importance of speech writing outline

How to Write an Effective Speech Outline: A Step-by-Step Guide

• The Speaker Lab
• March 8, 2024

Table of Contents

Mastering the art of speaking starts with crafting a stellar speech outline. A well-structured outline not only clarifies your message but also keeps your audience locked in.

In this article, you’ll learn how to mold outlines for various speech types, weaving in research that resonates and transitions that keep listeners on track. We’ll also show you ways to spotlight crucial points and manage the clock so every second counts. When it’s time for final prep, we’ve got smart tips for fine-tuning your work before stepping into the spotlight.

Understanding the Structure of a Speech Outline

An effective speech outline is like a map for your journey as a speaker, guiding you from start to finish. Think of it as the blueprint that gives shape to your message and ensures you hit all the right notes along the way.

Tailoring Your Outline for Different Speech Types

Different speeches have different goals: some aim to persuade, others inform or celebrate. Each type demands its own structure in an outline. For instance, a persuasive speech might highlight compelling evidence while an informative one focuses on clear explanations. Crafting your outline with precision means adapting it to fit these distinct objectives.

Incorporating Research and Supporting Data

Your credibility hinges on solid research and data that back up your claims. When writing your outline, mark the places where you’ll incorporate certain pieces of research or data. Every stat you choose should serve a purpose in supporting your narrative arc. And remember to balance others’ research with your own unique insights. After all, you want your work to stand out, not sound like someone else’s.

The Role of Transitions in Speech Flow

Slick transitions are what turn choppy ideas into smooth storytelling—think about how bridges connect disparate land masses seamlessly. They’re not just filler; they carry listeners from one thought to another while maintaining momentum.

Incorporate transitions that feel natural yet keep people hooked. To keep things smooth, outline these transitions ahead of time so nothing feels left up to chance during delivery.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Outline

To make certain points pop off the page—and stage—you’ll need strategies beyond bolding text or speaking louder. Use repetition wisely or pause strategically after delivering something significant. Rather than go impromptu, plan out what points you want to emphasize before you hit the stage.

Timing Your Speech Through Your Outline

A watchful eye on timing ensures you don’t overstay—or undercut—your moment under the spotlight. The rhythm set by pacing can be pre-determined through practice runs timed against sections marked clearly in outlines. Practice will help ensure that your grand finale isn’t cut short by surprise.

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Depending on the type of speech you’re giving, your speech outline will vary. The key ingredients—introduction, body, and conclusion—are always there, but nuances like tone or message will change with each speaking occasion.

Persuasive Speeches: Convincing With Clarity

When outlining a persuasive speech, arrange your arguments from strong to strongest. The primacy effect works wonders here, so make sure to start off with a strong point. And just when they think they’ve heard it all, hit them with an emotional story that clinches the deal.

You might start by sharing startling statistics about plastic pollution before pivoting to how individuals can make a difference. Back this up with data on successful recycling programs which demonstrate tangible impact, a technique that turns facts into fuel for action.

Informative Speeches: Educating Without Overwhelming

An informative speech shouldn’t feel like drinking from a fire hose of facts and figures. Instead, lay out clear subtopics in your outline and tie them together with succinct explanations—not unlike stepping stones across a stream of knowledge.

If you’re talking about breakthroughs in renewable energy technology, use bullet points to highlight different innovations then expand upon their potential implications one at a time so the audience can follow along without getting lost in technical jargon or complexity.

Ceremonial Speeches: Creating Moments That Matter

In a ceremonial speech you want to capture emotion. Accordingly, your outline should feature personal anecdotes and quotes that resonate on an emotional level. However, make sure to maintain brevity because sometimes less really is more when celebrating milestones or honoring achievements.

Instead of just going through a hero’s whole life story, share the powerful tales of how they stepped up in tough times. This approach hits home for listeners, letting them feel the impact these heroes have had on their communities and sparking an emotional bond.

Incorporating Research in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting a speech, the backbone of your credibility lies in solid research and data. But remember, it’s not just about piling on the facts. It’s how you weave them into your narrative that makes listeners sit up and take notice.

Selecting Credible Sources

Finding trustworthy sources is like going on a treasure hunt where not all that glitters is gold. To strike real gold, aim for academic journals or publications known for their rigorous standards. Google Scholar or industry-specific databases are great places to start your search. Be picky. Your audience can tell when you’ve done your homework versus when you’ve settled for less-than-stellar intel.

You want to arm yourself with evidence so compelling that even skeptics start nodding along. A well-chosen statistic from a reputable study does more than decorate your point—it gives it an ironclad suit of armor.

Organizing Information Effectively

Your outline isn’t just a roadmap; think of it as scaffolding that holds up your argument piece by piece. Start strong with an eye-opening factoid to hook your audience right off the bat because first impressions matter—even in speeches.

To keep things digestible, group related ideas together under clear subheadings within your outline. Stick to presenting data that backs up each key idea without wandering down tangential paths. That way, everyone stays on track.

Making Data Relatable

Sure, numbers don’t lie but they can be hard to connect to. If you plan on using stats in your speech, make them meaningful by connecting them to relatable scenarios or outcomes people care about deeply. For instance, if you’re talking health statistics, relate them back to someone’s loved ones or local hospitals. By making the personal connection for your audience, you’ll get their attention.

The trick is using these nuggets strategically throughout your talk, not dumping them all at once but rather placing each one carefully where its impact will be greatest.

Imagine your speech as a road trip. Without smooth roads and clear signs, the journey gets bumpy, and passengers might miss the scenery along the way. That’s where transitions come in. They’re like your speech’s traffic signals guiding listeners from one point to another.

Crafting Seamless Bridges Between Ideas

Transitions are more than just linguistic filler. They’re strategic connectors that carry an audience smoothly through your narrative. Start by using phrases like “on top of this” or “let’s consider,” which help you pivot naturally between points without losing momentum.

To weave these seamlessly into your outline, map out each major turn beforehand to ensure no idea is left stranded on a tangent.

Making Use of Transitional Phrases Wisely

Be cautious: overusing transitional phrases can clutter up your speech faster than rush hour traffic. Striking a balance is key—think about how often you’d want to see signposts on a highway. Enough to keep you confident but not so many that it feels overwhelming.

Pick pivotal moments for transitions when shifting gears from one major topic to another or introducing contrasting information. A little direction at critical junctures keeps everyone onboard and attentive.

Leveraging Pauses as Transition Tools

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words, and pauses are powerful tools for transitioning thoughts. A well-timed pause lets ideas resonate and gives audiences time to digest complex information before moving forward again.

This approach also allows speakers some breathing room themselves—the chance to regroup mentally before diving into their next point with renewed vigor.

Connecting Emotional Threads Throughout Your Speech

Last but not least, don’t forget emotional continuity, that intangible thread pulling heartstrings from start-to-finish. Even if topics shift drastically, maintaining an underlying emotional connection ensures everything flows together cohesively within the larger tapestry of your message.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting your speech outline, shine a spotlight on what matters most so that your audience doesn’t miss your key points.

Bold and Italicize for Impact

You wouldn’t whisper your punchline in a crowded room. Similarly, why let your main ideas get lost in a sea of text? Use bold or italics to give those lines extra weight. This visual cue signals importance, so when you glance at your notes during delivery, you’ll know to emphasize those main ideas.

Analogies That Stick

A good analogy is like super glue—it makes anything stick. Weave them into your outline and watch as complex concepts become crystal clear. But remember: choose analogies that resonate with your target audience’s experiences or interests. The closer home it hits, the longer it lingers.

The Power of Repetition

If something’s important say it again. And maybe even once more after that—with flair. Repetition can feel redundant on paper, but audiences often need to hear critical messages several times before they take root.

Keep these strategies in mind when you’re ready to dive into your outline. You’ll transform those core ideas into memorable insights before you know it.

Picture this: you’re delivering a speech, and just as you’re about to reach the end, your time’s up. Ouch! Let’s make sure that never happens. Crafting an outline is not only about what to say but also how long to say it.

Finding Balance in Section Lengths

An outline isn’t just bullet points; it’s a roadmap for pacing. When outlining your speech, make sure to decide how much time you’d like to give each of your main points. You might even consider setting specific timers during rehearsals to get a real feel for each part’s duration. Generally speaking, you should allot a fairly equal amount of time for each to keep things balanced.

The Magic of Mini Milestones

To stay on track, a savvy speaker will mark time stamps or “mini milestones” on their outline. These time stamps give the speaker an idea of where should be in their speech by the time, say, 15 minutes has passed. If by checkpoint three you should be 15 minutes deep and instead you’re hitting 20 minutes, it’s time to pick up the pace or trim some fat from earlier sections. This approach helps you stay on track without having to glance at the clock after every sentence.

Utilizing Visual Aids and Multimedia in Your Outline

Pictures speak louder than words, especially when you’re on stage. Think about it: How many times have you sat through a presentation that felt like an eternity of endless bullet points? Now imagine if instead, there was a vibrant image or a short video clip to break up the monotony—it’s game-changing. That’s why integrating visual aids and multimedia into your speech outline isn’t just smart. It’s crucial for keeping your audience locked in.

Choosing Effective Visuals

Selecting the right visuals is not about flooding your slides with random images but finding those that truly amplify your message. Say you’re talking about climate change. In this case, a graph showing rising global temperatures can hit hard and illustrate your chosen statistic clearly. Remember, simplicity reigns supreme; one powerful image will always trump a cluttered collage.

Multimedia Magic

Videos are another ace up your sleeve. They can deliver testimonials more powerfully than quotes or transport viewers to places mere descriptions cannot reach. But be warned—timing is everything. Keep clips short and sweet because no one came to watch a movie—they came to hear you . You might highlight innovations using short video snippets, ensuring these moments serve as compelling punctuations rather than pauses in your narrative.

The Power of Sound

We often forget audio when we think multimedia, yet sound can evoke emotions and set tones subtly yet effectively. Think striking chords for dramatic effect or nature sounds for storytelling depth during environmental talks.

Audiences crave experiences they’ll remember long after they leave their seats. With well-chosen visuals and gripping multimedia elements woven thoughtfully into every section of your speech outline, you’ll give them exactly that.

Rehearsing with Your Speech Outline

When you’re gearing up to take the stage, your speech outline is a great tool to practice with. With a little preparation, you’ll give a performance that feels both natural and engaging.

Familiarizing Yourself with Content

To start off strong, get cozy with your outline’s content. Read through your outline aloud multiple times until the flow of words feels smooth. This will help make sure that when showtime comes around, you can deliver those lines without tripping over tough transitions or complex concepts.

Beyond mere memorization, understanding the heart behind each point allows you to speak from a place of confidence. You know this stuff—you wrote it. Now let’s bring that knowledge front and center in an authentic way.

Mimicking Presentation Conditions

Rehearsing under conditions similar to those expected during the actual presentation pays off big time. Are you going to stand or roam about? Will there be a podium? Think about these details and simulate them during rehearsal because comfort breeds confidence—and we’re all about boosting confidence.

If technology plays its part in your talk, don’t leave them out of rehearsals either. The last thing anyone needs is tech trouble during their talk.

Perfecting Pace Through Practice

Pacing matters big time when speaking. Use timed rehearsals to nail down timing. Adjust speed as needed but remember: clarity trumps velocity every single time.

You want people hanging onto every word, which is hard to do if you’re talking so fast they can barely make out what you’re saying. During rehearsals, find balance between pacing and comprehension; they should go hand-in-hand.

Finalizing Your Speech Outline for Presentation

You’ve poured hours into crafting your speech, shaping each word and idea with precision. Now, it’s time to tighten the nuts and bolts. Finalizing your outline isn’t just about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. It’s about making sure your message sticks like a perfectly thrown dart.

Reviewing Your Content for Clarity

Your first task is to strip away any fluff that might cloud your core message. Read through every point in your outline with a critical eye. Think of yourself as an editor on a mission to cut out anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. Ask yourself if you can explain each concept clearly without needing extra words or complex jargon. If not, simplify.

Strengthening Your Argument

The meat of any good presentation lies in its argument, the why behind what you’re saying. Strengthen yours by ensuring every claim has iron-clad backing—a stat here, an expert quote there. Let this be more than just facts tossed at an audience; weave them into stories they’ll remember long after they leave their seats.

Crafting Memorable Takeaways

Audiences may forget details but never how you made them feel—or think. Embed memorable takeaways throughout your outline so when folks step out into fresh air post-talk, they carry bits of wisdom with them.

This could mean distilling complex ideas down to pithy phrases or ending sections with punchy lines that resonate. It’s these golden nuggets people will mine for later reflection.

FAQs on Speech Outlines

How do you write a speech outline.

To craft an outline, jot down your main ideas, arrange them logically, and add supporting points beneath each.

What are the 3 main parts of a speech outline?

An effective speech has three core parts: an engaging introduction, a content-rich body, and a memorable conclusion.

What are the three features of a good speech outline?

A strong outline is clear, concise, and structured in logical sequence to maximize impact on listeners.

What is a working outline for a speech?

A working outline serves as your blueprint while preparing. It’s detailed but flexible enough to adjust as needed.

Crafting a speech outline is like drawing your map before the journey. It starts with structure and flows into customization for different types of talks. Remember, research and evidence are your compass—they guide you to credibility. Transitions act as bridges, connecting one idea to another smoothly. Key points? They’re landmarks so make them shine.

When delivering your speech, keep an eye on the clock and pace yourself so that every word counts.

Multimedia turns a good talk into a great show. Rehearsing polishes that gem of a presentation until it sparkles.

Last up: fine-tuning your speech outline means you step out confident, ready to deliver something memorable because this isn’t just any roadmap—it’s yours.

• Last Updated: March 5, 2024

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How To Write A Speech Outline

Do you have a speech coming up soon, but don’t know where to start when it comes to writing it? 

Don’t worry. 

The best way to start writing your speech is to first write an outline.

While to some, an outline may seem like an unnecessary extra step — after giving hundreds of speeches in my own career, I can assure you that first creating a speech outline is truly the best way to design a strong presentation that your audience will remember.

Should I Write A Speech Outline?

You might be wondering if you should really bother with a preparation outline. Is a speaking outline worth your time, or can you get through by just keeping your supporting points in mind?

Again, I highly recommend that all speakers create an outline as part of their speechwriting process. This step is an extremely important way to organize your main ideas and all the various elements of your speech in a way that will command your audience’s attention.

Good public speaking teachers will agree that an outline—even if it’s a rough outline—is the easiest way to propel you forward to a final draft of an organized speech that audience members will love.

Here are a few of the biggest benefits of creating an outline before diving straight into your speech.

Gain More Focus

By writing an outline, you’ll be able to center the focus of your speech where it belongs—on your thesis statement and main idea.

Remember, every illustration, example, or piece of information you share in your speech should be relevant to the key message you’re trying to deliver. And by creating an outline, you can ensure that everything relates back to your main point.

Keep Things Organized

Your speech should have an overall organizational pattern so that listeners will be able to follow your thoughts. You want your ideas to be laid out in a logical order that’s easy to track, and for all of the speech elements to correspond.

An outline serves as a structure or foundation for your speech, allowing you to see all of your main points laid out so you can easily rearrange them into an order that makes sense for easy listening.

Create Smoother Transitions

A speaking outline helps you create smoother transitions between the different parts of your speech.

When you know what’s happening before and after a certain section, it will be easy to accurately deliver transitional statements that make sense in context. Instead of seeming like several disjointed ideas, the parts of your speech will naturally flow into each other.

Save Yourself Time

An outline is an organization tool that will save you time and effort when you get ready to write the final draft of your speech. When you’re working off of an outline to write your draft, you can overcome “blank page syndrome.”

It will be much easier to finish the entire speech because the main points and sub-points are already clearly laid out for you.

Your only job is to finish filling everything in.

Preparing to Write A Speech Outline

Now that you know how helpful even the most basic of speech outlines can be in helping you write the best speech, here’s how to write the best outline for your next public speaking project.

How Long Should A Speech Outline Be?

The length of your speech outline will depend on the length of your speech. Are you giving a quick two-minute talk or a longer thirty-minute presentation? The length of your outline will reflect the length of your final speech.

Another factor that will determine the length of your outline is how much information you actually want to include in the outline. For some speakers, bullet points of your main points might be enough. In other cases, you may feel more comfortable with a full-sentence outline that offers a more comprehensive view of your speech topic.

The length of your outline will also depend on the type of outline you’re using at any given moment.

Types of Outlines

Did you know there are several outline types? Each type of outline is intended for a different stage of the speechwriting process. Here, we’re going to walk through:

• Working outlines
• Full-sentence outlines
• Speaking outlines

Working Outline

Think of your working outline as the bare bones of your speech—the scaffolding you’re using as you just start to build your presentation. To create a working outline, you will need:

• A speech topic
• An idea for the “hook” in your introduction
• A thesis statement
• 3-5 main points (each one should make a primary claim that you support with references)
• A conclusion

Each of your main points will also have sub-points, but we’ll get to those in a later step.

The benefit of a working outline is that it’s easy to move things around. If you think your main points don’t make sense in a certain order—or that one point needs to be scrapped entirely—it’s no problem to make the needed changes. You won’t be deleting any of your prior hard work because you haven’t really done any work yet.

Once you are confident in this “skeleton outline,” you can move on to the next, where you’ll start filling in more detailed information.

Full-sentence outline

As the name implies, your full-sentence outline contains full sentences. No bullet points or scribbled, “talk about x, y, z here.” Instead, research everything you want to include and write out the information in full sentences.

Why is this important? A full-sentence outline helps ensure that you are:

• Including all of the information your audience needs to know
• Organizing the material well
• Staying within any time constraints you’ve been given

Don’t skip this important step as you plan your speech.

Speaking outline

The final type of outline you’ll need is a speaking outline. When it comes to the level of detail, this outline is somewhere in between your working outline and a full-sentence outline. 

You’ll include the main parts of your speech—the introduction, main points, and conclusion. But you’ll add a little extra detail about each one, too. This might be a quote that you don’t want to misremember or just a few words to jog your memory of an anecdote to share.

When you actually give your speech, this is the outline you will use. It might seem like it makes more sense to use your detailed full-sentence outline up on stage. However, if you use this outline, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of reading your speech—which is not what you want to do. You’ll likely sound much more natural if you use your speaking outline.

How to Write A Speech Outline

We’ve covered the types of outlines you’ll work through as you write your speech. Now, let’s talk more about how you’ll come up with the information to add to each outline type.

