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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.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2017 by Josh Miller; Marnie Lawler-Mcdonough; Megan Orcholski; Kristin Woodward; Lisa Roth; and Emily Mueller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Speechwriting

9 Structure and Organization

Writing a Speech That Audiences Can Grasp

In this chapter . . .

For a speech to be effective, the material must be presented in a way that makes it not only engaging but easy for the audience to follow. Having a clear structure and a well-organized speech makes this possible. In this chapter we cover the elements of a well-structured speech, using transitions to connect each element, and patterns for organizing the order of your main points.

Have you had this experience? You have an instructor who is easy to take notes from because they help you see the main ideas and give you cues as to what is most important to write down and study for the test. On the other hand, you might have an instructor who tells interesting stories, says provocative things, and leads engaging discussions, but you have a tough time following where the instruction is going. If you’ve experienced either of these, you already know that structure and the organized presentation of material makes a big difference for listening and learning. The structure is like a house, which has essential parts like a roof, walls, windows, and doors. Organization is like the placement of rooms within the house, arranged for a logical and easy flow.

This chapter will teach you about creating a speech through an outlining process that involves structure and organization. In the earlier chapter Ways of Delivering Speeches , you learned about several different modes of speech delivery: impromptu, extemporaneous, and manuscript. Each of these suggests a different kind of speech document. An impromptu speech will have a very minimal document or none at all. An extemporaneous delivery requires a very thorough outline, and a manuscript delivery requires a fully written speech text. Here’s a crucial point to understand: Whether you plan to deliver extemporaneously or from a fully written text. The process of outlining is crucial. A manuscript is simply a thorough outline into which all the words have been written.

Four Elements of a Structured Speech

A well-structured speech has four distinct elements: introduction, body, connective statements, and conclusion. While this sounds simple, each of these elements has sub-elements and nuances that are important to understand. Introductions and conclusions are complex enough to warrant their own chapter and will be discussed in depth further on.

Introduction and Conclusion

The importance of a good introduction cannot be overstated. The clearer and more thorough the introduction, the more likely your audience will listen to the rest of the speech and not “turn off.” An introduction, which typically occupies 10-15% of your entire speech, serves many functions including getting the audience’s attention, establishing your credibility, stating your thesis, and previewing your main points.

Like an introduction, speech conclusions are essential. They serve the function of reiterating the key points of your speech and leave the audience with something to remember.

The elements of introductions and conclusions will be discussed in the following chapter. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the body of the speech and its connectors.

The Body of a Speech

The body of a speech is comprised of several distinct groups of related information or arguments. A proper group is one where a) the group can be described in a single clear sentence, and b) there’s a logical relationship between everything within it. We call that describing sentence a main point . Speeches typically have several main points, all logically related to the thesis/central idea of the speech. Main points are followed by explanation, elaboration, and supporting evidence that are called  sub-points .

Main Points

A main point in a speech is a complete sentence that states the topic for information that is logically grouped together. In a writing course, you may have learned about writing a paragraph topic sentence. This is typically the first sentence of a paragraph and states the topic of the paragraph. Speechwriting is similar. Whether you’re composing an essay with a paragraph topic sentences or a drafting a speech with main points, everything in the section attached to the main point should logically pertain to it. If not, then the information belongs under a different main point. Let’s look at an example of three main points:

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To motivate my classmates in English 101 to participate in a study abroad program.

Thesis: A semester-long study abroad experience produces lifelong benefits by teaching you about another culture, developing your language skills, and enhancing your future career prospects.

Main point #1: A study abroad experience allows you to acquire firsthand experience of another culture through classes, extra-curricular activities, and social connections.

Main point #2: You’ll turbocharge your acquisition of second language skills through an immersive experience living with a family.

Main point #3: A study abroad experience on your resume shows that you have acquired the kind of language and cultural skills that appeal to employers in many sectors.

Notice that each main point is expressed in a complete sentence, not merely #1 Culture; #2 Language; #3 Career. One-word signals are useless as a cue for speaking. Additionally, students are often tempted to write main points as directions to themselves, “Talk about the health department” or “Mention the solution.” This isn’t helpful for you, either. Better: “The health department provides many services for low-income residents” says something we can all understand.

Finally, the important thing to understand about speechwriting is that listeners have limits as to how many categories of information they can keep in mind. The number of main points that can be addressed in any speech is determined by the time allotted for a speech but is also affected by the fact that speeches are limited in their ability to convey substantial amounts of information. For a speech of five to seven minutes, three or four main points are usually enough. More than that would be difficult to manage—for both speaker and audience.

Obviously, creating your main points isn’t the end of the story. Each main point requires additional information or reinforcement. We call these sub-points. Sub-points provide explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Consider main point #1 in the previous example, now with sub-points:

Sub-point A: How a country thinks about education is a window into the life of that culture. While on a study abroad program, you’ll typically take 3-5 classes at foreign universities, usually with local professors. This not only provides new learning, but it opens your eyes to different modes of education.

Sub-point B: Learning about a culture isn’t limited to the classroom. Study abroad programs include many extra-curricular activities that introduce you to art, food, music, sports, and other everyday elements of a country’s culture. These vary depending on the program and there’s something for everyone! The website gooverseas.com provides information on hundreds of programs.

Sub-point C: The opportunity to socialize with peers in other countries is one of most attractive elements of studying abroad. You may form friendships that will last a lifetime. “I have made valuable connections in a country I hope to return to someday” according to a blog post by Rachel Smith, a student at the University of Kansas. [1]

Notice that each of these sub-points pertains to the main point. The sub-points contribute to the main point by providing explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Now imagine you had a fourth sub-point:

Sub-point D: And while doing all that socializing, you’ll really improve your language skills.

Does that sub-point belong to main point #1? Or should it be grouped with main point#2 or main point #3?

Connective Statements

Connectives or “connective statements” are broad terms that encompass several types of statements or phrases. They are designed to help “connect” parts of your speech to make it easier for audience members to follow. Connectives are tools that add to the planned redundancy, and they are methods for helping the audience listen, retain information, and follow your structure. In fact, it’s one thing to have a well-organized speech. It’s another for the audience to be able to “consume” or understand that organization.

Connectives in general perform several functions:

• Remind the audience of what has come before
• Remind the audience of the central focus or purpose of the speech
• Forecast what is coming next
• Help the audience have a sense of context in the speech—where are we?
• Explain the logical connection between the previous main idea(s) and next one or previous sub-points and the next one
• Explain your own mental processes in arranging the material as you have
• Keep the audience’s attention through repetition and a sense of movement

Connective statement can include “internal summaries,” “internal previews” “signposts” and “bridging or transition statements.” Each of these helps connect the main ideas of your speech for the audience, but they have different emphases and are useful for different types of speeches.

Types of connectives and examples

Internal summaries emphasize what has come before and remind the audience of what has been covered.

“So far I have shown how the designers of King Tut’s burial tomb used the antechamber to scare away intruders and the second chamber to prepare royal visitors for the experience of seeing the sarcophagus.”

Internal previews let your audience know what is coming up next in the speech and what to expect regarding the content of your speech.

“In this next part of the presentation I will share with you what the truly secret and valuable part of the King Tut’s pyramid: his burial chamber and the treasury.”

Signposts emphasize physical movement through the speech content and let the audience know exactly where they are. Signposting can be as simple as “First,” “Next,” “Lastly” or numbers such as “First,” “Second,” Third,” and “Fourth.” Signposting is meant to be a brief way to let your audience know where they are in the speech. It may help to think of these like the mile markers you see along interstates that tell you where you’re and how many more miles you will travel until you reach your destination.

“The second aspect of baking chocolate chip cookies is to combine your ingredients in the recommended way.”

Bridging or transition statements emphasize moving the audience psychologically to the next step.

“I have mentioned two huge disadvantages to students who don’t have extracurricular music programs. Let me ask: Is that what we want for our students? If not, what can we do about it?”

They can also serve to connect seemingly disconnected (but related) material, most commonly between your main points.

“After looking at how the Cherokee Indians of the North Georgia mountain region were politically important until the 1840s and the Trail of Tears, we can compare their experience with that of the Indians of Central Georgia who did not assimilate in the same way as the Cherokee.”

At a minimum, a bridge or transition statement is saying, “Now that we have looked at (talked about, etc.) X, let’s look at Y.”

There’s no standard format for connectives. However, there are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind about them:

First, connectives are for connecting main points. They are not for providing evidence, statistics, stories, examples, or new factual information for the supporting points of the main ideas of the speech.

Second, while connectives in essay writing can be relatively short—a word or phrase, in public speaking, connectives need to be a sentence or two. When you first start preparing and practicing connectives, you may feel that you’re being too obvious with them, and they are “clunky.” Some connectives may seem to be hitting the audience over the head with them like a hammer. While it’s possible to overdo connectives, it’s less likely than you would think. The audience will appreciate them, and as you listen to your classmates’ speeches, you’ll become aware of when they are present and when they are absent.

Lack of connectives results in hard-to-follow speeches where the information seems to come up unexpectedly or the speaker seems to jump to something new without warning or clarification.

Finally, you’ll also want to vary your connectives and not use the same one all the time. Remember that there are several types of connectives.

Patterns of Organization

At the beginning of this chapter, you read the analogy that a speech structure is like a house and organization is like the arrangement of the rooms. So far, we have talked about structure. The introduction, body, main point, sub-point, connectives—these are the house. But what about the arrangement of the rooms? How will you put your main points in a logical order?

There are some standard ways of organizing the body of a speech. These are called “patterns of organization.” In each of the examples below, you’ll see how the specific purpose gives shape to the organization of the speech and how each one exemplifies one of the six main organizational patterns.

Please note that these are simple, basic outlines for example purposes. The actual content of the speech outline or manuscript will be much further developed.

Chronological Pattern

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the four stages of rehabilitation in addiction recovery.

Main Points:

• The first stage is acknowledging the problem and entering treatment.
• The second stage is early abstinence, a difficult period in the rehabilitation facility.
• The third stage is maintaining abstinence after release from the rehab facility.
• The fourth stage is advanced recovery after a period of several years.

The example above uses what is termed the chronological pattern of organization . Chronological always refers to time order. Organizing your main points chronologically is usually appropriate for process speeches (how-to speeches) or for informational speeches that emphasize how something developed from beginning to end. Since the specific purpose in the example above is about stages, it’s necessary to put the four stages in the right order. It would make no sense to put the fourth stage second and the third stage first.

Chronological time can be long or short. If you were giving a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, that period would cover several decades; if you were giving a speech about the process of changing the oil in a car, that process takes less than an hour. Whether the time is long or short, it’s best to avoid a simple, chronological list of steps or facts. A better strategy is to put the information into three to five groups so that the audience has a framework. It would be easy in the case of the Civil Rights Movement to list the many events that happened over more than two decades, but that could be overwhelming for the audience. Instead, your chronological “grouping” might be:

• The movement saw African Americans struggling for legal recognition before the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
• The movement was galvanized and motivated by the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• The movement saw its goals met in the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

In this way, the chronological organization isn’t an overwhelming list of events. It focuses the audience on three events that pushed the Civil Rights movement forward.

Spatial Pattern

You can see that chronological is a highly-used organizational structure, since one of the ways our minds work is through time-orientation—past, present, future. Another common thought process is movement in space or direction, which is called the spatial pattern . For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the three regional cooking styles of Italy.

• In the mountainous region of the North, the food emphasizes cheese and meat.
• In the middle region of Tuscany, the cuisine emphasizes grains and olives.
• In the southern region and Sicily, the diet is based on fish and seafood.

In this example, the content is moving from northern to southern Italy, as the word “regional” would indicate. For a more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the layout of the White House.

• The East Wing includes the entrance ways and offices for the First Lady.
• The most well-known part of the White House is the West Wing.
• The residential part of the White House is on the second floor. (The emphasis here is the movement a tour would go through.)

For an even more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To describe to my Anatomy and Physiology class the three layers of the human skin.

• The outer layer is the epidermis, which is the outermost barrier of protection.
• The second layer beneath is the dermis.
• The third layer closest to the bone is the hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue.

Topical / Parts of the Whole Pattern

The topical organizational pattern is probably the most all-purpose, in that many speech topics could use it. Many subjects will have main points that naturally divide into “types of,” “kinds of,” “sorts of,” or “categories of.” Other subjects naturally divide into “parts of the whole.” However, as mentioned previously, you want to keep your categories simple, clear, distinct, and at five or fewer.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my first-year students the concept of SMART goals.

• SMART goals are specific and clear.
• SMART goals are measurable.
• SMART goals are attainable or achievable.
• SMART goals are relevant and worth doing.
• SMART goals are time-bound and doable within a time period.

Specific Purpose: To explain the four characteristics of quality diamonds.

• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of cut.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of carat.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of color.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of clarity.

Specific Purpose: To describe to my audience the four main chambers of a human heart.

• The first chamber in the blood flow is the right atrium.
• The second chamber in the blood flow is the right ventricle.
• The third chamber in the blood flow is the left atrium.
• The fourth chamber in the blood flow and then out to the body is the left ventricle.

At this point in discussing organizational patterns and looking at these examples, two points should be made about them and about speech organization in general:

First, you might look at the example about the chambers of the heart and say, “But couldn’t that be chronological, too, since that’s the order of the blood flow procedure?” Yes, it could. There will be times when a specific purpose could work with two different organizational patterns. In this case, it’s just a matter of emphasis. This speech emphasizes the anatomy of the heart, and the organization is “parts of the whole.” If the speech’s specific purpose were “To explain to my classmates the flow of blood through the chambers of the heart,” the organizational pattern would emphasize chronological, altering the pattern.

Another principle of organization to think about when using topical organization is “climax” organization. That means putting your strongest argument or most important point last when applicable. For example:

Specific purpose: To defend before my classmates the proposition that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.

• Capital punishment does not save money for the justice system.
• Capital punishment does not deter crime in the United States historically.
• Capital punishment has resulted in many unjust executions.

In most people’s minds, “unjust executions” is a bigger reason to end a practice than the cost, since an unjust execution means the loss of an innocent life and a violation of our principles. If you believe Main Point III is the strongest argument of the three, putting it last builds up to a climax.

Cause & Effect Pattern

If the specific purpose mentions words such as “causes,” “origins,” “roots of,” “foundations,” “basis,” “grounds,” or “source,” it’s a causal order; if it mentions words such as “effects,” “results,” “outcomes,” “consequences,” or “products,” it’s effect order. If it mentions both, it would of course be cause/effect order. This example shows a cause/effect pattern:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the causes and effects of schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia has genetic, social, and environmental causes.
• Schizophrenia has educational, relational, and medical effects.

Problem-Solution Pattern

The principle behind the problem-solution pattern is that if you explain a problem to an audience, you shouldn’t leave them hanging without solutions. Problems are discussed for understanding and to do something about them. This is why the problem-solution pattern is often used for speeches that have the objective of persuading an audience to take action.

When you want to persuade someone to act, the first reason is usually that something needs fixing. Let’s say you want the members of the school board to provide more funds for music at the three local high schools in your county. What is missing because music or arts are not funded? What is the problem ?

Specific Purpose: To persuade the members of the school board to take action to support the music program at the school.

