Types of speech: a complete classification with examples
There is no single classification of speeches: they can be sorted by purpose, by channel, by field, or by their relation to what they refer to. In this guide we gather the classifications most used in school and university, with examples of each type so you can recognize them in any text.
By purpose
- Informative or expository speech: seeks to transmit knowledge clearly: a class, a popular-science talk, a results presentation.
- Argumentative or persuasive speech: aims to convince: a debate, a closing argument in court, an advertisement defending a product.
- Emotional or occasion speech: seeks to stir feelings and strengthen bonds: wedding, graduation, farewell or thank-you speeches, like those in our speeches by occasion section.
- Entertainment speech: comedy monologues, festive speeches, and toasts with carefully measured jokes.
By field or institution
- Political speech: that of governments, parties and campaigns. It persuades, legitimizes and mobilizes; we treat it in depth in its own guide.
- Academic or scientific speech: classes, conference papers and thesis defenses. It prioritizes precision, sources and logical structure.
- Religious speech: sermons and homilies; it combines teaching, interpretation of sacred texts, and moral exhortation.
- Advertising speech: ads and campaigns; brief, emotional, and aimed at an action (buy, vote, share).
- Journalistic speech: news, editorials and features. News informs with a codified structure; the editorial gives an opinion from the outlet’s line.
- Legal speech: judgments, pleadings and laws; technical language and fixed formulas with real effects on people.
- Literary speech: language used with artistic intent, where how it is said matters as much as what is said.
By channel
Spoken discourse is produced in the (real or mediated) presence of an audience: it allows improvisation, repetition, and support from gestures and intonation. Written discourse endures, is revised before publication, and reaches absent readers. Many real speeches are hybrids: they are written to be read aloud, as happens with almost all occasion speeches.
There is also an increasingly common mediated form: the speech delivered through a screen — video calls, podcasts, recorded classes, social media videos. The mediated speaker loses the audience’s immediate reaction but gains editing, repetition and reach: a two-minute video can be heard by more people than a lifetime of auditoriums. Many of the speeches that circulate today are born directly in this form, written for the microphone and the camera rather than for a hall.
Direct and reported speech
In grammar and narrative, two ways of reproducing someone else’s words are distinguished. In direct speech, the words are quoted exactly as spoken, with quotation marks or a dialogue dash: “I’ll come tomorrow,” she said. In reported (indirect) speech, the speaker integrates them into their own utterance, with shifts in person and verb tense: She said she would come the next day. Turning direct speech into reported speech is a classic language exercise, because it forces you to adjust pronouns, verbs, and references to time and place.
Why does classifying them matter?
Because each type has its own rules of the game: what moves people at a wedding bores them in a conference paper; what persuades in a courtroom does not work in an ad. Recognizing the type of speech is the first step both to writing well and to analyzing with judgment, and it is the foundation of discourse analysis.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important types of speech?
By purpose: informative, argumentative, emotional and entertainment. By field: political, academic, religious, advertising, journalistic, legal and literary. The two classifications combine: a political speech, for example, is usually argumentative.
What are direct and reported speech?
They are the two ways of quoting someone else’s words: direct speech reproduces them literally (“I’ll go,” she said), and reported speech rephrases them from the narrator’s point of view (she said she would go).
Can the same text belong to two types?
Yes, and it is the norm. A graduation speech is emotional by purpose, academic by field, and a spoken-written hybrid by channel. Classifications are tools for analysis, not exclusive boxes.
What type of speech is a toast?
A toast is an emotional or occasion speech, very brief, designed to end with the glass raised. In our toast guide you will find examples and its structure.