the key ideas of your speech

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10.1 Determining Your Main Ideas

Learning objectives.

• Revisit the function of a specific purpose.
• Understand how to make the transition from a specific purpose to a series of main points.
• Be able to narrow a speech from all the possible points to the main points.
• Explain how to prepare meaningful main points.

Matt Wynn – Lightbulb! – CC BY 2.0.

When creating a speech, it’s important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about the body of your speech.

We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is important or essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers just throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose, which we discussed in detail in Chapter 6 “Finding a Purpose and Selecting a Topic” . Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the who , what , when , where , why , and how of the speech.

The specific purpose is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same—open-source software—but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can now start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or important they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they fit together?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose?”

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to talk, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure, we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s simply easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. Basically, we have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now we want you to just think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Key Takeaways

• All speeches start with a general purpose and then move to a specific purpose that gives the who , what , where , and how for the speech.
• Transitioning from the specific purpose to possible main points means developing a list of potential main points you could discuss. Then you can narrow your focus by looking for similarities among your potential main points and combining ones that are similar.
• Shorter speeches will have two main points while longer speeches will generally have three or more main points. When creating your main points, make sure that they are united, separate, balanced, parallel, and logical.
• Generate a specific purpose for your current speech. Conduct a brainstorming activity where you try to think of all the possible points you could possibly make related to your specific purpose. Once you’ve finished creating this list, see if you can find a meaningful pattern that helps you develop three main points.
• Pair up with a partner. Take the three main points you developed in the previous exercise, exchange papers with your partner and ask him or her to see whether or not they are united, separate, balanced, parallel, and logical. You do the same for your partner’s main points. If they are not, what can you or your partner do to fix your main points?

Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening. Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.

Dunham, J. R. (1964). Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .

LeFrancois, G. R. (1999). Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.

Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Module 5: Choosing and Researching a Topic

Finding the purpose and central idea of your speech, learning objectives.

• Identify the specific purpose of a speech.
• Explain how to formulate a central idea statement for a speech.

General Purpose

The general purpose of most speeches will fall into one of four categories: to inform , to persuade , to entertain , and to commemorate or celebrate . The first step of defining the purpose of your speech is to think about which category best describes your  overall  goal with the speech. What do you want your audience to think, feel, or do as a consequence of hearing you speak? Often, the general purpose of your speech will be defined by the speaking situation. If you’re asked to run a training session at work, your purpose isn’t to entertain but rather to inform. Likewise, if you are invited to introduce the winner of an award, you’re not trying to change the audience’s mind about something; you’re honoring the recipient of the award. In a public speaking class, your general purpose may be included in the assignment: for instance, “Give a persuasive speech about . . . .”  When you’re assigned a speech project, you should always make sure you know whether the general purpose is included in the assignment or whether you need to decide on the general purpose yourself.

Specific Purpose

Now that you know your general purpose (to inform, to persuade, or to entertain), you can start to move in the direction of the specific purpose. A specific purpose statement builds on your general purpose and makes it more specific (as the name suggests). So if your first speech is an informative speech, your general purpose will be to inform your audience  about a very specific realm of knowledge.

In writing your specific purpose statement, you will take three contributing elements and bring them together to help you determine your specific purpose :

• You (your interests, your background, experience, education, etc.)
• Your audience
• The context or setting

There are three elements that combine to create a specific purpose statements: your own interests and knowledge, the interests and needs of your audience, and the context or setting in which you will be speaking.

Keeping these three inputs in mind, you can begin to write a specific purpose statement, which will be the foundation for everything you say in the speech and a guide for what you do not say. This formula will help you in putting together your specific purpose statement:

To _______________ [ Specific Communication Word (inform, explain, demonstrate, describe, define, persuade, convince, prove, argue)] _______________ [ Target Audience (my classmates, the members of the Social Work Club, my coworkers] __________________. [ The Content (how to bake brownies, that Macs are better than PCs].

Example: The purpose of my presentation is to demonstrate to  my coworkers the value of informed intercultural communication .

Formulating a Central Idea Statement

While you will not actually say your specific purpose statement during your speech, you will need to clearly state what your focus and main points are going to be. The statement that reveals your main points is commonly known as the central idea statement (or just the central idea). Just as you would create a thesis statement for an essay or research paper, the central idea statement helps focus your presentation by defining your topic, purpose, direction, angle, and/or point of view. Here are two examples:

• Central Idea—When elderly persons lose their animal companions, they can experience serious psychological, emotional, and physical effects.
• Central Idea—Your computer keyboard needs regular cleaning to function well, and you can achieve that in four easy steps.

Please note that your central idea will emerge and evolve as you research and write your speech, so be open to where your research takes you and anticipate that formulating your central idea will be an ongoing process.

Below are four guidelines for writing a strong central idea.

• Your central idea should be one, full sentence.
• Your central idea should be a statement, not a question.
• Your central idea should be specific and use concrete language.
• Each element of your central idea should be related to the others.

Using the topic “Benefits of Yoga for College Students’ Stress,” here are some correct and incorrect ways to write a central idea.

A strong central idea shows that your speech is focused around a clear and concise topic and that you have a strong sense of what you want your audience to know and understand as a result of your speech. Again, it is unlikely that you will have a final central idea before you begin your research. Instead, it will come together as you research your topic and develop your main points.

• Purpose and Central Idea Statements. Provided by : eCampusOntario. Project : Communication for Business Professionals. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Finding the Purpose of Your Speech. Authored by : Susan Bagley-Koyle with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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How to write a speech that your audience remembers

Whether in a work meeting or at an investor panel, you might give a speech at some point. And no matter how excited you are about the opportunity, the experience can be nerve-wracking . 

But feeling butterflies doesn’t mean you can’t give a great speech. With the proper preparation and a clear outline, apprehensive public speakers and natural wordsmiths alike can write and present a compelling message. Here’s how to write a good speech you’ll be proud to deliver.

What is good speech writing?

Good speech writing is the art of crafting words and ideas into a compelling, coherent, and memorable message that resonates with the audience. Here are some key elements of great speech writing:

• It begins with clearly understanding the speech's purpose and the audience it seeks to engage. 
• A well-written speech clearly conveys its central message, ensuring that the audience understands and retains the key points. 
• It is structured thoughtfully, with a captivating opening, a well-organized body, and a conclusion that reinforces the main message. 
• Good speech writing embraces the power of engaging content, weaving in stories, examples, and relatable anecdotes to connect with the audience on both intellectual and emotional levels. 

Ultimately, it is the combination of these elements, along with the authenticity and delivery of the speaker , that transforms words on a page into a powerful and impactful spoken narrative.

What makes a good speech?

A great speech includes several key qualities, but three fundamental elements make a speech truly effective:

Clarity and purpose

Remembering the audience, cohesive structure.

While other important factors make a speech a home run, these three elements are essential for writing an effective speech.

The main elements of a good speech

The main elements of a speech typically include:

• Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your speech and grabs the audience's attention. It should include a hook or attention-grabbing opening, introduce the topic, and provide an overview of what will be covered.
• Opening/captivating statement: This is a strong statement that immediately engages the audience and creates curiosity about the speech topics.
• Thesis statement/central idea: The thesis statement or central idea is a concise statement that summarizes the main point or argument of your speech. It serves as a roadmap for the audience to understand what your speech is about.
• Body: The body of the speech is where you elaborate on your main points or arguments. Each point is typically supported by evidence, examples, statistics, or anecdotes. The body should be organized logically and coherently, with smooth transitions between the main points.
• Supporting evidence: This includes facts, data, research findings, expert opinions, or personal stories that support and strengthen your main points. Well-chosen and credible evidence enhances the persuasive power of your speech.
• Transitions: Transitions are phrases or statements that connect different parts of your speech, guiding the audience from one idea to the next. Effective transitions signal the shifts in topics or ideas and help maintain a smooth flow throughout the speech.
• Counterarguments and rebuttals (if applicable): If your speech involves addressing opposing viewpoints or counterarguments, you should acknowledge and address them. Presenting counterarguments makes your speech more persuasive and demonstrates critical thinking.
• Conclusion: The conclusion is the final part of your speech and should bring your message to a satisfying close. Summarize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and leave the audience with a memorable closing thought or call to action.
• Closing statement: This is the final statement that leaves a lasting impression and reinforces the main message of your speech. It can be a call to action, a thought-provoking question, a powerful quote, or a memorable anecdote.
• Delivery and presentation: How you deliver your speech is also an essential element to consider. Pay attention to your tone, body language, eye contact , voice modulation, and timing. Practice and rehearse your speech, and try using the 7-38-55 rule to ensure confident and effective delivery.

