MediaSpace Wiki

Public Speaking Spr2010 S17

Informative Presentations

• The Value of Informative Speaking
  • Vital to success in the workplace
    • Status Overviews
    • Demos
    • Training
    • A key workplace skill
  • Vital to success in life
    • Much of what we do with our children is teaching them things
    • Informing others is something we will do in many situations
    • A lifelong skill
• Three criteria for effective informative speaking.
  1. Accuracy
  2. Clarity
  3. Capturing audience interest and attention
     • make information meaningful and interesting
     • Informative speaking can be pretty dry and uninspiring
     • Ways to address:
       • Show the audience the value of your information
         • How does the content affect them
       • Use stories, humor and other devices
• Informative vs. Persuasive Topics
  • The line between information and advocacy can be a fine one
  • An Informative Topic Tends to Be Noncontroversial
  • The key, however, is intent
    • Informative speeches do not seek to change audience attitudes or behavior
    • The intent is to provide information

• Strategies of informative speaking
  • New information
    • Generally about people, places, events, procedures, and things
    • In effect, reporting
    • Who, what, where, when, why, and how
    • Focus on value in the introduction
    • Use a clear organization pattern and a variety of supporting material
    • Relate to audience interests and needs
    • Your thesis is about the value of the information
    • Stay sharply focused.
      • You can't say everything in a short speech.
      • Choose a specific purpose that can be acheived in the allotted time.
    • For procedures:
      • Use a step by step chronological order
      • tell, show, and do
  • Terminology
    • Difficult terms are often abstract
    • Be descriptive. Root the abstract in the concrete
      • Use similes, analogies, and metaphors
    • Focus on essential features
      • Describe with examples
    • Use varied examples
      • Different examples will resonate with different people
    • Make contrasts
      • Define by counter-example
    • Ask questions: leverage what the audience knows
  • Quasi-scientific phenomona
    • Use clear key points
      • Use analogies, metaphors, and similies
    • Use presentation aids
    • Connectives are important
  • Overcoming confusion and misunderstanding
    • State the misconception (often a belief or theory)
    • Acknowledge its believability
    • Create dissatisfaction with the misconception
    • Explain a more acceptable belief or theory
      • Provide evidence

• Guidelines for effective informative speaking
  1. Keep it simple
     • Your audience won't be able to review what you've already said
     • So focus on the key ideas
     • Select an organizational strategy that enhances your speech
       • Topical organization is the easy way out
       • But a chronological, spatial, or other organization may simplify your presentation
     • Use memory devices to make things easy to remember
  2. Relate the subject directly to the audience.
     • People have different interests.
     • You may need to work to get and keep the audience interested
       • Use a creative introduction that connects the topic to the audience.
       • Talk about the topic in terms of their listeners.
  3. Don't overestimate what the audience knows.
     • The audience will often be only vaguely knowledgeable about your topic.
     • Don't assume the audience will know what he or she means.
     • Explain ideas thoroughly and clearly.
     • Consider whether the speech will be clear to someone hearing about the topic for the first time.
     • The journalists' code: “Never overestimate the knowledge of your audience; never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.”
  4. Avoid abstractions and generalities
     • Specific details makes a speech more compelling.
     • Use description to draw listeners in and communicate feelings engagingly.
     • Comparisons explain new ideas in familiar terms.
     • Contrasts put abstractions in concrete terms and provide a sense of perspective.
  5. Avoid being too technical.
     • Avoid subject matter that is too specialized for the audience.
     • Avoid jargons and obscure language.
     • Select topics that are not too technical for the audience.
     • Effective informative speakers recognize that language appropriate for an audience of specialists may well be confusing to a general audience.
  6. Personalize your ideas.
     • Personal illustrations liven up a speech
     • Dramatize ideas in human terms.
     • Use examples that personalize the subject matter.
       • real or hypothetical
     • Use sensory images and other memorable content
  7. Focus on your purpose
     • You have an objective
     • Stick to it