This is from the Greeks, who valued this speech. They called it an Epideictic Speech, meaning a speech to praise or blame, and telling us why you either admire someone or do not admire someone. So the first step is to pick a person. That person must be at least semi-famous, meaning that there’s a chance they would have been in the news at some point. (So stay away from Uncle Fred or Grandmother.) Then, next, you come up with 2-5 reasons you either admire them or don’t. Those will become your main points. Finally, you will need to have illustrations or examples under each point explaining the reason.

Out line

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about (here you write your specific topic)

Thesis: (write one complete sentence that summarizes your entire speech. Here is might be something like: “____ _____ is the greatest living artist of our time.”)

(---all three of these are not spoken here – they are just for me to see….)

INTRODUCTION

Attention Getter: (some way to get our attention, as in: rhetorical question, startling statistic, short – no more than 20 second - story, quote

Thesis (rewrite the thesis here, and say it)

Preview (your main points placed in one long sentence…. As in “I feel that they are the world’s greatest artist due to three reasons: first, they ….. then they…. And finally they….)

BODY

1. Point one (here, reason one you like them or don’t like them)

Illustration/Example/Reasons)

1. Point Two

• Point Three

CONCLUSION

Post-summarize (kind of like the preview – you tell us the main points again)

Restate Thesis

Come to some kind of short conclusion