Ch. 4- Developing Your Purpose and Topic

For the speech on choosing a major, the ideas fall into three major categories (Table 4.3):

(1) practical considerations (reputation, time needed, job market, money, and requirements), (2) academic resources (openings, instructors, curriculum, and student support), and (3) personal considerations (career goals, personal goals, likes, dislikes, and strengths).

Brainstorming for ideas to include in a speech for college students about choosing a major might produce the following list:

-career goals after college -the university's reputation in the chosen field -how long it will take to graduate -the student's life goals -majors the student really would not like -areas of strongest skills -whether the department is admitting new majors -potential earnings in jobs related to the major -quality of instructors -things the student really likes to do -job market for students graduating in the major -requirements for the major -whether the university offers the major -department resources to help students

Choose accurate and clear terms that capture your ideas, like these:

-career goals after college (career goals) -the university's reputation in the chosen field (reputation) -how long it will take to graduate (time needed) -the student's life goals (personal goals) -majors the student really would not like (dislikes) -areas of strongest skills (strengths) -whether the department is admitting new majors (openings) -potential earnings in jobs related to the major (money) -quality of instructors (instructors) -things the student really likes to do (likes) -job market for students graduating in the major (job market) -requirements in the major (requirements) -whether the university offers the major (curriculum) -department resources to help students (student support)

specific purpose

A concise statement articulating what the speaker will achieve in giving a speech.

internal consistency

A logical relationship among the ideas that make up any main heading or subheading in a speech.

thesis

A single declarative sentence that captures the central idea of a speech.

working outline

An outline that guides you during the initial stages of topic development, helping to keep you focused on your general purpose and clarify your specific purpose.

Working outline

Assists in initial topic development; guides research Includes main points and possible subpoints; revised during research process

Presentation

Assists you in practicing and giving your speech Uses keywords; revised as you practice your speech; often transferred to note cards for use during practice and the final presentation

Complete-sentence

Clearly identifies all the pieces of information for the speech; puts ideas in order; forms the basis for developing the presentation outline Uses complete sentences; lists all sections of speech and all references; revised during preparation process

The categories provide the basis for your initial working outline (see Figure 4.3), which helps you accomplish the following tasks:

Design your speech so that it connects well with your audience. Research your main themes using keyword searches. Create the complete-sentence outline you will use as you organize the information you've gathered.

Four key steps make up the early part of speech preparation. You:

Determine your general purpose. Evaluate and select your speech topic. Combine your general purpose and topic to identify your specific purpose. Phrase the thesis of your speech as you develop your topic.

Rules for Brainstorming

Generate as many ideas as possible Write down every idea—whatever comes to mind Avoid evaluating your ideas Be as creative and imaginative as possible

In evaluating possible topics, first consider your own interests and what you already know. Ask yourself these questions:

How interested am I in this topic? What do I know about this topic? How comfortable will I be talking about this topic?

Ask yourself these four questions about your audience when evaluating the topics on your list:

How relevant is this topic to my audience? Why do audience members need to know about this topic? Will I be able to interest my audience in this topic? How much does my audience already know about the topic?

brainstorming

The free-form generation of ideas for speech topics and content in which individuals think of and record ideas without immediately evaluating them.

general purpose

The speaker's overall objective: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain and answers the question, "What do I want my speech to do?" -typically corresponds to one of the most common types of speeches: informative, persuasive, or entertaining

Asking yourself key questions can help you jump-start and focus the brainstorming process. Such as

What do I talk or text about with my friends? What are my interests and hobbies? What unique experiences have I had? What am I passionate about? What would I like to learn about?

Evaluating possible topics based on the following considerations can speed up your topic selection process:

Your own interests The audience Available resources The time limit The setting and occasion

The more you help them organize the structure of your presentation in their minds,

the better your chances for successfully informing, persuading, or entertaining them.

topic

the main subject, idea, or theme of a speech

In speeches to entertain, the specific purpose is to engage and amuse the audience. Your statement of specific purpose would begin like this:

to entertain my audience with ... to amuse my audience with ... to delight my audience with ... to inspire my audience with ...

When merged with a topic, these examples become

to entertain my audience with an inside story of working at a fast-food restaurant to amuse my audience with the zaniness of family summer vacations to delight my audience with unusual inventions of the past to inspire my audience with offbeat ways to simplify their lives

For a speech to inform, your specific purpose will begin with something like this:

to inform my audience about ... to explain to my audience why ... to make my audience aware of ... to demonstrate to my audience how to ...

Each statement begins by placing the audience at the center of attention and refers, directly or indirectly, to the general purpose—in this case, to inform. Then you add in the topic:

to inform my audience about how face recognition systems work to explain to my audience why strategies for time management are useful to make my audience aware of the services offered at the campus career center to demonstrate to my audience how to take a dramatic photograph

A statement of specific purpose for a persuasive speech might begin with

to persuade my audience to ... to convince my audience that ... to deepen the empathy my audience feels for ... to motivate my audience to ...

When merged with a topic, these examples become

to persuade my audience to support a campus-wide smoking ban to convince my audience that genetically modified dairy products are safe to deepen my audience's empathy for people living in poverty to motivate my audience to vote in the upcoming election