• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Speech Writing Prompts

Occasions for a speech, each with its listeners named and the thing they should do when it ends.

Speech Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. Write a toast for a grandparent's eightieth birthday dinner that tells one story only this family knows.Listening: three generations at one long table. Afterward they: laugh, then lift their glasses.
  2. You step into an elevator with the mayor. You have one minute to say the one thing your town should fix.Listening: one mayor and the numbers counting down. Afterward they: write it on the back of a card.
  3. Your group's project did not work. Write the speech in which you tell the class what you tried and what you would change.Listening: classmates whose projects did work. Afterward they: ask about the second try.

Next step Write a speech for a characterWrite about the stage

All 60 prompts

A toast 12

  • A chess club has lost every match this year. Write the toast its captain gives over the last box of doughnuts. Listening: six players who would rather not talk about it. Afterward they: sign up again.
  • Write a toast for a family's first dinner in a new home, given standing among boxes that are still taped shut. Listening: a tired family eating off the lids. Afterward they: unpack the glasses, at least.
  • Write a toast for a friend who has just passed the driving test on the fourth try. Listening: the friends who took the bus for the first three. Afterward they: let her drive to the ice cream place.
  • Write a toast for a grandparent's eightieth birthday dinner that tells one story only this family knows. Listening: three generations at one long table. Afterward they: laugh, then lift their glasses.
  • Write a toast for a neighbor who is moving away after twenty years on the same street. Listening: the whole block on folding chairs in a driveway. Afterward they: promise to visit, and mean it.
  • Write a toast for the family dog's tenth birthday, to be given with a biscuit in one hand. Listening: the family, and a dog who knows the word treat. Afterward they: go for the long walk.
  • Write a toast for the morning a friend's bakery opens its door for the first time. Listening: the first six customers and a nervous baker. Afterward they: buy the loaf they came in for, and one more.
  • Write a toast in lemonade to the last evening of summer, given from the top porch step. Listening: cousins who go home to three different towns tomorrow. Afterward they: stay up one more hour.
  • Write a toast of two sentences for a guest of honor who hates being toasted. Listening: a small table, the guest staring at a fork. Afterward they: clink once and change the subject.
  • Write a toast to the person who always does the dishes, given beside the sink at the end of a big dinner. Listening: everyone who was about to leave the kitchen. Afterward they: pick up a towel.
  • Write the toast a sister gives at her brother's wedding, built on one thing he did when he was nine. Listening: two families who met this morning. Afterward they: know him a little, and like him.
  • Write the toast you give at the dinner after your sister's first art show, the night one painting sold. Listening: family, two friends and a very quiet artist. Afterward they: ask her which one sold.

To my class 12

  • Bring one object from home and write the speech that makes your class want to hold it. Listening: a circle of classmates on the carpet. Afterward they: pass it around with both hands.
  • Write a speech that teaches your class a word from your home or your family that has no single word in English. Listening: classmates trying to say it. Afterward they: use it by Friday.
  • Write a speech that teaches your class one thing you can do: fold a paper crane, whistle through grass, draw a horse. Listening: classmates with paper ready. Afterward they: try it before the bell.
  • Write a speech to your class about a book you loved, and give away nothing past the first chapter. Listening: readers and people who say they are not readers. Afterward they: ask to borrow it.
  • Write a speech to your class on where the next field trip should go, and why it is worth the bus ride. Listening: classmates, and the teacher who books the bus. Afterward they: argue for your place at lunch.
  • Write a speech to your class proposing one new classroom rule and the retirement of an old one. Listening: the class, and a teacher keeping a straight face. Afterward they: vote by a show of hands.
  • Write the speech that introduces a new student to your class, built from three things you learned by asking. Listening: the class, and one person who would like to sit down. Afterward they: know who to ask about soccer.
  • Write the thirty seconds you would say over the school speaker about Friday's bake sale. Listening: every classroom at once, half of them still unpacking. Afterward they: bring a dollar on Friday.
  • You are moving away in the middle of the year. Write the goodbye speech you give your class on the last afternoon. Listening: the class, and the friend in the second row. Afterward they: write, at least once.
  • Younger students are visiting your classroom. Write the speech that tells them what next year is really like. Listening: twenty smaller kids sitting very straight. Afterward they: ask where the bathrooms are.
  • Your class has just come in from a fire drill in the rain. Write the speech that gets everyone laughing and back to work. Listening: thirty wet classmates. Afterward they: hang up the coats and open the books.
  • Your group's project did not work. Write the speech in which you tell the class what you tried and what you would change. Listening: classmates whose projects did work. Afterward they: ask about the second try.

