Structuring and Outlining

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The Basic Cours

Structuring and outlining your speech is important for a variety of reasons. When audiences are confronted with new information or arguments, it is helpful if there is something familiar from which they can orient themselves - a well structured speech can to this. When you are attempting to establish flow and coherence to your speech, a sound structure can anchor your thoughts.

On this page we're going to discuss some useful structures for you persuasive and informative speeches. Next we will show how each of these common structures can be easily transformed into an outline.

As you examine each structure, remember, the reason we use each of these particular outlines is because each already has some relevance and familiarity to us in the way we learn information and perceive arguments.

Speech designs and structures

Spatial

Categorical

Temporal: Sequentail / Historical

Compare and Contrast

Problem - Solution

Stock Issues

Refutation

Spatial - In the spatial design, the physical relationships of the items discussed determine the order and relations of the information or arguments.

Here's how it might work. If you were giving an informative speech about your university, you might move from point to point with respect to proximity. Begin with a logical starting point (maybe admissions, maybe "Founders Hall") and move, as best you can, through a spatial progression. In many cases, a spatial design is enhanced when the audience is somewhat familiar with the layout of that which is being described or is given some sort of visual aid.

(It is important to note that almost every speech design offers the audience an idea of where they are in the speech process. Remember, if the audience thinks the speech is rambling or without the possibility of ending anytime soon their minds may start to drift from your speech.)

To make this speech design argumentative, imagine giving a speech on campus reform in which you will take your audience from point to point on the campus explaining at each site what a reformed campus would look like.

Some tips and things to remember about spatial designs.

-If the spatial layout of a particular speech doesn't offer itself to a spatial design, don't force it (this goes for all speech designs).

-Make sure you're moving in a logical progression. Shifting around without cues will confuse the audiences and render your structure useless.

Categorical - In a categorical design, the taxonomy of the of the items discussed determines how the information will be conveyed or how the arguments will be discussed.

For as long as anyone can remember, humans have been creating categories and grouping things. The words we use are categories in themselves. Here's an example: The word "dog" represents all of those furry lovable canines we keep in our homes. Scientifically there isn't that much difference between dingoes, wolves, hyenas and our pets, but one is considered a "dog" and the other a wild animal. This doesn't mean that categories aren't useful. If you tell someone that a dingo is not a dog, that may be enough information for them to avoid getting bitten.

In a categorically designed informative speech, we provide information about items and show how they are commonly thought to constitute a category for some useful reasons. An example might be an informative speech about retro-viruses. The term "retro-virus" is used to identify a group of viruses like AIDS and CFS that are fundamentally different from other viruses for important reasons.

In a categorically designed persuasive speech, we can approach categories in two different general ways. We can argue that a particular group of items constitutes a category of its own or we can argue that a particular item belongs in a category that is already established. Usually in each case it is assumed there is some element of controversy in the categories you are arguing for or in the nature of the item you are trying to categorize. Here is an example of each. For the first type, you might argue that a certain kind of crime is different from the others that the law provides for and that a new kind of ruling in those cases should be made. Women who kill abusive husbands has caused such arguments recently. For the second type, you might argue that Mexico should be classified by the State Departments as a country that does not cooperate with U.S. anti-drug efforts. This too is currently a point of controversy.

Here are a few tips on the categorical designed speech.

-Start off with categories that the audience is familiar with. "...you have heard of viruses, but scientists have isolated a group of viruses that function in a profoundly different way."

-Explain why a particular category makes a difference and why the audience should care.

-Explain, in persuasive speeches, what the implications of the new category are.

Compare contrast - In this informative speech design, you take a familiar event, place, or thing and compare it to one that is new to the audience. To make the speech persuasive, you compare two situations, proposals, or actions (etc.) and compare one to the other while arguing that one is better.

Here are examples of how it works. Most Americans are familiar with their own war for independence, but no so with China's. In a compare contrast design you would move point by point through the American war for independence along with the Chinese. The audience will be able to make connections based on the information with which they are already comfortable.

An example of a persuasive compare contrast design might be to compare your plan for welfare reform with one currently being discussed in Congress. In this case, you need to determine how familiar your audience is with the congressional plan with which you are comparing and contrasting yours. The benefit of the compare contrast design in persuasive speaking is not always comparing a new item to an old, but a better one to a worse one.

Temporal Designs - In a temporally designed speech, the pieces of information are ordered to represent some hypothetical or actual chronological order.

