The key point speech provides the most reliable model for the types of short talks you do

every day. It’s the Swiss army knife of speeches; always useful and adaptable. Why?
The key point speech is designed to work with how audiences want to hear and process
information, in chunks.

The key point speech allows you to focus in on a handful of key points (phrased
concisely and memorably), elaborate on them clearly (with concrete examples), and
deliver them with focus and confidence.

We practice the model in the 3-7 minute time frame, but the basic principles easily scale
to hour long presentations. Impromptu project briefing? Training speech? Run it as a key
point speech. My standard two-hour lecture classes are really just 7-8 related key point
speeches.

After completing the key point speech, you should be able to:

 craft well-phrased key points that clarify a topic.

 discuss examples that clarify key points.
 arrange speeches clearly and use delivery to orally highlight this structure.
 speak with confidence and animation.
 use projection, pitch, and rate appropriately and effectively.
 move, gesture, and use notes appropriately and effectively.

Key Point Speech Basics

How long do I talk?

3-7 minutes

What do I talk about?

Your audience might be from the other side of the globe, so we want to stay general in
scope. My chief concern is that you speak on something that you can cover in 3-7
minutes and allows you to distinguish between main point and supporting examples.

Assume that your audience has no background in your topic. You should avoid jargon.
You should also avoid professional topic that require significant background knowledge.
For example, talking about how the aerospace company Boeing can better compete
against Lockheed Martin would require a bit too much knowledge about the aerospace
industry.

Here are some potential topics

Summary speech topics

 What are the main aspects of your current job?

 What is a project you’re currently working on?
 What are the main activities of your organization?
 What’s one of your organization’s best programs?

Persuasive speech topics

 Why the audience should donate blood

 Why rugby is better than football

Sample informative speech topics

 landmark moments in online learning

 the major neighborhoods of Seattle

How should I talk about it?

At minimum, your speech should include the following elements: introduction, key points,
examples, and a conclusion. We discuss each aspect in detail in class.

Introduction

· An overview/thesis statement

· A preview of your key points

I. First key point

· An illustrating example

· An illustrating example
II. Second key point

· An illustrating example

· An illustrating example

Conclusion

· A restatement of your thesis statement and a review your key points

· A concluding line

Invention. The speaker:

 included and explained appropriate main points that clarified the speech topic.
 included and explained appropriate support that clarified the main points.

Arrangement. The speaker:

 arranged the speech elements appropriately.

 orally highlight speech structure clearly and effectively.
 previewed, transitioned, and reviewed the main points clearly and effectively.

Style. The speaker:

 phrased main points clearly and concisely.

 discuss support clearly and concisely.

Delivery. The speaker:

 appeared confident and animated.

 breathed and projected appropriately and effectively.
 performed pitch and rate appropriately and effectively.
 used notes effectively and appropriately.
 moved and gestured appropriately and effectively.

Speech length. The speaker delivered a speech that was:

 An appropriate length (~3-7 minutes)

 Too short (1:30-2:45 minutes) or too long (7:15-8:30)
 Significantly too short (under 1:30) or too long (over 8:30)
In addition to the above rubric, I wanted to give you a more holistic description of what
the different speeches often look and sound like. What follows below is simply a
discussion of some of the commonalities that occur when we see an excellent, good,
adequate, or poor speech. Invention, arrangement, and delivery are all mutually
dependent. A speaker might have excellent invention, adequate arrangement, and good
delivery; the speaker’s grade reflects this admixture.

Excellent impromptu speeches

Invention: Excellent speakers tie the support, main points, and thesis together clearly
and succinctly. Excellent speakers discuss targeted main points that are neither too
broad/vague, nor too specific to sustain supporting examples and discussion. The main
points are specific to the thesis. The supporting examples elaborate on the main points
and provide greater context and detail. When discussing the examples, the excellent
speaker is able to bring in the ideas and language of main point and the thesis
statement.

Arrangement: Excellent speakers deliver speeches that are easy to flow. The main
points are phrased powerfully and memorably. The speaker’s arrangement-talk
(highlighting the main points and support) is clear and sounds natural. They are
performing the major breaks between the sections of their speeches nonverbally as well
(longer pause breaks, movement, etc.). Excellent speeches are easy to flow because
the speakers highlight the organization, and because the organizational patterns are
logical.

Style and Delivery: Excellent impromptu speeches are easy to listen to. The speakers
appear confident and speak with plenty of projection and vocal variety. They use
pauses, rate and pitch changes, as well as other delivery devices to help the audience
distinguish between high and low priority sentences and ideas. Excellent speeches
appear well prepared and have good pacing (in that the speeches are neither rushed nor
plodding). Excellent speakers maintain good eye contact with the entire audience.

