spatial order in speech

Module 6: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

Chronological, step-by-step, and spatial organization, learning objectives.

Explain the chronological, step-by-step, and spatial patterns for speeches and identify which topics work best for these types.

We can think of speeches organized chronologically, step by step, or spatially as following a “natural” or self-evident structure. When you’re talking about a process, for instance, walking the audience through the process step by step seems like a logical or natural choice.

Remember, though, that even if your speech is structured in a “natural” sequence, you still need an introduction that helps the listener understand why they’re listening to this story. Imagine that a friend is going to tell you a story about something that happened to them that day. First, let’s imagine that they start the story with “Something really funny happened to me . . . .” What are you listening for in the story? Now imagine if they started the story with “I’m really upset because of something that happened today.” Or “I really need your advice. Here’s what happened . . . .” With each of these different beginnings, we listen in a different way. In the first case, we’re primed to laugh; in the second, we get ready to offer comfort and sympathy; in the third, we’re prepared to problem solve. The same is true of the beginning of your speech: by setting the stage with the introduction or the “hook,” you’re letting the listener know what they’re listening for and how they should listen.

Chronological

A persuasive speech about Climate Change might describe the predicted effects of global warming in chronological order.

A chronologically organized speech pattern organizes its main points following a sequence of events or occurrences according to the time they took place. This structure works particularly well for informative and introductory speeches. For example, an introductory speech about the life events that lead you to attend your college could be organized chronologically starting with the first meeting with your guidance counselor, which lead to filling out an application a few weeks later to then drafting an essay, going on a campus tour a few months after that, having an interview with the department, and then finally getting the acceptance letter. Another example of a chronological speech topic would be a speech about a historical event, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Boxer Rebellion, or the Arab Spring, which covers the events that occurred in the order in which they happened.

The advantages of a chronological speech pattern are that it is very easy to follow and it creates a clean, clear order. The timeline does the organizational work for the speaker and makes it easy to use. The cons are that there may be many events that occurred, such as in a speech topic about women getting the right to vote, which may not fit into the speech delivery time limit. So, consider the time allotted in addition to whether the time sequence of events is the most effective way to present the material before selecting this pattern.

Step-by-Step

An informative speech about Salsa dancing might give step-by-step instructions.

This pattern presents the steps involved in doing something and is useful for “how-to” or demonstration speeches where you are teaching or showing how to do a task. It follows the order of a process. For example, the steps involved in baking a cake, a speech demonstrating the dance steps required to do the Macarena, or how to create a PowerPoint presentation would use a step-by-step structure.

The advantage of this organizational pattern is that it breaks the task into small pieces for the audience. It allows them to see the process of doing something so that they may be able to do it themselves. The disadvantage of this pattern is that it can be tedious or repetitious if listeners are already very familiar with some of the steps in the process. With this organizational pattern, it’s particularly important to know how much prior knowledge of the process your audience already has.

An informative speech about the International Space Station might use a spatial organization pattern, giving the listeners a tour of each part of the station as though they were moving through it.

A spatial pattern organizes each main point in a directional structure, connecting each main point to a whole. This structure is used for informative speeches where the topic is organized by location, geography, or moving through a space (“spatial” is the adjective form of “space”). For example, a speech about the parts of a resume might move in order from the top section to the bottom section. A speech about the regional cuisine of Germany might move from the Northwest region in a clockwise direction around the country. A speech about a building might start at the front doors and end on the roof. A speech about the pathway of Hurricane Sandy would include the geography showing the path moving from south to north east.

The spatial pattern is particularly useful if you want your listeners to be able to visualize an entire place or a complex object, since it moves between the part and the whole in a visual way. If you want your audience to visualize the Statue of Liberty, for instance, you might describe it spatially from top to bottom, rather than telling the story of its construction (chronological) or talking about the various things it has come to symbolize (topical).

To Watch: Beth Harris and Steven Zucker, “Diego Rivera, Man Controller of the Universe”

Spatial organizational patterns are often used to describe artworks and architecture. In this short video, art historians Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker discuss Diego Rivera’s 1934 fresco mural  Man, Controller of the Universe  in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. The first part of the video is organized topically and chronologically, covering some of the major themes of the mural and the circumstances surrounding its creation. At around 3:25 in the video, Zucker says, “Let’s take a closer look at [the mural]”, and the two art historians discuss each part of the mural in sequence starting with the figure in the center. The spatial organization of their description is based on the visual structure of the painting; since the painting is largely symmetrical, Harris and Zucker describe the center, then the upper left and upper right, then the middle left and middle right, then the bottom left and bottom right.

You can view the transcript for “Diego Rivera, Man Controller of the Universe” here (opens in new window) .

What to watch for:

Note how Harris and Zucker end their tour of the artwork with broader thoughts about what we can learn from it: “We’re still very much at these crossroads. Technology is ever more important in our lives. What will technology bring us? A more egalitarian society, a world where everyone can be educated? Or will it bring greater inequality? These are still things debated today. We are still grappling with the increasing power of the tools that we have built, the power that technology has given us, and the choices that we make in terms of how we wield that power.” Whatever organizational pattern you use, it’s always crucial to bring the discussion around to something the audience can take away—a new insight, a new perspective, or a new way of framing a problem.

• ISS blueprint. Authored by : Daniel Molybdenum/NASA/Roscosmos, with the help of John Chryslar and others. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#/media/File:ISS_blueprint.png . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• Salsa steps. Authored by : Florian Hoffmann. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_(dance)#/media/File:Salsa_Basic_Steps,_LA-style.png . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Acqua alta in Piazza San Marco. Authored by : Wolfgang Moroder. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#/media/File:Acqua_alta_in_Piazza_San_Marco-original.jpg . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Diego Rivera, Man Controller of the Universe. Authored by : Smarthistory. Located at : https://youtu.be/1mzQDfK3A5Q . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• Chronological, Step by Step, and Spatial Organization. Authored by : Susan Bagley-Koyle with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Chronological, Step by Step, and Spatial Organization. Authored by : Misti Wills with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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10.2 Using Common Organizing Patterns

Learning objectives.

• Differentiate among the common speech organizational patterns: categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological.
• Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics. The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a categorical/topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit her or his own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for her or his audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is clearly the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical speech pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

In this example, these three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Psychological

A further way to organize your main ideas within a speech is through a psychological speech pattern in which “a” leads to “b” and “b” leads to “c.” This speech format is designed to follow a logical argument, so this format lends itself to persuasive speeches very easily. Let’s look at an example.

In this speech, the speaker starts by discussing how humor affects the body. If a patient is exposed to humor (a), then the patient’s body actually physiologically responds in ways that help healing (b—e.g., reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, bolsters one’s immune system, etc.). Because of these benefits, nurses should engage in humor use that helps with healing (c).

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You will want to be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Key Takeaway

• Speakers can use a variety of different organizational patterns, including categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological. Ultimately, speakers must really think about which organizational pattern best suits a specific speech topic.
• Imagine that you are giving an informative speech about your favorite book. Which organizational pattern do you think would be most useful? Why? Would your answer be different if your speech goal were persuasive? Why or why not?
• Working on your own or with a partner, develop three main points for a speech designed to persuade college students to attend your university. Work through the preceding organizational patterns and see which ones would be possible choices for your speech. Which organizational pattern seems to be the best choice? Why?
• Use one of the common organizational patterns to create three main points for your next speech.

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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8 Chapter 8: Organizing and Outlining

Victoria Leonard, College of the Canyons

Adapted by William Kelvin, Professor of Communication Studies, Katharine O’Connor, Ph.D., and Jamie C. Votraw, Professor of Communication Studies, Florida SouthWestern State College

Figure 8.1: Outlining with Post it Notes 1

Introduction

One of your authors remembers taking an urban studies course in college. The professor was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the subject. Do you think that alone made her want to go to class? Unfortunately not. As great as this professor was in so many ways, the lectures were not organized. As much as she tried to take great notes and follow along, it felt like a hopeless task. Having a great topic that you are passionate about is important, but organizing your speech so that the audience can follow along is vital to the success of your speech.

When students are faced with developing a speech, they face the same challenges as a student asked to write an essay. Although the end product may be different in that you are not writing an essay or turning one in, you will go through much of the same process as you would in writing an essay.

Before you get too far into the writing process, it is important to know what steps you will have to take to write your speech. Note that the speech-writing process is formulaic: it is based on time-honored principles of rhetoric established thousands of years ago. Your initial preparation work will include the following:

• Selecting a topic
• Writing a general purpose
• Writing a specific purpose
• Writing a thesis statement
• Selecting main points
• Writing a preview statement
• Writing the body of the speech

This chapter will explain each of these steps so that you can create a thorough and well-written speech. As with anything we do that requires effort, the more you put in, the more you will get out of the writing process, in terms of both your education and your grade.

The Speech Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis

Selecting a topic.

We all want to know that our topics will be interesting to our audience. If you think back to Chapter 5, Identifying Topic, Purpose, and Audience, you will recall how important it is to be audience-centered. Does this mean that you cannot talk about a topic that your audience is unfamiliar with? No, what it does mean is that your goal as a speaker is to make that topic relevant to the audience. Whether you are writing an informative speech on earthquakes or the singer Jhené Aiko, you will need to make sure that you approach the speech in a way that helps your speech resonate with the audience. Although many of you would not have been alive when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, this is an important topic to people who live in hurricane zones. Explaining hurricanes and hurricane preparation would be a great way to bring this topic alive for people who may not have lived through this event. Similarly, many audience members may be unfamiliar with Jhené Aiko, and that allows you to share information about her that might lead someone to want to check out her music.

If you are writing a persuasive speech, you might approach your topic selection differently. Think about what is happening in the world today. You can look at what affects you and your peers at a local, state, national, or global level. Whether you believe that gun violence is important to address because it is a problem at the national level, or you wish to address parking fees on your campus, you will have given thought to what is important to your audience. As Chapter 2 explained, your topics must fulfill the ethical goals of the speech. If you are ethical and select a topic you care about and make it relevant for the audience, you are on the right track.

Here are some questions that might help you select a topic:

• What are some current trends in music or fashion?
• What hobbies do I have that might be interesting to others?
• What objects or habits do I use every day that are beneficial to know about?
• What people are influencing the world in social media or politics?
• What authors, artists, or actors have made an impact on society?
• What events have shaped our nation or our world?
• What political debates are taking place today?
• What challenges do we face as a society or species?
• What health-related conditions should others be aware of?
• What is important for all people to be aware of in your community?

Once you have answered these questions and narrowed your responses, you are still not done selecting your topic. For instance, you might have decided that you really care about dogs. This is a very broad topic and could easily lead to a dozen different speeches. Now you must further narrow down the topic in your purpose statements.

Writing the Purpose Statements

Purpose statements allow you to do two things. First, they allow you to focus on whether you are fulfilling the assignment. Second, they allow you to narrow your topic so that you are not speaking too broadly. When creating an outline for your speech, you should include the general purpose and specific purpose statement at the beginning of your outline.

