speech text type structure

18 Text Types (with Examples) – Writing Styles Explained

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Texts types, also known as genres or text forms, refer to categories of texts with different purposes. Depending on the purpose, each type of text will have have a different convention of style and structure.

It is essential to understand text types and their conventions because:

• Interpretation: It helps us understand the text’s intentions, trustworthiness, and bias
• Text Creation: It helps us to create texts that are most effective, depending upon the purpose

Below is a list of the most common text types and their key conventions, style, structure, and purpose.

Text Types Examples

1. narrative.

Purpose: A narrative text aims to tell a story to the reader. It isn’t always just about telling a story for entertainment, though. The purpose of narrative text also lies in its capacity to engage the reader’s imagination, impart a moral lesson, or just simply pass on a tale through generations. For example, narrative stories are used in folklore and folktales to pass-on cultural values and stories.

Style: The style of a narrative text is distinctive. It employs a chronological sequencing of events. Coherent, right-branching sentences, varying in length, create rhythm and draw the reader into the unfolding story. Active voice is favored to maintain directness and immediacy, bringing scenes alive.

Structure: Beginning with an orientation, it introduces characters, setting, and time. Short initial sentences establish the context. The complication, the next part, presents problems or conflicts. A series of sentences, varying in length and complexity, takes the reader through ups and downs. Ultimately, the story reaches a resolution, where the achievement or solution is laid out.

2. Descriptive

Purpose: A descriptive text is designed to describe something in a detailed manner. The writer attempts to paint a vivid image in the reader’s mind, often by intricately describing an object, person, place, experience, or situation.

Style: Adjectives play a significant role in a descriptive text. They enrich the text, adding depth to the description. Similes, metaphors, and other figurative language might also be used for more creative descriptions. The sentences can be diverse, ranging from concise statement of facts to long, detailed depictions .

Structure: A descriptive text often starts with a short, general overview of what is being described. Then, it delves into details, exploring appearance, characteristics, functions, and other aspects. It closes with a brief summary or a final remark on the described subject.

3. Expository

Purpose: The main goal of an expository text is to inform or explain. It aims to provide the reader with comprehensive information about a specific topic. This type of text gives out facts and provides deep insights, explaining complex concepts or procedures in a manner that the reader can understand.

Style: The style of an expository text is systematic and straightforward. It has an emphasis on clarity. It avoids ambiguity and confusion.

Structure: Beginning with an introduction that briefly outlines the topic, an expository text then offers a well-structured exploration of distinct aspects of the topic. Each paragraph introduces a different point related to the topic. The conclusion summarizes the main points and offers final insights.

Read More: Expository vs Argumentative Essay Writing

4. Argumentative / Persuasive

Purpose: An argumentative or persuasive text is structured to persuade the readers by presenting a point of view. It defends a position regarding an issue or topic, using reasoned arguments, facts, statistics, and real-life examples to convince readers and lure them into adopting this point of view.

Style: These texts should be precise, logical, and grounded in evidence. The use of rhetorical devices like ethos, logos, and pathos can help persuade and appeal to the reader’s sense of ethics, logic, or emotions.

Structure: Key here is to map out a clear and structured argument, often presenting the most compelling points at the beginning and end of the piece. Consider using an essay plan. Your piece may start with a clear statement of the thesis or position. Then, provide supporting evidence and arguments, section by section. Each paragraph can offer a different reason or piece of evidence supporting the thesis. A conclusion is then needed to sum up the argument, restate the thesis, and call the reader to action.

5. Instructional

Purpose: An instructional text serves to provide instructions or directions on how to do something. It aims to guide the reader through a sequence of steps to achieve a certain goal or complete a task efficiently.

Style: Unlike persuasive texts, instructional texts should not try to convince anyone of anything. Your job is to strictly provide facts. The language is direct, to-the-point, and unambiguous.

Structure: Instructional texts usually start with an overview of the task or goal, and possibly, what the end result should look like. Following that, a list of materials or requirements would come next. After this, a step-by-step guide detailing how to accomplish the task is written.

6. Procedural

Purpose: Procedural texts are designed to guide the reader through a sequence of actions or steps necessary to accomplish a specific task. These tasks might be related to cooking, science experiments, emergency procedures, or machinery operation, among others.

Style: Procedural texts are characterized by precise and unambiguous language. It is critical that the wording is exact to ensure clear communication of instructions.

Structure: Procedural texts should be written with the same goal in mind as instructional ones: begin with an overview of the task, followed by any necessary materials or preparation steps. Next, a detailed, step-by-step procedure is included. It often concludes with any necessary follow-up instructions or warnings.

Purpose: The purpose of a recount text is to retell past events, usually in chronological order. It serves to provide a detailed account of an event, experience, or historical occurrence.

Style: A recount is usually descriptive and personal, involving a chronological presentation of events, with expressive language to convey emotions or impressions that the writer felt during the events.

Structure: A typical recount text starts with the introduction, setting the scene, and often specifying the time, place, and participants involved. The series of events then unrolls in the order they occurred. Finally, it concludes with a personal comment, reflection, or evaluation of the event.

Purpose: Report texts are written to present information about a subject. The subject could range from real-world entities like animals, humans, or natural phenomena to abstract concepts like principles, theories, or ideas.

Style: Reports are communicated objectively without the use of personal pronouns or subjective language. They contain facts, statistics, and specific information related to the subject, presented in a clear, systematic manner.

Structure: A report usually begins with an introduction, defining the topic and offering a brief overview. A series of sections or subheadings then ‘chunk’ the content to make it easy to navigate, each covering different aspects of the topic. A conclusion or summary often ends the report.

9. Discussion

Purpose: A discussion text is intended to present multiple perspectives on a specific issue, allowing the reader to consider all angles before forming their own viewpoint. It aims to deepen understanding and foster a broader perspective by objectively exploring diverse opinions and arguments related to a topic.

Style: Discussion texts use neutral, unbiased language. The writer presents all sides of the argument fairly and objectively, without leaning towards supporting one over another.

Structure: The text begins with an introduction of the issue at hand. This is followed by presenting point and counterpoint for each aspect of the issue, examining arguments in favor and against it. An effective discussion text ends with a conclusion or summary that encapsulates the multiple perspectives without indicating a personal preference.

10. Response

Purpose: A response text serves to provide a personal interpretation or reaction to a piece of content, such as a book, film, article, or speech. It aims to deepen the understanding of the original content, examine its components, and express personal thoughts, feelings, and reactions to it.

Style: Response writing is subjective, reflecting the opinion and personality of the writer. Despite the writer’s personal voice being apparent, a good response should maintain an even-handed and critical approach.

Structure: Commence with an overview of the content being responded to, including its title and creator. Next, give a brief summary or description of the content. Following this, present your personal reactions, impressions, and points of critique. Lastly, conclude by summarizing your views and stating your final thoughts.

Purpose: The purpose of a poetic text is to convey emotions, experiences, concepts, and ideas using creative and imaginative language. It’s a form of verbal art that uses aesthetics and rhythmic qualities to charm and engage readers.

Style: Poetic language heavily incorporates figurative and connotative language. It frequently uses devices such as similes, metaphors, rhyme, rhythm, assonance, and alliteration to create a specific mood or emotion.

Structure: The structure of a poem can vary vastly – it may adhere to a specific form (like sonnets, haikus, or limericks) complete with rules regarding rhyme, meter, and stanza length, or it may be free verse, with no such rules.

12. Journalistic

Purpose: Journalistic texts aim to report news stories to inform readers, viewers, or listeners about events happening locally or globally. These texts provide factual information about real-world event in a balanced, fair, accurate, and comprehensive manner.

Style: Journalistic writing requires use of clear, concise, and direct language. The language is primarily factual and explanatory, striving to be impartial and unbiased.

Structure: Journalistic texts usually adopt the “inverted pyramid” structure. The most crucial information is presented first – summarizing the ‘who, what, where, when, why, and how’ of the story. Following paragraphs provide further details and context, with the least important information towards the end.

See Also: Informational Texts Examples

13. Transactional

Purpose: Transactional texts serve to communicate an intended message between individuals or organizations. Common examples include emails, reports, proposals, business letters and memos.

Style: The tone and style of transactional texts depend on their intended audience and purpose. Formality levels may vary – generally, they are written in clear, straightforward language.

Structure: Transactional texts usually start with a salutation or an introduction, followed by the body containing the key message or information. They end with a closing, which may include a call-to-action, a closing remark or a sign-off.

14. Exemplification

Purpose: Exemplification texts are those which use examples to make a point, stress a point, or clearly present a pattern or form. These texts aim to make abstract ideas concrete, clarify concepts, or provide evidence supporting statements or theories.

Style: The language of exemplification texts is straightforward and facts-based, leveraging detailed examples to make concepts clearer and more understandable.

Structure: They start with a thesis statement or main idea. Next, they introduce and elaborate various specific examples to exemplify and prove the thesis statement. Finally, a conclusion wraps up the discussion and reiterates how the examples support the main idea.

15. Compare and Contrast

Purpose: The purpose of a compare and contrast text is to examine the similarities and differences between two or more subjects, such as concepts, items, people, or events. It aids in understanding and scrutinizing the association between the subjects.

Style: This kind of writing is analytical and require a balanced and objective presentation of facts, making sure to avoid bias or favoritism.

Structure: Such texts generally follow one of two structures: block or alternating. In the block method, all about the first subject is described, followed by all about the second. In the alternating method, corresponding points about the first and second subjects are alternated for comparison.

Read More: Compare and Contrast Essay Examples

16. Cause and Effect

Purpose: Cause and effect text is written to identify and explain the reasons or causes for an event or behavior and the resulting effects or outcomes. It establishes a relationship between variables and events.

Style: Clarity is particularly important in cause and effect writing because it should aim to lucidly explain causal chains where one thing leads to another.

Structure: Generally, the text starts with an introduction to the event. This is followed by the ’cause’ section explaining its origins or reasons. Then comes the ‘effect’ section detailing the outcomes, consequences, or results. Lastly, a conclusion synthesizes the major points and may contain author’s opinion on the event.

Read More: Cause and Effect Examples

17. Diary/Journal Entry

Purpose: A diary or journal entry is written to express personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences, making them a form of autobiographical writing. The objective is self-reflection, documentation of life events or ideas, and emotional exploration.

Style: Being highly personal, these texts don’t normally adhere to strict stylistic protocols. Language is informal and conversational, representing the writer’s voice.

Structure: Diary or journal entries do not follow a strict format. They often start with the date and proceed with the entries. Entries can range from brief notes to detailed narratives.

18. Critical Review

Purpose: A critical review analyses, interprets, and appraises a text or other work (like a film or play). It’s meant to provide an evaluation of the item’s merit, significance, value, or relevance, based on careful examination and evidence-based claims.

