speech outline advantage

How to Write an Effective Speech Outline: A Step-by-Step Guide

• The Speaker Lab
• March 8, 2024

Table of Contents

Mastering the art of speaking starts with crafting a stellar speech outline. A well-structured outline not only clarifies your message but also keeps your audience locked in.

In this article, you’ll learn how to mold outlines for various speech types, weaving in research that resonates and transitions that keep listeners on track. We’ll also show you ways to spotlight crucial points and manage the clock so every second counts. When it’s time for final prep, we’ve got smart tips for fine-tuning your work before stepping into the spotlight.

Understanding the Structure of a Speech Outline

An effective speech outline is like a map for your journey as a speaker, guiding you from start to finish. Think of it as the blueprint that gives shape to your message and ensures you hit all the right notes along the way.

Tailoring Your Outline for Different Speech Types

Different speeches have different goals: some aim to persuade, others inform or celebrate. Each type demands its own structure in an outline. For instance, a persuasive speech might highlight compelling evidence while an informative one focuses on clear explanations. Crafting your outline with precision means adapting it to fit these distinct objectives.

Incorporating Research and Supporting Data

Your credibility hinges on solid research and data that back up your claims. When writing your outline, mark the places where you’ll incorporate certain pieces of research or data. Every stat you choose should serve a purpose in supporting your narrative arc. And remember to balance others’ research with your own unique insights. After all, you want your work to stand out, not sound like someone else’s.

The Role of Transitions in Speech Flow

Slick transitions are what turn choppy ideas into smooth storytelling—think about how bridges connect disparate land masses seamlessly. They’re not just filler; they carry listeners from one thought to another while maintaining momentum.

Incorporate transitions that feel natural yet keep people hooked. To keep things smooth, outline these transitions ahead of time so nothing feels left up to chance during delivery.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Outline

To make certain points pop off the page—and stage—you’ll need strategies beyond bolding text or speaking louder. Use repetition wisely or pause strategically after delivering something significant. Rather than go impromptu, plan out what points you want to emphasize before you hit the stage.

Timing Your Speech Through Your Outline

A watchful eye on timing ensures you don’t overstay—or undercut—your moment under the spotlight. The rhythm set by pacing can be pre-determined through practice runs timed against sections marked clearly in outlines. Practice will help ensure that your grand finale isn’t cut short by surprise.

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Depending on the type of speech you’re giving, your speech outline will vary. The key ingredients—introduction, body, and conclusion—are always there, but nuances like tone or message will change with each speaking occasion.

Persuasive Speeches: Convincing With Clarity

When outlining a persuasive speech, arrange your arguments from strong to strongest. The primacy effect works wonders here, so make sure to start off with a strong point. And just when they think they’ve heard it all, hit them with an emotional story that clinches the deal.

You might start by sharing startling statistics about plastic pollution before pivoting to how individuals can make a difference. Back this up with data on successful recycling programs which demonstrate tangible impact, a technique that turns facts into fuel for action.

Informative Speeches: Educating Without Overwhelming

An informative speech shouldn’t feel like drinking from a fire hose of facts and figures. Instead, lay out clear subtopics in your outline and tie them together with succinct explanations—not unlike stepping stones across a stream of knowledge.

If you’re talking about breakthroughs in renewable energy technology, use bullet points to highlight different innovations then expand upon their potential implications one at a time so the audience can follow along without getting lost in technical jargon or complexity.

Ceremonial Speeches: Creating Moments That Matter

In a ceremonial speech you want to capture emotion. Accordingly, your outline should feature personal anecdotes and quotes that resonate on an emotional level. However, make sure to maintain brevity because sometimes less really is more when celebrating milestones or honoring achievements.

Instead of just going through a hero’s whole life story, share the powerful tales of how they stepped up in tough times. This approach hits home for listeners, letting them feel the impact these heroes have had on their communities and sparking an emotional bond.

Incorporating Research in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting a speech, the backbone of your credibility lies in solid research and data. But remember, it’s not just about piling on the facts. It’s how you weave them into your narrative that makes listeners sit up and take notice.

Selecting Credible Sources

Finding trustworthy sources is like going on a treasure hunt where not all that glitters is gold. To strike real gold, aim for academic journals or publications known for their rigorous standards. Google Scholar or industry-specific databases are great places to start your search. Be picky. Your audience can tell when you’ve done your homework versus when you’ve settled for less-than-stellar intel.

You want to arm yourself with evidence so compelling that even skeptics start nodding along. A well-chosen statistic from a reputable study does more than decorate your point—it gives it an ironclad suit of armor.

Organizing Information Effectively

Your outline isn’t just a roadmap; think of it as scaffolding that holds up your argument piece by piece. Start strong with an eye-opening factoid to hook your audience right off the bat because first impressions matter—even in speeches.

To keep things digestible, group related ideas together under clear subheadings within your outline. Stick to presenting data that backs up each key idea without wandering down tangential paths. That way, everyone stays on track.

Making Data Relatable

Sure, numbers don’t lie but they can be hard to connect to. If you plan on using stats in your speech, make them meaningful by connecting them to relatable scenarios or outcomes people care about deeply. For instance, if you’re talking health statistics, relate them back to someone’s loved ones or local hospitals. By making the personal connection for your audience, you’ll get their attention.

The trick is using these nuggets strategically throughout your talk, not dumping them all at once but rather placing each one carefully where its impact will be greatest.

Imagine your speech as a road trip. Without smooth roads and clear signs, the journey gets bumpy, and passengers might miss the scenery along the way. That’s where transitions come in. They’re like your speech’s traffic signals guiding listeners from one point to another.

Crafting Seamless Bridges Between Ideas

Transitions are more than just linguistic filler. They’re strategic connectors that carry an audience smoothly through your narrative. Start by using phrases like “on top of this” or “let’s consider,” which help you pivot naturally between points without losing momentum.

To weave these seamlessly into your outline, map out each major turn beforehand to ensure no idea is left stranded on a tangent.

Making Use of Transitional Phrases Wisely

Be cautious: overusing transitional phrases can clutter up your speech faster than rush hour traffic. Striking a balance is key—think about how often you’d want to see signposts on a highway. Enough to keep you confident but not so many that it feels overwhelming.

Pick pivotal moments for transitions when shifting gears from one major topic to another or introducing contrasting information. A little direction at critical junctures keeps everyone onboard and attentive.

Leveraging Pauses as Transition Tools

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words, and pauses are powerful tools for transitioning thoughts. A well-timed pause lets ideas resonate and gives audiences time to digest complex information before moving forward again.

This approach also allows speakers some breathing room themselves—the chance to regroup mentally before diving into their next point with renewed vigor.

Connecting Emotional Threads Throughout Your Speech

Last but not least, don’t forget emotional continuity, that intangible thread pulling heartstrings from start-to-finish. Even if topics shift drastically, maintaining an underlying emotional connection ensures everything flows together cohesively within the larger tapestry of your message.

Techniques for Emphasizing Key Points in Your Speech Outline

When you’re crafting your speech outline, shine a spotlight on what matters most so that your audience doesn’t miss your key points.

Bold and Italicize for Impact

You wouldn’t whisper your punchline in a crowded room. Similarly, why let your main ideas get lost in a sea of text? Use bold or italics to give those lines extra weight. This visual cue signals importance, so when you glance at your notes during delivery, you’ll know to emphasize those main ideas.

Analogies That Stick

A good analogy is like super glue—it makes anything stick. Weave them into your outline and watch as complex concepts become crystal clear. But remember: choose analogies that resonate with your target audience’s experiences or interests. The closer home it hits, the longer it lingers.

The Power of Repetition

If something’s important say it again. And maybe even once more after that—with flair. Repetition can feel redundant on paper, but audiences often need to hear critical messages several times before they take root.

Keep these strategies in mind when you’re ready to dive into your outline. You’ll transform those core ideas into memorable insights before you know it.

Picture this: you’re delivering a speech, and just as you’re about to reach the end, your time’s up. Ouch! Let’s make sure that never happens. Crafting an outline is not only about what to say but also how long to say it.

Finding Balance in Section Lengths

An outline isn’t just bullet points; it’s a roadmap for pacing. When outlining your speech, make sure to decide how much time you’d like to give each of your main points. You might even consider setting specific timers during rehearsals to get a real feel for each part’s duration. Generally speaking, you should allot a fairly equal amount of time for each to keep things balanced.

The Magic of Mini Milestones

To stay on track, a savvy speaker will mark time stamps or “mini milestones” on their outline. These time stamps give the speaker an idea of where should be in their speech by the time, say, 15 minutes has passed. If by checkpoint three you should be 15 minutes deep and instead you’re hitting 20 minutes, it’s time to pick up the pace or trim some fat from earlier sections. This approach helps you stay on track without having to glance at the clock after every sentence.

Utilizing Visual Aids and Multimedia in Your Outline

Pictures speak louder than words, especially when you’re on stage. Think about it: How many times have you sat through a presentation that felt like an eternity of endless bullet points? Now imagine if instead, there was a vibrant image or a short video clip to break up the monotony—it’s game-changing. That’s why integrating visual aids and multimedia into your speech outline isn’t just smart. It’s crucial for keeping your audience locked in.

Choosing Effective Visuals

Selecting the right visuals is not about flooding your slides with random images but finding those that truly amplify your message. Say you’re talking about climate change. In this case, a graph showing rising global temperatures can hit hard and illustrate your chosen statistic clearly. Remember, simplicity reigns supreme; one powerful image will always trump a cluttered collage.

Multimedia Magic

Videos are another ace up your sleeve. They can deliver testimonials more powerfully than quotes or transport viewers to places mere descriptions cannot reach. But be warned—timing is everything. Keep clips short and sweet because no one came to watch a movie—they came to hear you . You might highlight innovations using short video snippets, ensuring these moments serve as compelling punctuations rather than pauses in your narrative.

The Power of Sound

We often forget audio when we think multimedia, yet sound can evoke emotions and set tones subtly yet effectively. Think striking chords for dramatic effect or nature sounds for storytelling depth during environmental talks.

Audiences crave experiences they’ll remember long after they leave their seats. With well-chosen visuals and gripping multimedia elements woven thoughtfully into every section of your speech outline, you’ll give them exactly that.

Rehearsing with Your Speech Outline

When you’re gearing up to take the stage, your speech outline is a great tool to practice with. With a little preparation, you’ll give a performance that feels both natural and engaging.

Familiarizing Yourself with Content

To start off strong, get cozy with your outline’s content. Read through your outline aloud multiple times until the flow of words feels smooth. This will help make sure that when showtime comes around, you can deliver those lines without tripping over tough transitions or complex concepts.

Beyond mere memorization, understanding the heart behind each point allows you to speak from a place of confidence. You know this stuff—you wrote it. Now let’s bring that knowledge front and center in an authentic way.

Mimicking Presentation Conditions

Rehearsing under conditions similar to those expected during the actual presentation pays off big time. Are you going to stand or roam about? Will there be a podium? Think about these details and simulate them during rehearsal because comfort breeds confidence—and we’re all about boosting confidence.

If technology plays its part in your talk, don’t leave them out of rehearsals either. The last thing anyone needs is tech trouble during their talk.

Perfecting Pace Through Practice

Pacing matters big time when speaking. Use timed rehearsals to nail down timing. Adjust speed as needed but remember: clarity trumps velocity every single time.

You want people hanging onto every word, which is hard to do if you’re talking so fast they can barely make out what you’re saying. During rehearsals, find balance between pacing and comprehension; they should go hand-in-hand.

Finalizing Your Speech Outline for Presentation

You’ve poured hours into crafting your speech, shaping each word and idea with precision. Now, it’s time to tighten the nuts and bolts. Finalizing your outline isn’t just about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. It’s about making sure your message sticks like a perfectly thrown dart.

Reviewing Your Content for Clarity

Your first task is to strip away any fluff that might cloud your core message. Read through every point in your outline with a critical eye. Think of yourself as an editor on a mission to cut out anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. Ask yourself if you can explain each concept clearly without needing extra words or complex jargon. If not, simplify.

Strengthening Your Argument

The meat of any good presentation lies in its argument, the why behind what you’re saying. Strengthen yours by ensuring every claim has iron-clad backing—a stat here, an expert quote there. Let this be more than just facts tossed at an audience; weave them into stories they’ll remember long after they leave their seats.

Crafting Memorable Takeaways

Audiences may forget details but never how you made them feel—or think. Embed memorable takeaways throughout your outline so when folks step out into fresh air post-talk, they carry bits of wisdom with them.

This could mean distilling complex ideas down to pithy phrases or ending sections with punchy lines that resonate. It’s these golden nuggets people will mine for later reflection.

FAQs on Speech Outlines

How do you write a speech outline.

To craft an outline, jot down your main ideas, arrange them logically, and add supporting points beneath each.

What are the 3 main parts of a speech outline?

An effective speech has three core parts: an engaging introduction, a content-rich body, and a memorable conclusion.

What are the three features of a good speech outline?

A strong outline is clear, concise, and structured in logical sequence to maximize impact on listeners.

What is a working outline for a speech?

A working outline serves as your blueprint while preparing. It’s detailed but flexible enough to adjust as needed.

Crafting a speech outline is like drawing your map before the journey. It starts with structure and flows into customization for different types of talks. Remember, research and evidence are your compass—they guide you to credibility. Transitions act as bridges, connecting one idea to another smoothly. Key points? They’re landmarks so make them shine.

When delivering your speech, keep an eye on the clock and pace yourself so that every word counts.

Multimedia turns a good talk into a great show. Rehearsing polishes that gem of a presentation until it sparkles.

Last up: fine-tuning your speech outline means you step out confident, ready to deliver something memorable because this isn’t just any roadmap—it’s yours.

• Last Updated: March 5, 2024

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Speech Outline: What is it & Why is it Useful?

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking

A speech outline is exactly what it sounds like. There is nothing complex about it, which is probably the reason why most people tend to skip this part of the speech writing process when it comes to public speaking.

A speech outline is an outline that is used while delivering a speech. It includes brief phrases that remind the speaker of the points that he/she is supposed to make.

Besides the general introduction-body-conclusion, what else is really there to this? Well, when you go slightly deeper into it, I look at speech outlines as more of a checkbox to ensure I’ve covered everything in my speech and that it is flowing properly.

Additionally, some individuals may seek assistance from a pro essay writing service to help them create well-structured and engaging speech outlines that captivate their audience.

Here are two basic speech outlines that can get you started and can be applied to a wide array of speeches:

The General Speech Outline

This is something we were taught since we were kids back in essay writing.

Every speech should have an opening, body and conclusion.

Let’s break that down a little further:

The Opening – While it’s important to have a strong opening , your opening should seamlessly tie into your premise which is basically the core and the main reason for your speech.

To learn more about this read our extensively written article on How to NOT Start a Speech (And What You Can Do Instead)

The Body – The body, while being the larger chunk of your speech, shouldn’t be just that – a large chunk. Break the body up! Split your ideas within the core message of your speech and transition smoothly through each idea so your audience can digest what you’re trying to communicate.

The Conclusion – Here is where many new speakers fall short. While you must focus on having a bang ending , tell the audience what you want them to do! Give them a clear indication or a ‘call-to-action’. For example, if you’re giving a motivational speech to pump up your team or employees, after you’re done speaking, end with one, two or even three tangible actions that they can take to reach the goals you have stated. That makes it clear to the audience of what they can do to get to what you have just spoken about.

If you want to make an impact on the audience, you must read our article on 5 Ways to End Your Speech With Maximum Impact!

According to Brian Tracy , this technique is used by numerous professional speakers – and for good reason. It’s simple, yet gives us a good idea of what a wholesome speech should include.

This is what it stands for and what each abbreviation means:

P – Point of view

Start your speech with what your view is – what are you going to be talking about? For example, “Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.”

This is from Jamie Oliver’s TED talk Teach every child about food .

Right from the beginning the speaker has set his point of view and the audience knows what the talk will be about – it’s going to be a hard-hitting talk which talks about the truth of the American diet and how it affects children.

Give a reason for your point of view. Why are you talking about what you are talking about? State your reason for holding this point of view or idea.

For example, building on Jamie Oliver’s talk, he goes on to say “I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life.” He then goes on to talk about why the food landscape of America is down and how it’s affecting the children.

It’s a beautifully structured speech and I must recommend that you watch it!

E – Example

Now it’s time to support your talk with something that actually happened or an analogy that the audience can relate to so they can digest and more easily consume what you are talking about.

Jamie Oliver went on to give examples of countries that are suffering from bad health due to the food they eat along with real-life examples of children who are going to live much shorter lives due to the food they eat. He said, “I want to show you a picture of my friend, Britney. She’s 16 years old. She’s got 6 years to live because of the food that she’s eaten.”

This is all about the circle effect which I will talk about in more detail later. But stating the same point of view that you did in the beginning is a powerful way to emphasize your point or idea further.

Oliver ended his talk with a wish which stated, “I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

See how he re-stated what he first spoke about – the talk is still about food, diet and children and how this statement is used to further emphasize his idea.

Speech Outline Template

Here is a basic speech template for you to get started. I was initially against putting one up as I believe each speech is unique and requires its own outline. But I was told that a basic structure is something that will help anyone write even the most basic (or advanced) speeches. So here goes:

An Intriguing Title

Have a speech title which intrigues your audience from the get-go. Something that is uncommon but yet ties back in with your main message. Some great speech titles from TED are:

• Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model. ( Cameron Russell )
• Strange answers to the psychopath test ( Jon Ronson )
• 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm ( Mary Roach )

Each of these speeches have killer titles.

Someone who hears the title is naturally drawn to the speech and wants to know more!

Introducing the topic

a) Gripping opening statement

b) The problem at hand (preview)

The introduction of a speech contains the opening statements of a speech. This is important. A strong opening sets the tone for the remainder of your speech. So make sure to spend enough time on this.

The introduction is kind of like a preview for your speech where you introduce what the problem at hand is and typically should take about 15-20% of your delivery time.

Learn more about how to have a powerful opening in your speech by reading our article on 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Transition from the introduction to the body of your speech .

Having trouble establishing the flow of your speech? Learn ways to make your transition smooth by reading our article on Effective Speech Transitions: How to Make Your Speech Flow

Essence of the speech: Body

Now it’s time to jump into the center of your speech – what is your main message? Use 70% of your speech (the body) to convey these points.

a) Main story (or stories)

b) Supporting statements to your story

c) Statistics from credible sources to add more weight to your points

d) Cue in of visual aids

This is a small checklist for your speeches body in no particular order. You don’t necessarily need to aid visual aids or stats unless they are aiding your speech in any manner.

You may have citations to lend credibility or quotes to draw in your audience as well.

You might have different methods or outlines to structure your speech body such as the following:

• 3 anecdotes
• Problem-Solution
• Bed time story
• Demonstration

You can read more about it here:

The Ultimate Guide to Structuring a Speech

Transition from the body to the conclusion of your speech .

End with a conclusion

a) Summing up your main message

b) A call-to-action (CTA) for your audience

Typically this aspect of the speech will comprise 10% of your delivery time.

The ending is what is most likely to be remembered by your audience, so ensure that it is bang-on!

A speech outline does not take much time to create but it is highly effective to ensure you don’t miss out on any parts of your speech which make a speech complete.

How to write a speech outline for kids?

Writing a speech outline for kids can be a little difficult as holding their attention can be a task. However, there are a few pointers to keep in mind while making a speech outline for kids.

1. Background research

This is important as once you know the age group of the kids, their interests, their level of vocabulary it is easier to hold their attention. Moreover, how much the kids know with respect to the topic can also give you a heads up for your speech. 

2. Keep it simple

It should be kept in mind to use simple and clear language in order to make sure that the kids understand the matter. Avoid using difficult vocabulary. Moreover, the use of formal language should also be limited as kids tend to get bored easily. Rather, conversational language should be used.

3. Use humour and personal stories

Kids like laughing and it is one of the best ways to grab their attention. Incorporating humor in the form of jokes can prove helpful. Personal stories or anecdotes can also help you get your point across.

4. Use props

Using props to make your speech more interesting and engaging can help you retain the attention from the kids. If possible, pass on the props to the kids so that they can see and understand the content of the speech better. 

Introduction speech outline

1. start with a greeting.

The first thing the audience would want to know is about the person delivering the information that they are hearing. If someone has already given an introduction of you, then you’d want to thank that person. 

If the introduction is not detailed, try giving one once you get up on the stage. However, keep in mind to not give a very lengthy introduction about oneself.

2. An attention-getter

After introducing yourself, the next thing to be done is to get their attention. This can be done by telling a joke or a personal story. Make sure to think about topics that would interest the audience. 

This initial attention getter is crucial so that the audience doesn’t lose interest and is focused on your speech.

3. Speech content

You have to give the audience a valid reason to listen to you. This mainly includes talking briefly about what all you are going to cover in your speech and also the importance of your topic.

It is advisable to keep this straightforward and to the point.

4. Scope of the speech

In this, the main content of the speech is to be delivered. This gives the audience a general idea as to what matter is going to be like and your way of delivering the speech. 

This might be confused with the previous point but it’s different in the sense that this mainly includes the main content of the speech whereas the previous one acts as an introduction of the speech. 

Speech outline examples

Here is an example of the speech of Hillary Clinton on Women’s Rights.

Watch the Youtube video to hear the entire speech.

The outline of this speech would be as follows:

Introduction with greetings I would like to thank the Secretary-General of the United Nations for inviting me to be part of the Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration – It is also a coming together (Speech contents) Our goals for this Conference, to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments – here and around the world – accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.  Body The international community has long acknowledged that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.  No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture. Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated.  Even in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. When women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.  I believe that it is time to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.  These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words. The voices of this conference must be heard loud and clear: It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.  (Effective use of rhetorical devices) It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution.  It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to  death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.  It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.  It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes.  It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.  If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women’s rights – and women’s rights are human rights.  Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely – and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. Conclusion Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too.  As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world – as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes – the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.  Let this Conference be our – and the world’s – call to action. And let us heed the call so that we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future. God’s blessings on you, your work and all who will benefit from it. Thank you very much.

Motivational speech outline

The speech outline for any motivational speech also has a similar format as the one shown above.

Here’s a video of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

Here is just a part of the speech given by Steve Jobs used to prepare the outline, which would be something similar to what is written below.

Introduction and starting with greetings I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. (Humor) I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.  (Speech content) Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. Body (Anecdote) I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus, every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. (Take away from the speech) Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.  Conclusion You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. Trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. Trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Final words…

A speech outline is necessary as it will act as a guide while delivering a speech and also as a speaker make you more organised in terms of your thoughts and ideas. It will ensure that you touch upon all the main points of your speech and also stick to the essence of the speech rather than blabbering. 

Although speech outlines are usually omitted, having one will help you organise the message you want the audience to receive. 

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Chapter Eleven – Outlining the Speech

Why outline.

Screenshot from youtube video.

Most speakers and audience members would agree that an organized speech is both easier to present as well as more effective. Public speaking teachers especially believe in the power of organizing your speech, which is why they encourage (and often require) that you create an outline for your speech. Outlines , or textual arrangements of all the various elements of a speech, are a very common way of organizing a speech before it is delivered. Most extemporaneous speakers keep a brief outline with them during the speech as a way to ensure that they do not leave out any important elements and to keep them on track. Writing an outline is also important to the speechwriting process since doing so forces speakers to think about the main points and sub-points, the examples they wish to include, and the ways in which these elements correspond to one another. In short, the outline functions both as an organization tool and as a reference for delivering a speech.

A full-sentence outline lays a strong foundation for your message. It will call on you to have one clear and specific purpose for your message. As we have seen in other chapters of this book, writing your specific purpose in clear language serves you well:

It helps you frame a clear, concrete thesis statement. It helps you exclude irrelevant information. It helps you focus only on information that directly bears on your thesis. It reduces the amount of research you must do. It helps both you and your audience remember the central message of your speech. It suggests what kind of supporting evidence is needed, so less effort is expended in trying to figure out what to do next.

Finally, a solid full-sentence outline helps your audience understand your message because they will be able to follow your reasoning. Remember that live audiences for oral communications lack the ability to “rewind” your message to figure out what you said, so it is critically important to help the audience follow your reasoning as it reaches their ears.

Your authors have noted among their past and present students a reluctance to write full-sentence outlines. It’s a task too often perceived as busywork, unnecessary, time consuming, and restricted. On one hand, we understand that reluctance. But on the other hand, we find that students who carefully write a full-sentence outline show a stronger tendency to give powerful presentations of excellent messages.

