Organizing and Outlining the Speech.
Organizing and Outlining the Speech
I. The Introduction—For our class, you should write out the intro as a paragraph which includes the elements described below. You always start with the attention grabber and end with the preview statement. You should have constant eye contact during the first 30-40 seconds or more of your introduction.
A. Attention Grabber—This is the first thing out of your mouth when you begin your speech in order to get the attention and interest of your audience. Consider using one of the many options that your text recommends to start your speech.
1. Brief real or hypothetical stories
2. Quotations
3. Startling Statements
4. Reference to audience, occasion or current events
5. Appropriate and related humor
6. Personal experiences
7. Rhetorical questions
8. Audience participation
B. Thesis/Central idea—This is the focus of your speech and is formed as a declarative sentence (not a question) to reveal the topic of your speech. The thesis is sometimes teamed with the preview statement.
C. Relation Statement—Make sure your audience knows why they need to listen to your speech and why/how this speech affects them.
D. Qualifications—If you haven’t been introduced prior to your speech, you may choose to provide your qualifications (i.e. why do you have the right to speak on this subject) in the introduction.
E. Preview/Forecast—This is the last element of the introduction and should be the last sentence as you move into the body of your speech. It is often teamed with the thesis while it gives your audience a verbal outline of the main points to be presented in the body of the speech.
The Body—This part of the speech is actually the first part to organize
followed by the tailoring of the introduction and conclusion to fit.
I. Main points are the central features of your speech.
A. Limit the number of your main points.
1. Focus each main point on one main idea.
2. Keep main points separate.
B. Construct main points so that they parallel in structure.
1. Try to use the same pattern of wording for main
points.
2. State main points as simple as the subject will
allow.
3. Give all main points equal treatment.
Transition: A connective is a phrase or sentence that joins one thought to
another illustrating the relationship between the two. You should include
transitions between each main point. For example, “Now that you
understand the structure of the speech, it is important to consider
organization.”
II. Main points can be organized in a variety of strategic
organizational patterns.
A. Chronological order follows a time pattern.
B. Spatial order follows a directional pattern.
1. physical space
2. geography
C. Causal order follows a cause-effect relationship.
D. Problem-solution order analyzes the extent and
acuteness of a problem followed by a workable solution for
persuasion speeches.
1. harms
2. significance
3. cause
4. solution
a. description
b. feasibility
c. advantages
E. Topical order develops subtopics or components that are
the natural divisions of the whole topic.
F. Monroe’s Motivational Sequence is a five-step pattern
used for persuasive speeches.
1. Attention—gain your audience’s attention (intro).
2. Need—show the audience that a need exists that
affects them.
3. Satisfaction—present the solution to the need.
4. Visualization—help the audience imagine how their need will be met with the solution/future.
5. Action—state what actions must be taken to fulfill the need (the conclusion).
Transition: Another transition would be located here to connect the second and third main points keeping the flow of the speech going.
III. Supporting materials clarify and validate your main points.
A. Examples
B. Statistics
C. Expert testimony
The Conclusion– you should write out the conclusion as a paragraph which includes the elements described below.
A. Signal the end of the speech.
1. Use your voice.
2. Stay away from overused signals (“in conclusion”).
B. Reinforce the thesis.
1. Summarize the main points.
2. Return to the opening to remind your audience of the
introduction.
3. Make a dramatic/memorable statement.
4. Make a direct appeal for action if you are trying to
persuade your audience to do something.
References—using APA style, list each reference used and cited in your speech.
A Detailed Speech Outline
This page explains how to make a detailed outline of a speech. It should be remembered that depending on the type of speech, the outline may vary. However, if you base your speeches on this outline you should be able to make a successful speech.
In order to make a detailed and useful outline you must understand the structure of a speech. The basic structure of a speech and how to make a simple outline has been explained on another page. On that page it was shown that there are three main parts to a speech; The Introduction, The Body, and The Conclusion. These three parts can be further broken down. The structure of these three main parts can be seen in the outline below.
A presentation outline is a way to organize your material logically and clearly. You should make an outline before you start to write a speech. In fact the writing of a speech comes towards the end of the speech creation process (see ’11 Steps to Creating a Speech’). By using a presentation outline, you can “see” your speech and determine where you need to add or revise information. It provides the structure for the introduction, body, and conclusion of your speech. In addition, it can serve as your speaking script.
This outline consists of Four parts; The Header, The Introduction, The Body, and The Conclusion. Before you start writing your speech you should make an outline using these 4 headings and their sub headings.
1. Header
Topic
Decide on your topic.
Audience
Analyze your audience. What do they already know about your topic? Are they interested in the topic?
Refine and limit topic
Based on your analysis of the audience you may need to slightly change you topic, by either changing the focus, or the scale of the topic.