• Students who don’t have extracurricular music in their lives have lower SAT scores.
• Schools that don’t have extracurricular music programs have more gang violence and juvenile delinquency.
• $120,000 would go to bands.
• $80,000 would go to choral programs.

Of course, this is a simple outline, and you would need to provide evidence to support the arguments, but it shows how the problem-solution pattern works.

Psychologically, it makes more sense to use problem-solution rather than solution-problem. The audience will be more motivated to listen if you address needs, deficiencies, or problems in their lives rather than giving them solutions first.

Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

A variation of the problem-solution pattern, and one that sometimes requires more in-depth exploration of an issue, is the “problem-cause-solution” pattern. If you were giving a speech on the future extinction of certain animal species, it would be insufficient to just explain that numbers of species are about to become extinct. Your second point would logically have to explain the cause behind this happening. Is it due to climate change, some type of pollution, encroachment on habitats, disease, or some other reason? In many cases, you can’t really solve a problem without first identifying what caused the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the age to obtain a driver’s license in the state of Georgia should be raised to 18.

• There’s a problem in this country with young drivers getting into serious automobile accidents leading to many preventable deaths.
• One of the primary causes of this is younger drivers’ inability to remain focused and make good decisions due to incomplete brain development.
• One solution that will help reduce the number of young drivers involved in accidents would be to raise the age for obtaining a driver’s license to 18.

Some Additional Principles of Speech Organization

It’s possible that you may use more than one of these organizational patterns within a single speech. You should also note that in all the examples to this point (which have been kept simple for the purpose of explanation), each main point is relatively equal in emphasis; therefore, the time spent on each should be equal as well. You would not want your first main point to be 30 seconds long, the second one to be 90 seconds, and the third 3 minutes. For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the rules of baseball.

• Baseball has rules about equipment.
• Baseball has rules about the numbers of players.
• Baseball has rules about play.

Main Point #2 isn’t really equal in size to the other two. There’s a great deal you could say about equipment and even more about the rules of playing baseball, but the number of players would take you about ten seconds to say. If Main Point #2 were “Baseball has rules about the positions on the field,” that would make more sense and be closer in level of importance to the other two.

The organization of your speech may not be the most interesting part to think about, but without it, great ideas will seem jumbled and confusing to your audience. Even more, good connectives will ensure your audience can follow you and understand the logical connections you’re making with your main ideas. Finally, because your audience will understand you better and perceive you as organized, you’ll gain more credibility as a speaker if you’re organized. A side benefit to learning to be an organized public speaker is that your writing skills will improve, specifically your organization and sentence structure.

Roberto is thinking about giving an informative speech on the status of HIV-AIDS currently in the U.S. He has different ideas about how to approach the speech. Here are his four main thoughts:

• pharmaceutical companies making drugs available in the developing world
• changes in attitudes toward HIV-AIDS and HIV-AIDS patients over the last three decades
• how HIV affects the body of a patient
• major breakthroughs in HIV-AIDS treatment

Assuming all these subjects would be researchable and appropriate for the audience, write specific purpose statements for each. What organizational patterns would he probably use for each specific purpose?

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Public Speaking as Performance Copyright © 2023 by Mechele Leon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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17.3 Organizing Persuasive Speeches

Learning objectives.

• Understand three common organizational patterns for persuasive speeches.
• Explain the steps utilized in Monroe’s motivated sequence.
• Explain the parts of a problem-cause-solution speech.
• Explain the process utilized in a comparative advantage persuasive speech.

Steven Lilley – Engaged – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this text we discussed general guidelines for organizing speeches. In this section, we are going to look at three organizational patterns ideally suited for persuasive speeches: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantages.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

One of the most commonly cited and discussed organizational patterns for persuasive speeches is Alan H. Monroe’s motivated sequence. The purpose of Monroe’s motivated sequence is to help speakers “sequence supporting materials and motivational appeals to form a useful organizational pattern for speeches as a whole” (German et al., 2010).

While Monroe’s motivated sequence is commonly discussed in most public speaking textbooks, we do want to provide one minor caution. Thus far, almost no research has been conducted that has demonstrated that Monroe’s motivated sequence is any more persuasive than other structural patterns. In the only study conducted experimentally examining Monroe’s motivated sequence, the researchers did not find the method more persuasive, but did note that audience members found the pattern more organized than other methods (Micciche, Pryor, & Butler, 2000). We wanted to add this sidenote because we don’t want you to think that Monroe’s motivated sequence is a kind of magic persuasive bullet; the research simply doesn’t support this notion. At the same time, research does support that organized messages are perceived as more persuasive as a whole, so using Monroe’s motivated sequence to think through one’s persuasive argument could still be very beneficial.

Table 17.1 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence” lists the basic steps of Monroe’s motivated sequence and the subsequent reaction a speaker desires from his or her audience.

Table 17.1 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

The first step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the attention step , in which a speaker attempts to get the audience’s attention. To gain an audience’s attention, we recommend that you think through three specific parts of the attention step. First, you need to have a strong attention-getting device. As previously discussed in Chapter 9 “Introductions Matter: How to Begin a Speech Effectively” , a strong attention getter at the beginning of your speech is very important. Second, you need to make sure you introduce your topic clearly. If your audience doesn’t know what your topic is quickly, they are more likely to stop listening. Lastly, you need to explain to your audience why they should care about your topic.

In the need step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the speaker establishes that there is a specific need or problem. In Monroe’s conceptualization of need, he talks about four specific parts of the need: statement, illustration, ramification, and pointing. First, a speaker needs to give a clear and concise statement of the problem. This part of a speech should be crystal clear for an audience. Second, the speaker needs to provide one or more examples to illustrate the need. The illustration is an attempt to make the problem concrete for the audience. Next, a speaker needs to provide some kind of evidence (e.g., statistics, examples, testimony) that shows the ramifications or consequences of the problem. Lastly, a speaker needs to point to the audience and show exactly how the problem relates to them personally.

Satisfaction

In the third step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the satisfaction step , the speaker sets out to satisfy the need or solve the problem. Within this step, Monroe (1935) proposed a five-step plan for satisfying a need:

• Explanation
• Theoretical demonstration
• Reference to practical experience
• Meeting objections

First, you need to clearly state the attitude, value, belief, or action you want your audience to accept. The purpose of this statement is to clearly tell your audience what your ultimate goal is.

Second, you want to make sure that you clearly explain to your audience why they should accept the attitude, value, belief, or action you proposed. Just telling your audience they should do something isn’t strong enough to actually get them to change. Instead, you really need to provide a solid argument for why they should accept your proposed solution.

Third, you need to show how the solution you have proposed meets the need or problem. Monroe calls this link between your solution and the need a theoretical demonstration because you cannot prove that your solution will work. Instead, you theorize based on research and good judgment that your solution will meet the need or solve the problem.

Fourth, to help with this theoretical demonstration, you need to reference practical experience, which should include examples demonstrating that your proposal has worked elsewhere. Research, statistics, and expert testimony are all great ways of referencing practical experience.

Lastly, Monroe recommends that a speaker respond to possible objections. As a persuasive speaker, one of your jobs is to think through your speech and see what counterarguments could be made against your speech and then rebut those arguments within your speech. When you offer rebuttals for arguments against your speech, it shows your audience that you’ve done your homework and educated yourself about multiple sides of the issue.

Visualization

The next step of Monroe’s motivated sequence is the visualization step , in which you ask the audience to visualize a future where the need has been met or the problem solved. In essence, the visualization stage is where a speaker can show the audience why accepting a specific attitude, value, belief, or behavior can positively affect the future. When helping people to picture the future, the more concrete your visualization is, the easier it will be for your audience to see the possible future and be persuaded by it. You also need to make sure that you clearly show how accepting your solution will directly benefit your audience.

According to Monroe, visualization can be conducted in one of three ways: positive, negative, or contrast (Monroe, 1935). The positive method of visualization is where a speaker shows how adopting a proposal leads to a better future (e.g., recycle, and we’ll have a cleaner and safer planet). Conversely, the negative method of visualization is where a speaker shows how not adopting the proposal will lead to a worse future (e.g., don’t recycle, and our world will become polluted and uninhabitable). Monroe also acknowledged that visualization can include a combination of both positive and negative visualization. In essence, you show your audience both possible outcomes and have them decide which one they would rather have.

The final step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the action step , in which a speaker asks an audience to approve the speaker’s proposal. For understanding purposes, we break action into two distinct parts: audience action and approval. Audience action refers to direct physical behaviors a speaker wants from an audience (e.g., flossing their teeth twice a day, signing a petition, wearing seat belts). Approval, on the other hand, involves an audience’s consent or agreement with a speaker’s proposed attitude, value, or belief.

When preparing an action step, it is important to make sure that the action, whether audience action or approval, is realistic for your audience. Asking your peers in a college classroom to donate one thousand dollars to charity isn’t realistic. Asking your peers to donate one dollar is considerably more realistic. In a persuasive speech based on Monroe’s motivated sequence, the action step will end with the speech’s concluding device. As discussed elsewhere in this text, you need to make sure that you conclude in a vivid way so that the speech ends on a high point and the audience has a sense of energy as well as a sense of closure.

Now that we’ve walked through Monroe’s motivated sequence, let’s look at how you could use Monroe’s motivated sequence to outline a persuasive speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that the United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments.

Main Points:

• Attention: Want to make nine thousand dollars for just three weeks of work lying around and not doing much? Then be a human guinea pig. Admittedly, you’ll have to have a tube down your throat most of those three weeks, but you’ll earn three thousand dollars a week.
• Need: Every day many uneducated and lower socioeconomic-status citizens are preyed on by medical and pharmaceutical companies for use in for-profit medical and drug experiments. Do you want one of your family members to fall prey to this evil scheme?
• Satisfaction: The United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments to ensure that uneducated and lower-socioeconomic-status citizens are protected.
• Visualization: If we enact tougher experiment oversight, we can ensure that medical and pharmaceutical research is conducted in a way that adheres to basic values of American decency. If we do not enact tougher experiment oversight, we could find ourselves in a world where the lines between research subject, guinea pig, and patient become increasingly blurred.
• Action: In order to prevent the atrocities associated with for-profit medical and pharmaceutical experiments, please sign this petition asking the US Department of Health and Human Services to pass stricter regulations on this preying industry that is out of control.

This example shows how you can take a basic speech topic and use Monroe’s motivated sequence to clearly and easily outline your speech efficiently and effectively.

Table 17.2 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist” also contains a simple checklist to help you make sure you hit all the important components of Monroe’s motivated sequence.

Table 17.2 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing a persuasive speech is the problem-cause-solution format. In this specific format, you discuss what a problem is, what you believe is causing the problem, and then what the solution should be to correct the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that our campus should adopt a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech.

• Demonstrate that there is distrust among different groups on campus that has led to unnecessary confrontations and violence.
• Show that the confrontations and violence are a result of hate speech that occurred prior to the events.
• Explain how instituting a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy against hate speech could stop the unnecessary confrontations and violence.

In this speech, you want to persuade people to support a new campus-wide policy calling for zero-tolerance of hate speech. Once you have shown the problem, you then explain to your audience that the cause of the unnecessary confrontations and violence is prior incidents of hate speech. Lastly, you argue that a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy could help prevent future unnecessary confrontations and violence. Again, this method of organizing a speech is as simple as its name: problem-cause-solution.

Comparative Advantages

The final method for organizing a persuasive speech is called the comparative advantages speech format. The goal of this speech is to compare items side-by-side and show why one of them is more advantageous than the other. For example, let’s say that you’re giving a speech on which e-book reader is better: Amazon.com’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. Here’s how you could organize this speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the Nook is more advantageous than the Kindle.

• The Nook allows owners to trade and loan books to other owners or people who have downloaded the Nook software, while the Kindle does not.
• The Nook has a color-touch screen, while the Kindle’s screen is black and grey and noninteractive.
• The Nook’s memory can be expanded through microSD, while the Kindle’s memory cannot be upgraded.

As you can see from this speech’s organization, the simple goal of this speech is to show why one thing has more positives than something else. Obviously, when you are demonstrating comparative advantages, the items you are comparing need to be functional equivalents—or, as the saying goes, you cannot compare apples to oranges.

Key Takeaways

• There are three common patterns that persuaders can utilize to help organize their speeches effectively: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantage. Each of these patterns can effectively help a speaker think through his or her thoughts and organize them in a manner that will be more likely to persuade an audience.
• Alan H. Monroe’s (1935) motivated sequence is a commonly used speech format that is used by many people to effectively organize persuasive messages. The pattern consists of five basic stages: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. In the first stage, a speaker gets an audience’s attention. In the second stage, the speaker shows an audience that a need exists. In the third stage, the speaker shows how his or her persuasive proposal could satisfy the need. The fourth stage shows how the future could be if the persuasive proposal is or is not adopted. Lastly, the speaker urges the audience to take some kind of action to help enact the speaker’s persuasive proposal.
• The problem-cause-solution proposal is a three-pronged speech pattern. The speaker starts by explaining the problem the speaker sees. The speaker then explains what he or she sees as the underlying causes of the problem. Lastly, the speaker proposes a solution to the problem that corrects the underlying causes.
• The comparative advantages speech format is utilized when a speaker is comparing two or more things or ideas and shows why one of the things or ideas has more advantages than the other(s).
• Create a speech using Monroe’s motivated sequence to persuade people to recycle.
• Create a speech using the problem-cause-solution method for a problem you see on your college or university campus.
• Create a comparative advantages speech comparing two brands of toothpaste.

German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2010). Principles of public speaking (17th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, p. 236.

Micciche, T., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (2000). A test of Monroe’s motivated sequence for its effects on ratings of message organization and attitude change. Psychological Reports, 86 , 1135–1138.

Monroe, A. H. (1935). Principles and types of speech . Chicago, IL: Scott Foresman.

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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17 Organizational Patterns

Learning Objectives

• Decide on an effective organizational pattern.

Now that we have gotten this far, we need to consider how we will organize our material. There are several ways you can organize your speech content to ensure your information is easy for your audience to follow. The following video explains different organizing patterns. Note that some of the organizing patterns are better for information speech and some are better for persuasive speeches.

Organizational Patterns

After deciding which main points and sub-points you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological, topical, spatial, or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949) would work best for persuasive speeches.

Chronological Pattern

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization pattern. In a chronological speech, the main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during the Oprah Winfrey show. Finally, we will explore what she is doing now.

I.       Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members II.     Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III.    Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success. IV.     Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including  Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics, or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, The Learning Center (TLC), Student Development office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has five important student services, which include the library, TLC, Student Development Office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid.

I.       The library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use. II.      The TLC has subject tutors, computers, and study rooms available to use six days a week. III.     The Student Development Office is a place that assists students with their ID cards, but also provides students with discount tickets and other student related       needs. IV.      The ASG computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, as well as to print up to 15 pages a day for free. V.       Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances paying             for both tuition and books.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges the main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making the location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I.      In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building,     a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district. II.     In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large     undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside     or at one of the dining halls. III.    In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and     enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and     science research buildings. IV.     In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse     newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern     architecture.