Outlines Test the Scope of Content

When you begin with a clear, concrete thesis statement, it acts as kind of compass for your outline. Each of the main points should directly explicate. The test of the scope will be a comparison of each main point to the thesis statement. If you find a poor match, you will know you’ve wandered outside the scope of the thesis.

Let’s say the general purpose of your speech is to inform, and your broad topic area is wind-generated energy. Now you must narrow this to a specific purpose. You have many choices, but let’s say your specific purpose is to inform a group of property owners about the economics of wind farms where electrical energy is generated.

Your first main point could be that modern windmills require a very small land base, making the cost of real estate low. This is directly related to economics. All you need is information to support your claim that only a small land base is needed.

In your second main point, you might be tempted to claim that windmills don’t pollute in the ways other sources do. However, you will quickly note that this claim is unrelated to the thesis. You must resist the temptation to add it. Perhaps in another speech, your thesis will address environmental impact, but in this speech, you must stay within the economic scope. Perhaps you will say that once windmills are in place, they require virtually no maintenance. This claim is related to the thesis. Now all you need is supporting information to support this second claim.

Your third point, the point some audience members will want to hear, is the cost for generating electrical energy with windmills compared with other sources. This is clearly within the scope of energy economics. You should have no difficulty finding authoritative sources of information to support that claim.

When you write in outline form, it is much easier to test the scope of your content because you can visually locate specific information very easily and then check it against your thesis statement.

Outlines Test the Logical Relation of Parts

You have many choices for your topic, and therefore, there are many ways your content can be logically organized. In the example above, we simply listed three main points that were important economic considerations about wind farms. Often the main points of a speech can be arranged into a logical pattern; let’s review some of these patterns:

A chronological pattern arranges main ideas in the order events occur. In some instances, reverse order might make sense. For instance, if your topic is archaeology, you might use the reverse order, describing the newest artifacts first.

A cause-and-effect pattern calls on you to describe a specific situation and explain what the effect is. However, most effects have more than one cause. Even dental cavities have multiple causes: genetics, poor nutrition, teeth too tightly spaced, sugar, ineffective brushing, and so on. If you choose a cause-and-effect pattern, make sure you have enough reliable support to do the topic justice.

A biographical pattern is usually chronological. In describing the events of an individual’s life, you will want to choose the three most significant events. Otherwise, the speech will end up as a very lengthy and often pointless timeline or bullet point list. For example, Mark Twain had several clear phases in his life. They include his life as a Mississippi riverboat captain, his success as a world-renowned writer and speaker, and his family life. A simple timeline would present great difficulty in highlighting the relationships between important events. An outline, however, would help you emphasize the key events that contributed to Mark Twain’s extraordinary life.

Although a comparison-contrast pattern appears to dictate just two main points, McCroskey, Wrench, and Richmond explain how a comparison-and-contrast can be structured as a speech with three main points. They say that “you can easily create a third point by giving basic information about what is being compared and what is being contrasted. For example, if you are giving a speech about two different medications, you could start by discussing what the medications’ basic purposes are. Then you could talk about the similarities, and then the differences, between the two medications” [1] .

Whatever logical pattern you use, if you examine your thesis statement and then look at the three main points in your outline, you should easily be able to see the logical way in which they relate.

Outlines Test the Relevance of Supporting Ideas

When you create an outline, you can clearly see that you need supporting evidence for each of your main points. For instance, using the example above, your first main point claims that less land is needed for windmills than for other utilities. Your supporting evidence should be about the amount of acreage required for a windmill and the amount of acreage required for other energy generation sites, such as nuclear power plants or hydroelectric generators. Your sources should come from experts in economics, economic development, or engineering. The evidence might even be expert opinion but not the opinions of ordinary people. The expert opinion will provide stronger support for your point.

Similarly, your second point claims that once a wind turbine is in place, there is virtually no maintenance cost. Your supporting evidence should show how much annual maintenance for a windmill costs, and what the costs are for other energy plants. If you used a comparison with nuclear plants to support your first main point, you should do so again for the sake of consistency. It becomes very clear, then, that the third main point about the amount of electricity and its profitability needs authoritative references to compare it to the profit from energy generated at a nuclear power plant. In this third main point, you should make use of just a few well-selected statistics from authoritative sources to show the effectiveness of wind farms compared to the other energy sources you’ve cited.

Where do you find the kind of information you would need to support these main points? A reference librarian can quickly guide you to authoritative statistics and help you make use of them.

An important step you will notice is that the full-sentence outline includes its authoritative sources within the text. This is a major departure from the way you’ve learned to write a research paper. In a research paper, you can add that information to the end of a sentence, leaving the reader to turn to the last page for a fuller citation. In a speech, however, your listeners can’t do that. From the beginning of the supporting point, you need to fully cite your source so your audience can assess its importance.

Because this is such a profound change from the academic habits that you’re probably used to, you will have to make a concerted effort to overcome the habits of the past and provide the information your listeners need when they need it.

Outlines Test the Balance and Proportion of the Speech

Part of the value of writing a full-sentence outline is the visual space you use for each of your main points. Is each main point of approximately the same importance? Does each main point have the same number of supporting points? If you find that one of your main points has eight supporting points while the others only have three each, you have two choices: either choose the best three from the eight supporting points or strengthen the authoritative support for your other two main points.

Remember that you should use the best supporting evidence you can find even if it means investing more time in your search for knowledge.

As you write the preparation outline, you may find it necessary to rearrange your points or to add or subtract supporting material. You may also realize that some of your main points are sufficiently supported while others are lacking. The final draft of your preparation outline should include full sentences, making up a complete script of your entire speech. In most cases, however, the preparation outline is reserved for planning purposes only and is translated into a speaking outline before you deliver the speech.

Outlines Serve as Notes during the Speech

Although we recommend writing a full-sentence outline during the speech preparation phase, you should also create a shortened outline that you can use as notes, a speaking outline, which allows for strong delivery. If you were to use the full-sentence outline when delivering your speech, you would do a great deal of reading, which would limit your ability to give eye contact and use gestures, hurting your connection with your audience.

Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline (manuscript delivery), in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. For this reason, we recommend writing a short phrase speaking outline on 5×7 notecards to use when you deliver your speech.

In the next section, we will explore more fully how to create preparation and speaking outlines.

Outline Structure

Because an outline is used to arrange all of the elements of your speech, it makes sense that the outline itself has an organizational hierarchy and a common format. Although there are a variety of outline styles, generally they follow the same pattern. Main ideas are preceded by Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). Sub-points are preceded by capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), then Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.), and finally lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Each level of subordination is also differentiated from its predecessor by indenting a few spaces. Indenting makes it easy to find your main points, sub-points, and the supporting points and examples below them. Since there are three sections to your speech— introduction, body, and conclusion— your outline needs to include all of them. Each of these sections is titled and the main points start with Roman numeral I.

OUTLINE FORMATTING GUIDE

Title:  Organizing Your Public Speech

Topic:  Organizing public speeches

Specific Purpose Statement: To inform my audience about the various ways in which they can organize their public speeches.

Thesis Statement:  A variety of organizational styles can used to organize public speeches.

Introduction Paragraph that gets the attention of the audience, establishes goodwill with the audience, states the purpose of the speech, and previews the speech and its structure.

(Transition)

I. Main point

A. Sub-point B. Sub-point C. Sub-point

1. Supporting point 2. Supporting point

Conclusion Paragraph that prepares the audience for the end of the speech, presents any final appeals, and summarizes and wraps up the speech.

Bibliography

In addition to these formatting suggestions, there are some additional elements that should be included at the beginning of your outline: the title, topic, specific purpose statement, and thesis statement. These elements are helpful to you, the speechwriter, since they remind you what, specifically, you are trying to accomplish in your speech. They are also helpful to anyone reading and assessing your outline since knowing what you want to accomplish will determine how they perceive the elements included in your outline. Additionally, you should write out the transitional statements that you will use to alert audiences that you are moving from one point to another. These are included in parentheses between main points. At the end of the outlines, you should include bibliographic information for any outside resources you mention during the speech. These should be cited using whatever citations style your professor requires. The textbox entitled “Outline Formatting Guide” above provides an example of the appropriate outline format.

Preparation Outline Examples

This book contains the preparation outline for an informative speech the author gave about making guacamole (see third section). In this example, the title, specific purpose, and thesis precedes the speech. Depending on your instructor’s requirements, you may need to include these details plus additional information (like visual aids). It is also a good idea to keep these details at the top of your document as you write the speech since they will help keep you on track to developing an organized speech that is in line with your specific purpose and helps prove your thesis. At the end of this text, in Part 3, you will find full-length examples of Preparation (Full Sentence) Outlines, written by students just like you!

Using the Speaking Outline

“TAG speaks of others first”  by Texas Military Forces.  CC-BY-ND .

A  speaking outline  is the outline you will prepare for use when delivering the speech. The speaking outline is much more succinct than the preparation outline and includes brief phrases or words that remind the speakers of the points they need to make, plus supporting material and signposts. [2]  The words or phrases used on the speaking outline should briefly encapsulate all of the information needed to prompt the speaker to accurately deliver the speech. Although some cases call for reading a speech verbatim from the full-sentence outline, in most cases speakers will simply refer to their speaking outline for quick reminders and to ensure that they do not omit any important information. Because it uses just words or short phrases, and not full sentences, the speaking outline can easily be transferred to index cards that can be referenced during a speech.

Speaking instructors often have requirements for how you should format the speaking outline. When formatting your speaking outline, here are a few tips:

First, write large enough so that you do not have to bring the cards close to your eyes to read them. Second, make sure you have the cards in the correct order and bound together in some way so that they do not get out of order. Third, just in case your cards do get out of order (this happens too often!), be sure that you number each in the top right corner so you can quickly and easily get things organized. Fourth, try not to fiddle with the cards when you are speaking. It is best to lay them down if you have a podium or table in front of you. If not, practice reading from them in front of a mirror. You should be able to look down quickly, read the text, and then return to your gaze to the audience.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. – Albert Einstein

• McCroskey, J. C., Wrench, J. S., & Richmond, V. P., (2003). Principles of public speaking . Indianapolis, IN: The College Network.
• Beebe, S. A. & Beebe, S. J. (2003).  The public speaking handbook  (5th edition). Boston: Pearson.  ↵

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

Cc licensed content, shared previously.

• Stand up, Speak out  by University of Minnesota is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
• Chapter 8 Outlining Your Speech. Authored by : Joshua Trey Barnett.  Provided by : University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN.  Located at :  http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html .  Project : The Public Speaking Project.  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• TAG speaks of others first.  Authored by : Texas Military Forces.  Located at :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/texasmilitaryforces/5560449970/ .  License :  CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives

Principles of Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Katie Gruber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Speech Outlining, Organization, and Delivery

• Speech Outlining and Organization

Speech Delivery

Speech outlining and organization.

The 5 Most Important Components

• For example: To inform my audience about the parks in Boston’s Emerald necklace. To persuade my audience that Boston is better than New York.
• Central Idea : Can you sum up your speech in one sentence? That’s your central idea/thesis.
• Main Points : Usually 2–4 that reflect the central idea. Sub-points and sub-sub points should support them. Continue to add sub-points as necessary and then transition into the next point.
• Transitions : Plan your transitions in advance and separate from the body. This helps the flow of your speech and keeps the audience engaged as they hear you moving from thought to thought.
• Informative:  topical, chronological, spatial, causal
• Persuasive:  Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, problem solution, problem-case-solution, comparative advantages

5 Types of Informative Speeches

• Process : How to do something
• Object : Tangible thing such as an item or structure, even people or animals
• Concept : The most abstract type, including theories and beliefs
• Events : Includes anything that happens, not restricted to typical holidays or commemorations
• People/Places : Either/or!

Informative Organization

4 Ways to Organize Informative Speeches:

• Changing the type and organizational pattern allows the material to be extended and adapted for different audiences.
• Chronological : In order of time or sequence
• Topical : By sub-topics of the larger topic
• Spatial : Show relationships, proximity, direction
• Causal : Show cause and effect

Types of Speech Persuasion

Three questions to ask:

• Example: To persuade my audience that recess helps students learn in the classroom.
• Example: To persuade my audience that eliminating recess is unfair to students and teachers.
• Example: To persuade my audience that eliminating recess is unfair to students and teachers.  

Persuasion Organization

Questions of Fact and Value are usually organized topically, but there are four patterns of organization to organize a speech on the Question of Policy:

• Problem/Solution : Two main points
• Problem-Cause-Solution : Three main points. Use when the audience needs to know the cause of the problem in order to be persuaded that your solution is the best.
• Comparative Advantages : Compare solutions to the problem and persuade the audience that yours is the best course of action.
• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence : A five-step process where each step builds on the one before it to move the audience to action - attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, action. Often more narrative oriented.

4 Steps to Speech Organization

Do you have a great idea for your speech, but aren’t sure how to execute it? Use this handy guide to organize your thoughts into something that’s presentation-ready.

• Attention-getter
• Credibility
• Topic reveal
• Preview of main points
• Full sentence transition if not included in preview
• Name and explain your main point
• Use supporting evidence to back up your main point
• Use sub-points to strengthen your argument as necessary
• End with a full sentence transition to link to your main point
• Rinse and repeat! You need between two and five points to support your speech, so use the guide above and apply it to your concepts 
• Tips : When it comes to sub-points, use as many as necessary to best support your argument. You may need more or less depending on the subject. Remember the rule of three!
• The conclusion should be 5% of your total presentation
• Summarize the main points of your speech
• End with a memorable closing!

Speech Delivery Basics

See the speech delivery basics as outlined below:

• Pitch : the highs and lows of your voice
• Rate : how fast or slow you speak
• Loudness : volume, projection & emphasis
• Quality : improve upon your natural voice
• Check that you are pronouncing unfamiliar words correctly. If a word is still challenging after you practice it, replace it with a word you are more comfortable with. 
• Speak clearly and enunciate your words.
• Stance : Your posture affects your credibility. Stand or sit straight with shoulders back, your back straight and feet apart on the floor and a hips-width apart. Make sure your tailbone is tucked and your stomach is in. This stance gives you confidence and breath control. Don’t slouch!
• Gestures : Practice your speech out loud to see what your hands do while you talk. If you don’t like to talk with your hands, hold notecards, a presentation clicker, or interact with visuals. Be natural!
• Countenance : Use your facial expressions to communicate and elicit the response you want from your audience. Your expressions must match your tone!
• Eye Contact : Scan the room, stop briefly to make direct eye contact with audience members when needed. Look at your audience, not above them!
• Appearance : Dress appropriately for the audience and occasion. Plan ahead and look sharp!
• Paralanguage : Paralanguage is the way you deliver your words, also known as tone. For more info, see vocal variety above. Remember the four factors of voice!

Using Imagery In Your Speech

Use concrete words people can picture. Show, don’t tell!

• “A Republic whose history, like the path of just, is as the shinning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” — William Jennings Bryan
• “With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.” — Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “And I can pledge our nation to a goal: when we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side” — George W. Bush
• “Once again, the heart of America is heavy. The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the very meaning of our land.” — Lyndon Baines Johnson

Using Rhythm in Your Speech

• “And that government of the people, by the people, for the people , shall not perish from this earth. —Abraham Lincoln
• “ We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.” —Barbara Jordan
• “And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had for it and for us. All of which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been the f irst to f ace the f ire at f reedom’s f ront. —Ronald Reagan
• “As he said many times, in many parts of the nation, to those he touched and those who sought to touch him : ‘ Some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say why not .’”. —Edward M. Kennedy  

4 Types of Speech Transitions

• “Now that we’ve established that a problem exists, let’s discuss solutions.”
• “In order to better understand the problem, let’s explore the two main areas of the problem: emotional and financial.”
• “Now that we understand how the problem is affecting us both financially and emotionally, we can turn to some solutions.”
• “First, let’s discuss the financial situation.”

Use these words to build transitions!

• Contrast and examples : Although, including, except, if, yet, as long as, for example, unless, in the cast of, these include, such as, for instance
• Specificity and emphasis : In particular, especially, firstly, secondly, lastly, otherwise, unlike, within, apart from, despite, because, so
• Elaboration : Therefore, consequently, in other words, on the contrary, alternatively, as long as, comparing, obviously clearly, as well as, moreover, too
• Conclusion : In addition, furthermore, already, afterwards, next time, inside, to finish, as a result, to sum up, in conclusion, now that, finally

How to Beat Speech Anxiety

• It’s okay to make mistakes! Learning to accept errors in your presentation will alleviate stress.
• Being an expert on your subject will increase confidence and calm your nerves.
• Push out negativity and imagine doing a great job on your speech. Visualize your success!
• Performing light exercise before your presentation can relieve stress. 
• Try rhythmic breathing for stress relief. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 and exhale for 8 seconds. 
• Eat several hours before your speech. Don’t skip a meal or eat right before you present. 
• Dress appropriately and comfortably for your speech. Looking your best will improve your confidence.
• Using good posture will help you look and feel more confident. 
• Prepare the non-verbal aspects of your presentation. Practicing the physical elements of your speech will help you feel more confident on presentation day. 
• Try stretching exercises before your speech to loosen tension and help you relax.
• For Current Students
• For Parents
• For Faculty
• For the Media

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Chapter 14: Outlining

This chapter is adapted from  Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking ,  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 .

Why is outlining important for a speech?

Why Outlining Is Important for a Speech

For your presented speech to be as effective as possible, organize your information into logical patterns that your audience can understand. This especially applies if you already know much about your topic. Take careful steps to include pertinent information that your audience might not know and to explain relationships that might not be evident to them. Using a standard outline format helps you to make decisions about your main points, about choosing information to support those points, and about crafting the appropriate language to use. Without an outline, your message is liable to lose logical integrity. It might even deteriorate into a bullet-point list with no apparent cohesiveness,—except for the topic—leaving your audience relieved when your speech is finally over.

In this chapter, we discuss three outline types: a working outline, a full-sentence outline, and a speaking outline. For working outlines and full-sentence outlines, write in complete sentences; for speaking outlines, write in phrases We’ll give detailed outline examples later in the chapter, but for this first section, we’ll discuss general outlining principles.

An Outline Tests Your Specific Purpose’s Clarity

A full-sentence outline lays a strong foundation. It compels you to have one clear and specific purpose and helps to frame a clear, concrete thesis statement. An outline helps you to exclude irrelevant information that does not directly focus on your thesis, and it reduces the research you must do because you will clearly identify the supporting evidence you need. And when presenting, an outline helps you remember your speech’s central message.

Also, a solid full-sentence outline helps your audience understand and remember your message because they will be able to follow your reasoning. Creating an outline is a task too often perceived as busywork, unnecessary, time consuming, and restrictive. However, students who carefully write a full-sentence outline characteristically give powerful presentations with excellent messages.

An Outline Tests Your Content’s Scope

A clear, concrete thesis statement acts as your outline’s compass. Explicate each main point, then, test your content’s scope by comparing each main point to the thesis statement. If you find a poor match, you will know you’ve wandered outside your thesis statement’s scope, as you will see in the example below.

Specific Purpose: To inform property owners about the economics of wind farms generating electrical energy.

• Your first main point: modern windmills require a very small land base, making real estate cost’s low. This is directly related to the economics thesis. Now, supply information to support your claim that only a small land base is needed.
• Your second main point: you might be tempted to claim that windmills don’t pollute in the ways other sources do. However, you will quickly note that this claim is unrelated to the economics thesis, so stay within this scope. A better second main point: once windmills are in place, they require virtually no maintenance. This claim is related to the economics thesis. Now, supply information to support this claim.
• Your third point: windmill-generated electrical energy is more profitable compared to other sources—many audience members will want to know this. This point is clearly related to the economics thesis, and you will easily find information from authoritative sources to support this claim.

When you write in outline form, it is much easier to test your content’s scope because you can visually locate specific information very easily and then check it against your thesis statement.

An Outline Tests Your Main Points’ Logical Patterns

You have many topic choices, therefore, there are many ways to logically organize your content. In the example above, we simply list three main points that are important economics to consider about wind farms. You can also arrange a speech’s main points into a logical pattern. We discuss these patterns in the Organizing the Speech Body section. Whatever logical pattern you use, if you examine your thesis statement and then look at your outline’s three main points, you will see the logical way in which they relate.

An Outline Tests Your Supporting Ideas’ Relevance

When you create an outline, you clearly see that you need supporting evidence for each main point. For instance, your first main point claims that windmills require less land than other utilities. Therefore, provide supporting evidence about the acreage windmills require and the acreage other energy-generating sites require, such as nuclear power plants or hydroelectric generators. Use expert sources in economics, economic development, or engineering to support your claims. You can even include an expert’s opinion, but not an ordinary person’s opinion. The expert opinion provides stronger support for your point.

Similarly, the second point claims that once a windmill is in place, there is virtually no maintenance cost. To support this claim, provide annual windmill-maintenance costs and compare these to the alternative energy-generating sites’ annual maintenance costs. If you compare nuclear power plants to support your first main point, compare nuclear power plants again to be consistent. It becomes very clear, then, that the third main point about windmill-generated energy’s profitability needs authoritative references to compare it to nuclear power-generated energy’s profitability. In this third main point, use just a few well-selected statistics from authoritative sources to support you claims, and compare them to the other energy sources you’ve cited.

An Outline Tests Your Speech’s Balance and Proportion

Writing a full-sentence outline is visually valuable. You immediately see whether each main point’s importance is approximately equal. Does each main point have the same number of supporting points? If you find that your first main point has eight supporting points while the others only have three each, you have two choices: either choose the best three from the eight supporting points or strengthen the authoritative support for your other two main points. Remember, use the best supporting evidence you can find even if it means conducting more research.

An Outline Serves as Your Speaking Notes

In addition to writing a full-sentence outline to prepare your speech, create a shortened outline to use as speaking notes to ensure a strong delivery. If you were to use the full-sentence outline when delivering your speech, you would be reading too much, which limits your ability to give eye contact and use gestures, and it hurts your audience connection. For this reason, write a short-phrase outline on 4 × 6 notecards to use when you deliver your speech.

Within the speech-writing process, there exists commonly agreed upon principles for creating an outline. The following are important factors to consider when creating a logical and coherent outline:

Singularity

For clarity, make sure your thesis statement expresses one single idea. Use this single idea optimally as a guide to build your outline. The same holds true for your three main points: each must express one clear single idea. If many different ideas are required to build a complete message, present them in separate sentences using transitions such as “at the same time,” “alternately,” “in response to that event,” or some other transition that clarifies the relationship between two separate ideas. As a reminder, for your audience’s sake, maintain clarity.

A full-sentence outline readily shows whether you are giving equal time to each three main points. For example, are you providing each three main points with corresponding supporting evidence? Also, are you showing each main point’s direct relationship to the thesis statement?

Consistency

Framing a thesis statement with one clear single idea will help you maintain consistency throughout your speech. Beyond the usual grammatical subject-verb agreement requirements, maintain a consistent approach. For instance, unless your speech has a chronological structure that begins in the past and ends in the future, choose a consistent tense, past or present, to use throughout the speech. Similarly, choose a language and use it consistently, for example, use humanity instead of mankind or humans, and use that term throughout.

To ensure your audience understands your speech, do not assume that what is obvious to you is also obvious to your audience. Pay attention to using adequate language in two ways: how you define terms and how you support your main points. And use concrete language as much as you can. For instance, if you use the word community, you’re using an abstract term that can mean many things. So, define for your audience what you mean by community. And when you use evidence to support your main points, use the right kind and the right weight. For instance, if you make a substantial claim, such as all printed news sources will be obsolete within ten years, you must use expert sources to support that claim.

Parallelism

Parallelism refers to the idea that the three main points follow the same structure or use the same language. Parallelism also allows you to check for inconsistencies and self-contradictory statements. For instance, does anything within your second main point contradict anything in your first main point? Examining your content’s parallelism strengthens your message’s clarity.

What are the three types of outlines?

Outlines are designed to evolve throughout your speech-preparation process, so in this section, we discuss the three types—a working outline, a full-sentence outline, and a speaking outline—and how you progress from each. Also, we discuss how using speaking-outline notecards help you as a speaker.

Working Outline

Use a working outline to develop your speech. This is the outline you use to lay out your speech’s basic structure, so it changes many times before it is complete. A great strategy to begin your working outline is to type out labels for each element. Later, fill in the content. The following are the outline labels that you must have:

Working Outline Labels

General Purpose

Specific Purpose

Introduction/Grabber

Thesis Statement

Main Point I

• supporting point

Main Point II

Main Point III

Also, a working outline allows you to work out your message’s kinks. For instance, let’s say you’ve made the claim that coal mining is a hazardous occupation, but you cannot find authoritative supporting evidence. Now, you must re-examine that main point to assess its validity. You might have to change that main point to be able to support it. If you do so, however, you must make sure that the new main point is a logical part of the thesis statement, the three main points, and the conclusion sequence. Don’t think of your working outline as a rough copy, but as a careful step in developing your message. It will take time to develop, but is well worth it as it lays your speech’s entire foundation. Here is a working outline example:

Name: Anomaly May McGillicuddy

Topic: Smart dust

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform college science students about smart dust’s potential.

