my topic is Youth Unemployment
Organization
Getting started (review)
- Choosing topics—ethical, legal, appropriate for classroom, interesting
- Purpose—inform, persuade, engage audience to accomplish goal
EX. To inform the audience about the ingredients and process for making sweet grain bars.
- Thesis statement—concise statement summarizing main ideas
EX. There are six ingredients necessary and 4 steps to follow to make sweet grain bars.
Once you have your focus, think and create/ make content decisions. . .
Start with Body of speech (main ideas)
Each main point should be clearly indicated and you should support/explain it.
(a good speech is like a pencil—it needs to have a point)
If you list your main points and it is more than 2-3, probably have some subordinate ideas listed also.
See choosing main points from list of all points exercise (preparing for backpacking trip)
Traditional organizational formats:
Review from book
Chronological—time (past, present, future)
Spatial—geographical layout, directional pattern (golf club has grip, shaft, head; earth’s atmosphere has troposphere, stratosphere, ionosphere/all outer layers)
Causal—cause and effect
Problem-solution
Topical—enumeration of most important aspects, no interrelationship (duties of President of US)
How could these topics be organized?
How the solar system is designed—spatial
Required courses for degree in communication—topical, chron
How hurricanes are formed—causal, chron
How human nervous system works—spatial, topical, causal
See critical thinking exercises photocopy to practice identifying patterns
EX. Create two different speeches for the topic of “music” using 2 different patterns
Introduction—4 parts
Narrative/ “Attention-getter”
Startling statement (similarities except ex con = prison life)
Rhetorical question (how would you feel if. . .)
Quotation (Neil Armstrong and space program)
Humor—be very careful
Reason to listen (more than ‘significance”)
Relevant to audience
Ex. what is the relevance to this audience of cultural impact of gambling, soap operas, illiteracy)
NEXT, write reason to listen for your own topic.
Establish credibility—what are your qualifications? Why should we listen to you?
Preview main points—list them
Conclusion—3 parts
Review main points—repeat them
Reason to remember—what should the audience “take away”
Peroration–tie back to attention-getter—psychological closure
Structure
Pattern worksheets exercise shows value of revealing organization
During presentation—make organization clear through structure! Easier to comprehend presentation, we can “track” with information.
How? Transitions—summarize previous, introduce next
Indicate relationship between ideas such as series, contrast, consequence, part-whole
Preview/review, signposts—one or two words like “next”, “first”
Tool for making and recording these decisions—outlining!!
Outlining
Tool to structure speech on paper, make content decisions, and start practicing presentation=preparation outline.
Not for my benefit but yours—start with outline! Document your decisions
2 types—speaking outline (notes) and preparation outline.
· Speaking outline= notecard
o One, white, 3×5, one-side, card
· Preparation outline
o Full content/ full sentence
4 principles of outlining (see worksheet): define then apply
1. Subordination—prioritizing importance and detail level of content, explanations are subordinate to main IDEAS, want balance
2. Symbols—system to follow, each symbol indicates one idea/point, use letters, not bullets to help organize sequence of ideas
3. Indentation—visual tool
4. Parallelism—clarity, wording the same to check location/organization
Principles in action
Sample outline n library sections to fit statements into pre-set outline structure
As you are thinking and creating content decisions, also consider presentation aids…
