speech outline tool

Speech Outline Tool

How to Write an Effective Speech Outline: A Step-by-Step Guide

• The Speaker Lab
• March 8, 2024

Table of Contents

Mastering the art of speaking starts with crafting a stellar speech outline. A well-structured outline not only clarifies your message but also keeps your audience locked in.

In this article, you’ll learn how to mold outlines for various speech types, weaving in research that resonates and transitions that keep listeners on track. We’ll also show you ways to spotlight crucial points and manage the clock so every second counts. When it’s time for final prep, we’ve got smart tips for fine-tuning your work before stepping into the spotlight.

Understanding the Structure of a Speech Outline

An effective speech outline is like a map for your journey as a speaker, guiding you from start to finish. Think of it as the blueprint that gives shape to your message and ensures you hit all the right notes along the way.

Tailoring Your Outline for Different Speech Types

Different speeches have different goals: some aim to persuade, others inform or celebrate. Each type demands its own structure in an outline. For instance, a persuasive speech might highlight compelling evidence while an informative one focuses on clear explanations. Crafting your outline with precision means adapting it to fit these distinct objectives.

Incorporating Research and Supporting Data

Your credibility hinges on solid research and data that back up your claims. When writing your outline, mark the places where you’ll incorporate certain pieces of research or data. Every stat you choose should serve a purpose in supporting your narrative arc. And remember to balance others’ research with your own unique insights. After all, you want your work to stand out, not sound like someone else’s.

The Role of Transitions in Speech Flow

Slick transitions are what turn choppy ideas into smooth storytelling—think about how bridges connect disparate land masses seamlessly. They’re not just filler; they carry listeners from one thought to another while maintaining momentum.

Incorporate transitions that feel natural yet keep people hooked. To keep things smooth, outline these transitions ahead of time so nothing feels left up to chance during delivery.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Outline

To make certain points pop off the page—and stage—you’ll need strategies beyond bolding text or speaking louder. Use repetition wisely or pause strategically after delivering something significant. Rather than go impromptu, plan out what points you want to emphasize before you hit the stage.

Timing Your Speech Through Your Outline

A watchful eye on timing ensures you don’t overstay—or undercut—your moment under the spotlight. The rhythm set by pacing can be pre-determined through practice runs timed against sections marked clearly in outlines. Practice will help ensure that your grand finale isn’t cut short by surprise.

What Type Of Speaker Are You?

Click below to discover your Speaker Archetype and how to start getting booked and paid to speak!

Depending on the type of speech you’re giving, your speech outline will vary. The key ingredients—introduction, body, and conclusion—are always there, but nuances like tone or message will change with each speaking occasion.

Persuasive Speeches: Convincing With Clarity

When outlining a persuasive speech, arrange your arguments from strong to strongest. The primacy effect works wonders here, so make sure to start off with a strong point. And just when they think they’ve heard it all, hit them with an emotional story that clinches the deal.

You might start by sharing startling statistics about plastic pollution before pivoting to how individuals can make a difference. Back this up with data on successful recycling programs which demonstrate tangible impact, a technique that turns facts into fuel for action.

Informative Speeches: Educating Without Overwhelming

An informative speech shouldn’t feel like drinking from a fire hose of facts and figures. Instead, lay out clear subtopics in your outline and tie them together with succinct explanations—not unlike stepping stones across a stream of knowledge.

If you’re talking about breakthroughs in renewable energy technology, use bullet points to highlight different innovations then expand upon their potential implications one at a time so the audience can follow along without getting lost in technical jargon or complexity.

Ceremonial Speeches: Creating Moments That Matter

In a ceremonial speech you want to capture emotion. Accordingly, your outline should feature personal anecdotes and quotes that resonate on an emotional level. However, make sure to maintain brevity because sometimes less really is more when celebrating milestones or honoring achievements.

Instead of just going through a hero’s whole life story, share the powerful tales of how they stepped up in tough times. This approach hits home for listeners, letting them feel the impact these heroes have had on their communities and sparking an emotional bond.

Incorporating Research in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting a speech, the backbone of your credibility lies in solid research and data. But remember, it’s not just about piling on the facts. It’s how you weave them into your narrative that makes listeners sit up and take notice.

Selecting Credible Sources

Finding trustworthy sources is like going on a treasure hunt where not all that glitters is gold. To strike real gold, aim for academic journals or publications known for their rigorous standards. Google Scholar or industry-specific databases are great places to start your search. Be picky. Your audience can tell when you’ve done your homework versus when you’ve settled for less-than-stellar intel.

You want to arm yourself with evidence so compelling that even skeptics start nodding along. A well-chosen statistic from a reputable study does more than decorate your point—it gives it an ironclad suit of armor.

Organizing Information Effectively

Your outline isn’t just a roadmap; think of it as scaffolding that holds up your argument piece by piece. Start strong with an eye-opening factoid to hook your audience right off the bat because first impressions matter—even in speeches.

To keep things digestible, group related ideas together under clear subheadings within your outline. Stick to presenting data that backs up each key idea without wandering down tangential paths. That way, everyone stays on track.

Making Data Relatable

Sure, numbers don’t lie but they can be hard to connect to. If you plan on using stats in your speech, make them meaningful by connecting them to relatable scenarios or outcomes people care about deeply. For instance, if you’re talking health statistics, relate them back to someone’s loved ones or local hospitals. By making the personal connection for your audience, you’ll get their attention.

The trick is using these nuggets strategically throughout your talk, not dumping them all at once but rather placing each one carefully where its impact will be greatest.

Imagine your speech as a road trip. Without smooth roads and clear signs, the journey gets bumpy, and passengers might miss the scenery along the way. That’s where transitions come in. They’re like your speech’s traffic signals guiding listeners from one point to another.

Crafting Seamless Bridges Between Ideas

Transitions are more than just linguistic filler. They’re strategic connectors that carry an audience smoothly through your narrative. Start by using phrases like “on top of this” or “let’s consider,” which help you pivot naturally between points without losing momentum.

To weave these seamlessly into your outline, map out each major turn beforehand to ensure no idea is left stranded on a tangent.

Making Use of Transitional Phrases Wisely

Be cautious: overusing transitional phrases can clutter up your speech faster than rush hour traffic. Striking a balance is key—think about how often you’d want to see signposts on a highway. Enough to keep you confident but not so many that it feels overwhelming.

Pick pivotal moments for transitions when shifting gears from one major topic to another or introducing contrasting information. A little direction at critical junctures keeps everyone onboard and attentive.

Leveraging Pauses as Transition Tools

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words, and pauses are powerful tools for transitioning thoughts. A well-timed pause lets ideas resonate and gives audiences time to digest complex information before moving forward again.

This approach also allows speakers some breathing room themselves—the chance to regroup mentally before diving into their next point with renewed vigor.

Connecting Emotional Threads Throughout Your Speech

Last but not least, don’t forget emotional continuity, that intangible thread pulling heartstrings from start-to-finish. Even if topics shift drastically, maintaining an underlying emotional connection ensures everything flows together cohesively within the larger tapestry of your message.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting your speech outline, shine a spotlight on what matters most so that your audience doesn’t miss your key points.

Bold and Italicize for Impact

You wouldn’t whisper your punchline in a crowded room. Similarly, why let your main ideas get lost in a sea of text? Use bold or italics to give those lines extra weight. This visual cue signals importance, so when you glance at your notes during delivery, you’ll know to emphasize those main ideas.

Analogies That Stick

A good analogy is like super glue—it makes anything stick. Weave them into your outline and watch as complex concepts become crystal clear. But remember: choose analogies that resonate with your target audience’s experiences or interests. The closer home it hits, the longer it lingers.

The Power of Repetition

If something’s important say it again. And maybe even once more after that—with flair. Repetition can feel redundant on paper, but audiences often need to hear critical messages several times before they take root.

Keep these strategies in mind when you’re ready to dive into your outline. You’ll transform those core ideas into memorable insights before you know it.

Picture this: you’re delivering a speech, and just as you’re about to reach the end, your time’s up. Ouch! Let’s make sure that never happens. Crafting an outline is not only about what to say but also how long to say it.

Finding Balance in Section Lengths

An outline isn’t just bullet points; it’s a roadmap for pacing. When outlining your speech, make sure to decide how much time you’d like to give each of your main points. You might even consider setting specific timers during rehearsals to get a real feel for each part’s duration. Generally speaking, you should allot a fairly equal amount of time for each to keep things balanced.

The Magic of Mini Milestones

To stay on track, a savvy speaker will mark time stamps or “mini milestones” on their outline. These time stamps give the speaker an idea of where should be in their speech by the time, say, 15 minutes has passed. If by checkpoint three you should be 15 minutes deep and instead you’re hitting 20 minutes, it’s time to pick up the pace or trim some fat from earlier sections. This approach helps you stay on track without having to glance at the clock after every sentence.

Utilizing Visual Aids and Multimedia in Your Outline

Pictures speak louder than words, especially when you’re on stage. Think about it: How many times have you sat through a presentation that felt like an eternity of endless bullet points? Now imagine if instead, there was a vibrant image or a short video clip to break up the monotony—it’s game-changing. That’s why integrating visual aids and multimedia into your speech outline isn’t just smart. It’s crucial for keeping your audience locked in.

Choosing Effective Visuals

Selecting the right visuals is not about flooding your slides with random images but finding those that truly amplify your message. Say you’re talking about climate change. In this case, a graph showing rising global temperatures can hit hard and illustrate your chosen statistic clearly. Remember, simplicity reigns supreme; one powerful image will always trump a cluttered collage.

Multimedia Magic

Videos are another ace up your sleeve. They can deliver testimonials more powerfully than quotes or transport viewers to places mere descriptions cannot reach. But be warned—timing is everything. Keep clips short and sweet because no one came to watch a movie—they came to hear you . You might highlight innovations using short video snippets, ensuring these moments serve as compelling punctuations rather than pauses in your narrative.

The Power of Sound

We often forget audio when we think multimedia, yet sound can evoke emotions and set tones subtly yet effectively. Think striking chords for dramatic effect or nature sounds for storytelling depth during environmental talks.

Audiences crave experiences they’ll remember long after they leave their seats. With well-chosen visuals and gripping multimedia elements woven thoughtfully into every section of your speech outline, you’ll give them exactly that.

Rehearsing with Your Speech Outline

When you’re gearing up to take the stage, your speech outline is a great tool to practice with. With a little preparation, you’ll give a performance that feels both natural and engaging.

Familiarizing Yourself with Content

To start off strong, get cozy with your outline’s content. Read through your outline aloud multiple times until the flow of words feels smooth. This will help make sure that when showtime comes around, you can deliver those lines without tripping over tough transitions or complex concepts.

Beyond mere memorization, understanding the heart behind each point allows you to speak from a place of confidence. You know this stuff—you wrote it. Now let’s bring that knowledge front and center in an authentic way.

Mimicking Presentation Conditions

Rehearsing under conditions similar to those expected during the actual presentation pays off big time. Are you going to stand or roam about? Will there be a podium? Think about these details and simulate them during rehearsal because comfort breeds confidence—and we’re all about boosting confidence.

If technology plays its part in your talk, don’t leave them out of rehearsals either. The last thing anyone needs is tech trouble during their talk.

Perfecting Pace Through Practice

Pacing matters big time when speaking. Use timed rehearsals to nail down timing. Adjust speed as needed but remember: clarity trumps velocity every single time.

You want people hanging onto every word, which is hard to do if you’re talking so fast they can barely make out what you’re saying. During rehearsals, find balance between pacing and comprehension; they should go hand-in-hand.

Finalizing Your Speech Outline for Presentation

You’ve poured hours into crafting your speech, shaping each word and idea with precision. Now, it’s time to tighten the nuts and bolts. Finalizing your outline isn’t just about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. It’s about making sure your message sticks like a perfectly thrown dart.

Reviewing Your Content for Clarity

Your first task is to strip away any fluff that might cloud your core message. Read through every point in your outline with a critical eye. Think of yourself as an editor on a mission to cut out anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. Ask yourself if you can explain each concept clearly without needing extra words or complex jargon. If not, simplify.

Strengthening Your Argument

The meat of any good presentation lies in its argument, the why behind what you’re saying. Strengthen yours by ensuring every claim has iron-clad backing—a stat here, an expert quote there. Let this be more than just facts tossed at an audience; weave them into stories they’ll remember long after they leave their seats.

Crafting Memorable Takeaways

Audiences may forget details but never how you made them feel—or think. Embed memorable takeaways throughout your outline so when folks step out into fresh air post-talk, they carry bits of wisdom with them.

This could mean distilling complex ideas down to pithy phrases or ending sections with punchy lines that resonate. It’s these golden nuggets people will mine for later reflection.

FAQs on Speech Outlines

How do you write a speech outline.

To craft an outline, jot down your main ideas, arrange them logically, and add supporting points beneath each.

What are the 3 main parts of a speech outline?

An effective speech has three core parts: an engaging introduction, a content-rich body, and a memorable conclusion.

What are the three features of a good speech outline?

A strong outline is clear, concise, and structured in logical sequence to maximize impact on listeners.

What is a working outline for a speech?

A working outline serves as your blueprint while preparing. It’s detailed but flexible enough to adjust as needed.

Crafting a speech outline is like drawing your map before the journey. It starts with structure and flows into customization for different types of talks. Remember, research and evidence are your compass—they guide you to credibility. Transitions act as bridges, connecting one idea to another smoothly. Key points? They’re landmarks so make them shine.

When delivering your speech, keep an eye on the clock and pace yourself so that every word counts.

Multimedia turns a good talk into a great show. Rehearsing polishes that gem of a presentation until it sparkles.

Last up: fine-tuning your speech outline means you step out confident, ready to deliver something memorable because this isn’t just any roadmap—it’s yours.

• Last Updated: March 5, 2024

Explore Related Resources

Learn How You Could Get Your First (Or Next) Paid Speaking Gig In 90 Days or Less

We receive thousands of applications every day, but we only work with the top 5% of speakers .

Book a call with our team to get started — you’ll learn why the vast majority of our students get a paid speaking gig within 90 days of finishing our program .

If you’re ready to control your schedule, grow your income, and make an impact in the world – it’s time to take the first step. Book a FREE consulting call and let’s get you Booked and Paid to Speak ® .

About The Speaker Lab

We teach speakers how to consistently get booked and paid to speak.  Since 2015, we’ve helped thousands of speakers find clarity, confidence, and a clear path to make an impact.

Get Started

Let's connect.

[email protected]

Copyright ©2023 The Speaker Lab. All rights reserved.

PHILADELPHIA, MAY 9-10 PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS IS ALMOST FULL! RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW

• Public Speaking Classes
• Corporate Presentation Training
• Online Public Speaking Course
• Northeast Region
• Midwest Region
• Southeast Region
• Central Region
• Western Region
• Presentation Skills
• 101 Public Speaking Tips
• Fear of Public Speaking

Online Speech Creator

Use this Online Speech Creator to Help You Quickly Create a Good Speech Outline!

Before You Start…

This presentation creator is designed to help you organize your thoughts. It won’t actually do all the work for you. Just follow the step-by-step instructions. If you answer every question , you will receive a simple, easy to deliver presentation guide. Before you start, we suggest that you glance at the following two blog posts:

• How to Design a Presentation Quickly (In 15 Minutes or Less.)

The summary of this post is to not try to write a speech word-for-word. Instead, come up with an outline of your presentation containing just a few key points. It is better to cover just a few points really well than to cover a bunch of confusing content. (Your speech is easier to deliver as well.) The Speech Creator will ask you to determine just three major points to cover in the presentation. This works for most speeches.

• Storytelling Techniques that Reduce Nervousness and Stage Fright

Most people who use this presentation creation tool for the first time really fight this advice. The examples and stories that you insert are what make your speech interesting and easy to deliver to your audience. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! If you skip this step, you will end up with a lousy presentation outline.

• Presentation Enhancers that Make Speeches More Interesting

This post identifies seven additional pieces of content that you can add to each bullet point to make them come alive. These will make good speeches great speeches.

Fill in Answers Below About the Presentation You Are Creating.

The system will send you a speech outline via email.

Who is the specific audience for your speech?  The more specific that you make the audience, the easier it is to design a compelling speech.

What example, illustration, or incident (story) can you think of that best explains the point above? Think of a time you witnessed the above point in real life or give an example of how it could happen. If it is a conclusion, tell about how you came to the conclusion.   (Just a few words to remind you. Don't write out the whole story.)

To add some impact or clarity, come up with an analogy, quote, visual aid, or other type of proof that point #1 is true. (Just a few words to remind you. Don't write out the whole item.) 

Now, let's assume the audience really understands your first point.  What would be the second thing that the audience needs to know about your topic? (Assume they know nothing about the topic.)

Come up with an example or story (explanation) of point two now, and then add impact with an analogy, quote, visual aid, etc.

