{"id":63,"date":"2015-08-13T17:04:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T17:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/standupspeakoutxmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=63"},"modified":"2015-11-05T23:16:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T23:16:51","slug":"specific-purposes","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/chapter\/specific-purposes\/","title":{"raw":"Specific Purposes","rendered":"Specific Purposes"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3 class=\"im_title\">Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\r\n\t<li>Understand the process of extending a general purpose into a specific purpose.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Integrate the seven tips for creating specific purposes.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nOnce you have chosen your general purpose and your topic, it\u2019s time to take your speech to the next phase and develop your specific purpose. A <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">specific purpose<\/span><\/span> 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 <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> questions for your speech.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Getting Specific<\/h2>\r\nWhen attempting to get at the core of your speech (the specific purpose), you need to know a few basic things about your speech. First, you need to have a general purpose. Once you know whether your goal is to inform, persuade, or entertain, picking an appropriate topic is easier. Obviously, depending on the general purpose, you will have a range of different types of topics. For example, let\u2019s say you want to give a speech about hygiene. You could still give a speech about hygiene no matter what your general purpose is, but the specific purpose would vary depending on whether the general purpose is to inform (discussing hygiene practices around the globe), to persuade (discussing why people need to adopt a specific hygiene practice), or to entertain (discussing some of the strange and unique hygiene practices that people have used historically). Notice that in each of these cases, the general purpose alters the topic, but all three are still fundamentally about hygiene.\r\n\r\nNow, when discussing specific purposes, we are concerned with who, what, when, where, why, and how questions for your speech. Let\u2019s examine each of these separately. First, you want to know who is going to be in your audience. Different audiences, as discussed in the chapter on audience analysis, have differing desires, backgrounds, and needs. Keeping your audience first and foremost in your thoughts when choosing a specific purpose will increase the likelihood that your audience will find your speech meaningful.\r\n\r\nSecond is the \u201cwhat\u201d question, or the basic description of your topic. When picking an effective topic, you need to make sure that the topic is appropriate for a variety of constraints or limitations within a speaking context.\r\n\r\nThird, you need to consider when your speech will be given. Different speeches may be better for different times of the day. For example, explaining the importance of eating breakfast and providing people with cereal bars may be a great topic at 9:00 a.m. but may not have the same impact if you\u2019re giving it at 4:00 p.m.\r\n\r\nFourth, you need to consider where your speech will be given. Are you giving a speech in front of a classroom? A church? An executive meeting? Depending on the location of your speech, different topics may or may not be appropriate.\r\n\r\nThe last question you need to answer within your speech is why. Why does your audience need to hear your speech? If your audience doesn\u2019t care about your specific purpose, they are less likely to attend to your speech. If it\u2019s a topic that\u2019s a little more off-the-wall, you\u2019ll really need to think about why they should care.\r\n\r\nOnce you\u2019ve determined the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> aspects of your topic, it\u2019s time to start creating your actual specific purpose. First, a specific purpose, in its written form, should be a short, declarative sentence that emphasizes the main topic of your speech. Let\u2019s look at an example:\r\n<div class=\"im_informaltable im_block\">\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>Topic<\/td>\r\n<td>The military<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>Narrower Topic<\/td>\r\n<td>The military\u2019s use of embedded journalists<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>Narrowed Topic<\/td>\r\n<td>The death of British reporter Rupert Hamer in 2010 in a roadside bombing in Nawa, Afghanistan, along with five US Marines<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn this example, we\u2019ve quickly narrowed a topic from a more general topic to a more specific topic. Let\u2019s now look at that topic in terms of a general purpose and specific purpose:\r\n<div class=\"im_informaltable im_block\">\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>General Purpose<\/td>\r\n<td>To inform<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>Specific Purpose<\/td>\r\n<td>To inform my audience about the danger of embedded journalism by focusing on the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>General Purpose<\/td>\r\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>Specific Purpose<\/td>\r\n<td>To persuade a group of journalism students to avoid jobs as embedded journalists by using the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer as an example of what can happen<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\nFor the purpose of this example, we used the same general topic area, but demonstrated how you could easily turn the topic into either an informative speech or a persuasive speech. In the first example, the speaker is going to talk about the danger embedded journalists face. In this case, the speaker isn\u2019t attempting to alter people\u2019s ideas about embedded journalists, just make them more aware of the dangers. In the second case, the specific purpose is to persuade a group of journalism students (the audience) to avoid jobs as embedded journalists.