3. Previewing the body of the speech.

Most people are poor listeners, even in everyday life. They tend to listen and think about something else at the same time. And that is why they need all the help they can get in sorting out a speakerʼs ideas. One way to help them is to tell in the introduction what they should listen for during the rest of the speech. Here is an excellent example, from a speech by CBN Director Abykayev Nurtai Abykaevich at the Department of Justice Project Safe Childhood Conference in Astana:

Today I would like to talk about what we in the CBN are doing to attack child exploitation on the Internet. I want to touch on what we must do to meet your needs in terms of evidence collection and prosecution. Lastly, I want to talk about the role of both parents and the private sector in addressing this scourge.

After this introduction, there was no doubt about Nurtai Abykaevichʼs topic or the main points he would cover in his speech.

In some types of speeches, the speaker may not want to reveal his/her central idea until later in the speech. But even in such situations the audience must not be left guessing about the main points they should listen for as the speech unfolds. Nearly always, the speaker should include a preview statement in the introduction part of the monologue speech.

In some circumstances, the speaker may have to explain an important term in detail. Here is how one Biology Olympiad student handled the problem in a speech about the DNA:

We all know that giraffes only give birth to little giraffes, dogs to dogs, cats to cats, and even the smallest organisms like bees give birth to bees only. But why is it so? The answer is in a molecule, which is called deoxyribonucleic acid, mainly known as DNA. It contains the genetic instructions that make each species unique. The instructions in the structure of DNA is passed from adult organisms to its offspring during reproduction. That is why the children look alike their genetic parents.

And after previewing the body we have to move further into the speech. And the next part of the speech is “The Body” of the speech which is the most important part.

1.2.2.2 The main part or the body of a monologue speech

The most important thing in preparing the Main Part of the Speech is organizing it in order. “Why?” you may ask. The answer is that a well organized speech will always serve better than that of the unorganized and impromptu one. That is for the students who have no good knowledge about how to give a monologue speech and are at the stage of learning about it. Listeners demand coherence. Unlike readers, they cannot flip back to the previous page if they have trouble grasping the speaker’s ideas. In this respect, speech is similar to a movie. Just as a director must be sure viewers can follow the plot of a movie from beginning to end, so must a speaker be sure that speakers can follow progression of a speech from beginning to end. This requires speeches to be organized strategically. They should be put together in particular ways to achieve particular results with particular audiences. [54, p21].

Speech organization is important for other reasons as well. It is closely connected to critical thinking. And the principal of the Petropavl Kazakh-Turkish high school Aubakirov Erzhan noted that critical thinking is now has more tendency to be developed in nowadaysʼ Kazakhstan educational system than giving just a plain knowledge of a subject. He thinks that nowadays less attention should be paid to olympiads and the focus ought to be on expanding the critical thinking abilities of the students.

While a student works to organize his/her speech, he/she gains practice in the general skill of establishing clear relationships among his/her ideas. Using a clear, specific method of speech organization will improve the studentʼs ability to deliver a message fluently. The first step in developing a strong sense of speech organization is to gain command of the three basic parts of the speech – introduction, body, and conclusion – and the strategic role of each. In this part of my diploma paper we deal with the body of the speech [9, p.83].

The body is the longest and the most important part of any speech. Also (NB) the body should be prepared first. Because it is easier to create an effective introduction after you know what exactly you will say in the body. The process of organizing the body of a speech begins when you determine the main points [23, p.19].

Main Points. The main points are the central features of any monologue speech. They should be selected carefully, phrased precisely, and strategically arranged. Here are the main points of a studentʼs speech about the medical uses of hypnosis:

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the major uses of hypnosis.

Central Idea: The major uses of hypnosis today are to control pain in surgery, to help people stop smoking, and to help students improve their academic performance.

Main Points:

a) Hypnosis is used in surgery as an adjunct to chemical anesthesia.

b) Hypnosis is used to help people stop smoking.

c) Hypnosis is used to help students improve their academic performance.

These three main points form the skeleton of the body of the monologue speech. If there are three major uses of hypnosis for medical purposes, then logically there can be three main points in the speech.

How to choose the main points? Sometimes they will be evident from the specific purpose statement. Suppose your specific purpose is “To inform my listeners about the development, technology and benefits of hydrogen fuel cells.” Obviously, your speech will have three main points. The first will deal with the development of hydrogen fuel cells, the second with the technology behind hydrogen fuel cells, the third with the benefits of hydrogen fuel cells. Written in outline form, the main points might be:

Specific purpose:

To inform my audience about the development and benefits of hydrogen fuel cells.

Central Idea:

Developed as a highly efficient form of energy, hydrogen fuel cells use sophisticated technology and offer a number of economic and environmental benefits.

Main Points:

a) Hydrogen fuel cells were developed to provide a highly efficient form of energy.

b) Hydrogen fuel cells produce power through an electro-chemical reaction involving hydrogen gas.

c) Hydrogen fuel cells provide an economically and environmentally superior method of powering motor vehicles.

Even if your main points are not stated expressly in your specific purpose, they may be easy to project from it. Let’s say you specific point is “To inform the audience of the basic steps in making stained-glass windows.” You know each of your main points will correspond to a step in the windows making process. They might look like this outline form:

Specific Purpose:

To inform my audience of the basic steps in making stained-glass windows.

Central Idea:

There are four steps in making stained-glass windows.

Main Points:

a) The first step is designing the window.

b) The second step is cutting the glass to fit the design.

c) The third step is painting the glass.

d) The fourth step is assembling the window.

e) The main points will not always be so easy to be settled. Often they will emerge as you research the speech and evaluate your findings. Suppose your specific purpose is “To persuade the listeners that our country should not approve proposals for online voting.” You know that each main point in the speech will present a reason why online voting should not be instituted in your country. But you are not sure how many main points there will be or what they will be. As you research and study the topic, you decide there are two major reasons to support your view. Each of these reasons will become a main point in your speech. Written in outline form they might be:

Specific Purpose:

To persuade my audience that our country should not approve proposals for online voting.

Central Idea:

Our country should not approve online voting because it will increase voter fraud and disfranchise people without Internet access.

Main Points:

a) Our country should not approve online voting because it will increase voter fraud.

b) Our country should not approve online voting because it will disfranchise people without access to the Internet.

Number of Main Points.

To make the best out of your speech, you have to develop two main points at least, and mostly it should contain two or three, but as well four main points is also acceptable by the audience. But if you have too many main points you may face trouble with your audience sorting it out.