Component 1 - Writing a speech

Read the speaking situation

A speech is written for a real or imagined public occasion: an assembly, meeting, campaign, conference or consultation. Its audience might be classmates, parents, teachers, residents, councillors or a mixture of groups. Those listeners expect to understand quickly why the issue matters, what the speaker thinks and where the talk is taking them.

That makes a speech different from a general essay on the same topic. Before generating points, turn the prompt into five decisions:

Suppose a task says:

Your town council is considering replacing a small public library with a commercial leisure complex. You have been invited to give a speech at a public meeting persuading residents and councillors to preserve and modernise the library. Write the text of your speech.

The topic is a library, but the writing problem is more exact. The audience is mixed: residents may care about access, while councillors may also care about cost and development. The purpose is not to praise books in general; it is to persuade this audience to choose preservation and modernisation. The form is the text of a speech, so the prose must create a speaking relationship without turning into a drama script.

In the examination, Section B offers a choice of two prompts and Pearson advises about 45 minutes for the one response. Both are worth 45 marks. Choose by control, not by topic alone: which prompt lets you identify the command, audience and form precisely, develop distinct points, and sustain an appropriate voice?

A prompt may name a digital location, such as a school or community website. That does not turn the response into webpage design: if the named form is a speech, write the speech in continuous prose.

This lesson concerns the written Component 1 speech. It is not the separately assessed Spoken Language Endorsement: delivery, slides and performance directions are not part of this writing task.

Open and guide the speech

Pearson's form guidance is deliberately light. A speech may use an opening that makes the addressed audience clear and a closing that signals the talk is ending. No other special layout is expected. The real challenge is to make continuous prose easy to follow as spoken language.

Return to the library task. This opening is accurate but could begin almost any piece about libraries:

Libraries are very important, and there are many reasons why they should not close.

It names the topic, but not the people in the room, the immediate decision or the speaker's exact destination. Now revise the decision behind the wording:

Councillors, neighbours and fellow students, tonight we are being asked to trade a free public library for a leisure complex. I am asking us to choose a better option: modernise the library; do not erase it.

Three choices establish speech identity at once:

• Councillors, neighbours and fellow students recognises the mixed audience without repeatedly shouting you.
• tonight we are being asked locates the speech in a live decision rather than a timeless school essay.
• modernise the library; do not erase it gives the argument a precise destination and avoids the false impression that the speaker opposes all change.

A rhetorical question or anecdote could also open a speech, but neither is compulsory. The useful question is not Have I used a hook? but Will these listeners immediately understand why they should attend to this issue?

Guide the ear

A reader can glance back at a heading. A listener needs the relationships between ideas made audible. Signposting does that work when it reveals reasoning:

Firstly, secondly and finally can be clear, but repeating them mechanically does not develop an argument. Prefer a transition that tells listeners how the new point relates to the last one.

Direct address also needs restraint. You must understand repeated in every paragraph can sound accusatory. Pronouns such as we, our and you are effective only when they clarify responsibility or shared stakes: We all benefit from a town where access to knowledge does not depend on income.

Land the ending

A closing should do more than announce In conclusion or add Thank you. It should resolve the line of thought and, where the purpose calls for it, ask for action within the audience's power:

We do not have to choose between investment and access. Councillors, pause the sale, publish the costs and invite residents to shape a modernisation plan. Let us improve the place that already belongs to everyone, rather than remove it from those who need it most.

The ending returns to the opening contrast, narrows the request to feasible steps and makes the audience responsible for the next decision.

Change the voice, keep the speech

Register is the language of a relationship. It depends on who is listening, how much they know, how much authority they hold, how formal the occasion is and what they may resist. It is not a ladder on which formal automatically means better.

Consider one core proposal: replace disposable cups at school with refill stations. The claim, basic reason and practical action can stay stable while the register changes.

Classmates at a student forum

Most of us buy a drink, use the cup for ten minutes and then throw it away. We can change that without making school life harder: bring one reusable bottle, and ask the canteen to put refill points where we actually need them.

The voice is conversational but controlled. Most of us begins with shared experience; the concrete timescale and direct invitation feel natural among peers; without making school life harder answers a likely concern.

Parents and staff at a school meeting

Parents, teachers and colleagues, the aim is not to make the school day less convenient; it is to stop paying repeatedly for waste we can prevent. A phased move to reusable bottles, supported by well-placed refill stations, would make the change practical as well as responsible.

The tone is measured and collaborative. The concession addresses convenience, while phased, supported and practical show that the proposal has been thought through.

Trustees at a formal committee hearing

Members of the committee, a phased transition from disposable cups to refill stations would reduce recurring waste while protecting access to drinking water. I therefore propose a one-term trial, followed by a review of cost, use and accessibility.

The relationship is more formal and the action more procedural. Precise nouns replace chatty reference, and the proposal anticipates the committee's need for an accountable decision. The sentence is not better because it has longer words; it is better suited to this audience's role.

Across all three versions, the speech identity remains. A speaker addresses present listeners, explains a relevant reason and leads towards action. What changes is the social distance, assumed knowledge, degree of directness and kind of reassurance.

Use this quick register test before drafting a paragraph:

1. What does this audience already know?
2. What are they most likely to value or resist?
3. Should my voice sound familiar, collaborative, deferential, urgent or calmly authoritative?
4. Which content detail, not merely which synonym, would show that adaptation?