Interactive Exercise

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Your Name:
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Your Professor's Name:
Your Professor's E-mail Address:

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Your informative speech ought to have a specific goal. For instance, to describe activities scheduled during Mardi Gras, or to explain how contemporary superstitions have historic roots.

What is your specific goal for your upcoming talk? Consider three options for wording your goal statement.

Goal statement #1:
Goal statement #2:
Goal statement #3:

Which of these specific goal statements is likely to be the best informative topic in light of your interests, the interests and knowledge level of your audience and the research that you have done?

Next, rephrase your goal statement as a thesis sentence. The thesis is a short declarative sentence that states the central idea of your speech. For instance, if your specific goal was to explain how streaming works in RealAudio transmission of sound files, you might state a thesis as "When developing visual aids, keep them big, bold and brief."

What is your thesis statement?