The Art of Public Speaking Think what might happen if you tried to build a house without a

The Art of Public Speaking

Think what might happen if you tried to build a house without a floor plan or an architect's blueprint. You build the kitchen next to the driveway to make it convenient for carrying in groceries. But the dining room turns up at the other end of the house. When you cook and serve a meal, you have to run with the plates to keep the food from getting cold. You put the bathroom at the head of the stairs to make it accessible to visitors. But the door opens in such a way that the unwary guest is catapulted down the steps. Plans and blueprints are essential to architecture. So, too, are outlines essential to effective speeches. An outline is like a blueprint for your speech. By outlining, you make sure that related items are together, that ideas flow from one to another, that the structure of your speech will stand up -- and not collapse. Probably you will use two kinds of outlines for your speeches -- one very detailed, for the planning stage, and one very brief, for the delivery of the speech.

The Preparation Outline

The preparation outline is just what its name implies -- an outline that helps you prepare the speech. Writing a preparation outline means actually putting your speech together. It is the stage at which you decide what you will say in the introduction, how you will organize the main points and supporting materials in the body of the speech, and what you will say in the conclusion.

Now let us look at the guidelines for the outline. The specific purpose statement should be a separate unit that comes before the text of the outline itself. Including the specific purpose in the outline makes it easier to assess how well you have constructed the speech to accomplish your purpose. Some teachers prefer that the central idea be given immediately after the purpose statement. Others prefer that it be given and identified in the text of the outline itself. If you label the parts of your speech, you will be sure that you indeed have an introduction and conclusion and have accomplished the essential objectives of each. Usually the names of the speech parts are placed in the middle of the page or in the far lei1 margin. They are technical labels only and are not included in the system of symbolization used to identify main points and supporting materials. In the most common system of outlining, main points are identified by Roman numerals and are indented (首行缩进) equally so as to be aligned (对齐) down the page. Sub-points are identified by capital letters and are also indented equally so as to be aligned with each other.

Once you have organized the body of your speech, you should have identified the main points. You need only flesh out your outline with sub-points, as necessary, to support the main points. But suppose, as sometimes happens, you find yourself with a list of statements and are not sure which are main points, which are sub-points, and so forth. Such a list might look like this:

There were 13 people at the Last Supper-Jesus and his 12 disciples.

One of the most common sources of superstition is number.

In the United States, 13 is often omitted in the floor numbering of hotels and skyscrapers.

The number 13 has meant bad luck as long as anyone can remember.

Which statement is the main point？ The second statement is the main point, which is broader in scope than any of the other statements. This would be one of the main ideas of your speech. The fourth statement is the sub-point; it immediately supports the main point. The other two statements are sub-sub-points; they illustrate the sub-point. Rearranged properly, they look like this:

A. One of the most common sources of superstition is numbers.

a. The number 13 has meant bad luck as long as anyone can remember.

1. There were 13 people at the Last Supp

A．Y

B．N

C．NG