Causal Pattern

A causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened with respect to some condition, event, etc. One approach can be to share what caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Or, the reverse approach can be taken where a speaker can begin by sharing the effects of something that occurred, and then share what caused it. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California. Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge. II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage, and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I.      The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities. II.    The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

Organizational patterns help you to organize your thoughts and speech content so that you are able to develop your ideas in a way that makes sense to the audience. Having a solid idea of which organization pattern is best for your speech will make your speech writing process so much easier!

Key Takeaways

• Speech organizational patterns help us to arrange our speech content in a way that will communicate our ideas clearly to our audience.
• Different organizational patterns are better for different types of speeches and topics.
• Some organizational patterns are better for informative speeches: Chronological, spatial, topical, and narrative.
• Although cause-effect and problem-solution can be used for an informative speech, use these patterns with caution as they are better used for persuasive speeches.

Introduction to Speech Communication by Individual authors retain copyright of their work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Public Speaking Copyright © by Dr. Layne Goodman; Amber Green, M.A.; and Various is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Realistic dialogue: Creating characters’ speech patterns

Realistic dialogue moves stories along. When you give each character an interesting voice and persona, it’s a joy to read their conversations. Varied, entertaining speech takes readers into the heart of your characters. Here are six ways to make characters’ speech colorful and interesting

• Post author By Jordan
• 9 Comments on Realistic dialogue: Creating characters’ speech patterns

Realistic dialogue moves stories along. When you give each character an interesting voice and persona, it’s a joy to read their conversations. Varied, entertaining speech takes readers into the heart of your characters.

Remember, too, that dialogue is crafted speech, and doesn’t have to be exact ‘real speech’. Common speech patterns can be boring to read, and are usually full of phrases like ‘you know’ and umms and ahhs and so on. 

Here are six ways to make characters’ speech colorful and interesting.

1. Make characters’ voices reflect their place and time

Great dialogue illustrates its speakers. Who is this person? Why do they speak this way? What odd curse words or phrases do they use that are particular to their era or home town? Dialogue executed well develops characters, adding rich texture to the personalities filling your story. One way to make dialogue effective is to have it reflect your characters’ place and time.

In Shakespeare’s plays, we gain a strong sense of an older time through characters’ use of archaic language. For example, characters say ‘thy’ and ‘thou’ in place of ‘your’ and ‘you’.

Era-appropriate character speech helps to establish setting and context. If your character lives in the 21st Century but speaks as though they’re living in 1700, this will confuse readers. The reverse is also true. If a 19th century teenager speaks as though it is the 21st century, this can jolt your reader right out of the story.

So how do you make characters’ speech show where they are in place and time?

• Use occasional language appropriate to the time period in dialogue. In the 60s, for example, common slang terms in parts of the US included ‘old lady’ and ‘old man’ for a person’s significant other.
• Make sure characters don’t use language more modern than their time period – if you’re unsure when a word was coined, Google its etymology
• Use regional accent details

The third suggestion should be used in moderation. Trying to recreate how different groups speak in dialogue using written accents can create stereotypes or be difficult to read. Perhaps you want to portray a character whose native language isn’t English? Again, be mindful when doing so. Character speech should be clear and easy to read. This is particularly the case when there are sensitive issues of culture or race involved. Read this post for tips on creating regional speech patterns without using stereotypes as a crutch.

2. Show characters’ unique personalities in their speech

What do we mean when we talk about a character’s ‘voice’? ‘Voice’ in characterization refers to two things:

• The actual way a person’s voice sounds to the ear (details such as pitch, volume, placement (is it nasal or throaty?) and tone of voice.
• The personality that comes across in how a character expresses themselves. Do they seem blunt and bolshie? Or is their voice gentle, kind and reserved? Do they use concise language? Do they use consistently negative language? 

Pause for a second and think of people you know well. Write down an adjective (describing word) that sums up their voice for you. What creates this effect? Are they loud? Soft-spoken? Confident? Self-doubting? Comical?

Include brief descriptions of voice when you are writing character sketches for your outline. You can create full, detailed character outlines using Now Novel’s dashboard process . Decide:

• What a character’s general personality will be: Are they sanguine/happy-go-lucky, melancholic, plodding and pragmatic, irritable and aggressive?
• How these personality details could show in your character’s voice – an irritable character could curse a lot, while a melancholic character may enjoy grumbling. Also think of ways characters can be against type. A deeply melancholic character could put on a bright, sunny voice to avoid dragging others down, for example.
• Think of other elements of speech, such as whether a character is a greater talker or listener.

Remember to use gestures or beats too to make characters’ speech have even more personality . These can reinforce or contradict what a character says. They also help you to be more nuanced about what a character feels while they are talking. Does the character speak with dramatic, outsized gestures? Might your character have memorable recurring gestures such as running a hand through her hair or taking off his glasses and polishing them? Believable dialogue involves the character as a fully embodied person, not just a talking head.

Find more of our articles on describing characters via our character writing hub .

3. Show background in how characters talk

Think about each character’s background and how that may affect the character’s speech. How educated is the character, and does that show in the character’s speech? Where is the character from? What is the character’s social class?

Perhaps your character grew up poor in an uneducated family and has returned home. How does the character feel about coming home and her family and old neighbours? Maybe she has picked up words and phrases in the big city that people poke fun at her for using. Details such as these in characters’ speech bring them to life, and add vivid colour to character portraits. For the same example, the character could resent or feel embarrassed of where she comes from. In that case, she might deliberately speak in a mannered way that sets her apart from her family back home.

How we speak isn’t entirely arbitrary . We might talk a certain way because we’ve embraced a subculture and particular identity, for example. Think about how ‘bros’ perform their masculinity to each other. They might speak quite differently when conversing with a grandparent versus a friend. Maybe their language is more ‘proper’ and less slang-filled when speaking to an elder. Or maybe they make no effort to modulate their speech at all. Even this can suggest your character’s personality – how much their speech changes depending on who they’re with.

A last word about punctuating dialogue in fiction. The US convention is to use double speech marks, while the UK convention is to use single speech marks. Some writers dispense with that entirely, and have speech rendered as part of the narrative flow.

Paying attention to details such as these will help you write realistic dialogue and bring your characters’ voices to life.

4. Use the ‘shibboleth’ to create realistic dialogue between outsiders and others

Sometimes how a person speaks can be particularly revealing if they are trying to assimilate into an unfamiliar group. The ‘ shibboleth ‘ is a word that distinguishes one in-group from another. That group might be as small as a clique or as large as an entire nationality.

In the past, shibboleths have been used to identify spies or enemy combatants. But a Shibboleth can also trip your character up in a social sense. The wrong pronunciation or choice of vocabulary might reveal that person as someone who is ‘different’. A foreign exchange student for example may stumble over strange idioms the locals use that don’t make immediate sense. For example, an English character studying in Germany might be confused why everyone’s talking about sausages and pony farms .

5. Show how characters’ speech changes according to their situation

A character’s speech should change according to the situation they’re in.

If we spoke with one limited range of vocabulary and intonation all the time, we’d be boring speakers. Consider what speech might reveal about your character under duress. Perhaps a character who seems mild-mannered might suddenly burst into a flurry of obscenities?

Subtle differences in speech depending on what’s happening can show details such as how your characters handle stress and tension .

6. Remember differences between everyday speech and written dialogue

Although we talk of ‘realistic dialogue’, much fictional dialogue is far from how people actually  speak. Yet it creates the effect  of realistic speech. Here are important differences to remember when creating characters’ voices and the unique things they say:

• Good dialogue rarely represents ordinary speech accurately. It generally leaves out the ‘Hi, who’s speaking?’ as well as other commonplace stock phrases and words. Read our tips for creating natural-sounding dialogue.
• In day to day speech, we obviously don’t have ‘he said’ and ‘she said’ punctuating our conversations. Try to keep dialogue tags to a minimum . Remove them where it’s clear from context who has just spoken. And use actions and gestures leading into or following from dialogue to show who the speaker is
• A few writers can get away with writing in dialect, but again, here is where it is better to create the impression of the way a character speaks. A little goes a long way. Don’t make every single phrase a culturally-specific idiom or exclamation
• Similarly, avoid overuse of punctuation marks like exclamation marks and ellipses. These are dramatic effects and the words characters use and their ideas should do most of the expressive ‘heavy lifting’

Read our detailed dialogue writing guide for more on creating conversation that advances your story.

Need to develop further aspects of your characters? Get  How to Write Real Characters – our eBook guide to developing believable characters, including practical exercises and prompts.

Related Posts:

• Context and subtext in dialogue: Creating layered speech
• Realistic dialogue: 5 missteps to avoid
• Beyond stereotypes: portraying realistic LGBTIQ+ characters
• Tags character speech , writing dialogue

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

9 replies on “Realistic dialogue: Creating characters’ speech patterns”

[…] Talking about your character: Speech […]

Love the website! Great information! Lots of detail and unique areas of focus.

One correction: “Introverts, on the other hand, are usually soft-spoken.”

This would be truer of “shy” people, not introverts. Please redefine your understanding of the difference between “introvert” and “shy” so as not to perpetuate this misconception.

“Introverted people are commonly thought to be shy, but introverts’ low motivation to socialize is not the same as the inhibited behavior, tension, and awkwardness that characterize shyness. Introverts who are not shy can behave extrovertively when they choose; whereas shy people, both introverts and extroverts, can’t turn their tension and awkwardness off and on.” —Sophia Dembling (The Introvert’s Corner)

Thank you! KT

Hi KT – thanks, glad you like the site. Good point about the distinction between introversion and extroversion.

I try to throw in key slang words if a character is from a certain country or region. I also attempt to keep them to a minimum in order to not overdo it. I do struggle with minimizing dialogue tags some of the time though. I understand it helps to read it out loud.

Thank you for sharing that, Jeremiah. It really does help to read dialogue aloud. It sounds as though you have a good process.

I was wondering if you happened to know how to write the speech of young children, a friend and I are trying to write a book but are worried that they may sound too advanced for their age. This article was really helpful, so thank you for writing it.

It’s a pleasure, Cristian, thank you for your question.

For writing the speech of young children, I have some suggestions: – Simplify vocabulary and abstraction. A 5-year-old will typically have a much smaller vocabulary than, for example, an 18-year-old. So avoid overly formal and/or complex phrasing and sentence structure unless the child character is meant to sound precocious/advanced for their age. – Think of the ways children are playing with and ‘trying out’ language. For example, when my nephew learned the word ‘marvelous’, everything was suddenly marvelous, including things that definitely are not marvelous. Children mix up words, too (as a kid, I am told I loved a book on optical illusions and would talk about ‘trickmatography’ meaning ‘trick photography’). Kids might invent words based on misreadings/mishearings. – Watch clips of kids’ shows such as Sesame Street on YouTube and listen for the complexity of language/phrase. Where is it pitched? There are online editing tools such as the Hemingway editor that can estimate the reading age/age norms of a piece of writing approximately, too.

I hope this helps!

Thank you so much!

Thanks so much for this piece. It’s a great and energizing lecture.

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Chapter 15: Organizing

This chapter is adapted from  Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking ,  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 .

How do I organize my main points?

How to Narrow Possible Points to Main Points

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 your speech’s end. Your speech’s real meat happens in the body.

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

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, think about the best way to turn that specific purpose into your main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to accomplish your speech’s 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 the better. First and foremost, memory-subject experts have consistently shown that people tend not to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors affect a listener’s ability to retain a speech’s information, how the speech is organized is an important factor (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). We recommend you use two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes long, then it makes more sense to use three main points. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, interesting, 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 better develop each one with examples, statistics, or other support forms that 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 topic research you’ve compiled, 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. Notice what information your audience needs to know to understand your topic and what information your speech needs 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, see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal is to identify which minor points can be combined into main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller information chunks and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed information chunks. Before reading the following chunking list, see if you can determine three large chunks from the preceding list—note that not all chunks are equal.

You may notice in the preceding list that the three main points’ subpoints are a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas. 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 more fully developed depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

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 uniting your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible main-points list, 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 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 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 a specific topic’s singular nature, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with this specific purpose: To inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges. You could then have three main points: eating fruits is healthy, eating apples is healthy, and 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, eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, 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 main point and completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same time on each main point. If you find that one main point is simply too large, divide it into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single one.

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 are appropriate for school administrators to consider. What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time you have to talk about each main point. If you have an hour to talk, then these three main points are balanced. However, if you only have five minutes to speak, you may find them wildly unbalanced because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, 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. Parallel structure means to structure language so that it all sounds similar. When all your main points sound similar, your audience will remember 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 are appropriate for school administrators to consider. Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. These main points are not parallel in structure. You can fix this in one of two ways, such as, make them all questions: What are some common school district software programs? What is open-source software? What are some specific open-source software packages that are appropriate for school administrators to consider? Or, 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 are appropriate for school administrators to consider. Either example makes the main points’ structure grammatically parallel.

Maintaining the Main Points’ Logical Flow

The last question to ask about your main points is whether they make sense in the order you’ve placed them. In the next section we discuss common organizational speech patterns, but for now, think about your main points’ logical flow. For instance, when you look at your main points, do they progress in a logical sequential order? Does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If not, rearrange them. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a few examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, then problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? No. These main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk first about the solution, then the problem, and then define the solution? No! To rearrange a logical sequential order, explain the problem first: no rider laws; then, define your solution: what is rider law legislation; then argue for your solution: why states should have rider laws.

Elements of Effective Organization

Have you ever listened to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are you were confused because the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we have the ability to reread the paragraph to clarify. 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, you must think about how to keep your speech moving so that your audience can easily follow it. In this section, we discuss four specific techniques to guide your audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a word, phrase, or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point. To transition, 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, and pay attention to each sentence’s first words:

• Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by no adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
• Thus far, we’ve examined alcohol abuse’s history and prevalence among Native Americans, but the greatest concern is alcohol abuse’s impact on Native Americans’ health.
• 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.
• While 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.

Notice that in each example, the first few words are transition words: now that, thus far, while. Transition words are used to indicate a period of time concluding. See the Transition Words List, which contains many useful transitions to keep your speech moving.

Transition Words List

Internal previews.

In an internal preview, the speaker highlights what he or she is going to discuss within one specific main point. It works similarly to the introduction preview in which the speaker quickly outlines the speech’s three main body points.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retaining oral information (Ausubel, 1968). Basically, when a speaker clearly informs an audience what he or she is going to be talking about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points and retains more 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 recycling’s positive benefits 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 and navigate your speech.

Internal previews are often given after the speaker has transitioned to a main topic. For example, below see the previous internal preview with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that inconsistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore recycling’s importance for our community (transition). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain recycling’s positive benefits 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. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

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

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools is detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s standardized test scores, 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.

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

Unlike the more traditional transition, this speaker uses an internal summary to help the audience summarize the main point’s content. The sentence that follows then leads to the next major speech point, which is 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. Speech signposts function the same way. A signpost is a guide a speaker gives the audience to help them navigate the speech’s content. In the “common sequence patterns,” of the Transition Words List, you’ll see possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of information to help audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you give a speech in which the main point is about the three credibility functions, use the following internal signposts:

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

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

In addition to helping audience members navigate a speech, signposts highlight specific information the speaker thinks important. Where some signposts show the way, such as highway markers, signposts that call attention to specific information pieces are more like billboards. Look in the Transition Words List under the “emphasis” category for more useful words and phrases to highlight information. All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that your audience will also recognize the information’s importance.

