Assessing Your Outlining Skills
An important element of speech preparation is the ability to establish your speech
topic, thesis, main points, supporting points, and transitions. You can assess your abil-
ity to recognize these elements in the following preparation outline for an informative
speech on Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD).
Instructions: Place the numbers of the elements listed here into the following
organizational outline.
Topic: _____ Thesis: _____
I. (main point) _______
A. (subpoint) ______
B. (subpoint) ______
C. (subpoint) ______
D. (subpoint) ______
E. (subpoint) ______
(transition) _____
II. (main point)________
A. (subpoint) ______
B. (subpoint) ______
C. (subpoint) ______
D. (subpoint) ______
- I’ve presented the five signature symptoms of OCPD and will now examine the condi-
tion’s suspected causes. - Adopting a miserly spending style toward both self and others.
- Perfectionism that interferes with task completion.
- There are five primary symptoms of OCPD.
- OCPD.
- Faulty parenting.
- Heredity.
- OCPD is a treatable mental illness that often goes unrecognized due to lack of infor-
mation or confusion about the symptoms and causes. - Harsh punishment/meager rewards.
- Preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules to the extent
that the major point of the activity is lost. - Recognize the symptoms and causes of OCPD to identify proper help.
- Medical professionals generally agree on four major causes for OPCD.
- Stubbornness and inflexibility about matters of morality, ethics, or values.
- Significant event/circumstance that triggers OCPD.
- Inability to discard worn-out objects even when they have no sentimental value.
Answers: Topic: 5; Thesis: 8, Main Point I: 4, Subpoints I-A-E: 2, 3, 10, 13, and
15; Transition: 1: Main Point II: 12; Subpoints II-A-D: 6, 7, 9, 14.
what about you?