persuasive speech and informative speech similarities

Informative Vs Persuasive Speeches – Ultimate Guide

In this ultimate guide, we are exploring the differences between informative vs persuasive speeches! Whether you are a student, professional, or simply interested in improving your communication skills, understanding these distinctions is essential for captivating and convincing your audience effectively.

Table of Contents

Informative speeches are all about providing facts and information to educate your listeners. The objective is to present knowledge engagingly and coherently. On the other hand, persuasive speeches aim to influence and convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.

Communicating effectively in both types of speeches requires different strategies and techniques. In informative speeches, you need to focus on delivering accurate information while keeping your audience engaged. Persuasive speeches, on the other hand, require leveraging emotional appeal and logical arguments to sway the opinions of your listeners.

By mastering the art of informative and persuasive speeches, you will be able to confidently captivate and convince your audience. Throughout this guide, we will explore the key characteristics and elements of each type of speech, equipping you with the tools to present with impact.

So, whether you are aiming to inform or persuade, join us as we dive into the fascinating world of informative and persuasive speeches. Get ready to communicate effectively, captivate your audience, and convincingly deliver your message.

Key Characteristics of Informative Speeches

Informative speeches are designed to provide facts and information to your audience engagingly and educationally. To effectively deliver an informative speech, it is important to understand the key characteristics that make it successful.

Objective of Informative Speeches

The primary objective of an informative speech is to convey facts and information on a specific topic. Unlike persuasive speeches, the goal is not to persuade or convince the audience but rather to educate and enlighten them. Informative speeches aim to enrich the knowledge of the listeners and provide them with new insights.

Informative Speech Structure

An informative speech typically follows a structured format to ensure clarity and coherence. It begins with an introduction that captures the attention of the audience and states the topic of the speech. The body of the speech is then divided into logical sections, presenting various facts and information. Finally, a conclusion summarizes the key points and leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

When structuring your informative speech, it is important to organize your information logically and sequentially, making it easy for your audience to follow along and understand the content.

Engaging Educational Speeches

To keep your audience interested and informed, it is crucial to make your informative speech engaging and educational. Use storytelling techniques, visuals, and real-life examples to captivate your listeners. Break down complex concepts into simpler terms and provide clear explanations.

Additionally, consider incorporating interactive elements such as audience participation, Q&A sessions, or multimedia to enhance the learning experience and make the information more memorable.

By understanding the key characteristics of informative speeches and implementing them effectively, you can deliver impactful educational speeches that leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Essential Elements Of Persuasive Speeches

We will explore the essential elements of persuasive speeches and equip you with the techniques to influence your audience effectively. When delivering a persuasive speech, your goal is to sway the opinions and behaviors of your listeners.

One of the key techniques for persuasive speeches is using emotional appeal. By connecting with your audience’s emotions, you can create a deeper connection and increase the impact of your message. Whether it’s through powerful storytelling, relatable anecdotes, or evocative language , leveraging emotional appeal can help captivate your audience and make your message resonate.

Another critical element is incorporating logical arguments into your speech. By presenting well-reasoned and logical points, you can convince your audience through sound judgment and evidence. Supporting your arguments with relevant facts, statistics, and expert opinions adds credibility to your speech and enhances your persuasive power.

Structure and Strategy of Persuasive Speeches

Aside from employing persuasive techniques, understanding the structure and strategy of persuasive speeches is crucial. A persuasive speech typically follows a three-part structure: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

In the introduction, you capture your audience’s attention by creating a hook that piques their curiosity or appeals to their emotions. You also lay out the main argument or thesis statement to provide a clear focus for your speech. When selecting an Informal Speech Topic , consider incorporating personal anecdotes, thought-provoking questions, or intriguing facts to engage your listeners right from the start and set the stage for the discussion ahead.

The body of your speech is where you present your arguments, using a logical flow that builds upon each point. Each argument should be supported by evidence and examples to strengthen your persuasive appeal.

Finally, the conclusion is where you summarize your main points and restate your thesis compellingly and memorably. It is essential to leave your audience with a call to action or a thought-provoking statement that reinforces your persuasive message.

By understanding and implementing these essential elements, techniques, and structure, you can deliver persuasive speeches that effectively influence and inspire your audience.

Mastering informative and persuasive speeches is crucial for effective communication. Understanding the differences and using appropriate techniques allows you to confidently captivate and convince your audience. This guide equips you with tools to deliver impactful speeches, connect with your audience, and drive positive change.

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Difference between Informative and Persuasive Speeches

Most of us are familiar with speeches (also referred to as presentations). However, there’s some confusion between informative and persuasive speeches. Each type of speech is different from the other.

Do you know those long monologues people hold on various occasions or in a formal, business setting, called speeches? Well, you probably tuned out many times before and did not notice that there were two types of speeches: informative and persuasive. Dare we ask if you remember which type of speech you have heard more often? If you cannot tell, read the following article to find out which is which.

• 1 Summary Table
• 2 Definitions
• 3 What Do Informative and Persuasive Speeches Have in Common?
• 4 Informative speech vs Persuasive speech

Summary Table

Definitions.

An informative speech is used to educate and train the audience. It implies having a certain volume of information that needs to be transmitted to the public. The presenter is not trying to convince the audience to think or feel in a specific way. Instead, the presenter is providing the audience with facts and information.

This type of speech can be practiced in companies when a new product or service is introduced and the personnel need to be trained to work with it or sell it, or when a merger or another such event will cause changes in the company and people need to understand how the company structure will change.

When giving an informative speech, the presenter must be mindful of who they are speaking to. They also need to understand the level of knowledge the audience needs (if they are not subject matter experts) and avoid giving too much information about the topic. It’s essential to avoid using jargon or professional language that is not understood by the audience. These would be too difficult for them to understand, making the presentation ineffective.

Giving an informative speech means having people leave with information they did not have coming in. Such a speech is as entertaining as the speaker makes it. Generally, this means including large volumes of information which are not easily digested, but it all depends on how the speaker presents it, how engaging he makes his content and how well he can couple the new information to pre-existing knowledge just to make it more relatable.

On the other hand, there’s a different reason for giving a persuasive speech.

A persuasive speech is intended to convince you to do or believe something when you are done listening. It can be a sales speech, a motivational speech or anything that includes calls to action, advice on how to do something and encouragement in this respect. Good speakers will give out a lot of useful information and keep the public entertained and engaged because the stakes are high at the end. They need those who have listened to the speech to get up and do something specific, and this is why the speech must be delivered very well.

For instance, a persuasive speech can be given to raise funds for charity. The presenter tries to persuade the audience to support the charity financially. In this case, the presenter may also include information about the charity, why it needs funding, and more. The overall goal is to get the audience to give money to support the charity. The presenter may use emotions such as sadness, excitement, and other emotions to move the audience to provide funding for the charity.

