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10.2 Using Common Organizing Patterns

Learning objectives.

Differentiate among the common speech organizational patterns: categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological.
Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.

A motivational poster of water running over rocks. The caption says

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics. The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a categorical/topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit her or his own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for her or his audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three categories or topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is clearly the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

If you look at a basic map of the United States, you’ll notice that these groupings of states were created because of their geographic location to one another. In essence, the states create three spatial territories to explain.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three basic spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

In this example, we’re looking at the writings of Winston Churchill in relation to World War II (before, during, and after). By placing his writings into these three categories, we develop a system for understanding this material based on Churchill’s own life. Note that you could also use reverse chronological order and start with Churchill’s writings after World War II, progressing backward to his earliest writings.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical speech pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

In this example, these three stages are presented in chronological order, but the biographical pattern does not have to be chronological. For example, it could compare and contrast different periods of the subject’s life, or it could focus topically on the subject’s different accomplishments.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, the first main point is about the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans (the cause). The second point then examines the effects of Native American alcohol consumption and how it differs from other population groups.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arrest statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has shown the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Psychological

A further way to organize your main ideas within a speech is through a psychological speech pattern in which “a” leads to “b” and “b” leads to “c.” This speech format is designed to follow a logical argument, so this format lends itself to persuasive speeches very easily. Let’s look at an example.

In this speech, the speaker starts by discussing how humor affects the body. If a patient is exposed to humor (a), then the patient’s body actually physiologically responds in ways that help healing (b—e.g., reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, bolsters one’s immune system, etc.). Because of these benefits, nurses should engage in humor use that helps with healing (c).

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast, problem-cause-solution, and psychological, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You will want to be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Key Takeaway

Speakers can use a variety of different organizational patterns, including categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological. Ultimately, speakers must really think about which organizational pattern best suits a specific speech topic.
Imagine that you are giving an informative speech about your favorite book. Which organizational pattern do you think would be most useful? Why? Would your answer be different if your speech goal were persuasive? Why or why not?
Working on your own or with a partner, develop three main points for a speech designed to persuade college students to attend your university. Work through the preceding organizational patterns and see which ones would be possible choices for your speech. Which organizational pattern seems to be the best choice? Why?
Use one of the common organizational patterns to create three main points for your next speech.

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7.3 Organizational Patterns of Arrangement

Two OSU students sitting at a laptop together discussing an assignment.

After deciding which main points and subpoints you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological (or temporal), topical , spatial , or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949), Claim-to-Proof (Mudd & Sillar, 1962), or Refutation pattern would work best for persuasive speeches. Sample outlines for persuasive speeches can be found in Chapter 17.

Chronological Pattern

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization pattern. In a chronological speech, main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during the Oprah Winfrey show. Finally, we will explore what she is doing now.

I. Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members II. Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III. Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success. IV. Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, The Learning Center (TLC), Student Development office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has five important student services, which include the library, TLC, Student Development Office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid.

I. The library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use. II. The TLC has subject tutors, computers, and study rooms available to use six days a week. III. The Student Development Office is a place that assists students with their ID cards, but also provides students with discount tickets and other student related needs. IV. The ASG computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, as well as to print up to 15 pages a day for free. V. Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances paying for both tuition and books.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I. In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building, a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district. II. In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside or at one of the dining halls. III. In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and science research buildings. IV. In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern architecture.

Causal Pattern

A causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened with respect to some condition, event, etc. One approach can be to share what caused something to happen, and what the effects were. Or, the reverse approach can be taken where a speaker can begin by sharing the effects of something that occurred, and then share what caused it. For example, in 1994, there was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the San Fernando Valley in Northridge, California. Let’s look at how we can arrange this speech first by using a cause-effect pattern:

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge. II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage, and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities. II. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Why might you decide to use an effect-cause approach rather than a cause-effect approach? In this particular example, the effects of the earthquake were truly horrible. If you heard all of that information first, you would be much more curious to hear about what caused such devastation. Sometimes natural disasters are not that exciting, even when they are horrible. Why? Unless they affect us directly, we may not have the same attachment to the topic. This is one example where an effect-cause approach may be very impactful.

main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock

main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics or topics within an overall topic.

useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus

organizational pattern that reasons from cause to effect or from effect to cause

Introduction to Speech Communication Copyright © 2021 by Individual authors retain copyright of their work. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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7 Building and Organizing Your Speech

Learning objectives.

Understand how to make the transition from a specific purpose to a series of main points.
Explain how to prepare meaningful main points.
Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.
Understand how to use a variety of strategies to help audience members keep up with a speech’s content: internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

A man thinking with his chin resting on his hands

Siddie Nam – Thinking – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

In a series of ground-breaking studies conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with a clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches (Smith, 1951). Thompson furthered this investigation and found that it was harder for audiences to recall information after an unorganized speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized, and they forget information from speeches that are poorly organized (Thompson, 1960). A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility (Baker, 1965).

These three critical studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are organized they are perceived as credible. When speakers are not organized, their audiences view the speeches negatively, are less likely to be persuaded, and don’t remember specific information from the speeches after the fact.

We start this chapter by discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization to real audiences. This chapter will help you learn organization so that your speech with have its intended effect. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the basics of organizing the body of your speech.

Determining Your Main Ideas

While speeches take many different forms, they are often discussed as having an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and wets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about structuring the body of your speech.

We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused, and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose, which we discussed in detail in Chapter 4 “Topic, Purpose, and Thesis”. Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the who , what , when , where , why , and how of the speech.

The specific purpose is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same, open-source software, but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

Main Points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation (Bostrom & Waldhart, 1988). While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process (Dunham, 1964; Smith, 1951; Thompson, 1960). For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

You may be wondering why we are recommending only two or three main points. The reason comes straight out of the research on listening. According to LeFrancois, people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple (LeFrancois, 1999). Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or vital they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? Remember, your main points are the key ideas that help build your speech. When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points. This process is called chunking because it involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information. Before reading our chunking of the preceding list, see if you can determine three large chunks out of the list (note that not all chunks are equal).

Chunking involves taking smaller chunks of information and putting them together with like chunks to create more fully developed chunks of information.

You may notice that in the preceding list, the number of subpoints under each of the three main points is a little disjointed or the topics don’t go together clearly. That’s all right. Remember that these are just general ideas at this point. It’s also important to remember that there is often more than one way to organize a speech. Some of these points could be left out and others developed more fully, depending on the purpose and audience. We’ll develop the preceding main points more fully in a moment.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

The next question to ask yourself about your main points is whether they overlap too much. While some overlap may happen naturally because of the singular nature of a specific topic, the information covered within each main point should be clearly distinct from the other main points. Imagine you’re giving a speech with the specific purpose “to inform my audience about the health reasons for eating apples and oranges.” You could then have three main points: that eating fruits is healthy, that eating apples is healthy, and that eating oranges is healthy. While the two points related to apples and oranges are clearly distinct, both of those main points would probably overlap too much with the first point “that eating fruits is healthy,” so you would probably decide to eliminate the first point and focus on the second and third. On the other hand, you could keep the first point and then develop two new points giving additional support to why people should eat fruit.

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? The answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to speak, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure , we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. We have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Parallel structure means structuring your main points so that they all sound similar.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now, we want you to think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

When you look at these two examples, what are your immediate impressions of the two examples? In the first example, does it make sense to talk about history, and then the problems, and finally how to eliminate school dress codes? Would it make sense to put history as your last main point? Probably not. In this case, the main points are in a logical sequential order. What about the second example? Does it make sense to talk about your solution, then your problem, and then define the solution? Not really! What order do you think these main points should be placed in for a logical flow? Maybe you should explain the problem (lack of rider laws), then define your solution (what is rider law legislation), and then argue for your solution (why states should have rider laws). Notice that in this example you don’t even need to know what “rider laws” are to see that the flow didn’t make sense.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter, we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with organization patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organization pattern we’ll discuss is categorical/topical.

Categorical/Topical

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit their own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example:

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing your main points is the comparison/contrast speech pattern . While this pattern lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example:

If you were using the comparison/contrast pattern for persuasive purposes, in the preceding examples, you’d want to make sure that when you show how Drug X and Drug Y differ, you clearly state why Drug X is the better choice for physicians to adopt. In essence, you’d want to make sure that when you compare the two drugs, you show that Drug X has all the benefits of Drug Y, but when you contrast the two drugs, you show how Drug X is superior to Drug Y in some way.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The primary reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have specific locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

In this example, we still have three spatial areas. If you look at a model of the urinary system, the first step is the kidney, which then takes waste through the ureters to the bladder, which then relies on the sphincter muscle to excrete waste through the urethra. All we’ve done in this example is create a spatial speech order for discussing how waste is removed from the human body through the urinary system. It is spatial because the organization pattern is determined by the physical location of each body part in relation to the others discussed.

Chronological

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

Cause/Effect

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point, you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the problem-cause-solution speech pattern . In this format, you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

In this speech, the speaker wants to persuade people to pass a new curfew for people under eighteen. To help persuade the civic group members, the speaker first shows that vandalism and violence are problems in the community. Once the speaker has demonstrated the problem, the speaker then explains to the audience that the cause of this problem is youth outside after 10:00 p.m. Lastly, the speaker provides the mandatory 10:00 p.m. curfew as a solution to the vandalism and violence problem within the community. The problem-cause-solution format for speeches generally lends itself to persuasive topics because the speaker is asking an audience to believe in and adopt a specific solution.

Speech Pattern Overview

The categorical/topical speech pattern creates categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose.

The comparison/contrast speech pattern uses main points to compare an contrast two similar objects, topics, or ideas.

The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space.

The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward.

The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect.

The problem-cause-solution speech pattern describes a problem, identifies what is causing the problem, and then recommends a solution to correct the problem.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Keeping Your Speech Moving

Chris Marquardt – REWIND – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Have you ever been listening to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are one of the reasons you weren’t sure what the speaker was talking about was that the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we can reread the paragraph and try to make sense of what we’re trying to read. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, speakers need to think about how they keep a speech moving so that audience members are easily able to keep up with the speech. In this section, we’re going to look at four specific techniques speakers can use that make following a speech much easier for an audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech. Basically, a transition is a sentence where the speaker summarizes what was said in one point and previews what is going to be discussed in the next point. Let’s look at some examples:

Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by lack of adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
Thus far we’ve examined the history and prevalence of alcohol abuse among Native Americans, but it is the impact that this abuse has on the health of Native Americans that is of the greatest concern.
Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
Although he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

You’ll notice that in each of these transition examples, the beginning phrase of the sentence indicates the conclusion of a period of time (now that, thus far) or main point. Table 2: Transition Words contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 2: Transition Words

Beyond transitions, there are several other techniques that you can use to clarify your speech organization for your audience. The next sections address several of these techniques, including internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Internal Previews

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech. An internal preview works similarly to the preview that a speaker gives at the end of a speech introduction, quickly outlining what he or she is going to talk about (i.e. the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, the speaker highlights what he or she is going to discuss within a specific main point during a speech.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retention of oral information (Ausubel, 1968). When a speaker clearly informs an audience what they are going to be talking about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points, which leads to higher retention of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community.

When an audience hears that you will be exploring two different ideas within this main point, they are ready to listen for those main points as you talk about them. In essence, you’re helping your audience keep up with your speech.

Rather than being given alone, internal previews often come after a speaker has transitioned to that main topic area. Using the previous internal preview, let’s see it along with the transition to that main point.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that a lack of consistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore the importance of recycling for our community (transition). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community (internal preview).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point of your speech. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only the main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

Whereas an internal preview helps an audience know what you are going to talk about within a main point at the beginning, an internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech. In general, internal summaries are best used when the information within a specific main point of a speech was complicated. To write your own internal summaries, look at the summarizing transition words in Table 2: Transition Words Let’s look at an example.

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this example, the speaker was probably talking about the impact that bullying has on an individual victim educationally. Of course, an internal summary can also be a great way to lead into a transition to the next point of a speech.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook (internal summary). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive anti-bullying programs (transition).

While not sounding like the more traditional transition, this internal summary helps readers summarize the content of that main point. The sentence that follows than leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of anti-bullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Signposts within a speech function the same way. A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech. If you look at Table 2: Transition Words and look at the “common sequence patterns,” you’ll see a series of possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of a piece of information to help our audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you were giving a speech whose main point was about the three functions of credibility, you could use internal signposts like this:

The first function of credibility is competence.
The second function of credibility is trustworthiness.
The final function of credibility is caring/goodwill.

Signposts are meant to help your audience keep up with your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members keep up with a speech, signposts can also be used to highlight specific information the speaker thinks is important. Where the other signposts were designed to show the way (like highway markers), signposts that call attention to specific pieces of information are more like billboards. Words and phrases that are useful for highlighting information can be found in Table 2: Transition Words under the category “emphasis.” All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that the audience will also recognize the importance of the information.

A transition is a phrase or sentence that indicates that a speaker is moving from one main point to another main point in a speech.

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech.

An internal summary is delivered to remind an audience of what they just heard within the speech.

A signpost is a guide a speaker gives their audience to help the audience keep up with the content of a speech.

Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Baker, E. E. (1965). The immediate effects of perceived speaker disorganization on speaker credibility and audience attitude change in persuasive speaking. Western Speech, 29 , 148–161.

Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening. Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.

Dunham, J. R. (1964). Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .

LeFrancois, G. R. (1999). Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.

Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2017 by Josh Miller; Marnie Lawler-Mcdonough; Megan Orcholski; Kristin Woodward; Lisa Roth; and Emily Mueller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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36 Organizational Styles

After deciding which main points and sub-points you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. From presenting historical information in chronological order as part of an informative speech to drawing a comparison between two ideas in a persuasive speech to offering up problems and solutions, there are many ways in which speakers can craft effective speeches. These are referred to as organizational styles, or templates for organizing the main points of a speech.

Chronological

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization style. In a chronological speech , main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many demonstrative speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically (see textbox). In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., birth, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events.

Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Arrangement)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

I. Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members.

II. Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago.

III. Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success.

IV. Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. – Oprah Winfrey

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization style may be engaged. In a topical speech , main points are developed separately and are generally connected together within the introduction and conclusion. In other words, the topical style is crafted around main points and sub-points that are mutually exclusive but related to one another by virtue of the thesis. It makes sense to use the topical style when elements are connected to one another because of their relationship to the whole. A topical speech about the composition of a newspaper company can be seen in the following textbox. The main points are linked together by the fact that they are all a part of the same business. Although they are related in that way, the topical style illustrates the ways in which the four different departments function apart from one another. In this example, the topical style is a good fit because the four departments are equally important to the function of the newspaper company.

Composition of a Newspaper Company (Topical Arrangement)

Thesis : The newspaper has four primary departments.

I. The advertising department sells display advertisements to local and national businesses.

II. The editorial department produces the written content of the newspaper, including feature stories.

III. The production department lays out the pages and manages pre- press work such as distilling the pages and processing colors.

IV. The business department processes payments from advertisers, employee paperwork, and the bi-weekly payroll.

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech , which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization style when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. In other words, when the scene or the composition is a central aspect of the main points, the spatial style is an appropriate way to deliver key ideas. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

University of Georgia (Spatial Arrangement)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I. In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building, a sprawling tree- lined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district.

II. In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside or at one of the dining halls.

III. In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and science research buildings.

IV. In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern architecture.

Comparative

When you need to discuss the similarities and differences between two or more things, a comparative organizational pattern can be employed. In comparative speeches , speakers may choose to compare things a couple different ways. First, you could compare two or more things as whole (e.g., discuss all traits of an apple and then all traits of an orange). Second, you could compare these things element by element (e.g., color of each, smell of each, AND taste of each). Some topics that are routinely spoken about comparatively include different cultures, different types of transportation, and even different types of coffee. A comparative speech outline about eastern and western cultures could look like this.

Eastern vs. Western Culture (Comparison Arrangement)

Thesis : There are a variety of differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

I. Eastern cultures tend to be more collectivistic.

II. Western cultures tend to be more individualistic.

III. Eastern cultures tend to treat health issues  holistically.

IV. Western cultures tend to  treat health issues more acutely.

In this type of speech, the list of comparisons, which should be substantiated with further evidence, could go on for any number of main points. The speech could also compare how two or more things are more alike than one might think. For instance, a speaker could discuss how singers Madonna and Lady Gaga share many similarities both in aesthetic style and in their music.

Problem-Solution

Sometimes it is necessary to share a problem and a solution with an audience. In cases like these, the problem-solution speech is an appropriate way to arrange the main points of a speech. One familiar example of speeches organized in this way is the political speeches that presidential hopefuls give in the United States. Often, candidates will begin their speech by describing a problem created by or, at the very least, left unresolved by the incumbent. Once they have established their view of the problem, they then go on to flesh out their proposed solution. The problem- solution style is especially useful when the speaker wants to convince the audience that they should take action in solving some problem. A political candidate seeking office might frame a speech using the problem-solution style (see textbox).

Presidential Candidate’s Speech (Problem-Solution Arrangement)

Thesis : The US energy crisis can be solved by electing me as president since I will devote resources to the production of renewable forms of energy.

I. The United States is facing an energy crisis because we cannot produce enough energy ourselves to sustain the levels of activity needed to run the country. (problem)

II. The current administration has failed to invest enough resources in renewable energy practices. (problem)

III. We can help create a more stable situation if we work to produce renewable forms of energy within the United States. (solution)

IV. If you vote for me, I will ensure that renewable energy creation is a priority. (solution)

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. – Mahatma Gandhi

This example illustrates the way in which a problem-solution oriented speech can be used to identify both a general problem (energy crisis) and a specific problem (incumbent’s lack of action). Moreover, this example highlights two kinds of solutions: a general solution and a solution that is dependent on the speaker’s involvement. The problem-solution speech is especially appropriate when the speaker desires to promote a particular solution as this offers audience members a way to become involved. Whether you are able to offer a specific solution or not, key to the problem-solution speech is a clear description of both the problem and the solution with clear links drawn between the two. In other words, the speech should make specific connections between the problem and how the solution can be engaged to solve it.

Similar to a problem-solution speech, a causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened. In other words, a causal organization style first addresses some cause and then shares what effects resulted. A causal speech can be particularly effective when the speaker wants to share the relationship between two things, like the creation of a vaccine to help deter disease. An example of how a causal speech about a shingles vaccine might be designed follows:

As the example illustrates, the basic components of the causal speech are the cause and the effect. Such an organizational style is useful when a speaker needs to share the results of a new program, discuss how one act led to another, or discuss the positive/negative outcomes of taking some action.

Shingles Speech (Cause-Effect Arrangement)

Thesis : The prevalence of the disease shingles led to the invention of a vaccine.

Shingles is a disease that causes painful, blistering rashes in up to one million Americans every year. (cause)
In 2006, a vaccine for shingles was licensed in the United States and has been shown to reduce the likelihood that people over 60 years old will get shingles. (effect)

Every choice you make has an end result. – Zig Ziglar

Choosing an organizational style is an important step in the speechwriting process. As you formulate the purpose of your speech and generate the main points that you will need to include, selecting an appropriate organizational style will likely become easier. The topical, spatial, causal, comparative and chronological methods of arrangement may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the refutation pattern may work well for a persuasive speech. Additionally, Chapter 16 offers additional organization styles suited for persuasive speeches, such as the refutation speech and Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. [1] Next, we will look at statements that help tie all of your points together and the formal mode of organizing a speech by using outlines.

Monroe, A. H. (1949). Principles and types of speech. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company. ↵

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17 Organizational Patterns

Learning Objectives

Decide on an effective organizational pattern.

Now that we have gotten this far, we need to consider how we will organize our material. There are several ways you can organize your speech content to ensure your information is easy for your audience to follow. The following video explains different organizing patterns. Note that some of the organizing patterns are better for information speech and some are better for persuasive speeches.

Organizational Patterns

After deciding which main points and sub-points you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. There are many ways you can organize speeches, and these approaches will be different depending on whether you are preparing an informative or persuasive speech. These are referred to as organizational patterns for arranging your main points in a speech. The chronological, topical, spatial, or causal patterns may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the Problem-Solution, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (Monroe, 1949) would work best for persuasive speeches.

