling, door etc., as this may send a signal to the audience about his level of confidence
Auditory aspect.
You must be conscious of how you would sound to the audience. Note your:
(a) Volume: the voice and its inflections are very vital as the speakers speak. The loudness of the voice is determined by the amount of air the speaker is able to push through the vocal folds in his throat. The speaker must be audible enough to the audience but not too loud as to constitute disturbance. Microphone should be provided to amplify the speakers’ voice when addressing a large audience. Efforts must be made to position it below the mouth for efficient performance.
(b) Rate: The speaker must neither be too fast to the point of being unintelligible nor too slow to bore the audience. Scholars suggest an average of 120 to 150 words per minute (Lucas, 2007)
(c) Pitch: the rise and fall in the speaker’s voice contributes to the effectiveness of the speech delivery exercise. The rate is controlled by the frequency at which the vocal folds vibrate as one pushes air through them. The speaker should vary the highness and lowness in pitch for emphasis.
(d) Articulation: the beauty of speech delivery is in the speaker’s ability to pronounce words correctly. Incorrect articulation usually manifest through:
1.delection such as, C’mon, instead of common /’kɒmən/,
2.substitution of ‘t’ for th – such as det for /deθ/, ‘d’for /th/ e.g. ‘dat’ instead of / ‘ðæt /
‘f’ for /v/ e.g fan instead of /’væn/ ‘s’ for /ʃ/ e.g. su instead of /’ʃu:/
3.Addition of vowels between consonant clusters e.g sipirit instead of /’spɪrɪt/
4.slurring- wharamean instead of /’wɒt ‘aɪ ‘mi:n/
Using visual aids
Complimenting speech presentation with visual aids make presentation more interesting, messages more effectively communicated, and ideas easily grasped and recalled. Visual aids that can be used in speech presentation include: real objects, models, photographs, drawings, graphs, charts, video clips, multimedia presentations, demonstrations by the speaker, etc. Some of the advantages of using these visual aids in speech presentation are:
Clarity: presentations are made clearer when you demonstrate or show pictures of what is being talked about making the message clearer to the audience.
Interest: showing pictures, graphs, tables, etc in the cause of speech presentation arouses and sustains the interest of the audience in the information being passed as well as in the speaker.
Retention: the old saying: ‘what I hear I forget; what I see I remember’ holds sway here. Your audience may not remember everything you have said but are most likely to recall the visual materials that you presented. They are also likely to remember your demonstrations when faced with similar situations and circumstances.
Credibility: if you prepare visual aids to complement your verbal presentation, your audience will see you as being serious for the assignment and consequently, accord your message better credibility.
Confidence: having visual aids to lean on during your presentation instills more confidence in you. It equally helps you to manage stage fright as the audience has another image to hold their attention aside from the speaker.
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A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Saudat Salah AbdulBaqi is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Ilorin and an Adjunct Lecturer at Kwara State University and Summit University. A Chairperson of NIPR Kwara State Chapter, she attended Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Lagos and Universiti Utara Malaysia for her qualifications.
Speech Evaluation and Criticism by Saudat Abdulbaqi
It is essential to evaluate speech presentation in order to:
(a) identify the effects of speech on the audience
(b) explore the critical dimensions of communication
(c) evaluate ethics of communication.
The criticism must be constructive and aimed at helping the speaker to improve. It must be balanced, pointing out what was right about the speech as well as what was not so right.
The focus of speech criticism
Coherent vocabulary
- Textbook vocabulary– assesses the mechanical accuracy of a speech based on general communication principle e.g., grammar, arrangement, style of delivery, etc.
- Burkean vocabulary: this was developed by Kennet Burke, a renown social critic. He sees communication transaction at 3 levels;
(a) grammatical or descriptive level- chart
(b) rhetorical analytical level to creatively analyze strategies- prayer
(c) symbolic or poetic level-to symbolically comment upon the dramas of human communication will pool of symbols – dreaming
- Bitzer’s vocabulary– used to analyze the speech that are presented by representative or spoke person for particular group. Bitzer’s approach helps to differentiate between the personality of and individual and the situationally-imposed role he plays.
Careful observation: to decide what to look at and how. This takes into account external factors like, account/ public opinion, reaction on TV, radio ratings, inside observation, your mastery of the speech content due to repeated reading in addition to research carried out on the content.
Additional Focus of speech criticism
- how well does the speech address the subject matter?
- were the main ideas well organized in support of a definite theme?
- how interesting and factual were the supporting themes?
- were the assertions logically supported?
- how was the manner of delivery?
- did the audience understand the message?
- were the objectives of the speaker achieved?
- how was the audience reaction; favourable, unfavourable, indifferent?
- be complete in your review, be specific to particular issues and be positive, start with your positive observations then follow with the negative ones.
Criteria for Measuring Speech Performance
Ethical standard: this is an assessment of the moral values of the speaker. Ethical decisions are guided by values, conscience, sense of right and wrong such as:
(a) is he telling the truth? ‘there is an ethical responsibility to be morally truthful’
(b) are the opinions and facts reasonably presented?
(c) are the feelings and sensibility of the audience being considered?
(d) were there suggestions of name calling or stereotype in the speech?
Logical standard: did the speaker reflect sound reasoning? Was the content clear and easy to understand? Was it well structured? Were the audience able to identify with the presentation?
Artistic or Aesthetic standard: speech, like any work of art, must give some pleasure to the speaker as well as to the listener. This can be realized from good structure, interesting materials, inducement of logical thoughts, suitable language, speaker’s manners, dress, style of walking to the platform, facial expression, sincerity, enthusiasm, etc. Always remember the saying of Patricial Fripp (Year, Page) that: “words represent your intellect, sound, gesture and movement represent your feelings”.
Result standard: a very sound basis for judging speech is to consider its effect. However, a speaker does not need to labour extremely hard to win the audience’s favorable response by distorting truth. Rather effect should be judge according to the nature of the problem. Note that, effect can be affected by mood, background, prior knowledge as well as other factors that cause perception error. In criticizing a speech, be complete, don’t be one sided, be specific, be objective and be not a fault finder.
How to write criticism
The first step is to read the speech severally while noting areas of possible interest. Note that, this task requires to study the speech critically and bear your view about its strengths and weakness and not condemn it. Be sincere in your assessment and avoid the use of foul language in writing your report. Like every other report, reports on speech criticism should be in the following format:
Introduction: you can start with a quotation from the speech, create a question round it, and highlight how you intend to answer the question posed.
Body: take each point of your critical analysis one step after the other, applying your chosen hierarchical approach. You can illustrate with quotation to lend credence to your argument.
Conclusion: summarize by pulling the argument of your paper together by indicating how the sub-points fit together to present a valid and interesting picture of public communication. Draw implications and brief lessons from your analysis.
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A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Saudat Salah AbdulBaqi is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Ilorin and an Adjunct Lecturer at Kwara State University and Summit University. A Chairperson of NIPR Kwara State Chapter, she attended Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Lagos and Universiti Utara Malaysia for her qualifications.
