speech

SPEECH TO INFORM INSTRUCTIONS

Introduction:

The speech to inform is basically a term paper presented before an audience, but while the content may be the same, they differ greatly in how they are structured. When you are preparing this and the persuasive speech you should have the “Speech Planning and Organization” lecture at your elbow. I will be looking for the appropriate structure showing the four steps in the introduction, the organization of the body, how well you support your main points, transitions between the main points, the citation of sources in the speech to build credibility, and how well you execute the four steps of the conclusion. All of this is covered in detail in “Speech Planning and Organization.”

This speech is worth 1500 points or approximately 20% of the final grade.

There are four basic informative speeches:

1. The speech to Describe is a very common format. Maybe you went to Disney Land and want to describe your experience. A speech describing how pollution is destroying the planet would also be a speech of description.

2. There is also the speech of Demonstration where you show the audience how to do something, like how to bake a cake. For the purposes of this speech, the speech of demonstration is off the table.

3. The speech of Definition is another format. You could find yourself in a position where before you demonstrate a process, you must first deliver a speech where you define the terms that will be used.

4. Finally, you have the speech of Evaluation. Perhaps, you choose to give your speech on evaluating the current state of race relations in America.

The speech of description, definition, or evaluation are the formats you may use for the informative speech.

Thesis, General Purpose, and Specific Purpose:

You are required to submit your topic, thesis, general purpose, and specific purpose statements. These are covered in “Speech Planning and Organization” as well as in the “Persuasion” lecture. Spend some time developing these as they will help focus and guide your speech.

Requirements:

The following are the specific requirements your speech must meet:

· Length of speech: The speech should be 4-6 minutes long. I will give you a minute slack at the top end, but a speech that is less than 4 minutes is hardly worth giving. If it is less than 4 minutes or longer than 7 minutes, you lose 5 points off the speech score. Practice will help you hit your mark. Keep in mind we all tend to talk a bit faster when we are nervous and you will be nervous during your speech, so your speech will probably take less time than it did in practice. So, a speech timed out at home at 6:00 minutes may take only 5:30 when delivered to an audience.

· Visual Aids: You are required to have some visual aids, such as power point, google slides, etc. You should have an introductory slide with the title of the presentation and the names of the presenter. How many slides you will need is up to you—sufficient to support the presentation. All the slides in the presentation must be consistent with each other in terms of lay-out, colors used, font and font size used, etc. I discuss visual aids more thoroughly below. BTW, the entire presentation cannot be a slide show with or without voice over. The presenter must appear on screen the majority of the time.

· Sources: You must have at least five quality sources for this speech. At least three must be from a combination of .gov, .edu, or .org. This is to make sure you use quality sources. You should seek out at least 10-12 sources and then reduce them to the best 5. Do not use Wikipedia, because I don’t consider it a reliable or always accurate source. A source can be statistics, information from the internet, an interview, research studies, etc. If you have any questions about the reliability and accuracy of a source, don’t use it.

· Format: You may use any of the formats, except Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, that are defined in “Speech Planning and Organization.”

· Recording: Record your speech and post it to You Tube, then send me an email containing the link to the video and a list of your sources. Please, use You Tube. I have found no problems using this service, but I have run into formats I can’t open. If you send me a format I can’t open, I will bounce it right back to you and ask that you upload to You Tube. Do not send me a movie file. They can take hours to download and take up too much space in the computer. The recording should contain the audio of the speech, as well as a view of you giving the speech.

· Practice, Practice, Practice: You should practice your speech at least a half dozen times in front of a mirror so you can check your delivery. If you run over or under time, I will know you never practiced the speech and will have no mercy on you. If you read the speech and never look up into the camera to make eye-contact I will suspect strongly that you never practiced it. In fact, if you read the speech and never look up, you will lose delivery points. I want a speech, not the reading of a term paper.

Closing Comments:

This can be a fun speech or a chance to get something off your chest. Either way, have some fun with the speech.

There are several admonitions I would like to close with. Do not read the speech to us. This is to be an extemporaneous speech, not a manuscript speech. In an extemporaneous speech, the speaker works from notes and makes a lot of eye-contact. In a manuscript speech the speaker reads the speech and eye-contact is minimal. Look up and make eye-contact. If you practice the speech, you will not have to read it, because you will know the speech.

Do not put the text of your speech on the slides. If you put all the info on the slides, we don’t need you, we can read just fine. When you put all the info on the slides and then proceed to read the slides to the audience you are basically saying to your audience that they are probably too dumb to read the slides, so you will read the slides to them. Insulting the audience is not a good idea. When you do this, you are basically presenting a term paper that you just happen to be reading to them. It’s not a speech and you will not like the grade.

Let’s talk about slides for a minute. The slide is an aid to, not a replacement for the speech. There should never be a whole sentence on a slide. Never. Information Processing Theory holds that we can process over a million bits of info per second through our eyes, but only in the tens of thousands of bits per second through our ears. Vision is dominant. If you put up an interesting or complex slide, the audience will quit listening to you and concentrate on reading the slide. That’s why you use only key words or phrases on the slide. Ideally, the audience should look at your slide and not understand it until you explain it to them. If you have a complex slide, such as a chart or table of numbers, it’s a good idea to put up the slide then tell the audience you will give them some time to process it, then stand back for 30 seconds or so and let them look at the slide. Then step back in and explain the slide to them. Colors are important. Black and white slides have no emotional impact. If you want emotional impact you need color. Color, however, can be your enemy in a slide. Take background colors. You might want to spice up your slides with a black background and startling red text. Bad idea. The red will sink into the black at about 10-15 feet away and nobody will be able to read your slide. Use a bland background like beige or grey for best results. Black letters against this background work very well. Remember, it’s not an art project! If the slides are too fancy, they will distract from the speech. Don’t put flowers or little birds around the edge. They are simply distracting. No frufru! Repeat—it’s not an art project. I don’t care how artistic you think you are, if you distract from the message, you blew it! The KISS principle always applies to slides. KISS—keep it simple stupid!

Finally, avoid controversial topics. Pretend you are giving your speech before your classmates. They would constitute what we call a captive audience. In other words, they would have to sit there and listen to you, even if what you say is offensive to them. Let’s have some respect for each other and avoid controversial topics. That also means avoiding politics, religion, or medical procedures such as abortion.

As always, if you need help or have questions contact me at [email protected] if you are one of my Dallas students (DCCCD), or [email protected] if you are one of my Ft. Worth (TCCD) students or by phone, 214-674-8203.