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When you have
selected a topic and narrowed it to fit the time available to you,
you need to decide on your specific purpose giving the
speech. You must do this step before you begin to plan
your speech outline and gather your supporting
materials. Speech Purpose and Phrasing: The specific purpose you choose helps you in all stages of designing you speech. It dictates the types of speech you want to give; informative, persuasive, or entertaining. It helps you select the appropriate supporting material, main points, and overall pattern of arranging the material. In short, once you have clearly established your speech purpose, all other choices becomes straightforward. |
The three elements of
a clearly phrased speech purpose are:
- Worded
from the audience point of view
- As
specific and exact as possible, and
- Realistic and attainable in the time available to you.
Phrasing the purpose from the
audience's point of view helps to keep your focus on the
desired outcome of the speech for the audience. In other
words, it's not your personal goal that is important to but your
goal in terms of audience response.
By phrasing the purpose statement as "After my speech the
audience will…," you articulate the audience response you
want.
For example, "After my speech the audience will know the three steps in finding a good dentist" is an informative speech purpose statement.
A broadly phrased speech
purpose, like "After my speech the audience will know about
horseback riding" will not really help you choose your main
points or supporting material, nor will it help the audience to
know what to expect.
What exactly will your audience know about the horseback riding of
the sport? How to learn? How to evaluate professional riders'
techniques? Where to go to try it out? How to select a horse?
If the phrasing of the speech purpose is exact, however, your
planning option will be much simpler. For example, with a purpose
like, "After my speech the audience will be able to identify
three styles of horseback riding used in international
competition" you won't have to puzzle much about which main
points to use! So if you have any doubt about what you mean by your
purpose statement, rephrase it until it is specific as
possible.
Making the
Purpose Attainable:
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Finally, you want your
purpose to be attainable and realistic. You can
only convey a certain amount with any given audience in a given
amount of time.
For example, it would be unrealistic to hope that after your
five-minute speech an unskilled audience would "be able to ride
a wild stallion" although they might understand the main
methods used by rodeo riders to ride bucking broncos.
You cannot teach a skill that requires experience in a speech. Nor
could you help that after your short speech a totally pro-life
audience would "believe abortion should be available to
everyone."
Keep your purpose attainable with respect to the kind of material you're dealing with, the time limitations, and the attitude of your audience.
Image
Credits:Laphoto,
Micah
Maziar, Heather
Millenaar