How can I use organizational patterns in my speech?

Organizational Patterns: Elements of Effective Organization

In this section we provide organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. Keep in mind that some patterns are best for informative speeches, while other patterns better fit persuasive speeches. The first organizational pattern we’ll discuss is topical categories.

Topical Categories Organizational Patterns

Topical categories are by far the most common speech organizational pattern. Topical categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message consistently. To use this organizational pattern, create topic categories or information chunks that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To inform college students about Internet dating’s uses and misuses. Main Points

• Define and describe Internet dating.
• Explain some strategies to enhance your Internet dating experience.
• List some warning signs to look for in potential online dates.

In this speech, the speaker talks about how to find other people online and to date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then, how to make Internet dating better for audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative Internet dating aspects. 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 speech structure.

Compare and Contrast Organizational Patterns

To compare and contrast is another speech organizational pattern. While this pattern clearly 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.

Specific Purpose To inform physicians about Drug X, a newer drug with similar applications to Drug Y. Main Points

• Show how Drug X and Drug Y are similar.
• Show how Drug X and Drug Y differ.
• Explain both Drug X and Drug Y’s basic purpose and use.

If you use the compare and contrast pattern for persuasive purposes in the preceding examples, 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, 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, show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

Comparative Advantages Organizational Patterns

Comparative advantages organizational patterns are used to compare items side-by-side and show why one of them is more advantageous than the other. For example, let’s say that you’re giving a speech on which e-book reader is better: Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. Here’s how you could organize this speech:

Specific Purpose To persuade my audience that the Nook is more advantageous than the Kindle. Main Points

• The Nook allows owners to trade and loan books to other owners or people who have downloaded the Nook software, while the Kindle does not.
• The Nook has a color touch-screen, while the Kindle’s screen is black and grey and noninteractive.
•  The Nook’s memory can be expanded through microSD, while the Kindle’s memory cannot be upgraded.

As you can see from this speech’s organization, the simple speech’s goal is to show why one thing has more positives than something else. Obviously, when you are demonstrating comparative advantages, the items you are comparing need to be functional equivalents—or, as the saying goes, you cannot compare apples to oranges.

Spatial Organizational Patterns

Spatial organizational patterns place 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 basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples: one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

Specific Purpose To inform history students about the states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War.

Main Points

• Locate and describe the Confederate states just below the Mason-Dixon Line, which are Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
• Locate and describe the Confederate states in the deep South, which are South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
• Locate and describe the western Confederate states, which are Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.

If you look at a basic United States’ map, you’ll notice that these state groupings are 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.

Specific Purpose To explain to college biology students how the urinary system works.

• Locate and describe the kidneys and ureters.
• Locate and describe the bladder.
• Locate and describe the sphincter and urethra.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a urinary-system model, the first step is the kidney, which 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 organizational pattern is determined by each body part’s physical location in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological Organizational Patterns

Chronological organizational patterns place the main idea’s points in a timeline in which items or events appear or occur—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the books written by Winston Churchill.

• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content prior to World War II.
• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content during World War II.
• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content after World War II.

In this example, we’re looking at Winston Churchill’s writings in relation to before, during, and after World War II. 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.

Biographical Organizational Patterns

As you might guess, biographical organizational patterns are generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either their own, or someone they know personally, or a famous person. Biographical speeches by nature tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the early life of Marilyn Manson.

• Describe Brian Hugh Warner’s early life and his beginning feud with Christianity.
• Describe Warner’s stint as a music journalist in Florida.
• Describe Warner’s decision to create Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major life periods, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

These three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

Causal Organizational Patterns

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

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the problems associated with drinking among Native American tribal members.

• Explain the history and prevalence of Native Americans drinking alcohol.
• Explain the effects that alcohol abuse has on Native Americans and how this differs from other populations’ experiences.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of Native Americans drinking alcohol (the cause). The second point then examines the effects that alcohol abuse has on Native Americans and how it differs from other population groups (the effect). 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 domestic violence arrests.

Specific Purpose To inform local voters about the domestic violence problem in our city.

• Explain that there are significantly more domestic violence arrests in our city than in comparably sized cities in our state.
• List possible causes for the arrest statistics, which may be unrelated to the actual domestic violence incidents.

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

Problem-Cause-Solution Organizational Pattern

Problem-cause-solution organizational patterns first present a problem, then identify what is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To persuade a civic group to support a citywide curfew for individuals under age eighteen.

• Main Points Demonstrate that youth committing vandalism and violence is having a negative effect on our community (problem).
• Show how youth committing vandalism and violence goes up after 10:00 pm in our community (cause).
• Explain how instituting a mandatory curfew at 10:00 pm would reduce youth committing vandalism and violence within our community (solution).

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 community problems. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that this problem’s cause is youth outside after 10:00 pm. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 pm 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.

Psychological Organizational Patterns

Psychological organizational patterns arrange your main ideas by a logical sequence: “a” leads to “b” and “b” leads to “c.” This organizational pattern is designed to follow a logical argument, so this format lends itself to persuasive speeches very easily. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To persuade nurses to use humor in healing the patient.

• How laughing affects the body.
• How the body’s response to laughing can help healing.
• Strategies for using humor in healing.

In this speech, the speaker starts by discussing how humor affects the body. If a patient is exposed to humor (a), then the patient’s body actually physiologically responds in ways that help healing (b). For example, it reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, bolsters one’s immune system, etc. Because of these benefits, nurses should use humor that helps with healing (c).

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Organizational Pattern

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence organizational pattern provides sequential steps for the speaker to follow in presenting information and the subsequent reaction a speaker desires from his or her audience. These sequences are attention, need, problem, satisfaction, solution, visualization, results, action or approval. Alan H. Monroe’s motivated sequence is one of the most commonly cited and discussed organizational patterns for persuasive speeches. The purpose of Monroe’s motivated sequence is to help speakers “sequence supporting materials and motivational appeals to form a useful organizational pattern for speeches as a whole” (German et al., 2010).

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence List provides Monroe’s basic motivated sequence steps.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence List

Let’s look at an example of how Monroe’s Motivated Sequence organizational pattern works for a speech.

Specific Purpose To persuade my classroom peers that the United States should have stronger laws governing for-profit medical experiments.

Main Points Attention: Want to make nine thousand dollars for just three weeks work lying around and not doing much? Then be a human guinea pig. Admittedly, you’ll have a tube down your throat most of those three weeks, but you’ll earn three thousand dollars a week.

• Need: Every day, many uneducated and lower socioeconomic-status citizens are preyed on by medical and pharmaceutical companies to participate in for-profit medical and drug experiments. Do you want one of your family members to fall prey to this unethical scheme?
• Satisfaction: The United States should have stronger laws governing for-profit medical experiments to ensure that uneducated and lower-socioeconomic-status citizens are protected.
• Visualization: If we enact tougher experiment oversight, we can ensure that medical and pharmaceutical research is conducted in a way that adheres to basic American decency and values. If we do not enact tougher experiment oversight, we could find ourselves in a world where the lines between research subject, guinea pig, and patient become increasingly blurred.Action: To prevent the atrocities associated with for-profit medical and pharmaceutical experiments, please sign this petition asking the US Department of Health and Human Services to pass stricter regulations on this out-of-control preying industry.

This example shows how you can take a basic speech topic and use Monroe’s motivated sequence to clearly and easily outline your speech efficiently and effectively.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

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

Be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet your specific speech goals. For example, you can discuss a problem and then compare and contrast several different possible solutions. Such a speech combines elements of the compare and contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, keep in mind your specific purpose, your audience, and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

University of Minnesota. (2011). Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking . University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/ . CC BY-SA 4.0.

Media References

MacEntee, S. (2011, May 5). presentation outline [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5690542503

Marquardt, C. (2013, August 16). REWIND [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nubui/9550939064/

Twentyfour Students. (2011, September 16). Organization makes you flow [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/53771866@N05/6151951253/

Wynn, M. (2010, May 12). Lightbulb! [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthew_wynn/4601859272/

Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Sarah Billington and Shirene McKay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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12 Organizing a Speech and Harnessing the Power of Three

 A designer knows he or she has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Nolan Haims, Presentation Coach

also attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupery

When it comes to speeches there are many formulas for how to present. Once you pick your topic, it is helpful to decide which formula works for you and use it from the start. Sure, you could wing it, but when you run into trouble, you will most likely find yourself seeking out a formula, so it just makes sense to start with an organization plan. Since this is an advanced class, I will review the basics and then talk about ways to take your speech organization to the next level by harnessing the power of three.

Staples of Most Speeches

Every math class I have ever taken starts off with reviewing the basics. Once we review the basics (fractions and decimals) and everyone has a strong foundation, then the class can work on the advanced items. I want to start off by reviewing the basics before we move on to the advanced.

Dale Carnegie wrote, “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you just told them.” By this, he didn’t mean being senselessly repetitive, but rather he wanted speakers to set up the framework for their speech, tell the audience the main points, and then recap the points.

The basic formula for most speeches follows this pattern:

Grabber/Hook: A statement to get the audience’s attention. Preview/Big Idea/T hesis statement. This statement is an overview of what the speech is about. Credibility Statement: Why should the audience listen to you talk about this? Why are you credible on this topic? Many, but not all speeches, need this. So-What-Who-Cares Statement : A statement telling your audience why this topic suits this audience and this occasion. This can be achieved as a statement, or it can be sprinkled throughout. Transitions / Signposts : Statements that move the audience from one idea to the next. Body of Speech: Main points of your speech with transitions between main ideas. Review: Summary of the speech. Closure/Cincher : A series of statements that provide closure.

Audiences Will Listen According to Their Understanding of Your Credibility

One important thing to think about when building your speech is how you will build your credibility with the audience. If an audience doesn’t think you are credible, they will listen with suspicion, or they won’t listen at all. In speechmaking, there are three types of credibility–initial, derived, and terminal. Initial credibility is the credibility you have before you start to speak. It comes from any preexisting knowledge they have about you as a speaker, it comes from the way you are introduced, and it comes from the way your presentation was advertised. Next, there is derived credibility–credibility stemming from what you say during your speech, how you present yourself during the speech, and how you manage visuals during the speech. Finally, there is terminal credibility– credibility that you have at the end of the speech. Terminal credibility stems from what they think of how you managed yourself and your topic.

We live in a world where many speakers are “googled”, and their credibility is examined before they ever come in contact with their audience. When I train new teachers, I always have them google their names and see what comes up. To make a strong point, I have them open up their social media with someone else in the room. Once they have their profile pulled up, I ask them to hand their phone to the person next to them. I ask, “If a student looks at your public profiles and your social media, what will they think of you as a teacher?” New teachers are often shocked to think of students looking them up but that is the reality. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or a business professional, you need to be aware that people are looking online and using what they find there to determine your initial credibility.

(Now is a good time to pause and “google” your name and look into your social media to think about your credibility). 

So, what makes up your credibility?  According to communication researchers McCroskey and Teven, credibility is one part competence, one part trustworthiness, and one part goodwill.   Competence is how much an audience member perceives you to be knowledgeable and an expert on the topic. You can boost your competence by using research, by having clear, organized ideas, and by clearly, articulating your ideas. Audiences are quick to form opinions and they are constantly evaluating your honesty and trustworthiness.  If an audience deems you untrustworthy, every word out of your mouth will be seen as suspect. Finally, the audience evaluates your caring and goodwill. An audience wants to feel like you have their best intentions in mind. Audiences place a high priority on goodwill.

There are several ways to build your credibility with the audience. You can have someone introduce you who tells the audience why you are speaking on the subject. You can find ways to connect with the audience, so they trust you.  The more a speaker shows that they understand and recognize the audience’s feelings, the closer the audience will feel towards the speaker. Demonstrating enthusiasm and passion, managing content respectfully, and showing an awareness of situational factors all can enhance credibility.

Mind the Gap

When mapping out your speech, you should always mind the GAP–goal, audience, and parameters. Always remember what the goal of the speech is, who the audience will be, and what parameters are set by the location, the time limit, and the setting.

Minding the Gap is covered in detail in the chapter on the audience. 

Rules for Effective Communication

Frank Lunz, political advisor, and author of Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear, advises politicians of these key components to be an effective communicator.

• Simplicity:   Keep the language appropriate for the audience. It is usually better to assume they do not know and explain all terms than it is to leave them with words they don’t understand.
• Brevity: People have limited attention spans so be aware of the speech time. It is better to have fewer points than to have too many points.
• Credibility: People will listen to you to the degree of trust that they have in you.
• Consistency : Make sure what you say agrees with other things you have said. In other words, people look to the context of your life and other messages to interpret what you are saying. It is not uncommon for audience members to “google” a speaker before, during, and after a speech to see if they are trustworthy and consistent with what they say in their speech and in other places.
• Novelty: Find ways to grab attention and stand out.
• Sound and texture: Creative use of words will help attract and hold the audience’s attention. 
• Aspiration: Help the audience reflect on how your message taps into them and their goals and dreams. Help them to see more and be more.
• Visualization: Paint vivid pictures with your words to help the audience visualize the story or the outcome.
• Questioning: Turn some statements into questions to engage the audience.
• Context and Relevance: Tell the audience why your speech should matter to them.

Organizing Your Ideas

Nancy Duarte, speech coach was asked, “What’s the best way to start creating a presentation?” Her reply was as follows:

My best advice is to not start in PowerPoint. Presentation tools force you to think through information linearly, and you really need to start by thinking of the whole instead of the individual lines. I encourage people to use 3×5 note cards or sticky notes — write one idea per note. I tape mine up on the wall and then study them. Then I arrange them and rearrange them — just work and work until the structure feels sound.

Finding the Organizational Structure That is Right for You

To help your travelers understand what is needed to achieve your vision, articulate where you need them to move from and where you need them to move to. Then make everything in your speech support that transformation. ―  Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

In a study published in Speech Monographs , researchers found that audiences who listened to an unorganized speech were more likely to lose interest. It makes sense that if the speaker is jumping around that we quit trying to follow the message. It also makes sense that their study found that it was harder for audiences to recall the speech information from a disorganized speech. Finally, it is no surprise that disorganized speakers were judged less persuasive and less credible. To maximize the effectiveness of your speech, to make your speech more memorable, and to be seen as more credible,  you should use an organized speech pattern.

There are many different formulas for how to organize your speech and I am including a list of the most common structures for you to consider.  As a useful activity, you might want to go down the list and figure out how your speech could fit into each of the patterns before you settle on the one that works for you.

  When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward. If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject—and how much they care about it. If you assume they have more knowledge or interest than they do, or if you start using jargon or get too technical, you’ll lose them. The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too. The biggest problem I see in first drafts of presentations is that they try to cover too much ground. You can’t summarize an entire career in a single talk. If you try to cram in everything you know, you won’t have time to include key details, and your talk will disappear into abstract language that may make sense if your listeners are familiar with the subject matter but will be completely opaque if they’re new to it. You need specific examples to flesh out your ideas. So limit the scope of your talk to that which can be explained, and brought to life with examples, in the available time.

