13-1
Chapter 13
Preparing Your Speech
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
In this chapter, students will learn:
• The five steps in speech preparation
• How to select their speech topics
CHAPTER OUTLINE
• Public speaking is the process of preparing and delivering a message to an audience to achieve a
PREPARING
YOUR
SPEECH:
FIVE
STEPS
Think about the speeches you’ve heard during your lifetime. Some were probably very good, keeping your
interest and providing useful information. Some were probably not so good—perhaps they were boring or
forgettable or both. What’s the difference? Preparation. Public speakers who carefully prepare their
speeches engage their audiences the most.
• There are five steps in speech preparation:
1. Think about your audience and speech topic. Determine the purpose of your speech, choose the
13-2
2. Investigate resources to use in developing your presentation. This includes planning your
research strategy, conducting your research, and evaluating the resources you find.
3. Compose your presentation, outlining your ideas and planning any visual support. Prepare an
4. Rehearse your presentation on your own and in front of others, inviting feedback for
improvements. This is also the time to work on your nonverbal skills—including eye contact,
gestures, and facial expressions—to further engage your listeners.
• In this chapter we are just going to focus on the first two steps; choosing your topic and investigating
resources.
CHOOSING
YOUR
SPEECH
TOPIC
The first part of step 1: think is to identify why you are giving a speech and choose a speech topic. While
you will want to choose a topic that is appropriate for the situation, it should also be a topic that excites
IDENTIFYING YOUR GENERAL PURPOSE
• When preparing a speech, you should first determine your general purpose, which is your reason for
giving the presentation. Your general purpose may not always be straightforward, but typically
speeches have one of three purposes:
13-3
2. To persuade your audience. Persuasive speeches reinforce or change listeners’ attitudes and
beliefs and may motivate them to take certain actions.
CONSIDERING SPEECH TOPICS
• Once you know the general purpose of your speech, it’s time to choose your speech topic. You may
find that when you have the freedom to choose your own topic, the choice can seem overwhelming.
Interests and Experiences
• Consider a topic about something that interests you.
o Consider a certain hobby, cause, or favorite subject.
• Advantages of this approach include the following:
o Can give you credibility with your audience.
Brainstorming
• This is a creative problem-solving strategy that involves coming up with as many ideas as possible in
a defined period of time and is similar to group brainstorming previously discussed.
• Free writing is the most common approach and includes three basic steps:
13-4
a. Listing ideas by simply writing down all the ideas that come to mind, without judging them,
during the allotted time. The wilder the ideas are during the brainstorming period, the better the
final ideas may be.
Concept Maps
• Concept maps are drawings that show connections among related ideas; they help you expand on one
idea with more specific topics.
DECIDING ON YOUR TOPIC
• After you identify a possible topic, you would then ask yourself whether the topic could serve as the
basis for a successful speech. The answer could be yes if you
o
consider the topic personally or socially important.
o
are interested in and challenged by the topic.
ANALYZING
YOUR
AUDIENCE
As you determine your speech topic, you should also consider how to adapt the topic to the needs and
interests of your audience. Developing an understanding of your audience will guide you in narrowing
your topic and actually composing your speech.
13-5
UNDERSTANDING YOUR AUDIENCE
• Audience analysis is a process of identifying important characteristics of audience members and
using this information to prepare a speech. Audience analysis fulfills three purposes:
1. The more you analyze your audience, the better you can adapt your topic to their needs and
interests.
• To better understand your audience, you can explore several factors, including the following:
Audience Demographics
• Audience demographics can include an audience member’s age, sex, education level, group
memberships, socioeconomic status, family status, and cultural background. Depending on your
speech topic, some demographic characteristics of your audience will be more relevant than others.
• Demographics are best used to develop a sense of possible shared characteristics among your
audience that may reflect on their knowledge or interest in your topic.
Audience Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values
• Audience attitudes, beliefs, and values make up how we see ourselves and are known as our self-
concept, which influences how individual audience members will respond to your message.
