Chapter 11: Outlining Your Speech

A Sample Speaking Outline

INTRO

• Include all five parts of intro, limited to key words.

Look up—eye contact •
1. Susan Storm anecdote: bent light waves, became invisible, sci-fi for now
2. Advances in sci. of invis.
3. Affect many aspects of lives
Emphasis!
1. Research and interviews
  
  • Abbreviate science as sci.
2. Phys. sci., review experiments, future impact •
Pause

• Remember to include transitions.

[TRANSITION Begin with what it takes to make object invis.] •

BODY
1. Must trans. light around object
  
  • Note anecdotes; trust yourself to explain in your own words.
  1. Fiction—magic •
    1. Hades’s invis. helmet
    2. HG Wells’s magic elixir
    3. Harry Potter’s invis. cloak
  2. Researchers focus sci. principles
    
    • Include citations for all evidence sources.
    1. Visibility depends on light. Interview with Prof. Rutan, Feb. 10, 2007: Must transport light around object. To be visible, light must travel toward blackboard. Block that light, board invisible. •
    2. Effect like mirage. Duke physicists David Smith and Dave Schurig, Discover, Nov. 2006, “when light rays from the sky hit the hot, thin air just above the surface of the asphalt, they bend. . . . Rays once headed from the sky to the ground are redirected to your eye, making the road shimmer like water. In effect, the mirage is cloaking the (now invisible) road behind an image of the blue sky.”
328

Slowly

[TRANSITION Now know what is required, look at sci. efforts.]
1. Invis. research progressing well
  1. Began w/microwaves
    
    • All word-forword quotations go in quotation marks.
    1. Josie Glausiusz, sr. ed., Discover, Nov. 2006, Duke physicists used microwaves because “substantially longer wavelength, which makes the cloaking effect considerably easier to achieve.” •
    2. Same source: used spec. created metamaterials, “possess an ability, not found in nature, to bend light at extreme angles.” Placed rings of metamat. around cylinder to “bend microwaves to flow around the cylinder like water flowing around a pebble in a stream.”
      
      • Reminder to display presentation aid
    Show Video •
  2. More recent trials cloak from visible light
    1. Lynn Yarris, Berkeley Lab Communications Dept., “Making 3D Objects Disappear,” Sept. 17, 2015: Berk. research team headed by Prof. Zhang created ultrathin cloak about 80 nanometers wide (3 millionths of inch). Cloak placed around 3D object, “the light reflected off the skin cloak was identical to light reflected off a flat mirror, making the object underneath it invisible.”
      
      • Reminder to display presentation aid
      
      Show Video •
    2. Professor Ni and colleagues, Science, Sept. 18, 2015, “the cloak can also conceal objects with sharp features like abrupt edges and peaks.” If cloak is “designed correctly, both the container and the objects inside the container will become invisible.”
  3. How long until cloak can shield large objects? Ulf Leonhardt, visiting prof., Natl. U. of Singapore, National Geographic News, Nov. 20, 2008, “it’s a question of the will and the money put into this field.”
329

[TRANSITION Have seen how research proceeding, next how affects lives]

• Abbreviate terms you know well.
1. Many practical apps. •
  1. Improve visual environ. Ian Sample, sci. corresp., Guardian, Mar. 18, 2010: “some scientists believe cloaking materials could be used to hide unsightly buildings or high-security facilities.”
  2. 330
    
    Save NRG. Helmholtz Assn. of German Research Centers, “Invisible Cloak Might Enhance Efficiency of Solar Cells,” Oct. 1, 2015: “Modules that are presently mounted on roofs convert just one-fifth of the light into electricity.” Karlsruhe Tech scientists working on “optical invisibility cloaks” to “guide sunlight around objects that cast a shadow on the solar panel.”
  3. 331
    
    Satellite connections. Jim Kerstetter, sr. ed., CNET News, Aug. 21, 2012: Intellectual Ventures (investors incl. Gates) patented metamat. tech. that elim. heavy and expensive equipment on planes. Tech. is laptop sized, could create “personal satellite hot spot.”
  4. Protect us from other waves. Adam Piore, contrib. ed., Discover, July–Aug. 2012: Cloak sound, seismic, and ocean waves.
[TRANSITION Ventured into unseen world of invis.]

CONCLUSION

• Briefly note main points to summarize.

Look up! •
1. Sci. of invis., current research, future effects
2. Soon see benefits to defense, energy, satellites, safety. Susan Storm as Invis. Woman no longer fiction.