A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward. Chris Anderson, TED Talk Curator  

Informative Speech Patterns

Chronological:.

You would format your speech in the order things occurred. First this, then that.

In this talk, America Ferrera describes her step-by-step process of trying to get a role as a Latina in the United States. She takes us on a chronological journey as she wrestles with identity.

As you watch this speech notice how she opens with a story of her as a little girl dancing in the den singing and dreaming. At the end of her speech, she loops back to the nine-year-old girl and ends with power as she expertly points to the audience to bring them in as she delivers a well-thought-out last line:

If I could go back and say anything   to that nine-year-old, dancing in the den, dreaming her dreams,   I would say,   my identity is not my obstacle.   My identity is my superpower.   Because the truth is,   I am what the world looks like.   You are what the world looks like.   Collectively, we are what the world actually looks like.   And in order for our systems to reflect that,   they don’t have to create a new reality.   They just have to stop resisting the one we already live in.  

Compare and Contrast:

You would compare things and point out how they are similar and how they are different.

In this talk, Julie Hogan informs the audience about the concept of cultural humility by comparing and contrasting a Muslim burka and academic regalia.

Cause and Effect:

You would discuss what caused something and what was the overall effect.

In this talk, Caleb Stewart informs his audience of the benefits of reading. He tells all the effects that reading has had on his life.

Problem Solution:

State the problem, tell us why it is a problem, offer us a solution to the problem.

Many of the best talks have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story. The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. There’s an “aha” moment, and the audience’s perspective shifts in a meaningful way. If a talk fails, it’s almost always because the speaker didn’t frame it correctly, misjudged the audience’s level of interest, or neglected to tell a story. Even if the topic is important, random pontification without narrative is always deeply unsatisfying. There’s no progression, and you don’t feel that you’re learning. Chris Anderson, TED Talk Curator

In this speech, Bart Knols tells us about the problem with mosquitoes (spoiler alert, it is malaria) and then he informs us of three innovative ways to kill mosquitoes. As you watch, notice how he uses a variety of props–a bed, a box of mosquitos, the slideshow, his boxer shorts to keep his audience engaged. His points are so clear that when his talk is over, you could remember the three main solutions and repeat them to a friend.

Spatial Organization:

Show us a map and move across the map and show us where things are located. This works for more than a map, it could be a blueprint, a piece of art, an object.

Topical Organization :

You would inform us of a topic and how this topic is broken down into subtopics.

Tucker and LeHew in, Exploring Public Speaking, offer this activity and insight:

One of the authors frequently does the following exercise in class. She has all the students take some object from their pocket, purse, or backpack and place it on a table at the front of the room. (It’s interesting what gets put on the table!). Then she has the students gather around and look at the items and “group them”–put them into categories, with each group having at least two items and all items being put in some group. Afterward, she gets the different grouping schema and discusses them. Of course, most of the groups are “correct,” even if just based on color. However, she then asks, “If you had to communicate to a classmate who is absent what is on the table, which schema or grouping pattern would you use?” The point is that grouping can be done on the basis of many characteristics or patterns, but some are clearer and better for communicating.

Less is More

Writer Richard Bach says, “Great writing is all about the power of the deleted word.” Many speakers try to do too much in a speech. They have so much information that they either speak too quickly or explain too briefly. It is better to have fewer points than you can illustrate in numerous ways.  After you write your speech, go back, and try to condense. Try to find ways to be more specific and clearer.

It’s a simple equation. Overstuffed equals under-explained. The wrong way to condense your talk is to include all the things that you think you need to say, and simply cut them all back to make them a lot shorter.

There’s a drastic consequence when you rush through multiple topics in summary form. Chris Anderson, TED Talk Curator

To make sure the audience gets your point. Tell them what you are going to say, say it, tell them what you’ve said. When you make a point, say the point, illustrate the point with a fact or story, and then tell them how the point applies.

Getting Advanced: The Rule of Three

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a a tremendous whack. -Winston S. Churchill

Omne Trium Perfectum means everything that comes in threes is perfect. Humans love threes. In our culture, three provides a sense of the whole–it feels complete. The rule of threes suggests ideas presented in threes are easier to remember, more interesting, and more enjoyable. The three could mean have three main points, or the three could mean you have three items to a sentence. It could also mean explaining something in three different ways.

Hendiatris:  Three successive words used to express one idea

Friends, Romans, countrymen. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. US Declaration of Independence. 

Tricolon: Three parallel words or phrases

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation – not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Barack Obama, Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Barack Obama, Inaugural Address You learn that duty, honor, and country are not simply words, but guideposts. They dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. Michelle Obama, West Point Banquet

Parallel construction: Repeated phrases

Anaphora: The repeat of exact words at the beginning

A sandal of hope when you reach out. A sandal of joy when you listen to your heart. A sandal of courage when you dare to care. J.A. Gamache, Toastmasters

We can not dedicate We can not consecrate We can not hallow — this ground Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. Steve Jobs,  Stanford Commencement Speech These men are our fathers, grandfathers and even great-grandfathers. These men have been and will be apart of our lives in ways that go far beyond the Tokyo Raid. These men are the crews that have made sure our families’ lives were on the right path. Speech on the Doolittle reunion This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment when we ended a war, and secured our nation, and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment , this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Barack Obama Democratic Nomination Victory Speech – Change We Can Believe In

Epiphora: Repeat the words at the end. 

There is  no Southern  problem . There is  no Northern  problem . There is  only an American  problem . President Lydon B. Johnson This is not, however, just America’s fight . And what is at stake is not just America’s freedom. This is the world’s fight . This is civilization’s fight . This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom. President George Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress Following 9/11 Attacks

Have Three Points to Your Speech

Have three main parts to your speech and make sure they are clear.

Now I want to share with you three things I learned about myself that day. I learned that it all changes in an instant. We have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to that I didn’t, all the fences I wanted to mend, all the experiences I wanted to have and I never did. As I thought about that later on, I came up with a saying, which is, “I collect bad wines.” Because if the wine is ready and the person is there, I’m opening it. I no longer want to postpone anything in life. And that urgency, that purpose, has really changed my life.

The second thing I learned that day —   and this is as we clear the George Washington Bridge,   which was by not a lot — I thought about, wow, I really feel one real regret.   I’ve lived a good life.   In my own humanity and mistakes,   I’ve tried to get better at everything I tried.   But in my humanity, I also allow my ego to get in.   And I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter   with people that matter.   And I thought about my relationship with my wife,   with my friends, with people.   And after, as I reflected on that,   I decided to eliminate negative energy from my life.   It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better.   I’ve not had a fight with my wife in two years.   It feels great.   I no longer try to be right;   I choose to be happy.   The third thing I learned —   and this is as your mental clock starts going, “15, 14, 13.”   You can see the water coming.   I’m saying, “Please blow up.”   I don’t want this thing to break in 20 pieces   like you’ve seen in those documentaries.   And as we’re coming down,   I had a sense of, wow, dying is not scary.   It’s almost like we’ve been preparing for it our whole lives.   But it was very sad.   I didn’t want to go; I love my life.   And that sadness really framed in one thought,   which is, I only wish for one thing.   I only wish I could see my kids grow up. Ric Elias, Three Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed. 

Alan Alda’s Three Ways to Make Yourself Understood

Some of you may know Alan Alda from the hugely popular show, Mash. Others of you may know him as the host of Scientific American Frontiers. What many people don’t know was he was a visiting professor at Stony Brook University and the founder of the Universities’ Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. He created that center as a place to train scientists on how to clearly communicate with the public.

In this video, he explains the rule of threes.

• Make no more than three points.
• Explain difficult ideas in three different ways.
• Find a subtle way to make an important point three times.

Key Takeaways

Remember This!

• A speaker should pick a speech pattern that fits the goal, audience, and parameters of the speech
• Following a standard speech pattern helps the speaker be more organized
• Organized speakers are easier to listen to, are perceived as more credible.
• Using the rule of threes can make your speech easier to listen to and more memorable.

Please share your feedback, suggestions, corrections, and ideas.

I want to hear from you. 

Do you have an activity to include? Did you notice a typo that I should correct? Are you planning to use this as a resource and do you want me to know about it? Do you want to tell me something that really helped you?

Click here to share your feedback. 

Anderson, C. (2016). TED Talks: The official TED guide to public speaking. Mariner.

Anderson, C. (2013). How to Give a killer presentation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation 

Ausubel, D. P. (1968).  Educational psychology . 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.

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2001). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. McGraw-Hill.

Bush, G.W. (2015). President George W. Bush addresses a joint Congress about the War on Terror. [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYnx-c8pF34 Standard YouTube License. 

Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening.  Communication Education, 37 , 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634528809378699

Carnegie, D. (1998).  How to win friends and influence people. Pocket Books.

Churchhill Central: Life and words of Sir Winston Churchill. https://www.churchillcentral.com/

Dlugan, A. (2009). How to use the rule of three in your speeches. Six Minutes. How to Use the Rule of Three in Your Speeches (dlugan.com)

Duarte, N. & Sanchez, P. (2016).   Illuminate: Ignite change through speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols. Portfolio and Penguin.

Ferrera, A. (2019). My identity is a superpower–not an obstacle. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.ted.com/talks/america_ferrera_my_identity_is_a_superpower_not_an_obstacle/transcript?language=en#t-191931 Standard YouTube License.

Gamache, J.A. (2007). Being Mr. G, JA Gamache, Toastmasters World Championships. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoW-T2_6OJo Standard YouTuve License

Hogan, J. (2018). The tale of two robes. Julie Hogan. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/w3Z3jdubP4Y Standard YouTube License.

Jobs, S. (2008). Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_ptbiPoXM Standard YouTube License. 

Kalb, I. (2013). Marketers must understand the power of three. Business Insider.  https://www.businessinsider.com/using-the-power-of-three-to-your-marketing-advantage-2013-5

Knols, B. (2012). Three new ways to kill mosquitos. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.ted.com/talks/bart_knols_3_new_ways_to_kill_mosquitoes?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare Standard YouTube License.

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

Lineham, D. R. (n.d). Rule of three in speechwriting. https://davelinehan.com/rule-of-three-speechwriting/

McCroskey, J.C. & Teven, J.J. (1999). Goodwill: A re-examination of the construct and its measurement. Communication Monographs. 66 (1), 90-103.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759909376464

McCroskey, J.C. & Mehrley, R.S. (2009). The effects of disorganization and nonfluency on attitude change and source credibility. Speech Monographs . https://doi.org/10.1080/03637756909375604

McCroskey, J.C. & Young, T. J. (1981). Ethos and credibility: The construct and its measurement after three decades. Central States Speech Journal, 32, 24-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510978109368075

Obama, B. (2004).  Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/eWynt87PaJ0 Standard YouTube License. 

Obama, B. (2008). Obama victory speech-Change we can believe in. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJ-2Zu_Iic Standard YouTube License. 

Obama, M. (2011). Address at West Point Graduation Banquet. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/hS01mK7xMDs Standard YouTube License. 

Raa Rams. (2018). Raa 2018 Keynote Speaker. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6OchXV-Mo8 Standard YouTube License. 

Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637755109375045

Shu, S. B. &  Carlson, K.A. (2014).    When three charms but four alarms:  Identifying the optimal number of claims in persuasion settings. Journal of Marketing, 78(1).  https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.11.0504

Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication.  Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.  https://doi.org/10.1080/10417946009371589

Torgovnick May, K. (2012). How to give more persuasive presentations: A Q & A with Nancy Duarte. TED Blog. https://blog.ted.com/how-to-give-more-persuasive-presentations-a-qa-with-nancy-duarte/

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Module 10: Persuasive Speaking

Structure of a persuasive speech, learning objectives.

Identify characteristic structures of a persuasive speech.

In many ways, a persuasive speech is structured like an informative speech. It has an introduction with an attention-getter and a clear thesis statement. It also has a body where the speaker presents their main points and it ends with a conclusion that sums up the main point of the speech.

The biggest difference is that the primary purpose of an informative speech is to explain whereas the primary purpose of a persuasive speech is to advocate the audience adopt a point of view or take a course of action. A persuasive speech, in other words, is an argument  supported by well-thought-out reasons and relevant, appropriate, and credible supporting evidence.

We can classify persuasive speeches into three broad categories:

• The widely used pesticide Atrazine is extremely harmful to amphibians.
• All house-cats should  be kept indoors to protect the songbird population.
• Offshore tax havens, while legal, are immoral and unpatriotic .

The organizational pattern we select and the type of supporting material we use should support the overall argument we are making.

The informative speech organizational patterns we covered earlier can work for a persuasive speech as well. In addition, the following organization patterns are especially suited to persuasive speeches (these are covered in more detail in Module 6: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech):

• Causal : Also known as cause-effect, the causal pattern describes some cause and then identifies what effects resulted from the cause. This can be a useful pattern to use when you are speaking about the positive or negative consequences of taking a particular action.
• Problem-solution : With this organizational pattern, you provide two main points. The first main point focuses on a problem that exists and the second details your proposed solution to the problem. This is an especially good organization pattern for speeches arguing for policy changes.
• Problem-cause-solution: This is a variation of the problem-solution organizational pattern. A three-step organizational pattern where the speaker starts by explaining the problem, then explains the causes of the problem, and lastly proposes a solution to the problem.
• Comparative advantage : A speaker compares two or more things or ideas and explains why one of the things or ideas has more advantages or is better than the other.
• Monroe’s motivated sequence : An organizational pattern that is a more elaborate variation of the problem-cause-solution pattern.  We’ll go into more depth on Monroe’s motivated sequence on the next page.
• Structure of a Persuasive Speech. Authored by : Mike Randolph with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

• Games, topic printables & more
• The 4 main speech types
• Example speeches
• Commemorative
• Declamation
• Demonstration
• Informative
• Introduction
• Student Council
• Speech topics
• Poems to read aloud
• How to write a speech
• Using props/visual aids
• Acute anxiety help
• Breathing exercises
• Letting go - free e-course
• Using self-hypnosis
• Delivery overview
• 4 modes of delivery
• How to make cue cards
• How to read a speech
• 9 vocal aspects
• Vocal variety
• Diction/articulation
• Pronunciation
• Speaking rate
• How to use pauses
• Eye contact
• Body language
• Voice image
• Voice health
• Public speaking activities and games
• About me/contact
• Impromptu speaking tips
• Impromptu speech outlines

Impromptu speech outline: 7 formats

How to prepare for an impromptu speech.

By:  Susan Dugdale  

Using a speech outline to prepare an impromptu speech seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? After all, impromptu means of the moment, spontaneous, without preparation. So, what is an impromptu speech outline?

Quite simply it’s the structure, or format of your speech. It’s how you order your material from the time you open your mouth at the beginning of your speech, until you close it at the end.

An outline doesn’t need to be a written document or put on note cards to be effective. An experienced impromptu speaker will have an assortment of structural patterns memorized. When they’re asked to speak, they’ll mentally flick through them and choose the most appropriate.

