8/12/2019 Tut 17&18 Organizing Ideas in a Speech REQ Notes

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ES2331 Engineering Communication Required tutorial notes

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ORGANIZING IDEAS IN A SPEECH:MOTIVATED SEQUENCE PATTERN

How you arrange your ideas in your presentation influences the way you will be perceived

as a speaker and may potentially increase or decrease the acceptability of your ideas. We

may see the organization of the speech occurring in two levels: on the one hand, there is the

macro-level in which the overall organization of the presentation becomes a major concern;

on the other is the micro-level which involves various ways of organizing ideas in sections or

paragraphs. Generally, we tend to regard the macro-level as one that involves the use of

introduction (opening), body (discussion), conclusion (closing). How these parts or sections

are tied together should establish the structural unity of the speech. Micro-level patterns of

organization include topical, spatial, chronological, and cause-and-effect patterns.

A more elaborate macro-level organization that is employed and recommended by speech

communication practitioners is the motivated sequence patternor MSP (Monroe and

Ehninger, 1994). The MSP uses five steps in organizing the speech: attention, need,

satisfaction, visualization, andaction. The last step may be changed to final appeal if a call

for action is not really necessary.

Attention stepaims to should draw the audience interest and increase their awareness not

only of the speaking moment, but the issue at hand. A relevant quotation, an illustration or

a story may be used to rivet the audience attention to the topic.

Once the audience attention is drawn, the next step would be to intensify their interest by

establishing the needto talk about the topic or issue at hand. The speaker may cite existing

compelling examples that show the urgency to talk about the subject matter. The speaker

may also consider highlighting the disparity of what isand what should be.

The establishment of the need is followed by the satisfaction step where the speaker

presents her proposal to address the need. At this point, the speaker argues her case. This

is where principle number 4 is most important. The ideas that are meant to satisfy the need

or address the problem should withstand careful scrutiny of reasonable minds.

The visualization stepis meant to concretize the strengths, potential benefits and

advantages of the ideas in the satisfaction step. What the speaker can do at this point is to

paint a scenario should her proposal be adopted. She may also take the negative tack by

suggesting potential undesirable outcomes should the proposal be dismissed or rejected.The goal here is to make the audience realize that outcomes of getting themselves to

commit to the proposal are palpable.

The final step is the action stepwhich basically appeals to the audience to act on the

proposal. In cases when this is necessary, the speaker may just end with a final statement

that would reinforce what she had just presented earlier. In some cases, a summary of the

main points of the speech is presented before the final appeal step. This is a strategy

employed by speech communication practitioners for recency effect.

8/12/2019 Tut 17&18 Organizing Ideas in a Speech REQ Notes

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ES2331 Engineering Communication Required tutorial notes

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REFERENCES

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DeVito, J. (1997). Human Communication: A Basic Course. New York: HarperCollins

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Fisher, W.R. (1984). Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public

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Fletcher, L. (1985). How to Design and Deliver a Speech. 3rd

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Lazaro, P.B. (1995). One Plus the Other: The Teachers Communicative Behavior Inside the

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Longaker, M.G. & Walker, J. (2011). Rhetorical Analysis: A Brief Guide for Writers. Boston:

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Monroe, A., Ehninger, D. Gronbeck, B.E. & McKerrow, R.E. (1994). Principles and Types of

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Shinn, S. (n.d.). University Teaching in the 21st

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http://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/lectskills.htmlhttp://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/lectskills.htmlhttp://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/lectskills.htmlhttp://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwlect.htmlhttp://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwlect.htmlhttp://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwlect.htmlhttp://www.masterteacherprogram.com/BizEdArticleYezdiBhada.htmhttp://www.masterteacherprogram.com/BizEdArticleYezdiBhada.htmhttp://www.masterteacherprogram.com/BizEdArticleYezdiBhada.htmhttp://www.masterteacherprogram.com/BizEdArticleYezdiBhada.htmhttp://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwlect.htmlhttp://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/lectskills.html