Main Ideas:

• Smart dust is an assembly of microcomputers.
• Smart dust can be used by the military—no. No—smart dust could be an enormous asset in covert military operations. (That’s better because it is clearer and precise).
• Smart dust could also have daily life applications.

Introduction: (Grabber) (fill in later)

Thesis Statement: Thus far, researchers hypothesize that smart dust could be used for everything from tracking hospital patients, to early natural-disaster warnings, to defending against bioterrorism.

Preview: Today, I’m going to explain what smart dust is and the various near-future smart dust applications. To help us understand the small of it all, I will first examine what smart dust is and how it works. I will then examine some smart-dust military applications. And I’ll end by discussing some smart dust-nonmilitary applications.

Transition: (fill in later)

Main Point I: Dr. Kris Pister, a robotics lab professor at the University of California, Berkeley, originally conceived the smart-dust idea in 1998 as part of a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

• (supporting point)

Main Point II: Because smart dust was originally conceptualized under a grant from DARPA, smart-dust military uses have been widely theorized and examined.

Main Point III: According to the smart-dust project website, smart dust could quickly become a common part of our daily lives.

Conclusion: (Bring your message full circle and create a psychologically satisfying closure.)

This working outline stage turns out to be a good place to go back and examine whether all the main points are directly related to the thesis statement and to each other. If so, your message has a strong potential for a unified focus. But if one main-point relationship is weak, this is the time to strengthen it. It will be more difficult to strengthen it later, for two reasons: first, the sheer amount of text on your pages will make the visual task more difficult, and second, it becomes increasingly difficult to change things in which you have invested much time and thought.

You can see that this working outline lays a strong foundation for the rest of your message. Its organization is visually apparent. Once you are confident in your basic message’s internal unity, begin filling in the supporting points in descending detail—that is, from the general main points, to the particular supporting points, and then to greater detail. The outline makes it visually apparent where information fits and allows you to assess your supporting points to be sure they’re authoritative and directly relevant to the main points they must support.

Now, let’s discuss transitions. Sometimes, and not surprisingly, transitions seem troublesome to write because we often omit them in informal conversations. Our conversation partners understand what we mean because of our gestures and vocal strategies. And even when we do include transitions, we don’t generally identify them as transitions. But in a speech, we must use effective transitions as a gateway from one main point to the next. The listener needs to know when a speaker is moving from one main point to the next.

In the next outline type—the full-sentence outline, take a look at the transitions and see how they make the listener aware of when you shift focus to the next main point.

Full-Sentence Outline

Write a full-sentence outline in full sentences only. There are several reasons why a full-sentence outline is important. First, this outline type includes a full plan of everything you intend to say to your audience so that you will not have to struggle with wordings or examples. Second, this outline type provides a clear idea of how much time it will take to present your speech. Third, a full-sentence outline showcases your ethical responsibility to your audience by detailing how fundamentally well-prepared you are. This is how a full-sentence outline looks:

Specific Purpose: To inform college science students about smart-dust’s potential.

• Smart dust could be an enormous asset in covert military operations.

Introduction/Grabber: In 2002, famed science-fiction writer Michael Crichton released his book Prey, which was about a swarm of nanomachines that were feeding off living tissue. The nanomachines were solar powered, self-sufficient, and intelligent. Most disturbingly, the nanomachines could work together as a swarm as it took over and killed its prey in its need for new resources. This nanotechnology-sophistication level is surprisingly more science fact than science fiction. In 2000, Kahn, Katz, and Pister, three electrical engineering and computer science professors at the University of California, Berkeley, hypothesized in the Journal of Communications and Networks that wireless networks of tiny microelectromechanical sensors, or MEMS; robots; or devices could detect phenomena including light, temperature, or vibration. By 2004, Fortune Magazine listed “smart dust” as the first in their “Top 10 Tech Trends to Bet On.”

Thesis Statement: Thus far, researchers hypothesized that smart dust could be used for everything from tracking hospital patients, to early natural-disaster warnings, to bioterrorism defense.

Preview: Today, I’m going to explain what smart dust is and the various near-future smart dust applications. To help us understand the small of it all, I’ll first discuss what smart dust is and how it works. I’ll then discuss some smart-dust military applications. And I’ll end by discussing some smart-dust nonmilitary applications.

Transition: To help us understand smart dust, I’ll begin by first examining what smart dust is.

• According to a 2001 article by Bret Warneke, Matt Last, Brian Liebowitz, and Kris Pister titled “Smart Dust: Communicating with a Cubic-Millimeter Computer” published in Computer , Pister’s goal was to build a device that contained a built-in sensor, a communication device, and a small computer that could be integrated into a one-cubic-millimeter package.
• Each individual dust piece, called a mote, would then have the ability to interact with other motes and supercomputers.
• As Steve Lohr wrote in the January 30, 2010, edition of the New York Times in an article titled “Smart Dust? Not Quite, But We’re Getting There,” smart dust could eventually consist of “Tiny digital sensors, strewn around the globe, gathering all sorts of information and communicating with powerful computer networks to monitor, measure, and understand the physical world in new ways.”

Transition: Now that we know what smart dust is, let’s switch gears and talk about some the smart-dust military applications.

• Major Scott Dickson, in a Blue Horizons paper written for the US Air Force Center for Strategy and Technology’s Air War College, sees smart dust as helping the military in battlespace awareness, homeland security, and identifying weapons of mass destruction.
• Furthermore, Major Dickson also believes it may be possible to create smart dust that has the ability to defeat communications-jamming equipment created by foreign governments, which could help the US military not only communicate among itself, but could also increase communications with civilians in military combat zones.
• According to a 2010 article written by Jessica Griggs in New Scientist , one of the first smart-dust benefits could be an early defense warning for space storms and other debris that could be catastrophic.

Transition: Now that we’ve explored some of smart-dust’s military benefits, let’s switch gears and see how smart dust may be able to impact our daily lives.

• Steve Lohr, in his 2010 New York Times article, wrote, “The applications for sensor-based computing, experts say, include buildings that manage their own energy use, bridges that sense motion and metal fatigue to tell engineers they need repairs, cars that track traffic patterns and report potholes, and fruit and vegetable shipments that tell grocers when they ripen and begin to spoil.”
• Theoretically, we could all be injected with smart dust, which detects adverse body changes instantly and relays information to our physicians.
• Smart dust could detect microscopic center-cell formations or alert us when we’ve been infected by a bacterium or virus, which could speed up treatment and prolong all our lives.

Transition: Today, we’ve explored what smart dust is, how the US military could use smart dust, and how smart dust could impact all our lives in the near future.

Conclusion: While smart dust is quickly transferring from science fiction to science fact, experts agree that smart dust’s full potential will probably not occur until 2025. Smart dust is definitely in our near future, but swarms of smart-dust eating people as was depicted in Michael Crichton’s 2002 novel, Prey, isn’t reality. However, as with any technological advance, there are definite ethical considerations and worries related to smart dust. Even Dr. Kris Pister’s smart-dust project website admits that as smart dust becomes more readily available, one of the trade-offs will be privacy. Pister responds to these critiques by saying, “As an engineer, or a scientist, or a hair stylist, everyone needs to evaluate what they do in terms of its positive and negative effect. If I thought that the negatives of working on this project were greater than or even comparable to the positives, I wouldn’t be working on it. As it turns out, I think that the potential benefits of this technology far outweigh the risks to personal privacy.”

References Crichton, M. (2002). Prey. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Dickson, S. (2007, April). Enabling battlespace persistent surveillance: the firm, function, and future of smart dust (Blue Horizons Paper, Center for Strategy and Technology, USAF Air War College). Retrieved from USAF Air War College website: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/bh_dickson.pdf

Griggs, J. (2010, February 6). Smart dust to provide solar early warning defense. New Scientist, 205(2746), 22.

Kahn, J. M., Katz, R. H., & Pister, K. S. J. (2000). Emerging challenges: Mobile networking for “smart dust.” Journal of Communications and Networks , 2, 188–196.

Lohr, S. (2010, January 30). Smart dust? Not quite, but we’re getting there. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Pister, K., Kahn, J., & Boser, B. (n.d.). Smart dust: Autonomous sensing and communication at the cubic millimeter. Retrieved from http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust

Steel, D. (2005, March). Smart dust: UH ISRC technology briefing. Retrieved from http://www.uhisrc.com

Vogelstein, F., Boyle, M., Lewis, P., Kirkpatrick, D., Lashinsky, A.,…Chen, C. (2004, February 23). 10 tech trends to bet on. Fortune, 149(4), 74–88.

Warneke, B., Last, M., Liebowitz, B., & Pister, K. S. J. (2001). Smart dust: Communicating with a cubic millimeter computer. Computer , 31, 44–51.

When you prepare your full-sentence outline carefully, it may take as much as one- and one-half hours to complete the outline’s first part from your name at the top through the introduction. When you’ve completed that part, take a break and do something else. When you return to the outline, complete your draft in another one- and one-half hours. After that, you only need to do a detailed check for completeness, accuracy, relevance, balance, omitted words, and consistency. If you find errors, instead of being frustrated, be glad you can catch these errors before you stand up in front of your audience.

You will notice that the various speech parts, for instance, the transitions and main points, are labeled. There are compelling reasons for these labels. First, as you develop your message, you will sometimes find it necessary to go back and look at your wording in another part of the outline. Your labels help you find particular passages easily. Second, the labels work as a checklist so that you can make sure you’ve included everything you intended. Third, the labels helps you prepare your speaking outline.

You’ll also notice the full references at the outline’s end. They match the citations within the outline. Sometimes, while preparing a speech, a speaker finds it important to go back to an original source to be sure the message will be accurate. If you type in your references as you develop your speech rather than afterward, they will be a convenience to you if they are complete and accurate.

Don’t think of the references as busywork or drudgery. Although they’re more time consuming than text, they are good practice for the more advanced academic work you will do in the immediate future.

Speaking Outline and The Advantages of Using Presentation Notes

Your full-sentence outline prepares you to present a clear and well-organized message, but your speaking outline will include far less detail. Resist the temptation to use your full-sentence outline as your speaking outline. The temptation is real for at least two reasons. First, once you feel that you’ve carefully crafted every word sequence in your speech, you might not want to sacrifice quality when you shift to vocal presentation. Second, if you feel anxious about how well you will do in front of an audience, you may want to use your full-sentence outline as a safety net. In our experience, however, if you have your full-sentence outline with you, you will end up reading rather than speaking to your audience. Remember, do not read, instead, use carefully prepared notecards.

Your speech will probably have five main components: introduction, main point one, main point two, main point three, and the conclusion. Therefore, we recommend using five notecards—one for each component.

How will five notecards suffice in helping you produce a complete, rich delivery? Why can’t you use the full-sentence outline you labored so hard to write? First, your full-sentence outline will make it appear that you don’t know your speech’s content. Second, the temptation to read the speech directly from the full-sentence outline is nearly overwhelming; even if you resist this temptation, you will find yourself struggling to remember the words on the page rather than speaking extemporaneously. Third, paper is noisier and more awkward than cards. Fourth, it’s easier to lose your place using the full outline. Finally, cards just look better. Carefully prepared cards, together with practice, will help you more than you might think.

Use 4 × 6 cards. The smaller 3 × 5 cards are too small to provide space for visually organized notes. Number your cards, and write on one side only. Numbering is helpful if you happen to drop your cards, and writing on one side only means that while you are speaking, the audience is not distracted by your handwritten notes and reminders to yourself. Make sure that each card contains only key words and key phrases, but not full sentences.

Some speeches will include direct or extended quotations from expert sources. These quotations might be highly technical or difficult to memorize, but they must be presented correctly. This is a circumstance in which you include a sixth card in your notecard sequence. This is the one time you may read fully from a card. If your quotation is important, and the exact wording is crucial, your audience will understand that.

How are notecards sufficient? When they are carefully written and then you practice your speech using them, they will reveal that they work. If, during practice, you find that one card doesn’t work well enough, you can rewrite that card. Using carefully prepared, sparingly worded cards help you resist the temptation to rely on overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides to get you through the presentation as well. Although they will never provide your exact full-sentence outline word sequence, they’ll keep you organized during your speech. The trick to selecting your cards’ phrases and quotations is to identify the labels that will trigger a recall sequence. For instance, if the phrase “more science fact” triggers connections between Crichton’s science fiction events in the novel Prey versus real science developments, that card phrase will support you through a fairly extended part of your introduction.

Ultimately, you must discover what works for you and then select those words that best jog your recall. Having identified what works, make a preliminary five-card set written on one side only, and practice with them. Revise and refine them as you would an outline.

The following is a hypothetical card set for the smart-dust speech:

Notecards Transcript

Creating and using a card set similar to the examples will help you condense and deliver an impressive set of specialized information. But, what if you lose your place during a speech? With a card set, it will take less time to find your place than with a full-sentence outline. You will not be rustling paper, and because your cards are written on one side only, you can keep them in order without flipping them back and forth to check both sides. What if you go blank? Take a few seconds to recall what you’ve said and how it leads to your next points. There may be several seconds of silence in the middle of your speech, and it may seem like minutes to you, but you can regain your footing most easily with a small well-prepared card set. Under no circumstances should you ever attempt to put your entire speech on cards in little tiny writing. You will end up reading word sequences to your audience instead of delivering a memorable message!

University of Minnesota. (2011). Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking . University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/ . CC BY-SA 4.0.

Media References

Imageegaml. (2009, April 29). Hand Holding Blank Index Card stock photo [Image]. iStock Photo. https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/hand-holding-blank-index-card-gm115027533-9233893?utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=SRP_image_sponsored&referrer_url=http%3A//pixabay.com/images/search/index%2520card/&utm_term=index%20card

Powell, B. (2021, July). Notecard 1 [Image]. Instructional Media Services, Salt Lake Community College.

Powell, B. (2021, July). Notecard 2 [Image]. Instructional Media Services, Salt Lake Community College.

Powell, B. (2021, July). Notecard 3 [Image]. Instructional Media Services, Salt Lake Community College.

Powell, B. (2021, July). Notecard 4 [Image]. Instructional Media Services, Salt Lake Community College.

Powell, B. (2021, July). Notecard 5 [Image]. Instructional Media Services, Salt Lake Community College.

Strategicgains. (2011, November 3). Using Outlines to Create a Presentation [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DeQRARzwmI

Tom706. (2007, April 4). parallelism [Image]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/quelqu/446195756/

to develop the implications of : analyze logically

Public Speaking Copyright © 2022 by Sarah Billington and Shirene McKay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Persuasive Speech Outline, with Examples

March 17, 2021 - Gini Beqiri

A persuasive speech is a speech that is given with the intention of convincing the audience to believe or do something. This could be virtually anything – voting, organ donation, recycling, and so on.

A successful persuasive speech effectively convinces the audience to your point of view, providing you come across as trustworthy and knowledgeable about the topic you’re discussing.

So, how do you start convincing a group of strangers to share your opinion? And how do you connect with them enough to earn their trust?

Topics for your persuasive speech

We’ve made a list of persuasive speech topics you could use next time you’re asked to give one. The topics are thought-provoking and things which many people have an opinion on.

When using any of our persuasive speech ideas, make sure you have a solid knowledge about the topic you’re speaking about – and make sure you discuss counter arguments too.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• All school children should wear a uniform
• Facebook is making people more socially anxious
• It should be illegal to drive over the age of 80
• Lying isn’t always wrong
• The case for organ donation

Read our full list of  75 persuasive speech topics and ideas .

Preparation: Consider your audience

As with any speech, preparation is crucial. Before you put pen to paper, think about what you want to achieve with your speech. This will help organise your thoughts as you realistically can only cover 2-4 main points before your  audience get bored .

It’s also useful to think about who your audience are at this point. If they are unlikely to know much about your topic then you’ll need to factor in context of your topic when planning the structure and length of your speech. You should also consider their:

• Cultural or religious backgrounds
• Shared concerns, attitudes and problems
• Shared interests, beliefs and hopes
• Baseline attitude – are they hostile, neutral, or open to change?

The factors above will all determine the approach you take to writing your speech. For example, if your topic is about childhood obesity, you could begin with a story about your own children or a shared concern every parent has. This would suit an audience who are more likely to be parents than young professionals who have only just left college.

Remember the 3 main approaches to persuade others

There are three main approaches used to persuade others:

The ethos approach appeals to the audience’s ethics and morals, such as what is the ‘right thing’ to do for humanity, saving the environment, etc.

Pathos persuasion is when you appeal to the audience’s emotions, such as when you  tell a story  that makes them the main character in a difficult situation.

The logos approach to giving a persuasive speech is when you appeal to the audience’s logic – ie. your speech is essentially more driven by facts and logic. The benefit of this technique is that your point of view becomes virtually indisputable because you make the audience feel that only your view is the logical one.

• Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion

Ideas for your persuasive speech outline

1. structure of your persuasive speech.

The opening and closing of speech are the most important. Consider these carefully when thinking about your persuasive speech outline. A  strong opening  ensures you have the audience’s attention from the start and gives them a positive first impression of you.

You’ll want to  start with a strong opening  such as an attention grabbing statement, statistic of fact. These are usually dramatic or shocking, such as:

Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat – Jamie Oliver

Another good way of starting a persuasive speech is to include your audience in the picture you’re trying to paint. By making them part of the story, you’re embedding an emotional connection between them and your speech.

You could do this in a more toned-down way by talking about something you know that your audience has in common with you. It’s also helpful at this point to include your credentials in a persuasive speech to gain your audience’s trust.

Obama would spend hours with his team working on the opening and closing statements of his speech.

2. Stating your argument

You should  pick between 2 and 4 themes  to discuss during your speech so that you have enough time to explain your viewpoint and convince your audience to the same way of thinking.

It’s important that each of your points transitions seamlessly into the next one so that your speech has a logical flow. Work on your  connecting sentences  between each of your themes so that your speech is easy to listen to.

Your argument should be backed up by objective research and not purely your subjective opinion. Use examples, analogies, and stories so that the audience can relate more easily to your topic, and therefore are more likely to be persuaded to your point of view.

3. Addressing counter-arguments

Any balanced theory or thought  addresses and disputes counter-arguments  made against it. By addressing these, you’ll strengthen your persuasive speech by refuting your audience’s objections and you’ll show that you are knowledgeable to other thoughts on the topic.

When describing an opposing point of view, don’t explain it in a bias way – explain it in the same way someone who holds that view would describe it. That way, you won’t irritate members of your audience who disagree with you and you’ll show that you’ve reached your point of view through reasoned judgement. Simply identify any counter-argument and pose explanations against them.

• Complete Guide to Debating

4. Closing your speech

Your closing line of your speech is your last chance to convince your audience about what you’re saying. It’s also most likely to be the sentence they remember most about your entire speech so make sure it’s a good one!

The most effective persuasive speeches end  with a  call to action . For example, if you’ve been speaking about organ donation, your call to action might be asking the audience to register as donors.

Practice answering AI questions on your speech and get  feedback on your performance .

If audience members ask you questions, make sure you listen carefully and respectfully to the full question. Don’t interject in the middle of a question or become defensive.

You should show that you have carefully considered their viewpoint and refute it in an objective way (if you have opposing opinions). Ensure you remain patient, friendly and polite at all times.

Example 1: Persuasive speech outline

This example is from the Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Specific purpose

To persuade my audience to start walking in order to improve their health.

Central idea

Regular walking can improve both your mental and physical health.

Introduction

Let’s be honest, we lead an easy life: automatic dishwashers, riding lawnmowers, T.V. remote controls, automatic garage door openers, power screwdrivers, bread machines, electric pencil sharpeners, etc., etc. etc. We live in a time-saving, energy-saving, convenient society. It’s a wonderful life. Or is it?

Continue reading

Example 2: Persuasive speech

Tips for delivering your persuasive speech

• Practice, practice, and practice some more . Record yourself speaking and listen for any nervous habits you have such as a nervous laugh, excessive use of filler words, or speaking too quickly.
• Show confident body language . Stand with your legs hip width apart with your shoulders centrally aligned. Ground your feet to the floor and place your hands beside your body so that hand gestures come freely. Your audience won’t be convinced about your argument if you don’t sound confident in it. Find out more about  confident body language here .
• Don’t memorise your speech word-for-word  or read off a script. If you memorise your persuasive speech, you’ll sound less authentic and panic if you lose your place. Similarly, if you read off a script you won’t sound genuine and you won’t be able to connect with the audience by  making eye contact . In turn, you’ll come across as less trustworthy and knowledgeable. You could simply remember your key points instead, or learn your opening and closing sentences.
• Remember to use facial expressions when storytelling  – they make you more relatable. By sharing a personal story you’ll more likely be speaking your truth which will help you build a connection with the audience too. Facial expressions help bring your story to life and transport the audience into your situation.
• Keep your speech as concise as possible . When practicing the delivery, see if you can edit it to have the same meaning but in a more succinct way. This will keep the audience engaged.

The best persuasive speech ideas are those that spark a level of controversy. However, a public speech is not the time to express an opinion that is considered outside the norm. If in doubt, play it safe and stick to topics that divide opinions about 50-50.

Bear in mind who your audience are and plan your persuasive speech outline accordingly, with researched evidence to support your argument. It’s important to consider counter-arguments to show that you are knowledgeable about the topic as a whole and not bias towards your own line of thought.

How to write a speech outline and up your presentation game

Reading time: about 8 min

One reason people find public speaking daunting is they don’t have a simple method to sort their ideas, which can leave them feeling unprepared for the task ahead. Rather than being excited about what they have put together, they think, “Agh, that’ll have to do. I’m out of time.” This feeling, in turn, can have a negative impact on physical and mental energy levels during your talk. If you don’t feel confident, you won’t sound confident, and you’re not likely to impress your audience. If you go in confidently, the audience will be more willing to accept your ideas.

Whether you’re pitching a business idea or delivering a heartfelt wedding speech, you need to consider the perspective of your audience, identify your key message, and decide on the best way to engage your audience from start to finish.

Let’s take a look at how a speech outline works and how you can use Lucidchart to make your own.

Ready to jump right into a speech outline template?

Register for lucidchart to get started., what is a speech outline.

A persuasive speech outline gives you a map of the key ideas of your speech. First, it should ask you to consider your audience’s perspective and the key message you want them to remember from your talk. Then, it should guide you in creating a clear, organized structure for your presentation.

The Vivid Speech Outline in Lucidchart does both. It’s built on neuroscience, which shows that you can avoid anxiety and improve brain performance dramatically when you do the following:

Get information out of our heads and create a simple framework on the page: Humans have a strict limit to the amount of information that they can hold and consider in their mind at any one time. An outline lets your brain focus on one step at a time rather than becoming overwhelmed.

Prioritize, compare, and think deeply during the outline stage, not when overwhelmed by details: The prefrontal cortex, the clarification part of the brain, requires a lot of energy to function. An outline keeps you focused and avoids you hitting “the wall.”

See the relationship between ideas visually: It’s hard to think of new ideas if they don’t connect to existing ideas in some way.

Lucidchart’s Vivid Speech Outline template

Lucidchart has created a template based on Cam’s Vivid Speech Outline to help demystify and speed up the speech writing process.

The Vivid Speech Outline template demonstrates how to write a speech outline through the refinement of two parts: your overall message statement, which is the main point of your presentation, and your chunk structure, which acts as the body and building blocks of your speech. Clarifying your message statement first helps to focus your thinking when you structure your ideas.

Step 1: Message statement

The first page of the speech outline is where you define your transferable message. The message statement page asks three important questions:

• Who are you speaking to? You need to look into the mind of your listeners. What’s their job role, their biases, and their wants and concerns? If you don’t understand your audience’s perspective, you won’t be able to get through to them, no matter how important your ideas may be.  
• What do you want them to think or do? Do you want them to think something, e.g., “This project will succeed” or “Learning this method will make you better at your job”? Or do you want them to do something, like sign the contract or try the product?  
• Why would they think or do what you suggest?  Why should your audience sign the contract, try out the product, or believe that the project will succeed? List the reasons, arguments, examples, evidence, etc. (focused on what you know about your audience).

