HRHow to Write a Political Speech for Beginners
“How to Write a Political Speech for Beginners” is one of the most-read articles on the Manjgura blog. Since you continue to regularly consult it for your projects, we bring you a new, updated edition, in collaboration with Ana Šimunović, an expert in public and media speaking.
There are several ways to approach preparing a political speech. One way is to write it, although in that case, experts would unanimously agree on one piece of advice: do not read your speech from the paper. To interact more effectively with your audience, it is better to prepare notes to help you deliver your key points in the desired order. This way, it is easier to capture and maintain the audience’s attention and to create dynamics through gestures, changes in intonation, or humor. Of course, none of these should be overused, as that could give the wrong impression, but when used moderately, they can help gain the audience’s approval. More experienced speakers can achieve the same effect even without preparation, but if your rhetorical skills are not on the level of Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill, we would definitely recommend structuring your speech. Here’s how to do it, according to Ana Šimunović.
The goal of every political speech is to inspire citizens to take a specific action. Whether it’s motivating voters to go to the polls on election day and choose a certain option, or gathering support for a particular political initiative, idea, or activity, a political speech is a crucial tool for inspiring engagement.
The power of a political speech lies in its ability to evoke the same need, desire, or vision in people who seemingly have nothing in common, thus bringing them together as a community. To achieve this, it is necessary to clearly define what you want to accomplish with your political speech. But without a clear message and a strong delivery, a speech will just be a noise that fades into the background. How do you avoid that trap and write a speech that leaves a lasting impact?
Follow these three steps to successfully write and deliver a political speech:
- Profile Your Audience
If you don’t know who you are addressing, you won’t know if what you are saying is relevant to them. Therefore, the first step in preparing a good political speech is profiling your audience, i.e., identifying the ones you want and need to address.
As a communication advisor to many public figures and through analyzing speeches, I’ve noticed that politicians often make the mistake of focusing too much on those who lie on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum. Don’t waste your energy on those you will never win over due to their ideological stance, nor focus solely on those who are already on your side. Instead, identify the silent majority—the “undecided” and “neutral” who have yet to form their opinion. This is no easy task and an art in itself, but once you recognize whom you truly need to persuade with your speech, you can direct most of your message towards them.
Through audience profiling, research their needs, concerns, worries, desires, expectations, beliefs, and values. Imagine you are a tailor, and your political speech is the suit you need to craft. A good tailor will first take the client’s measurements, understand the occasion, preferred color, fabric, length, and cut, learn what they client dislike and what they want to feel like in the suit. Only then can they start making a suit that fits just right. The same goes for speeches—first take the “measurements” of your audience, and only then start writing and structuring your political speech to “tailor” the perfect message just for them.
- Set the Cornerstones of Persuasion – Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Kairos
To inspire change, it is crucial to select and use arguments that are relevant to your political idea and that resonate with your audience, to give credibility to what you are saying through your experience, to create an emotional connection through your delivery, and to emphasize the urgency and necessity of the desired action. In other words, build your speech using Aristotle’s persuasion triangle—logos, ethos, and pathos—plus the additional ancient Greek principle of kairos. These elements will determine whether your audience trusts you, sees themselves in your message, and ultimately takes action.
Logos – “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”)
Logos refers to the logic, rationality, and relevance of your arguments. In your speech, present sensible, factual, clearly structured, and key information that leads the audience to the conclusion you want. However, be cautious—too much data, statistics, and dry details can cause you to lose the audience’s attention and reduce the impact of your arguments.
Ethos – “Walk the Talk”
Ethos represents your credibility and trustworthiness. To strengthen ethos and gain the audience’s trust, you need to position yourself as a reliable person who can deliver on what you promise. In other words, through action and examples, you must demonstrate that you have the knowledge, experience, and integrity to speak on the topic. For example, when Greta Thunberg talks about climate change, her ethos stems from her consistency – she walks the talk when it comes to the climate crisis.
Pathos – “The heart chooses, reason justifies”
Pathos highlights the power of emotions in your speech. Famous political speakers like Martin Luther King did not just present facts; through emotion and passion, they touched the hearts of their listeners. To create an emotional connection and evoke certain feelings in your audience, your delivery must bring your words to life. As St. Augustine said: “You must burn within if you wish to ignite the same fire in others.” Your body language, facial expressions, gestures, voice, and movements should all reflect the same engagement, desire, and emotions you wish to evoke. From my experience, preparing for pathos is one of the most effective ways to achieve a strong motivational impact and establish a deeper connection with the audience.
Kairos – “Now or never”
Kairos refers to the sense of urgency and necessity you need to create. Successful speakers know how to create a “now or never” moment for their audience, whether it’s presidential candidates convincing voters that this election is crucial for the future or activists insisting there’s no more time to wait. Kairos sparks motivation for immediate action and involvement in a major change, movement, or vision.