Style: Even though a critical review presents the writer’s opinion, it should be a balanced, logical, and professional examination of the work.

Structure: A traditional critical review includes an introduction summarizing the key details of the work being reviewed, the body containing the evaluation, and a conclusion summarizing the review.

Read More: Critical Analysis Examples

Full List of Text Types and Genres

• Descriptive
• Argumentative / Persuasive
• Instructional
• Journalistic
• Transactional
• Exemplification
• Compare and Contrast
• Cause and Effect
• Diary/Journal Entry
• Critical Review

Understanding text types allows you to effectively communicate ideas and information to your target audience. It provides a structured framework that guides the writing process, enhancing clarity and coherence. Additionally, it aids in comprehension, helping readers navigate and understand the text in its intended way. Lastly, knowledge of text types helps improve critical reading skills, enabling readers to discern the underlying purpose and structure of various texts.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

1 thought on “18 Text Types (with Examples) – Writing Styles Explained”

Dear Professor Drew,

My name is Ana de Mesquita and I am from Brazil. I have been teaching English, French and Brazilian Portuguese as a second language since 2008. I really appreciated your article about texts. It is quite helpful. Best regards,

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Speechwriting

9 Structure and Organization

Writing a Speech That Audiences Can Grasp

In this chapter . . .

For a speech to be effective, the material must be presented in a way that makes it not only engaging but easy for the audience to follow. Having a clear structure and a well-organized speech makes this possible. In this chapter we cover the elements of a well-structured speech, using transitions to connect each element, and patterns for organizing the order of your main points.

Have you had this experience? You have an instructor who is easy to take notes from because they help you see the main ideas and give you cues as to what is most important to write down and study for the test. On the other hand, you might have an instructor who tells interesting stories, says provocative things, and leads engaging discussions, but you have a tough time following where the instruction is going. If you’ve experienced either of these, you already know that structure and the organized presentation of material makes a big difference for listening and learning. The structure is like a house, which has essential parts like a roof, walls, windows, and doors. Organization is like the placement of rooms within the house, arranged for a logical and easy flow.

This chapter will teach you about creating a speech through an outlining process that involves structure and organization. In the earlier chapter Ways of Delivering Speeches , you learned about several different modes of speech delivery: impromptu, extemporaneous, and manuscript. Each of these suggests a different kind of speech document. An impromptu speech will have a very minimal document or none at all. An extemporaneous delivery requires a very thorough outline, and a manuscript delivery requires a fully written speech text. Here’s a crucial point to understand: Whether you plan to deliver extemporaneously or from a fully written text. The process of outlining is crucial. A manuscript is simply a thorough outline into which all the words have been written.

Four Elements of a Structured Speech

A well-structured speech has four distinct elements: introduction, body, connective statements, and conclusion. While this sounds simple, each of these elements has sub-elements and nuances that are important to understand. Introductions and conclusions are complex enough to warrant their own chapter and will be discussed in depth further on.

Introduction and Conclusion

The importance of a good introduction cannot be overstated. The clearer and more thorough the introduction, the more likely your audience will listen to the rest of the speech and not “turn off.” An introduction, which typically occupies 10-15% of your entire speech, serves many functions including getting the audience’s attention, establishing your credibility, stating your thesis, and previewing your main points.

Like an introduction, speech conclusions are essential. They serve the function of reiterating the key points of your speech and leave the audience with something to remember.

The elements of introductions and conclusions will be discussed in the following chapter. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the body of the speech and its connectors.

The Body of a Speech

The body of a speech is comprised of several distinct groups of related information or arguments. A proper group is one where a) the group can be described in a single clear sentence, and b) there’s a logical relationship between everything within it. We call that describing sentence a main point . Speeches typically have several main points, all logically related to the thesis/central idea of the speech. Main points are followed by explanation, elaboration, and supporting evidence that are called  sub-points .

Main Points

A main point in a speech is a complete sentence that states the topic for information that is logically grouped together. In a writing course, you may have learned about writing a paragraph topic sentence. This is typically the first sentence of a paragraph and states the topic of the paragraph. Speechwriting is similar. Whether you’re composing an essay with a paragraph topic sentences or a drafting a speech with main points, everything in the section attached to the main point should logically pertain to it. If not, then the information belongs under a different main point. Let’s look at an example of three main points:

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To motivate my classmates in English 101 to participate in a study abroad program.

Thesis: A semester-long study abroad experience produces lifelong benefits by teaching you about another culture, developing your language skills, and enhancing your future career prospects.

Main point #1: A study abroad experience allows you to acquire firsthand experience of another culture through classes, extra-curricular activities, and social connections.

Main point #2: You’ll turbocharge your acquisition of second language skills through an immersive experience living with a family.

Main point #3: A study abroad experience on your resume shows that you have acquired the kind of language and cultural skills that appeal to employers in many sectors.

Notice that each main point is expressed in a complete sentence, not merely #1 Culture; #2 Language; #3 Career. One-word signals are useless as a cue for speaking. Additionally, students are often tempted to write main points as directions to themselves, “Talk about the health department” or “Mention the solution.” This isn’t helpful for you, either. Better: “The health department provides many services for low-income residents” says something we can all understand.

Finally, the important thing to understand about speechwriting is that listeners have limits as to how many categories of information they can keep in mind. The number of main points that can be addressed in any speech is determined by the time allotted for a speech but is also affected by the fact that speeches are limited in their ability to convey substantial amounts of information. For a speech of five to seven minutes, three or four main points are usually enough. More than that would be difficult to manage—for both speaker and audience.

Obviously, creating your main points isn’t the end of the story. Each main point requires additional information or reinforcement. We call these sub-points. Sub-points provide explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Consider main point #1 in the previous example, now with sub-points:

Sub-point A: How a country thinks about education is a window into the life of that culture. While on a study abroad program, you’ll typically take 3-5 classes at foreign universities, usually with local professors. This not only provides new learning, but it opens your eyes to different modes of education.

Sub-point B: Learning about a culture isn’t limited to the classroom. Study abroad programs include many extra-curricular activities that introduce you to art, food, music, sports, and other everyday elements of a country’s culture. These vary depending on the program and there’s something for everyone! The website gooverseas.com provides information on hundreds of programs.

Sub-point C: The opportunity to socialize with peers in other countries is one of most attractive elements of studying abroad. You may form friendships that will last a lifetime. “I have made valuable connections in a country I hope to return to someday” according to a blog post by Rachel Smith, a student at the University of Kansas. [1]

Notice that each of these sub-points pertains to the main point. The sub-points contribute to the main point by providing explanation, detail, elaboration, and/or supporting evidence. Now imagine you had a fourth sub-point:

Sub-point D: And while doing all that socializing, you’ll really improve your language skills.

Does that sub-point belong to main point #1? Or should it be grouped with main point#2 or main point #3?

Connective Statements

Connectives or “connective statements” are broad terms that encompass several types of statements or phrases. They are designed to help “connect” parts of your speech to make it easier for audience members to follow. Connectives are tools that add to the planned redundancy, and they are methods for helping the audience listen, retain information, and follow your structure. In fact, it’s one thing to have a well-organized speech. It’s another for the audience to be able to “consume” or understand that organization.

Connectives in general perform several functions:

• Remind the audience of what has come before
• Remind the audience of the central focus or purpose of the speech
• Forecast what is coming next
• Help the audience have a sense of context in the speech—where are we?
• Explain the logical connection between the previous main idea(s) and next one or previous sub-points and the next one
• Explain your own mental processes in arranging the material as you have
• Keep the audience’s attention through repetition and a sense of movement

Connective statement can include “internal summaries,” “internal previews” “signposts” and “bridging or transition statements.” Each of these helps connect the main ideas of your speech for the audience, but they have different emphases and are useful for different types of speeches.

Types of connectives and examples

Internal summaries emphasize what has come before and remind the audience of what has been covered.

“So far I have shown how the designers of King Tut’s burial tomb used the antechamber to scare away intruders and the second chamber to prepare royal visitors for the experience of seeing the sarcophagus.”

Internal previews let your audience know what is coming up next in the speech and what to expect regarding the content of your speech.

“In this next part of the presentation I will share with you what the truly secret and valuable part of the King Tut’s pyramid: his burial chamber and the treasury.”

Signposts emphasize physical movement through the speech content and let the audience know exactly where they are. Signposting can be as simple as “First,” “Next,” “Lastly” or numbers such as “First,” “Second,” Third,” and “Fourth.” Signposting is meant to be a brief way to let your audience know where they are in the speech. It may help to think of these like the mile markers you see along interstates that tell you where you’re and how many more miles you will travel until you reach your destination.

“The second aspect of baking chocolate chip cookies is to combine your ingredients in the recommended way.”

Bridging or transition statements emphasize moving the audience psychologically to the next step.

“I have mentioned two huge disadvantages to students who don’t have extracurricular music programs. Let me ask: Is that what we want for our students? If not, what can we do about it?”

They can also serve to connect seemingly disconnected (but related) material, most commonly between your main points.

“After looking at how the Cherokee Indians of the North Georgia mountain region were politically important until the 1840s and the Trail of Tears, we can compare their experience with that of the Indians of Central Georgia who did not assimilate in the same way as the Cherokee.”

At a minimum, a bridge or transition statement is saying, “Now that we have looked at (talked about, etc.) X, let’s look at Y.”

There’s no standard format for connectives. However, there are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind about them:

First, connectives are for connecting main points. They are not for providing evidence, statistics, stories, examples, or new factual information for the supporting points of the main ideas of the speech.

Second, while connectives in essay writing can be relatively short—a word or phrase, in public speaking, connectives need to be a sentence or two. When you first start preparing and practicing connectives, you may feel that you’re being too obvious with them, and they are “clunky.” Some connectives may seem to be hitting the audience over the head with them like a hammer. While it’s possible to overdo connectives, it’s less likely than you would think. The audience will appreciate them, and as you listen to your classmates’ speeches, you’ll become aware of when they are present and when they are absent.

Lack of connectives results in hard-to-follow speeches where the information seems to come up unexpectedly or the speaker seems to jump to something new without warning or clarification.

Finally, you’ll also want to vary your connectives and not use the same one all the time. Remember that there are several types of connectives.

Patterns of Organization

At the beginning of this chapter, you read the analogy that a speech structure is like a house and organization is like the arrangement of the rooms. So far, we have talked about structure. The introduction, body, main point, sub-point, connectives—these are the house. But what about the arrangement of the rooms? How will you put your main points in a logical order?

There are some standard ways of organizing the body of a speech. These are called “patterns of organization.” In each of the examples below, you’ll see how the specific purpose gives shape to the organization of the speech and how each one exemplifies one of the six main organizational patterns.

Please note that these are simple, basic outlines for example purposes. The actual content of the speech outline or manuscript will be much further developed.

Chronological Pattern

Specific Purpose: To describe to my classmates the four stages of rehabilitation in addiction recovery.

