COMM 1010 Informative Outline

Specific Goal: My audience will learn how stress affects our bodies and ways we can prevent
negative stress to live a healthier lifestyle.
Application: The audience could prevent the negative effects stress puts on the body and live a
happier and healthier life.
Ethos: Primary Ethos: I am a nursing student who has experienced the negative effects of
stress on my own body.
Secondary Ethos: I will cite three references out loud in my speech.
Pathos: I want to show my real life experiences and other stories of the illnesses that come from
stress to connect with the audience’s emotions.
Logos: I will use medical research and data to show the physiology of stress on our nervous
systems.
Audience Assessment: My audience likely knows that stress doesn’t affect our body positively
but don’t know the long-term effects of this or ways to prevent them from happening.
Adaptation to Audience: I will define the medical terminology and give lay descriptions of the
symptoms and display pictures.
Pattern of Organization: Chronological in the Introduction, Topical in the Body.

Introduction
I. Hook: If your teeth are clenched and your fists are clenched, your lifespan is probably
clenched. – Terri Guillemets
A. Stress sets off a cascade of hormones that effect everything about our lives
from the way we think to the way we sleep.
B. However, new studies have shown that our perspective on stress can change
our bodies negative reactions to positive.

II. Thesis: To live a healthy lifestyle there are ways we can stop stress from hurting our minds
and bodies.

III. Preview: Understanding how stress affects our body can help us to prevent its negative
effects.
A. First, I’ll explain physiologically what stress is.
B. Second, I’ll explain the negative and positive effects of stress.
C. Third, I’ll describe how we can help our bodies avoid negative stress.

Transition: I know we have heard stress hurts our health, but what is really happening to our
bodies when we undergo a stress overload.

Body
 I. Stress refers to the biological response of the human body through the nervous and
endocrine system (Prüter, 2009).
A. The autonomic nervous system has two systems; sympathetic and
parasympathetic for short term stress responses.
B. The body stimulates certain hormones during long term stress responses.

Transition: Now what are these signs and symptoms of stress on the body?

II. Our body’s physiological response mechanisms to stress can be positive but can also be
overworked and lead to disease (Joshi, 2005).

A. Negative effects include our paused metabolism, heart overworked, ulcers,

and decreased immune response (Joshi, 2005).
B. Positive effects are increased connections in the brain, memory boost,
increased reflexes, and increased energy and focus (Matta 2012).

Transition: So how can understanding these effects help us to prevent negative stress effects?

III. Psychological factors can control physiological response.

A. Rat experiments have shown how psychological factors can control physiological
responses.
B. Exercises that keep prevent sympathetic nervous system from staying aroused can
protect the body.
Conclusion
IV. Depression, diabetes and heart attack medicine isn’t the only option, we have the
chance to understand stress responses and prevent these problems from ever occurring.
IV. If you can prevent the negative effects of stress and engage the positive response you can
live a happy, healthy life.

References
Joshi, V. V. (2005). Stress : From Burnout To Balance. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved from https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.
ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=305610&site=eds-live
Matta, C. (2012). The Stress Response : How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Free
You From Needless Anxiety, Worry, Anger, and Other Symptom. Oakland, CA: New
Harbinger Publications. Retrieved from
https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d
b=nlebk&AN=437699&site=eds-live
Prüter, I., & Heidenreich, P. (2009). Handbook of Stress : Causes, Effects and Control. New
York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Retrieved from https://libprox1.slcc.edu/
login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=340165&
site=eds-live