13-6
• Values are strongly held beliefs that guide our behaviors and are strongly shaped by culture.
• By understanding your audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and values, you can better adapt your speech
topic to connect with them.
• If you are dealing with controversial social issues, you’ll need to demonstrate respect for your
audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and values regarding your topic, as these may vary from your own.
Audience Knowledge
• Audience knowledge is when you consider your listeners’ existing level of knowledge about your
speech topic. You can make educated guesses about how much your audience already knows or what
Audience Type
• Audience type also needs to be considered. There are two basic audience types:
o
Captive audiences are required to attend the presentation. In general, being forced to listen to a
presentation makes you less receptive to its message. So when you’re addressing a captive
audience, give listeners a reason to pay attention by explaining early in the presentation how
13-7
DEVELOPING YOUR AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
• To develop your audience analysis, ask basic questions about your audience, and keep the answers to
those questions in mind while preparing your speech. Getting answers will help you narrow your
speech topic and determine what content to cover.
o
If you’re planning a classroom speech, you’ll want to make informal observations about your
listeners that include the areas that we just discussed. You’ve probably already learned things
o
Analyzing a non-classroom audience is trickier. You can briefly interview the person
who asked you to make the presentation, to get his or her sense of the audience’s demographics;
their attitudes, beliefs, and values; and their existing knowledge.
You may also ask the person the following questions:
What’s the purpose of the meeting or event?
How many people will attend?
Are they required to attend?
WRITING YOUR SPECIFIC PURPOSE STATEMENT
• A specific purpose statement is one complete sentence summarizing the goal of your speech. It
indicates whether you intend to inform or persuade your audience, reflects a narrowing of your
13-8
o
A specific purpose statement will help you prepare your speech, but it isn’t set in stone; you may
decide to adjust it while researching your speech.
PLANNING
YOUR
RESEARCH
STRATEGY
During step 2: investigate, you begin looking for sources for your speech. Although many resources are
easily available, not all of them will help you prepare a good speech. After all, Googling your topic is
likely to result in thousands of hits. Taking the time to plan a proper search can help you develop a
factual speech.
IDENTIFYING YOUR INFORMATION NEEDS
• Your information needs will change as you learn more about your topic and think about your
audience. Start by finding general information about your topic, then search for more specific content.
Use these four questions to guide your research process:
o What background information will my audience need? Depending on your audience analysis, you
o
What specific information is appropriate for my audience? Your audience analysis should
determine how much expertise your listeners may have with your speech topic—or whether they
have any at all.
o
How current does my information need to be? Some speeches cover topics for which the
information is fairly stable, but for others, information is changing fast. If your speech topic falls
13-9
o
What requirements, if any, does the assignment have about information resources? Each speech
may define the number and types of resource materials you can use.
DRAWING ON YOUR PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE
• Experience and personal stories often make presentations more memorable. Consider using
TALKING WITH LIBRARIANS
• Librarians are specially trained to help you find the quality information you need.
o By talking with a librarian about your specific purpose, you can get ideas for where to start your
research and which search terms to use in library databases.
DOCUMENTING YOUR RESEARCH FINDINGS
• Your research strategy should include how you’ll document and file your findings. This will help you
organize your research and avoid committing plagiarism.
Organizing Your Research
• Organize your research by doing the following:
1. Know the documentation style required.
a. Before you begin, look up the proper citation style.
b. Develop the habit of collecting complete bibliographic information for every source you use.
13-10
2. Create a filing system to help maintain notes, printed articles, or online sources.
b. Keep notes, documents, and online sources organized in note management apps like Evernote
(evernote.com), Google Keep (google.com/keep) or Microsoft OneNote (onenote.com).
