13.9 The Body of the Speech

The body of your speech is where you lay out the main points that support your theme, introduce the evidence, and explain things in depth. I’m a believer in the Rule of Threes, which says people are naturally attracted to things that come in threes: Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear; the Three Little Pigs; the Three Musketeers; Harry, Hermione, and Ron; the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; stop, drop, and roll; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Your speech will fit this rule if it has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, but the body of your speech can also follow this rule. Aim to have three main points in your speech; if you have more, see if you can fit some in as subpoints under the three main points (or each main point can have three subpoints).

For an informative speech, you can use this structure in various ways. The simplest is just to list three things the audience should know about your topic. Another possibility is to talk about the past, present, and future of your topic (e.g., how an invention was originally thought up, how it’s used now, and new developments to look forward to). If your topic is a skill you mastered, you could break it up into things you learned the easy way, things you learned the hard way, and why it was worth the trouble. Another structure is cause, effects, and remedy (e.g., why vaping is addictive, what it does to your body, and how to make it safer).

In persuasive speeches, the Rule of Three can be applied in many ways as well:

• What one side thinks of the issue, what the other side thinks, and why you side with one over the other
• Why something needs to be done about this issue, the barriers to solving it, and how to overcome those barriers

You might also adopt that movie theme from the 1960s and talk about “the good, the bad, and the ugly” sides of your topic.

Ceremonial speeches also work well with the Rule of Threes. For example, if you want to know what to say in a wedding speech, you can include:

• What makes one partner (your friend, sibling, child) a great person
• What makes their partner a great person
• Why they make a great couple

A memorial speech (such as a funeral eulogy) can be divided into:

• What everyone knows about the deceased
• What most people don’t know about them
• How their influence will carry on (how they have shaped you as a person)

Or:

• The natural gifts they had
• The challenges they faced
• The accomplishments they left behind

The body of your speech should also include supporting evidence that backs up your points (the “grounds” we looked at in Chapter 7). How much evidence is needed, and what form it needs to take, depend heavily on your topic and your audience. The general rule is that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”: if you’re going to argue that swimming is good for your health, you won’t need much evidence, but if you’re arguing that swimming causes cancer, you’ll need plenty of strong evidence that your audience will find convincing. What form could that evidence take? It could be:

• Scientific studies, experiments, and statistics
• Authorities (“The World Health Organization says that…”)
• Historical examples
• Personal stories
• Logic and common sense

Why does your audience matter? As noted in Chapter 2, Michael Beatty has pointed out that, to quantitative researchers, the last four types of evidence above don’t count as “scientific,” and these researchers would expect to see evidence that fits into the first category. Many other people, however, find stories to be the most compelling kind of evidence of all (see Chapter 11).

Finally, the body of your speech needs something that may seem small and insignificant, but is actually vital: transitions. Sometimes called “signposts,” these phrases clue the audience in to where you are in the structure of the speech.

The necessity of transitions brings us back to the difference between written texts and spoken language: in a written text (such as this chapter), the reader has the advantage of headings, subheadings, paragraphs, and numbered lists, all of which provide a sense of structure and purpose. In a speech, if the speaker is using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote, they can provide that sort of visual clue as well. Without such software, though, the audience depends on the speaker to provide clues about what’s going on. Transition phrases might include ones like these:

• “With that said, let’s look at the reasons to donate blood” (after the intro)
• “The third reason to consider donating blood is…” (in the body)
• “Now, there are some people who believe the opposite…” (to introduce counterarguments)
• “And in conclusion…” (to mark the transition between body and conclusion)

Each transition is an opportunity to reinforce your theme. If your theme is “It doesn’t work the way you think it does,” every transition point is another chance to drive home your theme. Instead of just saying “My second point is,” say “The second aspect of __ that doesn’t work the way you think it does is…”