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Informative Speaking
Chapter 18
Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Speaking Informatively
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When giving an informative speech, you offer your audience
more information than they already have about the topic
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Update and add to their knowledge
Refine their understanding
Provide background
Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Types of Informative Presentations
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Explanations
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Share your understanding of the process or procedure
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Avoid long lists of facts
Descriptions
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Help your listeners form mental closeups of people, places, or
things
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Describe: condition, size, shape, color, age, etc
Use visual aids
Definitions
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Provide clarification or elaboration of ideas
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Be clear and persuasive
Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Effective Informative Speeches
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Create information hunger
Avoid information overload
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When the amount of information is too great to be handled
effectively by receivers
Avoid information underload
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When the information provided is already know to receivers
Seek information balance
 Emphasize key points
 Involve your listeners
 Provide information memorably
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Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Providing Information Memorably
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People will most likely understand and remember:
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Information relevant to their own lives
New information
Information that is emphasized
Repeated information
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Novelty and creativity
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Audiovisual aids
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Find a different slant or approach to the topic
You are your primary visual aid
Bring objects, use charts and graphs, computer-generated
graphs, etc.
Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Technology and the Informative
Speaker
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Knowledge gap
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Certain groups have access to greater amounts of information
Newer technologies require that users have
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the skill to use them
the money to afford them
Internet
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Information is freely available
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Electronic mailing lists or discussion groups
Listserv and usenet groups
Search directories
Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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