specifically, such as.
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.
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:
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.
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 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
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.
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
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 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
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 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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
—Getting Attention | I want to listen to the speaker. |
—Showing the Need, Describing the | Something needs to be done about the problem. |
—Satisfying the Need. Presenting the | To satisfy the need or fix the problem, this is what I need to do. |
—Visualizing the | I can see myself enjoying the benefits of taking action. |
—Requesting Audience or | I will act in a specific way or approve a decision or behavior. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
Table of Contents
When it comes to effective writing, high school and college students typically think about aspects like good story content, convincing evidence, appropriate word choice, correct grammar, etc.
But the clear and logical organization is an essential part of effective writing, too.
There are several patterns of logical organization that can be used in writing academic essays and term papers :
There are no strict rules which pattern should be used for an effective conveying of ideas. Think carefully of patterns that make sense, and would help your readers get a better understanding of the information.
Besides, paper organization principles have many variations, and very often, different methods are combined.
Let’s talk of the most commonly used patterns: the spatial order meaning and its function.
Writing an impressive high school or college academic essay depends on the logical organization of the content. Pro essay writing websites recommend organizing your thoughts is as important as the choice of relevant facts to prove your point of view.
For example, in a description of a scene or setting, a specific logical order helps the audience visualize the scene.
… So, what is spatial order?
It is a type of logical organization pattern that is used in descriptive writing. Its main feature is that things are described as they appear when observed.
This approach makes it easier for writers to paint a vivid picture for readers.
Let’s discuss this concept in detail and begin with spatial order definition.
…How would we define spatial order?
It’s a principle of descriptive writing when items are arranged in the order of their physical location or correlation.
This structural order in descriptive paragraphs determines the readers’ perspective and how details are perceived. Focus is on location; time is ignored.
How may this organizational arrangement be used?
…What does spatial order mean?
If talking about descriptions, this method means that the writer explains or describes objects as they are arranged in space. It creates a picture for readers, and the audience’s perspective is the viewpoint from which the writer describes what’s around.
First, the writer has to choose a specific starting point and then create an orderly logical progression by providing readers with directional signals they should follow from place to place.
If the description is complicated, you can use a simple chart or diagram to help your readers understand it quickly.
A spatial organization of information in paragraphs is also called descriptive writing. It is often used when a narrator wants to describe how something looks. For example, you can use this approach in descriptive essays about a person when you describe someone’s appearance, starting from the feet and moving up to the head.
Take a look at spatial order example which describes various layers of a volcano.
A volcano is a beautiful and dangerous natural phenomenon. The magma chamber, an extremely hot part which people rarely see, is under the Earth surface beneath the bed’s rock. The conduit is running from the volcano’s magma chamber to the crater which is at the top of the volcano.
Logical order of location in space can be used in some narrations, classifications, comparisons, and other forms of expository writings.
Have a look at this description paragraph.
According to annual weather patterns, there are 6 major climate regions. In the extreme northern latitudes, the climate is polar without any plant life. Next to it, there is cold tundra in the extremes of the north of Asia and North America where we can find shrubs and grasses. In the adjacent temperate regions, there are forests with a rich diversity of plants.
Don’t worry if you still have some trouble with a proper understanding of what the spatial order is. You can always count on us and order essay from experienced writers.
Here is a short list of spatial order signal words which might indicate that a speaker or a writer is following a spatial organization pattern.
Many of these words are prepositions that are placed at the beginning of sentences to connect them with the ideas expressed in the preceding sentences.
These words are used to build a vivid picture that the audience can grasp.
The spatial pattern works well when writers want to create mental pictures of something that has various parts distinguished by physical location. You may start by describing a scene, object, or a location as a whole and then focus on specific details in the setting.
This type of organization is the best for describing a setting and scene, but writers can also utilize it for giving directions or instructions.
If you wish to apply this method of organization in your description, you need to make a series of decisions.
Read this description of a room where all the details are described in the order of their location in space.
When you walk in the door of my bedroom, the first thing you notice is a large bed on the wall. In front of my bed, there is a grey carpet on the floor. Above the bed, there is a beautiful picture and an old clock. As you turn to the left, you will see a wardrobe and a big mirror.
This approach to the logical organization has some disadvantages as well. When a writer describes elements in such a way, all of them get equal weight.
But if you want to emphasize one specific aspect of a scene and draw particular attention to something, a spatial pattern makes it hard to achieve that goal so you’d better choose another organization method.
Without a clear organizational pattern, your readers could become confused.
A solid organizational pattern helps your audience see connections and allows them to stay focused. Spatial organization in writing a descriptive essay allows readers visualize something as the writer wants them to see it, by evoking a scene using five senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound).
But you shouldn’t use spatial writing in long text because they may sound monotonous and your readers will be bored. Think about other methods of organizing your ideas.