A persuasive speech is difficult to deliver as some people come in to the event reluctant to whatever the speaker has to say, and set on not changing their minds. It’s the talent of every speaker that makes the difference in this case.

What Do Informative and Persuasive Speeches Have in Common?

• The presenter’s goal is to provide a clear presentation that’s understood and remembered by the audience.
• The material for both types of speeches should be tailored to each specific audience.
• The presenter needs to engage their audience with questions and answers, along with other interactive methods.

Informative speech vs Persuasive speech

So what is the difference between an informative speech and a persuasive speech?

• An informative speech is only aimed at presenting given information, to educate and train. The persuasive speech is aimed at convincing you to believe or do something very specific. There is an end to whatever you are listening to, and more effort is put into keeping you entertained just so that you will act on whatever the speech was about.
• Although persuasive speeches are much more engaging and interesting, making the public more attentive and entertained, they still need to be delivered. This means that informative speeches, with their smaller stakes, are easier to deliver.

14 Informative Speeches

Speeches to Educate, Explain, or Describe

In this chapter . . .

In this chapter we examine our first type of public speech, the informative speech. This is used in lectures, briefings, and anytime you want to transmit fact-based information to an audience. We cover what makes an informative speech unique, the types of informative speeches, and how to construct this type of speech.

What is an informative Speech? Defining what an informative speech is can be both straight-forward and somewhat tricky at the same time. Very simply, an informative speech can first be defined as a speech based entirely and exclusively on facts. An informative speech conveys knowledge, a task that every person engages in every day in some form or another. Whether giving someone who is lost driving directions, explaining the specials of the day as a server, or describing the plot of a movie to friends, people engage in forms of informative speaking daily.

An informative speech does not attempt to convince the audience that one thing is better than another. It does not advocate a course of action or incorporate opinion as its basis. This can be the tricky part of developing an informative speech because some opinion statements sound like facts (since they are generally agreed upon by many people) but are really opinions.

For example, in an informative speech on George Washington, you might want to say, “George Washington was one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States.” While this statement may be agreed upon by many people, it’s not irrefutable, meaning someone could argue against this claim. However, you could include this statement in an informative speech if you present the opinion from a reputable source: “Ron Chernow, in his 2011 best-selling biography of George Washington, describes the first president as one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States.” That is an acceptable way of presenting an opinion within the framework of a factual speech. While you may not be able to avoid opinion, you don’t want your central idea, your main points, and most of your supporting material to be opinion or argument in an informative speech.

Additionally, you should never take sides on an issue in an informative speech, nor should you “spin” the facts to influence the opinions of the listeners. Even if you are informing the audience about differences in views on controversial topics, you should simply and clearly explain the issues.

This doesn’t mean that an informative speech will have no effect on the audience. An audience can learn things from an informative speech that will affect what they do or how they think about something—that’s their choice. Your only focus is to provide the clearest and most factual information you can.

Types of Informative Speeches

While the topics to choose from for informative speeches are nearly limitless, they can be categorized according to five broad categories based on the primary goal of the speech. Understanding the type of informative speech that you will be giving can help you to figure out the best way to research and speechwriting.

Type 1: History

An informative speech on the history or development of something. Your focus is to explain to an audience how something came into existence. History speeches can be about objects, places, ideas, or even events. For example, imagine your informative speech was on the history of the football (the object, not the game). Someone at some point in history was the first to develop what is considered the modern football. Who was it? What was it originally made of? How did it evolve into the football that is used by the NFL today? For the history of a place, like a university, you would describe the specific year it opened, the number of students who were initially enrolled, and how it got its name. It’s also possible to provide the history of an idea, like “democracy.” By explaining the civilizations and cultures that adopted forms of democracy throughout history, it’s possible to provide an audience with a better understanding of how the idea has been shaped into what it has become today.

Type 2: Biography

A biographical speech is similar to a history one, but in this case the subject is a person, whether living or deceased. As with histories of objects, places, or ideas, there are specific and irrefutable facts that provide the details of someone’s life. Your focus is to tell the audience about someone’s life.

Type 3: Processes

Process speeches are informative speeches that explain how to do something or how something is achieved. These speeches require you to provide steps that will help your audience understand how to accomplish a specific task or process. We see examples of “how-to” presentations frequently—especially on YouTube. There’s a second type of process speech that focuses not on how the audience can achieve a result, but on how a process is achieved. The goal is understanding of a process instead of the performance of a process. After a speech on how to change a car tire, for example, the audience members could probably do it (they might not want to, but they would know the steps). However, after a speech on how a bill goes through Congress, the audience would understand this important part of democracy but not be ready to serve in Congress. Either way, if your speech aims at teaching the audience how something works, it’s a process speech.

Type 4: Ideas and Concepts

It is possible to have an informative speech about an idea or concept where your primary focus isn’t on the history of the idea, but how it exists now. In the examples above, we have seen two types of speeches about democracy: democracy as the topic of a speech that focuses on its history and democracy in a speech that focuses on a process in democratic legislation. In this fourth type of informative speech, you could focus on the concept of democracy as interpreted, for example, in three different countries. Your speech is neither about history nor about process but focuses on the definition itself.

Type 5: General

Sometimes an informative speech topic doesn’t lend itself to a focus on history, process, or concept. In those cases, the topics tend to fall into the general category of informative speeches. The focus in this type of informative speech is determined by the topic. For example, imagine a speech about customs to know when traveling in Japan. This isn’t a speech about the history of anime , nor a biography of a former emperor. It’s not about the process of planning a trip to Japan, nor is it about the concept of kawaii . Customs of Japan falls into the “general” type of informative speech.

Tips for Informational Speeches

Use the type of speech to determine the structure.

Identifying the type of informative speech being given can help in several ways (conducting research, writing the introduction and conclusion), but the biggest benefit is that the type of informative speech being given will help determine the organizational pattern that is best for a speech.

For example, a How-To speech must be in chronological order (step 1, step 2, step 3). Similarly, most speeches that focus on providing history or biography will be organized chronologically, but not always. It makes sense to use chronology to explain the history of the football from the moment it was first developed to where it’s today, but for an informative speech on Benjamin Franklin a student might choose a topical pattern (idea 1, idea 2, idea 3) as their three main points: 1) His time as a printer, 2) His time as an inventor, 3) His time as a diplomat. These main points are not in strict chronological order because Franklin was a printer, inventor, and diplomat at the same time during periods of his whole life. However, this example would still be one way to inform an audience about him without using the chronological organizational pattern.

