Why Should You Use a Clear Pattern of Organization? Because it Works

Abstract

Courses

6–12 or College, Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication

Objective

Students will be persuaded of the strategic advantage in using recognizable patterns of organization to help audiences make sense of and retain information in their informative speeches.

Notes

[1] A set of prepared slides can also be downloaded from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~aslagell/Basic_Course/StructureCT.

[2] Giving each group either one minute or 40 seconds works well in the large lecture setting where I most commonly use this exercise. In smaller class settings, I alter the time frame to 45 seconds for group 1 and 32 seconds (eight seconds each slide) for group 2 – giving group 2 about 30% less time.