Writing a speech is a common assignment during the studying process, especially if you are a student of the last courses and you will graduate soon. Even though it is considered a nerve-wracking task, students may omit pitfalls just by preparing their speech in advance. For many reasons, those who have never delivered their works in public, are scared of being stopped and interrupted. But, the most frustrating thing is to not persuade someone. Here comes the first task of declamation. Your speech should have a logical and persuasive statement that will provoke food for thought and change people’s vision about one or another aspect.
During the study, a student may need to write it to get a scholarship or finalize his degree by proving he succeeded in his courses. Otherwise, it can be associated with the event where many people would like to address problems or challenges with their subsequent solutions.
Depending on college or university, you should learn the requirements with your professor or find them out in the syllabus. But, most commonly the basic rules can be easily extracted from the Internet. Today, one of the representatives of qualitative declamation are politicians. Have you ever noticed how their speeches strange though it might sound lack a common sense but can persuade people to believe them and vote for any of their initiatives? The same practice works with students when they want to get support for their projects.
Thus, a speech is not about standing for 10 minutes in front of the public, but 10 minutes of a professional performance that may change theirs or community lives. To start with, let’s understand what Human Resources Management subject stands for, and how to make its speech remarkable and not biased.
How to Write a Speech in Human Resources Management: Basic Tips
Human Resources Management can be both your main specialization in college or just a class. But, it is an approach of efficient management of people, in particular, personnel and employees. Studying will predetermine the classes aimed to teach you how to recruit, motivate, speak, train, persuade and lead workers. However, the biggest task is to efficiently master the recruitment process. Further on, such skills are practical and useful whenever you want to pursue your career because some testing is applied to see how you deal with managing stressful situations with co-workers, and how you spot individuals who can benefit a company.
Roughly speaking, a clinical picture of a good HR specialist is a person with high stress-resistance, with knowledge of time-management, who knows how to motivate in a few seconds, and who knows how to maintain a perfect relationship with personnel that can be composed of either 20 employees or 200 ones. Thus, such an assignment to deliver a speech in any of the related topics will be an exercise that will prepare a student for his career.
Note, Declamation in Human Resources Management is a hard nut to crack if you have never recited a poem. But, with the next tips, you can forget about being nervous and you will for sure receive an A-grade.
Some Exercises to Prepare
So, you have to understand that individuals who now declare with no trouble also started from scratch. Probably, they learned the practices and rituals using the Internet or derived inspiration from their colleagues. Saying that such a skill is inherent to some people from birth is very wrong. Try to test yourself with the next exercises:
- Before you start writing it, do some tongue twisters. Nothing harms your speech more than your inability to produce simple sounds or spelling of the words. A public will lose concentration or a desire to listen to you within the shortest time. Choose one tongue twister for a week and exercise with it daily;
- Visit the TED platform. There is the biggest variety of speeches of both professional speakers and newcomers. For the top results, you can start making notes of their phrases. Besides, check how they breathe and when they do pauses;
- Find out the stylistic and language pattern of speeches. Monitor what are the grammatical tenses used, what vocabulary is the most related to HR management. Again write down everything you can reproduce. Then, you can sketch your speech with borrowed phrases;
- Understand the length. For large and small declamations there is one rule only, they have to bear a logical content. For instance, when you go to college, listen to people nearby and try to hear what are their tricks to persuade someone. Your community is the best example of how people communicate and live together. If possible visit public events to listen to the mayor, check how long is his speech and what is the result within the public;
- Watch your moves. There is no need to stand like a statue while speaking. Learn what gestures are acceptable and what distract the attention;
- Record yourself. Set a timer for one minute and imagine that you speak to the public. After check whether it was successful and you could persuade someone with such statements.
Now, when you have a clear idea of how this art works, let’s move to the composition of a stellar speech paper.
How to Write a Speech in Human Resources Management: Format
Most probably, at this moment many students will sigh with relief because there are no complicated instructions or format of the speech. In fact, it is a free composition that will require you to mention some details only. And, they are:
- Introduction – 10%
- Body-80%
- Ending-10%
The percentages show the rates you should base each chapter on. The only fluctuation possible is the one at the beginning. You can spend more time delivering the introduction but by no means reveal the problems or challenges from the main body.
Topic
What a speech without a well-selected topic? Do not even try to persuade someone in your vision or opinion, if you chose the banalest object to speak about. For example, What Is Human Resources Management? If you study it along with other folks from your group, you probably know onions about its definition and repeated it during every class. What Are the Skills of a Good HR Manager? Everyone for sure will have their opinion about this matter, but if you want to have a discussion after, it is quite a suitable topic. Check the list of topics that might of interest to you:
- How to Recruit Talents?
