It is important for every speech to have good structure. The delivery of the speech must reflect a sensible procedure made up of Beginning, Body and Conclusion. By way of an acronym, I like to call this the “BBC” of public speaking. This should be the standard process to be followed and maintained during public speaking. The functionality of a speech is dependent on how the audience understands the structure of the speech. The following three steps are worth noting and should prove useful in this order.
1. Beginning
The function of the beginning is to grab the attention of the audience in an introductory fashion. In public speaking, ‘all is well that begins well’. Therefore, you must start strong; the introduction must grab the attention of people. A speech could be started with a quote, a story or a rhetorical question, anything that to a good extent arrests the interest or rouses the curiosity of your audience to engender a listening. Starting with a startling statistic is also a good way provided such is relevant and meaningful within the context of the speech. The goal of the speaker is to immediately seize the moment and awaken the hearts of the audience. The speaker must woo their audience with their powerful beginning.
2. Body
The body of the speech must illuminate minds. This means that it should shed light on issues. It must have additional information and provide substantive content indicative of richness of ideas and points to be made. What are the main points that you want to pass across to your audience? As a speaker, you must use your body to provide depth of understanding of the issue at hand for your audience. You must provide quality insight into the matter of discourse. You may choose to itemize the key points and discuss them in order while also fortifying those points with stories, statistics and other narratives. Seamless transitioning from point to point is key. The speaker must wow their audience with the body of their speech.
3. Conclusion
The conclusion or close affords the speaker the opportunity to seal the deal with their audience by seeking to ignite action or engender audience response based on the points made in the body of the speech. Your close must be powerful and resonating enough as to ensure that the speaker’s message is memorable. It must carry a sticking effect so as to encourage audience buy-in to your message. You could close by reinforcing the central theme of your message or a consistent sound bite within your message that summarizes your core idea; you could close with a question that leaves the audience thought-provoked or puzzled; you could close with a powerful quotation from a renowned personality or even a story that sums up your key arguments. The speaker must win their audience over with the conclusion of their speech.
So, remember this: anytime you’re speaking and you want to ensure your presentation follows a logical format that will enhance the understanding of your subject matter in the minds of your audience, just follow the ‘BBC’ Sequence.
Ubong Essien, CSP, is known as Nigeria's Mister Motivator. He is the first and currently the only internationally Certified Speaking Professional in West Africa and has led the field of motivational speaking since 1999. He is also an author and the award-winning publisher of The Achiever's Journal and the Dean of the public speaking training centre known as The School of Eloquence based in Lagos and London.