Public Speaking Handbook

Outlining Your Speech 9.4 199

Unless you sit down and write out your thoughts and put them in a co-

gent order, you can’t deliver a cogent speech. Maybe some people have

mastered that art. But I have seen too many people give speeches they

really haven’t thought out.^21

From your detailed preparation outline, you will eventually develop speaking
notes, a shorter outline that you will use when you deliver your speech. Let’s
look at the specific characteristics of both types of outlines.

Developing Your Preparation Outline

To begin your outlining task, you might try a technique known as mapping, or
clustering. Write on a sheet of paper all the main ideas, subpoints, and support-
ing material for the speech. Then use geometric shapes and arrows to indicate
the logical relationships among them, as shown in Figure 9.3.
Nationwide Insurance speechwriter Charles Parnell describes another tech-
nique for beginning an outline:

Endemic to

academia

Undermines

education

Scope of cyber-plagiarism

Spread of cyber-plagiarism

Solutions

Infiltrates

job market

Internet

paper mills

Lack of

enforcement

Student

culture

Institution Administration Faculty Students

Figure 9.3 a map shows the relationships among a speaker’s three main
ideas and their subpoints. here, main ideas are enclosed by rectangles and
subpoints by ovals. Supporting material could be indicated by another shape
and connected to the appropriate subpoints.
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