SOAPStone Practice

S (Speaker): Who is the speaker? What information do you know about him/her that may be relevant to the speech you will hear?

O (Occasion): What event is taking place? What is the social situation?

A (Audience): Who is the intended audience for this speech? What assumptions can you make about the audience members?

P (Purpose): We're going to dissect the purpose of this speech in multiple steps. What point is Ashton trying to make with the first half of his speech? Why is his message important for the intended audience to hear?

What is your initial impression of Ashton Kutcher's second main point? 

After hearing Ashton's second main point come full-circle how have your initial impressions changed?

P (Purpose): What is the purpose behind the speech? What is his goal?
Remember, to find the purpose, ask, “What did the author want his audience to think or do as a result of reading this text?”) What is the message and how does the speaker convey this message?

S (Subject): What topic, content, and ideas are included in the text? Is there more than one subject? Does he introduce the subject(s) immediately or do you, the viewer, have to make an inference?

T (Tone): What is the attitude of the author? Is the author emotional, objective, neutral, or biased about this topic? What types of diction (choice of words), syntax (sentence structure), and imagery (metaphors, similes, and other types of figurative language) help reflect the tone?