Main Points:

• The first stage is acknowledging the problem and entering treatment.
• The second stage is early abstinence, a difficult period in the rehabilitation facility.
• The third stage is maintaining abstinence after release from the rehab facility.
• The fourth stage is advanced recovery after a period of several years.

The example above uses what is termed the chronological pattern of organization . Chronological always refers to time order. Organizing your main points chronologically is usually appropriate for process speeches (how-to speeches) or for informational speeches that emphasize how something developed from beginning to end. Since the specific purpose in the example above is about stages, it’s necessary to put the four stages in the right order. It would make no sense to put the fourth stage second and the third stage first.

Chronological time can be long or short. If you were giving a speech about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, that period would cover several decades; if you were giving a speech about the process of changing the oil in a car, that process takes less than an hour. Whether the time is long or short, it’s best to avoid a simple, chronological list of steps or facts. A better strategy is to put the information into three to five groups so that the audience has a framework. It would be easy in the case of the Civil Rights Movement to list the many events that happened over more than two decades, but that could be overwhelming for the audience. Instead, your chronological “grouping” might be:

• The movement saw African Americans struggling for legal recognition before the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
• The movement was galvanized and motivated by the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• The movement saw its goals met in the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

In this way, the chronological organization isn’t an overwhelming list of events. It focuses the audience on three events that pushed the Civil Rights movement forward.

Spatial Pattern

You can see that chronological is a highly-used organizational structure, since one of the ways our minds work is through time-orientation—past, present, future. Another common thought process is movement in space or direction, which is called the spatial pattern . For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the three regional cooking styles of Italy.

• In the mountainous region of the North, the food emphasizes cheese and meat.
• In the middle region of Tuscany, the cuisine emphasizes grains and olives.
• In the southern region and Sicily, the diet is based on fish and seafood.

In this example, the content is moving from northern to southern Italy, as the word “regional” would indicate. For a more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the layout of the White House.

• The East Wing includes the entrance ways and offices for the First Lady.
• The most well-known part of the White House is the West Wing.
• The residential part of the White House is on the second floor. (The emphasis here is the movement a tour would go through.)

For an even more localized example:

Specific Purpose: To describe to my Anatomy and Physiology class the three layers of the human skin.

• The outer layer is the epidermis, which is the outermost barrier of protection.
• The second layer beneath is the dermis.
• The third layer closest to the bone is the hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue.

Topical / Parts of the Whole Pattern

The topical organizational pattern is probably the most all-purpose, in that many speech topics could use it. Many subjects will have main points that naturally divide into “types of,” “kinds of,” “sorts of,” or “categories of.” Other subjects naturally divide into “parts of the whole.” However, as mentioned previously, you want to keep your categories simple, clear, distinct, and at five or fewer.

Specific Purpose: To explain to my first-year students the concept of SMART goals.

• SMART goals are specific and clear.
• SMART goals are measurable.
• SMART goals are attainable or achievable.
• SMART goals are relevant and worth doing.
• SMART goals are time-bound and doable within a time period.

Specific Purpose: To explain the four characteristics of quality diamonds.

• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of cut.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of carat.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of color.
• Valuable diamonds have the characteristic of clarity.

Specific Purpose: To describe to my audience the four main chambers of a human heart.

• The first chamber in the blood flow is the right atrium.
• The second chamber in the blood flow is the right ventricle.
• The third chamber in the blood flow is the left atrium.
• The fourth chamber in the blood flow and then out to the body is the left ventricle.

At this point in discussing organizational patterns and looking at these examples, two points should be made about them and about speech organization in general:

First, you might look at the example about the chambers of the heart and say, “But couldn’t that be chronological, too, since that’s the order of the blood flow procedure?” Yes, it could. There will be times when a specific purpose could work with two different organizational patterns. In this case, it’s just a matter of emphasis. This speech emphasizes the anatomy of the heart, and the organization is “parts of the whole.” If the speech’s specific purpose were “To explain to my classmates the flow of blood through the chambers of the heart,” the organizational pattern would emphasize chronological, altering the pattern.

Another principle of organization to think about when using topical organization is “climax” organization. That means putting your strongest argument or most important point last when applicable. For example:

Specific purpose: To defend before my classmates the proposition that capital punishment should be abolished in the United States.

• Capital punishment does not save money for the justice system.
• Capital punishment does not deter crime in the United States historically.
• Capital punishment has resulted in many unjust executions.

In most people’s minds, “unjust executions” is a bigger reason to end a practice than the cost, since an unjust execution means the loss of an innocent life and a violation of our principles. If you believe Main Point III is the strongest argument of the three, putting it last builds up to a climax.

Cause & Effect Pattern

If the specific purpose mentions words such as “causes,” “origins,” “roots of,” “foundations,” “basis,” “grounds,” or “source,” it’s a causal order; if it mentions words such as “effects,” “results,” “outcomes,” “consequences,” or “products,” it’s effect order. If it mentions both, it would of course be cause/effect order. This example shows a cause/effect pattern:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the causes and effects of schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia has genetic, social, and environmental causes.
• Schizophrenia has educational, relational, and medical effects.

Problem-Solution Pattern

The principle behind the problem-solution pattern is that if you explain a problem to an audience, you shouldn’t leave them hanging without solutions. Problems are discussed for understanding and to do something about them. This is why the problem-solution pattern is often used for speeches that have the objective of persuading an audience to take action.

When you want to persuade someone to act, the first reason is usually that something needs fixing. Let’s say you want the members of the school board to provide more funds for music at the three local high schools in your county. What is missing because music or arts are not funded? What is the problem ?

Specific Purpose: To persuade the members of the school board to take action to support the music program at the school.

• Students who don’t have extracurricular music in their lives have lower SAT scores.
• Schools that don’t have extracurricular music programs have more gang violence and juvenile delinquency.
• $120,000 would go to bands.
• $80,000 would go to choral programs.

Of course, this is a simple outline, and you would need to provide evidence to support the arguments, but it shows how the problem-solution pattern works.

Psychologically, it makes more sense to use problem-solution rather than solution-problem. The audience will be more motivated to listen if you address needs, deficiencies, or problems in their lives rather than giving them solutions first.

Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

A variation of the problem-solution pattern, and one that sometimes requires more in-depth exploration of an issue, is the “problem-cause-solution” pattern. If you were giving a speech on the future extinction of certain animal species, it would be insufficient to just explain that numbers of species are about to become extinct. Your second point would logically have to explain the cause behind this happening. Is it due to climate change, some type of pollution, encroachment on habitats, disease, or some other reason? In many cases, you can’t really solve a problem without first identifying what caused the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the age to obtain a driver’s license in the state of Georgia should be raised to 18.

• There’s a problem in this country with young drivers getting into serious automobile accidents leading to many preventable deaths.
• One of the primary causes of this is younger drivers’ inability to remain focused and make good decisions due to incomplete brain development.
• One solution that will help reduce the number of young drivers involved in accidents would be to raise the age for obtaining a driver’s license to 18.

Some Additional Principles of Speech Organization

It’s possible that you may use more than one of these organizational patterns within a single speech. You should also note that in all the examples to this point (which have been kept simple for the purpose of explanation), each main point is relatively equal in emphasis; therefore, the time spent on each should be equal as well. You would not want your first main point to be 30 seconds long, the second one to be 90 seconds, and the third 3 minutes. For example:

Specific Purpose: To explain to my classmates the rules of baseball.

• Baseball has rules about equipment.
• Baseball has rules about the numbers of players.
• Baseball has rules about play.

Main Point #2 isn’t really equal in size to the other two. There’s a great deal you could say about equipment and even more about the rules of playing baseball, but the number of players would take you about ten seconds to say. If Main Point #2 were “Baseball has rules about the positions on the field,” that would make more sense and be closer in level of importance to the other two.

The organization of your speech may not be the most interesting part to think about, but without it, great ideas will seem jumbled and confusing to your audience. Even more, good connectives will ensure your audience can follow you and understand the logical connections you’re making with your main ideas. Finally, because your audience will understand you better and perceive you as organized, you’ll gain more credibility as a speaker if you’re organized. A side benefit to learning to be an organized public speaker is that your writing skills will improve, specifically your organization and sentence structure.

Roberto is thinking about giving an informative speech on the status of HIV-AIDS currently in the U.S. He has different ideas about how to approach the speech. Here are his four main thoughts:

• pharmaceutical companies making drugs available in the developing world
• changes in attitudes toward HIV-AIDS and HIV-AIDS patients over the last three decades
• how HIV affects the body of a patient
• major breakthroughs in HIV-AIDS treatment

Assuming all these subjects would be researchable and appropriate for the audience, write specific purpose statements for each. What organizational patterns would he probably use for each specific purpose?

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Writing a speech

Topic outline.

The purpose of a speech is often to inform or persuade an audience. 

Speeches are usually written to be spoken directly to an audience and can be used to entertain, influencing the listeners that the viewpoint of the speaker is correct. 

Speeches can also be used to encourage the audience to take action or to change their behaviour in some way; for example, to join a particular school club or society, or to recycle more. 

The ways you use language and vocabulary when writing the words of a speech will depend on the audience and the purpose you are writing for; for example, in a speech to a group of teachers and parents giving your views on a recent proposal, formal language is most appropriate.

• think about the audience that the speech is for  – are you giving your speech to a group of people you know, or do not know, or a mixture of both? If you know your audience well, you may be able to relax a little, but a speech is still a formal kind of talk and would usually not include slang
• whether your audience are likely to disagree with what you say – you will need to consider any possible objections and deal with them. Use language carefully to make objections seem less significant; for example, using phrases like ‘A few people may still think, however’
• the reason you are giving this speech and how you feel about this topic  – try to imagine the words of your speech as you would speak them out loud. Your tone of voice must match your message, so choose words that appeal to the emotions of your listeners. Focus on what you want your audience to know and feel by the end of your speech
• how to engage your listeners  – f or example, you might use inclusive words or phrases like ‘we’, ‘all of us’ and ‘our’ to make your listeners feel that you are all on the same side.
• Plan where you want to finish your speech and how you will get there before you start writing – t h e structure of a speech is usually in three parts. For example: 
• An opening that grabs your audience's attention and makes the overall topic of your speech clear  – for example, pose a question to the audience where you can predict the answer.
• A well-structured, supported and developed argument –  for example, to support your argument you might use real life examples or anecdotes.
• A powerful conclusion  –  for example, group your final words or ideas in threes to help make them memorable or end with a thought- provoking question or image and thank your audience for listening.
• Organise your ideas into paragraphs as appropriate – this will help you to develop and support your points convincingly, to build your argument and/or offer a full explanation of a particular point of view.
• S how the connectio ns between ideas in sentences and paragraphs  –  where a new point or idea follows on from what you have already said you might use linking words or phrases such as, ‘in addition’, ‘likewise’ or ‘similarly’.
• Select activity Example of a speech Example of a speech

• Select activity Resource Resource

The Ultimate Guide to Structuring a Speech

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking , Speech Writing

Some speakers are great writers. Some are great at delivery. And some are good at both.

