Where to get ideas for your speeches

You can research a speech generally to get idas for  theme, and then specifically once you know what it is you want to talk about.  You can research on the internet and in libraries, and you can consult your treasure chest of ideas saved over years of clipping and tagging.

But never forget your human resources.  You cannot interview a website or book for clarification.  Humans can expand on an idea, give you more information, or give you that quirky perspective that just might give you the winning angle on a topic.

 

Your secret treasure trove of ideas for speeches

You have a speech coming up. You want to do it well, put together some great ideas, present relevant information.

Research will bring in much of what you need.

But for the material that will help to make or break your impact because it is not so academic, has more value than basic information, you need to go to your secret collection.

Particularly if you are speaking regularly, you need to develop the habit of collecting material on your subject areas – articles from magazines or the internet, quotes, sayings and anecdotes. 

You can keep these in a paper file of notes; or for the on-line material, save useful websites in your favourites file or a tagging system like del.icio.us.

Not only will it save you time in researching, it will provide the personal angle on your material. And if it appealed to you at the time you collected it, chances are that you will use it with enthusiasm. And if it appealed to you it should appeal to your audience if you use it well.

Researching for your speech

Research on the internet. Use search engines, and include databases and blogs. Opinions in the blogs will give you some ideas for your own message.

Use libraries and include magazine articles as well as reference books and fiction or non-fiction.

While you research, be sure to note your sources. Head each new document of notes with the name of your resource then if you want to quote ideas you can refer to the source.

Reearching the content of you speech

When you begin researching your speech, it may be that you have no specific message articulated at the beginning.

If so you will need to range wide in your research to cover the whole subject until a suitable message
becomes clear.

Then you will see sub-themes developing and you can direct your research along those lines.

Before your write your speech, visualise

Before you start writing your speech, before you start collecting the ideas and information, you will need, try visualisation. Visualise the feelings you have as you present. Visualise the audience – who they are, what they are thinking, how they are responding. Visualise them as they stand to leave. What are they thinking now? What will they do in response to you presentation? What you see will guide you to define the purpose of your speech and what you want to achieve with it. And *that* will give you the guidance in what ideas and information to collect.