Good impromptu speeches

Invention: Good speakers tie the support, main points, and thesis together well. Good
speakers have good main points that relate clearly to the thesis statement. Whereas in
an excellent speech both main points are targeted and specific, the good speaker might
have one really strong point and one slightly weaker point. The main points tie to the
thesis, but perhaps the link may not be as readily obvious to listeners. The supporting
examples work well as illustrations of the main points that they are supporting. In an
excellent speech, these pieces of support elaborate on the main points; in a good
speech, most of the examples illustrate the key ideas. The difference being that an
elaborating example extends and sharpens the main point’s ideas; whereas an
illustration is simply shows how the main point operates in the world.

Arrangement: Good speakers deliver speeches that are easy to flow. As with the
excellent speeches, the main points are phrased well. When good speakers deliver their
speeches, the arrangement-talk is clear, but, at times, clunky. They are performing the
major breaks between the sections of their speeches nonverbally (longer pause breaks,
movement, etc.). Good speakers don’t have the clarity and conciseness of an excellent
speaker’s internal arrangement. The supporting examples might not be previewed
and/or the transitions between the pieces of support might also be unclear. In essence,
the arrangement is clear and solid in good speeches, but not as strategic or powerful as
in excellent ones.

Style and Delivery: Good speakers sound like they are performing the speeches they
have practiced a couple of times; excellent speakers sound like they are discussing an
idea with the audience. One or two of the delivery aspects discussed (rate changes,
pauses, projection, eye contact) tend to need work in good speeches. The speakers
might need to do more to help the audience distinguish between key and supporting
sentences and ideas. The speakers might be running a bit fast, or they are blurring over
major breaks in the speeches, or the speakers might simply be a bit difficult to hear.

Adequate impromptu speeches

Invention: Adequate speakers don’t provide a deep explanation of how the thesis, main
points, and support tie together. Each argumentative element, while fine on its own,
doesn’t have a strong relationship to the other argumentative elements. In some
instances this results in main points that don’t relate the specificities of the thesis
statement; they argue the general idea evoked by the thesis. As a result, the speaker’s
argument is not rooted in the thesis and thus tends to be overly vague. The support
examples tend to be illustrations rather than elaborations and the speaker doesn’t do as
much as they need to explain how the examples relate to the main point. Usually, this
vagueness results in a speech that struggles to fill the time with relevant content.

Arrangement: It is generally easy to identify the basic idea of the main points in
adequate speeches, but precision is lacking. Adequate speakers rarely preview or
overtly discuss internal structure; rather, the listeners tend to make educated guesses at
the nature of the supporting examples. After listening to an adequate speech, audience
members can conceive of a few key changes to the arrangement that would probably
increase the speech's clarity and argumentative force. The claims present in adequate
speeches are generally fine (albeit with some clumsy wording), but often under-
supported.

Style and Delivery: Adequate speakers sound as if they have done a few practice
impromptus, but the speech model is not yet second-nature. Adequate speakers tend to
sound rather unenthused about their speech and its argument. If they are enthused, it
often sounds rather forced. Audience members can detect that the pacing is off in
adequate speeches. Adequate speakers haven't run impromptus enough to find the
places where tempo shifts are needed or where pause breaks help direct their
audiences' attention to key ideas. Ultimately, the delivery in an adequate speech does
not contribute much to argument clarity or audience engagement. While adequate
delivery may not detract much from the meaning of the speech, it adds little.

Poor impromptu speeches

Invention: Audiences listening to poor speakers are unclear as to the relationship

between the thesis, main points, and supporting examples. One or both main points are
unclear to the point where a listener has difficulty identify exactly what the speaker is
attempting to argue. The supporting examples are unclear and/or underdeveloped and
their relationship to the main points is questionable. Usually, one major speech element
is missing or significantly underdeveloped (e.g., only one piece of support for an
example, a main point that only runs a few sentences, etc.). As with adequate speeches,
these invention problems results in a speech that struggles to fill the time with relevant
content.

Arrangement: Audience members often have a hard time flowing poor speeches.
Sometimes the points are out of balance, with one huge main point and one tiny,
unsupported main point. Alternatively, poor speakers may make their main points very
clear, but these arguments have little clear relationship with the thesis. The supporting
examples are difficult to identify.

Style and Delivery: The delivery of poor speakers seems to actively harm the quality of
their speeches. This may be because they seem apathetic towards their topic, and/or
their audience, and/or the assignment. Most of the delivery tactics that can help increase
the clarity and energy of a speech (pacing, vocal variety, pausing) are absent or poorly
used in poor speeches.
Failing impromptu speeches

Invention: Failing speakers develop and deliver speeches that have little to do with the
assignment requirements. The main points have little clear relationship with the thesis
statement. The supporting examples, if present, are unclear.

Arrangement: Failing speakers seem to have little to no sense of structure. Main points
and supporting examples, if mentioned, seem disconnected from one another and the
thesis.

Style and Delivery: Failing speakers have inappropriate delivery. This may mean that
the speakers are clearly apathetic towards the entire act of giving a speech. This may
mean that the speakers are enthused, but are doing so merely for comic effect or as a
way of passionately advancing an inappropriate topic.

Speech apprehension

Public speaking apprehension is a communication based anxiety where speakers in response to an

actual or expected presentation experience physiological, cognitive and behavioural responses