Organizing Your Main ideas 9.1 189
Purpose statement: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able
to explain how for-profit universities are enrolling
unqualified students.
Central idea: For-profit universities are using two unethical
tactics to enroll unqualified students.
Main ideas: I. (Effect): For-profit universities are enrolling
unqualified students who have struggled in
more traditional college settings and who may
not even have a high-school diploma or GED.
II. (Cause): Recruiters lie about or misrepresent
their programs when recruiting students.
III. (Cause): False Web and television advertising
lures additional students.^8
After presenting the cause or effect in the first main idea, you can use the
principles of primacy, recency, or complexity to decide the order in which you
will discuss your other main ideas.
Organizing Ideas by Problem–Solution
If you want to discuss why a problem exists or what its effects are, you will
probably organize your speech according to cause and effect, as discussed in
the previous section. However, if you want to emphasize how best to solve the
problem, you will probably use a problem–solution organization. Because it is
often appropriate for persuasive speeches, problem–solution organization is dis-
cussed further in Chapter 17.
From ProBLem to soLution Like causes and effects, problems and solu-
tions can be discussed in either order. If you are speaking to an audience already
fairly aware of a problem but uncertain how to solve it, you will probably dis-
cuss the problem first and then the solution(s). Speechwriter Cynthia Starks ex-
plains how Robert Kennedy utilized problem–solution organization to comfort
and inspire a crowd in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968, immediately following the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.:
With sensitivity and compassion, [Kennedy] told them of King’s
death (the devastating “problem”). He praised King’s dedication to
“love and to justice between fellow human beings,” adding that, “he
died in the cause of that effort.”
Then he offered a solution—to put aside violence and to embrace
love and understanding toward each other.
Starks concludes by offering evidence of the effectiveness of Kennedy’s
problem–solution speech:
Many American cities burned after King’s death, but there was no
fire in Indianapolis, which heard the words of Robert Kennedy.^9