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 (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, Narrative transportation | It must be true. |
| Us | "Many of us here…" with something that really is shared. | Social identity | Shared identity as context, not as a gag on questions (Identity fusion). |
| Need | One person, then one number with its comparison. | Emotional appeal, Identifiable victim effect | Size the problem honestly (Fear appeal). |
| Satisfaction | What changes, by when, and how you know. | Evidence and credibility | 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 | Promise only what the proposal does. |
| Now + action | Core message from 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 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. 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.