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As noted earlier, your speaking outline is a very brief version of your working outline—essentially, a set of notes to aid you in extemporaneous delivery of your speech. By limiting these notes to brief phrases, key words, or abbreviations, you prevent yourself from reading the speech word-for-word, and allow yourself to improvise, choosing fresh words as you speak. The speaking outline provides useful reminders of your main and supporting points as well as guidelines for organizing them in case you lose track during your speech.

To deliver the most effective extemporaneous presentation possible, you’ll need to transform your working outline into a speaking outline. You may want to prepare the speaking outline after you’ve practiced your speech several times with your working outline and become thoroughly familiar with the ideas in your presentation. Then you can use the speaking outline for your final practice sessions and for delivering your speech.