Tips for Collecting Information for your Speech
Information for your speech can come from many places. Be prepared to
look around and research to come up with effective points for your
presentation.
1. Stick to a couple of primary points for your speech and gather
information on these. If you have too many ideas in your speech your
audience may not follow the main reason of the speech. Remember your
objective and your topic and gather information directly relating to
these.
2. Facts, facts and more facts. Relevant, interesting facts will sell
your speech. Think about the type of audience you are talking to and
select facts appropriate for them. If you are presenting a speech on
fund raising money for new school facilities and you will be presenting
to the PTA, make sure your facts are about schools in your area, for
example how other schools have raised money or how much support you
could expect from local businesses. There’s no point discussing how much
money a school in Indonesia raised for new books; it won’t be relevant
for your audience.
3. What information do you already have? If it is a topic you are
familiar with and passionate about, first write down points you already
know. Have you written a paper on this subject? Have you presented on it
before? Don’t re-invent the wheel, but ensure your facts are up-to-date.
4. Visit the library and go to the reference section. Talk to the
librarian and make sure you are looking in the right place for the
information you need. Read as much about your subject as you can.
5. Gather information from the Internet. There are many search engines
that can give you appropriate websites to gather information from.
6. Find interesting and relevant quotes for your speech. These can add
impact and credibility to your topic if they come from well-known
sources.
7. Can you present anecdotal evidence in your speech? Whether these are
funny or serious, telling ‘true’ stories about your topic will add
interest to your speech.
8. Interview other people who know about your topic and see what
information they may have for you. Write everything down, don’t try and
recall it later. You want to have your facts straight.
9. Brainstorm and note down all your ideas. How can you implement your
knowledge of fishing hooks into a topic on fast food? Are the statistics
on water pollution relevant to your speech on town planning? Write
everything down and investigate each idea to see if it can be used in
your speech.