Sample Chapter 15 Speaking to Inform

[Pages:23]MASTERING PUBLIC SPEAKING, 6/e

by George L. Grice & John F. Skinner

Sample Chapter 15

Speaking to Inform

Our design and pedagogy make public speaking into a whole new experience.

? 2007 | ISBN 0-205-46735-0

To learn more about this text, or to reserve an examination copy, please contact your publisher's representative at: replocator

Copyright ?2007 by Allyn & Bacon Publishers Please note: This Sample Chapter was prepared in advance of book publication. Additional changes may appear in the final published book.

Speaking

to Inform

Characteristics of a Speech to Inform

Informative Speech Topics

Speeches about People Speeches about Objects Speeches about Places Speeches about Activities and Events Speeches about Processes Speeches about Concepts Speeches about Conditions Speeches about Issues

Guidelines for Speaking to Inform

Stress Your Informative Purpose Be Objective Be Specific Be Clear Be Accurate Limit Your Ideas and Supporting Materials Be Relevant Use Appropriate Organization Use Appropriate Forms of Support Use Effective Delivery

Annotated Sample Speech: The Amish: Seeking to Lose the Self

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We are drowning in information and

starving for knowledge. --JOHN NAISBITT

O ur thirst for knowledge and stimulation seems insatiable. It has also never been easier to satisfy. "On a typical day at the end of 2004, some 70 million American adults logged onto the Internet

to use email, get news, access government information, check out health and medical information, participate in auctions, book travel reservations, research their genealogy, gamble, seek out romantic partners, and engage in countless other activities."1 The "always-on" function ensures that subscribers lucky enough to have broadband and DSL have the Internet always at hand.2 For many of us, "iPod, therefore I Am."3 We choose our own play lists rather than just living to the soundtracks commercial radio stations offer. We subscribe to weblogs, audioblogs, and videoblogs, often receiving them on our cell phones. Of course, we send text, pictures, and video from those same cell phones. Many who want to be connected--"plugged in"--find it amazingly easy to do so.

Why is it, then, that when asked to speak about what we consider interesting or important, so many of us feel all dressed up with nowhere to go? Perhaps we lack the sense of community that people experienced more easily when almost everyone watched the same few network TV news reports, read the same newspapers, and listened to the same radio stations. "Technology has given us finally a universe entirely for ourselves-- where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, or hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves, or an opinion that might actually force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished." That's the assessment of Andrew Sullivan, long-time member of iPod nation, who catalogs some of the things we miss by focusing solely on our own diversions:

That hilarious shard of an over-heard conversation that stays with you all day; the child whose chatter on the sidewalk takes you back to your own early memories; birdsong; weather; accents; the laughter of others; and those thoughts that come not by filling your head with selected diversion, but by allowing your mind to wander aimlessly through the regular background noise of human and mechanical life.4

An informative speech assignment challenges you to take a small step toward building a sense of community within your classroom. Such an assignment also poses at least three challenges:

1. Choosing a topic you find personally interesting and that your listeners will find interesting or relevant

2. Finding adequate information to make you well informed about the topic 3. Organizing your information in the most fitting manner

These three tasks form the essence of informative speaking, the subject of this chapter.

Characteristics of a Speech to Inform

Dr. Jones, your geology professor, enters the classroom, takes out a folder of notes, puts up the first of a series of slides, and begins to lecture on the differences between active and inactive volcanoes. At the morning staff meeting, Dr. Mendez explains how the hospital will implement its new policy to secure the confidentiality of patient records. Scott,

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a classmate in your business communication class, spends half the period summarizing his outside reading on factors that shape a company's corporate culture. The lecture, briefing, and oral report these people deliver are three of the forms informative speeches can take. In this chapter we focus on the variety of subject areas for a speech to inform.

At the most fundamental level, we seek knowledge for three reasons: We want to know, understand, and use information. The goals of any informative speaker, in turn, are to impart knowledge, enhance understanding, or permit application. Suppose you decided to prepare an informative speech on the general subject of advertising. You could select as your specific purpose to inform the audience about advertising in ancient times. Your listeners probably know little about this topic, and you can readily assume that your speech would add to their knowledge. Alternatively, you could inform the audience about how effective advertising succeeds. Using examples your audience already knows, you could deepen their understanding of advertising strategies and principles. A third specific purpose could be to inform your listeners about how they can prepare effective, low-cost advertisements when they want to promote a charity fund-raising project or a garage sale. In this instance you would help the audience apply basic advertising principles.