A general purpose statement is the overarching goal of a speech whether to inform, to persuade, to inspire, to celebrate, to mourn, or to entertain. It describes what your speech goal is, or what you hope to achieve. In public speaking classes, you will be asked to do any of the following: To inform, to persuade, or to entertain . Thus, your general purpose statement will be two words —the easiest points you will ever earn! But these two words are critical for you to keep in mind as you write the speech. Your authors have seen many persuasive speeches submitted inappropriately as informative speeches. Likewise, one author remembers a fascinating “persuasive speech” on the death penalty that never took a stance on the issue or asked the audience to—that would be an informative speech, right?  You must always know your broad goal. Your audience should know it, too, and so should your instructor!  Knowing your purpose is important because this is what you begin with to build your speech. It is also important to know your general purpose because this will determine your research approach. You might use different sources if you were writing a speech to inform versus to persuade.

A specific purpose statement is consistent with the general purpose of the speech, written according to assignment requirements, and clearly identifies desired audience outcomes. It is a declaration starting with the general purpose and then providing the topic with the precise objectives of the speech. It will be written according to your general purpose. For instance, the home design enthusiast might write the following specific purpose statement: To inform my audience about the pros and cons of flipping houses.

Specific purpose statements are integral in knowing if your speech is narrowed enough or if you need to narrow it further. Consider these examples:

• To inform my audience about musical instruments
• To inform my audience about string instruments
• To inform my audience about the violin

As you can see, the first two examples are far too broad. But is the third purpose statement sufficiently narrow? Will the speaker be covering the violin’s design, physics, history, cost, or how to play it? What do you think about these possible topics?

• To inform my audience about the life and contributions of Patricia Bath
• To inform my audience about the invention of the wheelchair
• To inform my audience about the Biloxi Wade-Ins
• To inform my audience about how Fibromyalgia affects the body

Figure 8.2: Dr. Patricia Bath 2

Hopefully, you can see that the examples above would work for an informative speech. They are specific and limited in their scope.

Your instructor will give you a time limit for your speech. Your specific purpose should help you see if you can stay within the time limit. You should put the purpose statements on your outline. Others may only ask you to put these on your topic submission. However, you do not state a general purpose or specific purpose during the delivery of your speech! These are simply guidelines for you as you write and for your instructor as they assess your writing.

Writing the Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a single, declarative statement that encapsulates the essence of your speech. Just like in essay writing, you want your thesis statement, or central idea, to reveal what your speech is about. Thesis statements can never be written as questions, nor can they include a research citation. The thesis statement is not a list of main points, it is an over-arching idea that encapsulates them all.

Figure 8.3: Portrait of Aut h or, J.R.R. Tolkien 3

As a Lord of the Rings enthusiast, I may choose to write a speech on author J.R.R. Tolkien. Here is an example of what a thesis statement may sound like:

J.R.R. Tolkien is known as the father of modern fantasy literature and became a pop culture icon after his death.

The thesis you just read provides the audience with just enough information to help them know what they will hear ahd learn from your speech.

Selecting Main Points

The main points are the major ideas you want to cover in your speech. Since speeches have time requirements, your outline will always be limited to two to three  main points. Many instructors suggest that you have no more than three main points so you can do justice to each idea and stay within the time frame. You will also lose time on each main point describing it in the preview statement, internal transitions, and review of main points in the conclusion. Plus, it can be difficult for audiences to remember many points.

Let’s determine the main points for a short speech using the J.R.R. Tolkien thesis above. Having researched his life, you might come up with an initial list like this:

• Childhood and Background
• Military service
• Literary fame and honors

As interesting as all of these topics are, there is not enough time to speak about each idea. This is where the difficult decision of narrowing a speech comes in. Brainstorming all of the points you could cover would be your first step. Then, you need to determine which of the points would be the most interesting for your audience to hear. There are also creative ways to combine ideas and touch on key points within each main point. You will see how this can be achieved in the next section as we narrow down the number of topics we will discuss about J.R.R. Tolkein.

Writing the Preview Statement

A preview statement is a guide to your speech. This is the part of the speech that literally tells the audience exactly what main points you will cover. If you were to open an app on your phone to get directions to a location, you would be told exactly how to get there. Best of all, you would know what to look for, such as landmarks. A preview statement in a speech fulfills the same goal. It is a roadmap for your speech. Let’s look at how a thesis and preview statement might look for a speech on J.R.R. Tolkien:

Thesis: J.R.R. Tolkien is known as the father of modern fantasy literature and became a pop culture icon after his death.

Preview: First, I will tell you about J.R.R. Tolkien’s humble beginnings. Then, I will describe his rise to literary fame. Finally, I will explain his lasting cultural legacy.

Notice that the thesis statement captures the essence of the speech. The preview concisely names each main point that supports the thesis. You will want to refer to these main point names, or  taglines , throughout the speech. This repetition will help audience members remember each main point; use variations of these taglines in your preview statement, when introducing each point, and again in the conclusion.

Always use your words to make the audience feel that they are part of the performance. This makes them feel included and on your side. Also, occasionally audience members will have more expertise than you. Imagine how an expert would feel when you begin your speech with “Today I will teach you about…” when they already know a lot about the subject. Use inclusive language in your preview statement–“Get ready to join me on a fantastic adventure…”

Organizing the Main Points

Once you know what your speech is about, you can begin developing the body of your speech. The body of the speech is the longest and most important part of your speech because it’s where the general purpose is executed, e.g., you inform or persuade with the main points that you listed in your preview statement. In general, the body of the speech comprises about 75% to 80% of the length of your speech. This is where you will present the bulk of your research, evidence, examples, and any other supporting material you have. Chapter 7 will provide you with specifics on how to do research and support your speech.

Several patterns of organization are available to choose from when writing a speech. You should keep in mind that some patterns work only for informative speeches and others for persuasive speeches. The topical, chronological, spatial, or causal patterns discussed here are best suited to informative speeches. The patterns of organization for persuasive speeches will be discussed in Chapter 10.

Topical Pattern

The chronological pattern needed main points ordered in a specific sequence, whereas the topical pattern arranges the information of the speech into different subtopics. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, various student services are important for you to use while you are there. You may visit the Richard H. Rush Library and its computer lab, Academic Support Centers, Career Services and the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Figure 8.6: Valencia Campus Library Stacks 6

To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it:

Topic: Student Services at Florida SouthWestern State College

Thesis Statement: Florida SouthWestern State College has five important student services, which include the library, the library computer lab, Academic Support Centers, Career Services and the Financial Aid office.

Preview : This speech will discuss each of the five important student services that Florida SouthWestern State College offers.

Main Points:

I. The Richard H. Rush Library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use.

II.The library’s computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, with reliable, high-speed internet connections and webcams.

III.The Academic Support Centers have subject tutors, computers, and study rooms.

IV.CareerSource offers career services both in-person and online, with counseling and access to job listings and networking opportunities.

V. The Office of Student Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances by paying for both tuition and books.

Note that many novices appreciate the topical pattern because of its simplicity. However, because there is no internal logic to the ordering of points, the speech writer loses an opportunity to include a mnemonic device (phrasing that helps people remember information) in their performance. Audience members are more likely to remember information if it hangs together in an ordered, logical way, such as the following patterns employ.

Chronological (Temporal) Pattern

When organizing a speech based on time or sequence, you would use a chronological (temporal) pattern of organization. Speeches that look at the history of someone or something, or the evolution of an object or a process could be organized chronologically. For example, you could use this pattern in speaking about President Barack Obama, the Holocaust, the evolution of the cell phone, or how to carve a pumpkin. The challenge of using this pattern is to make sure your speech has distinct main points and that it does not appear to be storytelling.

Figure 8.4: Barack Obama 4

Here is an example of how your main points will help you make sure that the points are clear and distinct:

Topic: President Barack Obama

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the life of President Barack Obama.

Thesis: From his humble beginnings, President Barack Obama succeeded in law and politics to become the first African-American president in U.S. history.

Preview: First, let’s look at Obama’s background and career in law. Then, we will look at his rise to the presidency of the United States. Finally, we will explore his accomplishments after leaving the White House.

I. First, let’s look at the early life of Obama and his career as a lawyer and advocate.

II. Second, let’s examine how Obama transitioned from law to becoming the first African-American President of the United States.

III. Finally, let’s explore all that Obama has achieved since he left the White House.

We hope that you can see that the main points clearly define and isolate different parts of Obama’s life so that each point is distinct. Using a chronological pattern can also help you with other types of informative speech topics.

Figure 8.5: Pumpkin Carving 5

Here is an additional example to help you see different ways to use this pattern:

Topic : How to Carve a Pumpkin

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience how to carve a pumpkin.

Thesis: Carving a pumpkin with special techniques and tools can result in amazing creations.

Preview: First, I will explain the process of gutting the pumpkin in preparation for carving. Then, I will describe the way you use your special tools to carve the face you hope to create. Finally, I will show you a variety of different designs that are unique to make your pumpkin memorable.

I. First, let me explain exactly how you open up the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and clean it so it is ready to carve.

II. Second, let me describe how the tools you have on hand are used to draw and carve the face of the pumpkin.

III. Finally, let me show you several unique designs that will make your pumpkin dazzle your friends and neighbors.

Note that some instructors prefer their students not give “how-to” speeches. Always clear your topic with your instructor early on in the speech-writing process.

Spatial Pattern

A spatial pattern arranges ideas according to their physical or geographic relationships. Typically, we can begin with a starting point and look at the main points of your speech directionally from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. A spatial pattern allows for creativity as well as clarity. For example, a speech about an automobile could be arranged using a spatial pattern and you might describe the car from the front end to the back end or the interior to the exterior. A speech on Disneyland might begin with your starting point at the entrance on Main Street, and each subsequent main point may be organized by going through each land in the park in a directional manner. Even a speech on the horrific tsunami off the Indonesian coast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004, could be discussed spatially as you use the starting point and describe the destruction as it traveled, killing 250,000 people.

If you have never heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it is marine debris that is in the North Pacific Ocean. Just like the tsunami in the previous example, this mass could likewise be discussed using a spatial pattern.

Figure 8.7: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch 7

In an informative speech, you could arrange your points spatially like this:

Topic: Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Thesis: The Great Pacific Garbage patch is not well known to most people; it consists of marine debris that is located in the North Pacific Ocean.

Preview: First, I will describe the Eastern Garbage Patch. Finally, I will explain the Western Patch.

I. The Eastern Garbage patch is located between the states of Hawaii and California.

II. The Western Garbage Patch is located near Japan.

Causal Pattern

A causal pattern of organization can be used to describe what occurred that caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Conversely, another approach is to begin with the effects and then talk about what caused them. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California.

Figure 8.8: Northridge Meadows Apartment Building Collapse 8

Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic: Northridge Earthquake

Thesis: The Northridge, California earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects and work back to the causes ( effect-cause pattern ). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis: The Northridge, California earthquake was a devastating event that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

II. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

One take-home idea for you about organizing patterns is that you can usually use any pattern with any topic. Could the Great Pacific Garbage Patch be explained using the chronological or causal patterns? Could the Northridge quake be discussed using the chronological or spatial patterns? Could a pumpkin-carving speech be spatially organized? The answer to all of the above is yes. The organizational pattern you select should be one that you think will best help the audience make sense of, and remember, your ideas.

Developing the Outline

Although students are often intimidated by the process of outlining a speech, you should know that it is a formulaic process. Once you understand the formula–the same one speech instructors have long taught and used to assess throughout the nation–speech writing should be a cinch. And remember, this process is what organizes your speech. A well-organized speech leads to better delivery. Simply, outlining is a method of organizing the introduction, body with main points, and conclusion of your speech. Outlines are NOT essays; they are properly formatted outlines! They use specific symbols in a specific order to help you break down your ideas in a clear way. There are two types of outlines: the preparation outline and the speaking outline.

