Public Speaking: Chapter 12 the fun outlining

what are two reasons it is important at an early stage to change your outline and such information in a working outline?

1. first, the sheer amount of text on your pages will make the visual task more difficult, and second, it becomes increasingly difficult to change things in which you have a large investment in time and thought. Once you are confident in the internal unity of your basic message, you can begin filling in the supporting points in descending detail—that is, from the general (main points) to the particular (supporting points) and then to greater detail. The outline makes it visually apparent where information fits. You only need to assess your supporting points to be sure they're authoritative and directly relevant to the main points they should support. we need to use effective transitions as a gateway from one main point to the next. The listener needs to know when a speaker is moving from one main point to the next. In the next type of outline, the full-sentence outline, take a look at the transitions and see how they make the listener aware of the shifting focus to the next main point

Uniformity

A full-sentence outline readily shows whether you are giving "equal time" to each of your three main points. It should also show whether each main point is directly related to the thesis statement.

Where do you find the kind of information you would need to support these main points?

A reference librarian can quickly guide you to authoritative statistics manuals and help you make use of them. An important step you will notice is that the full-sentence outline includes its authoritative sources within the text. From the beginning of the supporting point, you need to fully cite your source so your audience can assess its importance.

Working Outline

A working outline is an outline you use for developing your speech. It undergoes many changes on its way to completion. This is the outline where you lay out the basic structure of your speech. You must have a general and specific purpose; an introduction, including a grabber; and a concrete, specific thesis statement and preview. You also need three main points, a conclusion, and a list of reference. A working outline allows you to work out the kinks in your message. The working outline shouldn't be thought of a "rough copy," but as a careful step in the development of your message. This stage of preparation turns out to be a good place to go back and examine whether all the main points are directly related to the thesis statement and to each other. If so, your message has a strong potential for unity of focus. But if the relationship of one of the main points is weak, this is the time to strengthen it.

Why are specific parts of a full-sentence outline labeled?

First, as you develop your message, you will sometimes find it necessary to go back and look at your wording in another part of the outline. Your labels help you find particular passages easily. Second, the labels work as a checklist so that you can make sure you've included everything you intended to. Third, it helps you prepare your speaking outline

What are some temptations for using a full-sentence outline rather than speaking outline?

First, once you feel that you've carefully crafted every sequence of words in your speech, you might not want to sacrifice quality when you shift to vocal presentation. Second, if you feel anxiety about how well you will do in front of an audience, you may want to use your full-sentence outline as a "safety net."

Why can't you use the full-sentence outline you labored so hard to write?

First, the presence of your full-sentence outline will make it appear that you don't know the content of your speech. Second, the temptation to read the speech directly from the full-sentence outline is nearly overwhelming; even if you resist this temptation, you will find yourself struggling to remember the words on the page rather than speaking extemporaneously. Third, sheets of paper are noisier and more awkward than cards. Fourth, it's easier to lose your place using the full outline. Finally, cards just look better.

Why is a full sentence outline important?

First, you have a full plan of everything you intend to say to your audience, so that you will not have to struggle with wordings or examples. Second, you have a clear idea of how much time it will take to present your speech. Third, it contributes a fundamental ingredient of good preparation, part of your ethical responsibility to your audience.

Singularity

For the sake of clarity, make sure your thesis statement expresses one idea only. Only in this way will it be optimally useful to you as you build your outline. If you have narrowed your topic skillfully, you can readily focus the thesis statement as one central point. For your three main points: they should each express one clear idea. For the sake of your audience, maintain clarity. If many different ideas are required in order to build a complete message, you can handle them in separate sentences with the use of such transitions as "at the same time," "alternately," "in response to that event," or some other transition that clarifies the relationship between two separate ideas.

Test the Balance and Proportion of the Speech

If you find that one of your main points has eight supporting points while the others only have three each, you have two choices: either choose the best three from the eight supporting points or strengthen the authoritative support for your other two main points. Remember that you should use the best supporting evidence you can find even if it means investing more time in your search for knowledge

Tests Logical Relation of Parts

Often the main points of a speech can be arranged into a logical pattern

what is one way to start a working outline?

