Reading 3: Preparing and Delivering an Informative Speech

Informative speeches are crafted to offer stimulating and valuable information to a general audience or
a particular group of people. Since one of the main purposes of such speech is to increase the awareness of
the audience, accurate, up-to-date, and necessary information should be prioritized. Thus, thorough research
of the topic is required. Moreover, this type of speech may comprise delivering a topic about an important
person, an interesting event, or a life-saving information.
Delivering an effective informative speech may include explaining explicitly the significance of the
subject matter or the topic and by showing interest on the topic. Clearly explaining the significance of your topic
to your audience will keep them listening. This is particularly crucial to the audience who is required to attend
your talk. Telling your audience head on of the importance of your topic will answer questions like why should
they waste their time listening to you? Or how can they benefit from the information they get from you? Will the
information you share help improve their lives in some ways?
Another way to keep your audience is by showing or expressing to them that you are much interested
in what you are saying. You have to remember that you are delivering information-recounting real events,
sharing factual information, or discussing historical events. Some speakers fail to recognize that it is easy for
listeners to notice if they themselves are interested with the topic they are discussing. If you were to deliver an
informative speech, do not give your audience a chance to think twice listening to you because you look
disinterested with your own topic.

Characteristics of an Informative Speech

The term informative in informative speeches means educational Informative speeches, therefore, are
speeches that are intended to teach particular subject matters to a group of audience. The audience is
expected to learn useful or interesting things that have to do with specific topics of interests such as significant
people of today or those from history, interesting places, or any subject matters which the audience may need.

Below are features of informative speeches showing similarities and differences to other speech types:

Topic and Goal

The topic or subject matter of an informative speech is one distinct feature that separates it from other
types of speeches. The ultimate goal of informative speeches is to inform and educate the audience about a
subject matter that is beneficial and noteworthy.
In setting up a goal and choosing a topic, you should remember that informative speeches define,
describe announce, or explain their subject matter without taking sides or showing clear biases These types of
speeches should not be argumentative, they do not intend to change the audience's attitude.

Details
Informative speeches use accurate data and appropriate illustrations or examples. Transitions should
be used to signal significant details to your audience. Make your transitions clear from one point to the next to
keep your audience's attention. Giving examples will also help your audience comprehend your main points.

Organization
In terms of structure or organization, like any other types of speech, informative speeches are designed to
have three parts. They start with introductory statements describing the topic in an interesting way. The body
requires substantial details supporting the main points about the topic. And the concluding part is designed to
recap the significant points about the topic. When you prepare an informative speech, you should study the
subject matter comprehensively and organize the information in a clear, reasonable way. Creating an outline
for the speech often fulfils this
Rhetorical Methods in Organizing Informative Speeches
Chronological
This type of method follows a time pattern procedure. It organizes facts, incidents, events, or occasions based
on progression of time or the order they happened in time.
For instance, to talk about the history of anime, you could start by giving information of how anime was
first created, and then talk about its development over time, and end with a description of what may still
happen to animes in the future.

In a chronological organization, each main part of information (which may be written as topic sentences)
represents a specific period of time, and the supporting ideas under each main information discusses important
or significant events that took place within that period

Example of Chronological Order

History of Music Entertainment in the Philippines
I. Music Entertainment in 1960-1970
a. Important Event I
b. Important Event 2

II. Music Entertainment in 1970-1980

a. Important Event 1
b. Important Event 2

Sequential
This type of method is similar to chronological method but differs in terms of organization of information. In
sequential order, the information is arranged based on a step-by-step sequence that illustrates or describes a
specific process.

Example of Sequential
Step 1: Find out about jobs.
 Job openings in your region
 Skills or requirements these jobs demand and how they pair your own

Step 2: Prepare your resumé.

 Create a list of your skills.
 Prepare a portfolio of any awards and certificates you have received.
 Decide who will be your references.

Step 3: Customize.

Spatial
This type of method uses the concept of space. It organizes information based on how things appear in
physical space such as based on geography, floor plans, and instrument panels.
It may also be organized from a start point to an end point, continuing reasonably from one to the other.
Spatial method is often used when a speaker is describing a physical setup moving in a systematic way from
one feature to the next. It attempts to help readers picture and better understand the physical qualities of the
topic.

Example of Spatial
Touring the Senate of the Philippines
I. Parts of the First Floor
II. Parts of the Second Floor.
 III. Parts of the Third Floor

Cause and Effect

This type of method follows the cause-effect relationship. It focuses on two main points, the cause of a
particular subject and its effects to another.
For instance, if you were to give a speech on child labor, you would have to describe first what causes
child labor.
Your second point will have to deal with the effects of child labor. But you have to remember that you
are just going to give information and not to argue like in a persuasive speech.

