Given that this is course is taught exclusively on line, you need to read and understand material that is presented. Please read Chapters 15 and 16 as indicated on the syllabus and then submit the five most important items found in each chapter. Large e

chapter_15_informative_speaking.ppt

Home >English homework help >Given that this is course is taught exclusively on line, you need to read and understand material that is presented. Please read Chapters 15 and 16 as indicated on the syllabus and then submit the five most important items found in each chapter. Large e

Informative Speaking

Chapter 15
Welcome to Informative Speaking &
Informative Speaking Goals

Welcome to Informative Speaking

An informative speech conveys knowledge:
When you give driving directions, you convey knowledge.
When you caution someone about crossing the street at a certain intersection, you are describing a dangerous situation.
When you steer someone away from using the car pool lane, you are explaining what it’s for.

Informing vs. Persuading

An informative speech does not attempt to convince the audience that one thing is better than another. It does not advocate a course of action.
Good information has a strong tendency to be persuasive, and persuasion relies on good information.
Thus, informative and persuasive speaking do overlap.
Ethically, you (as a speaker) must know whether your goal is to provide knowledge (informative) or get your audience to do something specifically with that knowledge (persuasive).

Three Basic Goals of Informative Speaking

Accuracy

With a carefully narrowed topic and purpose, it is possible to give an accurate picture that isn’t misleading.
Make sure your speech’s information is current.

Clarity

You must convey your ideas in a fashion that your audience can understand.
The clarity of your speech relies on logical organization and understandable word choices.
You should not assume that something that’s obvious to you will also be obvious to the members of your audience.

Listener Interest

Your listeners will benefit the most if they can give sustained attention to the speech, and this is unlikely to happen if they are bored.
This often means you will decide against using some of the topics you know a great deal about.

Making Information Clear and Interesting for the Audience

Adjust Complexity to the Audience

If your speech is too complex or too simplistic, it will not hold the interest of your listeners.
Never assume that a group of similar people have a similar understanding of your content.

Avoid Unnecessary Jargon

Loading a speech with specialized language has the potential to be taxing on the listeners.
Even if you define many technical terms, the audience may feel as if they are being bombarded with a set of definitions instead of useful information.

Create Concrete Images

Abstract: A term that is imprecise, leaving the meaning open to interpretation.
Concrete: A term that directly names a specific thing. Its meaning is unlikely to require any interpretation.

Keep Information Limited

Limited information helps you avoid going off on tangents or confusing your audience.
Use the definitions, descriptions, explanations, and examples you need in order to make your meanings clear, but resist the temptation to add tangential information merely because you find it interesting.

Link Current Knowledge to New Knowledge

Certain sets of knowledge are common to many people in your classroom audience.
If you can link what your speech is about to information they already possess, it will help your audience members more easily process your speech.

Make It Memorable

The goal of your speech is for it to be remembered when you are done speaking.
In a speech, when you expect the audience to pay attention, you must make the speech memorable.

Make It Relevant and Useful

Make your topic as personal or real to your audience as humanly possible.
The more you can connect your speech to your audience members on that individual level, the stronger your speech will be.

Personalize Your Content

Giving a human face to a topic helps the audience perceive it as interesting.
Find a case study related to your speech’s content that you can describe within the speech, refer to the human subject(s) by name.

Types of Informative Speeches

Objects

It’s a category that includes people, institutions, places, substances, and inanimate things.
Sample Speech Ideas
To inform the audience about the role of soy inks in reducing toxic pollution.
To describe the significance of the gigantic Spruce Goose, the wooden airplane that launched an airline.

People

This category applies both to specific individuals and also to roles.
Sample Speech Ideas
To inform the audience about why Gandhi was regarded as a mahatma, or “great heart.”
To inform the audience about the extensive scientific qualifications of modern midwives.

Events

An event can be something that occurred only once, or an event that is repeated.
Sample Speech Ideas
To explain how the murder of Emmett Till helped energize the civil rights movement.
To describe how the Industrial Revolution affected the lives of ordinary people.

Concepts

Concepts are abstract ideas that exist independent of whether they are observed or practiced, such as the example of social equality.
Sample Speech Ideas
To distinguish the differences between the concepts of wellness and health.
To explain three of Dr. Stephen Suranovic’s seven categories of fairness.

Processes

If your speech topic is a process, your goal should be to help your audience understand it, or be able to perform it.
In either instance, processes involve a predictable series of changes, phases, or steps.
Sample Speech Ideas
To explain the steps of cell division during the first trimester of a pregnancy.
To show college students how to use available databases to find and apply for various scholarships online.

Developing Your Topic for the Audience

One issue to consider when preparing an informative speech is how best to present the information to enhance audience learning.

Katherine Rowan’s Three Sources of Audience Confusion

Difficult Concepts or Language

Many terms are confusing to audiences.

Rowan’s Four Parts to Presenting a Confusing Term

The first part of an elucidating explanation is to provide a typical exemplar, or example that includes all the central features of the concept.
Follow up the typical exemplar with a definition.
Provide a variety of examples and nonexamples.
Have the audience practice distinguishing examples from nonexamples.

Difficult-to-Envision Processes or Structures

Rowan suggests starting with a quasi-scientific explanation, which starts by giving a big-picture perspective on the process.
Explain relationships among the components of the process.
Be sure when you explain relationships among components that you include transition and linking words like “leads to” and “because” so that your audience understands relationships between concepts.
Making the connections between components helps the audience to remember and better understand the process.

Difficult to Understand Because It’s Hard to Believe

This often happens when people have implicit, but erroneous, theories about how the world works.
Rowan suggests using a Transformative Explanation:
Begins by discussing the audience’s implicit theory and showing why it is plausible.
Show how the implicit theory is limited and conclude by presenting the accepted explanation and why that explanation is better.

Thinking Ethically

Honesty and credibility must undergird your presentation; otherwise, they betray the trust of your listeners.
If you choose a topic that turns out to be too difficult, you must decide what will serve the needs and interests of the audience.
If you find your topic is too ambitious, try the following:
Narrow your topic further.
Narrow your topic in a different way.
Reconsider your specific purpose.
Start over with a new topic.