Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM–12 | 1
Chapter 12— Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
At a Glance
State Your Purpose and Thesis
Organize Your Speech
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define purpose statement and thesis statement, and give examples of each.
3. Summarize the characteristics of main points and the options for arranging main points in
a speech.
5. Explain the role of transitions in a speech.
7. Articulate how to create a formal outline and speaking notes.
9. Explain how to evaluate the quality of supporting material.
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Lecture Outline
I. State Your Purpose and Thesis
A. The process of narrowing the scope of a speech involves two related but different
concepts:
2. You must also crystallize the main message, or thesis, of your speech.
B. Draft a purpose statement.
1. A purpose statement is a declaration of your specific goal for your speech
3. Next, consider what you want to inform your listeners about or what you want
to persuade your listeners to think or do.
5. To develop a strong purpose statement, follow these guidelines:
a. Be specific.
C. Draft a thesis statement.
1. A thesis statement is a one-sentence version of the message in your speech.
2. With a strong thesis statement, you’ll find it much easier to construct the rest
3. To develop a strong thesis statement, follow these guidelines:
a. Be concrete, not vague or abstract.
b. Make a statement, framing your thesis statement as a sentence rather than
II. Organize Your Speech
A. The introduction tells the story of your speech.
1. The introduction should grab your listeners’ attention and arouse their interest
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
b. Another way to spark your listeners’ interest in your topic is to use
statistics that illustrate its magnitude.
c. In addition to using a story or statistics to generate interest in your topic,
you can use any of the following techniques:
i. Present a quotation that is relevant to the topic.
ii. Tell a joke to capture your listeners’ attention, put them at ease, and
generate positive feelings about you.
2. The introduction previews your main points.
a. A preview will help your listeners pay attention to the body of your speech
B. The body expresses your main points.
2. To organize the body of your speech, identify the main points you want to
address.
4. Most speeches have between two and five main points.
5. Main points should be related.
6. Main points should be distinct.
7. Main points should be equally important.
a. The relative importance of your main points will dictate how much time
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8. Main points can be organized in various patterns.
a. Main points should be organized in a manner that makes sense for your
topic.
b. Arranging points by topic:
i. When you adopt a topic pattern, you organize your main points to
represent different categories.
c. Arranging points by time:
i. Using a time pattern means arranging points in chronological order.
d. Arranging points by space: A space pattern organizes your main points
according to areas.
e. Arranging points by cause and effect: In a cause-and-effect pattern, you
organize your points so they describe the causes of an event or a
phenomenon and then identify its consequences.
C. Transitions help your speech flow smoothly.
2. Good public speakers use transitions to link the introduction to the body of the
speech, and the body to the conclusion.
4. Some transitions preview and internally summarize.
a. A preview transition is a statement alerting your listeners that you are
about to shift to a new topic.
5. Some transitions are signposts.
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
a. Signposts are single words or phrases that distinguish one point in your
presentation from another.
b. Signposts serve as signs to help listeners to follow the path of your outline
or speech.
c. Signposts can serve several functions:
i. Compare or contrast points
ii. Indicate a sequence of events
iii. Provide explanation
6. Some transitions are nonverbal.
a. You can help listeners to follow your speech by incorporating specific
nonverbal behaviors.
i. Body movement: You should use the available space to move around
during your presentation.
ii. Vocal inflection: You can increase volume or pitch to emphasize that a
specific point is very important.
D. The conclusion summarizes your message.
1. The conclusion reinforces your central message.
2. The conclusion creates a memorable moment.
a. A memorable moment is something your listeners will remember about the
speech even if they no longer recall all your specific points.
1. The rule of subordination
a. The rule of subordination specifies that some concepts in your speech
2. The rule of division
a. The rule of division specifies that if you divide a point into subpoints, you
3. The rule of parallel structure
a. The rule of parallel structure states that all points and subpoints in your
1. A working outline is a structured set of all the points and subpoints in your
speech.
2. Most working outlines for a speech include the following elements:
a. The title expresses what you intend to say.
b. The purpose statement is clear and easy to understand.
c. The thesis statement is clear and easy to understand.
