7/27/2019 Publicspeak_readings_Informative Speech Assignment Description

1/3

Informative speech assignment description

Assignment objectivesAfter completing the informative speech, students should be able to:

design appropriate informative speech goals. respond appropriately to audience, topic, and time constraints. explain complex topics and evidence appropriately and effectively for an audience. arrange a speech in a clear and logical manner, using performance to highlight this

clarity.

extemporize a speech in a manner that adds to their ethos and engages the audience. use delivery to distinguish between key ideas and elaborating detail speak confidently with appropriate rate, projection, movement, and vocal variety.

Assignment descriptionIn the professional realm, most speeches and presentations we give are informative in scope.

Some of the many information speeches include:

A scientist needs to explain her recent research findings. A financial officer needs to report on quarterly earnings to his companys board. A governmental worker needs to explain to neighborhood a new local funding

opportunity.

A teacher needs to help students understand differential calculus. A technology professional needs to educate her consumer about a new product. A tourism guide explain the history of a city in a fun and exciting way.

In each of these cases, and the many more like them, the speaker has a number of concerns thathe or she must balance: How much does the audience already know? What are the most

important elements to convey? How should one convey these ideas with appropriate breadth anddepth given the time constraints of the speech? Informative speaking is a fun puzzle. You need to

think from the perspective of your audience to identify what they need to hear in order to

understand the key points.

The informative speech asks much more of your sense of judgment than did the impromptu

assignment. You need to make reasoned judgments about what to include/exclude, how to

arrange those ideas in an accessible manner, what vocabulary is appropriate for an audienceunfamiliar with your topic. But the informative speech also allows you great latitude in

developing an ethos that demonstrates your credibility and level of excitement as a speaker.

Assignment procedureFor the informative, you will be expected to deliver a five to ten minute speech on a topic of yourchoosing. In class we will discuss how to identify and develop an appropriate topic for this

audience. In general, though, you should be thinking about topics on which you already have

some expertise, that might be of interest to others, and can be discussed comprehensively in five

to ten minutes.

7/27/2019 Publicspeak_readings_Informative Speech Assignment Description

2/3

Hints on doing wellSelect a topic that you know: Our goals in this class focus on speaking. So, trying to both

master a new topic and speak on it well is a double challenge. Choose a topic that you know well

so that you can make educated judgments about how best to present that information. You dont

have to be the worlds foremost expert on the topic, but it should be something that you alreadyhave knowledge about. Since well be using evidence/examples in the speech, you should have a

topic for which you can easily deploy research/evidence/examples.

So, some of my areas of expertise are: rhetoric, communication, higher education, and online

education. Those are my research areas; thats what I do for a job. I can easily pull together an

informative speech on these issues. Doing a speech on Seattles history (my hometown ) wouldrequire me to do a fair bit of outside research.

Select a topic that excites you: Hopefully, the things you know best are those same things that

you find interesting. Well be talking about how best to convey your expertise and excitement

about the topic, so start with an interesting one. This of course is the great benefit of a speechclass: you get to choose your topic. In most speech settings, that topic is selected for you. My

hope is that we can refine your ethos with a topic that you enjoy so that you might be able toapply those performative skills to the topics that are less exciting.

Speak to inform: Well talk a fair bit about goals, but the take away is: youre speaking toinform the audience, not to show how smart you are. All your decisions hinge on what you can

do to help the audience understand the topic well. Anyone of you could probably upload a video

of you speaking on your matter of expertise that the rest of us couldnt understand. The focus

should remain on the audience.

Make clear language choices: Related to the above, you will need to make a pass through yourspeech to ensure that youre not relying on jargon that a lay audience doesnt understand. If youdo need to use specific terms, be sure to define them. The burden is on you to be clear, not on

your audience to have to stop your speech and look up your terms on Wikipedia.

Balance explanation with evidence and examples: This might be the most important aspect of

the informative speech. This is the most difficult thing for professional speakers to do. When I

work with scientists, they have a tendency to wander off and solely discuss the research findingsin detail without providing a larger sense for what these details mean. When I work with

business leaders, they can do the same or have the opposite problem: simply talk about the larger

ideas without demonstrating them through use of facts, statistics, examples, and narratives. This

balancing act is a fine art, but when accomplished it elevates presentations to the next level.Speeches that strike this balance educate and clarify topics for audiences.

Get off your notes: This holds true for all speeches, but Ive had the most problems with notereading in the informative speech. It is probably because you have more evidence in your

informative speech than in the impromptu. Regardless, you need to engage us as an audience of

listeners and generate the words at the moment of speaking. There may be a few phrases that youhave to get just right, but your notes should be used minimally. Notes are often a crutch. You can

7/27/2019 Publicspeak_readings_Informative Speech Assignment Description

3/3

easily remember the main parts of your speech (you are mentally equipped to remember this

amount of information). However, you need to practice this speech many times before you

record it. A good rule of thumb is to practice the final draft of the speech ten times beforedelivering it.