Pick A Topic

Before you can begin writing an outline, you have to know what you’re going to be speaking about. In some situations, you may have a topic given to you—especially if you are in a public speaking class and must follow the instructor’s requirements. But in many cases, speakers must come up with their own topic for a speech.

Consider your audience and what kind of educational, humorous, or otherwise valuable information they need to hear. Your topic and message should of course be highly relevant to them. If you don’t know your audience well enough to choose a topic, that’s a problem.

Your audience is your first priority. If possible, however, it’s also helpful to choose a topic that appeals to you. What’s something you’re interested in and/or knowledgeable about? 

It will be much easier to write a speech on a topic you care about rather than one you don’t. If you can come up with a speech topic that appeals to your audience and is interesting to you, that’s the sweet spot for writing and delivering an unforgettable speech.

Write A Thesis Statement

The next step is to ask yourself two important questions:

• What do you want your audience to take away from your speech?
• How will you communicate this main message?

The key message of your speech can also be called your “thesis statement.”

Essentially, this is your main point—the most important thing you hope to get across.

You’ll most likely actually say your thesis statement verbatim during your speech. It should come at the end of your introduction. Then, you’ll spend the rest of your talk expanding on this statement, sharing more information that will prove the statement is true.

Consider writing your thesis statement right now—before you begin researching or outlining your speech. If you can refer back to this statement as you get to work, it will be much easier to make sure all of the elements correspond with each other throughout your speech.

An example of a good thesis statement might read like this:

• Going for a run every day is good for your health.
• It’s important to start saving for retirement early.
• The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on many small businesses.

The second part of this step is to know how you will communicate your main message . For example, if your key point is that running improves physical health, you might get this across by:

• Citing scientific studies that proved running is good for your health
• Sharing your personal experience of going for a run every day

Your goal is for all of your sub-points and supporting material to reflect and support your main point. At the end of the speech, your audience should be appropriately motivated, educated, or convinced that your thesis statement is true.

Once you have a topic for your presentation and a good thesis statement, you can move on to the bulk of the outline.

The first part of your speech is the introduction, which should include a strong “hook” to grab the attention of your audience. There are endless directions you can go to create this hook. Don’t be afraid to get creative! You might try:

• Telling a joke
• Sharing an anecdote
• Using a prop or visual aid
• Asking a question (rhetorical or otherwise)

These are just a few examples of hooks that can make your audience sit up and take notice.

The rest of your introduction shouldn’t be too long—as a general rule of thumb, you want your introduction to take up about 10% of your entire speech. But there are a few other things you need to say.

Briefly introduce yourself and who you are to communicate why the audience should trust you. Mention why you’re giving this speech. 

Explain that you’re going to cover X main points—you can quickly list them—and include your thesis statement. 

You could also mention how long your speech will be and say what your audience will take away from it (“At the end of our 15 minutes together today, you’ll understand how to write a resume”).

Then smoothly transition into the body of your speech.

Next, you’ll write the body of your speech. This is the bulk of your presentation. It will include your main points and their sub-points. Here’s how this should look:

Your subpoints might be anecdotes, visual aids, or studies. However you decide to support your main points, make them memorable and engaging. Nobody wants to sit and listen to you recite a dry list of facts.

Remember, the amount of detail you include right now will depend on which outline you’re on. Your first outline, or working outline, doesn’t have to include every last little detail. Your goal is to briefly encapsulate all of the most important elements in your speech. 

But beyond that, you don’t need to write down every last detail or example right now. You don’t even have to write full sentences at this point. That will come in your second outline and other future drafts.

Your conclusion should concisely summarize the main points of your speech. You could do this by saying, “To recap as I finish up, today we learned…” and reiterate those primary points.

It’s also good to leave the audience with something to think about and/or discuss. Consider asking them a question that expands on your speech—something they can turn over in their minds the rest of the day. 

Or share one final story or quote that will leave them with lasting inspiration. Bonus points if your conclusion circles back around to your introduction or hook.

In other cases, you may want to end with a call to action. Are you promoting something? Make sure your audience knows what it is, how it will benefit them, and where they can find it. Or, your CTA might be as simple as plugging your Twitter handle and asking listeners to follow you.

Finally, don’t forget to say thank you to your audience for taking the time to listen.

Additional Helpful Speechwriting Tips

Your speech outline is important, but it’s not the only thing that goes into preparing to give a presentation. Take a look at these additional tips I recommend to help your speech succeed.

Use Visual Aids

Visual aids are a good way to make sure your audience stays engaged—that they listen closely, and remember what you said. Visual aids serve as an attention-getter for people who may not be listening closely. These aids also ensure that your points are sufficiently supported.

You might choose to incorporate any of the following in your talk:

• A PowerPoint presentation
• A chart or graph
• A whiteboard or blackboard
• A flip chart
• A prop that you hold or interact with

Don’t overdo it. Remember, your speech is the main thing you’re presenting. Any visual aids are just that—aids. They’re a side dish, not the main entrée. Select one primary type of aid for your speech.

If you decide to include visual aids, use your speaking outline to make a note of which items you will incorporate where. You may want to place these items on your working outline. They should definitely be on your full-sentence outline.

Keep Your Audience Engaged

As you write and practice your speech, make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your audience engaged the entire time. We’ve already talked about including stories and jokes, using visual aids, or asking questions to vary your talk and make it more interesting.

Your body language is another important component of audience engagement. Your posture should be straight yet relaxed, with shoulders back and feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your body open to the audience.

Make eye contact with different people in the audience. Incorporate hand gestures that emphasize certain points or draw attention to your visual aids.

Don’t be afraid to move around whatever space you have. Movement is especially helpful to indicate a clearer transition from one part of your speech to another. And smile! A simple smile goes a long way to help your audience relax.

Practice Your Speech

When you’re done with speechwriting, it’s time to get in front of the mirror and practice. Pay attention to your body language, gestures, and eye contact. 

Practice working with any visual aids or props you will be using. It’s also helpful to make a plan B—for instance, what will you do if the projector isn’t working and you can’t use your slides?

Ask a friend or family member if you can rehearse your speech for them. When you’re through, ask them questions about which parts held their attention and which ones didn’t.

You should also use your speaking outline and whatever other notes you’ll be using in your speech itself. Get used to referring to this outline as you go. But remember, don’t read anything verbatim (except maybe a quote). Your speaking outline is simply a guide to remind you where you’re going.

Learn to Speak Like A Leader

There’s a lot of work that goes into writing a speech outline. That’s undeniable. But an outline is the best way to organize and plan your presentation. When your speech outline is ready, it will be a breeze to write and then present your actual speech.

If you’re looking for more help learning how to become a strong public speaker, I recommend my free 5 Minute Speech Formula . This will help you start writing your speech and turn any idea into a powerful message.

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About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

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7.4 Outlining Your Speech

Click below to play an audio file of this section of the chapter sponsored by the Women for OSU Partnering to Impact grant.

Most speakers and audience members would agree that an organized speech is both easier to present as well as more persuasive. Public speaking teachers especially believe in the power of organizing your speech, which is why they encourage (and often require) that you create an outline for your speech. Outlines, or textual arrangements of all the various elements of a speech, are a very common way of organizing a speech before it is delivered. Most extemporaneous speakers keep their outlines with them during the speech as a way to ensure that they do not leave out any important elements and to keep them on track. Writing an outline is also important to the speechwriting process since doing so forces the speakers to think about the main ideas, known as main points, and subpoints, the examples they wish to include, and the ways in which these elements correspond to one another. In short, the outline functions both as an organization tool and as a reference for delivering a speech.

Outline Types

There are two types of outlines, the preparation outline and the speaking outline.

Preparation Outline

The first outline you will write is called the preparation outline . Also called a skeletal, working, practice, or rough outline, the preparation outline is used to work through the various components of your speech in an organized format. Stephen E. Lucas (2004) put it simply: “The preparation outline is just what its name implies—an outline that helps you prepare the speech.” When writing the preparation outline, you should focus on  finalizing the specific purpose and thesis statement, logically ordering your main points, deciding where supporting material should be included, and refining the overall organizational pattern of your speech. As you write the preparation outline, you may find it necessary to rearrange your points or to add or subtract supporting material. You may also realize that some of your main points are sufficiently supported while others are lacking. The final draft of your preparation outline should include full sentences. In most cases, however, the preparation outline is reserved for planning purposes only and is translated into a speaking outline before you deliver the speech. Keep in mind though, even a full sentence outline is not an essay.

Speaking Outline

A speaking outline is the outline you will prepare for use when delivering the speech. The speaking outline is much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts (Beebe & Beebe, 2003). The words or phrases used on the speaking outline should briefly encapsulate all of the information needed to prompt the speaker to accurately deliver the speech. Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline, in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. Because it uses just words or short phrases, and not full sentences, the speaking outline can easily be transferred to index cards that can be referenced during a speech. However, check with your instructor regarding what you will be allowed to use for your speech.

Components of Outlines

The main components of the outlines are the main points, subordination and coordination, parallelism, division, and the connection of main points.

Main Points

Main points are the main ideas in the speech. In other words, the main points are what your audience should remember from your talk, and they are phrased as single, declarative sentences. These are never phrased as a question, nor can they be a quote or form of citation. Any supporting material you have will be put in your outline as a subpoint. Since this is a public speaking class, your instructor will decide how long your speeches will be, but in general, you can assume that no speech will be longer than 10 minutes in length. Given that alone, we can make one assumption. All speeches will fall between 2 to 5 main points based simply on length. If you are working on an outline and you have ten main points, something is wrong, and you need to revisit your ideas to see how you need to reorganize your points.

All main points are preceded by Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). Subpoints are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), then Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). You can subordinate further than this. Speak with your instructor regarding his or her specific instructions. Each level of subordination is also differentiated from its predecessor by indenting a few spaces. Indenting makes it easy to find your main points, subpoints, and the supporting points and examples below them.

Let’s work on understanding how to take main points and break them into smaller ideas by subordinating them further and further as we go by using the following outline example:

Topic : Dog

Specific Purpose : To inform my audience about characteristics of dogs

Thesis : There are many types of dogs that individuals can select from before deciding which would make the best family pet.

Preview : First, I will describe the characteristics of large breed dogs, and then I will discuss characteristics of small breed dogs.

I.     First, let’s look at the characteristics of large breed dogs      A.     Some large breed dogs need daily activity.      B.     Some large breed dogs are dog friendly.      C.     Some large breed dogs drool.           1.     If you are particularly neat, you may not want one of these.               a.     Bloodhounds drool the most.                   1)     After eating is one of the times drooling is bad.                   2)     The drooling is horrible after they drink, so beware!               b.    English bloodhounds drool a lot as well.           2.     If you live in an apartment, these breeds could pose a problem. II.    Next, let’s look at the characteristics of small breed dogs.      A.     Some small breed dogs need daily activity.      B.     Some small breed dogs are dog friendly.      C.     Some small breed dogs are friendly to strangers.           1.    Welsh Terriers love strangers.               a.     They will jump on people.               b.     They will wag their tails and nuzzle.           2.    Beagles love strangers.           3.    Cockapoos also love strangers.

Subordination and Coordination

You should have noticed that as ideas were broken down, or subordinated, there was a hierarchy to the order. To check your outline for coherence, think of the outline as a staircase. All of the points that are beneath and on a diagonal to the points above them are subordinate points. So using the above example, points A, B, and C dealt with characteristics of large breed dogs, and those points are all subordinate to main point I. Similarly, points 1 and 2 under point C both dealt with drool, so those are subordinate. This is the subordination of points. If we had discussed food under point C, you would know that something didn’t make sense. You will also see that there is coordination of points. As part of the hierarchy, coordination simply means that all of the numbers or letters should represent the same idea. In this example, A, B, and C were all characteristics, so those are all coordinate to each other. Had C been “German Shepherd,” then the outline would have been incorrect because that is a type of dog, not a characteristic.

Parallelism

Another important rule in outlining is known as parallelism . This means that when possible, you begin your sentences in a similar way, using a similar grammatical structure. For example, in the previous example on dogs, some of the sentences began “some large breed dogs.” This type of structure adds clarity to your speaking. Students often worry that parallelism will sound boring. It’s actually the opposite! It adds clarity. However, if you had ten sentences in a row, we would never recommend you begin them all the same way. That is where transitions come into the picture and break up any monotony that could occur.

The principle of division is an important part of outlining. When you have a main point, you will be explaining it. You should have enough meaningful information that you can divide it into two subpoints A and B. If subpoint A has enough information that you can explain it, then it, too, should be able to be divided into two subpoints. So, division means this: If you have an A, then you need a B; if you have a 1, then you need a 2, and so on. What if you cannot divided the point? In a case like that you would simply incorporate the information in the point above.

Connecting Your Main Points

One way to connect points is to include transitional statements . Transitional statements are phrases or sentences that lead from one distinct- but-connected idea to another. They are used to alert the audience to the fact that you are getting ready to discuss something else. When moving from one point to another, your transition may just be a word or short phrase, known as a sign post. For instance, you might say “next,” “also,” or “moreover.” You can also enumerate your speech points and signal transitions by starting each point with “First,” “Second,” “Third,” et cetera. You might also incorporate non-verbal transitions, such as brief pauses or a movement across the stage. Pausing to look at your audience, stepping out from behind a podium, or even raising or lowering the rate of your voice can signal to audience members that you are transitioning.

Another way to incorporate transitions into your speech is by offering internal summaries and internal previews within your speech. Summaries provide a recap of what has already been said, making it more likely that audiences will remember the points that they hear again. For example, an internal summary may sound like this:

So far, we have seen that the pencil has a long and interesting history. We also looked at the many uses the pencil has that you may not have known about previously.

Like the name implies, internal previews lay out what will occur next in your speech. They are longer than transitional words or signposts .

Next, let us explore what types of pencils there are to pick from that will be best for your specific project.

Additionally, summaries can be combined with internal previews to alert audience members that the next point builds on those that they have already heard.

Now that I have told you about the history of the pencil, as well as its many uses, let’s look at what types of pencils you can pick from that might be best for your project.

It is important to understand that if you use an internal summary and internal preview between main points, you need to state a clear main point following the internal preview. Here’s an example integrating all of the points on the pencil:

I. First, let me tell you about the history of the pencil.

So far we have seen that the pencil has a long and interesting history. Now, we can look at how the pencil can be used (internal summary, signpost, and internal preview).

II. The pencil has many different uses, ranging from writing to many types of drawing.

Now that I have told you about the history of the pencil, as well as its many uses, let’s look at what types of pencils you can pick from that might be best for your project (Signpost, internal summary and preview).

III. There are over fifteen different types of pencils to choose from ranging in hardness and color.

Had Meg, the student mentioned in the opening anecdote, taken some time to work through the organizational process, it is likely her speech would have gone much more smoothly when she finished her introduction. It is very common for beginning speakers to spend a great deal of their time preparing catchy introductions, fancy PowerPoint presentations, and nice conclusions, which are all very important. However, the body of any speech is where the speaker must make effective arguments, provide helpful information, entertain, and the like, so it makes sense that speakers should devote a proportionate amount of time to these areas as well. By following this chapter, as well as studying the other chapters in this text, you should be prepared to craft interesting, compelling, and organized speeches.

used to work through the various components of your speech in an organized format

much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts

the main ideas in the speech

a hierarchy to the order of the points of a speech

all of the numbers or letters of points should represent the same idea

the repetition of grammatical structures that correspond in sound, meter, or meaning

if you have an A, then you need a B; if you have a 1, then you need a 2, and so on

phrases or sentences that lead from one distinct- but-connected idea to another

transition using just a word or short phrase

Introduction to Speech Communication Copyright © 2021 by Individual authors retain copyright of their work. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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105 Outlining Your Speech

Most speakers and audience members would agree that an organized speech is both easier to present as well as more persuasive. Public speaking teachers especially believe in the power of organizing your speech, which is why they encourage (and often require) that you create an outline for your speech.  Outlines , or textual arrangements of all the various elements of a speech, are a very common way of organizing a speech before it is delivered. Most extemporaneous speakers keep their outlines with them during the speech as a way to ensure that they do not leave out any important elements and to keep them on track. Writing an outline is also important to the speechwriting process since doing so forces the speakers to think about the main points and sub-points, the examples they wish to include, and the ways in which these elements correspond to one another. In short, the outline functions both as an organization tool and as a reference for delivering a speech.

Outline Types

“Alpena Mayor Carol Shafto Speaks at 2011 Michigan Municipal League Convention”  by Michigan Municipal League.  CC-BY-ND .

There are two types of outlines. The first outline you will write is called the  preparation outline . Also called a working, practice, or rough outline, the preparation outline is used to work through the various components of your speech in an inventive format. Stephen E. Lucas [1]  put it simply: “The preparation outline is just what its name implies—an outline that helps you prepare the speech” (p. 248). When writing the preparation outline, you should focus on finalizing the purpose and thesis statements, logically ordering your main points, deciding where supporting material should be included, and refining the overall organizational pattern of your speech. As you write the preparation outline, you may find it necessary to rearrange your points or to add or subtract supporting material. You may also realize that some of your main points are sufficiently supported while others are lacking. The final draft of your preparation outline should include full sentences, making up a complete script of your entire speech. In most cases, however, the preparation outline is reserved for planning purposes only and is translated into a speaking outline before you deliver the speech.

A  speaking outline  is the outline you will prepare for use when delivering the speech. The speaking outline is much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts. [2]  The words or phrases used on the speaking outline should briefly encapsulate all of the information needed to prompt the speaker to accurately deliver the speech. Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline, in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. Because it uses just words or short phrases, and not full sentences, the speaking outline can easily be transferred to index cards that can be referenced during a speech.

Outline Structure

Because an outline is used to arrange all of the elements of your speech, it makes sense that the outline itself has an organizational hierarchy and a common format. Although there are a variety of outline styles, generally they follow the same pattern. Main ideas are preceded by Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). Sub-points are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), then Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), and finally lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Each level of subordination is also differentiated from its predecessor by indenting a few spaces. Indenting makes it easy to find your main points, sub-points, and the supporting points and examples below them. Since there are three sections to your speech— introduction, body, and conclusion— your outline needs to include all of them. Each of these sections is titled and the main points start with Roman numeral I.

OUTLINE FORMATTING GUIDE

Title:  Organizing Your Public Speech

Topic:  Organizing public speeches

Specific Purpose Statement:  To inform listeners about the various ways in which they can organize their public speeches.

Thesis Statement:  A variety of organizational styles can used to organize public speeches.

