THE HIDDEN WORLD OF CHILI PEPPERS: NEEDS IMPROVEMENT VERSION 359
The Hidden World of Chili Peppers
Needs Improvement Version
1 Okay. Chili peppers can be incredibly hot, but they’re still one of my favorite things to
eat. Whether it’s Mexican food, Thai food, or plain old Texas chili, the spicier the better in my
view. So when thinking about a speech topic, I thought it’d be a really neat idea to do it on chili
peppers.
2 Chili peppers have been around for thousands of years. Their scientific name is
capsicum—I think that’s how it’s pronounced. They’re different from black peppers, which come
from Asia. Chili peppers come from South America. In fact, as you can see from this map, they
began somewhere around Bolivia or Brazil. They spread everywhere else after Columbus came to
the New World.
6 So if you do eat a hot pepper, don’t try rinsing out your mouth with water. Instead drink
some milk or eat some yogurt or some other stuff like that. Milk also helps if you burn your skin
from contacting with a pepper.
7 If you’re attacked by a mugger or a robber, you can protect yourself by using a pepper
spray. The spray burns the eyes and skin and gives you enough time to escape.
8 According to Jack Challem, chili peppers also have lots of medical benefits. They’re used
to reduce arthritis pain, to help with indigestion, and cure baldness.
9 Um, well, I guess that’s all I have to say about chili peppers. Can you imagine life with-
out chili peppers? I know I can’t. So, thank you.
360 INFORMATIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The Hidden World of Chili Peppers
Needs Improvement Version
Commentary
When showing the needs improvement version of “The Hidden World of Chili Peppers,” have students
focus on the speaker’s organization, development of ideas, delivery, and use of visual aids. Follow with a
brief class discussion about each of these aspects of the speech. Then show the final version of the
speech. Again, have students focus on the speaker’s organization, development of ideas, delivery, and
use of visual aids. Follow with a class discussion that compares and contrasts the two versions of the
speech and explores why the final version is superior.
Video of both versions of the speech is available online and on the DVD of student speeches that
accompanies this edition of The Art of Public Speaking. For the text and a detailed discussion of the final
version, see pages 363–366 of this manual. Below is a synopsis of the needs improvement version.
Organization: The introduction consists of paragraph 1. The speaker does a good job revealing the topic,
but he fails to relate it to his audience, noting only that chili peppers are one of his favorite foods and
are therefore a topic of interest to him. Nor does he establish his credibility. Presumably his interest in
the subject has led him to do research on it in preparation for the speech, but there is no mention of
it in the introduction. The introduction also lacks a preview statement of the main points that will be
covered in the body of the speech.
The body of the speech is organized in topical order. The first main point deals with the
history of chili peppers (paragraph 2), the second with the reasons why some chili peppers are
so hot (paragraphs 3–5), the third with how to counteract the effects of a too–hot pepper (para-
graph 6), and the fourth with nonculinary uses of chili peppers (paragraphs 7–8). These are the
same main points as in the final version of the speech, but they are much less effective in this
version. One reason, as we shall see shortly, is that the ideas are woefully underdeveloped.
Another reason is that the main points are not clearly stated in the speech and the speaker
does not provide connectives to help the audience follow him from point to point. As a result,
THE HIDDEN WORLD OF CHILI PEPPERS: NEEDS IMPROVEMENT VERSION 361
In main point one, for example, the speaker touches lightly on the differences between
black pepper and chili peppers, but he does not provide the technical name for black pepper
and he botches the pronunciation of capsicum, the scientific name for chili peppers. He states
that chili peppers spread to the rest of the globe after Columbus came to the New World, but he
what to do if one eats a too-hot pepper. This was an excellent item to include in the speech, and
the information about it in the needs improvement version is fundamentally accurate. Again,
however, it is cursory in comparison to the final version, which explains both what to do and why
dairy products are more effective than water in counteracting the heat of a chili pepper.
The fourth main point continues the pattern we have seen in the first three main points. The
cards to get them in the proper order as he moves from point to point. In paragraph 2, he is un-
sure how to pronounce the word capsicum and in paragraph 3 he stumbles over “capsaicin,” the
chemical responsible for the heat in chili peppers. These are technical terms, and someone run-
ning across them for the first time might struggle to find the right pronunciation. However, audi-
ences expect speakers to be fully enough prepared to handle whatever technical terms they
include in the speech.
362 INFORMATIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Visual Aids: As with many informative speeches, “The Hidden World of Chili Peppers” needs visual
aids to help communicate the speaker’s ideas. To his credit, the speaker in the needs improve-
ment version recognizes this and incorporates several visual aids into his presentation. Unfortu-
nately, he does not use them nearly as well as he might have.
In paragraph 2, for example, he uses PowerPoint to show a map of South America, but he
displays the map against a “fireworks” background, which distracts the viewer’s eye from the
map. Also, the map is too small, is confined to the lower left–hand corner of the screen, and the
speaker does not specify which part of the map he is referring to. In paragraph 3, the speaker
uses the same distracting background when he displays the word “capsaicin,” and he has trou-
The speaker also has trouble in paragraph 3 when he holds up an orange habanero pepper
cut in half. Introducing a visual aid by saying “I know this is too small for you to see” is a sure sign
that the speaker should look for a different kind of visual aid—which is what he does in the final
version of this speech. Instead of cutting an orange habanero in half to show its veins and seeds,
he uses PowerPoint to display a photograph in which the veins and seeds are clearly visible.