Chp 16: Informative Speaking

BOOK: pgs. 241-253

PDF: pgs. 251-263

What you need to Know

To inform versus to persuade
Ways to organize your speech: spatial, chronological, cause-effect, problem-situation, topical ways to help audience understand speech concepts: repetition, provide rewards, show and tell, build on base knowledge and provide new insight, use humor, ask questions to see if they understand

Informative Speaking

Information speeches - speeches that teach something new * Inform: Make the audience aware of a phenomenon * Explain it to them to deepen their understanding

Information We Explain

Objects - tangible items * Artifacts, mementos, souvenirs, buildings, places, or even people
Processes - explains the steps needed to accomplish something; usually arranged chronologically * “How to” speech intended to teach the audience how to accomplish something * Explain processes specific to a particular industry * Explain how things happen in science and medicine
Events - focus on something that happened, is happening, or might happen at some point in the future. * Often organized chronologically * Allows the speaker to explain the event as it unfolds * Could be arranged topically, especially when many things are happening simultaneously
Concepts - explains an abstract idea instead of a concrete object * Presentations about theories, ideas, religions, economics, political ideology, or laws. * Challenging; they require the speaker to take something abstract and intangible and make it easy for the audience to understand by * Vivid descriptions, examples, or illustrations.

Patterns of Organization

Spatial: how parts are physically related to one another
Chronological: how events or processes occur in time
Cause-effect: how causes led to outcomes
Problem-solution: how solutions address problems
Topical: dividing by categories or subtopics

Difficult Concepts

According to Dr. Katherine Rowan, there are $3 reasons$ why informative speeches explain difficult concepts * Language or concept is difficult * Structures or processes are hard to envision * Ideas are difficult to believe

Difficult Language

Use elucidating explanations (an explanation that helps an audience understand the definition of a term and distinguish its essential characteristics from the associated characteristics that are only sometimes present in that which you are defining) with difficult vocabulary
Dr. Katherine Rowan explains that elucidating explanations should have $four parts to process$
Provide: * Common exemplar, or ideal example * The definition that explains the essentials characteristics of the concept * Several examples and non-examples * Opportunity to practice identifying examples and non-examples

Difficult to Picture

Two ways something might be difficult to imagine * Challenging to get an overall impression of the phenomenon * Challenging to see the parts, processes, and interrelations of the phenomenon
Use a quasi-scientific explanation (an explanation that helps the audience get an overall picture of a phenomenon and see relationships among the parts) in this case * Offer a graphic feature to help (e.g., diagram) * Provide clear explanation of how parts relate

Difficult to Believe

Something concepts are $counterintuitive$
Use a transformative explanation (explanations that help audience members transform their everyday ideas about how something works into a more scientifically accurate understanding of the phenomenon) in this case * Acknowledge lay theories of concept * Acknowledge why theories are plausible * Explain why their perspective is incorrect * Explain the new concept and why it’s effective

Strategies to Help Audience Understanding

Use repetition * Expose your audience to the same idea multiple times in multiple ways * The audience is more likely to remember the info * Aids your audience in understanding important complicated material within your speech * Provide more than one example * Find creative and different ways to express the same idea to help the audience achieve understanding. * The more you repeat something, the greater the chance the audience will pick up on it.
Provide rewards * Your audience will pay more attention to what you’re saying * Rewards can be: * Explicit (giving candy to members who can answer questions correctly) or * Implicit (telling the audience how they will benefit from the knowledge you’re sharing) * The reward lasts much longer for the audience. * Creating intrinsic rewards for listening to the speech assists the audience in investing time in paying attention to you. * When we invest time in something, it shows that we care about it.
Show and tell * Vital role in helping audiences understand the material * Uses visual and verbal organizational cues to help the audience identify the most important concepts and how they relate to each other. * Examples of visual organization cues: * Putting keywords for each main point on a PowerPoint slide * Showing important definitions or quotations while you’re talking about them * Showing your audience diagrams or images that will help them visualize how the concepts are related * Giving your audience a paper handout that will help them follow along during your speech * Use matrixes or other diagrams to help the audience understand the connections between the concepts. * Examples of verbal organizational cues: * Signposts * Reviews * Previews that help draw the audience’s attention to important concepts and * Help the audience understand how ideas are related
Build on what they already know * Connect the new information to something that the audience already knows. * Use an analogy or metaphor to show the similarities between something familiar and something new. * Connect your topic or info to something which they are already familiar with. * Helps the audience make the association themselves in terms they understand; info will be remembered.
Use humor * Capture and keep the audience’s attention. * Be careful; make sure that your humor enhances their attention rather than distracts from it. * Humor must help them focus on the content and not you. * The use of idioms and terms you expect the audience will know can be easily understood by the audience.
Check for understanding (periodically) * Ask your audience questions or provide examples * If not, adapt your speech by explaining the ideas in a slightly different way * Prepare a few different ways to explain the same point.

Delivering Information Dialogically

Provide multiple examples
Notice the audience’s nonverbal cues
Achieve understanding, not agreement
Ask clarifying questions
Maintain interest throughout your speech
Provide clear points and references