Words: 1992
Speech to Inform Speech to Inform Is an Important part of a communication. As a public Speaker we serve as Interpreters of Information and are called on to assemble, package and present information to other human being to turn information into knowledge. Types of informative Speeches a. )Explanation or Lectures A speech of explanation doesn’t Just offer a dictionary deflation. Rather, explanations define concepts or processes in ways that make them relevant to the listeners.
Lectures, which usually involve more extended explanations and definitions, also increase an audience’s understanding of a particular field of knowledge or activity. For Instance, a business executive might define ” lean marketing” and go on to show how it can make the company work better; a historian might tell a group of students what socio-cultural forces converged to create American revolution. B . )Demonstrations Throughout your life, you have heard classroom Instructions, seen Job demonstrations, and read Instructions for the performance of special tasks.
Not only have you gone through many “tell” sessions but you have also had people “show’ you owe to execute actions- how to sort various kinds of paper for recycling, how to manage a counter at a fast food shop, how to set corner posts for a picket fence. Generally, demonstrations explain processes or both explain and illustrate those processes. Demonstrations involve the serial presentation of Information, usually In steps or phases. They require clarity because your listeners are expected to learn or reproduce these steps themselves. C. Oral Reports An oral report is a speech that arranges and interprets information gathered in response to request made by a group. Academic reports, committee reports, and executive reports are examples of oral reports. Your goal as an informative speaker is to make it easy for your listeners to retain new information. There are five things you can do to ensure that your listeners remember what you say. You should strive for clarity; associate new ideas with familiar ones, package or cluster ideas, construct strong visualization, and provide motivation appeal. A. Striving for Clarity Informative speeches achieve maximum clarity when listeners can follow and understand what the speaker is saying. Clarity is largely the result of two factors: effective organization and the careful selection of words. B. )Associating New Ideas with familiar Ones Audience grasp new facts and ideas more readily when they can associate them with what they already know. In a speech to inform, try to connect the new with the old. To do this, you need to know enough about your audience to choose relevant experiences, images, analogies, and metaphors, to use in your speech. C. Clustering Ideas You can help listeners make sense of your speech by providing them with a well- organized package of tightly clustered ideas. D. )Constructing Relevant Visualization As we have been emphasizing, relevance is a key to speechifying success. Using visualization-recreations of events that people can “see” can be a powerful technique for engaging listeners; if they can be made to see a process or event, they perhaps can be induced to project themselves mentally into it. E. )Motivating Your Audience Finally, and perhaps most important, you must be able to motivate your audience to listen.
Unfortunately, many people ignore this essential feature of good informative speeches. Many of us assume that because we are interested in something, our audience also will want to hear about it. Choosing your topic: Choosing a topic being overwhelmed at the open-mindedness of your assignment by examining five areas; the need or significance to discuss possible topics, your personal interests and experiences, other courses you’re taking, current events, and international subjects. Early in the course, plan to spend time brainstorming for possible topics.
Make a list of subjects that interest you, then narrow your list to four or five major topic areas. If you select these general areas early, you can be alert for information throughout the ERM to use in your speeches. Let’s say you are looking for material on eating disorders; you can scan weekly TV schedules for shows that feature the topic. You can also set up interviews with professionals as well as people who have experienced eating disorders. Because you have the topic clearly in mind, you have plenty of time to gather up-to-date materials to create a good speech.
If you begin early enough, you can create a file for each speech. Photocopying or clipping articles from newspaper or magazines, taking notes on lectures, or videotaping related televisions programs. At speech time, you will have many resources available for a good presentation, including a number of audiovisual aids that a last-minute scramble might not produce. A. ) NEED A significant topic that has a need to be discussed thoroughly and with the audience interest to further intensify their attention and to bring about some change, understanding, and/or beliefs.
A fundamental principle in speechifying is meeting up with your audience’s need to know on something a bit more that they haven’t had before no matter how simple it may seem as long as there’s some reasonable learning into it. Digging up supplementary information on a topic or selecting another topic that won’t waste their time is essential to your success in speaking. B. ) Personal Experience Using your own natural curiosity to generate possible topics of the audience’s interest. It starts out by selecting a personal life experience that may somehow be useful to a topic to talk about.
It is being generated from what you know and what you care about may it be indoor or outdoor. C. ) Other Courses Another good source for speech topics comes from your major or other course- work. For example, if you’re taking psychology. Look at the table of contents in your psychology textbook and find potential topics such as Fraud’s theories of personality, interesting topic from another class has the added advantage of helping you learn material for that course. Don’t hesitate to use research you’ve done for other courses if the subject is an appropriate speech topic.