By combining the answers to questions two and three, you will have a draft of your message statement, which you will then transfer to the second page and use as your speech’s conclusion.

Pro tip: The best way to know if this message statement truly encapsulates your point is to test it. Imagine you are finishing your presentation. Think of your imaginary audience and say your message statement out loud. Does it bring your idea to life? Is this the one key message you want your listeners to recall? If not, repeat the process until your message statement feels complete.

Step 2: Chunk structure

The second page of the template gives you a one-page summary of your entire speech or presentation in brief, narrow pieces called chunks. This allows you to separate the world’s overwhelming details into categories, sections, paragraphs, segments, etc., and think more clearly.

The foundation of your one-page chunk structure is as follows:

1. Presentation title

Create a simple yet captivating title to capture attention and set expectations.

2. Two to four chunks

Make your speech easily digestible by segmenting it into chunks. Depending on what the situation calls for, you can choose two to four chunks or main ideas. You could choose as many segments as you like, but if you include more than four, your talk will start to seem complicated. When announcing the overview of your speech, every audience will be pleased to hear that your talk requires only two, three, or four main ideas to follow.

Inside each main idea or chunk, be sure to include:

A chunk heading: This heading simply states the issue to be discussed.

Details: List the examples, evidence, stories, charts or whatever details that help bring a key point to life beneath the chunk headings.

The key point: People forget most of what they hear, which is why you should state the key point at the end of each chunk. Even if your listeners won’t remember all the details, you hope they will remember the main point for each particular chunk.

For the conclusion, simply transfer over your message statement from the first page. Although you may want to re-test the message statement (from the first page) to see how it flows with the new details you’ve added to your speech outline, you’ve already written your big finish.

Pro tip: Now that you have a completed chunk structure, you can practice your speech from start to finish in less than a minute. Because you have a one-page map of all your important points for this talk in the chunk structure, you can test your message and structure––the yellow shapes (the title, optional introduction, chunk headings, key points, and message statement)––out loud. Most of the time, you won’t need to learn every word of your speech by heart. You just need to make sure you’re clear on the message and structure.

Benefits of the Vivid Speech Outline

The Vivid Speech Outline creates an environment for natural confidence and impact. By creating a persuasive speech outline, you can:

• Save time and effort by identifying your message and key points as the first step in the writing process.
• Be more efficient and minimize the mental load by splitting up the outlining and structuring of your speech.
• Reduce uncertainty and anxiety early in your preparation by considering the tough questions your audience might ask, sticking to the process, and testing the flow your talk.

Use the Vivid Speech Outline to take advantage of these benefits and get a competitive edge.

Using Lucidchart’s Vivid Speech Outline template to create your own presentation

Lucidchart’s template shows you how to write a speech outline that eloquently communicates your innovative message and engages your audience.

Use the Vivid Speech Outline custom shapes to quickly build your message statement and chunk structure pages. Simply drag and drop the custom shapes from the shape repository (or any shape in the toolbox) on the canvas, and fill in the details, chunk headings, or message statement. As you line up your points and supporting details, you’re more likely to notice if some of your ideas don’t quite fit. To make a change, drag and rearrange the shapes any way you want without losing any of the work you’ve already done. As mentioned above, key shapes for the Vivid Speech Outline are also colored to make it easier for you to practice your main ideas.

Lucidchart’s integration with Google Slides makes it easy to export your chunk structure to a slideshow presentation. Preview, edit, and rearrange the already created slides by clicking on the “Slides” icon in the dock to the right of the canvas, and then, with one click, send your finalized chunk structure to Google Slides. You can also select the “Present” option for a quick slide presentation within Lucidchart.

Creating your speech outline in Lucidchart means you also have access to all its sharing and collaboration features. Whether you want to have someone review your speech or you need to work on a presentation as a team, you can email access links to others, invite them to view, comment on, or edit the document, or chat with those with whom you’ve shared the document. Once given access to your document, your whole team can work on it and see each other’s changes in real time.

The beauty of this speech outline is in its simplicity and flexibility. With the help of Lucidchart, you can quickly structure a persuasive speech outline that works for any situation.

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Preparation: How to write a Speech Outline (with Examples)

You have been chosen to give a speech on a particular topic and you reckon that you’re a good speech writer.

However, without a good speech outline, your speech lacks the proper skeleton to put meat on.

A speech outline is to a speech what a blueprint is to an unconstructed building.

So, how do you develop a good speech outline? First, break it down into small steps as this will make it easier for you to prioritize your ideas and organize them in the right order before you add more details to them.

How to Make an Outline for a Speech

Below are steps that will enable you to write an effective speech outline for your presentation.

You should start by asking yourself:

a) What is the big picture?

Before you begin writing your outline, you should take a step back and think about your speech as a whole.

First, think about the 3 keystones for your presentation or speech, i.e. the audience, your subject matter and of course, you, as the speaker.

Then, write a few notes down about each keystone and how they relate with each other. For instance,

• With regard to your presentation’s subject matter and the audience, what does the audience know about the subject? Do they find the subject interesting or not at all? Is the subject relevant to them?
• What do you as the speaker know about the subject in question? What are the reasons behind your presentation? Do you have any expertise on the matter? What new information will you be sharing with your audience?

A good outline will help you engage with your audience in a way that not only captures their attention but enables them to understand the subject matter.

b) What is your objective?

This refers to the goal of your presentation. Here, you should ask yourself, what do you want your audience to do after your presentation is over?

While the objective for most speakers is for their audience to know something, that may not be enough. The best presentations and speeches are those that move people to act.

If you would prefer to make an impact in such a way, then you should ensure that you are as specific as you can be when deciding on your objective in your speech outline.

c) What is your message?

Your message is what holds your presentation or speech together. This is not to mean that you shouldn’t have different parts in your speech, but it does mean that your speech should have one message that you are trying to put across.

Trying to include several different messages in your speech may confuse your audience, which makes it harder for them to understand the main point you are trying to convey. 

To do this, summarize the message of your presentation in one statement. This will not only allow you to understand the message in its entirety but also allow you to explain the message to your audience in a way that is easy to understand.

You can now use the statement you wrote above to help you develop your speech outline. Using the statement to determine whether a certain point supports your main message will ensure that your speech flows and doesn’t include any information not relevant to your subject topic.

d) How is your presentation relevant?

When it comes to a presentation or speech, the audience should always come first. That is why as a speaker, you should always keep your audience in mind when presenting.

If you have already decided on the message you will be conveying to your audience, you should now ask yourself; how is your message relevant to the audience?

If you can’t come up with a reason why your presentation is relevant, then it’s back to the drawing board for you. This could mean that you will be presenting to the wrong audience or you will be giving the wrong presentation.

You can refer back to step (c) then review steps (a) and (b) for clarity.

e) Your speech structure

This is a very important part of your presentation as without it, your speech will have no impact on the audience. Therefore, you should ensure that you include the speech structure in your speech outline.

A structure has 3 basic parts; the introduction, the body and the conclusion. It should be noted though that when working on your speech outline, a common suggestion is to begin with the body before developing both your introduction and conclusion.

Under your speech structure, the introduction is the opening of your speech/presentation. To make a good first impression on your audience, ensure that your introduction is strong.

This doesn’t have to be the usual, “Good morning, my name is YXZ…” Instead, capture your audience’s attention by either telling a story or an interesting fact, recite a quote, ask your audience to recall or imagine something or even ask a rhetorical question!

Related: How to Start a Speech to Engage Your Audience

The body of your presentation represents the bulk of your speech. You should therefore ensure that your main points can be explained in detail and that they have been organized in a logical order that makes your message easy to comprehend.

Similar to your introduction, you should finish on a strong note when it comes to your conclusion. You can do this by linking your conclusion to your introduction, after which you can then echo and summarize your message’s main points.

Different Speech Outline Examples

Below are a few examples of different speech outlines that you can use as a basis to write your own outline. Choosing the right one that works for you may depend on the type of speech you will be giving .

1. Persuasive Speech Outline

Persuasive presentations and speeches usually have a specific purpose in mind; either to urge the audience to take action on something or persuade them to adopt a certain view or opinion of something.

This type of outline allows you, the speaker, to focus on the subject matter point while arguing your case in the most effective and compelling way to your audience.

A persuasive speech outline is made up of these parts:

• An introduction
• The conclusion
• Source Citation

The first three parts are common in most if not all presentations; please refer to step (e) to familiarize yourself with them once more.

A source citation is simply citing the sources for the research and facts that you presented in your speech. Remember you are trying to persuade your audience, so authoritative sources add weight to your argument.

2. Informative Speech Outline

There are different types of informative outlines. These include:

• The informative speech outline
• The informative presentation outline
• The informative essay outline

These outlines are made up of 3 basic parts; the introduction, body and conclusion. For purposes of this article, we will be discussing the informative speech outline.

The central objective of an informative speech is to offer unique, useful and interesting information to your audience. Before choosing your informative speech topic , you should consider your overall objective.  

Additionally, there are various types of informative speeches , including:

• Concept - These are used to discuss abstract ideas like ideas and theories.
• Process - These are used when describing broad processes.
• Event - These are used to explain things that may happen, are already happening or those that have happened already.
• Object - These are used when talking about products, places or people.

In addition to this, there are patterns that can be used to organize your speech outline. These will be chosen depending on your speech type.

Types of these patterns include:

• Chronological or sequential - This pattern deals with a sequence of events; which could be useful in demonstration speeches or when discussing historical topics
• Spatial or geographic - Use this pattern when discussing topics that deal with physical spaces
• Logical - This pattern is suitable for a broad topic that has been broken down into sub-topics .
• Advantage-disadvantage - This pattern can be used when you will be examining a range of negative and positive aspects of an event or idea

Furthermore, there are 2 possibilities for preparing a speech outline; the speaking and preparation outline.

The speaking outlines make use of phrases and keywords, which helps keep you focused on the subject matter while the preparation outline is used to help you develop your speech and makes use of full sentences.

3. Demonstrative Speech Outline

A demonstrative speech is an instructional speech that teaches the audience something by demonstrating the process.

Here are the basic steps for a demonstrative speech:

• Ask yourself why you choose this topic and why it is important to the audience
• Provide an overview
• Explain the steps involved in your process
• Talk about variations, other options
• Ensure you allot time for Q&A
• Give a brief summary

For a more in-depth guide on writing demonstrative speeches, click here .

Pro-Tip: Write down the specific purpose of your speech and your topic of discussion as you formulate your generic speech outline.

Conclusion: On Speech Outline Formats

As you become better at writing and delivering speeches, you will soon learn that the different outline formats described above aren’t mutually exclusive. Rather, situations often make it necessary to mix different formats.

What are you waiting for? Go out there and grow your confidence as a speech writer and speaker!

Module 6: Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

Methods of speech delivery, learning objectives.

Identify the four types of speech delivery methods and when to use them.

There are four basic methods of speech delivery: manuscript, memorized, impromptu, and extemporaneous. We’ll look at each method and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

A manuscript page from President George W. Bush’s address to the nation on the day of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

A manuscript speech is when the speaker writes down every word they will speak during the speech. When they deliver the speech, they have each word planned and in front of them on the page, much like a newscaster who reads from a teleprompter.

The advantage of using a manuscript is that the speaker has access to every word they’ve prepared in advance. There is no guesswork or memorization needed. This method comforts some speakers’ nerves as they don’t have to worry about that moment where they might freeze and forget what they’ve planned to say. They also are able to make exact quotes from their source material.

When the exact wording of an idea is crucial, speakers often read from a manuscript, for instance in communicating public statements from a company.

However, the disadvantage with a manuscript is that the speakers have MANY words in front of them on the page. This prohibits one of the most important aspects of delivery, eye contact. When many words are on the page, the speakers will find themselves looking down at those words more frequently because they will need the help. If they do look up at the audience, they often cannot find their place when the eye returns to the page. Also, when nerves come into play, speakers with manuscripts often default to reading from the page and forget that they are not making eye contact or engaging their audience. Therefore, manuscript is a very difficult delivery method and not ideal.  Above all, the speakers should remember to rehearse with the script so that they practice looking up often.

Public Speaking in History

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, owed in large part to a momentary error made by an East German government spokesperson. At a live press conference, Günter Schabowski tried to explain new rules relaxing East Germany’s severe travel restrictions. A reporter asked, “when do these new rules go into effect?” Visibly flustered, Schabowski said, “As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay.” In fact, the new visa application procedure was supposed to begin the following day, and with a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. Instead, thousands of East Berliners arrived within minutes at the border crossings, demanding to pass through immediately. The rest is history.

The outcome of this particular public-relations blunder was welcomed by the vast majority of East and West German citizens, and hastened the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe. It’s probably good, then, that Schabowski ran this particular press conference extemporaneously, rather than reading from a manuscript.

You can view the transcript for “The mistake that toppled the Berlin Wall” here (opens in new window) .

A memorized speech is also fully prepared in advance and one in which the speaker does not use any notes. In the case of an occasion speech like a quick toast, a brief dedication, or a short eulogy, word-for-word memorization might make sense. Usually, though, it doesn’t involve committing each and every word to memory, Memorizing a speech isn’t like memorizing a poem where you need to remember every word exactly as written. Don’t memorize a manuscript! Work with your outline instead. Practice with the outline until you can recall the content and order of your main points without effort. Then it’s just a matter of practicing until you’re able to elaborate on your key points in a natural and seamless manner. Ideally, a memorized speech will sound like an off-the-cuff statement by someone who is a really eloquent speaker and an exceptionally organized thinker!

The advantage of a memorized speech is that the speaker can fully face their audience and make lots of eye contact. The problem with a memorized speech is that speakers may get nervous and forget the parts they’ve memorized. Without any notes to lean on, the speaker may hesitate and leave lots of dead air in the room while trying to recall what was planned. Sometimes, the speaker can’t remember or find his or her place in the speech and are forced to go get the notes or go back to the PowerPoint in some capacity to try to trigger his or her memory. This can be an embarrassing and uncomfortable moment for the speaker and the audience, and is a moment which could be easily avoided by using a different speaking method.

How to: memorize a speech

There are lots of tips out there about how to memorize speeches. Here’s one that loosely follows an ancient memorization strategy called the method of loci or “memory palace,” which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information.

You can view the transcript for “How to Memorize a Speech” here (opens in new window) .

An impromptu speech is one for which there is little to no preparation. There is often not a warning even that the person may be asked to speak. For example, your speech teacher may ask you to deliver a speech on your worst pet peeve. You may or may not be given a few minutes to organize your thoughts. What should you do? DO NOT PANIC. Even under pressure, you can create a basic speech that follows the formula of an introduction, body, and conclusion. If you have a few minutes, jot down some notes that fit into each part of the speech. (In fact, the phrase “speaking off the cuff,” which means speaking without preparation, probably refers to the idea that one would jot a few notes on one’s shirt cuff before speaking impromptu.) [1] ) An introduction should include an attention getter, introduction of the topic, speaker credibility, and forecasting of main points. The body should have two or three main points. The conclusion should have a summary, call to action, and final thought. If you can organize your thoughts into those three parts, you will sound like a polished speaker. Even if you only hit two of them, it will still help you to think about the speech in those parts. For example, if a speech is being given on a pet peeve of chewed gum being left under desks in classrooms, it might be organized like this.

• Introduction : Speaker chews gum loudly and then puts it under a desk (attention getter, demonstration). Speaker introduces themselves and the topic and why they’re qualified to speak on it (topic introduction and credibility). “I’m Katie Smith and I’ve been a student at this school for three years and witnessed this gum problem the entire time.”
• Body : Speaker states three main points of why we shouldn’t leave gum on desks: it’s rude, it makes custodians have to work harder, it affects the next student who gets nastiness on their seat (forecast of order). Speaker then discusses those three points
• Conclusion : Speaker summarizes those three points (summary, part 1 of conclusion), calls on the audience to pledge to never do this again (call to action), and gives a quote from Michael Jordan about respecting property (final thought).

While an impromptu speech can be challenging, the advantage is that it can also be thrilling as the speaker thinks off the cuff and says what they’re most passionate about in the moment. A speaker should not be afraid to use notes during an impromptu speech if they were given any time to organize their thoughts.

The disadvantage is that there is no time for preparation, so finding research to support claims such as quotes or facts cannot be included. The lack of preparation makes some speakers more nervous and they may struggle to engage the audience due to their nerves.

Extemporaneous

The last method of delivery we’ll look at is extemporaneous. When speaking extemporaneously, speakers prepare some notes in advance that help trigger their memory of what they planned to say. These notes are often placed on notecards. A 4”x6” notecard or 5”x7” size card works well. This size of notecards can be purchased at any office supply store. Speakers should determine what needs to go on each card by reading through their speech notes and giving themselves phrases to say out loud. These notes are not full sentences, but help the speakers, who turn them into a full sentence when spoken aloud. Note that if a quote is being used, listing that quote verbatim is fine.

The advantage of extemporaneous speaking is that the speakers are able to speak in a more conversational tone by letting the cards guide them, but not dictate every word they say. This method allows for the speakers to make more eye contact with the audience. The shorter note forms also prevent speakers from getting lost in their words. Numbering these cards also helps if one gets out of order. Also, these notes are not ones the teacher sees or collects. While you may be required to turn in your speech outline, your extemporaneous notecards are not seen by anyone but you. Therefore, you can also write yourself notes to speak up, slow down, emphasize a point, go to the next slide, etc.

The disadvantage to extemporaneous is the speakers may forget what else was planned to say or find a card to be out of order. This problem can be avoided through rehearsal and double-checking the note order before speaking.

Many speakers consider the extemporaneous method to be the ideal speaking method because it allows them to be prepared, keeps the audience engaged, and makes the speakers more natural in their delivery. In your public speaking class, most of your speeches will probably be delivered extemporaneously.

• As per the Oxford English Dictionary' s entry for "Off the Cuff." See an extensive discussion at Mark Liberman's Language Log here: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4130 ↵
• Method of loci definition. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• The mistake that toppled the Berlin Wall. Provided by : Vox. Located at : https://youtu.be/Mn4VDwaV-oo . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• How to Memorize a Speech. Authored by : Memorize Academy. Located at : https://youtu.be/rvBw__VNrsc . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• Address to the Nation. Provided by : U.S. National Archives. Located at : https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2011/09/06/911-an-address-to-the-nation/ . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Methods of Speech Delivery. Authored by : Misti Wills with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

17.3 Organizing Persuasive Speeches

Learning objectives.

• Understand three common organizational patterns for persuasive speeches.
• Explain the steps utilized in Monroe’s motivated sequence.
• Explain the parts of a problem-cause-solution speech.
• Explain the process utilized in a comparative advantage persuasive speech.

Steven Lilley – Engaged – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this text we discussed general guidelines for organizing speeches. In this section, we are going to look at three organizational patterns ideally suited for persuasive speeches: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantages.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

One of the most commonly cited and discussed organizational patterns for persuasive speeches is Alan H. Monroe’s motivated sequence. The purpose of Monroe’s motivated sequence is to help speakers “sequence supporting materials and motivational appeals to form a useful organizational pattern for speeches as a whole” (German et al., 2010).

While Monroe’s motivated sequence is commonly discussed in most public speaking textbooks, we do want to provide one minor caution. Thus far, almost no research has been conducted that has demonstrated that Monroe’s motivated sequence is any more persuasive than other structural patterns. In the only study conducted experimentally examining Monroe’s motivated sequence, the researchers did not find the method more persuasive, but did note that audience members found the pattern more organized than other methods (Micciche, Pryor, & Butler, 2000). We wanted to add this sidenote because we don’t want you to think that Monroe’s motivated sequence is a kind of magic persuasive bullet; the research simply doesn’t support this notion. At the same time, research does support that organized messages are perceived as more persuasive as a whole, so using Monroe’s motivated sequence to think through one’s persuasive argument could still be very beneficial.

Table 17.1 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence” lists the basic steps of Monroe’s motivated sequence and the subsequent reaction a speaker desires from his or her audience.

Table 17.1 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

The first step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the attention step , in which a speaker attempts to get the audience’s attention. To gain an audience’s attention, we recommend that you think through three specific parts of the attention step. First, you need to have a strong attention-getting device. As previously discussed in Chapter 9 “Introductions Matter: How to Begin a Speech Effectively” , a strong attention getter at the beginning of your speech is very important. Second, you need to make sure you introduce your topic clearly. If your audience doesn’t know what your topic is quickly, they are more likely to stop listening. Lastly, you need to explain to your audience why they should care about your topic.

In the need step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the speaker establishes that there is a specific need or problem. In Monroe’s conceptualization of need, he talks about four specific parts of the need: statement, illustration, ramification, and pointing. First, a speaker needs to give a clear and concise statement of the problem. This part of a speech should be crystal clear for an audience. Second, the speaker needs to provide one or more examples to illustrate the need. The illustration is an attempt to make the problem concrete for the audience. Next, a speaker needs to provide some kind of evidence (e.g., statistics, examples, testimony) that shows the ramifications or consequences of the problem. Lastly, a speaker needs to point to the audience and show exactly how the problem relates to them personally.

Satisfaction

In the third step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the satisfaction step , the speaker sets out to satisfy the need or solve the problem. Within this step, Monroe (1935) proposed a five-step plan for satisfying a need:

• Explanation
• Theoretical demonstration
• Reference to practical experience
• Meeting objections

First, you need to clearly state the attitude, value, belief, or action you want your audience to accept. The purpose of this statement is to clearly tell your audience what your ultimate goal is.

Second, you want to make sure that you clearly explain to your audience why they should accept the attitude, value, belief, or action you proposed. Just telling your audience they should do something isn’t strong enough to actually get them to change. Instead, you really need to provide a solid argument for why they should accept your proposed solution.

Third, you need to show how the solution you have proposed meets the need or problem. Monroe calls this link between your solution and the need a theoretical demonstration because you cannot prove that your solution will work. Instead, you theorize based on research and good judgment that your solution will meet the need or solve the problem.

Fourth, to help with this theoretical demonstration, you need to reference practical experience, which should include examples demonstrating that your proposal has worked elsewhere. Research, statistics, and expert testimony are all great ways of referencing practical experience.

Lastly, Monroe recommends that a speaker respond to possible objections. As a persuasive speaker, one of your jobs is to think through your speech and see what counterarguments could be made against your speech and then rebut those arguments within your speech. When you offer rebuttals for arguments against your speech, it shows your audience that you’ve done your homework and educated yourself about multiple sides of the issue.

Visualization

The next step of Monroe’s motivated sequence is the visualization step , in which you ask the audience to visualize a future where the need has been met or the problem solved. In essence, the visualization stage is where a speaker can show the audience why accepting a specific attitude, value, belief, or behavior can positively affect the future. When helping people to picture the future, the more concrete your visualization is, the easier it will be for your audience to see the possible future and be persuaded by it. You also need to make sure that you clearly show how accepting your solution will directly benefit your audience.

According to Monroe, visualization can be conducted in one of three ways: positive, negative, or contrast (Monroe, 1935). The positive method of visualization is where a speaker shows how adopting a proposal leads to a better future (e.g., recycle, and we’ll have a cleaner and safer planet). Conversely, the negative method of visualization is where a speaker shows how not adopting the proposal will lead to a worse future (e.g., don’t recycle, and our world will become polluted and uninhabitable). Monroe also acknowledged that visualization can include a combination of both positive and negative visualization. In essence, you show your audience both possible outcomes and have them decide which one they would rather have.

The final step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the action step , in which a speaker asks an audience to approve the speaker’s proposal. For understanding purposes, we break action into two distinct parts: audience action and approval. Audience action refers to direct physical behaviors a speaker wants from an audience (e.g., flossing their teeth twice a day, signing a petition, wearing seat belts). Approval, on the other hand, involves an audience’s consent or agreement with a speaker’s proposed attitude, value, or belief.

When preparing an action step, it is important to make sure that the action, whether audience action or approval, is realistic for your audience. Asking your peers in a college classroom to donate one thousand dollars to charity isn’t realistic. Asking your peers to donate one dollar is considerably more realistic. In a persuasive speech based on Monroe’s motivated sequence, the action step will end with the speech’s concluding device. As discussed elsewhere in this text, you need to make sure that you conclude in a vivid way so that the speech ends on a high point and the audience has a sense of energy as well as a sense of closure.

Now that we’ve walked through Monroe’s motivated sequence, let’s look at how you could use Monroe’s motivated sequence to outline a persuasive speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that the United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments.