One strategy for beginning your working outline is to begin by typing in your labels for each of the elements. Later you can fill in the content.

What if you go blank?

Take a few seconds to recall what you've said and how it leads to your next points. There may be several seconds of silence in the middle of your speech, and it may seem like minutes to you, but you can regain your footing most easily with a small set of well-prepared cards. Under no circumstances should you ever attempt to put your entire speech on cards in little tiny writing. You will end up reading a sequence of words to your audience instead of telling them your message.

Consistency

The entire point of framing a thesis with one clear focus is to help you maintain consistency throughout your speech. Beyond the grammatical requirements of subject-verb agreement, you will want to maintain a consistent approach. For instance, unless your speech has a chronological structure that begins in the past and ends in the future, you should choose a tense, past or present, to use throughout the speech. Similarly, you should choose language and use it consistently. For instance, use humanity instead of mankind or humans, and use that term throughout. Similarly, define your terms and use those terms only to designate the meanings in your definition. To do otherwise could result in equivocation and confusion

Adequacy

To make sure your audience will understand your speech, you must set aside the assumption that what is obvious to you is also obvious to your audience. Therefore, pay attention to adequacy in two ways: definitions of terms and support for your main points. You should use concrete language as much as you can. Adequacy is also a concern when you use evidence to support your main points. Evidence of the right kind and the right weight are needed. They should be credible sources, not sources with extreme views whose contact with reality is questioned. This will give you the right kind of evidence, and a large enough amount of evidence.

How will notecards be sufficient?

Using a set of carefully prepared, sparingly worded cards will help you resist the temptation to rely on overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides to get you through the presentation. Although they will never provide the exact word sequence of your full-sentence outline, they should keep you organized during the speech. The "trick" to selecting the phrases and quotations for your cards is to identify the labels that will trigger a recall sequence. You must discover what works for you and then select those words that tend to jog your recall. Having identified what works, make a preliminary set of no more than five cards written on one side only, and practice with them. Revise and refine them as you would an outline.

Why Outline?

Using a standard outline format, you can make decisions about your main points, the specific information you will use to support those points, and the language you will use. Without an outline, your message is liable to lose logical integrity. It might even deteriorate into a list of bullet points with no apparent connection to each other except the topic, leaving your audience relieved when your speech is finally over.

But what if you lose your place during a speech?

With a set of cards, it will take less time to refind it than with a full-sentence outline. You will not be rustling sheets of paper, and because your cards are written on one side only, you can keep them in order without flipping them back and forth to check both sides.

Speaking Outline

Your full-sentence outline prepares you to present a clear and well-organized message, but your speaking outline will include far less detail. Whenever possible, you will use key words and phrases, but in some instances, an extended quotation will need to be fully written on your speaking outline. Resist the temptation to use your full-sentence outline as your speaking outline. Your speech has five main components: introduction, main point one, main point two, main point three, and the conclusion. Therefore we strongly recommend the use of five notecards: one for each of those five components. There are extenuating circumstances that might call for additional cards, but begin with five cards only. With five cards, you will have one card for the introduction, one card for each of the three main points, and one card for the conclusion. You should number your cards and write on one side only. Numbering is helpful if you happen to drop your cards, and writing on only one side means that the audience is not distracted by your handwritten notes and reminders to yourself while you are speaking. Each card should contain key words and key phrases but not full sentences. Some speeches will include direct or extended quotations from expert sources. Some of these quotations might be highly technical or difficult to memorize for other reasons, but they must be presented correctly. This is a circumstance in which you could include an extra card in the sequence of notecards. This is the one time you may read fully from a card. If your quotation is important and the exact wording is crucial, your audience will understand that.

Full-Sentence Outline

Your full-sentence outline should contain full sentences only. When you prepare your full-sentence outline carefully, it may take as much as 1 ½ hours to complete the first part of the outline from your name at the top through the introduction. When you've completed that part, take a break and do something else. When you return to the outline, you should be able to complete your draft in another 1 ½ hours. After that, you only need to do a detailed check for completeness, accuracy, relevance, balance, omitted words, and consistency.