Go through the same process with point three (and point four or five if needed). Determine what the next most important thing is to the audience, come up with a story or example, and add one impact item.

Just hit "Submit" and we'll email an outline to you... 

For additional details, see Persuasive Speech Outlines .

presentation skills

View More Posts By Category: Free Public Speaking Tips | leadership tips | Online Courses | Past Fearless Presentations ® Classes | Podcasts | presentation skills | Uncategorized

Speech Outline Generator

How to use speech outline generator, what is a speech outline generator.

A speech outline generator is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help individuals structure and organize their speeches or presentations, ensuring a clear flow of ideas and a coherent narrative.

How does it work?

The AI speech outline generator analyzes your speech topic, key points, and supporting details to generate an outline that guides you through the introduction, main content, and conclusion of your speech.

Can an AI-generated speech outline improve presentation effectiveness?

Yes, a well-organized outline can help you deliver a more structured and engaging speech, keeping your audience attentive and informed.

Can I customize the AI-generated speech outlines?

Certainly, you can modify the AI-generated content to match your speaking style, add anecdotes, and incorporate additional examples that resonate with your audience.

Is an AI speech outline generator suitable for different types of speeches?

Yes, whether it's informative, persuasive, or entertaining speeches, an AI speech outline generator can assist in crafting effective outlines for various occasions.

AI Cover Letter Generator

Job description generator, ai company name generator, career coach, paragraph generator, spanish grammar checker, copy editor, chatgpt plagiarism checker, essay title generator, ai summarizer, sentence expander.

Arvin is the AI browser extension powered by GPT-4. Chat with Arvin from anywhere online for instant research, reading and creativity.

Speech Outline Generator

Write about, ai4chat's speech outline generator:, effortless tool for speech preparation.

AI4Chat's Speech Outline Generator is an advanced tool designed to simplify the process of speech creation. This one-click tool revolutionizes the way speech outlines are made by intelligently generating a structured speech outline. With this tool, users can focus more on delivering their speech content rather than spending countless hours in preparation.

Interactive and User-Friendly

The Speech Outline Generator has an interactive and user-friendly interface that ensures a smooth and efficient user experience. Regardless of whether the user is a professional speechwriter or a beginner, this tool caters to all speechwriting needs. It not only accelerates the process but also enhances the overall quality of the speech.

Integrated with AI4Chat

Integrated under AI4Chat's roof, the Speech Outline Generator, like any other tool of AI4Chat, adheres to the platform's objective of harnessing the power of AI for simplifying tasks. It is available across various platforms including, Android, iOS, and on their website. The Synchronization feature allows users to access the tool and their speech outlines from any device with ease.

Questions about AI4Chat? We are here to help!

For any inquiries, drop us an email at [email protected] . We’re always eager to assist and provide more information.

What Is AI4Chat?

Which languages does ai4chat support, how do i toggle between different ai models, can i personalize my chats, is there an option for unlimited usage, do i need a credit card to get started, can i use the content generated using ai4chat for commercial purposes, how do i contact support, all set to level up your content game.

Multiple leading chatbots unified, offering instant AI responses across languages and devices seamlessly.

AI4Chat © 2023. All Rights Reserved.

• Privacy Policy

• Personal Development
• Sales Training
• Business Training
• Time Management
• Leadership Training
• Book Writing
• Public Speaking
• Live Speaker Training With Brian
• See Brian Speak
• Coaching Programs
• Become a Coach
• Personal Success
• Sales Success
• Business Success
• Leadership Success

How To Write A Speech Outline

Do you have a speech coming up soon, but don’t know where to start when it comes to writing it? 

Don’t worry. 

The best way to start writing your speech is to first write an outline.

While to some, an outline may seem like an unnecessary extra step — after giving hundreds of speeches in my own career, I can assure you that first creating a speech outline is truly the best way to design a strong presentation that your audience will remember.

Should I Write A Speech Outline?

You might be wondering if you should really bother with a preparation outline. Is a speaking outline worth your time, or can you get through by just keeping your supporting points in mind?

Again, I highly recommend that all speakers create an outline as part of their speechwriting process. This step is an extremely important way to organize your main ideas and all the various elements of your speech in a way that will command your audience’s attention.

Good public speaking teachers will agree that an outline—even if it’s a rough outline—is the easiest way to propel you forward to a final draft of an organized speech that audience members will love.

Here are a few of the biggest benefits of creating an outline before diving straight into your speech.

Gain More Focus

By writing an outline, you’ll be able to center the focus of your speech where it belongs—on your thesis statement and main idea.

Remember, every illustration, example, or piece of information you share in your speech should be relevant to the key message you’re trying to deliver. And by creating an outline, you can ensure that everything relates back to your main point.

Keep Things Organized

Your speech should have an overall organizational pattern so that listeners will be able to follow your thoughts. You want your ideas to be laid out in a logical order that’s easy to track, and for all of the speech elements to correspond.

An outline serves as a structure or foundation for your speech, allowing you to see all of your main points laid out so you can easily rearrange them into an order that makes sense for easy listening.

Create Smoother Transitions

A speaking outline helps you create smoother transitions between the different parts of your speech.

When you know what’s happening before and after a certain section, it will be easy to accurately deliver transitional statements that make sense in context. Instead of seeming like several disjointed ideas, the parts of your speech will naturally flow into each other.

Save Yourself Time

An outline is an organization tool that will save you time and effort when you get ready to write the final draft of your speech. When you’re working off of an outline to write your draft, you can overcome “blank page syndrome.”

It will be much easier to finish the entire speech because the main points and sub-points are already clearly laid out for you.

Your only job is to finish filling everything in.

Preparing to Write A Speech Outline

Now that you know how helpful even the most basic of speech outlines can be in helping you write the best speech, here’s how to write the best outline for your next public speaking project.

How Long Should A Speech Outline Be?

The length of your speech outline will depend on the length of your speech. Are you giving a quick two-minute talk or a longer thirty-minute presentation? The length of your outline will reflect the length of your final speech.

Another factor that will determine the length of your outline is how much information you actually want to include in the outline. For some speakers, bullet points of your main points might be enough. In other cases, you may feel more comfortable with a full-sentence outline that offers a more comprehensive view of your speech topic.

The length of your outline will also depend on the type of outline you’re using at any given moment.

Types of Outlines

Did you know there are several outline types? Each type of outline is intended for a different stage of the speechwriting process. Here, we’re going to walk through:

• Working outlines
• Full-sentence outlines
• Speaking outlines

Working Outline

Think of your working outline as the bare bones of your speech—the scaffolding you’re using as you just start to build your presentation. To create a working outline, you will need:

• A speech topic
• An idea for the “hook” in your introduction
• A thesis statement
• 3-5 main points (each one should make a primary claim that you support with references)
• A conclusion

Each of your main points will also have sub-points, but we’ll get to those in a later step.

The benefit of a working outline is that it’s easy to move things around. If you think your main points don’t make sense in a certain order—or that one point needs to be scrapped entirely—it’s no problem to make the needed changes. You won’t be deleting any of your prior hard work because you haven’t really done any work yet.

Once you are confident in this “skeleton outline,” you can move on to the next, where you’ll start filling in more detailed information.

Full-sentence outline

As the name implies, your full-sentence outline contains full sentences. No bullet points or scribbled, “talk about x, y, z here.” Instead, research everything you want to include and write out the information in full sentences.

Why is this important? A full-sentence outline helps ensure that you are:

• Including all of the information your audience needs to know
• Organizing the material well
• Staying within any time constraints you’ve been given

Don’t skip this important step as you plan your speech.

Speaking outline

The final type of outline you’ll need is a speaking outline. When it comes to the level of detail, this outline is somewhere in between your working outline and a full-sentence outline. 

You’ll include the main parts of your speech—the introduction, main points, and conclusion. But you’ll add a little extra detail about each one, too. This might be a quote that you don’t want to misremember or just a few words to jog your memory of an anecdote to share.

When you actually give your speech, this is the outline you will use. It might seem like it makes more sense to use your detailed full-sentence outline up on stage. However, if you use this outline, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of reading your speech—which is not what you want to do. You’ll likely sound much more natural if you use your speaking outline.

How to Write A Speech Outline

We’ve covered the types of outlines you’ll work through as you write your speech. Now, let’s talk more about how you’ll come up with the information to add to each outline type.

Pick A Topic

Before you can begin writing an outline, you have to know what you’re going to be speaking about. In some situations, you may have a topic given to you—especially if you are in a public speaking class and must follow the instructor’s requirements. But in many cases, speakers must come up with their own topic for a speech.

Consider your audience and what kind of educational, humorous, or otherwise valuable information they need to hear. Your topic and message should of course be highly relevant to them. If you don’t know your audience well enough to choose a topic, that’s a problem.

Your audience is your first priority. If possible, however, it’s also helpful to choose a topic that appeals to you. What’s something you’re interested in and/or knowledgeable about? 

It will be much easier to write a speech on a topic you care about rather than one you don’t. If you can come up with a speech topic that appeals to your audience and is interesting to you, that’s the sweet spot for writing and delivering an unforgettable speech.

Write A Thesis Statement

The next step is to ask yourself two important questions:

• What do you want your audience to take away from your speech?
• How will you communicate this main message?

The key message of your speech can also be called your “thesis statement.”

Essentially, this is your main point—the most important thing you hope to get across.

You’ll most likely actually say your thesis statement verbatim during your speech. It should come at the end of your introduction. Then, you’ll spend the rest of your talk expanding on this statement, sharing more information that will prove the statement is true.

Consider writing your thesis statement right now—before you begin researching or outlining your speech. If you can refer back to this statement as you get to work, it will be much easier to make sure all of the elements correspond with each other throughout your speech.

An example of a good thesis statement might read like this:

• Going for a run every day is good for your health.
• It’s important to start saving for retirement early.
• The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on many small businesses.

The second part of this step is to know how you will communicate your main message . For example, if your key point is that running improves physical health, you might get this across by:

• Citing scientific studies that proved running is good for your health
• Sharing your personal experience of going for a run every day

Your goal is for all of your sub-points and supporting material to reflect and support your main point. At the end of the speech, your audience should be appropriately motivated, educated, or convinced that your thesis statement is true.

Once you have a topic for your presentation and a good thesis statement, you can move on to the bulk of the outline.

The first part of your speech is the introduction, which should include a strong “hook” to grab the attention of your audience. There are endless directions you can go to create this hook. Don’t be afraid to get creative! You might try:

• Telling a joke
• Sharing an anecdote
• Using a prop or visual aid
• Asking a question (rhetorical or otherwise)

These are just a few examples of hooks that can make your audience sit up and take notice.

The rest of your introduction shouldn’t be too long—as a general rule of thumb, you want your introduction to take up about 10% of your entire speech. But there are a few other things you need to say.

Briefly introduce yourself and who you are to communicate why the audience should trust you. Mention why you’re giving this speech. 

Explain that you’re going to cover X main points—you can quickly list them—and include your thesis statement. 

You could also mention how long your speech will be and say what your audience will take away from it (“At the end of our 15 minutes together today, you’ll understand how to write a resume”).

Then smoothly transition into the body of your speech.

Next, you’ll write the body of your speech. This is the bulk of your presentation. It will include your main points and their sub-points. Here’s how this should look:

Your subpoints might be anecdotes, visual aids, or studies. However you decide to support your main points, make them memorable and engaging. Nobody wants to sit and listen to you recite a dry list of facts.

Remember, the amount of detail you include right now will depend on which outline you’re on. Your first outline, or working outline, doesn’t have to include every last little detail. Your goal is to briefly encapsulate all of the most important elements in your speech. 

But beyond that, you don’t need to write down every last detail or example right now. You don’t even have to write full sentences at this point. That will come in your second outline and other future drafts.

Your conclusion should concisely summarize the main points of your speech. You could do this by saying, “To recap as I finish up, today we learned…” and reiterate those primary points.

It’s also good to leave the audience with something to think about and/or discuss. Consider asking them a question that expands on your speech—something they can turn over in their minds the rest of the day. 

Or share one final story or quote that will leave them with lasting inspiration. Bonus points if your conclusion circles back around to your introduction or hook.

In other cases, you may want to end with a call to action. Are you promoting something? Make sure your audience knows what it is, how it will benefit them, and where they can find it. Or, your CTA might be as simple as plugging your Twitter handle and asking listeners to follow you.

Finally, don’t forget to say thank you to your audience for taking the time to listen.

Additional Helpful Speechwriting Tips

Your speech outline is important, but it’s not the only thing that goes into preparing to give a presentation. Take a look at these additional tips I recommend to help your speech succeed.

Use Visual Aids

Visual aids are a good way to make sure your audience stays engaged—that they listen closely, and remember what you said. Visual aids serve as an attention-getter for people who may not be listening closely. These aids also ensure that your points are sufficiently supported.

You might choose to incorporate any of the following in your talk:

• A PowerPoint presentation
• A chart or graph
• A whiteboard or blackboard
• A flip chart
• A prop that you hold or interact with

Don’t overdo it. Remember, your speech is the main thing you’re presenting. Any visual aids are just that—aids. They’re a side dish, not the main entrée. Select one primary type of aid for your speech.

If you decide to include visual aids, use your speaking outline to make a note of which items you will incorporate where. You may want to place these items on your working outline. They should definitely be on your full-sentence outline.

Keep Your Audience Engaged

As you write and practice your speech, make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your audience engaged the entire time. We’ve already talked about including stories and jokes, using visual aids, or asking questions to vary your talk and make it more interesting.

Your body language is another important component of audience engagement. Your posture should be straight yet relaxed, with shoulders back and feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your body open to the audience.

Make eye contact with different people in the audience. Incorporate hand gestures that emphasize certain points or draw attention to your visual aids.

Don’t be afraid to move around whatever space you have. Movement is especially helpful to indicate a clearer transition from one part of your speech to another. And smile! A simple smile goes a long way to help your audience relax.

Practice Your Speech

When you’re done with speechwriting, it’s time to get in front of the mirror and practice. Pay attention to your body language, gestures, and eye contact. 

Practice working with any visual aids or props you will be using. It’s also helpful to make a plan B—for instance, what will you do if the projector isn’t working and you can’t use your slides?

Ask a friend or family member if you can rehearse your speech for them. When you’re through, ask them questions about which parts held their attention and which ones didn’t.

You should also use your speaking outline and whatever other notes you’ll be using in your speech itself. Get used to referring to this outline as you go. But remember, don’t read anything verbatim (except maybe a quote). Your speaking outline is simply a guide to remind you where you’re going.

Learn to Speak Like A Leader

There’s a lot of work that goes into writing a speech outline. That’s undeniable. But an outline is the best way to organize and plan your presentation. When your speech outline is ready, it will be a breeze to write and then present your actual speech.

If you’re looking for more help learning how to become a strong public speaker, I recommend my free 5 Minute Speech Formula . This will help you start writing your speech and turn any idea into a powerful message.

« Previous Post Productivity Tips – Be More Productive With Less Effort Next Post » How To Communicate Effectively In Any Situation

About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

• Most Recent
• The Art of Business Success: A Blueprint for Entrepreneurs
• How to Develop a Habit That Will Last
• How to Write an Author Bio (Examples Included)
• Personal Development Plan Templates for Success
• How to Sell and Become a Master Salesperson
• Free Webinar: How To Write a Book and Become a Published Author
• Free Video Series: 3-Part Sales Mastery Training Series
• Free Assessment: The Confidence Factor
• Free Assessment: Discovering Your Talents

Browse Categories

• Financial Success

Follow Brian & Join the Discussion

• Free Resources
• Best Sellers
• Knowledge Base
• Shipping & Returns
• Privacy Policy
• About Brian
• Brian Recommends

Your Privacy is Guaranteed. We will never give, lease or sell your personal information. Period!

© Copyright 2001-2024 Brian Tracy International. All Rights Reserved.

Limited time: Try B12 $1/mo for 3 months.

Launch an online presence that makes it simple to attract, win, and serve clients

B12 uses AI and experts to quickly set up your website, scheduling, payments, email marketing, and more.

How to use AI to generate a speech outline

Tired of staring at a blank page, trying to come up with a coherent speech outline? Say goodbye to writer's block because artificial intelligence's here to help! 

AI can revolutionize how we create speeches with its ability to analyze data and generate intelligent insights. Smart algorithms could sift through tons of sources, identify key points, and frame them in a compelling way. Our article will explore how AI can make it easy to craft compelling speech outlines for your work, public-speaking project, and more. Let’s dive in!

The importance of a well-structured speech outline

Delivering a compelling and organized presentation starts with a well-structured speech outline. This gives the speaker a roadmap, making sure they cover all the essential points. An outline keeps speakers focused, engages the audience, and conveys their ideas clearly. No matter if you're a professional speaker or preparing for a big presentation, creating a speech outline is essential.

