In Short:

• The speech is one of the most rewarding HKDSE Paper 2 text types, but students consistently underperform on it because they write essays instead of speeches
• What separates a Level 3 speech from a Level 5+ speech is audience awareness -- the sense that someone is actually standing at a podium, talking to real people
• This guide breaks down each section of a speech, shows you the techniques that markers reward, and gives you annotated examples you can learn from
• The patterns here work for any speech topic: school assemblies, competitions, community events

The speech question appears regularly in HKDSE Paper 2, and it consistently trips students up. Not because the topics are hard -- speech topics are often about issues students care about, like school policies, environmental concerns, or community life. The problem is that most students do not write speeches. They write essays and put "Good morning" at the top.

A real speech sounds different from an essay. It has rhythm. It has moments where the speaker pauses, asks a question, or drives a point home through repetition. It builds toward something. And markers know the difference instantly.

This guide shows you how to write a speech that actually sounds like one, section by section.

Why Speeches Are Different

Before getting into structure and technique, it helps to understand why markers assess speeches differently from other text types.

A speech is written to be heard, not read. That single fact changes everything:

• Sentences tend to be shorter. Listeners cannot reread a complex sentence. If they lose the thread, it is gone.
• Repetition is a strength, not a weakness. In an essay, repeating a phrase feels redundant. In a speech, it creates emphasis and rhythm.
• The audience is present. A speech writer addresses real people in real time. The audience is not abstract -- they are in the room, and the speaker acknowledges them.
• Register is semi-formal to formal, but it should sound spoken. "One might argue" is essay language. "You might be thinking" is speech language. Both are appropriate in terms of formality, but only the second sounds like it belongs in front of an audience.

When markers assess a speech, they are looking for evidence that the student understands these differences. An essay dressed up as a speech will score lower on Language and Style because the register does not match the text type.

The Opening: Your First Thirty Seconds

The opening of a speech does two things: it establishes who you are speaking to, and it makes the audience want to listen.

Address the Audience

Always begin by addressing your audience directly. This is a convention, and omitting it signals to markers that you do not understand the text type.

Appropriate openings for common HKDSE scenarios:

• School assembly: "Good morning, Principal Chan, teachers, and fellow students."
• Community event: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today."
• Debate or competition: "Good afternoon, adjudicators, teachers, and fellow debaters."
• Club meeting: "Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming."

Keep it brief. One or two sentences at most. Then move into your hook.

Hook the Audience

After the address, you need a reason for the audience to keep listening. There are several reliable techniques:

A question. Not a vague, rhetorical question that expects no answer, but a genuine question that makes the audience reflect.

How many hours did you spend on your phone yesterday? Not just scrolling social media -- I mean total screen time. If the answer is more than four hours, you are not alone. You are the majority.

A surprising fact or statistic.

Last year, Hong Kong sent 11,000 tonnes of waste to landfill every single day. To put that in perspective, that is roughly the weight of 1,800 double-decker buses. Every day.

A short story or anecdote.

Last month, a Form 3 student at this school told me she had not eaten breakfast in two weeks. Not because her family could not afford it, but because she was staying up until 3am doing homework and sleeping through her alarm. I think about her every time someone tells me our students are not under enough pressure.

A bold statement.

We are failing our students. Not in examinations -- in something far more important. We are failing to teach them how to take care of themselves.

Notice that each of these hooks does something specific: it creates a reaction. The audience thinks, "I want to hear more about this." That is the purpose of an opening.

What Not to Do

Good morning, everyone. Today I am going to talk about healthy eating. Healthy eating is very important. In this speech, I will discuss three points about healthy eating.

This is the most common opening in Level 3 speeches. It is not wrong, but it is lifeless. The student has announced the topic without giving the audience a reason to care. "I will discuss three points" is a road map for an essay, not a speech. Audiences do not need a preview of your paragraph structure.

The Body: Building Your Argument

The body of your speech is where you develop your ideas. But unlike an essay, a speech builds momentum. Each point should feel more urgent, more important, or more compelling than the last.

Structure Your Points Strategically

Arrange your arguments from the most accessible to the most powerful:

1. Start with what the audience already agrees with. This builds rapport. You are not challenging them yet -- you are showing them you understand their perspective.
2. Introduce your strongest evidence or argument in the middle. This is where you make your case.
3. End the body with your most emotionally compelling point. This is what the audience will remember when you move into your closing.

This structure works because it mirrors how persuasion actually works. You do not lead with your biggest ask. You earn the audience's trust first.

