Assignment: Speech Organization

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Assignment: Speech Organization

Assignment: Speech Organization

Assignment: Speech Organization

CONFIDENTLY CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Organize Your Message Taking the time to plan a well-organized message can boost your confidence. A jumble of ideas and information without a logical structure is more dif- ficult to remember and present than a well-organ- ized speech. Researchers have discovered that the less organized you are, the more apprehen- sive you may feel.1 A logically organized speech can help you feel more confident about the con- tent you’re presenting.

topical organization Organization of the natural divisions in a central idea according to recency, primacy, complexity, or the speaker’s discretion

primacy Arrangement of ideas from the most to the least important

164 CHAPTER 7 Organizing Your Speech

Recency According to the principle of recency, the point discussed last is the one audiences will remember best. If your audience is at least somewhat knowledgeable about and generally favorable toward your topic and central idea, you should proba- bly organize your main points according to recency.

For example, if your speech is on the various living arrangements available to college students, and you want your audience of fellow students to consider living at home because of the savings involved, you would probably discuss that possibility as the fourth and last option. Your speech might have the following structure:

PURPOSE STATEMENT: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to discuss the pros and cons of four living arrangements for college students.

CENTRAL IDEA: College students have at least four living arrange- ments available to them.

MAIN IDEAS: I. Living in a dormitory

II. Renting an apartment

III. Joining a fraternity or sorority

IV. Living at home

Complexity One other set of circumstances may dictate a particular order of the main ideas in your speech. If your main ideas range from simple to complicated, it makes sense to arrange them in order of complexity, progressing from the simple to the more complex. If, for example, you were to explain to your audience how to com- pile a family health profile and history, you might begin with the most easily accessi- ble source and proceed to the more involved.

PURPOSE STATEMENT: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to compile a family health profile and history.

CENTRAL IDEA: Compiling a family health profile and history can be accomplished with the help of three sources.

MAIN IDEAS: I. Elderly relatives

II. Old hospital records and death certificates

III. National health registries3

Teachers, from those in the very early elementary grades on up, use order of complexity to organize their courses and lessons. The kindergartner is taught to trace circles before learning to print a lowercase a. The young piano student practices scales and arpeggios before playing Beethoven sonatas. The college freshman practices writing 500-word essays before attempting a major research paper. You have learned most of your skills in order of complexity.

Ordering Ideas Chronologically If you decide that your central idea could be explained best by a number of steps, you will probably organize those steps chronologically. Chronological organization is organization by time or sequence; that is, your steps are ordered according to when each step occurred or should occur. Historical speeches and how-to speeches are the two kinds of speeches usually organized chronologically.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

  • The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

    Discussion Questions (DQ)

    • Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
    • Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
    • One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
    • I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

    Weekly Participation

    • Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
    • In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
    • Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
    • Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

    APA Format and Writing Quality

    • Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
    • Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
    • I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

    Use of Direct Quotes

    • I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
    • As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
    • It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

     

    LopesWrite Policy

    • For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
    • Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
    • Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
    • Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

    Late Policy

    • The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
    • Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
    • If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
    • I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
    • As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

    Communication

    • Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
      • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
      • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

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