How AI technology can revolutionize speechwriting

It's no secret that AI has revolutionized various industries, including speechwriting. Gone are the days of spending extensive time brainstorming and structuring a speech outline manually. 

AI-powered speechwriting tools now offer a game-changing solution to assist speakers in generating a well-crafted outline efficiently. They analyze input materials, extract key points, and suggest an optimized speech outline using sophisticated algorithms and natural language processing. 

AI can save speakers a ton of time and effort as they prepare their speeches, so they can focus more on connecting with their audience and refining their delivery.

What is a speech outline?

A speech outline serves as a blueprint for organizing your thoughts, arguments, and supporting evidence coherently. You can use it to make sure your main points are clear and communicated well. 

Moreover, an outline keeps speakers on track, so they don't get confused or disorganized. AI-generated speech outlines help speakers understand the topic, identify gaps in their arguments, and make sure their message gets across.

Key components of an effective outline

An effective speech outline consists of several key components that collectively contribute to its success. These components typically include an attention-grabbing introduction, a concise thesis statement, clear main points, supporting evidence or examples, and a powerful conclusion. The three main parts consist of the introduction, body, and conclusion. Each section serves a specific purpose and helps guide both the speaker and the audience through the entire speech. 

Additionally, incorporating transitions between each section adds coherence and ensures a seamless flow of ideas. By understanding and implementing these key components, speakers can create a compelling speech outline that engages and persuades their audience effectively.

Using AI speech writer tools for generating a speech outline

AI speechwriting tools have transformed the speechwriting process, making it more efficient and effective. These advanced tools utilize artificial intelligence algorithms to generate speech outlines that can serve as a strong foundation for any speech. Let's explore the capabilities and benefits of these AI-driven tools in detail.

An AI writing assistant leverages cutting-edge technology to provide users with accurate and comprehensive speech outlines. These tools analyze vast amounts of data, including speeches from renowned speakers and experts, to generate outlines that are well-structured and impactful. By utilizing AI algorithms, these tools can extract key themes, identify main points, and suggest potential supporting arguments.

Benefits of AI speechwriting tools

One major advantage of using AI speechwriting tools is the significant amount of time and effort saved. These tools can generate a speech outline within minutes, eliminating the need for hours of brainstorming and organizing ideas. Additionally, they can offer valuable insights and suggestions that may have been overlooked by the speaker, helping to create a more well-rounded and compelling speech.

Another benefit of these AI-driven tools is their ability to adapt to different speech styles and contexts. Whether you are giving a formal business presentation or a motivational speech, the AI algorithms can generate an outline that aligns with the tone and purpose of the speech. This versatility allows users to create outlines that cater specifically to their audience and goals.

Leveraging AI-generated suggestions for maximum efficiency

When using AI speechwriting tools for generating a speech outline, it's crucial to make the most of the suggestions and insights provided. These tools often offer alternative phrasing, examples, and even statistical data to support your main points. By incorporating these suggestions, speakers can enhance the quality and impact of their speech outline, ensuring a more engaging and persuasive delivery.

By utilizing AI speechwriting tools, speakers can streamline their speech preparation process and create outlines that captivate and inspire their audience. With their advanced capabilities, these tools offer a valuable resource to individuals seeking to optimize their speechwriting practice. 

Using AI for generating a speech outline

One of the most significant advantages of utilizing AI speechwriting tools is their ability to generate a speech outline quickly and efficiently. These tools leverage the power of artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of data and generate a well-structured and coherent outline in a matter of minutes. By following these step-by-step instructions, you can leverage AI technology to streamline your speechwriting process and enhance the overall quality of your presentations.

Step 1: choosing the right AI speechwriting tool

To begin generating a speech outline using AI, it is essential to select the right speechwriting tool that suits your needs. There are various AI-driven tools available in the market that excel in creating speech outlines. Some of these tools use natural language processing algorithms to analyze your input, identify key themes and arguments, and generate an outline based on this analysis. It is crucial to consider factors such as the tool's accuracy, user-friendliness, and compatibility with your preferred writing style before making a selection.

Step 2: inputting key points and key messages

Once you have chosen your preferred AI speechwriting tool, it's time to input the key points and key messages you want to include in your speech. These can be the main ideas, arguments, or themes that you want to convey to your audience. The AI tool will then process this input and use its algorithms to generate a preliminary outline based on the information provided. This step sets the foundation for the AI-generated outline and ensures that it aligns with your speech objectives and desired message delivery.

Step 3: leveraging AI-generated suggestions and insights

After the initial outline is generated, AI speechwriting tools often provide additional suggestions and insights to enhance the outline further. These suggestions can include additional supporting points, relevant anecdotes, or compelling statistics that strengthen your speech's argumentation. By leveraging these AI-generated suggestions, you can take advantage of the tool's advanced capabilities and maximize efficiency in developing an engaging and impactful speech outline.

Step 4: iterating and refining your outline

Once you receive the AI-generated outline and suggestions, it's time to iterate and refine your speech outline to reflect your personal style and context. This step is crucial to ensure that the outline aligns with your speaking style, maintains a coherent flow, and effectively captures your unique insights. By adding your own personal touch to the AI-generated outline, you can create a speech that feels authentic and resonates with your audience on a deeper level.

Incorporating AI into the speechwriting process can save precious time and effort, while also enriching the quality and impact of your presentations. By following these steps and making the most of AI-generated suggestions, you can create a well-structured and compelling speech outline that optimizes your communication goals and captivates your audience.

Personalizing your AI-generated speech outline

To truly make your speech outline your own, it's important to personalize and customize the AI-generated suggestions. While AI tools provide valuable insights and suggestions, adding your own personal touch and unique insights can make your speech more authentic and engaging. Here are some tips to help you fine-tune your AI-generated speech outline:

Tailoring the outline to your speech style and context

Every speaker has their own unique style and tone, and it's important to ensure that your AI-generated outline aligns with your individuality. Take the time to review the outline and make adjustments based on your preferred speaking style. Consider incorporating language that reflects your personality, humor, or any other elements that resonate with your audience. Additionally, consider the context in which you'll be delivering your speech. Adapt the outline to suit the specific occasion, audience, and setting.

Adding personal stories and examples

To captivate your audience and make your speech memorable, try incorporating personal stories and examples into your AI-generated outline. While the AI tool can provide a solid framework, sharing your own experiences will make your speech more relatable and authentic. These personal anecdotes can help connect with your audience on an emotional level, making your message more impactful and memorable.

Incorporating relevant quotes or statistics

Quotations and statistics can add credibility and depth to your speech outline. As you review the AI-generated suggestions, consider if there are any relevant quotes or interesting statistics that resonate with your speech topic. Research and include these elements to support your key points and strengthen your arguments. By incorporating well-sourced and compelling information, you can enhance the overall impact of your speech.

Structuring the outline for maximum coherence

While the AI-generated outline may already be well-structured, you can further optimize it for maximum coherence and clarity. Review the flow of your outline and ensure that the ideas progress logically from one point to another. Consider using transitional phrases or subheadings to guide the audience through your speech. By organizing your ideas clearly and cohesively, you'll make it easier for your audience to follow along and understand your message.

By personalizing and customizing your AI-generated speech outline, you can infuse your own unique style and insights into the framework provided by the AI tool. This combination of AI-generated suggestions and your personal touch will help you create a speech that engages, informs, and inspires your audience.

Putting your AI-generated outline into action

Transforming the outline into a compelling speech.

Once you have your AI-generated speech outline in hand, it's time to transform it into a captivating and coherent speech. This process involves taking the structure provided by the outline and infusing it with your personal touch and unique insights.

To begin, examine each section of your outline and consider how you can expand upon the key points and add supporting details. Use your own knowledge and expertise to craft compelling arguments and compelling storytelling techniques. By combining the structure from the AI-generated outline with your own words and ideas, you'll create a speech that resonates with your audience.

Leveraging AI tools for speechwriting assistance

While the outline is an essential foundation, AI tools can continue to be of assistance throughout the speechwriting process. Utilize AI speechwriting tools that can help you fine-tune your content, refine your language, and ensure your speech flows seamlessly.

For example, AI tools can suggest alternative vocabulary choices, provide insights on sentence structure, and offer real-time grammar and spelling checks. By leveraging these features, you can enhance the overall quality and readability of your speech, eliminating any potential errors or awkward phrasing.

Drafting and rehearsing with AI support

As you progress from drafting your speech to rehearsing it for delivery, AI technology can provide invaluable support. Interact with AI-driven tools that offer feedback on your delivery, providing insights on pacing, tone, and emphasis.

Using these tools can help you identify areas where you may need to adjust your delivery style, ensuring your speech is engaging and impactful. By practicing with AI assistance, you can fine-tune your public speaking skills and deliver a polished performance when the time comes.

Harnessing the power of AI for business success

Incorporating AI technology into the speechwriting process can revolutionize the way you craft and deliver speeches. From generating a well-structured outline to refining the language and delivery, AI tools can save you time and effort while contributing to a more compelling and impactful speech.

You can embrace the power of AI not just in making speeches but also in other aspects of your business. Prioritize efficiency and streamline tasks like website-building and more. With B12, you can boost productivity, saving you time and effort to focus on more urgent business tasks. 

Our AI-powered website builder can help you effortlessly generate a professional website that truly matches your branding. AI Assist streamlines your content creation efforts, helping you generate the perfect copy every time for your social media, website, and other channels. Our No-code AI enables you to automate workflows for improved business efficiency—even without technical expertise! And Orchestra enhances your project management tasks for better team communication and collaboration. 

B12 is the all-in-one platform that helps professional service small businesses launch an online presence with tools like payments, scheduling, email marketing, and contracts. See your new site for free in 60 seconds to start winning, attracting, and serving clients in no time.

Attract, win, and serve more clients

Receive helpful resources directly to your inbox to help you succeed online.

Related posts

Spend less time on your website and more time growing your business

Let B12 set up your professional online presence with everything you need to attract, win, and serve clients.

How to write a speech outline and up your presentation game

Reading time: about 8 min

One reason people find public speaking daunting is they don’t have a simple method to sort their ideas, which can leave them feeling unprepared for the task ahead. Rather than being excited about what they have put together, they think, “Agh, that’ll have to do. I’m out of time.” This feeling, in turn, can have a negative impact on physical and mental energy levels during your talk. If you don’t feel confident, you won’t sound confident, and you’re not likely to impress your audience. If you go in confidently, the audience will be more willing to accept your ideas.

Whether you’re pitching a business idea or delivering a heartfelt wedding speech, you need to consider the perspective of your audience, identify your key message, and decide on the best way to engage your audience from start to finish.

Let’s take a look at how a speech outline works and how you can use Lucidchart to make your own.

Ready to jump right into a speech outline template?

Register for lucidchart to get started., what is a speech outline.

A persuasive speech outline gives you a map of the key ideas of your speech. First, it should ask you to consider your audience’s perspective and the key message you want them to remember from your talk. Then, it should guide you in creating a clear, organized structure for your presentation.

The Vivid Speech Outline in Lucidchart does both. It’s built on neuroscience, which shows that you can avoid anxiety and improve brain performance dramatically when you do the following:

Get information out of our heads and create a simple framework on the page: Humans have a strict limit to the amount of information that they can hold and consider in their mind at any one time. An outline lets your brain focus on one step at a time rather than becoming overwhelmed.

Prioritize, compare, and think deeply during the outline stage, not when overwhelmed by details: The prefrontal cortex, the clarification part of the brain, requires a lot of energy to function. An outline keeps you focused and avoids you hitting “the wall.”

See the relationship between ideas visually: It’s hard to think of new ideas if they don’t connect to existing ideas in some way.

Lucidchart’s Vivid Speech Outline template

Lucidchart has created a template based on Cam’s Vivid Speech Outline to help demystify and speed up the speech writing process.

The Vivid Speech Outline template demonstrates how to write a speech outline through the refinement of two parts: your overall message statement, which is the main point of your presentation, and your chunk structure, which acts as the body and building blocks of your speech. Clarifying your message statement first helps to focus your thinking when you structure your ideas.

Step 1: Message statement

The first page of the speech outline is where you define your transferable message. The message statement page asks three important questions:

• Who are you speaking to? You need to look into the mind of your listeners. What’s their job role, their biases, and their wants and concerns? If you don’t understand your audience’s perspective, you won’t be able to get through to them, no matter how important your ideas may be.  
• What do you want them to think or do? Do you want them to think something, e.g., “This project will succeed” or “Learning this method will make you better at your job”? Or do you want them to do something, like sign the contract or try the product?  
• Why would they think or do what you suggest?  Why should your audience sign the contract, try out the product, or believe that the project will succeed? List the reasons, arguments, examples, evidence, etc. (focused on what you know about your audience).

By combining the answers to questions two and three, you will have a draft of your message statement, which you will then transfer to the second page and use as your speech’s conclusion.

Pro tip: The best way to know if this message statement truly encapsulates your point is to test it. Imagine you are finishing your presentation. Think of your imaginary audience and say your message statement out loud. Does it bring your idea to life? Is this the one key message you want your listeners to recall? If not, repeat the process until your message statement feels complete.

Step 2: Chunk structure

The second page of the template gives you a one-page summary of your entire speech or presentation in brief, narrow pieces called chunks. This allows you to separate the world’s overwhelming details into categories, sections, paragraphs, segments, etc., and think more clearly.

The foundation of your one-page chunk structure is as follows:

1. Presentation title

Create a simple yet captivating title to capture attention and set expectations.

2. Two to four chunks

Make your speech easily digestible by segmenting it into chunks. Depending on what the situation calls for, you can choose two to four chunks or main ideas. You could choose as many segments as you like, but if you include more than four, your talk will start to seem complicated. When announcing the overview of your speech, every audience will be pleased to hear that your talk requires only two, three, or four main ideas to follow.

Inside each main idea or chunk, be sure to include:

A chunk heading: This heading simply states the issue to be discussed.

Details: List the examples, evidence, stories, charts or whatever details that help bring a key point to life beneath the chunk headings.

The key point: People forget most of what they hear, which is why you should state the key point at the end of each chunk. Even if your listeners won’t remember all the details, you hope they will remember the main point for each particular chunk.

For the conclusion, simply transfer over your message statement from the first page. Although you may want to re-test the message statement (from the first page) to see how it flows with the new details you’ve added to your speech outline, you’ve already written your big finish.

Pro tip: Now that you have a completed chunk structure, you can practice your speech from start to finish in less than a minute. Because you have a one-page map of all your important points for this talk in the chunk structure, you can test your message and structure––the yellow shapes (the title, optional introduction, chunk headings, key points, and message statement)––out loud. Most of the time, you won’t need to learn every word of your speech by heart. You just need to make sure you’re clear on the message and structure.

Benefits of the Vivid Speech Outline

The Vivid Speech Outline creates an environment for natural confidence and impact. By creating a persuasive speech outline, you can:

• Save time and effort by identifying your message and key points as the first step in the writing process.
• Be more efficient and minimize the mental load by splitting up the outlining and structuring of your speech.
• Reduce uncertainty and anxiety early in your preparation by considering the tough questions your audience might ask, sticking to the process, and testing the flow your talk.

Use the Vivid Speech Outline to take advantage of these benefits and get a competitive edge.

Using Lucidchart’s Vivid Speech Outline template to create your own presentation

Lucidchart’s template shows you how to write a speech outline that eloquently communicates your innovative message and engages your audience.

Use the Vivid Speech Outline custom shapes to quickly build your message statement and chunk structure pages. Simply drag and drop the custom shapes from the shape repository (or any shape in the toolbox) on the canvas, and fill in the details, chunk headings, or message statement. As you line up your points and supporting details, you’re more likely to notice if some of your ideas don’t quite fit. To make a change, drag and rearrange the shapes any way you want without losing any of the work you’ve already done. As mentioned above, key shapes for the Vivid Speech Outline are also colored to make it easier for you to practice your main ideas.

Lucidchart’s integration with Google Slides makes it easy to export your chunk structure to a slideshow presentation. Preview, edit, and rearrange the already created slides by clicking on the “Slides” icon in the dock to the right of the canvas, and then, with one click, send your finalized chunk structure to Google Slides. You can also select the “Present” option for a quick slide presentation within Lucidchart.

Creating your speech outline in Lucidchart means you also have access to all its sharing and collaboration features. Whether you want to have someone review your speech or you need to work on a presentation as a team, you can email access links to others, invite them to view, comment on, or edit the document, or chat with those with whom you’ve shared the document. Once given access to your document, your whole team can work on it and see each other’s changes in real time.

The beauty of this speech outline is in its simplicity and flexibility. With the help of Lucidchart, you can quickly structure a persuasive speech outline that works for any situation.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

Related articles

No matter what schedule or settings works best for you, these tried-and-true writing process steps keep any writing project moving

If you’re a student, there’s no way around it: You’re going to have to write essays. But there is an easier way to brainstorm, structure, and write the perfect essay. Learn how graphic organizers can help and get started with templates from Lucidchart.

