The Verbal Aspect of Speech Delivery

Creating an Informative Speech

  • chose an informative speech topic– it should be a topic that educates the audience

    • Choice of topic/s can be a more familiar topic to ensure a better delivery

  • happens at one or 3 levels– formal, vocational, and impromptu

  • Formal informative speeches occur when an audience has assembled specifically to hear what you have to say

  • most people deliver these kinds of speeches at the vocational level

  • we do this in our every day life as a impromptu informative– helping someone for directions

  • speeches can vary in topics and categories

  • extended speech at the formal level may include subject matter from a lot of categories while speeches at vocational level may convey detailed information about a process, concept, or issue relevant to a specific career

Researching an Informative Speech Topic

  • brainstorm on a topic

  • research on chose topic

  • prepare thesis statement

  • Prepare an outline

Methods of informing

  • Informing through definition

    • defining concepts clearly and concisely is an important skill for informative speaking

  • informing through description

    • creating verbal pictures of your audience as a description to convey it better

    • good descriptions are based on good observations as they convey what is taken in through the senses and answer these type of questions:

      • looks, smell, sounds, touch, taste

  • informing through demonstration

    • a speaker gives verbal directions about how to do something while physically demonstrating it

  • information through explanation

    • sharing how something works or how something came to be/ why something happened

    • can be used when a topic is too complex or abstract to demonstrate

  • ! when presenting complex information, break it into chucks to avoid information overload & include examples

Effective Informative Speaking

  • Avoid persuasion

  • speakers can look into three areas– speaker purpose, function of information, and audience perception to determine if their speech is more informative and persuasive

Speaker’s Purpose

  • create understanding by sharing objective, factual information

  • purpose and thesis statements help establish a speaker’s goal and purpose and can serve useful reference points to keep a speech on track

  • if thesis statement has words like should/shouldn’t, good/bad, and right/wrong, it’s leaning more towards persuasive speech

Function of Information

  • should clarify and explain in an informative speech

  • shouldn’t function the prove a thesis or to provide reasons for an audience to accept the thesis(since they do that in persuasive speeches

Audiences Perception of Information

  • helps determine whether speech is classified

  • audience must accept the speaker as a credible source of information

  • being prepared, citing credible sources, and engaging the audience

  • helps establish a speaker’s credibility

Effective informative speaking

  • Avoid information overload

    • serves as a barrier to effective listening that occurs within a speech

    • tip: pick the more important parts of your speech

    • results may vary, but research shows the people only remember a portion of a message days or even hours after receiving it

    • 30% of the speech is retained when the information is new, and 70% of it repackaging that information

      • REPACKAGING AND NOT REPEATING

  • Engaging Audience

    • audience is likely to be more engaged when they find the speaker credible

    • good informative speakers act as translators of information

      • Repackaging information is a strategy to make the speech more engaging