Deck 9: Organizing the Speech: The Body

Question 1

A well-organized speech leads to which of the following results?

A) Listeners may forget unconnected ideas.
B) Listeners will stop attending to the speech.
C) Listeners will be distracted while trying to reconstruct your logic.
D) Listeners will understand, remember, and be influenced by your message.

Answer 1

Listeners will understand, remember, and be influenced by your message.

Question 2

Why is organizational form persuasive?

A) Audiences respond well to ideas they have helped to shape.
B) Audiences are unaware of the pattern.
C) Audiences are immune to counterarguments.
D) Audiences like to be persuaded.

Answer 2

Audiences respond well to ideas they have helped to shape.

Question 3

The two basic components of organization are __________.

A) organizing and outlining
B) main points and subpoints
C) ideas and evidence
D) selection and arrangement

Answer 3

selection and arrangement

Question 4

Billy wanted to promote the thesis, "We must preserve our wilderness areas to protect our culture and heritage." Which of the following main points is least relevant to this thesis?

A) Our wilderness areas are endangered.
B) Wilderness areas reflect our culture.
C) Wilderness areas offer recreational opportunities.
D) We can preserve our wilderness.

Question 5

"Chocolate is high in fat, but healthy, and can be considered healthy." This statement would not make a good main idea because it lacks __________.

A) discreteness
B) simplicity
C) coherence
D) balance

Question 6

Each main idea in an outline should address a separate idea so that the information under the main headings does not overlap. This characteristic is known as __________.

A) balance
B) discreteness
C) coherence
D) simplicity

Question 7

What is wrong with the following main points from Ryan's speech about the Civil War?
I. The southern economy was threatened.
II. Southerners wanted to preserve state sovereignty.
III. Southerners resented the superior attitude of Northerners.
IV. Northerners were influenced by abolitionists.

A) The points are not simple.
B) The points are not balanced.
C) The points are not coherent.
D) The points are not discrete.

Question 8

The main ideas in an outline should be clearly related to each other; they should "hang together." This characteristic is called __________.

A) simplicity
B) balance
C) discreteness
D) coherence

Question 9

Duke's speech about smoking covered these main ideas:
I. Smoking is a health hazard.
II. Smoking can cause cancer.
III. Smoking can cause death.
As cancer is a health hazard, these main points are not __________.

A) discrete
B) balanced
C) simple
D) complete

Question 10

Good research turns up a lot of information. If you have too many ideas, you can select the ideas for your speech by choosing only those that are __________.

A) residues
B) dependent
C) primary
D) essential

Question 11

Consider the following main points:
I. Capital punishment is unconstitutional.
II. Capital punishment is an ineffective deterrent.
III. Capital punishment is discriminatory.
IV. Capital punishment is a just punishment.
Three are arguments against capital punishment, and one is an argument in favor of capital punishment. What problem does this reflect?

A) The points are not discrete.
B) The points are not balanced.
C) The points are not simple.
D) The points are not parallel.

Question 12

According to the primacy effect, if a speaker explains the five speech activities-invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory-in that order, which one is the audience most likely to remember?

A) invention
B) arrangement
C) style
D) delivery

Question 13

Consider the following main ideas:
I. Poor preparation in high school leads to difficulty in students' adjusting to college work.
II. Difficulty in adjusting to college work leads to a lower college GPA.
III. Lower GPAs limit job opportunities.
These main ideas are __________.

A) independent
B) incoherent
C) dependent
D) incomplete

Question 14

When main ideas can stand alone because the truth of each does not depend on the others, they are __________.

A) incoherent
B) independent
C) parallel
D) dependent

Question 15

Consider the following main points:
I. Campus speech codes are unacceptably vague.
II. Campus speech codes discourage the discussion of controversial issues.
III. Campus speech codes bring bad publicity to the college.
Which of the following qualities is represented in these points?

A) logically dependent
B) relatively unfamiliar
C) logically independent
D) chronological

Question 16

Which question is the speaker addressing when deciding whether to rely on the primacy effect or the recency effect?

A) Should my most entertaining example be in my introduction or my conclusion?
B) Should my strongest ideas come first or last in my speech?
C) How independent are my main ideas?
D) Should the audience participate at the beginning of the speech or at the end?

Question 17

Which effect puts the speaker's strongest ideas first?