Bring your bright ideas to life.

or continue with

• Speech Crafting →

Preparation: How to write a Speech Outline (with Examples)

You have been chosen to give a speech on a particular topic and you reckon that you’re a good speech writer.

However, without a good speech outline, your speech lacks the proper skeleton to put meat on.

A speech outline is to a speech what a blueprint is to an unconstructed building.

So, how do you develop a good speech outline? First, break it down into small steps as this will make it easier for you to prioritize your ideas and organize them in the right order before you add more details to them.

How to Make an Outline for a Speech

Below are steps that will enable you to write an effective speech outline for your presentation.

You should start by asking yourself:

a) What is the big picture?

Before you begin writing your outline, you should take a step back and think about your speech as a whole.

First, think about the 3 keystones for your presentation or speech, i.e. the audience, your subject matter and of course, you, as the speaker.

Then, write a few notes down about each keystone and how they relate with each other. For instance,

• With regard to your presentation’s subject matter and the audience, what does the audience know about the subject? Do they find the subject interesting or not at all? Is the subject relevant to them?
• What do you as the speaker know about the subject in question? What are the reasons behind your presentation? Do you have any expertise on the matter? What new information will you be sharing with your audience?

A good outline will help you engage with your audience in a way that not only captures their attention but enables them to understand the subject matter.

b) What is your objective?

This refers to the goal of your presentation. Here, you should ask yourself, what do you want your audience to do after your presentation is over?

While the objective for most speakers is for their audience to know something, that may not be enough. The best presentations and speeches are those that move people to act.

If you would prefer to make an impact in such a way, then you should ensure that you are as specific as you can be when deciding on your objective in your speech outline.

c) What is your message?

Your message is what holds your presentation or speech together. This is not to mean that you shouldn’t have different parts in your speech, but it does mean that your speech should have one message that you are trying to put across.

Trying to include several different messages in your speech may confuse your audience, which makes it harder for them to understand the main point you are trying to convey. 

To do this, summarize the message of your presentation in one statement. This will not only allow you to understand the message in its entirety but also allow you to explain the message to your audience in a way that is easy to understand.

You can now use the statement you wrote above to help you develop your speech outline. Using the statement to determine whether a certain point supports your main message will ensure that your speech flows and doesn’t include any information not relevant to your subject topic.

d) How is your presentation relevant?

When it comes to a presentation or speech, the audience should always come first. That is why as a speaker, you should always keep your audience in mind when presenting.

If you have already decided on the message you will be conveying to your audience, you should now ask yourself; how is your message relevant to the audience?

If you can’t come up with a reason why your presentation is relevant, then it’s back to the drawing board for you. This could mean that you will be presenting to the wrong audience or you will be giving the wrong presentation.

You can refer back to step (c) then review steps (a) and (b) for clarity.

e) Your speech structure

This is a very important part of your presentation as without it, your speech will have no impact on the audience. Therefore, you should ensure that you include the speech structure in your speech outline.

A structure has 3 basic parts; the introduction, the body and the conclusion. It should be noted though that when working on your speech outline, a common suggestion is to begin with the body before developing both your introduction and conclusion.

Under your speech structure, the introduction is the opening of your speech/presentation. To make a good first impression on your audience, ensure that your introduction is strong.

This doesn’t have to be the usual, “Good morning, my name is YXZ…” Instead, capture your audience’s attention by either telling a story or an interesting fact, recite a quote, ask your audience to recall or imagine something or even ask a rhetorical question!

Related: How to Start a Speech to Engage Your Audience

The body of your presentation represents the bulk of your speech. You should therefore ensure that your main points can be explained in detail and that they have been organized in a logical order that makes your message easy to comprehend.

Similar to your introduction, you should finish on a strong note when it comes to your conclusion. You can do this by linking your conclusion to your introduction, after which you can then echo and summarize your message’s main points.

Different Speech Outline Examples

Below are a few examples of different speech outlines that you can use as a basis to write your own outline. Choosing the right one that works for you may depend on the type of speech you will be giving .

1. Persuasive Speech Outline

Persuasive presentations and speeches usually have a specific purpose in mind; either to urge the audience to take action on something or persuade them to adopt a certain view or opinion of something.

This type of outline allows you, the speaker, to focus on the subject matter point while arguing your case in the most effective and compelling way to your audience.

A persuasive speech outline is made up of these parts:

• An introduction
• The conclusion
• Source Citation

The first three parts are common in most if not all presentations; please refer to step (e) to familiarize yourself with them once more.

A source citation is simply citing the sources for the research and facts that you presented in your speech. Remember you are trying to persuade your audience, so authoritative sources add weight to your argument.

2. Informative Speech Outline

There are different types of informative outlines. These include:

• The informative speech outline
• The informative presentation outline
• The informative essay outline

These outlines are made up of 3 basic parts; the introduction, body and conclusion. For purposes of this article, we will be discussing the informative speech outline.

The central objective of an informative speech is to offer unique, useful and interesting information to your audience. Before choosing your informative speech topic , you should consider your overall objective.  

Additionally, there are various types of informative speeches , including:

• Concept - These are used to discuss abstract ideas like ideas and theories.
• Process - These are used when describing broad processes.
• Event - These are used to explain things that may happen, are already happening or those that have happened already.
• Object - These are used when talking about products, places or people.

In addition to this, there are patterns that can be used to organize your speech outline. These will be chosen depending on your speech type.

Types of these patterns include:

• Chronological or sequential - This pattern deals with a sequence of events; which could be useful in demonstration speeches or when discussing historical topics
• Spatial or geographic - Use this pattern when discussing topics that deal with physical spaces
• Logical - This pattern is suitable for a broad topic that has been broken down into sub-topics.
• Advantage-disadvantage - This pattern can be used when you will be examining a range of negative and positive aspects of an event or idea

Furthermore, there are 2 possibilities for preparing a speech outline; the speaking and preparation outline.

The speaking outlines make use of phrases and keywords, which helps keep you focused on the subject matter while the preparation outline is used to help you develop your speech and makes use of full sentences.

3. Demonstrative Speech Outline

A demonstrative speech is an instructional speech that teaches the audience something by demonstrating the process.

Here are the basic steps for a demonstrative speech:

• Ask yourself why you choose this topic and why it is important to the audience
• Provide an overview
• Explain the steps involved in your process
• Talk about variations, other options
• Ensure you allot time for Q&A
• Give a brief summary

For a more in-depth guide on writing demonstrative speeches, click here .

Pro-Tip: Write down the specific purpose of your speech and your topic of discussion as you formulate your generic speech outline.

Conclusion: On Speech Outline Formats

As you become better at writing and delivering speeches, you will soon learn that the different outline formats described above aren’t mutually exclusive. Rather, situations often make it necessary to mix different formats.

What are you waiting for? Go out there and grow your confidence as a speech writer and speaker!

Module 6: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

The speech outline, learning objectives.

Explain the purpose of the speech outline.

A well-organized outline will give you a much clearer sense of which pieces are still missing from your speech.

A speech outline is a valuable tool in your speech preparation and delivery. Putting together an outline will enable you to do the following:

• Organize your materials following the pattern you’ve selected for your speech. The outline structure will give you a clear picture of the path and distribution of your topic.
• Since each main point should have a similar length and number of supporting materials, an outline allows you to visually identify any imbalances in the length or depth of your main points.
• An outline will show gaps in material or support. For example, you might notice you’ve got strong examples and testimony for your second main point, but that some research findings or statistics are still needed.
• Assessing your outline will enable you to double-check the flow or order of your speech. For instance, when you see your main points in an outline format, you might decide to rearrange them to have the most unexpected main point be the last one.
• A speech outline will empower you to give your best delivery. With a logical structure and flow that is easier for you to remember, you’ll be able to deliver your message with confidence and clarity.
• Overall, assembling your outline requires you to critically evaluate every piece of content along with its organization so that your speech is well edited and logical.
• Puzzle. Authored by : Dean Thompson. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/Ka6P8 . License : CC BY: Attribution
• The Speech Outline. Authored by : Susan Bagley-Koyle with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• The Speech Outline. Authored by : Misti Wills with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

Speech Outline Generator

How do you structure your speech to captivate your listeners? This speech outline generator is the best solution! Just add your assignment details and enjoy the result!

Need an outline for your speech? This automatic speech outline generator will save you time and nerves! Follow these 3 steps:

• ⭐ Tool Benefits
• 🗣️ Types of Speech
• 📚 Outline Types

✍️ How to Write a Speech Outline

• 📝 Outline Example

🔗 References

⭐ speech outline generator: benefits.

Many benefits make our AI speech outline generator stand out among similar tools. Check them out!

🗣️ What Are the Three Types of Speech?

High school and college students often find themselves tasked with delivering various speeches as part of their coursework. Luckily, our generator can help with three different speech genres, including:

• Informative speech. It aims to educate others about a specific topic, idea, or concept. The speech outline generator can assist in structuring the content, organizing key points, and ensuring a logical flow of information for an effective informative speech.
• Persuasive speech. It is designed to influence the audience’s beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors by presenting a compelling argument or viewpoint. Our tool can aid in crafting a persuasive speech by helping to outline strong arguments, supporting evidence, and a call to action.
• Entertaining speech. An entertaining speech, also known as a humorous speech, is intended to engage and amuse the audience through storytelling , humor, or lighthearted content. The entertainment speech generator can be beneficial in organizing anecdotes, jokes, and engaging content to create a well-structured and entertaining speech outline.

📚 Outline Generator for Speech — Types

Two main types of outlines help prepare an excellent speech: the preparation outline and the speaking outline . Here’s everything you need to know about each type.

A preparation outline is a detailed, comprehensive plan serving as the blueprint for the entire speech. It includes all the major components of the speech, such as main points, subpoints, and supporting evidence, written in complete sentences. This type is used when preparing the speech but not when delivering it.

A speaking outline , also known as a delivery outline or keyword outline, is a condensed version of the preparation outline. Unlike the preparation outline, it doesn’t use full sentences. Instead, it contains keywords, phrases, and brief notes to jog the speaker’s memory while delivering the speech.

Our tool is designed to generate speaking outlines, which are concise and easy-to-reference guides for delivering speeches. It allows users to add their own examples, making the presentation more personal and engaging for their audience.

No matter the genre of speech you are preparing, the outline is an essential tool to organize your thoughts and ensure an impactful delivery. The process of creating an outline is similar for all speeches.

But before diving into how to write an outline, you should select a compelling topic that resonates with you and your audience. If you’re struggling to come up with a topic, consider using our Speech Topic Generator to spark your inspiration.

1. Define Your Specific Purpose

The first step in creating a speech outline is to decide on the purpose of the speech : to inform, persuade, or entertain. Once the general purpose is determined, it’s essential to narrow it down and connect it with the specific topic of the speech.

Consider the following examples:

2. Develop a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a concise, one-sentence summary of the central idea you want to communicate to the audience. It serves as a roadmap for the speech, providing a clear focus and guiding the audience’s perception of the central message.

To craft a thesis for an informative speech, put your topic into a declarative sentence. This sentence should express the main idea or focus of your informative speech.

Consider an example of how to turn your topic into an informative thesis statement:

To write a thesis statement for a persuasive speech, add your argument, viewpoint, or opinion. Your thesis statement should not only state the topic but also be arguable .

Here’s an example:

3. Determine Your Main Points

When developing your main points for a speech, it’s essential to keep a few principles in mind:

• Each point should center on a single idea. Including several ideas within a single key point can confuse the audience.
• A topic is not equivalent to a main point. It’s crucial to articulate the specific point rather than just the general topic. For example, “healthcare in remote areas” is a topic, while “telemedicine offers innovative solutions for improving healthcare access in underserved communities” is a main point.
• The main points are not announcements. Announcements are statements like “I’m going to tell you about climate change.” Such sentences don’t give your audience a clear idea of what point you will make, so they cannot be main points.

4. Add Supporting Points

When developing supporting points for your speech outline, you can include a variety of evidence and information to bolster your main points. You can use facts, statistics, examples, anecdotes, expert opinions, and research findings.

Remember to use supporting points based only on the sources that follow these principles:

• Accuracy. The information presented is true and free from errors or distortions.
• Authority. Information comes from credible experts or reputable organizations.
• Currency. The data reflects the current state of knowledge on the topic.
• Objectivity. The information is presented in a fair and unbiased manner, without undue influence from personal bias or agenda.

5. Format Your Speech Outline

To format your speech outline, you can use a standard structure with an introduction, main points, supporting points, and a conclusion.

Here’s an example of how to format your speech outline:

• Introduction.
• Subpoint 1.
• Subpoint 2.
• Conclusion.

A carefully formatted outline can ensure that the speech flows logically and effectively conveys your message.

📝 Persuasive Speech Outline Example

Wanna see how our persuasive speech outline generator works? Here’s an excellent example of the speech outline the tool developed in three seconds.

Persuasive Speech Outline Example on Texting while Driving

• Attention-getter: A shocking statistic or real-life example of the dangers of texting while driving.
• Thesis statement: Since texting while driving has become widespread and led to countless accidents and fatalities, it should be banned to protect the safety of all individuals on the road.
• Statistics on accidents and fatalities caused by texting while driving.
• Cognitive distractions and delayed reaction times.
• The impact on other drivers and pedestrians.
• Current laws and penalties for texting while driving
• The difficulty of enforcing these laws and the need for a more comprehensive solution.
• The success of other bans on dangerous driving behaviors (e.g., seatbelt laws, DUI laws).
• The potential to save lives and prevent injuries.
• The responsibility of the government to protect its citizens.
• Summary of the main points .
• Call to action for the audience.

📌 Speech Outline Generator: FAQ

📌 what should you include in an outline for a persuasive speech.

An outline for a persuasive speech should include:

• Introduction with a hook.
• Thesis statement.
• At least three main points.
• Subpoints (evidence and examples) for each main point.

📌 What is a sub point in a speech outline?

A subpoint in a speech outline is a supporting detail under a main point. It provides specific information, evidence, or examples to bolster the main point’s argument. Subpoints expand on the main points, helping to organize and structure the speech while adding depth and supporting the overall message.

📌 What is the last step in developing a speech outline?

The last step in developing a speech outline is to create transitions and structure the conclusion. Transitions help connect different ideas or sections of a speech smoothly. The role of the conclusion is to reinforce the main message, summarize the main points, and leave the audience with a lasting impression.

Updated: Apr 19th, 2024

• How to Outline a Speech – Hamilton
• Outlining Your Speech – Lumen
• Outlining Your Speech – University of Arkansas
• Outlining Your Speech – Introduction to Speech Communication
• Outlining a Speech – University of Colorado

Productivity

Make a Plan: How to Outline Your Ideas with 20 Powerful Tools

It doesn't matter how many ideas you have if you can't connect them. To turn those scattered concepts into a finished product, you're going to need a coherent plan.

That’s what outlines are good for. They're the blueprint for what you want to write, say, present, or create. You map them out hierarchically, so there’s a visual difference between your main points and subsidiary ones.

And although you can certainly compose them with good ol’ pen and paper, a specialized app will give you more flexibility to change and reorganize points on the fly. The best outlining tools make it easy to log your ideas, arrange your arguments, and pull everything together into a polished framework.

Here are 20 of the best outlining tools to help you scope out your next post, project, or speech.

What to Look For in an Outlining App

Outlines are just bullet points with some extra structure. They're lists of ideas and things you want to work on. And you don't need anything fancy to build one—a word processor or plain text writing app could do the job.

But first-rate outlining apps handle the organization of your plan, so you can concentrate on the ideas. These are the features we looked for when choosing apps for this roundup:

Visual hierarchy: If you can’t tell the difference between a big idea and a supporting one, an outline loses a lot of its value. These apps—each in their own way—make it easy to visually distinguish outline sections.

Nesting: Along similar lines, these apps let you create "parent" items, each of which can have an unlimited number of "children" items. Doing something to the parent (e.g. indenting it, outdenting it, moving it to a new place) applies the same change to its children.

Automatic styling: Having your ideas appear by default with bullets, Roman numerals, numbers, indentation levels, and so forth means you don’t need to waste an extra second inserting the format you need.

Easy rearrangement: Sure, you could rely on the cut-and-paste method to move your sections around, but that would be inefficient and frankly, annoying. These apps make it easy to drop text into a new place, whether it's via keyboard shortcuts or a drag-and-drop interface.

Plus, there are a few bonus features that we kept an eye out for:

Notes: Attaching "hidden" text to an individual bullet point or line keeps your outline from getting cluttered. Look for apps that let you add pop-up or side-bar comments to specific points.

Search: The longer and more detailed an outline is, the handier a search and filter function will be. And if you can search through all of your outlines at once, it's easier to find everything you've written down.