As for general informative speeches, since the topics that can be included in this category are so diverse and cover a range of possible subject matter, the way they are organized will be varied as well and may use chronological, spatial, or topical structures. (Refer to Chapter x on speech structure and organization).

Keep Your Topic Specific

One of the biggest and most common mistakes students make is pursuing a topic that is much too broad. Let’s consider the example of a student who proposes the topic “To inform my audience about the Civil War.” The Civil War was, conservatively speaking, four years long, resulted in over 750,000 casualties, and arguably changed the course of human history. To think that it’s possible to cover all of that in a speech is unrealistic. Even a very experienced professor in American history would find it difficult to deliver a one-hour lecture that accomplished that goal.

The better approach in this case is to be as specific as possible. A revised specific purpose for this speech might be something like “To inform my audience about the Gettysburg Address.” This topic is much more compact (the Gettysburg Address is only a few minutes long) and doing research will be easier—although you will still find hundreds of sources on it. An even more specific topic would be “To inform my classmates of the specific places in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that are considered haunted.”

Avoid Fake Informative Speech Topics

Sometimes students think that because something sounds like an informative speech topic, it’s one. This happens a lot with political issues that are usually partisan in nature. Some students may feel that the speech topic “To inform my audience why William Henry Harrison was a bad president” sounds factual, but really this is an opinion—in other words, it’s a fake informational speech because it’s a persuasive speech disguised as an informational speech. Similarly, a few topics that include conspiracy and paranormal subject matter are usually mistaken for good informative topics as well. It is common for a student to propose the topic “To inform my audience about the existence of extraterrestrials,” thinking it’s a good topic. After all, there is plenty of evidence to support the claim, right? There are pictures of unidentified objects in the sky that people claim are from outer space, there are people who claim to have seen extraterrestrials, and most powerful of all, there are people who say that they have been abducted by aliens and taken into space.

The problem here, as you have probably already guessed, is that these facts are not irrefutable. Not every single person who sees something unknown in the sky will agree it’s an alien spacecraft, and there can be little doubt that not everyone who claims to have been abducted by a UFO is telling the truth. This isn’t to say that you can’t still do an informative speech on alien sites. For example, two viable options are “To inform my audience about the SETI Project” or “To inform my audience of the origin of the Area 51 conspiracy.” However, these types of speeches can quickly devolve into opinion if you aren’t careful, which would then make them persuasive speeches. Even if you start by trying to be objective, unless you can present each side equally, it will end up becoming a persuasive speech. Additionally, when a speaker picks such a topic, it’s often because of a hidden desire to persuade the audience about them.

Be Selective about Content

Even if you have chosen a specific and focused topic, you must still make choices about what you can and cannot include. Writing an informative speech isn’t about dumping enormous amounts of information on your audience that you can only get to by speaking at breakneck speed. It’s about carefully choosing what to include, making it interesting and clear, and presenting it to your audience at a comfortable pace. What’s better: too much information that audiences can’t grasp or less information for audiences that hear every word? Regardless of the topic, you will never be able to cover everything that is known about your topic, so don’t try. Select the things that will best help the audience gain a general understanding of the topic that will interest them, and that they hopefully will find valuable.

Be Accurate, Clear, and Interesting

A good informative speech conveys accurate information to the audience clearly and keeps the listener interested in the topic. Achieving all three of these goals—accuracy, clarity, and interest—is the key to being an effective speaker. If information is inaccurate, incomplete, or unclear, it will be of limited usefulness to the audience.

Part of being accurate is making sure that your information is current. Even if you know a great deal about your topic or wrote a good paper on the topic in a high school course, you will need to verify the accuracy and completeness of what you know, especially if it’s medical or scientific information.

What defines “interesting?” In approaching the informative speech, you should keep in mind the good overall principle that the audience is asking, “what’s in it for me?” The audience is either consciously or unconsciously wondering “What in this topic for me? How can I use this information? Of what value is this speech content to me? Why should I listen to it?”

Keep in Mind Audience Diversity

Finally, remember that not everyone in your audience is the same, so an informative speech should be prepared with audience diversity in mind. If the information in a speech is too complex or too simplistic, it will not hold the interest of the listeners. Determining the right level of complexity can be hard. Audience analysis is one important way to do this (see Chapter 2). Do the members of your audience belong to different age groups? Did they all go to public schools in the United States, or are some of them international students? Are they all students majoring in the same subject, or is there a mixture of majors? Never assume that just because an audience is made up of students, they all share a knowledge set.

Learning how to give informative speeches will serve you well in your college career and your future work. Keep in mind the principles in this chapter but also those of the previous chapters: relating to the informational needs of the audience, using clear structure, and incorporating interesting and attention-getting supporting evidence.

Something to Think About

Here are three general topics for informative speeches. Write specific purposes for them and explain how you would answer the WIIFM question.

• Type 1 diabetes
• The psychological effects of using social media

Public Speaking as Performance Copyright © 2023 by Mechele Leon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

35 Introduction to Persuasive Speaking

Learning objectives.

• Define and explain persuasion.
• Explain the three theories of persuasion discussed in the text: social judgment theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and the elaboration likelihood model.

People are bombarded by persuasive messages in today’s world, so thinking about how to create persuasive messages effectively is very important for modern public speakers. A century (or even half a century) ago, public speakers had to contend only with the words printed on paper for attracting and holding an audience’s attention. Today, public speakers must contend with laptops, netbooks, iPads, smartphones, billboards, television sets, and many other tools that can send a range of persuasive messages immediately to a target audience.

What Is Persuasion?

We made it to the part in the class that most students are excited about. The persuasive speech! There are similarities and important differences between the informative and persuasive speaking styles. This reading will highlight our purpose of persuasive speaking.

To begin though, we need to define persuasion. You are used to experiencing persuasion in many forms, and may have an easy time identifying examples of persuasion, but can you explain how persuasion works? Osborn and Osborn define  persuasion  this way: “the art of convincing others to give favorable attention to our point of view.” [1] There are two components that make this definition a useful one. First, it acknowledges the artfulness, or skill, required to persuade others. Persuasion does not normally just happen. Rather it is planned and executed in a thoughtful manner. Second, this definition delineates the end goal of persuasion—to convince others to think favorably of our point of view. Persuasion “encompasses a wide range of communication activities, including advertising, marketing, sales, political campaigns, and interpersonal relations.” [2]  Because of its widespread utility, persuasion is a pervasive part of our everyday lives.

Persuasive versus Informative Speaking

Informative (or informational) and persuasive speaking are related, but distinct, types of speeches. The difference between the two lies in the speaker’s end goal and what the speaker wants the audience to leave with.

