Writing Speeches

Speech prompts appear on Paper 2 regularly — often phrased as "Write a speech to be given at…" or "Write a speech for your school council about…". A speech is writing designed to be heard, not read. That single fact governs every craft decision you make: your sentences need to be rhythmical enough to say aloud, your structure needs to be clear enough to follow without a text in front of you, and your persuasive moves need to be audible — the kind of move a listener would notice.

This lesson develops AO5 — particularly the strand that rewards selecting and adapting tone, style and register — and introduces the core toolkit of rhetorical techniques that speeches demand: direct address, rhetorical questions, tricolon, anaphora, personal anecdote and the build to climax. We'll use the FAP framework from Lesson 2, noting that in speeches the audience is always physically present (even if imagined) and the purpose is almost always to persuade.

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Why speeches are different from articles

A reader of an article can pause, go back, re-read a tricky sentence, skim a boring paragraph. A listener cannot. That has three consequences for how you write:

1. Structure has to be audible. Listeners need signposts — "Now I want to talk about something different", "Here is my second point", "Let me tell you a story". Articles can afford subtle transitions; speeches cannot.
2. Sentences have to be speakable. A sentence with six subordinate clauses works fine on the page; said aloud, it loses the audience by the third clause. Aim for sentences a real speaker could deliver without running out of breath.
3. Repetition is a feature, not a bug. In an article, repeating a phrase looks careless. In a speech, repeating a phrase is a rhetorical device — it lets the listener catch up, remember, and feel the point landing. Anaphora, refrains and return-to-themes are all tools you should reach for.

Examiners describe top-band speeches as having rhythm and momentum. Those aren't vague compliments — they describe specific technical choices: varied sentence length, deliberate repetition, and a build from opening (settle the audience) through argument (develop the case) to climax (land the call to action).

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The core rhetorical toolkit

A speech without rhetorical techniques reads as a flat article. But rhetorical techniques used without purpose read as feature-spotting — the Level 2/3 error where a student sprinkles rhetorical questions and tricolons like seasoning. The difference between Level 3 and Level 5 use of rhetoric is purposefulness: every device has a job to do.

Technique	What it does	Example
Direct address	Pulls the listener into the speech	You, in the front row — you know what I mean.
Rhetorical question	Frames a thought the listener will answer internally	How many of us have felt that?
Tricolon	Three-part structure; memorable, rhythmical	We need courage, we need care, we need action.
Anaphora	Repetition at the start of successive clauses	I have seen it. I have felt it. I have lived it.
Personal anecdote	Builds trust; makes the abstract concrete	Last week, in this very building…
Contrast / antithesis	Sharpens a point by pairing opposites	We are a community that welcomes, not a committee that gatekeeps.
Inclusive pronouns (we/us)	Binds speaker and audience together	What we do next will define us.
Pause for effect	Implied by short sentence, paragraph break, or dash	Think about that. — Really think about it.
Call to action	Tells listeners what to do	Sign the petition. Vote in the meeting. Make your voice heard.

One rule of thumb: if you use a technique, know why you are using it. If a rhetorical question is there to give the listener a moment to think, keep it. If it's there because your teacher said to put rhetorical questions in, cut it.

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Speech structure: the build

graph TD
    A["OPENING<br/>Hook + greeting + purpose"] --> B["CONTEXT<br/>Why this matters now"]
    B --> C["ARGUMENT 1<br/>With personal anecdote"]
    C --> D["ARGUMENT 2<br/>With evidence"]
    D --> E["ACKNOWLEDGE OBJECTION<br/>Briefly"]
    E --> F["BUILD TO CLIMAX<br/>Anaphora / tricolon"]
    F --> G["CALL TO ACTION<br/>Clear, memorable"]

    style A fill:#3498db,color:#fff
    style F fill:#9b59b6,color:#fff
    style G fill:#27ae60,color:#fff

A good speech builds. The opening is often quieter than the middle; the middle is often quieter than the close. This is the opposite of a newspaper article, where the strongest claim often goes in the opening. In a speech, the strongest claim is usually the last thing the audience hears, because that is what they will remember.

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Worked example 1: a model speech opening with annotation

Prompt: Write a speech to be given at your school assembly persuading students that reading for pleasure matters more than they think.

Here is a model opening (230 words), annotated below.

Good morning, everyone.

I want you to do something slightly strange for the next thirty seconds. I want you to think about the last book you read that was not set for school. Not a textbook. Not a revision guide. A book you opened because you wanted to.

— Is it in your head?

For about a third of you, I suspect, the answer is no — because you can't remember. For another third, the answer is months ago. For the last third, you're already smiling, because you finished a chapter on the bus this morning.

Here is what I want to say to all three groups today: reading for pleasure is not a luxury, it is not old-fashioned, and it is not something your teachers are nagging you about because we have run out of other things to nag you about. It is the single biggest thing you can do, outside a classroom, to make your own life larger, your vocabulary sharper, and your future easier. I have seen it in my own students. I have seen it in my own children. I have seen it in the person I was, twenty years ago, when I did not read anything, and in the person I became when I started.

Annotation:

• Greeting (Good morning, everyone): essential in a speech. Signals the form immediately.
• Participatory opening (I want you to do something slightly strange): pulls the audience in, asks them to do something mentally. Examiners reward this strongly.
• Pause marked by em-dash and question (Is it in your head?): built-in pause. A listener would hear it.
• Tricolon of audiences (For about a third of you… For another third… For the last third…): acknowledges different listeners, makes every student in the hall feel seen.
• Parallel syntax (it is not a luxury, it is not old-fashioned, and it is not something your teachers are nagging you about): three negatives, tightly structured, rhythmic.
• Anaphora to close the opening (I have seen it in my own students. I have seen it in my own children. I have seen it in the person I was…): a strong rhetorical close to the opening section — the repetition will register with listeners.

Notice: in 230 words, this opening has hooked the audience, acknowledged three sub-groups, laid out the thesis, and closed on a personal-anecdote promise. That is Level 5 work.

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Worked example 2: build to climax

The climax of a speech is the moment of highest rhetorical energy, usually just before the call to action. Students often under-write this. Here is an example of a climactic passage for the same speech topic as above: