Organizing Your Ideas

Chapter

Outline
Importance of Clear Organization
Gathering Ideas and Materials
Organizing the Body
Planning the Introduction and Conclusion
Adding Transitions
What points to cover and how to arrange them?

IMPORTANCE OF CLEAR ORG.

Helps solve the following problems
Taking too long to get to a point
Including irrelevant material
Leaving out necessary information
Getting ideas mixed up

First, tell them what youre going to tell them;

then, tell them;
then, tell them what you told them.

GATHERING IDEAS & MATERIALS

Example: selling to potential customers
Find out competing products
Whether theyre familiar with your product
What is their attitude towards it
Sources of information
Companys files
Interviews
Library
Survey, etc

ORGANIZING THE BODY

Identify the main points and sub-points
Brainstorming
One-week later test
Choose best organizational pattern
1.

Chronological sequence in time: process, steps, events,

2.

history
Spatial physical location: real estate, geographical
Topical reasons, types, benefits catchall approach

3.
4.
5.

Cause-effect
Problem-solution

Rules for main points:

Main points should be stated as claims (fact/belief)

All points should develop the thesis
No more than five main points
Each point should contain one idea
Should be in parallel structure whenever possible

PLANNING THE INTRODUCTION

Functions

Capture the listeners attention

Give your audience a reason to listen
Set the proper tone for topic and setting
Establish your qualifications
Introduce thesis and preview presentation

Types of opening statements

Ask a question
Tell a story
Give a quotation
Make a startling statement
Refer to the audience
Refer to the occasion
Use humor

PLANNING THE CONCLUSION

Types of closing statements

All of the intro types +

Return to the theme of your opening statement
Appeal for action
End with a challenge

ADDING TRANSITIONS
Bridges that connect segments of presentation
Tell listeners how parts are related
Occur between intro/body, body, body/concl.

 Functions of transitions
Promote clarity
Emphasize important points
Keep listeners interested
Characteristics of transitions
Refer to both preceding and upcoming ideas
Show logical relationship among ideas
Call attention to themselves

Important: TABLE 1