To change a mind 12

  • A parent has said no to a pet. Write the speech that answers their three objections before they are raised. Listening: one parent who has heard this before. Afterward they: agree to visit the shelter, only to look.
  • People came to sign up for another club. Write the speech that gets ten of them to join the one you are starting. Listening: a noisy gym on club day. Afterward they: write a name on your clipboard.
  • The room already disagrees with you about weekend homework. Write the speech that opens with the best point on their side. Listening: classmates and teachers who came sure. Afterward they: leave a little less sure.
  • Write a speech that persuades a grandparent to try a video call with the cousins who live far away. Listening: one grandparent who trusts the telephone. Afterward they: try it once, with you beside them.
  • Write a speech to a meeting of neighbors asking them to turn the empty lot on the corner into a garden. Listening: thirty neighbors, three of them against it. Afterward they: put a name beside a Saturday.
  • Write a speech to the city parks office asking for the lights at the basketball court to stay on until nine. Listening: two people at a counter with a line behind you. Afterward they: hand you the right form.
  • Write a speech to the school lunch committee for one new dish on the menu and one dish to retire. Listening: a committee that likes its menu. Afterward they: put the new dish on for one Thursday.
  • Write a speech to your family arguing for a later bedtime on Fridays, with a plan for what happens if it goes badly. Listening: the grown-ups, arms folded, on the couch. Afterward they: agree to try it for a month.
  • Write a speech to your principal asking for a longer recess and offering something in return. Listening: one principal, between two meetings. Afterward they: say bring me the plan in writing.
  • Write the speech that persuades your team to try a new play before Saturday's game. Listening: tired teammates who like the old way. Afterward they: run it twice before going home.
  • Write the speech you give the school board to keep the library open at lunch. Listening: board members with thick folders. Afterward they: ask the librarian what she would need.
  • Write the speech you give the town council to ask for a crosswalk in front of the swimming pool. Listening: seven council members behind a long desk. Afterward they: vote to send someone to count the cars.

To say thank you 12

  • A neighbor fed your cat for a week. Write the thank-you speech you give at their door, holding a pie. Listening: one neighbor in slippers. Afterward they: ask you in, and offer to do it again.
  • A new reading room is opening. Write the speech that thanks the librarian who once handed you the right book. Listening: donors, neighbors and one librarian in the back. Afterward they: go and find the shelf.
  • A student teacher is leaving after one term. Write the speech your class gives to thank her. Listening: the class, and a student teacher holding a card. Afterward they: ask her to come back for the play.
  • The town names a footbridge after the woman who ran the ferry for forty years. Write the speech a child gives at the opening. Listening: the town, and the woman herself in the front row. Afterward they: walk across behind her.
  • Write a speech for the last day of the person who fixes everything at your school. Listening: students who never learned how the heater works. Afterward they: sign the card on the toolbox.
  • Write a speech thanking the neighbors who dug your street out after a snowstorm, given at the potluck afterward. Listening: forty people with sore backs and paper plates. Afterward they: trade phone numbers for next time.
  • Write a thank-you speech for the last morning at a grandparent's house, after a whole summer there. Listening: one grandparent packing you a lunch for the train. Afterward they: pretend it was no trouble.
  • Write a thank-you speech for your own birthday party, short enough to finish before the candles burn down. Listening: friends with paper hats and an eye on the cake. Afterward they: sing.
  • Write a thank-you speech to the bus driver, given from the front step of the bus on the last day of school. Listening: a full bus and one surprised driver. Afterward they: say thank you on the way off, every one.
  • You are sent to the microphone to thank the audience at the end of the school concert. Write what you say. Listening: parents holding coats and phones. Afterward they: clap once more, for the people who set up chairs.
  • Your choir is giving its pianist a framed page of music after the last concert. Write the speech that goes with it. Listening: the choir, the parents and a pianist who hates fuss. Afterward they: sing her out of the room.
  • Your pumpkin has won a ribbon at the county fair. Write the speech that thanks everyone who watered it while you were away. Listening: growers of much larger pumpkins. Afterward they: ask what you fed it.