Outline Types

When you begin the outlining process, you will create a preparation outline. A preparation outline consists of full, complete sentences, and thus, is void of awkward sentences and sentence fragments. In a full-sentence preparation outline, only one punctuated sentence should appear beside each symbol. In many cases, this type of outline will be used in preparing your speech, but will not be allowed to be used during your speech delivery. Remember that even though this outline requires complete sentences, it is still not an essay. The examples you saw earlier in this chapter were written in complete sentences, which is exactly what a preparation outline should look like.

A speaking outline is less detailed than the preparation outline and will include brief phrases or words that help you remember your key ideas. It is also called a “key word” outline because it is not written in complete sentences–only key words are present to jog your memory as needed. It should include elements of the introduction, body, and conclusion, as well as your transitions. Speaking outlines may be written on index cards to be used when you deliver your speech.

Confirm with your professor about specific submission requirements for preparation and speaking outlines.

Outline Components

Introduction and conclusion.

In Chapter 9, we identified the components of effective introductions and conclusions. Do you remember what they were? Your preparation outline should delineate the five elements of an introduction and the four elements of a conclusion . Recall, a complete introduction includes an attention-getter, relates the topic to the audience, establishes speaker credibility, states the thesis, and previews the main points. A quality conclusion will signal the speech is ending, restate the thesis, review the main points, and finish with a memorable ending.

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 3 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, IV, V). Subpoints are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), sub-sub points by Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), then sub-sub-sub points by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). You may expand further than this. Here is a short template:

I. First main point

• First subpoint
• Second subpoint
• First sub-subpoint
• First sub-sub-subpoint
• Second sub-sub-subpoint
• Second main point
• Third main point

References List

A quality speech requires a speaker to cite evidence to support their claims. Your professor will likely require that you incorporate evidence from your research in both your outline and speech. In Chapter 7, we reviewed how to gather information, incorporate the research into your speech, and cite your sources, both in your written outline and during oral delivery. An ethical and credible speaker gives credit where credit is due and shares source information with the audience. Accordingly, the last piece of your preparation outline is the References List.  The references list will include full written citations for all resources used in the composition and presentation of your speech. The structure of the references list follows a specific format dictated by the American Psychological Association 7th Ed. (remember, the Communication Studies discipline uses this APA formatting). Since formatting varies by source type, it is useful to refer to a reference guide to determine the exact citation formatting when writing your references list.

Written Oral Citations

There is a good chance your professor will ask you to include oral citations in your speech delivery. If so, you should include these in your preparation outline. The written oral citation is where you share your evidence and details of how you plan to cite the source during the delivery. Often, this is written in a similar format as “According to an article titled [title], written by [author] in [year], [resource content].” You should include enough source-identifying information for your audience to verify the accuracy and credibility of the content. In your outline, write out the specific source-information you will use to orally cite the source in your speech. Discuss the required number of oral citations with your professor and include all of them in your written outline. At FSW, we require three oral citations.

Outlining Principles

Next, we will cover the principles of outline which are outlining “rules” that you want to follow to be most effective. (Your English teachers will thank us, too!). First, read through this example outline for a main point about dogs. We will recall this example as we move through the principles. Don’t skip this example. Read it now!

Figure 6.9: Big and Small Dog 9

Topic: 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,  then I will discuss the characteristics of small breed dogs.

• Some large breed dogs need daily activity.
• Some large breed dogs are dog friendly.
• After eating is one of the times drooling is bad.
• The drooling is horrible after they drink, so beware!
• Great Pyrenees Mountain dogs drool as well.
• If you live in an apartment, these breeds could pose a problem.

Transition statement: Now that we’ve explored the characteristics of large breed dogs, let’s contrast this with small breeds.

• Some small breed dogs need daily activity.
• Some small breed dogs are dog friendly.
• They will jump on people.
• They will wag their tails and nuzzle.
• Beagles love strangers.
• Cockapoos also love strangers.

This dog example will help us showcase the following outlining principles.

Subordination and Coordination

The example above helps us to explain the concepts of subordination and coordination . Subordination is used in outline organization so the content is in a hierarchical order. This means that your outline shows subordination by indention. All of the points that are “beneath” (indented in the format) are called subordinate points. For example, if you have a job with a supervisor, you are subordinate to the supervisor. The supervisor is subordinate to the owner of the company. Your outline content works in a similar way. Using the dog example outlined in the previous section of this chapter, subpoints A, B, and C described characteristics of large breed dogs, and those points are all subordinate to main point I. Similarly, subpoints i and ii beneath subpoint C.1. both described dogs that drool, so those are subordinate to subpoint C. If we had discussed “food” under point C, you would know that something didn’t make sense! Overall, to check your outline for coherence, think of the outline as a staircase; walking down the outline one step at a time.

Tech tip: You can use the Ruler function of word processing software such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create tabs that align subordinated points with each other and keep the following lines of text properly aligned. If you only use the tab key, text that flows beyond the first line will usually not align with the proper tab stop for a given sub-point. Some instructors may provide you with a template, but experiment with the Ruler function on your own. It’s very useful!

You will also see that there is a coordination of points. Coordination is used in outline organization so that all of the numbers or letters represent the same idea. You know they coordinate because they align vertically and there is no diagonal relationship between the symbols. In the dog example, A, B, and C were all characteristics of large breed dogs, so those are all coordinated and represent the same “idea.” Had C been “German Shepherd,” then the outline would have been incorrect because that is a type of dog, not a characteristic, therefore, breaking the rules of subordination and coordination.

Figure 8.10 below provides you with a visual graphic of the subordination and coordination process. You will see that the topic of this very brief outline is bread. The main point tells you that there are different types of bread: sourdough, wheat, white, and egg.

To check this brief outline for subordination, you would look to see what subpoints fall beneath the main point. Do all of the sub-points represent a type of bread? You will see that they do! Next, to check for coordination, you would look at all of the subpoints that have a vertical relationship to each other. Are the subpoints these four types of bread? They are. The image also allows you to see what happens when you make a mistake. The third example shows the subpoints as sourdough, wheat, white, and jelly. Clearly, jelly is not a type of bread. Thus, there is a lack of both subordination and coordination in this short example. Make sure you spend some time checking the subordination and coordination of your own subpoints all the way throughout the outline until you have reached your last level of subordination. Now, study the image so that these principles of outlining are crystal clear; please ask your professor questions about this because it is a major part of speechmaking.

Figure 8.10: Checking Your Outline 10

You may be wondering why we bother with subordination and coordination. It actually helps both your listeners and your instructors. Listening is difficult. Any techniques that help audiences make sense of information are welcome. As soon as you begin talking, audiences listen for cues on how you are structuring information. If you organize clearly using logical relationships, your audience will be better able to follow your ideas. Further, for busy instructors examining many students’ outlines, when students’ grasp of subordination and coordination jump off the page due to their proper visual alignment, we know that students understand how to organize information for verbal delivery.

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 with “some large breed dogs.” This type of structure adds clarity to your speech. 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. Division is a principle of outlining that requires a balance between two subpoints in an outline. For each idea in your speech, you should have enough subordinate ideas to explain the point in detail and you must have enough meaningful information so that you can divide it into a minimum of 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 (1 and 2). So, in other words, 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 divide the point? In a case like that, you would simply incorporate the information in the point above.

Connecting Your 2-3 Main Points

There are different types of transitions , which are words or phrases that help you connect all sections of your speech. To guarantee the flow of the speech, you will write transition statements to make connections between all sections of the outline. You will use these transitions throughout the outline, including between the introduction and the body, between the 2-3 main points, and between the body and the conclusion.

• Internal Reviews (Summaries) and Previews are short descriptions of what a speaker has said and will say that are delivered between main points.

Internal Reviews give your audience a cue that you have finished a main point and are moving on to the next main point. These also help remind the audience of what you have spoken about throughout your speech. For example, an internal review 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.”

Internal Previews lay out what will occur next in your speech. They are longer than transitional words or signposts. For example, “Next, let us explore what types of pencils there are to pick from that will be best for your specific project.”

• Signposts are transitional words that are not full sentences, but connect ideas using words like “first,” “next,” “also,” “moreover,” etc. Signposts are used within the main point you are discussing, and they help the audience know when you are moving to a new idea.
• A nonverbal transition is a transition that does not use words. Rather, movement, such as pausing as you move from one point to another is one way to use a nonverbal transition. You can also use inflection by raising the pitch of your voice on a signpost to indicate that you are transitioning.

The most effective transitions typically combine many or all of the elements discussed here. Here is an example:

Now ( signpost ) that I have told you about the history of the pencil, as well as its many uses, ( internal review ) let’s look at what types of pencils you can pick from (mime picking up a pencil and moving a few steps for nonverbal transition ) that might be best for your project ( internal preview ).

Although this wasn’t the splashiest chapter in the text, it is one of the most critical chapters in speechmaking. Communicating your ideas in an organized and developed fashion means your audience will easily understand you. Each one of the principles and examples provided should be referenced as you work to develop your own speech. Remember that your speech will have a general purpose (typically to inform or persuade) and a specific purpose that details exactly what you hope to accomplish in the speech. Your speech’s thesis statement will be the central idea, what audiences most remember. The thesis is not just a list of main points, but it is a larger idea encompassing the two to three main points supporting it in the speech. Speeches should follow an organizational pattern, use standard formatting practices, and progress from full-sentence preparation outlines to key word speaking outlines before your performance. To see how all of these pieces come together, check out the sample preparation outline included at the bottom of the chapter. When writing your own preparation outline, use this sample as a guide. Consider each component a puzzle piece needed to make your outline complete.

Reflection Questions

• How has the information regarding general and specific purpose statements helped you to narrow your topic for your speech?
• Using brainstorming, can you generate a list of possible main points for your speech topic? Then, how will you decide which are the best choices to speak on?
• Which pattern(s) of organization do you think would be best for your informative speech? Why?
• Researchers say writing in small bursts is better. Do you agree that it is more effective to write your outline in small chunks of time rather than writing an entire speech in one day? Why or why not?

Body of the Speech

Coordination

General Purpose Statement

Internal Review (Summary)

Internal Preview

Nonverbal Transition

Preparation Outline

Preview Statement

Speaking Outline

Specific Purpose Statement

Subordination

Thesis Statement

Transitions

Written Oral Citation

Sample Speaking Outline

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: By the end of this speech, my audience will be able to explain bottle bricking, bottle brick benches, and their purposes.

Introduction — 

I. Attention Getter: How many of you have thrown away a piece of plastic in the last 24 hours? Perhaps you pulled cellophane off a pack of gum or emptied out a produce bag. You probably don’t think about it, but those little pieces of plastic have two potential destinations – if they’re obedient, they go to a landfill. If they’re rogue, they can end up in waterways.

II. Thesis Statement: Today we will learn about a revolutionary way of dealing with plastic trash called bottle bricking.

III. Relevance Statement: As our planet’s ecological crises worsen, each of us should reflect on our impact on the environment. According to the Sea Education Society, a non-profit dedicated to reducing pollution through environmental education, there are more than one million pieces of plastic per square mile in the most polluted parts of the Atlantic Ocean, as Kirsten Silven of Earthtimes.org reported in (2011). If you want to take steps to preserve our world’s natural beauty for future generations, this speech is for you.

