College of Southern Idaho
Developing the Speech  
A Step-By-Step Approach

As we said earlier, developing a speech is fundamentally about following directions. Lucky for you, you have an instructor who is completely compulsive about directions, grading sheets, and the like, so all you really have to do is follow the items one-by-one found on your grading sheet. This section of the tutorial, then, is set up with a separate link for each item that goes into a well-crafted speech. Follow each link closely and be sure to ask if you have questions about any of the elements.

Informative Speech Grading Sheet

I. STRUCTURE AND FORMAT

A. INTRODUCTION TO THE SPEECH

Attention-Getter/Capture the attention (5 points)

Motivational link/What is in it for the audience? (5 points)

* Audience Analysis Sheets (5 points)

Thesis/Assert the main idea (5 points)

* Specific Purpose Sheets (5 points)

Preview/Identify the main points (5 points)

B. BODY OF THE SPEECH

Logical organizational pattern (5 points)

* Developing Main Points Sheets (5 points)

Variety of supporting evidence (20 points)

At least two sources (5 points)

C. CONCLUSION TO THE SPEECH

Summary of main points (5 points)

Closing of the thought circle (5 points)

II. Delivery Considerations (Verbal and Nonverbal) (25)

 

Easy enough, right? At this point you should know all of the elements of any good speech and be ready to find the information you need for your particular speech. Remember that you should collect ten-times as much information as you'll ever need, and then narrow the information down from there based on what you want to accomplish.

Once you've mastered all of these items, you're ready to head on to Step #3: Delivering The Speech.

Test yourself: Can you identify each of the above items on the sample outline we are using in class? Where does the author use the attention getter? The Summary? The Sources? How does the author represent each on the outline?

 

Step #3: Delivering The Speech

Step #1: Planning The Speech