Organizing Speeches: The Importance of a Well-Structured Body, Study notes of Communication

Download Organizing Speeches: The Importance of a Well-Structured Body and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter Seven Outline Organizing the Speech: The Body I. Why is organization important A. For listeners- *** Isn’t hard to follow a conversation when the person keeps changing the topic and jumping around? Share some personal experiences ~ Well, some of the same feelings are present when someone gives a speech without organization. 1. Helps the audience remember 2. Encourages active listening 3. Helps listeners anticipate materials B. For speakers *** Have you ever had a conversation where you were jumping around and you left out important information or lost you train of thought? Organization also helps the speaker. 1. Facilitates strategic planning 2. Provides a check II. Selective Main Ideas A. Identify your main ideas- Addresses issues in your thesis statement. Main division of your speech. 1. From your thesis to your specific purpose what you want to say 2. From Patterns in your research- mentions something over and over B. Choosing among main ideas- have to remember you time limit, audiences attention span, etc. You can’t say everything you want to say, so you make choices. C. Criteria for selecting the main idea- Choose the best arguments, best ideas, best research, etc. What would make your speech the strongest it could possibly be. 1. Is the ideal essential? 2. Can a more general statement combine several ideas? D. Characteristics of the main ideas 1. Simplicity- Simple is smarter so audience does not get lost 2. Discreteness- Don’t say something in 20 words you could say in 10 3. Parallel structure- Use similar grammar structure, sometime it helps to use acronyms such as the “3 C’s” or spelling out a word with main points. 4. Balance- Same length for each main idea section 5. Coherence- clearly relating, flows well 6. Completeness- Don’t leave important stuff out. III. Arranging the main idea A. Factors affecting arrangement 1. Are the main ideas independent? a. Dependent ideas are linked- like a story, each section is builds upon the next. Helps with flow and understanding but can be bad because if one is rejected then the whole thing can fall apart. b. Independent ideas stand alone 2. Are some of the main ideas relatively unfamiliar? a. Familiar ideas are of interest- starting with the familiar helps people understand the unfamiliar b. Unfamiliar idea are hard to grasp 3. Should the strongest idea come first or last a. Primacy effect- strong first idea b. Recency effect- last idea is the strongest Which is better? Depends on your speech, point of view, how you want to organize it. Research is inconclusive. B. Patterns for arranging main ideas 1. Chronological- Past, present, future 2. Spatial- nearest to you to far, geographic order 3. Categorical- by topic, theme, catagories 4. Cause-Effect- or effect to cause 5. Problem- Solving- Must make audience see as a problem 6. Comparison and contrast- Highlighting one or both 7. Residues- least of all evils C. Choosing the organizational pattern 1. Topic lead themselves to particular patterns 2. Purpose and strategy can influence selection 3. Audience can influence arrangement 4. Culture can affect organization Americans tend to like problem and solution. IV. Selecting and arranging supporting materials A. Selection of supporting materials - 2 Questions to ask? 1. How much and what kind?- a. Audience’s prior understanding- All college intellectual here so we require more academic support b. Audience’s beliefs and values- if you are preaching to the choir need less but if there is resistance you need more. c. Audience’s knowledge and experience- What they know, how much experience they have, if they are skeptical d. Avoid redundancy- e. Aim for variety- Not all stats, testimonies, Internet web sites 2. What criteria? a. Apply criteria for supporting materials (Ch. 5) credibility b. Easy to understand- if don’t understand audience will stop listening c. Vivid and interesting- holds attention d. Select material consistent with your knowledge- agreement