Following an outline lessens the possibility of rambling aimlessly off topic. And, given my flibberty gibbet tendencies it's vital! Maybe yours too?☺

What's on this page

Seven structural patterns , each with example impromptu speech outlines and a printable blank outline template to download.

How to use these structural patterns : guidelines for practice

About the printable impromptu speech outlines

How to reframe a topic : examples of openings showing how to adapt a topic.

The patterns are: 

• Point, Reason, Example, Point (PREP)

Past, Present, Future

Problem, solution.

• Pros/Cons, Positives/Negatives, For/Against, Advantages/Disadvantages

Cause, Effect, Remedy

• Before/The Event/The Result

Local, National, International

 How to use these structural patterns

To become a competent impromptu speaker you need to get familiar with them. So initially just play with them for practice either with a friend or by yourself.

• Get a subject to talk about. (Click for 150 impromptu speaking topics ).
• Choose yourself a pattern to form the body of speech.
• Now go. Open your mouth and speak.

You’ll need an introduction followed by your material organized according to whatever pattern you’ve selected, and then a conclusion.

Keep it simple. You don’t need to try hard to say devastatingly intelligent insightful things. The starting goal is to get used to thinking, then speaking, without a great deal of prior preparation.

This is impromptu speaking, ‘off the cuff’, largely spontaneous. Be honest and where you can, add personal stories. Your own experiences, plus your knowledge of the subject, will establish rapport and credibility. Don’t be afraid to experiment, or 'fail', as that's how you'll learn.

If your content at this stage is trite nonsense and you putter out of ideas too soon, so be it. At the beginning it’s more important to learn to let go of feeling anxious, inadequate and the need for perfection. 

Once you’re used to a pattern, and can follow it easily without having to stop and think about which part comes next, you’ll naturally come up with better material.

Along with examples of each impromptu speech outline structure there's a link to a blank printable. There are seven of them: one for each pattern. They are there for you to use as a guide. You'll find the links for them below the example outlines. 

Each outline has the same four step format.

The first step is mentally preparing yourself: sorting out your topic, considering your audience and working out what tone best fits with them, as well as your speech purpose. 

The second step covers preparing the introduction, the third, the body, and the fourth and final step, the conclusion.

Your chosen structural pattern is the body  

The third step, the body of your speech, holds the specific pattern you’re working with. It’s this step, the body, you’ll want to focus on first when you’re practicing. After you’ve set your topic allow yourself a few minutes to think it through (or make notes) using the pattern headings as a guide.

Once you feel comfortable with the body, you’ll find the openings and conclusions become much easier.

Getting the time and content balance right

The overall length of your speech or the time you take to deliver it is, to a large part, determined by how much information you put into the body. Obviously one or two main points and their supporting material will take less time than three or four.

( Practice will help you confidently and reliably get the balance of time to content right. Click the link for  examples of one minute speeches  prepared using the Point-Reason-Example-Point (PREP) pattern. They'll give you an idea of what's required.)

Practice, practice, and then do it some more

You don’t need to follow each of the four steps of the outline slavishly. However, to use that old cliché, before you can run, you need to know how to walk. So before giving yourself permission to try to improvise and dazzle publicly, ground yourself in structure. Give yourself a solid baseline to work from.

There’s no secret behind becoming more confident and competent reasonably quickly. It’s practice. Lots of it.

Time and record yourself. Play it back and listen carefully.

Is there a good opening? Have you followed the pattern you chose in the body of the speech? Is it clear? Have you got clean transitions between each part of your speech and the one following it? Is there a strong ending? And are the words you’ve chosen, as well as the way you use them, right for your subject, the purpose of the speech and your intended audience?

And lastly, learn one pattern well before you work with another.

Effective impromptu speech activities 

If you teach a public speaking or communication class or lead a public speaking group, here's  a comprehensive bundle of   17 proven fun and effective impromptu speech activities , complete with full guidelines and printables. They ease, rather than jettison, students into impromptu speaking one step at a time.  

How to reframe a topic

Sometimes when you're asked to speak on a topic you'll find yourself needing to modify it before going ahead.

Or maybe you want confirmation that you've understood what you're being asked to speak about.

Here are examples of three ways to reframe the topic as part of your opening. They are particularly useful for Question and Answer sessions.

Add them to your practice too.

1. Give the topic a scope. This establishes what you're prepared to cover.  

For example: Thanks. That’s a great question. I am happy to share what has happened since I joined the organization in 2020.

Or:  Thanks, that’s a great, and very big question. I don’t have time right now to cover all aspects of it. So here’s the first part. If anybody would like me to follow up with the second and third, please see me later and we’ll make a time.

2. Summarize and ask for confirmation. Use this technique to  make sure you’ve understood what’s being asked of you before you answer. 

Example:  Thank you for your question. It's an important one and I want to make sure I’ve understood it correctly before answering. You want to know why we’re not mobilizing the Defense Force to clear protesters from the streets, is that right?

3. Redirecting, reshaping the question or angle, before responding . This can be useful when you want to give a bigger picture, or establish context - something the original question didn't allow for.

Example: You’ve asked about using the Defense Force to clear the streets. Let’s consider the precedents for that: the 1951 Waterfront Dispute, Bastion Point, 1978, and the anti-Springbok rugby tour protest in 1981. What have they taught us?

7 impromptu speech outline patterns

Please note, these examples are not complete speech outlines. In most instances they don't include the opening or the conclusion. What they do is illustrate seven ways to organize material in the body of the speech. And some of the examples are more fleshed out than others.

 PREP: Point, Reason, Example, Point

PREP is an acronym for: Point, Reason, Example, Point. The pattern adapts well to most situations.

Here are two PREP impromptu speech outline examples: one for a social setting and one for business or workplace audiences. You can also see it in action on this page of one minute speech topics where I've used it in three sample one minute speech outlines.

PREP impromptu speech outline: workplace 

Topic: Cameras off during a virtual team meeting

Point: Human Resources are reporting numerous requests from employees to be allowed to leave their cameras off during routine virtual (zoom) meetings.

Reason: The reason most frequently given is fatigue due to  strain 

Examples: It is hard to:

• maintain focus while looking at a grid of faces for the length of an entire meeting,
• see yourself on camera and NOT respond to it,
• be physically constrained in a small space in order to remain on camera,
• arrange life so it doesn’t intrude in the form of kittens, babies or anything else while on camera,
• have your colleagues in your home without having issued the invitation yourself.

Point: And that’s why we’ve asked Human Resources to develop a set of guidelines to cover when cameras should be on, and when they can be turned off. If you have any suggestions or points you’d like them to consider, please get them by Friday.

For more: 

• Bailenson, J. N. (2021). Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue . Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2(1). 
• Should We Require Students to Turn Their Cameras On in the Zoom Classroom?   Anna Lännström, Stonehill College. Published by Wabash Center, 2020  

PREP impromptu speech outline example: social

A toast to acknowledge friend’s engagement

Point: It’s a joy to join you celebrating Ryan and Mary’s engagement.

Reason(s): There’s dozens of reasons for my being pleased to be here. We haven’t got time for them all. So here’s three. The first goes back a long way to when we were ten years old. I’m never going going to get married, he said. Thanks to Mary, look at you now! I am delighted you have to eat those words. The second reason is quite selfish. At least the field is cleared now because he’s well and truly spoken for. Hi ya singletons out there! And the third and most important is because I’ve never seen Ryan quite so deliriously crazy happy, ever, in all the years I’ve known him.

Example(s): This is the man who has spent all his weekends for last year renovating the house they share. You know it’s got to be the real thing when unclogging drains, getting rid of rat nests and replacing rotten window frames is better than time out with me and the boys. When you add making significant positive changes to his eating and drinking habits, throw in running a kilometer or two or three or more, several times a week, it’s proof. You’ve got be happy to do any of that!

Point: Which in turn, makes me happy too. Here's to Ryan and Mary!

Download PREP impromptu speech outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use: PREP impromptu speech outline

Use this pattern if you want apply a time line treatment to a subject.

Topic: In your experience what's an effective way of getting children to eat vegetables?

In the past:

When I was a child not eating whatever was served was not an option. It didn’t matter if it was something dreaded like cauliflower, broccoli or spinach. It was on the plate. Therefore it needed to be chewed and swallowed. If it wasn’t you were in for a long sit at the table. Because both you and the plate of food remained in place until the plate was cleared. This as a technique was a failure. It built resentment rather than a love of vegetables.

That kind of stand off would not happen nowadays. I have more tolerance than my parents for children whose taste buds do not thrill to strong tasting vegetables. The only thing I ask of my kids, is that they try a little of each new one when it is served. If they don’t like it, they can put it to one side. Alongside that, we use vegetables as snacks, sneak them into purees and sauces, get the kids involved in choosing and cooking them, and set an example by eating copious quantities of them ourselves.

Our diets are changing. They are becoming increasingly plant based. Vegetables are no longer an accompaniment, an after-thought. Instead they’re center plate – up front and proud. 

Perhaps the infamous battle over vegetables will disappear entirely. It’s my hope that through showing greater tolerance of our children’s preferences and by being more creative with how we introduce them into their diets, that the issue will simply cease to be one.

Vive la broccoli!  

Topic: What are the most popular and enduring toys for children?

Past : Toys that sold well: Teddy bears, named after Theodore Roosevelt 1902, yo-yos – 1928, Silly Putty, 1955, GI Joe – dolls for boys, 1960s, including two that have kept right on selling;

Present: Lego from Denmark, 1932, and Barbie from USA, 1959

Future : More Lego, more Barbies who are more diverse, more skin types and shapes. Both seem set for along time yet.

Download Past, Present, Future outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use:  Past, Present, Future impromptu speech outline

This is a simple two part pattern: here’s the problem. Now here’s the solution.

Example: The problem is congestion on our main city roads during peak hours.

The solution is to:

• reroute heavy vehicles over those hours
• look carefully at the current design of the roundabouts, on and off ramps and laybys and update them if necessary 
• adjust the speed limit

Example: The problem is maintaining a work routine while working from home

• make yourself a dedicated work space.
• set yourself regular hours for getting up, having breakfast, being at your desk, lunch etc.
• establish clear boundaries around your work time for family and friends. Being in the same room or the next one, doesn’t mean you’re available.
• prioritize your tasks for the day each morning.

Download Problem, Solution outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use: Problem, Solution impromptu speech outline

Pros and Cons, Positives and Negatives

This is a useful beginning point toward answering the classic ‘what shall I do?’ dilemmas.

Setting out the pros and cons * of a situation gives us an overview, which we can then use to help make a rational, considered decision.

* 16th century: from Latin  prō  for + con, from  contrā  against

Dilemma:  Whether or not to go to university

• New experiences, new people, broadens outlook
• Builds networking opportunities, long term friendships, & professional relationships
• After graduation enter workforce at different level – a leg up because core competencies already established
• Scholarships available
• Leadership and extension activities/clubs available
• High levels of personal debt
• Difficult to sustain oneself mentally, physically and financially without support
• Doesn’t guarantee a job on graduation
• Doesn’t train you for a specific vocation
• Doesn’t automatically mean entry into higher paying job

Dilemma:  Whether or not to buy cheap or fast fashion

• Affordable – instantly gratifying
• Up to the minute clothing – democratization of fashion – not just for elite rich
• Can follow the trend – included rather than excluded on price
• Can change mind and buy more if don’t like what you have – not going to cause you hardship
• Profitable for retailers and manufacturers
• pollution: people throw out their clothes which then enter land fills
• waste: breeds throwaway mentality – chuck rather than mend
• loss of skills: how to mend clothing: sew on buttons, fix a fallen hem, patch a rip etc.
• exploitation of woman and children in 3rd world countries: low wages, and unsafe workplaces

For more: Fast Fashion by Adam Hayes, April 2021, investopedia.com

Download Pros and Cons outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use:  Pros and Cons impromptu speech outline

 This is a three-part problem solving pattern.

• What is the cause of something?
• What is its effect?
• And what is the remedy?

Topic: Public speaking anxiety

Cause(s) of public speaking anxiety:

• feeling self conscious in front of others
• fearing repeat of past poor experiences
• fear of being judged
• fearing not being as good as you’d like to be, or as good as others
• breathing poorly which doesn’t support the voice
• becoming overwhelmed by symptoms of fear: shaking limbs, quivering voice, racing heart beat, forgetting what had been practiced
• gabbling through speech at break neck speed
• becomes a cycle which intensifies each time a person has to speak in public
• limits personal potential in many ways: at work and socially
• take a public speaking course, join a public speaking club
• practice a great deal,  get good support and practical feedback you can use
• and take every opportunity to speak in front of others as it will lessen the fear.

Topic: Procrastination

Cause(s) of procrastination:

• boredom: not being interested in the task that needs completing
• fear of failure: thinking the task will prove too difficult - would rather not begin it, than risk failure, perfectionism
• unable to prioritize what needs to be done against what isn’t so urgent
• overwhelmed: too many things to do, and too little energy

Effect(s) of procrastination:

• pressure: rushing to catch up on what should have been done which leads to poor decision making
• failure: letting oneself, friends, family and workmates down, compromised work standards, reputation
• losing time, opportunities, limiting your career options
• escalating low self-esteem issues and health risks
• Create incremental to-do lists – a bit at a time rather than one huge overwhelming piece of work.
• Create a stimulating work-place for yourself – surround yourself with what you genuinely like to see.
• Time-line your work realistically - what needs to happen. today, tomorrow and the next day to arrive at the due date with the work completed to your satisfaction.
• Get rid of the temptations you know you are distracted by. Put your phone on mute. Remove bookmarked sites.
• Find a mentor, someone you admire and who will hold you to account.

Download Cause, Effect, Remedy outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use: Cause, Effect, Remedy impromptu speech outline

Before, The Event, The Result

This three-part pattern is a time line centered around an event. The result of event (eg. a natural disaster or a personal or societal change, large or small) profoundly changes what came before it. Sometimes the end result is much better, and sometimes far worse.

It’s a pattern much loved by advertisers who imply that the event (the purchase and use of whatever product or service they are selling) will result in whatever is desired: health, wealth, beauty, popularity, longevity, peace, love, intelligence... It's the classic Before and After format.    

Topic: Covid-19 - its impact on the tourism industry in NZ

Total annual tourism expenditure had increased by almost $15 billion, or 55%, in the seven years prior to 2020. 

• Tourism was New Zealand’s biggest export industry, contributing 20.1% of total exports. 
• Tourism generated a direct annual contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $16.4 billion, or 5.5%, and a further indirect contribution of $11.3 billion, another 3.8% of New Zealand’s total GDP.  

Then along came Covid–19.  The borders were closed in an effort to keep it out for as long as possible. Good for the population: fewer deaths and hospitalizations compared to other first world countries: USA, UK, Australia but not so good for tourism.

The result:  

• total tourism expenditure was $26.1 billion, a decrease of 37.3 percent ($15.6 billion) from the previous year.
• international tourism’s overall contribution to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services fell to 2.1 percent from 20.0 percent
• tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $8.5 billion, or 2.9 percent, a decrease of 47.5 percent ($7.7 billion), or 2.6 percentage points

Reference:  https://www.tia.org.nz/about-the-industry/quick-facts-and-figures/

Here’s a feel-good-hard-work-pays-off story using the format, the sort you might hear on your local TV or radio station.

