186 9.1 Organizing and Outlining YOur Speech
Ordering Ideas Chronologically
If you decide that your central idea could be explained best by a number of
steps, you will probably organize those steps chronologically. chronological
organization is organization by time; that is, your steps are ordered according to
when each occurred or should occur. Historical speeches and how-to speeches
are the two kinds of speeches that are usually organized chronologically.
Examples of topics for historical speeches might include the history of the
women’s movement in the United States, the sequence of events that led to the
1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon, or the development of the mod-
ern Olympic Games. You can choose to organize your main points either from
earliest to most recent (forward in time) or from recent events back into history
(backward in time). The progression that you choose depends on your personal
preference and on whether you want to emphasize the beginning or the end of
the sequence.
Forward in time In the following outline for a speech on the development
of the Apple iPad, the speaker moves forward in time, making his last point the
one that remains most fresh in the minds of his audience at the end of his speech:
Purpose statement: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able
to trace the major events in the development of the
iPad.
Central idea: Drawing on the technology and market success of
earlier devices, the Apple iPad quickly became a
bestseller.
Main ideas: I. 1993: Newton Message Pad marketed by Apple
II. 2001: iPod introduced
III. 2007: iPhone debuted
IV. 2010: iPad unveiled^3How-to exPLanations How-to explanations are also likely to follow a se-
quence or series of steps arranged from beginning to end, from the first step to
the last—forward in time. A speech explaining how to clean up a broken com-
pact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) might be organized as follows:Quick check
Primacy, Recency, and Complexity
• Primacy. Most important point first
• Recency. Most important point last
• Complexity. Simplest point first, most complex point last