Define comparison-contrast pattern.

appears to dictate just two main points, McCroskey, Wrench, and Richmond explain how a comparison-and contrast can be structured as a speech with three main points. They say that "you can easily create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted.

Define chronological pattern.

arranges main ideas in the order events occur. In some instances, reverse order might make sense.

Define cause-and-effect pattern.

calls on you to describe a specific situation and explain what the effect is. However, most effects have more than one cause. If you choose a cause-and-effect pattern, make sure you have enough reliable support to do the topic justice.

What are the different types of outlining or speech topic patterns?

chronological pattern cause-and-effect pattern biographical pattern comparison-contrast pattern

What are different types of speech outlines?

full-sentence solid full-sentence outline

Define solid full sentence outline.

helps your audience understand your message because they will be able to follow your reasoning. Remember that live audiences for oral communications lack the ability to "rewind" your message to figure out what you said, so it is critically important to help the audience follow your reasoning as it reaches their ears.

Define biographical pattern

is usually chronological. In describing the events of an individual's life, you will want to choose the three most significant events. Otherwise, the speech will end up as a very lengthy and often pointless timeline or bullet point list.

Define Full sentence outline.

lays a strong foundation for your message. It will call on you to have one clear and specific purpose for your message Writing your specific purpose in clear language serves you well by: It helps you frame a clear, concrete thesis statement. It helps you exclude irrelevant information. It helps you focus only on information that directly bears on your thesis. It reduces the amount of research you must do. It suggests what kind of supporting evidence is needed, so less effort is expended in trying to figure out what to do next. It helps both you and your audience remember the central message of your speech.

What to put on note cards?

notecard can contain your thesis statement and other key words and phrases that will help you present your introduction. Your second card can contain your first main point, together with key words and phrases to act as a map to follow as you present. If your first main point has an exact quotation you plan to present, you can include that on your card. Your third notecard should be related to your second main point your fourth card should be about your third main point, and your fifth card should be related to your conclusion. In this way, your five notecards follow the very same organizational pattern as your full outline.

Parallelism

refers to the idea that the three main points follow the same structure or make use of the same kind of language. Parallelism also allows you to check for inconsistencies and self-contradictory statements. Examining your text for this purpose can strengthen the clarity of your message. There is no doubt that a full-sentence outline provides the most useful opportunity to examine your message for the details that either clarify or undermine your message. your conclusion should do two things. First, it should come "full circle" in order to show the audience that you have covered all the territory you laid out in your preview. Second, it should provide satisfying, decisive, psychological closure. In other words, your audience should know when your speech is over. You should not trail off. You should not have to say, "That's it." Your audience should not have to wait to see whether you're going to say anything else.

Serves as Notes during the Speech

we recommend writing a full-sentence outline during the speech preparation phase, you should also create a shortened outline that you can use as notes allowing for a strong delivery. If you were to use the full-sentence outline when delivering your speech, you would do a great deal of reading, which would limit your ability to give eye contact and use gestures, hurting your connection with your audience. For this reason, we recommend writing a short-phrase outline on 4 × 6 notecards to use when you deliver your speech. The good news is that your three main points suggest how you should prepare your notecards

Tests Scope of Content

will be a comparison of each main point to the thesis statement. If you find a poor match, you will know you've wandered outside the scope of the thesis. When you write in outline form, it is much easier to test the scope of your content because you can visually locate specific information very easily and then check it against your thesis statement.

Tests Relevance of Supporting Ideas

you can clearly see that you need supporting evidence for each of your main points. Your sources should come from experts in the field you are trying to discuss. The evidence might even be expert opinion but not the opinions of ordinary people. The expert opinion will provide stronger support for your point.

When looking at a full-sentence outline what?

you will notice that each of the three main points moves from the general to the particular. Specifically, each main point is a claim, followed by particular information that supports that claim so that the audience will perceive its validity.