Chapter 8: Developing Your Speech Public Speaking Chapter 8: Developing Your Speech

Select Your Topic Consider the audience – Your topic should be relevant to the interests and expectations of your listeners, and it should also take into account your listener’s knowledge. Choose important, appropriate topics – To be successful, a topic must be appropriate to both audience and occasion. Consider yourself – The best public speaking topics are those that reflect your personal experience or that especially interest you.

Select Your Topic (continued) Brainstorm – Use brainstorming to generate ideas for speech topics. To brainstorm a list of potential topics, write down the first topic that comes to mind. Your goal is quantity – as long a list as you can think up in the time you have. Listen and read – Very often, something you see, hear, or read triggers an idea for a speech.

Select Your Topic (continued) Scan Web Directories – Access Yahoo or Google and select a random category. Search until you see something that piques your interest. Don’t Procrastinate – For most brief speeches (under 10 minutes), you should allow at least a week from topic selection to speech delivery.

Narrow the Topic Write your general topic at the top of a list and make each succeeding word in the list a more specific or concrete topic. Be careful not to narrow your topic so much that you cannot find enough information for a 2 minute speech If you do, just go back a step.

Determine Your General Purpose The general purpose of virtually any speech is either to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. Speaking to Inform – Informative speakers give listeners information. Informative speakers define, describe, or explain a thing, person, place, concept, process, or function. Informative speakers try to increase the knowledge of the listeners.

Determine Your General Purpose (continued) Speaking to Persuade- Persuasive speakers may offer information, but they use the information to try to change or reinforce an audience’s convictions and often to urge some sort of action. Speaking to Entertain – The entertaining speaker tries to get the members of an audience to relax, smile, perhaps laugh, and generally enjoy themselves.

Determine Your Specific Purpose Unlike the general purpose, the specific purpose of your speech must be decided by you alone, because it depends directly on the topic you choose. Identify a Behavioral Objective – To arrive at a specific purpose for your speech, you must think about what you want your audience to be able to do at the end of your speech.

Determine Your Specific Purpose (continued) Formulate the Specific Purpose – Specific purpose statements begin with the same 12 words: “At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to…” The next word should be a verb that names an observable, measurable action. Use verbs such as list, explain, describe, or write. Do not use words such as know, understand, or believe.

Determine Your Specific Purpose (continued) The following guidelines will help you prepare your statement of purpose: In wording your specific purpose, use verbs that refer to observable or measurable behavior. Limit the specific purpose to a single idea. Make sure your specific purpose reflects the interests, expectations, and knowledge level of your audience.

Develop Your Central Idea The central idea is a one-sentence summary of your speech. The central idea (sometimes called the thesis), like the purpose statement, restates the speech topic. The central idea should be a complete declarative sentence – not a question, phrase, or clause. Use direct, specific language rather than qualifiers and vague generalities. The central idea should be a single idea. The central idea should reflect consideration of the audience.

Generate and Preview Your Main Points Write the central idea at the top of a clean sheet of paper. Then, ask these three questions: Does the central idea have logical divisions? (These may be indicated by such phrases as “three types” or “four means.”) Can you think of several reasons why the central idea is true? Can you support your central idea with a series of steps or a chronological progression? Once you have generated your main ideas, you can add a preview of those main ideas to your central idea to produce a blueprint for your speech. Preview the ideas in the same order you plan to discuss them.

Chapter 8 Recap Selecting a Topic Is the topic relevant and important to your audience? How much does your audience know about the topic? Is the topic important to your audience? Is the topic appropriate for the occasion? Is the topic of interest and importance to you?

Chapter 8 Recap (continued) Developing Your Central Idea Is your central idea a complete, declarative statement? Does it use direct, specific language? Is it a single idea? Does it reflect consideration of your audience?

Ethics Question You have decided on a topic for your speech and have been conducting a great deal of research. However, you have not been able to find enough material to support your speech. Is it ethical to create supporting material or distort facts to make your point if you have been unable to find what you need? Explain your answer.