While the order and emphasis of these elements may vary depending on the type of speech and audience, these elements provide a framework for organizing and delivering a successful speech.

How to structure a good speech

You know what message you want to transmit, who you’re delivering it to, and even how you want to say it. But you need to know how to start, develop, and close a speech before writing it. 

Think of a speech like an essay. It should have an introduction, conclusion, and body sections in between. This places ideas in a logical order that the audience can better understand and follow them. Learning how to make a speech with an outline gives your storytelling the scaffolding it needs to get its point across.

Here’s a general speech structure to guide your writing process:

• Explanation 1
• Explanation 2
• Explanation 3

How to write a compelling speech opener

Some research shows that engaged audiences pay attention for only 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Other estimates are even lower, citing that people stop listening intently in fewer than 10 minutes . If you make a good first impression at the beginning of your speech, you have a better chance of interesting your audience through the middle when attention spans fade. 

Implementing the INTRO model can help grab and keep your audience’s attention as soon as you start speaking. This acronym stands for interest, need, timing, roadmap, and objectives, and it represents the key points you should hit in an opening. 

Here’s what to include for each of these points: 

• Interest : Introduce yourself or your topic concisely and speak with confidence . Write a compelling opening statement using relevant data or an anecdote that the audience can relate to.
• Needs : The audience is listening to you because they have something to learn. If you’re pitching a new app idea to a panel of investors, those potential partners want to discover more about your product and what they can earn from it. Read the room and gently remind them of the purpose of your speech. 
• Timing : When appropriate, let your audience know how long you’ll speak. This lets listeners set expectations and keep tabs on their own attention span. If a weary audience member knows you’ll talk for 40 minutes, they can better manage their energy as that time goes on. 
• Routemap : Give a brief overview of the three main points you’ll cover in your speech. If an audience member’s attention starts to drop off and they miss a few sentences, they can more easily get their bearings if they know the general outline of the presentation.
• Objectives : Tell the audience what you hope to achieve, encouraging them to listen to the end for the payout. 

Writing the middle of a speech

The body of your speech is the most information-dense section. Facts, visual aids, PowerPoints — all this information meets an audience with a waning attention span. Sticking to the speech structure gives your message focus and keeps you from going off track, making everything you say as useful as possible.

Limit the middle of your speech to three points, and support them with no more than three explanations. Following this model organizes your thoughts and prevents you from offering more information than the audience can retain. 

Using this section of the speech to make your presentation interactive can add interest and engage your audience. Try including a video or demonstration to break the monotony. A quick poll or survey also keeps the audience on their toes. 

Wrapping the speech up

To you, restating your points at the end can feel repetitive and dull. You’ve practiced countless times and heard it all before. But repetition aids memory and learning , helping your audience retain what you’ve told them. Use your speech’s conclusion to summarize the main points with a few short sentences.

Try to end on a memorable note, like posing a motivational quote or a thoughtful question the audience can contemplate once they leave. In proposal or pitch-style speeches, consider landing on a call to action (CTA) that invites your audience to take the next step.

How to write a good speech

If public speaking gives you the jitters, you’re not alone. Roughly 80% of the population feels nervous before giving a speech, and another 10% percent experiences intense anxiety and sometimes even panic. 

The fear of failure can cause procrastination and can cause you to put off your speechwriting process until the last minute. Finding the right words takes time and preparation, and if you’re already feeling nervous, starting from a blank page might seem even harder.

But putting in the effort despite your stress is worth it. Presenting a speech you worked hard on fosters authenticity and connects you to the subject matter, which can help your audience understand your points better. Human connection is all about honesty and vulnerability, and if you want to connect to the people you’re speaking to, they should see that in you.

1. Identify your objectives and target audience

Before diving into the writing process, find healthy coping strategies to help you stop worrying . Then you can define your speech’s purpose, think about your target audience, and start identifying your objectives. Here are some questions to ask yourself and ground your thinking : 

• What purpose do I want my speech to achieve? 
• What would it mean to me if I achieved the speech’s purpose?
• What audience am I writing for? 
• What do I know about my audience? 
• What values do I want to transmit? 
• If the audience remembers one take-home message, what should it be? 
• What do I want my audience to feel, think, or do after I finish speaking? 
• What parts of my message could be confusing and require further explanation?

2. Know your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for tailoring your speech effectively. Consider the demographics of your audience, their interests, and their expectations. For instance, if you're addressing a group of healthcare professionals, you'll want to use medical terminology and data that resonate with them. Conversely, if your audience is a group of young students, you'd adjust your content to be more relatable to their experiences and interests. 

3. Choose a clear message

Your message should be the central idea that you want your audience to take away from your speech. Let's say you're giving a speech on climate change. Your clear message might be something like, "Individual actions can make a significant impact on mitigating climate change." Throughout your speech, all your points and examples should support this central message, reinforcing it for your audience.

4. Structure your speech

Organizing your speech properly keeps your audience engaged and helps them follow your ideas. The introduction should grab your audience's attention and introduce the topic. For example, if you're discussing space exploration, you could start with a fascinating fact about a recent space mission. In the body, you'd present your main points logically, such as the history of space exploration, its scientific significance, and future prospects. Finally, in the conclusion, you'd summarize your key points and reiterate the importance of space exploration in advancing human knowledge.

5. Use engaging content for clarity

Engaging content includes stories, anecdotes, statistics, and examples that illustrate your main points. For instance, if you're giving a speech about the importance of reading, you might share a personal story about how a particular book changed your perspective. You could also include statistics on the benefits of reading, such as improved cognitive abilities and empathy.

6. Maintain clarity and simplicity

It's essential to communicate your ideas clearly. Avoid using overly technical jargon or complex language that might confuse your audience. For example, if you're discussing a medical breakthrough with a non-medical audience, explain complex terms in simple, understandable language.

7. Practice and rehearse

Practice is key to delivering a great speech. Rehearse multiple times to refine your delivery, timing, and tone. Consider using a mirror or recording yourself to observe your body language and gestures. For instance, if you're giving a motivational speech, practice your gestures and expressions to convey enthusiasm and confidence.

8. Consider nonverbal communication

Your body language, tone of voice, and gestures should align with your message . If you're delivering a speech on leadership, maintain strong eye contact to convey authority and connection with your audience. A steady pace and varied tone can also enhance your speech's impact.

9. Engage your audience

Engaging your audience keeps them interested and attentive. Encourage interaction by asking thought-provoking questions or sharing relatable anecdotes. If you're giving a speech on teamwork, ask the audience to recall a time when teamwork led to a successful outcome, fostering engagement and connection.

10. Prepare for Q&A

Anticipate potential questions or objections your audience might have and prepare concise, well-informed responses. If you're delivering a speech on a controversial topic, such as healthcare reform, be ready to address common concerns, like the impact on healthcare costs or access to services, during the Q&A session.

By following these steps and incorporating examples that align with your specific speech topic and purpose, you can craft and deliver a compelling and impactful speech that resonates with your audience.

