CH 15 NOTES

Speaking to inform
informative speech: speech designed to convey knowledge and understanding

Types of Informative Speeches: Analysis and Organization

 Many ways to classify informative speeches
o Objects, process, events, concepts
Speeches about Objects
 Object: anything that is visible, tangible, and stable in form
o Places, structures, animals, people
 you will choose a specific purpose that focuses on one aspect of your subject
o ex: “to inform my audience about three major kinds of service dogs”
 specific purpose that is not too broad
Speeches about Processes
 process: systematic series of actions that leads to a specific result or product.
 how something is made, how something is done, or how something works
o ex: “to inform audience how flash foods develop”
 2 kinds of informative speeches about processes
o One explains a process so listeners will UNDERSTAND it better
 Teach the steps of the process and how they relate to one another
 Will NOT instruct how it is done
o Other explains a process so listeners will be better able to PERFORM the process
themselves
 Audience learns a skill
 Present techniques, or steps
 Can be organized in many ways.
o Ex: A speech on the history of the Taj Mahal would likely be in chronological order, while
a speech on its major features would fall into topical order.
o Make sure each step is clear and easy to follow.
o Process must have no more than four or five steps

Speeches about Events

 Events: anything that happens or is regarded as happening.
o ex: cyberterrorism, sleep deprivation, Boston Marathon, Festival of the Sun
 narrow down, focus and pick a specific purpose
 events can be approached at any angle
o features, origins, implications, benefits, future developments, etc
Speeches about Concepts
 concepts: belief, theory, idea, notion, principle, or the like
o more abstract than objects, process, or events
o ex: numerology, philosophies of educations, sustainability, Confucianism
 usually organized in topical order and focus on main features or aspects of your concept
 can also approach by identifying major elements, and illustrating with examples
 complex: avoid technical language, define terms clearly,
Guidelines for Informative Speaking
 Selecting a topic and specific purpose, analyzing the audience, gathering materials, choosing
supporting details, organizing the speech, using words to communicate meaning, delivering the
speech—all must be done effectively if an informative speech is to be a success
o six additional points to help an informative speech
Don’t Overestimate What the Audience Knows
 speakers often assume that the audience already knows some information
 do not ASSUME audience will know what you mean
o be SURE to explain everything so thoroughly that they understand
Relate the subject directly to the audience
 It is the speaker’s job to get listeners interested—and to keep them interested.
 recognize that what is fascinating to them may not be fascinating to everybody
 tie with interests, start a connection with your topic and the audience
o whenever you can, put your listeners into the body of the speech
o use “you, your”
Don’t be too technical
 the subject matter is too specialized for the audience
 important: a speaker to know is what can be explained to an ordinary audience and what cannot
 technical information can be made clear to an average person
o work on the words
Avoid abstractions
 descriptions: statement that depicts a person, event, idea, or the like with clarity and vividness.
o One way to avoid abstractions is through description.
 Comparison: statement of the similarities among two or more people, events, ideas, etc.
o put your subject in concrete, familiar terms.
 Compare it so audience can better understand what you are trying to say
Personalize your ideas
 Personalize: o present one’s ideas in human terms that relate in some fashion to the experience
of the audience
o Listeners want to be entertained
 Personal illustrations
 Try to personalize your ideas and dramatize them in human terms
 Provide examples, or deep connections to get audience attention
Be creative
 be creative in thinking about ways to achieve your objectives.
 A good informative speech is not an oral encyclopedia article.
o Like any other kind of speech, it requires a healthy dose of creativity.
 Make things visible for audience
CH 5 NOTES
Selecting a Topic and Purpose