Speakers inform us, then, when they provide us with new information, when they help us understand better some information we already possess, or when they enable us to apply information. When you prepare an informative speech, however, you must make sure that you don't slip into giving a persuasive speech. How can you avoid this problem? After all, a persuasive speech also conveys information. In fact, the best persuasive speeches usually include supporting material that is both expository and compelling.

Some topics, of course, are easy to classify as informative or persuasive. A speaker urging audience members not to use a cell phone while driving is clearly trying to persuade; the speaker is attempting to intensify beliefs and either change or reinforce behavior. On the other hand, a speech charting the most recent options in cell phone technology is a speech to inform. A speech describing different forms of alcohol addiction is informative, whereas a speech advocating the Alcoholics Anonymous program to overcome addiction would be persuasive.

Sometimes speakers, both beginning and experienced, begin preparing a speech with the intention to inform, only to discover that somewhere during the speech construction process their objective has become persuasion. In other instances, speakers deliver what they intended to be an informative speech only to find that their listeners received it as a persuasive message. How can this happen? Let's look at the experience of one speaker, Sarah.

Sarah designed a speech with the specific purpose of informing the audience of the arguments for and against allowing women to serve in military combat. In her speech, she took care to represent each side's arguments accurately and objectively. After her speech, however, Sarah discovered that some listeners previously undecided on the issue found the pro arguments more persuasive and now supported permitting women to serve in combat roles. But Sarah also learned that others in the audience became more convinced that women should be excluded from such roles. Did Sarah's speech persuade? Apparently for some audience members the answer is yes; they changed their attitudes because of this speech. Yet Sarah's objective was to inform, not to persuade.

In determining the general purpose of your speech, remember that both speakers and listeners are active participants in the communication process. Listeners will interpret what they hear and integrate it into their frames of reference. Your objectivity as a speaker will not stop the listener from hearing with subjectivity. As a speaker, though, you determine your motive for speaking. It is not to advocate specific beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors on controversial issues. Your objective is to assist your hearers as they

speech to inform: a speech to impart knowledge, enhance understanding, or facilitate application of information.

Characteristics of a Speech to Inform 297

come to know, understand, or apply an idea or issue. As you word the specific purpose of your speech, you should be able to determine whether your general purpose is to persuade or to inform.

Informative Speech Topics

Experts identify several ways of classifying informative speeches. We have chosen a topical pattern that we think will work well for you. This approach is based on the types of topics you can choose for your speech. As you read about these topic categories, keep two guidelines in mind. First, approach each category of topics with the broadest possible perspective. Second, recognize that the categories overlap; the boundaries between them are not distinct. Whether you consider the Great Pyramid of Cheops an object or a place, for example, is much less important than the fact that it's a fascinating informative speech topic. The purpose of our categories is to stimulate, not to limit, your topic selection and development. As you begin brainstorming, consider information you could provide your listeners regarding people, objects, places, activities and events, processes, concepts, conditions, and issues. In the following sections, we discuss these eight major topic areas for informative speeches and the patterns of organization appropriate for each.

Key Points Topic Categories for Informative Speeches

1. Speeches about people 2. Speeches about objects 3. Speeches about places 4. Speeches about activities and events

5. Speeches about processes 6. Speeches about concepts 7. Speeches about conditions 8. Speeches about issues

Speeches about People

Activities and accomplishments of other people fascinate us. We gravitate toward books, magazine articles, television programs, films, and even supermarket tabloids that reveal the lives of celebrities. We are interested in the lives of the rich and the famous. We are also interested in the lives of the poor and the not-so-famous. Lifetime TV's

We read about, listen to, and watch people who fascinate us. Many of them have unique, in-

teresting stories. Sharing this information with an audience can make an excellent speech.

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Intimate Portrait series features the lives of influential women. Bravo's Profiles explores

the lives of creative people. A&E's Biography has been so popular and so critically ac-

claimed that it has spawned its own cable channel. People, then, are an obvious and abundant resource of

topics for your informative speech. You can be as historical or as contemporary as you wish. A speech about a person allows you the opportunity to expand your knowledge in a field that interests you while sharing those interests with your listeners. If you're a fan of animated films, you may be disappointed that Disney has abandoned freehand animation. An

Online Exploring ONLINE BIOGRAPHIES Visit these sites for thousands of ideas for speeches about people. At you can search paragraph-length biographies of more than 25,000 people. At Lifetime's Intimate Portrait page you can search

informative speech assignment gives you the option to discuss J. Stuart Blackton, one of the pioneers of American ani-

alphabetically for longer biographies of hundreds of influential women.

mation, or contemporary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki,

creator of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. If you're an avid photographer, you

could discover and communicate something about the life and accomplishments of Ansel

Adams, Diane Arbus, Alfred Stieglitz, or Annie Leibovitz, for example.

