16. Informative Speaking

1. AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES 16. Informative Speaking Lecture by Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine based on Clella Jaffe’s Public Speaking

2. Structure of the Lecture • 1. Information is Important Globally • 2. Analyze Your Audience’s Current Knowledge • 2.1 Presenting New Information • 2.2 Presenting Supplemental Information • 2.3 Presenting Review or Updated Information • 2.4 Countering Misinformation

3. Structure of the Lecture • 3. Types of Informative Speeches • 3.1 Doing Demonstrations and Providing Instructions • 3.2 Giving Descriptions • 3.2.1 Describing Places • 3.2.2 Describing Objects • 3.3.3 Describing Events

4. Structure of the Lecture • 3.3 Presenting Reports • 3.3.1 Reporting About People • 3.3.2 Reporting About Issues

5. Structure of the Lecture • 4 Explaining Concepts • 4.1 Defining Terms • 4.2 Giving Explanations • 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking

6. Associative Statement • Not only is there an art to knowing, but also a certain art in teaching it • Cicero

7. 1. Information is Important Globally • We are living in an information Age • This means that a greater number of people nationally and globally have access to more information than any other humans throughout history have had • Electronic superhighways: Television and computers are linked up through networks

8. 1. Information is Important Globally • Information explosion: A metaphor comparing rapid information output to a bomb that scatters fragments of disconnected pieces in all directions • Information overload: A human response of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available data

9. 2. Analyze Your Audience’s Current Knowledge • 2. Analyze Your Audience’s Current Knowledge • Audiences can have • No information • A minimum of information • Forgotten information • Outdated information • Misinformation • and each level calls for different strategies

10. 2.1 Presenting New Information • Your audience is unfamiliar with your subject • The information you will present is novel • Your task is to provide a basic overview of your topic

11. 2.1 Presenting New Information • Provide basic information • Introductory facts the "who”, “What”, “When” “Where” and “How” type of information • Define unfamiliar terminology/Jargon • Give detailed vivid explanation • Make as many links as you can to the audiences by using literal and figurative speech comparing contrasting

12. 2.2 Presenting Supplemental Information • The audience has vague or superficial knowledge about your subject but lack detailed and in-depth understanding • The audience do not want you to rehash basic information • They want supplemental information • Dig deeper into your research sources to discover additional, less familiar details and facts • Go beyond the obvious and add in-depth description and explanations to what is already familiar

13. 2.3 Presenting Review or Updated Information • Your speech can function as a review that refreshes the audience's memories • It reinforces their knowledge • Keeps their information current

14. 2.3 Presenting Review or Updated Information • 1. When you review materials, approach the subject from different angels • Help listeners conceptualize it from different perspective • When appropriate, use humors • For both reviews and updates, present the most recent available information

15. 2.4 Countering Misinformation • A final type of audience has misconceptions and misunderstanding about a subject that you can elucidate by clarifying definitions and facts and by countering misunderstandings • When countering misunderstanding, you must present material that is inconsistent or contradictory to what they “know”

16. 2.4 Countering Misinformation • You will be wise to consider the following: • 1. Prepare for emotional responses – often negative ones • Present the most credible facts you can find and tone down the emotional aspect • 2. Look for information derived from scientific studies • 3. Define terminology carefully • 3.1 Consider explaining the origin of specific words • 4 Counter the negative prejudices against the stereotypes related to specific topic

17. 3. Types of Informative Speeches • Informative speech fall into several categories: • Demonstrations • Instructions • Descriptions • Reports • Explanation

18. 3.1 Doing Demonstrations and Providing Instructions • The following tips will help you: • 1 Your first step in preparation is to think through all the required stages • Ask yourself the following questions: • What comes first • What is absolutely essential • Which step is easiest? • Which is the hardest? • What does the audience already know? • Where will the audience most likely be confused?