Introduction Paragraph that gets the attention of the audience, establishes goodwill with the audience, states the purpose of the speech, and previews the speech and its structure.

(Transition)

I. Main point

A. Sub-point B. Sub-point C. Sub-point

1. Supporting point 2. Supporting point

Conclusion Paragraph that prepares the audience for the end of the speech, presents any final appeals, and summarizes and wraps up the speech.

Bibliography

In addition to these formatting suggestions, there are some additional elements that should be included at the beginning of your outline: the title, topic, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. These elements are helpful to you, the speechwriter, since they remind you what, specifically, you are trying to accomplish in your speech. They are also helpful to anyone reading and assessing your outline since knowing what you want to accomplish will determine how they perceive the elements included in your outline. Additionally, you should write out the transitional statements that you will use to alert audiences that you are moving from one point to another. These are included in parentheses between main points. At the end of the outlines, you should include bibliographic information for any outside resources you mention during the speech. These should be cited using whatever citations style your professor requires. The textbox entitled “Outline Formatting Guide” provides an example of the appropriate outline format.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. – Lao Tzu

Preparation Outline

This chapter contains the preparation and speaking outlines for a short speech the author of this chapter gave about how small organizations can work on issues related to climate change (see appendices). In this example, the title, specific purpose, thesis, and list of visual aids precedes the speech. Depending on your instructor’s requirements, you may need to include these details plus additional information. It is also a good idea to keep these details at the top of your document as you write the speech since they will help keep you on track to developing an organized speech that is in line with your specific purpose and helps prove your thesis. At the end of the chapter, in Appendix A, you can find a full length example of a Preparation (Full Sentence) Outline.

Speaking Outline

In Appendix B, the Preparation Outline is condensed into just a few short key words or phrases that will remind speakers to include all of their main points and supporting information. The introduction and conclusion are not included since they will simply be inserted from the Preparation Outline. It is easy to forget your catchy attention-getter or final thoughts you have prepared for your audience, so it is best to include the full sentence versions even in your speaking outline.

Using the Speaking Outline

“TAG speaks of others first”  by Texas Military Forces.  CC-BY-ND .

Once you have prepared the outline and are almost ready to give your speech, you should decide how you want to format your outline for presentation. Many speakers like to carry a stack of papers with them when they speak, but others are more comfortable with a smaller stack of index cards with the outline copied onto them. Moreover, speaking instructors often have requirements for how you should format the speaking outline. Whether you decide to use index cards or the printed outline, here are a few tips. First, write large enough so that you do not have to bring the cards or pages close to your eyes to read them. Second, make sure you have the cards/pages in the correct order and bound together in some way so that they do not get out of order. Third, just in case the cards/pages do get out of order (this happens too often!), be sure that you number each in the top right corner so you can quickly and easily get things organized. Fourth, try not to fiddle with the cards/pages when you are speaking. It is best to lay them down if you have a podium or table in front of you. If not, practice reading from them in front of a mirror. You should be able to look down quickly, read the text, and then return to your gaze to the audience.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein

• Lucas, Stephen E. (2004).  The art of public speaking  (8th edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.  ↵
• Beebe, S. A. & Beebe, S. J. (2003).  The public speaking handbook  (5th edition). Boston: Pearson.  ↵
• Chapter 8 Outlining Your Speech.  Authored by : Joshua Trey Barnett.  Provided by : University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN.  Located at :  http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html .  Project : The Public Speaking Project.  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Alpena Mayor Carol Shafto Speaks at 2011 Michigan Municipal League Convention.  Authored by : Michigan Municipal League.  Located at :  https://flic.kr/p/aunJMR .  License :  CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives
• TAG speaks of others first.  Authored by : Texas Military Forces.  Located at :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/texasmilitaryforces/5560449970/ .  License :  CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives

Outlining Your Speech Copyright © 2020 by Liza Long; Amy Minervini; and Joel Gladd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Rice Speechwriting

Mastering speech outlines: tips & examples, crafting a speech outline: tips & examples.

Crafting a speech can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. A well-crafted speech outline can make all the difference in helping you deliver your message effectively. In this blog, we’ll go over why a speech outline is so important and how to prepare for creating one. We’ll also provide a step-by-step guide on how to craft a compelling speech outline. From choosing a topic that resonates with your audience to constructing a strong thesis statement and developing engaging hooks, we’ve got you covered. Additionally, we’ll share tips on perfecting your speech outline and enhancing your delivery with visual aids. Whether you’re preparing for a business presentation or giving a keynote address , this blog will provide you with all the tools you need to deliver an impactful speech that leaves a lasting impression on your audience.

Understanding the Importance of a Speech Outline

Crafting a speech outline is crucial for effective public speaking. It ensures a clear, logical flow of ideas and helps in organizing the content of your public speech. By providing a roadmap for the entire speech, a preparation outline ensures that the main points are communicated clearly, helping you to stay focused and on track during your public speaking engagement. The part of your speech outline also serves as a visual aid, further enhancing the structuring of your thoughts and ideas, making it an essential part of your public speaking preparation.

Benefits of a Well-Crafted Speech Outline

Crafting a well-structured speech outline is essential for delivering a compelling public speech. It ensures a clear organizational pattern, aiding in capturing and maintaining the audience’s attention throughout the speech. By logically ordering the content, a well-crafted speech outline facilitates smooth transitions between key points, supporting subpoints, and transitional statements, thus enhancing the overall coherence of the speech. Moreover, it serves as a valuable organization tool, assisting in preparing a structured and impactful public speaking presentation. Therefore, dedicating time to the preparation outline is an integral part of any successful public speech, providing a roadmap for the seamless delivery of the content.

Structuring Thoughts and Ideas

Crafting a speech outline contributes to the seamless delivery of key points in public speaking. It aids in the preparation of the body of your speech, ensuring a coherent flow of ideas and serves as a preparation outline for each part of your speech. By effectively structuring the speech topic, the public speech outline ensures the logical organization of the main points and supports the overall organization and preparation of the speech’s content. The outline facilitates a well-structured and engaging presentation to the audience, enhancing the overall impact of your public speech.

Preparing to Craft a Speech Outline

Researching the topic thoroughly is paramount for preparing a comprehensive speech outline, enabling a well-structured and informative public speech. Determining the length of the speech is essential in deciding the depth and breadth of the preparation outline, ensuring that all key points are effectively covered. Recognizing the different types of speech outlines is integral to cater to the specific requirements and expectations of the audience. Considering the instructor’s guidelines is crucial in crafting a preparation outline that aligns with the given parameters. The process of preparing a speech outline involves strategically deciding on the overall organizational pattern of the speech, ensuring a logical flow and coherence throughout the presentation.

Researching Your Topic

Thoroughly researching the topic is crucial for crafting a well-structured speech outline. It enables the identification of key points and ensures the inclusion of accurate and credible information. Familiarity with the topic is essential for preparing a comprehensive outline, part of your speech preparation. Conducting extensive research is an integral part of gathering relevant information to form the foundation of a well-crafted public speech. By understanding the significance of in-depth research, you can ensure that your public speaking content is well-prepared and effectively delivered.

Deciding on the Length of Your Speech

When crafting a speech outline, one must consider the length of the speech as a crucial factor. The chosen length not only determines the overall organization of the outline but also influences its depth and structure. It plays a significant role in decision-making regarding the content to be included. Additionally, considering the attention span of the audience members is essential in determining the ideal length of the speech. The preparation outline needs to align with the selected length to ensure that the content is tailored appropriately for the intended duration.

Recognizing Different Types of Speech Outlines

Understanding the various options in organizing a public speech is crucial for delivering an impactful presentation. Identifying the most suitable outline for your topic is key, as it influences the entire preparation process and organization of the content. Becoming familiar with different types of public speaking outlines, such as a preparation outline or a speaking outline, enables you to structure your thoughts effectively. Selecting the right type of outline, such as preparation outline or speaking outline, ensures that each part of your speech, from the introduction to the conclusion, is well-organized and cohesive. This thoughtful consideration of different types of outlines ultimately enhances the overall delivery and reception of your public speech.

Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting a Speech Outline

Crafting a speech outline begins with selecting a captivating topic, followed by formulating a strong thesis statement. Integrating the speech topic’s keywords is essential, and the initial outline draft should encompass the main talking points. Moreover, organizing supporting points and subpoints is crucial in the preparation outline. Each of these steps contributes to the coherent structuring of thoughts and ideas for the public speech. Embracing this process as part of your speech preparation ensures that each segment becomes a seamless part of your speech. Through this careful planning, you can align your speech with your audience, whether it’s a presentation, a social media post, or a public speaking event.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

Selecting an engaging subject ensures sustained audience interest and involvement during the public speech. The preparation outline process commences with the choice of a captivating speech topic that resonates with the audience. A compelling topic facilitates the overall structure of the public speaking outline, ensuring coherence and relevance. The topic’s significance to the audience directly influences the preparation of the public speech outline, guiding the inclusion of impactful content. Crafting a well-organized public speech outline initiates with the deliberate selection of a topic that appeals to the audience

Constructing a Strong Thesis Statement

Constructing a strong thesis statement is essential for providing clear direction to the preparation outline of a speech. It forms the foundation of logical organization, encompassing the main point and guiding the arrangement of the speech outline. A well-constructed thesis statement ensures that the speech outline effectively captures the main ideas and supporting points, making it an integral part of any public speaking engagement. This process involves careful consideration of the audience’s interests and the overall relevance of the topic to ensure a comprehensive and engaging public speech. Incorporating the NLP terms “public speaking” and “preparation outline” enhances the development of a captivating thesis statement, making it a crucial part of constructing an effective speech outline.

Developing Engaging Hooks

Crafting a captivating speech outline begins with capturing the audience’s attention using engaging hooks. Anecdotes or props can be effectively utilized to create a compelling speech introduction that instantly grabs the audience’s interest. Moreover, incorporating key words and phrases strategically within the introduction can further pique the audience’s curiosity. It’s crucial that the first thing the audience hears is attention-grabbing, setting the tone for the entire speech. These engaging hooks are essential in ensuring the audience’s undivided attention right from the start, creating a strong foundation for the rest of the speech.

Building the Body of Your Speech

To keep the audience engaged, ensure the body of your speech is well-organized in a logical order. Smoothly transition between supporting points using transitional statements. Structuring main points effectively can be done by including subpoints and bullet points. Remember, the speaker’s body language is vital for maintaining the audience’s attention. Convey the topic effectively by including main points, supporting points, and subpoints in the body of your speech. Public speaking requires a well-structured body to effectively deliver the part of your speech that contains key information and ideas. At the end of the speech, it is important to summarize and wrap up the main points to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Successful public speeches on platforms like Facebook stem from thorough preparation outlines and a well-organized body.

Perfecting Your Speech Outline

Crafting a preparation outline is a crucial part of your speech writing process. The first outline you will write is called the preparation outline, also known as a working, practice, or rough outline. The preparation outline is used to work through the various components of your speech in an inventive format. When constructing a speaking outline, it’s important to adhere to the instructor’s requirements and include a thesis statement as the main point. Start with a rough outline to establish the overall organizational pattern before refining it. Your speech writing template should consist of full sentences that guide seamless delivery during public speaking. This preparation outline will serve as a roadmap for every part of your speech, making it easier to deliver a compelling and well-structured public speech.

Reviewing and Refining Your Outline

After completing the speechwriting process, it is crucial to meticulously review and refine the outline to ensure coherence and effectiveness. The entire outline should be crafted in a way that best conveys the speech topic to the audience. This involves refining the rough outline to capture and maintain the audience’s attention throughout. During the review, special attention should be given to the thesis statement, supporting points, and subpoints to effectively refine the speech outline. It is vital to ensure that the chosen type of outline optimally organizes the key points of the speech for seamless delivery and maximum impact. Embracing this reviewing and refining stage ensures that the speech outline is primed for successful public speaking engagements.

Practicing Your Speech

Practicing your speech is essential for perfecting the delivery, including eye contact and body language, during public speaking engagements. It reinforces the main point of the preparation outline and helps emphasize key points effectively to the audience. The conclusion should also be practiced to ensure a strong and impactful end to your public speech. By practicing the speech delivery, you can maintain the audience’s attention and ensure that your message is effectively conveyed. This step is crucial in ensuring that your public speech is engaging and leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

Tips to Enhance Your Speech Delivery

Incorporating visual aids and props during public speaking can effectively enhance the delivery of your public speech, making it more engaging for the audience. Anecdotes are an impactful way to illustrate key points, capturing the audience’s attention and enhancing the overall delivery of your speech. Establishing consistent eye contact with the audience members is crucial as it helps in creating a strong connection during the delivery of your public speech. The second aspect of your speech outline should primarily focus on the best ways to deliver your speech to the audience members, ensuring that it resonates effectively. By integrating anecdotes, props, and visual aids, you can significantly enhance the delivery of your public speech, making it more compelling and impactful.

How Can Visual Aids Improve Your Speech?

Incorporating visual aids in your speech can greatly enhance its impact. Visual aids reinforce key points, clarify complex information, and capture the audience’s attention. They create a visual impact and contribute to a memorable delivery. Utilizing visual aids effectively can take your speech to the next level.

In conclusion, crafting a well-structured speech outline is crucial for delivering a successful and impactful speech. It helps you organize your thoughts, develop a strong thesis statement, and engage your audience with compelling hooks. By structuring your speech into an introduction, body, and conclusion, you can effectively convey your message and maintain a flow of ideas. Additionally, reviewing and refining your outline, as well as practicing your speech, will contribute to your confidence and delivery on the day of the speech. Don’t forget to utilize visual aids to enhance your presentation and make it more memorable for your audience. With these tips and examples, you’ll be well-equipped to create an effective speech outline and deliver a memorable speech.

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Chapter Eleven – Outlining the Speech

Why outline.

Screenshot from youtube video.

Most speakers and audience members would agree that an organized speech is both easier to present as well as more effective. Public speaking teachers especially believe in the power of organizing your speech, which is why they encourage (and often require) that you create an outline for your speech. Outlines , or textual arrangements of all the various elements of a speech, are a very common way of organizing a speech before it is delivered. Most extemporaneous speakers keep a brief outline with them during the speech as a way to ensure that they do not leave out any important elements and to keep them on track. Writing an outline is also important to the speechwriting process since doing so forces speakers to think about the main points and sub-points, the examples they wish to include, and the ways in which these elements correspond to one another. In short, the outline functions both as an organization tool and as a reference for delivering a speech.

A full-sentence outline lays a strong foundation for your message. It will call on you to have one clear and specific purpose for your message. As we have seen in other chapters of this book, writing your specific purpose in clear language serves you well:

It helps you frame a clear, concrete thesis statement. It helps you exclude irrelevant information. It helps you focus only on information that directly bears on your thesis. It reduces the amount of research you must do. It helps both you and your audience remember the central message of your speech. It suggests what kind of supporting evidence is needed, so less effort is expended in trying to figure out what to do next.

Finally, a solid full-sentence outline helps your audience understand your message because they will be able to follow your reasoning. Remember that live audiences for oral communications lack the ability to “rewind” your message to figure out what you said, so it is critically important to help the audience follow your reasoning as it reaches their ears.

Your authors have noted among their past and present students a reluctance to write full-sentence outlines. It’s a task too often perceived as busywork, unnecessary, time consuming, and restricted. On one hand, we understand that reluctance. But on the other hand, we find that students who carefully write a full-sentence outline show a stronger tendency to give powerful presentations of excellent messages.

Outlines Test the Scope of Content

When you begin with a clear, concrete thesis statement, it acts as kind of compass for your outline. Each of the main points should directly explicate. The test of the scope will be a comparison of each main point to the thesis statement. If you find a poor match, you will know you’ve wandered outside the scope of the thesis.

Let’s say the general purpose of your speech is to inform, and your broad topic area is wind-generated energy. Now you must narrow this to a specific purpose. You have many choices, but let’s say your specific purpose is to inform a group of property owners about the economics of wind farms where electrical energy is generated.

Your first main point could be that modern windmills require a very small land base, making the cost of real estate low. This is directly related to economics. All you need is information to support your claim that only a small land base is needed.

In your second main point, you might be tempted to claim that windmills don’t pollute in the ways other sources do. However, you will quickly note that this claim is unrelated to the thesis. You must resist the temptation to add it. Perhaps in another speech, your thesis will address environmental impact, but in this speech, you must stay within the economic scope. Perhaps you will say that once windmills are in place, they require virtually no maintenance. This claim is related to the thesis. Now all you need is supporting information to support this second claim.

Your third point, the point some audience members will want to hear, is the cost for generating electrical energy with windmills compared with other sources. This is clearly within the scope of energy economics. You should have no difficulty finding authoritative sources of information to support that claim.

When you write in outline form, it is much easier to test the scope of your content because you can visually locate specific information very easily and then check it against your thesis statement.

Outlines Test the Logical Relation of Parts

You have many choices for your topic, and therefore, there are many ways your content can be logically organized. In the example above, we simply listed three main points that were important economic considerations about wind farms. Often the main points of a speech can be arranged into a logical pattern; let’s review some of these patterns:

A chronological pattern arranges main ideas in the order events occur. In some instances, reverse order might make sense. For instance, if your topic is archaeology, you might use the reverse order, describing the newest artifacts first.

A cause-and-effect pattern calls on you to describe a specific situation and explain what the effect is. However, most effects have more than one cause. Even dental cavities have multiple causes: genetics, poor nutrition, teeth too tightly spaced, sugar, ineffective brushing, and so on. If you choose a cause-and-effect pattern, make sure you have enough reliable support to do the topic justice.

A biographical pattern is usually chronological. In describing the events of an individual’s life, you will want to choose the three most significant events. Otherwise, the speech will end up as a very lengthy and often pointless timeline or bullet point list. For example, Mark Twain had several clear phases in his life. They include his life as a Mississippi riverboat captain, his success as a world-renowned writer and speaker, and his family life. A simple timeline would present great difficulty in highlighting the relationships between important events. An outline, however, would help you emphasize the key events that contributed to Mark Twain’s extraordinary life.

Although a comparison-contrast pattern appears to dictate just two main points, McCroskey, Wrench, and Richmond explain how a comparison-and-contrast can be structured as a speech with three main points. They say that “you can easily create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. For example, if you are giving a speech about two different medications, you could start by discussing what the medications’ basic purposes are. Then you could talk about the similarities, and then the differences, between the two medications” [1] .

Whatever logical pattern you use, if you examine your thesis statement and then look at the three main points in your outline, you should easily be able to see the logical way in which they relate.

