Writing a speech

Aim at one message, grip the audience early, use a few well-chosen devices and end on something memorable.

What a written speech demands

The speech is a directed-writing task on the IGCSE and International GCSE English paper. You get an occasion, an audience and a purpose. You write a speech that would work if someone read it aloud.

You write it down, and it is marked as writing. But a speech is meant to be heard, and that changes how you build it.

A reader can go back over a hard sentence, but a listener cannot. Every sentence must land the first time, in an order the ear can follow.

The written speech is different from the spoken assessment. For the spoken assessment, we teach delivery and technique, and the student always speaks in their own words.

Six steps to a speech

1. Fix the occasion and audience. A prize-giving, an assembly and a debate need different tones. Picture the people in the room.
2. Decide the one thing they should remember. A speech with one clear message lands. A speech with five messages is forgotten.
3. Open by greeting and gripping. Ask a question, paint an image or make a bold claim so that the audience sits up.
4. Build in movements the ear can follow. Listeners cannot see paragraph breaks, so signpost each turn, for example “My first reason is…”.
5. Write for the voice. Vary your sentence length. Use short sentences to land a point. Read every line aloud as you draft.
6. Close so it lingers. End with an image, a return to your opening or a call to act.

Choose rhetoric on purpose. Rhetoric means techniques of persuasion, such as the rule of three, repetition, contrast, rhetorical questions and direct address. Use a device because the moment needs it, not to fill a list.

A worked opening

This opening is our own, written for teaching. The occasion is a school assembly on kindness.

Good morning. I want to start with a confession. Last Tuesday, I walked past someone who needed help.

A new student, lost, was holding a timetable upside down, and I did nothing. I was not cruel. I was in a hurry, and helping felt like it would cost me something.

I have thought about those thirty seconds all week. They say something about me, but also about all of us, and about the kind of school we are quietly choosing to be.

The opening greets the audience and grips them with an honest admission, not a lecture. It then turns from “me” to “all of us”, so the whole room becomes part of the argument.

Said aloud, the pause after “I did nothing” does real work. That is why you must hear your writing, not just see it.

Common mistakes

• Writing an essay by mistake. The text is correct on the page but not made for listening.
• Too many devices. The argument disappears under the techniques.
• A flat structure. The ending has no more force than the middle.
• Forgetting the audience and occasion. The speech loses its reason to exist.
• Sentences too long for the ear. A listener cannot pause and reread.

Examiners reward a speech that is clearly built to be spoken. A simple test works: does it sound right when read aloud?

How to practise

Read everything aloud. Your ear catches tangled sentences and weak rhythm that your eye skips.

Practise openings by themselves. Write only the first few lines, and try three different approaches for the same occasion. Attention is won there.

Then practise endings. Rewrite only the final lines to leave a feeling, not a summary. Read both versions aloud and keep the one that stays with you.

Also listen to real speeches, and notice where the room leans in. It is often a pause, a short sentence or a question aimed at the listeners. Then build those pauses and short sentences into your own draft.

Where students usually get stuck

Students often write a good essay that does not sound like a speech, or they pack in devices until the point is lost. In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers read your speech aloud with you, mark where the ear loses the thread, and rewrite those lines together.

For the spoken assessment, we build your own delivery in speaking and listening preparation. Your written speeches are part of First Language English tuition.

Tuition starts from RM70/hr. Book a paid one-hour trial and bring a speech you wrote. The teacher who would continue with you will show you how to make it work when it is spoken.

What to read or try next

Study the annotated model response for a directed-writing speech, then try the practice tasks. Then read how to write an article and how to write persuasively.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to try the skill on a task of your own. Our IGCSE English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.