Achieve a Level Four Performance in an Oral Exam through the Formal Speech/the Oral Essay
Part One
Write an Effective Oral Essay/Formal Speech on a Comparative-Study Topic

“The central idea, or thesis, is your essay’s life and spirit.” Sheridan Baker, The Practical Stylist

Formal speeches are carefully scripted pieces of writing. A formal speech is essentially an oral essay. The conventions of the oral essay/the formal speech include the following:

• Purpose To persuade, inspire, or motivate
• Audience Usually an audience of peers or like-minded individuals
• Tone Ranges from serious to humorous
• Voice A strong sense of the collective identity of the speaker and the audience
• Language …show more content…

This relationship is at the heart of any compare-and-contrast essay.

3. Organizational Scheme. Your introduction will include your frame of reference, grounds for comparison, and thesis. There are two basic ways to organize the body of your essay.

• In text-by-text, you discuss all of A, then all of B.
• In point-by-point, you alternate points about A with comparable points about B.

If you think that B extends A, you'll probably use a text-by-text scheme; if you see A and B engaged in debate, a point-by-point scheme will draw attention to the conflict. Be aware, however, that the point-by- point scheme can come off as a ping-pong game. You can avoid this effect by grouping more than one point together, thereby cutting down on the number of times you alternate from A to B. But no matter which organizational scheme you choose, you need not give equal time to similarities and differences. In fact, your paper will be more interesting if you get to the heart of your argument as quickly as possible.

4. Linking of A and B. All argumentative essays require you to link each point in the argument back to the thesis. Without such links, your reader will be unable to see how new sections logically and systematically advance your argument. In a compare-and-contrast essay, you also need to make links between A and B in the body of your essay if you want your essay to hold together. To make these links, use transitional expressions of comparison and contrast such