IV. Credibility Statement: When I first learned about bottle bricks I was incredulous. I thought “what is the point of stuffing plastic into plastic bottles?”. But soon the idea took hold of me and I was volunteering with local groups, eventually inspiring the creation of a Bottle Brick Bench at a high school I worked at.

V. Preview Main Points Statement: In this speech, we will learn how a bottle brick is made, how they are turned into benches, and the purpose behind this seemingly strange activity.

Transition: Before we go any further, let’s learn how to make a bottle brick.

Body — 

• You will soon notice it everywhere.
• The trash must be clean and dry.
• Other hard-plastic bottles work, also.
• The bottles must be clean and dry.
• The stick should be long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle.
• Pick a smooth stick or give it a handle.

Transition: Now we know how to transform our trash into tools. But, what can bottle bricks be used for? One answer: a bench.

• Most creators argue you should use reclaimed stone (urbanite).
• Bricks make up the backrest.
• Cob is like mud.
• The benches make us realize how much plastic we toss, writes Brennan Blazer Bird on earthbench.org (2014) , home of the Peace on Earthbench Movement that the 25-year-old ecological educator founded.
• Later, people might think about it the plastic away they throw away
• Currently we have little use for soft plastic; most film plastics are not recyclable.
• Benches are a sign for change, and they are comfortable.
• Plastic “sequestered” in a bottle avoids landfills and the ocean.
• In landfills it gets into drinking water.
• All five subtropical ocean gyres have plastic “garbage patches,” according to 5gyres, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating plastic pollution in the gyres (5gyres.org, 2014) .
• To have fun! The Harvest Collective called natural building such as earthbenches “incredibly fun and inspiring” on its website theharvestcollective.org (2014) .

Transition: So now that we understand why someone would make a bottle brick bench, let’s see if we’ve successfully “stuffed” this knowledge into our heads. [ I can make a bottle-stuffing motion to have fun during transition. ]

Conclusion —

• Signal end of the speech: I think it’s safe to say that every one of us throws away plastic on a regular basis has some degree of concern for the health of our planet.
• Review Main Points: Today we’ve learned how to make bottle bricks, how to put them into a bottle brick bench, and the reasons for doing so.
• Restate Thesis: Today we have seen that we can turn our seemingly useless, polluting trash into safe, useful technology. Maybe we can use such forward-thinking attitudes to promote sustainable cycles in all aspects of society.
• Specify desired audience response: I know that you aren’t all going to rush home and start bricking, but I’d like you to remember the basic premises underlying bottle bricks. But, by all means, if you’re interested in adding to the Peace on Earth Bench for Movement, visit earthbench.org or talk to me in class sometime.
• Strong closing (clincher): Who knows, maybe when you’re about to graduate you will be able to sit on a Bottle Brick Bench on campus reminding us all that we, through our individual choices, have the power to transform our species’ problems into solutions.

Introduction to Public Speaking Copyright © by Jamie C. Votraw, M.A.; Katharine O'Connor, Ph.D.; and William F. Kelvin, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

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7.3 Organizational Patterns of Arrangement

After deciding which main points and subpoints you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological (or temporal), topical , spatial , or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949), Claim-to-Proof (Mudd & Sillar, 1962), or Refutation pattern would work best for persuasive speeches. Sample outlines for persuasive speeches can be found in Chapter 17.

Chronological Pattern

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization pattern. In a chronological speech, main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during the Oprah Winfrey show. Finally, we will explore what she is doing now.

I.       Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members II.     Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III.    Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success. IV.     Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, The Learning Center (TLC), Student Development office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has five important student services, which include the library, TLC, Student Development Office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid.

I.       The library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use. II.      The TLC has subject tutors, computers, and study rooms available to use six days a week. III.     The Student Development Office is a place that assists students with their ID cards, but also provides students with discount tickets and other student related      needs. IV.      The ASG computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, as well as to print up to 15 pages a day for free. V.       Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances paying             for both tuition and books.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I.      In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building,     a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district. II.     In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large     undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside     or at one of the dining halls. III.    In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and     enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and     science research buildings. IV.     In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse     newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern     architecture.

Causal Pattern

A causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened with respect to some condition, event, etc. One approach can be to share what caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Or, the reverse approach can be taken where a speaker can begin by sharing the effects of something that occurred, and then share what caused it. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California. Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge. II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage, and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I.      The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities. II.    The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock

main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic.

useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus

organizational pattern that reasons from cause to effect or from effect to cause

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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17 Organizational Patterns

Learning Objectives

• Decide on an effective organizational pattern.

Now that we have gotten this far, we need to consider how we will organize our material. There are several ways you can organize your speech content to ensure your information is easy for your audience to follow. The following video explains different organizing patterns. Note that some of the organizing patterns are better for information speech and some are better for persuasive speeches.

Organizational Patterns

After deciding which main points and sub-points you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological, topical, spatial, or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949) would work best for persuasive speeches.

Chronological Pattern

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization pattern. In a chronological speech, the main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during the Oprah Winfrey show. Finally, we will explore what she is doing now.

I.       Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members II.     Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III.    Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success. IV.     Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including  Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics, or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, The Learning Center (TLC), Student Development office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has five important student services, which include the library, TLC, Student Development Office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid.

I.       The library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use. II.      The TLC has subject tutors, computers, and study rooms available to use six days a week. III.     The Student Development Office is a place that assists students with their ID cards, but also provides students with discount tickets and other student related       needs. IV.      The ASG computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, as well as to print up to 15 pages a day for free. V.       Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances paying             for both tuition and books.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges the main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making the location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I.      In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building,     a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district. II.     In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large     undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside     or at one of the dining halls. III.    In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and     enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and     science research buildings. IV.     In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse     newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern     architecture.

Causal Pattern

A causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened with respect to some condition, event, etc. One approach can be to share what caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Or, the reverse approach can be taken where a speaker can begin by sharing the effects of something that occurred, and then share what caused it. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California. Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge. II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage, and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I.      The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities. II.    The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

Organizational patterns help you to organize your thoughts and speech content so that you are able to develop your ideas in a way that makes sense to the audience. Having a solid idea of which organization pattern is best for your speech will make your speech writing process so much easier!

Key Takeaways

• Speech organizational patterns help us to arrange our speech content in a way that will communicate our ideas clearly to our audience.
• Different organizational patterns are better for different types of speeches and topics.
• Some organizational patterns are better for informative speeches: Chronological, spatial, topical, and narrative.
• Although cause-effect and problem-solution can be used for an informative speech, use these patterns with caution as they are better used for persuasive speeches.

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

Public Speaking Copyright © by Dr. Layne Goodman; Amber Green, M.A.; and Various is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter Nine – Organizing the Body of your Speech

Creating the Body of a Speech

In a series of important and ground-breaking studies conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches (Smith, 1951). Thompson furthered this investigation and found that unorganized speeches were also harder for audiences to recall after the speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized—and forget information from speeches that are poorly organized (Thompson, 1960). A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility (Baker, 1965).

These three very important studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are not organized they are not perceived as credible and their audiences view the speeches negatively, are less likely to be persuaded, and don’t remember specific information from the speeches after the fact.

We start this chapter discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization on real audiences. If you are not organized, your speech will never have its intended effect. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the basics of organizing the body of your speech.

Determining Your Main Ideas

Matt Wynn –  Lightbulb!  – CC BY 2.0.

When creating a speech, it’s important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about the body of your speech.

We like the word  strategic  because it refers to determining what is important or essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers just throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose. Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the  who ,  what ,  when ,  where ,  why , and  how  of the speech.

The specific purpose is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same—open-source software—but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can now start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they fit together?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose?”

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to talk, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure, we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s simply easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. Basically, we have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now we want you to just think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students –  Organization makes you flow  – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organizational pattern we’ll discuss is topical.

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics . The topical organizational pattern is a way to help the speaker arrange the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a topical organization is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit their university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast pattern. While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is clearly the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial organizational pattern arranges information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical organizational pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

In this example, these three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

The causal pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the p roblem-cause-solution pattern. In this format you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You should be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Keeping Your Speech Moving

Chris Marquardt –  REWIND  – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Have you ever been listening to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are one of the reasons you weren’t sure what the speaker was talking about was that the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we have the ability to reread the paragraph and try to make sense of what we’re trying to read. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, speakers need to really think about how they keep a speech moving so that audience members are easily able to keep up with the speech. In this section, we’re going to look at four specific techniques speakers can use that make following a speech much easier for an audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech. Basically, a transition is a sentence where the speaker summarizes what was said in one point and previews what is going to be discussed in the next point. Let’s look at some examples:

• Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by lack of adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
• Thus far we’ve examined the history and prevalence of alcohol abuse among Native Americans, but it is the impact that this abuse has on the health of Native Americans that is of the greatest concern.
• Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
• Although he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

You’ll notice that in each of these transition examples, the beginning phrase of the sentence indicates the conclusion of a period of time (now that, thus far). The table below contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 9.1  Transition Words

Beyond transitions, there are several other techniques that you can use to clarify your speech organization for your audience. The next sections address several of these techniques, including internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Internal Previews

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech. An internal preview works similarly to the preview that a speaker gives at the end of a speech introduction, quickly outlining what they will talk about (i.e., the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, speakers highlight what they are going to discuss within a specific main point during a speech.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retention of oral information (Ausubel, 1968). Essentially, when speakers clearly inform an audience what they will talk about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points, which leads to higher retention of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our communi ty.

When an audience hears that you will be exploring two different ideas within this main point, they are ready to listen for those main points as you talk about them. In essence, you’re helping your audience keep up with your speech.

Rather than being given alone, internal previews often come after a speaker has transitioned to that main topic area. Using the previous internal preview, let’s see it along with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that a lack of consistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore the importance of recycling for our community ( transition ). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community ( internal preview ).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point of your speech. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

Whereas an internal preview helps an audience know what you are going to talk about within a main point at the beginning, an internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech. In general, internal summaries are best used when the information within a specific main point of a speech was complicated. To write your own internal summaries, look at the summarizing transition words in Table 9.1. Let’s look at an example.

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this example, the speaker was probably talking about the impact that bullying has on an individual victim educationally. Of course, an internal summary can also be a great way to lead into a transition to the next point of a speech.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook ( internal summary ). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive antibullying programs ( transition ).

While not sounding like the more traditional transition, this internal summary helps readers summarize the content of that main point. The sentence that follows then leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of antibullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Signposts within a speech function the same way. Speakers use signposts to guide their audience through the content of a speech. If you look at Table 9.1 and look at the “common sequence patterns,” you’ll see a series of possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of a piece of information to help our audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you were giving a speech whose main point was about the three functions of credibility, you could use internal signposts like this:

• The first function of credibility is competence.
• The second function of credibility is trustworthiness.
• The final function of credibility is caring/goodwill.

Signposts are simply meant to help your audience keep up with your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members keep up with a speech, signposts can also be used to highlight specific information the speaker thinks is important. Where the other signposts were designed to show the way (like highway markers), signposts that call attention to specific pieces of information are more like billboards. Words and phrases that are useful for highlighting information can be found in Table 9.1 under the category “emphasis.” All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that the audience will also recognize the importance of the information.

