Chapter 14 Speaking Informatively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM–14 | 1
Chapter 14—Speaking Informatively
At a Glance
Choosing a Method of Informing
Selecting and Framing the Topic
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
2. Describe the eight categories of topics for informative speeches.
4. Explicate how to relate your topic to your audience.
6. Summarize how to create an organized informative speech.
8. Enumerate techniques for involving your audience in a speech.
10. Analyze example informative speeches.
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
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Lecture Outline
I. Choosing a Method of Informing
A. Informative speaking—or publicly addressing others to increase their
knowledge, understanding, or skills—can be approached in several different
ways.
B. Informative speeches can define.
1. One method of informing an audience is defining, or providing the meaning
of a word or concept.
2. You can choose from several methods for defining a word or concept:
a. Identify the denotative meaning. A term’s denotative meaning is its
dictionary definition.
b. Explain the connotative meaning. A term’s connotative meaning is its
socially or culturally implied meaning.
C. Informative speeches can describe.
2. Two forms of description are common in informative speeches:
a. Representation means describing something in terms of its physical or
1. Explaining means revealing why something occurred or how something
works.
3. For a speech intended to inform, it is very important to be aware of how your
own beliefs can influence your explanation of events.
a. Explaining is the informative method that most often risks crossing the
line from informing to persuading.
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© 2018 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.
c. You can avoid crossing the line from informative to persuasive speaking
by keeping your remarks objective—that is, based on facts rather than
opinions.
d. Remarks in a persuasive speech are subjective—that is, biased toward a
specific conclusion.
E. Informative speeches can demonstrate.
1. Demonstrating means showing how to do something by doing it as you
explain it.
3. Through demonstrations, the audience will both see and hear every step of the
process.
4. Presentation aids can be particularly useful in demonstrating a process.
II. Selecting and Framing the Topic
A. Select a captivating topic.
1. Ron Allen and Ray McKerrow have identified eight categories of topics that
work particularly well for informative speeches:
a. Issues
i. Issues are problems or points of controversy about which people desire
resolution.
iii. You might talk about the life of a person in the public spotlight.
iv. You could focus your remarks on a group.
d. Places
i. You could focus your speech on a place you find significant or
intriguing.
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ii. Effective speeches about an object often educate listeners about the
object’s evolution and development or its significance in history,
culture, politics, or ecology.
f. Concepts
i. Concepts are abstract ideas such as oppression, compassion, integrity,
bias, and forgiveness.
ii. Some powerful speeches have focused on concepts that were
significant to their audiences.
g. Processes
h. Policies
i. Policies are programs that aim to guide future decision making or
achieve some goal.
2. Remember that your listeners’ cultural background can influence what topics
are appropriate.
B. Relate yourself to your topic.
2. If your personal connection to your topic is not immediately evident, it is
important to explain why your topic is meaningful to you.
3. Relating yourself to your topic is advantageous.
a. It establishes for your audience that you have the credibility to speak with
C. Relate your topic to your audience.
1. Establish listeners’ vested interest in your topic.
2. Establish your topic’s relevance to listeners.
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a. In some instances, it’s necessary to tell listeners why they should care
III. Honing your informative speaking skills
A. Create information hunger.
3. An excellent way to generate information hunger is to connect your topic to
one or more of the five types of needs people have:
a. Physical needs
B. Be organized.
1. Recall the different components of a speech—introduction, body, conclusion,
2. Work on each component individually to ensure that it is serving its necessary
functions.
C. Make it easy to listen.
2. Keep it simple.
a. A common mistake for informative speakers is to use technical language
3. Start with what’s familiar.
a. Begin your informative speech by describing something that is familiar to
4. Repeat your key points.
5. Make it fun.
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a. Humor in informative presentations promotes relaxation that allows
D. Involve your audience.
1. Invite direct participation by asking your listeners to perform some action that
helps them understand your topic.
3. Poll your audience.
4. Pose a hypothetical situation.
5. Refer to individual listeners.
6. Invite questions.
a. It’s often helpful to tell your audience early in your speech that you’ll be
E. Be ethical.
1. In an informative speech, one of the most important requirements of ethical
behavior is truthfulness.
2. To ensure that your information is true and accurate, you should do the
following:
a. Use information only from reputable sources.
b. Understand the information you’re reporting.
c. Incorporate verbal footnotes.
d. Be clear about when you’re speculating.
3. It is especially important to treat your listeners ethically when you are called
on to deliver bad news.
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4. One highly unethical use of informative speaking is to coerce your audience
into believing or doing something.
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Key Terms
informative speaking
defining
narration
explaining
Chapter 14 Speaking Informatively
Additional Lecture Ideas
1. Spend an entire day working on the informative speech outline. Have students review the
2. Take time to show several taped examples of informative speeches. Create a viewing
guide for students to answer the following questions for each presentation. Discuss
impressions as a class.
a. What method of informative speaking is utilized? Defining? Describing? Explaining? Demonstrating?
b. How would you categorize the speech’s topic? Is the speech primarily about an issue, event, person,
place, object, concept, process, or policy?
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1. Break students into groups. Have students share their informative speech topic ideas and
2. Play a game of “Stump the Class.” Have students bring in terms that they think their
classmates will not know, and ask them, one by one, to stand before the class and either
3. The Dark Side of Communication—Listener Beware: When “Information” Becomes
Propaganda. Discuss the elements commonly found in speeches that engage in
propaganda, including moral labeling, glowing generalizations, false dichotomies, and
Chapter 14 Speaking Informatively
For Review
1. What methods can we use to inform?
2. In what ways should we frame an informative speech?
3. Through what strategies can we hone our informative-speaking skills?
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Pop Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. Caroline’s informative speech reveals how the Federal Reserve System works. Her speech is
an example of one that
a. defines.
b. describes.
c. explains.
d. demonstrates.
2. In his informative speech, Jake defines the word romance by detailing the word’s origin and
history. Jake’s method of definition is
a. providing etymology.
b. identifying denotative definition.
c. defining by example.
d. explaining connotative definition.
3. Tara wants to focus her speech on a problem or a point of controversy. In Allen and
McKerrow’s list of categories, that focus exemplifies a(n)
a. event.
b. concept.
c. process.
d. issue.
4. Compared to those who listen to lectures that are not humorous, people who listen to lectures
that include humor do all the following except
a. evaluate the lecture more positively.
b. more accurately recall the material.
c. perceive the lecture to be shorter.
d. make more positive assessments of the lecturer.
5. When speaking to a group of Japanese businesspeople, Lance would do well to remember
that a taboo topic for this audience is
a. immigration.
b. World War II.
c. pollution.
d. criticisms of the monarchy.
Fill in the Blanks
6. Describing a series of events in sequence, as you would when telling a story, is called _____.
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7. _____ are words that have opposite meanings.
8. A person’s _____ is his or her inherent motivation to pay attention to something.
9. A series of actions that culminates in a specific result is called a _____.
10. When you create _____, you spark your listeners’ desire to learn.