Purpose Statement
Write down a clear statement of what it is you intend to achieve. What is the purpose of your speech.
For example; The purpose of this speech is to inform the audience how to travel in
Organizational Method or Pattern
There is no single way to organize a speech. The pattern you will select will be determined by the information you have and the specific purpose you want to achieve. There are six basic patterns for organizing a speech:
Logical or topical
Chronological
Spatial
Classification
Problem-Solution
Cause-effect
Once you have completed these five parts of the ‘Header’, you are then ready to start planning the speech itself.
2. Introduction
Greeting and Attention getter
How will you greet the audience? How will you get the audience’s attention? Think of a sentence that will make the audience sit up and listen.
Thesis Statement
The ‘purpose statement’ is where you simply state what your goal is. However, it is not possible to use this in the speech. You need to convert it to a ‘thesis statement’. A thesis statement is one sentence in the introduction in which you declare your purpose and topic.
For example, a thesis statement of the above purpose statement would be; ‘Traveling in
Credibility
If the audience do not know who you are, you will not only need to introduce yourself, but you will also need to ‘establish your credibility’. This means you will have to explain to the audience why you are ‘qualified’ to speak about the subject.
Outline of main the points – overview
What are your main points?
Why?
Tell your audience why you think your presentation will be useful to them.
3. The body
Transition
Think of a sentence that will make it clear to the audience that you have finished the introduction, and are now about to start the body of the speech.
Main points and ideas
Main ideas Supporting ideas Details & Examples Visuals
Write your main points and ideas here What ideas will you tell the audience to support your main points? What details or examples do you have? Will you have any visuals to help explain your points?
main ideas = sub-topics
supporting ideas = sub-sub topics
evidence = details and examples
4. The conclusion
Transition
Think of a sentence that will make it clear to the audience that you have finished the body and are now coming to the end of the speech.
Restatement of main points
Summarize your main ideas and think of which piece of information you really want the audience to remember.
Closer
Think of a final sentence to help the audience remember your speech.
The Steps in Organizing and Outlining a Speech
Strong public speaking abilities are a good skill for academic and professional settings. If you are asked to present a speech to an audience, you must do some advance preparation to ensure that you can deliver your message effectively. Careful organization and planning will aid in the speech writing and presentation process.
Research
Before you can begin writing or rehearsing your speech, you must become knowledgeable on the subject. An effective speech relies on fact-based or strong emotional points that are clear to the listeners.
Thesis Writing
The key to a speech — or any written document — is a well-formed thesis. The thesis sums up the subject concisely in one to two sentences. In most cases, your thesis will be a specific position on the subject, such as why people should adopt pets from animal shelters instead of pet stores or why it is important to learn two or more languages.
How To Present Like A Pro
Organization
Once you have completed your research on the subject and settled on a thesis, organize the information for your presentation. Decide which relevant points you want to include in the speech to support your position. Also, organize your points so that there is a natural and easy-to-follow progression of information. For example, if you are speaking about three health concerns for people with diabetes, you could include the most dangerous concern to grab the audience’s interest, then follow up with the remaining issues.
Outlining
After you have organized your ideas, outline the information. This outline can be passed out to the audience as an accompaniment to your speech, or you simply can use it to guide you when delivering it. Put a title at the top of the outline. Beneath the title, write a one to two sentence summary of your speech titled “purpose” or “thesis.” Use Romaumerals to accompany each section in your speech. Capital letters will be the main points under each heading. Lowercase letters will provide the supporting details.
Call for Action
An effective speech often encourages the listener to behave a certain way or support a particular viewpoint. This is known as the “call to action.” Throughout the body of your presentation, you should support your thesis with strong details that persuade your audience to agree with you about the subject. In your conclusion, include a clear definition of this call to action so the listeners will understand how to proceed.
Rehearsal
After you have written and organized your speech, research it several times to check for effectiveness and length. If you are nervous about public speaking, it is sometimes helpful to recite the speech in front of a mirror or for a trusted friend or relative. Practice eye contact and delivery to instill confidence in your presentation. Throughout the speech, focus on grabbing the interest of the audience with exciting information or anecdotes.
Organizing and Outlining the Speech
Arrange your speech – your thesis, additional points, and supporting evidence – in a way that will make sense to your audience.
•To organize your thoughts, consider giving each point or supporting evidence its
own note card. Begin to arrange them according to importance and your main points will begin to emerge.
•Outlines typically begin with your thesis and end with any concluding thoughts.
•Depending on your topic or thesis, arranging your points chronologically is an
effective way to establish a timeline of your argument.
•If giving an informational speech, you might describe your subject as parts of an
object, outlining each part or section.