Informative speeches are probably the most prevalent variety of speech. The goal is always to supply information and facts to the audience. This information can come in the form of statistics, facts, or other forms of evidence. Informational speeches do not tell people what to do with the information; their goal is for the audience to have and understand the information. Academic lectures are often informational speeches because the professor is attempting to present facts so the students can understand them.

Like informational speeches, persuasive speeches use information. However, persuasive speeches are designed for the audience to not only hear and understand the information but to use it to be convinced of a viewpoint. The end goal of a persuasive speech is not for the audience to have information, but rather for them to have a certain view or do something specific with the information provided. Persuasive speeches may use some of the same techniques as informational speeches but also will use persuasive strategies to convince and motivate the audience. A sales pitch is one example of a persuasive speech.

Goals of Persuasive Speaking

We typically use persuasive speaking to change or reinforce someone’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and/or behaviors.

Attitude: What do you like or dislike? Attitudes encompass our thoughts and emotions. For instance, if I think running is fun and I feel good when I do it, I am more likely to do it. Attitudes will uncover an individual’s general predisposition toward something as being good or bad, right or wrong, or negative or positive.

Beliefs: What convictions (or assumptions) do you hold? Beliefs are ideas we hold to be true. They may be positions that an individual holds as true or false without positive knowledge or proof. Beliefs can be spiritual, moral, political, or social, just to name a few. You may believe that lying is bad and therefore you refrain from it or feel bad when you do it. While beliefs may not be based on “proof,” they are typically deeply held and influence our attitudes and behaviors in powerful ways.

Value: What drives you? Values are an individual’s judgment of what is important in life. This may include the usefulness or with of something. You may value courage or respect or kindness. We can value a college education or technology or freedom. Values, as a general concept, are fairly ambiguous and tend to be very lofty ideas.

Behaviors: Behaviors, the ways in which someone acts, come in a wide range of forms. Speeches encouraging audiences to vote for a candidate, sign a petition opposing a tuition increase, or adopt a puppy are behavior-oriented persuasive speeches. 

Ultimately, our attitudes, beliefs, and values motivate us to engage in a range of behaviors. For example, if you value technology, you are more likely to seek out new technology or software on your own. On the contrary, if you do not value technology, you are less likely to seek out new technology or software unless someone, or some circumstance, requires you to.

Why Persuasion Matters

When you study and understand persuasion, you will be more successful at persuading others. Do you want to persuade your boss you deserve a raise? Do you want to convince your client to purchase a service? Do you want to change the social landscape of a community? If you want to be a persuasive public speaker, then you need to have a working understanding of how persuasion functions.

When people understand persuasion, they will be better consumers of information. We live in a society where numerous message sources are constantly fighting for our attention and many of those messages are purposeful false. Unfortunately, most people just let messages wash over them like a wave, making little effort to understand or analyze them. As a result, they are more likely to fall for half-truths, illogical arguments, and lies. When you start to understand persuasion, you will have the skill set to actually pick apart the messages being sent to you and see why some of them are good and others are simply not.

Psychology of Persuasion

Understanding how people are persuaded is very important to the discussion of public speaking. Thankfully, a number of researchers have created theories that help explain why people are persuaded. While there are numerous theories that help to explain persuasion, we are only going to examine three here: social judgment theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and the elaboration likelihood model.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance is an aversive motivational state that occurs when an individual entertains two or more contradictory attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors simultaneously. For example, maybe you know you should be working on your speech, but you really want to go to a movie with a friend. In this case, practicing your speech and going to the movie are two cognitions that are inconsistent with one another. These cognitions may cause anxiety or discomfort. The goal of persuasion is to induce enough dissonance in listeners that they will want to change their attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

Anxiety or discomfort caused by dissonance is typically resolved in one of three ways:

Change: The listener can change beliefs or behaviors to align with one another. The smoker may quit smoking or they may decide that smoking is not harmful and continue to smoke. Either way, they have relieves the anxiety of contradictory beliefs and behaviors.

Acquiring new information: If the listener acquires new information that confirms or contradicts a belief, the anxiety may be reduced. For instance, if the smoker reads a study that indicates that smoking is not harmful, they can continue to smoke and not feel disturbed by it.

Perception shift: Typically anxiety can be reduced by rationalizing our decisions. If the smoker decides that living in the moment and experiencing the pleasure of smoking is worth a potential far-off event, they may continue to smoke rationalizing that life is short and they should enjoy it.

When considering cognitive dissonance as a speaker, you must first create dissonance in your listeners. You want to make them uncomfortable with their beliefs or behaviors. Beware of making them too uncomfortable though. Listeners will tune you out if you make them too anxious. Once you have created dissonance, you can then offer new information to change perceptions and encourage behaviors changes in the direction you are seeking.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

When I was in graduate school, my computer got attacked with the Michelangelo virus. In short, when I turned on my computer on Michelangelo’s birthday, it wiped out everything on my computer. At least that’s what they told me at the computer repair store. I had spent a month of my life researching and writing my persuasion paper and it was gone in an instant. In a moment of what can best be described as a graduate school freak out, I went to the store to buy a new computer. I looked at the salesperson and said, “Quick, show me which computer to buy.” He pointed at one, I bought it, and went home and started writing.

Was I persuaded to buy a computer by the salesperson?  I bought one so clearly, I was persuaded, right?  Which persuasion technique did he use?  Could this even count as an act of persuasion? Sometimes, we just want to decide without putting too much thought into it. You could argue that I didn’t put any thought into it. I didn’t have time to research; I didn’t have the mental capacity to think about which computer was best for me. I trusted the decision to the person in the computer store–he was the one in the red shirt after all. He worked there so he must know about computers.

The next time I bought a computer, I wasn’t in such a stressful situation. I took my time and shopped around. I talked to multiple salespeople, and I read reviews.  I even made a spreadsheet of the features and the prices. I put a lot of thought into picking the right computer. Was I any more or less persuaded to buy? After all, in both cases, I bought a computer.

Petty and Cacioppo developed the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a way to explain how persuasion works in different scenarios–particularly, how sometimes we think a lot about our decisions and how sometimes we look for other ways to be persuaded. They said we go on different persuasion routes. When we are thinking (cognitive elaboration) about our decision, they would say, we are taking the central route. We take this thinking route when there is personal involvement and personal relevance.  When we are not thinking–because of the situation, our mood, our inability to understand, or the fact that it is not a big decision for us– they would say we are taking the peripheral route. The peripheral route can be thought of as deciding based on anything other than deep thought. In my case, my decision was made based on the authority of the person.