Topic: the house makeover

Before the makeover:

• dark and dingy – very few windows, dated décor
• very poor heat retention – no insulation
• no outdoor – indoor flow
• small poky kitchen with limited storage
• one bathroom – not adjacent to either living areas or bedrooms

The Event:   the makeover of the worst house in the best street,  a perfect project for husband (builder) and wife (interior decorator), 12 month time line, carefully planned

The Result:

• jump in value of property
• a house which is a pleasure to live in, fabulous garden, everybody is happy, reporters come calling for house and garden magazine before and after spreads☺
• an inspirational example of talent plus effort

Download Before, The Event, The Result outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use:  Before, The Event, The Result impromptu speech outline

This structure is excellent for comparisons and overviews spanning spatial areas.

Topic: Deaths from Covid-19 in New Zealand as at 22nd February 2022

Local: none

National: 56

International:  5,905,942

Reference: Google News - Covid 19 map - New Zealand  

Topic: Who follows the news?  A survey of 38 countries, 2018

Local news :  Global median = 78%. 78% of respondents are  more likely to follow the news if in own area and own country. 

National news : Global median = 86%. 86% of respondents are more likely to follow if the news is about own country.

International news : Global median = 57%. Comparatively significantly less of the respondents are likely to follow the news. That changes with the amount of education a person has. If they have more education, they are more likely to follow the news.

Reference:  Publics around the world follow national and local news more closely than international : Pew Research Center report, 2018

Download Local, National, International outline

Click the link to download a printable pdf file to use:  Local, National, International impromptu speech outline

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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.

Boost your speech skills

Enhance your public speaking with personalized coaching tailored to your needs

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.

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

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Chapter Nine – Organizing the Body of your Speech

Creating the Body of a Speech

In a series of important and 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 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 unorganized speeches were also harder for audiences to recall after the speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized—and 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 very important studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are not organized they are not perceived as credible and 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 discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization on real audiences. If you are not organized, your speech will never 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

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. 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.

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. 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).

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.

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.

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 a number of organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organizational pattern we’ll discuss is topical.

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics . The topical organizational pattern is a way to help the speaker arrange the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a topical organization 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 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 audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three 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 main points is the comparison/contrast pattern. While this pattern clearly 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 clearly 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 organizational pattern arranges 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 basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear 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 basic 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 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.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical organizational pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

In this example, these three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

The causal 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 p roblem-cause-solution 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 shown 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.

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 and problem-cause-solution, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You should 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 have the ability to 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 really 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). The table below contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 9.1  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 they will talk about (i.e., the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, speakers highlight what they are 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). Essentially, when speakers clearly inform an audience what they will talk 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 communi ty.

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 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 9.1. 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 antibullying 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 then leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of antibullying 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. Speakers use signposts to guide their audience through the content of a speech. If you look at Table 9.1 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 simply 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 9.1 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.

Note from the author, Gruber: As we have previously stated, organization is integral to your audience understanding your message, and thus, being influenced by it. A clear organizational pattern with connectives, such as transitions and summaries, creates a clear and memorable message.

Finally, we sometimes get funny looks when we suggest you write the body of your speech  before  your Introduction & Conclusion. The natural thought may be “The introduction comes first, so I should write  it first.” However, consider the objectives of the Introduction, as described in the next chapter, and you’ll understand why you should always write the body first and then  the introduction and conclusion.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Ausubel, D. P. (1968).  Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
• https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-lying-on-bed-while-using-laptop-4066041/
• https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-led-signage-on-the-wall-942317/

Sections of this chapter were adapted from Stand up, Speak Out: The practice and ethics of public speaking. Stand up, Speak out  by University of Minnesota is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Principles of Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Katie Gruber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Speech Topics For Kids
• How To Write A Speech

How to Write a Speech: A Guide to Enhance Your Writing Skills

Speech is a medium to convey a message to the world. It is a way of expressing your views on a topic or a way to showcase your strong opposition to a particular idea. To deliver an effective speech, you need a strong and commanding voice, but more important than that is what you say. Spending time in preparing a speech is as vital as presenting it well to your audience.

Read the article to learn what all you need to include in a speech and how to structure it.

Table of Contents

• Self-Introduction

The Opening Statement

Structuring the speech, choice of words, authenticity, writing in 1st person, tips to write a speech, frequently asked questions on speech, how to write a speech.

Writing a speech on any particular topic requires a lot of research. It also has to be structured well in order to properly get the message across to the target audience. If you have ever listened to famous orators, you would have noticed the kind of details they include when speaking about a particular topic, how they present it and how their speeches motivate and instill courage in people to work towards an individual or shared goal. Learning how to write such effective speeches can be done with a little guidance. So, here are a few points you can keep in mind when writing a speech on your own. Go through each of them carefully and follow them meticulously.

Self Introduction

When you are writing or delivering a speech, the very first thing you need to do is introduce yourself. When you are delivering a speech for a particular occasion, there might be a master of ceremony who might introduce you and invite you to share your thoughts. Whatever be the case, always remember to say one or two sentences about who you are and what you intend to do.

Introductions can change according to the nature of your target audience. It can be either formal or informal based on the audience you are addressing. Here are a few examples.

Addressing Friends/Classmates/Peers

• Hello everyone! I am ________. I am here to share my views on _________.
• Good morning friends. I, _________, am here to talk to you about _________.

Addressing Teachers/Higher Authorities

• Good morning/afternoon/evening. Before I start, I would like to thank _______ for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts about ________ here today.
• A good day to all. I, __________, on behalf of _________, am standing here today to voice out my thoughts on _________.

It is said that the first seven seconds is all that a human brain requires to decide whether or not to focus on something. So, it is evident that a catchy opening statement is the factor that will impact your audience. Writing a speech does require a lot of research, and structuring it in an interesting, informative and coherent manner is something that should be done with utmost care.

When given a topic to speak on, the first thing you can do is brainstorm ideas and pen down all that comes to your mind. This will help you understand what aspect of the topic you want to focus on. With that in mind, you can start drafting your speech.

An opening statement can be anything that is relevant to the topic. Use words smartly to create an impression and grab the attention of your audience. A few ideas on framing opening statements are given below. Take a look.

• Asking an Engaging Question

Starting your speech by asking the audience a question can get their attention. It creates an interest and curiosity in the audience and makes them think about the question. This way, you would have already got their minds ready to listen and think.

• Fact or a Surprising Statement

Surprising the audience with an interesting fact or a statement can draw the attention of the audience. It can even be a joke; just make sure it is relevant. A good laugh would wake up their minds and they would want to listen to what you are going to say next.

• Adding a Quote

After you have found your topic to work on, look for a quote that best suits your topic. The quote can be one said by some famous personality or even from stories, movies or series. As long as it suits your topic and is appropriate to the target audience, use them confidently.  Again, finding a quote that is well-known or has scope for deep thought will be your success factor.

To structure your speech easily, it is advisable to break it into three parts or three sections – an introduction, body and conclusion.

• Introduction: Introduce the topic and your views on the topic briefly.
• Body: Give a detailed explanation of your topic. Your focus should be to inform and educate your audience on the said topic.
• Conclusion:  Voice out your thoughts/suggestions. Your intention here should be to make them think/act.

While delivering or writing a speech, it is essential to keep an eye on the language you are using. Choose the right kind of words. The person has the liberty to express their views in support or against the topic; just be sure to provide enough evidence to prove the discussed points. See to it that you use short and precise sentences. Your choice of words and what you emphasise on will decide the effect of the speech on the audience.

When writing a speech, make sure to,

• Avoid long, confusing sentences.
• Check the spelling, sentence structure and grammar.
• Not use contradictory words or statements that might cause any sort of issues.

Anything authentic will appeal to the audience, so including anecdotes, personal experiences and thoughts will help you build a good rapport with your audience. The only thing you need to take care is to not let yourself be carried away in the moment. Speak only what is necessary.

Using the 1st person point of view in a speech is believed to be more effective than a third person point of view. Just be careful not to make it too subjective and sway away from the topic.

• Understand the purpose of your speech: Before writing the speech, you must understand the topic and the purpose behind it. Reason out and evaluate if the speech has to be inspiring, entertaining or purely informative.
• Identify your audience: When writing or delivering a speech, your audience play the major role. Unless you know who your target audience is, you will not be able to draft a good and appropriate speech.
• Decide the length of the speech: Whatever be the topic, make sure you keep it short and to the point. Making a speech longer than it needs to be will only make it monotonous and boring.
• Revising and practicing the speech: After writing, it is essential to revise and recheck as there might be minor errors which you might have missed. Edit and revise until you are sure you have it right. Practise as much as required so you do not stammer in front of your audience.
• Mention your takeaways at the end of the speech: Takeaways are the points which have been majorly emphasised on and can bring a change. Be sure to always have a thought or idea that your audience can reflect upon at the end of your speech.

How to write a speech?

Writing a speech is basically about collecting, summarising and structuring your points on a given topic. Do a proper research, prepare multiple drafts, edit and revise until you are sure of the content.

Why is it important to introduce ourselves?

It is essential to introduce yourself while writing a speech, so that your audience or the readers know who the speaker is and understand where you come from. This will, in turn, help them connect with you and your thoughts.

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Harrison Butker Said His Benedictine College Commencement Speech Taken 'Out of Context'?

According to online posts, butker supposedly clarified in a statement, "all i said is that we should go back to a better time, like the 50s and 60s.", jordan liles, published may 16, 2024.

About this rating

On May 16, 2024, numerous users on Facebook , TikTok and X reposted a quote meme featuring a purported statement from Kansas City Chiefs kicker and 3-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker. The statement supposedly constituted Butker's response to some backlash following his May 11 commencement speech at Kansas' Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school.

In one post  on X displayed to over 1 million users, the viral quote meme showing a photo of Butker read, "Everyone is taking what I said out of context. All I said is that we should go back to a better time, like the 50s and 60s. When men were men, and women had more babies than thoughts. When the only 'Me too' movement was one woman saying she was ready for her 4th child, and another woman agreeing." The end of the meme added Butker's name with the words "on setting the record straight."

A TikTok video promoting the quote meme as genuine also received more than 800,000 views within five hours of being uploaded, making it another one of the more prominent reposts.

However, Butker did not release a statement with these words, nor did he appear to publicly release any statements following his speech. A closer look at the quote meme reveals a watermark for "@TheSportsMemery" — a reference to the Facebook page named The Sports Memery. The Facebook page's description describes its output as containing satire and parody.

The Associated Press reported Butker's speech featured some remarks on the subjects of women and motherhood, Pride month, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and President Joe Biden's policies regarding abortion and the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.

Readers looking to watch Butker's address in its original form can find the full, unedited speech in a  video  posted on the Benedictine College YouTube channel. The video ends with many of the people in attendance giving Butker a standing ovation.

The National Catholic Register also published a complete transcript of the address.

"Chiefs Kicker Butker Congratulates Women Graduates and Says Most Are More Excited about Motherhood." The Associated Press , 16 May 2024, https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-harrison-butker-e00f6ee45955c99ef1e809ec447239e0.

"Full Text: Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs Graduation Speech." NCR , 16 May 2024, https://www.ncregister.com/news/harrison-butker-speech-at-benedictine.

"Harrison Butker | Commencement Address 2024 | Benedictine College." YouTube , Benedictine College, 11 May 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JS7RIKSaCc.

May 17, 2024: This report was updated to add the five words appearing under Butker's name in the quote meme.

By Jordan Liles

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

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May 17, 2024

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Why Do Humans Sing? Traditional Music in 55 Languages Reveals Patterns and Telling Similarities

T he human voice is perhaps the oldest and most diverse musical instrument we know, capable of both speech and song. But the question of why people make music has intrigued and puzzled scientists for centuries.

Is the art form simply an invention, like writing, produced so we can better express ourselves? Did acoustics arise so we could attract mates? Or ward off danger? Is there something deeply evolutionary about music inherent in each of us?

In a new global study, published Monday in the journal Science Advances , 75 researchers from 46 countries decided the best way to try to answer this question was by making melodies themselves. They recorded themselves singing traditional songs from their respective cultures, with 55 languages—including Hokkaido Ainu, Basque, Cherokee, Māori, Rikbaktsa, Ukrainian, Xhosa and Yoruba—represented in all.

Then, the researchers recorded themselves simply reciting their songs’ lyrics, without melody. In a third set of recordings, they played wordless versions of the songs on instruments, including the Azerbaijani tar, bamboo flute and clapping. They also described the songs with spoken words.

“I have downloaded all of their singing and speaking onto my phone,” senior author Patrick Savage , a comparative musicologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, tells Forbes ’ Eva Amsen. “And sometimes I just put it on shuffle as I’m walking around. I really love listening to their songs.”

Savage and others analyzed the various recordings with two key questions in mind: Are any acoustic features reliably different between song and speech across cultures? And are any acoustic features reliably shared? They decided to test this by measuring six features across each song, which included tempo as well as pitch height and stability.

When their analysis concluded, they were surprised to find a trio of consistencies: Singing tends to be slower than speaking, people produce more stable pitches while singing than while speaking and singing pitch is overall higher than speaking pitch.

“There are many ways to look at the acoustic features of singing versus speaking, but we found the same three significant features across all the cultures we examined that distinguish song from speech,” Peter Pfordresher , a psychologist at the University at Buffalo and a co-author of the study, says in a statement .

The study doesn’t provide a definitive answer for why humans sing, but the researchers’ leading hypothesis is that music promotes social bonding.

“Slower, more regular and more predictable melodies [may] allow us to synchronize and to harmonize and, through that, to bring us together in a way that language can’t,” Savage tells Scientific American ’s Allison Parshall.

Lead author Yuto Ozaki , a musicologist from Keio University in Japan, tells the New York Times ’ Carl Zimmer that singing in large groups could have been a way to encourage social cohesion—for community engagement or preparation for conflict—and it may have evolved separately from speech in that regard.

“There is something distinctive about song all around the world as an acoustic signal that perhaps our brains have become attuned to over evolutionary time,” Aniruddh Patel , a psychologist at Tufts University who was not involved in the study, says to the New York Times .

The researchers acknowledge that each language was represented with a very small sample size (most had only a single song) and that the scientists may have chosen simpler melodies that aren’t entirely representative of different genres. Some of the researchers who participated had extensive vocal or instrumental training or accolades—including Shantala Hegde , a Hindustani classical music singer and neuroscientist; Latyr Sy , a Senegalese drummer; and Gakuto Chiba , a national champion of Japan’s Tsugaru-shamisen instrument—so their music might be slightly different from that of a random sample of participants.

Nonetheless, another study of music conducted independently—which has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal but was posted this week on the pre-print server bioRxiv —identified similar patterns in songs representing 21 societies across six continents.

“It shows us that there may be really something that is universal to all humans that cannot simply be explained by culture,” Daniela Sammler , a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics who was not involved in the study, tells the New York Times .

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Harrison Butker’s Chiefs Family Reacts After Speech Sparks Controversy: Players and More

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker continues to make headlines after his controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas.

During his remarks on May 11, 2024, the NFL player raised eyebrows after singling out the women graduates. “For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment,” he said at the Catholic liberal arts college. “You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you.”