•You can move from broad points to specific points, or vice versa, depending on the
effect you are trying to achieve and the argument you are trying to make.
thesis A concise summary of the argument or main points, usually one to three sentences long.
chronological In order of time from the earliest to the latest
Examples
When giving a speech on the history of television, you might organize your points chronologically by starting with the invention of motion pictures, to the invention of the television, through to modern internet streaming video today.
Organizing and Outlining Your Speech
Now that you have decided on your topic, analyzed your audience, arrived at your thesis, and determined how you will support your claims, it is time to organize your notes and research into one coherent speech.
You did keep all of your notes centrally collected and easily accessible, right? If you put all of your research notes and thoughts onto notecards, it is particularly helpful to lay them out in front of you and begin to organize your points and sub-points in ways that make the most logical sense.
What are some ways to establish logical order?
Establish a Timeline
Depending on your subject and the point you are attempting to make, it might make sense to order your research and points in chronological order. If you are giving a speech on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, it makes sense to start with its rise, and end with its fall. Outlining your speech as a series of chronological events or points allows your audience to follow along a linear timeline for easy understanding of your subject matter.
Your Thesis as the Sum of Its Parts
Think of your thesis like a machine. Each claim is another cog, each example or supporting evidence another lever in that machine, all working together to arrive at the same persuasive conclusion. Sometimes it is helpful to break up your thesis into each of these smaller parts, to make the information more easily digestible for your audience.
The Broad and the Specific
Building on the idea of your thesis as machine, you may present your overall, broad idea, then break it down into smaller, logical steps to reach that big idea. Conversely, you may start with smaller ideas and expand into the bigger, broader idea. When constructing your arguments from smaller ideas, you are more likely to drive your point home with a broad, sweeping finish. On the other hand, you can dilute the complexity of a broad idea by breaking it down into smaller, logical pieces of information.
A Sample Outline
Here is a sample outline about issues of feminism in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
I. Introduction and Thesis: Brief description of issues that arise when reading “Hamlet”
II. Issues of feminism uncovered through reading “Hamlet”
a. What other scholars have discovered about feminism in “Hamlet”
b. Which of these discoveries was most evident
c. Ideas of feminism I uncovered on my own
III. How uncovering ideas of feminism in “Hamlet” has led me to better understand what Shakespeare thought of the role women played in society
ORGANIZING THE SPEECH
—–If you’re like most people, several times in your life you’ve gotten directions for how to get someplace. Some of the time the directions were easy to follow, some of the time they weren’t. Chances are if the directions were clearly organization it was easier to follow them than when the person giving them skipped parts, backed up to parts that were missed, and included stories about people and places that weren’t needed to follow the directions. If you’ve ever had such an experience then you have an idea of what happens when a presentation is not well organized.
—–After you’ve determined what you want to accomplish in your speech, analyzed the audience and the situation, and found supporting material, it’s important that you take some time to organize your ideas for the audience. Many people do not think in a linear organizational pattern–in fact I’d guess most people do not. When we think about a subject the order in which thoughts come to us can be pretty random. But almost everyone can follow a linear organizational pattern presented by someone else better than they can follow a stream of consciousness pattern, especially in oral communication. So even if you’re not used to converting your thoughts to an order that other people can follow, it helps your audience if you’ll take the time to do so.
—–That doesn’t mean that everyone’s organizational patterns will be alike, even if they’re speaking about the same subject and have the same supporting material. When you’re working on your organization you’ll make choices regarding both what ideas to include and when to include them. The important point is that you choose, rather than just present the ideas as they came to you or as you found them in your research.
—–I know it’s hard to believe, but we don’t teach organization just to make your life more difficult. The general idea behind organizing your ideas is to make your presentation more effective by helping your audience follow your ideas, which is done by establishing a predictable path and reminding the audience how ideas fit together. For instance, if your speech is about how to do something, you create a predictable path when you present the ideas in the same order that they should be done. The audience expects the next thing you’ll talk about is the next step in the process and if you meet that expectation you’ll be easier to follow. If, as you move through your presentation, you keep reminding your audience of how ideas fit together, there’s less chance that they’ll have to figure it out for themselves, which means there’s less chance they’ll make a mistake and become confused.
Advantages To A Well Organized Presentation
—–There are three general advantages to a well organized presentation. First, it makes it easier for you to remember what you want to talk about. When you use a predictable pattern the next thing to talk about seems more natural.
—–Second, a well organized presentation makes it easier for the audience to follow you. They’re able to predict, in general, what will come next and make sense of it, so they can spend their time listening to your speech rather than trying to figure out how your ideas fit together.
—–Third, a well organized presentation helps to enhance your credibility. The consensus of research is that audiences think speakers with clearly organized presentations know what they’re talking about better than disorganized speakers. Your credibility is very important to your success as a speaker, and you ought to do whatever you can to enhance it. (We’ll get to more about credibility later.)
