Rewrote, or I axed the introductory parts of the speech (7)
I believe the answer is:
exordia
'introductory parts of the speech' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'rewrote or i axed' is the wordplay.
'rewrote' indicates an anagram (I've seen this in other clues).
'or'+'i'+'axed'='oriaxed'
'oriaxed' is an anagram of 'EXORDIA'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for exordia that I've seen before include "Starts to lecture" , "introductory sections" , "Parts of speech" , "Introductions" , "Introductory parts" .)