19. 3.1 Doing Demonstrations and Providing Instructions • 2. Next work on the content of your speech • Organize the essential steps sequentially • Concentrate on clarifying and simplifying the one that will probably cause difficult or confusion

20. 3.1 Doing Demonstrations and Providing Instructions • 3 Preplan carefully the environment to facilitate learning • Plan your visual support

21. 3.1 Doing Demonstrations and Providing Instructions • 4. Make sure you time the entire process • If a task takes too long to accomplish in the time allotted for your speech • A better strategy is to demonstrate the process yourself and provide handouts with step-by-step instructions for listeners to use at home

22. 3.2 Giving Descriptions • Description answer the question, “what is it like” • Before you can describe an object, place, or event to someone else, you must first observe it carefully yourself • Look for details, then select vivid imagery and sensory words that help people understand what your subject looks, smells, feels

23. 3.2 Giving Descriptions • Listeners are generally more interested in topics that are close to their daily lives in • Location • Time • Relevance • explicitly relate each topic to their perceived interest and needs

24. 3.2.1 Describing Places • People seek information about places. • Take advantage of visual aids: • Maps • Slides • Brochures • Consider a spatial or topical organizational pattern

25. 3.2.2 Describing Objects • Description of objects are common

26. 3.2.3 Describing Events • Consider discussing personal event and happenings • Chronological, narrative and topical organizational patterns are most common • The topical pattern is also useful for describing happenings that consist of several different components

27. 3.3 Presenting Reports • Think of a report as a way to answer the question, • “What have we learnt a bout this subject” • Reporters collect and organize news and information about people and issues of public interest

28. 3.3.1 Reporting About People • Provide sketches of influential historical or commentary characters • Biographical reports can be about philosophers, military men and women • Generally, chronological, topical, or narrative organizational patterns best fit a biographical report

29. 3.3.2 Reporting About Issues • Newspapers and magazines are good sources for a list of current issues that we discuss within our community and our society as a whole • Think of this speech as an investigative report, where your research the facts that surrounding an issue and then present your findings • Your major point is to enlighten your audiences so that they have a factual foundations to use in formulating their own conclusion

30. 4 Explaining Concepts • Expository speaking or the speech to teach • Expository speakers set forth, disclose, unmask, or explain an idea in detail to increase listeners understandings • Effective expository speakers identify the hurdles listeners are likely to face in the attempt to comprehend the concept • They then plan ways to overcome the barriers and make meaning clear

31. 4 Explaining Concepts • 4.2 Giving explanations • Think of explanation as translation speech in which you take a complex or information-dense concept • Put it into common words and images that elucidate or clarify it • Explanation commonly answer questions about processes • “How does it work” or about concepts • “What is the theory behind that” or “Why”

32. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • To keep your audience’s attention and to be both understandable and relevant, remember these guidelines for producing compressive messages • 1. Do an obstacle analysis of the audience. (identify the parts of the message that are hard to understand, then work specifically on ways to make those sections clear) • 2. Organize the material carefully. Be kind to your listeners by stating your major points clearly and building in transitions statements and signposts such as “next” and “in addition” that enable them to identify the flow of ideas

33. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • Be kind to your listeners by stating your major points clearly and building in transitions statements and signposts such as “next” and “in addition” that enable them to identify the flow of ideas • Use structures such as lists, comparison-contrasts cause- effect patterns, provide internal previews and summaries

34. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 2.1 Discourse consistency.This means you use a repetitive style such as beginning every section with a question or alliterating your main points throughout the entire speech

35. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 3. Personalize your material for your audience. Help listeners see the connection between your topic and their experiences, goals, beliefs and actions • When the see the relevance of information to their personal lives, they are more likely to listen and learn effectively

36. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 4. Compare the known to the unknown. Be audience centered and start with what is familiar to your listeners • Begin with their existing knowledge, then build on this foundation and show similarities and differences between what they already know and your topic

37. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 5. Choose your vocabulary carefully. To clarify your ideas, define your terms and explain them in concrete language • Avoid trigger words, those with pejorative? Connotation , that might set off negative reactions in your audience

38. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 6. Build in repetition and redundancy. • Repetition means that you say the same thing more than once • Redundancy means that you repeat the same idea several times, but you develop it somewhat differently each time • Phrases such as in other words or put simply are ways to build in redundancies

39. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • A common complain is that Informational speaking is not interesting • 7. Strive to be interesting. In your preparation, occasionally try to distance yourself from the speech and hear it as if it were being delivered by some else • Think of ways to enliven your factual material • Provide detailed descriptions • Engage your audience dialogically, because your listeners can use these description to form mental images as you talk

40. 5. Guidelines for Informative Speaking • Summary • If you follow these guidelines, you will increase your listener's motivation and interest in the topic • Your careful attention to details will help them understand the material more clearly