Use this guide to decipher abbreviations you might have found on your preparation outline
ABBREV |
TERM
|
Interpretation
|
ACRO
|
ACRONYM | You made good use of an acronym to organize your main points thus avoiding topical org. |
ANALOG |
ANALOGY ORG. | Your created an analogy between your main points and an external object and it created a good order by avoiding topical. |
BKEND
|
BOOKENDING | Your concluding phrase resounded with your opening imagery which created a satisfying unity to your speech. |
BIAS |
BIASED SUPPORT | Some of your supporting material was from clearly biased sources. Have more balance to your supporting material sources to avoid being seen as biased yourself; An important concern in this informative round of speeches. |
| BLANKET |
BLANKET CITATIONS |
You relied on “blanket” citation, such as “all my facts are from...” which is less effective for the assignment. You need to cite as you go along; we easily forget where you got your information when your facts are too far away from your blanket citation. |
BOF
|
BETTER OUTLINE FORMAT NEEDED | Your outline is not in a true hierarchal outline format. Each distinct idea needs it's own distinct node on the outline. Remember, deeper levels of sub-point should be indented further to the right, each level labeled in a consistent manner, hanging indents to show that labeling and double spaces between items. Transitions should be included, but should break the outline and be either in parenthesis or italics. For fuller credit, it would be wise to review this in your text before your next speech. |
| BOLD | BOLD CITATIONS | Remember, all of your citations and external references on your preparation outline need to be bolded (or underlined). |
BRIEF
|
BRIEF OUTLINE | Your preparation outline really isn't a true, full preparation outline--it's more of a speaking outline. Review the text or see me for help. |
BTR PHRA |
BETTER PHRASING | Put more effort into phrasing your main points. Remember, they should be in full sentences and exhibit parallelism whenever possible. |
BTR
PPT |
BETTER POWERPOINT | You did not make good use of your PowerPoint presentation. The slides should be simpler, integrated better and not have too much text. |
BUT
|
TOPICAL WORKED | Fortunately, you used a good preview statement and your main points were clear with your use of transitions and connectives; this mitigated the topical organization. |
CHRON
|
CHRONOLOCICAL | You made good us of a chronological organizational pattern which was appropriate to your topic. |
DLV
|
DELIVERY | For the preview statement to work well, you have to deliver it properly: make it sound special and pause between each phrase that represents a main point. |
| EDIT |
REFINE SPECIFIC PURPOSE |
Your speech was significantly overtime. While it is worse to be undertime, being overtime indicates you tried to do too much. Re-examine your specific purpose. Is it too broad? Narrow the scope of what you hope to achieve in the speech and edit as necessary. Any item that does not serve your refined purpose can be removed. |
| EXPØRES |
EXPERIENCE NOT RESEARCH | You related your personal experience with the topic, which is good, but we need to also know the depth of your research for better credibility. |
FUROUT
|
FURTHER OUTLINING | Some of your sub-points and sub-sub-points needed to be broken down into further subordinated items. Each distinct idea should have it's own place on the outline. |
GOOD
PPT |
GOOD POWERPOINT | You made very good use of your PowerPoint presentation. The slides were clear, conveyed good information, were well integrated and added visual interest to your speech. |
GRAVEL
|
GRAVEL PIT | Endings of phrases trailed off far back into your throat and were too gravelly; pay attention to vocal warm-ups and strive for a clear, robust speaking voice. |
HIER
|
CHECK HIERARCHY | Check your hierarchy more carefully. Does it branch correctly? Does it branch enough? |
INDENT
|
INDENTATIONS | Outlining improvement: Indents should be "hanging indents" where the number or label of the point or subpoint is in a margin of its own. Double space between points. |
INITIAL |
INITIALS AS ORG. | Using your initials as an organizing principle helped you avoid topical organization. |
LOW
|
LOW INTENSITY | There was very little variety in your speaking tone; that combined with low volume and a lack of eye contact contributed to weak delivery of your speech. |
MANU |
FROM MANUSCRIPT | Your delivery of the speech should be stronger. You need to have a more direct connection with your audience--read less, extemporize more, in a conversational tone. Try rehearsing with an invited audience before delivering in class. |
MISOP |
MISTAKEN ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN | You did declare your organizational pattern on your preparation outline but unfortunately, it was not correct. Review the chapter on organization and re-classify your organizational pattern. |
NO BIB |
NO BIBLIOGRAPHY | It was an important requirement of this round to hand in a full, well formatted bibliography to document the nature of your research. |
ØAPOL
|
DON'T APOLOGIZE | Every speech given this semester will have moments that go wrong. This note indicates that you called attention to your miscues, making them more significant. Try not to call attention to your mistakes, just continue on. |
ORGPAT
|
DECLARE ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN | It is a requirement in my class that you declare your organizational pattern in the header section of your preparation outline. |
OUT
HDR |
OUTLINE HEADERS | It is a requirement to have a header section on your preparation outline that declares the specific purpose and central idea of your speech along with your organizational pattern. |
