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Chapter 12
Organizing, Writing, and Outlining Presentations
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
• Organize and support your main points
• Choose an appropriate organizational pattern for your speech
• Move smoothly from point to point
LECTURE NOTES
• Organizing Your Speech Points focuses on identifying your main points and developing
your supporting points, plus considering useful ways to arrange those points and connect
them in your speech.
ƒ Identifying Your Main Points
ż Main points are the central claims that support your thesis statement; speeches
generally have three or four of them, but may have more or less.
ƒ Supporting Your Main Points
ż Subpoints provide support for the main points and utilize your research.
ƒ Arranging Your Points involves choosing one of the following common patterns:
ż Chronological patterns arrange main points in a systematic, time-related manner.
ż Topical patterns arrange main points into categories, including ascending or
descending order, or the primacy-recency effect.
ż Spatial patterns arrange main points in terms of physical proximity to or position in
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ż Motivated sequence patterns, first developed by Alan Monroe, consist of the
following five steps, which are based on the psychological elements of advertising:
attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action.
ƒ Connecting Your Points requires using communicative tools to connect your main
points.
ż Transitions connect points to one another seamlessly so they flow naturally from one
to the next.
• Using Language That Works discusses making competent language choices that bring
your ideas to life right before your audience’s eyes.
ƒ Respect Your Audience by making sure your entire audience feels included and
ƒ Incorporate Repetition, Allusion, and Comparisons
ż Repetition means repeating key phrases or words to help your audience remember
them.
• Writing a Strong Introduction discusses the three important goals of an effective
introduction to a speech, which should accomplish the following:
ƒ Capture Your Audience’s Attention
ƒ Introduce Your Purpose and Topic
ż Explicitly state what your speech is about and what you hope to accomplish.
ż Be sure to incorporate your thesis statement.
ƒ Preview Your Main Points
ƒ Connect with Your Audience
• Writing a Strong Conclusion reviews the important functions of an effective conclusion
and the power of the recency effect, or the idea that the last thing the audience hears is
usually what they remember. A conclusion should accomplish the following:
ƒ Signal the End
ƒ Reinforce Your Topic, Purpose, and Main Points
ż Reiterate the important information by reminding the audience of your key points.
ż This gives listeners a mental checklist they can go through as you wrap things up.
ƒ Make an Impact
ƒ Challenge the Audience to Respond
ż Help the audience to understand what they should do with this newly learned
• Outlining Your Speech describes the importance of creating an effective outline, which is
a structured form of your speech content, to assist you in organizing your speech, ensuring
that you have all citations in order, and assisting in delivery.
ƒ Essentials of Outlining
ż Use standard symbols such as roman numerals, letters, and standard numbers to
ƒ Styles of Outlines
ż Sentence outlines contain the full text of your speech.
ƒ From Preparation Outline to Speaking Outline
ż Preparation outlines (working outlines) firm up the content of your speech.
ż Speaking outlines (delivery outlines) contain delivery cues (brief reminders about
important information related to the delivery of your speech) and notes about
presentational aids.
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CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are some examples of similes, metaphors, and allusions?
2. What are some examples of speeches that would be best given in a topical pattern? In a
spatial pattern? In a chronological pattern?
• Help students to understand that things that must go in order would be good for the
3. What do you find to be interesting beginnings of speeches?
• Get students to understand that “this speech is about. . .” is not a way to entice
4. What are some ways that language can be used to tie a speech to an audience? To turn off
an audience?
• Discuss with students how certain types of language can bring an audience into a
PERSONAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Outlining a Speech
Find a speech on the Internet and create a quick outline of it. What are the main points of
the speech? Are there transitions? Is there a good conclusion? Critique the outline of the
2. Memorable Speaking
Looking back at one of the speeches you have written. What do you feel was the most
3. What Kind of Memory?
Given the particular speech you are preparing (or will be preparing), what kind of
impression do you want to leave your audience with? What is the one thing you’d like
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Which Pattern Is This?
Goal: To distinguish among the different organizational patterns for speeches
Time Required: 20 minutes
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Materials:
Directions:
1. Write a topic idea from your sample list on the board or overhead.
2. Have students form seven groups. (For classes where groups of seven aren’t feasible,
3. Assign each group one of the following organizational patterns:
• Chronological
• Topical
2. Connect the Points
Goal: To understand the use of transition statements, internal previews, and internal
summaries
Time Required: 15–20 minutes
Materials:
2. Blank paper and writing implements for students
Directions:
2. Have students come up with transition statements, internal previews, or internal
summaries for the two main points.
3. Who Is the Purpose Statement?
Goal: To understand how to put together an outline in the correct format
Time Required: 20–30 minutes
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Materials:
1. Two to four copies of an example outline from Chapter 12 of the text; cut each
outline into ten to twelve sections
3. Blank paper for each group
Directions:
1. Break the class into groups of two to four.
3. Time each group to see which one can assemble the outline correctly first. Give
prizes to the group that finishes first.
4. For a greater challenge, use only one copy of the outline and tape pieces onto
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the organizational patterns discussed in the chapter? What are the advantages
and disadvantages of each?
2. In your opinion, is writing the introduction to a speech or a paper more or less challenging
than writing the conclusion? Why?
MEDIA
Seinfeld, “The Betrayal” (Shapiro/West Productions, 1997; season 9, episode 8)
Scenes depicting the story of the friends’ trip to India are shown in reverse order. Play the