Chronological Pattern

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization pattern. In a chronological speech, the main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Some professors use the term temporal to reflect any speech pattern dealing with taking the audience through time. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many process speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically. In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., early life, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events. Below you will find a way in which you can organize your main points chronologically:

Topic : Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Pattern)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

Preview : First, let’s look at Oprah’s early life. Then, we will look at her early career, followed by her years during the Oprah Winfrey show. Finally, we will explore what she is doing now.

I. Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members II. Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago. III. Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success. IV. Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Topical Pattern

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization pattern may be used. In a topical speech, main points are developed according to the different aspects, subtopics, or topics within an overall topic. Although they are all part of the overall topic, the order in which they are presented really doesn’t matter. For example, you are currently attending college. Within your college, there are various student services that are important for you to use while you are here. You may use the library, The Learning Center (TLC), Student Development office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid. To organize this speech topically, it doesn’t matter which area you speak about first, but here is how you could organize it.

Topic : Student Services at College of the Canyons

Thesis and Preview : College of the Canyons has five important student services, which include the library, TLC, Student Development Office, ASG Computer Lab, and Financial Aid.

I. The library can be accessed five days a week and online and has a multitude of books, periodicals, and other resources to use. II. The TLC has subject tutors, computers, and study rooms available to use six days a week. III. The Student Development Office is a place that assists students with their ID cards, but also provides students with discount tickets and other student related needs. IV. The ASG computer lab is open for students to use for several hours a day, as well as to print up to 15 pages a day for free. V. Financial Aid is one of the busiest offices on campus, offering students a multitude of methods by which they can supplement their personal finances paying for both tuition and books.

Spatial Pattern

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges the main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making the location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

Topic : University of Georgia (Spatial Pattern)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I. In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building, a sprawling treelined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district. II. In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside or at one of the dining halls. III. In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and science research buildings. IV. In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern architecture.

Causal Pattern

Topic : Northridge Earthquake

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was caused by an unknown fault and resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars of damage.

I. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge. II. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities.

Depending on your topic, you may decide it is more impactful to start with the effects, and work back to the causes (effect-cause pattern). Let’s take the same example and flip it around:

Thesis : The Northridge earthquake was a devastating event that was that resulted in the loss of life and billions of dollars in damage, and was caused by an unknown fault below Northridge.

I. The Northridge earthquake resulted in the loss of 57 lives and over 40 billion dollars of damage in Northridge and surrounding communities. II. The Northridge earthquake was caused by a fault that was previously unknown and located nine miles beneath Northridge.

Organizational patterns help you to organize your thoughts and speech content so that you are able to develop your ideas in a way that makes sense to the audience. Having a solid idea of which organization pattern is best for your speech will make your speech writing process so much easier!

Key Takeaways

Speech organizational patterns help us to arrange our speech content in a way that will communicate our ideas clearly to our audience.
Different organizational patterns are better for different types of speeches and topics.
Some organizational patterns are better for informative speeches: Chronological, spatial, topical, and narrative.
Although cause-effect and problem-solution can be used for an informative speech, use these patterns with caution as they are better used for persuasive speeches.

Introduction to Speech Communication by Individual authors retain copyright of their work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Public Speaking Copyright © by Dr. Layne Goodman; Amber Green, M.A.; and Various is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Speechwriting

9 Structure and Organization

Writing a Speech That Audiences Can Grasp

In this chapter . . .

For a speech to be effective, the material must be presented in a way that makes it not only engaging but easy for the audience to follow. Having a clear structure and a well-organized speech makes this possible. In this chapter we cover the elements of a well-structured speech, using transitions to connect each element, and patterns for organizing the order of your main points.

Have you had this experience? You have an instructor who is easy to take notes from because they help you see the main ideas and give you cues as to what is most important to write down and study for the test. On the other hand, you might have an instructor who tells interesting stories, says provocative things, and leads engaging discussions, but you have a tough time following where the instruction is going. If you’ve experienced either of these, you already know that structure and the organized presentation of material makes a big difference for listening and learning. The structure is like a house, which has essential parts like a roof, walls, windows, and doors. Organization is like the placement of rooms within the house, arranged for a logical and easy flow.

This chapter will teach you about creating a speech through an outlining process that involves structure and organization. In the earlier chapter Ways of Delivering Speeches , you learned about several different modes of speech delivery: impromptu, extemporaneous, and manuscript. Each of these suggests a different kind of speech document. An impromptu speech will have a very minimal document or none at all. An extemporaneous delivery requires a very thorough outline, and a manuscript delivery requires a fully written speech text. Here’s a crucial point to understand: Whether you plan to deliver extemporaneously or from a fully written text. The process of outlining is crucial. A manuscript is simply a thorough outline into which all the words have been written.

Four Elements of a Structured Speech

A well-structured speech has four distinct elements: introduction, body, connective statements, and conclusion. While this sounds simple, each of these elements has sub-elements and nuances that are important to understand. Introductions and conclusions are complex enough to warrant their own chapter and will be discussed in depth further on.

Introduction and Conclusion

The importance of a good introduction cannot be overstated. The clearer and more thorough the introduction, the more likely your audience will listen to the rest of the speech and not “turn off.” An introduction, which typically occupies 10-15% of your entire speech, serves many functions including getting the audience’s attention, establishing your credibility, stating your thesis, and previewing your main points.

Like an introduction, speech conclusions are essential. They serve the function of reiterating the key points of your speech and leave the audience with something to remember.

The elements of introductions and conclusions will be discussed in the following chapter. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the body of the speech and its connectors.

The Body of a Speech

The body of a speech is comprised of several distinct groups of related information or arguments. A proper group is one where a) the group can be described in a single clear sentence, and b) there’s a logical relationship between everything within it. We call that describing sentence a main point . Speeches typically have several main points, all logically related to the thesis/central idea of the speech. Main points are followed by explanation, elaboration, and supporting evidence that are called sub-points .

Main Points

A main point in a speech is a complete sentence that states the topic for information that is logically grouped together. In a writing course, you may have learned about writing a paragraph topic sentence. This is typically the first sentence of a paragraph and states the topic of the paragraph. Speechwriting is similar. Whether you’re composing an essay with a paragraph topic sentences or a drafting a speech with main points, everything in the section attached to the main point should logically pertain to it. If not, then the information belongs under a different main point. Let’s look at an example of three main points:

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To motivate my classmates in English 101 to participate in a study abroad program.

Thesis: A semester-long study abroad experience produces lifelong benefits by teaching you about another culture, developing your language skills, and enhancing your future career prospects.

Main point #1: A study abroad experience allows you to acquire firsthand experience of another culture through classes, extra-curricular activities, and social connections.

Main point #2: You’ll turbocharge your acquisition of second language skills through an immersive experience living with a family.

Main point #3: A study abroad experience on your resume shows that you have acquired the kind of language and cultural skills that appeal to employers in many sectors.

Notice that each main point is expressed in a complete sentence, not merely #1 Culture; #2 Language; #3 Career. One-word signals are useless as a cue for speaking. Additionally, students are often tempted to write main points as directions to themselves, “Talk about the health department” or “Mention the solution.” This isn’t helpful for you, either. Better: “The health department provides many services for low-income residents” says something we can all understand.

Finally, the important thing to understand about speechwriting is that listeners have limits as to how many categories of information they can keep in mind. The number of main points that can be addressed in any speech is determined by the time allotted for a speech but is also affected by the fact that speeches are limited in their ability to convey substantial amounts of information. For a speech of five to seven minutes, three or four main points are usually enough. More than that would be difficult to manage—for both speaker and audience.

Obviously, creating your main points isn’t the end of the story. Each main point requires additional information or reinforcement. We call these sub-points. Sub-points provide explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Consider main point #1 in the previous example, now with sub-points:

Sub-point A: How a country thinks about education is a window into the life of that culture. While on a study abroad program, you’ll typically take 3-5 classes at foreign universities, usually with local professors. This not only provides new learning, but it opens your eyes to different modes of education.

Sub-point B: Learning about a culture isn’t limited to the classroom. Study abroad programs include many extra-curricular activities that introduce you to art, food, music, sports, and other everyday elements of a country’s culture. These vary depending on the program and there’s something for everyone! The website gooverseas.com provides information on hundreds of programs.

Sub-point C: The opportunity to socialize with peers in other countries is one of most attractive elements of studying abroad. You may form friendships that will last a lifetime. “I have made valuable connections in a country I hope to return to someday” according to a blog post by Rachel Smith, a student at the University of Kansas. [1]

Notice that each of these sub-points pertains to the main point. The sub-points contribute to the main point by providing explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Now imagine you had a fourth sub-point:

Sub-point D: And while doing all that socializing, you’ll really improve your language skills.

Does that sub-point belong to main point #1? Or should it be grouped with main point#2 or main point #3?

Connective Statements

Connectives or “connective statements” are broad terms that encompass several types of statements or phrases. They are designed to help “connect” parts of your speech to make it easier for audience members to follow. Connectives are tools that add to the planned redundancy, and they are methods for helping the audience listen, retain information, and follow your structure. In fact, it’s one thing to have a well-organized speech. It’s another for the audience to be able to “consume” or understand that organization.

Connectives in general perform several functions:

Remind the audience of what has come before
Remind the audience of the central focus or purpose of the speech
Forecast what is coming next
Help the audience have a sense of context in the speech—where are we?
Explain the logical connection between the previous main idea(s) and next one or previous sub-points and the next one
Explain your own mental processes in arranging the material as you have
Keep the audience’s attention through repetition and a sense of movement

Connective statement can include “internal summaries,” “internal previews” “signposts” and “bridging or transition statements.” Each of these helps connect the main ideas of your speech for the audience, but they have different emphases and are useful for different types of speeches.

Types of connectives and examples

Internal summaries emphasize what has come before and remind the audience of what has been covered.

“So far I have shown how the designers of King Tut’s burial tomb used the antechamber to scare away intruders and the second chamber to prepare royal visitors for the experience of seeing the sarcophagus.”

Internal previews let your audience know what is coming up next in the speech and what to expect regarding the content of your speech.

“In this next part of the presentation I will share with you what the truly secret and valuable part of the King Tut’s pyramid: his burial chamber and the treasury.”

Signposts emphasize physical movement through the speech content and let the audience know exactly where they are. Signposting can be as simple as “First,” “Next,” “Lastly” or numbers such as “First,” “Second,” Third,” and “Fourth.” Signposting is meant to be a brief way to let your audience know where they are in the speech. It may help to think of these like the mile markers you see along interstates that tell you where you’re and how many more miles you will travel until you reach your destination.

“The second aspect of baking chocolate chip cookies is to combine your ingredients in the recommended way.”

Bridging or transition statements emphasize moving the audience psychologically to the next step.

“I have mentioned two huge disadvantages to students who don’t have extracurricular music programs. Let me ask: Is that what we want for our students? If not, what can we do about it?”

They can also serve to connect seemingly disconnected (but related) material, most commonly between your main points.

“After looking at how the Cherokee Indians of the North Georgia mountain region were politically important until the 1840s and the Trail of Tears, we can compare their experience with that of the Indians of Central Georgia who did not assimilate in the same way as the Cherokee.”

At a minimum, a bridge or transition statement is saying, “Now that we have looked at (talked about, etc.) X, let’s look at Y.”

There’s no standard format for connectives. However, there are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind about them:

First, connectives are for connecting main points. They are not for providing evidence, statistics, stories, examples, or new factual information for the supporting points of the main ideas of the speech.

Second, while connectives in essay writing can be relatively short—a word or phrase, in public speaking, connectives need to be a sentence or two. When you first start preparing and practicing connectives, you may feel that you’re being too obvious with them, and they are “clunky.” Some connectives may seem to be hitting the audience over the head with them like a hammer. While it’s possible to overdo connectives, it’s less likely than you would think. The audience will appreciate them, and as you listen to your classmates’ speeches, you’ll become aware of when they are present and when they are absent.

Lack of connectives results in hard-to-follow speeches where the information seems to come up unexpectedly or the speaker seems to jump to something new without warning or clarification.

Finally, you’ll also want to vary your connectives and not use the same one all the time. Remember that there are several types of connectives.

Patterns of Organization

At the beginning of this chapter, you read the analogy that a speech structure is like a house and organization is like the arrangement of the rooms. So far, we have talked about structure. The introduction, body, main point, sub-point, connectives—these are the house. But what about the arrangement of the rooms? How will you put your main points in a logical order?

There are some standard ways of organizing the body of a speech. These are called “patterns of organization.” In each of the examples below, you’ll see how the specific purpose gives shape to the organization of the speech and how each one exemplifies one of the six main organizational patterns.

Please note that these are simple, basic outlines for example purposes. The actual content of the speech outline or manuscript will be much further developed.

Chronological Pattern

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the four stages of rehabilitation in addiction recovery.

Main Points:

The first stage is acknowledging the problem and entering treatment.
The second stage is early abstinence, a difficult period in the rehabilitation facility.
The third stage is maintaining abstinence after release from the rehab facility.
The fourth stage is advanced recovery after a period of several years.

The example above uses what is termed the chronological pattern of organization . Chronological always refers to time order. Organizing your main points chronologically is usually appropriate for process speeches (how-to speeches) or for informational speeches that emphasize how something developed from beginning to end. Since the specific purpose in the example above is about stages, it’s necessary to put the four stages in the right order. It would make no sense to put the fourth stage second and the third stage first.

Chronological time can be long or short. If you were giving a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, that period would cover several decades; if you were giving a speech about the process of changing the oil in a car, that process takes less than an hour. Whether the time is long or short, it’s best to avoid a simple, chronological list of steps or facts. A better strategy is to put the information into three to five groups so that the audience has a framework. It would be easy in the case of the Civil Rights Movement to list the many events that happened over more than two decades, but that could be overwhelming for the audience. Instead, your chronological “grouping” might be:

The movement saw African Americans struggling for legal recognition before the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The movement was galvanized and motivated by the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The movement saw its goals met in the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

In this way, the chronological organization isn’t an overwhelming list of events. It focuses the audience on three events that pushed the Civil Rights movement forward.

Spatial Pattern

You can see that chronological is a highly-used organizational structure, since one of the ways our minds work is through time-orientation—past, present, future. Another common thought process is movement in space or direction, which is called the spatial pattern . For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the three regional cooking styles of Italy.

In the mountainous region of the North, the food emphasizes cheese and meat.
In the middle region of Tuscany, the cuisine emphasizes grains and olives.
In the southern region and Sicily, the diet is based on fish and seafood.

In this example, the content is moving from northern to southern Italy, as the word “regional” would indicate. For a more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the layout of the White House.

The East Wing includes the entrance ways and offices for the First Lady.
The most well-known part of the White House is the West Wing.
The residential part of the White House is on the second floor. (The emphasis here is the movement a tour would go through.)

For an even more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To describe to my Anatomy and Physiology class the three layers of the human skin.

The outer layer is the epidermis, which is the outermost barrier of protection.
The second layer beneath is the dermis.
The third layer closest to the bone is the hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue.

Topical / Parts of the Whole Pattern

The topical organizational pattern is probably the most all-purpose, in that many speech topics could use it. Many subjects will have main points that naturally divide into “types of,” “kinds of,” “sorts of,” or “categories of.” Other subjects naturally divide into “parts of the whole.” However, as mentioned previously, you want to keep your categories simple, clear, distinct, and at five or fewer.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my first-year students the concept of SMART goals.

SMART goals are specific and clear.
SMART goals are measurable.
SMART goals are attainable or achievable.
SMART goals are relevant and worth doing.
SMART goals are time-bound and doable within a time period.

Specific Purpose: To explain the four characteristics of quality diamonds.

Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of cut.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of carat.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of color.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of clarity.

Specific Purpose: To describe to my audience the four main chambers of a human heart.

The first chamber in the blood flow is the right atrium.
The second chamber in the blood flow is the right ventricle.
The third chamber in the blood flow is the left atrium.
The fourth chamber in the blood flow and then out to the body is the left ventricle.

At this point in discussing organizational patterns and looking at these examples, two points should be made about them and about speech organization in general:

First, you might look at the example about the chambers of the heart and say, “But couldn’t that be chronological, too, since that’s the order of the blood flow procedure?” Yes, it could. There will be times when a specific purpose could work with two different organizational patterns. In this case, it’s just a matter of emphasis. This speech emphasizes the anatomy of the heart, and the organization is “parts of the whole.” If the speech’s specific purpose were “To explain to my classmates the flow of blood through the chambers of the heart,” the organizational pattern would emphasize chronological, altering the pattern.

Another principle of organization to think about when using topical organization is “climax” organization. That means putting your strongest argument or most important point last when applicable. For example:

Specific purpose: To defend before my classmates the proposition that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.

Capital punishment does not save money for the justice system.
Capital punishment does not deter crime in the United States historically.
Capital punishment has resulted in many unjust executions.

In most people’s minds, “unjust executions” is a bigger reason to end a practice than the cost, since an unjust execution means the loss of an innocent life and a violation of our principles. If you believe Main Point III is the strongest argument of the three, putting it last builds up to a climax.

Cause & Effect Pattern

If the specific purpose mentions words such as “causes,” “origins,” “roots of,” “foundations,” “basis,” “grounds,” or “source,” it’s a causal order; if it mentions words such as “effects,” “results,” “outcomes,” “consequences,” or “products,” it’s effect order. If it mentions both, it would of course be cause/effect order. This example shows a cause/effect pattern:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the causes and effects of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has genetic, social, and environmental causes.
Schizophrenia has educational, relational, and medical effects.

Problem-Solution Pattern

The principle behind the problem-solution pattern is that if you explain a problem to an audience, you shouldn’t leave them hanging without solutions. Problems are discussed for understanding and to do something about them. This is why the problem-solution pattern is often used for speeches that have the objective of persuading an audience to take action.

When you want to persuade someone to act, the first reason is usually that something needs fixing. Let’s say you want the members of the school board to provide more funds for music at the three local high schools in your county. What is missing because music or arts are not funded? What is the problem ?

Specific Purpose: To persuade the members of the school board to take action to support the music program at the school.

Students who don’t have extracurricular music in their lives have lower SAT scores.
Schools that don’t have extracurricular music programs have more gang violence and juvenile delinquency.
$120,000 would go to bands.
$80,000 would go to choral programs.

Of course, this is a simple outline, and you would need to provide evidence to support the arguments, but it shows how the problem-solution pattern works.

Psychologically, it makes more sense to use problem-solution rather than solution-problem. The audience will be more motivated to listen if you address needs, deficiencies, or problems in their lives rather than giving them solutions first.

Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

A variation of the problem-solution pattern, and one that sometimes requires more in-depth exploration of an issue, is the “problem-cause-solution” pattern. If you were giving a speech on the future extinction of certain animal species, it would be insufficient to just explain that numbers of species are about to become extinct. Your second point would logically have to explain the cause behind this happening. Is it due to climate change, some type of pollution, encroachment on habitats, disease, or some other reason? In many cases, you can’t really solve a problem without first identifying what caused the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the age to obtain a driver’s license in the state of Georgia should be raised to 18.

There’s a problem in this country with young drivers getting into serious automobile accidents leading to many preventable deaths.
One of the primary causes of this is younger drivers’ inability to remain focused and make good decisions due to incomplete brain development.
One solution that will help reduce the number of young drivers involved in accidents would be to raise the age for obtaining a driver’s license to 18.

Some Additional Principles of Speech Organization

It’s possible that you may use more than one of these organizational patterns within a single speech. You should also note that in all the examples to this point (which have been kept simple for the purpose of explanation), each main point is relatively equal in emphasis; therefore, the time spent on each should be equal as well. You would not want your first main point to be 30 seconds long, the second one to be 90 seconds, and the third 3 minutes. For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the rules of baseball.

Baseball has rules about equipment.
Baseball has rules about the numbers of players.
Baseball has rules about play.

Main Point #2 isn’t really equal in size to the other two. There’s a great deal you could say about equipment and even more about the rules of playing baseball, but the number of players would take you about ten seconds to say. If Main Point #2 were “Baseball has rules about the positions on the field,” that would make more sense and be closer in level of importance to the other two.

The organization of your speech may not be the most interesting part to think about, but without it, great ideas will seem jumbled and confusing to your audience. Even more, good connectives will ensure your audience can follow you and understand the logical connections you’re making with your main ideas. Finally, because your audience will understand you better and perceive you as organized, you’ll gain more credibility as a speaker if you’re organized. A side benefit to learning to be an organized public speaker is that your writing skills will improve, specifically your organization and sentence structure.