Sometimes, it is better to use a chronological pattern or even just stream-of-consciousness method to communicate a specific idea in a clear, intelligible manner.
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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.
As a rule, the principle of spatial order is best suited for descriptive writing . For example:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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).
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:
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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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.
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.
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):
General Purpose | To inform |
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of school administrators about the various open-source software packages that could be utilized in their school districts |
General Purpose | To persuade |
Specific Purpose | To persuade a group of college students to make the switch from Microsoft Office to the open-source office suite OpenOffice |
General Purpose | To entertain |
Specific Purpose | To entertain members of a business organization with a mock eulogy of for-pay software giants as a result of the proliferation of open-source alternatives |
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.
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.
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:
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of school administrators about the various open-source software packages that could be utilized in their school districts |
Brainstorming List of Points | Define open-source software. |
Define educational software. | |
List and describe the software commonly used by school districts. | |
Explain the advantages of using open-source software. | |
Explain the disadvantages of using open-source software. | |
Review the history of open-source software. | |
Describe the value of open-source software. | |
Describe some educational open-source software packages. | |
Review the software needs of my specific audience. | |
Describe some problems that have occurred with open-source software. |
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of school administrators about the various open-source software packages that could be utilized in their school districts |
Define educational software. | |
List and describe the software commonly used by school districts. | |
Define open-source software. | |
Review the history of open-source software. | |
Explain the advantages of using open-source software. | |
Describe the value of open-source software. | |
Explain the disadvantages of using open-source software. | |
Describe some problems that have occurred with open-source software. | |
Review the software needs of my specific audience. | |
Describe some educational open-source software packages. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
School Dress Codes Example | |
---|---|
Main Point 1 | History of school dress codes |
Main Point 2 | Problems with school dress codes |
Main Point 3 | Eliminating school dress codes |
Rider Law Legislation | |
---|---|
Main Point 1 | Why should states have rider laws? |
Main Point 2 | What are the effects of a lack of rider laws? |
Main Point 3 | What is rider law legislation? |
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.
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.
Specific Purpose | To persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University |
Main Points | I. Life in the dorms |
II. Life in the classroom | |
III. Life on campus |
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of college students about the uses and misuses of Internet dating |
Main Points | I. Define and describe Internet dating. |
II. Explain some strategies to enhance your Internet dating experience. | |
III. List some warning signs to look for in potential online dates. |
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
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of physicians about Drug X, a newer drug with similar applications to Drug Y |
Main Points | I. Show how Drug X and Drug Y are similar. |
II. Show how Drug X and Drug Y differ. | |
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of physicians about Drug X, a newer drug with similar applications to Drug Y |
Main Points | I. Explain the basic purpose and use of both Drug X and Drug Y. |
II. Show how Drug X and Drug Y are similar. | |
III. Show how Drug X and Drug Y differ. |
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform a group of history students about the states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War |
Main Points | I. Locate and describe the Confederate states just below the Mason-Dixon Line (Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee). |
II. Locate and describe the Confederate states in the deep South (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida). | |
III. Locate and describe the western Confederate states (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas). |
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.
Specific Purpose | To explain to a group of college biology students how the urinary system works |
Main Points | I. Locate and describe the kidneys and ureters. |
II. Locate and describe the bladder. | |
III. Locate and describe the sphincter and urethra. |
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.
The chronological pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.
Specific Purpose | To inform my audience about the books written by Winston Churchill |
Main Points | I. Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings prior to World War II. |
II. Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings during World War II. | |
III. Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings after World War II. |
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.
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform my audience about the early life of Marilyn Manson |
Main Points | I. Describe Brian Hugh Warner’s early life and the beginning of his feud with Christianity. |
II. Describe Warner’s stint as a music journalist in Florida. | |
III. Describe Warner’s decision to create Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids. |
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform my audience about the problems associated with drinking among members of Native American tribal groups |
Main Points | I. Explain the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans. |
II. Explain the effects that abuse of alcohol has on Native Americans and how this differs from the experience of other populations. |
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.
Specific Purpose | To inform local voters about the problem of domestic violence in our city |
Main Points | I. Explain that there are significantly more arrests for domestic violence in our city than in cities of comparable size in our state. |
II. List possible causes for the difference, which may be unrelated to the actual amount of 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.
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.
Specific Purpose | To persuade a civic group to support a citywide curfew for individuals under the age of eighteen |
Main Points | I. Demonstrate that vandalism and violence among youth is having a negative effect on our community. |
II. Show how vandalism and violence among youth go up after 10:00 p.m. in our community. | |
III. Explain how instituting a mandatory curfew at 10:00 p.m. would reduce vandalism and violence within our community. |
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.
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.
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.