Outlines Test the Relevance of Supporting Ideas

When you create an outline, you can clearly see that you need supporting evidence for each of your main points. For instance, using the example above, your first main point claims that less land is needed for windmills than for other utilities. Your supporting evidence should be about the amount of acreage required for a windmill and the amount of acreage required for other energy generation sites, such as nuclear power plants or hydroelectric generators. Your sources should come from experts in economics, economic development, or engineering. The evidence might even be expert opinion but not the opinions of ordinary people. The expert opinion will provide stronger support for your point.

Similarly, your second point claims that once a wind turbine is in place, there is virtually no maintenance cost. Your supporting evidence should show how much annual maintenance for a windmill costs, and what the costs are for other energy plants. If you used a comparison with nuclear plants to support your first main point, you should do so again for the sake of consistency. It becomes very clear, then, that the third main point about the amount of electricity and its profitability needs authoritative references to compare it to the profit from energy generated at a nuclear power plant. In this third main point, you should make use of just a few well-selected statistics from authoritative sources to show the effectiveness of wind farms compared to the other energy sources you’ve cited.

Where do you find the kind of information you would need to support these main points? A reference librarian can quickly guide you to authoritative statistics and help you make use of them.

An important step you will notice is that the full-sentence outline includes its authoritative sources within the text. This is a major departure from the way you’ve learned to write a research paper. In a research paper, you can add that information to the end of a sentence, leaving the reader to turn to the last page for a fuller citation. In a speech, however, your listeners can’t do that. From the beginning of the supporting point, you need to fully cite your source so your audience can assess its importance.

Because this is such a profound change from the academic habits that you’re probably used to, you will have to make a concerted effort to overcome the habits of the past and provide the information your listeners need when they need it.

Outlines Test the Balance and Proportion of the Speech

Part of the value of writing a full-sentence outline is the visual space you use for each of your main points. Is each main point of approximately the same importance? Does each main point have the same number of supporting points? If you find that one of your main points has eight supporting points while the others only have three each, you have two choices: either choose the best three from the eight supporting points or strengthen the authoritative support for your other two main points.

Remember that you should use the best supporting evidence you can find even if it means investing more time in your search for knowledge.

As you write the preparation outline, you may find it necessary to rearrange your points or to add or subtract supporting material. You may also realize that some of your main points are sufficiently supported while others are lacking. The final draft of your preparation outline should include full sentences, making up a complete script of your entire speech. In most cases, however, the preparation outline is reserved for planning purposes only and is translated into a speaking outline before you deliver the speech.

Outlines Serve as Notes during the Speech

Although we recommend writing a full-sentence outline during the speech preparation phase, you should also create a shortened outline that you can use as notes, a speaking outline, which allows for strong delivery. If you were to use the full-sentence outline when delivering your speech, you would do a great deal of reading, which would limit your ability to give eye contact and use gestures, hurting your connection with your audience.

Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline (manuscript delivery), in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. For this reason, we recommend writing a short phrase speaking outline on 5×7 notecards to use when you deliver your speech.

In the next section, we will explore more fully how to create preparation and speaking outlines.

Outline Structure

Because an outline is used to arrange all of the elements of your speech, it makes sense that the outline itself has an organizational hierarchy and a common format. Although there are a variety of outline styles, generally they follow the same pattern. Main ideas are preceded by Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). Sub-points are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), then Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), and finally lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Each level of subordination is also differentiated from its predecessor by indenting a few spaces. Indenting makes it easy to find your main points, sub-points, and the supporting points and examples below them. Since there are three sections to your speech— introduction, body, and conclusion— your outline needs to include all of them. Each of these sections is titled and the main points start with Roman numeral I.

OUTLINE FORMATTING GUIDE

Title:  Organizing Your Public Speech

Topic:  Organizing public speeches

Specific Purpose Statement: To inform my audience about the various ways in which they can organize their public speeches.

Thesis Statement:  A variety of organizational styles can used to organize public speeches.

Introduction Paragraph that gets the attention of the audience, establishes goodwill with the audience, states the purpose of the speech, and previews the speech and its structure.

(Transition)

I. Main point

A. Sub-point B. Sub-point C. Sub-point

1. Supporting point 2. Supporting point

Conclusion Paragraph that prepares the audience for the end of the speech, presents any final appeals, and summarizes and wraps up the speech.

Bibliography

In addition to these formatting suggestions, there are some additional elements that should be included at the beginning of your outline: the title, topic, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. These elements are helpful to you, the speechwriter, since they remind you what, specifically, you are trying to accomplish in your speech. They are also helpful to anyone reading and assessing your outline since knowing what you want to accomplish will determine how they perceive the elements included in your outline. Additionally, you should write out the transitional statements that you will use to alert audiences that you are moving from one point to another. These are included in parentheses between main points. At the end of the outlines, you should include bibliographic information for any outside resources you mention during the speech. These should be cited using whatever citations style your professor requires. The textbox entitled “Outline Formatting Guide” above provides an example of the appropriate outline format.

Preparation Outline Examples

This book contains the preparation outline for an informative speech the author gave about making guacamole (see third section). In this example, the title, specific purpose, and thesis precedes the speech. Depending on your instructor’s requirements, you may need to include these details plus additional information (like visual aids). It is also a good idea to keep these details at the top of your document as you write the speech since they will help keep you on track to developing an organized speech that is in line with your specific purpose and helps prove your thesis. At the end of this text, in Part 3, you will find full-length examples of Preparation (Full Sentence) Outlines, written by students just like you!

Using the Speaking Outline

“TAG speaks of others first”  by Texas Military Forces.  CC-BY-ND .

A  speaking outline  is the outline you will prepare for use when delivering the speech. The speaking outline is much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts. [2]  The words or phrases used on the speaking outline should briefly encapsulate all of the information needed to prompt the speaker to accurately deliver the speech. Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline, in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. Because it uses just words or short phrases, and not full sentences, the speaking outline can easily be transferred to index cards that can be referenced during a speech.

Speaking instructors often have requirements for how you should format the speaking outline. When formatting your speaking outline, here are a few tips:

First, write large enough so that you do not have to bring the cards close to your eyes to read them. Second, make sure you have the cards in the correct order and bound together in some way so that they do not get out of order. Third, just in case your cards do get out of order (this happens too often!), be sure that you number each in the top right corner so you can quickly and easily get things organized. Fourth, try not to fiddle with the cards when you are speaking. It is best to lay them down if you have a podium or table in front of you. If not, practice reading from them in front of a mirror. You should be able to look down quickly, read the text, and then return to your gaze to the audience.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein

• McCroskey, J. C., Wrench, J. S., & Richmond, V. P., (2003). Principles of public speaking . Indianapolis, IN: The College Network.
• Beebe, S. A. & Beebe, S. J. (2003).  The public speaking handbook  (5th edition). Boston: Pearson.  ↵

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

Cc licensed content, shared previously.

• Stand up, Speak out  by University of Minnesota is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
• Chapter 8 Outlining Your Speech. Authored by : Joshua Trey Barnett.  Provided by : University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN.  Located at :  http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html .  Project : The Public Speaking Project.  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• TAG speaks of others first.  Authored by : Texas Military Forces.  Located at :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/texasmilitaryforces/5560449970/ .  License :  CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives

Principles of Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Katie Gruber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Speech Crafting →

Preparation: How to write a Speech Outline (with Examples)

You have been chosen to give a speech on a particular topic and you reckon that you’re a good speech writer.

However, without a good speech outline, your speech lacks the proper skeleton to put meat on.

A speech outline is to a speech what a blueprint is to an unconstructed building.

So, how do you develop a good speech outline? First, break it down into small steps as this will make it easier for you to prioritize your ideas and organize them in the right order before you add more details to them.

How to Make an Outline for a Speech

Below are steps that will enable you to write an effective speech outline for your presentation.

You should start by asking yourself:

a) What is the big picture?

Before you begin writing your outline, you should take a step back and think about your speech as a whole.

First, think about the 3 keystones for your presentation or speech, i.e. the audience, your subject matter and of course, you, as the speaker.

Then, write a few notes down about each keystone and how they relate with each other. For instance,

• With regard to your presentation’s subject matter and the audience, what does the audience know about the subject? Do they find the subject interesting or not at all? Is the subject relevant to them?
• What do you as the speaker know about the subject in question? What are the reasons behind your presentation? Do you have any expertise on the matter? What new information will you be sharing with your audience?

A good outline will help you engage with your audience in a way that not only captures their attention but enables them to understand the subject matter.

b) What is your objective?

This refers to the goal of your presentation. Here, you should ask yourself, what do you want your audience to do after your presentation is over?

While the objective for most speakers is for their audience to know something, that may not be enough. The best presentations and speeches are those that move people to act.

If you would prefer to make an impact in such a way, then you should ensure that you are as specific as you can be when deciding on your objective in your speech outline.

c) What is your message?

Your message is what holds your presentation or speech together. This is not to mean that you shouldn’t have different parts in your speech, but it does mean that your speech should have one message that you are trying to put across.

Trying to include several different messages in your speech may confuse your audience, which makes it harder for them to understand the main point you are trying to convey. 

To do this, summarize the message of your presentation in one statement. This will not only allow you to understand the message in its entirety but also allow you to explain the message to your audience in a way that is easy to understand.

You can now use the statement you wrote above to help you develop your speech outline. Using the statement to determine whether a certain point supports your main message will ensure that your speech flows and doesn’t include any information not relevant to your subject topic.

d) How is your presentation relevant?

When it comes to a presentation or speech, the audience should always come first. That is why as a speaker, you should always keep your audience in mind when presenting.

If you have already decided on the message you will be conveying to your audience, you should now ask yourself; how is your message relevant to the audience?

If you can’t come up with a reason why your presentation is relevant, then it’s back to the drawing board for you. This could mean that you will be presenting to the wrong audience or you will be giving the wrong presentation.

You can refer back to step (c) then review steps (a) and (b) for clarity.

e) Your speech structure

This is a very important part of your presentation as without it, your speech will have no impact on the audience. Therefore, you should ensure that you include the speech structure in your speech outline.

A structure has 3 basic parts; the introduction, the body and the conclusion. It should be noted though that when working on your speech outline, a common suggestion is to begin with the body before developing both your introduction and conclusion.

Under your speech structure, the introduction is the opening of your speech/presentation. To make a good first impression on your audience, ensure that your introduction is strong.

This doesn’t have to be the usual, “Good morning, my name is YXZ…” Instead, capture your audience’s attention by either telling a story or an interesting fact, recite a quote, ask your audience to recall or imagine something or even ask a rhetorical question!

Related: How to Start a Speech to Engage Your Audience

The body of your presentation represents the bulk of your speech. You should therefore ensure that your main points can be explained in detail and that they have been organized in a logical order that makes your message easy to comprehend.

Similar to your introduction, you should finish on a strong note when it comes to your conclusion. You can do this by linking your conclusion to your introduction, after which you can then echo and summarize your message’s main points.

Different Speech Outline Examples

Below are a few examples of different speech outlines that you can use as a basis to write your own outline. Choosing the right one that works for you may depend on the type of speech you will be giving .

1. Persuasive Speech Outline

Persuasive presentations and speeches usually have a specific purpose in mind; either to urge the audience to take action on something or persuade them to adopt a certain view or opinion of something.

This type of outline allows you, the speaker, to focus on the subject matter point while arguing your case in the most effective and compelling way to your audience.

A persuasive speech outline is made up of these parts:

• An introduction
• The conclusion
• Source Citation

The first three parts are common in most if not all presentations; please refer to step (e) to familiarize yourself with them once more.

A source citation is simply citing the sources for the research and facts that you presented in your speech. Remember you are trying to persuade your audience, so authoritative sources add weight to your argument.

2. Informative Speech Outline

There are different types of informative outlines. These include:

• The informative speech outline
• The informative presentation outline
• The informative essay outline

These outlines are made up of 3 basic parts; the introduction, body and conclusion. For purposes of this article, we will be discussing the informative speech outline.

The central objective of an informative speech is to offer unique, useful and interesting information to your audience. Before choosing your informative speech topic , you should consider your overall objective.  

Additionally, there are various types of informative speeches , including:

• Concept - These are used to discuss abstract ideas like ideas and theories.
• Process - These are used when describing broad processes.
• Event - These are used to explain things that may happen, are already happening or those that have happened already.
• Object - These are used when talking about products, places or people.

In addition to this, there are patterns that can be used to organize your speech outline. These will be chosen depending on your speech type.

Types of these patterns include:

• Chronological or sequential - This pattern deals with a sequence of events; which could be useful in demonstration speeches or when discussing historical topics
• Spatial or geographic - Use this pattern when discussing topics that deal with physical spaces
• Logical - This pattern is suitable for a broad topic that has been broken down into sub-topics.
• Advantage-disadvantage - This pattern can be used when you will be examining a range of negative and positive aspects of an event or idea

Furthermore, there are 2 possibilities for preparing a speech outline; the speaking and preparation outline.

The speaking outlines make use of phrases and keywords, which helps keep you focused on the subject matter while the preparation outline is used to help you develop your speech and makes use of full sentences.

3. Demonstrative Speech Outline

A demonstrative speech is an instructional speech that teaches the audience something by demonstrating the process.

Here are the basic steps for a demonstrative speech:

• Ask yourself why you choose this topic and why it is important to the audience
• Provide an overview
• Explain the steps involved in your process
• Talk about variations, other options
• Ensure you allot time for Q&A
• Give a brief summary

For a more in-depth guide on writing demonstrative speeches, click here .

Pro-Tip: Write down the specific purpose of your speech and your topic of discussion as you formulate your generic speech outline.

Conclusion: On Speech Outline Formats

As you become better at writing and delivering speeches, you will soon learn that the different outline formats described above aren’t mutually exclusive. Rather, situations often make it necessary to mix different formats.

What are you waiting for? Go out there and grow your confidence as a speech writer and speaker!

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

12.3 Using Outlining for Success

Learning objective.

• Understand five basic principles of outline creation.

Tom706 – parallelism – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

As with any part of the speech process, there are some pretty commonly agreed upon principles for creating an outline. Now that we’ve examined the basics of outline creation, there are some important factors to consider when creating a logical and coherent outline: singularity, consistency, adequacy, uniformity, and parallelism.

Singularity

For the sake of clarity, make sure your thesis statement expresses one idea only. Only in this way will it be optimally useful to you as you build your outline. If you have narrowed your topic skillfully, you can readily focus the thesis statement as one central point. For instance, if you have a thesis statement that says the Second Amendment protects gun ownership rights but most people are unaware of the responsibility involved, you have a thesis statement focusing on two different issues. Which focus will you follow? It’s crucial to choose just one, saving the other perhaps for a different speech.

The same holds true for your three main points: they should each express one clear idea. For the sake of your audience, maintain clarity. If many different ideas are required in order to build a complete message, you can handle them in separate sentences with the use of such transitions as “at the same time,” “alternately,” “in response to that event,” or some other transition that clarifies the relationship between two separate ideas.

Consistency

The entire point of framing a thesis with one clear focus is to help you maintain consistency throughout your speech. Beyond the grammatical requirements of subject-verb agreement, you will want to maintain a consistent approach. For instance, unless your speech has a chronological structure that begins in the past and ends in the future, you should choose a tense, past or present, to use throughout the speech. Similarly, you should choose language and use it consistently. For instance, use humanity instead of mankind or humans, and use that term throughout.

Similarly, define your terms and use those terms only to designate the meanings in your definition. To do otherwise could result in equivocation and confusion. For instance, if you use the word “right” in two or three different senses, you should change your language. The word “right” can be applicable to your right to a good education; the ethical difference between right and wrong; and the status of a statement as right , or accurate and correct. By the same token, in a health care setting, saying that a medical test had a positive outcome can be confusing. Does the patient test positive for the presence of disease, or does the test reveal some good news? If you find yourself using the same word to mean different things, you will need to spend extra time in your speech explaining these meanings very clearly—or avoid the problem by making other word choices.

To make sure your audience will understand your speech, you must set aside the assumption that what is obvious to you is also obvious to your audience. Therefore, pay attention to adequacy in two ways: definitions of terms and support for your main points.

You should use concrete language as much as you can. For instance, if you use the word “community,” you’re using an abstract term that can mean many things. You might be referring to a suburban neighborhood; to a cultural group, such as the Jewish community; to an institutional setting that includes an academic community; or to a general sense of overarching mainstream community standards for what materials should or should not be broadcast on television, for instance. You may not find any definition of “community” that conveys your meaning. Therefore, you will need to define for your audience what you mean by “community.”

Adequacy is also a concern when you use evidence to support your main points. Evidence of the right kind and the right weight are needed. For instance, if you make a substantial claim, such as a claim that all printed news sources will be obsolete within ten years, you need expert sources. This means you need at least two well-known experts from the institutions that provide news (newspapers, television news, or news radio). They should be credible sources, not sources with extreme views whose contact with reality is questioned. This will give you the right kind of evidence, and a large enough amount of evidence.

A full-sentence outline readily shows whether you are giving “equal time” to each of your three main points. For example, are you providing three pieces of evidence to support each main point? It should also show whether each main point is directly related to the thesis statement.

Parallelism

Parallelism refers to the idea that the three main points follow the same structure or make use of the same kind of language. For instance, in the sample outline we used previously, you see that each of the main points emphasizes the topic, smart dust.

Parallelism also allows you to check for inconsistencies and self-contradictory statements. For instance, does anything within main point two contradict anything in main point one? Examining your text for this purpose can strengthen the clarity of your message. For instance, if in main point one you claim that computer crime leaves an electronic trail, but in main point two you claim that hackers often get away with their crimes, you have some explaining to do. If an electronic trail can readily lead to the discovery of the electronic felon, how or why do they get away with it? The answer might be that cybercrime does not fall within the jurisdiction of any law enforcement agency or that the law lags behind technology. Perhaps there are other reasons as well, and you must make sure you don’t leave your audience confused. If you confuse them, you will sound confused, and you will lose credibility. There is no doubt that a full-sentence outline provides the most useful opportunity to examine your message for the details that either clarify or undermine your message.

Finally, your conclusion should do two things. First, it should come “full circle” in order to show the audience that you have covered all the territory you laid out in your preview. Second, it should provide satisfying, decisive, psychological closure. In other words, your audience should know when your speech is over. You should not trail off. You should not have to say, “That’s it.” Your audience should not have to wait to see whether you’re going to say anything else. At the right time, they should feel certain that the speech is over and that they can clap.

