What type of speech are you delivering?

Have you ever tried to create a speech, but the ideas just didn't seem to jell? You know, they seem good enough, they support your message, but they just don't go together.

When preparing your speech, it helps if you know what type of speech you want to create. There are four types of speeches:

Informational: this is the most prevalent type of speech. In this type of speech, your goal is to provide information to your audience. It is often presented with a series of numbers, statistics, and many PowerPoint slides... which tend to make it overdrawn and boring.
Inspiring: in this type of speech, you seek to inspire your audience to change something in their lives. This is often called a "motivational speech". In fact, that is a misnomer. Motivation comes from within, nobody can give it to you. An inspiring speech seeks to draw that motivation from audience members in order to get them to act.
Entertaining: the main goal of this speech is to make the audience laugh and to enjoy themselves. Most after-dinner speeches are entertaining speeches. Notice that an entertaining speech is not the same as a standup routine. The speech is much smoother and logical in its flow. In an entertaining speech, the message comes second to the enjoyment of the audience.
Persuasive: this speech aims to convince an audience of your point of view. The typical persuasive speech is a sales presentation. Your goal is to convince an audience of the benefits of your product or service, and your speech is constructed accordingly.

Although your speech focuses on one of these types, it helps if you can include aspects of each speech type in your final delivery. A sales speech will be much more effective if it contains information, is entertaining, and inspiring.

If you have trouble figuring out which ideas to keep and which ones to chuck, first decide on a type of speech. Keep only the ideas that fit that type of speech. Once you've got the core elements of the speech in place, add elements that will enhance it without taking away from the core message.

Happy speaking!