The problem is that even if you are one of those speakers who can write good content as well as deliver well, if your speech is not structured properly, your message’s effectiveness will plummet. Structuring your speech is necessary as it makes it easy for your audience to understand its contents.

I’ve seen it time and again (including with myself) – speakers come on stage and start off really well…but somewhere the audience gets lost.

Have you ever been in this situation? This is probably because the speech is not structured properly. A well-structured speech helps navigate your audience through your message. And that is why it’s so important.

Without it, your speech will be scattery and not be held together, leaving the audience the same way – scattered.

Writer, Daniel Pink , put it well when he said:

Give the speech a beginning, a middle and an end. You don’t have to take the audience by the hand and walk them through each step. And you don’t have to proceed chronologically. But having that structure in your head will give your speech a shape. And it will provide your audience some guideposts about where you’ve been and where you’re going.

3 Things to Keep in Mind for a Good Speech Structure

Here are some things to keep in mind while writing your speech.

Don’t write like you write. Write like you talk

This one is tricky, especially if you’re a seasoned writer as opposed to a seasoned speaker. I learned this when I was giving my first few speeches. I was writing my speeches like a writer, not like a speaker.

That means to say that my speech was written in a way that would sound great if someone read it on paper. But when I would deliver it on stage, it wouldn’t be that good.

Nowadays, when I sit down to write a speech, I keep re-reading the words to see what they would sound like out loud. This makes me edit my speech to make it sound more natural and conversational and less “article-types”.

Don’t use fancy language.

This is not a grammar essay. When we talk with our friends, we tend to use shorter, more crisp sentences with simple language…which is exactly how we should write our speech.

You can also be informal when you speak. So no need to be worried if you’re not following every grammatical rule out there. Using informal language (to an extent) helps to make you sound more natural and makes your speech more conversational.

Writing a conversational speech might not be as easy as it sounds, and that’s why we have just the right video for you. From writing a conversational speech to delivering it, this video will definitely help you through the process.

Keep the speech simple

I stress this a lot. But it’s mainly because so many speakers (who are starting out) try and make their speech very fancy!

Keeping your speech simple, in language and thought, will make it that much easier to structure your speech and thus, that much easier for the audience to consume your speech.

It sounds like a piece of cake when we put it like that, and you might think that simply avoiding jargon or using more visuals will make your speech easy to follow.

Still, there are just three tips you need to know to keep a speech simple: Know your audience, focus on the outcome and finally, use a narrative structure. This video will tell you just how to use these three tips to your advantage.

When you write your speech draft, relook at it and see what words or sentences you can cut. It’s best to simplify…which brings us to our next point:

Focus on one idea

Keep your speech centered around one thought or idea. If you try to cram too much into your speech, it can get cluttered. But more importantly, the audience won’t remember much of your speech anyway!

If you talk about 4-5 ideas, they’re quite likely to remember none. But if you focus on just one idea, you can structure your whole speech around that, and it will be much easier for the audience to consume your speech and remember your idea.

You can use a simple method to make sure that your speech does not have any redundancies and you do not overwhelm your audience. This framework is called the “what? so what? now what?” framework. We put out a video you can watch explaining how to use this framework for any public speaking event and has some extra tips on how to deliver a concise and clear speech.

Step by Step Guide to Structuring a Speech

Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a great speech structure, which is broken down into two parts, that is, preparation and writing. 

Preparation

1. audience.

This includes researching your audience in order to better understand them and their interests. With proper audience research in place, one can adapt the speech as per the beliefs, interests, and level of understanding of the audience. 

Audience research mainly entails their educational background, profession, ethnicity, sex, age group, etc. But besides this, we should strive to also understand the knowledge the audience has on the topic that we are speaking about.

One way of researching your audience can be by sending a questionnaire to them before your speech. If that is not possible, try and speak to the host or the person who invited you to speak. They will probably have valuable insights into the crowd you are about to address.

Another way is by reaching the venue early, greeting the audience, and asking them questions to better understand them. However, with this method, you are required to be spontaneous and make changes which could be quite last-minute. 

This is an essential step to writing a speech that is relevant and will resonate with your audience.

This video has several additional tips on collecting information about the audience, what kind of questions need to be asked, and even some last resorts that might work when all else fails!

This includes knowing the purpose of your speech and what exactly you want to convey to the audience. I have attended some presentations where at the end of the speech, I was wondering what the speaker was trying to convey because the purpose of the speech was not clear at all. 

On a broader level, the purpose of your speech can be to inform, persuade, or entertain the audience. It is crucial to know which category your speech falls into. On a narrower level, we need to ask ourselves, “What do we want the listeners to take away from my speech?”. 

Once we have this down, all our efforts should be focused on driving that point.

Ethos mainly includes establishing credibility and convincing your audience that you are trustworthy. It is important to establish credibility from the start of the talk or it might be difficult for the audience to accept what you say. 

In order to identify ethos, one can ask oneself questions like “Why should I give this particular speech?”, “How can I get the audience to believe me with the contents of the speech?”. 

Once ethos is established, the audience is likely to listen to you more attentively and be persuaded.

4. Research

Delivering a good speech is not just about speaking or writing a good speech but also confidence in your ability to deliver it. This confidence stems from thorough research which gives your speech authenticity and credibility. 

Including statistics in your speech and the sources from where you have picked up the information can prove helpful. Moreover, if you are willing to go the extra mile, doing primary research in your speech can also help you gain insight and a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Moreover, it will make your research stand out and add to your ethos.

1. Narrative

There are different narrative styles when it comes to speeches. It helps us story-tell much more effectively and helps our audience retain a lot of the information. 

Choosing the right narrative style is important as it also helps us understand the type of structure we should follow. I’m noting down a few narrative styles for you to get inspiration from, but we have written extensively on the topic which you can check out here: 9 Storytelling Approaches For Your Next Speech or Presentation .

Nested Loops

In this, three stories or more stories are told but none of these stories are completed. Once the gist of all the three stories is given, we start closing the loop in reverse order, that is by finishing the last story first and so on. 

This is a better way of gaining the audience’s interest and attention as psychologists believe that people remember interrupted tasks better than the complete ones.

In Medias Res

In this, the narrative is started in the heat of the action rather than starting from the beginning. Basically, you launch your story right into the action–providing the snippets of how you got there. This works because you take your audience to the most titillating part which makes them inquisitive to know how you got there.

In this, you shift between hope and reality where you and your brand promise to bridge the gap between the ideal and contemporary situations. Basically providing a ray of hope to all the problems in one’s life. Through an emotional appeal the speaker fuels a desire for change among the audience. 

Rags to Riches

This is a narrative style where the protagonist has struggled and suffered greatly because of his/her background but later reaches success. This narrative instills hope in people and makes them relatable to the failures or difficulties faced in life. 

I’ve written an entire article on speech outlines which you can read so I’m not going to spend too much time here.

A basic outline of a speech broken down into a good ol’ Intro-Body-Conclusion:

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.

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’.

3. Transition

Speech transitions are words or phrases that help you to move from one topic to another without breaking the flow of the speech. A speech without transitions can seem disorganized and confusing to an audience. There are different types of speech transitions, as given below.

Counterpoints This particular transition is used while talking about contradicting ideas. Phrases such as on the other hand, contrary to what was said earlier, at the same time, on the flip side, etc. can be used to make this transition.

Important Ideas Having a transition for the important ideas in your speech can make them stand out and gain attention causing the audience to listen attentively. These transitions can include pausing before the important statement to make an impact or slowing down the pace of your speech while making the important statement. Posing a question before starting the main idea of the presentation can also put emphasis on it. 

Processes While speaking about the steps on how to achieve something or the process of something, numerical transitions can be simpler for the audience to follow. For instance, firstly, secondly, lastly, etc.

Example While giving an example of something, transitional phrases such as for instance, take the case of, to better understand this…, etc. can be used to maintain the flow of the presentation. 

Here’s a detailed article written on the different types of transitions along with an example for each, which is titled Effective Speech Transitions: How to Make Your Speech Flow . 

The content is the main matter of the speech which is divided into 3 parts, namely, beginning, body, and conclusion.

The Beginning

How you start your speech introduction is, of course, very important. It’s what will grip the audience. They say that people have judged you as soon as you go up on stage, so it’s crucial to catch their attention quickly.

There is no right way to start your speech, but when writing it, make sure you spend some time crafting a good beginning.

Most speakers start with a story, or ask the audience to close their eyes and imagine something, or start with some sort of outstanding fact.

The point is that the beginning should be something that sets the tone for your speech and gets your audience into the mood you want them to be in. There is no set rule as to how long your introduction should be – it can be a few lines or even just a sentence.

To learn more about how to begin your speech with powerful openers, read our extensively written article on 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Here’s the meat of your idea.

This is where you get into what your speech is really about. Again, if you’ve focused on too many ideas, the body gets cluttered up and it becomes hard for the audience to consume the speech. So, focus on that one idea that you want to communicate.

Talk about a personal story, throw in some researched facts, show the twists and turns. I like to use the statement-problem-solution approach. I start off with the idea, then I move on to what the problem with it is, and finally to the solution.

This might be hard to explain since every speech is different, so I rather show it to you instead.

Email me at [email protected] and I will send across a speech drafted by one of my speech mentors. It really drives home the idea of how you can structure your speech in an effective manner.

The best is for the last.

Remember, the audience does not tend to remember much of a speech.

So in the end, try to summarize your idea and give the audience some sort of actionable takeaway. That means that you should give the audience something that they can try or change about themselves right this very moment (or at least in the near future) so they can see the benefits of your idea.

Again, this is subjective for different speeches. But the basic idea is to repeat your idea towards the end so it sticks with your audience and gives them something to take away.

This video on 5 powerful speech-ending lines (And how to use them), displays some memorable speech endings and also gives tips on how to deliver a closing line of equal caliber on your own.

After forming the first draft of your speech, editing requires you to go through your speech and remove any kind of repetition or errors that you come across. 

Editing mercilessly is the key to delivering a good speech. Anything that strays from your core message should be edited. Making sure that there is clarity in your speech is also crucial in order to avoid confusion among the audience. 

While editing, the aim should be to make the speech concise by eliminating words that do not add meaning to the sentence, removing paragraphs if the meaning is conveyed fine without them, and using shorter and simpler words rather than using complex words.

Types of Speech Structures

These are some of the speech structure types that you might relate your speech to:

The ‘3 Anecdotes’ Structure

This structure implies that you start your speech off with an introduction by hinting at your main idea and then use the body to tell 3 different stories supporting that idea.