Main Points:

• Attention: Want to make nine thousand dollars for just three weeks of work lying around and not doing much? Then be a human guinea pig. Admittedly, you’ll have to have a tube down your throat most of those three weeks, but you’ll earn three thousand dollars a week.
• Need: Every day many uneducated and lower socioeconomic-status citizens are preyed on by medical and pharmaceutical companies for use in for-profit medical and drug experiments. Do you want one of your family members to fall prey to this evil scheme?
• Satisfaction: The United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments to ensure that uneducated and lower-socioeconomic-status citizens are protected.
• Visualization: If we enact tougher experiment oversight, we can ensure that medical and pharmaceutical research is conducted in a way that adheres to basic values of American decency. If we do not enact tougher experiment oversight, we could find ourselves in a world where the lines between research subject, guinea pig, and patient become increasingly blurred.
• Action: In order to prevent the atrocities associated with for-profit medical and pharmaceutical experiments, please sign this petition asking the US Department of Health and Human Services to pass stricter regulations on this preying industry that is out of control.

This example shows how you can take a basic speech topic and use Monroe’s motivated sequence to clearly and easily outline your speech efficiently and effectively.

Table 17.2 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist” also contains a simple checklist to help you make sure you hit all the important components of Monroe’s motivated sequence.

Table 17.2 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing a persuasive speech is the problem-cause-solution format. In this specific format, you discuss what a problem is, what you believe is causing the problem, and then what the solution should be to correct the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that our campus should adopt a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech.

• Demonstrate that there is distrust among different groups on campus that has led to unnecessary confrontations and violence.
• Show that the confrontations and violence are a result of hate speech that occurred prior to the events.
• Explain how instituting a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy against hate speech could stop the unnecessary confrontations and violence.

In this speech, you want to persuade people to support a new campus-wide policy calling for zero-tolerance of hate speech. Once you have shown the problem, you then explain to your audience that the cause of the unnecessary confrontations and violence is prior incidents of hate speech. Lastly, you argue that a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy could help prevent future unnecessary confrontations and violence. Again, this method of organizing a speech is as simple as its name: problem-cause-solution.

Comparative Advantages

The final method for organizing a persuasive speech is called the comparative advantages speech format. The goal of this speech is to compare items side-by-side and show why one of them is more advantageous than the other. For example, let’s say that you’re giving a speech on which e-book reader is better: Amazon.com’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. Here’s how you could organize this speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the Nook is more advantageous than the Kindle.

• The Nook allows owners to trade and loan books to other owners or people who have downloaded the Nook software, while the Kindle does not.
• The Nook has a color-touch screen, while the Kindle’s screen is black and grey and noninteractive.
• The Nook’s memory can be expanded through microSD, while the Kindle’s memory cannot be upgraded.

As you can see from this speech’s organization, the simple goal of this speech is to show why one thing has more positives than something else. Obviously, when you are demonstrating comparative advantages, the items you are comparing need to be functional equivalents—or, as the saying goes, you cannot compare apples to oranges.

Key Takeaways

• There are three common patterns that persuaders can utilize to help organize their speeches effectively: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantage. Each of these patterns can effectively help a speaker think through his or her thoughts and organize them in a manner that will be more likely to persuade an audience.
• Alan H. Monroe’s (1935) motivated sequence is a commonly used speech format that is used by many people to effectively organize persuasive messages. The pattern consists of five basic stages: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. In the first stage, a speaker gets an audience’s attention. In the second stage, the speaker shows an audience that a need exists. In the third stage, the speaker shows how his or her persuasive proposal could satisfy the need. The fourth stage shows how the future could be if the persuasive proposal is or is not adopted. Lastly, the speaker urges the audience to take some kind of action to help enact the speaker’s persuasive proposal.
• The problem-cause-solution proposal is a three-pronged speech pattern. The speaker starts by explaining the problem the speaker sees. The speaker then explains what he or she sees as the underlying causes of the problem. Lastly, the speaker proposes a solution to the problem that corrects the underlying causes.
• The comparative advantages speech format is utilized when a speaker is comparing two or more things or ideas and shows why one of the things or ideas has more advantages than the other(s).
• Create a speech using Monroe’s motivated sequence to persuade people to recycle.
• Create a speech using the problem-cause-solution method for a problem you see on your college or university campus.
• Create a comparative advantages speech comparing two brands of toothpaste.

German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2010). Principles of public speaking (17th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, p. 236.

Micciche, T., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (2000). A test of Monroe’s motivated sequence for its effects on ratings of message organization and attitude change. Psychological Reports, 86 , 1135–1138.

Monroe, A. H. (1935). Principles and types of speech . Chicago, IL: Scott Foresman.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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4 modes of speech delivery | an overview 

Which speech delivery technique is best.

By:  Susan Dugdale  

There are 4 modes (methods) or ways to deliver a speech: to read it from a manuscript word by word, to completely memorize it, as an impromptu, and to give it extemporaneously.

How do you know which mode will be most effective?

The answer depends on how much time you have available, the type of speech you’re giving and, your audience.

Let’s briefly outline each method and their advantages and disadvantages.

What's on this page

An overview of the 4 modes of speech delivery, the pros (advantages) and cons (disadvantages) of each, plus links to examples and further resources.

• extemporaneous

1. Manuscript

One of the most common ways to deliver a speech is to use a manuscript: a word by word document of everything you plan to say from beginning to end. This ensures, when you read it out loud, what you say is exactly what you intend, without deviation.

What is the best way to write a manuscript speech?

As with any type of speech, the best way to start is not with the words but with considering your topic, your audience, how much time you have to speak and the purpose of your speech.

Once you have those clear, then you are ready to begin planning a speech outline: an overview of all the material you want to cover. 

When the outline is completed you’ll use that to write your manuscript.

Click the link for more about the process of preparing a speech outline , with examples. (The page also has a free printable blank speech outline for you to download and use)

And for more about writing a speech, in particular writing oral language, words to be spoken aloud, please see how to write a speech . You’ll find a useful guide covering the principal characteristics of spoken speech. (It is very different from writing an essay!) 

Who regularly delivers a manuscript speech?

Newsreaders, TV personalities, politicians, business leaders and the President! Anybody whose speech is going to be closely scrutinized will use either a manuscript or its electronic equivalent, a teleprompter. These are speeches where the content is significant, perhaps life changing, where facts and figures must be 100% accurate, and where the tone of the language used is important.

What distinguishes a good delivery of a manuscript speech from a poor one, is practice. Some of the greatest public speakers in the world ‘read’ their speeches with so much skill they sound as if they are making up what they’re saying on the spot. The speech comes across as being completely spontaneous and is delivered flawlessly. 

Great public speakers who 'read' their speeches

A famous example is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Winston Churchill. Throughout World War Two (1939-1945) his extraordinary speeches inspired the people he led to persevere in their fight to keep the Nazis out of England in spite of the odds being stacked against them.

To find out more read Winston Churchill's Way With Words - an excellent NPR article, with audio, on how he crafted his speeches. 

And another more recent example is America’s ex-President Barack Obama. 

American Rhetoric has audio and text (pdf) links to his speeches spanning 2002 - 2014. Four are included in a list of 49 of the most important speeches in 21st century America . These are:

• 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address
• Commencement Address at Knox College (2005)
• A More Perfect Union (2008)
• Speech at the 'Together We Thrive: Tucson and America' Memorial (2011)

How to deliver a manuscript speech

Print your speech out single sided. Make sure each page is numbered clearly. Use an easily read font like Arial, black ink, and size the font and space the lines so that the text may be read at a glance.

Use a lectern  adjusted for your height  to put your manuscript on. As you finish reading each page turn it over face down and move it to your left. That will help stop you from getting muddled.

Aim for at least one read through aloud before you deliver it.

The more you can practice the better your delivery will be. 

How to read aloud well

Reading aloud well is a skill. Some people are very good at it, and some are ghastly, largely because they’ve had no practice. (And sadly, many who regularly read their speech scripts don’t realize how bad they are to listen to because nobody has told them. Their presentations have been endured, rather than enjoyed for years!)

If you have to regularly read your speeches here’s how to read a speech effectively: 4 good ways to improve how you read aloud . It will help a great deal!

The pros (advantages) for a manuscript speech

The major advantage of using a script is that it ensures the speaker will deliver the right message, the one that’s been prepared, without errors. This is particularly important when presenting complex subject matter.  

Another is that when there's not enough time to rehearse or prepare thoroughly, reading may be the only real option available. Without the safety of a script you may forget large chunks of information, or misremember important material. The script keeps you on track.

A third reason could be that the mere presence of the script is reassuring for nervous or anxious speakers. Even if they do not actually need it, because they’ve prepared well, the script is calming. If they suddenly blank out, they’ll be alright, as they have the script to refer to.

And a fourth is that you can easily back track, return to a point you made several pages earlier, if you need to.

The cons (disadvantages) of manuscript speeches

The main disadvantages of using a manuscript are:

• being anchored to one place . If you are using a full script you need to remain in front of the lectern, or teleprompter in order to read it. You can not move freely as you deliver your speech.
• lack of eye contact with your audience because you need to keep your eyes on your words. When there is very little or no eye contact between a speaker and their audience, the audience switches off because they feel ignored, shut out.  The ability to look at the audience while using notes or a teleprompter helps your audience to listen better, retain more of what they hear, and feel as if they’ve gained more value from your speech. Click the link for more about the importance of using eye contact [including 5 fun activities to teach students how to use eye contact well]
• Using language that doesn’t flow easily when you say it aloud . There are major differences between writing intended for oral language - something to be spoken aloud, and writing something that is intended to be read, like a newspaper article or an essay. For more please see how to write a speech . You’ll find an infographic on the characteristics of spoken language.   Whenever possible, always read your manuscript aloud before you deliver it. It’s much nicer to find typos, missing words, vital information omissions and other glitches (such as words you are not sure how to pronounce correctly), by yourself rather than in public. Another useful thing to do is to run your manuscript through a grammar checker . It may pick up errors you've overlooked.

2. Memorized speech

A memorized speech is one delivered completely from memory. That means: no notes at all. There is just you: the speaker, the speech you recall, word for word, and your audience.

Why choose to memorize a speech?

There are three likely reasons. 

• You want the illusion of a ‘natural’ conversation between yourself and your audience. The presence of a lectern with your manuscript on it, a teleprompter, or a set of cue cards in your hand makes that impossible.
• You want to be able to ‘play’ freely with your delivery: to be able to move, to gesture, as you see fit rather than be tethered to notes.
• You want to make completely sure the words you have written are faithfully delivered to the audience, without any changes at all. That can be vital in comedy.

What type of speech is enhanced through memorization?

A personal speech, for example one sharing childhood stories, a very carefully scripted humorous speech where you absolutely must get the words in the right order for them to work, or an inspirational one prepared especially to move and motivate a particular audience. All of these can be more effective delivered without notes.

There are also declamation speeches . These are in a special category of their own. They are memorized recitations of known speeches: a task set by teachers to have their pupil's fully experience the power of carefully crafted, well delivered oratorical language.    

What type of speeches are NOT suited to memorization?

• Any presentation or speech covering critical information that people will use to make important, and often life-altering, decisions. For instance, a detailed weather report cannot be inaccurate. The information outlining the state government’s strategy for combating poverty, declining employment rates, and climate change needs to be presented in a way the audience can easily follow and be factually correct. Missing bits out or getting them wrong creates confusion.
• Presentations which include large amounts of data : for example, a roundup of a company’s annual performance figures would be very difficult to accurately memorize, as well as being very difficult for an audience to listen to and retain.   
• Lengthy presentations - speeches running over 10 or more minutes in time.     

How to memorize a speech

If you decide to memorize your entire speech, the very first thing you’ll need is lots of time to practice. This is critical. Do not be tempted to minimize how much is required.

To safely commit it to memory you have to go over and over your speech until you can easily say it out loud without hesitation, deviation or repetition. This can take weeks of regular daily practice, particularly if you’ve not done it before. If you haven’t got that time available to you, opt for an extemporized delivery. (See the notes on extemporaneous speeches below.)

Review your speech outline

Having made the decision to memorize, the next thing you need to do is carefully review your speech outline. 

These are questions you’ll want to consider: 

• Are the major points in the right order? Do you have supporting examples for each of them? Are the transitions between each of the points clear? Is there a memorable conclusion? Does the opening or introduction work as a hook to pull the audience in?
• Does the speech have a clear purpose? Does it meet it? Has it been tailored for its intended audience? 

(Click the link for more about preparing a useful speech outline . You’ll find step by step guidelines, examples, and a free printable blank outline template to use.) 

Repeat your speech out loud, a lot!

Once you are satisfied with your outline, it’s time to begin the process of committing it to memory.

This starts with saying your speech out loud multiple times while using your outline. As you do you’ll be listening for bits you need to change in some way. Perhaps the words you’re using aren’t quite right for your audience. Maybe it doesn’t flow as well as you thought it did and you’ll want to swap pieces around. Or it’s too long and needs pruning. 

It’s a repetitive process: make a change. Try it out. If it’s good, keep it and move on to the next section. Repeat until you’ve worked through the entire speech.

An additional tip is for every significant change you make, make a new document, (eg. myspeech v1, myspeech v2, myspeech v3…) or at least track the changes. That way if you decide you want to revert to an earlier version you can. I’ve got at least 10 versions of some of the speeches I’ve written!

The next step is to begin working without the outline. 

The 'see, walk, and talk' method

The method I use is the same one I use as an actor to learn play lines. 

I call it ‘see, walk and talk’. It's a 3 part approach. Each is essential. 

The seeing part is visualization: seeing the words on the page. Seeing the order they come in, and anything else that distinguishes them from the rest. Is it a heading? Is it a number? Is it highlighted? 

The second part is walking. Walking helps a great deal and is an ancient  technique for  memorizing   now backed by science. *

If it’s fine, I walk outside and as I walk, I talk (the third part), repeating out loud  the section I'm trying to recall over and over until I get it right.

If the weather is bad, then I walk inside, around and around a room, or on a treadmill which works just as well.

*   Schmidt-Kassow M, Zink N, Mock J, et al. Treadmill walking during vocabulary encoding improves verbal long-term memory. Behav Brain Funct. 2014;10:24. Published 2014 Jul 12. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-10-24 ) 

'See, walk, talk' in action

Start with the body of your speech, the main points. Your goal is to remember each one, in their correct order.

There are three steps in this process.

• Look at your outline. If it helps highlight the main points, and number them. Take a mental photograph of it.
• Put the outline behind your back. Walk and say out loud as many of the main points you can in their correct order.
• When you find yourself struggling to recall, stop. Look at your outline. Take another mental photo. Put the outline behind your back, and start over again. Walk and talk. 

Repeat until you can run through the entire sequence of main points, and the transitions between them, without hesitation.

Add the subpoints to the main points

The next step is to add the fine points - the subpoints (additional material) and examples to your main points.

Go back to the first main point. Take a mental snapshot of the subpoints and examples. Note carefully the order they come in, and any specialist vocabulary or phrase you wanted to use.

Now walk and talk. Repeat the sequence until you have it as you want it. Then go back to the beginning and repeat the first main point, its supporting material and then the subsequent main points.

Your next part to memorize is the second main point's supporting material. Once you have that down, you go back to the beginning to run the first main point, its sub points, then the second point and its sub points.  Then you are ready to do the third main point in exactly the same way.

Add the conclusion and the beginning

Once you have completed memorizing the body of your speech, add the conclusion and the beginning.   

The pattern is simple. You add a piece, then go back and repeat it all through from the beginning. Each repetition etches it more deeply into your memory.

Please note : you are not working on delivery as you say it out loud. This is purely routine repetition. There is no need for pausing, emphasis, or changes in volume and pace. Think of it as a vanilla performance - plain.  At this stage the bulk of your energy needs to go into remembering, not expression. 

Sort out and memorize the delivery

Delivery is how you say your speech, not what you say.

Once you have the content (what you are saying) reliably remembered, you are free to work on your vocal delivery: how you are going to say it.

Which parts need to be said more slowly? Which parts need to be highlighted through strategic pausing? What can be spoken quickly? Are there bits that need to be treated as asides? Are there ‘voices’ to take on? Perhaps an angry voice? Or a wheedling, whining voice?

How you say your speech directly affects how your audience receives it. If you deliver it like a monotone robot - one speed, one tone, one pitch, one volume, people’s ears will switch off even if the content is interesting to them. Delivery can make all the difference between listening and not listening.

To be effective, your delivery needs to fit both the content and the audience’s needs.

As with memorizing the content, getting the delivery how you want it requires experimentation and then repetition to ensure you’ve got it safely embedded.

Working with a recorder is useful to actually hear what your voice is doing, rather what you think it’s doing. There’s often a very big difference. You’ll hear if you’re going too quickly, pausing too long, not pausing long enough, mispronouncing words, gabbling, or using the same inflection pattern over and over again.

Find out more about the vocal aspects of speech delivery . 

Use a mirror, a video and a test audience

It’s also useful to either work in front of a mirror or video yourself. That will show you where you need to modify your body language. Do you stand straight? Do you gesture appropriately? 

Rinse, and repeat until you feel happy with what you’re doing. And then practice in front of a select test audience, whom you know will give you honest useful feedback. Incorporate what you want from the suggestions you’re given and practice again. And now you should be ready to deliver your speech!

Pros of memorizing your speech

A memorized speech is generally more engaging. If delivered well it creates the illusion of having a conversation with your audience because you are speaking directly to them and you are able to make eye contact freely, as well as move how, and where you want. This creates a more intimate and personal connection.

Cons of memorizing your speech

There are three major disadvantages to memorizing a speech. The biggest is the risk of forgetting something, especially with a longer speech. This can lead to panic which leads to scrabbling around trying to pick up the threads to start again. That can rapidly become a downward spiral which compromises the whole presentation.

Secondly, using a memorized speech can constrain or limit the ideas you express because everything is prepared in advance. It leaves little room for spontaneity: content adjustments and additions made in response to a particular audience’s needs.

And thirdly, a memorized speech can be incredibly boring if the speaker has not worked on delivery. It has a canned quality, lacking immediacy and vitality. It sounds like a switch got flicked on and out it comes: blah, blah, blah … irrespective of the audience.

3. Impromptu

An impromptu speech is, as its name suggests, a speech made without prior planning, organization or rehearsal.

Although it may be based on a brief outline or written prompt, the speaker will often have little or no opportunity for detailed or extensive preparation.

While making an impromptu speech involves little immediate preparation it require significant amounts of prior practice to give one well.

An effective impromptu speech is structured, (beginning, middle, end), and meets the needs of those listening to it. To give a good one requires versatility and flexibility: the ability to adapt and respond easily and appropriately to the unexpected.

The speaker needs to understand how to quickly choose the best format, how to decide on the main points to cover, how to order them, and how to open and close the speech.

And lastly, impromptu speaking requires confidence, and trust in oneself.  

When should an impromptu speech be delivered?

There are many social or work settings where making an impromptu speech is expected, and if done well, very much appreciated.

At a family get together the person who is asked to say a few words to welcome everyone, or make the toast is giving an impromptu speech. At a meeting to discuss current work issues, a sales manager may be asked to outline areas of challenge without prior warning. The response they give is an impromptu speech.

The ability to summon up succinct, structured remarks is highly valued in all areas of life. 

How do you prepare for an impromptu speech?

The essential preparation for impromptu speaking begins out of the spotlight, long before being asked to speak.

For comprehensive step by step guidelines covering how to gain the necessary skills please see:  strategies and templates to succeed at impromptu speaking .

You’ll find tips to get you started, 7 different structural templates to use, suggestions for keeping any nervousness under control, and links to 100s of impromptu speaking topics to use for practice.

Pros of impromptu speeches

The advantages definitely outweigh any disadvantages. 

Although some people have a natural gift for being able to talk freely and spontaneously, it can be learned. It’s a skill, like riding a bike. (But better!) When you’re beginning you fall off a few times, and graze your knees. If you get back on and keep pedaling eventually you stay upright.

Get better at impromptu speaking and you’ll find it will open many doors, leading to a richer and fuller life.  

Don’t settle for silence when you can learn to speak up for yourself, and others.

If you're reluctant to attempt it and put yourself out there, please read this article:  Speaking in business may be your most important skill .

The cons of impromptu speaking

In some contexts and on some subjects it would be unwise to attempt delivering an impromptu speech.

For instance, when asked for an evaluation of business risks associated with Covid-19, or to comment on possible correlations between socio-economic status and educational achievement in the USA, speaking without consulting a broad cross-section of informed specialists would be ill-advised. 

Each situation needs careful consideration. Are you able to talk knowledgeably on the topic you’ve been given? Are you entitled to talk about it?

If you can not speak on the subject being asked of you, say so politely. You can offer to come back with a full response at a later date. Or you can hand the question on to someone who can answer it. Knowing your limits is very useful for maintaining credibility!

Another possible downside is succumbing to fear. It could be fear of finding yourself with nothing to say, of drying up under pressure, or of muddling material in some way. The only really useful antidote to nervousness/fear is practice. Lots, and lots of it. It does get better! 

4. Extemporaneous speaking

An extemporaneous speech is one where the speaker combines the use of notes or cue cards with improvisation. It’s a mix of carefully scripted and sequenced material and impromptu speaking.  

How do you deliver an extemporaneous speech?

An extemporaneous delivery is naturally flowing and conversational. The points to be made will have been carefully outlined. They will be in the correct order, along with their supporting ideas and examples but the exact wording is made up as you go along.

If you give the same speech to different audiences, the words you use may change because every audience responds differently. The result is a speech that is fresh each time it is delivered, because while you are speaking, you are in the moment, speaking off-the-cuff and from the heart. The text is neither memorized, or being read word for word.

Like the first three modes of delivery, this too needs practice, in order to become good at it. 

You’ll need to practice:

• speaking to time to avoid either going on too long or being too brief
• making effective transitions - finding the bridging words to link one main point to the next, or to link one segment of your speech to the following one. For instance the introduction to the body of the speech,  or the body of the speech to the conclusion.
• openings and conclusions.

For more information here's a very useful 'how to' article from The Dept. of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh on oral discourse and extemporaneous delivery .  

The advantages of extemporaneous speeches

An extemporaneous speech is more spontaneous and therefore natural compared to either a manuscript or memorized speech.  The speaker is free to tailor the presentation to the audience, rather than sticking to a set speech. That could include responding to any questions or objections he receives. 

Disadvantages of extemporaneous speeches

There are three main drawbacks to extemporaneous speaking.

The first is becoming stranded; tongue tied and silent because you don't know how to get from one point on your outline or cue cards to the next.  When that happens, the delivery becomes stilted, a stop-start presentation, which in turn can make the speaker feel anxious, which makes recovering the flow more difficult.

A second drawback is misreading the audience, and delivering the speech using either language, (word choices), or humor they find hard to understand or accept.

As an example, a speech littered with ‘corporate speak’ is not going to win me over. I don’t want to hear about ‘core competencies’, ‘going forwards’ , ‘ducks in a row’ or anything ‘scalable’ at all!

And a third is exceeding the time allowance you’d been given. Because you are fleshing it out from your cue cards or outline as you go along it is easy to lose track of time. The cumulative effect of an additional example or two and further comments, quickly soaks it up, leaving you scrambling to finish properly.  

If you are a first time presenter, probably the safer option is to learn how to read a manuscript speech well and gradually build the skills required to give an extemporaneous speech.

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How to Write an Outline for a Persuasive Speech, with Examples

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

Persuasive speeches are one of the three most used speeches in our daily lives. Persuasive speech is used when presenters decide to convince their presentation or ideas to their listeners. A compelling speech aims to persuade the listener to believe in a particular point of view. One of the most iconic examples is Martin Luther King’s ‘I had a dream’ speech on the 28th of August 1963.

In this article:

What is Persuasive Speech?

Here are some steps to follow:, persuasive speech outline, final thoughts.

Persuasive speech is a written and delivered essay to convince people of the speaker’s viewpoint or ideas. Persuasive speaking is the type of speaking people engage in the most. This type of speech has a broad spectrum, from arguing about politics to talking about what to have for dinner. Persuasive speaking is highly connected to the audience, as in a sense, the speaker has to meet the audience halfway.

Persuasive Speech Preparation

Persuasive speech preparation doesn’t have to be difficult, as long as you select your topic wisely and prepare thoroughly.

1. Select a Topic and Angle

Come up with a controversial topic that will spark a heated debate, regardless of your position. This could be about anything. Choose a topic that you are passionate about. Select a particular angle to focus on to ensure that your topic isn’t too broad. Research the topic thoroughly, focussing on key facts, arguments for and against your angle, and background.

2. Define Your Persuasive Goal

Once you have chosen your topic, it’s time to decide what your goal is to persuade the audience. Are you trying to persuade them in favor of a certain position or issue? Are you hoping that they change their behavior or an opinion due to your speech? Do you want them to decide to purchase something or donate money to a cause? Knowing your goal will help you make wise decisions about approaching writing and presenting your speech.