- Motivation Within Personnel;
- Risks and Responsibilities of HR Specialists;
- How and for What to Introduce Incentives?
- Performance Management and Encouragement;
- Why Not Fire but Teach?
- How to Understand Job Satisfaction With Employers?
- Resolution of Conflicts;
- Cultural Diversity in One Company;
- How to Hire an HR Manager?
- Forming a Team: Steps and Challenges;
- Talent Management;
- Work Ethics.
Otherwise, you can refer to such topics as Communication Rules with Employers, and Risks of Hiring People Today. There are various aspects you can touch but make sure you do not plagiarise someone’s ideas. Such intentions are fastly captivated with designated tools. In a best-case scenario, you will have a chance to redo it, or you will straight away receive a bad grade. What is next?
Outline
Most students agree that outline helps them to structure the thoughts in order and they faster may come up with an idea of a presentable speech. In the beginning, do not panic if you run out of information, the main task is to draft approximately. For instance, if you deliver a speech in front of professors, make sure to base your declamation more on the theoretical part. If your audience is students, they would like to hear about experiments or practical background of your topic.
Introduction
This part is the one responsible for triggering your public. You have only one chance to persuade someone to listen to you, especially if you are an HR specialist in the future. For such purposes, students use a hook. It is one to two sentences to catch the attention of your reader. For instance, write something like this:
● Human Resources is no more an art to recruit people, it is the mastership of building the successful units of society. However, some approaches may ruin both your and your employee career.
Look, you introduce people to the main problem or challenge. And, then you triggered them by hinting at some approaches they would like to know to avoid.
Then, a student has to clearly understand what is his audience. When you only start presenting your speech, introduce yourself, explain the reasons why you are there (do not mention that it is an obligatory assignment. Demonstrate that it is only your desire to address some problems to the public eye).
As usual, do not neglect the chance to use auxiliary phrases that will help you to start your speech. They are, first of all, to begin with, to outline the main points, firstly, secondly, it is often said that, many people claim that, nowadays, these days, and so on.
Main Body
Divide this chapter in ideas. It is better when you have two to three main points to deliver. When speaking with the audience, see whether they understand the purpose. Some professors allow students to communicate with the audience, so you can use this chance to receive feedback and supporting evidence or controversy regarding your thesis. Besides, you can use an anecdote. Otherwise, do never forget to attach some evidence or supporting clues for any point you discuss. If skipping it, your speech may look biased.
Note, do not try to share everything you know about the topic, it may take too much time and show that you are a know-it-all person. Find interesting facts, statistics, surveys, or ask your audience for their opinion to discuss the challenges. Try to avoid definitions or complicated features. People will not remember your scientific and boring statements but one interesting or even funny fact from the HR specialists’ experience may be stuck in their minds for long.
At this stage, use when it comes to, according to experts/statistics, with respect to, even though, although, as a result, etc.
Conclusion
It is another chapter where you can easily use an anecdote or rhetorical question. Make sure, you drive your conclusion with final thoughts. There should be no new information or new details. Only the summarization of points from the main body. Use the next phrases: to sum up, in conclusion, all things considered, in my opinion, from my point of view, as a result.
Helpful Tips for Writing a Speech in Human Resources Management
Again speaking of the requirements, your supervisor may allow students to use visual aids, or attach bibliography. However, if there is no need, you can start proofreading your speech and start practicing in front of the mirror or friends. For this stage, check other helpful tips to succeed in delivering your speech:
- Check for jargon or slang. Usually, it is not acceptable but if the topic predetermines its usage, make sure to attach it only when appropriate;
- Do not make your sentences too long. 10 words of one sentence are more than enough to deliver an idea;
- Spot repeated phrases or ideas. Especially, it concerns small speeches. It does not look good when you repeat, for example, I think, I believe. Try to find analogs;
- Understand whether you are persuasive or biased. Ask your friends or family members to listen to you.
At last, do not forget a good speech is when you are confident and you smile. If possible, dedicate one week for preparation, and try to gather interesting ideas, if needed organize a quiz in the end. But, any student who wants to pursue a career in Human Resources should have leadership skills, so declamation is one of the inherent skills of such a specialist. Follow the above-mentioned tips, and forget about embarrassment.
References:
- Armstrong, S. and Mitchell, B. (2019). The Essential HR Handbook, Tenth Anniversary Edition. Weiser.
- Detz, J. (2003). How to write & give a speech. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
- Lancaster, S. (2011). Speechwriting.