getting started
fundamentals
content
delivery
engaging your audience
speaking to inform
speaking to persuade
speaking occasions
Patterns of Organization
In many cases, your topic, purpose, central idea, and key points will suggest an overall organization of your presentation. To explain how to make pasta, for example, there is a clear set of consecutive steps. If you’re discussing Christopher Nolan movies, you might start at the beginning of his career and work your way forward. In other cases, the best arrangement may not be immediately apparent, so you might use one of the following common organizational patterns or come up with a new way to arrange and present your key points.
ARRANGE BY CATEGORIES
In categorical arrangement, you divide a large topic into smaller categories within that topic. For example, you could divide the topic of alcoholism into its symptoms and treatments, or you could devote your entire presentation to describing several treatments. Here’s an example of a categorical arrangement for a presentation on anger:
TOPIC AREA:
Common myths about anger
PURPOSE:
To explain why anger can harm relationships
CENTRAL IDEA:
Three myths about anger focus on an erroneous assumption, inappropriate expression, and a misattributed cause.
KEY POINTS:
A. Myth: Anger and aggression are natural human instincts.
B. Myth: Forcefully expressing your anger is a healthy response.
C. Myth: Anger is caused by the action of other people.
SEQUENCE IN TIME
Time arrangement presents key points as a series of steps or points in time. Sharing recipes, instructions, and technical procedures often use a time arrangement, as do presentations about historical events. You also can use a time arrangement for a past-present-future pattern or for a before-after pattern.
TOPIC AREA:
Conducting effective meetings
PURPOSE:
To explain how to use meeting time effectively and efficiently
CENTRAL IDEA:
Well-run meetings have a definite purposeful beginning, a well-organized middle, and a useful ending.
KEY POINTS:
A. Purposeful beginning: Convene the meeting and share an agenda.
B. Well-organized middle: Follow the agenda.
C. Useful ending: Summarize next steps.
POSITION IN SPACE
If your information can be placed in different locations, you may want to use a space arrangement as an organizational pattern. In describing how to create a tidy living space, you might create key points for decluttering your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Here’s another example:
TOPIC AREA:
Brain structure
PURPOSE:
To explain how different sections of the brain are responsible for different functions
CENTRAL IDEA:
A guided tour of the brain begins in the hindbrain, moves through the midbrain, and ends in the forebrain, with side trips through the right and left hemispheres.
KEY POINTS:
A. The hindbrain
B. The midbrain
C. The forebrain
D. The right and left hemispheres
PRESENT PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Problem-solution arrangement describes a harmful or difficult situation (the problem) and offers a plan to solve it (the solution). In an INFORMATIVE SPEECH (363–401), you may describe a problem that is simple and not controversial (a squeaking door, for example) and then describe how to solve it (lubricate the hinges). In a PERSUASIVE SPEECH (403–61), the problem may be complex, controversial, and hard to solve, so you advocate a particular action to minimize or solve the problem. For example:
TOPIC AREA:
Inactivity and health
PURPOSE:
To recommend methods for reducing the detrimental effects of sitting too long
CENTRAL IDEA:
Sitting for long periods of time can cause physical and mental health problems, but a schedule of simple physical activities can offset the harms.
KEY POINTS:
A. Problem: Extended sitting can be harmful to physical health by, for example, increasing the risk of heart disease and cancer.
B. Problem: A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of certain mental health problems, such as depression and dementia.
C. Solution: A regular schedule of simple physical activities, including standing up and walking, significantly reduces health risks.
SHOW CAUSES AND EFFECTS
A cause-and-effect arrangement either presents a cause and its resulting effect (cause-to-effect) or describes the effect that results from a specific cause (effect-to-cause).
In a cause-to-effect arrangement, you might claim that eating red meat causes disease and depression or that large classes and low teacher salaries explain a decline in test scores. In the following cause-to-effect arrangement, the speaker claims that using smartphones during class harms the learning process:
TOPIC AREA:
Technology and learning
PURPOSE:
To describe how using a smartphone during class negatively impacts learning
CENTRAL IDEA:
Using smartphones during class distracts the student, disrupts the learning environment of others, and leads to lower test scores.
KEY POINTS:
A. Cause: Using a smartphone during class distracts the student from focusing on what is being taught.
B. Cause: Using a smartphone during class disrupts the learning environment for other students.
C. Effect: Paying less attention during class results in lower retention of knowledge and test scores.
In an effect-to-cause arrangement, you describe a situation or behavior, create curiosity in your audience about its causes, and then explain why the situation or behavior exists. In the following effect-to-cause arrangement, the speaker identifies some of the causes of fatphobia:
TOPIC AREA:
Health and well-being
PURPOSE:
To understand why fatphobia persists in our culture
CENTRAL IDEA:
Understanding the causes of fatphobia is the first step in combating its harmful effects.
KEY POINTS:
A. Effect: Fatphobia leads to negative health outcomes for many people.
B. Causes:
- The diet and fitness industry promotes thinness as the ideal body type and unhealthy methods to achieve it.
- Myths persist that fat people are unhealthy and lack self-control. Doctors may prescribe losing weight, missing other underlying health issues.
- Shaming to promote weight loss is rarely successful.
ARRANGE SCIENTIFICALLY
Scientists present claims by using the scientific method arrangement. When sharing the results of a scientific study or explaining the development of a theory—either your own or the work of a scientist—consider using an organizational pattern that follows the steps prescribed by journals that publish scientific research. Usually there are five basic sections in a scientific research report:
- Explain the research question and why it is important.
- Review previous research on the topic in question.
- Describe the scientific methods used to study the research question.
- Analyze and present the research results.
