Real Communication An Introduction

350 Part 4  Public Speaking

Determining the Specific Purpose of Your Speech

Once you’ve narrowed your topic, you’ll need to zero in on a specific purpose for

your speech. Ask yourself: “What is it about my topic that I want my audience

to learn, do, consider, or agree with?” A specific purpose statement expresses

both the topic and the general speech purpose in action form and in terms of the

specific objectives you hope to achieve with your presentation.

Let’s consider an example. Imagine again that you are giving a persuasive

speech on volunteering. Your general purpose and specific purpose might look

like this:

Topic: Volunteer reading programs

General purpose: To persuade

Specific purpose: To have audience members realize the importance of

reading with local elementary school children so that they sign up for a vol-

unteer reading program such as Read to a Child

There is an additional level of specificity to consider when preparing your

speech. It is called the thesis statement—you’re probably familiar with this term

from high school or your college composition course. We help you understand

and develop your own thesis in the next section.

Developing a Thesis Statement

Once you have homed in on your topic, general purpose, and specific speech

purpose, you can start to encapsulate your speech in the form of a thesis

statement, a statement that conveys the central idea about your topic. The thesis

statement must clearly summarize what you want the audience to get out of your

speech, but is not the same thing as your specific purpose statement; as noted, it

is more specific. Revisiting the example about volunteer reading programs, note

how your thesis statement works with your general purpose and specific speech

purpose and how it expresses the core idea that you want your listeners to walk

away with:

General topic: Volunteering

Narrow slightly: Volunteering with kids

Narrow further: Volunteering with grade school

children

Narrow further: Volunteer literacy programs

for grade school children

Narrow further:

Read

to a

Child

FIGURE 12.2
NARROWING YOUR
TOPICStart with a general
idea and become increasingly
specific until you have a
manageable topic for your
speech.

CONNECT

Your thesis statement
helps you stay focused on
your goals for communi-
cating with others in
a public speaking situation.
But staying focused on
goals also matters in com-
munication contexts such
as running a meeting. As
we discussed in Chapter
10, clearly stating the pur-
pose of your meeting and
organizing your agenda
around it helps everyone
stay focused and makes
you more likely to achieve
your goals.