Slide 2 Attention-Getter/Link to Audience: Your attention-getter or link to audience should grab your audience’s attention and draw them in to your argument. It should make them want to continue listening to your speech because they want to know what else you have to say. Thesis Statement: A thesis statement is a sentence that summarizes the main argument of your speech. A thesis should be arguable, meaning that someone else could argue against it. It should be something you believe in and are willing/able to provide evidence for. Speech Preview: In this section, you will give your audience a glimpse of the two claims which will make up your body paragraphs. Aim for one sentence that covers both of your claims.

ONE rhetorical strategy: ethos, logos, and/or pathos. Slide 3 NOTE: Each body paragraph (first claim and second claim) should use at least ONE rhetorical strategy: ethos, logos, and/or pathos. Claim: Your claim should be the topic sentence of your paragraph, and it should attempt to prove your thesis. This should be one sentence. Evidence: You will now need evidence to support the claim you just made. You should use statistics, facts, specific examples, quotations, or other types of convincing data. This is where you really want to convince your audience that you know what you’re talking about because you’ve done your research. You only need one sentence for this section, but you may use more if it strengthens your paragraph. Commentary: Now you need to personally “comment” on how or why your evidence supports your claim. In other words, your commentary should explain to the audience why your evidence is important. You only need one sentence for this section, but you may use more if it strengthens your paragraph.

ONE rhetorical strategy: ethos, logos, and/or pathos. Slide 4 NOTE: Each body paragraph (first claim and second claim) should use at least ONE rhetorical strategy: ethos, logos, and/or pathos. Claim: Your claim should be the topic sentence of your paragraph, and it should attempt to prove your thesis. This should be one sentence. Evidence: You will now need evidence to support the claim you just made. You should use statistics, facts, specific examples, quotations, or other types of convincing data. This is where you really want to convince your audience that you know what you’re talking about because you’ve done your research. You only need one sentence for this section, but you may use more if it strengthens your paragraph. Commentary: Now you need to personally “comment” on how or why your evidence supports your claim. In other words, your commentary should explain to the audience why your evidence is important. You only need one sentence for this section, but you may use more if it strengthens your paragraph.

Slide 5 Restate Thesis: Your conclusion needs to echo your introduction, beginning with a restatement of your thesis. This doesn’t mean that you should copy and paste your thesis or even change a few words; this needs to be a drastically different way of stating your thesis. Restate Claims: Now, you need to summarize your two claims (the first sentences of your body paragraphs) to remind your audience how you supported (and “proved”) your thesis. Call to Action: This will be the final sentence of your speech. It should be strong and bold, and it should urge or encourage your audience to take action based on what you hopefully just convinced them to believe.

Slide 6 While you’re researching your topic, write down any ideas you have about it here. This section is only for you and will not be a part of your final speech. You may write down potential claims (main points) that you could use, as well as evidence you could use to support these claims. The more ideas you write down now, the easier it will be to narrow them down to find the best two claims (which you will use for your body paragraphs) later. You may also use this page to create a rough outline of your speech, if that’s helpful to you.