In cases in which the information comes in a process that is performed over and over again, we would call it a sequential design. Examples of this include speeches of demonstration in which the speaker actually or figuratively takes the audience step by step through a process. An example of such a speech would be one in which the speaker imparted information about the proper way to prepare soil for planting. In such a speech, there are steps that could be more important than others, but the most important and apparent relationship among the items discussed is the time and order in which they should be done. Also, this is sequential and not historical because it represents a temporal process that will be done again and again.

In cases in which actual events are discussed, a historical design might be used. An example of a speech structured by historical design might be a speech on the conservation/environmental movement. In this case, you will be describing a historical process from (possibly) Ralph Waldo Emerson to EarthFirst! An important note on speeches of historical design. When it comes to events that unfamiliar to your audience, you might choose to mark each event with more familiar events that may help to mark them in an audiences historical perception. If you were to note that the Sierra Club was founded in 1892 shortly before the Spanish-American War, the audience would have an easier time getting orientated to the events your are describing.

Making a sequential designed speech into a persuasive speech can be done in two general ways. First, if your "solution" is one of many steps that must be taken in order, a sequential design might work for you. An example of such a speech might be one in which you argue for a different process by which people obtain handgun licenses. This is arguing that a process should take place. Second, if the sequence you are discussing is thought to happen one way (generally), but you believe it actually happen another way, your speech would be persuasive. In this case you would move step by step through the process and explain the real causal agents. An example might be a speech on AIDS in which you argue that HIV is not the cause. Such arguments have been made, all stating that HIV is not the causal agent, but, like AIDS, is precipitated by a yet unknown catalyst.

To make a historical speech design persuasive usually implies, not that the historians have their time line wrong, but that certain events caused others (it is even called a causation design sometimes). An example of such a speech would be one in which you argue that Malcolm X put more pressure on white America to change than did Martin Luther King. This is not a commonly held opinion among historians, so the speech must be argumentative. In such a speech you would go step by step through the history of the Civil Rights movement and explain how Malcolm X caused the changes of the era.

Problem-Solution - This design, used almost exclusively for persuasive speeches, is a two part speech in which you introduce a problem and then offer a solution.

Instead of giving examples of this speech, we would suggest that you look at our persuasive speech purpose and topic selection page. This page offers some ideas about what exactly goes into the process of persuasion. Explaining the problem and offering a solution are two such steps in the process.

Stock issues - This design is based on the assumption that, if you enter a well established debate, you will need to address several standard issues concerning your position.

A politician giving a speech outlining his position on the abortion/reproduction debate would have to address several standard (stock) issues that have framed the debate in the last few decades. Such issues include: federal funding for abortion, fetal tissue research, parental/spousal notification, late term abortion...the list goes on. One way of looking at a stock issue design is to ask, "what would a reasonable audience ask of this issue, what points are necessary to cover for this audience?"

Refutation - This design is much like the stock issue design, but based primarily assumption that the audience will be hostile to your arguments. As you move from point to point in your arguments, you refute or counter the arguments that the audience would likely use to dismantle your position, or you counter someone elses proposed plan.

Combining designs: It is surely both possible and useful to combine speech designs. You could compare and contrast two historical events or sequential processes. You could use a spatial design with categorical subpoints. You could do a compare contrast design that considers two problem - solutions in them. The possible variation go on and on.

Outlining

Outlining is an important step in preparing a speech. Before we go on to discuss the best ways to make an outline, we should mention that the presentation page offers some suggestions for the actual uses for outlines and could help you determine what kind of you line you need. The questions you must ask are the following:

Will I present from a full outline?

Will I present from a keyword outline?

or

Will I use the outline to write the text of the speech to be read or memorized?

Steps to writing an outline:

1.) Determine how you design would best be outlined.

The spatial design would be order based on a trip from beginning to end.

The compare contrast would be ordered based on each point of similarity and difference. (See example).

Comparing and contrasting spinach and escarole:

I. Similarities -

II.) Differences

In the explanations above each speech design is explained based on its own logic and like the compare contrast design above has a similarly logical outline design.

2.) Determine what should be coordinated and what should be subordinated. Coordination refers to the points that are of generally equal importance, while subordination refers to points that must logically be supportive to a larger point.

Try to keep any coordinating speech points between three and five. More than five and the audience will have trouble keeping track. One way of doing this is to combine points that might be similar or to subordinate some points to others that could go either way - to subordination or coordination.

3.) Write each outline point in full sentence form.

4.) Be sure that each point in your outline lead logically and fully to the next point. If there are gaps fill them in, if you can't see continuity, reconsider the logic of your design. Here are three ways to enhance the audiences pereption of logical order.