2. Set Your Goal and Develop the Thesis.

A general goal is a broad statement of what you want to accomplish. According to Adler and Elmhorst
(2008), there are three general speaking goals: to inform, persuade, and entertain. Some experienced
speakers may attempt to do more than one. Informative presentations aim to help the audience acquire
new information or skill. Persuasive presentations attempt to influence how one feels or thinks about a
particular matter. The specific goal refers to the outcome that you desire. It is a specific statement that
tells what you want done by a specific person or group in a specific place at a specific time. If your
speech is the journey, your specific goal is your destination. What is it exactly that you want to achieve
after your presentation? Your goal should describe how you expect your participants to react after your
presentation. If you know exactly what you want to accomplish, you will surely get it done.
Meanwhile, the thesis statement is the key idea that summarizes your message.
Methods in Defining a Thesis Statement (Source: Addler & Elmhorst, 2008)
a. Imagine that you met a member of your audience at the elevator and had only a few second to
explain your idea before the doors closed.
b. Imagine that you had to send a one- or two-sentence email that communicated your main ideas.
c. Ask yourself, if your listeners heard only a small portion of your remarks. What is the minimum they
should have learned?
d. Suppose that a friend asked one of your listeners about what you were driving at in your
presentation. What would you want the audience member to say? It is important that you repeat your
thesis several times in your presentation. Once in the introduction and a lot more times in the body and
the conclusion.
3. Organize the Body.
Consider these two steps in organizing the body of your talk: (1) identify the details that support your
thesis; (2) design your organizational plan.
a. Chronological pattern. Use this pattern if you want to present your points following their sequence in
time. It is commonly used to present a process or to give instructions. This pattern is also used to discuss
events that develop over time.
b. Spatial pattern. Use this pattern to show the physical location of an object or how ideas are put
together. For example, you may want to show the location of a new building in a school campus or parts
and functions of a new product.
c. Topical pattern. If you want to group your ideas together under one topic or category, use the topical
pattern.
d. Cause-effect pattern. This shows that events happened or will happen as a result of some
circumstances. You can demonstrate using this pattern how a new monitoring program in schools can
help improve the punctuality of teachers in attending their classes. Another way to present a cause and
effect relationship is an effect-cause structure. Present the result first and show how it came to happen.
You may use this to explain why a school has a strict implementation of absenteeism policy and the
factors that brought this out.
e. Problem-solution pattern. You begin by presenting the problem and then propose solutions. Make the
audience recognize that there is a problem in the present situation before you can present remedies. An
IT professional may start a talk by pointing out the difficulty and lack of efficiency in manually accessing
files in an office. After the audience realizes the problematic situation, s/he can now proceed to
presenting how an office database can improve the processing of office documents.
f. Criteria satisfaction pattern. You present a set of criteria and proceed to how you can satisfy each
audience member. This is particularly useful when you are selling a product or service or an unpopular
idea. You make your audience accept first the criteria that you set. Afterwards, present your proposal.
Look at this example: As a middle management manager, you are assigned to present the company’s
decision to defer the employee’s salary increase. You have to start your talk by leading your audience to
understand the company’s present situation, which resulted in the deferment. If you start by
announcing your thesis first (workers’ salaries need to maintain status quo), the audience might not
listen anymore and even show violent reactions.
g. Comparative advantages pattern. This pattern works well when you compare the products or services
that your company are selling and the competing company’s. You can demonstrate how your company’s
products and services are at a greater advantage than the other one. This pattern is useful when you
want to influence your boss’ decision on company matters.
h. Motivated Sequence pattern. It follows a five-step process, which is usually very interactive.
The steps are:
• Attention. Capture your audience’s attention by telling them about a problem.
• Need. Make them feel that the problem can affect them in many ways. They should believe that you
are there to help them find solutions.
• Satisfaction. Present the solution and show to your audience that it is workable.
• Visualization. Create a mental picture of the outcome of your proposal. Let your audience imagine
what will happen if your proposal is not adopted. Let them visualize how your proposal will solve the
problem and the benefits that go with it.

• Action. Encourage your audience to respond by asking them what they can do to help solve the
problem.

4. Plan the Introduction and Conclusion.

The introduction is the most important part of your talk. This is the stage where the audience forms
their first impression of you and your topic. Be sure that you plan your introduction carefully because it
will affect how your listeners respond to the rest of your presentation.

A meaningful introduction contains a thesis and a preview. Consider the following functions of your
introduction:

a. Capture the listener’s attention. It is difficult to capture the audience’s attention when they are not
ready to listen to your presentation or when their mind is filled with so many concerns. To capture their
attention, you can start your talk by presenting a problem that concerns them or begin with a task that
challenges what they know about the topic.

b. Show how important your talk is. If your audiences see that the topic of your presentation is
important to them, they will be interested to listen. So, start by telling them the advantages they will get
by listening.

For example, if you want to convince a group of employees to shift to a new health plan, start by
enumerating to them the benefits they can get and how the company will benefit from it. Tell the
audience that if they do not listen, they will miss the opportunity to see another option for a health plan
that could be more beneficial than the existing one.
c. Set the mood for the topic and setting. If your purpose is to encourage employees to continue working
productively together, acknowledge their outstanding performances by highlighting the company’s
improvement through the latter’s cooperation and hard work. Make them feel good about themselves.
If you want your customers to buy more life insurances, tell them how miserable and financially difficult
life could be if they get sick and eventually die. Their families would suffer the most because they are
not prepared for these eventualities. But if they are insured, they might not suffer that seriously.

d. Establish your credibility. This may no longer be needed if you are given a proper introduction or the
audience already knows that you are an expert. e. State your thesis clearly. Before you proceed to the
body of your presentation, introduce your thesis clearly. Let your audience know the objectives you set
for your talk and how you plan to achieve them. In this way, the listeners will be guided and informed
where you are leading them.