In this video, I will finish our discussion on the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea. Remember, this entire unit is to get you, the student, to determine a topic and narrow it down to the primary main points in just a matter of minutes. I would suggest you look over these videos several times and look over the study notes for this.
several times because not only will it help you for the quiz, it will help you tremendously in outlining your speech because the central idea is what this entire unit has been all about. The specific purpose which we just discussed is what the speaker wishes to accomplish. If I were to look at you and say, well, what do you want to accomplish in that speech?
You might say, well, I want to inform my audience of the major factors that determine the value of a baseball card. That's what you want to accomplish. But the central idea is what the speaker wishes to say. And that's why we say that this part of this unit is what the speechwriting process or outlining process is all about. The central idea is also known as the thesis statement.
Think about that for a second. You're English students. You know what a thesis statement is or a thesis sentence in an English paper.
What is it? It's that informative sentence and that opening and informative paragraph that introduces the body of your paper. That's what a central idea is.
Quite often referred to as the thesis statement because you're doing the same thing, but instead of having a paragraph or a sentence in an opening of a paper, you're now doing this orally during the introduction. of your speech. Some people call the central idea the subject sentence.
Some people call the central idea the major thought. We say central idea or thesis statement. So let's talk briefly about what's required in putting together an effective central idea. One, you want to make sure that it is written as a simple sentence. As a matter of fact, it's the the only thing that we've talked about in this entire unit that should be written as a sentence.
Why? Because it is actually going to come out of your mouth during your speech. All right? So you write it down on your outline or you're going to turn it in with your outline. We're not talking about the outline yet, but you're going to turn your topic, your general purpose, specific purpose, central idea in with your outline.
You'll see that in more detail later. And you're also going to deliver it during the introduction of your speech. So must be written as a full sentence. The central idea is a full sentence that is pulled directly from your specific purpose. The difference is your central idea now is more precise.
See, I'm going to tell you something. There is always a word or maybe a couple of words in a well-worded specific purpose statement that will house a speaker. main points. When you look at the study notes, pay close attention to them. I'm going to give it to you now in the lecture, but look at this up close in the study notes.
There's always going to be a word or a couple of words that houses the main points in the specific purpose statement. So let's pretend my specific purpose is this. As you listen to it, listen for the word or words that house my main points. Here it goes.
To inform. my audience of the major factors that determine the value of a baseball card. I'm going to say it again.
Listen for the words that you might find my main points in. To inform my audience of the major factors that determine the value of a baseball card. Where are my main points?
It's factors, all right? That's what I'm going to break my speech down. My topic is baseball cards, all right? I'm going to specifically talk to you in my speech about the factors, we said major factors, but...
factors that determine the value of a baseball card. Those factors are my main points. All right. If you go through the specific purpose writing process, you do everything right. You start off with a general purpose, followed by the words, my audience, and you pass the test of those six questions.
Kind of doing the amount of time allotted. Is it over their head? Or is it too technical or too trivial?
If you do all of that right, you will always have a word or words that has the main points. I'll say it again. To inform my audience of the major factors that determine the value of a baseball card.
If you listen to that central idea, you know what the topic is. It's baseball cards. You know what the main points are going to be. You know, it's the factors that determine the value of a baseball card. You now know as a student how to write that outline.
This process that we... we've talked about in this in the previous three videos in this unit are what allow you to get there in a matter of six seven minutes of your own time rather than three or four nights all right so i am now going to take from that specific purpose the word factors and i'm going to break it down in my central idea which is going to be written as a full sentence for my audience to hear so that they now know what the topic is and they now know what to listen for as the main points in my speech so I'll get up and I'll say it here's my central idea listen to it closely The four factors that determine the value of a baseball card are the fame of a player, the age of the card, the rarity of the card, and the physical condition of the card. I'll say that again. Listen closely. The four factors...
that determine the value of a baseball card are the fame of the player, the age of the card, the rarity of the card, and the physical condition of the card. Is that a full sentence? Yes. Can you hear that in the introduction of my speech? By all means.
Could be the first words. Good morning. The four factors that determine the value of a baseball card are the fame of the player, the age of the card, the rarity of the card, and the physical condition of the card. Today we're going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can you listen to that as an audience member and know exactly what the four main points are?
You sure can. That's a well-worded, specific purpose. I'm sorry.
It's a well-worded, central idea that came from the specific purpose. Pay close attention to the lecture notes on topic, general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea. Don't just look at that as study notes for your test. Look at that as a guide for getting started on the speech writing process.
Once you do that, you now know what your topic is. You now know what your main points are. You can now put an outline together and you don't have to kill yourself doing it. So the entire concept of what we've talked about so far in this unit in all four videos in this unit is that we need to start with a broad general topic and get more and more specific as we move to the central idea and we do so to equip ourselves as students to know how to get started outlining the formal presentation in a speech class thank you