Tools for writing a great speech

There are several helpful tools available for speechwriting, both technological and communication-related. Here are a few examples:

• Word processing software: Tools like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word processors provide a user-friendly environment for writing and editing speeches. They offer features like spell-checking, grammar correction, formatting options, and easy revision tracking.
• Presentation software: Software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides is useful when creating visual aids to accompany your speech. These tools allow you to create engaging slideshows with text, images, charts, and videos to enhance your presentation.
• Speechwriting Templates: Online platforms or software offer pre-designed templates specifically for speechwriting. These templates provide guidance on structuring your speech and may include prompts for different sections like introductions, main points, and conclusions.
• Rhetorical devices and figures of speech: Rhetorical tools such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, and parallelism can add impact and persuasion to your speech. Resources like books, websites, or academic papers detailing various rhetorical devices can help you incorporate them effectively.
• Speechwriting apps: Mobile apps designed specifically for speechwriting can be helpful in organizing your thoughts, creating outlines, and composing a speech. These apps often provide features like voice recording, note-taking, and virtual prompts to keep you on track.
• Grammar and style checkers: Online tools or plugins like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor help improve the clarity and readability of your speech by checking for grammar, spelling, and style errors. They provide suggestions for sentence structure, word choice, and overall tone.
• Thesaurus and dictionary: Online or offline resources such as thesauruses and dictionaries help expand your vocabulary and find alternative words or phrases to express your ideas more effectively. They can also clarify meanings or provide context for unfamiliar terms.
• Online speechwriting communities: Joining online forums or communities focused on speechwriting can be beneficial for getting feedback, sharing ideas, and learning from experienced speechwriters. It's an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and improve your public speaking skills through collaboration.

Remember, while these tools can assist in the speechwriting process, it's essential to use them thoughtfully and adapt them to your specific needs and style. The most important aspect of speechwriting remains the creativity, authenticity, and connection with your audience that you bring to your speech.

5 tips for writing a speech

Behind every great speech is an excellent idea and a speaker who refined it. But a successful speech is about more than the initial words on the page, and there are a few more things you can do to help it land.

Here are five more tips for writing and practicing your speech:

1. Structure first, write second

If you start the writing process before organizing your thoughts, you may have to re-order, cut, and scrap the sentences you worked hard on. Save yourself some time by using a speech structure, like the one above, to order your talking points first. This can also help you identify unclear points or moments that disrupt your flow.

2. Do your homework

Data strengthens your argument with a scientific edge. Research your topic with an eye for attention-grabbing statistics, or look for findings you can use to support each point. If you’re pitching a product or service, pull information from company metrics that demonstrate past or potential successes. 

Audience members will likely have questions, so learn all talking points inside and out. If you tell investors that your product will provide 12% returns, for example, come prepared with projections that support that statement.

3. Sound like yourself

Memorable speakers have distinct voices. Think of Martin Luther King Jr’s urgent, inspiring timbre or Oprah’s empathetic, personal tone . Establish your voice — one that aligns with your personality and values — and stick with it. If you’re a motivational speaker, keep your tone upbeat to inspire your audience . If you’re the CEO of a startup, try sounding assured but approachable. 

4. Practice

As you practice a speech, you become more confident , gain a better handle on the material, and learn the outline so well that unexpected questions are less likely to trip you up. Practice in front of a colleague or friend for honest feedback about what you could change, and speak in front of the mirror to tweak your nonverbal communication and body language .

5. Remember to breathe

When you’re stressed, you breathe more rapidly . It can be challenging to talk normally when you can’t regulate your breath. Before your presentation, try some mindful breathing exercises so that when the day comes, you already have strategies that will calm you down and remain present . This can also help you control your voice and avoid speaking too quickly.

How to ghostwrite a great speech for someone else

Ghostwriting a speech requires a unique set of skills, as you're essentially writing a piece that will be delivered by someone else. Here are some tips on how to effectively ghostwrite a speech:

• Understand the speaker's voice and style : Begin by thoroughly understanding the speaker's personality, speaking style, and preferences. This includes their tone, humor, and any personal anecdotes they may want to include.
• Interview the speaker : Have a detailed conversation with the speaker to gather information about their speech's purpose, target audience, key messages, and any specific points they want to emphasize. Ask for personal stories or examples they may want to include.
• Research thoroughly : Research the topic to ensure you have a strong foundation of knowledge. This helps you craft a well-informed and credible speech.
• Create an outline : Develop a clear outline that includes the introduction, main points, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Share this outline with the speaker for their input and approval.
• Write in the speaker's voice : While crafting the speech, maintain the speaker's voice and style. Use language and phrasing that feel natural to them. If they have a particular way of expressing ideas, incorporate that into the speech.
• Craft a captivating opening : Begin the speech with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a relevant quote, an interesting fact, a personal anecdote, or a thought-provoking question.
• Organize content logically : Ensure the speech flows logically, with each point building on the previous one. Use transitions to guide the audience from one idea to the next smoothly.
• Incorporate engaging stories and examples : Include anecdotes, stories, and real-life examples that illustrate key points and make the speech relatable and memorable.
• Edit and revise : Edit the speech carefully for clarity, grammar, and coherence. Ensure the speech is the right length and aligns with the speaker's time constraints.
• Seek feedback : Share drafts of the speech with the speaker for their feedback and revisions. They may have specific changes or additions they'd like to make.
• Practice delivery : If possible, work with the speaker on their delivery. Practice the speech together, allowing the speaker to become familiar with the content and your writing style.
• Maintain confidentiality : As a ghostwriter, it's essential to respect the confidentiality and anonymity of the work. Do not disclose that you wrote the speech unless you have the speaker's permission to do so.
• Be flexible : Be open to making changes and revisions as per the speaker's preferences. Your goal is to make them look good and effectively convey their message.
• Meet deadlines : Stick to agreed-upon deadlines for drafts and revisions. Punctuality and reliability are essential in ghostwriting.
• Provide support : Support the speaker during their preparation and rehearsal process. This can include helping with cue cards, speech notes, or any other materials they need.

Remember that successful ghostwriting is about capturing the essence of the speaker while delivering a well-structured and engaging speech. Collaboration, communication, and adaptability are key to achieving this.

Give your best speech yet

Learn how to make a speech that’ll hold an audience’s attention by structuring your thoughts and practicing frequently. Put the effort into writing and preparing your content, and aim to improve your breathing, eye contact , and body language as you practice. The more you work on your speech, the more confident you’ll become.

The energy you invest in writing an effective speech will help your audience remember and connect to every concept. Remember: some life-changing philosophies have come from good speeches, so give your words a chance to resonate with others. You might even change their thinking.

Understand Yourself Better:

Big 5 Personality Test

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

How to make a presentation interactive and exciting

The 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 8 tips to improve your public speaking skills, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, 6 presentation skills and how to improve them, how to give a good presentation that captivates any audience, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), 25 unique email sign-offs to make a good impression, how to write an executive summary in 10 steps, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, how to pitch ideas: 8 tips to captivate any audience, anxious about meetings learn how to run a meeting with these 10 tips, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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7 Building and Organizing Your Speech

Learning objectives.

• Understand how to make the transition from a specific purpose to a series of main points.
• Explain how to prepare meaningful main points.
• Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.
• Understand how to use a variety of strategies to help audience members keep up with a speech’s content: internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Siddie Nam – Thinking – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

In a series of ground-breaking studies conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with a clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches (Smith, 1951). Thompson furthered this investigation and found that it was harder for audiences to recall information after an unorganized speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized, and they forget information from speeches that are poorly organized (Thompson, 1960). A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility (Baker, 1965).

These three critical studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are organized they are perceived as credible. When speakers are not organized, their audiences view the speeches negatively, are less likely to be persuaded, and don’t remember specific information from the speeches after the fact.

We start this chapter by discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization to real audiences. This chapter will help you learn organization so that your speech with have its intended effect. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the basics of organizing the body of your speech.

Determining Your Main Ideas

While speeches take many different forms, they are often discussed as having an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and wets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about structuring the body of your speech.

We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused, and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose, which we discussed in detail in Chapter 4 “Topic, Purpose, and Thesis”. Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the who , what , when , where , why , and how of the speech.