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:
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
also, again, as well as, besides, coupled with, following this, further, furthermore, in addition, in the same way, additionally, likewise, moreover, similarly | |
accordingly, as a result, consequently, for this reason, for this purpose, hence, otherwise, so then, subsequently, therefore, thus, thereupon, wherefore | |
as a rule, as usual, for the most part, generally, generally speaking, ordinarily, usually | |
chiefly, especially, for instance, in particular, markedly, namely, particularly, including, specifically, such as | |
for example, for instance, for one thing, as an illustration, illustrated with, as an example, in this case | |
above all, chiefly, with attention to, especially, particularly, singularly | |
comparatively, coupled with, correspondingly, identically, likewise, similar, moreover, together with | |
aside from, barring, besides, except, excepting, excluding, exclusive of, other than, outside of, save | |
in essence, in other words, namely, that is, that is to say, in short, in brief, to put it differently | |
contrast, by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise, on one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, nevertheless, rather, similarly, yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, in contrast | |
at first, first of all, to begin with, in the first place, at the same time, for now, for the time being, the next step, in time, in turn, later on, meanwhile, next, then, soon, the meantime, later, while, earlier, simultaneously, afterward, in conclusion, with this in mind | |
first, second, third… | |
generally, furthermore, finally | |
in the first place, also, lastly | |
in the first place, pursuing this further, finally | |
to be sure, additionally, lastly | |
in the first place, just in the same way, finally | |
basically, similarly, as well | |
after all, all in all, all things considered, briefly, by and large, in any case, in any event, in brief, in conclusion, on the whole, in short, in summary, in the final analysis, in the long run, on balance, to sum up, to summarize, finally | |
by the way, incidentally | |
here, there, over there, beyond, nearly, opposite, under, above, to the left, to the right, in the distance | |
above, behind, by, near, throughout, across, below, down, off, to the right, against, beneath, in back of, onto, under, along, beside, in front of, on top of, among, between, inside, outside, around, beyond, into, over |
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.
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.
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:
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.
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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A description of my study desk outline.
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There is a three-layer cabinet with a fading teddy bear on it in the extreme right corner of my study desk. My niece’s pale orange dollhouse is positioned on its right. Near the dollhouse is a white electric fan. I have my working grey laptop right next to the electric fan, in an attempt to keep the device’s temperature low. A green fine-toothed brush and my phone, which is protected by a black cover, are nearby. My black nonfunctional laptop is leaning against a stack of textbooks.
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The color of my new kitchen is a stunning rich crimson. A large sink with a dishwashing machine on the right side is located in the center of the wall. On the left, adjacent to the dishwashing machine, is the refrigerator. The three cabinets over the sink are the most gorgeous items in my kitchen. They have lamps inside of them, which I switch on in the morning and at night. The microwave and stove are located to the right of the sink. There is an open area with a sizable dining table close to the stove. At the dining table are six chairs. I keep my tableware, unused dishes, and the dining tablecloth in four drawers that are close to the table. Two little vertically open cabinets that are just above the drawers are filled with several cups for various drinks. There are a few cupboards to the left of the drawers where the frying pots, teapots, saucepans, and griddles are kept.
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If you've purchased headphones, earbuds, soundbars, or Bluetooth speakers in recent years, it's likely that you've heard of spatial audio. It's all the rage in consumer audio products these days, but what exactly is spatial audio?
Also: The best headphones: Expert tested and reviewed
Let's examine spatial audio, how it works, which devices have it, and how it can elevate your audio experience.
Spatial audio, sometimes called virtual surround sound, is the technology that produces a digitally created three-dimensional audio experience. It places the sounds you're listening to around you instead of simply in front of you to create an immersive listening experience.
High-quality spatial audio should make you feel like you're in the movie you're watching or in the studio with the artist singing the songs you're listening to.
Also: The best Samsung TVs: Expert tested and reviewed
Many companies have created their own proprietary spatial audio technologies, but they're all based on the original: Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos is a form of surround sound, and its biggest competitor is DTS:X. These surround sound formats are popular in commercial movie theaters and are found in home theater equipment.
Many portable audio devices and singular home theater audio products, like headphones, earbuds, and soundbars, use Dolby Digital or DTS:X Virtual to achieve spatial audio.
Many of your audio devices support spatial audio, whether a variant of Dolby's digital spatial audio technology or an in-house-made spatial audio technology.
Many newer TVs, like the Hisense U6K and the TCL QM8 , have built-in speakers compatible with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital. Some TVs also have speakers compatible with DTS:X and DTS Virtual: X. If you're lucky, some TVs support both.
If you don't have a TV with spatial audio-supported built-in speakers, you can buy a soundbar that supports spatial audio, like the LG S95TR . If your TV is a few years old but still working fine, a soundbar can help enhance your audio experience.