Choosing a Topic
 Topics: subject of a speech
 2 broad topics: you know about, you want to know more about
Topics you know a lot about
 Most people speak about familiar subjects
 Basic things that happen in you everyday life
Topics you want to know more about
 Learning experience for yourself and audience
 Requires additional research
 Investigate on a topic for another class (take advantage)
 Still another possibility—especially for persuasive speeches—is to think of subjects about which
you hold strong opinions and beliefs
Brainstorming for topics
 Brainstorming: method of generating ideas for speech topics by free association of word or
ideas
Personal Inventory
 Make a personal list: skills, hobbies, interests, beliefs etc
o Jot down anything that comes to mind
 Focus on a general subject area that you know you can talk about
Clustering
 Take a sheet of paper and divide it into nine columns as follows: People, Places, Things, Events,
Processes, Concepts, Natural Phenomena, Problems, and Plans and Policies.
o Then list in each column the first four or five items that come to mind
Internet Search
 Browse through a subject-based Web site, an online encyclopedia, or some other reference
portal until you come across what might be a good topic
Determine the General Purpose
 General purpose: the broad goal of a speech
 2 categories: Inform and Persuade
o When your general purpose is to inform, you act as a teacher or lecturer. Your goal is to
convey information clearly, accurately, and interestingly
o When your general purpose is to persuade, you act as an advocate. You want to change
or structure the attitudes or actions of your audience
 You must be certain of exactly what you hope to achieve by speaking
Determine the specific purpose
 Specific purpose: single infinitive phrase that states precisely what a speaker hopes to
accomplish in his or her speech.
 Once you have chosen a topic and a general purpose, you must narrow your choices to
determine the specific purpose of your speech.
o The specific purpose should focus on one aspect of a topic. You should be able to state
your specific purpose in a single infinitive phrase
 Topic: Music Therapy
 General Purpose: To Inform
 Specific Purpose: To inform about the benefits of music therapy for pple with…
Tips for formulating the specific purpose statement
 most important early step in developing a successful speech.
o When writing your purpose statement, follow the general principles outlined on the
following pages.
Write the Purpose Statement as a Full Infinitive Phrase, Not as a Fragment
Ineffective: avalanches.
More Effective: To inform my audience about the three major kinds of avalanches.
o The ineffective statement is adequate as an announcement of the speech topic, but it is
not thought out fully enough to indicate the specific purpose.
Express Your Purpose as a Statement, Not as a Question
Ineffective: What is Dia de Muertos?
More Effective: To inform my audience about the history of Mexico’s Dia de Los Muertos celebration
o The question might arouse the curiosity of an audience, but it is not effective as a
specific purpose statement. It gives no indication about what direction the speech will
take or what the speaker hopes to accomplish.
Avoid Figurative Language in Your Purpose Statement
Ineffective: To persuade my audience that the campus policy on student parking really stinks.
More Effective: To persuade my audience that the campus policy on student parking should be revised
to provide more spaces for students before 5 P.M.
o Although the ineffective statement indicates something of the speaker’s viewpoint, it
does not state concisely what he or she hopes to achieve
Limit Your Purpose Statement to One Distinct Idea
Ineffective: To persuade my audience to become literacy tutors and to donate time to meals on wheels.
 Two unrelated ideas, select one for speech
More Effective: To persuade my audience to become literacy tutors OR to persuade my audience to
donate time to meals on wheels

Make Sure Your Specific Purpose Is Not Too Vague or General

Ineffective: To persuade my audience that something should be done about unsafe school buses
More Effective: To persuade my audience that the federal government should impose stronger safety
standards for school buses in the United States.
o The more effective purpose statement is sharp and concise. It reveals clearly what the
speaker plans to discuss.
o The more precise your specific purpose, the easier it will be to prepare your speech
 Ex: Topic (hot air balloons) specific purpose: to inform my audience about hot
air balloons in contrast: to inform my audience about the scientific uses of hot
air balloons
 Easier to decide what is germane and what is not
Questions to Ask About your Specific purpose
 When you settle a topic ask yourself the following questions
Does my Purpose meet the assignment?
 Be sure you understand your assignment and shape your specific purpose to meet it.
Can I accomplish my purpose in the allotted?
 Make sure you have enough time or can fit your speech within the time limit
Is the purpose relevant to my audience?
 Make sure your topic is relevant to who you are speaking to
o Recognize your audience
Is the purpose too trivial for my audience?
 Avoid topics that are too superficial
o Ex: how to do laundry, parts of a backpack, espresso better than cappuccino
Is the purpose too technical for my audience?
 Beware of technical topics
o Ex: solution to fermat’s last theorem. Principles of neutrino physics

Phrasing the Central Ideas

What is the central idea?