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Your Specific Statement of Purpose<\/h2>\r\nTo form a clear and succinct statement of the specific purpose of your speech, start by naming your general purpose (to inform, to persuade, or to entertain). Follow this by a capsule description of your audience (my peers in class, a group of kindergarten teachers, etc.). Then complete your statement of purpose with a prepositional phrase (a phrase using \u201cto,\u201d \u201cabout,\u201d \u201cby,\u201d or another preposition) that summarizes your topic. As an example, \u201cMy specific purpose is to persuade the students in my residence hall to protest the proposed housing cost increase\u201d is a specific statement of purpose, while \u201cMy speech will be about why we should protest the proposed housing cost increase\u201d is not.\r\n\r\nSpecific purposes should be statements, not questions. If you find yourself starting to phrase your specific purpose as a question, ask yourself how you can reword it as a statement. Table 1 \"My Specific Purpose Is\u2026\" provides several more examples of good specific purpose statements.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s02_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\r\n\r\n<span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 1.<\/span>\u00a0My Specific Purpose Is\u2026\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<thead>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th>General Purpose<\/th>\r\n<th>Audience<\/th>\r\n<th>Topic<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To inform<\/td>\r\n<td>my audience<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">about<\/strong> the usefulness of scrapbooking to save a family\u2019s memories.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\r\n<td>a group of kindergarten teachers<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">to<\/strong> adopt a new disciplinary method for their classrooms.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To entertain<\/td>\r\n<td>a group of executives<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">by<\/strong> describing the lighter side of life in \u201ccubicle-ville.\u201d<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To inform<\/td>\r\n<td>community members<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">about<\/strong> the newly proposed swimming pool plans that have been adopted.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\r\n<td>my peers in class<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">to<\/strong> vote for me for class president.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>To entertain<\/td>\r\n<td>the guests attending my mother\u2019s birthday party<\/td>\r\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">by<\/strong> telling a humorous story followed by a toast.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Basic Tips for Creating Specific Purposes<\/h2>\r\nNow that we\u2019ve examined what specific purposes are, we are going to focus on a series of tips to help you write specific purposes that are appropriate for a range of speeches.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Audience, Audience, Audience<\/h2>\r\nFirst and foremost, you always need to think about your intended audience when choosing your specific purpose. In the previous section, we talked about a speech where a speaker is attempting to persuade a group of journalism students to not take jobs as embedded journalists. Would the same speech be successful, or even appropriate, if given in your public speaking class? Probably not. As a speaker, you may think your topic is great, but you always need to make sure you think about your audience when selecting your specific purpose. For this reason, when writing your specific purpose, start off your sentence by including the words \u201cmy audience\u201d or actually listing the name of your audience: a group of journalism students, the people in my congregation, my peers in class, and so on. When you place your audience first, you\u2019re a lot more likely to have a successful speech.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Matching the Rhetorical Situation<\/h2>\r\nAfter your audience, the second most important consideration about your specific purpose pertains to the rhetorical situation of your speech. The <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">rhetorical situation<\/span><\/span> is the set of circumstances surrounding your speech (e.g., speaker, audience, text, and context). When thinking about your specific purpose, you want to ensure that all these components go together. You want to make sure that you are the appropriate speaker for a topic, the topic is appropriate for your audience, the text of your speech is appropriate, and the speech is appropriate for the context. For example, speeches that you give in a classroom may not be appropriate in a religious context and vice versa.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Make It Clear<\/h2>\r\nThe specific purpose statement for any speech should be direct and not too broad, general, or vague. Consider the lack of clarity in the following specific purpose: \u201cTo persuade the students in my class to drink more.\u201d Obviously, we have no idea what the speaker wants the audience to drink: water, milk, orange juice? Alcoholic beverages? Furthermore, we have no way to quantify or make sense of the word \u201cmore.\u201d \u201cMore\u201d assumes that the students are already drinking a certain amount, and the speaker wants them to increase their intake. If you want to persuade your listeners to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, you need to say so clearly in your specific purpose.\r\n\r\nAnother way in which purpose statements are sometimes unclear comes from the use of colloquial language. While we often use colloquialisms in everyday life, they are often understood only by a limited number of people. It may sound like fun to have a specific purpose like, \u201cTo persuade my audience to get jiggy,\u201d but if you state this as your purpose, many people probably won\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about at all.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Don\u2019t Double Up<\/h2>\r\nYou cannot hope to solve the entire world\u2019s problems in one speech, so don\u2019t even try. At the same time, you also want to make sure that you stick to one specific purpose. Chances are it will be challenging enough to inform your audience about one topic or persuade them to change one behavior or opinion. Don\u2019t put extra stress on yourself by adding topics. If you find yourself using the word \u201cand\u201d in your specific topic statement, you\u2019re probably doubling up on topics.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Can I Really Do This in Five to Seven Minutes?