Principles of Organization
—–A well organized speech doesn’t just happen, though. You have to make it happen by making choices about what to include and where to include it. Those choices should be guided, in general, by the following principles of organization, as suggested by communication scholar Joseph DeVito. As with most principles they serve to guide you, but there may be times when you decide you need to violate them.
The Principle of Balance says that the three major parts of the speech (introduction, body, and conclusion) should be in proportion to each other, and that the main points in the body of the speech should be in proportion to each other. In general, the entire introduction to your speech should take about 10-20% of your speaking time, the body should take about 70-85% of your time, and the conclusion should take about 5-10% of your time. The percent of time each main point takes will vary depending on how many you have, but the general rule is they should each be close to the same length.
The Principle of Unity says that everything you include in your speech should relate to the same purpose. That may mean you have to cut out some of the material you like the most, but if it doesn’t relate to your purpose it doesn’t belong in the speech.
The Principle of Coherence says the relationships among the parts of a speech should be clear to the audience. For instance, the second step in a process should be followed by the third step, not by the fifth step or by an unrelated story of something that happened to you as a child. In a persuasive speech, you should establish the existence of a problem and follow that with a suggestion for solving the problem, not with an unrelated story of something that happened to you as a child.
The Principle of Emphasis says that the most important ideas should be stressed. Don’t take a lot of time talking about a minor point and very little time talking about a major point, because that will give the audience the wrong idea of what is important. Decide which are the major and minor points and emphasize them appropriately.
The Principle of Subordination says that any speech will have a few main points, and each of them will have ideas subordinate to them, and there may be some ideas subordinate to those subordinate points. As a speaker you should try to help the audience recognize which are the main points and which are the subordinate points.
Steps in Organizing Your Speech
—–With those principles in mind you can begin to organize your speech. Like most of the steps in preparing a speech, the following steps in organizing your speech, suggested by Joseph DeVito, may have to be followed consciously at first, but will probably become more natural with more experience.
—–The following refers to the body of the speech, because you should work on the introduction and the conclusion after you’ve completed the body.
—–The first step in organizing your speech is to identify ideas that could go into your speech. That means you try to think of all the ideas that possibly could go into your speech. At this point you don’t want to decide which of the ideas ought to go into the speech, but you just want to create a list you can choose from. Some of the items should come from what you know about the subject, some should come from your audience analysis, and some should come from the research you did. The list can involve general ideas, specific evidence, stories, definitions, analogies, and almost anything else to do with your topic and the way it relates to the audience.
—–The second step is to identify the major subdivisions or facets of the topic. That means you take all the ideas and supporting material you discovered in the first step and separate them into groups. Maybe some of them have to do with the history of your subject, and some with the problems connected with the subject, and some are reasons why nobody has solved those problems yet, etc. Or they might simply be the steps that should be taken to do something. You might have lots of groups or only a few, but you try to group all the aspects of the topic that you could talk about in your speech into a few major ideas.
—–The third step is to decide which subdivisions are essential to your purpose. You have to decide which ideas help you achieve your purpose and which ideas aren’t really needed. Eliminate those you don’t need and keep those that are helpful. This is the place where a lot of beginning speakers make a mistake. Either they don’t include enough main points and subordinate material to really develop their subjects well, or they include so much that they can’t cover it all in the time they have. If you find either of those things happening to you, you should first see if the ideas you plan to include could either be developed more or made more concise. If not, you probably need to revise your specific purpose. If you have too little material you may want to expand your goal, and if you have too much you may want to focus your purpose more. (You may not realize the need to make those changes until you’re further along in the preparation process. If that happens you’ll need to return to this step and revise your speech.)
TIP: For the speeches in this class you should usually have two to four main points in your speech. If you only have one main point it’s really your thesis or purpose and should be divided into more subordinate points. If you have more than four you won’t have enough time to develop any of them adequately.
—–After doing all that, the fourth step in organizing your speech is to organize the major subdivisions and supporting material. In other words, it’s time to decide on the order in which you’ll express your main and supporting ideas. Your text identifies several organizational patterns you can choose from in chapter 10, and there are others you might use. You should choose the pattern that you believe will help you communicate with the audience and achieve your purpose the best, and decide where each major subdivisions should go.
—–One idea you should know about choosing a pattern is that a particular speech might include more than one type of pattern, but one pattern should be dominate. For example, in a persuasive speech you might use a problem-solution type of arrangement. As you discuss the problem, however, you may say there are three causes of the problem and present them in a topical arrangement. When you get to the solution you might use a chronological arrangement as you tell the audience how to go about solving the problem. The overall arrangement is still problem-solution, but other patterns are included in each major section.
—–Once you have the major subdivisions and supporting material in a general order, the fifth step in organizing your speech is to outline your speech. Chapter 10 of your text goes into detail about how to correctly outline, so I won’t go into it here. If that system is unclear to you, feel free to talk to me or a tutor about it.
—–After you’ve outlined your speech you are ready to go back through it and complete the sixth step in organizing your speech, which is to add transitions and signposts. Transitions and signposts are things you say as you present the material to help your audience know when you’ve moved from one idea to the next. Since a speech doesn’t have paragraph markers or subject headings like written communication, you need to use other means to help your audience.
—–Various authors use different definitions of what transitions are, and the kind of transitions I’m looking for in this class are a little different from those included in the text. For this class we’ll consider transitions to be statements that are made to indicate when you’re moving from one main point to the next. If you have three main points in your speech you would have two transitions; one from the first to the second main point and another from the second to the third.
—–In this class your transitions should always be full bridges from one idea to the next. In other words, you say something about the main point you just finished and something about the main point you’re coming to. Never just say something like, “My next point is . . .” or “That brings me to . . .” because those jump from one point to the next instead of creating a full bridge. At the very least your transitions should say something like, “Now that I’ve told you about I can tell you about .” That’s awkward, though, and better transitions will be developed more, but it’s better than a simple jump.
For this class, transitions should be full sentences or paragraphs, not one word, as implied in the text.
TIP: When you’re delivering your speech and it’s time for a transition, pause for a second, and maybe take a step, before you say the transition. That helps to let the audience know you’re about to shift thoughts.
—–Signposts are phrases within a main point that indicate that you’re moving from one subordinate point to the next. Generally speaking, enumerating the subordinate points (that is, saying “First . . . Second . . . Third”) is more clear than using words such as “another” or “next,” because the numbers provide a more noticeable cue to the audience that you’re changing ideas. When you say “another” or similar words it often seems like you’re still explaining the previous point, when you’re really moving to the next.
—–Better signposts will include both a number and a reminder of the general category of which the ideas are part. So, instead of just saying, “Third . . .” it is more clear to say, “The third way you can save money while going to school is . . .” As I wrote this section I tried to use signposts for each of the steps as examples of the kind of signposting you should do in your speech.
TIP: When you’re signposting as suggested it may seem repetitive to you as the speaker. Usually that’s because you know your subject well. Good signposting hardly ever seems repetitive to the audience, and even when it does the benefit of clarity makes up for the cost of repetition.
TIP: You can also help your audience follow your speech by coordinating visual aids with your transitions and signposting. To do that you’d show a visual aid with the title of the next main point as you say the transition, and show a different visual aid with the title of the each of the signposted points as you get to them.
—–Once you’ve done all that you should go back through your outline and see if there are ways to revise it and make it better. Of course, that’s a step you should do several times before you deliver your speech.
Always remember that public speaking is different from writing, because your audience cannot follow your speech at their own pace as they can do when reading. That is why it is important for you to help them follow your speech with good organizations, clear transitions, and obvious signposting.
Writing and Organizing a Winning Speech
How do I organize my talk?
There are two basic outlines that work well for the beginning speaker.
The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) format. AA members use this when they stand up and “qualify” their experiences:
This is where I was.
This is where I am now.
This is how I got here.
This simple outline can help you tell the audience who you are and why you are qualified to speak on the topic you’ve chosen. A friend of mine had been asked to present a 25-minute speech for the local Board of Realtors because of her great success in real estate. I suggested she use the AA outline and open like this: “Twelve years ago, when I went into the real estate business, I had never sold anything but Girl Scout cookies and hadn’t done well with that.” (This is where I was.) “Last year, I sold $15 million of real estate in a slow market, selling homes that averaged $150,000 each.” (This is where I am now.) “Today, I’ll tell you how I did that.” (This is how I got here.)
The Q & A format.List the questions your prospects, clients, and friends ask you most often about your business. Then open your talk with, “The five questions I am most frequently asked about investments (or engineering or whatever your field is) are…” Pose the first question to the audience, and answer it for them in a conversational manner, just as you would to a potential customer or someone you meet at a party. You may never have given a speech before, but you certainly have a lot of practice answering these questions.
How do I write my speech?
Open with a bang. The first and last 30 seconds of your speech have the most impact, so give them extra thought and effort. If you haven’t hooked your audience’s interest, their minds are going to wander off. Whatever you do, don’t waste any of your precious seconds with “Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here tonight.” Open with an intriguing or startling statement: “Half the people in this room are going to . . .,” “As a young man, my father gave me this valuable advice…,” “Of all the questions I am most frequently asked…”
Use humor cautiously.Opening a speech with a joke or funny story is the conventional wisdom, but nothing falls flatter than inappropriate humor. A friend who works at AT&T was convinced a joke was the only way to start a speech. He called me late one night, frantic to find the perfect joke for his boss to use the next day. I asked if his boss was funny. “No!” he answered emphatically. Then, I said, “you’re going to make your boss look like an idiot in front of the troops.” I suggested opening with an inspirational quote instead. We chose one, and the speech was a great success.Before you use humor to open your talk, test each possibility by asking:
Is it appropriate to the occasion and for the audience?
Is it in good taste?
Does it relate to me, my product or service, the event, or the group?
Does it support my topic or its key points?
If you can’t answer yes to these questions, choose a different opening. It’s safer and more effective to tell the audience what they most want to know from you. For example, I helped a neighbor, Mike Powell, with a speech he was putting together for the Continental Breakfast Club in San Francisco. Mike was a senior scientist with Genentech at the time. I suggested that since most of us don’t know what scientists are like or what they do, he should tell the audience what it was like to be a scientist. Mike captured everyone’s attention by saying, “Being a scientist is like doing a jigsaw puzzle in a snowstorm at night: You don’t have all the pieces and you don’t have the picture you are trying to create.” You can say more with less. Think about your audience. What is the information they want the most from you? If you know your business, you’ll be able to predict what their questions will be simply by experience. If you’re not sure what a particular audience might want to hear, talk to the program chair ahead of time and get that information.
Develop strong supporting stories. If you’re using the AA format, the middle of your talk is where you expand on your key points and develop personal stories that support where you were and where you are now. In the Q&A format, develop one or two strong anecdotes to support each answer. Personal anecdotes are best, but you can also insert some of the ideas and examples you’ve been gathering in your journal or computer.
Close on a high note. Your close should be the high point of your speech. First, summarize the key elements of the investment process (or whatever your topic is). If you’re planning to take questions from the audience, say, “Before my closing remarks, are there any questions.” Answer them then. The last 30 seconds of your speech must send people out energized and fulfilled. Finish your talk with something inspirational that supports your theme. My scientist friend Mike talked of the frustrations of being a scientist, and he closed by saying, “People often ask, Why should anyone want to be a scientist?” Then Mike told them about a particularly information-intensive medical conference he had attended. The final speaker rose and said, “I am a thirty-two-year-old wife and mother of two. I have AIDS. Please work fast.”Mike got a standing ovation for his speech. He told his audience what they needed to know.
Focusing On Your Topic
The first part of speech preparation involves focusing on your topic. This process starts with your selecting a general subject, then deciding on your general speech purpose. Once this has been done, you focus on your topic by narrowing it to fit the particular interests of your audience and the time limit available to you.
Find A Subject That Fascinates You
Begin by searching your mind for a general subject that you find interesting. You should make this decision carefully because the choice of topic can make or break your speech. Write down a list of single words or short phrases naming subjects that you find fascinating.
These topics can be: Airplanes, Television, Camping, Nuclear Power, Health Care, Music, Sports, Computers, Education, etc.
Analyze Your Audience
Not every subject that is interesting to you will automatically be of interest to your audience. Classmates who do not sew may be difficult to reach in a speech about dressmaking. You should ask yourself “How can I make this topic interesting and acceptable to all the members of my audience?” Answering this topic requires analysis, one of the most important steps in speech preparation. Audience Analysis consists of asking yourself a series of questions about any topic you are considering for your speech. Ask yourself the following questions:
Do my audience members already know much about this topic?
What can I tell them about this topic that they do not already know?
Will this topic interest some audience members more than others?
If I stand on this issue, will my audience agree with me?
If they do not agree, what interest or needs do they have through which I might change their minds?
Asking and answering questions such as these about your audience will help you organize your topic presentation to a specific group of people.
Select Your General Speech Purpose
The general purpose for which speeches are given fall into a fairly small number of categories:
Speeches to Inform: Here your general purpose is to teach your listeners new information. You want them to know more about your topic after your speech than they did before.
Speeches to Persuade: Persuasive speeches are designed to intensify or change listeners’ attitudes, beliefs, or behavior patterns.
Speeches to Entertain: Speeches to entertain are given simply for the enjoyment and relaxation of the listeners. They are frequently delivered as after-dinner speeches.
Speeches of Introduction: These are usually brief speeches for the purpose of giving an audience background information on a main speaker they are about to hear.
Speeches of Welcome: These are given when a new person joins a company, club, or a fraternity, or when a dignitary visits a city or town for the first time. Their purpose is to make the newcomer feel part of the group he or she is joining.
Speeches of Presentation and Acceptance: Here the purpose is to highlight the presentation or acceptance of an award or gift to a deserving individual or organization.