A) primacy
B) recency
C) dependent
D) independent

Question 18

According to the primacy-recency principles, you should place your weakest main idea __________.

A) as the middle point
B) as the first main point
C) as the last main point
D) in the introduction

Question 19

Which organizational pattern should Chris use if she wants to explain the development of the Social Security system from its inception until today?

A) categorical
B) constitutional
C) chronological
D) cause-effect

Question 20

Al wants to give an informative speech about global warming. He wants to describe how global warming occurs and what its consequences are. What organizational pattern is best suited for this speech?

A) problem-solution
B) cause-effect
C) spatial
D) chronological

Question 21

Herbert wants to inform his audience about the three main Middle Eastern religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. What organizational pattern is best suited to this topic?

A) categorical
B) chronological
C) spatial
D) problem-solution

Question 22

What organizational pattern is reflected in the following main points?
I. Society has become increasingly dependent on privately owned automobiles for transportation.
II. More automobiles mean increased consumption of fossil fuels.
III. Our depleted oil reserves will be exhausted within seventy-five years.

A) residues
B) cause-effect
C) spatial
D) problem-solution

Question 23

When you arrange your speech according to the process of elimination, your organizational pattern is __________.

A) spatial
B) chronological
C) residues
D) categorical.

Question 24

What is the most important factor in determining how much supporting material you should include in support of your claims?

A) your purpose
B) your thesis
C) your audience analysis
D) the rhetorical situation

Question 25

What kind of supporting material should you include in your speech?

A) statistics
B) a variety of sources
C) narratives
D) testimony and primary documents

Question 26

A poorly organized speech forces listeners to use mental energy to reconstruct the speaker's ideas.

Question 27

Organization is important for recall and active listening but not personal satisfaction.

Question 28

Main ideas for a speech can be drawn from the purpose statement, the thesis, or patterns in research.

Question 29

When selecting main ideas, the speaker should try to include any ideas for which he or she has lots of good supporting material.

Question 30

Stating main ideas simply and succinctly is a good way to ensure that they will be discrete.

Question 31

Using similar phrasing and grammar for main points is a way to create parallel structure among your main ideas.

Question 32

With logically dependent ideas, if the audience accepts any one of the main ideas, they are likely to accept the overall thesis.

Question 33

It is recommended that a speaker begin with ideas that are relatively familiar to listeners rather than with ideas that are unfamiliar.

Question 34

When choosing supporting material, it is best to choose support that can be cited easily in the speech.

Question 35

Just as it is important to arrange your main points according to a logical pattern, it is wise to arrange our supporting material according to a recognized pattern of arrangement.

Question 36

__________ is the selection of ideas and materials and their arrangement into a discernible and effective pattern.

Question 37

When each main point in an outline addresses a separate idea without any overlap, the main points are __________.

Question 38

Carlos made sure that his main points had __________ by checking that they were not loaded toward one particular aspect of the topic or one particular point of view.

Question 39

Main points have __________ when the main ideas have a clear relationship and hang together so that listeners can see why these points appear in the same speech.

Question 40

When some ideas are familiar and others are unfamiliar to an audience, the speaker should discuss the __________ ideas first.

Question 41

Placing one's strongest main ideas first in a speech reflects confidence in the __________ effect.

Question 42

Michael's speech about the similarities and differences between NBA rules and international basketball rules is best addressed using a __________ organizational pattern.

Question 43

Hassan's speech proposed that violence in the secondary schools could be reduced by using a peer mentor system in all the state schools. The most appropriate organizational pattern for this speech is __________.

Question 44

The greater the distance between the audience's current views and the position you wish listeners to adopt, the __________ supporting material will be required.

Question 45

The only all-purpose answer to the question, "How much support is enough?" is "__________."

Question 46

What are the positive effects of an organized message over a disorganized message?

Question 47

Explain the criteria for deciding which main points to include in your speech. Identify a sample topic and thesis and give an example of a main point that might be included and an example of a main point that might be excluded for each criteria.

Question 48

What criteria should you use to select among possible supporting material? For example, if you have testimony from four or five experts, how would you select which one to use? Suggest a hypothetical main point from a speech and provide an example of a piece of supporting material that meets all criteria.

Question 49

Identify the seven patterns of arrangement and write a set of main points that reflects each of these patterns.

Question 50

What criteria should a speaker use to select the supporting material to be included in a speech? Why are these criteria important?