Writing a speech

We teach speech-writing skills, not scripts for spoken assessments.

What a speech is

A speech is written to be spoken aloud to a live audience, such as a school assembly, a debate, a prize-giving or a campaign. In IGCSE English it is a directed-writing task. You get an occasion, an audience and a purpose, and you write a speech that would work if read out loud.

The big difference from an essay is that a speech is heard, not read. A listener cannot go back over a difficult sentence. The words are heard once, so sentences must be clear the first time.

Ideas must come in an order the ear can follow. The feeling of the speech matters as much as the logic, because a live audience responds to both.

Tone, technique and structure

The tone depends on the occasion. It is usually direct and persuasive: warmer than a report and more shaped than everyday talk.

Speak to the audience directly and vary your pace. Use rhetorical techniques on purpose:

• the rule of three (three linked points for effect),
• rhetorical questions,
• repetition and contrast,
• a short sentence that lands like a full stop in the room.

A usual structure opens by greeting and gripping the audience. It then develops the argument in steps, each building on the last, and ends with a line people remember. Signposting matters because listeners cannot see paragraph breaks.

Use phrases like “My first point is…” and “Finally…”. Task wording differs by board, so check our qualification pages.

A worked opening, written by our teachers

This is our own original writing, made for teaching.

Good morning, everyone. I want to begin by asking you to do something strange. Close your eyes for a moment and picture the last time you were truly bored.

I do not mean scrolling-through-your-phone bored. I mean really, painfully bored, with nothing to do and nowhere to be.

I suspect most of you struggled to remember it. That is exactly the problem I want to talk about this morning.

We have filled every empty moment of our lives. In doing so, I believe we have quietly stolen something from ourselves.

The opening involves the audience, uses an experience they share, and then turns sharply to the argument. Said aloud, the pause after “close your eyes” would do real work. This is why we teach students to hear their writing, not only see it.

What a strong speech includes

• An opening that greets the audience and grips them at once.
• One central message the audience can remember in a sentence.
• Rhetorical techniques that serve the argument.
• Ideas in an order where each builds on the last.
• Sentences of different lengths, with short ones for impact.
• An ending that lands emotionally and often calls the audience to act.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is writing an essay by accident. The writing is correct, but nobody could enjoy hearing it. The second is technique overload: so many devices that the argument disappears.

The third is a flat structure, so the ending has no more force than the middle. The fourth is forgetting the specific audience and occasion.

Read your speech aloud. The places where you stumble are the places to rewrite.

How this helps your other writing

A speech sharpens persuasion, structure and voice, the same skills you use in articles and persuasive pieces. It trains your ear for rhythm, which improves every sentence you write. It also builds confidence for spoken tasks.

Our teachers coach delivery skills, and the student speaks in their own words. See our skills guides, our annotated model responses and our practice tasks.

Next steps

Read the annotated model response for directed writing: speech, then try the directed writing: speech practice tasks. The skill guide writing a speech gives the steps. A speech often argues a case, so see also the argumentative essay.

Students usually get stuck because their speech sounds like an essay when read aloud. Sentences are too long, and there is no change of pace.

In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers read the speech aloud with the student, mark where they run out of breath, and shorten those sentences together. This is part of our First Language English tuition, from RM70/hr.

Bring a recent speech to a paid one-hour trial lesson, and the teacher who would continue will mark it with you.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to write this form to a real brief. Our IGCSE English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.