Key Takeaway

• For an outline to be useful, it’s important to follow five basic principles: singularity, consistency, adequacy, uniformity, and parallelism.
• Look at an outline you’ve created for your public speaking course. Did you follow the five basic rules of outlining? How could you have changed your outline to follow those five basic principles?
• Write an outline for your next speech in your course, paying special attention to the structure of the outline to ensure that none of the principles of outlining are violated.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Module 4: Organizing and Outlining

Outlining your speech.

Most speakers and audience members would agree that an organized speech is both easier to present as well as more persuasive. Public speaking teachers especially believe in the power of organizing your speech, which is why they encourage (and often require) that you create an outline for your speech. Outlines , or textual arrangements of all the various elements of a speech, are a very common way of organizing a speech before it is delivered. Most extemporaneous speakers keep their outlines with them during the speech as a way to ensure that they do not leave out any important elements and to keep them on track. Writing an outline is also important to the speechwriting process since doing so forces the speakers to think about the main points and sub-points, the examples they wish to include, and the ways in which these elements correspond to one another. In short, the outline functions both as an organization tool and as a reference for delivering a speech.

Outline Types

“Alpena Mayor Carol Shafto Speaks at 2011 Michigan Municipal League Convention” by Michigan Municipal League. CC-BY-ND .

There are two types of outlines. The first outline you will write is called the preparation outline . Also called a working, practice, or rough outline, the preparation outline is used to work through the various components of your speech in an inventive format. Stephen E. Lucas [1] put it simply: “The preparation outline is just what its name implies—an outline that helps you prepare the speech” (p. 248). When writing the preparation outline, you should focus on finalizing the purpose and thesis statements, logically ordering your main points, deciding where supporting material should be included, and refining the overall organizational pattern of your speech. As you write the preparation outline, you may find it necessary to rearrange your points or to add or subtract supporting material. You may also realize that some of your main points are sufficiently supported while others are lacking. The final draft of your preparation outline should include full sentences, making up a complete script of your entire speech. In most cases, however, the preparation outline is reserved for planning purposes only and is translated into a speaking outline before you deliver the speech.

A speaking outline is the outline you will prepare for use when delivering the speech. The speaking outline is much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts. [2] The words or phrases used on the speaking outline should briefly encapsulate all of the information needed to prompt the speaker to accurately deliver the speech. Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline, in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. Because it uses just words or short phrases, and not full sentences, the speaking outline can easily be transferred to index cards that can be referenced during a speech.

Outline Structure

Because an outline is used to arrange all of the elements of your speech, it makes sense that the outline itself has an organizational hierarchy and a common format. Although there are a variety of outline styles, generally they follow the same pattern. Main ideas are preceded by Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). Sub-points are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), then Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), and finally lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Each level of subordination is also differentiated from its predecessor by indenting a few spaces. Indenting makes it easy to find your main points, sub-points, and the supporting points and examples below them. Since there are three sections to your speech— introduction, body, and conclusion— your outline needs to include all of them. Each of these sections is titled and the main points start with Roman numeral I.

Outline Formatting Guide

Title: Organizing Your Public Speech

Topic: Organizing public speeches

Specific Purpose Statement: To inform listeners about the various ways in which they can organize their public speeches.

Thesis Statement: A variety of organizational styles can used to organize public speeches.

Introduction Paragraph that gets the attention of the audience, establishes goodwill with the audience, states the purpose of the speech, and previews the speech and its structure.

(Transition)

I. Main point

A. Sub-point B. Sub-point C. Sub-point

1. Supporting point 2. Supporting point

Conclusion Paragraph that prepares the audience for the end of the speech, presents any final appeals, and summarizes and wraps up the speech.

Bibliography

In addition to these formatting suggestions, there are some additional elements that should be included at the beginning of your outline: the title, topic, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. These elements are helpful to you, the speechwriter, since they remind you what, specifically, you are trying to accomplish in your speech. They are also helpful to anyone reading and assessing your outline since knowing what you want to accomplish will determine how they perceive the elements included in your outline. Additionally, you should write out the transitional statements that you will use to alert audiences that you are moving from one point to another. These are included in parentheses between main points. At the end of the outlines, you should include bibliographic information for any outside resources you mention during the speech. These should be cited using whatever citations style your professor requires. The textbox entitled “Outline Formatting Guide” provides an example of the appropriate outline format.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. – Lao Tzu

Preparation Outline

This chapter contains the preparation and speaking outlines for a short speech the author of this chapter gave about how small organizations can work on issues related to climate change (see appendices). In this example, the title, specific purpose, thesis, and list of visual aids precedes the speech. Depending on your instructor’s requirements, you may need to include these details plus additional information. It is also a good idea to keep these details at the top of your document as you write the speech since they will help keep you on track to developing an organized speech that is in line with your specific purpose and helps prove your thesis. At the end of the chapter, in Appendix A, you can find a full length example of a Preparation (Full Sentence) Outline.

Speaking Outline

In Appendix B, the Preparation Outline is condensed into just a few short key words or phrases that will remind speakers to include all of their main points and supporting information. The introduction and conclusion are not included since they will simply be inserted from the Preparation Outline. It is easy to forget your catchy attention-getter or final thoughts you have prepared for your audience, so it is best to include the full sentence versions even in your speaking outline.

Using the Speaking Outline

“TAG speaks of others first” by Texas Military Forces. CC-BY-ND .

Once you have prepared the outline and are almost ready to give your speech, you should decide how you want to format your outline for presentation. Many speakers like to carry a stack of papers with them when they speak, but others are more comfortable with a smaller stack of index cards with the outline copied onto them. Moreover, speaking instructors often have requirements for how you should format the speaking outline. Whether you decide to use index cards or the printed outline, here are a few tips. First, write large enough so that you do not have to bring the cards or pages close to your eyes to read them. Second, make sure you have the cards/pages in the correct order and bound together in some way so that they do not get out of order. Third, just in case the cards/pages do get out of order (this happens too often!), be sure that you number each in the top right corner so you can quickly and easily get things organized. Fourth, try not to fiddle with the cards/pages when you are speaking. It is best to lay them down if you have a podium or table in front of you. If not, practice reading from them in front of a mirror. You should be able to look down quickly, read the text, and then return to your gaze to the audience.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein

• Lucas, Stephen E. (2004). The art of public speaking (8th edition). New York: McGraw-Hill. ↵
• Beebe, S. A. & Beebe, S. J. (2003). The public speaking handbook (5th edition). Boston: Pearson. ↵
• Chapter 8 Outlining Your Speech. Authored by : Joshua Trey Barnett. Provided by : University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Alpena Mayor Carol Shafto Speaks at 2011 Michigan Municipal League Convention. Authored by : Michigan Municipal League. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/aunJMR . License : CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives
• TAG speaks of others first. Authored by : Texas Military Forces. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/texasmilitaryforces/5560449970/ . License : CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives

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How to Write a Speech Outline

Last Updated: May 23, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Emily Listmann is a Private Tutor and Life Coach in Santa Cruz, California. In 2018, she founded Mindful & Well, a natural healing and wellness coaching service. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. Emily also received her Wellness Coach Certificate from Cornell University and completed the Mindfulness Training by Mindful Schools. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 508,133 times.

A speech outline can increase your confidence and help you keep your place so you sound authoritative and in control. As you write your speech outline, focus on how you'll introduce yourself and your topic, the points you'll cover, and the interests of your audience.

Sample Outline and Writing Help

Crafting Your Introduction

• Keep in mind you may be nervous when you start your speech. Include this in your outline so you won't forget.
• If there's anything about you that relates you to your audience, or to the group that organized the event, you want to include that in your brief greeting as well – especially if you didn't have the benefit of an introduction from someone else.
• For example, you might say "Good afternoon. I'm Sally Sunshine, and I've been a volunteer with the Springfield Animal Society for five years. I'm honored they've invited me to speak here today about the importance of spaying or neutering your pets."

• When choosing your attention-getter, keep your audience in mind. Think about what would grab their attention – not necessarily what you personally find interesting or humorous.
• If you're not sure whether your attention-getter will work, try practicing it in front of friends or family members who are similar in age and interests to the people who will be in the audience when you give your speech.
• For example, if you're giving a speech on spaying and neutering pets to a group of suburban families, you might open with a humorous reference to the Disney movie "101 Dalmatians."

• Briefly explain the importance of the topic or issue you'll be discussing in your speech.
• If your speech is an informative one, explain why the information is important or relevant to your audience.
• For argumentative speeches, explain what might happen if action isn't taken on the issue.
• For example, you might say "Every year, our local animal shelter has to put down 500 unwanted cats and dogs. If all pets were spayed and neutered, it's estimated this number would decrease to under 100."

• If you're giving an argumentative speech, your thesis statement will be a statement of the ultimate point you hope to prove through the information and evidence you lay out in your speech.
• For example, the thesis statement for a speech arguing that all pet owners should spay or neuter their pets might be "Our entire community would benefit if all pets were spayed or neutered."
• The thesis statement for a more informative speech will simply summarize the type of information you're going to provide the audience through your speech.
• For a more scientific speech, your thesis statement will reflect the hypothesis of the scientific study you're presenting in your speech.

• If you're giving a speech for a class in school, your "credibility" may be as simple as the fact that you took the class and researched the topic.
• However, if you have a more personalized interest in the topic of your speech, this is a good time to mention that.
• For an argumentative speech, a personal connection to the subject matter can enhance your credibility. For example, maybe you're giving a speech about local urban housing policy and you became interested in the topic when you learned your family was facing eviction. A personal connection often can mean more to members of your audience than extensive professional experience in the area.

• There's no hard and fast rule, but speeches typically have three main points. You should list them in your introduction in the order you plan to present them in your speech. The order in which you discuss your points depends on the type of speech you're giving.
• For example, your speech on spaying or neutering pets might address the benefits to the pet first, then the benefit to the pet's family, then the benefit to the community at large. This starts small and moves outward.
• For an argumentative speech, you typically want to lead with your strongest argument and work down in order of strength.
• If you're giving an informative speech based on a historical event, you may want to provide your points chronologically. Other informative speeches may be better served by starting with the broadest point and moving to more narrow points.
• Ultimately, you want to order your points in a way that feels natural to you and will enable you to easily transition from one point to another.

Building the Body of Your Speech

• Your first point will be a top-level entry on your outline, typically noted by a Roman numeral.
• Beneath that top-level, you will have a number of sub-points which are comments, statistics, or other evidence supporting that point. Depending on how your outline is formatted, these typically will be letters or bullet points.

• As with the points themselves, with your evidence you typically want to start with the strongest or most important sub-point or piece of evidence and move down. This way, if you start running short on time, you can easily cut the last points without worrying that you're leaving out something important.
• The type of evidence or sub-points you'll want to include will depend on the type of speech you're giving.
• Try to avoid pounding your audience with long series of numbers or statistics – they typically won't retain the information. If you have a significant amount of numerical data or statistics, creating an infographic you can project during your presentation may be more useful.
• Keep in mind that additional personal stories or anecdotes can be particularly effective to get your point across in a speech.
• For example, if your first point in your speech about spaying or neutering pets is that the procedure benefits the pets themselves, you might point out that pets that are spayed or neutered live longer, are at a decreased risk for certain types of cancer, and are generally more healthy than pets who aren't spayed or neutered.

• Avoid over-thinking your transition. It really doesn't need to be incredibly sophisticated. If you can't come up with anything specific, using a simple transitional phrase will work fine.
• For example, you might say "Now that I've discussed how spaying and neutering has a positive effect on your pet's health, I want to move to the effect that spaying and neutering has on your family."
• Some of the most effective transitions turn on a particular word or phrase, such as the word "effect" in the example above.

• When choosing your sub-points or the facts that you want to emphasize in your speech, keep your audience in mind as well as the overall point. Think about what's important to them, or what they potentially would find most surprising or most interesting.

Creating Your Closing

• This transition doesn't need to be fancy – it doesn't even have to be a whole sentence. You can simply say "In conclusion," and then launch into your summary.

• You don't need to go into detail here – you're just reinforcing what you've already told your audience.
• Make sure you don't introduce any new information in your closing summary.
• For example, you might say "As you've seen, spaying or neutering your pet has substantial benefits not only for you and your pet, but also for the community at large."

• If your speech went well, you have fully proven your thesis and demonstrated its importance. This statement should relate back to the summary of your points and present a strong statement.
• Particularly for brief speeches, you can even combine your summary of points with your thesis statement in a single sentence that wraps up your speech.
• For example, you might say "Given the benefits to your pet's health, to your family, and to the overall well-being of your community, it is clear that spaying or neutering pets should be a top priority for all pet owners."

• You may want to think of a way to bring the entire speech back around to that story you initially told to grab your audience's attention.
• If you have an argumentative or similar speech, your closing lines typically will include a call to action. Give your audience an example of how important the subject of your speech is, and implore them to act on the information you gave them in a specific way.
• When making a call to action, make sure you include specific details, such as where to go, who to contact, and when to act.
• For example, you might say "For the next week, the Springfield Animal Society will be spaying and neutering pets for free at their clinic on 123 Main Street. Call 555-555-5555 to make an appointment for your furry friend today!"

• Particularly if your speech was longer or if you went over the time allotted, be sure to tell them that you appreciate their time.
• As with your initial greeting, including this in your outline ensures you won't forget it in the moment. That doesn't mean you should try to write something verbatim. Rather, you should focus on your thanks being more off-the-cuff and sincere.

• If you want to establish parameters for the questions, be sure to list these in your outline so you can mention them when you announce that you're open for questions.
• Anticipate questions that may be asked dependent on your speech topic. Preemptively answer those questions and include them in your outline.
• You also should note if you only have a specified period of time for questions, or if you're only taking a set number of questions.

Community Q&A

• Outlines can vary in how formal or informal you make them. You could either make it a full script or use shorthand with highlighted main points. Use the outline that works best for you. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 0
• Use a large font that you can easily read by glancing down. Print your outline and place it on a desk, then stand and look down at the paper. If it's too small or you find yourself leaning over to read it, increase the font size. Thanks Helpful 16 Not Helpful 3
• Type your outline on a word-processing application. There typically will be an outline template you can use that will format the outline correctly automatically. Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/speech-introductions
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html
• ↑ https://lewisu.edu/writingcenter/pdf/final-developing-a-speech-outline.pdf
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/speech-evidence
• ↑ https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/chapter/10-2-keeping-your-speech-moving/

About This Article

The best way to write a speech outline is to write the main points of your greeting and introduction in the first section, including your name and what you’ll be talking about. Then, make a second section with bullet points of all the important details you want to mention in the body of your speech. Make sure to include facts and evidence to back your argument up. Finish your outline with a section that summarizes your points concisely. To learn how to keep your audience's attention throughout your speech, keep reading below! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Sample speech outline template

Get a printable. Learn how to outline a speech effectively.

By:  Susan Dugdale  | Last modified: 02-20-2023

There's a printable sample speech outline template below for you to download and use. 

Why? Because a well-completed outline becomes the backbone of your speech. You'll use it to  guide you logically, and carefully, through ALL the aspects you need to consider before you actually write the speech itself.

It will help you clarify what material you want to cover to fit your audience, and speech purpose, as well as help to effectively organize it.

What you'll find on this page:

• t he reasons for using a speech outline
• how to outline a speech : the 4 essentials steps involved in writing an outline - detailed sequential help, with examples, covering: 1. choosing a topic, 2. audience analysis, 3. choosing the best organizational pattern to fit your speech purpose, 4. what to put in each part of your speech: introduction, body and conclusion
• a  printable speech outline template to download  
• links to  2 completed examples of speech outlines  (a demonstration and a persuasive speech. Both with printable outlines to download.)
• a link to 7 completed examples of impromptu speech outlines , each with printable speech outline templates 
• links to more resources for preparing an effective speech  

Why bother writing a speech outline?

Because completing a speech outline is the first vital step toward preparing a successful speech.

It is often overlooked in a misguided attempt to get on with what is considered the real work: writing the speech, or the words you're going to say.

Despite what many people think, time spent completing an outline is not wasted.  Instead, it helps you save it. A nd sidestep any anxiety caused by inadequate preparation.

The process might appear daunting and horrifically time consuming but prepare a speech outline all the same.☺

What you'll learn about speech structure, matching content  to your speech purpose and your audience's needs will pay you back over and over again. I  promise you, having an outline will make giving a speech easier and less stressful. 

How to best use this page

Read the page all the way through to familiarize yourself with the terms and the process. When you're done, click the link at the foot of the page to download and print the blank sample speech outline template for your own use.

How to outline a speech: 4 essential steps

The process of outlining a speech is broken down into 4 essential steps.

(Click a heading to find out more about each one)

• deciding on your topic
• considering the audience and refining your topic to suit them
• deciding on the purpose of the speech
• choosing an organizational method to support your speech purpose
• opening greeting and attention getter
• defining your thesis statement (a summary of what your speech is about)
• establishing your credibility
• an overview and the benefit to the audience
• transition or link between introduction and body
• main ideas with supporting ideas
• examples and details
• summary of main points
• closer or call to action

Remember this old saying?

First: tell them what you're going to tell them. Second: tell them. Third: tell them what you told them.

A simple, or basic, speech outline follows that advice.

• 'Tell them what you're going to tell them' becomes your introduction
• 'Tell them' forms the body
• 'Tell them what you told them' is your conclusion

Step 1 - Preparation for writing a speech outline

You need to complete this step before you do anything else. It is made up of five smaller steps, each of them an important part of the overall process. The decisions you make at this point will have a major impact on the final outcome of your speech. 

By the time you are finished step 1 you will have:

• decided on your topic
• analyzed your audience
• refined your topic to meet the needs of your audience
• decided on the specific purpose of your speech
• chosen the best fitting of six organizational patterns to use - one matching your purpose and your material 

Start with choosing a topic

The place to begin is deciding what you are going to talk about.

For example, if you are a realtor (real estate agent) who has been asked to talk to a suburban community group residential real estate seems like a good logical topic to pick.

(If you don't have a topic in mind, go to speech topics . You'll find 100s of them ordered by speech type and theme.)

Put yourself to one side & focus on your audience

However, before you make a final decision considering more closely who will be listening to you makes better sense than assuming whatever you come up with will be right!

How do you really know what aspects of your topic are best suited to meet your audience's needs? Or what would be of real benefit for them to hear about?

The scope of the topic 'residential real estate' is huge.

Your speech could cover any number of sub-topics like: financial advice for first home buyers, how to thoroughly check a house before purchase, the rise of mortgagee default sales, the collapse of property development schemes, how to purchase properties for makeovers...

