Summary of steps in preparing a speech to inform or a speech to persuade
Speech Outline Worksheet
- Select and narrow your topic.
The topic should be worthy of the audience’s time; relevant and appropriate to the audience and occasion.
- Determine your purpose. what is your general purpose?
- Speech to inform: “To educate the audience about…” or “To clarify the matter of…”
- Speech to persuade: “To change or reinforce audience’s values or beliefs” or “To get the audience to take action about…”
- What is your specific purpose– How you want the audience to respond?
- “At the end of the speech the audience will be able to…”or”will know that…”
- “At the end of the speech the audience will believe that…”or”will act to…”
- Develop your thesis statement,or central idea.
The thesis should be complete sentences; it should have your point of view on the topic.
- Develop a list of the main ideas that support your thesis.
- The main ideas should develop from the thesis.
- The main ideas are the points that you need to cover in order to establish your thesis.
- You typically need at least 3 main points to support a thesis.
Organize the main ideas into a format that is logical and that supports your thesis. The organization patterns most frequently used are:
- Topical
- Chronological
- Spatial
- Cause and effect
- Problem and solution
- Develop sub points to explain each main idea. You need at least 2 sub points for each main idea.
- Explain each sub point with additional supporting material. The format for citing evidence is:
- State the sub point you are making
- Cite the source of your research or explanation
- Present the supporting information
- Explain how the information helps develop,explain or provide substantiation for the point
To summarize, when making sub points remember: “Statement-Evidence-Explanation”
Source: Beebe, Steven A. and Susan J. Beebe,Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach. Persons Education, Inc; Boston, 2009