The specific purpose is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same, open-source software, but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

Main Points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or vital they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

Chunking involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information.

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they fit together?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose?”

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? The answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to speak, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure , we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. We have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Parallel structure means structuring your main points so that they all sound similar.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now, we want you to think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter, we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics. The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a categorical/topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example:

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit their own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example:

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for her or his audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech.

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing your main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example:

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The primary reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have specific locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Cause/Effect

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point, you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format, you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has demonstrated the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Speech Pattern Overview

The  categorical/topical speech pattern  creates categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose.

The comparison/contrast speech pattern uses main points to compare an contrast two similar objects, topics, or ideas.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space.

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect.

The problem-cause-solution speech pattern  describes a problem, identifies what is causing the problem, and then recommends a solution to correct the problem.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You will want to be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Keeping Your Speech Moving

Chris Marquardt – REWIND – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Have you ever been listening to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are one of the reasons you weren’t sure what the speaker was talking about was that the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we can reread the paragraph and try to make sense of what we’re trying to read. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, speakers need to think about how they keep a speech moving so that audience members are easily able to keep up with the speech. In this section, we’re going to look at four specific techniques speakers can use that make following a speech much easier for an audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech. Basically, a transition is a sentence where the speaker summarizes what was said in one point and previews what is going to be discussed in the next point. Let’s look at some examples:

• Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by lack of adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
• Thus far we’ve examined the history and prevalence of alcohol abuse among Native Americans, but it is the impact that this abuse has on the health of Native Americans that is of the greatest concern.
• Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
• Although he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

You’ll notice that in each of these transition examples, the beginning phrase of the sentence indicates the conclusion of a period of time (now that, thus far) or main point. Table 2: Transition Words contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 2:  Transition Words

Beyond transitions, there are several other techniques that you can use to clarify your speech organization for your audience. The next sections address several of these techniques, including internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Internal Previews

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech. An internal preview works similarly to the preview that a speaker gives at the end of a speech introduction, quickly outlining what he or she is going to talk about (i.e. the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, the speaker highlights what he or she is going to discuss within a specific main point during a speech.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retention of oral information (Ausubel, 1968). When a speaker clearly informs an audience what they are going to be talking about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points, which leads to higher retention of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community.

When an audience hears that you will be exploring two different ideas within this main point, they are ready to listen for those main points as you talk about them. In essence, you’re helping your audience keep up with your speech.

Rather than being given alone, internal previews often come after a speaker has transitioned to that main topic area. Using the previous internal preview, let’s see it along with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that a lack of consistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore the importance of recycling for our community (transition). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community (internal preview).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point of your speech. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only the main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

Whereas an internal preview helps an audience know what you are going to talk about within a main point at the beginning, an internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech. In general, internal summaries are best used when the information within a specific main point of a speech was complicated. To write your own internal summaries, look at the summarizing transition words in Table 2: Transition Words Let’s look at an example.

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this example, the speaker was probably talking about the impact that bullying has on an individual victim educationally. Of course, an internal summary can also be a great way to lead into a transition to the next point of a speech.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook (internal summary). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive anti-bullying programs (transition).

While not sounding like the more traditional transition, this internal summary helps readers summarize the content of that main point. The sentence that follows than leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of anti-bullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Signposts within a speech function the same way. A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech. If you look at Table 2: Transition Words and look at the “common sequence patterns,” you’ll see a series of possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of a piece of information to help our audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you were giving a speech whose main point was about the three functions of credibility, you could use internal signposts like this:

• The first function of credibility is competence.
• The second function of credibility is trustworthiness.
• The final function of credibility is caring/goodwill.

Signposts are meant to help your audience keep up with your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members keep up with a speech, signposts can also be used to highlight specific information the speaker thinks is important. Where the other signposts were designed to show the way (like highway markers), signposts that call attention to specific pieces of information are more like billboards. Words and phrases that are useful for highlighting information can be found in Table 2: Transition Words under the category “emphasis.” All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that the audience will also recognize the importance of the information.

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech.

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech.

An internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech.

A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech.

Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Baker, E. E. (1965). The immediate effects of perceived speaker disorganization on speaker credibility and audience attitude change in persuasive speaking. Western Speech, 29 , 148–161.

Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening.  Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.

Dunham, J. R. (1964).  Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention  (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from:  http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .

LeFrancois, G. R. (1999).  Psychology for teaching  (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.

Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.

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15 Determining Your Main Ideas

Learning objectives.

• Revisit the function of a specific purpose.
• Use a specific purpose to create a series of main points.
• Narrow a speech from all the possible points to the main points.
• Explain how to prepare meaningful main points.

Matt Wynn –  Lightbulb!  – CC BY 2.0.

Every speech has three parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about the body of your speech.

We like the word  strategic  because it refers to determining what is important or essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers just throw information together and stand up and start speaking. NOTE: Don’t Do That!! When that happens, audience members are left confused and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

From Thesis to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your thesis statement, you can now start thinking about the best way to turn that into a series of main points. The main  points  are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between five and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points. As a speaker, you will use your best judgment to determine what works best for your speech based on your topic, research, and integration of support within the main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or important they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called  chunking  because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Hints for Selecting Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Do They Reflect Your Thesis?

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they serve to communicate my thesis?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose and thesis statement?”

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Note: This is also where adjusting your thesis statement may come in. If you determine you want to cover main points that don’t directly reflect your thesis, you may need to tweak your thesis at this point. 

Keeping Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to talk, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure, we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s simply easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. Basically, we have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail about common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now, we want you to just think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Devising Main Points

As you begin to draft your main points, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

Each main point should be one idea: Each main point should only focus on one idea. If you have too many ideas in a main point, this may confuse the audience.

Consider the following main points:

• Our educational system needs reform to effectively educate youth on life skills, and it can be more engaging for students.

This main point has two completely separate topics. These separate ideas should be in separate points.

• Our education system needs reform to effectively educate youth on life skills.
• Education reform will provide more opportunities for engaging students.

A topic is not a main point: When a speaker states, “Education reform” this is stating the topic, not the main point. Stating the topic does not adequately prepare the audience because the audience does not know what the actual point is.

Avoid announcements: Announcements also do not adequately communicate the main point. “I am going to talk about education reform” does not tell the audience what the speaker will be discussing. Is education reform good? Bad? Necessary? What?

Each main point should be a full, declarative statement. 

Consider the following statements:

• “Education reform”
• “I am going to talk about education reform.”
• “Education reform will provide more opportunities to engage students in the curriculum.”

The final statement is a full, declarative statement . It tells the audience, specifically, what the main point is. You must tell the audience your main point to effectively get your message across.

For Future Reference | How to organize this in an outline |

Body of your Speech

(The number of main-points and sub-points will vary for each speech)

I. (First main-point)

• (Second level sub-point)

Transition: (complete sentence, phrase, or word)

II. (Second main-point)

III. (Third main-point)

Key Takeaways

• All speeches start with a general purpose and then move to a specific purpose that gives the  who ,  what ,  where , and  how  for the speech.
• Transitioning from the specific purpose to possible main points means developing a list of potential main points you could discuss. Then you can narrow your focus by looking for similarities among your potential main points and combining ones that are similar.
• Shorter speeches will have two main points while longer speeches will generally have three or more main points. When creating your main points, make sure that they are united, separate, balanced, parallel, and logical.
• Main points should be one idea stated in a full, declartive sentence.

LeFrancois, G. R. (1999).  Psychology for teaching  (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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16 Formulating a Central Idea Statement

While you will not actually say your specific purpose statement during your speech, you will need to clearly state what your focus and main points are going to be (preferably after using an introductory method such as those described in Chapter 8). The statement that reveals your main points is commonly known as the central idea statement (or just the central idea).

