Organization

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

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 orderly manner. As a speaker, your business is persuading others to accept your ideas, and success 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 confused. 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 success.

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 sports 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 purpose. 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 competitive? 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 achieve 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:

*
*
*
*

A starting question or a challenging statements
An appropriate 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:

*
*
*
*
*

An apologetic statements
A story or joke that not relate to your topics
A commonplace 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..?"

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 anecdote or story for illustration. You could also quote an authority or use simple statistics to support your idea. If appropriate, you 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:

*
*
*

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 illustration 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 presentation.

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 greater 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 evaluator will also consider your use of skills from the previous two projects, such as enthusiasm and conviction and your ability to control nervousness. To be effective, your outline must be useful to you in organizing your thoughts, and your organization must be clear to your listeners, so they can understand exactly what you are trying to accomplish.