Think about creating a Facebook photo album of your recent trip to Europe. How would you arrange all of your pictures? You could work chronologically, simply uploading individual photos to one album in the order in which they were taken. Alternatively, you might arrange them by topic with separate albums for specific cities or countries visited or by types of activities (like one album for historical sites visited and another album for silly photos with friends).

You have similar options when preparing a speech. During the process of sorting out your main points and subpoints, you are taking the initial step of arranging your ideas in some sequence. Here are some common arrangements, or patterns, to consider.