Also: The best soundbars you can buy, tested and reviewed
Even if your TV's built-in speakers support spatial audio, they are probably quite small and could use the extra boost to turn your living room TV into an entertainment hub.
Many portable Bluetooth speakers, headphones , and earbuds offer spatial audio. That said, to listen to music in Dolby Atmos specifically, you usually must have a compatible listening device and music streaming service. You'll need two compatible devices because tracks with Dolby Atmos are mixed by sound engineers.
Some manufacturers, like Apple and Bose, implement their immersive sound technology into headphones like the AirPods Max and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra , which allow you to listen to anything in spatial audio.
Additionally, head-tracking technology in over-ear headphones like the Sonos Ace and earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2 use sensors to track your head movements and simulate audio from any direction you turn your head.
True surround sound requires multiple speakers and subwoofers arranged around the room. These speakers each belong to an audio channel that outputs a specific layer of sound.
Spatial audio can be thought of as a digital version of surround sound. Spatial audio is less rigid regarding the physical placement of speakers, as you can achieve an immersive spatial audio experience with one soundbar or a pair of headphones.
Listening to spatial audio is a personal preference. Spatial audio can add depth, dimension, and space to whatever you're listening to, but not all spatial audio is created equal. For example, Bose's proprietary spatial audio technology can be a hit or a miss, making some songs airy and immersive while others sound flat and unenjoyable.
Also: The best sound systems you can buy
It's easier to hear spatial audio effects when listening with earbuds and headphones than with soundbars and TV speakers. The space between your headphones' speaker and your ears is much smaller than in your living room or home theater. If, however, you have a surround sound system and enable spatial audio, you can better appreciate the technology.
The best wireless headphones you can buy: expert tested, the best portable speakers: sonos, edifier, jbl, and more compared.
COMMENTS
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.
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 ...
The topical, spatial, causal, comparative and chronological methods of arrangement may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the refutation pattern may work well for a persuasive speech. Additionally, Chapter 16 offers additional organization styles suited for persuasive speeches, such as the refutation speech and Monroe's ...
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.
The structure is like a house, which has essential parts like a roof, walls, windows, and doors. Organization is like the placement of rooms within the house, arranged for a logical and easy flow. This chapter will teach you about creating a speech through an outlining process that involves structure and organization.
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 ...
10.4 Organizing Your Speech. In a series of important and groundbreaking studies conducted during the 1950's and 1960's, 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 ...
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 ...
The topical, spatial, causal, comparative and chronological methods of arrangement may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the refutation pattern may work well for a persuasive speech. Additionally, Chapter 16 offers additional organization styles suited for persuasive speeches, such as the refutation speech and Monroe's ...
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.
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.
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.
Spatial. The spatial speech pattern Speech format in which a speaker organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. 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.
An informative speech can be broken up into three sections: Section 1: Introduction. The first section of the speech contains an attention-getter to grab the interest of the audience and orient them to the topic of the speech, a clear thesis that states the purpose of the speech, and a preview of the main points of the speech. Section 2: Body.
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.
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.
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.
Now let's look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography. Specific Purpose To explain to college biology students how the urinary system works. ... 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 ...
Take a look at spatial order example which describes various layers of a volcano. A volcano is a beautiful and dangerous natural phenomenon. The magma chamber, an extremely hot part which people rarely see, is under the Earth surface beneath the bed's rock. The conduit is running from the volcano's magma chamber to the crater which is at ...
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 ...
Now let's look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography. Specific Purpose: To explain to a group of college biology students how the urinary system works: ... 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 ...
A listening test comparing Higher-Order Stereophony and Ambisonics reproduction, low-passed at 4 kHz to reduce spatial aliasing artefacts, shows that the former technique can perform equally well as Ambisonics to the same truncation order with respect to positional properties of a virtual sound source, while using a smaller number of loudspeakers.
For example, the main points of your speech could be one organizational pattern and the subpoints a different one. In the spatial example above about the Native American nations of Georgia, the subpoints might be chronological (emphasizing their development over time), or they could be topical (explaining aspects of their culture).
Example 3: A Description of My New Kitchen. The color of my new kitchen is a stunning rich crimson. A large sink with a dishwashing machine on the right side is located in the center of the wall. On the left, adjacent to the dishwashing machine, is the refrigerator.
If you don't have a TV with spatial audio-supported built-in speakers, you can buy a soundbar that supports spatial audio, like the LG S95TR. If your TV is a few years old but still working fine ...
In an influential article, Jones et al. (1995) provide evidence that auditory distraction by changing relative to repetitive auditory distracters (the changing-state effect) did not differ between a visual-verbal and visual-spatial serial recall task, providing evidence for an amodal mechanism for the representation of serial order in short-term memory that transcends modalities.