Impromptu speaking is the art of delivering a coherent, structured and engaging speech with little to no preparation. A good impromptu speaker won’t necessarily speak perfectly, but they will be confident and, hopefully, with have something insightful to share. As a skill, this is among the most useful things you can possess: you will use it during presentations, interviews, meetings, or anywhere else that where you need to think on your feet and communicate ideas to others.

One of the best examples of impromptu speaking can be found in this speech by Robert Kennedy, where he had to break the news of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination to a crowd of predominantly African-Americans in Indianapolis during an election campaign. He only had a few minutes to prepare the speech that he delivered (you can see the notes in his hand!), but it is nevertheless considered one of the more important and influential speeches in modern American history:

While impromptu speaking may at first appear quite daunting, it’s not as bad as it seems. With a bit of practise and a few tricks up your sleeve, you will find that it is actually quite manageable.

Impromptu Speaking Formats

Many different competitions use impromptu speaking, with some important differences in regard to whether you can choose your topic, how long you get to prepare, how long you speak and whether you can use notes. A break-down of the main competitions is as follows:

Impromptu Speaking by Competition

Impromptu Speaking Structures

The most important things in an impromptu speech is to have a clear message and a clear structure. The basic structure to this type of speech is as follows:

Open with something that grabs the audience’s attention, usually a STORY that establishes the topic.
State your TOPIC in a clear manner.
Outline the STRUCTURE of your speech (3 points)
Present your POINTS in the body of your speech, clearly SIGNPOSTING between points.
Conclude your speech by leaving the audience with a final MESSAGE, related to (but not the same as) your topic.

Have a look at this speech, and see if you can notice the structure:

The biggest thing when developing a speech is making sure you have two or three good, intelligent, thought-provoking and substantiated points to discuss (the exact number of points you need will depend on your own style and the amount of time you have to speak for). There are not set rules about what you can discuss or how you should structure your response – it is completely up to you as a speaker to figure out what works best for you.

However, there are a number of common approaches that many people, including some very successful impromptu speakers, find quite useful as a means of generating ideas, organising their thoughts and making sure that they always know what their next point is. Six of the more common ones are outlined below:

imptomptu structures 1

imptomptu structures 2

imptomptu structures 3

You can download a copy of these structures here: Impromptu Speaking Structures

You can click on the below links to see some of these structures in action:

Impromptu Speaking Planning

There are essentially four key steps when planning an impromptu speech, and are designed to allow you to maximise the quality of your content while minimising both the amount of time it takes to organise your ideas and how much you need to write down. Essentially, once you have selected a topic, you want to move through planning your speech in reverse:

Impromptu Planning

Step 1: Choose your Topic

This should happen quickly, but think before you choose. If the topic is a phrase or quote, make sure you have an idea of what it is asking your about (or a legitimate interpretation) as it is often best to boil both of these things down to a single key idea.

E.g. ‘There is no place like home’ can become: Why do value those places and things that are most familiar to us?

E.g. ‘The more we communicate, the less we really say’ can become: What makes for effective communication?

Step 2: Determine your Final Message

This will the what your speech builds to: a final message, thought or call-to-action that you will leave your audience with, so try to avoid anything too obvious. Remember that if you talk about/say the same thing as 10 other people, then you’d better say it better than those 10 other people! It can therefore be better to disregard the initial, obvious answer and try to think of a more interesting, personal or unexpected message.

The reason why it is good to figure this message out first and write it down is because you want your ending to unify your speech and be consistent with your other points. Once you have a message, it is often easier to come up with a set of connected points (i.e. it is easier to find points that support your message/conclusion than it is to come up with a message/conclusion that matches your other hastily-assembled points).

E.g. The message of a speech on ‘There is no place like home’ can be: Don’t become too fixated on your past, as you might miss a new, better ‘home’ that is waiting for you in the future.

E.g. The message of a speech on ‘The more we communicate, the less we really say’ can be: We can’t let our voices get lost within the noise of society. We need to learn the value of silence, as it can speak louder than any words.

Step 3: Determine your Points

You need two or three good, distinct points. You need a clear structure, and signposting will be absolutely essential!

Your structure should be simple and clear, because:

You don’t have long to come up with it!
You need to be able to communicate it quickly to your audience.
You need to remember it and fill it in as you speak.

You can use the above-mentioned structures to help you come up with good, easy points and present a well-structured speech.

Step 4: Determine your Hook

Your speech need to open your speech with something to open your speech. It should be a means of introducing an idea that is relevant to your topic, although it doesn’t have to be directly on your topic (i.e. it is allowed to ‘lead’ us to what you will be discussing).

This hook should engage your audience in your content, introduce yourself to your audience and make a connection with them.

Often a STORY works well, especially if it’s personal or something unique to you. Stories from the media can work well too, or a hypothetical. If you want to see what other possibilities exist, check out the Hooking your Audience handbook page.

This should be the last thing you plan and the first thing that your say (some people will even think of it when they are walking form the preparation space to the presentation room). Since we naturally think and converse in stories, they are often an easy thing to begin with. If it is a story that happened to you, then it will also be an easy thing to discuss, as you are just recalling it from your memory and don’t need to write much (if anything) down.

Impromptu Speaking Practise

Once you have seen some examples and are familiar with the structure of an impromptu speech, there is only one thing left to do: PRACTISE! Practise is essential to good impromptu speaking and developing the familiarity and confidence needed to do well. Don’t expect your first few speeches to go well (they probably won’t), so give yourself a practise topic and have a go at planning and presenting a speech.

If you don’t have an audience to hear you speak, try recording yourself so you can see what works well and what you should avoid.

You can find a whole heap of practise topics in PDF documents (which often get updated before competitions) on the following pages:

Copies of current topics (as of May 2016) can also be found here:

DAV Junior Public Speaking:

AIDPSC:

Debating and Public Speaking

Impromptu Speaking