Connectives help to connect and/or highlight parts of a
speech.
Here are the four I’ll cover:
Transitions
Internal Previews
Internal Summaries
Signposts
A true connector is a transition and this can help the
speech to flow from one section to the next and from one point to another. Delivering a transition can prepare the audience
member to listen to your main point because you will pick up their attention
when you deliver one.
Transitions help to connect the Introduction to the Body and
the Body to the Conclusion. It will also
connect one Main Point to another Main Point.
After you have delivered your preview statement to the
audience you could say, ‘Let’s start this presentation,’ or ‘Let’s get into the
first main point.’
After covering the last piece of support material in the
body of the presentation you could say (and probably will) ‘In summary,’ or
‘Let us conclude this presentation,’ in order to move into the conclusion.
Moving from one main point to another you have several
different options when doing a transition.
Here are four options and what I call them: 1) The Accountant
Transition; 2) The Barbershop Transition; 3) The Sales Person Transition;
The Account loves to count by numbers so here is an
example:
First, let’s talk about Picasso’s paintings. The second thing will cover is his sculpting
work. The third thing that makes him a versatile artist is his
printmaking. These are not main
points. This is a way to introduce the
main point to catch the attention of the listener. Now, make sure you deliver your main point
after you deliver your transition.
Students and professionals in the work place make the mistake of
delivering transitions instead of main points and then the main point and its
material will lose its effectiveness because you are talking in bullet form or
fragments. Talking in bullets or
fragment will make you sound like Charley Sheen on crack and you don’t want to
sound like Charley Sheen on crack.
With the Barbershop Transition you are just like a
Barber that knows his customers. Bob you
are next, Tim you’re next. So moving
from main point one to main point two you say, ‘Next we will talk about
Picasso’s sculpting work.’ ‘Next, let’s cover his printmaking.’
The Sales Person Transition closes out one main point
and then moves on to the next. Just like
a sales person trying to close the deal.
Now that we know you want the Brilliant Blue for your car color let’s
talk about the special options available to you. So, let’s see it in action for a speech.
Moving from main point 1 to main point 2 you may say, “Now
that we have seen Picasso’s paintings; let’s look at his sculpting work.” Moving from main point 2 and going into main
point 3 you may say, “Picasso’s sculpting work is interesting but, let’s move
on to his printmaking.”
More than likely you will use a combination of these in your
speech. Transitions are helpful but, not
essential. Like I already said, they
will prepare the audience member to listen to your delivery of your main
point. Not, delivering one will not hurt
a speech. Most transitions now a days
happen in the non-verbal delivery of the speech. The power point slide moves; there should be
the pause in your voice moving from one main point to the next; physical
movement by the speaker to the screen when the next main point slide appears
should happen. The biggest mistake is not delivering your main point. I know some that some textbooks say that
transitions are vital. That if you don’t
have a transition your speech will be choppy.
And, so the student becomes excellent at delivering a transition but,
never learns to deliver a main point in a full verbal sentence. Learn to deliver your main points in a full
verbal sentence is the most important thing.
Then you can learn how to add a transition.
Internal Preview
The next type of connector is the Internal Preview. The internal preview is a highlighter. It highlights your support material to be
covered under your main point. So, you
deliver a full verbal sentence for your main point and then you preview your
support material.
For example:
Main Point: Maintaining the fluids in your car will help you
to get maximum mileage.
Internal Preview: We will be covering the different types of
oil, your anti-freeze and brake fluid.
This is for bigger presentations (in time).
Internal Summary
The internal summary is a highlighter as well. It highlights your support material that has
been covered.
For example:
Internal Summary: We just covered the different types of
oil, your anti-freeze and your brake fluid that you need to maintain your car.
Once again this is for your bigger presentations. As a personal rule I might add either an
internal preview or summary to a less than one hour presentation. I prefer to use an internal summary in the
middle of the presentation. By doing so
you will pick up the audience’s attention because you’ll say, ‘in summary’ and
they will think you are ready to conclude the presentation. Sneaky but effective.
If the presentation is three hours or longer you can do both
to a main point. Let’s say one main
point and its support material take one hour to cover … then, doing an internal
preview and summary can help your audience to remember the information. You never deliver an internal summary for
your last main points. Why? Because you are going to do the overall
summary for the presentation and doing both sounds very awkward.
Signposts
Signposts help us to highlight each main point by ‘hanging’
out a signpost. Signpost use the same
word pattern to start each main point.
Signposts only help to dress up an informative speech. If you did not use one it probably will not
make a difference in the presentation.
But, in a persuasive speech you may need to use a signpost. If immediacy or a specific date is important
then you will want to use one.
Example:
Main point one may start with - “Sign the petition …
Main point two then starts with - “Sign the petition to help
us …
Main point three – “By signing the petition you …
Once again make sure you deliver the main point. The full sentence to the main point follows
the signpost. The audience’s brains are
perceptive enough to pick up the word pattern to the second and third main
points, once you used it on the first main point, and their brain knows to
listen to the material that follows.
In the example above with the petition. They hear you say, ‘sign the petition’
throughout the body and you make your Call to Action in your conclusion, ‘sign
the petition’ there is no doubt what you want them to do. I
watched a presentation in the work place where the person wanted us to sign a
petition but, they never asked us to sign the petition and the majority of the
people left without signing the petition.
Let’s say your message is: ‘Donate blood on June 15th.’ This is the one and only thing you want them
to do and remember. Make June 15th
your signpost to start each main point.
For Example:
Main Point 1: On June 15th you can help us …
Main Point 2: On June 15th you will …
And so on
You state your message in the preview statement, then you
have June 15th as your signpost for your three main points, and you
deliver your call to action with your message ‘Donate blood on June 15th.’ I will guarantee they will remember when the
blood drive is going to be held.
So, we just covered four types of connectives:
Transitions
Internal Previews
Internal Summaries
Signposts
So think about using connectives in your speech to help
dress them up and make your speech a little more effective.
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