Speeches and presentations “This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” (John F. Kennedy, Civil Rights Address, June 11th, 1963) Great speeches and presentations will leave a lasting impression long after the speaker has left the stage. The quote above has inspired civil rights advocates for over forty years. Though spoken by John F. Kennedy and attributed to him in our history books, it was in all probability his speechwriter, Ted Sorenson, who wrote them. The value of a good speech writer for corporate executives and sales people is as immeasurable as it is for politicians. Making sure your speeches and presentations are well planned and written is just as critical to building the image and message you want to communicate as the actual delivery. Failure at any level could mean a complete failure of the speech or presentation. The key to persuasive and informative speeches and presentations is clarity. What’s your message? Potential clients can be a fickle breed. Most of them do not like to do the hard work, preferring to have the presenter do it for them. This means that the presenter must condense the core points more or less to sound bite thoughts, ideas and instructions. Most subjects require an understanding of significantly complex information is a brief time span. The human brain can process only so much information before reaching a level of overload. Once this level of overload is reached the information becomes confused and meaningless. The attention of the audience is lost. Effective persuasion and informational speeches and presentations are built around a single key point – a specific topic for your audience to focus its attention upon. Defining and maintaining the focus on this main issue is the most important part of creating a good speech or presentation. It can also be the hardest, particularly when dealing with complex issues that are inter-related with other issues. Pruning relevant information from the reams of research documentation is an extremely demanding process, requiring a very high degree of research skills. Once the main point of your speech or presentation has been identified, that point must be driven home. The trick to this is being able to do this without sounding unnecessarily repetitive. An intuitive paradox, but one that can be overcome by effective writing and careful planning of the speech or presentation. Sounding Natural under Pressure The fact that speeches are delivered to, rather than read by, the target audience is actually an advantage. The passion, tone and emphasis within the presentation is delivered intact. This is much more difficult with written materials. Regardless of the manner the information or argument is delivered, it should contain a series of dramatic or meaningful high points, building towards the ultimate finale. Knowing when to use a speech, rather than a written report, is crucial to the delivery of information from motivational speeches to business presentations. As we can see, speech writing can be very different from any other kind of writing. A speech must be part essay and part performance. A perfectly crafted essay or report would be absolutely boring if read as a “speech” to an audience. Subsequently, the writer must also be skilled in creating a level of drama in the work. This drama will heighten the interest of the audience and give the speech a natural, authoritative air that will increase its credibility. On the Use of Visual aids When delivering a speech, it is often difficult for the audience to maintain an understanding of the bigger picture your topic is a part of. Using a graphic or visual aid, such as an overhead projection or PowerPoint presentation slide, can help establish and maintain this broader understanding by ensuring that they see how your topic relates to the greater idea, even when you are speaking about an element of extreme detail. A problem arises, however, when the speaker uses the visual aid as a crutch during his or her speech. According to educational experts, there is a limit on how much information the human brain can soak up in one sitting. School teachers, for example, are aware that they must “shift gears” or dramatically regain the attention of their students every fifteen to twenty minutes to maximize the impact of their lessons. Your speech must similarly regain the attention of your audience periodically. Visual aids can be used to strengthen or clarify information raised during the speech rather effectively, but too often they end up bombarding the audience with irrelevant or specious information that distracts or confuses the audience. This informational dead wood should be thinned enough to avoid losing the audience but maintained enough to give your presentation flavor and mental stickiness. Our Approach to Speech and Presentation Writing Our writers have extensive knowledge and experience in the writing speeches and presentations gained through years of working with clients in many fields of interest including some Fortune 500 companies. They have proven their abilities to draw out relevant information from reams of research and source material and to present that information to audiences competently and effectively. This effectiveness goes far beyond simply getting information across. Speeches must give the audience a reason for action and the motivation for action. Our writers understand this from their past experiences and are thus highly qualified to handle your speech and presentation needs. Particularly troublesome are keynote presentations or speeches that typically set the stage for entire seminars and symposiums. The deliverer of these is often selected because of their intimate knowledge of the subject and/or their well known personality. Our writers are skilled with and typically utilize in-depth interviews with the client to ensure that the speech is written to reflect this knowledge and personality, ensuring that the presentation will be engaging and entertaining enough to be interesting and memorable to the audience. . .