1. Week 4 The informative
speech
DR. RUSSELL RODRIGO
2. Informative Speaking Goals and Strategies
a. To build the audience’s understanding and awareness by imparting knowledge.
a. Informative speeches provide listeners with new information, new ideas, or new ways of thinking about a
topic.
b. To effectively inform, the presenter must establish a mutual understanding and
awareness of his or her audience.
a. Research confirms that comprehension is aided by:
a. Selecting an appropriate organizational pattern.
b. Providing effective preview statements and transitions.
c. Using language effectively.
d. Skillfully delivering the speech.
e. Using effective presentation aids.
3. Four Strategies for Defining Information
1. Define – identify essential qualities and meaning of something.
1. Operationally, or by what it does
2. Negation, or by what it is not
3. Example
4. Synonym, or by comparison with something that has an equivalent meaning
5. Etymology, or word origin
2. Describe information, provide an array of details that paint a mental picture of your
topic.
3. Explain information, provide reasons or causes and demonstrate relationships.
4. Demonstrate information, show how something works or what it does.
4. Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells
the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single
story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
"When we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical
misunderstanding".
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. What holds your attention?
2. Write down what the speaker did that was good and why do you think you were so
absorbed by the speech?
3. Identify what the speaker did to promote interest, understanding, and remembrance of the
speech.
4. Which of the four strategies does the speaker use? Explain with examples based on the
video.
5. The Danger of a Single Story
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6. How can a speaker help the audience
comprehend the message?
1. Illustrate and substantiate the speech with effective supporting materials, define
terms, and relate the unknown to the known.
2. Select an appropriate organizational pattern
3. Provide introductions and conclusions
4. Use shared vocabulary, concrete words, and repetitions
5. Focus on the delivery features or repetition, pauses, and rate.
6. Incorporate effective presentation aids
7. Conduct a thorough audience analysis
7. What kinds of subject matter can be addressed in an
informative speech?
1. Objects – discuss just about anything that isn’t human.
2. People - about inform audiences about historically significant individuals and groups.
3. Events – focus on noteworthy occurrences, past and present.
4. Processes – refer to a series of steps that lead to finished products or end results.
5. Concepts – focus on abstract or difficult ideas or theories and attempt to make them
concrete and understandable to the audience.
6. Issues – provide an overview of the problem in order to increase understanding and
awareness.
8. 5 Types of Organizational Patterns
1. Topical
u When all speech points have relatively equal levels of importance
2. Chronological
u Is useful when main points follow a natural sequential order or when topics describe a series of events
in time
3. Spatial or geographical arrangements
u Should be used when the speaker wants to describe a place, a scene, an object, or a geographical
region.
4. Casual (cause-effect)
u When the main points of a speech compare something that’s known to be a cause with its effects.
5. Problem-solution
u To demonstrate the nature and significance of a problem and then to provide justification for a
proposed solution
9. Practice 1
u How will you organize the following types of informative
speeches?
u People
u Objects
u Events
u Processes
u Concepts
u Issues
10. Guidelines for effective Informative Speeches
u Strive for balance- do not provide too much or too little information
u Define your terms
u Emphasize the topic’s relevance to your audience.
u Reinforce your message through repetition
u Relate old ideas to new ones
u Present new and interesting information
u Strive for clarity
u Use visualization
u Incorporate presentation aids
11. Practice 2:
1. Imagine that you have been asked to give a short informative presentation about
the internet to a group of fourth graders.
u What kind of organizational pattern will you use?
u How much technical information will you include?
u Remember, children often know as much—as more—about computers as many adults do.
u What can you do to be direct and to maintain clarity in your explanation?
2. Using the speech topic Racism (an issue), how would you present the information to
your classmates?
u What combination of definition , description, explanation, or demonstration would you select?
u What organizational pattern would you use?
12. Informative Speech Preparation
u Select a topic from the list of choices
u Decide how you will organize your ideas
u Write an outline
13. Informative Speech Topics
1. Falling in love
2. The benefits of Caffeine
3. Procrastination
4. How to Overcome Stress
5. Different types of love
6. Multilingualism/Bilingualism
7. Reading Body Language
8. Spotting a Liar
9. The Power of Introverts
10. Feminism
11. Do men and women speak different languages?
12. Infidelity. Why do mean cheat?
13. Narcissistic personality disorders
14. The source of stereotypes
15. How to motivate yourself to motivate yourself
16. How to impress people at first sight
17. The most favorable investment tactics for college
students
18. How movies shapes manhood
19. Others (Suggest your own)
