896 — Preparing a Speech

Feeling nervous about giving a speech in English? Learn about how to prepare in this episode.
Slow dialog: 1:11
Explanations: 3:10
Fast dialog: 14:56
Lourdes: I need help.
Valery: Sure, what’s up?
Lourdes: I’m supposed to give a speech at the start of the conference next month and I don’t know what to do.
Valery: It’s not that hard to plan out a speech. You start with an attention getter using humor or telling a personal story.
Lourdes: Okay, I guess I can do that.
Valery: After that, in your introduction, you should tell the audience what your speech is about in a thesis statement. Along the way, you should establish your credibility by mentioning why you’re qualified to talk about this topic.
Lourdes: All right.
Valery: Then, in the body of your speech, you want to state your main points, using supporting ideas, giving examples, and maybe using visuals.
Lourdes: Okay.
Valery: And finally, in the conclusion, you restate your main points and make some closing remarks. Simple, right?
Lourdes: Yeah, simple. One last question.
Valery: Shoot.
Lourdes: What are you doing the morning of June 20th, and how do you feel about standing in for a coworker who plans to be deathly ill?

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse