Chapter 8: Organizing & Outlining

Signposts are words and gestures that allows you to move smoothly from one idea throughout your speech, showing relationships between ideas and emphasizing important points. Transitional Statements, Internal Previews, and Summaries are all signposts that can help keep your speech moving along. Transitional Statement are phrases or sentences that lead from one distinct-but-connected to idea to another. They are used to alert the audience to the fact that you are getting ready to discuss something else. When you move from one point to another, your transition may just be a word or a short phrase. Internal Previews lay out what will occur during your speech. They tell the audience what to expect because audience members cannot flip back and forth between pages, internal previews help keep them on track and aware of what to be listening for and what to remember. Summaries provide a recap of what has already been said making it more likely that the audience will remember the points that they hear again. Summaries can be combined with internal previews to alert audience members that the next point builds on those that they have already heard.

Define Signpost. What are three types of signposts?

The thesis statement encapsulates the main points of a speech in just a sentence or two and it designed to give audiences a quick preview of what the entire speech will be about. The specific purpose statement is tool that is used to write your speech however, it is unlikely that it will appear word for word in your speech.

How does the thesis statement differ from the specific purpose statement?

What important events are occurring locally, nationally, and internationally? Is there some information that the audience needs to know? What beliefs/attitudes do I want to share?

Name three questions that you should ask yourself when selecting a topic.

Title: Organizing your public speech. Topic: Organizing public speeches. Specific Purpose Statement: To inform listeners about the various ways in which they can organize their public speeches. Thesis Statement: A variety of organizational styles can be used to organize public speeches. Introduction: Paragraph that gets the attention of the audience, establishes goodwill with the audience, states the purpose of the speech, and previews the speech, and it's structure. (Transition). Body: 1. Main Point. A. Sub-point. B. Sub-point. C. Sub-point. 1. Supporting point. 2. Supporting point. (Transition). 2. Main Point. 1. Supporting point. A. Example. B. Example. 2. Supporting point. B. Sub-point. (Transition). Conclusion: Paragraph that prepares for the end of the speech, presents any final appeals, and summarizes and wraps up the speech. Bibliography.

What is the correct format for a speech outline?

A general purpose statement lays out the broader goal of the speech. The specific purposes statement describes precisely what the speech is intended to do.

What is the difference between a general and specific purpose statement?

A problem-solution speech is best suited for a persuasive speech.

Which organizations are best suited for persuasive speeches?

Chronological speech arranges points by time. They are very helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. A spatial speech arranges main points according to their physical and geographical relationship. It is a useful organization style when the main point's importance is derived from it's location or directional focus. A problem-solution speech arranges points according to a five-step sequence.

Which speech organization style arranges points by time? Which one arranges points by direction? Which one arranges points according to a five-step sequence?