The ability to write a speech is a useful one for all of us in comms and PR. You never know when you might be called on to provide either a full script or speaking notes for a senior colleague.

But if you’ve no speechwriting experience, where do you start?

Here are some suggestions.

by Dr Sam Cooper

1. Speeches don’t need to be grammatically correct

Whatever you provide to your speaker, it needs to resemble spoken language, rather than written language.

Our normal speech patterns don’t stick to the rules of grammar. Spoken sentences do things they shouldn’t. Like this.

So, whether you’re providing a script to be read verbatim, or a speaking note with key points and phrases, you need to make sure it’s as easy as possible to read out loud. If it’s a script, try playing around with line breaks – like a poem – so the speaker intuitively knows when to breathe, when to speed up, when to slow down, and so on.

All that said, be prepared for your speech to have afterlives. Prepare a separate clean version for use online, to pitch to media and to be shared internally.

2. Speeches need the speaker’s input

You’re drafting the speech because that’s a more efficient use of time and resources than having the speaker do it. But I’ve learned that no matter how well I feel that I’ve anticipated the speaker’s tone and priorities, it pays to develop a method that allows them to put their stamp on the draft.

You might, for example, indicate a moment when they can make an off-the-cuff aside. You might ask whether they have any funny observations of their own to include. Or, where you’re looking to include a soundbite, you might give them a couple of options.

The point is to transform the speech from something they have simply signed-off to something they have actively shaped. It’s psychological. They’ll deliver it better that way.

3. Jokes: be risk-averse

Humour is dangerous – and, for the most part, it simply isn’t worth the risk of embarrassing the speaker, offending an audience member or opening-up the institution for criticism.

However, if the speaker is keen to include some levity, and it’s appropriate for the event, aim for the polite chuckle rather than the belly laugh. And if there has to be a fall-guy, it has to be the speaker. A little self-deprecation can be endearing.

4. No speechwriter is an island

We might romanticise the speechwriter’s task as a Byronic one: disappearing alone into the thunderous mountains, to return days later, clutching a hard-wrought masterpiece.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Or, I don’t think it’s the case. I tend to remain at my desk.

It’s crucial that the speechwriter communicates with – at least – the event organiser, the other speakers, colleagues across policy and press and, of course, the speaker. This is the only way that you’ll make sure the speech is on point, not repeating anyone else’s content and pitched at an appropriate level.

5. Be concise

Remember this, people: No-one ever complained that a speech was too short.
Happy writing.

Dr Sam Cooper is Senior Speechwriter at the City of London Corporation. He blogs at drsamcooper.com