Make an outline of your talk and ask yourself the questions, who are you speaking to? What are you writing about? And how long do have to speak? Divide your talk into three basic parts--the introduction, body and conclusion. Outline your talk by defining the key points that you wish to make for each section in an organized manner. What is it that you wish to say about teen violence? Is it about how it effects the kids, schools, home life or all of the above? Identify the problem and how it affects the schools and lives of kids, and offer possible solutions. Identify your purpose and what you wish your audience to leave with.
Take your outline and rewrite the body as if you are speaking to your audience. Make sure your sentences are not too long. Set the tone and pace of your speech. In the body of your speech make your points about teen violence and lead your audience from talking about the problem and its effects to what the possible solutions may be. Your speech might include something like, "The Internet is an area where teens express violent thoughts and feelings. When a teen makes a threat toward himself or another it is called a 'cyberthreat.'" Then for a solution you could say something like, "Since teens post their violent thoughts and feelings on various sites for other teens to read, another teen could report something to an adult if she feels that harm could result from the threat."
Write your ending paragraph. This must be highly memorable and leave your audience with a call to action. Decide on whether you wish to inspire, persuade or share a particular point of view with your audience. The ending for a talk on teen violence will have more impact with a call to action, where you ask people to participate in some way to make the necessary changes and support ending teen violence. An example of this might be, "In conclusion I invite you to take a stand by being willing to support teens today in learning non-violent ways to express their feelings."
Write your introduction last. This is the most important paragraph of your speech. It needs to be powerful and one that will get the attention of your audience within the first 30 seconds. Decide on whether you wish it to be humorous, have shock value, formal or informal, a synthesis of your outline or a combination of all of these, including the call to action. Starting out with a vital statistic on how many kids have guns or have been murdered in the past few years might be a very strong introduction.
Read your speech several times carefully. Check that you have gotten all your main points in their correct order with the supporting materials needed as well as both your introduction and ending. Then read through it again and check for the linking passages or transitions you have used and make sure they are easy to follow. Then go over the grammar and pacing, tone and timing. Then read through your entire speech in front of a mirror.