Planning Makes Perfect
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Develop Your Central Idea
Your central idea is more than just the topic or subject matter of your speech. It is your speech’s entire purpose, and an essential part of the planning process. Developing a solid central idea helps you to identify your main points, the information you will need to include, and the way in which you will organize that information. It strikes that all important balance between a speech that is too broad or too narrow in its scope.Let’s say that your topic is healthy body weight. Do you want to present an informational speech about the exercise and diet regimens that will lead to healthy body weight? If so, you may choose to word your central idea this way: “Achieving a healthy body weight is the result of regular exercise and a balanced diet.” A statement like this lets your audience know that you will be providing them with straightforward, educational information. Perhaps your goal is to persuade your audience to strive for a healthy weight. If that is your purpose, your central idea might be something like this: “Maintaining a healthy body weight will have significant benefits for you both physically and mentally.” A statement such as this let’s the audience know what’s “in it for them.” It sets the stage for persuasion.
Organize Your Thoughts
The way in which you choose to organize your speech is up to you, and will depend largely on the kind of speech you’re planning to give. Generally, there are four major methods of organization.Chronological order lists events or steps in the order they occur. This method works well when you are trying to create a sense of forward momentum, building toward a conclusion by describing a series of important milestones on the way to that conclusion. For example, you may use the chronological method of organization when giving an instructional speech about baking a pie. You could begin with prepping your ingredients and finish with taking your freshly baked pie out of the oven.
Are you planning to deliver a speech about North American weather patterns? Perhaps you’ll be addressing a tourist group about attractions in your city, or speaking to a group of new university students about the layout of their campus. For any of these, the spatial method of organization would be a good fit. Spatial organization arranges the major points of your speech in terms of their physical proximity to each other. It is a method used when your central idea concerns things or places, not abstract ideas or opinions.
The causal method of organization is used when your speech either attributes an event or condition to an apparent cause or when you make a prediction of an outcome based on causes you identify. This is an excellent method to use when you are giving a persuasive speech. To illustrate how this method can persuade an audience, let’s return to one of our original central ideas, “Maintaining a healthy body weight will have significant benefits for you both physically and mentally.” To convince your audience that achieving and maintaining a healthier weight is indeed worth working for, you might take them from cause (overweight or obesity) to effect (diabetes, heart disease, depression).
Finally, a topical approach to organization is useful when your speech will center on groups of ideas. Sports strategy can be divided into two topics – offense and defense. The judicial system can be divided into municipal, state and federal courts. The subject of movies can be broken down into genre or year of release.
If you’ve decided on a solid central idea and have started to organize your thoughts logically around it, you are well on your way to public speaking success. Planning well beforehand will give you the confidence you need to inform, persuade, entertain, and most importantly, impress.
