Keyword Outline & Speaking Notecards

• Create a keyword outline for your entire presentation, including the introduction, body, and conclusion.

• Turn this keyword outline into your five speaking notecards. (see the sample speaking notecards included below)

• Within your outline, include a verbal reference for each of your five sources. 

• This means you will include cited/quoted information from each source at least once. 

• Your quoted information can be sentences, but it must contain quotation marks around the quoted information.

• Your Capstone presentation is a sharing of the information you have learned, not a reading of a manuscript.

The correct process is to take your Composition or Applied Communications class research paper and convert the paper into your keyword outline. This outline becomes your speaking note cards in paper or digital format. It is acceptable to use note cards for a 15-minute research-based presentation, but not to directly read from the note cards or from your screen.

Again, your Capstone outline is a keyword outline except for your verbally referenced quotations. See the sample below and the above tab for a Google Docs outline format. Make a copy of the Sample Keyword Outline to use as a starting point for your own outline.

Complete Prep and Formal Outline with Speaking Note Cards from The Challenge of Effective Speaking by Rudolph F. Verderber, Kathleen S. Verderber, Deanna Sellnow, 17th Edition | Copyright 2018

For sample verbal references see the References/Annotated Bibliographies tab.