Putting It Together: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

In this module, we’ve considered some of the ways to organize and outline a speech.

We’ve looked at various organization patterns, including

  • Topical (ordered by topic)
  • Chronological (ordered according to time)
  • Step-by-Step (ordered by step)
  • Spatial Organization (ordered within space)
  • Paired Sequences, such as Problem-Solution (ordered in pairs)

We’ve also looked at the way most speeches are written, which is in outline form. The text from which the speech is actually delivered will depend on the delivery method, from the complete sentences of manuscript delivery to the few keywords of impromptu notes.

Try It