Roberto is thinking about giving an informative speech on the status of HIV-AIDS currently in the U.S. He has different ideas about how to approach the speech. Here are his four main thoughts:

pharmaceutical companies making drugs available in the developing world
changes in attitudes toward HIV-AIDS and HIV-AIDS patients over the last three decades
how HIV affects the body of a patient
major breakthroughs in HIV-AIDS treatment

Assuming all these subjects would be researchable and appropriate for the audience, write specific purpose statements for each. What organizational patterns would he probably use for each specific purpose?

Media Attributions

Speech Structure Flow © Mechele Leon is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike) license
Connectives
https://blog-college.ku.edu/tag/study-abroad-stories/ ↵

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Chapter 10: Speech Preparation

10.4 Organizing Your Speech

In a series of important and groundbreaking studies conducted during the 1950’s and 1960’s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches. Thompson furthered this investigation and found that unorganized speeches were also harder for audiences to recall after the speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized—and forget information from speeches that are poorly organized. A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility.

These three very important studies make the importance of organization very clear. When speakers are not organized they are not perceived as credible and their audiences view the speeches negatively, are less likely to be persuaded, and don’t remember specific information from the speeches after the fact.

Determining Your Main Ideas

When creating a speech, it’s important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and orients your audience, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about the body of your speech.

We like the word strategic because it refers to determining what is important or essential to the overall plan or purpose of your speech. Too often, new speakers just throw information together and stand up and start speaking. When that happens, audience members are left confused and the reason for the speech may get lost. To avoid being seen as disorganized, we want you to start thinking critically about the organization of your speech. In this section, we will discuss how to take your speech from a specific purpose to creating the main points of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain.

The general purpose refers to the broad goal of creating and delivering the speech .

A specific purpose is a statement that starts with one of the three general purposes and then specifies the actual topic you have chosen and the basic objective you hope to accomplish with your speech. Basically, the specific purpose answers the who, what, when, where, and why questions about your speech . Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are three examples (each with a different general purpose and a different audience):

Example One

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform a group of school administrators about the various open-source software packages that could be utilized in their school districts

Example Two

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To persuade a group of college students to make the switch from Microsoft Office to the open-source office suite OpenOffice

Example Three

General Purpose: To entertain

Specific Purpose: To entertain members of a business organization with a mock eulogy of for-pay software giants as a result of the proliferation of open-source alternatives

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same (open-source software) but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you have written down your specific purpose, you can now start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

How Many Main Points Do I Need?

While there is no magic number for how many main points a speech should have, speech experts generally agree that the fewer the number of main points the better. First and foremost, experts on the subject of memory have consistently shown that people don’t tend to remember very much after they listen to a message or leave a conversation. While many different factors can affect a listener’s ability to retain information after a speech, how the speech is organized is an important part of that process.For the speeches you will be delivering in a typical public speaking class, you will usually have just two or three main points. If your speech is less than three minutes long, then two main points will probably work best. If your speech is between three and ten minutes in length, then it makes more sense to use three main points.

According to LeFrancois (1999), people are more likely to remember information that is meaningful, useful, and of interest to them; different or unique; organized; visual; and simple. Two or three main points are much easier for listeners to remember than ten or even five. In addition, if you have two or three main points, you’ll be able to develop each one with examples, statistics, or other forms of support. This breakdown of support is called subordination , the act of placing in a lower rank or position. Using supporting or subordinate points help you to better understand how ideas are connected and how ideas or points are providing more information as you explain or provide more detail. Including support for each point will make your speech more interesting and more memorable for your audience.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. In brainstorming, your goal is simply to think of as many different points as you can, not to judge how valuable or important they are. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Specific Purpose

Brainstorming List of Points

Define open-source software.
Define educational software.
List and describe the software commonly used by school districts.
Explain the advantages of using open-source software.
Explain the disadvantages of using open-source software.
Review the history of open-source software.
Describe the value of open-source software.
Describe some educational open-source software packages.
Review the software needs of my specific audience.
Describe some problems that have occurred with open-source software.

Now that you have brainstormed and developed a list of possible points, how do you go about narrowing them down to just two or three main ones? When you look over the preceding list, you can then start to see that many of the points are related to one another. Your goal in narrowing down your main points is to identify which individual, potentially minor points can be combined to make main points.

Main Point 1: School districts use software in their operations.

Main Point 2: What is open-source software?

Main Point 3: Name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider.

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Once you’ve generated a possible list of main points, you want to ask yourself this question: “When you look at your main points, do they fit together?” For example, if you look at the three preceding main points (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider), ask yourself, “Do these main points help my audience understand my specific purpose?” Suppose you added a fourth main point about open-source software for musicians—would this fourth main point go with the other three? Probably not. While you may have a strong passion for open-source music software, that main point is extraneous information for the speech you are giving. It does not help accomplish your specific purpose, so you’d need to toss it out.

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to talk, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose of ensuring that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure, we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s simply easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. Basically, we have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now, we want you to just think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

School Dress Codes Example

Rider Law Legislation Example

All speeches start with a general purpose and then move to a specific purpose that gives the who, what, where, and how for the speech. Transitioning from the specific purpose to possible main points means developing a list of potential main points you could discuss. Then you can narrow your focus by looking for similarities among your potential main points and combining ones that are similar. Shorter speeches will have two main points while longer speeches will generally have three or more main points. When creating your main points, make sure that they are united, separate, balanced, parallel, and logical.r do to fix your main points?

Organizational Patterns

Previously in this chapter, we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech.

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is a topical organizational pattern , organizing by categories or dividing the topic into subtopics . The categories function as a way to help the speaker organize the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a topical speech pattern is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose: To inform a group of high school juniors about Generic University

Main Points

Life in the dorms
Life in the classroom
Life on campus

In this case, we have a speaker trying to inform a group of high school juniors about Generic University. The speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit her or his own university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

Specific Purpose: To inform a group of college students about the uses and misuses of Internet dating

Define and describe Internet dating.
Explain some strategies to enhance your Internet dating experience.
List some warning signs to look for in potential online dates.

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast organizational pattern , measuring similarities and differences between two or more subjects . While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

Specific Purpose: To inform a group of physicians about Drug X, a newer drug with similar applications to Drug Y

Show how Drug X and Drug Y are similar.
Show how Drug X and Drug Y differ.
Explain the basic purpose and use of both Drug X and Drug Y.

The spatial organizational pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space, either geographically or directionally . This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

Specific Purpose: To inform a group of history students about the states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War

Locate and describe the Confederate states just below the Mason-Dixon Line (Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee).
Locate and describe the Confederate states in the Deep South (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida).
Locate and describe the western Confederate states (Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas).

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

Specific Purpose: To explain to a group of college biology students how the urinary system works

Locate and describe the kidneys and ureters.
Locate and describe the bladder.
Locate and describe the sphincter and urethra.

Chronological

The chronological organizational pattern organizes the main idea in time order or in a sequential pattern—whether backward or forward . Here’s a simple example.

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the books written by Winston Churchill

Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings prior to World War II.
Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings during World War II.
Examine the style and content of Winston Churchill’s writings after World War II.

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the early life of Marilyn Manson

Describe Brian Hugh Warner’s early life and the beginning of his feud with Christianity.
Describe Warner’s stint as a music journalist in Florida.
Describe Warner’s decision to create Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

The causal organizational pattern organizes and explains cause-and-effect relationships . When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point, you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the problems associated with drinking among members of Native American tribal groups

Explain the history and prevalence of drinking alcohol among Native Americans.
Explain the effects that abuse of alcohol has on Native Americans and how this differs from the experience of other populations.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

Specific Purpose: To inform local voters about the problem of domestic violence in our city

Explain that there are significantly more arrests for domestic violence in our city than in cities of comparable size in our state.
List possible causes for the difference, which may be unrelated to the actual amount of domestic violence.

In this example, the possible causes for the difference might include stricter law enforcement, greater likelihood of neighbors reporting an incident, and police training that emphasizes arrests as opposed to other outcomes. Examining these possible causes may suggest that despite the arresting statistic, the actual number of domestic violence incidents in your city may not be greater than in other cities of similar size.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best. Ultimately, speakers must really think about which organizational pattern best suits a specific speech topic.

Introduction to Public Communication by Indiana State University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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6 Chapter 6: Informative Speaking

Tammera Stokes Rice, College of the Canyons, Version B

Adapted by Jamie C. Votraw, Professor of Communication Studies, Florida SouthWestern State College

Figure 6.1 : Princess Reema 1

Introduction

You may have watched a YouTube tutorial to learn how to make or do something, like learning how to make a quiche or how to change a tire on your car. Or, you may have watched a TedTalk in one of your classes that provided factual information about the topic you are learning about, like Nancy Duarte’s 2011 presentation on “ The secret structure of great talks. ” (Google Duarte’s videos; you won’t regret it!) These are samples of informative speeches.

Speaking to Inform

When you inform an audience, your primary goal is to teach them about a topic that is important to you. In fact, there are likely scenarios where you acted as an informative speaker already. Have you ever given a factual presentation in a classroom? Have you ever shown a group of friends how to use a new app on your phone? Have you ever trained a new employee at work? These are all examples of informative speaking.

When delivering formal informative speeches, however, there are additional expectations for the composition and structure of your speech. For instance, you might begin your speech by telling a story to attract the attention of your audience, and you might ask them a personal question to demonstrate that the topic relates to them. Throughout this chapter, we discuss the purpose of informative speaking, types of informative speeches, organizational speech patterns, and lastly, describe how informative speaking is distinctly different than persuasive speaking.

Informative Speaking Goals

The most fundamental purpose of informative speaking is to teach an audience something. Remember, an informative speech is not opinion-based. It provides factual information that is meaningful to your audience. Thus, your primary purpose is to teach. You ARE NOT trying to change their beliefs or behaviors (that is persuasive speaking, which we cover in chapter 10). Nevertheless, as audience-centered speakers (recall Chapter 5), several audience-specific elements are necessary for effective informative speaking.

Audience Attention

Audience-centered speakers care about their audience and should work to gain and maintain the attention of their audience throughout the speech. In the introduction, it is imperative that public speakers incorporate an attention-grabbing strategy, such as an intriguing story (discussed in greater detail in Chapter 9), and explicitly relate the topic to the audience. When introducing the topic to an audience, effective informative speakers connect the topic to the audience by answering the question, why should you care?

Narratives, found from credible sources, are one way to keep your audience engaged and listening to your speech. Stories help provide a basis for your main points within the speech. Humans are natural storytellers as we want to tell and listen to stories.

Audience Needs

Once your audience recognizes the significance of your topic and how it relates to them, an informative speaker should then strive to provide the audience with information that meets their needs. Consider the classroom, for example. If your algebra teacher tells you that quadratic equations will be on the next exam, what information do you as an audience member need or want? Likely, you’re looking for information to help you succeed on the exam. It would be insufficient to merely provide you with the quadratic formula, ax 2 + bx + c = 0. Instead, as an effective informative speaker, the math teacher would likely demonstrate problem-solving steps and offer examples. When you are the speaker, you must also consider what information your audience needs.

While crafting the informative speech, you want to select the information you will be communicating to the audience carefully. You’ve already learned how to narrow down your topic, but now you want to make sure your explanation of the narrowed topic accomplishes the speech goal in the time parameters of the speech. An effective informative speaker determines which information is imperative for inclusion in the speech given the time limit. You should not feel pressured to include every piece of information you find. You wouldn’t expect a speaker to discuss everything about Disneyland in seven minutes, right? So, instead, stay focused on the speech goal and audience needs. Maybe you choose to present to the audience just one aspect of Disneyland – The types of rides.

Audience Knowledge

A third key feature of effective informative speaking is audience knowledge. What does your audience already know about the topic? The level of complexity you will be using to inform your audience depends on the audience’s knowledge about your topic, the time allowed for your speech, and its purpose. As we discussed in chapter five, you need to know your audience. It is crucial to always give new information to your audience by relating it to what they already know, and by combining the general information with specific information to keep the attention of your audience throughout the speech. This is why an audience analysis can be so important. You are not going to use architectural or engineering terms to describe the invention of Space Mountain to an audience of high school students, but you might use technical terms when speaking to architecture and engineering students at a college.

Types of Informative Speeches

When you inform, you either describe something, define something, or demonstrate a process. Therefore, there are three different types of informative speeches. This includes:

1. D escriptive speeches (about objects, people, places, or events)

2. Process speeches (also called “how-to” or demonstration speeches)

3. Concept speeches (also called idea speeches)

All three types of informative speeches have the general purpose of “to inform.” However, each type of informative speech maintains a different specific purpose, and therefore, the organizational structure of the speeches can vary. So, before we dive into the specifics of each type of informative speech, let’s review four organizational speech patterns that you could use to structure the content of your speech.

Organizational Speech Patterns

When composing your speech, there are four organizational patterns you can adopt to structure your speech content, including topical, spatial, chronological (temporal), and causal format. The organizational pattern you choose will depend on the topic of the speech and the speech content. Although some organizational patterns are more commonly used for certain types of informative speeches than others, the organization pattern you select should be the one that best fits your speech content.

A topical layout arranges the information of the speech into different categories. Each main point of the speech is a subtopic of the broader topic.
A spatial pattern looks at how your ideas are arranged according to their physical or geographic relationships.
A chronological pattern organizes a speech based on time or sequence. Some of your instructors might use the term temporal to explain main points ordered in a specific sequence of time.
A causal pattern of organization can be used to describe the causes and effects of something that occurred.

It is important to remember to choose an organizational pattern that logically aligns with the speech goal and the main points of your speech. For example, a process speech on “how to apply for financial aid” might best be organized chronologically: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3… A chronological pattern for this topic would be most effective for helping the audience follow along.

Let’s take a deeper look at the three major types of informative speeches and some commonly used approaches to organizing the respective speech content .

Descriptive Speeches

A descriptive speech is given to describe an object, person, place, or event. Descriptive speeches about an “object” refer to anything tangible; something that can be seen or touched. When organizing an object speech, you might use a spatial, chronological, or topical organizational pattern. The following are some sample topics – Arabian horses, astrology, Bible, boats, career services, drag racing, Ford Mustang, Florida oranges, Godfather trilogy, Golden Gate Bridge, hurricanes, iguanas, surfboards, tattoos, and tornadoes to name a few.

Figure 6.2 : Tattoo 2

Here is an example of how you might set up a speech on an object using a chronological organization pattern:

Topic: Tattoos

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the history of tattoos in the United States.

Central Idea/Thesis : Tattoos originated in the United States in the 19th century before becoming a staple of fashion trends today.

Preview of Main Points : First, we will look at the history of the word tattoo. Then, we will learn how tattoos became fashionable. Thirdly, we examine the role tattoos have played in the circus. Finally, we will cover tattoos on public figures today.

Explorer Captain James Hook is credited for the word tattoo after his sailing voyages led him to Tahitian and Polynesian cultures.
Tattoos became fashionable in the 19th century.
Tattoos used in sideshow acts in the early 20th century were an integral part of a circus’ success.
Tattoos are now worn by public figures such as celebrities, athletes, and people within the fashion industry.

This category applies both to specific individuals or to specific roles. When discussing people, you may want to describe them in a chronological (temporal) or topical layout. Here are some sample topics on people: Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, Bruce Lee, CEO of Google, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, First Lady of the United States, Henry Ford, Jackie Chan, Miley Cyrus, Malala Yousafzai, Marilyn Monroe, Oprah Winfrey, Pope of the Catholic Church, Sacagawea, and Walt Disney to name a few.

Figure 6. 3: Marilyn Monroe 3

Here is an example of how you might set up a speech about Marilyn Monroe using a topical organizational pattern:

Topic: Marilyn Monroe

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about Marilyn Monroe’s interesting love life during the creation of her most famous films.

Central Idea/Thesis : Marilyn Monroe is known for her famous love life and films.

Preview of Main Points : First, we will explore her intriguing love life and marriages. Last, we will examine her various films.

First, we will examine Marilyn Monroe’s infamous love life.
Lastly, let’s discuss her most famous films.

Depending on the timeframe allowed for your speech, you might consider the example above, which used a topical order. Another way to organize the main points of the same topic could be in a chronological (temporal) pattern.

Specific Purpose : To inform my audience about the childhood, professional career, and death of Marilyn Monroe.

Central Idea/Thesis : Marilyn Monroe’s early childhood influenced her professional career and ultimately her untimely death.

Preview of Main Points : First, we will examine how Marilyn’s childhood influenced her career. Secondly, we will examine her professional life. Finally, we will discuss her untimely death.

First, we will discuss Marilyn’s birth and early childhood.
Second, we will learn about her professional life, and the impact her upbringing had on her career.
Lastly, we will better understand her untimely death.

You will notice the two speeches above about Marilyn Monroe have many similarities, and both speeches would include details about her professional life. However, the first speech is focused on categories related to her professional life, while the second speech looks at her professional life as one period of time in her life overall. The result is two very different final speeches. This example highlights how you structure your speech should depend on the narrowed focus of your speech topic.

A speech about a place can range from a historic location to a vacation spot. However, you should make sure to check with your instructor because very few speeches should focus on your own personal journey. Rather, the focus should be based on a place you can research. When discussing places, you may want to describe them in a spatial, temporal, or topical layout. Here are some sample places you might do an informative speech on – Alaska, Albania, Australia, Catalina, Ukraine, Honolulu, Lake Okeechobee, Las Vegas, Museum of Tolerance, Sanibel Island, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Stonehenge, and Yosemite to name a few.

Figure 6. 4: Kauai 4

Here is an example of how you might set up a speech about a place:

Topic: The island of Kauai, Hawaii

Specific Purpose : To inform my audience about Kauai’s regions and locations to explore.

Central Idea/Thesis : Kauai has five regions and many beautiful areas to explore.

Preview of Main Points: First, I will break down the five major regions of the island. Lastly, I will share tips for exploring the Hawaiian Islands.

Five regions (subpoints could be broken down in a spatial pattern of the regions).
Tips for a Hawaiian exploration

An event can be something that occurred only once or can be a repeated event. When discussing events, you will most likely use a chronological (temporal) or topical layout. Here are some sample events you might do an informative speech on – Academy Awards, Christmas, Coachella, Los Angeles Marathon, Quinceañera, Rose Parade, Stagecoach, or World War II.

Figure 6. 5 : Los Angeles Marathon 5

Here is an example of how you might set up a speech about an event:

Topic: Los Angeles Marathon

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the timeline of events of the L.A. Marathon.

Central Idea/Thesis : The L.A. Marathon consists of three days of events.

Preview of Main Point: First, I will explain the day of orientation for the race. Second, I will discuss the main event day. Lastly, I will talk about the clean-up and breakdown of the event.

The first day of the event is Friday, which is Expo Day & Bib pick-up.
Second, the main event is on Saturday, which is the 5K and 1/2K kids’ run.
Lastly, Sunday involves marathon running from 3:00 am – 3:00 pm, and ends with the finish festival.

Now that you have a good idea about what comprises a descriptive speech, let’s look at process speeches.

Process Speeches

A process speech is commonly referred to as a “how-to” or demonstration speech. It intends to teach the audience how something works or how to complete a task through step-by-step instructions. It generally uses a chronological (temporal) pattern with each “step” of the process taking the audience through a sequence of time. Here are some sample process speech topics – (How to) avoid ID theft, bake a cake, bath a dog, build a website, change car oil, color Easter eggs, meditate, make ice cream, play tennis, register to vote, snowboard, tie a tie, and write a resume to name a few.

Figure 6. 6 : Bakers 6

Here is an example of how you might set up a process speech:

Topic : Baking a cake

Specific Purpose : To inform my audience how to bake a cake in 30 minutes with the right equipment and ingredients.

Central Idea/Thesis : Baking a cake in 30 minutes is easy with the right equipment and ingredients.

Preview of Main Points: First, I will review the preparation process. Then, I will provide the steps involved in making the cake. Finally, I will explain the process of decorating the cake.

First, preset the oven and gather other equipment and ingredients.
Next, mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients to specification before putting them in the pan to bake.
Finally, let the cake cool and decorate.

You’ve learned about both descriptive and process speeches. Let’s discuss the last type of informative speech, a concept speech.