<\/h2>\r\nWhen choosing your specific purpose, it\u2019s important to determine whether it can be realistically covered in the amount of time you have. Time limits are among the most common constraints for students in a public speaking course. Usually speeches early in the term have shorter time limits (three to five minutes), and speeches later in the term have longer time limits (five to eight minutes). While eight minutes may sound like an eternity to be standing up in front of the class, it\u2019s actually a very short period of time in which to cover a topic. To determine whether you think you can accomplish your speech\u2019s purpose in the time slot, ask yourself how long it would take to make you an informed person on your chosen topic or to persuade you to change your behavior or attitudes.\r\n\r\nIf you cannot reasonably see yourself becoming informed or persuaded during the allotted amount of time, chances are you aren\u2019t going to inform or persuade your audience either. The solution, of course, is to make your topic narrower so that you can fully cover a limited aspect of it.\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\r\n<h3>KEY TAKEAWAYS<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Moving from a general to specific purpose requires you to identify the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> of your speech.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>State your specific purpose in a sentence that includes the general purpose, a description of the intended audience, and a prepositional phrase summarizing the topic.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>When creating a specific purpose for your speech, first, consider your audience. Second, consider the rhetorical situation. Make sure your specific purpose statement uses clear language, and that it does not try to cover more than one topic.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Make sure you can realistically accomplish your specific purpose within the allotted time.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>EXERCISES<\/h3>\r\n<ol>\r\n\t<li>You\u2019ve been asked to give a series of speeches on the importance of health care in poverty-stricken countries. One audience will consist of business men and women, one audience will consist of religious leaders, and another audience will consist of high school students. How would you need to adjust your speech\u2019s purpose for each of these different audiences? How do these different audiences alter the rhetorical situation?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>For the following list of topics, think about how you could take the same topic and adjust it for each of the different general purposes (inform, persuade, and entertain). Write out the specific purpose for each of your new speech topics. Here are the three general topic areas to work with: the First Amendment to the US Constitution, iPods, and literacy in the twenty-first century.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3 class=\"im_title\">Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\n<li>Understand the process of extending a general purpose into a specific purpose.<\/li>\n<li>Integrate the seven tips for creating specific purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Once you have chosen your general purpose and your topic, it\u2019s time to take your speech to the next phase and develop your specific purpose. A <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">specific purpose<\/span><\/span> 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 <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> questions for your speech.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Getting Specific<\/h2>\n<p>When attempting to get at the core of your speech (the specific purpose), you need to know a few basic things about your speech. First, you need to have a general purpose. Once you know whether your goal is to inform, persuade, or entertain, picking an appropriate topic is easier. Obviously, depending on the general purpose, you will have a range of different types of topics. For example, let\u2019s say you want to give a speech about hygiene. You could still give a speech about hygiene no matter what your general purpose is, but the specific purpose would vary depending on whether the general purpose is to inform (discussing hygiene practices around the globe), to persuade (discussing why people need to adopt a specific hygiene practice), or to entertain (discussing some of the strange and unique hygiene practices that people have used historically). Notice that in each of these cases, the general purpose alters the topic, but all three are still fundamentally about hygiene.<\/p>\n<p>Now, when discussing specific purposes, we are concerned with who, what, when, where, why, and how questions for your speech. Let\u2019s examine each of these separately. First, you want to know who is going to be in your audience. Different audiences, as discussed in the chapter on audience analysis, have differing desires, backgrounds, and needs. Keeping your audience first and foremost in your thoughts when choosing a specific purpose will increase the likelihood that your audience will find your speech meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>Second is the \u201cwhat\u201d question, or the basic description of your topic. When picking an effective topic, you need to make sure that the topic is appropriate for a variety of constraints or limitations within a speaking context.<\/p>\n<p>Third, you need to consider when your speech will be given. Different speeches may be better for different times of the day. For example, explaining the importance of eating breakfast and providing people with cereal bars may be a great topic at 9:00 a.m. but may not have the same impact if you\u2019re giving it at 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, you need to consider where your speech will be given. Are you giving a speech in front of a classroom? A church? An executive meeting? Depending on the location of your speech, different topics may or may not be appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>The last question you need to answer within your speech is why. Why does your audience need to hear your speech? If your audience doesn\u2019t care about your specific purpose, they are less likely to attend to your speech. If it\u2019s a topic that\u2019s a little more off-the-wall, you\u2019ll really need to think about why they should care.