Of course, you don't need to confine your topic to individuals associated with your

major or areas of interest. You could interest and inform audiences by discussing the

lives and contributions of people such as:

Lance Armstrong Ray Charles Cesar Chavez Johnny Depp

Sally Hemings Jimi Hendrix Margaret Mead Jackie Robinson

M. Night Shyamalan Patrick Tilman Andy Warhol Prince William of Wales

You may choose to discuss not one person but a group of people, such as the Marx Brothers, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, or the Red Hat Society. You could even compare and contrast two or more individuals to highlight their philosophies and contributions. The following pairs of noted figures could generate lively exposition: Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader, Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, or Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

In considering an informative speech about a person, you must decide not only what is important but also what the audience will remember. Too often, students organize

Speaking with

Confidence

Though informative speaking sounds like a simple concept, it is more complicated than it may first appear. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of biased speaking. I selected the hotly debated topic of standardized testing for my informative speech. I then began my research. Throughout the process I would write down notes, only to realize that the information could be interpreted as leaning toward one side of the debate. In order to remain objective, I made an outline to plot the main points that needed to be discussed. I carefully chose ideas that were purely informative, such as "What exactly is standardized test-

ing?" and "When did standardized testing become widely used?" As I constructed my speech, I made sure to use reliable, objective websites that were not gung-ho for either side of the debate. Also, if I had a piece of information that had the slightest inclination of bias, I took it out and saved it for my persuasive speech. Researching an informative speech proved to be more challenging than I anticipated, because it's human nature to be biased in any hotly debated issue. But all this work kept me focused. When I delivered my speech, I felt confident that it was strictly informative.

--Patty Pak, Virginia Tech University

Informative Speech Topics 299

speeches about people so that the speeches resemble biographical listings in an encyclopedia. The speech amounts to a seemingly limitless compendium of dates. This is a mistake. Even the most attentive listener will remember few of the details in such a speech.

Speeches about people are often organized chronologically or topically. Cary used a chronological pattern to trace the life and legacy of Christopher Reeve. She presented three main points:

I. The actor II. The accident victim III. The activist

In her second key idea, Cary discussed the equestrian accident that left Reeve paralyzed in 1995. Using acting metaphors, she described how this event transformed him. Reeve moved from the roles he had portrayed as an actor to a more important role as an activist. His final performance would be not on a Broadway stage or a movie screen, but on an international stage as an advocate for medical research to discover cures for spinal cord injuries.

Speeches about Objects

A second resource of informative topics is objects. Speeches about objects focus on what

is concrete, rather than on what is abstract. Again, consider objects from the broadest

perspective possible so that you can generate a maximum number of topic ideas. Topics

for this type of speech could include the following:

Online Exploring RESEARCHING HISTORICAL TOPICS If you're interested in discussing an informative topic from a historical perspective, check out American

crocodiles electric cars the Great Wall of China "nanny cams"

performance clothing smart roads volcanoes

Memory, historical collections maintained by the Library of Congress. The site contains more than 125 collections, with topics including the African American odyssey, early

Speeches about objects can use any of several organizational patterns. A speech on the Cathedral of Notre Dame

baseball cards (1887?1914), Civil War photographs, Hispanic music and culture, historic buildings, and sound recordings of speeches from World War I.

or the Statue of Liberty could be organized spatially. A speech tracing the development of cyclones and anticyclones evolves chronologically. A speaker discussing the

origins, types, and uses of pasta also uses a topical division.

If the speech focused only on the history of pasta, however, it may best be structured

chronologically.

Kevin used a topical organization for his speech on genetically modified (GM)

animals, sometimes called designer animals:

I. The process of designing animals II. Benefits of GM animals

A. Medical uses B. Commercial uses III. Problems of GM animals A. Animal health issues B. Ethical issues

Speeches about Places

Places are an easily tapped resource for informative speech topics. These speeches introduce listeners to new locales or expand their knowledge of familiar places. Topics may include real places, such as historic sites, emerging nations, national parks, famous

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