Analyze your audience

So before you settle on the exact topic of your speech analyze your audience .

Without analysis you are 'guessing' what would be interesting and relevant for them to hear.

Refine your topic

Using what you found out about your audience, decide on an aspect of your topic that will be of benefit to them and the angle you will take on it. Take care with this. One size does not fit all!

For example a speech on housing affordability which includes a step by step plan toward buying a first home will likely interest an audience of youngish, (late 20s- early 40s), people with steady professional incomes.

But for another audience, (e.g. one that is older, less financially secure, or younger and not ready to consider settling yet...), it could be completely inappropriate.

Minimize the risk of getting it wrong by finding out as much as you can about your audience.

Deciding on the purpose of your speech

What is the purpose of this speech? Why are you giving it?

Is it to persuade or inform? Is it to demonstrate, entertain, or welcome? Or is it a combination of these?

What do you want your speech to achieve? Is there a particular action you want people to take as a result of listening to you?

Your answers to all of these questions will dictate what organizational pattern you'll use for your speech, its content and tone.

Return to Top

Choosing an organizational pattern or method

There are 6 basic organizational patterns or methods of arranging the body (main points) of your material. Choose the one most appropriate for your need.

1. Cause - Effect

Because event 'A' happened, event 'B' occurred.

• Because the driver was speeding, they crashed the car.
• Because of the earthquake, the city was destroyed.
• Because the minimum wage is low, families can not afford good health care.

2. Problem - Solution

The problem is 'X'. The answer is 'Y'.

• The problem is unaffordable housing. The solution is community funded housing complexes.
• The problem is unemployment. The solution is meaningful, sustainable education and employment programs.
• The problem is poor food choices. The solution is practical community outreach programs to teach people about nutrition, food buying, storage and preparation, along side living wages, educational and employment programs.

This pattern suits a broad topic which can be broken down into  naturally occurring sub-topics.

• The broad topic is 'Vocal Variety'. Its  sub-topics include rate of speech, use of pausing,  voice tone, volume, articulation...
• The broad topic is 'Organizational speech patterns'. Sub-topics could be problem-solution, cause- effect, logical...
• The broad topic is 'Residential real estate'. Its sub-topics could include houses for first-home buyers, how to apply for a mortgage, how to select the right neighborhood to buy in, the impact of high-density housing...

4. Spatial or geographic

Use this pattern for topics dealing with physical spaces.

• The 10 most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand.
• The European migration patterns of the 19th century.  
• The population shift from country to town in USA.

5. Time or chronological/sequential

These are either historical topics or demonstration speeches. The foundation of both is an ordered sequence of events.

For example:

• The history of women's suffrage in USA, the abolition of slavery 
• How to bake a cake, how to mend a puncture in a bicycle tire, or how to knot a tie 

6. Advantage - disadvantage

Use this pattern to examine the range of positive and negative aspects of an idea or event.

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of private schooling?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of lowering the voting age?
• What is good about supporting local industry? What is negative about supporting local industry?

Step Two - Outlining the introduction

The 5 parts of preparing an introduction

1. greeting & attention getter.

How are you going to greet your  audience, grab their attention and compel them to listen?

You could use a rhetorical question, a startling statistic, a quotation or a humorous one-liner. To be effective it must be related to your topic and apt for your audience.

• Rhetorical question How many of you really are more afraid of public speaking than death?
• A startling statistic Apparently in USA 75% of the population experiences public speaking anxiety. Some just a little. And some a lot.
• A quotation Mark Twain famously said, there are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous and the liars.
• Humorous Speaker of United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi set a record for the longest speech on the House floor: 8 hours and 7 minutes. Relax. I only plan on taking 15 minutes of your valuable time. * * Be careful with humor. It will only work if it's appropriate; that is fitting for the occasion, and understood by the majority of your audience. For more about Nancy's record:  Nancy Pelosi's all-day marathon speech sets record as longest continuous speech since at least 1909.

For more on effective speech openings see: How to write a speech introduction - 12 of the best ways to start a speech

2. Thesis statement

This is a short summary of your speech topic and your point of view or angle.

Example:  

Green politics is no longer a fanciful fringe fad. It is a necessity.

3. Credibility

This segment establishes your right to speak on the topic. It cites your qualification or expertise.

Using myself as an example, I can speak about preparing speeches because I've written many over the past twenty or so years. Prior to becoming a professional speech writer , I taught high school level English and drama and I also belonged to the global public speaking club Toastmasters for a long time. 

4. Summative overview

This is a brief outline of the main points you are going to cover.

Today I am going to share with you three effective ways to lessen public speaking fear.

The first and second cover aspects of preparation: writing and rehearsal or practice: actually doing the work, rather than being frightened of it. ☺  The third is about the benefits of public speaking. 

5. Benefit(s)

What's in your speech for your audience? Why will they want to hear what you've got to tell them? Be specific. Tell them.

When you make a decision to speak up in public you also gain: confidence, the ability to take on leadership roles, a growing collection of presentation skills like story telling, how to use your voice, the ability to use props well, how to listen, how to craft a speech to meet the needs of specific audiences... In short, you release the potential to become a bigger and better you * .

( * For more see  14 benefits of public speaking .)

Step Three - Outlining the body of your speech

This is the heart of your speech, the place where you lay out what you want to share with your audience.

Generally three main ideas, along with supporting examples, work more effectively than  four or five or more.  If you have a number of them to choose from, go with your three strongest points. And if one of your final three is noticeably weaker sandwich it between the other two.

If you intend to use visual aids (slides showing graphs, tables or images), or actual props, mark them in too.

Note: If you're unsure about the exact nature of links or transitions and how they work or what they are, you'll find more about them, with examples, on my page how to write a speech

• Main Idea 3 - Supporting ideas - Details and examples - Visuals or props - Transition to...

Step Four - Outlining the conclusion of your speech

There are four parts to preparing an effective conclusion to your speech. Use them to draw together and summarize all the material from your introduction and the body of your speech, and end with a clincher! 

• Summary of main ideas These are the main points you covered in the body of your speech.
• Re-statement of thesis statement Use the statement from your introduction to reinforce your message.
• Re-statement of benefit to audience Remind the audience of the benefits they'll receive through carrying out whatever your propose. Again this comes from your introduction.
• Closer, Clincher or Call to Action This is your final sentence. To ensure your speech ends with a bang rather than a whimper check out this page on how to end a speech memorably. You'll find options and examples.

Get your printable sample speech outline template

This is a simple four page PDF of all four steps and their sub- headings with spaces for you to write your notes. Click to download and print your sample speech outline now.

2 completed examples of speech outlines

Use these links to go to a fully completed:

• demonstration speech outline example  on how to leave an effective voice mail message (with a free printable sequential demonstration speech outline template) 
• persuasive speech topic outline  example on overcoming public speaking fear using Monroe's Motivated Sequence (with a free printable MMS persuasive speech outline template)

Example impromptu speech outline patterns

Impromptu speech outline patterns - seven different structural formats, each with completed examples and a free blank printable outline for you to download and use. 

Other resources for preparing successful speeches

Planning and writing, rehearsing a speech.

Once you're done with planning, completing your sample speech outline and writing find out how to rehearse. A speech is a live performance. Rehearsal helps you expose and iron out glitches before you find them out the hard way - in front of your audience.

Speech evaluation

And if your speech is being assessed check out this standard speech evaluation form to see what aspects are likely to be judged and how a rating scale works.

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Persuasive Speech Outline, with Examples

March 17, 2021 - Gini Beqiri

A persuasive speech is a speech that is given with the intention of convincing the audience to believe or do something. This could be virtually anything – voting, organ donation, recycling, and so on.

A successful persuasive speech effectively convinces the audience to your point of view, providing you come across as trustworthy and knowledgeable about the topic you’re discussing.

So, how do you start convincing a group of strangers to share your opinion? And how do you connect with them enough to earn their trust?

Topics for your persuasive speech

We’ve made a list of persuasive speech topics you could use next time you’re asked to give one. The topics are thought-provoking and things which many people have an opinion on.

When using any of our persuasive speech ideas, make sure you have a solid knowledge about the topic you’re speaking about – and make sure you discuss counter arguments too.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• All school children should wear a uniform
• Facebook is making people more socially anxious
• It should be illegal to drive over the age of 80
• Lying isn’t always wrong
• The case for organ donation

Read our full list of  75 persuasive speech topics and ideas .

Preparation: Consider your audience

As with any speech, preparation is crucial. Before you put pen to paper, think about what you want to achieve with your speech. This will help organise your thoughts as you realistically can only cover 2-4 main points before your  audience get bored .

It’s also useful to think about who your audience are at this point. If they are unlikely to know much about your topic then you’ll need to factor in context of your topic when planning the structure and length of your speech. You should also consider their:

• Cultural or religious backgrounds
• Shared concerns, attitudes and problems
• Shared interests, beliefs and hopes
• Baseline attitude – are they hostile, neutral, or open to change?

The factors above will all determine the approach you take to writing your speech. For example, if your topic is about childhood obesity, you could begin with a story about your own children or a shared concern every parent has. This would suit an audience who are more likely to be parents than young professionals who have only just left college.

Remember the 3 main approaches to persuade others

There are three main approaches used to persuade others:

The ethos approach appeals to the audience’s ethics and morals, such as what is the ‘right thing’ to do for humanity, saving the environment, etc.

Pathos persuasion is when you appeal to the audience’s emotions, such as when you  tell a story  that makes them the main character in a difficult situation.

The logos approach to giving a persuasive speech is when you appeal to the audience’s logic – ie. your speech is essentially more driven by facts and logic. The benefit of this technique is that your point of view becomes virtually indisputable because you make the audience feel that only your view is the logical one.

• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion

Ideas for your persuasive speech outline

1. structure of your persuasive speech.

The opening and closing of speech are the most important. Consider these carefully when thinking about your persuasive speech outline. A  strong opening  ensures you have the audience’s attention from the start and gives them a positive first impression of you.

You’ll want to  start with a strong opening  such as an attention grabbing statement, statistic of fact. These are usually dramatic or shocking, such as:

Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat – Jamie Oliver

Another good way of starting a persuasive speech is to include your audience in the picture you’re trying to paint. By making them part of the story, you’re embedding an emotional connection between them and your speech.

You could do this in a more toned-down way by talking about something you know that your audience has in common with you. It’s also helpful at this point to include your credentials in a persuasive speech to gain your audience’s trust.

Obama would spend hours with his team working on the opening and closing statements of his speech.

2. Stating your argument

You should  pick between 2 and 4 themes  to discuss during your speech so that you have enough time to explain your viewpoint and convince your audience to the same way of thinking.

It’s important that each of your points transitions seamlessly into the next one so that your speech has a logical flow. Work on your  connecting sentences  between each of your themes so that your speech is easy to listen to.

Your argument should be backed up by objective research and not purely your subjective opinion. Use examples, analogies, and stories so that the audience can relate more easily to your topic, and therefore are more likely to be persuaded to your point of view.

3. Addressing counter-arguments

Any balanced theory or thought  addresses and disputes counter-arguments  made against it. By addressing these, you’ll strengthen your persuasive speech by refuting your audience’s objections and you’ll show that you are knowledgeable to other thoughts on the topic.

When describing an opposing point of view, don’t explain it in a bias way – explain it in the same way someone who holds that view would describe it. That way, you won’t irritate members of your audience who disagree with you and you’ll show that you’ve reached your point of view through reasoned judgement. Simply identify any counter-argument and pose explanations against them.

• Complete Guide to Debating

4. Closing your speech

Your closing line of your speech is your last chance to convince your audience about what you’re saying. It’s also most likely to be the sentence they remember most about your entire speech so make sure it’s a good one!

The most effective persuasive speeches end  with a  call to action . For example, if you’ve been speaking about organ donation, your call to action might be asking the audience to register as donors.

Practice answering AI questions on your speech and get  feedback on your performance .

If audience members ask you questions, make sure you listen carefully and respectfully to the full question. Don’t interject in the middle of a question or become defensive.

You should show that you have carefully considered their viewpoint and refute it in an objective way (if you have opposing opinions). Ensure you remain patient, friendly and polite at all times.

Example 1: Persuasive speech outline

This example is from the Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Specific purpose

To persuade my audience to start walking in order to improve their health.

Central idea

Regular walking can improve both your mental and physical health.

Introduction

Let’s be honest, we lead an easy life: automatic dishwashers, riding lawnmowers, T.V. remote controls, automatic garage door openers, power screwdrivers, bread machines, electric pencil sharpeners, etc., etc. etc. We live in a time-saving, energy-saving, convenient society. It’s a wonderful life. Or is it?

Continue reading

Example 2: Persuasive speech

Tips for delivering your persuasive speech

• Practice, practice, and practice some more . Record yourself speaking and listen for any nervous habits you have such as a nervous laugh, excessive use of filler words, or speaking too quickly.
• Show confident body language . Stand with your legs hip width apart with your shoulders centrally aligned. Ground your feet to the floor and place your hands beside your body so that hand gestures come freely. Your audience won’t be convinced about your argument if you don’t sound confident in it. Find out more about  confident body language here .
• Don’t memorise your speech word-for-word  or read off a script. If you memorise your persuasive speech, you’ll sound less authentic and panic if you lose your place. Similarly, if you read off a script you won’t sound genuine and you won’t be able to connect with the audience by  making eye contact . In turn, you’ll come across as less trustworthy and knowledgeable. You could simply remember your key points instead, or learn your opening and closing sentences.
• Remember to use facial expressions when storytelling  – they make you more relatable. By sharing a personal story you’ll more likely be speaking your truth which will help you build a connection with the audience too. Facial expressions help bring your story to life and transport the audience into your situation.
• Keep your speech as concise as possible . When practicing the delivery, see if you can edit it to have the same meaning but in a more succinct way. This will keep the audience engaged.

The best persuasive speech ideas are those that spark a level of controversy. However, a public speech is not the time to express an opinion that is considered outside the norm. If in doubt, play it safe and stick to topics that divide opinions about 50-50.

Bear in mind who your audience are and plan your persuasive speech outline accordingly, with researched evidence to support your argument. It’s important to consider counter-arguments to show that you are knowledgeable about the topic as a whole and not bias towards your own line of thought.

Speech Outline: What is it & Why is it Useful?

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking

A speech outline is exactly what it sounds like. There is nothing complex about it, which is probably the reason why most people tend to skip this part of the speech writing process when it comes to public speaking.

A speech outline is an outline that is used while delivering a speech. It includes brief phrases that remind the speaker of the points that he/she is supposed to make.

Besides the general introduction-body-conclusion, what else is really there to this? Well, when you go slightly deeper into it, I look at speech outlines as more of a checkbox to ensure I’ve covered everything in my speech and that it is flowing properly.

Additionally, some individuals may seek assistance from a pro essay writing service to help them create well-structured and engaging speech outlines that captivate their audience.

Here are two basic speech outlines that can get you started and can be applied to a wide array of speeches:

The General Speech Outline

This is something we were taught since we were kids back in essay writing.

Every speech should have an opening, body and conclusion.

Let’s break that down a little further:

The Opening – While it’s important to have a strong opening , your opening should seamlessly tie into your premise which is basically the core and the main reason for your speech.

To learn more about this read our extensively written article on How to NOT Start a Speech (And What You Can Do Instead)

The Body – The body, while being the larger chunk of your speech, shouldn’t be just that – a large chunk. Break the body up! Split your ideas within the core message of your speech and transition smoothly through each idea so your audience can digest what you’re trying to communicate.

The Conclusion – Here is where many new speakers fall short. While you must focus on having a bang ending , tell the audience what you want them to do! Give them a clear indication or a ‘call-to-action’. For example, if you’re giving a motivational speech to pump up your team or employees, after you’re done speaking, end with one, two or even three tangible actions that they can take to reach the goals you have stated. That makes it clear to the audience of what they can do to get to what you have just spoken about.

If you want to make an impact on the audience, you must read our article on 5 Ways to End Your Speech With Maximum Impact!

According to Brian Tracy , this technique is used by numerous professional speakers – and for good reason. It’s simple, yet gives us a good idea of what a wholesome speech should include.

This is what it stands for and what each abbreviation means:

P – Point of view

Start your speech with what your view is – what are you going to be talking about? For example, “Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.”

This is from Jamie Oliver’s TED talk Teach every child about food .

Right from the beginning the speaker has set his point of view and the audience knows what the talk will be about – it’s going to be a hard-hitting talk which talks about the truth of the American diet and how it affects children.

Give a reason for your point of view. Why are you talking about what you are talking about? State your reason for holding this point of view or idea.

For example, building on Jamie Oliver’s talk, he goes on to say “I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life.” He then goes on to talk about why the food landscape of America is down and how it’s affecting the children.

It’s a beautifully structured speech and I must recommend that you watch it!

E – Example

Now it’s time to support your talk with something that actually happened or an analogy that the audience can relate to so they can digest and more easily consume what you are talking about.

Jamie Oliver went on to give examples of countries that are suffering from bad health due to the food they eat along with real-life examples of children who are going to live much shorter lives due to the food they eat. He said, “I want to show you a picture of my friend, Britney. She’s 16 years old. She’s got 6 years to live because of the food that she’s eaten.”

This is all about the circle effect which I will talk about in more detail later. But stating the same point of view that you did in the beginning is a powerful way to emphasize your point or idea further.

Oliver ended his talk with a wish which stated, “I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

See how he re-stated what he first spoke about – the talk is still about food, diet and children and how this statement is used to further emphasize his idea.

Speech Outline Template

Here is a basic speech template for you to get started. I was initially against putting one up as I believe each speech is unique and requires its own outline. But I was told that a basic structure is something that will help anyone write even the most basic (or advanced) speeches. So here goes:

An Intriguing Title

Have a speech title which intrigues your audience from the get-go. Something that is uncommon but yet ties back in with your main message. Some great speech titles from TED are:

• Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model. ( Cameron Russell )
• Strange answers to the psychopath test ( Jon Ronson )
• 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm ( Mary Roach )

Each of these speeches have killer titles.

Someone who hears the title is naturally drawn to the speech and wants to know more!

Introducing the topic

a) Gripping opening statement

b) The problem at hand (preview)

The introduction of a speech contains the opening statements of a speech. This is important. A strong opening sets the tone for the remainder of your speech. So make sure to spend enough time on this.

The introduction is kind of like a preview for your speech where you introduce what the problem at hand is and typically should take about 15-20% of your delivery time.