Which of the computers do you think I would likely suggest to a friend–the one bought fast because it was recommended or the one bought after much research? Which computer did I think was the best computer? If you guessed the one that I shopped around for, you would be right. That is the computer I would most likely believe was the best one and that is the one I would most likely recommend to a friend.  It makes sense. When we think about our decisions, persuasion is more long-lasting, we are more committed to the decision, and we are more likely to tell others.

What does any of this have to do with you writing a persuasion speech? Knowing that people are persuaded differently can help you design your persuasive arguments. Deciding whether you are going for thoughtful or peripheral persuasion is key.

I used to work for a non-profit and did a lot of fundraising speeches. If I wanted people to be persuaded to give money and have a long-term emotional and financial commitment to the organization, it made sense to persuade them via the central (thinking) route. That meant, I had to tell them what we did and give them facts and details about our organization. I had to build trust and I had to help them believe in the cause.

By contrast, my son was in marching band so there was always a fundraiser where we sold overpriced candy to our friends to support his upcoming trip. The persuasion I used was usually some version of, “My son is selling candy bars for his upcoming band trip, would you help support him.” There was not a lot of thinking when people were buying these candy bars. They were buying because they liked my son, they knew me, or because I bought cookies from their daughter for her fundraiser. This was peripheral persuasion one candy bar at a time.

Elaboration Likelihood Model–What’s the Big Idea?

• If you want your persuasion to be long-lasting, persuade them via the central route. Offer facts, data, and solid information
• If you want a quick persuasion where they don’t put much thought into it or if your audience is not very knowledgeable, tired, or unmotivated, persuade them by the peripheral route.

Social Judgment Theory

I have a colleague that travels around the country speaking on college campuses and at farmer’s markets telling people why they should not eat meat. He finds the eating of meat completely unethical.

I’ve noticed that when it comes to meat-eating, people have strong opinions on either side.  Think about it, would you eat a horse? dog? goat? rabbit? Some of you have grown up eating meat all your lives and consider it a tasty and healthy way to eat. For others of you, the very thought of eating any animal product seems cruel. Most reading this will fall somewhere in between. Look at the chart below and decide, which of the category best describes you.

As you looked at the list there were some categories you found acceptable, and some you did not. In all honesty, most of you did not think that I was going to suggest eating dogs and horses. When you saw that on the list, most of you didn’t think of those as tasty options. Social Judgement Theory proposed by Sherif, Sherif, and Nebergall suggests that on any topic from diet to abortion and gun control to movie choices, we have an idea of what we like and are willing to accept and what is out of the question. The researchers studied human judgment to understand when persuasive messages are likely to succeed, and it comes down to how we fit into the ranges and how closely that message is to what we already believe. Each of us has a favorite position on any given topic, they call that the anchor position. As you looked on the chart and picked the category that best describes you, you found your anchor position. On the list, you likely found several categories that you would be willing to accept and maybe several categories you reject entirely.

Let’s go back to a colleague of mine, remember, the one who speaks on campuses about veganism. When he looks at this chart, the only position he is willing to accept is to eat no animal products at all.  The researchers would say that he is ego-involved because he has a large group of ideas he rejects. How hard would it be to get him to try eating a dog? a goat? an egg? As you can imagine, if I suggest that he tries eating goat, he will think that position is too extreme and that as individuals we are far apart in what we believe. On the other hand, I might be able to nudge him up the continuum a little. Maybe, I could convince him to try honey. After all, no bees were harmed from making honey and it does not contain any meat. People with extreme views can be moved, but only in small increments. If I want the persuasion to work, I might be able to persuade him to try honey.

Now, think of a friend you might know who hunts, and fishes, and eats deer, rabbit, and squirrel. This friend of yours likes trying different types of jerky-like elk and moose. How hard would it be to convince him to try eating a dog? How about a goat? Since your friend has a large range of ideas he already accepts, adding one more animal to the list of things he eats might not be that hard. He would be much more likely to try a dog than would my vegan friend. It doesn’t matter how good we are at persuading as much as how close that persuasion is to what they already believe.

In any audience, you will have people all up and down the spectrum of beliefs. It is your responsibility to try to find out as much as you can about your audience before your speech, so you will know generally where they are. You will have more luck persuading people if you try to move them a little as opposed to move them a lot.  Every semester, a vegan group comes to the University of Arkansas campus and passes out flyers promoting a vegan lifestyle. I’ve noticed their messages have slowly changed from meat is murder and you should never eat meat because production is hard on the environment to a more palatable message to try eliminating meat one day a week.  Maybe these vegans learned about Social Judgement Theory or maybe they learned by trial and error that moving someone from one extreme to the next is an unlikely feat.

Alexander Edwards Coppock did his dissertation looking at small changes in political opinions, he found the following:

• When confronted with persuasive messages, individuals update their views in the direction of information. This means, if you give them good information, they are likely to be persuaded by it.
• People change their minds about political issues in small increments. Like mentioned before, they are more likely to move in small increments.
• Persuasion in the direction of information occurs regardless of background characteristics, initial beliefs, or ideological position. Translation, good information can be very persuasive regardless of what they believed before.
• These changes in political attitudes, in most cases, lasted at least 10 days. In other words, good facts help people to change their attitudes and that information can stick.

In summary, if you provide people information and attempt to persuade them in small increments regardless of their prior beliefs, they can change their political attitude and that change will stick.

Social Judgement Theory–What’s the Big Idea?

• People have preexisting beliefs on topics. Some people have many variations they are willing to accept, and other people are very set in their ways and will only tolerate a narrow set of beliefs.
• It is nearly impossible to get people to move from one extreme to the next. It is better to get them to move their position a little.
• If you try to move people with narrow views, they will likely reject your ideas and think you are too extreme.
• People who have a wide variance of beliefs are more open-minded to change as long as you don’t try to move them too far from their anchor position.

Michael Austin Believes We Should Encourage Open Discussion

Small acts of persuasion matter, because there is much less distance between people’s beliefs than we often suppose. We easily confuse the distance between people’s political positions with the intensity of their convictions about them. It is entirely possible for people to become sharply divided, even hostile, over relatively minor disagreements. Americans have fought epic political battles over things like baking wedding cakes and kneeling during the national anthem. And we once fought a shooting war over a whiskey tax of ten cents per gallon. The ferocity of these battles has nothing to do with the actual distance between different positions, which, when compared to the entire range of opinions possible in the world, is almost negligible.

None of this means that we can persuade our opponents easily. Persuading people to change their minds is excruciatingly difficult. It doesn’t always work, and it rarely works the way we think it will. But it does work, and the fact that it works makes it possible for us to have a democracy. ―  Michael Austin,  We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America’s Civic 

Is it personal?

