Public Speaking

146 CHAPTER 11^ Outlining Your Speech

How to Create an Alternative Pattern

Diversity in Practice: Individual Cognitive Preferences points out that your cognitive

preferences may lean toward more visual or imagistic thinking. Consequently, you might

prefer an alternative pattern, such as the wave, spiral, or star, described in Chapter 9.

If so, your depiction of your speech’s content will be less conventional, but you can still

design an appropriate representation of your ideas and their relationship to one another

by using the tips provided here:^11

•   First, select an appropriate pattern and sketch the diagram.

•   With your pattern in mind, write out your main points.

•   Next, indicate what you’ll use for developmental material and subordinate this mate-

rial under the main point it supports.

•   Indicate how you plan to begin and end your speech, and then write out key transi-

tion statements.

•   Use standard indentation and numbering only if it’s helpful.

Mark Antony’s dramatic speech from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, features a

wave pattern. Figure 11.3 shows how to format it. Antony used a recurring theme, “The

Figure 11.3
using an alternate pattern
This figure depicts the points
in Mark Antony’s speech
visualized in a wave format.

Why include this topic in an outlining chapter? Because the linear pattern

described here and in most public speaking texts is a more left-brained, analytical

way to frame a speech, which may or may not match your intellectual preferences.

Although you may be assigned such an outline, your personal style may be more

holistic or creative; consequently, when you organize speeches in other contexts, you

may prefer alternative, more visual ways of showing your points. Either way, the key is

to ensure that your speeches are structured and your ideas have a logical connection.

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