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Chapter 14
Informative Speaking
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
• Describe the goals of informative speaking
• List and describe each of the eight categories of informative speeches
LECTURE NOTES
• The Goals of Informative Speaking examines ways to increase an audience’s
understanding and knowledge throughout every phase of speech development and delivery.
ƒ Informative speaking increases the audience’s understanding or knowledge about a
topic.
ƒ Meeting the Audience’s Informational Needs requires the following:
ż Gauging what the audience already knows so you don’t repeat information they already
know
ƒ Informing, Not Persuading
ż An informative speech is intended to be objective, presenting facts and information in
a straightforward and evenhanded way, free of influence from the speaker’s personal
ƒ Speaking Appropriately and Ethically
• Topics for Informative Presentations discusses the importance of making sure your
speech topic is relevant and interesting to you and your audience, which requires some prior
experience or knowledge about the topic. Some ideas for a persuasive topic include the
following:
ƒ People: Speeches on this topic should focus on human qualities as well as achievements.
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ƒ Processes: These focus on a series of actions, changes, or functions that bring about a
particular result. The two categories of process speeches include how something works
and how to do something.
ƒ Concepts: These are abstract or complex ideas, or even theories, that are much more
difficult for us to understand. The challenge is to make the idea or theory concrete and
meaningful for the audience.
ƒ Issues: These focus on a problem or matter of dispute that people hope to resolve. Be sure
you address the issue objectively.
ƒ Plans and Policies: These help an audience understand the important dimensions of
potential courses of action, without arguing for or against them.
ƒ Explanatory speeches answer “why” or “what does that mean” questions. They can
clarify concepts by elucidating explanations (details that illuminate a concept’s meaning
and use), quasi-scientific explanations (which model or picture the key dimensions of
some phenomenon for the audience), and transformative explanations (which help
people understand counterintuitive ideas).
• Guidelines for Informative Speeches examines ways to tailor basic strategies for
developing, preparing, writing, and delivering a speech in order to make the speech
informative.
ƒ Create Information Hunger: this requires people to feel interested in or excited about
the benefits of your speech. It requires that you do the following:
ƒ Make it Easy: this refers to the speaker’s task of distilling relevant information for
listeners in order to help them listen, absorb, and learn. It requires that you do the
following:
ż Choose a clear organization and structure.
ż Emphasize important points by using a preview device, concluding summary, and
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ż Use interesting and appropriate supporting material to help your audience visualize what
you are talking about, being sure to choose examples your audience will understand.
ż Use appropriate presentation aids to help audiences follow and understand the
information.
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are some ways you can keep an informative speech from becoming persuasive?
2. What are some ways that you can obtain information about how much knowledge the
audience has about your topic?
3. What are some ways to define things? Why would knowing about the different ways to
define a concept be important?
4. What are some ways you can make people hungry for information from your speech?
PERSONAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Practicing the Demonstration
Videotape yourself demonstrating how to use something or how to do something you
2. Is This Ethical?
Watch a news show on television (such as the Daily Show with John Stewart or the Glenn
Beck Show) or on the Internet. Do you think that what you see constitutes ethical
3. Your Purpose in Life (or at Least in Speaking)
Consider the specific purpose for your informative speech. What are your objectives for
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. How Are You Defining Things?
Goal: To identify different ways to define a concept
Time Required: 15 minutes
Materials: List of words to define
Directions:
2. Assign the “ones” operational definitions; assign the “twos” definition by negation;
assign the “threes” definition by example; assign the “fours” definition by synonym.
4. Ask volunteers from the “ones” for their operational definitions, volunteers from the
2. Information Is Everywhere!
Goal: To understand the difference between persuasive and informative information
Time Required: 15 minutes plus homework
Description:
1. Have students collect articles from various newspapers and magazines and bring
them to class.
3. Ask students to read and analyze the information presented in the articles. Next, have
them decide as a group whether the articles are informative or persuasive. What is
their reasoning?
3. Perfect Practice Makes Perfect!
Goal: To practice informative speeches in front of an audience who will critique them
Time Required: 30–50 minutes
Materials: Students must be ready to present their speeches (including visual aids)
Description: Students are often reticent to practice their speeches in front of an audience.
For this exercise, break students into groups of three to four. Send students to various
Debriefing: Ask students how the practice sessions went. Did they find them helpful?
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is informative speaking and what are its goals? How is informative speaking
different from persuasive speaking?
2. What are some ways to assure yourself that you are being informative rather than
persuasive?
3. What are the major differences between a speech of description and a speech of
demonstration?
MEDIA
Waiting for Superman (Walden Media, 2010)
This film takes a hard look at the public school system in the United States. This movie
