Chapter 11 + 12 takeaways

Chapter 11 is about organizing a presentation in the most effective way. The biggest takeaway is creating a speech that will keep the audience’s attention. A presenter should begin with an introduction that states the thesis, followed by the body of the speech with a few main points, and end with a conclusion to wrap up the main points and thesis. The author explains that too many main points causes the audience to lose focus, so they should be limited to 2-7. Each main point can be expanded with a few supporting points. These basic ideas are essential to create an outline to present information in a logical way and maintain the audience’s focus. I find that making an outline is one of the easiest, but most helpful skills in creating a presentation. 

In Chapter 12, the main takeaway is to understand each organizational pattern and to choose the style that makes sense for the topic. The patterns of organization that the author explains are chronological, spatial, causal, problem-solution, topical, and narrative. I usually don’t consider specific organizational patterns when I start creating a speech, but reading this chapter helped me understand how each method of organization can transform a speech. By establishing an organizational pattern, I think it would be easier to present information in a logical, coherent way. Overall, these patterns seem helpful to both the presenter and the audience. The presenter can use these patterns to develop an organized speech, and the audience can easily follow along and stay engaged.