Page 65 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

32 Part 1 Foundations

Your thesis statement should help the audience understand what response
you seek from them. As a case in point, you might be opposed to further restric-
tions on what you can do in dorm rooms. Assuming you are speaking to a group
of student colleagues, you may wish to focus your speech on what they can do to
fi ght the restrictions. Thus, your thesis statement might be, “We need to lobby
the board of trustees of the university to stop this unjustifi ed and harmful plan.”
Notice that the thesis statement here is directly related to the specifi c purpose
of your speech. In this instance, your specific purpose is “to convince other stu-

dents to lobby the board of trustees to stop the proposed restrictions.” The thesis
statement, if accepted and acted upon by the audience, will fulfi ll your specifi c
purpose. While the specifi c purpose expresses your goal for the audience’s re-
sponse to the speech, the thesis statement expresses the essential message that is
designed to fulfi ll that purpose.
Although the specifi c purpose is not normally stated explicitly to the audi-
ence, the thesis statement should be sufficiently related to that purpose to al-

low the audience to know what you want to accomplish. As an example, consider
a speech on binge drinking. If your specific purpose was to persuade audience

members to drink responsibly, your thesis statement might be, “Binge drinking
can destroy lives.” Or if you wanted to inform your audience of the basic prin-
ciples of the Heimlich maneuver, your thesis statement might be, “The Heim-
lich maneuver involves applying pressure to the victim’s diaphragm to expel air
from the lungs and thus dislodge what is caught in the throat.”
The thesis statement is usually stated in the introduction to the speech. There
are some exceptions to this guideline, which will be discussed in later chapters.
But as a general rule, letting your audience know your central point is important if
you are to fulfi ll your goals as a speaker.
Even a speech to entertain should have a clear thesis. Obviously, there’s no
easier way to turn off an audience than to say, “Today I’m going to make you
laugh.” But it would be logical to say, “First dates are often a disaster, and mine
was no different.” Unlike a Jon Stewart monologue, which is often just a string of
jokes, a speech to entertain should have a clear purpose, thesis, and structure.

Preparing Your Speech

Ancient speakers in Greece and Rome knew that public speaking involved sev-
eral arts, which were sometimes called the canons of rhetoric. First, the
canons of rhetoric
orator or speaker had to create the substance of a speech, a process known as
The classical arts of
invention. The material used in the speech had to be arranged to have an ef-
invention, organization,
fective organization. The orator had to choose the best words to convey the mes-
style, memory, and
delivery. sage, which was known as the style of the speech. Once prepared, the speech had
to be learned. Ancient speakers did not use notes or other aids and devoted con-
invention siderable attention to improving their memory. Finally, the speech had to be pre-
The creative process by sented orally to an audience. The delivery of the speech to an audience involved
which the substance of a using both voice and body effectively. Four of these fi ve canons are taught today
speech is generated.
in virtually every public speaking class or effective speaking seminar. Although
speakers today rarely memorize their speeches, they do need to invent them,
organize the content, use an appropriate style, and deliver the speech to an audi-
ence. These topics are discussed in more detail in Chapters 7 through 12.