Page 280 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

• Appropriate humor
• A personal experience
• A thought-provoking question

The conclusion to a speech should:

• Summarize the main points of the speech

• Close with impact
Ways to close include:

• Quotation

• Brief anecdote
• Direct appeal to action

• Return to the opening theme

A formal outline is sometimes required of beginning speakers. Many instructors
prefer students to use standard outline notation and write a complete-sentence
outline.
Speaker’s notes, usually placed on small cards or pages, can be used when
presenting the speech.

Check Your Understanding: Exercises and Activities

1. Consider the following speech introductions. Rewrite them to fi t the “open,
focus, connect, and preview” model suggested in this chapter.

Today, I’m going to talk to you about pit bulls. I got attacked last week by a
pit bull, and I think they are really dangerous. Something’s got to be done!
Have any of you ever thought about going snowboarding? I really like to
snowboard, and that’s what my speech is going to be about.
I think capital punishment is wrong. What if somebody who was innocent
got killed? I’m going to persuade all of you that life without parole is a better
way to go.

2. View a speech on our Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/
brydon6. Using the format described in this chapter, construct a complete-
sentence outline of the speech. How closely did the speech seem to follow
the steps indicated in the chapter? Was the speech easy to outline? If not,
how could the speaker have made the organization clearer?
3. Analyze a print ad in a magazine or newspaper to see whether it uses a prob-
lem–solution, causal, or motivated-sequence. If so, explain how each step
is fulfi lled. If not, discuss how the ad might be modifi ed to fi t one of these
organizational patterns.

4. On the following pages is an outline of a speech, followed by a list of points
in scrambled order. Your task is to match the appropriate sentence from the
scrambled list with the points in the outline. This may be done as an indi-
vidual or a group exercise, depending on your instructor’s preference. 247