Tagging: Along similar lines, being able to tag your points with keywords makes it easier to find them again.

Expand and Collapse Options: Let’s say you want to focus on just one section. Is there a way to temporarily hide all the other sections? That could mean "folding" the other sections like an accordion or looking at an individual section in a new window.

The Best Outlining Apps

Ready to find your new favorite outlining app? Here are the most outstanding options that we found:

Microsoft OneNote (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web)

Best for: flexible visual outlines and notes

The built-in icon bank lets you leave visual clues for yourself, like "remember for blog" or "client request." You can make things even more visual by customizing the font, size, color, bullet and list styles, and more.

OneNote is available for almost every device, so you’ll be able to edit your outlines whether you’re on your phone or sitting at your computer. Plus, since your outlines automatically sync to OneDrive (Microsoft’s cloud storage platform), you can reference them from anywhere with an internet connection.

OneNote Price: Free; desktop apps included with Office 365 from $6.99/month per user

See OneNote integrations on Zapier

If you'd like to sync OneNote notebooks via Dropbox or iCloud in a Mac-style interface, Outline is a OneNote-compatible app for OSX that includes extra sync options.

Checkvist (Web)

Best for: simple, efficient outlining

Checkvist promises to "keep your hands on the keyboard" by focusing on keyboard shortcuts. Press "Enter" for a new line, "Tab" to indent, "Shift + Tab" to unindent, and so on. There's even a handy keyboard guide on the dashboard for a quick reference to less frequently used shortcuts, like "⌘↑" to reorder list items.

It’s also a cinch to manage, re-arrange, and order your outlines. To drag and drop a node, simply hold down Shift, then move it where you’d like. Is your list getting too bloated? Export specific nodes into their own lists. You can even automatically sort the sub-items within a node and assign nodes specific tags and colors.

Checkvist Price: Free for basic plan; $3.90/month per user Pro plan with file attachments, backup options, and more

See Checkvist Integrations on Zapier

Toodledo (iOS, Android, Web)

Best for: a no-fuss outline interface

In Toodledo , adding new items to an outline and indenting them is as simple as pressing Enter and Tab. That’s pretty much it. You can insert checkboxes (although this feature is more useful for to-do lists) or tag your outlines, but on the whole, Toodledo’s functionality is pretty limited.

That makes it perfect for people who don’t want to spend any time messing with settings, learning commands, or setting up the interface. You can focus on what matters: your ideas, and how they’re arranged.

Toodledo Price: Free for 30 items per outline; from $14.99/year for Silver plan with 100 items per outline

See Toodledo Integrations on Zapier

Smartsheet (iOS, Android, Web)

Best for: spreadsheet-style outlines

Spreadsheets were literally made for organizing information , which means they’re definitely handy for outlining. And Smartsheet takes this one step further by letting you create visual hierarchies. When you indent a row, it becomes the "child" of the parent row above it. And there's no limit on how many child rows you can create, so your sub-notes can have sub-notes, and those sub-notes can have sub-notes, and those sub-notes can have sub-notes—you get the gist.

But fear not, even with potentially endless levels of hierarchy, your outline won’t turn into an overwhelming ladder of notes. Every sub-row can be temporarily hidden, meaning you’ll only see its parent. That way, you can collapse the sections you’re not working on and focus in on your top priority.

If you find yourself wishing you could add notes to specific rows without clogging up your outline, you’ll appreciate Smartsheet’s comments feature. Once you add a comment to a row—say, "Find more info on this," or "Not sure if I need this point"—it won’t show up until you click on its speech bubble icon.

Of course, you can also use comments to collaborate with your teammates: Smartsheet also has customizable sharing options, so you can assign different editing privileges to each recipient.

Smartsheet Price: From $10/month per user for 1-2 users

See Smartsheet integrations on Zapier

Workflowy (iOS, Android, Web)

Best for: focusing on one section of an outline at a time

When you’re working on a complex outline, Workflowy is a good fit. Its "Zoom" feature will let you see any bullet (and its sub-bullets) in isolation, so you can really focus on a specific section. To zoom back out and see your entire outline, all you have to do is click "Home."

To further organize your notes, you can add tags with a # symbol. For example, you might add #more to every place in your speech outline that needs more detail, or #priority for the items on your outline that deserve your attention first. All hashtags are searchable, so you’ll be able to quickly find them again.

Workflowy Price: Free; $4.99/month for unlimited lists

Little Outliner (Web)

Best for: simple online outlining

When you want to hit the ground running, try Little Outliner . It’s a lightweight tool that runs in your browser, but stores your outline on your computer.

Little Outliner’s learning curve is pretty minimal. To enter text, you simply click and type. Pressing "Enter" will take you to a new bullet, while "Tab" indents your line, and "Shift + Tab" outdents it.

To collapse a bullet, double-click it; to expand it, double-click again. Rearranging bullets is a little less intuitive and requires some complex mouse action. Luckily, once you’ve done it a couple times, you should be able to move things around quickly.

Since Little Outliner uses your computer’s local storage, you can only store one outline at a time. If you want to work on multiple outlines at once, use Fargo —it’s essentially the same outlining tool, but it integrates with your Dropbox account so your fameworks are saved automatically.

Little Outliner Price: Free

OmniOutliner (iOS, Mac)

Best for: deeply customized outlines

When you first open OmniOutliner , it looks pretty similar to your basic word processor. But once you start investigating the app’s style, formatting, and display menus, you’ll realize you can customize just about everything.

From the basic font type, size, and color down to the amount of space between each row and the height of each line, OmniOutliner gives you total control. When you’ve set up your outline just how you like it, save it as a template so you can easily make another one.

Once you’re ready to turn an outline into a full-fledged piece, you can export it as a CSV, Excel, HTML, OPML, plain text, rich text, Word, or Powerpoint file. And bonus, if you choose to send it to Word, your style and formatting choices will carry over perfectly.

OmniOutliner Price: $29.99 for iOS, $49.99 for Mac (Standard), $99.99 for Mac (Pro)

Best for: visualizing thoughts in a new way

Tree offers a unique outline structure: instead of building your notes vertically—with one bullet stacked on top of the next—this app lets you build them horizontally .

It’s as though you took a regular sheet of paper and rotated it, so sections appeared on the left and subsections were displayed in columns to their right.

There are a couple extra ways to view your notes. When you want to work on a specific section in isolation, Tree lets you open it in a new tab. If you want to switch to the traditional vertical format for a bit, use the toggle option to flip your outline.

Tree Price: $11.99

Cloud Outliner (iOS, Mac)

Best for: outlines on any device

Cloud Outliner syncs with your Mac, iOS devices, and Evernote account—which means you can start an outline on your laptop, add a couple notes on your phone, and rearrange it on your iPad. Since your outlines are collapsible, they’ll be easy to view on small screens. Plus, when you’re using your phone or tablet, indenting and outdenting lines only requires a single swipe.

Cloud Outliner also offers automatic numbering, drag-and-drop row rearrangement, and customizable text styles. You can even switch the interface from light to dark, or work in fullscreen or landscape mode.

Cloud Outliner Price: $1.99 for iOS app; $6.99 for Mac

OutlineEdit (Mac)

Best for: creating outlines while you research

I’ve experimented with a number of ways to make copying and pasting more efficient, but OutlineEdit’s Marker Safari extension is the best yet.

When you come across a chunk of text you want to copy, highlight it with your mouse and click the extension button. It’ll zoom off to your outline: either one you’re currently working on, or a fresh draft. And OutlineEdit stores your highlight history, so you can grab multiple pieces of text before sending them, all at once, to your notes.

This feature alone makes OutlineEdit worth using. However, the app has a couple more unique options. Once you turn on "float" mode, your outline will automatically show up on top of all your other windows, regardless of the order you’ve viewed them in. To work on your outline while referencing something in another window (or, y’know, watching Netflix), turn your outline transparent.

And while many outlining apps let you create tags, OutlineEdit’s version is different. Highlight a part of your outline (from one word to the whole thing), then add your category. With the flexibility to choose exactly what goes where, you can make categories as broad or narrow as you’d like.

OutlineEdit Price: $4.99

CarbonFin (iOS, Web)

Best for: adding notes to your outlines

When you find an outlining app that lets you add notes to each row, bullet point, or numeral, cherish it—because not many apps offer this feature. CarbonFin is one of the few.

But why, exactly, is that so useful? Well, when each item in your outline is fairly detailed or lengthy, pushing those details into a note will make your outline easier on the eyes. By default, CarbonFin shows you a little preview of each note (but you can turn that feature off to keep your outline squeaky clean).

When you need a bird’s-eye view of your project, pull up the editor window and tap "collapse all". CarbonFin will hide everything in your outline but the headings.

And since you’ll probably be working on one section at a time, the app even provides a "zoom" button. Highlight a block of text, click "zoom," and the rest of your outline will disappear until you click "zoom out."

CarbonFin Price: $4.99

FoldingText (Mac)

Best for: outlines with timers and checkboxes

Let’s face it: If you never had to use your mouse or touchpad again, you’d be way more efficient. Well, with FoldingText you can rely almost 100% on your keyboard to create and edit your outlines.

Along with its Markdown support, FoldingText comes with several cool modes you won’t find anywhere else.

For example, once you type ".todo", all of your items will be automatically converted from bullet points to checkboxes. If you enter ".schedule", you can create an in-app timer with multiple stages, which is useful for timed work strategies like the Pomodoro Technique . Maybe your outline includes some math: type ".calc" to have FoldingText perform your calculations for you.

FoldingText Price: $29.99

UV Outliner (Windows)

Best for: working on specific sections of an outline

UV Outliner’s plain appearance and layout mean your attention is solely focused on your outline. And to further hone your focus, UV Outliner has two modes: one for entering text, and one for moving stuff around. It’s a good option if you like to work on one task at a time.

Speaking of focus, you can also move specific chunks of your outline into their own windows. Touches like these make UV Outliner a solid option for uni-taskers.

UV Outliner Price: Free

Scrivener (Mac, Windows)

Best for: turning outlines into longform content

Scrivener is a popular writing tool among the book-writing community, since it lets you break down large, hard-to-organize projects into separate files. The interface makes it easy to flesh out ideas, arrange sections, and finally combine them again into one big file.

While Scrivener has multiple modes (all of them useful), I’ll focus on its outliner. In this mode, you can see all of the files in a specific collection. If you’re writing a 100-page ebook, you’re probably only going to have one collection of files; if you’re writing a 500-page novel, you might have collections for Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

You could stop there, and simply organize your folders. Or, you could drill down into the specific documents in your folders. Along with moving them around, you can edit their titles and summaries, view their word and character counts, and assign them statuses and tags. Basically, the outliner mode works like a flexible table of contents that you can edit.

Scrivener Price: $45

Ulysses and Manuscripts are also options for crafting longform content, though without Scrivener's dedicated outline and notes modes.

Mellel (iOS, Mac)

Best for: customized headings

Mellel ’s slogan is "the word processor for professional writers," so you know it means business. And while this tool certainly has a book’s worth of features, non-professional-writers will find it just as useful as their literary peers.

When it comes to designing and organizing your headings, I’ve never seen an app with more options. Mellel lets you create a unique style and format for every heading level. So, for example, you could put every level 1 header in size 42 bold Arial font, every level 2 header in size 35 italicized Lucida font, and so on. You might wonder if such specificity is really necessary—but when you’re dealing with multiple layers of sections (from chapters all the way down to paragraphs) this visual distinction is really nice.

When you open the Outline window, you’ll see all these headings displayed in a hierarchical list. You can choose to hide specific sections, move sections around, or delete them. These functions probably sound familiar. But with Mellel, you’re getting the simplicity of a traditional outlining tool applied to massive amounts of text.

Mellel price: $19.90 iOS; $38.99 Mac

MagicalPad (iOS, Mac)

Best for: combining outlines and mindmaps

Use MagicalPad ’s mind-mapping feature to unleash your creativity and capture your random thoughts. Once all your ideas are on paper, its outlining turns those thoughts into a coherent, organized flow.

Each MagicalPad page can hold as many diagrams as you’d like, so you can keep your mind-map and outline side-by-side for easy reference. You can also merge and split your outlines, link two outlines together, add images and files, distinguish sections by color, and more.

MagicalPad Price: $9.99 for Mac; $5.99 for iPad; $2.99 for iPhone

MindJet Manager and MindNode are two other mind-mapping apps that can be used to make outlines.

Oak Outliner (Web)

Best for: markdown formatted outlines

Like FoldingText, Oak is a plain text outliner that uses Markdown-style formatting . This type of formatting is really efficient, but when you’re using text commands to style everything (for example, making a word bold by writing it as bold ), your outline will start to look messy. That’s why Oak automatically hides syntax commands for every line except the one you’re working on. Speedy formatting, without the visual clutter—it’s the best of both worlds.

If you want to group related items from different sections together, give them a common @tag. Clicking a tag link will show you every line that contains that specific tag. You can apply an unlimited number of tags to each line, so it’s easy to cross-categorize your notes.

Oak Price: Free

WhizFolders (Windows)

Best for: split-screen outlining

WhizFolders might not win any beauty contests, but the usefulness of its split-screen layout makes up for the clunky interface.

The left side of the screen displays all of your headings in a hierarchical list, just like a traditional outline. The right side, however, shows you a single section in all its glory—not just its headings and sub-headings, but their accompanying text. It’s like Microsoft Word and your favorite outlining app fused together.

If you’re always pulling in info from the web, WhizFolders has your back. The app automatically includes the URL of any text you copy and paste into your document—so going back and checking your sources isn’t a hassle.

At any point in time, merge the two sides of the screen together to see your full outline. And when you’re ready to take that outline to the next step, WhizFolders let you carry over the merged version to Microsoft Word.

WhizFolders Price: $35

The Best Word Processors for Outlining

Word processor apps don't pack the same bells and whistles as the outlining apps above, but they're likely where your outline will eventually end up. If it's a lightweight project, why not consolidate? Here are some word processors with outlining options.

Evernote (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web)

Best for: simple data gathering

Evernote acts as your trapper-keeper for any note, idea, or file that you might want to reference later. It's a basic word processor with powerful search capabilities that are easy to personalize. And if you're gathering research materials for a project, it's tough to beat Evernote's organizational prowess.

They also make building and sharing outlines easy. Start by creating a note for each item in your outline, filling them with relevant details and research. If you find something online that you want to include in your research, use the Evernote Web Clipper to save any webpage as a note.

Once you're done, select every note you want to compile, and click "Create Table of Contents." You’ll instantly have an outline that you can edit as needed.

The main benefit is linking between your reference materials. Evernote lets you snag a link to any note in your account, which you can incorporate into your outline. On the desktop app, just right-click on a note and choose "Copy Note Link"; on the web app, choose a note and click the "..." icon, then select "Copy Note Link".

Tip: By default on the desktop app, the copied link will point to the web version of Evernote. If you're a dedicated desktop user, right-click then hold down the "Option" key to reveal a "Copy Classic Note Link" option, which will direct you to that note in your desktop app.

Creating that interwoven structure with links keeps your outline clean, while allowing you to expand on concepts and research in a separate space.

Gathering your research and reference materials is half the work of making an outline. By pairing Evernote with Zapier—an app automation tool—you can feed materials to your notebooks while you work. For example, you can set up combos called "Zaps" to automatically create new Evernote notes from Asana, Slack, Gmail, RSS feeds, and more. Then you can go back and add your related thoughts in individual notes.

Let’s say you’re writing a blog post on best Twitter practices. You could set up a Zap so every Tweet you favorite is turned into an Evernote note. Then, you search through Twitter for some awesome Tweets, favorite them, add your supported points as separate notes (for example, "Don’t overuse emojis," and "Stick to two hashtags or less,"). Create a Table of Contents, and voila! You’ve got an outline, and you didn’t have to copy and paste a single thing.

Since Evernote isn’t specifically designed for outlining, moving sections around does require cutting and pasting. Luckily, Evernote integrates with Smartsheet and OneNote , so you can easily move your outline over for more efficient organizing. You could even use Zaps to add your Evernote notes to those apps, to make notes and a nicer outline at the same time.

Evernote Price: Free Basic plan for standard features and up to 60MB uploads per month; from $2.99/month Plus plan for offline notebook access and up to 1GB uploads per month

See Evernote integrations on Zapier

Google Docs (iOS, Android, Web)

Best for: collaborative outlining

Google’s online word processor, Docs , is built for outlining with a team. You can send people read-only links to your file, let them add comments, or grant them editing power. And unlike emailing a document and waiting for the marked-up version, working in Google Docs means you’ll see your collaborators’ comments and edits instantly.

Docs speeds up the research process as well. Open the research pane , and you can run Google searches without ever leaving your document. There are a few handy filters, too, including "Quotes," "Images," "Google Scholar," and "Personal" (which sorts through your Google Drive and Gmail inbox).