Concept Speeches

A concept speech deals with explaining a concept or idea. A concept is an idea, belief, principle, or theory. Unlike object speeches which involve tangible things, concept speeches are abstract or general ideas. As a result, speeches about concepts need to be grounded in clear examples. Generally, it is laid out in a topical or chronological (temporal) format. Here are some sample definitive speech topics – Artificial Intelligence, Buddhism, cultural diversity, Democracy, femininity, freedom, hatred, love, respect, Selfie, and Socialism to name a few.

Figure 6. 7 : Music and Dance of Ghana 7

Here is an example of a concept speech:

Topic: Culture

Specific Purpose : To inform my audience about the concept of culture.

Central Idea/Thesis : Culture consists of beliefs, values, norms, and ways of behaving.

Preview of Main Points : First, I will explain what beliefs are. Second, I will discuss various values. Third, I will share different cultural norms. Finally, I will explain various ways of behaving within cultures.

First, I will explain the role of beliefs within culture.
Second, I will discuss the role of values in culture.
Third, I will share different cultural norms.
Finally, we will put these all together and examine the different ways of behaving in cultures.

Informative vs. Persuasive Speaking

In Chapter 10, we will discuss persuasive speaking in detail, including common organizational patterns and strategies for effective persuasive speaking. But for now, you must be clear on what distinguishes an informative speech and a persuasive speech. By now, you know that you should select a topic that is significant to you and useful for your audience. As a result, there is a good chance you are passionate about the topic and have a personal opinion on the subject matter. Your views are important, but personal opinions are inappropriate for informative speeches.

In an informative speech, you are a teacher, an educator, an informer. Whereas in persuasive speeches, you are an advocate. The information you share in an informative speech should be objective, unbiased, and balanced. It is not the time to argue for a particular viewpoint, advocate for a position, or try to convince the audience to do or believe something. If you are taking a public speaking course, it is likely that you will have an opportunity to do a persuasive speech assignment.

Staying objective and unbiased can be a big challenge, especially if you are passionate about the topic or the topic is controversial. To maintain your role as an educator and not an advocate, you should be especially cognizant of the language you use in your delivery. Focus on explaining the topic with objective language and work hard to avoid using evaluative terms such as good/bad, right/wrong, and moral/immoral. Consider the topic of abortion. Even the framing of the title of your speech can be suggestive. Does the speech title “Female Reproductive Healthcare” communicate the same message as “Women’s Reproductive Rights”? The language you use when composing and delivering your speech will convey certain messages to your audience. When dealing with a controversial issue, a good strategy to prevent interjecting your personal views is to explain to the audience that “some people believe ‘x’ and others believe ‘y’. If relevant and time permits, it is useful to explain the various viewpoints on your topic. If you are successful, at the end of your speech, the audience will be informed about your topic, but they will decide on their own what to think or do.

A variety of different topics can be utilized for informative speaking. If you are educating your audience about a particular topic by describing, demonstrating, or defining it, you are giving an informative speech. It is crucial to always give new information to your audience by relating it to what they already know, and by combining the very general information with very specific information to keep the attention of your audience throughout the speech. We are informative speakers quite often, even if it is to inform a friend about our day.

Reflection Questions

What is the purpose of an informative speech?
How can you determine the best pattern of organization for your informative speech topic?
What do you need to keep in mind about your audience to develop your informative speech?
How do you distinguish an informative speech from storytelling, even though you may use stories in your speech?

Chronological (temporal)

Concept Speech

Descriptive Speech

Informative speech

Process Speech

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Chapter 3: Preparing for Your First Speech

Patterns of Organization: Informative Speeches

At this point, then, you should see how much your audience needs organization. You also know that as you do research, you will group together similar pieces of information from different sources in your research. As you group your research information, you will want to make sure that your content is adhering to your specific purpose statement and will look for ways that your information can be grouped together into categories.At this point we will address the third step of organization, ordering , and return to labeling later. However, in actually composing your speech, you would want to be sure that you name or label your groups of ideas and content clearly for yourself and then even more clearly for your audience. Labeling is an iterative process, which means you may “tweak” how you label your main points for clarity as you progress in the speech.

Interestingly, there are some standard ways of organizing these categories, which are called “patterns of organization.” In each of the examples below, you will see how the specific purpose gives shape to the organization of the speech and how each one exemplifies one of the six main organizational patterns. In each example, only the three to five main sections or “points” (Roman numerals) are given, without the other essential parts of the outline.

Please note that these are simple, basic outlines for example purposes, and your instructor will, of course, expect much more content from the outlines you submit for class.

Chronological

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the four stages of rehabilitation in addiction recovery.

I. The first stage is acknowledging the problem and entering treatment.

II. The second stage is early abstinence, a difficult period in the rehabilitation facility.

III. The third stage is maintaining abstinence after release from the rehab facility.

IV. The fourth stage is advanced recovery after a period of several years.

The example above uses what is termed the chronological pattern of organization . Chronological always refers to time order. Since the specific purpose is about stages, it is necessary to put the four stages in the right order. It would make no sense to put the fourth stage second and the third stage first. However, chronological time can be long or short. If you were giving a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, that period would cover several decades; if you were giving a speech about the process of changing the oil in a car, that process takes less than an hour. The pro- cess described in the speech example above would also be long-term, that is, one taking several months or years. The commonality is the order of the information.

the actual process may never really happen to the audience members. That understanding may also lead them to more empathy for someone in recovery. Second, chronological or process speeches can be for action and instruction. For a speech about changing the oil in a car, your purpose is that the audience could actually change the oil in their cars after listening to the speech.

One of the problems with chronological speeches is, as mentioned before, that you would not want just a list of activities. It is important to “chunk” the information into three to five groups so that the audience has a frame- work. For example, in a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, your “grouping” or “chunking” might be:

I. The movement saw African-Americans struggling for legal recognition before the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

II. The movement was galvanized and motivated by the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

III. The movement saw its goals met in the Civil Rights Act of 1965. It would be easy in the case of the Civil Rights Movement to list the many events that happened over more than two decades, but that could be overwhelming for the audience. In this outline, the audience is focused on the three events that pushed it forward, rather than the persons involved in the movement. You could give a speech with a focus on people, but it would be different and probably less chronological and more topical (see below).

We should say here that, realistically, the example given above is still too broad. It would be useful, perhaps, for an audience with almost no knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement, but too basic and not really informative for other audiences. Just one of the Roman numeral points would probably be a more specific focus.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the three regional cooking styles of Italy.

I. In the mountainous region of the North, the food emphasizes cheese and meat.

II. In the middle region of Tuscany, the cuisine emphasizes grains and olives.

III. In the southern region and Sicily, the diet is based on fish and sea- food.

In this example, the content is moving from northern to southern Italy, as the word “regional” would indicate. Here is a good place to note

that grouping or “chunking” in a speech helps simplicity, and to meet the principle of KISS (Keep It Simple, Speaker). If you were to actually study Italian cooking in depth, sources will say there are twenty regions. But “covering” twenty regions in a speech is not practical, and while the regions would be distinct for a “foodie” or connoisseur of Italian cooking, for a beginner or general audience, three is a good place to start. You could at the end of the speech note that more in-depth study would show the twenty regions, but that in your speech you have used three regions to show the similarities of the twenty regions rather than the small differences.

For a more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the layout of the White House.

I. The East Wing includes the entrance ways and offices for the First Lady.

II. The most well-known part of the White House is the West Wing.

III. The residential part of the White House is on the second floor. (The emphasis here is the movement a tour would go through.)

For an even more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To describe to my Anatomy and Physiology class the three layers of the human skin.

I. The outer layer is the epidermis, which is the outermost barrier of protection.

II. The second layer beneath is the dermis.

III. The third layer closest to the bone is the hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue.

The key to spatial organization is to be logical in progression rather than jumping around, as in this example:

I. The Native Americans of Middle Georgia were primarily the Creek nation.

II. The Native Americans of North Georgia were of the Cherokee tribe nation.

III. The Native Americans of South Georgia were mostly of the Hitchiti and Oconee tribes.

It makes more sense to start at the top (north) of the state and move down (south) or start at the bottom and move up rather than randomly discuss unconnected areas.

Topical/Parts of the Whole

The topical organizational pattern is probably the most all-purpose in that many speech topics could use it. Many subjects will have main points that naturally divide into “types of,” “kinds of,” “sorts of,” or “categories of.” Other subjects naturally divide into “parts of the whole.” However, as mentioned previously, you want to keep your categories simple, clear, dis- tinct, and at five or fewer.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my freshmen students the concept of SMART goals.

I. SMART goals are specific and clear.

II. SMART goals are measurable.

III. SMART goals are attainable or achievable.

IV. SMART goals are relevant and worth doing.

V. SMART goals are time-bound and doable within a time period. Specific Purpose: To explain the four characteristics of quality diamonds.

I. Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of cut.

II. Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of carat.

III. Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of color.

IV. Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of clarity.

Specific Purpose: To describe to my audience the four main chambers of a human heart.

I. The first chamber in the blood flow is the right atrium.

II. The second chamber in the blood flow is the right ventricle.

III. The third chamber in the blood flow is the left atrium.

IV. The fourth chamber in the blood flow and then out to the body is the left ventricle.

At this point in discussing organizational patterns and looking at these examples, two points should be made about them and about speech organization in general.

First, you might look at the example about the chambers of the heart and say, “But couldn’t that be chronological, too, since that’s the order of the blood flow procedure?” Yes, it could. There will be times when a specific purpose could work with two different organizational patterns. In this case, it’s just a matter of emphasis. This speech is emphasizing the anatomy of the heart; if the speech’s specific purpose were “To explain to my class- mates the flow of blood through the chambers of the heart,” the organizational pattern would be chronological but very similar. However, since the blood goes to the lungs to be oxygenated before coming back to the left atrium, that might alter the pattern some.

Specific purpose: To defend before my classmates the proposition that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.

I. Capital punishment does not save money for the justice system.

II. Capital punishment does not deter crime in the United States historically.

III. Capital punishment has resulted in many unjust executions.

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What is a spatial order in speech and in writing?

Speech spatial order is a type of logical organization pattern that describes things according to their actual location in space. Definition: this order is also called the order of place and spatial structure. And in speech, it means that the narrator describes objects using an ordered logical sequence, describing things as they look when actually observed. An example is the following model: the narrator sets himself the task of describing the room, and in the description, he uses the spatial order, so his story will begin with the entrance to the room and with a description of those objects that first catches his eye. This will be followed by a description of the middle part of the room and only at the end – its distant elements. In this way, the narrator can observe the principle of spatial order and helps the listeners create a clear and vivid idea in their minds about the object of the story.

For what type of writing is spatial order usually best?

As a rule, the principle of spatial order is best suited for descriptive writing . For example:

In fiction or non-fiction, when a description is required to evoke certain feelings in the reader or to tell in great detail about the location of certain objects and places. And also, in order to describe physical or social phenomena.
In technical and scientific literature, when a specific explanation of the operation of various mechanisms, systems and devices is required. Or if you need to make it clear to readers what the structure consists of and how its various elements interact with each other.
In the case of interior descriptions by designers or critics. Here, they are faced with the task of conjuring up in the imagination of readers an idea of the arrangement of furniture, decor, and everything that fills the room. Spatial order will help a lot to achieve the best result.
Architects and designers also often resort to using this principle.
Of course, spatial order is also used when writing an essay.

How to write a spatial order essay?

To write an essay corresponding to the spatial order, it is necessary to describe objects in accordance with their actual position relative to you. Or, if you want to describe what this or that person looks like, then your description should begin with the legs and further up, ending with the head. In addition, before you start writing such an essay, you need to have an accurate idea of what is the main purpose of this description? You must decide what result you need to achieve so as not to deviate too much from the given topic in the process of writing an essay. And in order not to miss anything while writing, you can create a structured plan that will help you stay on course, because organization is the most important element of spatial order essay.

Of course, if you are a first-time writer, then it will be quite useful for you to have the help of a specialist or professional writer who will teach you and tell you what to look for when working with spatial order. You can find such an assistant on our site Writingstatement.com , and the Internet also is a great source of inspiration and filling ideas for writing an essay. On educational portals, you can read examples of written essays in spatial order to get an idea of how to do it right. And, finally, be sure to check the finished text for semantic and logical mistakes.

Define spatial order signal words

Many of these words and phrases are prepositions and are at the beginning of a sentence, and they often act as connecting conjunctions, combining the previous sentence with the new one. The main role of signal words is to create a brighter and more understandable picture for the reader, which the author is trying to convey through words and sentences, in addition, they serve to clarify and create greater order in the entire text as a whole. When writing an essay in spatial order, the use of signal words should never be neglected.

What is a chronology? Why is it used in literature?

By itself, the concept of chronology means a list of events in their time sequence. In writing, authors usually tell a story, describing successive events from beginning to the end, so that a certain structured picture is formed in the imagination of readers, which helps them better understand the essence of what they are reading about. This order in literature is called chronological order, and is the most popular among writers. However, one can often find a work in which the chronological order is not observed at all, on the contrary, it is completely turned upside down, that is, the author begins his story from the end and gradually moves towards the beginning. In this order, understanding the big picture can be a little difficult, but often this style makes the work unique and unusual.

3 types of chronology in writing

Distinguishing the chronological type of writing from the rest is quite simple, since it basically includes very specific time periods in a logical sequence. The most popular types of chronology are the following three types:

Linear chronology . If the author uses this type of chronology, then all the events he describes occur according to an increasing time scale. For example: “Mr. Gray woke up at 9 o’clock in the morning, at 10 am he left for work, at 3 pm he had lunch in a restaurant, and by 6 pm he returned home.” This is a typical chronological linear sequence model.
Reverse chronology . This is a way of storytelling in which the plot of the story is revealed in reverse order, that is, the first scene described is actually the end of the plot, and the last scene is the first in chronological order. An example is the following plot: the main character of the novel goes to bed and falls asleep, the next event described will be what preceded her falling asleep and then right up to the moment when she woke up in the morning of the day described.
Nonlinear chronology . This type of chronology is not similar to either the first or the second; there is no clear sequence and order in it. There are many digressions and disparate events in this way of writing, which sometimes helps the author to create a lively, interesting and extraordinary work. However, when choosing a non-linear chronology as a writing style, it is necessary to understand that it is quite easy to lose the thread of the narrative here or go astray, therefore this style is quite difficult.

Thus, we see that each type of chronology has its own nuances and its own individual structure, which must be followed from the beginning to the very end of the work. It makes no sense to mix and intertwine types of chronology with each other, since the narrative will lose its basis and become too vague and difficult to understand.

3 rules for writing a spatial order essay

So, having dealt with the three types of chronology, signal words and the concept of spatial order, we can derive three basic rules that must be followed when writing an essay in spatial order.

Choosing the right topic

The first thing you need to do before you start working on an essay is to choose a topic and create a structured plan that answers in detail all the questions related to your topic. These questions may sound like this: What is the main goal I pursue when writing this essay? What chronological structure do I want to use? How would it be better to formulate the topic of my essay so that it clearly reflects the intention of my work? There can be a huge number of such questions, however, the clearer your idea of the topic is, the better and richer your essay will turn out.

Arrangement of information

A very important role is played by how correctly and logically you arrange the information blocks in your essay. The narration should be consistent and coherent, and thoughts should be clearly and understandably formulated in such a way that it is convenient for the reader to receive and remember the information that you present. Map out for yourself a visual diagram of what is your starting point (the beginning of the description), and which is the end point (the end of the description).

Transitional words

The third point, which is also one of the most important. The use of transitional words is an essential attribute when writing almost any descriptive essay of a spatial order, here are some of them:

nevertheless
in the same way
in spite of
in contrast
at the same time
while this might be true
on the other hand
for example
for instance
specifically
to illustrate, etc.

But it is important to note one more thing, transitional words should be appropriate, they should not be too much in sentences, they should not interfere with the general understanding of the text, otherwise your work will have too much water, which will make it difficult to read.

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Chapter Nine – Organizing the Body of your Speech

Creating the Body of a Speech

In a series of important and ground-breaking studies conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers started investigating how a speech’s organization was related to audience perceptions of those speeches. The first study, conducted by Raymond Smith in 1951, randomly organized the parts of a speech to see how audiences would react. Not surprisingly, when speeches were randomly organized, the audience perceived the speech more negatively than when audiences were presented with a speech with clear, intentional organization. Smith also found that audiences who listened to unorganized speeches were less interested in those speeches than audiences who listened to organized speeches (Smith, 1951). Thompson furthered this investigation and found that unorganized speeches were also harder for audiences to recall after the speech. Basically, people remember information from speeches that are clearly organized—and forget information from speeches that are poorly organized (Thompson, 1960). A third study by Baker found that when audiences were presented with a disorganized speaker, they were less likely to be persuaded, and saw the disorganized speaker as lacking credibility (Baker, 1965).

We start this chapter discussing these studies because we want you to understand the importance of speech organization on real audiences. If you are not organized, your speech will never have its intended effect. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the basics of organizing the body of your speech.

Determining Your Main Ideas

Matt Wynn – Lightbulb! – CC BY 2.0.

When creating a speech, it’s important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience’s appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real “meat” of your speech happens in the body. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to think strategically about the body of your speech.

What Is Your Specific Purpose?

Before we discuss how to determine the main points of your speech, we want to revisit your speech’s specific purpose. Recall that a speech can have one of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals (inform, persuade, or entertain) and then further informs the listener about the who , what , when , where , why , and how of the speech.

In each of these three examples, you’ll notice that the general topic is the same—open-source software—but the specific purpose is different because the speech has a different general purpose and a different audience. Before you can think strategically about organizing the body of your speech, you need to know what your specific purpose is. If you have not yet written a specific purpose for your current speech, please go ahead and write one now.

From Specific Purpose to Main Points

Once you’ve written down your specific purpose, you can now start thinking about the best way to turn that specific purpose into a series of main points. Main points are the key ideas you present to enable your speech to accomplish its specific purpose. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to determine your main points and how to organize those main points into a coherent, strategic speech.

Narrowing Down Your Main Points

When you write your specific purpose and review the research you have done on your topic, you will probably find yourself thinking of quite a few points that you’d like to make in your speech. Whether that’s the case or not, we recommend taking a few minutes to brainstorm and develop a list of points. What information does your audience need to know to understand your topic? What information does your speech need to convey to accomplish its specific purpose? Consider the following example:

Helpful Hints for Preparing Your Main Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to take a specific purpose and turn it into a series of main points, here are some helpful hints for creating your main points.

Uniting Your Main Points

Keeping Your Main Points Separate

Balancing Main Points

One of the biggest mistakes some speakers make is to spend most of their time talking about one of their main points, completely neglecting their other main points. To avoid this mistake, organize your speech so as to spend roughly the same amount of time on each main point. If you find that one of your main points is simply too large, you may need to divide that main point into two main points and consolidate your other main points into a single main point.

Let’s see if our preceding example is balanced (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). What do you think? Obviously, the answer depends on how much time a speaker will have to talk about each of these main points. If you have an hour to talk, then you may find that these three main points are balanced. However, you may also find them wildly unbalanced if you only have five minutes to speak because five minutes is not enough time to even explain what open-source software is. If that’s the case, then you probably need to rethink your specific purpose to ensure that you can cover the material in the allotted time.

Creating Parallel Structure for Main Points

Another major question to ask yourself about your main points is whether or not they have a parallel structure. By parallel structure, we mean that you should structure your main points so that they all sound similar. When all your main points sound similar, it’s simply easier for your audiences to remember your main points and retain them for later. Let’s look at our sample (school districts use software in their operations; what is open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider). Notice that the first and third main points are statements, but the second one is a question. Basically, we have an example here of main points that are not parallel in structure. You could fix this in one of two ways. You could make them all questions: what are some common school district software programs; what is open-source software; and what are some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Or you could turn them all into statements: school districts use software in their operations; define and describe open-source software; name some specific open-source software packages that may be appropriate for these school administrators to consider. Either of these changes will make the grammatical structure of the main points parallel.

Maintaining Logical Flow of Main Points

The last question you want to ask yourself about your main points is whether the main points make sense in the order you’ve placed them. The next section goes into more detail of common organizational patterns for speeches, but for now we want you to just think logically about the flow of your main points. When you look at your main points, can you see them as progressive, or does it make sense to talk about one first, another one second, and the final one last? If you look at your order, and it doesn’t make sense to you, you probably need to think about the flow of your main points. Often, this process is an art and not a science. But let’s look at a couple of examples.