 Central idea: a one-sentence statement that sums up or encapsulates the major ideas of speech.
o What you EXPECT to say
 The specific purpose of a speech is what you hope to accomplish
 Message= what you want the audience to remember, take in
 Make them clear
Guidelines for the central idea
 The central idea
o should be expressed in a full sentence,
o should not be in the form of a question,
o should avoid figurative language
o should not be vague or overly general.
CH 7 NOTES
Gathering Materials

Using your own Knowledge and Experience

 supplementing your topic with the personal touch can really bring your speeches to life.
Doing Library Research
 contains many sources to help you find what you need including:
Liberians
 Ask Liberians for help when in the library
o they can help you find your way, locate sources, and track specific piece of information
The Catalogue
 catalogue: a listing of all the books, periodicals, and other resources owned by a library.
o search for books by author, title, subject, or keyword. The catalogue also tells you
whether the book you want is available or is already checked out.
 The key to finding the book on the shelves is the
o call number: a number used in libraries to classify books and periodicals and to indicate
where they can be found on the shelves.
Reference Works
 reference work: synthesizes a large amount of related information for easy access by
researchers.
 Major works: encyclopedias, yearbooks, quotation books, biographical aids
Encyclopedias
 We are all familiar with general encyclopedias such as the Encyclopedia Britannica .
o But there are also special encyclopedias that cover their fields in more depth than do
general encyclopedia
Yearbooks
 Published annually
o Contain an amazing amount of information that would be impossible to track down
Quotation Books
 Books with quotes from different historical and contemporary figures
Biographical Aids
 When you need information about people in the news, you can turn to one of the many
reference works that contain brief life and career facts about contemporary men and women.
Newspaper and periodical databases
 Allow you to locate articles in thousands of publications
o Ex: Time, Atlantic, New York Times, etc
 Newspaper: A research aid that catalogues articles from a large number of magazines, journals,
and newspapers.
 In some cases, you may get an abstract of the article instead of the full article
o Keep in mind abstract is: A summary of a magazine or journal article, written by
someone other than the original author.
Academic databases
 Academic databases: a database that catalogues articles from scholarly journals.
 Experts research almost every aspect of the natural world and human society
Searching the Internet
 World’s biggest library
 Use to supplement, not to replace library research
Search engines
 Key to finding materials in the internet
 Use search engines systematically by developing a search strategy that will allow you to zero in
precisely on the information required for your speech
o Narrow down, be specific
o Adjust your search terms depending on your subject
 Increase odds of finding exactly what you need for your speeches
Specialized research resources
 Search engines are extremely helpful, but they are not the only vehicles for finding information.
Virtual Libraries
 Virtual library: A search engine that combines Internet technology with traditional library
methods of cataloguing and assessing data.
Government Resources
 One of the great strengths of the Internet as a research tool is the access it provides to
government documents and publications
o usa.gov, census.gov
Wikipedia
 biggest encyclopedia in human history
 it used to be a bad source, but now it has improved and major articles have been edited
 good place to start with learning a topic
 helpful resources include footnotes, a list of references, external links, and, in some cases, video
and/or still images
Evaluation internet documents
 don’t believe everything you read
Authorship
 is the author identified? Who is he, what is his profession? What are his wualifications? Is it
unbiased?
o Research the author in google
Sponsorship: an organization that, in the absence of a clearly identified author, is responsible for the
content of a document on the Internet.
 Many Web documents are published by businesses, government agencies, public-interest
groups, and the like rather than by individual authors
 Is it fair? Is it economically unbiased? History?
Recency
 Make sure it is up to date
o Look for copyright date, publication date or date last revises
Interviewing
 Excellent way to gather information for speeches