Learn more about how to have a powerful opening in your speech by reading our article on 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Transition from the introduction to the body of your speech .

Having trouble establishing the flow of your speech? Learn ways to make your transition smooth by reading our article on Effective Speech Transitions: How to Make Your Speech Flow

Essence of the speech: Body

Now it’s time to jump into the center of your speech – what is your main message? Use 70% of your speech (the body) to convey these points.

a) Main story (or stories)

b) Supporting statements to your story

c) Statistics from credible sources to add more weight to your points

d) Cue in of visual aids

This is a small checklist for your speeches body in no particular order. You don’t necessarily need to aid visual aids or stats unless they are aiding your speech in any manner.

You may have citations to lend credibility or quotes to draw in your audience as well.

You might have different methods or outlines to structure your speech body such as the following:

• 3 anecdotes
• Problem-Solution
• Bed time story
• Demonstration

You can read more about it here:

The Ultimate Guide to Structuring a Speech

Transition from the body to the conclusion of your speech .

End with a conclusion

a) Summing up your main message

b) A call-to-action (CTA) for your audience

Typically this aspect of the speech will comprise 10% of your delivery time.

The ending is what is most likely to be remembered by your audience, so ensure that it is bang-on!

A speech outline does not take much time to create but it is highly effective to ensure you don’t miss out on any parts of your speech which make a speech complete.

How to write a speech outline for kids?

Writing a speech outline for kids can be a little difficult as holding their attention can be a task. However, there are a few pointers to keep in mind while making a speech outline for kids.

1. Background research

This is important as once you know the age group of the kids, their interests, their level of vocabulary it is easier to hold their attention. Moreover, how much the kids know with respect to the topic can also give you a heads up for your speech. 

2. Keep it simple

It should be kept in mind to use simple and clear language in order to make sure that the kids understand the matter. Avoid using difficult vocabulary. Moreover, the use of formal language should also be limited as kids tend to get bored easily. Rather, conversational language should be used.

3. Use humour and personal stories

Kids like laughing and it is one of the best ways to grab their attention. Incorporating humor in the form of jokes can prove helpful. Personal stories or anecdotes can also help you get your point across.

4. Use props

Using props to make your speech more interesting and engaging can help you retain the attention from the kids. If possible, pass on the props to the kids so that they can see and understand the content of the speech better. 

Introduction speech outline

1. start with a greeting.

The first thing the audience would want to know is about the person delivering the information that they are hearing. If someone has already given an introduction of you, then you’d want to thank that person. 

If the introduction is not detailed, try giving one once you get up on the stage. However, keep in mind to not give a very lengthy introduction about oneself.

2. An attention-getter

After introducing yourself, the next thing to be done is to get their attention. This can be done by telling a joke or a personal story. Make sure to think about topics that would interest the audience. 

This initial attention getter is crucial so that the audience doesn’t lose interest and is focused on your speech.

3. Speech content

You have to give the audience a valid reason to listen to you. This mainly includes talking briefly about what all you are going to cover in your speech and also the importance of your topic.

It is advisable to keep this straightforward and to the point.

4. Scope of the speech

In this, the main content of the speech is to be delivered. This gives the audience a general idea as to what matter is going to be like and your way of delivering the speech. 

This might be confused with the previous point but it’s different in the sense that this mainly includes the main content of the speech whereas the previous one acts as an introduction of the speech. 

Speech outline examples

Here is an example of the speech of Hillary Clinton on Women’s Rights.

Watch the Youtube video to hear the entire speech.

The outline of this speech would be as follows:

Introduction with greetings I would like to thank the Secretary-General of the United Nations for inviting me to be part of the Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration – It is also a coming together (Speech contents) Our goals for this Conference, to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments – here and around the world – accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.  Body The international community has long acknowledged that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.  No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture. Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated.  Even in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. When women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.  I believe that it is time to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.  These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words. The voices of this conference must be heard loud and clear: It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.  (Effective use of rhetorical devices) It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution.  It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to  death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.  It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.  It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes.  It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.  If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women’s rights – and women’s rights are human rights.  Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely – and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. Conclusion Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too.  As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world – as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes – the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.  Let this Conference be our – and the world’s – call to action. And let us heed the call so that we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future. God’s blessings on you, your work and all who will benefit from it. Thank you very much.

Motivational speech outline

The speech outline for any motivational speech also has a similar format as the one shown above.

Here’s a video of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

Here is just a part of the speech given by Steve Jobs used to prepare the outline, which would be something similar to what is written below.

Introduction and starting with greetings I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. (Humor) I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.  (Speech content) Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. Body (Anecdote) I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus, every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. (Take away from the speech) Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.  Conclusion You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. Trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Final words…

A speech outline is necessary as it will act as a guide while delivering a speech and also as a speaker make you more organised in terms of your thoughts and ideas. It will ensure that you touch upon all the main points of your speech and also stick to the essence of the speech rather than blabbering. 

Although speech outlines are usually omitted, having one will help you organise the message you want the audience to receive. 

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How to Outline A Speech – Easy 4-stage Strategy

Introduction.

The art of speech outlining is such that anybody trying to make a public presentation should give strict adherence to. If you came here asking ‘how to outline a speech?’, then rest assured, you will learn how to craft an effective speech outline by the time you finish reading this article.

When you organize your speech into a comprehensive outline, you not only boost your confidence and delivery by doing so but, you also, establish authority in your chosen field of endeavor.

Now, before proceeding to prepare your speech outline, be sure to start with an excellent introduction about yourself and the topic or subject that will form the basis of the discussion, the main points you hope to go over, as well putting the diverse interests of the audience into consideration.

As you write your speech outline, you will need to consider chopping it into various cross-sections from the introduction down to the conclusion.

The mid-section part of your presentation will include much of the discussion itself. This will be an opener into the topic, as well as touching on each of the main points in the presentation.

The last part of the speech outline will hold the final notes, the summary as well as a question and answering session, before the final closing remarks

How to Outline a Speech Stage I

1. introduction.

You can start by saying “hello,” then going on to state your name and what you do. It will also be useful to find common ground with you, the audience, and the event. For example, if the scope of the entire event centers on your field, it will be wise to point that out in specific terms.

“Hello everyone, I’m Nathan Gustav, I’ve spent the last seven years of my career researching the impact of climate change on our environment, and I’m more than pleased that I have been invited to speak on the subject of adopting eco-friendly best practices for a safer and cleaner environment.”

2. Engage Them In Banters That Hover Around The Topic In Question

Just like in the illustration given earlier, you might explain to them why climate change has become a matter of urgency, and why drastic measures need to be taken to curb the damage, it has caused. All these will lay a foundation of what much of the topic will be mediated upon.

After you might have laid the foundation of the topic, your main aim should be to immediately captivate your audience by telling them a compelling story, or by sharing a joke. You should factor in the audience taste when doing so. You should not feel that since you probably found something amusing or exciting, that they will automatically share in the same spirits.

Where you are not too sure of what a class of audience might appreciate, you can do a test-run with a small group of friends, who have the same enthusiasm as you and your subject to see how well they buy into your story.

3. Lay Out The Core Theme Of The Message .

In the illustration of climate change, you might go on to explain the various best practices that can be adopted to promote an eco-friendly environment, like recycling, using energy-saving bulbs, or planting a garden.

4. Establish Authority In Your Work

At this point, you should let your audience in on your wealth of experience. This can be conveyed through stories of your personal experiences or encounters throughout your years of working in the field.

A person who has witnessed a “troubled” loved one commit suicide is better informed to give a speech about handling depression and anxiety amongst youth.

5. Gloss Over The Main Points

There are no short cuts to this. You need to be precise about what you want to talk about. The order in which you arrange your points will be dependent on the nature of the topics. Topics that take stock of past events will have to be arranged chronologically.

How to Outline a Speech Stage II

6. the opener into the topic.

Begin with the first point of your topic, which will be a high priority case study in the outline. Under this case study, will be a host of smaller points that will provide supportive evidence to back the main point.

Always begin with strong arguments down to the least. This is because of time constraints. You might not have all the time to table all your points, but you have had just enough time to discuss the most important ones.

7. Roll Over To The Next Point .

You could, for instance, say “You have seen the adverse effects of climate on our environment, now is the time to seek for eco-friendly ways we can all adopt in our various little ways to combat this common problem.” Run this same method along with all points in the outline, and you will turn out just fine.

How to Analyze an Audience

Why a speech outline is important, 10 awesome tips on how to start a speech with a bang, how to outline a speech stage iii, 8. final notes.

Conclude by summarizing all the points you have talked about. You can begin by reiterating what you said before in your speech. It is a summary, so you need not go over all of the details again. You should more or less gloss over the main points.

9. Reiterate The Core Theme Of The Message

When giving out a call-to-action, be sure to add your contact information. You can say something like, “The Mayfair Initiative is looking for people to partner with to spread the message of going green. They need people to picket outside a coffee shop, your communal departmental store, or the small bar by the street. All you need do is contact us on such-and-such for more information.”

How to Outline a Speech Stage IV

10. make room for questions and answers.

Moreover, always expect to field tough questions and engage in counter-arguments about the speech topic. You should already have the answer to such questions before then, having done thorough research and do have them included in the outline.

Also, be quick to note to the audience just how much time and the number of questions you will be willing to take.

11. Thank The Audience And Your Host

We can now see why learning how to outline a speech in the right order not only boost your confidence but lets you garner credibility and respect from your audience.

Making sure you give strict adherence to all the four stages, as we have been able to tabulate in the right order will surely stand you out amongst your peers, making you a dominant force in your area of specialization, and people will be more than willing to work with you.

Thank you for reading this far. Find below additional references and resources that will add on to our ‘how to outline a speech’ post. I am sure you will find some additional insights.

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How to Write an Outline for Speech: Basic Guide

Table of Contents

An outline is a crucial component of the speech-writing process. It ensures that your speech is well-organized and captures your audience’s attention.

This article will explain the necessity of an outline and how to write a outline for speech to deliver a flawless presentation. Let’s dive in!

Importance of an Outline for a Speech

Without an outline, your speech could be confusing or unpolished. But with a written outline, you can deliver a complete and impressive speech.

Here are other important reasons why you should draft an outline for your speech before you start writing it.

1. Sharpen Your Concentration

By outlining your speech, you may ensure that your thesis statement and primary concept receive the attention they deserve.

Remember that every detail of your speech should support the core idea you’re trying to convey. Also, by outlining your work, you can ensure that each section strengthens your overall argument.

2. Maintain a Semblance of Order

Your speech must follow a general structure for your audience to follow what you are saying.

If you want your speech to make sense to an audience and flow smoothly, it’s a good idea to draft an outline beforehand. It allows you to see all of your essential points and rearrange them in a way that makes sense to you.

3. Make the Transitions Easier to Follow

Your speech’s transitions will be more seamless if you use an outline. Knowing the context of what comes before and after a given part can help you deliver smooth transitions between them. Instead of sounding like a collection of unrelated thoughts, your words will flow seamlessly from one to the next.

4. Prevents Time Wastage

You can save yourself a lot of time and stress when you write your speech’s final draft by first creating an outline. Writing a draft with an outline can help you avoid “blank page syndrome.”

The speech’s main themes and subpoints are written for you, making it much simpler to complete.

How to Write a Outline for Speech: Structure & Tips

We have discussed the many speech outlines you might use as a guide while writing your speech. Now, let’s dive into structuring your outline.

1. Select a Topic of Interest

You must have a firm grasp on your topic before you can even begin sketching out your talk’s structure. Think about who you’re speaking to and what they can learn from your presentation.

Naturally, you want your subject matter and messaging to be very pertinent to them. Not knowing your audience well enough to select an appropriate topic is problematic.

To whom you’re speaking is of paramount importance. However, it helps if you can write about something that interests you. What is it that you enjoy learning about or doing?

Writing a speech on a topic you’re interested in will be less of a chore than writing one on something you’re not. Finding that sweet spot between what interests you and your audience is the first step in creating a memorable speech.

2. Create a Statement of Thesis

Is there a particular message you want people to walk away with after hearing your speech? How will you get this primary point across?

The thesis statement is the main idea of your speech. It is the crux of your argument, the essence of what you’re trying to convey.

During your speech, you will almost certainly repeat your thesis statement verbatim. It’s best to include it just after you introduce yourself. The remainder of your discussion will build upon this point and provide evidence to show that it is correct.

Before you go into your research or outline for your speech, sit down and write your thesis statement. It will be much simpler to ensure consistency throughout your address if you can refer back to this statement as you start to work.

The aim is to have your details and evidence back up and strengthen that central argument. Your speech’s conclusion should leave listeners feeling inspired, informed, or convinced of the veracity of your thesis.

Your speech should begin with an engaging opening to pique the listeners’ interest. The possibilities for developing this hook are virtually limitless. Be bold and think beyond the box. You could try the following:

• Shocking Statistics or an alluring quote
• Exemplifying with anecdotes
• Posing a query (rhetorical or otherwise)

These are a few kinds of hooks that can get people to pay attention to what you have to say.

The remainder of your introduction should be concise; your introduction should only go on for at most ten percent of your total speech time.

Convey to the audience quickly who you are and why they should listen to you by providing a brief introduction. Provide some context for your speech. Include your thesis statement and a brief explanation that you will be discussing X essential issues. Continually connect your introduction to the meat of your address.

After that, compose the meat of your presentation. This is where you’ll spend most of your talk. As such, it will feature both your primary arguments and any supporting details you care to provide.

Use examples, visuals, or research to support the claims you make. Make sure they are exciting and memorable. Nobody cares to hear you deliver a boring list of information.

You don’t have to jot down every last example or nuance. Do not worry about composing complete sentences.

5. Conclusion

Your speech’s conclusion should offer a brief, memorable summary of its key ideas. It’s preferable to end on a thought-provoking or conversation-starting note with the audience. Consider asking them a follow-up question that gives them something to think about after you’ve finished talking.

You can also leave them with a tale or statement that will stay with them. Extra points if you can refer back to your opening statement or hook in your final paragraph.

In other situations, a call to action could be the best way to wrap things up. Is there a product you’re trying to sell? Specify what it is, how it will help your target audience, and where they can get it. As a call-to-action, you might simply provide your handle and encourage others to follow you. In the end, be sure to express gratitude to everyone who listened to you.

Wrapping Up

Knowing how to write a outline for speech is essential to succeed in public speaking. The more natural your address is, the better your audience will be able to comprehend your message and pay attention to your significant points.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Informative Speech Outline

Informative speeches are a cornerstone of effective communication, whether in educational settings, professional environments, or public forums. Unlike persuasive speeches that aim to sway opinions or encourage actions, informative speeches traditionally focus on delivering clear, factual, and useful information to an audience. Informative speeches have been thought of as a way to enlighten the listener by breaking down complex topics into understandable segments, enriching their knowledge or understanding of a subject without necessarily aiming to alter their stance.

So what’s wrong with this picture?

A lot. Many people overlook the significant opportunity informative speeches provide to not only inform, but to persuade. Traditionally viewed as vehicles for delivering facts and data, informative speeches actually possess a big opportunity to subtly influence and move audiences. Even when the immediate goal isn’t to elicit a direct action, such as a purchase or commitment, a good informative speech should be strategically designed to shape the audience’s perceptions or future decisions.

The structure of an informative speech is crucial to its success. This is where the concept of an organized speech outline comes into play. An outline serves as a blueprint for the speech, organizing the content logically and coherently. It helps speakers ensure that they cover all necessary points while also maintaining a smooth flow of information. Outlines prevent the common pitfalls of disorganized speech, such as digressing from the topic or overwhelming the audience with too much information at once. Additionally, a well-structured outline can aid in keeping the speaker focused and calm, as they have a clear roadmap to follow during the delivery.

What is an Informative Speech?

A traditional informative speech is designed to educate the audience on a specific topic. It aims to provide clear, factual, and detailed information that enhances the listener’s understanding or knowledge. These speeches are foundational in academic lectures, technical conferences, and quarterly business meetings.

Informative speeches are traditionally characterized by the delivery of unbiased, non-persuasive content, aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of facts, data, and figures related to a specific topic. Key characteristics of informative speeches include clarity, accuracy, and relevance, which assist the speaker in communicating complex information in an accessible format.

Unlike a descriptive speech, which focuses primarily on painting a vivid picture of a particular subject or scene, informative speeches provide a broader spectrum of information. Similarly, a demonstration speech, which typically shows the audience how to perform a task or process, differs from informative speeches that may use visual aids like charts, diagrams, or slides to enhance understanding and retention but do not necessarily include a procedural demonstration. These distinctions help in tailoring the content to meet the specific educational goals of each type of speech.

Traditional Distinction Between Informative & Persuasive Speeches

While both informative and persuasive speeches aim to hold the audience’s attention, their core intentions diverge significantly. Persuasive speeches are designed to influence the audience’s beliefs or actions, encouraging them to adopt a new perspective or engage in a specific behavior. In contrast, informative speeches are neutral; they do not seek to persuade but rather to inform. The speaker of an informative speech will carefully avoid personal bias or persuasive language, focusing instead on delivering straightforward and factual content.

This traditional distinction, however, is short-sighted. It underestimates the subtle power of informative speeches to also shape attitudes and future behaviors. While the primary aim of informative speeches is to educate, this does not preclude them from being crafted in a manner that also persuasively frames information. By integrating persuasive elements, speakers can enhance engagement and retention, and subtly nudge the audience to think about the topic in a way that the speaker would prefer.

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What is the Most Important Part of an Informative Speech?

Now that you understand your informative speech is an opportunity to do more than educate, we’ll break down how to create an impactful informative speech.

The most crucial aspect of any informative speech is its objective.  In any speech, persuasive or informative, Suasive refers to this as “Point B.” This objective is the guiding star of the presentation, like a thesis statement.  Understanding and clearly defining this objective is paramount to creating an effective informative speech that not only conveys information but also keeps the audience engaged.

Importance of Having a Clear Objective (Point B) for the Speech

The objective of an informative speech—Point B—answers the fundamental question: What do I want my audience to know, or do, or feel after listening to my speech? This clear endpoint is essential because it helps structure the entire presentation around a central goal. It ensures that every piece of information presented moves the audience closer to a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Without a clear objective, a speech can easily become a collection of disjointed facts that fail to provide value or enhance understanding.

Having a defined objective also aids in selecting content. It helps the speaker decide what to include and, crucially, what to omit. This focus prevents the common pitfall of overwhelming the audience with too much information, which can lead to confusion or disinterest.