In addition, speeches are given to dedicate buildings, to honor graduates from school, to eulogize those who have died, to say farewell when someone is moving, to demonstrate a product, to motivate groups to perform and achieve, and to inspire an audience.
The two primary speech purposes are to inform and to persuade.
Focus on Your Specific Purpose
Once you know your general topic and general speech purpose, you are ready to focus on the specific purpose for your speech. The specific purpose is precisely what you want your listeners to know, think, believe, or do as a result of hearing your speech. Once you identify your specific purpose, then develop a purpose sentence. Examples of a purpose sentence are:
The purpose of this speech is to inform the listeners about the safety of commercial airline travel.
The purpose of this speech is to inform the audience about the history of commercial aviation.
The purpose of this speech is to tell the listeners about my most memorable airplane ride.
The purpose of this speech is to compare and contrast six different styles of commercial aircraft.
As you go about focusing on a specific purpose, keep in mind the time available for your speech. Some topics are too broad for a short speech. You must downsize your topic to the allotted time given for the speech.
Researching Your Topic
Once you have settled on a topic that is right for you, for your audience, and for the occasion, you need to begin your research. You begin by taking stock of what you already know about your topic, then move to the library or other outside sources of information to complete your research.
Start with What You Already Know
Write down a list of key phrases and sentences that you already know about the topic you are giving a speech on. If you know very little about your topic, you must usually do some preliminary research before you begin your outline.
Know What You Are Researching
Whether the purpose of your speech is to provide information or to persuade your audience to adopt new view, what you are looking for in your research is support for the various statements you will be making in your speech. Support is needed mainly to prove the accuracy of your statements, but it can also be used to illustrate points and make them more interesting. Audiences are accustomed to listening for distinct kinds of support. Among the most common types are facts, statistics, testimony, narrative, examples, and comparisons.
For backing up the accuracy of your statements, facts offer the strongest form of support. A fact is an event or a truth that is known to exist or has been observed. A fact is very difficult to contradict or refute, especially if it has been witnessed by a large number of people.
Example: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was written when the composer was totally deaf.
Statistics are a second useful form of support for accuracy of statements. Statistics are collections of facts stated iumerical terms. They can be used to present facts in percentages, rank order, and averages.
Example: Roughly 52% of the world’s population is female, and 48% percent is male.
Another form of support, testimony, is the quoting or restating of another person’s opinion to support a point. Often the person quoted is a recognized expert in the field.
Example: As Helen Keller once wrote, “No barrier of the sense shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness”
Testimony is not as strong a form of support for accuracy as facts are since testimony is merely opinion.
Narrative is supporting material in the form of a story, either real or imaginary. Besides being enjoyable and interesting, narratives a often used in a speech to help make a point that has already been or will soon be supported by facts or statistics.
Examples are specific instances or occurrences of a situation or principle you are attempting to describe. Examples may be stated in the form of facts, statistics, testimony, or narrative. Examples may be stated in the form of facts, statistics, testimony, or narrative. Thus, examples are general kinds of support that may include one of several other forms. Three examples are used to support the following sentence:
Example: Some of this century’s most noted speakers have been American presidents. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy are generally considered to have been excellent public speakers.
Examples may sometimes be used effectively to intensify or personalize your ideas.
Comparisons involve the equating of essentially unlike ideas or phrases. They highlight the similarities that exist between basically dis-similar situations. Like examples may include facts, statistics, testimony or narrative. They may also include the speaker’s opinions if the opinions seem to offer a useful means of illustrating the views being presented.
Get To Know Your Library
Libraries are a good place to do research for your speech topic. Through the library you have exposure to the following:
Internet (a network of computers which provides information rapidly through websites)
Encyclopedias
Yearbooks
Biographic Aids (Who’s Who in America, Dictionary of American Biography)
Atlases
Periodical Indexes (The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Current Magazines, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Time, U.S. News & World Report)
Computerized Datatbases (computerized research services allows you to find obsecure or highly specialized information rapidly through the use of computers)
Find Other Sources of Support
Although the library will often provide you with much of the information you need for a speech, do not overlook other valuable sources of information. Interviews with people knowledgeable about your topic can prove very helpful. If your topic concerns business, why not interview a teacher in the business department of your school or a local business leader?
Other sources of support frequently overlooked are television and radio, particularly news programs. Since the main purpose of local and network news teams is to gather and sort out facts and testimony, their reports are a gold mine of current information with which to support your ideas. Keep up with world and local news and jot down the date of the program as well as the source of the information whenever you hear an item that might prove useful.
Another form of support is taking an informal survey of public opinion among friends or neighbors. You can also write to special interest groups to obtain information to support a controversial topic.
