CST 110 Chapter 12 Organizing your Speech

A clincher is a restatement of your speech's goal and summary of the main points. True/False

False

A direct question seeks a mental response from the audience, whereas a rhetorical question demands an overt response from the audience. True/False

False

Listener Relevance Link

a piece of information that alerts listeners to why the main point is relevant to them

Direct Question

a question that demands an overt response from an audience

Rhetorical Question

a question that doesn't require an overt response from an audience

Clincher

a short statement that provides a sense of closure by driving home the importance of your speech in a memorable way

Outline

a written framework of the sequential and hierarchical relationships among ideas in a speech

Story

an account of something that has happened or could happen

Action

an act designed to highlight and arouse interest in a topic

Joke

an anecdote or a piece of wordplay designed to make people laugh

Startling statement

an expression or example that grabs the audience's attention by shocking them in some way

time (sequential or chronological) order

an organizational pattern that arranges the main points by a chronological sequence or by steps in a process

Narrative Order

an organizational pattern that dramatizes the thesis using a story or series of stories that includes characters, settings, and a plot

Logical Reasons Order

an organizational pattern that structures the main points as reasons for accepting the thesis as desirable or true

Topical Order

an organizational pattern that structures the main points using some logical relationship among them

In the conclusion of a speech, you should do everything but; a. summarize the main points. b. read the sources. c. close with impact. d. restate the thesis. e. all of these are things to use in a speech conclusion.

b. read the sources; e. all of these are things to use in a speech conclusion.

In the final review of a speech outline, you should ask yourself each of following questions EXCEPT a. Have I used a standard set of symbols to indicate structure? b. Have I written main points and major subdivisions as complete sentences? c. Do main points and major subdivisions each contain multiple ideas? d. Are potential subpoint elaborations included to build the speech? e. All of the above.

c. Do main points and major subdivisions each contain multiple ideas? d. Are potential subpoint elaborations included to build the speech?

____________ is used in a speech when the main points are the rationale or proof that support the thesis. a. Time order b. A thesis statement c. Logical reasons order d. Persuasive order e. Topic order

c. Logical reasons Order; d. Persuasive order

A plot, characters, and settings to dramatize the thesis are used in which organizational pattern? a. logical reasons order b. topic order c. time order d. narrative order e. story order

d. Narrative Order

Which of the following is NOT a technique used to get your audience's attention? a. personal references b. startling statements c. suspense d. signposts e. stories

d. Signposts

Appeal to Action

describes the behavior you want your listeners to follow after they have heard your arguments

Supporting material

developmental material you gathered through secondary and primary research

Questions

requests for information that encourage an audience to think about something related to your topic

Signposts

short word or phrase transitions that connect pieces of supporting material to the main point or subpoint they address

Subpoints

statements that elaborate on a main point

Preparation Outline

the first draft of organizing the main points and supporting material into a speech outline

Organizing

the process of arranging your speech material

Suspense

wording your attention-getter so it generates uncertainty and excites the audience

Transitions

words, phrases, or sentences that show the relationship between main points in the body of the speech

Section Transitions

a complete sentence that shows the relationship between and bridges major parts of a speech

Thesis Statement

a one- or two-sentence summary of your speech that states your general and specific goals and previews the main points

Credibility

a perception of a speaker's knowledge, trustworthiness, and warmth

The best organizational pattern for beginning speakers is sequential order. True/False

False A speech can be organized in many different ways. Speeches may use many different organizational patterns, four fundamental patterns are time or sequential or chronological order, narrative order, topical order, and logical reasons order. See 12-1: Develop the Body

Startling statements, rhetorical questions, quotations, and personal references can all be used to state the thesis in your introduction.

False A thesis statement is a one- or two-sentence summary that incorporates your general and specific goals and previews the main points of your speech. See 12-1: Developing the Body

Develop your speech body using an appropriate main point pattern.

Organizing is the process of selecting and structuring ideas that you will present in your speech; it is guided by your audience analysis. Once you have analyzed your audience, created a speech goal, and assembled a body of information on your topic, you are ready to identify the main ideas you wish to present in your speech and to craft them into a well-phrased thesis statement. Once you have identified a thesis, you will prepare the body of the speech. The body of the speech is hierarchically ordered through the use of main points and subpoints. Once identified, main points and their related subpoints are written in complete sentences, which should be checked to make sure that they are clear, parallel in structure, meaningful, and limited in number to five or fewer. The sequential relationship between main point ideas and among subpoint ideas depends on the organizational pattern that is chosen. The three most basic organizational patterns are time, topic, and logical reasons order. You will want to choose an organizational pattern that best helps your audience understand and remember your main points. Main point sentences are written in outline form using the organizational pattern selected. Subpoints support a main point with definitions, examples, statistics, personal experiences, stories, quotations, and so on. These subpoints also appear in the outline below the main point to which they belong. An organizational pattern will also be chosen for each set of subpoints. Once the outline of the body is complete, transitions between the introduction and the body, between main points within the body, and between the body and the conclusion need to be devised so that the audience can easily follow the speech and identify each main point.

Create an effective speech introduction.

The first step in completing the organization process is creating an introduction. The introduction should get the audience's attention, identify the relevance of the topic to the audience, establish speaker credibility, and state the thesis. Several strategies for getting attention are startling statements, questions (both rhetorical and direct questions), stories, jokes, personal references, quotations, action, and suspense. Relevance is key in maintaining audience attention, so establishing how the topic relates to the audience in the introduction will help get (and keep) audience attention. Credibility establishes why you are qualified to speak on your chosen topic. This also helps keep audience attention during the speech. Finally, stating the thesis in the introduction helps the audience understand what key points to listen for and what the speech will cover.

Construct an effective speech conclusion.

The second step in completing the organization process is creating a conclusion to summarize the main points of the speech. In addition to a strong summary of key points, it is important to leave the audience with a vivid impression. This is done through a clincher, which often uses vivid imagery or an appeal to action to leave the audience with a strong impression of what the speech was about or needed them to accomplish.

Compile a formal speech outline and reference list.

The third step in the organization process is compiling a list of sources from the bibliographic information you recorded on your research note cards. Sourcing information is very important to avoid being accused of plagiarism and making sure that authors receive the credit for their ideas. Organize your source lists either alphabetically by author last name, which is appropriate for short lists, or by content category, with names listed alphabetically within each category. This second method is appropriate for long source lists. Source format will vary by professional discipline, but some common formats are MLA, APA, and the Chicago Manual of Style

If your speech is particularly short, it would be appropriate to list your sources alphabetically, by authors' last name. True/False

True

Personal Reference

a brief account of something that happened to you or a hypothetical situation that listeners can imagine themselves in

Quotation

a comment made by and attributed to someone other than the speaker