Signposts
A signpost is a word or phrase within a sentence that helps your audience understand your speech’s structure. Signposts in a speech serve the same function as their counterparts on a road. Highway signs tell drivers what direction they’re traveling in and how the roads are organized. In a similar vein, speech signposts inform audiences about the direction and organization of a presentation.
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You can use signposts to show that you are at a specific place in your speech (for example, “to preview my main ideas,” “my third point is,” or “in summary”). You also can use signposts to indicate that you are about to cite research (“according to”) or to indicate that a key point is coming (“if you remember one idea from this speech, I hope it’s that . . .”). In addition, signposts help your audience understand the structure of your subpoints. For example, in a persuasive speech advocating education reform, you might have a main point on the causes of poor student performance. You then could write your subpoints with signposts, as follows:
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One cause of poor student performance is inadequate funding of public schools.
Another cause is educators’ low expectations for students.
An additional cause is that athletics receive higher priority than do academics.