Speak up!

Table of Contents

1. About this section
2. Language change
3. Standard Australian English
4. The language of evaluation
5. Public speaking
6. The structure and features of a speech
7. A recipe for great public speaking
8. Evaluating a speech
9. Making a speech
   1. Taking a position
   2. Expressing a position
   3. Evaluating a position
10. Research
11. Preparing a speech
12. Speak up!
13. Storytelling
14. Speak up! activity
15. Copyright/Disclaimer

Making a speech

Making a speech is an opportunity to express our ideas and opinions about people and/or issues that are important to us. People make speeches at birthday parties, weddings and funerals, at formal school or sports presentation events, or in public debates.

To make any spoken presentation successful, you need to plan what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.

Whether you choose your topic, or whether your teacher or someone else allocates you a topic, the first thing you need to do is to understand your task, and what you need your audience to know or feel at the end of your talk.

Task words and keywords are the significant words in an instruction that unlock (signal) what you need to do. In the following two examples these words have been underlined.

The difference between these examples are the task words 'inform' and 'persuade', and the keywords 'programs' and 'environmental importance of programs'.

While 'inform' means to present information and facts, 'persuade' means to convince, by giving reasons. The inclusion of the keywords 'environmental importance' in the second example tells you precisely about what you should persuade your listener.

1	Identify the task words and keywords in the following task instructions. Describe some causes of the pollution of our seas. Explain some of the consequences of the pollution of our seas. Persuade your audience of the benefits of a particular preventative strategy to protect the environment.