Now, at this point we need to make a point about terminology. Your instructor may call the central idea statement “the thesis” or “the thesis statement.” Your English composition instructor probably uses that term in your essay writing. Another instructor may call it the “main idea statement.” All of these are basically synonymous and you should not let the terms confuse you, but you should use the term your instructor uses.

That said, is the central idea statement the very same thing as the thesis sentence in an essay? Yes, in that both are letting the audience know with- out a doubt your topic, purpose, direction, angle and/or point of view. No, in that the rules for writing a “thesis” or central idea statement in a speech are not as strict as in an essay. For example, it is acceptable in a speech to announce the topic and purpose, although it is usually not the most artful or effective way to do it. You may say,

“In this speech I will try to motivate you to join me next month as a volunteer at the regional Special Olympics.”

That would be followed by a preview statement of what the speech’s arguments or reasons for participating will be, such as,

“You will see that it will benefit the community, the participants, and you individually.”

However, another approach is to “capsulize” the purpose, topic, approach, and preview in one succinct statement.

“Your involvement as a volunteer in next month’s regional Special Olympics will be a rewarding experience that will benefit the community, the participants, and you personally.”

This last version is really the better approach and most likely the one your instructor will prefer.

So, you don’t want to just repeat your specific purpose in the central idea statement, but you do want to provide complete information. Also, unlike the formal thesis of your English essays, the central idea statement in a speech can and should use personal language (I, me, we, us, you, your, etc.) and should attempt to be attention-getting and audience-focused.

And importantly, just like a formal thesis sentence, it must be a complete, grammatical sentence.

The point of your central idea statement in terms of your audience is to reveal and clarify the ideas or assertions you will be addressing in your speech, more commonly known as your main points, to fulfill your specific purpose. However, as you are processing your ideas and approach, you may still be working on them. Sometimes those main points will not be clear to you immediately. As much as we would like these writing processes to be straightforward, sometimes we find that we have to revise our original approach. This is why preparing a speech the night before you are giving it is a really, really bad idea. You need lots of time for the preparation and then the practice.

Sometimes you will hear the writing process referred to as “iterative.” This word means, among other things, that a speech or document is not always written in the same order as the audience finally experiences it. You may have noticed that we have not said anything about the introduction of your speech yet. Even though that is the first thing the audience hears, it may be one of the last parts you actually compose. It is best to consider your speech flexible as you work on it, and to be willing to edit and revise. If your instructor asks you to turn the outline in before the speech, you should be clear on how much you can revise after that. Otherwise, it helps to know that you can keep editing your speech until you deliver it, especially while you practice.

Here are some examples of pairs of specific purpose statements and central idea statements.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the effects of losing a pet on the elderly.

Central Idea: When elderly persons lose their animal companions, they can experience serious psychological, emotional, and physical effects.

Specific Purpose: To demonstrate to my audience the correct method for cleaning a computer keyboard.

Central Idea: Your computer keyboard needs regular cleaning to function well, and you can achieve that in four easy steps.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my political science class that labor unions are no longer a vital political force in the U.S.

Central Idea: Although for decades in the twentieth century labor unions influenced local and national elections, in this speech I will point to how their influence has declined in the last thirty years.

Specific Purpose: To motivate my audience to oppose the policy of drug testing welfare recipients.

Central Idea: Many voices are calling for welfare recipients to go through mandatory, regular drug testing, but this policy is unjust, impractical, and costly, and fair-minded Americans should actively oppose it.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my fellow civic club members why I admire Representative John Lewis.

Central Idea: John Lewis has my admiration for his sacrifices during the Civil Rights movement and his service to Georgia as a leader and U.S. Representative.

Specific Purpose: To describe how makeup is done for the TV show The Walking Dead.

Central Idea: The wildly popular zombie show The Walking Dead achieves incredibly scary and believable makeup effects, and in the next few minutes I will tell you who does it, what they use, and how they do it.

Notice that in all of the above examples that neither the specific purpose nor the central idea ever exceeds one sentence. You may divide your central idea and the preview of main points into two sentences or three sentences, depending on what your instructor directs. If your central idea consists of more than three sentences, then you probably are including too much information and taking up time that is needed for the body of the speech. Additionally, you will have a speech trying to do too much and that goes overtime.

a statement that contains or summarizes a speech’s main points

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills

Few are immune to the fear of public speaking. Marjorie North offers 10 tips for speakers to calm the nerves and deliverable memorable orations.

Marjorie North

Snakes? Fine. Flying? No problem. Public speaking? Yikes! Just thinking about public speaking — routinely described as one of the greatest (and most common) fears — can make your palms sweat. But there are many ways to tackle this anxiety and learn to deliver a memorable speech.

In part one of this series,  Mastering the Basics of Communication , I shared strategies to improve how you communicate. In part two, How to Communicate More Effectively in the Workplace , I examined how to apply these techniques as you interact with colleagues and supervisors in the workplace. For the third and final part of this series, I’m providing you with public speaking tips that will help reduce your anxiety, dispel myths, and improve your performance.

Here Are My 10 Tips for Public Speaking:

1. nervousness is normal. practice and prepare.

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice — a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.

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2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.

Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.

Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don’t become a talking head — in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience’s attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don’t Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.

Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to itself, but instead conveys the speaker’s ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with “Today I’m going to talk to you about X”? Most people don’t. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience’s attention.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.

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About the Author

North is a consultant for political candidates, physicians, and lawyers, and runs a private practice specializing in public speaking, and executive communication skills. Previously, she was the clinical director in the department of speech and language pathology and audiology at Northeastern University.

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12 Structure and Format: Outlining the Speech

Rebecca Collier, M.B.A.

Learning Objectives

• Determine the general and specific purpose of a presentation.
• Create a captivating speech introduction, body and conclusion.
• Support ideas and arguments through cited research.
• Differentiate between preparation outlines and presentation notes.

Just like a building has structure and an overall plan to guide people through the space in a logical way, you will need an outline for your speech to provide a framework for your ideas and to help your audience see how these ideas connect to create your overall message. Additionally, similar to the way people have expectations for what they will experience when walking into a building, your audience will have some expectations about how your speech will unfold. When these expectations are not met, such as the example earlier, when you entered the door expecting to see the receptionist and were instead met with a toilet, your audience may find it jarring or uncomfortable if your speech does not have a recognizable introduction or conclusion, or if you abruptly jump from subtopic to subtopic without notice. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to create an outline to guide your audience through your points in an organized format for a well-structured speech. In a professional setting, most speakers outline their speeches far enough in advance of their presentation date so that they have time to practice their performance and become comfortable with the material. Creating an outline will help you feel confident during your speech, because you took the time to carefully plan out what you desired to say. This leaves you free to focus on your delivery – how you say it – during your speech. This chapter will walk you through all the different parts of a speech outline, and show you how a formal outline can be translated into less cumbersome speaking notes.

The Speech Topic

One of the hardest parts of the speech assignment for students is choosing a topic with which to work with. Oftentimes, as soon as you begin drafting an outline for a chosen topic, other topics will start to look more and more appealing, and you will want to change to a new topic. Resist this impulse, if you can! Many speech students have lost points on late assignments because they kept changing their mind about what to speak about. Once you begin working with a topic (approved by your instructor, when applicable), commit to it. Your instructor can help you navigate through the challenges of a topic with which that you are struggling with. Remember, your research and your speech delivery can make almost any topic engaging for the audience.

The Speech Purpose

Before you begin preparing your speech, your instructor will let you know what kind of speech you are working on. Is it a speech intended to inform your audience? Is it a speech where you will be persuading the audience? Or, is the speech designed for entertainment purposes? You will need to know what kind of speech you are giving before you do any other work on this assignment. To make sure that you are aware of the overall goal of the speech, your instructor may ask you to include the general purpose on your outline. There are three basic general purposes that apply to speech presentations: To inform, to persuade, and to entertain. An informative speech requires you to give a neutral, unbiased perspective to the audience, while a persuasive speech attempts to change an audience’s beliefs, feelings, or actions. An entertainment speech is used to celebrate or commemorate something or as part of a ceremony.