If, at any point during the outlining process, you want to see which changes have been made, check out the minute-by-minute revision history . If you’re unhappy with an edit, simply roll back to a previous version.

Best of all, Google Docs includes hundreds of add-ons—including these handy tools to simplify outlining:

Table of contents uses your headings to create a table of contents window, letting you easily jump to a specific section of your outline.

Change Case lets you highlight text and apply uppercase, lowercase, sentence case capitalization, and title case capitalization formatting .

Copy Comments copies all the comments in a document when you use Google Doc’s "Make a Copy" feature.

UberConference lets you start an UberConference call in your document’s sidebar with all the doc’s viewers.

Google Docs Price: Free

See Google Docs Integrations on Zapier

Become a Google Docs pro with our roundup of 40+ advanced Google Docs tips and tricks

Microsoft Word (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac, Windows, Web)

Best for: outlines in traditional documents

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Although Microsoft Word still looks like the program we were using 20 years ago, when you peek under the hood you’ll find some nifty updates—like Outline View .

Once you’ve created a numbered or bulleted list, turn on Outline View to expand and collapse individual sections, change heading levels, show only headings of a specific size, move text up and down, and more. Then, use keyboard shortcuts to add stuff to that outline. Type an asterisk followed by a space to start a new point, press "Shift+Alt+Up/Down" to move the point around, "Tab" to indent a point, or "Shift+Tab" to un-indent it.

When I’m outlining, I also like to use Microsoft Word’s clipboard. This panel holds 24 items at once, which is nice when you’re moving multiple chunks of text around. Open it up by pressing "Control+C" twice.

Microsoft Word Price: Free Word Web App at Office.com ; from $6.99/month per user with Office 365

See OneDrive integrations on Zapier

Build Your Outlines Automatically

For the most part, building an outline is a manual process, where you have to figure out the most logical way to organize and structure your ideas. But you can automate some of the research with Zapier , which passes data between more than 500 apps like OneNote, Checkvist, Toodledo, Evernote. With Zapier, everything happens in the background, so you can build your outlines and publish them without any extra work.

Here are some ideas for getting started, or you can build your own integrations with your favorite outline tool and other apps.

Add Items to a Rough Draft

Ideas for your next great work could come from anywhere—and Zapier can help gather them all into a starter outline. You can pull in ideas from forms, chat apps, RSS feeds and more and have them logged to a spreadsheet. Then, all you'll have to do is organize the points and start writing.

Log new JotForm submissions in Smartsheet rows

Add saved Slack messages to Checkvisit lists

Add OneNote note from new RSS feed item

Send new MindManager content to OneNote

Copy Your Outline to a New App

Need more than one outlining app—perhaps one that's bare-bones, and another that looks a bit nicer for sharing? Or maybe you need to collaborate with someone else who prefers another outline tool. Either way, Zapier can copy each point of your outline over to another outlining app as soon as you add it.

Create a Checkvist List Item from an Evernote Note

Copy new Evernote notes to your OneNote notebook

Add google sheets rows for new smartsheet rows.

Create Tasks From Your Outline

Using an outline to plan your next project? Connecting your outline to a to-do list app will make sure you don't forget anything.

Turn new items in a Checkvisit list into Asana tasks

Send Toodledo tasks to Google Calendar as new detailed events

Whether you want a plain text outline or one with vibrant colors and graphics, there's a perfect outlining app for your needs. How do you outline your blog posts, talks, or projects? Let us know in the comments.

Want to optimize the rest of your writing project? Here are some tutorials that will help:

Gather notes for your outline with the 12 best note taking apps

Format your text better with our guide to Markdown , the simplest way to format plain text

Speed up your writing process with 15 editorial tools that’ll help you write better and faster

Writing a book? Here's a look at the Zapier editorial process, and how we write, edit, and publish our books

Get productivity tips delivered straight to your inbox

We’ll email you 1-3 times per week—and never share your information.

Aja Frost is a freelance contributor to Zapier.

• Personal productivity
• Task management & to-do lists

Related articles

What is Llama 3 and why does it matter?

How to use DALL·E 3 to create AI images with ChatGPT

How to use DALL·E 3 to create AI images with...

How to use Midjourney to create AI-generated images

How to use Midjourney to create AI-generated...

How to block emails on Gmail

Improve your productivity automatically. Use Zapier to get your apps working together.

• Speech Formula Login

Are you ready to Deliver Your Best Speech Ever?

We have the right tools and outstanding coaches to help you do the job.

View Workshops

Becoming a credible, confident SPEAKER just got easier

Engage your audience — leave them spellbound.

GET STARTED! Create your FREE Speaker Profile NOW!

We offer an array of innovative tools to help you design and deliver your best speech ever!

Speech Formula is a web app that guides you through the speech writing process. By answering a series of prompts, your speech, slides and cards are complete. It’s like TurboTax for speakers! Write a Speech!

Your Best Speech Ever is the ultimate public speaking “How To Guide”. A simple, humorous yet effective public speaking book that breaks through the fear and struggle behind public speaking with a proven Speech Formula. Buy the Book!

Students who successfully complete the workshop series 1. Delivery 2. Design 3. Certification will attain IPSI certification. Since public speaking is the “language of leadership”, this looks GREAT on a resume. Register Today!

Expert Feedback

So many students are afraid of citing inaccurately and use sources that just aren’t credible. Let the Speech Formula Credibility Checker help you be a credible communicator.

Just because so many people fear public speaking doesn’t mean the process of overcoming that fear can’t be intriguing and even fun. Each interaction is designed to engage you and help you improve.

Executive Coaching

Unorganized? Don’t fret. Many students struggle to organize their thoughts and ideas. This tool will help you determine your purpose and select the strategy that works BEST. Great way to organize papers, speeches or any message that matters.

Speech Writing Tool Web App

Write your speech with an easy to use tool. Make your life easier by using a proven speech design and delivery application built for speakers just like you. Watch a video below to see how it is used. You can get started by creating a free Speaker Profile.

• Promo Video
• Instructors
• Free Speaker Profile

Book Your Best Speech Ever

“This is the most thorough public speaking book I have ever used.”

Finally! A speech book that awakens and enlightens developing speakers at any level. Your Best Speech Ever examines the fear, dread and phobias public speaking often evokes in people and examines the stress or anxiety response many experience. Specific strategies are outlined to conquer the fear and speak confidently to audiences of any size or speeches for any purpose

Author J.R. Steele’s systematic approach is a breath of fresh air to speakers of any level. Unlike the overly-generalized tips most public speaking books provide, Your Best Speech Ever includes tools of engagement like self-awareness quizzes, numbered lists, cognitive exercises, motivational quotes and surveys all while punctuating it with a unique sense of humor and wit. Each chapter highlights practice speeches designed to reinforce the principles, build technique and confidence.

Buy Your Copy Today!

Purchase options: available on amazon ..

• Color Edition $49.95
• Black and White $29.95
• Kindle $19.96
• Workbook $17.95

Part 2: Write Your Best Speech Ever!

Leave your audience spellbound.

Creating a speech involves a rather complicated process. We help you meet this challenge by providing a Speech Formula for constructing the speech – an application that guides you through each step of the process. When you reach the end of the prompts, the speech, slides and cards are ready! This workshop will reveal the Speech Formula that will empower you to write your best speech ever!

• Conduct Audience Analysis(s)
• Create a clear purpose
• Select the best organizational strategy
• Write a skeleton outline
• Insert credible sources and engaging connections
• Prepare slides & cards
• Prepare for delivery

As you progress through the program, each step contains interactions requiring a response. The program saves the responses, which are then used to generate a completed speech. When you reach the final step, your speech outline, notecards and visuals are completed. A final WORD document is generated.

Part 3: Certification - Deliver Your Best Speech Ever

Invest in a better you.

Now that you know the design and delivery, it is time to stand and deliver, re ect and grow. To obtain certication, you will need to successfully deliver a dynamic speech, incorporate feedback into your deliberate practice, create a Delivery Plan of Action and successfully pass an exam on the content. Get ready to...

• Deliver Your Best Speech Ever
• Reflect & Refine your process
• Create Your Personal Delivery Plan of Action
• Pass an Exam

You can interact first by giving feedback to other users, and then, by getting feedback from other users. You can post your written speeches and videos of your delivery speeches. Feedback rubrics correlate to the Delivery Principles and Formula to ensure you reach your personal best. You can also request personal “coaching” sessions from our team of experts.

Available Workshops

• Part 1: Delivery
• Part 2: Design
• Part 3: Certification
• View Schedule

Part 1: Speech Delivery - 16 hours

Deliver a speech with confidence guaranteed.

This workshop is designed to transform your delivery. Beginning with an exploration into why the fear of public speaking exists and providing an array of tips and strategies to conquer your fear and deliver a speech with confidence.

• Discover why my fear exists
• Conquer my fear
• Master the 10 Delivery Principles
• Make visuals count (C 2 ARES)
• Practice my new skills with 5 fun, 60 second speeches

Attendees will leave with an official International Public Speaking Institute Speaker Profile, outlining your anxiety level, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Each participant will receive a certificate of completion.

How do you hope to improve?

Popular courses.

Phasellus non dolor nibh. Nullam elementum tellus pretium feugiat. Cras dictum tellus dui, vitae sollicitudin ipsum tincidunt in. Sed tincidunt tristique enim sed sollcitudin.

WordPress Essential Training

Practicing photographer, lightroom cc essential.

12/012/2014

Branding Thoughts

Html5 bacis traning, marketing tips, photoshop training, light & shadow.

View all Courses

FOUNDER "J.R." STEELE

The International Public Speaking Institute empowers individuals to reach their dreams by making better decisions as a communicator. Our proven design and delivery system featuring the Speech Formula provides a systematic way to improve one’s ability to communicate with oneself, between others, with a group and even with the public.

Our system highlights 3 areas for users to develop their communication skill set. 1. Your Best Speech Ever: A book which helps people unleash their public speaking superpower by facing their fear, transforming their delivery and designing a speech that has the right ingredients to dynamically engage your audience in a meaningful way. 2. Speech Writing: A tool that guides you through the speech making process and creates your speech, cards and visuals seamlessly. Revolutionizing the speech writing process, www.SpeechFormula.com a proven methodology of constructing a speech. The application helps the user select the best organizational strategy for their given purpose, it also helps the user share quality, credible information and strategically select specific strategies to keep the audience engaged and connected to the content. 3. Workshops & Coaching & Research: The International Public Speaking Institute offers a community which provides a safe space to develop your skills by giving and getting feedback from others. Certification courses are offered, private coaching and even professional analysis of your speaking ability featuring full reports. During this process our professionals seek to identify research opportunities that can help reduce anxiety and create more effective communicators.

Easy Pricing

Pick a package and sign up in less than 60 seconds, change or cancel at any time.

BILLED ANNUALLY

BILLED BY SEMESTER

Happy Speakers

Invest in a better you! Our products help speakers design and deliver their Best Speech Ever…Guaranteed! When you reach deep inside yourself and challenge yourself to stand in front of a group of people and conquer your fear and control your energy, that’s something! Your growth is apparent to those around you and it shows by the smile on your face. That’s why we have 'Happy Speakers'.

"Speech Formula was the most organized way I have ever done a writing assignment. It forces you to really know your research, cite ethically and organize your speech the best way."

Shaylis Guerrero, BARRY UNIVERSITY

Your BestSpeech Ever is a home run!

Awesome use for any form of presentation for all subjects.

The Speech Formula is a great way to build speeches. It is an awesome tool that guides you through a logical process allowing you to clearly express your ideas with the audience's needs foremost throughout each step.

Samantha De Jesus

I have grown so much as a speaker. At first, I was too nervous to speak in front of an audience and that was mainly because I didn’t know how to prepare. Speech Formula helped me master the Delivery Principles and then organize my ideas better so I could write a worthwhile speech. Speech Formula is such an amazing tool -- I have even used this for English papers and other assignments since it creates very helpful outlines.

Ninnosca Reyes

The International Public Speaking Institution helped me to be the speaker I always wished I could be!

Alain Dautruche

Striving to deliver my best speech ever started me on a journey of awareness beginning with myself and now others; it changed my life, thank you!

Alex Sanchez

I found Speech Formula to be very helpful -- it kept me organized. My mind was always in one place because it helped me focus on one part at a time.

Joan Pascual

Turns the frustrating and anxiety ridden experience into a journey of self-discovery and actualization.

Justine Cosby

This tool helps you give the audience a memorable experience, not just a speech! I can use it for my papers too!

Marvonne Sands

Reach your full potential. deliver your best speech ever today, sign up to get the latest news & updates, have questions.

Please ASK! We will get back to you as SOON as WE can! Please include phone number, as sometimes it is just easier to communicate verbally!

The International Public Speaking Institute is here to help our clients build their communication skill sets and become “conscious communicators”. We take pride in offering the most innovative and relevant researched tools to help our clients connect with their audience whether its in the boardroom, a crowd or the mirror. The benefits are far reaching, often times, lives are transformed. Communication is at the core of every dream we have. When you master public speaking, you can do anything you put your mind to. You can reach any dream you have.

Our Mission

Driven to help our clients deliver their best speech ever.

We Are Social On

Recent news.

• 2018 - The Delivery Workbook was published to accompany Your Best Speech Ever
• 2017 - Your Best Speech Ever was released. Click here for the press release.
• 2016 - the Speech Formula 2.0 was released

A research study proves the Speech Formula is a tool that reduces anxiety - Llopis, V. M. (2015). The effect of an online speech preparation tool on public speaking associated anxiety: A pilot study.

Speaker Solutions

• For Students
• For Instructors
• For Managers
• For Corporations
• For Non-Profits

Consulting Services

• Individual Coaching
• Corporate Coaching
• Speaker Services

How does the speech application work?

The Speech Formula Application guides you through a series of 8 steps which follows our proven FORMULA for delivering a dynamic speech. As you progress through the program, each step contains interactions requiring a response. The program saves the responses, which are then used to generate a completed speech. When you reach the final step, your speech outline, slides and notecards are completed. It’s that easy! Speech Formula works for most any individual, instructor, manager, or organization and will transform their capacity to communicate effectively with others.

• Step 1: Create your profile.
• Step 2: Select the right track for you!
• Step 3: Respond to each engaging interaction for each track.
• Step 4: Enjoy the benefits of communicating clearly and confidently!

Phasellus mattis felis quis enim viverratys accumsan. Nullam porta risus felis, vitaeuik dapibus arcu viverra eu.

• Games, topic printables & more
• The 4 main speech types
• Example speeches
• Commemorative
• Declamation
• Demonstration
• Informative
• Introduction
• Student Council
• Speech topics
• Poems to read aloud
• How to write a speech
• Using props/visual aids
• Acute anxiety help
• Breathing exercises
• Letting go - free e-course
• Using self-hypnosis
• Delivery overview
• 4 modes of delivery
• How to make cue cards
• How to read a speech
• 9 vocal aspects
• Vocal variety
• Diction/articulation
• Pronunciation
• Speaking rate
• How to use pauses
• Eye contact
• Body language
• Voice image
• Voice health
• Public speaking activities and games
• About me/contact
• How to plan a speech

Planning your speech

- a complete, unabridged guide with multiple examples to help plan a successful speech ☺.

By:  Susan Dugdale  | Last modified: 06-05-2023

Planning your speech is where your success begins. I do not jest! 

In your imagination you may hear yourself being stunning, the audience clapping wildly  as they rise to their feet to give you a standing ovation.

You may see yourself being deluged in red roses and offered several speaking contracts. Obviously, they are all lucrative but you choose the one with optional extras: an extended holiday in the South of France …

But first you have to begin at the beginning: planning your speech. Without a plan you are whistling in the wind, dreaming.

What's on this page:

How to plan a speech step by step:

• gathering the information to write your speech
• brainstorming : what is a brainstorm, examples of brainstorms, getting started, with full step by step explanations and examples
• how to shape material to fit an audience, the speech setting, and time allocation
• an example speech outline
• how and why to research
• how to meet varying learning style needs: visual, auditory, and  kinesthetic
• links to other useful pages: how to rehearse, make cue-cards...

Planning your speech from the start

A note about these notes.

These notes are general guidelines for ALL types of speeches. I know they are long.

(Actually that's an understatement! They are very long.)

I also know if you take the time to go through them they'll give you a solid introduction to thorough speech preparation.

They cover the basics of good presentation planning, research, writing and rehearsal: aspects you’ll want to consider regardless of the type of speech you’re giving.

Gathering your information

Once you have information about:

• WHY you are going to speak (the purpose of your speech),
• WHO you are going to speak to (your audience),
• WHAT your general or specific subject matter is,
• HOW long the speech is to be,
• and WHERE it is...,

you are ready to make a rough or draft outline.