3. Analyze the Audience

Understanding your audience’s perspective is critical anytime that you are writing a speech. This is even more important when it comes to a persuasive speech because not only are you wanting to get the audience to listen to you, but you are also hoping for them to take a particular action in response to your speech. First, consider who is in the audience. Consider how the audience members are likely to perceive the topic you are speaking on to better relate to them on the subject. Grasp the obstacles audience members face or have regarding the topic so you can build appropriate persuasive arguments to overcome these obstacles.

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4. Build an Effective Persuasive Argument

Once you have a clear goal, you are knowledgeable about the topic and, have insights regarding your audience, you will be ready to build an effective persuasive argument to deliver in the form of a persuasive speech. 

Start by deciding what persuasive techniques are likely to help you persuade your audience. Would an emotional and psychological appeal to your audience help persuade them? Is there a good way to sway the audience with logic and reason? Is it possible that a bandwagon appeal might be effective?

5. Outline Your Speech

Once you know which persuasive strategies are most likely to be effective, your next step is to create a keyword outline to organize your main points and structure your persuasive speech for maximum impact on the audience.

Start strong, letting your audience know what your topic is, why it matters and, what you hope to achieve at the end of your speech. List your main points, thoroughly covering each point, being sure to build the argument for your position and overcome opposing perspectives. Conclude your speech by appealing to your audience to act in a way that will prove that you persuaded them successfully. Motivation is a big part of persuasion.

6. Deliver a Winning Speech

Select appropriate visual aids to share with your audiences, such as graphs, photos, or illustrations. Practice until you can deliver your speech confidently. Maintain eye contact, project your voice and, avoid using filler words or any form of vocal interference. Let your passion for the subject shine through. Your enthusiasm may be what sways the audience. 

Topic: What topic are you trying to persuade your audience on?

Specific Purpose:  

Central idea:

• Attention grabber – This is potentially the most crucial line. If the audience doesn’t like the opening line, they might be less inclined to listen to the rest of your speech.
• Thesis – This statement is used to inform the audience of the speaker’s mindset and try to get the audience to see the issue their way.
• Qualifications – Tell the audience why you are qualified to speak about the topic to persuade them.

After the introductory portion of the speech is over, the speaker starts presenting reasons to the audience to provide support for the statement. After each reason, the speaker will list examples to provide a factual argument to sway listeners’ opinions.

• Example 1 – Support for the reason given above.
• Example 2 – Support for the reason given above.

The most important part of a persuasive speech is the conclusion, second to the introduction and thesis statement. This is where the speaker must sum up and tie all of their arguments into an organized and solid point.

• Summary: Briefly remind the listeners why they should agree with your position.
• Memorable ending/ Audience challenge: End your speech with a powerful closing thought or recommend a course of action.
• Thank the audience for listening.

Persuasive Speech Outline Examples

Topic: Walking frequently can improve both your mental and physical health.

Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience to start walking to improve their health.

Central idea: Regular walking can improve your mental and physical health.

Life has become all about convenience and ease lately. We have dishwashers, so we don’t have to wash dishes by hand with electric scooters, so we don’t have to paddle while riding. I mean, isn’t it ridiculous?

Today’s luxuries have been welcomed by the masses. They have also been accused of turning us into passive, lethargic sloths. As a reformed sloth, I know how easy it can be to slip into the convenience of things and not want to move off the couch. I want to persuade you to start walking.

Americans lead a passive lifestyle at the expense of their own health.

• This means that we spend approximately 40% of our leisure time in front of the TV.
• Ironically, it is also reported that Americans don’t like many of the shows that they watch.
• Today’s studies indicate that people were experiencing higher bouts of depression than in the 18th and 19th centuries, when work and life were considered problematic.
• The article reports that 12.6% of Americans suffer from anxiety, and 9.5% suffer from severe depression.
• Present the opposition’s claim and refute an argument.
• Nutritionist Phyllis Hall stated that we tend to eat foods high in fat, which produces high levels of cholesterol in our blood, which leads to plaque build-up in our arteries.
• While modifying our diet can help us decrease our risk for heart disease, studies have indicated that people who don’t exercise are at an even greater risk.

In closing, I urge you to start walking more. Walking is a simple, easy activity. Park further away from stores and walk. Walk instead of driving to your nearest convenience store. Take 20 minutes and enjoy a walk around your neighborhood. Hide the TV remote, move off the couch and, walk. Do it for your heart.

Thank you for listening!

Topic: Less screen time can improve your sleep.

Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience to stop using their screens two hours before bed.

Central idea: Ceasing electronics before bed will help you achieve better sleep.

Who doesn’t love to sleep? I don’t think I have ever met anyone who doesn’t like getting a good night’s sleep. Sleep is essential for our bodies to rest and repair themselves.

I love sleeping and, there is no way that I would be able to miss out on a good night’s sleep.

As someone who has had trouble sleeping due to taking my phone into bed with me and laying in bed while entertaining myself on my phone till I fall asleep, I can say that it’s not the healthiest habit, and we should do whatever we can to change it.

• Our natural blue light source is the sun.
• Bluelight is designed to keep us awake.
• Bluelight makes our brain waves more active.
• We find it harder to sleep when our brain waves are more active.
• Having a good night’s rest will improve your mood.
• Being fully rested will increase your productivity.

Using electronics before bed will stimulate your brainwaves and make it more difficult for you to sleep. Bluelight tricks our brains into a false sense of daytime and, in turn, makes it more difficult for us to sleep. So, put down those screens if you love your sleep!

Thank the audience for listening

A persuasive speech is used to convince the audience of the speaker standing on a certain subject. To have a successful persuasive speech, doing the proper planning and executing your speech with confidence will help persuade the audience of your standing on the topic you chose. Persuasive speeches are used every day in the world around us, from planning what’s for dinner to arguing about politics. It is one of the most widely used forms of speech and, with proper planning and execution, you can sway any audience.

How to Write the Most Informative Essay

How to Craft a Masterful Outline of Speech

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(Some) Outlining Methods Pros and Cons

Outlines are not everybody’s thing. I know that, but they can be incredibly useful. I’ve said before that I wasn’t an outlining kind of writer when I first started, mostly because I didn’t know it was an option, but I’ve come around a bit and I’ve been testing out how to effectively outline this past year or so.

There are a couple of reasons I’ve done this, first being that I was getting stuck. I would write myself into a situation that had to be a certain way because of character traits and decisions made earlier in the story and because of said situation I was forced to go in a certain direction that I didn’t want to go in because it was either that or do a total rewrite. In short, I was stuck in a loop of starting over and over and over until I lost interest. Outlining doesn’t necessarily fix that problem entirely, but it helps test the waters for things that may be problems and helps me direct my characters away from directions I don’t want to go. I find that it also helps me write faster since I’m not spending as much time wondering what I should do next, and it helps me get hyped about my story. It’s not a sure-fire thing, but it’s certainly preventative.

I think there’s a misconception, which a lot of people have about the outline, that it’s a set in stone contract or a walkthrough of your story. The truth is that you may not even use the outline at all, you may simply make it and never touch it again because it may have already fulfilled its purpose to you. The point of an outline is to get you to think about your story before you actually write it. Brian A. Klems puts it this way in his article “Choosing the Best Outline Method for You” in Writer’s Digest :

“Think of it, perhaps, as a recipe. You can follow a recipe exactly for, say, a cheesecake, or you can add a bit of chocolate to the batter, and poof—chocolate cheesecake! Or, you can add a graham cracker crust and some cherries to the top, and you’ve got a different version of the same classic. Recipes guide us—but the creativity still belongs to the head chef.”

So, if you’re convinced, and you want to start using outlines, you may be wondering “What the fuck do I do now?” And I might respond “That is a very good question, I was hoping you could tell me.” Just as there is no one way to use an outline, there is no one way to make an outline. Here are a few ways people suggest you go about it, and some pros and cons to each strategy:

• The Expanding Outline (aka The Snowflake Method):

The idea with this one is that you start with your basic premise

Ex. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water

Then you keep expanding and adding more details to it

Ex. Jack the seventh son of a seventh son with his twin sister Jill must hike up the mount Hecuba to retrieve the water of youth to heal their sick mother. à Jack the seventh son of a seventh son with his twin sister Jill must hike up the mount Hecuba to retrieve the water of youth to heal their sick mother, because they are the only one’s powerful enough to defeat wicked Zolo. Zolo almost kills them several times (with his henchmen, his giant hawk, and with his turtle Steve), but Jack and Jill persevere and face Zolo for one final battle when Jack falls from the mountain, leaving Jill to follow him down quickly or perish. ETC.

More information here .

• Helps identify the places that need expanding
• Can be used on the micro and macro level.

This one’s easy. Just start writing the story but summarize the conversations and scenes.

• Straight forward
• Easy to follow after it’s done
• Not good for much brainstorming
• May have to do it several times
• Skeletal Outline:

This is the one most people think of when they think of outlines. It’s like when you were a kid in elementary school and they made you do those outlines for essays that have the class hated more than writing the actual essay. You basically just use a story common story structure and plug in elements of your story

• Easy to follow
• Easy to organize and reorganize
• Bird’s eye view
• Helps identify key elements
• May have to try different story structures out
• Free-Writing:

This is method I use a lot with in my outlining process. It’s basically just doing a dry-run of the story with low attention to detail. I use this when I have no ideas, but I think that writing will help me think clearer.

• Good brainstorming
• Not easy to follow
• May cause you to get lost or too focused on small details
• May not help with the flow of the piece
• Contextual Preperation:

This one I think should just me standard if you’re writing a story. It’s not outlining the story elements or plot, just hammering out details about the world and the characters. What are the politics, climate, history, ruling class, etc. of the world and what are your characters’ motivations, fears, habits, ticks, appearances, history, etc..

• You know what every element of the world will and won’t do
• Good reference
• Good descriptions
• Good for pantsers
• Goos motivation
• You will probably use this
• Not step-by-step
• 3 Act 9 Part 27 Chapter Outline:

This is a basic structure that I’ve used before, more information here. You can manipulate the details, but it gives you points to touch on.

• Step-by-step
• Good for making sure you touch on why things are happening and how your main character is influencing the plot
• Need to make sure your chapters flow
• Maybe not the layout you want
• Notecard Method:

Honestly I don’t understand this one. I think it’s useful if you have elements you want and don’t want to commit to a place for them yet. You can use notecards to move around elements easily. More information here .

• Easy to manipulate
• Easy to follow when it’s done
• Not easy in the brainstorming stage

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How to Make More Persuasive Speeches: Topics, Outlines, and Great Examples

A persuasive speech aims to inform, educate, and convince the audience on a topic or action. You want to convince the audience of your viewpoint. The best persuasive speeches are thought-provoking and clear. 

When choosing a topic for your persuasive speech, choose one that you already have some knowledge of and an opinion on. You’ll need to be able to argue your topic and stand behind your points. Not only will you need to know your own opinion, but you'll be able to discuss the opposite viewpoint accurately.

This article will look at the different types of persuasive speech to help you choose the right one. We’ll also look at tips on what makes a good persuasive speech. Also, some persuasive speech topics that'll help you get started.

Different Types of Persuasive Speech

There are several different organizational structures for persuasive speeches. They include:

• Problem-solution
• Problem-cause-solution
• Comparison/contrast

Each type of speech has a different purpose and a unique structure. For example, a causal speech explains what happens as a result of a cause. (Source: bizfluent ). A comparative advantage speech examines two or more things and explains why some are better than others. (Source: Virtual Speech Coach )

Problem-solution speeches and problem-cause-solution speeches are related. In a problem-solution speech you present a problem followed by the solution to that problem. The problem-cause-solution speech is basically the same, except it examines the cause of the problem before presenting the solution. (Source: popsOpenText )

11 Tips on How to Write a Persuasive Speech

Writing a persuasive speech can be difficult. You want your persuasive speech to be successful in persuading the audience. Here are 11 tips to help you write a successful speech:

1. Choose the Right Topic

When looking at ideas for persuasive speech topics, it’s important to have a speech that's interesting to your audience and you. Also, consider whether your topic is appropriate for your audience. Choose a topic your audience would be interested in. 

For example, if you're giving a speech to a dentist, then a persuasive speech on how brushing your teeth isn’t essential wouldn’t be appropriate. But an audience of dentists might be interested in the benefits of mouthwash. 

2. Write How You Talk

Part of writing a persuasive speech is creating a persuasive speech outline and writing out your speech. As you're writing out your speech, consider writing how you talk. This means using short words and sentences.

Avoid any sentence that would cause you to stumble when speaking. A speech is meant to be spoken, not read off a sheet of paper. If you don’t have much experience in writing how you talk or aren’t confident, try reading the sentence aloud as you're writing. This will give you an idea of how easy your speech is to read, and it'll flow better.

3. Start Strong

Start your persuasive speech strong by letting your audience know what topic you're discussing, why your topic matters, and what you hope to convince them to do your speech. There are several ways to start strong.

• Grab their attention . This is a statement or visual that grabs your audience’s attention.
• Connect to the audience . This is where you show your connection to the audience, whether it’s a similar background or an emotional connection.
• Show evidence . This is where you show your knowledge or authority on the subject of your speech to your audience. Plus, you can highlight your research or professional experience.
• Share your goal . Explain what you hope the speech will accomplish for your audience.

4. Tell a Story

A good speech tells a story. A persuasive speech's story should tell the problem, cause, and solution. Having those essential elements makes your speech more persuasive than if it didn’t have them.

If you want to connect with your audience an excellent way to do that's to tell a relevant story about the topic you’re discussing. Sometimes a good story has more power than facts and statistics.

5. Structure

Figuring out your persuasive speech outline structure is challenging, but it's an important step. Sort your facts and points so they'll impact your audience. Your speech will be more persuasive if it's logical and clear.

A structured speech is your way of navigating your audience through your topic. Without structure, you could end up with a scattered, unprofessional speech that leaves the audience confused.

6. Be Concise

It can be harder to create a concise, persuasive speech than one that isn’t. Being concise is important. Giving your audience too much information makes it difficult for them to know what information is essential. Being concise makes managing your audience’s attention and focus easier.

7. Research Your Topic

When writing your persuasive speech, it’s essential to research your topic. Research shows your audience that you're creditable and did your research. This makes your speech more persuasive.

Remember, when finding persuasive speech topic sources, you must ensure that your sources are relevant. Some examples of relevant sources are: 

• official documents
• online academic references

Using professional sources shows the audience that your points are creditable. Also, the main point of your persuasive speech topic should be able to be backed up by logical evidence that'll support your claims.

8. Discuss Counter-Arguments

When planning your persuasive speech topic, consider adding a counter-argument to your speech. Adding a counterargument will increase your creditability. Also, by discussing the counterargument, you'll have the chance to argue the point directly.

But, when debating the counterargument, make it a short discussion and free of bias and language that's angry, hostile, or passionate. If you present the counterargument with bias or angry language, the audience may think you aren't creditable and stop listening.

9. Authenticity

When considering your persuasive speech ideas , choosing a topic you believe in is best. Selecting an issue you believe in allows you to write your speech more easily. You’ll also easily convince the audience if you believe in your topic. If you want to connect to your audience, tell a story about why you believe in your persuasive speech topic.

10. Write it Well

When writing your speech, you must ensure that you do it well. Writing an excellent persuasive speech can be difficult, but it's rewarding to see the reaction to your speech. A good persuasive speech is thought-provoking, daring, and precise. Know and objectively state counterpoints.

11. Have a Call to Action

Use a call to action when creating your persuasive speech outline. Your audience can become committed to the action you’re calling them to and will become more persuaded.

20 Interesting Persuasive Speech Topics

One essential tip for creating a good persuasive speech is to have an interesting persuasive speech topic . When choosing your speech topic, you must have your audience in mind. Ask yourself:

• Would my audience be interested in this persuasive speech idea ?
• Is the topic appropriate for my audience?
• Would my audience benefit from the topic?

When you're considering what your speech topic should be, keep those questions in mind. Here are some topics to write a persuasive speech on :

• Is graffiti art?
• Which is better, paper books or e-books?
• Should interns be paid for work?
• Should the federal minimum wage be raised?
• Should cursive still be taught in schools
• Should college athletes be paid for being on a sports team?
• Should schools teach all children how to swim?
• Should schools teach high school students how to pay taxes?
• Do Robots help or hurt humanity?
• Should libraries be given unlimited access to e-books?
• Does technology isolate people?
• Should students get paid for having a high GPA?
• Should students who bully others be expelled and have a permanent mark on their permanent record?
• Are students wearing uniforms beneficial?
• Would it be beneficial for schools to require a foreign language?
• Should Black Fridays be banned?
• Should gym classes affect a student’s GPA?
• Are genetically modified foods harmful?
• Should genetically modified foods be banned?
• Should Pluto be considered a planet?

Learn More About Making a Speech

Do you want to learn more about creating a speech? Here are some helpful articles:

The Best Source for Digital Assets for Persuasive Speeches

If you're using a presentation as a part of your speech, you'll most likely use digital creative assets. Examples of digital assets that could really help your persuasive presentation include:

• stock images
• PowerPoint presentation templates

All the digital elements are created by professionals, which means they're high quality. 

Here's how you can have access to premium creative assets:

Envato Elements . It’s a subscription service with unlimited access to premium digital elements. If you pay a low monthly fee and subscribe , you'll have access to an Envato Elements subscription. It’s the best value for anyone who will need these digital elements.

Choose a Persuasive Speech Topic Today!

Now that you’ve read tips on making a good persuasive speech, use them when writing your next speech. If you're using a presentation when you’re giving your speech, try using a premium presentation template from Envato Elements. We’ve given you the tools to write a good speech. Now it’s up to you to use them. Good Luck!

Editorial Note: This content was originally published in June 2022. We're sharing it again because our editors have determined that this information is still accurate and relevant.

• Open access
• Published: 11 September 2024

Why is Antactic krill (Euphasia superba) oil on the spotlight? A review

• Fereidoon Shahidi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9912-0330 1 &
• Abrehem Abad 1  

Food Production, Processing and Nutrition volume  6 , Article number:  88 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

90 Accesses

Metrics details

Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba ) oil is attracting more interest for its nutritional as well as functional potentials. Nevertheless, its potential as new and innovative food component remains largely unexplored. This review aims to outline the chemical composition, extraction methods, and health advantages of krill oil, offering insights for its utilization and provides evidence why it is now on the spotlight. Krill oil presents a distinctive fat profile, rich in lipid classes, with phospholipids (PLs) comprising a significant portion (38.93—79.99%) with high levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Additionally, it includes several minor bioactive components like astaxanthin, tocopherols, sterols, flavonoids, and vitamin A. Various extraction technics, including solvent and solvent-free extraction, enzyme-assisted pretreatment extraction, super/subcritical fluid extraction, significantly influence both output as well as standard of the resulting product. Furthermore, the oil had been linked to a number of health advantages, including prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), anti-inflammatory effects, support for women's physiology, anticancer activities, as well as neuroprotection, among others. Despite the commercial availability of krill oil products as dietary supplement, there is a scarcity of studies exploring the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for its various biological activities. Despite this, apply krill oil as an innovative food ingredient has not been thoroughly investigated. This review consolidates information on the chemical composition, extraction techniques, possible health advantages, as well as existing uses as applications, aiming to offer insights for its complete exploitation. In addition, it attempts to unravel the fundamental molecular mechanisms that being investigated to deeply understand how krill oil produces various biological effects.

Graphical Abstract

Introduction

Krill, scientifically known as Euphausia superba , is a tiny crustacean found in the seas of the Antarctic Ocean, its also holds significant ecological importance as a primary food source for many fish species (Zhou et al.,  2021 ). Although quantifying krill biomass poses challenges, estimates suggest approximately 379 million metric tons. In an effort to preserve the marine ecosystem, the agency of Antarctic Marine Living has implemented the catch maximum per season which is < 619,000 tons (Zeb et al.,  2021 ). However, the actual catch less than 250,000 tons, which is below the allowed limits, likely due to challenges in preserving krill due to its delicate nature (Fuxing et al.,  2017 ). Krill composition has a water content of 77.9—83.1%, lipids from 0.5 to 3.6%, protein from 11.9 to 15.4%, chitin at 2%, along with carbohydrates, and 3% ash (Xie et al.,  2017 ).

Krill oil (KO) finds its way in the aquaculture sectors and as a dietary supplement to enhance health. This is attributed to its nutritional profile, that is high in omega-3 fatty acids as triacylglycerols (TAGs) also phospholipids (PLs), astaxanthin, and vitamins (A and E) (Cicero and Colletti,  2015 ).

Krill has a lipid content of 0.5–3.6% (Xie et al.,  2019 ), notably phospholipids (PLs) that account for 30 to 65% of the total. Unlike fish oils (FO), which primarily occur as TAGs, the oil has a significant portion of phosphatidylcholine. With roughly 40% of its overall fatty acids are due to EPA (C20:5) and DHA (C22:6) (Ramprasath et al.,  2013 ). The C20:5 and C22:6 in KO exhibit various beneficial pharmacological properties, hence serve a major role in the management of several chronic conditions like CVD as well as inflammatory diseases (Cicero et al.,  2012 ; Costanzo et al.,  2016 ). Moreover, they contribute to cancer prevention and improve the gut health (Saravanan et al.,  2010 ). Research findings indicate that C20:5 and C22:6 obtained from KO shown better bioaccessibility when compared to different n-3 PUFA sources and varieties (Rossmeisl et al.,  2012 ).

Krill oil received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008, designated as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status. It was also granted approval as a novel food by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2009 and was granted authorization in China in 2014. Additionally, EFSA approved the use of KO for pregnant women in 2014.

This write up offers a comprehensive account of krill oil with regard to its chemical composition, bioavailability, health benefits, mechanisms of action, extraction methods (both traditional and unconventional), and existing applications. Additionally, it explores the future prospects of krill oil as nutraceutical and why it has captured the spotlight.

Composition of Antarctic krill oil ( Euphausia superba )

Lipid class composition.

Unlike typical edible oils, which predominantly comprising mostly TAGs (over 95%) (Shahidi and Abad,  2019 ; Shahidi et al.,  2020 ), krill oil consists of a broader range of lipid classes. Phospholipids constitute the primary class, followed by TAGs, DAGs, MAGs, FFAs, and other constituents (Ahmmed et al.,  2020 ; Phleger et al.,  2002 ). Various factors affect the composition of each lipid portion in krill oil. These include year-to-year environmental changes, seasonal fluctuations, the maturity level of KO, and storage conditions, transportation means, and preparation techniques (Xie et al.,  2019 ). For instance, dehydrating krill through hot air yields higher amounts of free fatty acids (Gang et al.,  2019 ). Moreover, several studies have employed different analytical methods to analyze the composition of krill oil, thus comparison of the results may not always be straightforward (Han and Liu,  2019 ).

Numerous studies have documented varying lipid compositions in different krill samples. Krill oils typically exhibit a substantial content of PLs, varying from 39.89 to 80.69%, which can vary based on the sample type as well as the analytical method employed (Table  1 ). Discrepancies in lipid compositions observed in different years and regions may be due to fluctuations in feeding behavior (Phleger et al.,  2002 ). Clarke ( 1980 ) noted that oil extracted from krill ovarian tissues had higher phospholipid levels compared to that from muscle tissues, similar to that observed in fish (Takama et al.,  1994 ). Thus, females tended to possess higher PL levels than males due to the presence of developing ovaries (Kołakowska,  1991 ). Moreover, the extracted KO's PL content was greatly impacted by the extraction solvent selection, with mix of ethanol and isopropanol extraction resulting in elevated levels of phospholipids compared to solvents like hexane and acetone (Xie et al.,  2017 ).

Table 2 provides an overview of the phospholipid (PL) composition of Antarctic krill oil, indicating that phosphatidylcholine (PC) constitutes the majority, 44.58 to 99.80%, followed by phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) at 0.20 to 24.74%. Additionally, lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is also present in significant proportions, possibly attributed to PC hydrolysis due to either incorrect storage or preparation of KO (Lim et al.,  2015 ). Other PLs types such as lysophosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine, cardiolipin, sphingomyelin, phosphatidic acid, and phosphatidylglycerol have also been observed in smaller amounts, typically not surpassing 15%, in certain studies (Fricke et al.,  1984 ; Kołakowska,  1991 ). PLs, particularly PC, have long been used as food additives and nutritional supplements, mainly derived from sources such as egg yolk, plant oils, and milk products (Chen et al.,  2023 ). The abundance of PC in KO provides a promising marine source for supplying PLs.