Record Your Evidence
As you discover facts, statistics, testimony, and other forms of support for your speech, be sure to write them down. You may not be certain that you will use a piece of information, but it’s a good practice to write it down and the source you discovered while it is before you.
A good way to record information is by using 3 X
Organizing And Outlining Your Speech
As you go about researching your speech topic, you will also be deciding on an organizational pattern for your presentation. Though you are free to arrange your speech materials in any manner you choose, over the years certain methods of arrangement have proved effective for particular occasions and audiences. Your specific purpose will also have a great deal to do with the type of organizational pattern you select.
Select a Pattern of Speech Organization
One common pattern for speeches is the chronological pattern. This arrangement proceeds from past to present, to future; in other words, the speech develops in the same order that the events developed in time. The essential feature of the chronological pattern is that the ideas or events in the speech move forward according to a time sequence.
When parts of a speech are tied together by space arrangements rather than by time sequence, the organizational pattern is called spatial. It is useful in speeches in which the speaker describes a place for the audience. For example, if you wish to give a speech on “My Vacation trip to Disney World”, you might choose a spatial pattern of organization in which the four major sections of the speech would be about Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasylandy, and Adventureland.
A third organizational pattern, called topical, is also frequently used. This is a broadly defined pattern in which the subject is broken down into its natural parts. An example would be a speech about “The United States Congress” divided into the Senate and House, then subdivided into the Democrats and Republicans.
The problem-solution pattern is still another pattern used in speeches. Here the speaker devotes roughly the first half of the speech to describing a problem that exists, or is about to occur, and the second half developing one or more solutions. Presidential addresses oational television generally follow this format. For example, if the issue is the drug problem in our country, the President might spend the first half of the time proving how serious the problem is and the second half calling on the American people to help him to find solutions.
Another pattern used especially by salespersons is called
1) The Attention Step (Gaining the audience’s attention) 2) The Need Step (the salesperson shows them that they have needs not being met) 3) The Satisfaction Step (present a solution that will meet the unmet needs of the audience) 4) The Visualization Step (the salesperson helps them see the change that will occur) 5) The Action Step (involves telling the listeners what action they must take to bring about the improvement the speaker has promised)
Start Your Outline with a Purpose Sentence
A good outline is like a tree without its leaves. All the basics are present in the tree—the overall direction, the necessary support, the division into branches. Your speech outline also needs a basic purpose or direction, supporting materials, and appropriate subdivisions. If your speech outline is to have any order about it, you must know clearly what your purpose is in making the speech. The best way to begin a clear speech outline is by writing at the top of your outline the purpose sentence you selected. Remember, the purpose sentence states exactly what you hope to accomplish by giving the speech: wht you hope your listeners will know, think, believe, or do as a result of hearing your speech.
Develop Main Heads and Subheads
The major divisions of a speech outline are referred to as main heads. Most speeches should only have two or three main heads. If you were outlining a speech on “School Vacations”: Purpose Sentence: “The purpose of this speech is to persuade the audience that our school calendar should include another week of vacation” Main Heads: I. Vacations help us become better students. II. Our school has one week less vacation time than schools ieighboring towns. III. Our vacations should be the same as those of our friends ieighboring towns.
Subheads relate to main heads in the same manner that main heads relate to the purpose sentence. They subdivide the main head into parallel parts. Notice how the following subheads A, B, and C support the first main head in a speech titled “Skydiving”
I. Skydiving is safer than most people imagine. A. Only highly qualified personnel may serve as trainers. B. Extensive training is mandatory before a “live” jump. C. Chutes must be checked and rechecked before a jump.
Use Complete Sentences For Main Heads and Subheads
Main heads and subheads in speech outlines should be stated as complete sentences. Writing down the basic ideas in complete thoughts forces you to think through the ideas and also helps set them in your memory. Sentences should not be long, but brief and simple as possible.
Rehearsing
Rehearsal is the crowning point of speech preparation. Without rehearsal a speaker is like the beginning golfer entering the U.S. Open after having read all the golfing manuals, but never actually played.
One or two brief run-throughs does not constitute thorough rehearsal. Start preparing your speech well before you deliver the speech. Allow time for several rehearsal sessions. Rehearsal that is crammed into one evening is ineffective compared to three or four rehearsal sessions on successive nights.
Since the actual speech will be spoken aloud, you need a place for rehearsal where you can speak aloud. Simply saying the speech to yourself, or whispering it quietly, only allows you to practice the mental parts of the speech—the ideas. But public speaking demands a number of physical skills as well. You need to rehearse proper breathing and voice projection, clear articulation, good timing, and correct synchronization of words with body movements.
You can rehearse alone first, then with audience such as family or friends. This is sort of a dress rehearsal. While you are doing this, also consider timing yourself. This can be critical because you don’t want to have too little to speak on or too much and run over time.
