Sign posts will help your audience better follow you when you take off down the speech-writing road. 

Consider posting  these six signs in the following sequential order:

Attention Catcher

        Engage the audience emotionally. Share feelings more than facts. Exaggerate your opening with a loud or a very soft voice and/or energetic body language that involves the audience.

Listener Relevance

       Give your listeners a reason to listen.Define what’s in it for them. How will your speech help listeners enhance their quality of life, their sense of well being, their need for security and stability?

Thesis Statement

        Pause and then deliver the main theme of your speech in a single concise statement.The shorter, the better. Consider repeating this short statement, more slowly and deliberately, to reinforce the essence of your message.

Preview

          List 3 key points—in short headline form—that you will make in the speech that supports your thesis.

Content

        Develop each of your three key points with specific facts, stories and third-party references.   Summarize after the first two points and introduce your third point: “Now that we have discussed points A and B, let me tell you about C.”

Conclusion

        Summarize: Restate the Preview and then Repeat the Thesis. Do not end by saying “Thank you.”An accomplished  comedian leaves the audience laughing. An accomplished speaker leaves the audience thinking. Drive your point to a crescendo ending. Then pause. Look down. And begin walking back to your desk. The audience will know when to applaud.