Use Rhetorical Devices (But Use Them Well)

Markers explicitly look for rhetorical devices in speeches. But using them effectively matters more than using them frequently. Here are the four most useful devices for HKDSE speeches, with examples:

1. Tricolon (Rule of Three)

Grouping ideas in threes creates rhythm and emphasis.

We need to act with urgency, with purpose, and with compassion.

This is not just a school problem. It is a community problem, a health problem, and a moral problem.

The tricolon works because three items feel complete. Two feels insufficient. Four feels like a list. Three has a natural rhythm that lands in the listener's ear.

2. Anaphora (Repetition at the Start of Sentences)

Repeating the same phrase at the beginning of consecutive sentences or clauses creates a drumbeat effect.

We cannot ignore this any longer. We cannot pretend the problem will solve itself. We cannot wait for someone else to act.

Every student deserves a fair chance. Every student deserves to be heard. Every student deserves better than this.

Use anaphora at key moments -- when you want to drive a point home or build toward your closing. Using it in every paragraph dilutes the effect.

3. Rhetorical Questions

Questions that you answer yourself (or leave the audience to answer internally) create engagement. The audience feels involved because their brain automatically tries to answer.

Is it really acceptable that students in one of the richest cities in the world are going hungry at school? I do not think so. And I suspect you do not think so either.

What would you do if you had thirty minutes more in your day? What if I told you that thirty minutes already exists -- it is just being spent in the wrong place?

The key is to follow the question with something. A rhetorical question left hanging feels unfinished. A rhetorical question followed by a direct answer feels powerful.

4. Direct Address

Reminding the audience that you are talking to them, not at them. This is perhaps the most important device in speech writing, and the one Level 3 students most often forget.

I am not talking about some abstract future. I am talking about next Monday. Your Monday.

This affects every person sitting in this hall. It affects you.

Direct address can be woven in throughout the speech. It keeps the audience present and prevents the speech from sounding like an essay being read aloud.

An Annotated Body Paragraph

Here is a body paragraph from a speech about reducing food waste in the school canteen, with annotations:

[Direct address] Take a look at the bins in our canteen after lunch today. Go ahead -- actually look. [Rhetorical question] What will you see? Trays piled with rice that no one touched. Unopened cartons of milk. Entire portions of vegetables scraped into the waste. [Specific detail] Last term, our school's Environment Club weighed the food waste from the canteen over a single week. The total was 340 kilograms. That is the weight of four students in this room, thrown away. Every week. [Tricolon] This is not just wasteful. It is expensive, it is environmentally damaging, and it is something we can actually fix. [Transition to solution] The question is not whether we should act -- it is how.

This paragraph uses four different rhetorical devices, but none of them feel forced. Each one serves a purpose: engaging the audience, providing evidence, creating emphasis, and moving the argument forward.

The Closing: Landing the Speech

The closing is the last thing the audience hears. It needs to be memorable, and it needs to give them something to do or think about.

Techniques for Strong Closings

Call to action. Tell the audience what you want them to do. Be specific.

So here is what I am asking. Not a revolution, not a complete change of lifestyle. Just one thing. This week, before you throw away food, stop and ask yourself: did I need to take this much? One question. That is where it starts.

Circle back to the opening. If you opened with a story, question, or statistic, return to it. This creates a sense of completeness.

I started by asking how many hours you spent on your phone yesterday. Here is a better question: how many hours did you spend doing something that made you genuinely happy? If you cannot answer that, it might be time to rethink where your time is going.

A memorable final line. Short, direct, resonant.

We are the generation that grew up hearing about climate change. Let us be the generation that did something about it.

The students in this school deserve more than good exam results. They deserve good health. And that starts here.

What Not to Do

In conclusion, I believe that healthy eating is very important. I hope you will all eat more healthily in the future. Thank you for listening.

This is the Level 3 closing. "In conclusion" is an essay marker, not a speech technique. "I hope you will all..." is weak and passive. "Thank you for listening" is acceptable but should follow a strong final statement, not replace one.

Full Example: A Level 5+ Speech (Annotated)

Here is a complete short speech written at Level 5+ standard. Read it once through, then review the annotations.

Topic: Your school is considering removing the morning exercise session. Write a speech to your fellow students arguing against the removal.

Good morning, Principal Lee, teachers, and fellow students.

I would like to start with a number: seventeen minutes. That is how long our morning exercise session lasts. Seventeen minutes out of an eight-hour school day. And yet, the proposal in front of us suggests that those seventeen minutes are too many -- that we would be better off spending them at our desks, starting lessons earlier.