The first reason people are motivated to take the central route or use high elaboration when listening to a persuasive message involves personal relevance and involvement. Personal relevance refers to whether the audience member feels that he or she is actually directly affected by the speech topic. For example, if someone is listening to a speech on why cigarette smoking is harmful, and that listener has never smoked cigarettes, he or she may think the speech topic simply isn’t relevant. Obviously, as a speaker, you should always think about how your topic is relevant to your listeners and make sure to drive this home throughout your speech. Personal involvement, on the other hand, asks whether the individual is actively engaged with the issue at hand: sends letters of support, gives speeches on the topic, has a bumper sticker, and so forth. If an audience member is an advocate who is constantly denouncing tobacco companies for the harm they do to society, then he or she would be highly involved (i.e., would engage in high elaboration) in a speech that attempts to persuade listeners that smoking is harmful.

Am I accountable?

The second condition under which people are likely to process information using the central route is when they feel that they will be held accountable for the information after the fact. With accountability, there is the perception that someone, or a group of people, will be watching to see if the receiver remembers the information later on. Think about what you do as a student when an instructor says “This will be on the test.” You immediately begin to centrally process the message.

Personal Responsibility

When people feel that they are going to be held responsible, without a clear external accounting, for the evaluation of a message or the outcome of a message, they are more likely to critically think through the message using the central route. For example, maybe you’re asked to evaluate fellow students in your public speaking class. Research has shown that if only one or two students are asked to evaluate any one speaker at a time, the quality of the evaluations for that speaker will be better than if everyone in the class is asked to evaluate every speaker. When people feel that their evaluation is important, they take more responsibility and therefore are more critical of the message delivered.

Incongruent Information

Some people are motivated to centrally process information when it does not adhere to their own ideas. Maybe you’re a highly progressive liberal, and one of your peers delivers a speech on the importance of the Tea Party movement in American politics. The information presented during the speech will most likely be in direct contrast to your personal ideology, which causes incongruence because the Tea Party ideology is opposed to a progressive liberal ideology. As such, you are more likely to pay attention to the speech, specifically looking for flaws in the speaker’s argument.

While there are many theories of persuasion that can shed light on why people are persuaded, these two give us a solid foundation to understand what we are up against as speakers. We must understand where our audience is, where we want them to be, and what will motivate them to get there.

Key Takeaways

• Persuasion is the use of verbal and nonverbal messages to get a person to behave in a manner or embrace a point of view related to values, attitudes, and beliefs that he or she would not have done otherwise. Studying persuasion is important today because it helps us become more persuasive individuals, become more observant of others’ persuasive attempts, and have a more complete understanding of the world around us.
• The Elaboration Likelihood Model assumes that people are persuaded via a thinking (central) or nonthinking (peripheral) route.
• Social judgment theory says that persuaders need to be aware of an audience’s latitudes of acceptance, noncommitment, and rejection in order to effectively persuade an audience. Second, cognitive dissonance theory reasons that people do not like holding to ideas in their heads that are contrary and will do what is necessary to get rid of the dissonance caused by the two contrary ideas. Lastly, the elaboration likelihood model posits that persuaders should attempt to get receivers to think about the arguments being made (going through the central route) rather than having receivers pay attention to nonargument related aspects of the speech.

Coppock, A. E. (2016). Positive, small, homogeneous, and durable: Political persuasion in response to information. [Doctoral Dissertation,  Columbian University]. Proquest  https://doi.org/10.7916/D8J966CS  Available https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8J966CS

Festinger, L. (1957).  A theory of cognitive dissonance . Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, & Company.

Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.  Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58 , 203–210.

Frankish, K. (1998). Virtual belief. In P. Carruthers & J. Boucher (Eds.),  Language and thought  (pp. 249–269). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Frymier, A. B., & Nadler, M. K. (2007).  Persuasion: Integrating theory, research, and practice . Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Perloff, R. M. (2003).  The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st Century  (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 5–6.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion.  Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19 , 123–205.

Sherif, M., & Hovland, C. I. (1961).  Social judgment: Assimilation and contrast effects in communication and attitude change . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Sherif, C. W. &  Sherif, M. (1976).  Attitude as the individuals’ own categories: The social judgment-involvement approach to attitude and attitude change. Attitude, ego-involvement, and change.   Greenwood Press.

Public Speaking Copyright © by Dr. Layne Goodman; Amber Green, M.A.; and Various is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Unit 33: Informative and Persuasive Presentations

Learning objectives.

• describe the functions of the speech to inform
• provide examples of four main types of speeches to inform
• understand how to structure and develop a speech to inform
• identify and demonstrate how to use six principles of persuasion
• describe similarities and differences between persuasion and motivation
• identify and demonstrate the effective use of five functions of speaking to persuade

Introduction

Regardless of the type of presentation, you must prepare carefully.  Are you trying to sell life insurance to group of new client, or presenting a proposal to secure financing to expand your business operation?  Are you presenting the monthly update on the different sales division in your company, or providing customers with information on how to upgrade their latest computer purchase.  Your future career will require you to present both to inform or to persuade.  Knowing the different between these two types of presentations and knowing how to construct each type of presentation will be beneficial to your future careers.

Presenting to Inform

At some point in your business career you will be called upon to teach someone something. It may be a customer, coworker, or supervisor, and in each case you are performing an informative speech. It is distinct from a sales speech, or persuasive speech, in that your goal is to communicate the information so that your listener understands. The informative speech is one performance you’ll give many times across your career, whether your audience is one person, a small group, or a large auditorium full of listeners. Once you master the art of the informative speech, you may mix and match it with other styles and techniques.

Informative presentations focus on helping the audience to understand a topic, issue, or technique more clearly. There are distinct functions inherent in a speech to inform, and you may choose to use one or more of these functions in your speech. Let’s take a look at the functions and see how they relate to the central objective of facilitating audience understanding.

Share: The basic definition of communication highlights the process of understanding and sharing meaning. An informative speech follows this definition when a speaker shares content and information with an audience. As part of a speech, you wouldn’t typically be asking the audience to respond or solve a problem. Instead you’d be offering to share with the audience some of the information you have gathered related to a topic.

Increasing Understanding: How well does your audience grasp the information? This should be a guiding question to you on two levels. The first involves what they already know—or don’t know—about your topic, and what key terms or ideas might be necessary for someone completely unfamiliar with your topic to grasp the ideas you are presenting. The second involves your presentation and the illustration of ideas. The audience will respond to your attention statement and hopefully maintain interest, but how will you take your speech beyond superficial coverage of content and effectively communicate key relationships that increase understanding? These questions should serve as a challenge for your informative speech, and by looking at your speech from an audience-oriented perspective, you will increase your ability to increase the audience’s understanding.

