General Purpose Specific Purpose

To inform At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to identify three counseling facilities on campus and describe the best way to get help at each one.

To persuade At the end of my speech, the audience will visit the counseling facilities on campus.

To entertain At the end of my speech, the audience will be amused by the series of misunderstandings I created when I began making inquiries about career advisors on campus.

CONSIDER THE

AUDIENCE

22 CHAPTER 1 Speaking with Confidence

the end of the speech. Your specific purpose should be a fine-tuned, audience- centered goal. For an informative speech, you may simply want your audience to restate an idea, define new words, or identify, describe, or illustrate something. In a persuasive speech, you may try to rouse your listeners to take a class, buy something, or vote for someone.

Once you have formulated your specific purpose, write it down on a piece of paper or note card and keep it before you as you read and gather ideas for your talk. Your specific purpose should guide your research and help you choose sup- porting materials that are related to your audience. As you continue to work on your speech, you may even decide to modify your purpose. But if you have an ob- jective in mind at all times as you move through the preparation stage, you will stay on track.

Develop Your Central Idea You should now be able to write the central idea of your speech. Whereas your state- ment of a specific purpose indicates what you want your audience to do when you have finished your speech, your central idea identifies the essence of your message. Think of it as a one-sentence summary of your speech. Here’s an example:

TOPIC: The South Beach diet

GENERAL PURPOSE: To inform

SPECIFIC PURPOSE: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to identify the three key elements in the South Beach diet.

CENTRAL IDEA: The South Beach diet is based on reducing the amount of carbohydrates you eat, drinking more water, and increasing the amount of exercise you get.

Here’s another way to think about how to develop your central idea sentence. Imag- ine that you have just finished presenting your speech and you get into an elevator. Someone who missed hearing your talk says, “Oh, I’m sorry I missed your speech. What did you say?” Between the second floor and the first, you have only 15 seconds to summarize your message. You might say, “I said there are two keys to parent and child communication: First, make time for communication, and second, listen effec- tively.” That brief recap is your central idea sentence. To clarify the difference between your purpose and the central idea sentence: Your purpose sentence is what you want the audience to be able to do; the central idea sentence is your speech in a nutshell— your speech in one sentence.

Generate the Main Ideas In the words of columnist H. V. Prochnow, “A good many people can make a speech, but saying something is more difficult.” Effective speakers are good thinkers; they say something. They know how to play with words and thoughts to develop their main ideas. The ancient Romans called this skill invention—the ability to develop or dis- cover ideas that result in new insights or new approaches to old problems. The Roman orator Cicero called this aspect of speaking the process of “finding out what [a speaker] should say.”