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study guide: review and Apply
Meet Your Objectives
3.1 Explain why it is important to be audience-centered during each step of
the speechmaking process.
Your audience influences your topic selection and every aspect of presenting a
speech.3.2 Select and narrow an appropriate topic for a speech.
Answers to three questions can help you select and narrow your speech topic:
Who is the audience? What are my interests, talents, and experiences? And what
is the occasion?
Key Term
Speech topic3.3 Differentiate between a general speech purpose and a specific speech
purpose.
Your general purpose is the overarching goal of your speech (to inform, per-
suade, entertain, or some combination of these purposes). Your specific purpose
is a concise statement of what you want your listeners to be able to do when you
finish your speech.
Key Terms
General purpose
Specific purpose3.4 Develop a sentence that captures the central idea of a speech.
A central idea states the essence of your speech in a one-sentence summary.
Key Term
Central idea3.5 Identify three strategies for generating the main ideas for a speech.
Virtually any speech can be organized by answering the following three ques-
tions: Does the central idea have logical divisions? What are the reasons the cen-
tral idea is true? Can you support the central idea with a series of steps?
Key Terms
Main ideas
Invention