Learn the steps to creating a well-organized oral presentation or speech. From topic selection to final outline to creation of note cards, read on to find out what you need to ready yourself to speak in front of an audience.
Instructions
1. Pick a topic. When in a business setting, the topic may be chosen for you; you may be asked to talk about "the state of the company" or "new marketing ideas for a product." Whatever your topic, embrace the subject matter so that you will convey interest to the audience when you give your presentation.
2. Decide on the purpose of your speech. There are three general categories into which oral presentations fall: to inform--these are factual speeches, with language designed to impart knowledge and information; to persuade--these speeches may ask the audience to agree or ultimately disagree with a point of view; to entertain or commemorate.
3. Research your topic. The idea here is to gather at least three times the amount of information you eventually will use in your speech. So, for example, should you have to speak for 6 to 8 minutes, each main point will take up an average of 2 minutes. Therefore, for each main point, you will need just under 2 minutes of evidence. So gather enough information initially in your research to fill 6 minutes for that single main point. You will edit it down as you formulate subpoints for each main point.
4. Develop a thesis statement. You have a topic and a purpose. You've researched the topic and have tons of information on it. Now you have to determine what is most important to impart about the subject. Whatever that is, that will be the theme around which you mold main points that support said theme. Choose a thesis statement that you later can develop main points around cohesively . The thesis should bring all the information together that you use in your speech.
5. Create main points that are complete sentences and are claims. The main points of a speech are the claims that support the thesis. These are the broad strokes that make your case, whether it's to inform, persuade or entertain.
Main points should have adequate subpoints (or evidence) to support the claim made by the main point. This is the bulk of the information you gathered during Step 3. Further, your main points should be well balanced. In other words, don't make one really short on evidence and another extremely long.
6. Conclude your speech. A conclusion brings it all together. Conclusions have two parts, a restatement of your thesis along with a review of your main points is the first. Then a tie-back or closure statement ends things.
Tags: main point, main points, your speech, each main, each main point
