When creating your own speech, it is essential to make sure your speech has a clear main idea that is supported by the content of your speech. If the main idea isn’t clearly stated, repeated, and supported, then the audience can be confused and lose interest.
How do you ensure that your main idea is clearly stated and supported? First, make sure you have only one main idea---one key point you are trying to transmit to your audience. In what way do you hope to change the viewpoint of your audience? Make sure the main idea is clearly stated in the introduction of your speech and deliberately supported with reasons and evidence throughout the body of your speech. Having a clear and well-supported main idea is the foundation of an effective speech.
Read the example speech below and then take a look at the tab set. Click on each tab to see examples of revisions that helped create a clear and well-supported main idea.
Introduction
Well Supported
Concluding Thoughts
Draft:
I have come to believe that I must approach myself and my problems with fascination
instead of judgment. Asking questions that begin with “why” or “how” has offered so much more insight than judging “Is it good or bad?” ever has.
After Revisions:
Have you ever had a friendship suddenly go bad? Recently, a close friend and I stopped speaking to each other. It was hard because from the beginning I had really wanted to be her friend. She seemed smart, in a cool way, and said lots of funny things. She liked to talk about all the books she had read, and she always had a quick, sarcastic comeback whenever anyone made a joke.
How does the revised introduction better support the main idea?
The revision gives you a sneak peek of what is to come in the speech. You can tell from the introduction that the main idea of the speech is going to stem from a personal friendship mishap. The original introduction was abstract and confusing, and it didn’t lay a foundation for the speech.
Draft:
When I think back to that friendship, the thing I regret most is how much weight I put on that other person’s treatment of me to understand myself. I thought of her as “good” and that the only way to be “good” was to be like her. In spending so much time trying to be what I thought she wanted me to be, trying to guess what she thought of as “good,” I lost my own understanding of and fascination with myself.
After Revisions:
The truth is I wanted my friend to think I was smart and funny so that I could feel smart and funny. When I think back to that friendship, the thing I regret most is how much weight I put on another person’s ideas about who I was. I thought of my friend as “the cool one” and believed that the only way to be cool myself was to be like her—or for her to think I was like her.
How is the revised paragraph a better example of clearly supporting the main idea?
The revised paragraph links back to the introduction elaborating on the friendship and personal experience. It makes a direct connection and clearly states why that friendship was important and a learning experience, and how the friendship impacted the author.
Draft:
Be fascinated with yourself. You do not have to do anything extraordinary to be valuable and loved. Ask questions that help you search for your own answers. Approach opinions that differ from your own with wonder. This exploration will help you understand yourself and share that understanding with others.
After Revisions:
My advice is: Be fascinated with yourself—try to figure out exactly who you are—regardless of what your friends think. And remember that you do not have to do anything extraordinary to be valuable and loved. All you have to do is approach yourself—and everyone else—with curiosity and respect. Then take time to celebrate how you’re different. Your uniqueness is something to treasure, not something to fear.
How does the revised conclusion better support the main idea and wrap up the speech?
The revised conclusion elaborates on the personal lesson learned from the friendship stated in the introduction. It sums up the main idea—be yourself. The final sentence also resonates with others because it is relatable, so even if you haven’t had a similar friendship experience, you can still relate to being different and unique.
Now it’s your turn! Find the journal entry file that you started for this module and locate the speech you wrote for a previous lesson. Then, open a word-processing document and copy and paste that speech into it. Revise the speech to make its main ideas easier for listeners to recognize and follow. As you revise, consider the following questions:
| Is the main idea clearly stated at the beginning of your speech? |
| Does the content throughout your speech directly support the main idea? |
| Did you write a conclusion that sums up your speech and restates the main idea? |
After you have made the necessary changes to ensure that the main idea of your speech is clearly stated and supported, keep your document open so that you can make additional revisions as you continue to work through this lesson.