[The hook: a specific number that frames the debate. The audience immediately sees the absurdity of cutting something so short.]

I respectfully disagree. And I think by the end of this speech, you will too.

[Direct address + confidence. Sets up the argument without previewing the structure.]

Let me be clear about what we would lose. Morning exercise is not just stretching and jumping jacks. It is the one time in the school day when every student in this school moves their body. For some students -- particularly those who do not play sports or attend after-school activities -- it is the only structured physical activity they get all day. Remove it, and you are not just cutting seventeen minutes from the timetable. You are cutting the only exercise some of your classmates get.

[Develops the point with a specific, empathetic observation about students who do not do other sport. Shows awareness of the full student body, not just the athletic ones.]

And the evidence is clear. Research from the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that students who engage in physical activity before lessons show significantly better concentration during the first two periods of the day. Our morning exercise session does not take time away from learning. It makes the learning that follows it more effective. Cutting it to gain seventeen minutes of desk time is a false economy.

[Specific evidence from a local source. "False economy" is a precise and sophisticated phrase that shows language control.]

I know what some of you are thinking: "I hate morning exercise. It is boring and pointless." Fair enough. I have stood in those lines too, going through the motions. But the answer to a boring exercise session is not to remove it. The answer is to make it better. Let the student council propose alternatives: a choice between yoga, jogging, or guided stretching. Give students ownership over how they move, and participation will follow.

[Anticipates the counterargument and addresses it directly. This is a hallmark of Level 5+ writing -- engaging with opposing views rather than ignoring them. The proposed solution is specific and realistic.]

We talk a lot in this school about wellbeing. We have wellbeing assemblies, wellbeing posters in every corridor, a wellbeing week every November. But when we have the chance to protect one of the simplest, most effective wellbeing practices we already have in place, we are considering throwing it away for seventeen extra minutes of seat time.

[Anaphora with "wellbeing" drives the irony home. The repetition is deliberate and effective. "Throwing it away for seventeen extra minutes of seat time" echoes the opening number.]

I urge the school to keep our morning exercise session. Not because it has always been there, but because it works. Seventeen minutes is not a lot to ask. It might be the most important seventeen minutes of our day.

[Closing circles back to the opening number. "Not because it has always been there, but because it works" is a strong, concise justification. The final sentence is short and lands with weight.]

Thank you.

Applying This to Your Own Speeches

You do not need to memorise formulas. But you should internalise these principles:

1. Sound spoken, not written. Read your speech aloud. If any sentence makes you stumble, rewrite it. If any phrase sounds like it belongs in an essay, change it.

2. Address your audience at least three times. Once at the start, at least once in the body, and once in the closing. Every time you say "you" or directly refer to the audience, you pull them back in.

3. Use two to three rhetorical devices per body paragraph. Not to tick a box, but because they make your argument land harder. A tricolon is not decoration -- it is emphasis. A rhetorical question is not a trick -- it is engagement.

4. Plan your closing before you write your opening. If you know where the speech is heading, every paragraph can build toward it. The best speeches feel inevitable by the end.

5. One strong example beats three weak ones. Do not try to cover everything. Choose the most compelling evidence you have and develop it fully. Depth beats breadth in speeches even more than in essays.

Text Type Checklist for Speeches

Before you submit, check:

• [ ] Does the speech open with a direct address to the audience?
• [ ] Is there a hook in the first paragraph (question, statistic, story)?
• [ ] Does the speech sound spoken when read aloud?
• [ ] Are there at least two different rhetorical devices in the body?
• [ ] Does the speech address the audience directly at least once beyond the opening?
• [ ] Does the closing include a call to action or memorable final line?
• [ ] Is the register consistent -- semi-formal and spoken, not stiff and essayistic?
• [ ] Does "In conclusion" appear anywhere? (If yes, cut it.)

These patterns apply to any speech topic. Whether you are arguing for a school policy, persuading your community to take action, or speaking at a competition, the fundamentals are the same: know your audience, build your argument, and close with impact.

Ready to test your speech writing? Paste your draft into EssayHero and get detailed feedback on Content, Language, and Organisation. The paragraph-by-paragraph analysis will show you exactly where your rhetorical techniques are working and where your speech still sounds like an essay.

This guide focuses on the speech text type for HKDSE Paper 2. The techniques described are based on HKEAA Level Descriptors and established principles of persuasive writing. This is a learning resource and does not represent official HKEAA guidance.