- Discuss the implications of the research.2
The following example outlines a speech explaining the results of a study on the relationship between presentation anxiety and the preparation process:
TOPIC AREA:
Presentation anxiety and the preparation process
PURPOSE:
To explain why anxious speakers should study and learn how to prepare an effective presentation
CENTRAL IDEA:
Learning effective preparation skills can reduce your level of speech anxiety and improve the quality of your presentation.
KEY POINTS:
A. Research question: What is the relationship between speaker anxiety and preparation skills?
B. Review previous research.
C. Describe the research method.
D. Present the research results.
E. Discuss the implications of the research: learning effective preparation skills can reduce presentation anxiety.
TELL STORIES AND GIVE EXAMPLES
Sometimes a series of memorable EXAMPLES AND STORIES (137–38) are so compelling and interesting that they can easily become the backbone of a speech. For example:
TOPIC AREA:
Leaders and adversity
PURPOSE:
To convince listeners that disabilities are not a barrier to success
CENTRAL IDEA:
Many noteworthy leaders have lived exceptional lives with disabilities.
KEY POINTS:
A. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, announced he was on the autism spectrum.
B. Jan Scruggs, wounded soldier and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, experienced PTSD.
C. Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, lived with epileptic seizures.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
A comparison-contrast arrangement shows your audience how individual things are similar to or different from each other. There are two basic ways to do this: block and point-by-point comparisons.3
With a block comparison, you describe the relevant information about one item and then compare it to the relevant information about another item. For example:
TOPIC AREA:
America’s big cities
PURPOSE:
To show that each of America’s big cities is an excellent place to live, depending on your values
CENTRAL IDEA:
Choosing to live in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago depends on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
KEY POINTS:
A. New York: Advantages and disadvantages of the Big Apple
B. Los Angeles: Advantages and disadvantages of the City of Angels
C. Chicago: Advantages and disadvantages of the Windy City
Alternatively, when you do a point-by-point comparison, you focus on specific points of comparison between the things you are comparing. The following example compares types of animation, based on four points of comparison.
TOPIC AREA:
Animation
PURPOSE:
To recommend a way of evaluating different styles of animation
CENTRAL IDEA:
Comparing drawing technique, versatility, character design, and cultural context can help you evaluate different styles of animation.
KEY POINTS:
A. Drawing technique
B. Versatility
C. Character design
D. Cultural context
A different type of the comparison-contrast arrangement is called a figurative analogy. As a figure of speech, an ANALOGY (312–14) compares something unfamiliar with something more familiar, showing how two unrelated items have certain common characteristics. You can also use this framework to organize your speech. For example, drafting a fantasy football player isn’t the same thing as predicting a student’s success in college, yet the former provides a good analogy for thinking about the latter:
TOPIC AREA:
Student success in college
PURPOSE:
To identify the multiple factors that affect student success in college
CENTRAL IDEA:
Predicting student success is like drafting a player for a fantasy football team: you must consider prior performance, coaching, and the environment.
KEY POINTS:
A. Prior performance: A student’s high school record = a player’s NFL record
B. Coaching: A student’s teacher and adviser = a player’s coach
C. Environment: A student’s learning environment = the player’s home stadium
USE MEMORY AIDS
Journalists use the five Ws—who, what, where, when, and why—to remember the key questions they should answer in a news story. First-aid instructors teach the ABCs of first aid: open the airway, check for breathing, and check for circulation. In a presentation, you can use easily remembered letters, words, or phrases to organize your speech, help your audience follow along, and remember your key points.
TOPIC AREA:
Organizing a presentation
PURPOSE:
To provide an effective method for developing the key points of a presentation
CENTRAL IDEA:
The four Rs represent a series of critical thinking steps—review, reduce, regroup, refine—for generating a presentation’s key points.
KEY POINTS:
A. Review
B. Reduce
C. Regroup
D. Refine
OTHER ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERNS
In addition to these organizational patterns, there are patterns commonly used for specific professions and SPECIAL OCCASIONS (463–525). As we’ll discuss in Part 7, there are also several unique PERSUASIVE ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERNS (449–56), such as refuting objections, telling persuasive stories, and Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.
Depending on your presentation, you may be able to adapt a common pattern or invent one of your own. Creative thinking can produce original patterns. For example, you might transform your key points into commonly asked questions. Think about how an audience might react to the following questions about the death penalty, as opposed to having the key points presented to them as statements:
Does the death penalty deter people from committing murder?
What costs more—life in prison or the legal process leading to execution?
Do victims’ families have a right to revenge and emotional closure?
A creative organizational pattern can also generate interest with your audience. For example, Patricia Phillips, a customer-service expert, used excerpts from popular songs—“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, “Help!” by the Beatles, “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley, and “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles—to begin each major section of her training seminar. These well-known songs provided an upbeat way to move into each new section of the seminar.
Glossary
- organizational patterns
- Any of several common systems for arranging the CONTENTS of your presentation.
- categorical arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that divides a large TOPIC into smaller categories within that topic.
- time arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that places KEY POINTS in a series of sequenced steps or points in time.
- space arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that divides information based on location.
- problem-solution arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN in which the SPEAKER describes a harmful or difficult situation and identifies a way to solve it.
- cause-and-effect arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that either presents a cause and its resulting effect (cause-to-effect) or describes the effect that results from a specific cause (effect-to-cause).
- scientific method arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that follows the well-established steps prescribed for conducting RESEARCH and publishing results in journals.
- comparison-contrast arrangement
- An ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN that examines ideas or objects that are similar to or different from one another.
Endnotes
- See the chapters on reading and writing quantitative and qualitative research reports in Joann Keyton, Communication Research: Asking Questions, Finding Answers (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001), 314–45.Return to reference 2
- Richard Bullock, The Norton Field Guide to Writing, 6th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 439–40.Return to reference 3