Lipid fraction (TAGs and PLs)

As already noted, KO composition consists primarily phospholipids (PLs) followed by triacylglycerols (Abad and Shahidi,  2023 ; Ahmmed et al.,  2020 ). These components significantly contribute to in absorption, and metabolism (Zhang et al.,  2021 ).

More than 64 molecular species of triacylglycerols have been identified in krill oil, with carbon number (CN) 42 to 60 and with one to eleven double bonds. Among these, the primary prevalent TAG species are 16:0/16:0/18:1, 14:0/16:0/18:1, 16:0/18:1/18:1, and 16:0/16:1/16:1 (Castro-Gómez et al.,  2015 ), constituting relative proportions of 4.8, 8, 5.5, and 6% of all TAG species found, in that order. This observation is consistent with the primary fatty acid profiles of TAG that contain 14:0, 16:0, 16:1, and 18:1. While the TAG fraction in krill oil contains relatively low levels of C20:5 and C22:6, the majority of residues are EPA found in the sn-1,3 positions, whereas C22:6 residues are located mainly in the sn-2 position (Fuller et al.,  2020 ). This distribution pattern mirrors that observed in FO (Akanbi et al.,  2013 ; Standal et al.,  2009 ). Moreover, another study found that about 21% of n-3 PUFAs were in TAGs fraction of krill oil, notably found in the sn -2 location (Araujo et al.,  2014 ).

Choline-containing PLs are dominant in krill oil. Using HPLC–ESI–MS, Winther et al. ( 2011 ) 69 PL species in krill oil have choline-head groups, comprising 60 PC species and nine LPC species. Notably, PC (16:0/22:6), PC (16:0/18:1), also PC (16:0/20:5) were the species with the highest abundance based on relative intensity, consistent with findings reported by Castro-Gómez et al. ( 2015 ) as well as Le Grandois et al. ( 2009 ). Although differing numbers of PC and LPC species were reported, it was discovered that about seven species of PC have omega-3 fatty acid in both two positions ( sn -1 and sn -2). These species included PC, (18:4/22:6), (18:4/20:5), (20:5/22:6) (20:5/20:5), (20:5/23:5), (20:5/22:5), as well as (22:6/22:6) (Winther et al.,  2011 ), highlighting the prevalence of omega-3 fatty acid within PC molecules. Furthermore, NMR analysis (Hupfeld,  2018 ) indicated that in contrast to the first position ( sn -1), the majority of omega-3 fatty acids in krill phospholipids were located in the sn -2 positions.

Fatty acid composition

Krill oil is rich in PUFAs, including C20:5 and C22:6, together with high amounts of C14:0, C16:1, C16:0, C18:1, and C20:1(Sun et al.,  2018 ). In addition, n-3 PUFAs, in particular C20:5 and C22:6 derived from dietary lipids, are recognized for their vital role in health (Marventano et al.,  2015 ). While other marine oil including fish known for their high C20:5 and C22:6 content and have traditionally been used as supplements of n-3 PUFAs, similar composition could be offered by KO. Table 3 provides a comparative overview of the composition of fatty acid in KO (Xie et al.,  2018 ) along with other marine oils including algal oil (DHASCO) (Abuzaytoun and Shahidi,  2006 ), cod liver oil (Dalheim et al.,  2021 ), as well as tuna and menhaden oils (Codex Standard 329–2017, WHO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,  2017 ). Furthermore, KO has similar levels of C20:5 and C22:6 as other marine oils, although a significant portion of these fatty acids in KO are linked to PLs rather than TAGs found in other oil like fish.

The levels of C20:5 and C22:6 in krill oil are similar to what been found in FO (Table  3 ), but occurring mainly in the PLs rather than TAGs. Clarke ( 1980 ) found that the PLs portion of KO exhibited substantially greater proportions of PUFAs, as well as n-3 PUFAs, along with lower concentrations of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Specifically, 31.13% of C20:5 and 14.87% of C22:6 been identified in PL portion, compared to about 3.17% of C20:5 and 1.5% of C22:6 in TAG portion. Those findings were supported by several additional research (Cicero and Colletti,  2015 ; Laidlaw et al.,  2014 ), which indicate that KO with elevated PL levels have higher amount of C20:5 and C22:6 (Sun et al.,  2019 ). The latest studies have indicated that omega-3 fatty acid that located in PLs demonstrate notably enhanced bioavailability compared to other omega-3 that located in TAGs (Jiang et al.,  2020 ). Consequently, krill oil may offer superior bioavailability of C20:5 and C22:6 compared to FO.

Minor components

Astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin, consider as a primary carotenoid present in certain marine organisms as well as algae, exhibits potent antioxidant properties as well as significant biological advantages (Table  4 ) (Ambati et al.,  2014 ). Miki ( 1991 ) highlighted astaxanthin's antioxidant potency that is ten times stronger than zeaxanthin, lutein, canthaxanthin, and β-carotene; furthermore, hundred times superior to alpha-tocopherol. Moreover, existence of astaxanthin responsable the deep red color in KO (Zeng et al.,  2024 ). The astaxanthin content in krill oilKO varies from 4 to 500 mg/100 g, also is affected by factors such as extraction techniques and analytical methods (Ali-Nehari et al.,  2012 ; Sun et al.,  2017a ; Tandyet al.,  2009 ). Extraction by acetone solvent has been shown to yield krill oil with higher levels of astaxanthin (Ahmadkelayeh and Hawboldt,  2020 ).

In KO astaxanthin predominantly exists as form of fatty acid esters. Foss et al. ( 1987 ) reported that astaxanthin diesters (51%), monoesters (43%), as well as free astaxanthin (6%), which coincides with findings of other studies (Lambertsen and Braekkan,  1971 ; Yamaguchi et al.,  1983 ) and similar to that of other shellfish. Subsequently, research has identified C14:0, C16:0, C16:1, C18:1, C20:0, C20:5, as well as C22:6 as primary fatty acids present as astaxanthin esters form (Cao et al.,  2023 ). Furthermore, astaxanthin was found to exist as three astaxanthin isomers in KO, namely all- trans , 9- cis , and 13- cis astaxanthin, with the all- trans isomer being most abundant.

KO have a considerable proportion of sterols, ranging from 2.3 to 3.9% of total lipids, mainly as cholesterol and desmosterol (Table  1 ) (Huenerlage et al.,  2016 ). Cholesterol constitutes approximately 81.31—82.57% of total sterols at concentrations ranging from 1895 to 3196 mg/100 g (Colletti et al.,  2021 ). These concentrations exceed those found in certain fish oils like tuna oil (204 mg/100 g) and hoki oil (515 mg/100 g) (Huenerlage et al.,  2016 ), also those present in egg yolk (1181 mg/100 g) (Albalat et al.,  2016 ). Since diet that including high cholesterol is associated with CVD (Nissinen et al.,  2008 ), concerns have been expressed regarding the consumption of krill oil. Bruheim et al. ( 2017 ) suggested that employing one solvent for extraction like ethanol may end to reduced cholesterol levels in KO in contrast to ethanol–water mixtures. Nonetheless, there is a need to explore novel extraction techniques to further mitigate cholesterol amounts in KO.

Desmosterol, recognized as the forerunner to cholesterol which constitutes 1.70—18.63% of all sterols (Fricke et al.,  1984 ). Additionally, Phleger et al. ( 2002 ), identified several other sterols in KO like brassica-sterol brassica-sterol (0.5—1.7%), 24-nordehydrocholesterol (0.1—1.7%), 24-methylenecholesterol (0.1—0.4%), transdehydrocholesterol (1.1—1.5%), and stanols (0.1—0.2%). Minor discrepancies in sterol composition may arise from variations in krill diet over different years, as crustaceans rely heavily on dietary sources or phytosterol dealkylation for sterol acquisition, rather than de novo synthesis (Xie et al.,  2018 ).

Vitamin E encompasses all tocopherols and tocotrienols, comprising four pairs of homologues (α-, β-, γ-, δ-), each possessing antioxidant properties and biological advantages, with α-tocopherol being the most potent (Valk and Hornstra,  2000 ). Similar to many other marine organisms (Ackman and Cormier,  1967 ), α-tocopherol predominates in krill oil, ranging from 14.74 to 63.0 mg/100 (Xie et al.,  2017 ; Tilseth,  2010 ). Some studies have also identified γ-tocopherol vary in concentration from 0.25 to 3.67 mg/100; however, traces of δ-tocopherol from 0 to 0.65 mg/100 g (Sun et al.,  2018 ; Xie et al.,  2017 ). Typically, in KO over 90% of tocopherols exist as α-tocopherol. Tocopherols in KO may enhance antioxidant capacity also potentially synergize with some bioactive constituents.

Vitamin A, crucial for human nutrition, is essential for both immune function as well as the management of certain infectious diseases (Mayo-Wilson et al.,  2011 ). According to wet weight basis, frozen krill normally contains 0.11 mg/100 g of vitamin A, (Suzuki and Shibata,  1990 ). a nutrient that is fat-soluble and may concentrate in the oil during the lipid extraction process. Xie et al. ( 2017 ) reported vitamin A contents of 16.40—28.55 mg/100 g of krill oil, with variations attributed to the extraction solvents used. Tilseth ( 2010 ) noted that oil extracted from cookedd krill had a vitamin A content of about 18 mg/100 g. Krill oil has a higher content of vitamin A than some FO, like menhaden oil (0.1–0.6 mg/100 g) as well as tuna oil (11.09 mg/100 g), but less than the 99.76 mg/100 g found in hoki oil.

Flavonoids exhibit various biological activities, including antioxidant, antibacterial, immunomodulatory, antitumor, also anti-inflammatory properties (Ullah et al.,  2020 ). While fruits, vegetables, and grains are primary sources of flavonoids (Merken and Beecher,  2000 ; Shahidi and Yeo,  2018 ), krill oil contains a novel flavonoid, 6,8-di- C -glucosyl luteolin. Sampalis ( 2013 ) patented a KO extract containing approximately 40% phospholipids (PLs) and about 7 mg/100 mL of flavonoids. This extract demonstrated efficacy in protecting the skin against harmful ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation also in improving dyslexia and abnormal motor function. According to certain research (Omar et al.,  2011 ), flavonoids' ability to function as antioxidants is increased when they are C -glycosylated at particular locations as well as their antidiabetic properties (Matsuda et al.,  2003 ). However, information about the characteristics of flavonoids found in KO are currently unavailable.

Whole krill possesses significant levels of minerals that are necessary for bone health, including magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus 360, 1322 1140 mg/100 g respectively, that fulfill the recommended amount for adults (Colletti et al.,  2021 ). Even though processing of krill may lead to loss of some minerals, using the Sampalis ( 2011 ) patented process, a krill lipid extract enriched with multiple minerals including potassium, calcium, selenium, and zinc may be obtained. Moreover, KO also have a great amount of fluoride which is 2,400 mg/kg (Soevik and Braekkan,  1979 ). However, fluoride is recognized as a global health concern (Barbier et al.,  2010 ). While fluoride in krill predominantly accumulates in the exoskeleton, there is a potential chance that it gets released in deceased krill. Hence, careful consideration of fluoride transfer is essential during krill oil extraction to prevent excessive fluoride levels in the oil. Typically, removing the exoskeleton from krill prior to extract the oil yields KO with low concentration of fluoride < 0.5 mg/kg, whereas extract by use whole body of krill exhibit a great concentration of fluoride from 3—5 mg/kg (Bruheim et al.,  2016 ; Jansson et al.,  2018 ).

Extraction methods

Krill oil extraction uses dried material as well as fresh krill (Katevas et al.,  2014 ; Ronen et al.,  2017 ). High concentrations of active proteolytic enzymes in krill allow for quick autolysis following catch. Therefore, it is imperative to commence on-board processing as soon as krill are captured in order to extract oil from fresh krill (Beaudoin et al.,  2004 ). The krill biomass serves as a more suitable material for on-shore krill oil extraction, particularly in regions lacking onboard or offshore processing capabilities (Yoshitomi et al.,  2003 ). Various extraction techniques, such as solvent extraction, mechanical pressing (nonsolvent extraction), enzyme-assisted extraction, and super/subcritical fluid extraction, are well-documented for krill oil extraction (see Table  5 ). Every approach has pros and disadvantages of its own, which are discussed below.

Traditional extraction methods

Solvent extraction.

Solvent extraction, a traditional method in oil production (Abad and Shahidi,  2017 , 2021 ), remains prevalent for krill oil production. Since one type of solvent cannot effectively extract all of the lipids from krill because of presence of different lipid classes with differing polarities, Xie et al. ( 2017 ) found that alcohols like ethanol as well as isopropanol could extract substantial volumes of PLs from krill meal but yield KO has less minor components. Conversely, acetone efficiently extracts minor components but fails to fully extract PLs. Hexane is widely used in oil extraction from seeds and is cost-effective with high extraction efficiency (Abad and Shahidi,  2020a , 2020b ); as such, it shows moderate capabilities to extract PLs as well as minor components (Li et al.,  2013 ). Combining solvents such a polar with a nonpolar can help balance the extraction efficiencies of PLs as well as minor component (Ronen et al.,  2017 ). Although the Folch method (Folch et al.,  1957 ) is widely applied to extract lipids from animal tissues with high lipid (Bruheim et al.,  2016 ), its commercial feasibility is limited due to the solvent’s toxicity such as chloroform as well as methanol.

Presently, the most used technique for extracting KO involves a two-step process using ethanol and acetone (Beaudoin et al.,  2004 ) which yields better lipid extraction (2.62%) compared to a single solvent extraction (acetone, 2.15%). Alternatively, a simpler one-step strategy, using a mixture of ethanol and acetone (1:1, v/v), can also achieve high lipid yields (Gigliotti et al.,  2011 ). Furthermore, Yin et al. ( 2015 ) found that combining solvent extraction with extrusion pretreatment enhances lipid extraction efficiency from krill. Defatted krill remains a valuable resource for protein recovery (Chen et al.,  2009 ), including enzymatic hydrolysis for producing peptides (Zhao et al.,  2013 ) or by fermentation (Sun and Mao,  2016 ). While solvent extraction is cost-effective and scalable, it necessitates large quantities of solvents, thus posing potential environmental concerns. Moreover, the process takes a lot of time also labor-intensive.

Mechanical pressing (solvent-free extraction)

Solvent-free extraction, unlike solvent-based methods, does not rely on organic solvents for extracting KO. Mechanical pressing, which is known as classic solvent-free extraction technique, is commonly used for oilseeds with great content of oil including sesame oil 49 to 58% and sunflower oil 40 to 43% (Khan and Hanna,  1983 ). Although less efficient compared to solvent extraction, mechanical pressing is often employed to remove the majority of the oil before recovering the remaining oil via solvent extraction. Fresh krill is not inherently suited for conventional mechanical pressing due to its relatively and 17.24% in krill meal (Yin et al.,  2015 ) using this method, fresh or thawed material should be ground as slurry in fluid medium, facilitating lipid release during subsequent mechanical disruption procedures, followed by oil recovery using centrifugation (Larsen et al.,  2007 ). However, the resultant slurry during grinding could lead to emulsification because of nature of phospholipids, hence complicating the removal of the fat off the mixture. To address this concern, Katevas et al. ( 2014 ) introduced an alternative method, which includes cooking, drain, and centrifuging. The approach allows simultaneous extraction of PLs-enriched KO as well as neutral lipid-enriched KO. It is worth noting that the initial cooking step take place at 90 °C with no agitation to prevent emulsification. Additionally, it is preferable to process krill when fresh, because ice crystals that grow as a result of freezing might harm krill tissues, resulting in emulsification during processing and yielding low-quality products.

Solvent-free extraction offers the advantage of providing a safer and more environmentally friendly process compared to solvent extraction methods. However, it presents significant drawbacks such as the need for investing in equipment purchase and high energy requirements. Additionally, the high operating temperatures involved may lead to product oxidation. Furthermore, solvent-free extraction may not efficiently extract all oil that exist in krill, as indicated by Katevas et al. ( 2014 ) who reported a yield of only 2.1%. Consequently, some krill manufacturers opt to use mechanical separation consider as very first step to extract a portion of oil while at the same time producing krill meal. Thereafter, some techniques like solvent extraction or supercritical fluid extraction are employed to extract oil from the remaining krill meal (Tilseth et al.,  2015 ).

Other extraction techniques

Enzymatic extraction.

Enzyme pretreatment represents an efficient method for releasing bound compounds and increasing lipid yield during the extraction process (Dom´ınguez et al.,  1994 ). By using specific enzymes, the extractability of oil can be improved. Moreover, the gentle nature of this process guarantees better-quality meal and oil. These advantages render enzyme pretreatment an attractive option for KO extraction.

Oil has been extracted from raw krill using proteases, as demonstrated by Bruheim et al. ( 2016 ). The typical process involves disintegrating the krill into small particles, followed by the addition of water then heating. Subsequently, enzymes are added to hydrolyze resultant material, after which the enzymes are deactivated. The solids, primarily the exoskeleton, are removed and then PL-protein complex is separated then dried. KO is then extracted from this complex (Bruheim et al.,  2016 ). It is worth noting that the remove the exoskeleton from material can lead to a reduction in fluoride content in the resulting products. Lee ( 2014 ) patented an alternative enzyme assisted extraction method by using ultra high-pressure reactor ranging from 10 to 300 MPa to liquefy krill and assure effective interaction with enzyme (proteases). Following undergoing enzymatic processing for a duration of 4 to 24 h, the krill that had turned into liquid was thereafter subjected to filtration in order to separate the resulting filtrate from the solid residue known as sludge via centrifugation. moreover, the astaxanthin-enriched oils were separated from sludge using another solvent such as ethanol.

This method's main benefit is gentle operating conditions, that enable the extraction of high-quality protein and oil from krill at the same time. Additionally, the enzymatic hydrolysis process facilitates the recovery useful byproduct like krill peptides. These peptides are gaining attention and recognized as bioactive compounds in functional foods and nutraceuticals, that have positive effects on health and low the risk of disease. Nevertheless, importantly, the longer hydrolysis time restricts the enzymes' potential for large-scale industrial applications, Furthermore, the high coast compared to other extraction method.

Supercritical fluid extraction

Lipid extraction via supercritical extraction has attracted a lot of attention recently for its solvent-free nature, environmental friendliness, and gentle operating conditions. Among supercritical solvents, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO 2 ) is preferred for its chemical inertness, safety, non-toxicity, and moderate critical properties (Friedrich and Pryde,  1984 ). Despite its advantages, SC-CO 2 is not optimal for extracting all krill lipids, particularly phospholipids (PLs) (Yamaguchi et al.,  1986 ). Nevertheless, extracting lipids using SC-CO 2 yields good quality as well as more thermally stable proteins from krill compared to the traditional solvent extraction methods. The addition of ethanol at 5 to 20% in SC-CO2 could enhance PL solubility, thereby improving lipid recovery. However, because ethanol is liquid at ambient temperature, use it not be ideal. on the other hand, for commercial of extraction by supercritical fluid remains limited because of the restricted processing capacity and expensive high-pressure equipment (Bruheim et al.,  2018 ).

Although it works at lower pressure and temperature levels than supercritical extraction, subcritical fluid extraction has many of the same benefits. Liu et al. ( 2015 ) reported that propane as well as butane are primary subcritical fluids used in extraction due to their colorless nature also easy removal from the extracted products. Extracting krill oil using subcritical butane at 30 °C and 0.3—0.8 MPa conditions (Xie et al.,  2017 ) yielded similar oil quantity and quality as hexane but in a faster process with less solvent usage. A study by Sun et al. ( 2018 ) showed that KO extracted with subcritical butane contained great levels of tocopherols also astaxanthin while maintaining lower oxidation level compared to solvent extraction methods. However, similar to supercritical fluid extraction is also not yet cost-effective for routine applications.

Health benefits of Antarctic krill oil

Krill oil contains a number of nutrients and bioactives like C20:5, C22:6, PLs, astaxanthin, vitamin A, also tocopherols (vitamin E), all of which contribute to human health support. Multiple research studies have examined the potential health benefits of Antarctic krill oil, encompassing cardiovascular disease prevention, anti-inflammatory activities, potential anti-cancer properties, effects on diabetes and obesity, neuroprotection, and benefits for women's physiology. These findings are summarized in Table  6 .

Cardiovascular health

CVD is recognized as a significant worldwide health challenge and a leading cause of mortality among adults and the elderly. Research by Harris et al. ( 1988 ), also Rizos et al. ( 2012 ) has indicated that incorporating n-3PUFAs into the diet can help mitigate CVD risks. Fish oil consumption, for having a high n-3 PUFA content, is widely acknowledged for its positive impact on CVD prevention. Studies are presently underway to investigate any possible connection between the use of KO and CVD prevention.

Elevation of triacylglycerols (TAG), total cholesterol (TC), also low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) usually linked to increased risk of CVD disease and are commonly considered as CVD risk indicators. Papakonstantinou et al. ( 2013 ) have demonstrated this association. Several studies (Batetta et al.,  2009 ; Hals et al.,  2017 ; Sun et al.,  2017b ; Zhu et al.,  2008 ) utilizing animal models have assessed the impact KO on CVD risk factor in both tissues and blood. Through eight weeks feeding trial, where mice were supplemented with 1.25, 2.50, or 5.0% KO in their diet, significant reductions in hepatic TAG and TC levels were observed, along with a decrease in serum TAG levels in mice fed with diet contains lots of fat (Tandy et al.,  2009 ). Additionally, in the diet that has a highest dosage of 5%, rise in serum adiponectin level was noted in mice fed with krill oil, supporting its anti-atherogenic properties (Lu et al.,  2008 ).

In another investigation, revealed that KO supplementation (5% in the diet) caused the drop in serum LDL-C after twelve weeks (0.45 mol/L) and TC (reaching 2.50 mol/L) levels in mice fed with diet contains lots of fat, compared to control group (0.65 mol/L, 3.70 mol/L, respectively). Additionally, Zhu et al. ( 2008 ) also Batetta et al. ( 2009 ) showed that KO can lower TAGs, TC, as well as LDL levels in mice with metabolic dysfunction induced by diet contains lots of fat. Similar findings observed in a separate study, using cynomolgus monkeys as a model Hals et al. ( 2017 ), where KO effectively improved various CVD risk factors, including HDL-C, LDL, TC, TAG, apolipoprotein, as well as A1, apolipoprotein B100 in dyslipidemic nonhuman primates with diabetes type 2.

Further support for the preventive effects of KO against CVD has emerged from human clinical trials conducted by, Cicero et al. ( 2016 ), also Rundblad et al. ( 2017 ). Bunea et al. ( 2004 ) examined the relationship between the consumption of KO and level of lipid in blood in 120 hyperlipidemic patients with moderately very high level of TC as well as high TAGs. Patients receiving 1- 3 g/day of KO for 3 months exhibited significantly elevated levels of HDL also decreased levels of glucose in blood, TC, LDL, as well as TAG compared to others were given placebo. In a similar vein, Berge et al. ( 2014 ) noted reduced risk of CVD in 300 adults with extremely high or high fasting serum TAG levels after consuming KO capsules. An about 10 percentage reduction in serum TAG level (relative to the placebo group) was observed in subjects administered krill oil at doses ranging from 0.5 – 4.0 g/day for 3 months. Similar improvements in lipid profiles following KO treatment were observed in overweight subjects as well as healthy individuals with fasting serum TAG levels range from 1.3 to 4.0 mmol/l (Rundblad et al.,  2017 ).

Anti-inflammatory properties

Chronic inflammation is strongly linked to numerous illnesses, including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis (Barnes and Karin,  1997 ). Additionally, systemic inflammation might be contributed to development of exacerbated like atherosclerosis, obesity, cachexia, osteoporosis, as well as anorexia (Gan,  2004 ; Monteiro and Azevedo,  2010 ). Hence, it is crucial to focus on controlling inflammation for overall health improvement. The anti-inflammatory properties of KO have been validated through in vivo as well as vitro studies, as detailed in Table  6 .

In laboratory experiments, it has been demonstrated that krill oil can markedly reduce the tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). This reduction is achieved by blocking the attachment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) (Bonaterra et al.,  2017 ) in LPS induced inflammatory human acute monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1, in a manner that depends on the dosage of KO used. At a concentration of 49 μg/ml in the medium, KO totally prevented the irrevocable of LPS to TLR4 and decreased TNF-α production by 75%. Similarly, Batetta et al. ( 2009 ) observed reduced TNF-α release in LPS-treated peritoneal macrophages from obese Zucker rats, given KO supplements in their diets compared to control. The n-3PUFAs induced modifications in the endocannabinoid (EC) system which affects these anti-inflammatories.

