Outlining Your Speeches in P155

Outlining Your Speeches in P155

• Be sure to watch the outlining video guides by Professor Arthos. The links to the videos appear in the Modules section of your lab’s Canvas page. J

In P155, we’re going to be using a few key terms related to organizing your speech: an outline refers merely to a formatting system for sketching out your ideas in words without writing out the entire speech word for word. Think of an outline as a container, into which you put the various parts of your speech. This format involves roman numerals, capital letters, standard numbers and lower case letters combined with indentation. We will also be talking about organizational patterns or speech patterns. Those patterns refer to the order of the elements of your speech, and each speech assignment will have its own required pattern (or choice of patterns). Once you have made a choice about which pattern is best for your speech, you will then construct an outline using the basic structural format you see on the next page.

Let’s say it’s a U-Haul trailer you are loading with your stuff. The stuff you’re putting in the trailer is like the material, language and arguments you are putting into your speech. But we all know there are different strategies for loading a trailer, right? Your wacky friend Stew might just chuck everything in the back and hope for the best…but it’s better to have a plan. That plan is the organizational pattern.

Read on for the basic structure of an outline, no matter what organizational pattern you follow for a given speech assignment. Have questions? Be sure to ask your Lab Instructor![unique_solution]

GENERIC OUTLINE FORMAT FOR ALL OF YOUR FORMAL PUBLIC SPEECHES

[“Generic” means this outline format applies to speeches #2 – #4, and beyond…Remember, an outline is a container. The organizational pattern of your speech (content that fills the container) varies with each assignment]

1. introduction

1. attention grabber

1. main claim

1. map

1. body

1. first premise (sub-claim)

1. support [support could be, for example, evidence, doxa, examples, or analogies]
2. warrant

1. second premise (sub-claim)

1. support

2. warrant

1. third premise (sub-claim)

1. support

2. warrant

III.conclusion

1. main claim (repeated) [and/or]

1. call to action (varies with speech assignment)

Be sure to watch Dr. Arthos’s videos on outlining format and extemp speaking from an outline! Find the links in the Modules section of your lab’s Canvas site.