This will be your guide for writing.

You may alter the outline as you go along, as better or different ideas occur to you and that’s OK. It shows you’re flexible and thinking but before we can change anything we have to have something to start with.

To get to the outline stage in the speech planning process we first need to collect up all the "why", "who", "what", "when", "how", and "where" information needed. And that begins with a brainstorm * .

* What is a brainstorm?

A brainstorm is the name given to a commonly used, and effective, technique for generating lots of ideas on a topic, or theme, fast.

Using a heading as a prompt to get you thinking, you quickly note everything you can think of relating to it. You do not edit yourself.  You simply let the ideas flow until you can think of no more, making no judgements about whether it's a good idea, a silly idea, or a right or wrong one.

Ultimately, some will be more useful than others. You will sort through and order them later. However, the first step in the brainstorming process, is to accept everything you think of without hesitation. Stopping to decide what's OK and what's not breaks the flow.

If you'd like to see what a completed brainstorm looks like I have examples of them on my site. You'll see they provided the ideas that were then used to write the example speeches.

• one for a maid of honor speech
• one for a 50th wedding anniversary speech
• and another for a farewell speech for a colleague

Return to Top

Brainstorm to begin planning your speech

The brainstorm you are going to do is about making sure you thoroughly understand everything you possibly can about the speech you intend to give.

On a large piece of paper or in a word document write these headings with enough space between them for notes.   

WHY are you giving this speech?

What is the purpose of the speech? Do you intend to inspire? To motivate? To entertain? To inform? Or perhaps you want to combine several, like to inform, motivate and inspire?

Knowing what you want your audience to think, feel and do as a result of listening to your speech is the WHY underpinning your presentation. It will help guide what content you use and how you structure it.

WHO is your audience?

Write down as much as you know about the audience.

This will give you ideas about what they will want to hear and be interested in. It will also be your guide when it comes to shaping your material. (More about this later!)

For now, make notes covering:

• the number of people expected to be in your audience,
• their age group,
• ethnicity, if appropriate,
• and the common, or uniting factors they share,
• and specific interests they may have.

Why is knowing who you're talking to vital?

Find out more about why being in harmony with your audience is so important. Check out building rapport.

Examples of WHY, WHO, WHAT...brainstorm notes 

Meet Martha Brown. She's fictional. I've made her, and the presentation she's preparing for up, to show you how the brainstorming part of the planning process works.

Martha's been asked to give a motivational speech to a group of women whose background is similar to her own. She, too, came from a family who struggled financially.

Today she is one of the few amongst her relatives who has maintained a marriage, raised children and has a successful business. Her small catering firm specializes in delivering beautifully presented gourmet meals and finger food on demand.

The organizer of the event wants her to share her life story as a guide or inspiration.

Martha is conscious of her good fortune but also knows the starting point, or the seed, lay within her. She desired the change of circumstances so much she enabled them to happen.

WHY is Martha giving this presentation?

What's the principal purpose behind Martha's speech? What does she want her audience to think, feel or do as a result of listening to her? 

Let's put ourselves in her shoes.

She wants to:

• motivate and inspire her audience
• give them hope 
• show them there is a way out of the circumstances they find themselves in

WHO is Martha's audience?

These are Martha's notes covering the key points about her audience.

• Approximately 25 people ( number )
• Mostly mid to late 30s (age)
• All women (gender)
• Mixed ethnic background but all speak English (ethnicity)
• City dwellers (uniting factor)
• Mostly work inside the home (uniting factor)
• Many have children (uniting factor)
• Interested in achieving work/life balance for themselves and their families and in particular a better financial situation (interest/uniting factor)
• All belong to the same church group (uniting factor)

WHAT are you going to talk about?

Write down the title and/or type of speech you have been asked to prepare. Now using your notes from the WHO section of your brainstorm, begin another set.

This time you are looking to see how WHAT you're going to talk about can be specifically shaped to meet and serve the interests of your audience.

Let's look at an example of WHAT

How does martha shape her life story to fit her audience.

She doesn't want to overwhelm them with information so they can’t think straight or digest it. That will turn them off.

They will think it’s too difficult and beyond them. They may listen, be interested, but they won’t  identify  with it.

She wants them to feel they can take from her experience and use it to enrich their own lives.

Her notes for WHAT may look like this:

• S peech Title How to win a future for your family when the kids need feeding and the bills want paying.
• Content - main points
• I am like you – I get too busy to plan ahead, I have a tendency to deal with what or whoever squeals loudest, I get tired …
• Before and after – life before I made the decision to start my own business – life after I made the decision. Comparisons – several examples.
• The hardest part of making the decision and acting on it was … Examples.
• The best part of making the decision … Examples. People who inspired me to act.
• What I’ve learned in the process about my family, others and myself … Examples.
• How I keep myself inspired … goal setting, listening and learning from others
• The future – a possible way forward for you, the women in the audience listening.

It’s not a speech yet but you can see the beginnings of its shape and how she’s used her knowledge of the audience to ensure giving them something they’ll enjoy listening to and identify with.

How? (How long will I speak for? How will I deliver my speech?)

There are two important 'hows' to consider.

1. How long have I got to speak?

The first is HOW long have I got to speak.

The time allocation you have been given will determine what you put into your speech and what you will leave out.

If you have a relatively short time, 3-5 minutes, you will need to either focus on one major topic with examples to illustrate or settle for covering a maximum of three lightly.

The purpose of your speech and your audience will help you make the most relevant choice. A longer time gives you more freedom to develop several ideas/themes fully.

2. How will I deliver my presentation?

The second 'how' relates to the method of presentation. HOW will you deliver this speech?

For example:

• Will this be a speech told with humor?
• Will you have a 'show and tell'? (This is when you take objects relevant to your speech to illustrate your points. It could be photographs or other items if they are suitable to transport.)
• Could you give a demonstration?

Shaping delivery to meet different learning styles

When you consider this 'how' bear in mind the different needs of your audience. Most people have a preferred mode for receiving information. That is their learning style.

Some people understand well through listening. They are called 'auditory'.

Some people get most of their understanding through looking. They are called 'visual'.

Others receive and understand information best when they can touch, feel or do what is being explained to them. These are the 'kinesthetics'.

Most of us have a preference for one or two modes. For instance, I am 'auditory' and 'visual'. I want to hear and see.  

A considerate speaker tries to include all three modes (learning styles) in their speech.

(For more on catering for learning styles with examples see the foot of the page.)

Delivery and time are yoked together

How you to choose to deliver your presentation is governed by the time you have available. If it is short, you may have to leave out a 'show and tell' or a demonstration but you will always be able to include something to meet all three modes satisfactorily.

'HOW' example from Martha's brainstorm notes 

Let’s return to Martha’s Notes to see what she does with the 'how' segment of her brainstorm.

How long? Time available = 10 minutes. (Maybe a little more but that depends on the rest of the agenda of the meeting and how well it flows. Could be some space for questions from the audience and answer.)

How to present? Definitely with humor! Also take some fliers, business cards and samples of finger food along. These can be available for people to pick up at the end of the presentation.

WHEN will this speech be given?

WHEN has two aspects you'll want to take into consideration.

The first is the actual date you have to have it ready for delivery. That lets you know how much time you have for preparation. Is it three weeks, six weeks, or two days?

You'll use that information to plan your workflow. For example, allocating yourself one week to get your preliminary outline and any research required, completed.   

The second aspect is the actual time of day and season you deliver a speech. This can have an impact on what you do and say.

For example: You can use an early bird start in the middle of winter on a wet Monday morning effectively by acknowledging the efforts people have made to be there, and by making sure the heaters are on and there's hot coffee available.

Finding ways of tying in what is happening in the 'here and now' is a good way to connect with your audience.

A word of warning : Be conscious about presenting difficult or challenging material when people are either both tired and hungry (just before lunch or dinner) or when they’ve just eaten! Concentration spans are not at their best in either situation. If possible save this type of content for a mid-morning or afternoon slot.

Martha’s Notes, WHEN:  2.45pm, Wednesday, 2nd August – Summer heat

WHERE will this presentation take place?

The environment/room/space you are to speak can play a big role in shaping the final presentation of your speech.

Points to consider are:

• Where will I be in relation to the audience?
• Will they see me easily?
• Will they hear me easily?
• Do I need a microphone?
• Is there a place to put notes if I’m using them?
• Where can I set up my samples for people to take them easily?
• Are there power points if I want to use any electronic devices?
• Do I have to provide everything I want to use (e.g.: computer, screen, leads…)?

Many fully prepared, beautifully rehearsed speeches fail because insufficient thought has gone into where they are to take place.

It’s no fun when people can neither see nor hear you or the carefully thought through demonstration is stymied through lack of an electric socket in the right place!

Martha’s Notes, WHERE: Church meeting room. It can seat everybody comfortably and there’s room for a table to put out a display of fliers and trays of food, paper napkins etc. Arrange the chairs in a horseshoe or semi-circle so everybody can see clearly.

Pulling the brainstorm notes together in an outline

Once you've worked your way through making notes under your WHY, WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHEN, and WHERE headings, you're ready for the next step.

That's picking and choosing, then re-ordering and re-writing the material you've taken from the WHAT and HOW segments of your brainstorm until you're satisfied it flows well and meets your speech purpose.

After you’ve completed outlining your speech, you’ll be ready to do any extra research required, and then you’re on to the task of writing your speech.

Martha's completed outline

Here's Martha’s Finished Outline as an example. 

Speech length : 15 minutes with extra time for a 'Question and Answer' session at the end of the presentation.

Speech title : How to win a future for your family when the kids need feeding, and the bills want paying

Introduction (2.5 minutes): Thanks for coming today … Summer heat, we’d all rather be at beach reading a book under a sun umbrella….etc. But I hope I’ve got something for you that’ll more than make up for it. I look around the hall and I see a lot of women just like me: women, who work hard, love their families, etc., … want the best for them.

(Insert anecdotal humor, perhaps a small personal story about credit cards. For instance, the only way I could manage them was to banish them the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Or use them to test how sharp my scissors were.)

Main Idea 1 (3 minutes): Introduce business and what it is.

Explain how it functions on a daily basis. Briefly outline long-term goals.

(Quick show-and-tell with flyers and food. Invite people to sample at end and ask questions.)

Main idea 2 (3.5 minutes): My life before the business (tie to women in audience). My life after business started. What I have achieved. The hardest part about starting, staying in business. The best part about starting, staying in business. People who have inspired me.

Main idea 3 (3.5 minutes): What I’ve learned in the process about my family, others and myself … Examples. How I keep myself inspired … goal setting, listening and learning from others

Summary : (2.5 minutes): Very quick round up of principal points. The future – the way forward for you, the women in the audience listening. Invite questions if time. Remind them about the fliers and the food! Thank organizers.

Summary - Core speech planning questions

That’s it! Very short, sweet and simple.

There’s nothing magical about planning your speech. It's just methodical: one-step-after-another. If you find yourself flustered go back to the core brainstorm headings and ask yourself the key questions once more.

• WHY am I giving this presentation? What is my purpose?What do I want my audience to do, think, or feel as a result of having heard me speak?
• WHO is this speech for?
• WHAT am I going to tell them that’s relevant and interesting?
• HOW long is the speech expected to be?
• HOW am I going to present it?
• WHEN is the speech for? (Date, day, time, season)
• WHERE is the speech going to happen? (Hall, outdoors, stadium…)

Write your answers down and let them be your guide.

Remember this is not your finished speech.

It’s your outline * : a map of what you’re going to cover.

Don’t spend too much time trying to get it perfect. You’ll want that energy for researching, writing and rehearsing!

And guess what is coming up next?

* If you'd like more about outlining a speech, including a printable outline template to use, go to sample speech outline .

Getting from planning to delivery

Here are links to articles on:

• how to research your speech . The reasons for research are discussed under the heading below -"When and What to Research"
• how to write your speech
• how to prepare and use cue cards. The benefits of using cue cards over reading from a word-for-word script are enormous. Because you are freed from having to focus on your notes you can interact with your audience directly. Your speech becomes more spontaneous and "in-the-moment".
• how to use story telling to enrich your speech . Do consider weaving your personal stories into your speech. They add tremendous audience appeal. 
• how to use props. If you're planning a "show and tell" type speech, this page is essential reading.
• how to rehearse. Rehearsal will lift your speech from ordinary to extraordinary. You'll find out privately where the glitches are, rather than publicly. It gives you an opportunity to refine your delivery.  I think it's absolutely essential!  

When and what to research

If you already know your subject thoroughly, inside out, back to front and sideways, there will be no need to research and you can skip this part of planning your speech.

BUT if you don’t, the outline should point up the gaps needing to be filled with specific information.

In our example it there seems little need for Martha to do any further research, as this speech is her personal story.

However, there are a number of ways she could strengthen her speech and add real benefits for her audience.

For example: she could bring along fliers from local training institutions providing courses especially geared for women setting up business on their own or she could provide a list of business women in the community willing to mentor and advise women in start-ups. A reading list would be helpful, as would a resource list.

All of these ideas need researching before presenting.

Careful research adds authority to your work. It shows care, thought and dedication to getting it right. Your audience will appreciate and respect you for it.

NB. If you are presenting material as fact rather than as opinion, check it! Make sure you know rather than think you know. If you can’t find out, then say so.

PS. Remember those modes or preferred learning styles?

Did you pick how Martha planned to meet each of them in her outline?

For the 'auditory' learners she would tell her story using her voice in a lively, interesting-to-listen-to way! Nothing turns an auditory focused person's ears off faster than a monotone drawl.

For the 'visual' people, she would provide fliers and food to see. Plus her appearance and body language would 'say' to them, this is a vibrant, purpose-filled person who loves what she does.

And lastly, she would use 'word pictures' to illustrate the points she made in her speech. The 'visual' would literally 'see' where she was coming from by using their imagination to recreate her images in their own minds!

For the 'kinesthetics', Martha planned to actively tell her story. She would use vivid 'action' words describing how she did things.

Example: ' I started a business.'  is bland. It doesn't communicate any of the effort or feelings involved.

By contrast: ' I started my own business. What a journey! I know you've watched your children learning to walk. Well, that was me! I fell. I skinned my knees and bruised myself. I got up, took two steps and crashed again...'

You get the idea. This is action, living and real.

The 'kinesthetic' folk will appreciate and know what she is talking about.

Additionally, Martha's fliers and food will appeal too. They can hold them, actively read the fliers and taste the food.

Lastly, they will be aware of what Martha does while she's talking to them. Is she conveying energy, excitement and action in her body language? If so, she'll have them with her!

• Return to the top of planning your speech page  

speaking out loud 

Subscribe for  FREE weekly alerts about what's new For more see  speaking out loud  

Top 10 popular pages

• Welcome speech
• Demonstration speech topics
• Impromptu speech topic cards
• Thank you quotes
• Impromptu public speaking topics
• Farewell speeches
• Phrases for welcome speeches
• Student council speeches
• Free sample eulogies

From fear to fun in 28 ways

A complete one stop resource to scuttle fear in the best of all possible ways - with laughter.

Useful pages

• Search this site
• About me & Contact
• Blogging Aloud
• Free e-course
• Privacy policy

©Copyright 2006-24 www.write-out-loud.com

Designed and built by Clickstream Designs

Rice Speechwriting

Mastering speech outlines: tips & examples, crafting a speech outline: tips & examples.

Crafting a speech can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. A well-crafted speech outline can make all the difference in helping you deliver your message effectively. In this blog, we’ll go over why a speech outline is so important and how to prepare for creating one. We’ll also provide a step-by-step guide on how to craft a compelling speech outline. From choosing a topic that resonates with your audience to constructing a strong thesis statement and developing engaging hooks, we’ve got you covered. Additionally, we’ll share tips on perfecting your speech outline and enhancing your delivery with visual aids. Whether you’re preparing for a business presentation or giving a keynote address , this blog will provide you with all the tools you need to deliver an impactful speech that leaves a lasting impression on your audience.

Understanding the Importance of a Speech Outline

Crafting a speech outline is crucial for effective public speaking. It ensures a clear, logical flow of ideas and helps in organizing the content of your public speech. By providing a roadmap for the entire speech, a preparation outline ensures that the main points are communicated clearly, helping you to stay focused and on track during your public speaking engagement. The part of your speech outline also serves as a visual aid, further enhancing the structuring of your thoughts and ideas, making it an essential part of your public speaking preparation.

Benefits of a Well-Crafted Speech Outline

Crafting a well-structured speech outline is essential for delivering a compelling public speech. It ensures a clear organizational pattern, aiding in capturing and maintaining the audience’s attention throughout the speech. By logically ordering the content, a well-crafted speech outline facilitates smooth transitions between key points, supporting subpoints, and transitional statements, thus enhancing the overall coherence of the speech. Moreover, it serves as a valuable organization tool, assisting in preparing a structured and impactful public speaking presentation. Therefore, dedicating time to the preparation outline is an integral part of any successful public speech, providing a roadmap for the seamless delivery of the content.