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve determined the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> aspects of your topic, it\u2019s time to start creating your actual specific purpose. First, a specific purpose, in its written form, should be a short, declarative sentence that emphasizes the main topic of your speech. Let\u2019s look at an example:<\/p>\n<div class=\"im_informaltable im_block\">\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Topic<\/td>\n<td>The military<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Narrower Topic<\/td>\n<td>The military\u2019s use of embedded journalists<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Narrowed Topic<\/td>\n<td>The death of British reporter Rupert Hamer in 2010 in a roadside bombing in Nawa, Afghanistan, along with five US Marines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>In this example, we\u2019ve quickly narrowed a topic from a more general topic to a more specific topic. Let\u2019s now look at that topic in terms of a general purpose and specific purpose:<\/p>\n<div class=\"im_informaltable im_block\">\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>General Purpose<\/td>\n<td>To inform<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Specific Purpose<\/td>\n<td>To inform my audience about the danger of embedded journalism by focusing on the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>General Purpose<\/td>\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Specific Purpose<\/td>\n<td>To persuade a group of journalism students to avoid jobs as embedded journalists by using the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer as an example of what can happen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>For the purpose of this example, we used the same general topic area, but demonstrated how you could easily turn the topic into either an informative speech or a persuasive speech. In the first example, the speaker is going to talk about the danger embedded journalists face. In this case, the speaker isn\u2019t attempting to alter people\u2019s ideas about embedded journalists, just make them more aware of the dangers. In the second case, the specific purpose is to persuade a group of journalism students (the audience) to avoid jobs as embedded journalists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Your Specific Statement of Purpose<\/h2>\n<p>To form a clear and succinct statement of the specific purpose of your speech, start by naming your general purpose (to inform, to persuade, or to entertain). Follow this by a capsule description of your audience (my peers in class, a group of kindergarten teachers, etc.). Then complete your statement of purpose with a prepositional phrase (a phrase using \u201cto,\u201d \u201cabout,\u201d \u201cby,\u201d or another preposition) that summarizes your topic. As an example, \u201cMy specific purpose is to persuade the students in my residence hall to protest the proposed housing cost increase\u201d is a specific statement of purpose, while \u201cMy speech will be about why we should protest the proposed housing cost increase\u201d is not.<\/p>\n<p>Specific purposes should be statements, not questions. If you find yourself starting to phrase your specific purpose as a question, ask yourself how you can reword it as a statement. Table 1 &#8220;My Specific Purpose Is\u2026&#8221; provides several more examples of good specific purpose statements.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s02_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\n<p><span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 1.<\/span>\u00a0My Specific Purpose Is\u2026<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>General Purpose<\/th>\n<th>Audience<\/th>\n<th>Topic<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>To inform<\/td>\n<td>my audience<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">about<\/strong> the usefulness of scrapbooking to save a family\u2019s memories.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\n<td>a group of kindergarten teachers<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">to<\/strong> adopt a new disciplinary method for their classrooms.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>To entertain<\/td>\n<td>a group of executives<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">by<\/strong> describing the lighter side of life in \u201ccubicle-ville.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>To inform<\/td>\n<td>community members<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">about<\/strong> the newly proposed swimming pool plans that have been adopted.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>To persuade<\/td>\n<td>my peers in class<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">to<\/strong> vote for me for class president.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>To entertain<\/td>\n<td>the guests attending my mother\u2019s birthday party<\/td>\n<td><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">by<\/strong> telling a humorous story followed by a toast.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Basic Tips for Creating Specific Purposes<\/h2>\n<p>Now that we\u2019ve examined what specific purposes are, we are going to focus on a series of tips to help you write specific purposes that are appropriate for a range of speeches.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Audience, Audience, Audience<\/h2>\n<p>First and foremost, you always need to think about your intended audience when choosing your specific purpose. In the previous section, we talked about a speech where a speaker is attempting to persuade a group of journalism students to not take jobs as embedded journalists. Would the same speech be successful, or even appropriate, if given in your public speaking class? Probably not. As a speaker, you may think your topic is great, but you always need to make sure you think about your audience when selecting your specific purpose. For this reason, when writing your specific purpose, start off your sentence by including the words \u201cmy audience\u201d or actually listing the name of your audience: a group of journalism students, the people in my congregation, my peers in class, and so on. When you place your audience first, you\u2019re a lot more likely to have a successful speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Matching the Rhetorical Situation<\/h2>\n<p>After your audience, the second most important consideration about your specific purpose pertains to the rhetorical situation of your speech. The <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">rhetorical situation<\/span><\/span> is the set of circumstances surrounding your speech (e.g., speaker, audience, text, and context). When thinking about your specific purpose, you want to ensure that all these components go together. You want to make sure that you are the appropriate speaker for a topic, the topic is appropriate for your audience, the text of your speech is appropriate, and the speech is appropriate for the context. For example, speeches that you give in a classroom may not be appropriate in a religious context and vice versa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Make It Clear<\/h2>\n<p>The specific purpose statement for any speech should be direct and not too broad, general, or vague. Consider the lack of clarity in the following specific purpose: \u201cTo persuade the students in my class to drink more.