Outlining Your Speech

When giving extemporaneous speeches (any of the limited preparation or debate events), you’ll need to figure out what you’re going to say relatively quickly. It can help to use a template to quickly sketch out all your points so you can see the overall structure of your speech at a glance. Such a template is intended to help you keep in mind everything you know about structuring your speech.

Note

Though not included explicitly in the template, remember to state your outline in the introduction so your audience has an idea of where you’re going, use transitions between different sections of your speech, and recapitulate the components of your introduction in your conclusion.

Note

Make sure each of your points/claims has a tag line—something short, sweet, and to the point that will be easy for your audience to remember.