Why Create an Outline for an Informative Speech?

Creating an outline for an informative speech is crucial in organizing and delivering content effectively. This framework not only structures the speech but also ensures that the speaker communicates the essential information in a logical and engaging manner.

The Role of an Outline in Organizing and Focusing Your Speech Content

An outline acts as a roadmap for both the preparation and delivery phases of an informative speech. It guides the structure of the speech, ensuring that all included information is relevant and contributes directly to the overarching goal of the presentation. By organizing the speech around a clear objective, this informative speech outline template helps maintain focus and prevents deviation from the main topic.

How Outlines Prevent Information Overload

The challenge of overloading the audience with information, leading to confusion and disengagement, is a significant concern in informative speeches. An outline addresses this issue by breaking down the speech into manageable segments, allowing the speaker to introduce complex information gradually and coherently. This structured approach helps maintain audience engagement by providing clear transitions and logical progression between topics.

Additionally, incorporating elements that resonate with the audience’s interests and needs within the outline can turn a potentially dry presentation into a compelling narrative. Even in an informative speech, subtle persuasive elements can make the information more impactful, ensuring that the audience not only understands but also values the presented information.

An outline helps speakers effectively pace their presentation, highlight key points, and adapt their delivery based on audience feedback, enhancing both understanding and engagement.

What are the Steps in Writing an Informative Speech?

Writing an informative speech involves a systematic process to ensure clarity and effectiveness in delivering the intended message. This process includes developing a detailed outline that organizes the content of the speech so it is logical and compelling.

Step-by-Step Guide to Developing an Outline

1. Brainstorm

This involves generating a wide range of ideas, one point at a time, and then distilling these into main points that are directly relevant to the objective. The brainstorming process is crucial to explore diverse aspects and ensure that no critical information is overlooked. You need not use a complete sentence format when brainstorming, just one or two keywords is best.

After brainstorming, create individual clusters by selecting 2-6 main points. These become the centers of individual clusters. Next, add sub-points around each cluster like spokes in a wheel.  Clustering simplifies complex data into more manageable chunks, making it easier to tell your story with crystal-clear clarity.

3. Organize the Flow

Arrange the main points in a logical sequence so the story is easy for you to tell, and easy for the audience to understand. This transforms your speech from information to a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

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Flow Structures to Shape Your Story

To enhance the effectiveness of an informative speech, different flow structures can be used depending on the nature of the content and the desired impact on the audience. Here are a few examples:

1. Problem-Solution

This structure is effective for topics that involve addressing specific issues or challenges. The speech outlines a problem and then discusses possible solutions, making it highly engaging and practical for the audience.

2. Chronological

For topics that involve historical events, processes, or narratives that unfold over time, a chronological structure is appropriate. It helps the audience easily follow the progression of events or steps in a process.

3. Form-Function

This structure is useful for explaining the evolution of a concept. It starts with the original idea (form) and then describes its multiple applications (function) for the growth of an enterprise.

By carefully selecting and applying a flow structure, you can tailor your presentation to your topic and audience, enhancing both the delivery and comprehension of your speech. Each structure provides a unique way to arrange information, ensuring that the audience remains engaged and can easily follow your story.

What are the Three Parts of a Conclusion in an Outline for an Informative Speech?

A well-crafted conclusion is crucial for reinforcing the main message and leaving a lasting impression on the audience. In an informative speech, the conclusion serves as the final opportunity to emphasize your objective and ensure the audience takes away the intended message. The conclusion typically consists of three key parts: the Bookend Gambit, the Recap, and Point B.

1. Bookend Gambit

This element serves as the initial part of the conclusion, designed to recapture the audience’s attention and prepare them for the final message. It often mirrors the creativity of the opening Gambit in style and content, providing message continuity and consistency.

After the Bookend Gambit, the Recap summarizes the main points of the speech. This is crucial for reinforcing the information delivered, especially the core concepts that support the objective. By succinctly reviewing each main point, the speaker helps solidify audience understanding and retention.

The last part of the conclusion is where the speaker reiterates the main message or objective, emphasizing what they want the audience to remember or act upon. This statement should be short, compelling, and memorable, leaving no doubt about the importance of the content.

How to tell your story so the audience feels it’s their story.

End with a Strong, Memorable Conclusion

The conclusion is your last chance to impact your audience, making it one of the most important parts of the speech. A strong, memorable conclusion ensures that the main message is understood and remembered. It reinforces the purpose of the speech and can significantly influence how the audience feels about the topic discussed. A well-executed conclusion not only enhances understanding but also elevates the overall effectiveness of the speech, ensuring that the audience leaves with a clear sense of the speech’s significance and relevance.

In crafting a conclusion, it is beneficial to think about the desired impact on the audience. Whether the goal is to inspire, inform, or call to action, the conclusion should succinctly encapsulate the essence of the speech while also motivating the audience to reflect on the importance of the topic. This approach ensures that the speech doesn’t only convey just what you want them to know, but also leaves a lasting impression that extends beyond the presentation itself.

Throughout this article, we’ve explored the key components and strategies required to craft effective informative speeches. From clearly stating your goal for the audience, to utilizing a complete sentence outline for precise structuring, every step is crucial in delivering an engaging and informative presentation.

Summary of Key Points

Importance of a Clear Objective / Point B

We emphasized the significance of communicating early the informative goal as the guiding force for the entire speech. Point B ensures that every part of the speech is aligned and focused on the main goal and is critical for both persuasive and informative speeches.

Outline Creation

The process of crafting a solid informative speech outline, from brainstorming, to clustering ideas into a coherent speaking outline, to ensuring flow was explored.

Speech Conclusion

The three essential parts of the conclusion—the Bookend Gambit, Recap, and Point B—were highlighted to show how a powerful conclusion can encapsulate the entire speech and reinforce the main message.

We encourage all speakers, whether in public speaking scenarios, boardrooms, or classrooms to employ these outlined strategies to enhance the impact of their informative speeches. Starting with a well-defined Point B, utilizing an effective outline, and crafting a memorable conclusion are foundational elements that ensure your speeches are not only informative but also make the impact you deserve.

Suasive, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based communication consulting company that offers public speaking classes for organizations and individuals.

To date, we’ve coached over 600 IPOs and helped individuals in some of the world’s largest companies including Netflix , eBay , Sonos , Lyft , and Freshworks .

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Privacy Overview

What this handout is about

This handout will help you create an effective speech by establishing the purpose of your speech and making it easily understandable. It will also help you to analyze your audience and keep the audience interested.

What’s different about a speech?

Writing for public speaking isn’t so different from other types of writing. You want to engage your audience’s attention, convey your ideas in a logical manner and use reliable evidence to support your point. But the conditions for public speaking favor some writing qualities over others. When you write a speech, your audience is made up of listeners. They have only one chance to comprehend the information as you read it, so your speech must be well-organized and easily understood. In addition, the content of the speech and your delivery must fit the audience.

What’s your purpose?

People have gathered to hear you speak on a specific issue, and they expect to get something out of it immediately. And you, the speaker, hope to have an immediate effect on your audience. The purpose of your speech is to get the response you want. Most speeches invite audiences to react in one of three ways: feeling, thinking, or acting. For example, eulogies encourage emotional response from the audience; college lectures stimulate listeners to think about a topic from a different perspective; protest speeches in the Pit recommend actions the audience can take.

As you establish your purpose, ask yourself these questions:

• What do you want the audience to learn or do?
• If you are making an argument, why do you want them to agree with you?
• If they already agree with you, why are you giving the speech?
• How can your audience benefit from what you have to say?

Audience analysis

If your purpose is to get a certain response from your audience, you must consider who they are (or who you’re pretending they are). If you can identify ways to connect with your listeners, you can make your speech interesting and useful.

As you think of ways to appeal to your audience, ask yourself:

• What do they have in common? Age? Interests? Ethnicity? Gender?
• Do they know as much about your topic as you, or will you be introducing them to new ideas?
• Why are these people listening to you? What are they looking for?
• What level of detail will be effective for them?
• What tone will be most effective in conveying your message?
• What might offend or alienate them?

For more help, see our handout on audience .

Creating an effective introduction

Get their attention, otherwise known as “the hook”.

Think about how you can relate to these listeners and get them to relate to you or your topic. Appealing to your audience on a personal level captures their attention and concern, increasing the chances of a successful speech. Speakers often begin with anecdotes to hook their audience’s attention. Other methods include presenting shocking statistics, asking direct questions of the audience, or enlisting audience participation.

Establish context and/or motive

Explain why your topic is important. Consider your purpose and how you came to speak to this audience. You may also want to connect the material to related or larger issues as well, especially those that may be important to your audience.

Get to the point

Tell your listeners your thesis right away and explain how you will support it. Don’t spend as much time developing your introductory paragraph and leading up to the thesis statement as you would in a research paper for a course. Moving from the intro into the body of the speech quickly will help keep your audience interested. You may be tempted to create suspense by keeping the audience guessing about your thesis until the end, then springing the implications of your discussion on them. But if you do so, they will most likely become bored or confused.

For more help, see our handout on introductions .

Making your speech easy to understand

Repeat crucial points and buzzwords.

Especially in longer speeches, it’s a good idea to keep reminding your audience of the main points you’ve made. For example, you could link an earlier main point or key term as you transition into or wrap up a new point. You could also address the relationship between earlier points and new points through discussion within a body paragraph. Using buzzwords or key terms throughout your paper is also a good idea. If your thesis says you’re going to expose unethical behavior of medical insurance companies, make sure the use of “ethics” recurs instead of switching to “immoral” or simply “wrong.” Repetition of key terms makes it easier for your audience to take in and connect information.

Incorporate previews and summaries into the speech

For example:

“I’m here today to talk to you about three issues that threaten our educational system: First, … Second, … Third,”

“I’ve talked to you today about such and such.”

These kinds of verbal cues permit the people in the audience to put together the pieces of your speech without thinking too hard, so they can spend more time paying attention to its content.

Use especially strong transitions

This will help your listeners see how new information relates to what they’ve heard so far. If you set up a counterargument in one paragraph so you can demolish it in the next, begin the demolition by saying something like,

“But this argument makes no sense when you consider that . . . .”

If you’re providing additional information to support your main point, you could say,

“Another fact that supports my main point is . . . .”

Helping your audience listen

Rely on shorter, simpler sentence structures.

Don’t get too complicated when you’re asking an audience to remember everything you say. Avoid using too many subordinate clauses, and place subjects and verbs close together.

Too complicated:

The product, which was invented in 1908 by Orville Z. McGillicuddy in Des Moines, Iowa, and which was on store shelves approximately one year later, still sells well.

Easier to understand:

Orville Z. McGillicuddy invented the product in 1908 and introduced it into stores shortly afterward. Almost a century later, the product still sells well.

Limit pronoun use

Listeners may have a hard time remembering or figuring out what “it,” “they,” or “this” refers to. Be specific by using a key noun instead of unclear pronouns.

Pronoun problem:

The U.S. government has failed to protect us from the scourge of so-called reality television, which exploits sex, violence, and petty conflict, and calls it human nature. This cannot continue.

Why the last sentence is unclear: “This” what? The government’s failure? Reality TV? Human nature?

More specific:

The U.S. government has failed to protect us from the scourge of so-called reality television, which exploits sex, violence, and petty conflict, and calls it human nature. This failure cannot continue.

Keeping audience interest

Incorporate the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos.

When arguing a point, using ethos, pathos, and logos can help convince your audience to believe you and make your argument stronger. Ethos refers to an appeal to your audience by establishing your authenticity and trustworthiness as a speaker. If you employ pathos, you appeal to your audience’s emotions. Using logos includes the support of hard facts, statistics, and logical argumentation. The most effective speeches usually present a combination these rhetorical strategies.

Use statistics and quotations sparingly

Include only the most striking factual material to support your perspective, things that would likely stick in the listeners’ minds long after you’ve finished speaking. Otherwise, you run the risk of overwhelming your listeners with too much information.

Watch your tone

Be careful not to talk over the heads of your audience. On the other hand, don’t be condescending either. And as for grabbing their attention, yelling, cursing, using inappropriate humor, or brandishing a potentially offensive prop (say, autopsy photos) will only make the audience tune you out.

Creating an effective conclusion

Restate your main points, but don’t repeat them.

“I asked earlier why we should care about the rain forest. Now I hope it’s clear that . . .” “Remember how Mrs. Smith couldn’t afford her prescriptions? Under our plan, . . .”

Call to action

Speeches often close with an appeal to the audience to take action based on their new knowledge or understanding. If you do this, be sure the action you recommend is specific and realistic. For example, although your audience may not be able to affect foreign policy directly, they can vote or work for candidates whose foreign policy views they support. Relating the purpose of your speech to their lives not only creates a connection with your audience, but also reiterates the importance of your topic to them in particular or “the bigger picture.”

Practicing for effective presentation

Once you’ve completed a draft, read your speech to a friend or in front of a mirror. When you’ve finished reading, ask the following questions:

• Which pieces of information are clearest?
• Where did I connect with the audience?
• Where might listeners lose the thread of my argument or description?
• Where might listeners become bored?
• Where did I have trouble speaking clearly and/or emphatically?
• Did I stay within my time limit?

Other resources

• Toastmasters International is a nonprofit group that provides communication and leadership training.
• Allyn & Bacon Publishing’s Essence of Public Speaking Series is an extensive treatment of speech writing and delivery, including books on using humor, motivating your audience, word choice and presentation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Boone, Louis E., David L. Kurtz, and Judy R. Block. 1997. Contemporary Business Communication . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Ehrlich, Henry. 1994. Writing Effective Speeches . New York: Marlowe.

Lamb, Sandra E. 1998. How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write . Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

Trying to devise a structure for your essay can be one of the most difficult parts of the writing process. Making a detailed outline before you begin writing is a good way to make sure your ideas come across in a clear and logical order. A good outline will also save you time in the revision process, reducing the possibility that your ideas will need to be rearranged once you've written them.

The First Steps

Before you can begin outlining, you need to have a sense of what you will argue in the essay. From your analysis and close readings of primary and/or secondary sources you should have notes, ideas, and possible quotes to cite as evidence. Let's say you are writing about the 1999 Republican Primary and you want to prove that each candidate's financial resources were the most important element in the race. At this point, your notes probably lack much coherent order. Most likely, your ideas are still in the order in which they occurred to you; your notes and possible quotes probably still adhere to the chronology of the sources you've examined. Your goal is to rearrange your ideas, notes, and quotes—the raw material of your essay—into an order that best supports your argument, not the arguments you've read in other people's works. To do this, you have to group your notes into categories and then arrange these categories in a logical order.

Generalizing

The first step is to look over each individual piece of information that you've written and assign it to a general category. Ask yourself, "If I were to file this in a database, what would I file it under?" If, using the example of the Republican Primary, you wrote down an observation about John McCain's views on health care, you might list it under the general category of  "Health care policy." As you go through your notes, try to reuse categories whenever possible. Your goal is to reduce your notes to no more than a page of category listings.

Now examine your category headings. Do any seem repetitive? Do any go together? "McCain's expenditure on ads" and "Bush's expenditure on ads," while not exactly repetitive, could easily combine into a more general category like "Candidates' expenditures on ads." Also, keep an eye out for categories that no longer seem to relate to your argument. Individual pieces of information that at first seemed important can begin to appear irrelevant when grouped into a general category.

Now it's time to generalize again. Examine all your categories and look for common themes. Go through each category and ask yourself, "If I were to place this piece of information in a file cabinet, what would I label that cabinet?" Again, try to reuse labels as often as possible: "Health Care," "Foreign Policy," and "Immigration" can all be contained under "Policy Initiatives." Make these larger categories as general as possible so that there are no more than three or four for a 7-10 page paper.

With your notes grouped into generalized categories, the process of ordering them should be easier. To begin, look at your most general categories. With your thesis in mind, try to find a way that the labels might be arranged in a sentence or two that supports your argument. Let's say your thesis is that financial resources played the most important role in the 1999 Republican Primary. Your four most general categories are "Policy Initiatives," "Financial Resources," "Voters' Concerns," and "Voters' Loyalty." You might come up with the following sentence: ÒAlthough McCain's policy initiatives were closest to the voters' concerns, Bush's financial resources won the voters' loyalty.Ó This sentence should reveal the order of your most general categories. You will begin with an examination of McCain's and Bush's views on important issues and compare them to the voters' top concerns. Then you'll look at both candidates' financial resources and show how Bush could win voters' loyalty through effective use of his resources, despite his less popular policy ideas.

With your most general categories in order, you now must order the smaller categories. To do so, arrange each smaller category into a sentence or two that will support the more general sentence you've just devised. Under the category of "Financial Resources," for instance, you might have the smaller categories of "Ad Expenditure," "Campaign Contributions" and "Fundraising." A sentence that supports your general argument might read: "Bush's early emphasis on fundraising led to greater campaign contributions, allowing him to have a greater ad expenditure than McCain."

The final step of the outlining process is to repeat this procedure on the smallest level, with the original notes that you took for your essay. To order what probably was an unwieldy and disorganized set of information at the beginning of this process, you need now only think of a sentence or two to support your general argument. Under the category "Fundraising," for example, you might have quotes about each candidate's estimation of its importance, statistics about the amount of time each candidate spent fundraising, and an idea about how the importance of fundraising never can be overestimated. Sentences to support your general argument might read: "No candidate has ever raised too much money [your idea]. While both McCain and Bush acknowledged the importance of fundraising [your quotes], the numbers clearly point to Bush as the superior fundraiser [your statistics]." The arrangement of your ideas, quotes, and statistics now should come naturally.

Putting It All Together

With these sentences, you have essentially constructed an outline for your essay. The most general ideas, which you organized in your first sentence, constitute the essay's sections. They follow the order in which you placed them in your sentence. The order of the smaller categories within each larger category (determined by your secondary sentences) indicates the order of the paragraphs within each section. Finally, your last set of sentences about your specific notes should show the order of the sentences within each paragraph. An outline for the essay about the 1999 Republican Primary (showing only the sections worked out here) would look something like this:

I. POLICY INITIATIVES

II.  VOTERS' CONCERNS

III.  FINANCIAL RESOURCES

            A.  Fundraising

                        a.  Original Idea

                        b.  McCain Quote/Bush Quote

                        c.  McCain Statistics/Bush Statistics

            B.  Campaign Contributions

            C.  Ad Expenditure

IV.  VOTERS' LOYALTY

Copyright 2000, David Kornhaber, for the Writing Center at Harvard University