Example of Cause and Effect

Child labor is caused by the following factors poverty, unemployment, and lack of education.
I. Poverty
a. Support I
b. Support 2

II. Unemployment
a. Support 1
b. Support 2

III. Lack of Education

a. Support I
b. Support 2

Topical/Logical
This method of organization is used when presenting an idea that has several other sub ideas. Clearly, a
topical method organizes information based on different subtopics within a larger topic or the "types" of things
that fall within a bigger category.
For instance, you may have one main topic, such as "motion pictures that can be discussed further into
three subtopics action films, drama, and horror. This is a suitable organization for informative speeches.

Example of Topical/Logical
Basketball in the Philippines
I. College Basketball
a. NCAA
b. UAAP

II. Professional Basketball

a. PBA
b. MPBL

Reading 4: Structure of an Informative Speech

Help our audience remember as much information as they can by using an outline. An informative speech like
any other speeches, can be best prepared and delivered by following a clear and simple outine like the one
below.

Introduction
 Salutation and attention getter
 State goal or purpose of your speech
 State these statement
 Preview the points you are going to discuss.

Body
Paint a clear mental picture to your audience to get your idear across using chronological, sequential. spatial,
cause-effect, or topical pattern.
Use transitions to signpost your points such as "First, I will talk about how poverty leads to child labor
Next, I will discuss how unemployment in the family causes child labor, and finally I will tell you how lack of
education contributes largely to child labor.

Conclusion
 Signal to your audience that you are about to end your speech.
 Restate your thesis
 Recap the major points you have discussed.

Reading 5: Preparing and Delivering a Persuasive Speech

Persuasive speeches allow speakers to relate with their audiences not only to inform, to entertain, or to inspire
but also to make them accept their viewpoints. Persuasive speaking, therefore, is a particular kind of speech in
which the definitive goal of the speaker is to convince his or her audience to accept his or her standpoint. For
instance, the speaker may like to influence others' current attitudes toward a particular issue, or the audience
is likely to make a decision such as purchasing something.
It is clear that a persuasive speech is projected to influence people at an intuitive level, encouraging
them to take action. In a formal or academic setting, the content of persuasive speeches encompasses subject
matter around political, economic, or social issues. Strong and well-written arguments subsequently should be
prepared. The speech should be organized to such a degree to positively make the audience see why they
should believe and accept the arguments presented before them.
An effective persuasive speech may be achieved by using the methods devised by the Greek
philosopher Aristotle, probably considered to be one of the most articulate speakers of his time. These
methods include ethos, pathos, and logos. This module is aimed at providing guidelines in preparing and
delivering persuasive speeches. Furthermore, it will thoroughly discuss the methods provided by Aristotle.

Characteristics of Persuasive Speech

Most, if not all, persuasive speeches share the following qualities:
Introductory Phase
In a persuasive speech, begin with a strong impression or feeling on a significant issue-a specific issue with
important differences of views or opinions.

Goal
Your objective as the speaker is to convince your audience to agree with your arguments.

Audience
It is important to have a strong awareness of your audience. Are you speaking to a group of students or
professionals? What does your audience know about the issue? What possible objections will they have? You
better prepare by anticipating answers to these questions.

Voice
Consider speaking with conviction and assurance but with sensible and unbiased remarks. This will help you
get the trust of your audience.

Focus of Persuasion
Facts used in an argument must be verifiable. They must be proven to be either true or false. They require
proof or evidence.

Value
This is where you can argue on the right or wrong of a particular action or one is better or worse than the other.
Examples may include convincing your audience that premarital sex is wrong and arguing that exclusive
schools are better than coed schools.

Policy
This focus of persuasive speech persuades audience that actions should or should not be taken . Examples
may include persuading the audience that junk food should be banned in primary and secondary levels,
convincing the audience that they should participate in family planning seminars, and perhaps influencing the
audience that they should patronize Filipino movies.

Reading 6: Methods of Persuasion

A persuasive speech is probably the strongest type of speech in public speaking. Its characteristics demand for
the speaker to have the ability to persuade others to believe what he or she wants them to believe. The
backbone for this persuasive strength in public speaking may have been established from Aristotle's forms of
rhetoric called ethos, pathos, and logos, which allow for the improvement of persuasion.

