--- title: 'Template: short speech' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-speech/ description: A speech is heard once, at the speaker's pace, and can't be re-read. So it needs more repetition, shorter sentences and a clearer structure than anything… section: Write --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an intelligence briefing room with case files and behavioral-analysis notes on a chalkboard.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-learn.jpg) [Write](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/) · Templates # Template: short speech On this page A speech is heard once, at the speaker's pace, and can't be re-read. So it needs more repetition, shorter sentences and a clearer structure than anything written. This template is for a 3–5 minute speech: a rally, a council public comment, a meeting or a debate opener. **Length:** about 130 words a minute spoken, so 400–650 words. **Pairs with:** [Template: op-ed or letter to the editor](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-op-ed/) (same argument, written). ## The structure This combines Marshall Ganz's public narrative (self, us, now) with Monroe's motivated sequence (attention, need, satisfaction, visualisation, action), a speech structure taught since the 1930s. `[1. ATTENTION + SELF] 45–60 s One moment from your own life that explains why you're here. [2. US] 30–45 s What you share with the audience. A place, an experience, a value. [3. NEED] 45–60 s The problem, with one number and one person. Honestly sized. [4. SATISFACTION] 45–60 s Your proposal, in concrete terms. What changes, when, for whom. [5. OBJECTION] 20–30 s The strongest objection, and your answer. [6. VISUALISATION] 20–30 s What it looks like when it works, or what happens if nothing changes. [7. NOW + ACTION] 20–30 s The one action, the date, and your core message said a final time.` ## Fill-in notes | Part | Write | Technique it uses | Keep it fair | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Attention + self | A specific moment: a day, a place, a feeling. | [Narrative](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/narrative/), [Narrative transportation](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/narrative-transportation/) | It must be true. | | Us | "Many of us here…" with something that really is shared. | [Social identity](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/social-identity/) | Shared identity as context, not as a gag on questions ([Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)). | | Need | One person, then one number with its comparison. | [Emotional appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/emotion/), [Identifiable victim effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/identifiable-victim-effect/) | Size the problem honestly ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)). | | Satisfaction | What changes, by when, and how you know. | [Evidence and credibility](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/evidence/) | Only claims you can source. | | Objection | The other side's best case, fairly put. | Two-sided refutation | Steel-man, not straw man. | | Visualisation | A concrete picture of the future. | [Hope appeals](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/hope/) | Promise only what the proposal does. | | Now + action | Core message from [Messaging](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/messaging/), said for the third time. | Repetition, efficacy | One action. | **Say the core message three times:** once in the need or satisfaction section, once in the visualisation, once at the close. In a speech, repetition is structure, not padding. **Write for the ear.** Short sentences. Rule of three ("every morning, every evening, every weekend"). Pause after the key line. ## Filled example: for (about 2 minutes) *Invented case: Riverton's Measure 12, a half-cent sales tax for buses every ten minutes.* > Last winter I missed my daughter's school concert. Not because I forgot. Because the Route 4 bus came forty minutes late, and I don't drive. > > I know a lot of you in this room have a story like that. The appointment you missed. The shift you were late for. The evening you spent in the car instead of at the table. > > Right now, six of Riverton's routes run every forty minutes. [Fourteen hundred] households in the north wards don't have a car. > > Measure 12 changes that. Buses every ten minutes on those six routes, from next September. It costs a typical household about [$X] a year. That's in the council's own figures. > > Some of our neighbours on Main Street are worried about the sales tax. I understand that. On a [$40] shop the difference is [20 cents], and most of their customers live right where the buses will run. > > Picture next winter. You walk to the stop, and the bus is already coming. Buses every ten minutes. Your evenings back. > > On the third of November, vote yes on 12. Buses every ten minutes. Your evenings back. Thank you. ## Filled example: against (about 2 minutes) > My parents opened Harlow Hardware in 1988. I did my homework behind that counter. Last year I watched [three] of our neighbours on Main Street close for good. > > Everyone in this room wants Riverton to thrive. We want better buses too. That's not the question tonight. > > The question is who pays. Measure 12 would make our sales tax [half a point] higher than the county line, two miles away. For a family buying a fridge, that's [$X] more here than there. > > There's another way. The county transport grant could fund two of those six routes, starting next year, with no new tax. That's in the county's own schedule. > > Supporters say faster buses will bring shoppers downtown. Maybe. But nobody has measured it, and the routes past Main Street already run every [20] minutes. > > Picture Main Street in five years with its shops still open, and better buses paid for fairly. Keep Main Street fair. > > Vote no on 12, and come to the council on the 14th to back the grant plan. Keep Main Street fair. Thank you. ## Real ones to study See [Narrative](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/narrative/) for Mandela (1964), Churchill (1940), Reagan (1984) and Obama (2004). Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" (1963) is a widely taught example of visualisation and repetition. ## Before you speak Run [Before you publish: the fair-play check](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/before-you-publish/). Time yourself reading it aloud, then cut 10%. ## Sources - Ganz, M. (2011). Public narrative, collective action, and power. In Odugbemi & Lee (eds.), *Accountability Through Public Opinion*. World Bank. - Monroe, A. H. (1935). *Principles and Types of Speech*. Scott, Foresman. - Aristotle, *Rhetoric*. ## Related - [Narrative](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/narrative/) - [Emotional appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/emotion/) - [Messaging](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/messaging/) - [Template: op-ed or letter to the editor](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-op-ed/) - [Before you publish: the fair-play check](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/before-you-publish/)