How did you go with those tasks from the previous lesson. Ready to put that research together? This next step is one of the key strategies the Mayo Clinic article highlighted, Organizing your Material.

Prepare An Outline

When we first begin our public speaking career, we tend to think that a word-for-word speech will be the best one. So we laboriously write it out, sort out the introduction and conclusion, read it over and over again, cull some stuff, insert some stuff, rewrite it again and again, and get frustrated and wish we never had agreed to do this speech. Here is a better way.

An outline of the subject material allows you to organise it into a logical flow. It helps the main points to stand out and makes practising the delivery so much easier. I have given talks from a manuscript as well as an outline. The outline wins hands down. It allows you to be more engaged with the audience and along the way, be extemporaneous in your delivery.

Your Wealthy Affiliate Speech Outline

Here is a sample outline of a 10 minute speech I prepared about Wealthy Affiliate Network.

Outline Evaluation:

Now as you read through that you would have noticed that to read it word for word would take 3 - 4 minutes max. But this is a presentation, not a manuscript that your 8-year old could read to the audience. An outline allows you to organize thoughts and ideas and then give you the skeleton that your own extemporaneous conversational style will flesh out. Let's talk about the key structure of the outline.

Structure of the Outline

• Introduction: You have 30 seconds or less to hook your audience. A dull introduction and your audience is thinking about lunch, not what you are talking about. Questions can be a great bait to attract the listeners to your subject. Make them short and to the point. Make sure they are connected to your main points. Humour is a dangerous bullet to play with in an introduction until you are very experienced.
• Body of the Talk: How much you include is determined by the time allocated to you for your presentation. A 10 minute talk only allows you to develop 2 to 3 key points. If you do use props, as I have in my outline, make sure they are in order and easy to put your hand on. Another key to developing your main points in the body of the talk is to arrange them into a logical order and connected with the questions in your introduction. That will go a long way to holding the audience's attention.
• Conclusion: This should be 30 seconds or less. It is a brief summary of what you have taught with a call-to-action sentence. The audience needs to know what you recommend they do. Many speakers prepare this part word-for-word, since it allows them to use the short conclusion to maximum effect.

Now you have your outline. Re-read it and analyse the flow of the material. Don't be tempted to add more information until you have done the practice phase of your speech preparation. So before we embark on any delivery practice, make sure you complete the tasks below. Design your outline. Build its structure and then write out your introduction.

Next we consider Practising our Delivery. We are going to use the outline that you have designed in the task box below. Don't hesitate, this could be a defining moment.