How to Write a Short Speech for a Junior High Student Council

Serving on your school's student council can be a great way to build leadership and character as a junior high school student. Before you serve, you may be required to give a short speech in front of your peers that supports your bid for a student council position. While delivery of the speech is important, having a solid speech written beforehand can be the deciding factor between successfully being elected and not earning the votes you need.

Select a topic for your short speech. The key to selecting a topic that will engage, inform and persuade your fellow students to vote for you in a student council election is to know your audience. Brainstorm concerns and wishes that your fellow students are likely to have, keeping in mind your audience's age, interests and commonalities. For example, a junior high school student may be interested in expanding extracurricular activities at school or improving the dining options in your cafeteria. Ask your classmates what problems they have at school, and tailor the topic of your short speech to those issues.

Plan your speech by creating a simple outline. For your outline, use bullet points with brief sentences as you plan your speech's beginning, middle and end.

Although your speech will be short, you want to grab your audience's attention from the beginning. Consider using an anecdote, statistics or directing questions to the audience. Next, make sure the audience knows who you are. Say why you are running for student council.

Since your speech will be short, get directly to your qualifications for student council and what you plan to do as a council member in the middle of your speech. Don't just state that you are qualified. Give concrete examples of experience that you have had in the past to support your bid for student council. Perhaps you have been a student leader at summer camp or an after-school activity. Provide the students a reason to vote for you.

Your conclusion should summarize your main points briefly and include a call to action that requests your fellow students to vote for you for student council. If you used an anecdote or statistic in the beginning of your speech try incorporating it in the end.

Use your outline to fully write out your speech. Go back to each bullet point, and expand on the main points you made in the beginning, middle and end of your speech. Use transitions when you're moving between each section to ensure that your fellow students can easily follow your speech. Remember, your goal is to write a short speech, so be sure to use the simplest way to make your points. Avoid sentences that are too long or complex, and make sure that you are not repeating previously covered content.