PARA
OUT |
PARAGRAGH OUTLINE | Your body is not in a true hierarchal format but is in labeled prose paragraphs. Your sub-points and sub-sub-points needed to be broken down into further subordinated items. Each distinct idea should have it's own place on the outline. Each level of sub-point should be indented further to the right, each level labeled in a consistent manner, hanging indents to show that labeling and double spaces between items. Transitions should be included, but should break the outline and be either in parenthesis or italics. For fuller credit, it would be wise to review this in your text before your next speech. |
| PHR CITE | PHRASING OF CITATIONS | Rember that a speech is not a paper. Your citations should appear on your preparation outline in common phrasing, just as you would say them in your speech. They should be integrated into the hierarchy of the preparation outline. |
| PHR CI | CENTRAL IDEA PHRASING | Look at the example below; the Central Idea should be one concise sentence that encapsulates the number, order and content of your main points. |
PHR HDR |
PHRASING OF HEADERS | Review how to state your Specific Purpose Statement and your Central Idea. Specific Purpose should be a split infinitive statement limited to one distinct idea; the Central Idea should be one concise sentence that encapsulates the number, order and content of your main points. If your speech is about melanoma and your main points are: what melanoma is, what causes it and how it can be prevented, your header section on your preparation outline would look like this: Specific Purpose: To inform my audience on Melanoma Central Idea: Melanoma is a malignant skin cancer caused by sun exposure that can be prevented by avoiding sun exposure. Organizational Pattern: Problem, Cause, Solution |
P-N |
PRINT NORMAL | You used the Word file to create a very good preparation outline, but please print it out in NORMAL view for more legible spacing. |
PS PROB
|
PREVIEW PROBLEM | The difficulty of discerning the organization of your speech was greatly compounded by the lack of a good preview statement. |
QUOTE |
QUOTATION | Your ending quotation was an effective approach for impact. |
REDO
|
RE-DO SPEECH | If you wish to improve your grade on this speech, consider redoing it. If so, see me and discuss strategies for better success or work with the speech tutor. You can re-present it in class, if time permits, or during an office hour. If I see evidence that you have done any additional work to address the problems, you will get a higher grade. |
REH
|
REHEARSAL NEEDED | It looked as if you had not given yourself enough time to rehearsal your speech out-loud resulting in not enough real eye contact with your audience. |
REL |
RELATIVE ACRONYM | In addition, your acronym was meaningful to your speech which made it even more effective. |
RQ |
RHETORICAL QUESTION | Good use of a rhetorical question to engage our attention. |
SETUP
|
SETTING UP | Approach setting up your speaking space with more confidence. If you got this note, you probably appeared distracted, befuddled or unfamiliar with equipment. This can give take away from your credibility. Be more familiar with the room and the equipment next time. |
SPK OUT |
SPEAKING OUTLINE | Your preparation outline really isn't a true, full preparation outline--it's more of a speaking outline. Review the text or see me for help. |
TESTI |
TESTIMONY | Good use of testimony as supporting material. |
THIN BIB |
THIN BIBLIOGRAPHY | There were too few entries on your bibliography which indicates a lack of rigorous academic research. |
TOOMANY
|
TOO MANY MAIN POINTS | You had too many main points in this speech; create fewer categories to contain your ideas. Three to five main points is optimal. For this speech, two to three were specified. |
TOP
|
TOPICAL | You used a topical organization pattern which is not a strong choice. Be more creative with your topics: arrange along some continuum, or use an acronym. Establish a pattern so we can anticipate what is to come next. |
TRAILOFF
|
ENDING TRAILED OFF | You weakened your speech considerably by having your ending phase trail off into unintelligibility. |
TRAILOFF
|
ENDINGS TRAILED OFF | The ends of sentences and phrases tended to trail off; be sure to keep vocal support strong. |
TRANS
|
TRANSITIONS | Remember to include your transition statements on your preparation outline; they should break the outline format and be in parenthesis or italics and be labeled as transitions. |
TTXT
|
TOO MUCH TEXT | Your visual aid had too much text and the text was too small. Too much text divides our attention. |
TUTOR
|
SEE SPEECH TUTOR | Consider seeing me or a tutor as you prepare your next speech. |
USE
VA |
USE YOUR VISUAL AID | You should incorporate your visual aid into the flow of the speech and use it. Take the time to work through and explain it. |
VACNN |
VISUAL AID AS CONNECTIVE | Good use of your visual aids; you presented them well and they functioned |
VERB CLUT |
VERBAL CLUTTER | Overall, you used too many "um...'s" and "uh...'s" as verbal fillers for your thoughts. Try to be silent when you need to collect your thoughts. Try to reduce your use of verbalized pauses next time. |
| WEB RELI |
WWW RELIANCE | You relied on general World Wide Web sites too much. While researching on the web is easy, you must carefully evaluate what you fined there and who is providing the information. For better credibility, use a wider variety of supporting material gathered from books, journals, interviews, writing away and web research. |
WIKI |
WIKIPEDIA ON BIB. | You listed Wikipedia on your bibliography which is not appropriate for academic research. |