- Strengthen Your Speech with the Right Rhetorical Techniques
To make a strong impression and achieve your speech’s goal, highlight key parts by selecting rhetorical techniques or figures that best suit what you want to accomplish. These will help you strengthen the entire speech and amplify your core message. The message should be short, simple, and memorable so that people can easily repeat it and use it in their own conversations.
Consider using one of these powerful rhetorical techniques:
- Emphasize your speech with examples, metaphors, and comparisons your audience can relate to.
This will make your message more understandable, memorable, and impactful. In political speeches, you often hear movement metaphors; for example, during the 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama compared the elections to a sprint, mentioning runner Usain Bolt: “This is not going to be a race like Usain Bolt, where we’re like 40 yards ahead and we can just kind of start jogging 10 feet before the finish line… We’re going to have to run through the tape.” Here, Obama uses metaphor and comparison to motivate voter turnout and stress the need to push hard through the finish line.
- Pauses in speech add power to your message
Pauses are one of the most powerful but often overlooked rhetorical tools. They enhance persuasiveness, drive, and drama in a speech, creating suspense and helping the audience process and remember the message.
In my work with local and foreign politicians, I’ve seen how crucial it is to use pauses consciously to emphasize key points and maintain the speech’s rhythm. Well-timed pauses make a speech clearer, calmer, and more convincing, showing the speaker’s confidence. In political speeches, they can add gravity to the message and increase its impact.
- We all know that repetition is the mother of learning—and so do the best speakers
Anaphora (repetition of the same word at the beginning of a sentence) and epiphora (repetition at the end) are loyal allies that will help imprint your message into the minds and hearts of your audience. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill often used them during World War II. In his speech “We Shall Fight on the Beaches,” he uses anaphora to emphasize key phrases: “we shall fight on the beaches,” “we shall fight on the landing grounds,” “we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,” to boost national morale in the face of invasion.
Examples of Political Speeches
One example that perfectly embodies these three steps is Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he describes a vision of a future calling for the end of racial discrimination and equal rights for all.
His audience could see themselves reflected in that vision, and their interests and beliefs were brought to life in his words. King’s dream became the dream of everyone in the audience, and as a speaker, he successfully recognized this and powerfully emphasized it through his delivery, pathos, and rhetorical figures. This speech remains one of the best political speeches of all time because it united the audience around a common vision and influenced how they thought, felt, and acted.
Another widely remembered modern speech was Barack Obama’s inaugural address, which had a similar impact on its audience and is also considered one of the greatest political speeches ever.
A memorable example from the Croatian political scene is Vlado Gotovac’s speech in front of the Command of the 5th Military District during the protests of mothers whose sons were forcibly retained in the Yugoslav People’s Army.
His speech stands out as a masterful example of political rhetoric because it simultaneously calls for citizen resistance and the preservation of love, dignity, and freedom. Gotovac opens with the sentence, “I love you, and I am proud of you,” identifying with the audience and their problems, allowing them to resonate with him. He addresses them with respect and empathy, and both ethos and pathos strongly echo through his words. If you pay attention to his voice, you’ll notice how powerful it is when we speak from the heart and authentically. His voice and hand movements follow his words and show how deeply he cares about what he is saying. Additionally, Gotovac skillfully uses repetition (“We have our homeland, we have our cities, we have our culture, we have our nation. Let them leave!”) and metaphor (“They will die in the desolation of their dead hearts”).
Finally, I’ll reveal a secret that shaped some of the most powerful political speeches in history – from Kennedy to Obama to Martin Luther King. It’s the technique of the power of contrast, which presents a variation between “what is” and “what could be.” Contrast today’s reality or what’s wrong in society with your vision of a better future and how society could look. Turn your political speech into a story in which the voter is the hero you invite to join you on a journey to overcome challenges and change the world for the better. Nancy Duarte talks more about this in her analysis of significant political speeches:
The essence of every successful political speech lies in its ability to awaken emotion and inspire action. A political speech should inspire us, remind us that we have the power, and ignite within us the belief that we should, can, and deserve better.
When you clearly profile your audience, apply the power of persuasion, and use rhetorical techniques, your speech becomes more than just words – it becomes a tool for change. Next time you write a political speech, ask yourself: “Who am I speaking to, how will I convince them, and what do I want them to feel and do?” Because the power of words is not in what we say but in what we inspire in others.
Ana Šimunović is a leadership and communication consultant, as well as the author of the Conversational Agility method. She has over 14 years of experience working with a large number of Croatian and foreign politicians and business leaders. She regularly conducts training sessions and individual consultations on public and media appearances, leadership, communication, and sales skills.
Tags: inaugural speech, Ana Šimunović, political speech, political communication, political advisor, communication advisor, public speech