In addition to the general purpose, each speech will also have a corresponding specific purpose. The specific purpose identifies what you would like to leave the audience with after your speech. For example, a specific purpose for an i nformative speech about the pyramids of Giza, Egypt might read:  To inform my audience about when and how the pyramids of Giza were built and what they look like today . A specific purpose for a persuasive speech about organ donation might read:  To persuade my audience to register as organ donors.

Some professors might prefer that you submit a purpose statement in lieu of a specific purpose. The purpose statement identifies your goal for the audience. Using the example informative speech topic above on the pyramids of Giza, Egypt, your purpose statement might read:  At the end of my speech, my audience will know when and how the pyramids of Giza were built and what they look like today.   The organ donation speech might have the following purpose statement:  At the end of my speech, my audience members will register as organ donors .

The Central Idea

Once you know your topic and your purpose, it’s time to brainstorm the key message of your speech. This message is known as the central idea, and it serves as a thesis for your presentation. Your instructor may ask you to include a central idea on your outline. Creating a central idea is good practice, because it shows that you can state the main ideas of the speech in one sentence. A central idea elaborates on the speech purpose. For a persuasive speech, the central idea includes what we’re persuading the audience about, and why our viewpoint is correct. For example:

Everyone should register as an organ donor because it’s easy to do, and it could save or drastically improve someone’s life at no cost to the donor. 

For an informative speech, the central idea is a summary thesis, and it gives the main ideas of the speech in one strong statement. For example:

The pyramids of Giza, Egypt, were built by hand over six thousand years ago, and their outer structures and inner chambers are mostly intact today.

A strong central idea should have the following characteristics:

• It should be a complete sentence.
• It can’t be a question.
• It should encapsulate each main idea.

The Speech Introduction

Although your instructor may ask you to include the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea on your speech outline, you actually won’t share these with your audience as part of your speech. Instead, your presentation to the class should begin with your introduction. The introduction and the conclusion are the most important parts of your speech, because they are the parts that your audience is most likely to remember. Thus, the structure and development of these two parts is crucial to the success of your speech. Your speech introduction should include the following five parts:

• Attention-getter

Introduce yourself and your topic

Relate the topic to your audience

• Statement of credibility/interest
• Summary of your main ideas. 

Attention-Getter

The first–and most important–thing you can do in a speech introduction is to captivate your audience and interest them in your speech topic. It is much easier to keep someone’s attention than to fight to regain it, so the attention-getter is the first part of your speech that your audience will hear.

There are lots of ways you can help your topic appeal to your listeners. One classic example is to tell a short story. This can either be a personal story, or you can recount a story you heard or read somewhere that leads into your topic. A story can help personalize your topic for the audience and bring in a human connection.

Another way to draw attention to your topic is to startle your audience with a shocking statistic or example that they won’t be expecting. Be careful with this technique. If the audience is already familiar with your “shocking” material, your attention-getter could backfire, and you may end up losing the attention of your audience instead of gaining it.

Many students like to begin their speeches by asking a series of rhetorical questions. This requires the audience to think about the speech topic and make personal applications. If you start your speech in this way, make sure that you ask a few questions. One is rarely enough to generate interest in the topic. Also, the questions should make the audience ponder something. Suppose I began my speech with, “How many of you like lemons? Well, today I’m going to inform you about Miracle Berries.” Did that get your attention? Not likely. Are you excited to hear more about my topic? It’s doubtful. Let’s try that again. “By show of hands, who here likes drinking lemonade? Okay, now who likes having a slice or two of lemons in their drinking water? Now, how many of you would enjoy snacking on slices of lemon – no sugar added? Well, what if I told you there was a way to make lemons taste intensely sweet, without adding any sugar? Today, I’m going to tell you about Miracle Berries…” When using questions as an attention getter, you might consider incorporating a silent survey. This is where you have your audience answer your questions in a physical way, such as by raising a hand. If students answer your questions vocally, the attention-getter will likely go on for far too long. A silent survey keeps the entire audience involved, without letting the audience take over your speech.

Additionally, you could begin with a powerful quote that ties into your topic. Make sure that you tell the audience where the quote comes from. If the source of the quote is someone that your audience is not likely to be familiar with, you may need to contextualize the source and explain why the words of this person are relevant. For example, if I began my speech with this quote, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilized society,” as said by Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior. Who is this person? Nobody knows, so nobody cares. I should contextualize this source, by saying something like, “According to US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior…“ Now my audience will understand why the person who spoke these words is relevant.

You might also try to get the audience’s attention by making them curious about your topic. Give them some clues, and see if they can guess what your topic will be from these clues. Be sure to take a moment and celebrate with them when they finally guess correctly!

Finally, you can begin your speech with some audience participation . Just make sure this is carefully planned and not too complicated. You don’t want the attention-getter to take up all the allotted time for your speech. One student began her informative presentation by having everyone write down five numbers, between zero and nine, in any order, with no repeats. She then held a mini lottery for the class by randomly drawing numbers from a hat and giving a small prize to the student who’s written-down numbers were the closest to the drawn ones. This was an exciting way to begin a speech on the New York State lottery.

The attention-getter of the speech is arguably the most important part of the presentation. If you don’t capture the audience’s attention, they are less likely to take in the rest of your speech. Thus, it is worthwhile to spend some time developing an engaging attention-getter that you are comfortable delivering.

Now that your audience is focused and interested in what you have to say, you should share with them who you are, and what you will be speaking to them about. This is especially important if you have used a detailed or complex attention-getter, where it may be necessary to clarify your actual topic for the audience.

Statement of Credibility/Interest

Once you have piqued the interest of your audience, and they know who you are and what you’ll be speaking about, it’s time to gain their trust. What makes you a credible speaker on this topic? Share with the audience why you chose this particular subject, and any personal experience you have with it. For example, if I were giving an informative speech on lacrosse: “I was first exposed to lacrosse in middle school, and I went on to play the sport for all four years of high school. Our team was very successful, and we won several championships.”

However, you might give a speech on a topic with which you have had no direct experience. Never fear! You can also tell the audience about the kinds of research you have done to prepare yourself to speak on this subject. For example: “Although I’ve never actually played lacrosse, I’ve always been curious about it. I began preparing for this speech by watching videos online to understand how the sport is played, and I found some great articles to help me understand its history and development.”

Sharing your interest in this topic, along with your experience with it, or an explanation of your research process will show the audience that you are a credible speaker on this topic and someone worth listening to.

The next step is to help the audience see how they can relate to the topic you have chosen. Be creative! This can be a challenging step, and it requires some critical thinking. Suppose you are giving a speech where you are persuading your audience that college students shouldn’t have to buy textbooks for their classes. Well, this is an easy one, because almost everyone in your audience will be a college student, and most people like to save money. Now, imagine that you are giving a speech to inform your audience about conjoined twins. It is unlikely that you will have many pairs of conjoined twins in your audience, so how can you make this topic relatable? You might start with the idea that many audience members may want to have children (or more children) someday, or they may know people who plan to have children. It’s important to be informed about a condition that could affect these future children. Also, you could take the angle that we live in a complex world, and we have to deal with lots of different kinds of people. Understanding more about the conditions of people different from ourselves can help us develop empathy. Almost any topic can relate to your audience, but some will take more work than others.

Preview your main ideas

For the final part of the speech introduction, you’ll give your audience a summary of what you’ll specifically be talking about in this speech. This is different from introducing yourself and your topic. There, you might tell the audience that you’ll be informing them about the axolotl. In the preview, you’ll let them know that this speech will describe the physical appearance of the axolotl, where it lives, and how it regenerates different parts of its body. The preview is given at the end of the introduction to help the audience pace the speech. For the example above, when you come to the part about the axolotl regenerating, the audience will know that the speech is almost done. It also helps your audience to know what they should be focusing on during your speech, and what the takeaway will be.

