Opinion speech - instructions

3-5min.

Choose an interesting topic that´s also a clear opinion. It can be your real opinion or not. You can choose to talk to the audience on this course or if you want you can create a fictional audience. Think in advance how your audience feels about your topic: are you trying to change or maybe reinforce their opinions? What´s their attitude and what do they already know about your topic? What kind of arguments work for this audience?

Plan a structure: (anything goes, these points are only suggestions)

At first, wake up your audience: you could use an example, a surprising fact, demonstration or you could activate the audience. How could you motivate the audience? Could the topic be linked to their every day life? Or could it be something personal? 

A tip: this a very short speech, so make sure the beginning is not too long!

Try to come up with versatile arguments: logos and pathos. Try to bring up different aspects of your topic and link your arguments to each other if possible.

How do you finish? What do you want the audience to remember? It could be a conclusion or the main point...or you could go back to the beginning...or you could activate the audience or ask them to take action.

You could also start with describing a problem (and explain why this is a problem in a concrete way), then introduce solutions and your arguments (why your solutions work).

+ the classic ANSVA might be useful:

Attention (a story, an example, a question etc..)

Need (arguments why this is important, more examples, need for change..)

Satisfaction (a solution)

Visualization (describe how great everything will be..)

Action (ask people to take action)


Practice in advance: speak it out loud and check the time. Make notes if necessary, but don´t write too much. (This is not a monologue or a written speech.)

In front of the audience: focus on the substance and your audience. Feel free to express yourself in your own style: you can use informal language and speak in a way that feels natural and easy to you.

If you want feedback on something specific, please tell that in advance.

Enjoy!!!



Last modified: Thursday, 13 January 2022, 9:24 PM