Toastmaster Speech Manual Number Three

Organize Your speech
Objectives |
1. To organize your
thoughts into a logical sequence that leads the audience to a clearly defined goal
2. To build a speech outline that includes an
opening, body, and conclusion
3. TIME: Five to seven minutes
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You have delivered at least two prepared talks as a
Toastmaster. You've also begun to develop your impromptu speaking skills in table topics
and other parts of the program. Having experience speaking before an audience, you have
already to concentrate on structuring an effective speech by organizing your ideas and
following an outline from beginning to end.
Why organize?
If your speech is to make sense to the audience and easily
followed, it must be logically organized. Organization is really nothing more than putting
your ideas together in an olderly manner. As a speaker, your business is persuading others
to accept your ideas, and sucess comes only when you carefully organize your
approach. You must clearly identify the key point of your subject for the audience and
lead them logically towards the point. merely talking around the subject in a haphazard
manner will leave your listeners confussed.
As a persuader, you must always speak from your audience's point of
view. They will be motivated only by what they want, not by what you want. Remember that
as you organize your talk. Analyze what will motivate your audience to agree with you,
understand you, or take action on your behalf. Then develop your ideas so they supply that
motivation. Good organization is the key to sucess.
Define Your Mission
Your first step in creating your talk is to decide what the talk about.
Select a subject of interest to you and your audience. Be sure the subject is not too
broad. For example, instead of talking about sports - a general topics - narrow the
subject to children's soprts or, more specific stills, children's soccer.
Remember you will be speaking for only a few minutes, and you
will need al of that time to fully develop a single facet of the larger subject. Be sure
your topics is timely and relevant for your audience, a topics on which you can speak with
some degree of authority, and one to which can bring enthusiasm and conviction.
Once you know your topic, you must determine your presentation's
mission. do you want to inspire, entertain, persuade or inform your listener? What do you
want the audience to feel, know or do after hearing your speech? What single point do you
want to make? The answer to these question will determine your speech's mission or
puspose. If the topics is children sports, for example what do you want your speech to do?
Do you want to inspire your listeners to support children's sports. Do you want to
convince listeners that adults are making children's sports too conpetitive? Do you want
to entertain your audience your funny stories about your children soccer team?
Write down your mission in one clear, concise sentence. This will be
the basis of the development of your speech.
Develop and Outline
The next step in preparing your speech is to logically assemble your ideas
into a sequence that will help you achive your objectives.
An effective speech is designed to catch immediate attention. it must
arouse the audience's interest in your topic. It also must lead to the speech subject and
help listener remember the subject of your speech and the main point of your making.
Example of the good opening are:
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A starting question or a challenging statements
An apropriate quotation, illustration or story
A display of some appropriate object or picture
An attention-getting generalization that ties in with your subject |
Avoid these common weak openings:
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An apologetic statements
A story or joke that not relate to your topics
A commonpalce observation delivered in a commonplace manner.
A long or slow-moving statement or story
A trite question, such as "Did you ever stop to think..?"
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What facts or ideas do you want to present? You may find it useful to
write down all of those related to your topic on small file card, using one card per idea
or fact. You may have quite a few. Next, you will need to weed out ideas or facts until
only the three ones remain. These will be the main facts or ideas of your talk. Arrange
and rearrange these last three cards, determine the most effective order for your
speech.
The next step is to elaborate on each idea or fact. Explain it in
several sentences, then provide a short annecdote or story for illustration. You could
also quote an authority or use simple statistics to support your idea. If appropriate, yo
should briefly mention contrary views and refute them.
The audience will always remembers best what it hears last. This means
your closing must be memorable. It should reinforce your ideas and leave your listeners
with a lasting impression. If your mission was to inform your listeners, you may want to
conclude simply with a summary of the ideas presented in the body of the speech. If your
purpose was to persuade or motivate the audience to take some action, you want to suggest
a course of action listeners could take.
Do not introduce any new material in the conclusion. You will only
confuse your listener. Also, do not apologize for anything you may or may not have done or
said during your talk. Finish forcefully and confidently.
Example of a good closing are:
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A summary of the points you have maid and the conclusion to be drawn
from them
A specific appeal for action
A story, quotation or illuatration that emphasizes the point you are
making |
Be sure to use smooth transitions when moving from the opening to the body
to the conclusion of your speech. Good transitions provide continuity and help the
audience to follow your presentaion.
For Instance
Suppose you will be talking on the danger of the accidents in home and
your mission is to increase safety awareness. You engage your audience's interest by
saying, "You are far more likely to be injured in an accidents at home than in other
place," (audience's self-interest in the opening). Then expand on this theme.
Then you might begin the body of the speech by giving the example.
"Suppose someone fell down the stairs in your home. That's exactly what happened at
our house. and..." For analogy, you might say:" You are safer walking down the
middle of the streets in heavy traffics than you are walking down a staircase without a
light."
You could quote common arguments, such as, "Such people say, 'I
know my house so well I could walk around blindfolded..'" That quote statistics that
prove more people are injured at home than anywhere else.
For your conclusion, restate your opening theme and make an appeal for
graeter care at home. close on a strong note: " If you don't worry about yourself, at
least set a good example in home safety for your family."
Your Evaluation
In this project, the primary focus is on how effectively you organize your
speech. However, your evaluater will also consider your use of skills from the previous
two projects, such as enthusiasm and conviction and your ability to control nervouness. To
be effective, your outline must be useful to you in organising your thoughts, and your
organization must be clear to your listeners, so they can understand exactly what
you are trying to accomplish.