Butker then said that while “some” of the women in the audience “may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” he “would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

The football player also faced backlash when he compared the LGBTQIA+ community’s Pride Month to “deadly sins” and said men “set the tone of society, and when that is absent, disorder, dysfunction and chaos set in.”

Related: Meet the Women of the Chiefs Organization: Front Office, Trainers and More

After Butker’s remarks spread online, stars like Maren Morris , Maria Shriver , Whoopi Goldberg and Hoda Kotb voiced their opinions on the speech. In addition, members of the Kansas City Chiefs organization weighed in on the controversy taking place away from the football field.

The team didn’t immediately issue a formal statement, but former Kansas City LGBTQ+ Commission chair Justice Horn called on the organization to speak up. “Members of our community deserve to know the values of this organization — an organization we all pay for,” he said via X . “This is a time for the team to lean in and embrace the community, not remain silent when groups of people are being harmed here locally.”

Keep reading to see what players and members of the NFL have to say about Butker’s message to graduates:

Related: Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker and Wife Isabelle's Relationship Timeline

The NFL’s Chief Diversity Officer, Jonathan Beane , released a statement sharing that the organization did not agree with Butker’s remarks.

“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” Beane said in a statement to Outsports . “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”

Gracie Hunt

While appearing on an episode of Fox & Friends , the Chiefs heiress was asked about Butker’s comments. “I can only speak from my own experience, which is I had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up,” Hunt said. “And I understand that there are many women out there who can’t make that decision but for me in my life, I know it was really formative in shaping me and my siblings to be who we are.”

When asked if she understood what Butker was trying to say, Hunt replied, “For sure, and I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he’s accomplished on and off the field.”

Related: Stars Who Love Football

Tavia hunt .

In a lengthy post shared via Instagram , Tavia, who is married to Kansas City Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, shared her support for many of the values Butker championed in his speech.

“I’ve always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams. I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God),” Tavia wrote. “But I also want them to know that I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer.”

Tavia also suggested that people should think about debating others instead of immediately criticizing them. “I also caution against taking things out of context,” she continued. “Sound bites overlaid with hateful comments are not what we want to model for our children or others. We need more dialogue (and VALUES, IMO) in this country and less hate.”

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Chris Jones

The Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle appears to have his teammate’s back. “I love you @buttkicker7 ! My brotha 🫂,” Jones wrote via X in response to a petition calling for Butker’s release from the Chiefs.

Brooke Schwartz 

Brooke, who is married to former Kansas City Chiefs player Mitch Schwartz, slammed the team’s kicker for his speech. “I’m going to sound controversial since Mitch was teammates with him for many years,” she said via her Instagram Stories . “I’ve stayed quiet about a lot of things, but this is absolutely so gross and backwards to me.”

In another Story slide, Brooke doubled down on her comments about the NFL player’s remarks, writing, “And telling young women on their college graduation day, after years of hard work, that the thing they probably most look forward to in life is becoming someone’s wife. I beg your pardon? I value and respect whatever a woman chooses for her life. But it is NEVER, EVER a man’s place to tell women what their roles are.”

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Ohio State commencement speaker says he got help from psychedelics while writing speech

Ohio State's chosen commencement speaker for the class of 2024, entrepreneur Chris Pan, was high on ayahuasca while he wrote his speech, according to posts he made on social media.

"Got some help from AI (Ayahuasca Intelligence) this week to write my commencement speech for 60k grads and family members at Ohio State University next Sunday," he wrote in a LinkedIn post before graduation.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic liquid made from heating or boiling multiple psychoactive plants from South America, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation of Australia.

Pan also said he tried using ChatGPT and artificial intelligence to write his speech, according to his LinkedIn post and an Instagram post.

Ohio State graduation death: Coroner identifies woman who died in fall from Ohio Stadium

In the weeks preceding graduation, Pan shared multiple drafts of his speech on Instagram. His earliest posted draft included a lengthy section about the Israel-Palestine conflict and a moment where he removed his shirt.

But on Sunday, Pan did not explicitly mention Gaza, Israel or Palestine (or remove his shirt). Rather, he remarked, how after holding multicultural events over the past few months, we must "end suffering on both sides."

Here's what we know: Ohio State graduation death

"What I learned is that there is so much pain and trauma in both communities. Pain causes hate and violence. Hurt people hurt people. Healed people help people," he said. "When we heal ourselves, we heal the world. World peace starts with inner peace."

Pan also led the crowd through two brief musical numbers  — "What's Going On?" by the 4 Non Blondes and "This Little Light of Mine" by Harry Dixon Loes — and espoused how he thinks Bitcoin is "a very misunderstood asset class," which was met by groans from audience members. (He promised everyone in attendance a free bracelet from his company, MyIntent, "as an apology for listening to me talk about Bitcoin.").

Pan graduated from OSU in 1999 and went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked at consulting firm McKinsey and Company, PepsiCo and Facebook before starting his own business, MyIntent.org, in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.

MyIntent sells jewelry with a custom word of the customer's choosing etched in it, according to the company's website.

Dispatch reporter Sheridan Hendrix contributed to this report.

[email protected]

@NathanRHart

Concerns over free speech grow as abortion travel ban heads to Tennessee governor's desk

Some free speech advocates are raising the alarm over wording in a new Tennessee bill that could potentially restrict a person's right to speak about abortion health care.

The law, passed by Tennessee lawmakers this year, makes it a felony to recruit or transport a minor for an illegal abortion without parental consent.

HB1895 , which will soon head to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, closely mirrors a recent law passed in Idaho, which a federal judge halted on First Amendment grounds. 

The legislation targets an adult who "recruits, harbors or transports" a pregnant minor within the state for the purposes of receiving an illegal abortion, defined by Tennessee's near-total abortion ban, or for getting abortion medication without notarized consent from the minor’s parents.

Free speech concerns from opponents of the bill are heavily centered on the word “recruit,” which is not defined in Tennessee state law, and which they say could potentially criminalize speaking to a pregnant minor about health care options.

“This bill raises concerning First Amendment issues, as the term recruits is not defined in the bill or anywhere in the Tennessee code,” said Bryan Davidson, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

“The free expression implications are troubling. It's easy to imagine that there could be a reproductive health clinic or a clinician, non-medical counselor or a social worker, anybody who provides information or options around abortion care and counseling to pregnant minors in Tennessee, who could potentially have their free speech rights infringed upon.”

James Bopp Jr., the general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, which helped draft model legislation on the issue, called the First Amendment concerns unfounded.

“There's no confusion about that,” he said in an interview, adding that “nobody thinks” that the word “recruit” could include “just posting information” or speaking about abortion.

Travel-ban law is slippery slope part of larger pattern, say opponents

The concern over the limitation on free speech rights under the bill is not new. In Idaho in late 2023, lawmakers passed a nearly identical law to Tennessee’s version.

The law was quickly temporarily paused by a federal judge after three plaintiffs — a lawyer and two medical advocacy groups — sued Idaho alleging the law’s language is overly vague and violates their First Amendment right to discuss abortion with minors and their Fourth Amendment right to travel between states where the procedure is legal.

Sen. Paul Rose, R-Lauderdale, and Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, sponsors of the legislation, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the bill.

Standing on the sidewalk in downtown Broadway on April 10, Behn, along with members of Abortion Care Tennessee, held a large sign aloft emblazoned with bright purple letters reading “Need an abortion? We’re here to help.”

She later described the law as “dystopian.”

“I believe that this is a test case for what is deemed constitutionally protected in an increasingly polarized kind of authoritarian environment we're seeing nationally," she said.

According to Behn, when asked about the definition of the word recruit, Zachary suggested looking the word up in a dictionary.

“Zachary was asked by my colleagues as to how he would define the word recruit,” she said. “And he generically pointed to a dictionary and said, ‘As it is in the dictionary.’ Which, you know, any dictionary, any definition is pretty broad as to what remains. And when you're dealing with a civil liability of up to a million dollars and jail time, it seems to be pretty important to know what the word recruit means.”

Behn said the concern was echoed by multiple medical professionals who spoke against the bill.

“We had a few practicing pediatricians and obstetricians comment that even them talking to minors in a grocery store might be illegal,” she said. “They weren't clear, for example, if they had a neighborhood minor that came up to them and said, ‘I'm pregnant, we're having issues,’ and whether they, as a trusted adult, would be protected under the law.”

Behn said the bill highlights how Tennessee is “on the front lines of the most extreme, post-Roe, anti-abortion legislation,” with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country.

“I think this is a test case, and it's trying to penetrate the parameters of what is protected by the First Amendment,” she said. “And I think this case will go to the Supreme Court and inevitably, whatever government is in charge at the time, will prevent free speech from happening.”

On the House floor, moments before the bill was approved, Behn attempted to pass a number of amendments to it, including one that sought to protect discussions of health care options by “trusted adults” — which included a number of health care workers, abortion clinic staff or volunteers, attorneys and more — from being held criminally liable, as long as they were not “forcing the minor” to obtain an abortion.

The amendments failed.

Davidson of the ACLU said his organization is “watching the bill,” with special attention on the key differences in Tennessee’s bill that, in his view, make it more vague than Idaho’s.

“There is a key difference in our version of the bill versus the one that was (paused) in Idaho is that the Idaho statute requires concealment from the minor’s parent or guardian as an element overall,” he said. “Whereas the Tennessee statute does not require concealment. So the criminal offense in our version applies to a much broader array of activity, and I think contributes to an even more concerning sense of vagueness.”

Davidson said this broader level of vagueness is what concerns the legal experts at the ACLU.

“They're so vaguely written that it's unclear how the law would be applied and enforced,” he said. “But what we see is that just the threat of enforcement is enough to stoke fear and confusion and leads to self-censorship that has the ultimate effect of limiting access to vital reproductive health care to folks that need it most.”

Anti-abortion advocate dismisses free speech concerns

Both the Tennessee law and the Idaho law are based on model legislation written by the National Right to Life Committee — the nation’s largest anti-abortion organization that lobbies legislatures to end abortion access.  

Bopp developed the model legislation these bills are based on and said concerns over vagueness in the bill’s language — particularly the word “recruit” — are unfounded.

When asked why a key word in his bill did not need defining, Bopp reiterated that concerns over a lack of definition were “a complete lie.”

“That's complete bulls***,” he said. “There are all sorts of words that are used in statutes that are not defined. So that's just complete bulls***. If their argument is there's not a definition in state law, then you look to the common dictionary definition. … The Supreme Court, most of the time, is looking at dictionaries to determine the meaning of words that are in statutes and have never struck down a statute based on vagueness, because a word was not defined in a statute.”

Upon inspecting court records, there have been numerous major U.S. Supreme Court cases that ruled certain laws as being “unconstitutionally vague” due to words not being defined, and references to the importance of clarity in laws dating back as far as James Madison’s Federalist Papers.

When asked how he defined the word “recruit,” written in his own model legislation for the travel ban, Bopp read the definition of the word from vocabulary.com and gave an example of what he considered illegal recruitment — an example that included speech activity.

“You can see in the vocabulary.com that it says ‘to recruit’ means ‘to get someone to join something,’ and the something here is to participate in an unlawful abortion,” he said. “You know, to go on campus and say, ‘Hey, come on with us. We will take you to in our car to go get an unlawful abortion.’”

Bopp said he did not think the word needed clarifying in bills emulating his legislation, which can be seen working their way through legislatures in numerous states.

“’Recruit’ is more specific than just providing information,” he said. “The common definition of recruit is quite adequate.”

Bopp said opponents are “just making (concerns) up because they're abortion advocates and trying to use the First Amendment as a weapon.”

William Brewer, head legal counsel and lobbyist for the Tennessee chapter of Right to Life, declined to comment on the free speech concerns but said the bill was “needed to protect underage girls from being taken for a surgical procedure or given dangerous chemicals without their parent’s knowledge or consent.”

Chemicals routinely used in abortion procedures, almost exclusively mifepristone and misoprostol, have been rated as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for 24 years.

Definitions are crucial to understand legality, says expert

Battling encroaching limitations on free speech is imperative to protecting the freedoms within the First Amendment for all, whether those limitations come through intentionally restricting legislation or from vaguely worded laws, said Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment lawyer at the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.

The confusion in this law over the word “recruit” is a prime example, he said.

“I do think this is vague as written,” he said. “If you put the law in front of more than one person, and they come to clearly different results as to what it means, it's probably vague. And if it's clearly vague, it could be void — ergo unconstitutional and unenforceable.”

The reason laws are often deemed void for vagueness is twofold, he said.

“The first reason we have this ‘void for vagueness’ doctrine is because laws of this type essentially deny due process rights, which is actually a part of the 14th amendment,” he said. “The point is that I need to know that I'm going to get in trouble and be given certain protections that allow me to defend myself. I need to be fully informed that I am going to get in trouble or not based on what I'm about to do.”

Laws addressing speech issues that are too vague essentially deny citizens the ability to know whether they are allowed to speak, said Goldberg.

“The second reason is that vague laws tend to be prone to arbitrary enforcement,” he said. “So you might have a pamphlet put out about abortion by a pro-life group and a pamphlet put out by a pro-choice group, and they may look relatively similar and may even both provide information that could fall under what somebody believes is recruitment. And law enforcement may punish only one because they can manipulate the meaning of the term recruit in the statute."

Gregory Magarian, a law professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and a former Supreme Court judicial clerk, noted that even including the word "recruit" in the law was an unusual choice.

"We can look to a dictionary definition and find the meaning of the word recruit, but when you look at it in the context of this statute, it's a sort of curious usage," Magarian said. "We don't normally think of 'recruiting' someone to get a medical procedure done, even if we're talking about an elective medical procedure. If I told you I thought you might benefit from plastic surgery, we wouldn't say that I recruited you to get plastic surgery. That's a really strange and non-intuitive use of the word. And so that's why it's really important to define words within their statutory context."

Magarian added that the persistence of lawmakers, in addition to the original writers of the bill, to not clarify the word recruit or add more defining language to the bill, could chill speech.

"It would certainly make sense from the standpoint of the legislature to avoid this problem by defining the term clearly," he said. "So that sort of opens up the question, 'Well, why didn't they do that?' Why didn't the sponsor on the floor not clarify this? The sort of cynical possibility is that they wanted this term to be vague — and in the free speech context, the reason that we don't like vagueness is the chilling effect on speech. It makes people self-censor. Maybe in this case, the legislature wanted to chill speech around abortion.

"The less sinister possibility is that (lawmakers) just really didn't know what they were doing and what they were enacting because it was a model legislation they picked up," he said. "It might seem politically expedient, at least before you start thinking about the constitutional implications."

Regardless of intentions, placing the onus on the person speaking to “try to figure out” whether they may break the law by speaking is simply not allowed under the constitution, Goldberg said.

“Just pointing to the fact that a word is in the dictionary and saying, ‘Well, anybody can look it up and know what it means,’ isn't a valid argument at all,” he said. “This law is going to have to either be rewritten with language directed to a definition of recruit — they're going to have to take more time on it, or the courts are going to have to deal with it.”

The USA Today Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at [email protected], by phone at 931-623-9485 or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham