I’ve recently discovered a great book that teaches the average person how to prepare and give a powerful How To Speech. I’ve been teaching high school for several years now and I’ve taught a public speaking class for almost five years now and this book is something I have my students read to help them write and deliver great “speeches.”

The book is called, “The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write one – How to Deliver It” written by Richard Dowis. The book does a great job of teaching how great speeches of old were prepared and given and explains why they were so powerful.

It’s important to remember that what your audience remembers is the real content of your speech. The author really helps the speaker to collect, organize, and shape the content of a speech and turn it into a powerful speech.

Every “How to Speech” or public speech should utilize these 6 steps:

1. Begin well: your opening should establish you and your content with the audience and it should set the tone for the entire speech. The author says one should start a speech with one of these five opening styles: Novelty, Dramatic, Question, Humorous, and Reference/Quote.

2. Watch your language: don’t use complicated language or jargon. Be elegant with simple words and language. Be yourself and use words you know and your audience are familiar with.

3.  Use proven techniques: use the “Rule of Three” where you organize related thoughts or points into groups of three to help drive the point home to the audience. You can also use a technique called “Anaphora” which is where you repeat phrases or key words at the beginning of several sentences to help the audience hear over and over what you want them to hear.

4. If you use statistics make sure they’re relatable and interesting. If there isn’t any meaning to the audience then they won’t stick or help you make your point. Try not to use too many statistics or raw figures and try not to pile them back to back. Your audience will drown in a sea of meaningless numbers.

5. Closing the speech: your closing should focus on reinforcing your points and overall goal of the speech. The author says that most closings will fall into one of these seven categories: Summary, Wrap-up, Direct appeal, Thesis, Reference, Inspirational, and Anecdotal/Humorous. Make sure they heard what you told them in your closing.

6. Editing: after you’ve written your speech consider these topics when you edit and fine tune your speech: organization, style, content, and language/grammar. Make sure the speech flows and is easy to listen to.

If you follow those 6 steps then you can make any how to speech or public address powerful and memorable. I can attest to the success of this book based on the improvement of my students. Many take my class because they’re terrified of public speaking but they want a job/career that requires them to be outspoken or speak in front of large groups of people. Some take my class because they want to be more confident and I’ve seen the positive changes come to my students as they prepare and deliver powerful speeches.

The book is really easy to read. It’s relatively short and isn’t too “wordy.” If you’re looking to improve your public speaking or want a more powerful way to prepare and deliver a How to Speech then I’d recommend this book to you.

When given the assignment or task to write a “how to” speech, many people first ask themselves where they can find how to speech topics. When I was given an assignment at work to prepare a 15 minute “how to” speech, I was clueless as to what I would pick for a topic or subject.

I began to research what people picked and used for their “how to” speeches and I found the same advice all over the internet and the library- pick something you know and know well. No matter how simple or easy the task is, if you know how to do it perfectly then that should be your topic.

It’s also important to understand your audience and the purpose of the speech. The purpose for my speech was to build team unity at work and help all of us develop better communication and leadership skills. The topic wasn’t important, the experience was.

With that in mind, I chose to do my “how to” speech on tying shoes. I was shown how to tie my shoes differently than most people but I didn’t know that for several years; I thought everyone tied their shoes like I did.

When my co-workers gave their how to speeches I noticed that the simpler the topic/idea the better the speech was received and understood. I also noticed that the more complex the idea the more I saw the audience (my fellow co-workers) checking their phones and the clock; basically mentally checking out and not paying attention.

The only “complex” topic that did well was a gentleman that showed us how to tie a fly for fly fishing. He’s a naturally gifted speaker and I love fishing so maybe that’s why I thought he did a great job (hey, I’m allowed to be a little biased, it’s my blog).

Someone else showed everyone how to better organize our cubicles so we could have more “elbow room” for under $20. She did a fantastic job and has some really good ideas that I think I’ll use because my cubical is less than organized.

Another gentleman gave his how to speech on tying a “double-Windsor” knot in a necktie. For selfish reasons I was glad he showed us this because I kind of envy how awesome his necktie knots are on a daily basis. Now I know how to tie an awesome necktie knot.

One last example I’ll give is a how to speech topic that was on properly taking care of indoor plants. She explained photosynthesis in an easy to understand way that the non-biology majors could grasp easily. She also talked about watering and organic fertilizer and proper pruning of common indoor plants.

What I’ve just tried to do is give you a list of how to speech topics without just making a generic “bullet list” for you. I think picking a how to speech topic becomes a lot easier when you take a moment and think about what you already know and merging that with the real purpose or intent of the speech.

Google is great for helping you find the best 100 how to speech topics but you may not find out how to give a great speech by searching that. I’ve shared a link to a short, simple, yet awesome book about public speaking and delivering great speeches. Good luck narrowing down your how to speech topics.

I just was given “homework” from my place of employment to give a 15 minute “how to” speech but I really need some how to speech ideas. The problem I’m having is that the things that first pop into my mind to teach some in a “how to” speech will take either 2 seconds or 2 hours.

The other thing I’m having a hard time with is that when my manager announced to our entire team that we’d all be giving 15 minute “how to” speeches, he concluded the announcement by saying that the topics were not important because this was an exercise to help us improve our communication and leadership skills.

When I tried “google-ing” how to speech ideas I came across a few websites that had some lists of ideas or commonly used topics but that didn’t really help me. I think I was struggling more with teaching something worthwhile and would help me accomplish the true purpose of the how to speech.

When I was searching amazon.com for ideas I came across a book that caught my attention. It was a book about the lost art of great speeches and since I need to write a speech that I want to be great, I bought it.

It was very different from what I expected but it was everything I needed. After reading the book I realized that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Think about that for a second….

I learned how to write and deliver a powerful and memorable speech. I learned how to create a how to speech that would help me to deliver an interesting and memorable as well as help me accomplish the goal/purpose my manager set for us.

Don’t laugh but I decided to write my how to speech on tying shoes. It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I realized I had been taught how to tie my shoes differently than pretty much everyone else. I didn’t know anything about “rabbits” running around “trees” and then going through the “hole.”

The way my dad showed me how to tie shoelaces is more of a hybrid of the “normal” way of tying a shoelace and what is typically called a “double-knot.” Basically you do all the normal steps of tying shoelace two times in a row. I won’t bore you with my how to speech but that’s what I’ll be sharing.

The important thing to remember when doing a how to speech is to keep your topic and your “language” simple. Simplicity with repetitive themes will make your speech more powerful and more memorable than the typical public speech.

Another thing that is important is to pick a topic that you personally know really well. Well enough that you could consider yourself an expert. I’ve been tying my shoes, my kid’s shoes and my grandkid’s shoes for decades; I think I’m an expert in that department now.

There are lists and lists of random how to speech ideas out there on the internet and at the library, but a list won’t necessarily make your speech great; check out this book and hopefully it’ll help you like it helped me.