Central Ideas in Speeches

Determine the central idea of a speech and how repetition and structure reinforce it.

Speeches are written for listeners, so speakers make the central idea easy to hear and hard to forget. They often state it early, repeat key phrases, and return to it at the end. Listening or reading for these patterns helps you find the central idea. Here is part of an original student speech: 'Our school throws away four hundred lunches' worth of food each week. Four hundred. That's not just waste; that's hunger we could prevent.

If we start a share table, food that would be thrown away could feed classmates who need it. Four hundred lunches. We can change that number starting Monday. ' The repeated 'four hundred' is a hook that keeps the problem in the listener's mind. The central idea: the school should start a share table to turn food waste into help for hungry students. When analyzing a speech, notice repeated words, the opening and closing lines, and any direct call to action, since these usually point straight at the central idea.

• 1Speeches state, repeat, and return to the central idea
• 2Repeated phrases are clues
• 3Opening lines, closing lines, and calls to action point to the idea