Outline for the 5 steps of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

Direction: You will build your speech using the Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. If you are wondering how these 5 steps of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence fit into the standard 3-part speech format, they go like this:

• Steps 1 and 2 (Attention and Need) form the Introduction
• Steps 3 and 4 (Satisfaction and Visualization) form the Body

Step 5 (Action) is the Conclusion

Create an outline, using these steps. Remember to keep a format for the outline, using titles such a step one- step five and letters, bullets, or numbers for the information that is included in each section.

Getting Attention: Step One

This step is your introductory “listen up” call. To make it effective it needs to grab the audience. It could be any of the following:

• A startling statement
• A rhetorical question
• A quotation
• A funny story
• A dramatic story (Note this would be the one to use for the O.J. Simpson.
• A photograph or other visual aid

Consider “What’s in it for me?” while deciding on your attention getter.

Why should your audience listen? Is it relevant to them? How?

Why should they believe what you say? Have you established your credibility?

Establish the Need: Step Two

This step develops the need for change. Now that you have your audience’s attention you will clearly show them what the problem is and the extent of it. (Note: the problem is that no one knows for sure who killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman)

To be effective use:

• Examples to illustrate how it impacts on them – their happiness, future, health, family, Society
• Statistics – facts, figures, graphs, diagrams…
• Remember to cite your sources and remember too that some are more credible than others. You need recognized sources to give your speech the credibility you want.
• Expert witness testimony – the more authoritative, the better

Your goal at the conclusion of this step is to have your audience eager to hear your solution. They agree with you that there is a problem and want the answer.

Satisfy the Nee: Step Three

Now you outline your answer or solution and show the audience how it will work. (This is your theory of who committed the murders and how)

To do this well:

• Outline your solution succinctly
• Demonstrate how it meets the problem (solving the mystery)
• Use examples to show how effective it is
• Support with facts, figures, graphs, diagrams, statistics, and testimony…
• If there is known opposition to your solution, acknowledge and counteract showing how your plan overturns it (This would be other theories made by other experts)

The ideal outcome of this step is the audience saying to themselves: “Yes. This is possible, practical and sensible.” ??Your answer should give them “satisfaction”.

See the Future: Step Four

In this step the audience “experiences” the solution. They see (feel, hear, taste…) what will happen if they do as you are suggesting contrasted against what will happen if they don’t do as you are suggesting.

This step relies on your use of vivid imagery to portray the outcome of their action, or inaction. They see and feel the pleasure, or pain, in their imagination. To bring it home to your audience the pictures you provide, the stories you tell, need to be relevant and believable.

What you want folk thinking as you conclude this step is: “I can see that this would be good for me.”

Take action: Step Five

In this last step you present your call to action.

The call to action can be embedded in any combination of the following:

• A summary
• A quotation
• A challenge or appeal
• An example
• A personal statement of intent

To be effective the action step must be readily doable and executed as soon as possible. Make it as easy as you can for your audience. If you want them to sign up for something, have the forms available. If you wish them to lodge a personal protest in writing to your local government have stock letters and envelopes ready. In other words do the legwork for them!

Action steps that are delayed even for 48 hours are less likely to be acted on. We’re human – life goes on. Other things intervene and the initial urgency is lost.