14-1
Chapter 14: Informative Presentations
Essay Questions
1. Explain the six possible goals for informative speeches.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
2. Provide three topics for an informative speech that do not appear in the book. One of them should be labeled as a speech of demonstration.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
3. What are some immediate behavioral purposes of an informative speech?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
4. Explain the concept of information hunger.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
5. What is information relevance?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Remember
6. How does extrinsic motivation work in a public speech? What are two examples of extrinsic motivation?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
7. What is known about information content, what people tend to remember and what they don’t?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
8. In an essay, explain the concept of information overload, and provide an idea of how you would know if you were experiencing it.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
9. What are the five skills for informative speaking?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
10. Provide an example of a contrast, a synonym, and an antonym.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Apply
11. Explain the main purposes when explaining during an informative speech.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
12. What is the difference between abstract and concrete words? Provide two examples of each.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
13. What is narrating, and how does it work in public speaking?
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
14. Write an essay in which you give someone the best advice that you can about how to prepare for, organize, and employ special skills in the
informative speech.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Create
15. Describe four factors in relating an informative presentation to an audience.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Bloom’s level: Understand
True/False Questions
16. Informative speaking to increase knowledge is most like what your teachers do in college classes.
17. Explaining the complex terms associated with the 2009 financial crisis is an example of the informative goal of clarifying complex issues.
18. The significance of your message is its importance and meaningfulness to, or its consequences for, the audience.
19. The speaker is the one who determines significance.
20. An immediate behavioral purpose is the action expected during and right after the speech.
21. Some examples of appropriate behavioral purposes for an informative speech are to recognize, to compare, to define, and to distinguish.
22. One way to determine whether your informative purpose has been fulfilled is to ask the audience to demonstrate their understanding, thereby
proving their learning.
23. To create a perceived need for learning information, you should avoid relying on extrinsic motivation.
24. A rhetorical question is a question that you expect the audience members to answer when you ask them to do so during the speech.
25. Information relevance refers to the usefulness of the information to the audience.
26. An example of extrinsic motivation is one’s own driving desire to know and learn about new information and ideas.
27. Audiences tend to remember and comprehend details and specific facts better than main points and generalizations.
28. Simple words and concrete ideas are easier for an audience to remember than is complex material.
29. In a speech that is already interesting, the addition of humor improves the audience’s perception of the speaker’s authoritativeness.
30. The use of humor in an informative speech can improve audience perceptions of the speaker’s character.
31. Repetition works better than overt audience response or actual behavior to increase audience comprehension.
32. Information overload refers to the provision of more information than the audience can absorb because of amount or complexity.
14-3
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Bloom’s level: Remember
33. Research tends to support the old saying that “You should tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em; tell ‘em; and tell ‘em what you told them.”
34. Use of transitions can increase an audience’s comprehension or understanding of the message.
35. The purpose of an informative speech is to change the audience’s mind about some issue.
36. Among the skills for informative speaking are defining, describing, explaining, and narrating.
37. Etymology is a word, term, or concept that is opposite in meaning to the one being defined.
38. A synonym is a word, term, or concept close or similar in meaning to the one being defined.
39. A comparison reveals how two words or concepts are similar; a contrast defines by revealing how they are different.
40. An operational definition reveals what something is by how it works, how it is made, or what it consists of.
41. Abstract is to concrete as general is to specific.
42. A narration is a lengthy explanation consisting of a series of shorter explanations.
43. One purpose of informative speaking is to persuade an audience to do something.
44. Which of the following is not a purpose of an informative speech?
a. to change the minds of the audience members about an issue or idea
b. to increase what an audience knows about something
c. to improve an audience’s understanding of how to use something
d. to clarify an audience’s ideas about something
45. Which of the following does an informative speech not have to be?
a. meaningful
b. interesting
c. entertaining
d. significant
46. Which of the following topics would be most appropriate for an informative speech?
a. how to perform emergency first aid
b. benefits of recycling and why you should recycle
c. why you should vote Republican
d. why you should avoid alcohol
14-4
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Answer: A
Bloom’s level: Understand
47. Which of the following types of speeches would not be classified as an informative speech?
a. speech of exposition
b. speech of definition
c. speech of description
d. speech of signification
48. Which of the following phrases does not fit with the immediate behavioral purposes of an informative speech?
a. define words, objects, or concepts
b. distinguish among different things
c. change attitudes, beliefs, and values
d. recognize differences or similarities among objects, persons, or issues
49. How does the text define information hunger?
a. The speaker creates a need for information in the audience.
b. The audience anxiously awaits information from the speaker.
c. The speaker has a large appetite for information.
d. The audience has a large appetite for information.
50. A rhetorical question is a question
a. that has no answer.
b. for which no answer is expected.
c. that the speaker will answer after the speech.
d. that appears in the transitions of the speech.
51. Which of the following comments would be the best example of extrinsic motivation?
a. “Because I have always wanted to be a priest, I study hardest in my philosophy and rhetoric classes.”
b. “I work because I love to work and cannot imagine being any different.”
c. “I had children—well, had children more or less by accident, not because I planned for it or anything.”
d. “Because my employer said our raises would be based on it, I am increasing my number of contract reports.”
52. Which of the following is an effective strategy for describing?
a. use of Roman numerals
b. use of statistics
c. use of metaphors
d. use of chronology
53. Audiences tend to remember and comprehend ________ better than __________.
a. fun and games; courses and disciplines
b. generalizations and main points; details and specific facts
c. details and specific facts; generalizations and main points
d. courses and disciplines; fun and games
54. Which of the following is not meant by the term information overload?
a. the number of words per minute
b. material too complex to understand easily
c. more material than the audience can absorb
d. using mathematical symbols or undefined words the audience does not understand
55. Which of the following was not cited in the text as one of the special skills of informative speaking?
a. changing people’s future actions
b. defining what a concept is
c. describing how something is
d. narrating or telling a story
56. A synonym is to a comparison as an ______ is to a contrast.
a. aneurysm
b. anomaly
c. antonym
d. analogy
57. Which of the following topics suggests an operational definition?
a. the construction of a bird cage
b. the origins of Unitarianism
c. the delights of Jamaica
d. descriptions of dogs with accompanying slides
58. An important aspect of informative speaking is making your subject _____________ to the audience.
a. easy
b. relevant
c. exquisite
d. bland
59. Explanation is to idea development as narration is to
a. storytelling.
b. oral interpretation.
c. paraphrasing.
d. literary criticism.
60. If you wanted to clarify something while also arousing interest, which informative speaking skill should you rely on?
a. demonstrating
b. quantifying
c. defining
d. explaining
61. In a speech explaining how to play drums, Steve used the table to illustrate various beat patterns. Which informative speaking skill is Steve
using?
a. demonstrating
b. quantifying
c. defining
d. explaining
62. Which of the following is an example of an effective rhetorical question?
a. How much do you hate the food in the dining hall?
b. Can you identify four ways to protect your identity from being stolen?
c. Are any of you in a fraternity or sorority?
d. Were you good students in high school?