Note from the author, Gruber: As we have previously stated, organization is integral to your audience understanding your message, and thus, being influenced by it. A clear organizational pattern with connectives, such as transitions and summaries, creates a clear and memorable message.

Finally, we sometimes get funny looks when we suggest you write the body of your speech  before  your Introduction & Conclusion. The natural thought may be “The introduction comes first, so I should write  it first.” However, consider the objectives of the Introduction, as described in the next chapter, and you’ll understand why you should always write the body first and then  the introduction and conclusion.

• Baker, E. E. (1965). The immediate effects of perceived speaker disorganization on speaker credibility and audience attitude change in persuasive speaking. Western Speech, 29 , 148–161.
• Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.
• Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication.  Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.
• Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening.  Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.
• Dunham, J. R. (1964).  Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention  (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from:  http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .
• LeFrancois, G. R. (1999).  Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students.  Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.
• Ausubel, D. P. (1968).  Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
• https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-lying-on-bed-while-using-laptop-4066041/
• https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-led-signage-on-the-wall-942317/

Sections of this chapter were adapted from Stand up, Speak Out: The practice and ethics of public speaking. 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.

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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Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, spatial order.

Spatial Order refers to the practice of organizing information (e.g., descriptions of places and objects, instructions and processes) according to their physical location.

It is commonplace in many genres (especially fiction genres but also nonfiction genres) for writers to describe a scene so that readers can imagine themselves in that setting.

• At the beginning of a novel or movie, a fiction writer or screenwriter could begin with a tight focus on the central protagonist and then move out (e.g., left to right, top to bottom, circle view) to reveal that character’s setting.
• A realtor uses a floorplan to organize a description of a house for sale
• A geologist uses GPS coordinates to chart soil contamination around an old gas tank at a gas station.
• An art critic writes a critique of a painting.
• A police officer draws a map of an accident scene based on accident reports.

Sample Transitional Words for Spatial Order

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

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Citation - Definition - Introduction to Citation in Academic & Professional Writing

• Joseph M. Moxley

Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.

Collaboration - What is the Role of Collaboration in Academic & Professional Writing?

Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...

Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...

Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...

Information Literacy - Discerning Quality Information from Noise

Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...

Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...

Rhetoric: Exploring Its Definition and Impact on Modern Communication

Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning,  rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...

Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...

The Writing Process - Research on Composing

The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...

Writing Studies

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Chapter 15: Organizing

This chapter is adapted from  Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking ,  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 .

How do I organize my main points?

How to Narrow Possible Points to Main Points

When creating a speech, it’s important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at your speech’s end. Your speech’s real meat happens in the body.

In this section, we discuss how to think strategically about your speech’s body, how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating your speech’s main points, and how to organize those main points into a coherent speech. We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is important or essential to your speech’s overall plan or purpose. Too often, new speakers just throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused, and the speech’s purpose may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, start thinking critically about your speech’s organization.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, think about the best way to turn that specific purpose into your main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to accomplish your speech’s specific purpose

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number the better. First and foremost, memory-subject experts have consistently shown that people tend not to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors affect a listener’s ability to retain a speech’s information, how the speech is organized is an important factor (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). We recommend you use two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes long, then it makes more sense to use three main points. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, interesting, different or unique, organized, visual, and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll better develop each one with examples, statistics, or other support forms that make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the topic research you’ve compiled, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or important they are. Notice what information your audience needs to know to understand your topic and what information your speech needs to convey to accomplish its specific purpose. Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal is to identify which minor points can be combined into main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller information chunks and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed information chunks. Before reading the following chunking list, see if you can determine three large chunks from the preceding list—note that not all chunks are equal.

You may notice in the preceding list that the three main points’ subpoints are a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others more fully developed depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for uniting your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible main-points list, ask yourself this question: When you look at your main points, do they fit together? For example, if you look at the three preceding main points—school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for school administrators to consider—ask yourself, Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose? Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of a specific topic’s singular nature, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with this specific purpose: To inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges. You could then have three main points: eating fruits is healthy, eating apples is healthy, and eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point—that eating fruits is healthy—so, eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one main point and completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same time on each main point. If you find that one main point is simply too large, divide it into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single one.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced: School districts use software in their operations. What is open-source software? Name some specific open-source software packages that are appropriate for school administrators to consider. What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time you have to talk about each main point. If you have an hour to talk, then these three main points are balanced. However, if you only have five minutes to speak, you may find them wildly unbalanced because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. Parallel structure means to structure language so that it all sounds similar. When all your main points sound similar, your audience will remember and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample: School districts use software in their operations. What is open-source software? Name some specific open-source software packages that are appropriate for school administrators to consider. Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. These main points are not parallel in structure. You can fix this in one of two ways, such as, make them all questions: What are some common school district software programs? What is open-source software? What are some specific open-source software packages that are appropriate for school administrators to consider? Or, turn them all into statements: School districts use software in their operations. Define and describe open-source software. Name some specific open-source software packages that are appropriate for school administrators to consider. Either example makes the main points’ structure grammatically parallel.

Maintaining the Main Points’ Logical Flow

The last question to ask about your main points is whether they make sense in the order you’ve placed them. In the next section we discuss common organizational speech patterns, but for now, think about your main points’ logical flow. For instance, when you look at your main points, do they progress in a logical sequential order? Does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If not, rearrange them. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a few examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, then problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? No. These main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk first about the solution, then the problem, and then define the solution? No! To rearrange a logical sequential order, explain the problem first: no rider laws; then, define your solution: what is rider law legislation; then argue for your solution: why states should have rider laws.

Elements of Effective Organization

Have you ever listened to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are you were confused because the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we have the ability to reread the paragraph to clarify. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, you must think about how to keep your speech moving so that your audience can easily follow it. In this section, we discuss four specific techniques to guide your audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a word, phrase, or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point. To transition, the speaker summarizes what was said in one point and previews what is going to be discussed in the next point. Let’s look at some examples, and pay attention to each sentence’s first words:

• Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by no adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
• Thus far, we’ve examined alcohol abuse’s history and prevalence among Native Americans, but the greatest concern is alcohol abuse’s impact on Native Americans’ health.
• Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
• While he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

Notice that in each example, the first few words are transition words: now that, thus far, while. Transition words are used to indicate a period of time concluding. See the Transition Words List, which contains many useful transitions to keep your speech moving.

Transition Words List

Internal previews.

In an internal preview, the speaker highlights what he or she is going to discuss within one specific main point. It works similarly to the introduction preview in which the speaker quickly outlines the speech’s three main body points.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retaining oral information (Ausubel, 1968). Basically, when a speaker clearly informs an audience what he or she is going to be talking about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points and retains more of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain recycling’s positive benefits and then explore how recycling can help our community.

When an audience hears that you will be exploring two different ideas within this main point, they are ready to listen for those main points as you talk about them. In essence, you’re helping your audience keep up with and navigate your speech.

Internal previews are often given after the speaker has transitioned to a main topic. For example, below see the previous internal preview with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that inconsistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore recycling’s importance for our community (transition). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain recycling’s positive benefits and then explore how recycling can help our community (internal preview).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

Whereas an internal preview helps an audience know from the beginning what you are going to talk about within a main point, an internal summary reminds an audience about what they just heard. In general, internal summaries are best used when the information within a specific main point is complicated. To write your own internal summaries, look at the summarizing transition words in the Transition Words List. Let’s look at an example:

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools is detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s standardized test scores, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this example, the speaker was probably talking about the impact that bullying has on an individual victim educationally. Of course, an internal summary can also be a great way to lead into a transition to the next point.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools is detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s standardized test scores, and the victim’s future educational outlook (internal summary). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive anti-bullying programs (transition).

Unlike the more traditional transition, this speaker uses an internal summary to help the audience summarize the main point’s content. The sentence that follows then leads to the next major speech point, which is the importance of anti-bullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Speech signposts function the same way. A signpost is a guide a speaker gives the audience to help them navigate the speech’s content. In the “common sequence patterns,” of the Transition Words List, you’ll see possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of information to help audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you give a speech in which the main point is about the three credibility functions, use the following internal signposts:

• The first credibility function is competence.
• The second credibility function is trustworthiness.
• The final credibility function is caring or goodwill.

Signposts are simply meant to help your audience navigate your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members navigate a speech, signposts highlight specific information the speaker thinks important. Where some signposts show the way, such as highway markers, signposts that call attention to specific information pieces are more like billboards. Look in the Transition Words List under the “emphasis” category for more useful words and phrases to highlight information. All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that your audience will also recognize the information’s importance.

How can I use organizational patterns in my speech?

Organizational Patterns: Elements of Effective Organization

In this section we provide organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. Keep in mind that some patterns are best for informative speeches, while other patterns better fit persuasive speeches. The first organizational pattern we’ll discuss is topical categories.

Topical Categories Organizational Patterns

Topical categories are by far the most common speech organizational pattern. Topical categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message consistently. To use this organizational pattern, create topic categories or information chunks that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To inform college students about Internet dating’s uses and misuses. Main Points

• Define and describe Internet dating.
• Explain some strategies to enhance your Internet dating experience.
• List some warning signs to look for in potential online dates.

In this speech, the speaker talks about how to find other people online and to date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then, how to make Internet dating better for audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative Internet dating aspects. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical speech structure.

Compare and Contrast Organizational Patterns

To compare and contrast is another speech organizational pattern. While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples: the first one will be a two-point example, and the second, a three-point example.

Specific Purpose To inform physicians about Drug X, a newer drug with similar applications to Drug Y. Main Points

• Show how Drug X and Drug Y are similar.
• Show how Drug X and Drug Y differ.
• Explain both Drug X and Drug Y’s basic purpose and use.

If you use the compare and contrast pattern for persuasive purposes in the preceding examples, make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

Comparative Advantages Organizational Patterns

Comparative advantages organizational patterns are used to compare items side-by-side and show why one of them is more advantageous than the other. For example, let’s say that you’re giving a speech on which e-book reader is better: Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. Here’s how you could organize this speech:

Specific Purpose To persuade my audience that the Nook is more advantageous than the Kindle. Main Points

• The Nook allows owners to trade and loan books to other owners or people who have downloaded the Nook software, while the Kindle does not.
• The Nook has a color touch-screen, while the Kindle’s screen is black and grey and noninteractive.
•  The Nook’s memory can be expanded through microSD, while the Kindle’s memory cannot be upgraded.

As you can see from this speech’s organization, the simple speech’s goal is to show why one thing has more positives than something else. Obviously, when you are demonstrating comparative advantages, the items you are comparing need to be functional equivalents—or, as the saying goes, you cannot compare apples to oranges.

Spatial Organizational Patterns

Spatial organizational patterns place information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples: one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

Specific Purpose To inform history students about the states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War.

Main Points

• Locate and describe the Confederate states just below the Mason-Dixon Line, which are Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
• Locate and describe the Confederate states in the deep South, which are South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
• Locate and describe the western Confederate states, which are Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.

If you look at a basic United States’ map, you’ll notice that these state groupings are created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

Specific Purpose To explain to college biology students how the urinary system works.

• Locate and describe the kidneys and ureters.
• Locate and describe the bladder.
• Locate and describe the sphincter and urethra.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a urinary-system model, the first step is the kidney, which takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organizational pattern is determined by each body part’s physical location in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological Organizational Patterns

Chronological organizational patterns place the main idea’s points in a timeline in which items or events appear or occur—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the books written by Winston Churchill.

• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content prior to World War II.
• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content during World War II.
• Examine Winston Churchill’s writings, style, and content after World War II.

In this example, we’re looking at Winston Churchill’s writings in relation to before, during, and after World War II. By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Biographical Organizational Patterns

As you might guess, biographical organizational patterns are generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either their own, or someone they know personally, or a famous person. Biographical speeches by nature tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the early life of Marilyn Manson.

• Describe Brian Hugh Warner’s early life and his beginning feud with Christianity.
• Describe Warner’s stint as a music journalist in Florida.
• Describe Warner’s decision to create Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major life periods, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

These three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

Causal Organizational Patterns

Causal organizational patterns are used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal organizational pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, talk about a phenomenon’s causes, and in the second main point, show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To inform my audience about the problems associated with drinking among Native American tribal members.

• Explain the history and prevalence of Native Americans drinking alcohol.
• Explain the effects that alcohol abuse has on Native Americans and how this differs from other populations’ experiences.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of Native Americans drinking alcohol (the cause). The second point then examines the effects that alcohol abuse has on Native Americans and how it differs from other population groups (the effect). However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of domestic violence arrests.

Specific Purpose To inform local voters about the domestic violence problem in our city.

• Explain that there are significantly more domestic violence arrests in our city than in comparably sized cities in our state.
• List possible causes for the arrest statistics, which may be unrelated to the actual domestic violence incidents.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood that neighbors report an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistics, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other comparably sized cities.

Problem-Cause-Solution Organizational Pattern

Problem-cause-solution organizational patterns first present a problem, then identify what is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To persuade a civic group to support a citywide curfew for individuals under age eighteen.

• Main Points Demonstrate that youth committing vandalism and violence is having a negative effect on our community (problem).
• Show how youth committing vandalism and violence goes up after 10:00 pm in our community (cause).
• Explain how instituting a mandatory curfew at 10:00 pm would reduce youth committing vandalism and violence within our community (solution).

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are community problems. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that this problem’s cause is youth outside after 10:00 pm. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 pm curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Psychological Organizational Patterns

Psychological organizational patterns arrange your main ideas by a logical sequence: “a” leads to “b” and “b” leads to “c.” This organizational pattern is designed to follow a logical argument, so this format lends itself to persuasive speeches very easily. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose To persuade nurses to use humor in healing the patient.

• How laughing affects the body.
• How the body’s response to laughing can help healing.
• Strategies for using humor in healing.

In this speech, the speaker starts by discussing how humor affects the body. If a patient is exposed to humor (a), then the patient’s body actually physiologically responds in ways that help healing (b). For example, it reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, bolsters one’s immune system, etc. Because of these benefits, nurses should use humor that helps with healing (c).

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Organizational Pattern

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence organizational pattern provides sequential steps for the speaker to follow in presenting information and the subsequent reaction a speaker desires from his or her audience. These sequences are attention, need, problem, satisfaction, solution, visualization, results, action or approval. Alan H. Monroe’s motivated sequence is one of the most commonly cited and discussed organizational patterns for persuasive speeches. The purpose of Monroe’s motivated sequence is to help speakers “sequence supporting materials and motivational appeals to form a useful organizational pattern for speeches as a whole” (German et al., 2010).

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence List provides Monroe’s basic motivated sequence steps.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence List

Let’s look at an example of how Monroe’s Motivated Sequence organizational pattern works for a speech.

Specific Purpose To persuade my classroom peers that the United States should have stronger laws governing for-profit medical experiments.

Main Points Attention: Want to make nine thousand dollars for just three weeks work lying around and not doing much? Then be a human guinea pig. Admittedly, you’ll have a tube down your throat most of those three weeks, but you’ll earn three thousand dollars a week.

• Need: Every day, many uneducated and lower socioeconomic-status citizens are preyed on by medical and pharmaceutical companies to participate in for-profit medical and drug experiments. Do you want one of your family members to fall prey to this unethical scheme?
• Satisfaction: The United States should have stronger laws governing for-profit medical experiments to ensure that uneducated and lower-socioeconomic-status citizens are protected.
• Visualization: If we enact tougher experiment oversight, we can ensure that medical and pharmaceutical research is conducted in a way that adheres to basic American decency and values. If we do not enact tougher experiment oversight, we could find ourselves in a world where the lines between research subject, guinea pig, and patient become increasingly blurred.Action: To prevent the atrocities associated with for-profit medical and pharmaceutical experiments, please sign this petition asking the US Department of Health and Human Services to pass stricter regulations on this out-of-control preying industry.

This example shows how you can take a basic speech topic and use Monroe’s motivated sequence to clearly and easily outline your speech efficiently and effectively.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

The preceding organizational patterns are potentially useful for organizing your speech’s main points. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling someone’s life story. And the compare and contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological organizational patterns are well-suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

Be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet your specific speech goals. For example, you can discuss a problem and then compare and contrast several different possible solutions. Such a speech combines elements of the compare and contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, keep in mind your specific purpose, your audience, and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

University of Minnesota. (2011). Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking . University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/ . CC BY-SA 4.0.

Media References

MacEntee, S. (2011, May 5). presentation outline [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5690542503

Marquardt, C. (2013, August 16). REWIND [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nubui/9550939064/

Twentyfour Students. (2011, September 16). Organization makes you flow [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/53771866@N05/6151951253/

Wynn, M. (2010, May 12). Lightbulb! [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthew_wynn/4601859272/

Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Sarah Billington and Shirene McKay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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7 Building and Organizing Your Speech

Learning objectives.

• Understand how to make the transition from a specific purpose to a series of main points.
• Explain how to prepare meaningful main points.
• Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.
• Understand how to use a variety of strategies to help audience members keep up with a speech’s content: internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Siddie Nam – Thinking – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

In a series of ground-breaking studies conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with a clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches (Smith, 1951). Thompson furthered this investigation and found that it was harder for audiences to recall information after an unorganized speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized, and they forget information from speeches that are poorly organized (Thompson, 1960). A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility (Baker, 1965).

These three critical studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are organized they are perceived as credible. When speakers are not organized, their audiences view the speeches negatively, are less likely to be persuaded, and don’t remember specific information from the speeches after the fact.

We start this chapter by discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization to real audiences. This chapter will help you learn organization so that your speech with have its intended effect. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the basics of organizing the body of your speech.

Determining Your Main Ideas

While speeches take many different forms, they are often discussed as having an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and wets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about structuring the body of your speech.

We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused, and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose, which we discussed in detail in Chapter 4 “Topic, Purpose, and Thesis”. Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the who , what , when , where , why , and how of the speech.

The specific purpose is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same, open-source software, but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

Main Points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or vital they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

Chunking involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information.

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they fit together?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose?”

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? The answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to speak, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure , we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. We have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Parallel structure means structuring your main points so that they all sound similar.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now, we want you to think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter, we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics. The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a categorical/topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example:

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit their own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example:

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for her or his audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech.

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing your main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example:

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The primary reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have specific locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Cause/Effect

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point, you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format, you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has demonstrated the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Speech Pattern Overview

The  categorical/topical speech pattern  creates categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose.

The comparison/contrast speech pattern uses main points to compare an contrast two similar objects, topics, or ideas.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space.

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect.

The problem-cause-solution speech pattern  describes a problem, identifies what is causing the problem, and then recommends a solution to correct the problem.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You will want to be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Keeping Your Speech Moving

Chris Marquardt – REWIND – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Have you ever been listening to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are one of the reasons you weren’t sure what the speaker was talking about was that the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we can reread the paragraph and try to make sense of what we’re trying to read. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, speakers need to think about how they keep a speech moving so that audience members are easily able to keep up with the speech. In this section, we’re going to look at four specific techniques speakers can use that make following a speech much easier for an audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech. Basically, a transition is a sentence where the speaker summarizes what was said in one point and previews what is going to be discussed in the next point. Let’s look at some examples:

• Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by lack of adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
• Thus far we’ve examined the history and prevalence of alcohol abuse among Native Americans, but it is the impact that this abuse has on the health of Native Americans that is of the greatest concern.
• Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
• Although he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

You’ll notice that in each of these transition examples, the beginning phrase of the sentence indicates the conclusion of a period of time (now that, thus far) or main point. Table 2: Transition Words contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 2:  Transition Words

Beyond transitions, there are several other techniques that you can use to clarify your speech organization for your audience. The next sections address several of these techniques, including internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Internal Previews

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech. An internal preview works similarly to the preview that a speaker gives at the end of a speech introduction, quickly outlining what he or she is going to talk about (i.e. the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, the speaker highlights what he or she is going to discuss within a specific main point during a speech.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retention of oral information (Ausubel, 1968). When a speaker clearly informs an audience what they are going to be talking about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points, which leads to higher retention of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community.

When an audience hears that you will be exploring two different ideas within this main point, they are ready to listen for those main points as you talk about them. In essence, you’re helping your audience keep up with your speech.

Rather than being given alone, internal previews often come after a speaker has transitioned to that main topic area. Using the previous internal preview, let’s see it along with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that a lack of consistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore the importance of recycling for our community (transition). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community (internal preview).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point of your speech. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only the main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

Whereas an internal preview helps an audience know what you are going to talk about within a main point at the beginning, an internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech. In general, internal summaries are best used when the information within a specific main point of a speech was complicated. To write your own internal summaries, look at the summarizing transition words in Table 2: Transition Words Let’s look at an example.

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this example, the speaker was probably talking about the impact that bullying has on an individual victim educationally. Of course, an internal summary can also be a great way to lead into a transition to the next point of a speech.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook (internal summary). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive anti-bullying programs (transition).

While not sounding like the more traditional transition, this internal summary helps readers summarize the content of that main point. The sentence that follows than leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of anti-bullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Signposts within a speech function the same way. A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech. If you look at Table 2: Transition Words and look at the “common sequence patterns,” you’ll see a series of possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of a piece of information to help our audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you were giving a speech whose main point was about the three functions of credibility, you could use internal signposts like this:

• The first function of credibility is competence.
• The second function of credibility is trustworthiness.
• The final function of credibility is caring/goodwill.

Signposts are meant to help your audience keep up with your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members keep up with a speech, signposts can also be used to highlight specific information the speaker thinks is important. Where the other signposts were designed to show the way (like highway markers), signposts that call attention to specific pieces of information are more like billboards. Words and phrases that are useful for highlighting information can be found in Table 2: Transition Words under the category “emphasis.” All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that the audience will also recognize the importance of the information.

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech.

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech.

An internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech.

A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech.

Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Baker, E. E. (1965). The immediate effects of perceived speaker disorganization on speaker credibility and audience attitude change in persuasive speaking. Western Speech, 29 , 148–161.

Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening.  Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.

Dunham, J. R. (1964).  Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention  (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from:  http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .

LeFrancois, G. R. (1999).  Psychology for teaching  (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.

Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2017 by Josh Miller; Marnie Lawler-Mcdonough; Megan Orcholski; Kristin Woodward; Lisa Roth; and Emily Mueller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Spatial Order in Composition

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

In composition , spatial order is an organizational structure in which details are presented as they are (or were) located in space—from left to right, top to bottom, etc. Also known as order of place or space structure, spatial order describes things as they appear when observed. In  descriptions of places and objects, spatial order determines the perspective from which readers observe details.