3. Use online bookmarking systems to organize information you find
on the web. Try
one of the
Avoiding Plagiarism
• Avoid plagiarism by documenting your research.
o
Plagiarism is misrepresenting others’ works as your own and is a major academic, ethical, and
legal error. You commit plagiarism when you use exact words from someone else’s work or
o
To reduce your chances of plagiarizing, use the following three strategies:
1. Start early on the assignment. Rushing to prepare a speech can lead you to make mistakes in
documenting and orally citing your research sources.
2. Document everything. Develop the habit of putting clear source documentation on all your
3. When in doubt, drop it. Don’t include information in your speech if you’ve lost the source
documentation.
13-11
CONDUCTING YOUR RESEARCH
Once you have determined your research strategy, you are ready for the next part of step 2:
investigate―conducting your research. This includes gathering relevant data from a combination of print
resources, websites, electronic databases, and conversations with people.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESOURCES
• There are two types of research resources:
1. Primary resources are direct accounts, straight from the original source. These include scientific
2. Secondary resources are works that analyze and interpret primary resources. Examples of
secondary sources include magazine articles, biographies, textbooks, and newspaper articles.
Secondary resources can help you interpret complex statistical information and gather alternative
opinions.
• Whether you use primary or secondary resources depends on your topic and your specific purpose
statement.
INTERNET RESOURCES
• Conducting research online involves more than just Googling your topic and seeing what pops up.
Instead, get the most out of your online research by knowing the types of resources available online
and how to best use them. Keep in mind that:
13-12
o Avoid sites that are trying to sell you something because it is likely to include biased information,
while those ending in .edu, .org, or .gov are usually informational or educational.
o Sites ending in .com can provide quality information if they are objective, such as articles from
reputable newspapers and magazines.
LIBRARY RESOURCES
• The library invests thousands, if not millions, of dollars annually to provide you with online resources
for conducting research.
o Popular online library resources include EBSCOhost, LexisNexis Academic, and ProQuest.
These resources enable you to search newspapers; primary source documents; periodicals;
scholarly journals; government, business, and legal documents; and even televised news
transcripts.
o
Libraries also offer print and online versions of generalized and specialized encyclopedias and
dictionaries. Many encyclopedia entries reference other key sources you can use while researching
your speech, such as related books and articles.
o Two popular and useful online resources for persuasive speech assignments include the
following:
1. CQ Researcher is a database, developed by journalists, of reports on specific
13-13
INTERPERSONAL RESOURCES
• Talking with people one-on-one can provide useful information on your speech topic. Faculty
members or experts in your community can provide insights, explanations, and stories different from
online and print resources.
o If you decide to talk with someone as a part of your research, you will need to plan an
information interview by doing the following:
Arranging an appointment and indicating how much time you will need with the person.
EVALUATING YOUR RESOURCES
• Remember to maintain a healthy skepticism about the sources you find for your speech;
no matter where your research is from, you need to evaluate it by considering these
five factors:
Relevancy
Currency
• Currency. For some speech topics, it’s critical to have the most current information available.
13-14
o
Try to determine when a site was last updated by checking for timely commentary, copyright
dates on the home page, or dates of individual posts, and avoid relying on information from any
Authority
• Authority. Question the author’s credentials. Find out what qualifications the creator brings to the
work, such as personal experience, a prolonged professional career, or relevant academic degrees
from a respectable educational institution.
o
You can usually find information about an author’s credentials within the first few pages of a
book or in a footnote or biographical note in an article or another document. For an online source,
Objectivity
• Objectivity. Use objective research sources that are based on facts, not bias. While all sources have
some degree of bias, avoid blatantly one-sided or propaganda-like resources, whose sole purpose is to
convey the author’s point of view or a particular ideology.
13-15
Consensual Validation
• Consensual validation. A resource has consensual validation when other sources
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Of the four factors considered in an audience analysis (demographics, attitudes, knowledge, and
types), which do you think plays the largest role in how an audience will react to your speech?
Why?
• Survey the class to see how many students choose each factor and discuss the results. Help
2. Why do you think it is important that your resources be objective? What signals might indicate
that a resource is not objective?
