ESOL 164: Level 6 Academic Communication
Fall 2010, PCC, Sylvania, Burns
Assignment sheet + topic here.
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SPEECH PREPARATION:
A. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANT OF PURPOSE
Consider the purpose of your speech.
An effective speaker will have a clear purpose in mind:
o To inform
o To persuade
o To entertain
*Note: The purpose is related to who your audience is. Knowing the purpose will also help you
to organize your ideas.
TASK 1: IDENTIFY THE POSSIBLE PURPOSES OF THE FOLLOWING SPEECHES:
TOPIC/AUDIENCE
PURPOSE?
1) How to properly brush your teeth
(A) Audience: 3-year-old children
2) How to properly brush your teeth
(B) Audience: Dental students
3) Quitting smoking (A) Audience: A
group of nicotine addicted adults
4) Quitting smoking (B) Audience: A
group of social workers
5) How to tell a good joke to an
international crowd.
Write a specific purpose statement:
Always keep your purpose statement in mind when you write or prepare your speech:
TOPIC: Organic food
PURPOSE: (To inform my classmates about the benefits of organic food); To persuade my
classmates to buy organic food.
SPECIFIC PURPOSE STATEMENT: My purpose is to convince my classmates that eating
organic food is worth the cost by showing them three important benefits of eating organic food:
1) Good for their health; 2) Good for the environment; and 3) Good for the food growers.
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B. HOW TO SELECT A GOOD TOPIC



Consider your audience—your classmates—when you are choosing your topic and
preparing your speech.
o If your classmates already know about everything you will say, it’s not a good
topic.
o If your classmates don’t care about anything you say, it’s not a good topic. (You
will need to tell them WHY your topic is important to THEM.)
o Choose a topic that will be interesting to your classmates.
Consider how much you know about the topic:
o You should choose a topic you have knowledge about and/or experience with.
o You should choose a topic you care about.
Consider what visual aids you can use.
TASK 2: Write down some topic ideas here.
C. NARROWING THE TOPIC
Narrow the topic. Remember, the presentation is only 5 minutes long!!!
Example:
For example:
Topic:
Narrow:
Narrower:
Yoga. (What about yoga??? The history or origins? Yoga practice in
India? Elsewhere? Yoga for adults? For children? What type of yoga?
The philosophy? Etc.)
Yoga practice for adults.
The health benefits of yoga practice for adults.
TOPIC:
PURPOSE:
SPECIFIC PURPOSE:
Health Benefits of Yoga
To persuade
“I will give a speech on the three main health benefits of
yoga. My purpose is to persuade my classmates to start
practicing yoga in their daily lives.”
TASK 3: Look at your topics from Task 2. Take one topic and narrow the topic.
Topic:
Narrowed Topic:
Purpose:
to entertain
to inform
to persuade
Specific purpose: My purpose is to ____________________ my classmates …..
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ORGANIZATION AND LANGUAGE USE
Introduction [15%]:
Attention-Getting Statement:
a statement to attract attention
Specific Topic Statement:
state your main idea (your topic)
Pre-Summary:
mention the parts of the body of your speech
EFFECTIVE INTRODUCTIONS IN MORE DETAIL:
1) ** Effective Introductions: Attract interest with a hook or an attention-getting opener.
They relate the topic to your audience's interests and needs or appeal to people's natural
interest in the world.
“the hook”
**Some effective types of openings to gain attention. The hook can be:
A rhetorical question: You don’t really expect an answer to this question. For
example, “Did you ever think an animal could teach you something?”
A surprising or unusual fact: “Most of the world’s oil is produced by a very
small country in the Middle East.”
A quote: Shakespeare once said, “95% of what is communicated is done by
what can be seen and not heard.”
Tell a personal story (Keep it short): “When I was a little girl by mother used
to tell me a folktale that was very popular in my country. She would….”
Ask for a show of hand in response to a question: “How many of you have
ever been to Seattle?”
Important statistics
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2) Effective Introductions: Focus listeners on the topic and identify the topic. (State the
topic.)