Change Perceptions:  How you perceive something has everything to do with a range of factors that are unique to you. We all want to make sense of our world, share our experiences, and learn that many people face the same challenges we do. For instance, many people perceive the process of speaking in public as a significant challenge, and in this text, we have broken down the process into several manageable steps. In so doing, we have to some degree changed your perception of public speaking.

When you present your speech to inform, you may want to change the audience member’s perceptions of your topic. You may present an informative speech on air pollution and want to change common perceptions such as the idea that most of North America’s air pollution comes from private cars. You won’t be asking people to go out and vote, or change their choice of automobiles, but you will help your audience change their perceptions of your topic.

Gain Skills:   Just as you want to increase the audience’s understanding, you may want to help the audience members gain skills. If you are presenting a speech on how to make a meal from fresh ingredients, your audience may thank you for not only the knowledge of the key ingredients and their preparation but also the product available at the conclusion. If your audience members have never made their own meal, they may gain a new skill from your speech.

Exposition versus Interpretation:  When you share information informally, you often provide your own perspective and attitude for your own reasons. The speech to inform the audience on a topic, idea, or area of content is not intended to be a display of attitude and opinion.

The speech to inform is like the classroom setting in that the goal is to inform, not to persuade, entertain, display attitude, or create comedy. If you have analyzed your audience, you’ll be better prepared to develop appropriate ways to gain their attention and inform them on your topic. You want to communicate thoughts, ideas, and relationships and allow each listener specifically, and the audience generally, to draw their own conclusions. The speech to inform is all about sharing information to meet the audience’s needs, not your own.

Exposition:  Exposition means a public exhibition or display, often expressing a complex topic in a way that makes the relationships and content clear. The goal is to communicate the topic and content to your audience in ways that illustrate, explain, and reinforce the overall content to make your topic more accessible to the audience. The audience wants to learn about your topic and may have some knowledge on it as you do. It is your responsibility to consider ways to display the information effectively.

Interpretation and Bias:  Interpretation involves adapting the information to communicate a message, perspective, or agenda. Your insights and attitudes will guide your selection of material, what you focus on, and what you delete (choosing what not to present to the audience). Your interpretation will involve personal bias.

Bias is an unreasoned or not-well-thought-out judgment. Bias involves beliefs or ideas held on the basis of conviction rather than current evidence. Beliefs are often called “habits of the mind” because we come to rely on them to make decisions. Which is the better, cheapest, most expensive, or the middle-priced product? People often choose the middle-priced product and use the belief “if it costs more it must be better” (and the opposite: “if it is cheap it must not be very good”). The middle-priced item, regardless of actual price, is often perceived as “good enough.” All these perceptions are based on beliefs, and they may not apply to the given decision or even be based on any evidence or rational thinking.

We take mental shortcuts all day long, but in our speech to inform, we have to be careful not to reinforce bias.

Point of View:  Clearly no one can be completely objective and remove themselves from their own perceptual process. People express themselves and naturally relate what is happening now to what has happened to them in the past. You are your own artist, but you also control your creations.

Objectivity involves expressions and perceptions of facts that are free from distortion by your prejudices, bias, feelings or interpretations. For example, is the post office box blue? An objective response would be yes or no, but a subjective response might sound like “Well, it’s not really blue as much as it is navy, even a bit of purple.” Subjectivity involves expressions or perceptions that are modified, altered, or impacted by your personal bias, experiences, and background. In an informative speech, your audience will expect you to present the information in a relatively objective form. The speech should meet the audience’s need as they learn about the content, not your feelings, attitudes, or commentary on the content.

Types of Informative Presentations

Speaking to inform may fall into one of several categories. The presentation to inform may be: an explanation, a report, a description, or a demonstration .  E ach type of informative speech is described below.

Explanation:  Have you ever listened to a lecture or speech where you just didn’t get it? It wasn’t that you weren’t interested, at least not at first. Perhaps the presenter used language you didn’t understand or gave a confusing example. Soon you probably lost interest and sat there, attending the speech in body but certainly not in mind. An effective speech to inform will take a complex topic or issue and explain it to the audience in ways that increase audience understanding.

No one likes to feel left out. As the speaker, it’s your responsibility to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Also know that to teach someone something new—perhaps a skill that they did not posses or a perspective that allows them to see new connections—is a real gift, both to you and the audience members. You will feel rewarded because you made a difference and they will perceive the gain in their own understanding.

Report:  As a business communicator, you may be called upon to give an informative report where you communicate status, trends, or relationships that pertain to a specific topic. The informative report is a speech where you organize your information around key events, discoveries, or technical data and provide context and illustration for your audience. They may naturally wonder, “Why are sales up (or down)?” or “What is the product leader in your lineup?” and you need to anticipate their perspective and present the key information that relates to your topic.

Description:  Have you ever listened to a friend tell you about their recent trip somewhere and found the details fascinating, making you want to travel there or visit a similar place? Describing information requires emphasis on language that is vivid, captures attention, and excites the imagination. Your audience will be drawn to your effective use of color, descriptive language, and visual aids. An informative speech that focuses description will be visual in many ways. Use your imagination to place yourself in their perspective: how would you like to have someone describe the topic to you?

Demonstration:  You want to teach the audience how to program the applications on a new smartphone. A demonstrative speech focuses on clearly showing a process and telling the audience important details about each step so that they can imitate, repeat, or do the action themselves. Consider the visual aids or supplies you will need.

By considering each step and focusing on how to simplify it, you can understand how the audience might grasp the new information and how you can best help them. Also, consider the desired outcome; for example, will your listeners be able to actually do the task themselves? Regardless of the sequence or pattern you will illustrate or demonstrate, consider how people from your anticipated audience will respond, and budget additional time for repetition and clarification.

Creating an Informative Presentation

An informational presentation is a common request in business and industry. It’s the verbal and visual equivalent of a written report. Informative presentations serve to present specific information for specific audiences for specific goals or functions. Table 33.1 below describes five main parts of a presentation to inform.

Table 33.1. Presentation Components and Their Functions. Lists the five main parts or components of any presentation (McLean, S., 2003).

Sample Speech Guidelines:  Imagine that you have been assigned to give an informative presentation lasting five to seven minutes. Follow the guidelines in Table 33.2 below and apply them to your presentation.

Table 33.2 Sample speech guidelines. Seven key items.

Informative presentations illustrate, explain, describe, and instruct the audience on topics and processes.  Now let’s watch an example of an informative speech.

The Persuasive Presentation

No doubt there has been a time when you wanted to achieve a goal or convince someone about a need and you thought about how you were going to present your request. Consider how often people want something from you? When you watch television, advertisements reach out for your attention, whether you watch them or not. When you use the internet, pop-up advertisements often appear. Most people are surrounded, even inundated by persuasive messages. Mass and social media in the 21st century have had a significant effect on persuasive communication that you will certainly recognize.

