Anyone can talk for five minutes. The problem is leaning how to stop at five minutes and still have given a complete speech. A short speech can seem a little lengthy for someone who is not accustomed to public speaking. Because of this, inexperienced public speakers tend to overstuff their speech or leave so much out that they seem to rush to a conclusion without covering the topic. If you are expected to keep it short, you need to work to do this.
Often the topic is given to you when you are asked to make a speech. If the topic is not given, the type of audience will be. Normally, even without a topic, if you know the type of hearer, you can determine an appropriate topic with little difficulty. If you know that you are talking to a group of little league baseball players at their annual banquet, just talk about a few facts regarding great baseball players. Speak a couple of minutes on each one, and you have a five minute or so speech.
Most of the time you will need to find a small niche in the topic and build your speech around it. Trying to go too broad will make your speech dull and too long. Two or three ideas are the most that you can convey in one short speech. In some cases, you are better off to keep it to one idea with a couple of points. Trying to say too much will just make you have to talk really fast and still not get the topic covered. You may want to run your idea for a speech by the person who offered the invitation just to be sure that you understood what was expected.
It is unlikely that you will be asked to give a speech on a topic totally unknown to you. Unless you are speaking to a group of world authorities on the topic, you may already know enough to build the speech without research. If there are weak areas in your knowledge, look up the topic and refresh your memory. If you are going to quote someone or borrow from their information, build a citation or two into your speech.
Once you have the topic and the points in mind, list the points on a sheet of paper or a computer screen. I prefer paper because I can carry it around and add to it when an idea strikes me. Keep the points to only two or three. Add more sub points under each point. If you have two points, you can use up to about three sub points under each. If you have three points, limit the sub points to two each.
Write a short paragraph about each sub point. Look at your watch and read the entire piece out loud at a normal speaking rate. Check your watch. If you are between 4 1/2 and 6 minutes, you are done except for a little polishing. If you are far short or way over, make some adjustments and try again. Keep working at it until you can get the speech in the correct time frame. It should only take two revisions to reach your target time.
With the time limit met, the speech needs to be left alone for a day or two. Try not to even think about it. After a couple of days, pick up the speech and read it through silently. Look for areas where it could use a little editing. Also, if you have new thoughts as you read it, jot them down separately. After you have finished reading the speech. Read it again aloud. You may have more thoughts to add or remove. Use your new ideas and modify the speech slightly. Try not to rewrite the whole thing.
If you have time, let the speech sit for another day and repeat the process. If not, work on memorizing as much of the speech as possible. This will help you to deliver it in a natural fashion. Write the speech out on index cards and rehearse it enough to know when to move from one card to the next. When you have it down smoothly, quit rehearsing. If more than a day or two has to pass before you give the speech, resume rehearsing the speech two days before the date it is to be delivered. This should have you ready to go on the big day.