Structuring Thoughts and Ideas

Crafting a speech outline contributes to the seamless delivery of key points in public speaking. It aids in the preparation of the body of your speech, ensuring a coherent flow of ideas and serves as a preparation outline for each part of your speech. By effectively structuring the speech topic, the public speech outline ensures the logical organization of the main points and supports the overall organization and preparation of the speech’s content. The outline facilitates a well-structured and engaging presentation to the audience, enhancing the overall impact of your public speech.

Preparing to Craft a Speech Outline

Researching the topic thoroughly is paramount for preparing a comprehensive speech outline, enabling a well-structured and informative public speech. Determining the length of the speech is essential in deciding the depth and breadth of the preparation outline, ensuring that all key points are effectively covered. Recognizing the different types of speech outlines is integral to cater to the specific requirements and expectations of the audience. Considering the instructor’s guidelines is crucial in crafting a preparation outline that aligns with the given parameters. The process of preparing a speech outline involves strategically deciding on the overall organizational pattern of the speech, ensuring a logical flow and coherence throughout the presentation.

Researching Your Topic

Thoroughly researching the topic is crucial for crafting a well-structured speech outline. It enables the identification of key points and ensures the inclusion of accurate and credible information. Familiarity with the topic is essential for preparing a comprehensive outline, part of your speech preparation. Conducting extensive research is an integral part of gathering relevant information to form the foundation of a well-crafted public speech. By understanding the significance of in-depth research, you can ensure that your public speaking content is well-prepared and effectively delivered.

Deciding on the Length of Your Speech

When crafting a speech outline, one must consider the length of the speech as a crucial factor. The chosen length not only determines the overall organization of the outline but also influences its depth and structure. It plays a significant role in decision-making regarding the content to be included. Additionally, considering the attention span of the audience members is essential in determining the ideal length of the speech. The preparation outline needs to align with the selected length to ensure that the content is tailored appropriately for the intended duration.

Recognizing Different Types of Speech Outlines

Understanding the various options in organizing a public speech is crucial for delivering an impactful presentation. Identifying the most suitable outline for your topic is key, as it influences the entire preparation process and organization of the content. Becoming familiar with different types of public speaking outlines, such as a preparation outline or a speaking outline, enables you to structure your thoughts effectively. Selecting the right type of outline, such as preparation outline or speaking outline, ensures that each part of your speech, from the introduction to the conclusion, is well-organized and cohesive. This thoughtful consideration of different types of outlines ultimately enhances the overall delivery and reception of your public speech.

Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting a Speech Outline

Crafting a speech outline begins with selecting a captivating topic, followed by formulating a strong thesis statement. Integrating the speech topic’s keywords is essential, and the initial outline draft should encompass the main talking points. Moreover, organizing supporting points and subpoints is crucial in the preparation outline. Each of these steps contributes to the coherent structuring of thoughts and ideas for the public speech. Embracing this process as part of your speech preparation ensures that each segment becomes a seamless part of your speech. Through this careful planning, you can align your speech with your audience, whether it’s a presentation, a social media post, or a public speaking event.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

Selecting an engaging subject ensures sustained audience interest and involvement during the public speech. The preparation outline process commences with the choice of a captivating speech topic that resonates with the audience. A compelling topic facilitates the overall structure of the public speaking outline, ensuring coherence and relevance. The topic’s significance to the audience directly influences the preparation of the public speech outline, guiding the inclusion of impactful content. Crafting a well-organized public speech outline initiates with the deliberate selection of a topic that appeals to the audience

Constructing a Strong Thesis Statement

Constructing a strong thesis statement is essential for providing clear direction to the preparation outline of a speech. It forms the foundation of logical organization, encompassing the main point and guiding the arrangement of the speech outline. A well-constructed thesis statement ensures that the speech outline effectively captures the main ideas and supporting points, making it an integral part of any public speaking engagement. This process involves careful consideration of the audience’s interests and the overall relevance of the topic to ensure a comprehensive and engaging public speech. Incorporating the NLP terms “public speaking” and “preparation outline” enhances the development of a captivating thesis statement, making it a crucial part of constructing an effective speech outline.

Developing Engaging Hooks

Crafting a captivating speech outline begins with capturing the audience’s attention using engaging hooks. Anecdotes or props can be effectively utilized to create a compelling speech introduction that instantly grabs the audience’s interest. Moreover, incorporating key words and phrases strategically within the introduction can further pique the audience’s curiosity. It’s crucial that the first thing the audience hears is attention-grabbing, setting the tone for the entire speech. These engaging hooks are essential in ensuring the audience’s undivided attention right from the start, creating a strong foundation for the rest of the speech.

Building the Body of Your Speech

To keep the audience engaged, ensure the body of your speech is well-organized in a logical order. Smoothly transition between supporting points using transitional statements. Structuring main points effectively can be done by including subpoints and bullet points. Remember, the speaker’s body language is vital for maintaining the audience’s attention. Convey the topic effectively by including main points, supporting points, and subpoints in the body of your speech. Public speaking requires a well-structured body to effectively deliver the part of your speech that contains key information and ideas. At the end of the speech, it is important to summarize and wrap up the main points to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Successful public speeches on platforms like Facebook stem from thorough preparation outlines and a well-organized body.

Perfecting Your Speech Outline

Crafting a preparation outline is a crucial part of your speech writing process. The first outline you will write is called the preparation outline, also known as a working, practice, or rough outline. The preparation outline is used to work through the various components of your speech in an inventive format. When constructing a speaking outline, it’s important to adhere to the instructor’s requirements and include a thesis statement as the main point. Start with a rough outline to establish the overall organizational pattern before refining it. Your speech writing template should consist of full sentences that guide seamless delivery during public speaking. This preparation outline will serve as a roadmap for every part of your speech, making it easier to deliver a compelling and well-structured public speech.

Reviewing and Refining Your Outline

After completing the speechwriting process, it is crucial to meticulously review and refine the outline to ensure coherence and effectiveness. The entire outline should be crafted in a way that best conveys the speech topic to the audience. This involves refining the rough outline to capture and maintain the audience’s attention throughout. During the review, special attention should be given to the thesis statement, supporting points, and subpoints to effectively refine the speech outline. It is vital to ensure that the chosen type of outline optimally organizes the key points of the speech for seamless delivery and maximum impact. Embracing this reviewing and refining stage ensures that the speech outline is primed for successful public speaking engagements.

Practicing Your Speech

Practicing your speech is essential for perfecting the delivery, including eye contact and body language, during public speaking engagements. It reinforces the main point of the preparation outline and helps emphasize key points effectively to the audience. The conclusion should also be practiced to ensure a strong and impactful end to your public speech. By practicing the speech delivery, you can maintain the audience’s attention and ensure that your message is effectively conveyed. This step is crucial in ensuring that your public speech is engaging and leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

Tips to Enhance Your Speech Delivery

Incorporating visual aids and props during public speaking can effectively enhance the delivery of your public speech, making it more engaging for the audience. Anecdotes are an impactful way to illustrate key points, capturing the audience’s attention and enhancing the overall delivery of your speech. Establishing consistent eye contact with the audience members is crucial as it helps in creating a strong connection during the delivery of your public speech. The second aspect of your speech outline should primarily focus on the best ways to deliver your speech to the audience members, ensuring that it resonates effectively. By integrating anecdotes, props, and visual aids, you can significantly enhance the delivery of your public speech, making it more compelling and impactful.

How Can Visual Aids Improve Your Speech?

Incorporating visual aids in your speech can greatly enhance its impact. Visual aids reinforce key points, clarify complex information, and capture the audience’s attention. They create a visual impact and contribute to a memorable delivery. Utilizing visual aids effectively can take your speech to the next level.

In conclusion, crafting a well-structured speech outline is crucial for delivering a successful and impactful speech. It helps you organize your thoughts, develop a strong thesis statement, and engage your audience with compelling hooks. By structuring your speech into an introduction, body, and conclusion, you can effectively convey your message and maintain a flow of ideas. Additionally, reviewing and refining your outline, as well as practicing your speech, will contribute to your confidence and delivery on the day of the speech. Don’t forget to utilize visual aids to enhance your presentation and make it more memorable for your audience. With these tips and examples, you’ll be well-equipped to create an effective speech outline and deliver a memorable speech.

Master the Art of How to Start a Speech

Wedding toast from groom’s father: spreading happiness.

Popular Posts

How to write a retirement speech that wows: essential guide.

June 4, 2022

The Best Op Ed Format and Op Ed Examples: Hook, Teach, Ask (Part 2)

June 2, 2022

Inspiring Awards Ceremony Speech Examples

November 21, 2023

Mastering the Art of How to Give a Toast

Short award acceptance speech examples: inspiring examples, best giving an award speech examples.

November 22, 2023

Sentence Sense Newsletter

AI Speech Writer

Craft compelling speeches with ai.

• Deliver a keynote address: Create an inspiring and memorable speech for conferences or events.
• Present a persuasive argument: Develop a compelling speech that effectively communicates your point of view.
• Teach or inform an audience: Craft an informative speech that engages listeners and helps them understand complex topics.
• Accept an award or honor: Write a heartfelt and gracious speech to express gratitude and share your journey.
• Commemorate special occasions: Generate a touching and memorable speech for weddings, anniversaries, or other celebrations.

New & Trending Tools

Storytelling for non-profits tutor, effective email marketing strategies tutor, writing press releases and media pitches tutor.

Speech Outline Examples

The Vivid Outline is a productivity tool to prepare in a fraction of the time.

It functions as a Speech Outline, Presentation Outline or simply a structure to distil your thoughts for an important meeting or conversation.

Here are some speech outline examples…

Speech outline templates…

COMM 101: Fundamentals of Public Speaking - Valparaiso

• Delivery Skills
• Stage Fright
• Body Language / Non-Verbal Communication
• Listening Skills
• Quotation Resources
• Speech Outline Examples
• Speech Examples
• More Speech Examples
• Presentation Options
• Citation Resources This link opens in a new window

A basic speech outline should include three main sections:

• The Introduction --  This is where you tell them what you're going to tell them.
• The Body -- This is where you tell them.
• The Conclusion -- This is where you tell them what you've told them.
• Speech Outline Formatting Guide The outline for a public speech, according to COMM 101 online textbook  The Public Speaking Project , p.p. 8-9.

Use these samples to help prepare your speech outlines and bibliographies:

• Sample Speech Preparation Outline This type of outline is very detailed with all the main points and subpoints written in complete sentences. Your bibliography should be included with this outline.
• Sample Speech Speaking Outline This type of outline is very brief and uses phrases or key words for the main points and subpoints. This outline is used by the speaker during the speech.
• << Previous: Quotation Resources
• Next: Informative Speeches >>
• Last Updated: Sep 22, 2023 4:37 PM
• URL: https://library.ivytech.edu/Valpo_COMM101
• Ask-a-Librarian
• [email protected]
• (219) 464-8514 x 3021
• Library staff | Find people
• Library Guides
• Student Life & Activities
• Testing Services
• B&N Bookstore

Free Persuasive Speech Generator

• ✅ 6 Benefits of the Tool

💬 What Is Persuasive Speech?

📍 how to write a persuasive speech, 💡 top 20 persuasive speech topics, 📝 4 world-famous persuasive speech examples, 🔗 references.

Do you have a pending persuasive speech assignment but need some push to help you do it perfectly? No worries; you can use our persuasive speech generator to create informative speeches quickly.

The free automatic AI generator is one of the best to boost your speech writing on any topic.

✅ 6 Benefits of This Persuasive Speech Generator

How can this instant generator benefit your speech-writing efforts?

Our tool has many benefits, but we focus on the 6 most important ones:

As the name suggests, a persuasive speech influences listeners’ behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and values.

In this speech, a speaker seeks a favorable response that aligns with their convictions or position on a matter.

An orator uses arguments to convince their audience to see a particular issue from their preferred perspective. Convincing arguments incorporate different elements to urge listeners to favor a speaker’s stand.

They follow a three-prong strategy incorporating:

A claim is a statement requiring support through evidence. Your speech should also include a thesis statement, your speech’s overarching idea from which other smaller ideas spring.

Informative vs. Persuasive Speech

An informative speech differs from a persuasive one in many ways.

So, how do you write a great persuasive speech that makes listeners adopt your preferred position on a matter?

Below are steps to drafting a great convincing speech.

Know Your Audience

Start by familiarizing yourself with your listeners before moving by knowing their needs, tastes, and ability to understand your desired topic.

This way, you will be better positioned to customize your speech to suit their needs and not parade your vast knowledge.

Familiarize Yourself with Your Topic

Get to know your topic to ensure it suits your audience’s needs. If you aren’t familiar with the topic, research it thoroughly to present your readers with facts.

This way, you will be better positioned to present your listeners with sufficient facts to persuade them.

Determine Your Speech’s Goal

A speech is not only about organizing facts in a logical manner; it is usually meant to persuade the audience and deliver a specific message across .

You, as a speaker, should focus on that message and find appropriate means to get it across.

Select the Best Persuasive Approach

Determine the best approach to persuade your listeners. You may lean on either ethos, logos, or pathos to achieve your desired goal. You can also use all of these approaches.

The final selection will depend on your audience.

Outline Your Key Ideas

You need to outline your best points before presenting them to your audience.

This way, you are better placed to know which argument to present first and last.

Start on a Strong Footing

You must begin your speech with a strong, attractive hook to capture your audience’s attention.

Your opening needs a catchy title that whets your audience’s appetite to listen to your speech.

Give Convincing Evidence

Your speech’s main body should include the points you want to use to convince listeners to side with your position.

Give your audience convincing examples and reasons to buy into your perspective.

Address Counter-arguments

Don’t forget to address opposing arguments because others have a right to hold contrary views and not accept your point right away.

While this may not be necessary, you can bolster your case by anticipating and discussing opposing views.

Finish with a Call to Action

Since you defined your speech’s goal, don’t forget to make a relevant call to action .

Remember, this part is like your landing pad.

Below are carefully selected persuasive speech topics to inspire you.

• Martial arts benefit the mind.
• Competitive sports have many mental benefits.
• Games have many positive social benefits.
• Make community service mandatory for college graduation.
• Traits that make up real heroes.
• Letter grades should be replaced with pass or fail .
• The real secret to success.
• Public libraries should filter internet pornography .
• Video games promote violence.
• Should abortions be illegal as a form of homicide ?
• Dirty music promotes immorality.
• Beauty pageants for children should be banned .
• Parents should spend more time with their children.
• Why junk food should cost more than healthy food .
• Tablets are better than laptops.
• Why should there be a four-day workweek ?
• Ban school uniforms.
• The internet should remain open source .
• Security cameras violate privacy.
• Vote by mail: should it be allowed ?

Below are the top four world-famous persuasive speeches to get inspiration from.

I Have a Dream by MLK

This speech embodies the black community’s search for equality. Martin Luther King voiced his opposition to the segregation against Africans when white supremacists sought to keep Africans in inferior positions using the backdoor. The leader envisioned a society where equality would replace racial discrimination.

Ain’t I A Woman by Sojourner Truth

This speech by an African woman embodied the quest for equal human rights during the season when oppression and slavery were at their peak. Truth was one of the leading advocates who fought for women’s rights in the 19th century. She delivered this speech at an 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

I Am Prepared to Die by Nelson Mandela

This Nelson Mandela speech echoes the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. Mandela risked his life to fight state-sponsored discrimination against Africans. Mandela was prepared to die for this just cause.

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

This famous speech by the son of a Kenyan student who made it to become a US President shows the power of transformational hope. The speech is based on Obama’s focus on patriotic optimism and determination as change catalysts. This speech catapulted him into the limelight and led to his popular election as America’s first black and youngest president.

❓ Persuasive Speech Generator FAQ

Updated: Oct 25th, 2023

• What Is Persuasive Speech? (Plus 10 Tips for Creating One)
• Persuasive Speaking
• 100 Persuasive Speech Topics for Students
• How to Write a Persuasive Speech: 13 Steps (with Pictures)
• Persuasive Speech Types & Features
• Persuasive Speaking – Speak Out, Call In
• Free Essays
• Writing Tools
• Lit. Guides
• Donate a Paper
• Referencing Guides
• Free Textbooks
• Tongue Twisters
• Job Openings
• Expert Application
• Video Contest
• Writing Scholarship
• Discount Codes
• IvyPanda Shop
• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Cookies Policy
• Copyright Principles
• DMCA Request
• Service Notice

This free AI-powered persuasive speech generator will quickly create a sample speech for you. All you need to do is add the necessary details so that the result matches your requirements. Moreover, on this page, you’ll learn what a persuasive speech is and how to write one quickly.