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In crafting your speech, you may have selected a main point or subpoint that needs several different points of support or requires considerable detail to develop. To help the audience follow your explanation of a complex point, you may want to use an internal preview—a short list of the ideas that will follow. Or to help the audience remember a particularly detailed point, you might use an internal summary—a quick review of what you just said in your point.

For example, in an informative speech on test strategies, suppose that one of your main points covers test preparation. You might state your main point followed by an internal preview, as shown here:

Test taking requires good planning and healthy living. The four steps for test preparation that I will cover are as follows: plan your study time in advance, follow your study schedule, get a good night’s sleep, and eat a healthy breakfast.

In a speech on limiting student loan debt, you might follow a main point on possible solutions with an internal summary:

To review my proposed solutions: First, never use loans for non-essential items such as dorm furniture. Second, limit total borrowing to your expected first-year salary. Finally, use federal loans, which have a fixed interest rate, whenever possible.9