14
Learning Objectives
- Create a specific purpose to determine speech goals.
What Is Your Purpose?
There are two purposes for public speaking: general and specific. Purpose statements are especially helpful for guiding you as you prepare your speech. The general purpose refers to the broad goal for creating and delivering the speech. The specific purpose, on the other hand, starts with one of those broad goals and then further informs the listener about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the speech. The specific purpose answers the question: What do you want to accomplish by the end of your speech?
The specific purpose is the combination of factors that make speeches and other discourse meaningful and a useful way to change the way something is. It is stated as a sentence incorporating the general purpose, the specific audience for the speech, and a prepositional phrase that summarizes the topic. Suppose you are going to give a speech about using open-source software. Here are two examples, each with a similar topic but a different general purpose and a different audience:
| General Purpose | To inform |
| Specific Purpose | To inform a group of school administrators about the various open-source software packages that could be utilized in their school districts |
| General Purpose | To persuade |
| Specific Purpose | To persuade a group of college students to make the switch from Microsoft Office to the open-source office suite OpenOffice |
In each of these examples, you will notice that there is a general purpose (to inform or to persuade); the specific purpose follows the goal of the speech and allows the speaker to fine-tune their purpose by being more specific. Before you can think strategically about your speech content, you need to know what your specific purpose is. Once you have decided on the topic, intention, and general purpose of your speech, you can begin to write your specific purpose statement. You will not state this purpose verbatim in your speech but you will use it to craft a thesis statement that you will state verbatim in your speech.
Activity
Write your general and specific purpose for your informative speech now.
Key Takeaways
Specific purposes are important to the speech making process.
- Your specific purpose will support your speech by informing the listener about your speech and the goals of your speech.
- You may not specifically state the specific purpose but it will guide your intention of the speech.
- The specific purpose will help guide your speech. You can always refer back to the specific purpose if you begin to “get in the weeds” with your information, research, and support.
- Ask yourself: What do you want to accomplish by the end of your speech?
References
Bostrom, R. N., & Waldhart, E. S. (1988). Memory models and the measurement of listening. Communication Education, 37, 1–13.
Dunham, J. R. (1964). Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses.
LeFrancois, G. R. (1999). Psychology for teaching (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Smith, R. G. (1951). An experimental study of the effects of speech organization upon attitudes of college students. Speech Monographs, 18, 292–301.
Thompson, E. C. (1960). An experimental investigation of the relative effectiveness of organizational structure in oral communication. Southern Speech Journal, 26, 59–69.
LICENSE
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.