To illustrate, as part of a nursing course, Jack wrote a paper on Cherokee medical beliefs and practices. He used some of the same material in his classroom speech on Native American medicine. However, you still have to take time to tailor your information to the needs of your classmates. D. ) Current Events Newspapers, magazine’s, and television shows are another excellent source of topics appropriate for beginning speakers. Skin headlines, Jotting down current issues that interest you Or surf the internet, looking for something you find fascinating.
This list came from one days television schedule: The battles dog pounds absentee congressmen Gambling fever dolphins the battle of the Bulge Mental instructions car recyclers history of Monday Night Football Jazz bankruptcy imputer viruses Topics from current events usually address a need in society. The fact that they are important enough to discuss in the print or electronic media means that they are significant in the lives of many Americans. And to your benefit, because these topics are publicly discussed, it’s often relatively easy to find more information for your speech. E. International Topics You may find it easier to think of personal (how to write a resume) or national (tax form) topics, because these are so close to our lives and are regularly covered in news broadcasts. However, don’t overlook international subjects, especially if you have traveled abroad or if you were born outside the United States. You might explore your own heritage and experiences. For instance, someone of Swedish ancestry could examine the welfare system in Sweden, comparing and contrasting it to that United States. Someone who works at television that you found interesting?
What’s your pet peeve? What changes would you like to see in society? Here are ways some students used personal interests to create speeches: -Paula once spent a summer in Israel; she spoke about Israeli-Arab conflicts. Fade feels that the homeless are not receiving enough attention; his speech advocated increased funding for low-cost housing. -Peggy is curious about the Bermuda In addition, consider you unique life experiences when searching for a topic. Draw from knowledge gained from your family background, Jobs you’ve held, or your recreational interests.
Speak on topics that fascinate or concern you has obvious advantages. When you are truly interested in your subject, you are more enthusiastic about it. This enthusiastic often helps you concentrate on your topic rather than your insecurity as speaker. In addition, if you appear to be bored by your topic, why should your audience be interested? Narrowing Your Topic Once you’ve selected a broad topic, your next task is to narrow your subject to a much smaller subtopic that you can discuss in a short classroom speech. As an example, let’s consider music. Obviously, you can’t discuss music in seven minutes.
Nor can you discuss popular music in such a short time. However, you could focus on a single performer, a specific process, or a problem within the music industry. Consider using a mind map as a way letting your ideas flow. Start with the broad object area of music and narrow it to a series of topics that you can discuss within a classroom setting. This is the type of subject you can approach from a personal, national, even international level. If you do careful work at the beginning of the term, you can have several topics to use throughout the term.
Let’s say Karen creates this mind map and then gives an informative speech on buying a CD player. Later, she discusses the connection between drug use and the early deaths of famous musicians. In a third speech, Karen argues that Time magazine was right to name Courtney Love as one of the went-five most influential citizens in the United States. Her fourth presentation, a narrative speech, describes an opera she attended at Lincoln Center in New York City. Choosing Your Purpose and Focus You do not speak in public by accident; instead you have specific goals in mind that lead you to speak.
This is the “why’ of public speaking. Before you get in front of your audience, you should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your listeners. Both at the outset and as you work on your speech, identify your general purpose and begin to formulate a specific purpose for your speech. In addition, write out a summarizing statement to help both you and your listeners understand the central idea of the speech. Almost 2,000 years ago, SST. Augustine, who was a rhetoric teacher long before he was a saint, identified three purposes for speaking publicly: to teach, to please, and to move.
Central Ideas: The central idea is a summary statement of the main theme or thought of your about. No details, Just the bottom line. A complete sentence, not a question” The single sentence digest or abstract you come up with is your central idea, which you can also call your core idea or thesis statement. State your core idea as a declarative sentence, as these examples illustrate: Correct: Excessive music volume today can lead to tinnitus in the future; however, by lowering the volume of your music, you can prevent some damage to your ears.
Incorrect: Why should you turn down the volume on your CD player? (This is a question, not a declarative sentence) Begin to formulate your central idea early; however, don’t be afraid to revise it during the course of speech preparation and organization as you do additional research and focus more clearly on the essence of your message, as this student explains: I tend to have running doxologies in my head, sometimes even out loud.