Using Common Organizing Patterns

Twentyfour Students – Organization makes you flow – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this chapter we discussed how to make your main points flow logically. This section is going to provide you with a number of organizational patterns to help you create a logically organized speech. The first organizational pattern we’ll discuss is topical.

By far the most common pattern for organizing a speech is by categories or topics . The topical organizational pattern is a way to help the speaker arrange the message in a consistent fashion. The goal of a topical organization is to create categories (or chunks) of information that go together to help support your original specific purpose. Let’s look at an example.

In this case, we have a speaker trying to persuade a group of high school juniors to apply to attend Generic University. To persuade this group, the speaker has divided the information into three basic categories: what it’s like to live in the dorms, what classes are like, and what life is like on campus. Almost anyone could take this basic speech and specifically tailor the speech to fit their university or college. The main points in this example could be rearranged and the organizational pattern would still be effective because there is no inherent logic to the sequence of points. Let’s look at a second example.

In this speech, the speaker is talking about how to find others online and date them. Specifically, the speaker starts by explaining what Internet dating is; then the speaker talks about how to make Internet dating better for audience members; and finally, the speaker ends by discussing some negative aspects of Internet dating. Again, notice that the information is chunked into three topics and that the second and third could be reversed and still provide a logical structure for your speech

Comparison/Contrast

Another method for organizing main points is the comparison/contrast pattern. While this pattern clearly lends itself easily to two main points, you can also create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. Let’s look at two examples; the first one will be a two-point example and the second a three-point example.

The spatial organizational pattern arranges information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations. We’ll look at two examples here, one involving physical geography and one involving a different spatial order.

Now let’s look at a spatial speech unrelated to geography.

Chronological

The chronological pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. Here’s a simple example.

Biographical

As you might guess, the biographical organizational pattern is generally used when a speaker wants to describe a person’s life—either a speaker’s own life, the life of someone they know personally, or the life of a famous person. By the nature of this speech organizational pattern, these speeches tend to be informative or entertaining; they are usually not persuasive. Let’s look at an example.

In this example, we see how Brian Warner, through three major periods of his life, ultimately became the musician known as Marilyn Manson.

The causal pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern, your speech will have two basic main points: cause and effect. In the first main point, typically you will talk about the causes of a phenomenon, and in the second main point you will then show how the causes lead to either a specific effect or a small set of effects. Let’s look at an example.

However, a causal organizational pattern can also begin with an effect and then explore one or more causes. In the following example, the effect is the number of arrests for domestic violence.

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing distinct main points in a clear manner is the p roblem-cause-solution pattern. In this format you describe a problem, identify what you believe is causing the problem, and then recommend a solution to correct the problem.

Selecting an Organizational Pattern

Each of the preceding organizational patterns is potentially useful for organizing the main points of your speech. However, not all organizational patterns work for all speeches. For example, as we mentioned earlier, the biographical pattern is useful when you are telling the story of someone’s life. Some other patterns, particularly comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution, are well suited for persuasive speaking. Your challenge is to choose the best pattern for the particular speech you are giving.

You should be aware that it is also possible to combine two or more organizational patterns to meet the goals of a specific speech. For example, you might wish to discuss a problem and then compare/contrast several different possible solutions for the audience. Such a speech would thus be combining elements of the comparison/contrast and problem-cause-solution patterns. When considering which organizational pattern to use, you need to keep in mind your specific purpose as well as your audience and the actual speech material itself to decide which pattern you think will work best.

Keeping Your Speech Moving

Chris Marquardt – REWIND – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Have you ever been listening to a speech or a lecture and found yourself thinking, “I am so lost!” or “Where the heck is this speaker going?” Chances are one of the reasons you weren’t sure what the speaker was talking about was that the speaker didn’t effectively keep the speech moving. When we are reading and encounter something we don’t understand, we have the ability to reread the paragraph and try to make sense of what we’re trying to read. Unfortunately, we are not that lucky when it comes to listening to a speaker. We cannot pick up our universal remote and rewind the person. For this reason, speakers need to really think about how they keep a speech moving so that audience members are easily able to keep up with the speech. In this section, we’re going to look at four specific techniques speakers can use that make following a speech much easier for an audience: transitions, internal previews, internal summaries, and signposts.

Transitions between Main Points

Now that we’ve seen the problems caused by lack of adolescent curfew laws, let’s examine how curfew laws could benefit our community.
Thus far we’ve examined the history and prevalence of alcohol abuse among Native Americans, but it is the impact that this abuse has on the health of Native Americans that is of the greatest concern.
Now that we’ve thoroughly examined how these two medications are similar to one another, we can consider the many clear differences between the two medications.
Although he was one of the most prolific writers in Great Britain prior to World War II, Winston Churchill continued to publish during the war years as well.

You’ll notice that in each of these transition examples, the beginning phrase of the sentence indicates the conclusion of a period of time (now that, thus far). The table below contains a variety of transition words that will be useful when keeping your speech moving.

Table 9.1 Transition Words

Internal Previews

An internal preview is a phrase or sentence that gives an audience an idea of what is to come within a section of a speech. An internal preview works similarly to the preview that a speaker gives at the end of a speech introduction, quickly outlining what they will talk about (i.e., the speech’s three main body points). In an internal preview, speakers highlight what they are going to discuss within a specific main point during a speech.

Ausubel was the first person to examine the effect that internal previews had on retention of oral information (Ausubel, 1968). Essentially, when speakers clearly inform an audience what they will talk about in a clear and organized manner, the audience listens for those main points, which leads to higher retention of the speaker’s message. Let’s look at a sample internal preview:

To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our communi ty.

Now that we’ve explored the effect that a lack of consistent recycling has on our community, let’s explore the importance of recycling for our community ( transition ). To help us further understand why recycling is important, we will first explain the positive benefits of recycling and then explore how recycling can help our community ( internal preview ).

While internal previews are definitely helpful, you do not need to include one for every main point of your speech. In fact, we recommend that you use internal previews sparingly to highlight only main points containing relatively complex information.

Internal Summaries

To sum up, school bullying is a definite problem. Bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook.

In this section, we have explored how bullying in schools has been shown to be detrimental to the victim’s grades, the victim’s scores on standardized tests, and the victim’s future educational outlook ( internal summary ). Therefore, schools need to implement campus-wide, comprehensive antibullying programs ( transition ).

While not sounding like the more traditional transition, this internal summary helps readers summarize the content of that main point. The sentence that follows then leads to the next major part of the speech, which is going to discuss the importance of antibullying programs.

Have you ever been on a road trip and watched the green rectangular mile signs pass you by? Fifty miles to go. Twenty-five miles to go. One mile to go. Signposts within a speech function the same way. Speakers use signposts to guide their audience through the content of a speech. If you look at Table 9.1 and look at the “common sequence patterns,” you’ll see a series of possible signpost options. In essence, we use these short phrases at the beginning of a piece of information to help our audience members keep up with what we’re discussing. For example, if you were giving a speech whose main point was about the three functions of credibility, you could use internal signposts like this:

The first function of credibility is competence.
The second function of credibility is trustworthiness.
The final function of credibility is caring/goodwill.

Signposts are simply meant to help your audience keep up with your speech, so the more simplistic your signposts are, the easier it is for your audience to follow.

In addition to helping audience members keep up with a speech, signposts can also be used to highlight specific information the speaker thinks is important. Where the other signposts were designed to show the way (like highway markers), signposts that call attention to specific pieces of information are more like billboards. Words and phrases that are useful for highlighting information can be found in Table 9.1 under the category “emphasis.” All these words are designed to help you call attention to what you are saying so that the audience will also recognize the importance of the information.

Note from the author, Gruber: As we have previously stated, organization is integral to your audience understanding your message, and thus, being influenced by it. A clear organizational pattern with connectives, such as transitions and summaries, creates a clear and memorable message.

Finally, we sometimes get funny looks when we suggest you write the body of your speech before your Introduction & Conclusion. The natural thought may be “The introduction comes first, so I should write it first.” However, consider the objectives of the Introduction, as described in the next chapter, and you’ll understand why you should always write the body first and then the introduction and conclusion.

Baker, E. E. (1965). The immediate effects of perceived speaker disorganization on speaker credibility and audience attitude change in persuasive speaking. Western Speech, 29 , 148–161.
Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.
Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26 , 59–69.
Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening. Communication Education, 37 , 1–13.
Dunham, J. R. (1964). Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses .
LeFrancois, G. R. (1999). Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18 , 292–301.
Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
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Sections of this chapter were adapted from Stand up, Speak Out: The practice and ethics of public speaking. Stand up, Speak out by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Module 6: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

Topical organization, learning objectives.

Explain the topical organizational pattern for speeches and identify when it is best used.

A topical pattern is the most common way to structure speeches, particularly speeches of information, because it is relevant to nearly any topic or type of speech. However, you should make sure to explore all other organizational patterns before selecting it in case your topic fits better elsewhere. A topical structure involves dividing your central idea into topic categories or sub-topics that surround the main topic. You should devote roughly the same amount of time to each category and each category should be distinct from each other.

A set of bins labeled Stickers, Stamps, Stencils

Think of topical organization as a set of boxes, bins, or drawers. Items are organized according to which drawer they go in.

For example, a speech about the benefits of listening to music while exercising could follow a topical structure divided between the categories of how music can (1) increase stamina, (2) decrease boredom, and (3) improve coordination. Each sub-topic or main point is distinct, but ties back to the main speech topic.

The advantage of using a topical speech pattern is that it creates an organizational structure that is specific to the speech topic. Some speech topics don’t fit into any other category. They can’t be organized chronologically because dates are not involved. They can’t be organized spatially because geography or space isn’t involved. They don’t have steps to follow. They aren’t presenting a problem or a solution. It is important to eliminate all the other possible speech patterns before selecting topical. Once topical is selected, then the specific categories must be determined next. Make sure to select categories that are condensed enough for the speech time limit. For example, if you are explaining the five types of hurricanes in a five-minute speech, you may not have time to speak of each one individually and therefore would need to condense some categories together.

Disadvantage

The disadvantage of using a topical speech pattern is that you are limited to the categories selected. It will prove difficult to include anything outside of the categories once writing begins, so be sure that the categories selected are the most important ones to focus on and limit it to no more than five categories. Also, transitioning between categories and connecting them to one another becomes more crucial in a topical outline. A transition sentence which ties category 1 to category 2, will be important in creating an organizational, logical flow of ideas. It can be easy to sound disorganized if this connection between topics is unclear or disconnected.

Now that we have examined what a topical pattern is, consider which topics fit best into this pattern. Brainstorm some topics that don’t fit elsewhere and measure them against the other organization options to be sure topical is the best one.

To Watch: Nick Fuhrman, “The One Thing All great teachers do”

In this topically organized speech, professor and environmental educator Nick Fuhrman talks about teaching. Although the title speaks to “one” thing that great teachers do, Fuhrman lists four: celebrate mistakes, appreciate difference, relay feedback, and evaluate themselves. These four topics provide the organizational structure for the speech.

You can view the transcript for “The One Thing All Great Teachers Do | Nick Fuhrman | TEDxUGA” here (opens in new window) .

What to watch for:

Elsewhere in this course we advise against using live animals as visual aids. This is true unless A) you are expert in handling the animals in public performance and B) you have explicit permission from the event organizers to share the stage with a snake.

The One Thing All Great Teachers Do | Nick Fuhrman | TEDxUGA. Provided by : TEDx Talks. Located at : https://youtu.be/WwTpfVQgkU0 . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
Topical Organization. Authored by : Susan Bagley-Koyle with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
Topical Organization. Authored by : Misti Wills with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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6.2: Patterns of Organization

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Kris Barton & Barbara G. Tucker
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Chronological

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the four stages of rehabilitation in addiction recovery.

The first stage is acknowledging the problem and entering treatment.
The second stage is early abstinence, a difficult period in the rehabilitation facility.
The third stage is maintaining abstinence after release from the rehab facility.
The fourth stage is advanced recovery after a period of several years.

The example above uses what is termed the chronological pattern of organization . Chronological always refers to time order. Since the specific purpose is about stages, it is necessary to put the four stages in the right order. It would make no sense to put the fourth stage second and the third stage first. However, chronological time can be long or short. If you were giving a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, that period would cover several decades; if you were giving a speech about the process to change the oil in your car, that process takes less than an hour. The process described in the speech example above would also be long term, that is, one taking several years. The commonality is the order of the information.

In addition, chronological speeches that refer to processes can be given for two reasons. First, they can be for understanding. The speech about recovery is to explain what happens in the addiction recovery process, but the actual process may never really happen to the audience members. That understanding may also lead them to more empathy for someone in recovery. Second, chronological or process speeches can be for action and instruction. For a speech about changing the oil in a car, your purpose is that the audience could actually change the oil in their cars after listening to the speech.

One of the problems with chronological speeches is, as mentioned before, that you would not want just a list of activities. It is important to chunk the information into three to five groups so that the audience has a framework. For example, in a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, your “grouping” or “chunking” might be:

The movement saw African-Americans struggling for legal recognition before the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The movement was galvanized and motivated by the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The movement saw its goals met in the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

It would be easy in the case of the Civil Rights Movement to list the many events that happened over more than two decades, but that could be overwhelming for the audience. In this outline, the audience is focused on the three events that pushed it forward, rather than the persons involved in the movement. You could give a speech with a focus on people, but it would be different and probably less chronological and more topical (see below).

We should say here that, realistically, the example given above is still too broad. It would be useful, perhaps, for an audience with almost no knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement, but too basic and not really informative for other audiences. One of the Roman numeral points would probably be a more specific focus.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the three regional cooking styles of Italy.

In the mountainous region of the North, the food emphasizes cheese and meat.
In the middle region of Tuscany, the cuisine emphasizes grains and olives.
In the southern region and Sicily, the diet is based on fish and seafood. In this example, the content is moving from northern to southern Italy, as the word “regional” would indicate. Here is a good place to note that grouping or “chunking” in a speech helps simplicity, and to meet the principle of KISS (Keep It Simple, Speaker). If you were to actually study Italian cooking in depth, sources will say there are twenty regions. But “covering” twenty regions in a speech is not practical, and while the regions would be distinct for a “foodie” or connoisseur of Italian cooking, for a beginner or general audience, three is a good place to start. You could at the end of the speech note that more in-depth study would show the twenty regions, but that in your speech you have used three regions to show the similarities of the twenty regions rather than the small differences.

For a more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the layout of King Tut’s pyramid.

The first chamber of the tomb was antechamber.
The second chamber of the tomb was the annex.
The third chamber of the tomb was the burial chamber.
The last chamber of the tomb was the treasury. (Lucas, 2012)

For an even more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To describe to my Anatomy and Physiology class the three layers of the human skin.

The outer layer is the epidermis, which is the outermost barrier of protection.
The second layer beneath is the dermis.
The third layer closest to the bone is the hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue.

The key to spatial organization is to be logical in progression rather than jumping around, as in this example:

The Native Americans of Middle Georgia were primarily the Creek nation.
The Native Americans of North Georgia were of the Cherokee tribe nation.
The Native Americans of South Georgia were mostly of the Hitchiti and Oconee tribes.

It makes more sense to start at the top (north) of the state and move down (south) or start at the bottom and move up rather than randomly discuss unconnected areas.

Screen Shot 2019-07-02 at 12.36.42 PM.png

Topical/Parts of the Whole

Specific Purpose: To explain to my freshmen students the concept of SMART goals.

SMART goals are specific and clear.
SMART goals are measurable.
SMART goals are attainable or achievable.
SMART goals are relevant and worth doing.
SMART goals are time-bound and doable within a time period.

Specific Purpose: To explain the four characteristics of quality diamonds.

Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of cut.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of carat.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of color.
Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of clarity

Specific Purpose: To describe to my audience the four main chambers of a human heart.

The first chamber in the blood flow is the right atrium.
The second chamber in the blood flow is the right ventricle.
The third chamber in the blood flow is the left atrium.
The fourth chamber in the blood flow and then out to the body is the left ventricle.

At this point in discussing organizational patterns and looking at these examples, two points should be made about them and about speech organization in general.

First, you might look at the example about the chambers of the heart and say, “But couldn’t that be chronological, too, since that’s the order of the blood flow procedure?” Yes, it could. There will be times when a specific purpose could work with two different organizational patterns. In this case, it’s just a matter of emphasis. This speech is emphasizing the anatomy of the heart; if the speech’s specific purpose were “To explain to my classmates the flow of blood through the chambers of the heart,” the organizational pattern would be chronological but very similar (However, since the blood goes to the lungs to be oxygenated before coming back to the left atrium, that might alter the pattern some).

Specific purpose: To defend before my classmates the proposition that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.

Capital punishment does not save money for the justice system.
Capital punishment does not deter crime in the United States historically.
Capital punishment has resulted in many unjust executions.

In most people’s minds, “unjust executions” is a bigger reason to end a practice than the cost, since an unjust execution means the loss of an innocent life and a violation of our principals. If you believe Main Point 3 is the strongest argument of the three, putting it last builds up to a climax.

Cause/Effect Pattern

If the specific purpose mentions words such as “causes,” “origins,” “roots of,” “foundations,” “basis,” “grounds,” or “source,” it is a causal order; if it mentions words such as “effects,” “results,” “outcomes,” “consequences,” or “products,” it is effect order. If it mentions both, it would of course be cause/effect order. This example shows a cause/effect pattern:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the causes and effects of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has genetic, social, and environmental causes.
Schizophrenia has educational, relational, and medical effects.

It should be noted, however, that a specific purpose like this example is very broad and probably not practical for your class speeches; it would be better to focus on just causes or effects, or even just one type of cause (such as genetic causes of schizophrenia) or one type of effect (relational or social). These two examples show a speech that deals with causes only and effects only, respectively.

Screen Shot 2019-07-02 at 12.44.13 PM.png

Specific Purpose: To explain to my fellow Biology 1107 students the origin of the West Nile Virus epidemic in the U.S.

The West Nile Virus came from a strain in a certain part of Africa.
The West Nile Virus resulted from mosquitoes being imported through fruits.
The West Nile Virus became more prominent due to floods in the Southeast.

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the effects of a diagnosis of autism on a child’s life.

An autism diagnosis will affect the child’s educational plan.
An autism diagnosis will affect the child’s social existence.
An autism diagnosis will affect the child’s family relationships.

Problem-Solution Pattern

The problem-solution pattern will be explored in more depth in the chapter on Persuasive Speaking because that is where it is used the most. Then, we will see that there are variations on it. The principle behind problem-solution pattern is that if you explain a problem to an audience, you should not leave them hanging without solutions. Problems are discussed for understanding and to do something about them.

Additionally, when you want to persuade someone to act, the first reason is usually that something is wrong! Even if you wanted your friends to go out to get some dinner, and they have recently eaten, you will probably be less successful because there is no problem for them—they are not hungry. Then you would have to come up with a new problem, such as you will miss their presence, which they may or may not see as a problem for them.

In another real-life example, let’s say you want the members of the school board to provide more funds for music at the three local high schools in your county. What is missing because music or arts are not funded? What is the problem?

Specific Purpose: To persuade the members of the school board to take action to support the music program at the school.

A. Students who do not have extracurricular music in their lives have lower SAT scores.

B. Schools that do not have extracurricular music programs have more gang violence and juvenile delinquency.

A. $120,000 would go to bands.

B. $80,000 would go to choral programs.

Of course, this is a simple outline and you would need to provide evidence to support the arguments, but it shows how problem-solution works. Psychologically, it makes more sense to use problem-solution rather than solution-problem. The audience will be more motivated to listen if you address needs, deficiencies, or problems in their lives rather than giving them solutions first.

Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

A variation of the problem-solution pattern, and one that sometimes requires more in-depth exploration of an issue, is the “problem-cause-solution” pattern. If you were giving a speech on future extinction of certain animal species, it would be insufficient to just explain that numbers of species are about to become extinct. Your second point would logically have to explain the cause behind this happening. Is it due to climate change, some type of pollution, encroachment on habitats, disease, or some other reason? In many cases, you can’t really solve a problem without first identifying what caused the problem. This is similar to the organizational pattern called Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (German, Gronbeck, Ehninger & Monroe, 2012), which will be fully explained in Chapter 13. The Monroe’s Motivated Sequence requires a discussion of cause to create a logical speech.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that age to obtain a driver’s license in the state of Georgia should be raised to 18.

