Current Events Speech - Earthquakes in Arkansas

Here's another speech outline! Hope you like it! =)

Current Events Speech - Earthquakes in Arkansas
I. Introduction
A. Attention-getter: You’re kicked back on the couch, watching your favorite episode of Rob & Big. All of the sudden the room starts to shake, your coke falls off the table, and the family portrait on the wall falls off and hits you on the head. So you probably think you’re in California, right? No, you’re in Arkansas.
B. Credibility Statement:  After lots of research I have learned lots of new information about this topic and like most of you probably are I didn’t even know this was going on, so I am going to share what I have discovered with all of you.
C. Thesis: According to Science News, since January 12, 1982 there have been about 20,000 earthquakes recorded in the North Center Arkansas area.
D. Preview: Today I am going to talk about their magnitude, location, and three of the possible reasons for these earthquakes.

II. Body
Transition: First is,
A. Main Point #1: Magnitude
1. Supporting Point: According to Science News, of the more than 20,000 earthquakes that have occurred in Arkansas, most of them have been minor and could not be felt on the earth’s surface.
2. Supporting Point: The smallest of the many earthquakes that have happened was a 1.8 in magnitude on the scale, this is the type that is barely noticeable. As said on CNN.
3. Supporting Point: According to the Huffington Post, some of the larger earthquakes ranged from 3.8 to 4.7 on the scales. These earthquakes can be felt from about sixty miles away. The most recent of the earthquakes being on February 28, 2011.

Transition: Second,
B. Main Point #2: Location
All of the earthquakes have been centered around the same area and have been happening for so long and occur so often that the residents barley pay attention to the smaller earthquakes anymore. As said in Commercial Appeal.
1. Supporting Point: According to the Commercial Appeal, most of the earthquakes that have happened have occurred around the small town of Guy, Arkansas.
2. Supporting Point: The town of Guy is located in Central Arkansas, and is about 20 miles away from Conway. That would be about 153 miles away from Hope.
3. Supporting Point: One of the other towns that has been effected is Greenbrier, which is located between Conway and Guy, and is also mentioned in this same article.

Transition: Third are the,
A. Main Point #3: Reason’s why
Scientists have yet to determine exactly what is causing this but there are three main possible reasons for this. They are debating rather this is being caused by human activity or if it is a natural thing.
1. Supporting Point: Gas drilling is the first possibility. Researches believed this to have may been a reason due to the drilling in the Fayetteville Shale, which is a formation of black rock generally found at depths of 6,500ft. In the past six years, nearly 3,700 wells have been sunk in Arkansas, according to Commercial Appeal. This possibility has been ruled out though.
2. Supporting Point: Also, Scott Ausbrooks, Geohazards Supervisor for USGS said, “Salt water disposal wells may have been a possible cause.” Disposal wells are created when drilling waste is injected back into the earth. Generally injecting it into wells that are 3,000 to 12,000ft. deep. According to UPI News Track (Consumer Health).
3. Supporting Point: The third possible reason for all of this is a pre-existing zone of reduced crustal strength has been reactivated by plate motions. Jonston says that, “The ‘Swarm’ may indicate that a small tongue of magma has worked its way up beneath the shallow Arkansas crust, and is causing minor earthquakes as it moves along.” As said in Science News.

III. Conclusion
A. Review of Main Points: The 20,000 earthquakes that have happened have ranged in magnitude from 1.8 to 4.7, they have all been in the Central Arkansas area, and research is still being done to try and figure out why this has been happening so often.
B. Summary: Although most of the Arkansas earthquakes have been mild, they are constantly increasing in intensity and frequency.
C. Closing: So, you don’t have to be in California to experience earthquakes, you can experience them right here in Arkansas.


Works Cited
“4.7 Earthquake in Arkansas Followed by 2 More.”  www.huffingtonpost.com. 28 Feb. 2011. Huffington Post, Inc. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. N.P.

Charlier, Tom. “Earthquakes rattle Arkansas town; residents blame gas drilling rigs.” Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) 27 Nov. 2010: Newspapper Source. EBSCO. Web. 20 Feb. 2011.

“Clues sought in Arkansas earthquake swarm.” UPI NewsTrack (Consumer Health) (2010): Consumer Health Complete – EBSCOhost. EBSCO. Web. 20 Feb. 2011.