Ethos offers the audience understanding of the speaker's appeal, credibility, and authority. The audience may
question how well the speaker knows about the topic or what authority does the speaker have for them to trust
him or her. In a nutshell, credibility is recognized through the opinions of audience on the following:

 Competence (or expertise) Truthfulness

 Authority Respect

Pathos shows the capability of a speaker to relate to his or her audience emotionally. The speaker should be
able to develop the ability to raise feelings of association or compatibility from his or her audience so that they
would be persuaded. Aristotle said, "To understand the emotions-that is, to name them and describe them, to
know their causes and the way in which they are excited."

Emotional compatibility with the audience can be fulfilled through the following:
 intense recounting
 wittiness or humor
 pleasing presentation of information
 sensitive emphasis in themes and arguments
Logos utilizes strategies of logic to convince the audience. In short, logos means persuading by the use of
reasoning. Well-defined, brief, and rational arguments give substance to the speaker's overall message. Well-
defined and rational arguments may be attained using the following:
 substantial pieces of evidence and examples
 up-to-date statistical data
 relevant research studies
 verifiable facts
 significant historical pieces of evidence

Reading 7: Structure in Preparing and Delivering a

Persuasive Speech
Components in organizing a persuasive speech are similar with other types of speeches except for a few
salient features.

Introduction
 Salutation and attention getter
 State the goal or purpose of your speech.
 State the thesis statement
 Preview the points you are going to discuss.

Distinction from Other Types of Speeches

Standard persuasive speeches provide opinions on whether an action or something is harmless or harmful,
should or should not be done. Below are some thesis statements.

1 I will argue that cosmetic surgery has done more harm than good.
2 I believe that all citizens should be required to participate in all elections.
3. I will show that banning the research and production of moral enhancement drugs is necessary.
4. I will argue that students should be held legally responsible for bullying in schools.

Remember to create an atmosphere of fairness by summarizing opposing arguments before stating with
clearness the points you will argue. Do this when you preview your points.

Body
Use transitions to signpost your points such as: First, I will talk about how cosmetic surgery results in
permanent physical damages. Next, I will discuss how the marketing of cosmetic surgery targets poor women,
and finally I will tell you how self-esteem contributes largely to the growing rate of people going under the knife.
Be sure to support your arguments (usually prepared like in writing a topic sentence), with relevant
facts, illustrations, reasons, and analogies. Refer to the previous discussion in this module on focus of
persuasion. This is where you carefully evaluate your arguments and see if they meet the criteria of ethos,
pathos, and logos.

Conclusion
Signal to your audience that you are about to end your speech.
Restate your thesis.
Recap the major points you have discussed.

Construct a conclusion that confirms your arguments. Other than restating your main points, try to
increase your audience's perception of the problem by proposing solutions. At the end of the day, your
audience should feel informed, fully contented, and agreeable to re-examine or to act upon concerns you have
offered.

Reading 8: Preparing and Delivering an Entertainment

Speech
Entertainment speeches enable speakers to connect with audiences not only at the cognitive level but also at
the affective level. Speakers throughout the years have used entertainment speeches to gain the sympathy
and inclination of their audience to their goals, purposes, and causes. However, entertainment speeches are
much more difficult to prepare and deliver than informative or persuasive speeches. This is because the appeal
is primarily to the emotions of people through entertainment. This, therefore, requires a speaker to not only be
informative or persuasive but also to be entertaining.
Unlike informative or persuasive speeches, audience reaction is most critical in entertainment
speeches. If the audience was not entertained, then you could not have been said to have given an
entertainment speech. In preparing and delivering an entertainment speech, a speaker must have a feel for
what entertains an audience. This lesson assumes that the word entertainment refers to light-hearted humor,
not entertainment in a broad sense in which horror, suspense, sadness, or even inspiration are considered
entertaining to an audience.

Laughter is one of the most important aspects of an entertainment speech

An entertainment speech focuses on the feelings of an audience and uses humor to make them more
sympathetic to the speaker and more open to his or her ideas, sentiments, goals, or purposes.

Preparing an Entertainment Speech

The following will help you prepare an entertainment speech.

Know Your Audience

Different kinds of audiences need different ways of being entertained. There would be comments that only a
certain group of people would find entertaining. An audience composed of highly educated people will very
likely be entertained differently from an audience composed of laymen. You, therefore, need to know the
background of your audience. This includes their sentiments, values, allegiances, and persuasions. You need
to know these in order to think of a comment that they would find to be funny.
In addition, you need to know the kind of sense of humor that a particular audience will have. For
example, the sense of humor of audiences who are not highly educated tend to be what is considered shallow
and slapstick. In contrast, the sense of humor of highly educated audiences lean toward witty remarks and
sometimes, on puns. Getting to know your audience will enable you to know what they would find to be
entertaining, what they find not to be entertaining, and even what they find to be offensive.

