How to Write a Speech about Someone

If you are writing a speech about someone such as Martin Luther King is important to understand how to write your speech effectively.
Writing a speech about someone such as Martin Luther King can be a challenge because you have to present an outstanding person with speech and text.
What is the rhetorical structure?
The rhetorical structure for your speech is much the same as every other piece of writing such that you need the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.

Introduction

Within your introduction you should not state the name of the person you were going to write about immediately. If you are writing about Martin Luther King, do not open with his name. Instead, build suspense. Mention some of the most well-known achievements of Dr. King, give the audience a question, or introduce a famous quote.

Body

Within the body you want to present the reasons you chose this person. What makes this person stand out from everyone else? What is so exciting and remarkable about that person?
Think about what you expect your audience to understand when your speech is over, what you want the audience to know and to feel.

• Inside of the body you should also include a bit of background information on the successes of that person, the trials they faced, and what challenges they overcame. You want to characterize their work, what things they did, how they stood out from the rest, and what their particular style was. You want to introduce their greatest influence or perhaps the sources of their inspiration.
• You might consider throwing in a funny piece of trivia or a funny fact that people don’t know about that person. You can include how they influenced society as well.

Conclusion

Within the conclusion you want to refer back to your speech and make sure that you not only leave the listener with the message you want them to take home but point some of the future plans about the person you are presenting or perhaps how their life ended and what their contribution means for today.

Another way to wrap up the speeches is to end with a meaningful quote from the person about whom you are speaking. If you are writing a speech about Dr. Martin Luther King you can end with a quote from one of his speeches or books. You can also end with a question, something which is thought-provoking for the audience. If the person you are speaking about has led a meaningful life or has left some great lessons to be learned you can end with a reference to those lessons.

Some phrases you can use in the introduction include the following:

• I am sure this individual needs no introduction…
• Some of you might be wondering why I have selected this person…
• I am sure most of you are familiar with…
• To say that this person is influential is an understatement…
• To say that this person has changed their sphere is an understatement…

For the body you might consider using phrases such as the following:

• Did you know…?
• I’m sure all of you will agree that…
• You might not be aware that…
• That leads us to…
• You probably won’t be surprised to hear…
• And were you aware that…?

For the conclusion you can say things such as the following:

• I want to leave you with one final thought…
• Let me just finish by saying the following…
• In a nutshell it is simple to understand why this person is considered one of the most outstanding people in their sphere.
• There’s so much more that I could share but for now let me leave you with…