Simon, C. “Arkansas: Shakes, rattles, but no roll.” Science News 123.1 (1983): 7. MAS Ultra –  School Edition. EBSCO. Web. 20 Feb. 2011.

Augmentative/Persuasive Speech - McDonald's is an Awesome Restaurant

Here is another speech outline for your convenience. =)

Augmentative/Persuasive Essay - McDonald's is an awesome resturant 

I.                   Introduction

A.                Attention-getter: You’re sitting in class trying your best to pay attention to the lecture and you stomach starts growling. You start thinking hmmm….. I’ve got 30mins between classes where am I going to get something to eat? You start checking your pockets to see how much change you have, because you know you spent all of your money the past weekend. You manage to scrape up a little over two dollars and you start thinking about that dollar menu at McDonald’s. Go ahead and admit that you are going to be heading toward those golden arches as soon as class is over.

B.                 Credibility Statement: I myself have eaten at McDonald’s many times and go there at least once a week, either alone or with my friends. In addition I have also done research on this topic and I believe that I have gathered enough information to help illustrate my point.

C.                Thesis: McDonald’s often has a somewhat bad reputation, but I am going to demonstrate that McDonald’s is an awesome place to eat.

D.                Preview: In order to prove my point I am going to tell all of you about; the restaurant, the food, and how McDonald’s is helping the community.

II.                Body

Transition: First of all,

A.                Main Point #1: Restaurant 

1.                  Supporting point 1: McDonald’s is a very convenient restaurant. It is located by the interstate and near Wal-Mart, which makes it very easy to access. Also, unlike other restaurants, it has not one but two drive-thus for a much quicker service time.

2.                  Supporting point 2: McDonald’s also has great open hours. They are open from five in the morning to eleven at night. What is even better is during the summer months. From May to September they are open twenty-four hours a day, every day.

3.                  Supporting point 3: An awesome perk that McDonald’s has that other restaurants don’t have is their free Wi-Fi. Their wireless internet is available free to anyone dining in their restaurant. Yet another great thing about dining at McDonald’s the very friendly staff that works there.

B.                 Main Point #2: Food

Transition: Most people know McDonald’s for it being an incredibly unhealthy place to eat as well as being expensive, but that is simply not true.

1.                  Supporting point 1: McDonald’s has many healthy options to enjoy from their restaurant.  Some of the items from the large variety of options include salads, apples slices, apple juice, milk, and more.

2.                  Supporting point 2: Despite what people might think, McDonald’s has many low priced foods available to order. The dollar menu is one example of this. On this menu foods such as French fries, McDouble burger, and you can even get two apple pies for just a dollar.

3.                  Supporting point 3: McDonald’s is also very family friendly. They offer something for everyone in the family from food that adults enjoy such as hamburgers to Happy Meals for children, which the children are happy to eat because they get a toy with their meal.

C.                Main Point #3: Improving the Community

Transition: Something that many of you probably don’t know is that McDonald’s also helps the community.

1.                  Supporting point 1: Many people are needed to make McDonald’s successful. According to ----, the training manager of the --- McDonald’s, said that there is currently around sixty people employed at this time. They also higher younger people than some of their competitors, they can be as young as sixteen and be hired. She also estimated the age of the current employees ranging from sixteen to seventy.

2.                  Supporting point 2: McDonald’s currently has its own charity called the Ronald McDonald House. According to www.rmhc.org, The Ronald McDonald House provides a “home away from home” for families. This allows them to stay close by their hospitalized child which allows them to focus on the health of their child instead of worrying about shopping for groceries, cleaning, or cooking food. At every house families can enjoy having home cooked meals, private bedrooms, and playrooms for children.

3.                  Supporting point 3: “I’m proud of our industry-leading Global Inclusion and Intercultural Management team which have successfully driven our efforts to have diversity among our employees, franchisees, and suppliers across the globe.” Jan Fields, President, McDonald’s USA. Diversity and inclusion is something that McDonald’s are greatly trying to improve even farther by creating an environment for everyone to contribute their best. As discussed in the article diversity.

III.             Conclusion

A.                Review of Main Points: So in conclusion, McDonalds is a great restaurant, with good cheap food, and they help the community.