There is a problem in this country with young drivers getting into serious automobile accidents leading to many preventable deaths.
One of the primary causes of this is younger drivers’ inability to remain focused and make good decisions due to incomplete brain development.
One solution that will help reduce the number of young drivers involved in accidents would be to raise the age for obtaining a diver’s license to 18.

Some Additional Principles of Organization

It is possible that you may use more than one of these organizational patterns within a single speech. For example, the main points of your speech could be one organizational pattern and the subpoints a different one. In the spatial example above about the Native American nations of Georgia, the subpoints might be chronological (emphasizing their development over time), or they could be topical (explaining aspects of their culture).

You should also note that in all of the examples to this point (which have been kept simple for the purpose of explanation), each main point is relatively equal in emphasis; therefore, the time spent on each should be equal as well. While you are not obliged to spend exactly the same amount of time on each main point, the time spent (and the importance of the main point) should be about the same. You would not want your first Main Point to be 30 seconds long, the second one to be 90 seconds, and the third 3 minutes. For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the rules of baseball.

Baseball has rules about equipment.
Baseball has rules about numbers of players.
Baseball has rules about play.

Main Point 2 is not really equal in importance to the other two. There is a great deal you could say about the equipment and even more about the rules of play, but the number of players would take you about ten seconds to say. If Main Point 2 were “Baseball has rules about the positions on the field,” that would make more sense and be closer in level of importance to the other two.

To give another example, let’s say you want to give a commemorative (or tribute) speech about a local veteran whom you admire.

James Owens is an admirable person because he earned the Silver Star in the Korean War.
James Owens is an admirable person because he served our community as a councilman for 25 years.
James Owens is an admirable person because he rescued five puppies who were abandoned in his backyard.

Although Main Point 3 is a good thing to do, it’s really not equal to Main Points 1 and 2 in importance or in the amount of time you would need to spend on it.

Earlier in the chapter, we said that organizing a speech involves grouping, labeling, and ordering. Let’s address labeling here. You will also notice that in most of the examples so far, the main points are phrased using a similar sentence structure. For example, “The first chamber in the blood flow is…” “The second chamber in the blood flow is…” This simple repetition of sentence structure is called parallelism , a technique useful for speakers and helpful for the audience in remembering information. It is not absolutely necessary to use it and will not always be relevant, but parallelism should be used when appropriate and effective.

In relation to the way each main point is written, notice that they are full grammatical sentences, although sometimes short and simple. For purposes of preparation, this is a good habit, and your instructor will probably require you to write your main points in full sentences. Your instructor may also expect you to write your subpoints in complete sentences as well, but he or she will discuss that with you. There are examples of the different versions of full sentence outlines provided at the ends of some chapters.

Finally, in the way you phrase the main points, be sure they are adequate labeled and clearly explain your content. Students are often tempted to write main points as directions to themselves, “Talking about the health department” or “Mention the solution.” This is not helpful for you, nor will your instructor be able to tell what you mean by those phrases. “The health department provides many services for low-income residents” says something we can all understand.

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Published: 13 May 2024

Representation of internal speech by single neurons in human supramarginal gyrus

Sarah K. Wandelt ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9551-8491 1 , 2 ,
David A. Bjånes 1 , 2 , 3 ,
Kelsie Pejsa 1 , 2 ,
Brian Lee 1 , 4 , 5 ,
Charles Liu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6423-8577 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 &
Richard A. Andersen 1 , 2

Nature Human Behaviour ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Brain–machine interface
Neural decoding

Speech brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) translate brain signals into words or audio outputs, enabling communication for people having lost their speech abilities due to diseases or injury. While important advances in vocalized, attempted and mimed speech decoding have been achieved, results for internal speech decoding are sparse and have yet to achieve high functionality. Notably, it is still unclear from which brain areas internal speech can be decoded. Here two participants with tetraplegia with implanted microelectrode arrays located in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1) performed internal and vocalized speech of six words and two pseudowords. In both participants, we found significant neural representation of internal and vocalized speech, at the single neuron and population level in the SMG. From recorded population activity in the SMG, the internally spoken and vocalized words were significantly decodable. In an offline analysis, we achieved average decoding accuracies of 55% and 24% for each participant, respectively (chance level 12.5%), and during an online internal speech BMI task, we averaged 79% and 23% accuracy, respectively. Evidence of shared neural representations between internal speech, word reading and vocalized speech processes was found in participant 1. SMG represented words as well as pseudowords, providing evidence for phonetic encoding. Furthermore, our decoder achieved high classification with multiple internal speech strategies (auditory imagination/visual imagination). Activity in S1 was modulated by vocalized but not internal speech in both participants, suggesting no articulator movements of the vocal tract occurred during internal speech production. This work represents a proof-of-concept for a high-performance internal speech BMI.

Online speech synthesis using a chronically implanted brain–computer interface in an individual with ALS

A high-performance speech neuroprosthesis

The speech neuroprosthesis

Speech is one of the most basic forms of human communication, a natural and intuitive way for humans to express their thoughts and desires. Neurological diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and brain lesions can lead to the loss of this ability. In the most severe cases, patients who experience full-body paralysis might be left without any means of communication. Patients with ALS self-report loss of speech as their most serious concern 1 . Brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) are devices offering a promising technological path to bypass neurological impairment by recording neural activity directly from the cortex. Cognitive BMIs have demonstrated potential to restore independence to participants with tetraplegia by reading out movement intent directly from the brain 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . Similarly, reading out internal (also reported as inner, imagined or covert) speech signals could allow the restoration of communication to people who have lost it.

Decoding speech signals directly from the brain presents its own unique challenges. While non-invasive recording methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography 6 are important tools to locate speech and internal speech production, they lack the necessary temporal and spatial resolution, adequate signal-to-noise ratio or portability for building an online speech BMI 7 , 8 , 9 . For example, state-of-the-art EEG-based imagined speech decoding performances in 2022 ranged from approximately 60% to 80% binary classification 10 . Intracortical electrophysiological recordings have higher signal-to-noise ratios and excellent temporal resolution 11 and are a more suitable choice for an internal speech decoding device.

Invasive speech decoding has predominantly been attempted with electrocorticography (ECoG) 9 or stereo-electroencephalographic depth arrays 12 , as they allow sampling neural activity from different parts of the brain simultaneously. Impressive results in vocalized and attempted speech decoding and reconstruction have been achieved using these techniques 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 . However, vocalized speech has also been decoded from localized regions of the cortex. In 2009, the use of a neurotrophic electrode 19 demonstrated real-time speech synthesis from the motor cortex. More recently, speech neuroprosthetics were built from small-scale microelectrode arrays located in the motor cortex 20 , 21 , premotor cortex 22 and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) 23 , demonstrating that vocalized speech BMIs can be built using neural signals from localized regions of cortex.

While important advances in vocalized speech 16 , attempted speech 18 and mimed speech 17 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 26 decoding have been made, highly accurate internal speech decoding has not been achieved. Lack of behavioural output, lower signal-to-noise ratio and differences in cortical activations compared with vocalized speech are speculated to contribute to lower classification accuracies of internal speech 7 , 8 , 13 , 27 , 28 . In ref. 29 , patients implanted with ECoG grids over frontal, parietal and temporal regions silently read or vocalized written words from a screen. They significantly decoded vowels (37.5%) and consonants (36.3%) from internal speech (chance level 25%). Ikeda et al. 30 decoded three internally spoken vowels using ECoG arrays using frequencies in the beta band, with up to 55.6% accuracy from the Broca area (chance level 33%). Using the same recording technology, ref. 31 investigated the decoding of six words during internal speech. The authors demonstrated an average pair-wise classification accuracy of 58%, reaching 88% for the highest pair (chance level 50%). These studies were so-called open-loop experiments, in which the data were analysed offline after acquisition. A recent paper demonstrated real-time (closed-loop) speech decoding using stereotactic depth electrodes 32 . The results were encouraging as internal speech could be detected; however, the reconstructed audio was not discernable and required audible speech to train the decoding model.

While, to our knowledge, internal speech has not previously been decoded from SMG, evidence for internal speech representation in the SMG exists. A review of 100 fMRI studies 33 not only described SMG activity during speech production but also suggested its involvement in subvocal speech 34 , 35 . Similarly, an ECoG study identified high-frequency SMG modulation during vocalized and internal speech 36 . Additionally, fMRI studies have demonstrated SMG involvement in phonologic processing, for instance, during tasks while participants reported whether two words rhyme 37 . Performing such tasks requires the participant to internally ‘hear’ the word, indicating potential internal speech representation 38 . Furthermore, a study performed in people suffering from aphasia found that lesions in the SMG and its adjacent white matter affected inner speech rhyming tasks 39 . Recently, ref. 16 showed that electrode grids over SMG contributed to vocalized speech decoding. Finally, vocalized grasps and colour words were decodable from SMG from one of the same participants involved in this work 23 . These studies provide evidence for the possibility of an internal speech decoder from neural activity in the SMG.

The relationship between inner speech and vocalized speech is still debated. The general consensus posits similarities between internal and vocalized speech processes 36 , but the degree of overlap is not well understood 8 , 35 , 40 , 41 , 42 . Characterizing similarities between vocalized and internal speech could provide evidence that results found with vocalized speech could translate to internal speech. However, such a relationship may not be guaranteed. For instance, some brain areas involved in vocalized speech might be poor candidates for internal speech decoding.

In this Article, two participants with tetraplegia performed internal and vocalized speech of eight words while neurophysiological responses were captured from two implant sites. To investigate neural semantic and phonetic representation, the words were composed of six lexical words and two pseudowords (words that mimic real words without semantic meaning). We examined representations of various language processes at the single-neuron level using recording microelectrode arrays from the SMG located in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the arm and/or hand regions of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). S1 served as a control for movement, due to emerging evidence of its activation beyond defined regions of interest 43 , 44 . Words were presented with an auditory or a written cue and were produced internally as well as orally. We hypothesized that SMG and S1 activity would modulate during vocalized speech and that SMG activity would modulate during internal speech. Shared representation between internal speech, vocalized speech, auditory comprehension and word reading processes was investigated.

Task design

We characterized neural representations of four different language processes within a population of SMG and S1 neurons: auditory comprehension, word reading, internal speech and vocalized speech production. In this manuscript, internal speech refers to engaging a prompted word internally (‘inner monologue’), without correlated motor output, while vocalized speech refers to audibly vocalizing a prompted word. Participants were implanted in the SMG and S1 on the basis of grasp localization fMRI tasks (Fig. 1 ).

a , b , SMG implant locations in participant 1 (1 × 96 multielectrode array) ( a ) and participant 2 (1 × 64 multielectrode array) ( b ). c , d , S1 implant locations in participant 1 (2 × 96 multielectrode arrays) ( c ) and participant 2 (2 × 64 multielectrode arrays) ( d ).

The task contained six phases: an inter-trial interval (ITI), a cue phase (cue), a first delay (D1), an internal speech phase (internal), a second delay (D2) and a vocalized speech phase (speech). Words were cued with either an auditory or a written version of the word (Fig. 2a ). Six of the words were informed by ref. 31 (battlefield, cowboy, python, spoon, swimming and telephone). Two pseudowords (nifzig and bindip) were added to explore phonetic representation in the SMG. The first participant completed ten session days, composed of both the auditory and the written cue tasks. The second participant completed nine sessions, focusing only on the written cue task. The participants were instructed to internally say the cued word during the internal speech phase and to vocalize the same word during the speech phase.

a , Written words and sounds were used to cue six words and two pseudowords in a participant with tetraplegia. The ‘audio cue’ task was composed of an ITI, a cue phase during which the sound of one of the words was emitted from a speaker (between 842 and 1,130 ms), a first delay (D1), an internal speech phase, a second delay (D2) and a vocalized speech phase. The ‘written cue’ task was identical to the ‘audio cue’ task, except that written words appeared on the screen for 1.5 s. Eight repetitions of eight words were performed per session day and per task for the first participant. For the second participant, 16 repetitions of eight words were performed for the written cue task. b – e , Example smoothed firing rates of neurons tuned to four words in the SMG for participant 1 (auditory cue, python ( b ), and written cue, telephone ( c )) and participant 2 (written cue, nifzig ( d ), and written cue, spoon ( e )). Top: the average firing rate over 8 or 16 trials (solid line, mean; shaded area, 95% bootstrapped confidence interval). Bottom: one example trial with associated audio amplitude (grey). Vertically dashed lines indicate the beginning of each phase. Single neurons modulate firing rate during internal speech in the SMG.

For each of the four language processes, we observed selective modulation of individual neurons’ firing rates (Fig. 2b–e ). In general, the firing rates of neurons increased during the active phases (cue, internal and speech) and decreased during the rest phases (ITI, D1 and D2). A variety of activation patterns were present in the neural population. Example neurons were selected to demonstrate increases in firing rates during internal speech, cue and vocalized speech. Both the auditory (Fig. 2b ) and the written cue (Fig. 2c–e ) evoked highly modulated firing rates of individual neurons during internal speech.

These stereotypical activation patterns were evident at the single-trial level (Fig. 2b–e , bottom). When the auditory recording was overlaid with firing rates from a single trial, a heterogeneous neural response was observed (Supplementary Fig. 1a ), with some SMG neurons preceding or lagging peak auditory levels during vocalized speech. In contrast, neural activity from primary sensory cortex (S1) only modulated during vocalized speech and produced similar firing patterns regardless of the vocalized word (Supplementary Fig. 1b ).

Population activity represented selective tuning for individual words

Population analysis in the SMG mirrored single-neuron patterns of activation, showing increases in tuning during the active task phases (Fig. 3a,d ). Tuning of a neuron to a word was determined by fitting a linear regression model to the firing rate in 50-ms time bins ( Methods ). Distinctions between participant 1 and participant 2 were observed. Specifically, participant 1 exhibited strong tuning, whereas the number of tuned units was notably lower in participant 2. Based on these findings, we exclusively ran the written cue task with participant number 2. In participant 1, representation of the auditory cue was lower compared with the written cue (Fig. 3b , cue). However, this difference was not observed for other task phases. In both participants, the tuned population activity in S1 increased during vocalized speech but not during the cue and internal speech phases (Supplementary Fig. 3a,b ).

a , The average percentage of tuned neurons to words in 50-ms time bins in the SMG over the trial duration for ‘auditory cue’ (blue) and ‘written cue’ (green) tasks for participant 1 (solid line, mean over ten sessions; shaded area, 95% confidence interval of the mean). During the cue phase of auditory trials, neural data were aligned to audio onset, which occurred within 200–650 ms following initiation of the cue phase. b , The average percentage of tuned neurons computed on firing rates per task phase, with 95% confidence interval over ten sessions. Tuning during action phases (cue, internal and speech) following rest phases (ITI, D1 and D2) was significantly higher (paired two-tailed t -test, d.f. 9, P ITI_CueWritten < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.31; P ITI_CueAuditory = 0.003, Cohen’s d = 1.25; P D1_InternalWritten = 0.008, Cohen’s d = 1.08; P D1_InternalAuditory < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.71; P D2_SpeechWritten < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.34; P D2_SpeechAuditory < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 3.23). c , The number of neurons tuned to each individual word in each phase for the ‘auditory cue’ and ‘written cue’ tasks. d , The average percentage of tuned neurons to words in 50-ms time bins in the SMG over the trial duration for ‘written cue’ (green) tasks for participant 2 (solid line, mean over nine sessions; shaded area, 95% confidence interval of the mean). Due to a reduced number of tuned units, only the ‘written cue’ task variation was performed. e , The average percentage of tuned neurons computed on firing rates per task phase, with 95% confidence interval over nine sessions. Tuning during cue and internal phases following rest phases ITI and D1 was significantly higher (paired two-tailed t -test, d.f. 8, P ITI_CueWritten = 0.003, Cohen’s d = 1.38; P D1_Internal = 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.67). f , The number of neurons tuned to each individual word in each phase for the ‘written cue’ task.

Source data

To quantitatively compare activity between phases, we assessed the differential response patterns for individual words by examining the variations in average firing rate across different task phases (Fig. 3b,e ). In both participants, tuning during the cue and internal speech phases was significantly higher compared with their preceding rest phases ITI and D1 (paired t -test between phases. Participant 1: d.f. 9, P ITI_CueWritten < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.31; P ITI_CueAuditory = 0.003, Cohen’s d = 1.25; P D1_InternalWritten = 0.008, Cohen’s d = 1.08; P D1_InternalAuditory < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.71. Participant 2: d.f. 8, P ITI_CueWritten = 0.003, Cohen’s d = 1.38; P D1_Internal = 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.67). For participant 1, we also observed significantly higher tuning to vocalized speech than to tuning in D2 (d.f. 9, P D2_SpeechWritten < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.34; P D2_SpeechAuditory < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 3.23). Representation for all words was observed in each phase, including pseudowords (bindip and nifzig) (Fig. 3c,f ). To identify neurons with selective activity for unique words, we performed a Kruskal–Wallis test (Supplementary Fig. 3c,d ). The results mirrored findings of the regression analysis in both participants, albeit weaker in participant 2. These findings suggest that, while neural activity during active phases differed from activity during the ITI phase, neural responses of only a few neurons varied across different words for participant 2.

The neural population in the SMG simultaneously represented several distinct aspects of language processing: temporal changes, input modality (auditory, written for participant 1) and unique words from our vocabulary list. We used demixed principal component analysis (dPCA) to decompose and analyse contributions of each individual component: timing, cue modality and word. In Fig. 4 , demixed principal components (PCs) explaining the highest amount of variance were plotted by projecting data onto their respective dPCA decoder axis.

a – e , dPCA was performed to investigate variance within three marginalizations: ‘timing’, ‘cue modality’ and ‘word’ for participant 1 ( a – c ) and ‘timing’ and ‘word’ for participant 2 ( d and e ). Demixed PCs explaining the highest variance within each marginalization were plotted over time, by projecting the data onto their respective dPCA decoder axis. In a , the ‘timing’ marginalization demonstrates SMG modulation during cue, internal speech and vocalized speech, while S1 only represents vocalized speech. The solid blue lines (8) represent the auditory cue trials, and dashed green lines (8) represent written cue trials. In b , the ‘cue modality’ marginalization suggests that internal and vocalized speech representation in the SMG are not affected by the cue modality. The solid blue lines (8) represent the auditory cue trials, and dashed green lines (8) represent written cue trials. In c , the ‘word’ marginalization shows high variability for different words in the SMG, but near zero for S1. The colours (8) represent individual words. For each colour, solid lines represent auditory trials and dashed lines represent written cue trials. d is the same as a , but for participant 2. The dashed green lines (8) represent written cue trials. e is the same as c , but for participant 2. The colours (8) represent individual words during written cue trials. The variance for different words in the SMG (left) was higher than in S1 (right), but lower in comparison with SMG in participant 1 ( c ).

For participant 1, the ‘timing’ component revealed that temporal dynamics in the SMG peaked during all active phases (Fig. 4a ). In contrast, temporal S1 modulation peaked only during vocalized speech production, indicating a lack of synchronized lip and face movement of the participant during the other task phases. While ‘cue modality’ components were separable during the cue phase (Fig. 4b ), they overlapped during subsequent phases. Thus, internal and vocalized speech representation may not be influenced by the cue modality. Pseudowords had similar separability to lexical words (Fig. 4c ). The explained variance between words was high in the SMG and was close to zero in S1. In participant 2, temporal dynamics of the task were preserved (‘timing’ component). However, variance to words was reduced, suggesting lower neuronal ability to represent individual words in participant 2. In S1, the results mirrored findings from S1 in participant 1 (Fig. 4d,e , right).