For example, if you were talking about the importance of confidence, give the audience 3 anecdotes of how you missed out on opportunities because you were not confident. Each story can address a different sub-idea within the main idea.

Again, this does not mean that you talk about multiple things, it just means that you are really fleshing out your main idea. These types of speeches work well when you want to tackle a singular idea from different angles.

Problem-Solution Approach

This is the approach I use a lot. What it basically means is that you start off your body by emphasizing the issue at hand. Really build it up to make the audience believe that this really is a problem!

Put in facts, use your own story and make your problem feel like the audience’s problem as well (does that make sense?).

When you introduce the solution, show how it has benefited you as well as how it can benefit the audience. This also makes it easier to add an actionable takeaway at the end.

These types of speeches are great when you have to persuade or convince your audience about a particular matter.

Bed Time Story

This follows the flow of a classic story. Start with an intro. This is where you build up the narrative by setting the scene (try not to say “once upon a time” since it’s become too clichéd).

Then, flesh out the idea. This is where you introduce the hero, the villain, and the plot twist.

Eventually, you end with a happy ending. These types of speeches are great for people who are speaking to an audience with a low attention span, like children. However, if done correctly, it can be a great speech for adults as well!

In addition to this, there are several other speech structures you can use depending on the suitability of your topic. Read the details of the various other types of speech structures (with examples) in this article called Structuring a Speech Right: 7 Simple Tips

Demonstration of the idea of your speech

Many times, when you have to make a presentation, you may have to demonstrate a product, feature, service or idea of some sort.

When doing this, don’t just jump into whatever it is you’re demonstrating. As Simon Sinek says, “talk about the WHY” of whatever it is you’re talking about. Then move on to the “HOW” of it and eventually the “WHAT” of it.

This will help you demonstrate more effectiveness rather than just talking about what you have to present. If you want to know more about “Starting with the WHY”, you can check out Simon Sinek’s best-selling book “Start with the Why”.

There are several ways to structure a speech, and there isn’t really a right or wrong way to do so. As long as you feel it’s simple and easy enough for your audience to understand, you’re good to go.

Structuring your speech is important in order to make the audience better understand the matter of the speech and also to maintain their attention and interest. The message of an unstructured speech cannot reach the audience, as the speaker is confused most of the time regarding what topic to present.

A structured speech also helps the speaker to stay calm and not stray from the topic of the presentation. If you’re still not convinced writing a speech is useful, read this article on 9 Reasons Why Writing A Speech Is Important which will change your mind.

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What is Text Structure — Definition, Examples & Types Explained

• What is Syntax
• What is Passive Voice
• What is Active Voice
• Active vs. Passive Voice
• What is Text Structure
• What is Sentence Structure
• Simple Sentence Structure
• Compound Sentence Structure
• Compound-Complex Sentence Structure
• Complex Sentence Structure

L anguage is the basis of communication. Within communication, specifically written language, writers may have different purposes with their work.  As a reader, it’s beneficial to understand a writer’s goal, and as a writer, it’s important to understand how to use language to work for your own goal. Therefore, understanding text structure is vital for both readers and writers. What is text structure, and why are the types of structures that exist? Let’s dive into it.

What is Text Structure in Writing?

First, let’s define text structure.

There are five primary text structures that exist. Before diving into them, let’s take a look at the general text structure definition.

TEXT STRUCTURE DEFINITION

What is text structure in literature.

Text structure is the way in which a writer organizes language and information within text to serve a specific purpose. Depending on the goal of the writer, text can be structured in various ways to best communicate information to a reader clearly and effectively. The structure of a text’s beginning, middle, and end is directly influenced by the intention and purpose of the writer.  

Types of Text Structure:

Description, cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, what are all the text structures , types of text structure.

As we mentioned in the text structure definition there are various purposes writers have when writing. Text structure depends entirely on the purpose of a writer. 

There are 5 types of text structure:

• Description 
• Cause and Effect 
• Compare and Contrast
• Problem and Solution

Let’s take a deep dive into a list of text structures and analyze text structure examples of each. 

Description Text Structure Meaning

Description is a text structure that is designed to create a vivid, detailed description of something. This is achieved by using descriptive language to describe traits, features, and characteristics of the subject. Here's an example:

“Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park. A fascinating variety of plants and animals make their homes in a land sculpted by strong winds and occasional torrents of rain. Dark night skies, a rich cultural history, and surreal geologic features add to the wonder of this vast wilderness in southern California”

- National Parks Service

What Does Text Structure Mean

There are two ways that sequence text structure can be used: to communicate a chronological sequence of events or steps in a procedure. 

Sequence text structure for the purpose of chronological events is a common structure used in historical literature or non-fictional literature. Sequence structure for procedural information is common in educational literature from cooking instructions to scientific methods. 

Example 1 : “ World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918.” - World War I (history.com)

Example 2: “ Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and process until the largest pieces of butter are pea-size. Transfer to a large bowl.” BA’s Best Apple Pie ( bonappetit.com )

TEXT STRUCTURE MEANING

Cause and effect text structure is primarily used to communicate the causal relationship between an event, action, or idea and what follows. The text is designed to make the causality and correlation between the two clear to the reader. This is also a common structure in both educational and historical literature. For example:

“After inflating, the universe slowed down its expansion rate but continued to grow, as it does still. It also cooled significantly, allowing for the formation of matter — first neutrinos, electrons, quarks, and photons, followed by protons and neutrons.” - How Did the Big Bang Happen? ( astronomy.com )

Text Structure Meaning

Oftentimes, writers need to analyze the similarities and differences between two subjects. A compare and contrast text structure allows them to do just that. These comparisons are typically between people, places, events, ideas, or concepts. 

“Beethoven has a much more fiery personality. Whereas Mozart’s music is clean and precise, Beethoven employs many surprises in his music. Many times he will build up the music as if it’s leading to something only to suddenly get soft – his trademark use of subito piano.”

— Mozart vs. Beethoven ( livingpianos.com )

What is Text Structure Used For?

Lastly, the problem and solution text structure is designed to present a problem and transition into a proposed solution for said problem. The structure is designed to both create reasonable cases for why the problem exists and/or is important and why the proposed solution can be effective.

This text design is common in political literature and speech as well as business and technology. Here's an example:

“Transportation is the second leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. (burning a single gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of CO2). But it doesn't have to be that way. One way to dramatically curtail transportation fuel needs is to move closer to work, use mass transit, or switch to walking, cycling or some other mode of transport that does not require anything other than human energy. There is also the option of working from home and telecommuting several days a week.” — 10 Solutions for Climate Change (scientificamerican.com)

Text structure is valuable for both readers and writers to understand. It allows readers to know the intention of the writer they are reading from the beginning of a text. Writers can utilize structure to support the purpose of their work. Hopefully this article has given you insight on the value of text structure and how it can be used. 

Related Posts

• What is Syntax →
• Active vs Passive Voice →
• What is Sentence Structure →

What are Literary Devices?

Text structure is a great way to design your writing with a purpose in mind. Literary devices are also valuable tools that help writers achieve the goal of their work. In the next article, we break down a full tool kit of literary devices that you have at your disposal as a writer. 

Up Next: Literary Devices →

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Teaching Text Structures in Speech

As SLPs, an important part of our job is to support what the general education teachers are doing in their classrooms. One of the ways that general education teachers teach reading comprehension of nonfiction texts is through the use of text structures. Learning about text structures can lead to some fun activities in the speech room! Let’s take a look at what text structures are, why we need them, and what we can do in speech to support students learning about them. 

What Are Text Structures? 

“Text structures” are the ways that authors organize information and ideas in nonfiction text. Some common types of text structures include: 

• Cause and effect

Description

• Compare and contrast
• Problem and solution

Some other, less common, text structures include things like time order and chronology, inductive and deductive reasoning, and investigation. Text structures are used by authors to provide clarity and order to their writing so that it can be more easily understood by the reader. 

Why Teach Text Structures?  

“Expository text structure instruction is an effective research-based reading comprehension strategy for a range of students' abilities and grade levels” 

(Pyle et al., 2017)

Research shows that when students understand text structures, their comprehension, memory, and writing skills increase. Text structures also help students to self-monitor their comprehension. Familiarity with text structure allows students to organize information and details they are learning in their minds, make connections among the details being presented in a text, and summarize the important details that were shared in a text. 

Additionally, teaching text structure is standards-based. Beginning in 4th grade, students are expected to “Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.5). As they move through upper elementary and middle school, must be able to describe the text structure(s) found in two or more texts as well as analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas. 

Obviously, the development of being able to identify text structures is very important! But what about students who aren’t quite ready to identify text structures yet? What do they need to know before working on this skill? 

What Do Students Need to Know Before Learning Text Structures? 

Younger students or some students with speech and language difficulties will not be able to identify text structures right away. They will need some work on preliminary skills before they are able to move onto the more complex task of identifying text structures. 

To begin, the students will need to understand that authors have specific purposes for writing. These purposes can be to tell someone about something, to try to get someone to do something, and just for fun! Working on Author’s Purpose (link Author’s Purpose blog post here) will help to lay the groundwork for identifying text structures. 

Next, students will need to understand that there is a main idea to everything that authors write. Finally, students will need to understand that different parts of texts can be related in different ways. This will lead to the preliminary knowledge needed to understand structures such as cause/effect and compare/contrast. 

No matter what a student’s speech goals are, there are lots of fun ways to practice text structures during speech! Here are some of my favorites, including what goal area they correspond to.  

Cause and Effect

• Practice receptive language and articulation by having the student answer “wh” questions about the topic, and fill out a cause-and-effect graphic organizer. 
• Practice expressive language by letting the student illustrate causes and their effects from the text, and then verbally describe them to you. 
• Work on vocabulary by teaching cause-and-effect clue words. These words can include “because”, ‘since”, “so that” and more! 

• Practice fluency by having the student repeat descriptions back to you. 
• Practice vocabulary by teaching description clue words. Description clue words include dates, times, adjectives, and character traits. 
• You can also work on pragmatics by the student taking turns (either with a teacher or peer) describing something from the text. 

Compare and Contrast

• You can practice expressive and receptive language, as well as articulation, by doing a sort of notecards with information from the text to compare and contrast. 
• Many different goals can be addressed through the teaching of clue words. Clue words for comparing and contrasting include “as opposed to”, “both”, and “in contrast”. 

• Ask the student what sequencing clue words he or she already knows! You can practice fluency and voice by challenging the student to say as many as they can. Sequencing clue words can include “first”, “second”, “next”, “then”, “last”, and many more. 
• Have the student create a comic that puts text information in sequential order with panels. Students can practice articulation and expressive language as they describe their comic to you or a peer. 

Problem and Solution

• Students can practice receptive language as they sort notecards or pictures of problems and solutions found in the text. 
• Students can also practice vocabulary by learning problem and solution clue words. These can include “problem”, “solved”, “because” and more. 

