Outlining a Speech
Jami Warren
Goal and Rationale: Students often have trouble developing and organizing their speeches. Outlining
can help students with these challenges. However, students often do not know where to start.
Conducting the following lesson on outlining can help students to be able to complete a formal speech
outline.
Review of Literature: Readings most helpful for this lesson come straight from our textbook. In the
current Composition & Communication text, chapter three provides a nice overview of oral
communication, including detailing characteristics of effective speeches, audience analysis, and
outlining. In addition, chapter 10 on outlining from Sellnow’s (2005) Confident Public Speaking text is
also helpful for more detail on outlining specifically.
Connection to Learning Outcomes: Many of our C&C learning outcomes focus on our desire for
students to compose and deliver effective oral presentations that represent informed points
appropriate for the audience and purpose. We also want our students to find, evaluate, and cite sources
appropriately. Outlining will helps students achieve both of these outcomes. I would typically use this
lesson plan in C&C I when discussing their first speech, before their formal outline is due.
The Lesson Plan:
1. I first discuss with students the importance of outlining for preparing a successful speech. I talk to
them about how creating an outline can help them organize their thoughts, and provide them with
insight about where they need more evidence to support their ideas, etc. I also talk about how students
who create good outlines are more likely to deliver successful speeches. I discuss/define the different
types of outlines (prep, formal, and speaking) and tell students that it is much easier to create a
speaking outline from a formal outline.
2. As a class, we begin to create a formal outline together on the whiteboard. I choose a somewhat
generic topic such as “things to do while a student at UK” or something like this. We divide the board
into sections, including: Intro, Body, Conclusion, & References.
3. I ask the class how we should organize a speech on this topic. This gives us the opportunity to also
discuss appropriate organizational patterns (topical, chronological, narrative, and so on).
4. We then begin to draft the “body” of the speech using the organizational pattern we chose. So, for
instance, if the class chose a topical organization pattern, the class might choose to divide the speech
into subtopics, such as “sporting events,” “arts events,” and so on. Once we choose our main points, we
fill in the details (sub-points, evidence, etc.). We talk about what types of ideas and evidence might be
useful to support the main point “sporting events.” I make sure I label (sometime shorthand for the sake
of time) all the parts (main points, sub-points, etc.) so that I am modeling what I want my students to do
for their formal outlines.
5. We then create transitions between each of our points and discuss how we would internally cite our
sources and how we would cite them in our reference section. I might briefly talk about APA here and
point them to resources for citing sources appropriately.
6. Once we’ve completed the body of our outline, we review the major parts of an introduction and
conclusion. We talk about what might be an appropriate listener relevance link, thesis, preview, etc. for
our newly created speech. I leave the attention catcher and clincher blank for the final group activity.
7. Before moving on to the activity, I provide students with an example of a “good” outline. We talk
through the important aspects of what makes it “good” (labeled, full-sentences, internal citations,
reference citations, etc.).
8. We end class with a group activity. In small groups, students compete to come up with the “best”
attention catcher and clincher for the speech we outlined on the board. At the end, I choose a winner
and usually bring candy to give to those group members.
Synthesis [optional]: Once this lesson is completed, I typically assign the formal outline assignment.
Students usually bring in two copies of their formal outline draft to class in the next one or two class
periods and we do a peer review session in class. Then students eventually turn in a final draft of their
outline to me before their speech.
References
Sellnow, D. D. (2005). Confident public speaking (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Sellnow, D. D., & Mountford, R. (2011). Composition & communication: Integrating oral, written, and
visual literacy (1st ed.).