Don’t Miss the Mark!

Don’t miss the mark when it comes to selecting a specific speech goal! The speech goal guides you as you write your speech and ensures you stay focused.

Select the Type of Speech

The first thing you want to determine is the type of speech you want to give. More than likely, this has already been decided for you by your professor or the person who asked you to give the speech. The most common types of speeches have a general goal to: inform, persuade, entertain, or commemorate a person, occasion, or event.

Be Mindful of the Guidelines for a Specific Goal

Once you know your general goal, you can write your specific goal. A specific goal should be written as one sentence with one distinct idea. The words should be chosen carefully to ensure they explain exactly what you will say in your speech. The specific goal will let your audience know what you hope to accomplish in the speech and keep you focused as you write your speech. Your topic should be narrow enough that you should be able to cover it thoroughly in the time allotted.

In this blog post, I will focus on a specific goal for a 5-8 minute informative speech. The specific goal should include your general goal. A specific goal for an informative speech should always start with, “I want to inform my audience about…”

Keep Rewriting Your Goal Until You Have a Narrow Focus

If your speech is about entertainment, the steps to narrow down your goal might look like this:

• Entertainment
• Music
• Taylor Swift
• Tickets
• Problems with Ticketmaster
• The hearing
• 3 takeaways from the Ticketmaster hearing regarding Taylor Swift

I want to inform my audience about the 3 takeaways from the Ticketmaster hearing regarding Taylor Swift.

Note that the hearing is still too broad for a 5-8 minute informative speech. There is too much about the hearing (details about the people who attended, what was said, arguments used, the length of the hearing, etc.) to cover thoroughly in a 5-8 minute speech.

Your Turn

Brainstorm possible speech topic that fit the speech parameters given to you. Keep narrowing it down until it describes exactly what you hope to accomplish in your speech. Remember that it should lend itself to the typical speech format of 2-3 main points. If you are interested in reading more about writing a specific purpose, check out “Specific Purposes.”

Don’t overlook the importance of the specific goal. It is the first step to giving an organized speech, and research shows organized speakers are perceived as more credible than those who are not. Remember, enjoy the process! Public speaking can be fun!