Internal speech is decodable in the SMG

Separable neural representations of both internal and vocalized speech processes implicate SMG as a rich source of neural activity for real-time speech BMI devices. The decodability of words correlated with the percentage of tuned neurons (Fig. 3a–f ) as well as the explained dPCA variance (Fig. 4c,e ) observed in the participants. In participant 1, all words in our vocabulary list were highly decodable, averaging 55% offline decoding and 79% (16–20 training trials) online decoding from neurons during internal speech (Fig. 5a,b ). Words spoken during the vocalized phase were also highly discriminable, averaging 74% offline (Fig. 5a ). In participant 2, offline internal speech decoding averaged 24% (Supplementary Fig. 4b ) and online decoding averaged 23% (Fig. 5a ), with preferential representation of words ‘spoon’ and ‘swimming’.

a , Offline decoding accuracies: ‘audio cue’ and ‘written cue’ task data were combined for each individual session day, and leave-one-out CV was performed (black dots). PCA was performed on the training data, an LDA model was constructed, and classification accuracies were plotted with 95% confidence intervals, over the session means. The significance of classification accuracies were evaluated by comparing results with a shuffled distribution (averaged shuffle results over 100 repetitions indicated by red dots; P < 0.01 indicates that the average mean is >99.5th percentile of shuffle distribution, n = 10). In participant 1, classification accuracies during action phases (cue, internal and speech) following rest phases (ITI, D1 and D2) were significantly higher (paired two-tailed t -test: n = 10, d.f. 9, for all P < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 6.81, 2.29 and 5.75). b , Online decoding accuracies: classification accuracies for internal speech were evaluated in a closed-loop internal speech BMI application on three different session days for both participants. In participant 1, decoding accuracies were significantly above chance (averaged shuffle results over 1,000 repetitions indicated by red dots; P < 0.001 indicates that the average mean is >99.95th percentile of shuffle distribution) and improved when 16–20 trials per words were used to train the model (two-sample two-tailed t -test, n (8–14) = 8, d.f. 11, n (16–20) = 5, P = 0.029), averaging 79% classification accuracy. In participant 2, online decoding accuracies were significant (averaged shuffle results over 1,000 repetitions indicated by red dots; P < 0.05 indicates that average mean is >97.5th percentile of shuffle distribution, n = 7) and averaged 23%. c , An offline confusion matrix for participant 1: confusion matrices for each of the different task phases were computed on the tested data and averaged over all session days. d , An online confusion matrix: a confusion matrix was computed combining all online runs, leading to a total of 304 trials (38 trials per word) for participant 1 and 448 online trials for participant 2. Participant 1 displayed comparable online decoding accuracies for all words, while participant 2 had preferential decoding for the words ‘swimming’ and ‘spoon’.

In participant 1, trial data from both types of cue (auditory and written) were concatenated for offline analysis, since SMG activity was only differentiable between the types of cue during the cue phase (Figs. 3a and 4b ). This resulted in 16 trials per condition. Features were selected via principal component analysis (PCA) on the training dataset, and PCs that explained 95% of the variance were kept. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model was evaluated with leave-one-out cross-validation (CV). Significance was computed by comparing results with a null distribution ( Methods ).

Significant word decoding was observed during all phases, except during the ITI (Fig. 5a , n = 10, mean decoding value above 99.5th percentile of shuffle distribution is P < 0.01, per phase, Cohen’s d = 0.64, 6.17, 3.04, 6.59, 3.93 and 8.26, confidence interval of the mean ± 1.73, 4.46, 5.21, 5.67, 4.63 and 6.49). Decoding accuracies were significantly higher in the cue, internal speech and speech condition, compared with rest phases ITI, D1 and D2 (Fig. 5a , paired t -test, n = 10, d.f. 9, for all P < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 6.81, 2.29 and 5.75). Significant cue phase decoding suggested that modality-independent linguistic representations were present early within the task 45 . Internal speech decoding averaged 55% offline, with the highest session at 72% and a chance level of ~12.5% (Fig. 5a , red line). Vocalized speech averaged even higher, at 74%. All words were highly decodable (Fig. 5c ). As suggested from our dPCA results, individual words were not significantly decodable from neural activity in S1 (Supplementary Fig. 4a ), indicating generalized activity for vocalized speech in the S1 arm region (Fig. 4c ).

For participant 2, SMG significant word decoding was observed during the cue, internal and vocalized speech phases (Supplementary Fig. 4b , n = 9, mean decoding value above 97.5th/99.5th percentile of shuffle distribution is P < 0.05/ P < 0.01, per phase Cohen’s d = 0.35, 1.15, 1.09, 1.44, 0.99 and 1.49, confidence interval of the mean ± 3.09, 5.02, 6.91, 8.14, 5.45 and 4.15). Decoding accuracies were significantly higher in the cue and internal speech condition, compared with rest phases ITI and D1 (Supplementary Fig. 4b , paired t -test, n = 9, d.f. 8, P ITI_Cue = 0.013, Cohen’s d = 1.07, P D1_Internal = 0.01, Cohen’s d = 1.11). S1 decoding mirrored results in participant 1, suggesting that no synchronized face movements occurred during the cue phase or internal speech phase (Supplementary Fig. 4c ).

High-accuracy online speech decoder

We developed an online, closed-loop internal speech BMI using an eight-word vocabulary (Fig. 5b ). On three separate session days, training datasets were generated using the written cue task, with eight repetitions of each word for each participant. An LDA model was trained on the internal speech data of the training set, corresponding to only 1.5 s of neural data per repetition for each class. The trained decoder predicted internal speech during the online task. During the online task, the vocalized speech phase was replaced with a feedback phase. The decoded word was shown in green if correctly decoded, and in red if wrongly decoded (Supplementary Video 1 ). The classifier was retrained after each run of the online task, adding the newly recorded data. Several online runs were performed on each session day, corresponding to different datapoints on Fig. 5b . When using between 8 and 14 repetitions per words to train the decoding model, an average of 59% classification accuracy was obtained for participant 1. Accuracies were significantly higher (two-sample two-tailed t -test, n (8–14) = 8, n (16–20) = 5, d.f. 11, P = 0.029) the more data were added to train the model, obtaining an average of 79% classification accuracy with 16–20 repetitions per word. The highest single run accuracy was 91%. All words were well represented, illustrated by a confusion matrix of 304 trials (Fig. 5d ). In participant 2, decoding was statistically significant, but lower compared with participant 1. The lower number of tuned units (Fig. 3a–f ) and reduced explained variance between words (Fig. 4e , left) could account for these findings. Additionally, preferential representation of words ‘spoon’ and ‘swimming’ was observed.

Shared representations between internal speech, written words and vocalized speech

Different language processes are engaged during the task: auditory comprehension or visual word recognition during the cue phase, and internal speech and vocalized speech production during the speech phases. It has been widely assumed that each of these processes is part of a highly distributed network, involving multiple cortical areas 46 . In this work, we observed significant representation of different language processes in a common cortical region, SMG, in our participants. To explore the relationships between each of these processes, for participant 1 we used cross-phase classification to identify the distinct and common neural codes separately in the auditory and written cue datasets. By training our classifier on the representation found in one phase (for example, the cue phase) and testing the classifier on another phase (for example, internal speech), we quantified generalizability of our models across neural activity of different language processes (Fig. 6 ). The generalizability of a model to different task phases was evaluated through paired t -tests. No significant difference between classification accuracies indicates good generalization of the model, while significantly lower classification accuracies suggest poor generalization of the model.

a , Evaluating the overlap of shared information between different task phases in the ‘auditory cue’ task. For each of the ten session days, cross-phase classification was performed. It consisted in training a model on a subset of data from one phase (for example, cue) and applying it on a subset of data from ITI, cue, internal and speech phases. This analysis was performed separately for each task phase. PCA was performed on the training data, an LDA model was constructed and classification accuracies were plotted with a 95% confidence interval over session means. Significant differences in performance between phases were evaluated between the ten sessions (paired two-tailed t -test, FDR corrected, d.f. 9, P < 0.001 for all, Cohen’s d ≥ 1.89). For easier visibility, significant differences between ITI and other phases were not plotted. b , Same as a for the ‘written cue’ task (paired two-tailed t -test, FDR corrected, d.f. 9, P Cue_Internal = 0.028, Cohen’s d > 0.86; P Cue_Speech = 0.022, Cohen’s d = 0.95; all others P < 0.001 and Cohen’s d ≥ 1.65). c , The percentage of neurons tuned during the internal speech phase that are also tuned during the vocalized speech phase. Neurons tuned during the internal speech phase were computed as in Fig. 3b separately for each session day. From these, the percentage of neurons that were also tuned during vocalized speech was calculated. More than 80% of neurons during internal speech were also tuned during vocalized speech (82% in the ‘auditory cue’ task, 85% in the ‘written cue’ task). In total, 71% of ‘auditory cue’ and 79% ‘written cue’ neurons also preserved tuning to at least one identical word during internal speech and vocalized speech phases. d , The percentage of neurons tuned during the internal speech phase that were also tuned during the cue phase. Right: 78% of neurons tuned during internal speech were also tuned during the written cue phase. Left: a smaller 47% of neurons tuned during the internal speech phase were also tuned during the auditory cue phase. In total, 71% of neurons preserved tuning between the written cue phase and the internal speech phase, while 42% of neurons preserved tuning between the auditory cue and the internal speech phase.

The strongest shared neural representations were found between visual word recognition, internal speech and vocalized speech (Fig. 6b ). A model trained on internal speech was highly generalizable to both vocalized speech and written cued words, evidence for a possible shared neural code (Fig. 6b , internal). In contrast, the model’s performance was significantly lower when tested on data recorded in the auditory cue phase (Fig. 6a , training phase internal: paired t -test, d.f. 9, P Cue_Internal < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.16; P Cue_Speech < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 3.34). These differences could stem from the inherent challenges in comparing visual and auditory language stimuli, which differ in processing time: instantaneous for text versus several hundred milliseconds for auditory stimuli.

We evaluated the capability of a classification model, initially trained to distinguish words during vocalized speech, in its ability to generalize to internal and cue phases (Fig. 6a,b , training phase speech). The model demonstrated similar levels of generalization during internal speech and in response to written cues, as indicated by the lack of significance in decoding accuracy between the internal and written cue phase (Fig. 6b , training phase speech, cue–internal). However, the model generalized significantly better to internal speech than to representations observed during the auditory cue phase (Fig. 6a , training phase speech, d.f. 9, P Cue_Internal < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.85).

Neuronal representation of words at the single-neuron level was highly consistent between internal speech, vocalized speech and written cue phases. A high percentage of neurons were not only active during the same task phases but also preserved identical tuning to at least one word (Fig. 6c,d ). In total, 82–85% of neurons active during internal speech were also active during vocalized speech. In 71–79% of neurons, tuning was preserved between the internal speech and vocalized speech phases (Fig. 6c ). During the cue phase, 78% of neurons active during internal speech were also active during the written cue (Fig. 6d , right). However, a lower percentage of neurons (47%) were active during the auditory cue phase (Fig. 6d , left). Similarly, 71% of neurons preserved tuning between the written cue phase and the internal speech phase, while 42% of neurons preserved tuning between the auditory cue phase and the internal speech phase.

Together with the cross-phase analysis, these results suggest strong shared neural representations between internal speech, vocalized speech and the written cue, both at the single-neuron and at the population level.

Robust decoding of multiple internal speech strategies within the SMG

Strong shared neural representations in participant 1 between written, inner and vocalized speech suggest that all three partly represent the same cognitive process or all cognitive processes share common neural features. While internal and vocalized speech have been shown to share common neural features 36 , similarities between internal speech and the written cue could have occurred through several different cognitive processes. For instance, the participant’s observation of the written cue could have activated silent reading. This process has been self-reported as activating internal speech, which can involve ‘hearing’ a voice, thus having an auditory component 42 , 47 . However, the participant could also have mentally pictured an image of the written word while performing internal speech, involving visual imagination in addition to language processes. Both hypotheses could explain the high amount of shared neural representation between the written cue and the internal speech phases (Fig. 6b ).

We therefore compared two possible internal sensory strategies in participant 1: a ‘sound imagination’ strategy in which the participant imagined hearing the word, and a ‘visual imagination’ strategy in which the participant visualized the word’s image (Supplementary Fig. 5a ). Each strategy was cued by the modalities we had previously tested (auditory and written words) (Table 1 ). To assess the similarity of these internal speech processes to other task phases, we conducted a cross-phase decoding analysis (as performed in Fig. 6 ). We hypothesized that, if the high cross-decoding results between internal and written cue phases primarily stemmed from the participant engaging in visual word imagination, we would observe lower decoding accuracies during the auditory imagination phase.

Both strategies demonstrated high representation of the four-word dataset (Supplementary Fig. 5b , highest 94%, chance level 25%). These results suggest our speech BMI decoder is robust to multiple types of internal speech strategy.

The participant described the ‘sound imagination’ strategy as being easier and more similar to the internal speech condition of the first experiment. The participant’s self-reported strategy suggests that no visual imagination was performed during internal speech. Correspondingly, similarities between written cue and internal speech phases may stem from internal speech activation during the silent reading of the cue.

In this work, we demonstrated a decoder for internal and vocalized speech, using single-neuron activity from the SMG. Two chronically implanted, speech-abled participants with tetraplegia were able to use an online, closed-loop internal speech BMI to achieve on average 79% and 23% classification accuracy with 16–32 training trials for an eight-word vocabulary. Furthermore, high decoding was achievable with only 24 s of training data per word, corresponding to 16 trials each with 1.5 s of data. Firing rates recorded from S1 showed generalized activation only during vocalized speech activity, but individual words were not classifiable. In the SMG, shared neural representations between internal speech, the written cue and vocalized speech suggest the occurrence of common processes. Robust control could be achieved using visual and auditory internal speech strategies. Representation of pseudowords provided evidence for a phonetic word encoding component in the SMG.

Single neurons in the SMG encode internal speech

We demonstrated internal speech decoding of six different words and two pseudowords in the SMG. Single neurons increased their firing rates during internal speech (Fig. 2 , S1 and S2), which was also reflected at the population level (Fig. 3a,b,d,e ). Each word was represented in the neuronal population (Fig. 3c,f ). Classification accuracy and tuning during the internal speech phase were significantly higher than during the previous delay phase (Figs. 3b,e and 5a , and Supplementary Figs. 3c,d and 4b ). This evidence suggests that we did not simply decode sustained activity from the cue phase but activity generated by the participant performing internal speech. We obtained significant offline and online internal speech decoding results in two participants (Fig. 5a and Supplementary Fig. 4b ). These findings provide strong evidence for internal speech processing at the single-neuron level in the SMG.

Neurons in S1 are modulated by vocalized but not internal speech

Neural activity recorded from S1 served as a control for synchronized face and lip movements during internal speech. While vocalized speech robustly activated sensory neurons, no increase of baseline activity was observed during the internal speech phase or the auditory and written cue phases in both participants (Fig. 4 , S1). These results underline no synchronized movement inflated our decoding accuracy of internal speech (Supplementary Fig. 4a,c ).

A previous imaging study achieved significant offline decoding of several different internal speech sentences performed by patients with mild ALS 6 . Together with our findings, these results suggest that a BMI speech decoder that does not rely on any movement may translate to communication opportunities for patients suffering from ALS and locked-in syndrome.

Different face activities are observable but not decodable in arm area of S1

The topographic representation of body parts in S1 has recently been found to be less rigid than previously thought. Generalized finger representation was found in a presumably S1 arm region of interest (ROI) 44 . Furthermore, an fMRI paper found observable face and lip activity in S1 leg and hand ROIs. However, differentiation between two lip actions was restricted to the face ROI 43 . Correspondingly, we observed generalized face and lip activity in a predominantly S1 arm region for participant 1 (see ref. 48 for implant location) and a predominantly S1 hand region for participant 2 during vocalized speech (Fig. 4a,d and Supplementary Figs. 1 and 4a,b ). Recorded neural activity contained similar representations for different spoke words (Fig. 4c,e ) and was not significantly decodable (Supplementary Fig. 4a,c ).

Shared neural representations between internal and vocalized speech

The extent to which internal and vocalized speech generalize is still debated 35 , 42 , 49 and depends on the investigated brain area 36 , 50 . In this work, we found on average stronger representation for vocalized (74%) than internal speech (Fig. 5a , 55%) in participant 1 but the opposite effect in participant 2 (Supplementary Fig. 4b , 24% internal, 21% vocalized speech). Additionally, cross-phase decoding of vocalized speech from models trained on data during internal speech resulted in comparable classification accuracies to those of internal speech (Fig. 6a,b , internal). Most neurons tuned during internal speech were also tuned to at least one of the same words during vocalized speech (71–79%; Fig. 6c ). However, some neurons were only tuned during internal speech, or to different words. These observations also applied to firing rates of individual neurons. Here, we observed neurons that had higher peak rates during the internal speech phase than the vocalized speech phase (Supplementary Fig. 1 : swimming and cowboy). Together, these results further suggest neural signatures during internal and vocalized speech are similar but distinct from one another, emphasizing the need for developing speech models from data recorded directly on internal speech production 51 .

Similar observations were made when comparing internal speech processes with visual word processes. In total, 79% of neurons were active both in the internal speech phase and the written cue phase, and 79% preserved the same tuning (Fig. 6d , written cue). Additionally, high cross-decoding between both phases was observed (Fig. 6b , internal).

Shared representation between speech and written cue presentation

Observation of a written cue may engage a variety of cognitive processes, such as visual feature recognition, semantic understanding and/or related language processes, many of which modulate similar cortical regions as speech 45 . Studies have found that silent reading can evoke internal speech; it can be modulated by a presumed author’s speaking speed, voice familiarity or regional accents 35 , 42 , 47 , 52 , 53 . During silent reading of a cued sentence with a neutral versus increased prosody (madeleine brought me versus MADELEINE brought me), one study in particular found that increased left SMG activation correlated with the intensity of the produced inner speech 54 .

Our data demonstrated high cross-phase decoding accuracies between both written cue and speech phases in our first participant (Fig. 6b ). Due to substantial shared neural representation, we hypothesize that the participant’s silent reading during the presentation of the written cue may have engaged internal speech processes. However, this same shared representation could have occurred if visual processes were activated in the internal speech phase. For instance, the participant could have performed mental visualization of the written word instead of generating an internal monologue, as the subjective perception of internal speech may vary between individuals.

Investigating internal speech strategies

In a separate experiment, participant 1 was prompted to execute different mental strategies during the internal speech phase, consisting of ‘sound imagination’ or ‘visual word imagination’ (Supplementary Fig. 5a ). We found robust decoding during the internal strategy phase, regardless of which mental strategy was performed (Supplementary Fig. 5b ). This participant reported the sound strategy was easier to execute than the visual strategy. Furthermore, this participant reported that the sound strategy was more similar to the internal speech strategy employed in prior experiments. This self-report suggests that the patient did not perform visual imagination during the internal speech task. Therefore, shared neural representation between internal and written word phases during the internal speech task may stem from silent reading of the written cue. Since multiple internal mental strategies are decodable from SMG, future patients could have flexibility with their preferred strategy. For instance, people with a strong visual imagination may prefer performing visual word imagination.

Audio contamination in decoding result

Prior studies examining neural representation of attempted or vocalized speech must potentially mitigate acoustic contamination of electrophysiological brain signals during speech production 55 . During internal speech production, no detectable audio was captured by the audio equipment or noticed by the researchers in the room. In the rare cases the participant spoke during internal speech (three trials), the trials were removed. Furthermore, if audio had contaminated the neural data during the auditory cue or vocalized speech, we would have probably observed significant decoding in all channels. However, no significant classification was detected in S1 channels during the auditory cue phase nor the vocalized speech phase (Supplementary Fig. 2b ). We therefore conclude that acoustic contamination did not artificially inflate observed classification accuracies during vocalized speech in the SMG.

Single-neuron modulation during internal speech with a second participant

We found single-neuron modulation to speech processes in a second participant (Figs. 2d,e and 3f , and Supplementary Fig. 2d ), as well as significant offline and online classification accuracies (Fig. 5a and Supplementary Fig. 4b ), confirming neural representation of language processes in the SMG. The number of neurons distinctly active for different words was lower compared with the first participant (Fig. 2e and Supplementary Fig. 3d ), limiting our ability to decode with high accuracy between words in the different task phases (Fig. 5a and Supplementary Fig. 4b ).

Previous work found that single neurons in the PPC exhibited a common neural substrate for written action verbs and observed actions 56 . Another study found that single neurons in the PPC also encoded spoken numbers 57 . These recordings were made in the superior parietal lobule whereas the SMG is in the inferior parietal lobule. Thus, it would appear that language-related activity is highly distributed across the PPC. However, the difference in strength of language representation between each participant in the SMG suggests that there is a degree of functional segregation within the SMG 37 .

Different anatomical geometries of the SMG between participants mean that precise comparisons of implanted array locations become difficult (Fig. 1 ). Implant locations for both participants were informed from pre-surgical anatomical/vasculature scans and fMRI tasks designed to evoke activity related to grasp and dexterous hand movements 48 . Furthermore, the number of electrodes of the implanted array was higher in the first participant (96) than in the second participant (64). A pre-surgical assessment of functional activity related to language and speech may be required to determine the best candidate implant locations within the SMG for online speech decoding applications.

