Student name: Nguyn H My

Class: PG21
Student ID: 15046241

ADVANCED SPEAKING AND LISTENING COURSE

Informative speech
Speech title: Overcoming procrastination
Purpose: Informing listeners about ways to overcome procrastination

SPEECH

ANALYSIS
During the speech, I use personal pronouns like
I, you to relate audience to my topic.

Hey guys!

I begin my talk with small talk by asking for

I know that this week has been really busy with

sympathy from listeners with statement about the

the homework , assignments,

heavy load of homework in that week. Because

Its almost over, so stay strong, alright?

Im one of the last one to deliver the speech, I try

to make a funny encouraging statement. I want to
create intimate atmosphere.

From my objective observation, some of you

The topic of my speech is related to my listeners

started doing the speech really late. I do not

problems. So, I focus on this fact .In addition, I

surely know your reason but maybe you have the

try not to overgeneralize by saying: from my

same problem as me: Procrastination.

objective observation. On the slide, I show a

funny picture about procrastination to get their
attention. I use my own experience as an example
for my topic

Do you know what that mean?

I am not sure that all my listeners know the word

Experts define it as the voluntary delay of

so I include the definition on the slide. I signal

important task that we intend to do, despite

the definition part by asking audience a question.

knowing that well suffer as a result.

Procrastination can be potentially dangerous. It

I include brief information about how harmful

may cause you to fail at school, make your

procrastination can be to attract listeners

performance at work poor

attention as this is the problem of many of them.

After listeners are well aware of the harmful

In today speech, Im going to talk to you about

effect, I state todays topic: the ways to overcome

some tips to overcome procrastination.

procrastination. So if they want to know how to

avoid being the victim of procrastination, they
should pay attention. I want to convince listeners
that they need to listen to the speech.

To find effective methods, we have to know

Because different reason requires different

WHY we procrastinate.

method so I emphasize the need to know the

reason of procrastinating.

Common reasons for procrastination can come

from both negative and positive feeling.
When facing such a difficult task, people suffer
from negative feeling such as stressed and
anxious of results. So, they are tempted to give in
to easier and more joyful activities, which may
give them instant pleasure but brings them guilt

To visualize my point about the procrastination

feeling and regret later on. These feelings, guilt

cycle, I make the circle of procrastination on the

and regret, again, make them disappoint at

slide by built-in feature of PowerPoint

themselves and stress out. This vicious circle

keeps going until the time runs out.
If this reason is true to you, there are several

I want to relate my audiences experience to my

ways suggested by psychologist:

speech. Therefore, I say If this reason is true to

1. Firstly, forgive yourself for procrastinating:

you

Because procrastination is linked to negative

I try to make the structure of my talk clear by

feeling, forgiving yourself can reduce the

giving signals about what I am going to mention

negativity the main reason of delaying.

in the next part.

2. Also, break down the tasks into achievable

small steps. For example, if you need to write an

For this solution, I give listeners demonstrative

essay, dont set such unrealistic goal like you are

examples to make them understand my

going to work on it non-stop for 3 hours and

suggestion clearer.

finish at least half of the essay.

Set more realistic goal such as. Today, I will
decide on the essay topic and collect the reading
materials that Ill use. Tomorrow, Ill read the
material and build the outline. Then, in the next
day, Ill write the introduction and the first
paragraph of the body, etc.
Another very common reason of procrastination

Transitional signals are used to distinguish parts

is that people believe they have to be in the right

of my speech as well as to give audience a clear

mood to complete the task. Doing so places you

view of the speech organization.

inside the procrastination cycle. Remember that

you dont have to be in the mood to do a task.
There is no such thing as a perfect mood to
something. If you dont feel like doing something
now, the possibility is that you will not feel like
doing that ever.
The point is even if the task is difficult, start right
away. Because the more you wait for the right
mood to appear, the worse the guilty feeling
become and the harder it is to start doing
something productive

REFERENCES
Eric, J (2013). Why Wait? The Science Behind Procrastination. Retrieved July, 14, 2016, from
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/april-13/why-waitthe-science-behind-procrastination.html
Timothy, P. (2016). Procrastination 101: It's Not About Feeling Like It. Retrieve July, 14, 2016 from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/201607/procrastination-101-its-not-aboutfeeling-it
Jude, B. (2015). Break Your Procrastination Habit in 9 Easy Steps. Retrieve July, 15, 2016 from
http://bigthink.com/experts-corner/break-your-procrastination-habit-in-8-easy-steps