Intro to Communications Midterm

1. Informative Speeches:

• Aimed at educating listeners
• Convey information to others
• Speakers need to do the following: Define, Illustrate, Clarify, Elaborate, Establish Credibility

2. Goals of Informative Speaking *

• To enhance understanding: convey ideas that can easily be interpreted and understood
• To maintain interest: keep listeners engaged and intrigued
• To be remembered: have listeners recall information after the speech has ended

3. Types of Informative Speeches

• About objects (places, people, things)
• About events
• About ideas
• About processes (How to’s)

4. How to Enhance Audience Understanding

• Speak with clarity
• Clarify complex processes
• Use effective visual reinforcement

5. Clarify Complex Processes by:

• Analogies: comparing something new to something known
• Compare/Contrast
• Vivid description: brings ideas to life with crisp details and concrete words
• Words which appeal to senses and form a mental image

6. How to Enhance Audience Recall

• Build in redundancy
• Make key ideas short and simple
• Pace your information flow
• Reinforce key ideas

7. Introductions

• Secure audience attention and interest
• Identify the topic
• Indicate why the topic is relevant
• Establish your credibility
• Provide context
• State your main idea
• Preview your speech

Transition to the body of your speech

8. What not to do for Intros

• Start with: um, so, like, okay, etc.
• Ramble (Succinctness and brevity are key)
• Be unclear or confusing

9. Conclusions

• Transition from your body to the end

• Summarize your main points

• Restate your thesis/main idea

• Create a sense of closure

• Visualizing the future

• Connect/Circle back to your intro

• Something to remember you by

10. What not to do for Conclusions

• Say: “I’m finished,” “That’s all,” etc.
• Walk away immediately/end abruptly
• Bring in another topic/new information

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Outline: a formal system used to think about and organize your speech, paper, 

project, etc.

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Persuasive Speech

Persuasion: the process aimed at changing a person’s (or a group’s) attitude or behavior

Purpose of Persuasive Speech:

• To change or reinforce listeners points of view or behavior
• To ask the audience to make a choice, not simply to inform the audience
• To not only educate, but advocate

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Logos: logical appeal to the audience

Pathos: emotional appeal to the audience

Ethos: credibility of the speaker, trustworthiness

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: Attention, Need, Satisfaction, Visualization, Action

Rate: speed

Tone: loud/soft

Pitch: high/low

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12. Benefits of an Outline:

Provide a means of organizing your information in an hierarchical or logical order

Help you keep track of information and research

Check if your ideas connect to each other

See what order of ideas works best

Find out whether you have sufficient evidence to support each of your points

To help you visualize the overall picture of your speech

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