David S. Hogsette points out in Writing That Makes Sense: Critical Thinking in College Composition that " technical writers may use spatial order to explain how a mechanism works ; architects use spatial order to describe a building design; [and] food critics reviewing a new restaurant use spatial order to describe and evaluate the dining area," (Hogsette 2009).

As opposed to chronological order  or other methods for data organization, spatial order ignores time and focuses primarily on location (or space, which makes this term easy to remember).

Transitions for Spatial Order

A spatial order comes with a set of transitive words and phrases that help writers and speakers navigate a spatially ordered paragraph and distinguish its parts. These include above, alongside, behind, beneath, beyond down, farther along, in back, in front, near or nearby, on top of, to the left or right of, under and up, and more.

Just as the words first, next and finally function in a chronological organization, these spatial transitions help guide a reader spatially through a paragraph, especially those used to describe scene and setting in prose and poetry. 

For instance, one might start by describing a field as a whole but then focus in on individual details as they relate to one another in the setting. "The well is next to the apple tree, which is behind the barn," or, "Further down the field is a stream, beyond which lies another lush meadow with three cows grazing near a perimeter fence."

Appropriate Use of Spatial Order

The best place to use spatial organization is in descriptions of scene and setting, but it can also be utilized when giving instructions or directions. In any case, the logical progression of one thing as it relates to another in a scene or setting provides an advantage to using this type of organization.

However, this also provides the disadvantage of making all items described within a scene carry the same intrinsic weight or importance. By using spatial order to organize a description, it becomes hard for the writer to ascribe more importance to, say, a dilapidated farmhouse in a full detailing of a farm scene.

As a result, using spatial order to organize all descriptions is not advised because sometimes it is important for the writer to only point out the most important details of a scene or setting, giving emphasis to things like the bullet hole in a glass window on the front of a house instead of describing every detail of the scene in order to convey the idea that the home is not in a safe neighborhood.

Writers should, therefore, determine their intention when setting a scene or occurrence before deciding which organization method to use for it. Although the use of spatial order is quite common with scene descriptions, sometimes chronological or even just stream-of-consciousness is a better method of organization to convey a certain point.

Hogsette, David. Writing That Makes Sense: Critical Thinking in College Composition. Resource Publications, 2009.

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What is a spatial order in speech and in writing?

Speech spatial order is a type of logical organization pattern that describes things according to their actual location in space. Definition: this order is also called the order of place and spatial structure. And in speech, it means that the narrator describes objects using an ordered logical sequence, describing things as they look when actually observed. An example is the following model: the narrator sets himself the task of describing the room, and in the description, he uses the spatial order, so his story will begin with the entrance to the room and with a description of those objects that first catches his eye. This will be followed by a description of the middle part of the room and only at the end – its distant elements. In this way, the narrator can observe the principle of spatial order and helps the listeners create a clear and vivid idea in their minds about the object of the story.

For what type of writing is spatial order usually best?

As a rule, the principle of spatial order is best suited for descriptive writing . For example:

• In fiction or non-fiction, when a description is required to evoke certain feelings in the reader or to tell in great detail about the location of certain objects and places. And also, in order to describe physical or social phenomena.
• In technical and scientific literature, when a specific explanation of the operation of various mechanisms, systems and devices is required. Or if you need to make it clear to readers what the structure consists of and how its various elements interact with each other.
• In the case of interior descriptions by designers or critics. Here, they are faced with the task of conjuring up in the imagination of readers an idea of the arrangement of furniture, decor, and everything that fills the room. Spatial order will help a lot to achieve the best result.
• Architects and designers also often resort to using this principle.
• Of course, spatial order is also used when writing an essay.

How to write a spatial order essay?

To write an essay corresponding to the spatial order, it is necessary to describe objects in accordance with their actual position relative to you. Or, if you want to describe what this or that person looks like, then your description should begin with the legs and further up, ending with the head. In addition, before you start writing such an essay, you need to have an accurate idea of what is the main purpose of this description? You must decide what result you need to achieve so as not to deviate too much from the given topic in the process of writing an essay. And in order not to miss anything while writing, you can create a structured plan that will help you stay on course, because organization is the most important element of spatial order essay.

Of course, if you are a first-time writer, then it will be quite useful for you to have the help of a specialist or professional writer who will teach you and tell you what to look for when working with spatial order. You can find such an assistant on our site Writingstatement.com , and the Internet also is a great source of inspiration and filling ideas for writing an essay. On educational portals, you can read examples of written essays in spatial order to get an idea of how to do it right. And, finally, be sure to check the finished text for semantic and logical mistakes.

Define spatial order signal words

Many of these words and phrases are prepositions and are at the beginning of a sentence, and they often act as connecting conjunctions, combining the previous sentence with the new one. The main role of signal words is to create a brighter and more understandable picture for the reader, which the author is trying to convey through words and sentences, in addition, they serve to clarify and create greater order in the entire text as a whole. When writing an essay in spatial order, the use of signal words should never be neglected.

What is a chronology? Why is it used in literature?

By itself, the concept of chronology means a list of events in their time sequence. In writing, authors usually tell a story, describing successive events from beginning to the end, so that a certain structured picture is formed in the imagination of readers, which helps them better understand the essence of what they are reading about. This order in literature is called chronological order, and is the most popular among writers. However, one can often find a work in which the chronological order is not observed at all, on the contrary, it is completely turned upside down, that is, the author begins his story from the end and gradually moves towards the beginning. In this order, understanding the big picture can be a little difficult, but often this style makes the work unique and unusual.

3 types of chronology in writing

Distinguishing the chronological type of writing from the rest is quite simple, since it basically includes very specific time periods in a logical sequence. The most popular types of chronology are the following three types:

• Linear chronology . If the author uses this type of chronology, then all the events he describes occur according to an increasing time scale. For example: “Mr. Gray woke up at 9 o’clock in the morning, at 10 am he left for work, at 3 pm he had lunch in a restaurant, and by 6 pm he returned home.” This is a typical chronological linear sequence model.
• Reverse chronology . This is a way of storytelling in which the plot of the story is revealed in reverse order, that is, the first scene described is actually the end of the plot, and the last scene is the first in chronological order. An example is the following plot: the main character of the novel goes to bed and falls asleep, the next event described will be what preceded her falling asleep and then right up to the moment when she woke up in the morning of the day described.
• Nonlinear chronology . This type of chronology is not similar to either the first or the second; there is no clear  sequence and order in it. There are many digressions and disparate events in this way of writing, which sometimes helps the author to create a lively, interesting and extraordinary work. However, when choosing a non-linear chronology as a writing style, it is necessary to understand that it is quite easy to lose the thread of the narrative here or go astray, therefore this style is quite difficult.

Thus, we see that each type of chronology has its own nuances and its own individual structure, which must be followed from the beginning to the very end of the work. It makes no sense to mix and intertwine types of chronology with each other, since the narrative will lose its basis and become too vague and difficult to understand.

3 rules for writing a spatial order essay

So, having dealt with the three types of chronology, signal words and the concept of spatial order, we can derive three basic rules that must be followed when writing an essay in spatial order.

Choosing the right topic

The first thing you need to do before you start working on an essay is to choose a topic and create a structured plan that answers in detail all the questions related to your topic. These questions may sound like this: What is the main goal I pursue when writing this essay? What chronological structure do I want to use? How would it be better to formulate the topic of my essay so that it clearly reflects the intention of my work? There can be a huge number of such questions, however, the clearer your idea of ​​​​the topic is, the better and richer your essay will turn out.

Arrangement of information

A very important role is played by how correctly and logically you arrange the information blocks in your essay. The narration should be consistent and coherent, and thoughts should be clearly and understandably formulated in such a way that it is convenient for the reader to receive and remember the information that you present. Map out for yourself a visual diagram of what is your starting point (the beginning of the description), and which is the end point (the end of the description).

Transitional words

The third point, which is also one of the most important. The use of transitional words is an essential attribute when writing almost any descriptive essay of a spatial order, here are some of them:

• nevertheless
• in the same way
• in spite of
• in contrast
• at the same time
• while this might be true
• on the other hand
• for example
• for instance
• specifically
• to illustrate, etc.

But it is important to note one more thing, transitional words should be appropriate, they should not be too much in sentences, they should not interfere with the general understanding of the text, otherwise your work will have too much water, which will make it difficult to read.

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8.3  Organizational Patterns of Arrangement for Informative Speeches

After deciding which main points and subpoints you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological (or temporal), topical , spatial , or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949), Claim-to-Proof (Mudd & Sillar, 1962), or Refutation pattern would work best for persuasive speeches. Sample organizational patterns and outlines for persuasive speeches can be found in Chapter 17.

Chronological Pattern

In a chronological speech, main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by three key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during The Oprah Winfrey Show .

I. Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members. II. Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III. Oprah’s tenure as host of The Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success.

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, the learning center (TLC), the Student Development Office, the ASG Computer Lab, and financial aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has three important student services, which include Learning Support Services, Student Support Services, and Financial Support Services.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about the University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into three distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I. In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building, a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district II. In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large undergraduate population, and students can regularly be found lounging outside or at one of the dining halls. III. In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and science research buildings.

Causal Pattern

A causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened with respect to some condition, event, and so on. One approach can be to share what caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Or the reverse approach can be taken, where a speaker can begin by sharing the effects of something that occurred, and then share what caused it. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California. Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that resulted in loss of life and billions of dollars in damage and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock

main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic

useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus

organizational pattern that reasons from cause to effect or from effect to cause

It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century Copyright © 2022 by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Ordering Main Points in Writing and Speaking

Writing and speaking both involved organization. A paper and a presentation need to have a clear sense of direction for the benefit of the audience. In this post, we will look at different strategic ways to organize the main points of a paper/presentation. Specifically, we will look at the following ways to organize the main points of a speech.

• Topical order
• Chronological order
• Causal order
• Problem-solution order
• Spatial order

Topical Order

Topical order involves taking the topic of your speech and dividing it into several subtopics. The subtopics are related to the topic as they come from it. For example, if you are giving a speech on the topic of basketball you may have the following subtopics.

• The history
• The greatest players

Chronological Order

Chronological order involves a time sequence. In this approach, the order matters a great deal. A paper/speech that is focused on history or events would often use a chronological order. You use chronological order if putting things in place by time will help to make your paper/speech clearer to your readers.

Causal Order

Causal order indicates a cause-effect relationship in a paper/speech. For example, if your speech/paper is on the price of tuition you might make the claim that rising tuition is making it difficult for students to go to school. This main idea has two main points that are in causal order.

• Cause-Tuition is rising
• Effect-Students cannot afford to study

It is also possible to state this in the order of effect-cause as seen below.

• Because-Tuition is rising

Causal order is useful for indicating to an audience why something is happening.

Problem-Solution Order

Problem-solution order is similar to cause-effect. The difference is that in a problem-solution approach you indicate what is wrong and then explain how to fix it. With cause-effect you only explain what happened with providing answers. For example, if the problem is that tuition is rising, you may suggest that the solution is to increase access to government loans. The problem-solution is as follows.

• Problem-Students cannot study because of rising tuition
• Solution-Increase access to government loans

Spatial Order

Spatial order is about location and direction. This involves such terms as up/down, left/right, top/bottom, north, south, etc. This is a highly descriptive order that allows the audience to have a first-hand experience of what the writer/speaker is sharing. For example, if you are speaking/writing about a city, you might divide the main points by geographic regions such as North, South, East, and West.

