Chapter 13: Organizing, Writing, and Outlining Presentations

Internal Previews and Internal Summaries

Like a good map that shows travelers points along the way to their destination, internal previews prime the audience for the content immediately ahead. They often work best in conjunction with internal summaries, which allow the speaker to crystallize the points made in one section of a speech before moving to the next section. For example:

“So far, I have presented two reasons why you should visit the dentist annually. First, it prevents gum disease. Second, it also helps you avoid tooth decay. Now I will address my third point: regular visits to the dentist will benefit your overall good health.”
“Now that I have explained what asthma is and the two main types of asthma, allergic and nonallergic, I will discuss what you can do to avoid an asthma attack.”

By first summarizing and then previewing, the speaker has created a useful transition that gracefully moves the speech forward while offering audiences an opportunity to synthesize the information already received.