If you need more text structures ideas for your speech room, click here to check out my Nonfiction Text Structure Sort Boom Cards! 

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September 7, 2018

How to: Format a speech text

Some speakers avoid using written scripts, because they say "reading" makes them feel stiff or uncomfortable.

Others rely on having the speech in front of them word for word.

And some situations require that a speaker use a script—because precise language is important or because the speech will live on, part of a permanent record.

Wherever you fall in this picture, you can be more successful with a written script by doing something incredibly simple and obvious: formatting the words on the page for easy reading.

Here’s how: 

1. Make the font size larger

This seems obvious, but you might be surprised to learn that even veteran speakers don’t do this.

Go up to 14 point, to start—then don’t be shy about making it even larger if that makes it easier for you to read. 

2. Break lines where you’d naturally pause, rather than have large blocks of continuous text.

The goal when delivering from a text is that you can look down, grab the line, then look up and deliver it, holding eye contact with the audience through the last word.

Speakers are tempted to look down on that last word, though, because they’re afraid they won’t be able to find the next word.

By breaking the lines deliberately, where you’d naturally pause, you make it easy to get through the final word, then look back to grab the next line or phrase where a pause would naturally occur.

So don’t default to running paragraphs. Use the return key to break lines where it makes the most sense to you.

3. Bold key words, not for emphasis, but to prompt your memory.

As you practice and become more familiar with your script, you’ll find this especially helpful. Those key words will prompt you to remember the entire line.

We do not use bold type to indicate emphasis and suggest you might mark up your text with a pen or highlighters to indicate HOW you want to deliver. But that’s just our suggestion. Whatever makes the most sense to you is what you should do.

4. Add extra space and insert page breaks to cue pace and timing.

Extra space can remind you that you’ve completed one thought and should pause for a beat before moving on to the next one.

Managing page breaks lets you move from page to page naturally and not have a page change in the middle of an idea or sentence. 

And be sure to number your pages!  

Other tips and tricks that work for some speakers:

• Only use the top two-thirds of the page. Some speakers feel this keeps them from having to look so far down to see the script, thus improving eye contact.
• Print your script on card stock instead of paper, so it’s easier to handle.
• Put your script in a notebook and arrange pages so that you can see two pages at one time (book style) before you have to flip the page.
• Keep pages loose and slide them across the top of the lectern, rather than turning them, so the pages are less noticeable.

The only thing that matters in all of this is what works for you. Your preferences will evolve, and trivial as it might seem, these experiments are worth conducting. We’ve seen speakers dramatically improve their delivery, instantly, when we change the way we format their scripts.

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Module 4: Organizing and Outlining

Organizational styles.

After deciding which main points and sub-points you must include, you can get to work writing up the speech. Before you do so, however, it is helpful to consider how you will organize the ideas. From presenting historical information in chronological order as part of an informative speech to drawing a comparison between two ideas in a persuasive speech to offering up problems and solutions, there are many ways in which speakers can craft effective speeches. These are referred to as organizational styles, or templates for organizing the main points of a speech.

Chronological

“Vintage alarm clock” by peter-rabbit. CC-BY-NC .

When you speak about events that are linked together by time, it is sensible to engage the chronological organization style. In a chronological speech , main points are delivered according to when they happened and could be traced on a calendar or clock. Arranging main points in chronological order can be helpful when describing historical events to an audience as well as when the order of events is necessary to understand what you wish to convey. Informative speeches about a series of events most commonly engage the chronological style, as do many demonstrative speeches (e.g., how to bake a cake or build an airplane). Another time when the chronological style makes sense is when you tell the story of someone’s life or career. For instance, a speech about Oprah Winfrey might be arranged chronologically (see textbox). In this case, the main points are arranged by following Winfrey’s life from birth to the present time. Life events (e.g., birth, her early career, her life after ending the Oprah Winfrey Show) are connected together according to when they happened and highlight the progression of Winfrey’s career. Organizing the speech in this way illustrates the interconnectedness of life events.

Oprah Winfrey (Chronological Arrangement)

Thesis : Oprah’s career can be understood by four key, interconnected life stages.

I. Oprah’s childhood was spent in rural Mississippi, where she endured sexual abuse from family members.

II. Oprah’s early career was characterized by stints on local radio and television networks in Nashville and Chicago.

III. Oprah’s tenure as host of the Oprah Winfrey Show began in 1986 and lasted until 2011, a period of time marked by much success.

IV. Oprah’s most recent media venture is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which plays host to a variety of television shows including Oprah’s Next Chapter .

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. – Oprah Winfrey

When the main points of your speech center on ideas that are more distinct from one another, a topical organization style may be engaged. In a topical speech , main points are developed separately and are generally connected together within the introduction and conclusion. In other words, the topical style is crafted around main points and sub-points that are mutually exclusive but related to one another by virtue of the thesis. It makes sense to use the topical style when elements are connected to one another because of their relationship to the whole. A topical speech about the composition of a newspaper company can be seen in the following textbox. The main points are linked together by the fact that they are all a part of the same business. Although they are related in that way, the topical style illustrates the ways in which the four different departments function apart from one another. In this example, the topical style is a good fit because the four departments are equally important to the function of the newspaper company.

Composition of a Newspaper Company (Topical Arrangement)

Thesis : The newspaper has four primary departments.

I. The advertising department sells display advertisements to local and national businesses.

II. The editorial department produces the written content of the newspaper, including feature stories.

III. The production department lays out the pages and manages pre- press work such as distilling the pages and processing colors.

IV. The business department processes payments from advertisers, employee paperwork, and the bi-weekly payroll.

Another way to organize the points of a speech is through a spatial speech , which arranges main points according to their physical and geographic relationships. The spatial style is an especially useful organization style when the main point’s importance is derived from its location or directional focus. In other words, when the scene or the composition is a central aspect of the main points, the spatial style is an appropriate way to deliver key ideas. Things can be described from top to bottom, inside to outside, left to right, north to south, and so on. Importantly, speakers using a spatial style should offer commentary about the placement of the main points as they move through the speech, alerting audience members to the location changes. For instance, a speech about The University of Georgia might be arranged spatially; in this example, the spatial organization frames the discussion in terms of the campus layout. The spatial style is fitting since the differences in architecture and uses of space are related to particular geographic areas, making location a central organizing factor. As such, the spatial style highlights these location differences.

University of Georgia (Spatial Arrangement)

Thesis : The University of Georgia is arranged into four distinct sections, which are characterized by architectural and disciplinary differences.

I. In North Campus, one will find the University’s oldest building, a sprawling tree- lined quad, and the famous Arches, all of which are nestled against Athens’ downtown district.

II. In West Campus, dozens of dormitories provide housing for the University’s large undergraduate population and students can regularly be found lounging outside or at one of the dining halls.

III. In East Campus, students delight in newly constructed, modern buildings and enjoy the benefits of the University’s health center, recreational facilities, and science research buildings.

IV. In South Campus, pharmacy, veterinary, and biomedical science students traverse newly constructed parts of campus featuring well-kept landscaping and modern architecture.

Comparative

“Let’s compare apples to oranges” by frankieleon. CC-BY .

When you need to discuss the similarities and differences between two or more things, a comparative organizational pattern can be employed. In comparative speeches , speakers may choose to compare things a couple different ways. First, you could compare two or more things as whole (e.g., discuss all traits of an apple and then all traits of an orange). Second, you could compare these things element by element (e.g., color of each, smell of each, AND taste of each). Some topics that are routinely spoken about comparatively include different cultures, different types of transportation, and even different types of coffee. A comparative speech outline about eastern and western cultures could look like this.

Eastern vs. Western Culture (Comparison Arrangement)

Thesis : There are a variety of differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

I. Eastern cultures tend to be more collectivistic.

II. Western cultures tend to be more individualistic.

III. Eastern cultures tend to treat health issues 
holistically.

IV. Western cultures tend to 
treat health issues more acutely.

In this type of speech, the list of comparisons, which should be substantiated with further evidence, could go on for any number of main points. The speech could also compare how two or more things are more alike than one might think. For instance, a speaker could discuss how singers Madonna and Lady Gaga share many similarities both in aesthetic style and in their music.

Problem-Solution

“ FEMA” by Dave Gatley. Public domain.

Sometimes it is necessary to share a problem and a solution with an audience. In cases like these, the problem-solution speech is an appropriate way to arrange the main points of a speech. One familiar example of speeches organized in this way is the political speeches that presidential hopefuls give in the United States. Often, candidates will begin their speech by describing a problem created by or, at the very least, left unresolved by the incumbent. Once they have established their view of the problem, they then go on to flesh out their proposed solution. The problem- solution style is especially useful when the speaker wants to convince the audience that they should take action in solving some problem. A political candidate seeking office might frame a speech using the problem-solution style (see textbox).

Presidential Candidate’s Speech (Problem-Solution Arrangement)

Thesis : The US energy crisis can be solved by electing me as president since I will devote resources to the production of renewable forms of energy.

I. The United States is facing an energy crisis because we cannot produce enough energy ourselves to sustain the levels of activity needed to run the country. (problem)

II. The current administration has failed to invest enough resources in renewable energy practices. (problem)

III. We can help create a more stable situation if we work to produce renewable forms of energy within the United States. (solution)

IV. If you vote for me, I will ensure that renewable energy creation is a priority. (solution)

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. – Mahatma Gandhi

This example illustrates the way in which a problem-solution oriented speech can be used to identify both a general problem (energy crisis) and a specific problem (incumbent’s lack of action). Moreover, this example highlights two kinds of solutions: a general solution and a solution that is dependent on the speaker’s involvement. The problem-solution speech is especially appropriate when the speaker desires to promote a particular solution as this offers audience members a way to become involved. Whether you are able to offer a specific solution or not, key to the problem-solution speech is a clear description of both the problem and the solution with clear links drawn between the two. In other words, the speech should make specific connections between the problem and how the solution can be engaged to solve it.

“Domino” by Bro. Jeffrey Pioquinto, SJ. CC-BY .

Similar to a problem-solution speech, a causal speech informs audience members about causes and effects that have already happened. In other words, a causal organization style first addresses some cause and then shares what effects resulted. A causal speech can be particularly effective when the speaker wants to share the relationship between two things, like the creation of a vaccine to help deter disease. An example of how a causal speech about a shingles vaccine might be designed follows:

As the example illustrates, the basic components of the causal speech are the cause and the effect. Such an organizational style is useful when a speaker needs to share the results of a new program, discuss how one act led to another, or discuss the positive/negative outcomes of taking some action.

Shingles Speech (Cause-Effect Arrangement)

Thesis : The prevalence of the disease shingles led to the invention of a vaccine.