Before the Interview

 Research interview: an interview conducted to gather information for a speech.
Five steps:
Define the Purpose of the Interview
 Why do you need to interview? To get questions answered?
o Formulate a purpose
Decide Whom to Interview
 Narrow down a list of who you should interview
Arrange the Interview
 Do what is easier (telephone, email, etc)
Decide Whether to Record the Interview
 Advantage of having the exact record of the interview, check later for direct quotes
o Need permission to be recorded (unethical, trouble)
Prepare your questions
 Make sure you are asking question that cannot be answered without the interview
o You should devise questions that are sensible, intelligent, and meaningful.
o avoid opinion polls, leading questions
o avoid hostile, loaded questions
During the Interview
 be alert and flexible
Steps:
Dress Appropriately and be on time
 respect people’s schedules, you have the privilege to interview that person
Repeat the purpose of the interview
 restate the purpose of the interview to receive clear, helpful asnwers
Set up the recorder if using one
 The recorder should be as casual and inconspicuous as possible
o cellphones
Keep the interview on track
 Your goal in the interview is to get answers to the questions you have prepared
o improvise follow-up questions when called for, then move on again in an orderly fashion
Listen Carefully
 listen with attention
Don’t overstay your welcome
 Keep within the stipulated time period for the interview
o unless your subject clearly wants to prolong the session
After the Interview
 you must review and transcribe your notes
Review your notes as soon as possible
 concentrate on two things:
o discovering the main points and specific info that will be useful for speech
Transcribe your notes
 putting all your research notes in a consistent format, you can arrange and rearrange them
easily when you start to organize your speech

Tips for doing Research

Start early
 biggest mistake: waiting too long to begin
 Starting early also gives you plenty of time to think about what you find.
Make a preliminary bibliography
 Preliminary bibliography: a list compiled early in the research process of works that look as if
they might contain helpful information about a speech topic.
 Write down all sources that you encounter with
Take notes efficiently
Take plenty of notes
 Few things are more aggravating than trying to recall some bit of information you ran across in
your research but neglected to record
Record Notes in a Consistent Format
 Use same format for your notes
Make a separate entry for Each note
 Separate your notes, make sure they are clear
Distinguish among direct quotations, paraphrase’s and your own ideas
 be sure to use quotation marks whenever you copy the exact words of a source. If you
paraphrase, rather than quote verbatim, don’t forget to include the source when you record the
note
Think about your materials as you research
 If you think about what you are finding in your research, you will see your topic just a little bit
differently with each note you take.
 You will find new relationships, develop new questions, explore new angles.
 You will, in short, begin to write the speech in your head even as you do the research
 Organize your thoughts
CH 8 NOTES
Supporting Your Ideas
 Supporting materials: The materials used to support a speaker’s ideas. The three major kinds of
supporting materials are examples, statistics, and testimony.
o Support your point
 “What do you mean? Why Should I believe in you? So what?”

Examples: specific case used to illustrate or represent a group of people, ideas, conditions,
experiences, or the like.
 Without examples, ideas often seem vague, impersonal, and lifeless.
 With examples, ideas become specific, personal
Brief Examples
 Brief examples: specific case referred to in passing to illustrate a point
o Specific instances
 Illustrate a point
Extended Examples
 Extended examples: A story, narrative, or anecdote developed at some length to illustrate a
point.
 telling a story vividly and dramatically
o pull listeners into the speech
Hypothetical Examples
 hypothetical ex: An example that describes an imaginary or fictitious situation
 when you want the audience to imagine something, picture something