3) Effective Introductions: Show how you will present the information. (Give a clear presummary)
Ex.: ….Today I will talk to you about the difficulty of getting a good education in
the US. (Topic). I will look at the three problems of getting a good education in
the US and suggest 3 possible solutions. (Pre-summary)
Ex.: ….Today I’m going to talk about the harmful effects of children in the US
eating too much sugar. (Topic). I will tell you how sugar is bad for teeth, why
sugar is bad for children’s overall health, and how it is bad for their behavior.
(Pre-summary)
4) Effective Introductions: Establish your credibility and goodwill.
How?
 Show you are confident.
 Choose a topic you know about.
 Show you are enthusiastic and interested in the topic yourself.
 Make yourself believable to your audience.
Body: [70%]
Have at least three main points. Each point must be followed by examples and details.
Main point #1: ______________________
(Details and Examples)
Main point #2: ______________________
(Details and Examples)
Main point #3: _______________________
(Details and Examples)
Language use:
FIRST POINT:
The first advantage (reason, cause, characteristic, etc.) is…
Let's start first with the major advantage (reason, cause, characteristic, etc.) …
SECOND/THIRD POINTS:
The second (third, fourth, etc.) advantage (reason, cause, characteristic, etc.) is…
Let's move on to ….
TO MOVE FROM ONE PART OF THE PRESENTATION TO ANOTHER:
Now I want to go on to
Now that we've talked about ___________, let's turn to ________________.
(Use a question, for example) "What are the main causes?"
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Conclusion [15%]:
Briefly summarize your main points.
Memorable concluding statement:
Remind listeners what you have presented and its
importance.
Give the audience a something to think about or
something to remember your speech by. Ask them
to take an action. Do not surprise the listeners by
saying "okay, that's it!" Don't just quit.
*No new points
*Be brief and to the point.
Concluding signals:
In conclusion….; In closing….; To conclude….; To sum up…;
Before I end, let me quickly review the main points
Briefly, I'd like to summarize the main points
You can end by asking the audience if the audience has any questions.
Are there any questions?
Do you have any questions?
TASK 4: WORK ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
Introduction:
1) True or False: It’s good to start a speech with a completely unrelated joke.
2) If you are not an expert in a subject area, state two ways you can ensure the audience
wants to listen to YOU.
3) Explain the difference between the topic and the pre-summary.
4) Circle words in the examples above that you can use to “signal” the topic.
5) Circle words in the examples above that you can use to “signal” the pre-summary.
6) Name the three parts of the introduction in order.
Body:
7) How many sections should there be in the body?
8) Identify language used in the body.
Conclusion:
9) Name the purpose of the conclusion.
10) Identify language used to “signal” the ending.
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Preparation Speech Outline (Example)
I. Introduction
A. Attention-getter: Did you ever buy ivory and think about where it came from?
B. Background information:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The African elephant currently lives in Kenya, a country in Africa.
It weighs an average of 1,000 pounds as an adult.
It lives on the savannahs of Kenya.
It is a vegetarian.
It is different from the Asian elephant.
There are only 200 left.
C. Thesis statement: The African elephant is decreasing in numbers in the wilds of
Kenya for three reasons.
Transition: Let’s look at the first cause of this species dying out.
II.
Body
A. Hunters and poachers are killing the animals for their ivory.
1.There are few people to enforce the laws about killing them.
2.High prices are paid for the ivory and so it is encouraged by the demand.
Transition: The second cause of the endangerment is the savannahs where they live has less
food.
B. There is less food on the savannahs
1.Global warming is keeping the rain from falling.
2.People are cutting down want few trees are left.
Transition: Now let’s summarize the problem
III.
Conclusion
A. Summary: Elephants are an endangered species because they are being hunted for
their ivory and because their food sources are disappearing.
B. Concluding remarks: I think all governments should assist the Kenyan government in
enforcing the laws against poaching (hunting) of these animals. At the same time, we should do
something about global warming so that we help not only the elephant, but all life on earth.
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