Impact on BMI applications

In this work, an online internal speech BMI achieved significant decoding from single-neuron activity in the SMG in two participants with tetraplegia. The online decoders were trained on as few as eight repetitions of 1.5 s per word, demonstrating that meaningful classification accuracies can be obtained with only a few minutes’ worth of training data per day. This proof-of-concept suggests that the SMG may be able to represent a much larger internal vocabulary. By building models on internal speech directly, our results may translate to people who cannot vocalize speech or are completely locked in. Recently, ref. 26 demonstrated a BMI speller that decoded attempted speech of the letters of the NATO alphabet and used those to construct sentences. Scaling our vocabulary to that size could allow for an unrestricted internal speech speller.

To summarize, we demonstrate the SMG as a promising candidate to build an internal brain–machine speech device. Different internal speech strategies were decodable from the SMG, allowing patients to use the methods and languages with which they are most comfortable. We found evidence for a phonetic component during internal and vocalized speech. Adding to previous findings indicating grasp decoding in the SMG 23 , we propose the SMG as a multipurpose BMI area.

Experimental model and participant details

Two male participants with tetraplegia (33 and 39 years) were recruited for an institutional review board- and Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial of a BMI and gave informed consent to participate (Institutional Review Board of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Institutional Review Board of California Institute of Technology, clinical trial registration NCT01964261 ). This clinical trial evaluated BMIs in the PPC and the somatosensory cortex for grasp rehabilitation. One of the primary effectiveness objectives of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the neuroport in controlling virtual or physical end effectors. Signals from the PPC will allow the subjects to control the end effector with accuracy greater than chance. Participants were compensated for their participation in the study and reimbursed for any travel expenses related to participation in study activities. The authors affirm that the human research participant provided written informed consent for publication of Supplementary Video 1 . The first participant suffered a spinal cord injury at cervical level C5 1.5 years before participating in the study. The second participant suffered a C5–C6 spinal cord injury 3 years before implantation.

Method details

Data were collected from implants located in the left SMG and the left S1 (for anatomical locations, see Fig. 1 ). For description of pre-surgical planning, localization fMRI tasks, surgical techniques and methodologies, see ref. 48 . Placement of electrodes was based on fMRI tasks involving grasp and dexterous hand movements.

The first participant underwent surgery in November 2016 to implant two 96-channel platinum-tipped multi-electrode arrays (NeuroPort Array, Blackrock Microsystems) in the SMG and in the ventral premotor cortex and two 7 × 7 sputtered iridium oxide film (SIROF)-tipped microelectrode arrays with 48 channels each in the hand and arm area of S1. Data were collected between July 2021 and August 2022. The second participant underwent surgery in October 2022 and was implanted with SIROF-tipped 64-channel microelectrode arrays in S1 (two arrays), SMG, ventral premotor cortex and primary motor cortex. Data were collected in January 2023.

Data collection

Recording began 2 weeks after surgery and continued one to three times per week. Data for this work were collected between 2021 and 2023. Broadband electrical activity was recorded from the NeuroPort Arrays using Neural Signal Processors (Blackrock Microsystems). Analogue signals were amplified, bandpass filtered (0.3–7,500 Hz) and digitized at 30,000 samples s −1 . To identify putative action potentials, these broadband data were bandpass filtered (250–5,000 Hz) and thresholded at −4.5 the estimated root-mean-square voltage of the noise. For some of the analyses, waveforms captured at these threshold crossings were then spike sorted by manually assigning each observation to a putative single neuron; for others, multiunit activity was considered. For participant 1, an average of 33 sorted SMG units (between 22 and 56) and 83 sorted S1 units (between 59 and 96) were recorded per session. For participant 2, an average of 80 sorted SMG units (between 69 and 92) and 81 sorted S1 units (between 61 and 101) were recorded per session. Auditory data were recorded at 30,000 Hz simultaneously to the neural data. Background noise was reduced post-recording by using the noise reduction function of the program ‘Audible’.

Experimental tasks

We implemented different tasks to study language processes in the SMG. The tasks cued six words informed by ref. 31 (spoon, python, battlefield, cowboy, swimming and telephone) as well as two pseudowords (bindip and nifzig). The participants were situated 1 m in front of a light-emitting diode screen (1,190 mm screen diagonal), where the task was visualized. The task was implemented using the Psychophysics Toolbox 58 , 59 , 60 extension for MATLAB. Only the written cue task was used for participant 2.

Auditory cue task

Each trial consisted of six phases, referred to in this paper as ITI, cue, D1, internal, D2 and speech. The trial began with a brief ITI (2 s), followed by a 1.5-s-long cue phase. During the cue phase, a speaker emitted the sound of one of the eight words (for example, python). Word duration varied between 842 and 1,130 ms. Then, after a delay period (grey circle on screen; 0.5 s), the participant was instructed to internally say the cued word (orange circle on screen; 1.5 s). After a second delay (grey circle on screen; 0.5 s), the participant vocalized the word (green circle on screen, 1.5 s).

Written cue task

The task was identical to the auditory cue task, except words were cued in writing instead of sound. The written word appeared on the screen for 1.5 s during the cue phase. The auditory cue was played between 200 ms and 650 ms later than the written cue appeared on the screen, due to the utilization of varied sound outputs (direct computer audio versus Bluetooth speaker).

One auditory cue task and one written cue task were recorded on ten individual session days in participant 1. The written cue task was recorded on seven individual session days in participant 2.

Control experiments

Three experiments were run to investigate internal strategies and phonetic versus semantic processing.

Internal strategy task

The task was designed to vary the internal strategy employed by the participant during the internal speech phase. Two internal strategies were tested: a sound imagination and a visual imagination. For the ‘sound imagination’ strategy, the participant was instructed to imagine what the sound of the word sounded like. For the ‘visual imagination’ strategy, the participant was instructed to perform mental visualization from the written word. We also tested if the cue modality (auditory or written) influenced the internal strategy. A subset of four words were used for this experiment. This led to four different variations of the task.

The internal strategy task was run on one session day with participant 1.

Online task

The ‘written cue task’ was used for the closed-loop experiments. To obtain training data for the online task, a written cue task was run. Then, a classification model was trained only on the internal speech data of the task (see ‘Classification’ section). The closed-loop task was nearly identical to the ‘written cue task’ but replaced the vocalized speech phase by a feedback phase. Feedback was provided by showing the word on the screen either in green if correctly classified or in red if wrongly classified. See Supplementary Video 1 for an example of the participant performing the online task. The online task was run on three individual session days.

Error trials

Trials in which participants accidentally spoke during the internal speech part (3 trials) or said the wrong word during the vocalized speech part (20 trials) were removed from all analysis.

Total number of recording trials

For participant 1, we collected offline datasets composed of eight trials per word across ten sessions. Trials during which participant errors occurred were excluded. In total, between 156 and 159 trials per word were included, with a total of 1,257 trials for offline analysis. On four non-consecutive session days, the auditory cue task was run first, and on six non-consecutive days, the written cue task was run first. For online analysis, datasets were recorded on three different session days, for a total of 304 trials. Participant 2 underwent a similar data collection process, with offline datasets comprising 16 trials per word using the written cue modality over nine sessions. Error trials were excluded. In total, between 142 and 144 trials per word were kept, with a total of 1,145 trials for offline analysis. For online analysis, datasets were recorded on three session days, leading to a total of 448 online trials.

Quantification and statistical analysis

Analyses were performed using MATLAB R2020b and Python, version 3.8.11.

Neural firing rates

Firing rates of sorted units were computed as the number of spikes occurring in 50-ms bins, divided by the bin width and smoothed using a Gaussian filter with kernel width of 50 ms to form an estimate of the instantaneous firing rates (spikes s −1 ).

Linear regression tuning analysis

To identify units exhibiting selective firing rate patterns (or tuning) for each of the eight words, linear regression analysis was performed in two different ways: (1) step by step in 50-ms time bins to allow assessing changes in neuronal tuning over the entire trial duration; (2) averaging the firing rate in each task phase to compare tuning between phases. The model returns a fit that estimates the firing rate of a unit on the basis of the following variables:

where FR corresponds to the firing rate of the unit, β 0 to the offset term equal to the average ITI firing rate of the unit, X is the vector indicator variable for each word w , and β w corresponds to the estimated regression coefficient for word w . W was equal to 8 (battlefield, cowboy, python, spoon, swimming, telephone, bindip and nifzig) 23 .

In this model, β symbolizes the change of firing rate from baseline for each word. A t -statistic was calculated by dividing each β coefficient by its standard error. Tuning was based on the P value of the t -statistic for each β coefficient. A follow-up analysis was performed to adjust for false discovery rate (FDR) between the P values 61 , 62 . A unit was defined as tuned if the adjusted P value is <0.05 for at least one word. This definition allowed for tuning of a unit to zero, one or multiple words during different timepoints of the trial. Linear regression was performed for each session day individually. A 95% confidence interval of the mean was computed by performing the Student’s t -inverse cumulative distribution function over the ten sessions.

Kruskal–Wallis tuning analysis

As an alternative tuning definition, differences in firing rates between words were tested using the Kruskal–Wallis test, the non-parametric analogue to the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). For each neuron, the analysis was performed to evaluate the null hypothesis that data from each word come from the same distribution. A follow-up analysis was performed to adjust for FDR between the P values for each task phase 61 , 62 . A unit was defined as tuned during a phase if the adjusted P value was smaller than α = 0.05.

Classification

Using the neuronal firing rates recorded during the tasks, a classifier was used to evaluate how well the set of words could be differentiated during each phase. Classifiers were trained using averaged firing rates over each task phase, resulting in six matrices of size n , m , where n corresponds to the number of trials and m corresponds to the number of recorded units. A model for each phase was built using LDA, assuming an identical covariance matrix for each word, which resulted in best classification accuracies. Leave-one-out CV was performed to estimate decoding performance, leaving out a different trial across neurons at each loop. PCA was applied on the training data, and PCs explaining more than 95% of the variance were selected as features and applied to the single testing trial. A 95% confidence interval of the mean was computed as described above.

Cross-phase classification

To estimate shared neural representations between different task phases, we performed cross-phase classification. The process consisted in training a classification model (as described above) on one of the task phases (for example, ITI) and to test it on the ITI, cue, imagined speech and vocalized speech phases. The method was repeated for each of the ten sessions individually, and a 95% confidence interval of the mean was computed. Significant differences in classification accuracies between phases decoded with the same model were evaluated using a paired two-tailed t -test. FDR correction of the P values was performed (‘Linear regression tuning analysis’) 61 , 62 .

Classification performance significance testing

To assess the significance of classification performance, a null dataset was created by repeating classification 100 times with shuffled labels. Then, different percentile levels of this null distribution were computed and compared to the mean of the actual data. Mean classification performances higher than the 97.5th percentile were denoted with P < 0.05 and higher than 99.5th percentile were denoted with P < 0.01.

dPCA analysis

dPCA was performed on the session data to study the activity of the neuronal population in relation to the external task parameters: cue modality and word. Kobak et al. 63 introduced dPCA as a refinement of their earlier dimensionality reduction technique (of the same name) that attempts to combine the explanatory strengths of LDA and PCA. By deconstructing neuronal population activity into individual components, each component relates to a single task parameter 64 .

This text follows the methodology outlined by Kobak et al. 63 . Briefly, this involved the following steps for N neurons:

First, unlike in PCA, we focused not on the matrix, X , of the original data, but on the matrices of marginalizations, X ϕ . The marginalizations were computed as neural activity averaged over trials, k , and some task parameters in analogy to the covariance decomposition done in multivariate analysis of variance. Since our dataset has three parameters: timing, t , cue modality, $c$ (for example, auditory or visual), and word, w (eight different words), we obtained the total activity as the sum of the average activity with the marginalizations and a final noise term

The above notation of Kobak et al. is the same as used in factorial ANOVA, that is, ${X}_{{tcwk}}$ is the matrix of firing rates for all neurons, $< \bullet { > }_{{ab}}$ is the average over a set of parameters $a,b,\ldots$ , $\bar{X}= < {X}_{{tcwk}}{ > }_{{tcwk}}$ , ${\bar{X}}_{t}= < {X}_{{tcwk}}-\bar{X}{ > }_{{cwk}}$ , ${\bar{X}}_{{tc}}= < {X}_{{tcwk}}-\bar{X}-{\bar{X}}_{t}-{\bar{X}}_{c}-{\bar{X}}_{w}{ > }_{{wk}}$ and so on. Finally, ${{{\epsilon }}}_{{tcwk}}={X}_{{tcwk}}- < {X}_{{tcwk}}{ > }_{k}$ .

Participant 1 datasets were composed of N = 333 (SMG), N = 828 (S1) and k = 8. Participant 2 datasets were composed of N = 547 (SMG), N = 522 (S1) and k = 16. To create balanced datasets, error trials were replaced by the average firing rate of k − 1 trials.

Our second step reduced the number of terms by grouping them as seen by the braces in the equation above, since there is no benefit in demixing a time-independent pure task, $a$ , term ${\bar{X}}_{a}$ from the time–task interaction terms ${\bar{X}}_{{ta}}$ since all components are expected to change with time. The above grouping reduced the parametrization down to just five marginalization terms and the noise term (reading in order): the mean firing rate, the task-independent term, the cue modality term, the word term, the cue modality–word interaction term and the trial-to-trial noise.

Finally, we gained extra flexibility by having two separate linear mappings ${F}_{\varphi }$ for encoding and ${D}_{\varphi }$ for decoding (unlike in PCA, they are not assumed to be transposes of each other). These matrices were chosen to minimize the loss function (with a quadratic penalty added to avoid overfitting):

Here, ${{\mu }}=(\lambda\Vert X\Vert)^{2}$ , where λ was optimally selected through tenfold CV in each dataset.

We refer the reader to Kobak et al. for a description of the full analytic solution.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are openly available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10697024 (ref. 65 ). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The custom code developed for this study is openly available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10697024 (ref. 65 ).

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. Bashford and I. Rosenthal for helpful discussions and data collection. We thank our study participants for their dedication to the study that made this work possible. This research was supported by the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant U01: U01NS098975 and U01: U01NS123127 (S.K.W., D.A.B., K.P., C.L. and R.A.A.) and by the T&C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center (S.K.W., D.A.B. and R.A.A.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the paper.

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S.K.W., D.A.B. and R.A.A. designed the study. S.K.W. and D.A.B. developed the experimental tasks and collected the data. S.K.W. analysed the results and generated the figures. S.K.W., D.A.B. and R.A.A. interpreted the results and wrote the paper. K.P. coordinated regulatory requirements of clinical trials. C.L. and B.L. performed the surgery to implant the recording arrays.

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The video shows the participant performing the internal speech task in real time. The participant is cued with a word on the screen. After a delay, an orange dot appears, during which the participant performs internal speech. Then, the decoded word appears on the screen, in green if it is correctly decoded and in red if it is wrongly decoded.

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Wandelt, S.K., Bjånes, D.A., Pejsa, K. et al. Representation of internal speech by single neurons in human supramarginal gyrus. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01867-y

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COMMENTS

Organizational Styles
Spatial. Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization style when the main point's importance is derived from its location or directional focus. In other words, when the ...
10.2 Using Common Organizing Patterns
Learning Objectives. Differentiate among the common speech organizational patterns: categorical/topical, comparison/contrast, spatial, chronological, biographical, causal, problem-cause-solution, and psychological. Understand how to choose the best organizational pattern, or combination of patterns, for a specific speech.
6.2: Organizational Patterns of Arrangement
Spatial Pattern. Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships.The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point's importance is derived from its location or directional focus.
8.3: Organizational Styles
The topical, spatial, causal, comparative and chronological methods of arrangement may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the refutation pattern may work well for a persuasive speech. Additionally, Chapter 16 offers additional organization styles suited for persuasive speeches, such as the refutation speech and Monroe's ...
Chapter 8: Organizing and Outlining
A spatial pattern arranges ideas according to their physical or geographic relationships. Typically, we can begin with a starting point and look at the main points of your speech directionally from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. A spatial pattern allows for creativity as well as clarity.
7.3 Organizational Patterns of Arrangement
Spatial Pattern. Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization pattern when the main point's importance is derived from its location or directional focus.
Building and Organizing Your Speech
The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. The chronological speech pattern places the main idea in the time order in which items appear—whether backward or forward. The causal speech pattern is used to explain cause-and-effect relationships. When you use a causal speech pattern ...
Organizational Styles
Spatial. Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech, which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization style when the main point's importance is derived from its location or directional focus. In other words, when the ...
Organizational Patterns
Speech organizational patterns help us to arrange our speech content in a way that will communicate our ideas clearly to our audience. Different organizational patterns are better for different types of speeches and topics. Some organizational patterns are better for informative speeches: Chronological, spatial, topical, and narrative.
Structure and Organization
Spatial Pattern. You can see that chronological is a highly-used organizational structure, since one of the ways our minds work is through time-orientation—past, present, future. ... This speech emphasizes the anatomy of the heart, and the organization is "parts of the whole." If the speech's specific purpose were "To explain to my ...
10.4 Organizing Your Speech
Determining Your Main Ideas. When creating a speech, it's important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and orients your audience, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real "meat" of your speech happens in the body.
Chapter 6: Informative Speaking
A descriptive speech is given to describe an object, person, place, or event. Descriptive speeches about an "object" refer to anything tangible; something that can be seen or touched. When organizing an object speech, you might use a spatial, chronological, or topical organizational pattern.
Patterns of Organization: Informative Speeches
For a speech about changing the oil in a car, your purpose is that the audience could actually change the oil in their cars after listening to the speech. One of the problems with chronological speeches is, as mentioned before, that you would not want just a list of activities. ... Spatial. You can see that chronological is a highly-used ...
7.3: Using Common Organizing Patterns
Spatial. The spatial speech pattern organizes information according to how things fit together in physical space. This pattern is best used when your main points are oriented to different locations that can exist independently. The basic reason to choose this format is to show that the main points have clear locations.
Speech Organization
Explore speech organization. Learn the definition of speech organization and understand its importance. ... An example of a speech that would benefit from a spatial organizational pattern is an ...
Speech Organizational Patterns
A speech organizational pattern refers to the way the information is arranged within the speech. Organizational patterns include chronological, spatial, cause and effect, problem-solution, and ...
14.6: Speech Organization
Speakers from low-context cultures often use linear patterns, such as cause- and-effect, problem-solution, chronological and spatial. In these patterns the speaker develops the main idea step by step, relying on facts and data to support the main argument. The main points and sub-points are connected via transitions, internal previews and ...
Spatial Order And Chronology In Writing, Speech And Essay
Speech spatial order is a type of logical organization pattern that describes things according to their actual location in space. Definition: this order is also called the order of place and spatial structure. And in speech, it means that the narrator describes objects using an ordered logical sequence, describing things as they look when ...
Chapter Nine
When creating a speech, it's important to remember that speeches have three clear parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction establishes the topic and whets your audience's appetite, and the conclusion wraps everything up at the end of your speech. The real "meat" of your speech happens in the body.
Topical Organization
Think of topical organization as a set of boxes, bins, or drawers. Items are organized according to which drawer they go in. For example, a speech about the benefits of listening to music while exercising could follow a topical structure divided between the categories of how music can (1) increase stamina, (2) decrease boredom, and (3) improve ...
Spatial Definition & Meaning
spatial: [adjective] relating to, occupying, or having the character of space.
6.2: Patterns of Organization
The key to spatial organization is to be logical in progression rather than jumping around, as in this example: The Native Americans of Middle Georgia were primarily the Creek nation. ... This speech is emphasizing the anatomy of the heart; if the speech's specific purpose were "To explain to my classmates the flow of blood through the ...
Representation of internal speech by single neurons in human
Speech brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) translate brain signals into words or audio outputs, enabling communication for people having lost their speech abilities due to diseases or injury. While ...
Introducing GPT-4o: OpenAI's new flagship multimodal model now in
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Federal Register :: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in
This definition is consistent with the definition in the existing regulation, with addition of "direct Federal" so that it reads "(other than a direct Federal procurement contract or a contract of insurance or guaranty)". No substantive change is intended from the existing definition.