The endocannabinoids (ECs) derived from n-3PUFAs have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties (Calder,  2009 ). Additionally, KO effectively reduced the mRNA expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 (IL-8) and TNF-α in inflammatory cells exposed to LF82 bacteria or cytomix. Treatment with about 250 (mg/L) of krill oil in the medium also inhibited bacterial adhesion/invasion in epithelial cells as well as promoted wound healing. Those findings provide support for the health benefits associated with KO, particularly in the process of mitigating epithelial restitution and enhancing intestinal barrier integrity (Costanzo et al.,  2016 ).

The main focus of in vivo investigations has been on investigating the anti-inflammatory effects of krill oil on conditions such as arthritis or colitis in both humans and mice, as summarized in Table  6 . One study investigated the anti-inflammatory properties of KO using an experimental model of collagen-induced arthritis in mice (DBA/1) (Ierna et al.,  2010 ). They found that administering KO at a daily dosage approximately 0.45 g of C20:5 and C22:6/100 g of diet for 8 weeks (in mice) improved arthritis pathology. This improvement was evidenced by cartilage erosion, synovial membrane thickening, and reductions in cell influx. Moreover, krill oil demonstrated potential in mitigating inflammation in a rat model of colitis. Rats supplemented with KO at amount of 4.9% in diet for one month exhibited preserved colon length and favorable changes in prostaglandin (PG) and interleukin (IL) levels associated with inflammation.

The plasma level of CRP notably increases during inflammatory states and serves as a marker for multiple forms of inflammation (Young et al.,  1991 ). Deutsch ( 2007 ) observed that everyday intake of 300 mg of KO over 2 weeks led to a significant decrease in CRP concentration and relief of arthritic symptoms in patients with chronic inflammatory conditions. Similarly, another study reported that supplementing with 500 mg of KO two time a day for one month resulted in a significant reduction in high-sensitivity CRP levels in plasma, decreased from 2.15 to 0.43 mg/L in overweight subjects (Cicero et al.,  2016 ).

Anti-cancer

Cancer has emerged as a primary cause of death worldwide in both developed and developing nations (Jemal et al.,  2011 ) The worldwide prevalence of cancer is steadily increasing due to factors such as population growth, aging, as well as lifestyle habits, including smoking, also food rich in fat, sugar, and salt (Torre et al.,  2015 ) While chemotherapy as well as radiotherapy known as crucial in cancer treatment to slow down disease progression or inducing apoptosis to halt tumor formation, they are often come with undesirable consequences like diarrhea, myelosuppression, mucositis, as well as dermatitis (Jayathilake et al.,  2016 ). There is an increasing interest in exploring the potential of dietary factors to modulate apoptosis as a means of anticancer therapy (Block et al.,  1992 ). Although there are relatively few experimental studies examining the in vivo anticancer effect of KO in the literature, several in vitro studies have evaluated its impact on the growth of certain cancer cell lines (Xie et al.,  2019 ).

Colon cancer ranks as the second most common cause of cancer related deaths the United States (Jemal et al.,  2005 ). Research indicates that KO exhibits dose- duration of treatment effects on the growth of colon cancer cells, specifically SW480 cells (Jemal et al.,  2005 ). Application of KO at dose of 20 μg/ml in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium for two days led to a 29.9% suppression of SW480 cell growth (Zhu et al.,  2008 ). Jayathilake et al. ( 2016 ) investigated impact of KO free fatty acid (FFA) extracts on cell proliferation and apoptosis in three human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines. Treatment use 0.12 μL of FFA from KO in 100 μl of DMEM for two inhibited the proliferation of HCT-15 as well as SW-480 cells. Additionally, The FFA extract elicited markedly elevated levels of apoptosis in all three colon cell lines (Su et al.,  2018 ) compared to control. Furthermore, the anticancer activity of FFA that extracted from KO was validated in human osteosarcoma cells, where the inhibitory effect of 1.89 μM of FFA from KO comparable to 0.5 to 1.0 μM of doxorubicin which is commonly used anticancer drug (Su et al.,  2018 ).

Zheng et al. ( 2017 ) conducted research to isolate and identify the trans (E) -configuration of certain FAs detected in KO, such as C20:5 and C22:6. They discovered that these FAs exhibited significantly stronger inhibitory effects on the growth of various cancer cell lines (including K562, PC-3, HL60, MCF-7, and U937) compared to C20:5 and C22:6 from FO. Additionally, astaxanthins as well as tocopherols have shown anti-cancer effects (Constantinou et al.,  2008 ; Rao et al.,  2013 ). It is plausible that the combined effects of the bioactive compounds in KO contribute to its potent anti-cancer capabilities. However, further in vivo studies are necessary to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms and validate these anti-cancer effects.

Anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects

Imbalanced intake of energy could disrupt the endocannabinoid (EC) system, leading to excessive accumulation of visceral fat and reduced release of adiponectin, thereby the chances of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) are the primary ECs studied, known for their roles in regulating fat as well as glucose metabolism (Di Marzo,  2008 ). Obese people's tissues have been found to contain elevated quantities of 2-AG and AEA (Batetta et al.,  2009 ; Di Marzo et al.,  2010 ). Diets supplemented with KO have been shown to reduce the concentration of AEA as well as 2-AG in various tissues, including the kidneys, heart, as well as adipose tissues in high fat-fed C57BL/6 mice (Piscitelli et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, krill oil diets decreased body weight gain in obese mice (Sun et al.,  2017b ; Yang et al.,  2016 ) also hyperlipidemic rats (Zhu et al.,  2008 ). The n-3PUFAs diminished the biosynthesis of arachidonic acid and its integration into phospholipids, possibly decreasing the quantity available of biosynthetic precursors for anandamide as well as 2-arachidonoylglycerol (Matias et al.,  2008 ). Effect of the anti-obesity associated with KO are likely due to its high content of n-3 PUFAs. Maki et al. ( 2009 ) also, observed that one month of KO supplementation at amount of 2 g/day led to increased the plasma level of C20:5 and C22:6 in obese as well as overweight individuals.

Insulin resistance caused by fat is a prevalent issue. Ivanova et al. ( 2015 ) demonstrated that consuming a diet supplemented with KO, has about 600 mg of n-3PUFAs daily for one month, resulted in reduced the fasting blood glucose levels also improved the glucose tolerance in obese rabbits (New Zealand with rabbits). Similarly, healthy subjects experienced a decrease in fasting blood glucose after consuming about 4 g per day of KO for two months, indicating its potential as an anti-diabetic agent (Rundblad et al.,  2017 ) suggested that n-3PUFAs from KO had improved insulin sensitivity as well as secretion and altered the expression level of key enzymes involved in β-oxidation and lipogenesis in muscles as well as liver (Ivanova et al.,  2015 ).

Neuroprotective effects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurological condition that progresses over time, frequently seen in the elderly (Francis et al.,  1999 ). It manifests as a gradual decline in cognitive function, often accompanied by behavioral changes like wandering, aggression as well as depression, significantly affecting both patients and their caregivers' quality of life. Various studies in animal and human models have explored the neuroprotective properties of KO (Table  6 ).

Using the Aversive Light Stimulus Avoidance Test (ALSAT), the Unavoidable ALSAT, as well as the Forced Swimming Test (FST), rats were treated with 1.25 g/100 g of food containing KO for around two months exhibited a positive impact on memory processes and learning. Additionally, rats supplemented with krill oil showed elevated expression levels of mRNA for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), a gene linked to neuronal growth also differentiation in the hippocampus. These results are consistent with those of Tome-Carneiro ( 2018 ). Moreover, Cheong et al. ( 2017 ) noted a correlation between KO consumption and alterations in the proteome of aged mice's brain tissues. They observed that giving elderly mice KO at doses ranging from 150 to 600 mg/kg daily for seven weeks dramatically changed the expression levels of 28 different proteins in their brain regions. Notably, the group receiving KO showed a significant increase in the expression levels of Celsr3 as well as Ppp1r1b mRNA, that linked to working memory, brain development, and learning acquisition. KO was found to enhance oxidative stress biomarkers in serum like malondialdehyde (MDA) as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD). Furthermore, Li et al. ( 2018 ) demonstrated that KO has a beneficial impact on Alzheimer's disease in animal model using senescence-accelerated prone mouse strain 8 mice, providing evidence for its preventive properties. Over three months, using supplement have 1% of KO in the diet effectively improved the memory capabilities and learning while alleviating nervousness in SAMP8 old mice, as determined through the open field test as well as Morris water. The accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) is implicated in cognitive decline as well as AD pathology. Moreover, KO mitigated the accumulation of Aβ in the hippocampus, along with reducing oxidative stress in the brain.

The decline in estrogen levels among aging women may heighten risk of AD (Janicki and schupf,  2010 ). Research conducted on ovariectomized rats have revealed significantly reduced levels of serotonin, insulin growth factor, estrogen, and dopamine, alongside alterations in the gene expression of amyloid precursor protein, glycogen synthase-3beta, Bdnf, as well as selective AD indicator-1, all of which are associated with AD in rats. Mansour et al. ( 2017 ) observed that supplementation with KO at 200 mg/kg per day for 8 weeks resulted in the normalization of all these parameters in ovariectomized rats, suggesting the effects of KO in inhibition of AD development and neurodegeneration in old women.

Human studies have also provided evidence supporting the favorable impacts of KO on cognitive function. Oxyhemoglobin, which is mostly linked to cerebral blood flow, acts as a measure of regional brain function activation during cognitive tasks (Hibino et al.,  2013 ). The P300 event-related potential is a cognitive component utilized to objectively evaluate neuroelectrical activity-linked cognitive behaviors as well as activities (Alvarenga et al.,  2005 ; Hansenne,  2000 ). Konagai et al. ( 2013 ) assessed the effects of dietary KO on cognitive function in more than 45 healthy elderly males during calculation and memory tasks by monitoring oxyhemoglobin variations as well as P300 event-related potential components in the cerebral cortex. Following the administration of KO about 1.98 g/day for three months, subjects exhibited important alterations in oxyhemoglobin concentration during working memory tasks as well as reduced differential value of P300 latency during calculation tasks compared to the control. These findings demonstrate the positive effects of KO in enhancing cognitive function among the elderly.

Women’s physiology

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a cyclic disorder commonly experienced by young as well as middle aged women during the luteal phase of menstruation, characterized by psychological, emotional, also behavioral symptoms (Dickerson et al.,  2003 ; Stevinson and Ernst,  2001 ). While the exact cause of PMS is unclear, around 75% of women encounter some PMS symptoms (Barnhart et al.,  1995 ) during their reproductive years. Various dietary supplements, such as multivitamin/mineral supplements, vitamins (A, E, and B 6 ), and minerals (magnesium and calcium) have been suggested for alleviating certain PMS symptoms (Bendich,  2000 ; Dickerson et al.,  2003 ). Additionally, it has been noted thatn-3 PUFAs (Sohrabi et al.,  2013 ) may help reduce both psychiatric as well as somatic of PMS.

Krill oil as source of n-3 PUFAs as well as vitamins (E and A), has demonstrated beneficial effects in managing both emotional and physical symptoms associated with PMS. Individuals who took KO soft gels for three menstrual cycles reported decreased usage of pain relievers for menstrual pain as well as lower scores on the self assessment questionnaire for PMS, based on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) diagnostic criteria for PMS, which ranged from zero to no symptoms to ten for unbearable. Moreover, KO exhibited greater efficacy in managing PMS and dysmenorrhea compared to FO (Sampalis et al.,  2003 ). This superior performance is attributed to the unique profile of krill oil which includes a combination of phospholipids, n-3 PUFAs as well as antioxidative substances. The n-3 PUFAs linked with PLs in KO are believed to offer higher bioavailability than TAGs in FO, thus potentially playing a more active role in regulating emotional symptoms (Sampalis et al.,  2003 ; Schuchardt et al.,  2011 ). Nevertheless, additional inquiries are required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms involved.

Postmenopausal women commonly encounter cerebrovascular dysfunction as a result of estrogen deficiency (Serock et al.,  2008 ). Key regulatory components like KCa channels, KATP channels, as well as Na + /Ca 2+ exchanger 1 (NCX1) are crucial in maintaining cerebral blood flow autoregulation; however, they are susceptible to disruption in cases of ovarian dysfunction. In a study involving ovariectomized rats, the administration of KO (providing 182 mg EPA + 118 mg DHA sourced from KO) for a duration of 2 weeks was found to beneficially regulate the expression of NCX1 mRNA, KCa channels, as well as KATP channels in the basilar artery, leading to an enhancement in cerebral blood circulation. The results indicate that KO may serve as a beneficial supplement for women who gone through menopause (Sakai et al.,  2014 ).

Effect on depression

The impact of KO supplementation on cognitive function as well as depression like behaviors was assessed through both preclinical and clinical studies. One of the initial investigations in this area involved a one and half month trial conducted on rats which received either krill oil at a dosage of 0.2 g/rat per day, imipramine at 20 mg/kg per day (utilized as a reference drug for antidepressant effects), or a placebo. Following the treatment period, cognitive abilities were evaluated using the ALSAT, while the potential antidepressant effects were assessed through FST and the Unavoidable Aversive Light Stimulus Test (UALST). The rats treated with krill oil demonstrated a notable ability to differentiate between active as well as inactive levers in the ALSAT test from the initial day of training. Furthermore, rats receiving KO and imipramine showed high improvements in behavioral aspects, including reduced level in the UALST test from the third day onwards as well as decreased immobility time in the FST test. Moreover, study examined the expression of Bdnf (Zadeh-Ardabili et al.,  2019 ), which was observed to be elevated in the hippocampus of rats treated with KO.

Zadeh-Ardabili et al. ( 2019 ) conducted a study involving mice subjected to treatments with FO, KO, vitamin B12, imipramine, or over two weeks, beginning after seven days of exposure to the Chronic Unpredictable Stress (CUS) paradigm overnight procedure. During the CUS procedures, mice were exposed to stress overnight using 10W LED light at a frequency of 15 Hz for 12 h over 21 days. The potential therapeutic benefits of the treatments on depression were assessed using the tail suspension test (TST) as well as FST. After the animals were sacrificed, oxidation markers were assessed in the brain tissue. Both KO and FO were high decreased immobility factors as well as increased climbing and swimming time, similar to the effects observed with imipramine. Moreover, both KO and FO reduced levels of MDA and hydrogen peroxide, decreased catalase activity, increased glutathione peroxidase levels, and increased superoxide dismutase activities as well as glutathione levels in hippocampal tissue (Mendoza et al.,  2018 ).

In another pre-clinical study, Mendoza et al. ( 2018 ) examined the impact of krill oil on restraint stress in mice following reduced mobility. The study investigated the effects of KO on the response to restraint stress in mice after experiencing limited mobility. Following 14 days of handling and acclimation, the mice were immobilized for one month, and then behavioral test took place for seven days. Over the course of the one month study, mice orally received either PBS, nicotine derivative cotinine about 5 mg, or combination of cotinine with 140 mg/kg of KO. Although cotinine by itself reduced the loss of memory deficiencies and the behaviors associated with anxiety and depression, cotinine in combination with KO proved to be more beneficial. This underscores the role of KO in mechanisms related to depression (van der Wurff et al.,  2016 ). Subsequently, these authors conducted, over the course of one year employed a double-blind, randomized, and controlled methodology to investigate the impact of KO supplementation on the learning and cognitive function of teenagers, mental well-being, also visual processing. The study involved 260 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years, divided into two cohorts. The first cohort initially received 400 mg/day of C20:5 and C22:6 or a placebo, with dose increased to 800 mg of C20:5 and C22:6 per day after 12 weeks. The second cohort started directly with 800 mg of C20:5 and C22:6 per day (Zheng et al.,  2017 ). The efficacy of these treatments was evaluated through omega-3 index finger-prick blood measurements, using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem questionnaire. The authors did not find any evidence supporting the effectiveness of KO in reducing depressive feeling (van der Wurff et al.,  2020 ).

Exercise and bodily performance

Krill oil enhances exercise performance and reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to the initiation of several clinical trials. One of the initial studies involved a small double blind trial conducted on 16 members of Polish National Rowing Team. Participants were divided into 2 groups, first one had received 1 g of KO per day for one and half month, while the other received a placebo. Various parameters were assessed before, after 1 min, and after 24 h of exercise, with the latter representing maximum effort after rowing 2000 m. Exercise increased levels of certain markers including superoxide dismutase, TNF-α, and TBARS, which indicate lipid oxidation. While there were generally no significant differences between the control and KO groups in most parameters, during the recovery period, TBARS levels kept rising in the control, while the KO group displayed notably lower levels of lipid oxidation (Da Boit et al.,  2015 ). Thus, krill oil supplementation helped reducing exercise-induced free radical mediated injuries.

The effects of KO on exercise performance as well as post effort immune function were investigated in small randomized clinical trial involving 37 athletes (Average age of 25.8 years). Participants, in two groups, first one has receiving about 2 g/day of KO for one and half month. On the other hand, second group receiving a placebo. A cycling time test was conducted before and after the supplementation period, during which blood samples were collected for five time test as follow: prior to supplementation, immediately post-exercise, after 1 h, after 3 h, as well as at rest. The results showed that after one and half month of supplementation, athletes who received krill oil showed significant increases in peripheral blood mononuclear cell IL-2 production and natural killer cell cytotoxic activity 3 h post exercise (Georges et al.,  2018 ). Based on these findings, additional research examined the potential of KO to increase body mass. In vitro experiments utilized C2C12 rat myoblasts (skeletal muscle) treated with KO, PC derived from soy, or control. Only KO was capable of stimulating the mTOR pathway. Subsequently, a double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial was conducted on resistance-trained athletes who received 3 g per day of KO or placebo over two months resistance trained program. The findings showed no significant differences in complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, and urine analysis between the two groups. Nevertheless, KO supplementation resulted in an increase in lean body mass by approximately 2.2% compared to the baseline (Barenie et al.,  2022 ).

In another study, a specific mixed formulation called ESPO-572®, consisting of 75% PCSO-524® (mussel oil) at 600 mg/day and 25% KO for 26 days, was found to alleviate exercise-induced muscle damage as well as cytokine-induced tissue degradation in untrained men who underwent a running test As choline is associated with maintaining muscle function and exercise performance, a reduction in choline level may occur after high resistance or high intensity exercise. To investigate whether krill oil could offer any protective effect against this choline loss, Storsve et al. ( 2020 ) conducted a study involving 47 triathletes randomly divided into 2 groups. First one received 4 g per day of KO called SuperbaBoost™ for 40 days leading up to the race, while the other group received a placebo. Blood test results showed high decrease in choline levels after the race; however, athletes in KO group had higher choline levels compared to those in placebo group. Thus, krill oil supplementation may help mitigating the negative effects on exercise performance, particularly during high-resistance activities by preventing choline decline (Ibrahim et al.,  2016 ).

Comparison with fish oil (bioavailability and bioaccessibility)

When KO and FO supplements compared, it has been found that KO had more pronounced effects in managing cognitive function (Konagai et al.,  2013 ), PMS (Sampalis et al.,  2003 ), and hyperlipidemia (Bunea et al.,  2004 ). Several studies carried out by Ulven et al. ( 2011 ), Rossmeisl et al. ( 2012 ), Ramprasath et al. ( 2013 ), and Laidlaw et al. ( 2014 ) attributed the superior performance of KO to its higher bioavailability of EPA and DHA in phospholipid form. However, these studies failed to administer identical doses of EPA and DHA from KO and FO as well as the existing differences arising from other components present, thus additional work is needed to verify these findings. In this connection, problems noted may be exemplified by the work of Ramprasath et al. ( 2013 ) who found that KO can elevate plasma n-3 PUFA concentrations more effectively than fish oil, but used daily amount of EPA and DHA of 777 mg for KO group and about 664 mg for FO group. In addition, Ulven et al. ( 2011 ) used dosages of EPA and DHA of around 543 mg for KO group with ratio of EPA (1.74) also 864 mg for FO with ratio o EPA/DHA (1.12). As already mentioned, most studies did not account for the minor components present in two olis (Bunea et al.,  2004 ; Konagai et al.,  2013 ; Sampalis et al.,  2003 ). Meanwhile, Köhler et al. ( 2015 ) reported that EPA and DHA in krill meal had a lower bioavailability compared to KO, but similar to FO. Thus, EPA and DHA in phospholipid form alone may not fully explain the superior performance of KO.

The exact mechanism of superior effect of KO compared to FO effect remains elusive. This may arise from the fact that KO contain high concentration of various biological active components such as astaxanthin, tocopherols, and vitamin A, hence the effects may be multifactorial. Therefore, more investigation is required to comprehend the underlying mechanisms and to use better controlled human trials to determine the performance as well as the efficacy of KO and FO after prolonged administration (Tillander et al.,  2014 ).

Applications and future perspectives of KO

Production and use of KO has emerged as a highly appealing within the food industry. Recognized as unique food ingredient, KO shows promise for applications in food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceuticals because of its wide range of health advantages.

Presently, KO products can be easily obtained as supplements in various forms including capsules, soft gels, tablets, and gummies. There are leading global producers of krill oil, with their products enjoying popularity in European and American health markets. Patents and patent applications for krill oil highlight its potential in preventing inflammation, CVD, PMS, cognitive diseases, and enhancing brain function. Some KO products are formulated with additional beneficial additives including various carotenoids, conjugated linoleic acid, and vitamin D, in order to offer enhanced benefits (Rockway,  2006 ; Derohanes et al.,  2018 ). For instance, a combination of KO, vitamin D, and probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri is proposed to alleviate gut inflammation by promoting epithelial restitution and modulation the gut microbiota (Costanzo et al.,  2018 ). Additionally, intranasal administration of KO along with cotinine (a product found in tobacco) exhibits potential in treating depressive symptoms associated with recurrent associative trama memories in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (Alvarez-Ricartes et al.,  2018 ).

While numerous studies have explored the various functionalities as well as commercial applications of KO only a limited number have detailed molecular mechanisms involved in its diverse activities. For instance, Xie et al. ( 2018 ) observed significant differences in antioxidant activity among krill oils with distinct chemical compositions. Nevertheless, the majority of studies that examined the health advantages in KO (Table  6 ) do not provide detailed information abut the composition of KO which used in these studies. Therefore, future research must clarify the relationship between the content and health benefits of KO in order to facilitate the development of more specialized and a variety of useful KO products with specific health benefits. This would accelerate broader application of KO by taking advantage of its multicomponent feature.

Krill oil derived from Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba ) garnered growing interest due to its unique benefits. This contribution explored the chemical composition, health benefits, extraction methods as well as some of current application of KO. As noted, KO is abundant in EBA, DHA, tocopherols, vitamin A, astaxanthin, and flavonoids, all of which offer significant health benefits. Notably, a substantial portion of EPA and DHA in KO exists in the phospholipid (PL) form, prompting extensive research comparing its benefits with those of fish oil. Four primary extraction technologies are employed in KO production, namely solvent extraction, solvent-free extraction, enzyme-assisted pretreatment extraction, as well as super/subcritical fluid extraction, each with its own advantages as well as limitations.

At present, commercially available KO products are utilized as supplements. Numerous researches inclusive in vivo as well as in vitro experiments, have indicated that KO offers a range of benefits, including CVD, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-obesity and antidiabetic effects, neuroprotective effects, benefits for women’s physiology, and effect on depression. In spite of that, the precise mechanisms underlying these effects require further investigation. It is widely acknowledged that the functionalities of product are closely linked to its chemical composition. Hence, further research is imperative to help understanding of the intricate relationship between the chemical composition and functional properties of KO. This enhanced knowledge would not only enable the refinement of extraction techniques but also empower the creation of a wider range of KO products to address the requirements of specific markets and health objectives.

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Acknowledgements

Fereidoon Shahidi thanks the NSERC of Canada for Grant. Abrehem abad thank Libyan Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research provided a scholarship as well as thnk Food and Drug Control Center- Libya.

The author FS thank the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada for support in the form of a Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2016–04468). The author AA achnowledges a scholarship from the Libyan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research as well as Food and Drug Control Center – Libya.

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Shahidi, F., Abad, A. Why is Antactic krill (Euphasia superba) oil on the spotlight? A review. Food Prod Process and Nutr 6 , 88 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43014-024-00260-6

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Received : 20 May 2024

Accepted : 25 June 2024

Published : 11 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s43014-024-00260-6

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