Organization is a critical key to success in communication. Whether writing or speaking it is important to develop a strategy for ordering the points you intend to share.

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The Meaning of Spatial Order Explained With Perfect Examples

Spatial order is one of the organization tools that helps you describe details in your writing. It is considered very logical and helps the reader understand a scene or situation better. Here, we give you the meaning of spatial order with examples.

Dictionary Meaning

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word spatial means of or relating to space and the relationship of objects within it . Spatial order is the method of writing in which ideas are arranged in the order of their physical location.

While writing, one focuses on the story content, grammar, choice of words, etc. However, arranging the content in a logical order is as important as using the right words. When the elements of a scene, for example, are described in a specific order, the scene becomes easy to understand.

This is where spatial order comes in. It is the method of organizing content such that the details are described in the order of their location in space. It is a logical progression of a view that proceeds usually from left to right and top to bottom. This method of description helps the readers visualize the scene better. Spatial order is often used for descriptive writing. This method makes it easier for the writer to paint a picture for the reader.

► Let us discuss the concept with some examples. Take a look at the following sentence:

In my pantry, there are several things like flour, eggs, tea powder, sugar, canned food, and dry pasta.

This sentence gives a general information about the things that one will find in the pantry. Reading the sentence, the readers will picture each item given in the list. However, they may not be able to picture those items in the pantry as there is no clue of how they have been placed or arranged.

► Now read this. In my pantry, eggs, tea powder, and sugar have been kept in the top shelf. Flour, canned food, and dry pasta are on the second shelf.

Here, spatial order has been used. The items in the pantry have been enlisted in the order of their location. This way of writing has made it easier for a reader to visualize the arrangement of items, thus painting for him, a better picture of the pantry. Thus, we see that the use of spatial order gives a structure to the description, and also makes it easier for the readers to understand it.

Let us see how spatial order is used while writing.

► The writer decides what needs to be described first in a story. He then decides to put that scene first. Mostly, that’s one of the most important scenes/situations of the story and is of use in setting the right mood.

► The writer then works on the details of the scene and describes its elements in a logical order.

► When using the spatial order, he chooses to describe them from right to left or top to bottom. Starting from the left-most element in the scene, he moves to the right. Or he may go top-down. He may start from a point far from the main character through whose eyes the readers are viewing the scene.

► To form a logical relationship between the details, the writer needs to use transitions. They are words or phrases that are placed in the beginning of a sentence to connect it with the idea expressed in the preceding sentence.

Transitional words/phrases

Transitional words like these, some of which are prepositions, help the writer give the positional details of the elements in a scene.

Let’s take an example. In the image given below, a character, say, John, is viewing what one sees in the image. The writer describes the details of the scene, as seen by John, who sees from the eyes of the reader. The description proceeds from top to bottom and left to right. The writing uses spatial order.

► John locked the door and stood for a minute or two on a sidewalk taking the scene in. The morning walk was calm and quiet. Across the street from him was a block-patterned wall of another building, stretching end to end. The white wall had yellowed through the years, but looked quite strong. The sun had cast shadows on it. A gray stone sidewalk that run along the wall seemed hushed. On the sidewalk, on the left, was an old black streetlamp. This old rusty lamp, like the wall, had withstood many seasons. Today, the lamp wasn’t alone on the street. On the right, John could see a policeman standing, reading a newspaper. He didn’t even look up to see him on the other side of the street. He was standing near a newsstand, whose owner was nowhere in sight. The colorful magazines, newspapers, a stand, and a chair looked orphaned without their owner. John decided to cross the road and ask the inspector about the newsstand owner.

► In the above section, the wall has been described first. It is the farthest from the reader. Then, the sidewalk has been described. Then the elements have been described from left to right; the order in which they are physically located. The use of spatial order helps the reader visualize the scene just through words (even without looking at the image).

Let us take another example from Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947).

► Far to his left, in the northeast, beyond the valley and the terraced foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, rose clear and magnificent into the sunset. Nearer, perhaps ten miles distant, and on a lower level than the main valley, he made out the village of Tomalín, nestling behind the jungle, from which rose a thin blue scarf of illegal smoke, someone burning wood for carbon. Before him, on the other side of the American highway, spread fields and groves, through which meandered a river, and the Alcapancingo road.

► In this paragraph, the narrator describes a particular scene as seen by the protagonist of the novel. The description starts with two volcanoes which are at a distance. The narrator uses the transitional word “nearer” to give the location of the village. He uses other transitions “on the other side” and “through” to describe a space on the other side of the highway. Lowry has used spatial order as a tool to organize the details of the scene.

Let us discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using spatial order in writing.

➥ The elements of a scene or ideas are arranged in the order of their physical location. ➥ The descriptions follow a logical order, thus helping the reader visualize a scene in a better way. ➥ With the use of transitional words, the scene can be made easier to understand.

Disadvantages

➥ The use of spatial order in long texts can make the reading monotonous. ➥ Since the elements of a scene are described in a certain order, all the elements get equal weight. With this, it becomes difficult to emphasize one particular aspect of the scene.

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Spatial Order

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Students have to scratch their heads for making their writing better than their fellows. Several attempts can go in vain if writing is not done systematically. A logical line-up of sentences and good vocabulary, along with sound research, is required to do top-notch writings. A writer must have a good storyline and a vast ocean of knowledge to express their thoughts beautifully.

As it is said that one shoe doesn't fit them all, there is no strict rule to follow for writing order or patterns. however, choosing a particular way can be helpful for impressive results.

In academic essay writing, various patterns are used to represent the event logically. Some are listed below:

• Cause and effect pattern
• Problem solution method
• Spatial order
• The pattern of advantage and disadvantage
• Order of importance
• A pattern of chronological order

The writer or student should first analyze all the patterns carefully and choose the best one to deliver their thoughts to connect with the audience.

Holding the hands of the best assignment helper can make you stand out from the crowd.

What Is Spatial Order?

Like any other writing pattern, the spatial order pattern is written to deliver a story's plot to showcase the crucial elements of a scene by describing the events in a systematic order. The content in the pattern can be arranged in any order, either from left to right or from top to bottom.

This form of pattern can be considered descriptive writing. Through this order, the visual description of the actual scenario can be done effectively and efficiently.

Persuasive Speech Topics

How do you structure an essay using spatial order.

To kick start your writings, the first thing you need to do is brainstorm. You should have a clear picture of significant points at the backend of your mind before writing. Once your thoughts are organized and crisp, you can pen down them beautifully.

• Know the purpose of your writing first. Keep note of the thoughts that you gathered before writing.
• Writing is not a cakewalk for many, so it is advisable to first look at the references and have a clear understanding and idea through magazines, other published articles or sources, and write-ups.
• To make your writing sounds interesting, the first outline your ideas. For a proper direction outlining plays a crucial role. With the help of the outline of your essay, you can come to know the order of your write-up. The writer can create some suspense or narrate the story in an orderly manner.
• Put all the inputs in one place for an outstanding output. After doing the above steps, your writing will automatically improve to the next level.

How To Use Spatial Orders Effectively?

This pattern is widely used for writing descriptive essays. That is to describe a situation in the best possible way so that readers can visualize the actual scenario. The case is made real by using different senses like smell, touch, sound, and taste to understand better and visualize.

The technique of spatial order can be used in different ways. By following the same techniques, spatial order speech can also be delivered. While in speech, the speaker has to put the details of the place. For instance, if the speaker talks about The Taj mahal, they need to describe the story behind, architect, feel, and many other related things.

Best College Essay Topics

Meaning of chronology in writing.

Chronology is necessary to apply almost everywhere while studying or writing something to organize things in a sequence. With the help of the chronology writing style, the users understand the scene in a systematic way with minimum effort. In this form of writing, the series of events is mentioned according to the time of their occurrence.

Different Types Of Chronology

There are no such types of chronology. However, they can be delivered in the following styles:

• Simple or linear chronology - The writer puts the incidences as they occur in this style.
• Non-linear chronology - A series of sequential events of a story without particular order.
• Chronology done in reverse order- This is similar to the normal one but puts scenarios in reverse order as they occur.

  Tips And Tricks Of Impromptu Speeches

What is spatial order composition and the role of chronology.

To make someone understand your thoughts is not an easy exercise. You have to take care of each aspect carefully. That's why the writers are advised to use the best combination of writing styles to engage the readers. Both the spatial order and chronology writing style have their advantages. Chronological order helps put the storyline in an appropriate order, and on the other hand, spatial order is to do for adequate visualization of the incidences. The audience can understand well when the writing is done by following both techniques.

Things to Remember While Writing Spatial Descriptive Writings

It's always better to do things appropriately. Here are some things to remember while writing:

• Select the scene you want to showcase to your audience. Don't forget they must relate to your story, then only they will read the whole content.
• Put them in a proper order in which you want to deliver either from top to bottom or from right to left.
• To connect all the dots, use spatial order transition words in sentences like further, however, at the same time, etc.

Types Of Reference Letters

What are spatial order signal words.

The words used at the starting of the sentences to clearly explain the details of the place are known as spatial order signal words. By using such words in the essay writings, the readers can easily create images of the scenes in their minds, giving excellent results. Some words like beneath, behind, above, next to, between, and others like this are suitable examples of spatial order signal words.

Selecting the right words for framing sentences and paragraphs is like choosing the best flowers from the garden. That's why The Student Helpline is there to become your best supporter for your assignment, dissertation to help robust your grades. Your problems are the responsibility of TSH. So, connect with them now!

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10.2: Using Common Organizing Patterns

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Learning Objectives

• Differentiate among the common speech organizational patterns: categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological.
• Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics. The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a categorical/topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit her or his own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for her or his audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is clearly the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical speech pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

In this example, these three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Generally speaking, the causal organizational pattern tends to be best suited for persuasive topics, especially when the speaker is addressing a problem (or the effects of a problem) and the causes of that problem. We'll talk more about causal organization, also known as the Cause-Effect-Solution organizational pattern, in Chapter 16 "Persuasive Speaking".

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution. We'll talk more about the Problem-Cause-Solution organizational pattern in Chapter 16 "Persuasive Speaking".

Psychological

A further way to organize your main ideas within a speech is through a psychological speech pattern in which “a” leads to “b” and “b” leads to “c.” This speech format is designed to follow a logical argument, so this format lends itself to persuasive speeches very easily. Let’s look at an example.

In this speech, the speaker starts by discussing how humor affects the body. If a patient is exposed to humor (a), then the patient’s body actually physiologically responds in ways that help healing (b—e.g., reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, bolsters one’s immune system, etc.). Because of these benefits, nurses should engage in humor use that helps with healing (c).

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You will want to be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Key Takeaway

• Speakers can use a variety of different organizational patterns, including categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological. Ultimately, speakers must really think about which organizational pattern best suits a specific speech topic.
• Imagine that you are giving an informative speech about your favorite book. Which organizational pattern do you think would be most useful? Why? Would your answer be different if your speech goal were persuasive? Why or why not?
• Working on your own or with a partner, develop three main points for a speech designed to persuade college students to attend your university. Work through the preceding organizational patterns and see which ones would be possible choices for your speech. Which organizational pattern seems to be the best choice? Why?
• Use one of the common organizational patterns to create three main points for your next speech.