B.                 Summary: It is convenient, fast, it has something for everyone, good prices, they provide employment opportunities, are charitable, and are diverse.

C.                Closing: Just remember, all the cool people eat at McDonald’s, so I will see you there.

Works Cited

----, ----. Personal Interview. 27 Mar. 2011.

“Diversity.” McDonald’s, Inc. www.aboutmcdonalds.com. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.

“Ronald McDonald House.” McDonald’s, Inc. www.rmhc.org. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. 

Argumentative/Persuasive Speech - Why McDonald's is a Bad Place to Eat

Here is an idea for a speech that I wrote. This is of course not the entire speech that I used, it is just an outline that I made, but it will hopefully still help you. Feel free to take my ideas and revise them in your own words for you speech.
I will post more speech ideas later. If you don't like this one, then there will be others posted later.

Argumentative/Persuasive Speech - Why McDonald's is a bad place to eat.
Introduction
A. Attention-getter:
B. Credibility Statement:
C. Thesis: McDonald’s is not a good place to eat. Despite its convenience, it is not the best place that you could be eating.
D. Preview: To show you exactly how bad McDonald’s is,  I am going to tell all of you  about the long lines and all of the people that crowd the restaurant, their awful food, and how unsanitary the food is.
II. Body
Transition: With McDonald’s being a “Fast Food” restaurant, you would think that it would be fast and you would have little getting your food quickly, right? Well that’s not really true.
A. Main Point #1: Overcrowded
1. Supporting point: Once there you will be lucky to find a parking space, especially if you are going there during lunch time. So, you might decide to just go through the drive-thru. They have the two drive thrus, which is supposed to make service faster, but there is always a long line and you have to wait on your chance to get into the single line which leads to the pick-up window.
2. Supporting Point: If you choose to take the time to go inside, then you will be faced with all of the other consumers waiting inside as well. In-between waiting in the long line to purchase your food, then standing in another line to wait for the food, followed by walking around trying to find a table that isn’t taken, it’s really not very pleasant.
3. Supporting Point: So, as you can see just the process of trying to get your food isn’t pleasant. After the hassle of trying to find a place to park and somewhere to sit, as well as the long wait for your food, it would better benefit you to just eat somewhere else.
Transition: Once you actually get your food and sit down to eat it, what are you really eating? You might think that you are going to get a nice meal that is exactly what you expected it to be, but this may not be true.
B. Main Point #2: The Food
1. Supporting point: McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant, there for it is believable that their food is not healthy at all. For one of there hamburgers you would be taking in 800 calories into your body. If you want to spoil yourself and have one of their milkshakes would could be sucking down over 1,000 calories.
2. Supporting Point: I myself have been the victim of receiving bad food from McDonald’s.  How would you feel if you ordered one of their fish sandwiches and it was so greasy that the old started running down your arms? Or if you received your order with their well known fries and you found a “surprise in your fries”, which is a long curly hair that is not your own, laying in your French fries? Would you eat that?
3. Supporting Point: Other restaurants would be much better options than McDonald’s. Restaurants such as Subway, have much healthier options and you can watch them making your food so that you can make sure that it is clean and that you get exactly what you want on your food.
Transition: If the slow service and the awful food isn’t enough to scare someone away, then the uncleanness will.
C. Main Point #3: Unclean
1. Supporting point: As soon as you walk up to a table you can see just how unclean it is. There is food from previous costumers scattered around the tables and all in the floor. During one time that my friends and I ate at McDonald’s, we had to clean off our own table. There were food particles everywhere.
2. Supporting Point: The staff are also unsanitary. None of the employees wear gloves or hairnets like other restaurants do. Taco Bell is one example of clean employees. When the employees aren’t clean, then it really makes you wonder about the food that they made that you are about to consume.
3. Supporting Point: After one look around McDonald’s you will be questioning exactly how clean it really is and about how clean the food is that you are about to eat.
III. Conclusion
A. Review of Main Points: In conclusion, McDonald’s is not a good place to eat. There are so many other places to eat that would be a much better option.
B. Summary: As I have just finished telling you about, a trip to McDonal’s is going to include long lines, a ton of people crowding the restaurant, awful food, and all in a very unsanitary place.
C. Closing: There is an old say that “you are what you eat“. So, do you really want to be a BigMac?