How to Write a Speech about Yourself

Writing a speech about yourself is not as easy as you may think. Many college and university students believe that they know themselves very well, which means no additional knowledge is required. However, contrary to the common belief, writing about yourself is not only producing phrases like “My name is…” and “I was born in…” Instead, you have to give a lot of objective insights into your life, and the reality is that it is easier said than done.

If you’re assigned the task to write a speech about yourself, you should start preparing for it immediately. Thus, you will be able to save some precious time, because writing this type of paper will require some.

When it comes to the main points, make sure your speech about yourself is focused on the following elements: the audience, the theme, and the time you have been given to deliver it.

Timeframe Matters

Make sure you don’t extend the duration of your speech, as it may start to sound like you are giving a lecture instead of a motivating, interesting, or inspiring speech. In addition, it is unprofessional to go over the designated time, unless you’re going to really impress your audience.

Choose Your Topic

If you have already chosen your preferred topic from our list of 20 topics for a speech about you and your life and used some facts from the most famous speeches to get inspired, you can skip this part. Just start writing your speech immediately. However, if you’re not sure what it is in your personality that you should focus your speech on – we have some ideas right here:

• Baseball (or any other game) Is My Passion
• My First Cooking Victory
• My Fitness Journey: How I Have Lost 15+ Lbs.
• Childhood in the Streets of a Rio Favela
• One Year Working in a Pet Shelter
• Where I See Myself in Five Years
• My Goals for the Future

Regardless of what you decide to deliver a speech on, make sure you’re really interested in the chosen topic. Otherwise, you’re going to face many hours of tedious work and get no satisfaction out of this.

What Is Your Speech About?

Take your time to think about what you’re going to include in your speech. Would you like to talk about a life lesson that you received or something you do when you were younger? Even though your speech can consist of a range of little snippets from your life, you must always focus on delivering one key message that will impact the audience. Determine the objective of your speech and start writing once you know what you want to accomplish. Are you going to let your readers know about how you overcame the death of a loved one? If yes, make sure to keep that in mind and focus more on the grieving process and how you handled one.

Collect the Data

Writing a speech is not about blurting out whatever comes to your mind. Instead, your speech must focus on particular instances that are relevant to the message you want to deliver. In other words, you have to spend a sufficient amount of time reflecting on your past, present, or future, depending on the event that you’re going to discuss. Although you will need to brainstorm for a while, you should always stay on track and make sure that you are delivering an impactful speech.

Know Your Audience

The attention of your audience must be your main concern once you start delivering your speech. For that reason, you have to know your audience before you stand in front of them with your message. Take into account their interests and likes or dislikes before you even begin preparing your speech. For instance, when Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at the graduating ceremony of Stanford, he focused on telling the students that they shouldn’t be afraid to stand out or to be different and that they have to always do what makes them happy. Knowing your audience will also help you identify and decide on what message you have to deliver, what aspects should be avoided, and thus, your speech will become a lot more influential.

Know Your Parameters

Before you start writing your speech, you should check all the rules and regulations that you have to follow in the process of work. Factors like time, location, word amount, and type of audience are the important parameters, which are important to know to produce a winning speech. If your speech is not set according to the time frame, it will feel like it is being rushed into. Likewise, depending on the type of audience, you will need to be careful about the topics that you decide to discuss because some of them may not be appropriate.

Create an Outline

Even though you’re the one to decide on the structure of your speech, it must be there. With a solid structure, you will be able to write the speech and deliver it as well. Start off with an introductory statement, where you address the host and the venue. Typically, when it comes to delivering a speech, someone else is going to introduce you to the audience, which means you have to use it to your advantage and dive in right away. The next part of your speech includes the body, where you inform your readers on the goal and lessons of your speech. Without a doubt, you would like to make your speech as memorable as possible. According to most studies, people tend to remember stories. They do like to hear personal thoughts and anecdotes that once were real stories of your life. Include some, if you find it appropriate. And finally, make sure to end your speech with a firm conclusion which is powerful yet subtle. What is it that you’d like your audience to leave the room remembering? Wrap your speech up and highlight your central ideas, whether that’s by means of a couple of key takeaways, or just presenting some final story that will serve as a powerful illustration of your message.

Deliver with Confidence

Do you know why people are so frightened of giving speeches and presentations? It is not because they do not have enough material to talk about but because they are afraid that they will lose confidence halfway through. A lot of former students and professional speechmakers say that it is easier to write a speech than to deliver it. However, if you think that you will be facing the same problem with your confidence, there is one tip you can use. Even though it is recommended to look directly into the eyes of your audience when you speak to them, you can always imitate this action by looking at their foreheads instead. In other words, you’re going to look into the eyes of people without making eye contact. Sounds great to every shy and nervous student!

Apart from being confident in your delivery, you should also emphasize on your vocal cords and make sure that your voice is crisp and clear. We wish you the best of luck and hope that you have learned a thing or two from these tips.