Here are three simple things to remember while giving a speech.

• Tell the audience what you are going to tell them.
• Tell them.
• Tell them what you told them.

Simple! right! that’s just the way to present a speech that lasts for 2 minutes. Does it look difficult? It definitely is not.

To make an impact in all of 2 minutes or more all you need to do is to think of 3 valid points related to your topic.

Again any topic you are given to speak on will have three sides. What are those?

The first is taking a stand for the topic. ‘For’ meaning arguing  for or presenting the positive aspects of the topic given.

The second is to take a stand against the topic and highlight all the negative aspects of the given topic.

The third would be to go neutral and present a balanced view of the topic given to you.

In general most speakers would try to present the positive aspects  of the given topic and then touch upon a few negatives before winding in a neutral tone. How you go about presenting your views depends entirely on your outlook or the context in which you present your speech.

Your ability to add meaningful quotes, anecdotes, examples, data will further add to the quality and convincing ability of your speech. A call to action will ensure that your listeners will have a definite take away from your speech and will most probably recall it and follow it up with some action later.

For example let’s take the topic “Rain”.

As you can see, I have kept it very simple. 3 main points with a little elaboration. 1 call to action and conclusion and this speech is mostly positive in tone.

Introduction: One of my most favorite memories that I have of rain ,is walking back home with my friends, holding an umbrella, getting all wet and having fun while trying to splash muddy water at each other. Piping hot pakodas and a hot cup of tea always made rains a fun time.

Point 1:Rain is beautiful. Watching the rain fall on to ground and fill the land is a refreshing sight. Have you ever smelt the fragrance of the first drops of rain? Heavenly…that is. Great sleep, excellent food and the comfort of home is all the more special during heavy rains.

Point 2:Rain is nourishing. Yes, it is. It is the rain that fills our streams, ponds and rivers. For the farmers, the rain is nothing less than a boon. In our country even to this day, farmers depend on natural sources of water and rain is there fore much awaited. You would have read in the news papers of how farmers pray for rains and celebrate its arrival with gusto. Scenes from the film Lagaan comes to my mind when I think of the heroic welcome given to rain.

Point 3: Rain is essential for our survival on the planet. The survival of life on the planet depends on the availability of drinking water and its the rain that brings this much valuable resource. Across the countries and the continents there is an increasing awareness about the need to preserve water. This is because of a dangerous life threatening phenomena called ‘drought’ resulting in water scarcity across the planet. Are you doing your bit to conserve water? It is important that while we enjoy the rain, we should also be aware of preserving it for future. Have you ever thought of how the animals survive in the forests with no rain, no access to other sources of water?

Call to action:There are a few things that each one of us can do  to make our little contributions to conserving water. Like stopping wastage of tap water, using rain water harvesting, taking care not to pollute water resources like lakes, ponds and rivers can help us ward off the dangers of water scarcity. Infact, keeping  a bowl of fresh water on the terrace for the birds to quench the thirst every day would be a small but useful contribution to mitigate scarcity of water for birds.

Conclusion: Water then is the very essence of life. It is nothing but the heavenly ‘manna’, a gift to be preserved and used judiciously. Thank you.

* Pakodas- Indian snacks