When we think of anyone famous who has made a positive or negative impact on society, they would have made speeches at one point in their career. Whether it is Chairman Mao, Hillary Clinton, Adolf Hitler, J.K. Rowling, they all have been trying to persuade people to do something, whether it is to follow their (often demented) ideology or even to buy their books. And normally, they do succeed. Why don't we do the same? It is very simple.
Writing speeches or persuasive writing has a very simple structure. Purpose, Audience and Format or PAF for short.
We must first realise what is our purpose for writing the speech, why are we giving the speech, is it to promote something or to demote something, to put forward an ideology or to shut down an opposing or contradicting ideology, to persuade someone to buy into what we are selling or to make people not buy what others are selling. Next, audience plays a key role in writing. We must decide who we are writing for, we cannot simply write a jack-of-all-trades speech as it would be to generalized. Hence, we need to focus on a particular audience for the anticipated response. For example, if we are writing a speech on the political aspects of the Weimar Republic in Germany and its ineffectiveness, we wouldn't write it in a way that we would speak to small children but instead, we will make it into something intelligent for intellectual minds to comprehend. Format is also very important in any form of persuasive writing as there are different ways of writing the same message for it to be perceived differently. A great example of this is that if we are writing a speech, we would use a different format than a persuasive letter to a figure of authority.
Next, let us go into deeper detail of writing a speech. A speech that is carelessly written will not persuade anyone. There are various techniques applicable to ensure a successful speech. These techniques can be remembered as A FOREST. Let us dissect this acronym.
A - Alliteration - This is repetitions of various letters or sounds to put emphasis on specific parts of a text to initiate an emotional response by the reader or listener.
- Anecdote - A story or introduction of a quote will intrigue the reader/listener as it would have both more substance and more enjoyability.
F - Fact - Facts are a necessity in writing a speech or any form of persuasive writing as concrete facts show that our speech has substance and is more impressive to the reader or listener.
O - Opinion (Expert) - Expert opinion by famous writers or scientists will support the persuasion that we wish to convey as people are more willing to trust an established author/philosopher/scientist than us as we are really nothing in comparison.
R - Repetition - Repetition of words can be used to reinforce the purpose of our piece of writing as this prevents a monotonous flow of words. However, constant unnecessary repetition can lead to our downfall as the repetition itself becomes monotonous, bland and uninteresting.
- Rhetorical Question - This technique is a common staple in speeches as it is very important as we are including the audience as part of our speech. A bond between the spokesperson and the audience is an absolute necessity to ensure persuasion. When we ask a rhetorical question, we are questioning not only the audience but ourselves too as we may or may not know the answer sometimes. Hence, using rhetorical questions, we are able to voice out our doubts or questions without having to find an answer as the readers would reflect upon themselves to find the answer to our questions.
E - Emotive Language - Strong words are an absolute necessity in persuasive writing as we are persuading someone to follow something we wish to put forth. We cannot use words that will say the message without persuading as we will be failing on our purpose, we want to be able to write something that will persuade people through the language itself. The usage of words can change the audience's perception of the speech.
S - Statistics - This technique is held hand in hand with the "Facts" part mentioned earlier as its purpose is roughly the same but it is to add some numbers to our story. People like numbers.
T - Tripling/ Power of Three - This method is very commonly used to emphasise a point that needs to be addressed with utmost importance. The usage of tripling is best used when we wish to convey our original message/ purpose. If we use tripling unnecessarily we will be degrading the importance of our main point.
In conclusion, A FOREST and PAF will be able to lead us into literary success upon writing a speech or persuasive writing of any sort. However, we need to understand that although these are the basis for persuasive writing, it does not mean that we have to blindly obey these rules. Some may practically apply the rules differently or use their own set of rules but this is at least the basic guidelines for a great speech. To put in an analogy, our speech is a tree, these rules are the roots, our branches may reach far and wide but deep down, this is where it begins.
"As Aristotle said, "In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech."
