Organizing my speech

I missed class last week because I had a terrible headache, so I can’t relate anything to that class since I wasn’t there. We were put into groups though, and each week a group is going to teach the class. I was supposed to meet up with my group on Monday but I had another class and couldn’t. Luckily one of the members of my group was able to come visit me at work and catch me up on what we’ll be doing. She gave me a section to read that dealt with speech outlining and “Structuring The Speech”. As soon as I read the first line on the page I knew it was the perfect section for me to read and it would help me out.

“Knowing what you are talking about and communicating that knowledge aren’t the same thing.” Mostly every time I try telling my boyfriend a story I he always tells me I don’t make sense, even though I think I’m making perfect sense. I make sense to my self because I already know what’s going on in my head, but I could see how I could confuse him when I say things like, “oh but before that happened…” and “ I forgot to mention”. And then I end up sounding like Quentin Terentino’s films, going back and forth.
It is frustrating like it says in the second sentence of the page, when you try, but aren’t expressing your thoughts clearly. I’m usually quiet in conversations whether they’re with fellow classmates, adults, or anyone. At times I feel like I don’t know enough about the subject that’s being talked about so I refrain from saying anything because I don’t know enough information to back up whatever I say or put in my input. Other times I just don’t know how to put what’s in my head it into words so I don’t say anything. If I know about something or am interested at least then I’d say what I want to say and do my best to express my thoughts in a way that the others would understand.
I read about outlines, so the smart thing for me would probably be to out line everything so I can speak up more. I even think I should outline my day so when I talk to my boyfriend at night I’ll have everything organized. But that seems kind of silly to me. Not really, but I have a lot of work to do, and I’d think writing outlines of everything I’d want to talk about would waste time I could be doing work.

I’ll try it out today I reckon. I’ll write up a working outline throughout my day, and when I finish my last class and get home tonight I’ll edit it and write out a formal outline. The working outline is used to map out a speech. There are several rough drafts, and you write however you’d understand it later. It doesn’t matter how you write or what symbols you use, as long as you can make sense of it later. The working outline is for your eyes only; it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. The formal outline uses a consistent format and set of symbols, and can be used as a visual aid. I could use that when I call Steven, and we’ll see if I have any interesting stories to tell him. Maybe with an outline he won’t tell me I’m not making any sense. Or maybe he’ll know I had notes!