Your goal is to influence your audience to effect change in their lives and/or in their communities. Your thesis should be stated as a question of public policy on an issue of social/cultural significance.
Your topic should be socially/culturally significant, timely and one that you find very interesting.
The speech should be six to eight minutes in length.
The introduction and conclusion should be fully developed.
SPEECH ORGANIZATION
The speech should be well organized using some variation of the Problem-Solution organizational pattern
There should be a definite, logical connective/transition bridging each component of the speech.
Each main point should be clearly stated and developed.
Adhere to the principles of clear explanation. Use organizers (signposts, enumeration, acronyms, slogans), emphasis cues, analogies, and repetition as appropriate.
SPEECH DEVELOPMENT
Use at least one instance of valid reasoning (i.e., causal, inductive, deductive, analogical).
Use at least two different methods to establish your credibility with the audience (i.e., sociability, competence, trustworthiness, dynamism).
Use at least one appeal to audience needs and one appeal to audience values.
Cite at least four credible sources in your speech.
At least one sources must be a peer-reviewed journal article.
