sentence outline
(noun)
A sentence outline expresses the central ideas of a speech in complete sentences.
Examples of sentence outline in the following topics:
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Building a Speech: Starting with an Outline
- Other outlines are very detailed, filling in a skeleton of topic headings with topic sentences, pieces of evidence, and transitions.
- Many speakers like to brainstorm before making an outline.
- Topic outlines tend to use keywords and short phrases rather than complete sentences.
- A sentence outline expresses the central ideas of a speech in complete sentences.
- Sentence outlines are more detailed than topic outlines, but less detailed than first drafts.
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The Preparation Outline
- A preparation outline is a precursor to your speech outline.
- Common outline styles include sentence outlines, topics outlines, chronological outlines, and alphanumeric outlines.
- While sentence outlines follow a hierarchical structure composed of sentences and headings around the subject of the speech, topics outlines are comprised of topics and subtopics.
- If, for example, you have separate visual aids for the introduction, main points in the body of your speech, and your conclusion, than using a sentence style for your preparation outline may be more appropriate.
- Describe the purpose of a preparation outline, and the different preparation outline styles used by speech writers
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Extemporaneous Speeches
- An outline is a list of items with each item divided into additional sub-items.
- Each level in an outline has at least two subcategories.
- There are three basic types of outlines:
- Sentence outline - Each complete sentence includes a heading or single sentence about the subject of the outline.
- Speaking notes, topic outlines, and phrase outlines have an advantage over sentence outlines.
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The Rough Draft Outline
- Outlines help form the skeleton of the speaker's speech.
- The parts that comprise a rough draft outline are similar to other types of writing outlines.
- An Introduction: This part of the draft outline should include an intro topic sentence, as well as notes on the argument or point of view of the speech.
- Your rough draft outline is essentially a technique for organizing and jotting down ideas into a traditional outline format.
- Describe the role and different components of a rough draft outline
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Defining the Thesis
- Defining a thesis is essentially constructing the structural outline of your speech.
- It is typically only one to three sentences long.
- It's also particularly helpful to give a quick outline of just how you plan to achieve those goals in another few sentences, immediately following your thesis statement.
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Introducing the Topic, Thesis, and Main Points
- Remember: the thesis statement should summarize your argument in one to three sentences.
- It may help to refer to your outline, which should provide a concise list of your main points, in order.
- Translate that list into complete sentences, and voila!
- The opening of this speech names a topic (vitamin D deficiency), explains its importance, explains its relevance to the audience, and then states the purpose of the presentation—to investigate the improbably wide range of deficiency-rate estimates from different studies—and outlines the main points.
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The Understanding Stage
- Determining the context and meaning of individual words, as well as assigning meaning in language, is essential to understanding sentences.
- Once the listeners understands the speaker's main point, they can begin to sort out the rest of the information they are hearing and decide where it belongs in their mental outline.
- You may immediately understand the words and sentences that you are hearing, but not immediately understand what the lecturer is proving or whether what you're hearing in the moment is a main point, side note, or digression.
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Introduction
- His introduction to his speech consisted of only six sentences and accomplished all of the key points to creating a solid introduction.
- Just three stories. " Jobs clearly outlines how he has organized his speech and what his audience can expect.
- His attention-getter is in the simplicity of his speech outline.
- Since the introduction is often used as an outline for the key points of your speech, it's helpful to have written the entire speech to be able to distill your speech into its major points and arguments.
- By writing it down word for word, you can quickly see if you've left out any of your major points as you set up your speech outline.
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Delivering the Speech
- Don't rush your sentences or let the ends of your sentences drop in volume.
- Avoid saying "um", "uh", or "like" (when it doesn't belong in a sentence).
- You might need to stop a sentence to let the audience do its thing while you resume as it dies down.
- Similarly, if you've memorized your speech or may be reading from a teleprompter, have a printed copy of your speech or an outline of your speech on hand just in case you get a case of stage fright or equipment fails.
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Critical Thinking
- Before you begin outlining your speech, consider exactly what you're trying to accomplish.
- As you pinpoint your thesis and main points, you'll begin to outline exactly how you plan to support your argument.
- Now that you've outlined your purpose, goals, and evidence, how exactly will you set out to accomplish those goals?
- Considering what actions you hope your speech will provoke will further guide you in the process of carefully selecting every word and sentence that brings you closer to realizing those goals.