• Shingles is a disease that causes painful, blistering rashes in up to one million Americans every year. (cause)
• In 2006, a vaccine for shingles was licensed in the United States and has been shown to reduce the likelihood that people over 60 years old will get shingles. (effect)

Every choice you make has an end result. – Zig Ziglar

Choosing an organizational style is an important step in the speechwriting process. As you formulate the purpose of your speech and generate the main points that you will need to include, selecting an appropriate organizational style will likely become easier. The topical, spatial, causal, comparative and chronological methods of arrangement may be better suited to informative speeches, whereas the refutation pattern may work well for a persuasive speech. Additionally, Chapter 16 offers additional organization styles suited for persuasive speeches, such as the refutation speech and Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. [1] Next, we will look at statements that help tie all of your points together and the formal mode of organizing a speech by using outlines.

• Monroe, A. H. (1949). Principles and types of speech. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company. ↵
• Chapter 8 Organizational Styles. 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
• vintage alarm clock. Authored by : peter-rabbit. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/drEszC . License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• let's compare apples to oranges. Authored by : frankieleon. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/bscqLn . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Domino. Authored by : Bro. Jeffrey Pioquinto, SJ. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/pA9ftS . License : CC BY: Attribution
• FEMA - 1337 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 03-01-1998 in California. Authored by : Dave Gatley. Provided by : Federal Emergency Management Agency. Located at : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_1337_-_Photograph_by_Dave_Gatley_taken_on_03-01-1998_in_California.jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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Opinion Columns

Infographics/image, broadsheets, internet article, paper 1: texts and conventions, structural elements.

• Salutation - shows the relationship between speaker and audience.
• Establishes purpose
• Introduces stance of the speaker
• Relates to the audience
• Purpose is emphasised through different techniques.
• Repetition of the purpose using rhetorical devices.
• Proving the benefits of the purpose using appeals.
• Call to action
• Concludes message and ends with finality.
• Linguistic elements
• Aristotelian appeal: Logos, ethos, and pathos
• Use of facts and figures
• Anecdotes or personal examples
• Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, imagery)
• Hyperphora, anaphora, rhetorical structures
• parallel structures, tricolon
• Asyndeton, polysyndeton
• Personalised language, usage of second person pronoun
• Masthead or title
• Strapline under headline, more detail
• Short paragraph summarising entire article
• Generates interest in the audience
• name of the writer
• Image and caption
• One or two lines that grabs the attention of the audience.
• Pulled out of the matter
• relevant and important text.
• States the purpose and topic.
• States the relevance of the topic by relating to the audience.
• Body matter (largest part)
• Author gives a comment
• Talks about an investigation
• Predicts a consequence
• Call to action.
• Shows the credibility of the journalist.
• Call to action, eg. comment on twitter, etc.
• Inherits all conventions from article.
• Opinion is stated very strongly in first paragraph.
• Body paragraphs have arguments in favour and rebuttic arguments.
• Newspapers and magazines often have columnists who write for them
• Generally speaking, newspapers or magazines want there to be a cult of personality surrounding these columnists to generate good sales and brand loyalty
• Columnists may be very outspoken in their opinions
• Nevertheless, their opinions are in tune with the readership of a particular magazine or newspaper
• Furthermore, their opinions are newsworthy, meaning that they both comment on the hot topics of the day and their opinions are worthy of publication.

Structural Elements

• Introduces the issue and states the writer’s stance.
• Strongly puts forth call to action.
• At times, the reader of a magazine or newspaper gets to hear the editor’s voice directly
• This usually takes the form of a brief explanation or justification on hoe they have decided to cover a topic in their newspaper or magazine
• Remember editors are the gatekeepers at a publishing house who decide what goes in to the final publication
• In an editorial they may comment on their journalists’ fieldwork, their columnists’ reputation, or their newspapers’ status in society
• This is written by a renowned person, somebody who has authority in a field.
• Opposes the stance of the editorial.
• Written prose piece typically published by a newspaper or a magazine written by a named writer/public personality usually not affiliated by the publication’s editorial board
• Op Eds are different from editorials (which are usually unsigned and written by the editorial board members) or Letters to the editor (which are submitted by the readers to the journal/newspaper)
• the general of an army may write an op-ed about the status of war
• a famous rockstar may write an op-ed in Rolling Stone magazine
• the president of a country may write a letter to a political opponent, which he or she wishes to be published as an op-ed

Features common with editorials

• Short sentences and simple sentence construction
• Active voice rather than passive voice in verbs
• Short words from common vocabulary
• Almost no use of number or math
• Attention grabbing title
• Important point first, not last
• Use of people’s first and last names for ‘human interest’
• Affiliation language (business, university, titles, location) for persuasion
• Who, what, when, where, why, how
• Contains all the conventions of a cartoon or a graphic novel.
• Stacking and flow between images and photographs.
• Number of images
• Spacing and use of negative space

Graphical/linguistic elements

• Camera angles
• Colour scheme - light and shade
• Simple, fluent language
• Use of formatted text
• Facial/bodily gestures and expressions
• Begins and ends with a hook , an attention grabber.
• Retains the curiosity and interest.
• Feedback mechanisms from the audience are present.

Linguistic Elements

• Audience focused
• Follows online conventions
• Figurative, but to the point
• Sets out the purpose of the letter
• Introduces context and content for analysis
• Contains statement of intent
• Contains purpose and contextual clues
• Call to action (formal open letter)
• Reiterating purpose + intent
• Pleasantries
• The tone, which establishes the relationship of the writer to the primary audience
• Relatability of the text
• Purpose of the writer
• Contextual references
• Minced words, euphemisms
• Vernacular/local language
• Sarcastic elements
• Uses emotive, personal language
• The hidden implications of the text
• The real meaning of the text below the language
• Use of puns
• Use of alliteration
• Exaggeration for effect
• Colloquial language
• Informal names used
• Short, snappy sentences
• Heightened language (over the top)
• Brand names
• Sexual innuendos
• A focus upon appearance / colours
• Frequent use of elision e.g. won’t, don’t.
• More formal
• Metaphors rather than puns (puns - sometimes used, although more subtle)
• subtle rhetoric
• More complex sentences (look for sentences separated by lots of commas, semi-colons etc.)
• Descriptions of people tends to relate to personality or position in society ;
• Politician’s comments often included, with a commentary by the journalist
• Focusses more on being authenticity and sophistication
• Name of the journal – masthead
• Contextual information under the headline, it establishes relevance of lead story – standfirst
• Name of the writer, when it was published, place – by-line
• Selective excerpts magnified - pull quote
• Quotations/sources
• Other reading suggestions - off-lead

Characteristics

• Voice – this refers to many aspects of language including word choice, verb tense, tone and imagery
• Newsworthy – is the column relevant to its time? What makes it newsworthy?
• Call to action – columnist usually call on the reader to become involved or care about an issue
• Humour – this is really an aspect of voice; humour usually helps readers see a topic through an original and fun perspective
• Hard facts – this aspect of newsworthiness gives an opinion column credibility
• Logos – appealing to logic will help persuade your readers

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Speech Structure: 7 Basic Types

Speech structure determines the content and how it is presented. The purpose of these structures also differs. In my experience, I’ve found that speeches and presentations all pretty much fit into seven basic structures.

What Type of Presentation Are You Giving?

Speech structure type 1, business presentation.

The most common speech structure is a business presentation . These are typically given by team leaders, or first- or mid-level managers, and are usually in the context of a staff meeting. The content of this type of presentation includes project updates, new product launches, monthly sales reports and other topics critical to the group. These are usually given in small groups and kept fairly informal.

Speech Structure Type 2, Political or Persuasive Speeches

This type of speech is given by people running for, or already in, some form of political office. This can include anything from the local school board to a national office. The purpose of this type of public speaking is to present the person’s ideas and approach to the issues. Since people have short attention spans, it is important that these types of presentations are concise and highly relevant. These are usually given to medium to large-sized audiences.

Speech Structure Type 3, Sales Presentation

Probably the second most common speech structure is the sales presentation . The purpose is to make a sale or at least move a prospective client or customer further along the sales funnel. These types of speeches are highly persuasive and benefit-laden. These are usually given to smaller groups.

Speech Structure Type 4, Job Interview

Many people don’t even think of the job interview as a form of public speaking, but it most definitely is. Whether a job candidate is simply responding to questions or has to make a more formal presentation about his or her qualifications, speaking skills are required for success. The key here is understanding the criteria the interviewers are looking for and presenting the applicable qualities within the given time frame. These are usually given to an audience of one. However, there are times when the presentations will be given before a panel of up to a dozen individuals with hiring influence.

Speech Structure Type 5, Lecture

The most common way to present educational information is via the lecture speech structure. Because this structure is often not terribly interactive, a variety of other public speaking skills come into play to make sure that students are engaged with the information. These are usually given to medium to large groups.

Speech Structure Type 6, Conference or Seminar Presenter

Closely related to the lecture format, the conference or seminar presenter often will facilitate a series of lectures, as well as interactive activities that help participants learn new information. Sometimes the presenter is one of many, so bring your public speaking superpowers to bear will help keep your presentation memorable. These are usually given to medium to large groups.

Speech Structure Type 7, Debate

The debate speech structure is a two-person game, minimum. Practiced in school and used by political figures and activists alike, speakers take turns presenting one side of an issue. The goal is to persuade the audience to that side. Debate takes skill in persuasion, much like the sales presentation, and also includes emotional appeals. These are usually given to medium to very large groups.

Preparation is the Key to Success

Regardless of what type of structure your presentation will take, you need to prepare in advance. The following are things you need to keep in mind when planning out your speech.

Length of Time

Do you have 15 minutes or 5 hours? How much time you have dictates how much information you can include and to what level of detail you can present that information.

Typical Timing per Structure

• Business Presentation: 5 to 15 minutes
• Political or Persuasive Speeches: 15 to 90 minutes
• Sales Presentation: 10 to 20 minutes
• Job Interview: 2 to 15 minutes
• Lecture: 30 to 90 minutes
• Conference or Seminar Presenter: 45 to 90 minutes
• Debate: 5 to 10 minutes

Different topics require different presentation styles and structures. Is this an emotionally laden topic? Or is it more straightforward and factual? This will dictate how you present the information, what stories you will use, and whether humor is appropriate or not.

You don’t need to write out a speech word-for-word, you do need to have a roadmap. Plan what you will include in the presentation so you stay on topic.

Opening and conclusion

Your opening — how you hook your audience — and your ending — how you leave them feeling once you leave the stage — are the two most critical parts of any speech. These are the sections you should plan out word-for-word and memorize.

Who are you speaking to? What is their level of understanding of your topic? What language do they use to discuss your topic? How engaged in your topic are they already? You need to know your audience so that you can choose the right information to provide and provide it in a way that they can understand and relate to. If you don’t know anything about your audience, you will find it very challenging to engage them in your presentation.