2. The purpose of speaking notes is to aid your delivery by reminding you of
each of your points and subpoints.
3. To convert your working outline into speaking notes, you might follow these
steps:
a. To create speaking notes, first, delete the title, purpose statement, and
thesis statement.
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
b. Replace those elements with a brief reminder of your speech’s
introduction.
c. Next, abbreviate your points and subpoints into a keyword—a word or
short phrase that will help you remember it.
d. Finally, abbreviate your conclusion in the same way.
IV. Find Support for Your Speech
A. Identify places where you need research support.
2. You can cite evidence to support opinions.
3. When you make a factual claim in a speech, you need to provide evidence that
2. Examples help your audience understand a concept.
4. Quotations from people who are recognized experts on your topic can serve as
valuable supporting material.
1. Credibility
a. To be credible, supporting material must come from a trustworthy source.
2. Objectivity
a. A source is objective to the extent that it presents information in an
3. Currency
a. Information that was produced or published recently is likely to be more
up-to-date than older information.
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM–12 | 8
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
b. Given how rapidly computer-mediated communication technology
develops, having the most recent information to support the points in your
speech will be very advantageous.
D. Don’t commit intellectual theft.
1. A common form of intellectual theft is plagiarism, which means using
information from another source without giving proper credit to that source.
3. Intellectual theft can take several forms.
a. Global theft means stealing your entire speech from another source and
presenting it as if it were your own.
4. Intellectual theft is a serious offense.
a. Colleges and universities enforce codes of student conduct that prohibit
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
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Key Terms
purpose statement
thesis statement
signposts
rule of subordination
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
Additional Lecture Ideas
1. Intellectual theft has become an epidemic across many college campuses. Spend time
defining intellectual theft and the different types (for example, the difference between
2. Take a day to work on outline development. Have students bring their working outlines
to class, and meet in the library for a change of scenery. Pair them with a classmate for a
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
Classroom Discussion and Activity Topics
1. Before class, write down five possible speech topics and five techniques for
introductions, such as “cite a startling statistic” or “tell a joke.” Divide students into five
2. Play a round of good support/bad support. Create a sample outline that includes both
strengths and weaknesses when it comes to supporting material. Have your students read
3. Break students into groups and assign broad speech topics, such as environmental issues,
health concerns, politics in America, etc. Have each group take a different organizational
4. The Dark Side of Communication—Stretching the Truth: Exaggeration or Deception?
Engage your class in a discussion of the use of statistics, examples, etc. when the speaker
Chapter 12 Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech
For Review
1. What are the important elements of any speech?
2. Why are formal outlines and speaking notes useful?
3. What evidence should you use to support your claims?
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Pop Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. A good purpose statement has all these properties except
a. it is concise.
b. it poses a question.
c. it is specific.
d. it makes a declarative statement.
2. A one-sentence version of the message of your speech is known as a
a. purpose statement.
b. main point.
c. conclusion.
d. thesis statement.
3. Of the forms of transitions, _____ alert listeners that you are about to shift to a new topic,
and _____ remind listeners of points you have already made.
a. previews; reviews
b. reviews; main points
c. conclusions; previews
d. reviews; previews
4. When preparing her speech, Alana makes certain that if a main point has one subpoint, then it
has at least one more. She is following the rule of
a. parallel wording.
b. subtraction.
c. subordination.
d. division.
5. Colin makes sure that he uses supporting material only from sources that present information
in an unbiased way. By doing so, he ensures that his supporting material has
a. credibility.
b. currency.
c. objectivity.
d. subjectivity.
Fill in the Blanks
6. A statement that connects one part of your speech to another is called a(n) _____.
7. When you create a structured set of all the points and subpoints in your speech, you are
creating a(n) _____.
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8. A(n) _____ is a statement expressing a specific idea or theme related to your topic.
9. The rule of _____ states that all points and subpoints should have the same grammatical
structure.
10. A list of the sources you used when preparing your speech is called a(n) _____.