Another way to organize speech points is to show how your viewpoint or proposal is superior to one or more alternative viewpoints or proposals. This design, called the comparative advantage pattern of arrangement, is most effective when your audience is already aware of the issue or problem and agrees that a need for a solution (or an alternative view) exists. Because listeners are alert to the issue, you don’t have to spend time establishing its existence. Instead, you can proceed directly to favorably comparing your position with the alternatives.
In order to maintain your credibility, make sure to identify alternatives that your audience is familiar with and ones supported by opposing interests. If you omit familiar alternatives, your listeners will wonder if you are fully informed on the topic and become skeptical of your comparative alternative as well as your credibility. The final step in a comparative advantage speech is to drive home the unique advantages of your option relative to competing options with brief but compelling evidence.
Using the comparative advantage pattern, the main points in a speech addressing the best way to control the deer population might look like this:
| THESIS: | Rather than hunting, fencing, or contraception alone, the best way to reduce the deer population is by a dual strategy of hunting and contraception. |
| MAIN POINT I: | A combination strategy is superior to hunting alone because many areas are too densely populated by humans to permit hunting; in such cases contraceptive darts and vaccines can address the problem. (Advantage over alternative No. 1) |
| MAIN POINT II: | A combination strategy is superior to relying solely on fencing because fencing is far too expensive for widespread use. (Advantage over alternative No. 2) |
| MAIN POINT III: | A dual strategy is superior to relying only on contraception because only a limited number of deer are candidates for contraceptive darts and vaccines. (Advantage over alternative No. 3) |