\u201d Obviously, we have no idea what the speaker wants the audience to drink: water, milk, orange juice? Alcoholic beverages? Furthermore, we have no way to quantify or make sense of the word \u201cmore.\u201d \u201cMore\u201d assumes that the students are already drinking a certain amount, and the speaker wants them to increase their intake. If you want to persuade your listeners to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, you need to say so clearly in your specific purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Another way in which purpose statements are sometimes unclear comes from the use of colloquial language. While we often use colloquialisms in everyday life, they are often understood only by a limited number of people. It may sound like fun to have a specific purpose like, \u201cTo persuade my audience to get jiggy,\u201d but if you state this as your purpose, many people probably won\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Don\u2019t Double Up<\/h2>\n<p>You cannot hope to solve the entire world\u2019s problems in one speech, so don\u2019t even try. At the same time, you also want to make sure that you stick to one specific purpose. Chances are it will be challenging enough to inform your audience about one topic or persuade them to change one behavior or opinion. Don\u2019t put extra stress on yourself by adding topics. If you find yourself using the word \u201cand\u201d in your specific topic statement, you\u2019re probably doubling up on topics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch06_s04_s03_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Can I Really Do This in Five to Seven Minutes?<\/h2>\n<p>When choosing your specific purpose, it\u2019s important to determine whether it can be realistically covered in the amount of time you have. Time limits are among the most common constraints for students in a public speaking course. Usually speeches early in the term have shorter time limits (three to five minutes), and speeches later in the term have longer time limits (five to eight minutes). While eight minutes may sound like an eternity to be standing up in front of the class, it\u2019s actually a very short period of time in which to cover a topic. To determine whether you think you can accomplish your speech\u2019s purpose in the time slot, ask yourself how long it would take to make you an informed person on your chosen topic or to persuade you to change your behavior or attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>If you cannot reasonably see yourself becoming informed or persuaded during the allotted amount of time, chances are you aren\u2019t going to inform or persuade your audience either. The solution, of course, is to make your topic narrower so that you can fully cover a limited aspect of it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\n<h3>KEY TAKEAWAYS<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Moving from a general to specific purpose requires you to identify the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">who<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">what<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">when<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">where<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">why<\/em> of your speech.<\/li>\n<li>State your specific purpose in a sentence that includes the general purpose, a description of the intended audience, and a prepositional phrase summarizing the topic.<\/li>\n<li>When creating a specific purpose for your speech, first, consider your audience. Second, consider the rhetorical situation. Make sure your specific purpose statement uses clear language, and that it does not try to cover more than one topic.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure you can realistically accomplish your specific purpose within the allotted time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>EXERCISES<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>You\u2019ve been asked to give a series of speeches on the importance of health care in poverty-stricken countries. One audience will consist of business men and women, one audience will consist of religious leaders, and another audience will consist of high school students. How would you need to adjust your speech\u2019s purpose for each of these different audiences? How do these different audiences alter the rhetorical situation?<\/li>\n<li>For the following list of topics, think about how you could take the same topic and adjust it for each of the different general purposes (inform, persuade, and entertain). Write out the specific purpose for each of your new speech topics. Here are the three general topic areas to work with: the First Amendment to the US Constitution, iPods, and literacy in the twenty-first century.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-63\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Anonymous. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Anonymous. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/\">http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics\",\"author\":\"Anonymous\",\"organization\":\"Anonymous\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-63","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":58,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":603,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/63\/revisions\/603"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/58"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/63\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}