The outline of a speech contains your structure, key points, and supporting material but if delivered without connectors, your speech can seem choppy and unrelated. Transitions, previews, summaries, and signposts are the glue that connects the elements of your speech to one another, making your speech a coherent whole.

Previews

A preview provides a road map for what’s to come, much like a table of contents, serving the “tell them what you are going to say” function of connectors. Like a table of contents, the preview should not contain any extraneous information, summaries, or details that will be covered within each major topic. In your speech, you will have a main preview in your introduction as well as internal previews in each main point.

Main Preview: The main preview comes just once at the end of your introduction. It is a preview of the main points of the speech in the order that they will be presented. To keep the main preview simple, succinct, and easy to recall, do not include extraneous details or subpoints in the main preview.

“To better appreciate the prestigious legacy of our college, we will first explore the campus, then turn to the students, and finally, learn about the faculty.”

Internal Preview: These previews occur at the beginning of each main point. It is a preview of the subpoints to that main point in the order that they will be presented. To keep the internal preview simple, succinct, and easy to recall, do not include extraneous details or sub-subpoints in the preview.

“As we explore the campus, we’ll first cover the locations, next the colleges, and finally student gathering places.”

Reviews/Summaries

A review, or summary, reminds the audience of the major topics that were just covered in your speech, serving the “tell them what you’ve said” function of connectors. It often uses the same language and names for each point as the corresponding preview does as well as listing the major topics.

Main Review: The main review comes just once at the beginning of your conclusion. It is a review of the main points of the speech in the order they were presented. To keep the main review simple, succinct, and easy to recall, do not include extraneous details or subpoints in the main preview.

“Today, we have explored the campus, turned to the students, and learned about the faculty.”

Internal Review: These reviews occur at the end of each main point. It is a review of the subpoints to that main point in the order that they were presented. To keep the internal review simple, succinct, and easy to recall, do not include extraneous details or sub-subpoints in the review. Note, an internal review may be unnecessary for speeches that are 10 minutes or shorter.

“Now that we have explored the locations, colleges, and student gathering places, we have a better understanding of our campus.”

Transitions

A transition that connects one idea to the next. Without transitions, the speech will sound choppy and leave the audience wondering where they are in the speech. Transitions work like a lubricant, to smoothly flow from one idea to the next.

Summary Transitions: These transitions occur only between main points. They restate the main point that was just finished and introduce the next main point.

“With a clear picture of our campus, let’s now turn to the students.”

Internal Transitions: Your speech will likely have many internal transitions within each main point. They occur between subpoints. They do not necessarily need to summarize the previous subpoint, but they do need to indicate that you are moving on to the next subpoint.

“In addition to a large undergraduate student population, we also have many graduate students.”

Signposts

A signpost is simply a word or phrase that indicates order, sequence, or time passing, such as first, next, and finally or a shift in ideas, such as in addition or furthermore. You should use signposts often and with each connector in your speech.