Page 28 - October 2017 Voices

Make a Compelling Speech from
a Shoebox of Ideas
by Sara Cardella, DTM - Guest Contributor
If you’re a typical
Toastmaster, you have
all sorts of ideas floating
around in your head.
You may even write those ideas down and drop
them into a shoebox for later development.
What do you do from there?
How about this idea—pick a topic from your
shoebox and create a speech from it with an
introduction, body, and conclusion. Then glue
the speech together with transitions, making
it flow from concept to concept.
However, your speech is still missing
something. Possibly, it’s the structure pattern
of the three main points that’s not working.
How you arrange your content is as important
as deciding on three main points.
Choose from five structural patterns
to arrange your three main points into a
compelling speech. In the examples below, I
use the topic theme “HONORING CATS.”
Time—Arrange ideas chronologically showing
progression [personal experience progression]
1. Raised with dogs. Hated and afraid of
cats.
2. Cats came with husband. Learned to
begrudgingly tolerate them.
3. Now love them. Never without a cat
again!
Topical—Arrange ideas into several categories or
areas of focus [Types of cats who owned me]
1. Siamese—noisy
2. Burmese—needy
3. Mutts—nurturing
Comparative—Arrange ideas by comparing to
highlight similarities or differences [Dog vs. Cat]
1. Care—scooping poop vs. litter box
2. Love—dogs licking vs. cat purring
3. Play—dogs run around, then attack vs.
cat sneak around, then attack
Cause-Effect OR Effect-Cause—Arrange
ideas by representing one thing as caused by
another or one thing as the cause of another [Cat
ownership}
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1. Forced cat ownership, because married
husband with cats.
2. Owned own cats after divorce, because
understood their independence.
3. Never without cats, they now own me.
Motivation Sequence—Arrange ideas to
motivate your audience to action [Get a Cat!]
1. Get their attention: “Thousands of years
ago, cats were worshiped as gods. Cats
have never forgotten this.” Anonymous
2. Why they need: Without a cat, your life
is missing a special warmth.
3. Imagine this: With a cat, you have endless
hours of humor and wonderment.
4. Visualization: You look in the corner, a
sleeping cat. You look in the center of the
floor, a sleeping cat. You look on your
bed, a sleeping cat.
5. Call to action: Don’t miss this special
warmth. Get up and go get a cat!
See? Simple! Take the three main points of
your speech and run them through each pattern
to decide which works best for your topic. Add
an introduction and conclusion and Voila! a
compelling speech is born. Practice the speech
with vocal variety and body language, adding
quotes and statistics. Enjoy!
Sara Cardella, DTM, District 12 Qualified Speaker,
MA Speech Communication. Sara is President of
Spontaneous Speakers #4264 and Treasurer of Desert
Sunrise Speakers #1969. She’s been a member of
Toastmasters since 1991. Sara is also a keynote speaker,
communication coach, and corporate trainer.
VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4 OCTOBER, 2017