Learn from Veteran Speakers

You will learn a lot by watching and listening to veteran speakers give entertainment speeches. In this age of
information, there are many opportunities especially through the Internet to watch and listen to different videos
or audios of speakers giving entertainment speeches. You have the freedom to imitate their style. Later, as you
become more adept at giving entertainment speeches, you may be able to develop a style that is uniquely
yours

Understand the Available Techniques of Producing Entertainment and Humor

Many techniques of producing humor abound. Among them are puns. Puns produce humor through the funny
use of words. This method of humor starts by leading an audience to a particular train of thought and then
instead of giving an expected remark or conclusion, you give something totally unexpected. For example, you
can start with Joyce Kilmer's very famous poem, "I think I shall never see a poem as lovely... but then instead
of finishing the original line you say, "as me. You can also produce humor by relating an embarrassing
experience you had
Take note though, that you may not share someone else's embarrassing experience unless you do so
without identifying the person and without giving details that identify a person or group of people. You may also
produce humor by talking about a story in which there was miscommunication. Miscommunication can be a
very good source of humor as long as you are sure that the audience will find the miscommunication to be
light-hearted. You can research more available techniques of producing entertainment and humor through the
Internet.

Understand the Unacceptable Methods of Producing Humor

One unacceptable method for producing humor is giving sexually-charged jokes or remarks
This method is relegated to places that are not considered part of respectable society. Another unacceptable
method for producing humor is toilet humor. This consists of making remarks to taboo topics relating to the
excretory system and other less palatable aspects of human hygiene. This method is also relegated to places
that are not considered part of a respectable society.
A very unacceptable method for producing humor is producing humor at someone's expense. For
example, making fun of someone's disabilities or appearance is very offending. Another is deriving humor from
the stereotypes and biases toward particular minorities. Producing humor at someone's expense also happens
when someone's intellect or character is insulted such as when that person did something that may be
considered derisive.
A special note must be given in the use of sarcasm Whether or not you employ sarcasm in your
speech will be greatly determined by the context and prevailing mood of society at large. This means that the
use of sarcasm is reserved for seasoned veterans who have developed an intuition regarding the possible
reaction of audiences to it. In addition to all these you must be aware that there may be something that you
think is funny but is not considered so by your target audience.

Reading 9: Writing an Entertainment Speech

1. Prepare the backbone. The backbone of your speech is composed of the main ideas of a narrative,
informative, or persuasive speech. Your introduction will be a statement of your thesis-the main idea of
your whole speech. Similarly, your conclusion will be a creative restatement of the same thesis

2. For each of your main ideas, add anecdotes, jokes, witty comments, and other entertaining remarks
that will capture your audience's attention.

3. Write your thesis. Turn it into your introduction by reexpressing it in a way that is entertaining to your
audience. Just as in writing your other main ideas, you may express it by combining it with an
anecdote, joke, witty comment, or entertaining remarks.

4. Restate your thesis as your conclusion. Your conclusion does not need to contain entertaining remarks
Simply inviting your audience to accept your conclusion is enough.

5. Edit your speech for grammar and word use.

Delivering an Entertainment Speech

Test your Delivery
You will need to practice delivering your speech to someone whose background is very similar to your target
audience. In doing so, you will know which comment will work and which one will not. You will know how your
practice audience will react to what you will say particularly if there is anything they find offending or
confusing .You will then make adjustments to your speech based on the feedback you get. You may also test
how your practice audience will respond to your gestures, facial expressions, or other nonverbal movements.
You can confer with your practice audience after your speech about their reaction. You can also ask your
practice audience to give instant feedback while you are still delivering your speech

Make Use of Verbal and Nonverbal Language

Verbal and nonverbal languages increase the possibility of entertainment. Even a comment that is not very
entertaining can be made more so through the use of cone, change of voice, facial expressions, or gestures.
However, be careful not to be too reliant on them. Much of the entertainment value of your speech should still
come from the content of your speech

Avoid Overused Routines

Overused jokes, gestures, or other elements can bore your audience. When this happens, your audience will
not be entertained and may even find you irritating. However, you can still use overused routines by
introducing a new element in them that your audience can find unexpected and surprisingly entertaining.