IGCSE English Language: How to Write a Persuasive Speech

The persuasive speech is one of the most frequently tested written forms in IGCSE English Language — and one of the most fun to write, once you know its conventions. Unlike an essay, a speech has an audience, a setting, and a relationship between speaker and listeners that shapes every choice you make. That’s what makes it interesting.

Know the Form

A speech is written to be heard, not read. The conventions that follow from this:

• Address your audience directly and frequently: “Ladies and gentlemen,” “You might be wondering…”, “I’m sure many of you have felt…” Direct address creates intimacy and keeps the listener engaged.
• Use the first person: A speech has a speaker, and that speaker has a perspective, a stake in the argument, a reason for caring. “I believe…” “In my experience…” “I have seen first-hand…”
• Vary sentence length deliberately: Short sentences create emphasis. Longer sentences build momentum and allow you to develop a point with nuance. Mixing the two is how speech achieves rhythm.
• Use rhetorical devices consciously: Tricolon (“We need courage, commitment, and compassion”), anaphora (“Not for our generation — not for our children’s generation — but for every generation that follows”), rhetorical questions (“How long must we wait?”), hypophora (raising a question and answering it yourself).

Structure

A strong persuasive speech typically moves through:

1. Opening hook: A startling statistic, a rhetorical question, a brief anecdote, or a bold claim. You have about 30 seconds to establish whether this is worth listening to.
2. Establishing your credibility/position: Why should they listen to you? What do you know about this? What do you care about it?
3. The argument: Usually 3–4 main points, each developed with evidence, reason, and emotional appeal in varying combinations.
4. Acknowledging the opposition (briefly): “I know some of you will argue…” Addressing the counterargument and refuting it actually makes your position stronger.
5. A strong conclusion: Return to your opening image or idea, make a final impassioned appeal, and give your audience something to do or think about. End with a sentence that lands.

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting it’s a speech and writing an essay instead — no audience address, no speaker’s voice, no rhetorical devices
• Listing points without developing any of them — marks come from the quality of argument, not the quantity of points
• Using every rhetorical device in one paragraph — subtlety is more persuasive than a device every sentence
• Ending weakly — “In conclusion, I hope you will consider my points” is not a memorable final line

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Persuasive writing, descriptive writing, and all the core IGCSE English Language written forms are practised regularly in Thorogood English’s small-group classes. Join the waiting list for January 2027.