Lecture Notes
Chapter 11: Informing and Persuading
Learning Objectives
11.1. Discuss the importance of professional excellence in public speaking
11.2. Identify presenting opportunities
11.3. Define the purpose of a presentation
11.4. Design an informative speech
11.5. Design a persuasive speech
11.6. Apply the KEYS process to develop professional excellence as an informer and a
persuader
Chapter Summary
Chapter 11 discusses the importance of professional excellence in public speaking. It also
identifies how to present opportunities and defines the purpose of presentations. It explains how
to design an informative and persuasive speech and concludes by demonstrating how the KEYS
process can be used to develop professional excellence as an informer and a persuader.
Chapter Outline
I. The Importance of Presenting With Professional Excellence
A. Effective Oral Communication Skills
1. Product presentations, informal and formal team meetings, press conferences,
and special events require public-speaking skills.
2. Presentations serve as a tool to motivate employees and communicate business
goals.
3. Presentational excellence is required to achieve professional excellence.
II. Identifying Presentation Opportunities and Purposes
A. Presentation Opportunities
1. Formal presentation opportunities occur in traditional presentational settings.
2. Opportunity presentation is like a formal presentation but in an informal setting.
a. For example, huddles where employees are pulled together to talk
b. Impromptu presentation is winging it or speaking off the cuff.
B. General Purpose
1. Presentation has one of two general purposes.
2. Informative speeches present the facts.
3. Persuasive speeches make an argument or advocate for a position.
a. Passive agreement is getting your audience to agree or disagree with an
idea.
b. Active agreement or a call to action is persuading the audience to act.
4. Take time to decide if its purpose is to inform or persuade.
C. Specific Purpose
1. Specific purpose is a declarative sentence telling the listeners what you want
them to understand, know, or believe by the end of the presentation.
2. You may revise your specific purpose as you research and write your speech.
III. Speaking to Inform
A. Ethos
1. Ethos refers to your credibility as a presenter as well as the credibility of the
information delivered.
2. Quintilian, a Roman philosopher and educator, viewed credibility as central to
effective rhetoric.
3. Quintilian defined rhetoric as “a good man speaking well.”
4. Ethos can be demonstrated by competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill.
B. Logos
1. Logos is the supporting information.
2. Informative presenters should view themselves as teachers.
3. A teacher researches, analyzes, and then presents an organized presentation.
C. Strategies for Informing With Excellence
1. Make certain that you are informing, not persuading.
2. Pay attention to your audience’s level of knowledge and understanding.
3. Incorporate a variety of supporting material.
IV. Speaking to Persuade
A. Types of Reasoning
1. Inductive reasoning involves building an argument by using individual
examples, pieces of information, or cases and then pulling them together to make
a generalization.
2. Causal reasoning is cause–effect relationship reasoning.
a. Demonstrate that certain events or factors (causes) produced, or in some
cases prevented, a certain result (the effect).
b. Inoculation: Mentioning other causes is “vaccinating” your audience
before they have time to consider other possible causes.
3. Deductive reasoning is when the speaker takes general premises and draws a
conclusion from that general information.
a. Often set up as a syllogism with a major premise, a minor premise, and
then a conclusion.
b. You must make sure the major and the minor premises are accurate.
4. Analogical reasoning is reasoning from an analogy.
a. The cases must be comparable.
b. Point out the differences and minimize them.
5. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two ideas that contradict
each other.
a. Results in a feeling of discomfort for the person.
b. The person looks for ways to reduce the contradiction.
c. Speaker must then offer a solution that resolves the contradiction.
B. Pathos
1. Pathos refers to emotional appeal.
2. Emotional appeals should not be present in informative speeches.
3. Select words that have a strong emotional connotation or implied meaning.
C. Strategies for Persuading With Excellence
1. Build the speech in the correct manner.
a. General purpose—to persuade
b. Specific purpose—obvious
c. Analyze audience and context carefully
d. Introduction and conclusion have the correct components
e. Clear and easy to follow organizational structure
2. Persuasive speech
a. Entire speech should be persuasive.
b. Back up all arguments with logical and credible evidence.
V. KEYS to Excellence in Professional Presentations
A. Know Yourself
1. Know your strengths and weaknesses and how to use them to your advantage.
B. Evaluate the Professional Context
1. Understand to whom you are presenting.
C. Your Communication Interaction
1. Take what you have learned in the first two steps and apply them to your
presentation.
D. Step Back and Reflect
1. Assess the audience’s reaction to your presentation and get feedback to see if
your presentation was effective.