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Chapter 16
Informative Speaking
What you’ll know:
• The characteristics of informative speaking
• Some of the major methods of informing
• Two of the most common informative speech patterns
• The major types of expository speeches
What you’ll be able to do:
• Create an informative process speech
• Create an informative expository speech
• Evaluate informative speeches based on key criteria
Chapter Outline
II. Methods of Informing
A. Description: the method of informing used to create an accurate, vivid, verbal picture of an
object geographic feature, setting, person, event, or image
1. Describe size subjectively or objectively
2. Synonym: word that has the same or similar meaning
3. Antonym: word that is a direct opposite
4. Comparison and contrast: a method of informing that explains something by focusing on
how it is similar and different from other things
B. Narration: a method of informing that explains something by recounting events or stories
C. Demonstration: a method of informing that explains something by showing how it is done, by
displaying the stages of a process, or by depicting how something works
III. Common Informative Patterns
A. Process Speeches
1. Goal is to demonstrate how something is done or made
2. Steps must be grouped and explained
3. Based on demonstration, it is likely to use visual aids, a full or modified demonstration, or
both
B. Expository speeches:
1. Expository speech: informative presentation that provides carefully researched, in-depth
knowledge about a complex topic
2. Requires extensive research
3. Uses an organizational pattern best suited to the material
4. Uses various methods of informing for developing material
5. There are various types of expository speeches
a. Political, economic, social, or religious issues
b. Historical events and forces
c. Theory, principle, or law
d. Creative work
Discussion and Assignment Ideas
I. Can you think of other areas in which divergent thinking (thinking that occurs when we
contemplate something from a variety of different perspectives) has helped us make advances in
the medical, business, and scientific fields? What about in the social sciences? What about
regarding environmental issues? What circumstances allowed for this type of divergent thinking to
take hold?
II. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, question perspectives, or gain individual opinion.
Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or reflect on their personal feelings
about the quote can help to spark discussion and interest. Suggested prompts may include “Define this
concept in your own words”; “Do you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be
used to support or refute this idea?”
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
—Joseph Chilton Pearce
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play-instinct
acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
—Carl Jung
III. Various cultural groups use narrative as the primary mechanism of informing. Tell a story you
heard as a child that served to inform you. Did it generally follow the requirements for an
informative speech?
Technology Resources
Access cengagebrain.com Web Link 16.1: Thinking Like a Genius. How can productive thought help you
develop more effective speeches?
Also access Web Link 16.2: Change Agents and read the article “Characteristics of Change Agents.”
What techniques did the speaker use to emphasize important points? How could the speaker have
improved his emphasis? Can you identify specific places and techniques where this aspect of the
speech could have been improved?
Movies
Legally Blonde (2001)
Rated: PG-13 (Profanity, sexual situations)
Synopsis: Sorority girl Elle Woods is in her senior year of college when her boyfriend, Warner
Huntington III, asks her to dinner. She expects him to propose, but instead he breaks up with her,
citing his plans to attend law school at Harvard. Elle is not so easily deterred and begins to make plans to
attend Harvard herself. She makes an unorthodox admissions video and does surprisingly well on the
LSATS, and soon finds herself at Harvard, where she is determined to win Warner back as well as prove
herself to be a capable lawyer.
Questions for discussion
1. The final graduation speech delivered by Elle was creative and emphatic. What examples of these
principles can you find in her speech?
2. If you were to give Elle’s graduation speech, what elements might you have added to make it a
more effective and dramatic speech?
Great Speeches: Volume XV (2000)
Questions for discussion
1. These are great examples of informative speeches that are far from boring. Why are these
speeches interesting and considered great?
2. How was creativity used in these speeches?
3. What examples of short or extended definitions did you hear in these speeches?
Additional suggested movies: Student Speeches for Critique and Analysis video or DVD: “How to
Become a Successful Business Person” by Husam Al- Khirbash, San Joaquin Delta Community College,
Stockton, California (6:20); “Impressionistic Painting,” adapted and presented by Chris Lucke, San
Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, originally written by Wendy Finkleman, University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio (5:56); “Educational Requirements to Become a Pediatrician” by Ganiel Singh,
San Joaquin Delta Community College, Stockton, California (3:43)
Other Media Resources
Chapter Activities
16.1: Describe It to Me
Purpose: To have students practice their descriptive abilities
Time: 10 minutes
16.2: Speaker Reports
Purpose: To enhance students’ listening skills as they evaluate informative speeches
Time: 30 minutes
16.3: Pre-Speech Feedback
Purpose: To provide the opportunity for students to gain (and use) feedback
16.4: Post-Speech Feedback
Purpose: To provide students with an opportunity to practice their informative speeches in small
groups
Time: 15 minutes
Journal Assignments
A. Using Memory Aids
What are some ways you have used memory aids, such as mnemonics, in the past? What are some
ways you could help apply some of these memory aids to remember key aspects of your informative
speech?
B. Information vs. Persuasion
Using examples from television and print advertisements, discuss how information can be persuasive.
Compare and contrast persuasive and informative speaking.
C. Finding Creativity
Using your informative speech topic, develop several creative metaphors, memorable quotes, and
descriptive narratives that can be used within the speech.
