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The body of your speech should be structured around your main points—those few ideas that are most important for your listeners to remember. The body also contains supporting points—materials designed to prove or substantiate your main points. A speech body organized around main points and their corresponding supporting points helps listeners make sense out of the details of your presentation. By contrast, if you present randomly ordered ideas about your topic (as Carly did), your audience will have trouble determining what is most important and understanding the information you’re presenting. Even a five-minute speech requires careful organization, since it can contain fifty or more sentences.

How should you select your main points? The following guidelines can help.