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What Is Text Structure and How To Teach It Effectively

When students can identify and recognize different structures in text, they’re more likely to increase their comprehension of a text, strengthen their writing skills, and develop even more literacy skills, like finding the main idea of a passage. In this article, we’ll explore what text structure is, why teaching it matters, and give examples of strategies you can use to teach text structure in your classroom:

What is text structure?

Why is teaching text structure important, 5 types of text structures, text types used to teach text structure, teacher tips: strategies to teach text structure to students, teach text structure with newsela.

Text structure is the way an author organizes the information within a text. It’s more than just the basic structure of beginning, middle, and end. The structure of a text serves as an outline or skeleton that helps the writer frame the story they want to tell. The specific type of text structure an author uses lets them share different types of information in a way that helps the reader clearly understand the text’s main idea and key points.

Teaching text structure in the classroom is just one of many literacy skills that help students understand, analyze, and make sense of the world around them. With intentional instruction, teaching text structure can:

Aid students in understanding the author’s meaning for creating and sharing a text.

Help students improve their comprehension of any text they encounter, both fiction and nonfiction across subjects like ELA, science, and social studies.

Boost practice and comprehension of other literacy skills, like predicting outcomes, summarizing information, and identifying key concepts and relationships.

Prepare students to learn to organize and write their own thoughts and ideas.

There are five types of text structures that authors use when creating articles, stories, and other content. They include:

1. Cause and effect

Cause and effect text structure provides explanations or reasons for phenomena in the world. It tells why something happens (the cause) and then what happened (the effect). For example, this text structure often appears in science texts that talk about the steps in an experiment: If you mix baking soda and vinegar (cause), a chemical reaction takes place (effect).

Questions that can signal cause and effect include:

What happened?

Why did it happen?

What caused it to happen?

Transition words that can signal cause and effect text structure include:

As a result

Download your printable: Newsela’s Cause and Effect worksheet  

2. Chronological, process, or sequence

Chronological text structure, also known as process or sequence text structure, presents events and ideas in the order they happen, from start to finish.

For example, this text structure may appear in social studies texts to talk about the events that led to a significant point in history: The British government put a series of taxes and tariffs on the colonists, which led to the Boston Tea Party, and then the start of the American Revolution .

Another example of this text structure may appear in ELA texts, as many fictional stories happen in chronological order, such as “ Diary of a Wimpy Kid ” by Jeff Kinney.

Questions that can signal chronological, process, or sequence text structure include:

What happened first, next, or last?

Do the steps have to happen in this order?

Transition words that can signal chronological, process, or sequence text structure include:

After, before, during, next

First, second, third

Download your printables: Newsela’s Flowchart and Timeline worksheets

3. Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast text structure discusses two characters, events, or ideas and shows how they’re similar or different from each other.

For example, you may see this text structure in ELA classrooms when reviewing the similarities and differences of two characters in a story. The author may compare their physical features, thoughts, families, or even hobbies.

Questions that can signal compare and contrast include:

How are they the same?

How are they different?

What are we comparing?

Transition words that can signal compare and contrast text structure include:

Alike, like, similar

But, however

Differ, unlike

Download your printables: Newsela’s Venn Diagram and T-Chart worksheets

4. Definition or description

Definition or description text structure describes a topic by listing its features or characteristics. It may also provide examples to illustrate these features. The primary purpose of a description text structure is to give the reader a mental picture of the topic or idea.

For example, you may see this text structure in science texts, describing the physical characteristics of animals or their habitats.

Questions that can signal definition or description text structure include:

What does it do?

What does it look like?

How does it work?

Transition words that can signal definition or description text structure include:

Appears, seems

Beside, near, next to

For example, for instance, such as

Download your printable: Newsela’s Web Chart worksheet

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5. Problem/solution

Problem/solution text structure identifies a problem and makes suggestions for how to fix it. For example, this text structure may appear in social studies texts about current events. An author identifies a current problem in government or society and proposes a solution to fix it.

Questions that can signal problem and solution text structure include:

What is the problem?

Why is that a problem?

Is there a solution?

What are some possible solutions?

How can we solve the problem?

Transition words that can signal problem and solution text structure include:

Who, what, when, where, why

Solution is

Download your printable: Newsela’s Problem-Solution worksheet

Text structures don’t exist in a vacuum. Nor do they pair with just one type of text. When teaching your students about text structure, you can use a variety of text types to show them how the different text structures present in different ways. Some of the text types you can use include:

Narrative text uses devices like characters, setting, conflicts, plot, and point of view to tell a story or share the overview of an event. Students are often most familiar with narrative text because they’re used to picture books and oral stories that follow this structure. Most narrative stories include five main plot points:

Exposition: Introduces the character, setting, and conflict of the story.

Rising action: Introduces the challenges the characters face to build to the climax.

Climax: Illustrates the main conflict or turning point of the story.

Falling action: Describes the aftermath of the climax and how the characters deal with its outcomes or consequences.

Resolution: Answers any unresolved questions and brings the story to a close.

Narrative text can include many types of text structure throughout a story, like cause and effect, sequence, or problem/solution. They can appear in texts for any subject, but narratives are most common in ELA fiction and nonfiction texts.

Download your printable: Newsela’s Story Elements plot diagram

Expository text uses facts to share information and ideas about a topic. Most nonfiction texts are expository. They’re the text type students encounter most often in classes like science and social studies. Expository texts are often more difficult for students to understand than narrative texts because they don’t follow the traditional structure or sequence of fictional texts.

Argumentative or persuasive

Argumentative or persuasive text helps an author make or prove a point, or encourage others to take their stance in a debate. This text type can mix multiple text structures, with the most common being compare and contrast, problem/solution, and description. Similar to narrative text, argumentative and persuasive texts also follow a pattern and contain key elements to help make, prove, and strengthen an author’s viewpoint. These elements include:

Claim: The point of the argument and the idea or statement the author wants to prove.

Reasons: Supporting statements the author makes to bolster their claim.

Evidence: Facts, data, statistics, quotes, or other information an author uses to support their reasons.

Counterclaims: Reasons and evidence that oppose the author’s argument, which they address in the text.

Rebuttals: An author’s responses to counterclaims, which are often used to refute opposing views or ideas.

Argumentative and persuasive texts can appear in any classroom. ELA teachers may use them to get students to think critically about the fiction and poetry they read. In social studies, teachers may use this text type to teach debate and discussion of historical events and policies. In science, teachers may use this type to complement experiments and scientific phenomena.

Descriptive

Similar to the definition or description text structure, a descriptive text type creates a multi-sensory picture of the topic for the reader. Writers may use the definition text structure and the compare and contrast structure to create this picture. You can use descriptive texts in any subject, including ELA, science, and social studies.

Procedural or instructional

Procedural or instructional texts use chronology or sequence of events to provide a step-by-step process. This text type can appear in any classroom, but it’s most common in science, math, or other STEAM courses, which rely on procedures to test and replicate results.

Considerate

Considerate texts are user-friendly texts that are easy to read and understand for most readers. This text type, introduced by Bonnie Armbruster and Thomas Anderson in 1988, is especially helpful in classrooms where students span a range of reading levels and abilities, no matter the subject. Because of their easy-to-read nature, they can incorporate any of the five text structures.

Considerate texts use structures that are easy for the reader to identify, which also makes it easier for them to pick out the main ideas and key details. This text type also supports comprehension with features like:

Clear topic sequences

Headings and subheadings

In-context vocabulary definitions

Plain language introductions

Simple tables, charts, and diagrams

Transition words

Students can start learning about the most basic elements of text structure as early as preschool or kindergarten. Plus, teachers can include instruction about text structure at every phase of reading: before, during, and after. Here are a few strategies you can use in your classroom to help your students learn about and identify text structure in the texts they read:

Use a mentor text to show examples of the different types of text structures using both fiction and nonfiction texts.

Use graphic organizers to help students plot the different information or features from a text to visualize the structure.

Teach the text signals and transition words writers use that indicate different types of text structures.

Pose questions students can ask and answer to help them identify if a piece fits a specific text structure.

Examine topic sentences to look for clues and patterns in different text structures.

Model writing a paragraph that uses a specific text structure and have students write their own paragraphs that follow the same structure.

Introduce the skill of text purpose —determining what information the author is trying to share—to help students identify text structures.

Teaching text structure is easy with Newsela’s product suite! With Newsela ELA , you can:

Use interactive graphic organizers for any article. You can edit and customize these graphics organizers with the Formative and Newsela integration by clicking the button in the activities panel on the article.

Use the reading skills search filter and article labels to identify which skills each piece of content covers.

Select which skills to teach and assess with each article. Use the checkboxes in the activities panel to focus on supports and resources for just the skill you’re teaching, even if the article covers more than one skill.

Watch and share explainer videos , like the nonfiction text structure video , to dive deeper into skill development.

Browse the updated ELA Standards and Skills collection for even more resources to help you teach text structure in any lesson, including strong mentor texts for each text structure.

With Newsela Writing , you can:

Use short- and long-form writing assignments to help students practice writing their own content using different text structures!

Not a Newsela customer yet? You can sign up for Newsela Lite for free and get access to content and skill-building scaffolds you need to teach text structure in your classroom.

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9 Ways To Make Teaching Text Structure Fun for Students

Discover 9 ways to make teaching text structure fun for your students that will help them learn and retain this literacy skill.

4 Key Elements to Grow Skilled Readers

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Common Core State Standards Related to Text Structure

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 – Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

ELA Standards: Informational Texts

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5 – Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.5 – Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.5 – Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.5 – Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.5 – Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5 – Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

146 Comments

Vilma arely.

very interesting and helpful. My students will appreciate this notes and the activities. Sometimes we just focus to teach them grammar and structures or to speak but we leave aside the aspects of puntuation which is very important.

This websites incredible, thanks so much!

This is very useful. Thank you. In your experience, what age should students be expected to study Text Structure?

In my experience, students begin learning text structure around kindergarten with concepts like “problem and solution” in relation to stories. Text structure is a skill that follows students from the lowest to the highest levels. Eventually, we hope that they can apply text structures to their own writings.

Tite Habarugira

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Damascene Mwambutsa

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Chantal nyirafuraha

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Marisa Abian

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MY NAME IS JEFF

This such an awesome website thank you.

sup thanks for the website

Moises Souza

Hi there, That’s a great website and superb job! Thanks a lot for providing all this.

I just would like to confirm the answers of the quiz about text structure. Some answers don’t really match. Am I doing something wrong?

Why question 6 is chronological? it seems clearly a case of cause/effect.

Thanks for your attention!

Thank you for reporting this error. The key has been updated.

skyler davis

Germaine aggingiton.

This website is beautiful

This is so helpful to my reading homework thanks so much!

Kritarsh Kumar Negi XVIII

The dodo bird never roamed in america, I think you might be referring to the passenger pigeon

You are right. Thank you.

the dodo bird lived in the madagascar and near the indian ocean NOT IN AMERICA

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