• Ask students to give examples of resources that may not be objective and discuss why they
3. If you were asked to speak to a civic group in a neighboring town, how could you best
determine the audience’s prior knowledge about your topic?
• Remind students that there are various ways to find out more information about an audience. For
example, at times the simplest way is to ask the person who arranged your speech. What are some
4. What are the five steps to preparing your speech? Which step do you think you will find the
easiest? Why? Which one will be the most challenging? Why? Approximately how much time do
you think you will need to complete each of the five steps?
13-16
• Helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses and discussing realistic scheduling will
5. How important is it to determine whether your audience is voluntary or captive? Give an
example of a time when you were a member of each type of audience. How did it change your
attitude or interest in the topic?
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Topic Time Brainstorming
Goal: To give students an opportunity to work with other students to generate appropriate speech
topics.
Time: 20 minutes
1. Ask students to write down two topics that they might be interested in for an upcoming speech
assignment.
2. Divide students into small groups of three or four.
2. Illegal Drug Audience Analysis
Goal: To give students an opportunity to practice doing audience analysis.
Time: 60 minutes
13-17
2. Explain to the groups that they have been asked to give a presentation about the perils of illegal
drug use.
3. Assign each group one of the following audiences to analyze:
a. A third-grade public school class
b. A women’s social club
4. Have each group create a list of questions they would need to consider before preparing their
presentation to their particular audience. Ask them to discuss how they could take the topic and
best adapt it for their audience.
3.
To Research or Not to Research
Goal: To demonstrate the importance of doing research prior to presenting a presentation.
Time: 45 minutes
1. Purchase several candy bars or “prizes” for student volunteers.
3. Assign the following topics:
a. Understanding Nanotechnology
b. The Science of Cloning—Boon or Bane to Society?
c. Benefits of Stem Cell Research
13-18
4. Explain that the groups have 15 or 20 minutes to prepare a short speech on their topic. They need
to select a speaker and pull a speech together quickly. They are allowed to use the internet, but
5. Have each group present their speech.
6. Open a discussion by asking the speakers how they felt during their presentations. Did they feel
extra stress because they felt unprepared? Ask the audience to comment on how they felt listening
7. Present the “prizes” to the students who were willing to give the speeches and thank them for
their help!
4.
Feedback Power Teams
Goal: To provide students a support group that provides feedback and offers assistance and support
during the process of planning and presenting speeches. Students will also work on teamwork and
leadership skills.
Time: 15 minutes several times during the course.
1. Divide students into teams of three or four.
3. Explain that they will be working with their team throughout the speech section of the course.
The teams will be responsible for reviewing each other’s work and assisting each other as needed.
13-19
b. Outlines—to be submitted as a team on the specified date.
c. Pre-speech practice—each group should meet outside of class prior to speech due dates to
review and provide constructive feedback for group members. The leader should submit a
summary of activities.
4. I recommend that this assignment be graded to ensure participation.
5.
Is This a Good Source or Not?
Goal: To help students learn how to evaluate internet sources.
Time: 20 minutes
1. Divide students into groups of three.
3. Have students evaluate their chosen website by answering the following questions:
a. What is the goal of the website?
b. Who is the targeted audience of the website?
4. Once complete, have students share their findings and discuss the challenges one faces in finding
the best resources for a speech.
13-20
MEDIA RESOURCES
1.
American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank
The American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank is a great resource of archived speeches for you and
2.
Knowing Your Audience
This five-minute video by Toastmasters International discusses how to complete an effective
audience analysis. They provide guidelines on how to present an authentic speech to any audience.
3.
Nancy Duarte: The Secret Structure of Great Talks
This 18-minute TED Talk by author and CEO Nancy Duarte discusses the essence of giving a great
4.
Choosing Your Speech Topic
5.
Audience Analysis
This 23-minute presentation discusses how to complete an audience analysis effectively. The