演講的總體措詞是嚴肅一些還是活潑一些，是有較明顯的說教口氣還是用平等的口吻，等等，都要根據聽眾對象而定。如果場下聽眾是同齡的學生，那么演講的內容只要風趣一些往往就能引起共鳴。但另一方面，如果聽眾大多是上了年紀的教師，太多的笑料反而會被認為“不嚴肅”，“不尊重”，而引起反感。
用英語演講，不要用太多 I feel, I think，老是用I，顯得十分主觀，狹隘。如果通篇全是 I feel, I think 的內容，會給人覺得缺乏說服力。另外，perhaps, maybe 這樣的詞語，雖然有“客氣，謙虛”的成分，但太多會讓人覺得你演講的內容有不可靠之處。
還有，在演講中，要少用you，多用we。用you等於把自己與聽眾對立起來，而用we則拉近了與聽眾的距離。比如：You should not smoke．聽上去像教訓人，而 Let's not smoke聽起來是一個不錯的建議。
2．演講要越短越好
英語演講應該簡潔扼要，直截了當。除非特別需要，一般不要採用中文中的那種迂迴曲折的表達形式。據有關專家統計，一般人的注意力一次只能集中約13分鐘。所以，演講長度以10～15分鐘為宜。下面是美國總統林肯所作的著名的蓋茨堡演說，雖然全文只有短短200多個詞，卻帶有振奮人心、扭轉乾坤般的力量。其中 of the people, by the people, for the people(民有，民治，民享)已成為不朽佳句。對於中學生來說，這篇演講現在讀起來一定會覺得很難，但要寫好英語演講，這確實是值得認真研讀的經典之作。
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of the field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, ----that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, ----that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, ----that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, ----and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
其實，我們中學生練習寫演講稿，可以短些，從4～5分鐘，500～600個詞，圍繞一個主題開始練習。
3．英語演講稿的基本組成部分
從大的方面看，英語演講詞實際上是屬於一種特殊的說明文或議論文，其基本組成部分是：
1)開始時對聽眾的稱呼語
最常用的是 Ladies and gentlemen，也可根據不同情況，選用 Fellow students, Distinguished guests, Mr Chairman, Honorable Judges(評審)等等。