The speech introduction is the foundation of your presentation, and it’s important to ensure that this foundation is sturdy. If the foundation of a building is unstable, the building may crumble and fall apart. Similarly, the speech introduction prepares the audience for the body of the speech. If the introduction is underdeveloped, the rest of the speech will be weakened by association. It is worth taking some extra time to make sure your speech introduction covers each of the five steps.

Transitioning from Point to Point

Suppose you were driving a car down the highway, and the driver in front of you kept switching lanes abruptly without using a turn signal. Wouldn’t that be frustrating? Well, when a speaker doesn’t use transitions, it creates a similarly jarring experience for the audience. Using a transition phrase prepares the audience for a new topic and helps your speech flow logically from point to point. Transitions in a speech are a little bit different from transitions used in written work. When you are writing an essay, you can use a word such as “also” or “however” to move on to your next point. Yet, in a speech, you need to be more specific. The audience needs a clear signal that you are about to begin a new point. In order to transition to your first main point, you might say: “Let’s begin by,” “I’d like to start with,” “First of all, ” “To commence,” etc. For additional main ideas, you could transition with “Moving on,” “My next point will be,” “Now that we’ve looked at__________, I’ll tell you about ________,” etc. Transitions are especially helpful in separating out your main ideas for your audience so that the body of the speech has distinct sections.

The Main Ideas

The main ideas are the major subtopics of your speech. Once you know your speech topic, the next step is to decide on your main ideas. You can’t create a central idea or a speech introduction without them. The main ideas are the topic sentences of your speech. As a general rule, you should have at least two main ideas. If you only have one main idea, your speech has nowhere to go, and it may feel repetitive for the audience. That being said, you generally shouldn’t have more than five main ideas in your speech. Once you get past the fifth main idea, the audience may have trouble remembering the first one! It’s often a good idea to plan on having three main ideas for your speech. Think about how often the number three comes up in life: three strikes in baseball, three wishes, first/, second/, and third place, etc. In writing, this is known as the “Rule of Three.” How many bears does Goldilocks encounter? How many musketeers are there? People are used to hearing things come up in sets of three, and so having three main points may make it easier for your audience to remember them. In the end, though, you will need to decide on the appropriate number of points you need to develop your speech topic for your audience.

The Supporting Material

After you have your Main Ideas planned out, it’s time to start researching material to support these points. For each point, you’ll need some things to talk about. Depending on how you have chosen to organize your speech, you may need to look up some facts to share. This includes definitions, descriptions, and explanations. If you have too many facts, your speech may come across as dry and lacking in depth. Facts are generally used to lay the foundation for your main idea, and you will use other supporting materials to illustrate your point or defend your argument.

As you continue to research your topic, you should look for examples to share. Examples help your audience to understand and relate to your main idea. If I was giving an informative speech on the solar eclipses, I might share a brief example with my audience: “On Monday, August 17th, 2017, a rare, full solar eclipse of the sun crossed the North American continent.” A brief example takes an abstract idea from your speech and quickly translates it into a real-life situation. This can help make your topic clearer for your audience.

In that same speech on solar eclipses, you could also use an extended example. In this situation, you would fill in all the details to create a story for your audience. “It was a day to be remembered. Hotels across North America had been booked over a year in advance, and millions of people traveled to find a spot in the path of totality – the area, about 70 miles wide, that would experience a total eclipse of the sun. As the time of the eclipse drew near, the air felt noticeably colder, and there were strange shadows on the ground. Then, for a little over a minute in most cities, the sky was plunged into darkness and the beautiful, white corona of the sun could be seen, along with a few stars. People gasped and screamed with delight. It was over all too soon, but those who witnessed this event would never forget it.” Extended examples add a personal touch to your speech and can help ensure that you have enough content to reach the timing parameters of your assignment.

Additionally, you may decide to use a hypothetical example. When used in a speech, a hypothetical example puts the audience into your speech. “What if you…” “Suppose you…” “Imagine that you…” These types of examples work well as attention-getters in the introduction, and you can use them throughout your speech to grab the attention of your audience and refocus them on your topic. As the audience members think about how they would respond to the imagined scenario, they are directly engaging with your speech concepts.

If you are looking to build credibility with your audience on your main idea, you should include testimonies as part of your supporting material. In the court of law, a person who has experience with the subject of the trial is called upon to give their opinion or relate their direct experience. This is similar to how testimonies are used in a speech, where you will include quotes from people who are experienced with your topic. These quotes fall into two categories: expert and peer. An expert testimony comes from someone who has professional experience with the topic, or some other publicly recognized form of expertise. A peer testimony is someone who has personal experience with your topic, but this experience is not from a professional or academic standpoint. Now, which is better for your speech, expert or peer testimonies? It depends. People tend to trust an expert testimony about scientific and medical points; however, people relate to a peer testimony more when the speech point has to do with everyday life. Sometimes an expert testimony can feel out of touch with how the average person lives.

Another way to come across as a credible speaker on your topic is to include statistics in your speech. Any numerical data in your speech, except, perhaps, a date or time, would be considered a statistic. When people hear numbers, they are more likely to believe that what you are telling them is backed up by research. However, you need to make sure you are using statistics appropriately. Here are some guidelines to follow when using this type of supporting material:

• Cite : if you use a statistic in your speech, you need to tell us where that number came from. Otherwise, we’ll think you made it up!
• Sparingly : Don’t use too many statistics in your speech! Remember, statistics are like spices. If you use the right ones, they will bring out the flavors of your meal, but if you use too many, they will overwhelm your meal.
• Round : It can be difficult to process complex numbers unless we see them written out. While it’s fine to read that “New York City covers 300.36 miles,” in a speech, it’s better to say that “New York City has just over 300 miles.” It’s okay to be a little less accurate, if it helps you to be understood. Words like, “approximately,” “close to,” “almost,” “nearly,” etc. will come in handy here.
• Explain : Help your audience to understand the numbers you are using. For example: “How much is a billion dollars? You could spend $100,000 a day for 25 years before you’d run out of cash.” During your speech, help us grasp complicated numbers in terms we can relate to.

No matter what materials you decide to use in your speech to support your main ideas, you’ll want to include citations in your outline to show where you found this information. Unlike writing, which has several formal citation styles, there is no specific way to cite your sources in your speech body. Your professor may require you to use a particular writing citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, Associated Press). If not, note that speech citations should include at least the source where you found the information and the date the information was published. You may also include the author of the information, but you may need to contextualize this for us. For example, if I said during my speech, “According to Bob Smith…,” who is Bob Smith? No one knows, and no one cares. However, if I said, “According to the financial journalist Bob Smith, in an article published by the New York Times last month…,” people may care more about Bob’s point of view. The date is important here because the recency of your information can affect its relevance. Unlike citation in a paper, you don’t need to cite your source every time you use information from it. This would become tedious for the audience to listen to. Instead, you should add your citation at the beginning or end of when you are sharing information from that source. For example: “All of the statistics I’ve shared today come from the Red Cross website, updated in 2019.” Or, “The examples you’ll be hearing in my speech all come from the Mermaid documentary published on Animal Planet in 2011.” These oral citations give your audience enough information about your source to be able to find the full reference on your outline, if they need to verify something.

The Speech Conclusion

Once you have finished taking your audience on a journey through the main ideas of your speech, it’s time to draw things to a close. However, you need to give your audience a hint that the end is coming. We call this a signal . If you forget to signal the end of your speech, you may finish speaking and find that your audience does not break into applause. They didn’t realize you were on your way to the finish line. Giving your audience a signal alerts them that your speech will be over soon and helps them emotionally prepare for the end of your speech. The signal can be given a specific phrase, such as, “I’d like to end by…” or, “to wrap things up.” Pay attention, and you may notice that your college professors will often use a verbal signal near the end of the class session, such as, “and last of all…” or “before we go…” Try using a signal phrase in your next presentation, and see if you can spot your audience visibly perking up when they hear it. More advanced signals can also signal the end of the speech by changing the rate, pitch, or volume of their remarks. However, if you are using this technique, be sure to practice in front of someone before your actual presentation in class. You may think that you’re effecting a great change in the way you are speaking, but those changes might need to be exaggerated to be noticeable by your audience. The only way you’ll know for sure is to get some live feedback.

