Arranging Speech Points Chronologically

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Some topics lend themselves well to the arrangement of main points according to their occurrence in time relative to one another. A chronological pattern of arrangement (also called a temporal pattern) follows the natural sequential order of the main points. A speaker might describe events leading to the adoption of a peace plan, for example, or explain how to install solar panels. A speech describing the development of the World Wide Web, for example, calls for a chronological, or time-ordered, sequence of main points:

THESIS STATEMENT: The Internet evolved from a small network designed for military and academic scientists into a vast array of networks used by billions of people around the globe.
MAIN POINTS:
  1. The Internet was first conceived in 1962 as the ARPANET to promote the sharing of research among scientists in the United States.
  2. In the 1980s, a team created TCP/IP, a language that could link networks, and the Internet as we know it was born.
  3. At the end of the Cold War, the ARPANET was decommissioned, and the World Wide Web constituted the bulk of Internet traffic.2

Blend Organizational Patterns

The pattern of organization for your subpoints need not always follow the pattern you select for your main points. Do keep your main points in one pattern—this will be the predominant pattern for the speech—but feel free to use other patterns for subpoints when it makes sense to do so. For instance, for a speech about the history of tattooing in the United States, you may choose a chronological pattern to organize the main points but use a cause-effect arrangement for some of your subpoints regarding why tattooing is on the rise today.