Chapter 4. Speaking to Inform

1. Chapter 4.Speaking to Inform

2. About Informative Speech • Any speech is an informative speech if it presents information to an audience. • When do we make informative speech? • All the time. • What is the goal of giving an informative speech? • To state ideas simply, clearly, and interestingly.

3. Preparing for the Informative Speech • Blueprint: a vision of what you want to build. • Analyzing your audience • Choosing your topic • Narrowing your topic • Gathering information • Preparing visual aids • Organizing your speech

4. Step 1: Analyzing your audience • Demographic: the population’s needs, interests, knowledge. • Age range • Gender • Occupation(s) • Economic level(s) • General background • P.63-64: Personal Information Survey. • P.65: Analysis of Audience

5. Step 2: Choosing your topic • Choose sth that you know a lot about or sth that really interests you. • An experience that you remember vividly and are enthusiastic about. • Sth you care a lot about. • Sth at which you are skilled or experienced. • Sth about which you are knowledgeable.

6. Step 3: Narrowing your topic • Not to tell everything you know about the topic. • It’s impossible to say everything in a short amount of time. • Your audience can’t remember too many details after a speech. • How to narrow an informative speech topic effectively? • A good informative speech topicis specific, contains only one idea, and is achievable. • P.68. Evaluate topics.

7. Step 4: Gathering information • Two ways to look for material for your speech: • Within yourself • Outside yourself • Interview • Library and Internet research • Find more information than you can use! • Choose what to include instead of stretching the facts to fill time. • Extra knowledge may be helpful for Q&A session.

8. Interview • Open-ended questions • Closed-ended questions • Scale questions • Directive questions • Multiple-choice questions • Library search • Bibliography note cards

9. Step 5: Preparing visual aids • Why use visual aids? • Help make a speech clear and interesting. • Add variety, capture attention, illustrate concepts, and provide entertainment. • Visual aids are helpful in three ways: • They help the speaker get organized. • They help the audience understand the information. • They help the audience remember the speech.

10. Chalkboard • Poster • With charts or graphs • With words or phrases • With drawings • Objects or models • Audiovisual equipment (overhead projector or opaque projector) • Slides • Films • videotapes • Handouts

11. Tips of using visual aids: • Use visual aids that are large enough for everyone to see. • Do not pass out objects or papers during your speech. • Keep charts, maps, and graphs very simple. • Look at your audience, not at your visual aids. • Put your visual aids away after you have finished using them. • Practice using your visual aids with your speech before you actually deliver it.

12. Informative Speech

13. Schedule • 4/2-4/8: Find a topic for your informative speech. Prepare your proposal. • 4/9 & 4/16: Present your proposal in class. You topic needs to be approved by the whole class; otherwise you need to change topics. • 4/16-4/22: Preparation. • 4/23: Informative speech presentation.

14. Topic • Main goal: sth related to culture. • Three standpoints to take: • Sth globalwide  Universality • Sth which others have but we don’t  Specificity • Sth we both have but different  Comparison

15. Proposal for Informative Speech • Central topic: Culture • To give your own definition of “culture.” • Personal topic (A rough direction is fine. No need to give a specific “title” at this stage.) • To explain the reasons why the topic you choose fits your definition of “culture.” • Rationale • To briefly introduce the topic, and tell the possible directions you are going to probe into the topic. • To explain the importance of knowing this topic.