The signal of the conclusion leads into a brief summary of your main ideas. Simply restate an overview of the main ideas you just covered to help your audience retain the message of your speech. You may notice that your professors will also do this near the end of a class session. “Today we have covered…” is a common way for this to begin.

You’ll want to cap off your conclusion with a strong statement . It’s a good idea to actually plan out, word for word, what you would like to say for the last line of your speech. The audience is most likely to remember the first thing you said, and the last thing you said, so these words are the most important part of your speech. As much as you are able, commit them to memory. This will help you to make eye contact with your audience as you speak to help the words land with maximum effect. A strong statement can be a quote, or it can refer back to something you said in your introduction. In a persuasive speech, this statement will usually contain a call to action, or it will reinforce what you want your audience to believe, feel or do after hearing your presentation. For an informative speech, the strong statement should reinforce the importance of knowing about your topic, or what makes it so interesting.

It may be useful to think of the Three S’s of the speech conclusion as you work on this part of your presentation. Using a signal, summary, and strong statement will provide closure for the audience and help them to remember the ideas that you shared.

Creating a List of References

The last piece of your outline will generally be a list of references that you have used to provide source material for your speech. There should be at least one citation in the body of your speech from each reference. A reference is not just a website link to your research, but it shares details about your source in an organized format. You will generally need to provide the author’s name and the title of the piece, along with the name of the source you got this information from, and the date it was published. If you found the source online, you will also include the URL for the web page where this source can be found. There are standardized ways to organize all this information, and your professor may ask you to use a specific format. The two most common styles for formatting references are MLA and APA. You can find many resources, both online, and in your college’s library, to help you apply the correct formatting of the style your professor has requested. Carefully following these guidelines will add a professional polish to your speech outline and help you develop attention to detail in your written work, which is a valuable skill in the workforce, and in daily life.

Practicing with the Outline

As you are preparing to present your speech, it may be helpful to highlight key words and phrases so that you can quickly find the information you need in a single glance. This way you can have consistent eye contact with your audience. You want to avoid bobbing your head up and down as you speak, alternating between reading and seeing your audience. Remember, the outline is merely there to keep you on track. You don’t have to say all the words exactly as you have written them. In fact, your words will have much greater impact with the audience if you can create the impression that you are speaking spontaneously. Don’t be afraid to check in with your outline to make sure you have included all your ideas, and in the correct order, but also don’t rely so much on the outline that you are not connected to the audience.

If your instructor has asked you to include a speech topic, general purpose, specific purpose, purpose statement, and/or central idea on your outline, do not include these as part of your speech presentation. They belong on the outline to show your professor that you understood the topic and the goals for the assignment, and that you had a clear thesis for the speech, but you don’t share these out loud with your audience. Likewise, you also won’t read off the references to the audience at the end. These are part of the written assignment, but your oral citations are sufficient to establish your credibility in your presentation. For each speech assignment, you’ll begin with the introduction and finish up with the conclusion.

To help you prepare for your in-class presentation, you should plan on practicing your speech out loud, with a timer, in front of at least one other person. The first time you run through your speech in this way, you’ll find out what you’ve got, and you will likely need to make some adjustments to your outline. You can also get some feedback on your speech delivery, so that you can begin to refine your presentation skills. Continue this process of making changes and then practicing again in front of someone. In general, by the fifth time you’ve gone through the speech, you have it loosely committed to memory. You will know the overall flow of your topics and supporting material, and you can focus on connecting with your audience.

Remember the example of the disjointed building at the beginning of this chapter? The building had important rooms, but it was very difficult to navigate between them and make use of them. This concept also applies to your speech. You might find interesting examples and compelling arguments, but if they are not organized well, your audience may miss them. A well-organized speech will help your audience process and remember your message and will give you greater confidence as a speaker. Spending a little extra time polishing your outline will pay off in dividends towards a speech performance that you can be proud of.

Review Questions

• Why is it important to create an outline for a presentation?
• What are the three general purposes of a speech presentation?
• What is the difference between a specific purpose, or purpose statement, and a central idea?
• What are the five parts of a speech introduction?
• How do speech transitions help the audience?
• Which type of example generally works well as an attention-getter for a speech?
• Why should we use statistics sparingly in our presentations?
• When would a peer testimony be more credible with the audience than an expert testimony?
• How does oral citation differ from the type of citation you would include in an essay?
• What could you say to signal the end of your speech?
• What might be included on your outline that would not be spoken out loud as part of your speech?

Class Activities

• Read aloud a series of specific purposes or purpose statements, and have the students classify the speech categories as “Informative,” “Persuasive,” or “Special Occasion.”
• Write down different types of attention-getters on small pieces of paper, such as “Story,” “Startle,” “Rhetorical Questions,” “Quote,” “Make the audience curious,” “Audience Participation,” etc. Break the students into small groups, and have each group blindly choose an attention-getter from the pile. Then, give the entire class a topic, such as “chewing gum.” Each group has to come up with an attention-getter for this topic in the category they selected.
• Have the students help you come up with a list of 10-14 totally random, but specific, people, places, or things. Help them out with a few – mustaches, the Black Widow spider, North Dakota, etc. Once you have a list, pair the students up and have them share how they would have credibility on this topic. Do they have personal experience with it? Will they need to do research?
• Keeping the same list above, have the students work with their partner to decide how they would relate this topic to their diverse classroom audience.
• Create an abbreviated preparation outline for the students that includes the general purpose, specific purpose, central Idea, and a list of main points. Break the students into groups and give each group either the introduction or a main point. The groups will prepare 1-2 minutes of content for their section and elect a spokesperson to present this to the class. Once the students are prepared, start a timer and do the presentation. The instruction should provide transitions between main ideas, as well as the conclusion.
• Have the students look up a quote from their favorite celebrity. It has to come from an article, though, and not a “Quotes” website. Put them into groups to share, and let each group pick the best one to present to the class. The elected spokesperson for that group will need to complete this oral citation phrase: “According to_______, reported by________(website or periodical) on _______(date)…” and then relay the quote.
• Assemble Make 5-10 enlarged copies of both an APA reference and an MLA references. Cut the copies up so that the author, article title, published date, Retrieval URL, etc., are all on different parts. Divide the class into groups and give each group an APA “puzzle” to assemble. The first group to correctly assemble their reference wins! Repeat with the MLA reference.
• Pass out a lined index card to each student. Give the students an easy topic, and have them free write in complete sentences on this topic until either the time is up or the card is filled. Next, have the students choose 10 key words that will help them remember what they wrote, and list those words on the blank side of the card. Then, pair the students up. Decide on a “Person A” and a “Person B.” “Person A” begins, and flips the card so that he or she can see only the key words, and the partner can see the freewriting. Have “Person A” attempt to share what he or she wrote with “Person B,” using only the key words as a prompt. At the end, “Person B” will let him or her know if anything was left out. Finally, switch roles, so that the other partner can present. Have a discussion with the class about the difference between presentation notes and preparation outlines.

Works Cited

Gallo, Carmine. Talk Like TED . New York, NY: Macmillan. 2014. Print.

Hemmert, Nancy Grass. Public Speaking in American English: A Guide for Non-Native Speakers . 1st  edition. New York, NY: Pearson. 2007. Print.

Lucas, Stephen. E. The Art of Public Speaking . 12th edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 2014. Print.

Powell, Susanna, et al. Stand and Deliver: High Impact Presentations . 4th edition.  New York, NY: Pearson. 2014 Print.

Structure and Format: Outlining the Speech Copyright © by Rebecca Collier, M.B.A. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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