One minute, no notes 12

  • A new neighbor asks at the mailbox what the street is like. You have one minute before your bus comes. Listening: one neighbor holding a moving box. Afterward they: know which dog is friendly.
  • A substitute teacher asks you to explain what the class has been working on. You have one minute and no notes. Listening: one adult who has never seen this room. Afterward they: know where to start the lesson.
  • A younger cousin asks you, in front of everyone at dinner, what you want to be. Answer for one minute, with no notes. Listening: the whole table, forks down. Afterward they: stop asking for a year.
  • At a family reunion you are handed the microphone with no warning. Speak for one minute about the oldest person in the room. Listening: fifty relatives and the person in question. Afterward they: ask her if it is true.
  • At the first meeting of a club everyone gets one minute to say why they came. Write yours. Listening: strangers in a circle of chairs. Afterward they: remember your name next week.
  • The coach is late. Give your team the one-minute talk before the game, with no notes. Listening: nine teammates tying their shoes. Afterward they: run out as if the coach had said it.
  • The curtain is stuck at the school play and you are sent out in front of it. Fill one minute. Listening: a gym full of parents and little sisters. Afterward they: clap when the curtain finally moves.
  • On the last night of camp each camper gets one minute by the fire. Say what you will take home. Listening: a ring of faces lit from below. Afterward they: are quiet for a second before the next one starts.
  • One minute, no notes: tell your class about the best mistake you ever made. Listening: classmates waiting for their own turn. Afterward they: remember yours at lunch.
  • The power goes out at a sleepover. Give the one-minute speech, by flashlight, that keeps everyone calm. Listening: five friends and one little brother. Afterward they: vote to tell stories and not to call home.
  • You step into an elevator with the mayor. You have one minute to say the one thing your town should fix. Listening: one mayor and the numbers counting down. Afterward they: write it on the back of a card.
  • Your cousins have never played your favorite card game. Explain the rules in one minute, before the food arrives. Listening: four cousins and a deck of cards. Afterward they: deal the first hand.

How it works

These speech writing prompts each start from an occasion: a toast beside the kitchen sink, a goodbye to a class, a case made to the town council. The speech is yours to write; the listeners are already in their seats.

Read the full guide

The line under each prompt

It names the listeners: six chess players who would rather not talk about it, one parent who has heard this before, a full bus and one surprised driver. Then it says what they should do when the speech ends: sign up again, visit the shelter only to look, say thank you on the way off.

Writing prompts for speech class

The prompts headed To my class are sized for a classroom: introduce a new student from three things you learned by asking, teach one skill, report on the project that did not work. The one-minute prompts need no notes, only a first sentence.

  • Write the last sentence first. Everything before it is the road there.
  • Read it aloud with a clock running, and cut any line you hurry through.

Questions and answers

What is a good speech writing prompt?

One with an occasion and an audience. Try a toast for a friend who has just passed the driving test on the fourth try, given to the friends who took the bus for the first three.

How do you write a speech that changes someone's mind?

Begin where the listeners already stand. One prompt here opens with the best point on the other side of a homework argument. Another answers a parent's three objections to a pet before they are raised.

Are these speech topics?

No. A topic is a subject, such as recycling. Each prompt here is a situation: who is speaking, where, to whom and for what. Two writers given the same one will still write different speeches.

What can I write for a one-minute speech?

Something you already know. Explain a card game to cousins before the food arrives, tell a substitute teacher what the class has been working on, or say by the fire what you will take home from camp.

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