Tips For Using Examples

Use Examples to Clarify Your Ideas
 Examples are an excellent way to clarify unfamiliar or complex ideas.
o They put abstract ideas into concrete terms that listeners can easily understand.
Use examples to Reinforce your Ideas
 Have evidence, or back up that prove your ideas
o Citing, quoting
Use Examples to Personalize your ideas
 include examples that will add human interest to your speech.
o Make connections with audience
Make Examples Vivid and richly textured
 The richly textured example supplies everyday details that bring the example to life.
Practice delivery to enhance your extended Examples
 extended example
o story or narrative.
o impact depends as much on delivery as on content
Statistics
 numerical data
 statistics are often cited in passing to clarify or strengthen a speaker’s points
 Statistics can also be used in combination to show the magnitude or seriousness of an issue
Understanding Stats
 numbers don’t lie, strictly speaking, they don’t.
o but they can be easily manipulated and distorted
 they can get tricky
Are the Stats Representative?
 Know what your proportions represent
o make sure your statistics are representative of what they claim to measure.
Are Statistical Measures used correctly?
 Three basic measures
o Mean: average value of a group of numbers
o Median: The middle number in a group of numbers arranged from highest to lowest.
o Mode: The number that occurs most frequently in a group of number
 Most may play around with the stats
Are the Statistics from a reliable source?
 As a speaker, you must be aware of possible bias in stats
o statistics can be interpreted so many ways and put to so many uses
 seek figures gathered by objective, nonpartisan sources.
Tips for using statistics
Use Stats to Quantify your ideas
 The main value of statistics is to give your ideas numerical precision.
o When you are trying to document the existence of a problem
Use statistics Sparingly
 Insert statistics only when they are needed, and then make sure they are easy to grasp
o You don’t wanna bore the audience with numbers
Identify the Sources of your statistics
 Make sure your sources are accurate
o Author, publication, who?
Explain your stats
 Statistics don’t speak for themselves.
o They need to be interpreted and related to your listeners
 Find a simple way to explain clearly
 Make them meaningful in the audience
o Be creative in thinking of ways to relate your statistics to your audience
Round off complicated stats
 These are intriguing figures, but they are too complicated to be readily understood by listeners.
o Unless there is an important reason to give exact numbers, you should round off most
statistics
Use visual aids to clarify statistical trends
 Makes stats easier to comprehend
Testimony: Quotations or paraphrases used to support a point.
 Influenced by testimonies of other people
 People who have experience or knowledge
 Two major types: expert and peer
Expert testimony
  Expert testimony: Testimony from people who are recognized experts in their fields
 Citing the views of people who are experts is a good way to lend credibility to your speeches
o Shows that you are not mothing opinions
 Expert testimony is even more important when a topic is controversial or when the audience is
skeptical about a speaker’s point of view.
Peer testimony
 Peer testimony: Testimony from ordinary people with firsthand experience or insight on a topic.
 opinions of people like ourselves
o not prominent figures, but ordinary citizens who have firsthand experience on the topic
Quoting versus paraphrasing
 direct quotation: Testimony that is presented word for word.
 Testimony can be represented by paraphrasing
o Rather than quoting someone verbatim, you present the gist of that person’s ideas in
your own words
 Paraphrase: To restate or summarize a source’s ideas in one’s own words.
 You should use quotations when they convey the meaning better than you

Tips for using testimony

Quotes of paraphrase accurately

 quoting out of context: quoting a statement in such a way as to distort its meaning by removing
the statement from the words and phrases surrounding it.
 Accurate quotation involves three things:
o making sure you do not misquote someone
o making sure you do not violate the meaning of statements you paraphrase
o making sure you do not quote out of context.
 quoting out of context can have serious consequences
Use testimony from qualified sources
 sources qualified on the subject on hand
o people with experience on the speech topic and not just anyone
Use testimony from unbiased sources
 Careful listeners are suspicious of testimony from biased or self-interested sources.
o Be sure to use testimony from credible, objective authorities.
Identify the people you quote or paraphrase
 The usual way to identify your source is to name the person and sketch his or her qualifications
before presenting the testimony
o Knowing who
Citing Sources Orally
 The book, magazine, newspaper, or Web document you are citing.
 The author or sponsoring organization of the document.
 The author’s qualifications with regard to the topic.
 The date on which the document was published, posted, or updated.
 If you are citing an organization, rather than an individual, you need to provide the name of the
organization