Persuasion is an act or process of presenting arguments to move, motivate, or change the mind of your audience. Persuasion can be implicit or explicit and can have both positive and negative effects.  Motivation is different from persuasion in that it involves the force, stimulus, or influence to bring about change. Persuasion is the process, and motivation is the compelling stimulus that encourages your audience to change their beliefs or behaviour, to adopt your position, or to consider your arguments.  Let’s view the video below for an overview of the principles of a persuasive presentation.

Principles of Persuasion

What is the best way to succeed in persuading your listeners? There is no one “correct” answer, but many experts have studied persuasion and observed what works and what doesn’t. Social psychologist Robert Cialdini (2006) offers us six principles of persuasion that are powerful and effective:   Reciprocity , Scarcity , Authority , Commitment and consistency , Consensus , and Liking .  These six principles are covered in more detail in Unit 27 .

Developing a Persuasive Presentation

Persuasive presentations have the following features, they:

When you focus on stimulation as the goal of your speech, you want to reinforce existing beliefs, intensify them, and bring them to the forefront. By presenting facts, you will reinforce existing beliefs, intensify them, and bring the issue to the surface. You might consider the foundation of common ground and commonly held beliefs, and then introduce information that a mainstream audience may not be aware of that supports that common ground as a strategy to stimulate.

In a persuasive speech, the goal is to change the attitudes, beliefs, values, or judgments of your audience.  Audience members are likely to hold their own beliefs and are likely to have their own personal bias. Your goal is to get them to agree with your position, so you will need to plan a range of points and examples to get audience members to consider your topic. H ere is a five-step checklist to motivate your audience into some form of action:

1. Get their attention 2. Identify the need 3. Satisfy the need 4. Present a vision or solution 5. Take action

This simple organizational pattern can help you focus on the basic elements of a persuasive message that will motivate your audience to take action. .

Include a Call to Action

When you call an audience to action with a speech, you are indicating that your purpose is not to stimulate interest, reinforce and accentuate beliefs, or convince them of a viewpoint. Instead, you want your listeners to do something, to change their behaviour in some way.  The persuasive speech that focuses on action often generates curiosity, clarifies a problem, and as we have seen, proposes a range of solutions. They key difference here is there is a clear link to action associated with the solutions.

Solutions  lead us to considering the goals of action. These goals address the question, “What do I want the audience to do as a result of being engaged by my speech?” The goals of action include adoption, discontinuance, deterrence, and continuance.

Adoption  means the speaker wants to persuade the audience to take on a new way of thinking, or adopt a new idea. Examples could include buying a new product, or deciding to donate blood. The key is that the audience member adopts, or takes on, a new view, action, or habit.

Discontinuance  involves the speaker persuading the audience to stop doing something what they have been doing. Rather than take on a new habit or action, the speaker is asking the audience member to stop an existing behaviour or idea.

Deterrence  is a call to action that focuses on persuading the audience not to start something if they haven’t already started. The goal of action would be to deter, or encourage the audience members to refrain from starting or initiating the behavior.

Finally, with C ontinuance , the speaker aims to persuade the audience to continue doing what they have been doing, such as keep buying a product, or staying in school to get an education.

A speaker may choose to address more than one of these goals of action, depending on the audience analysis. If the audience is largely agreeable and supportive, you may find continuance to be one goal, while adoption is secondary.

Goals in call to action speeches serve to guide you in the development of solution steps. Solution steps involve suggestions or ways the audience can take action after your speech. Audience members appreciate a clear discussion of the problem in a persuasive speech, but they also appreciate solutions.

Increase Consideration

In a speech designed to increase consideration, you want to entice your audience to consider alternate viewpoints on the topic you have chosen. Audience members may hold views that are hostile in relation to yours, or perhaps they are neutral and simply curious about your topic.  You won’t be asking for action in this presentation, simply to consider an alternative perspective.

Develop Tolerance of Alternate Perspectives

Finally, you may want to help your audience develop tolerance of alternate perspectives and viewpoints.  Your goal is to help your audience develop tolerance, but not necessarily acceptance, of alternate perspectives. By starting from common ground, and introducing a related idea, you are persuading your audience to consider an alternate perspective.

A persuasive speech may stimulate thought, convince, call to action, increase consideration, or develop tolerance of alternate perspectives.  Watch the following video of a persuasive speech with annotation to see the concepts above in action.

Persuasive Strategies

When you make an argument in a persuasive speech, you will want to present your position logically by supporting each point with appropriate sources. You will want to give your audience every reason to perceive you as an ethical and trustworthy speaker. Your audience will expect you to treat them with respect, and to present your argument in way that does not make them defensive. Contribute to your credibility by building sound arguments and using strategic arguments with skill and planning.

Stephen Toulmin’s (1958) rhetorical strategy focuses on three main elements, shown in Table 33.3 as claim, data, and warrant.

Table 33.3 Rhetorical strategy.

This three-part rhetorical strategy is useful in that it makes the claim explicit, clearly illustrating the relationship between the claim and the data, and allows the listener to follow the speaker’s reasoning. You may have a good idea or point, but your audience will be curious and want to know how you arrived at that claim or viewpoint. The warrant often addresses the inherent and often unspoken question, “Why is this data so important to your topic?” and helps you illustrate relationships between information for your audience. This model can help you clearly articulate it for your audience.

Appealing to Emotions

Emotions are a psychological and physical reaction, such as fear or anger, to stimuli that we experience as a feeling. Our feelings or emotions directly impact our own point of view and readiness to communicate, but also influence how, why, and when we say things. Emotions influence not only how you say what you say, but also how you hear and what you hear. At times, emotions can be challenging to control. Emotions will move your audience, and possibly even move you, to change or act in certain ways.

Be wary of overusing emotional appeals, or misusing emotional manipulation in presentations and communication. You may encounter emotional resistance from your audience.  Emotional resistance involves getting tired, often to the point of rejection, of hearing messages  that attempt to elicit an emotional response. Emotional appeals can wear out the audience’s capacity to receive the message.

The use of an emotional appeal may also impair your ability to write persuasively or effectively. Never use a personal story, or even a story of someone you do not know, if the inclusion of that story causes you to lose control. While it’s important to discuss relevant and sometimes emotionally difficult topics, you need to assess your own relationship to the message. Your documents should not be an exercise in therapy and you will sacrifice ethos and credibility, even your effectiveness, if you become angry or distraught because you are really not ready to discuss an issue you’ve selected.

Now that you’ve considered emotions and their role in a speech in general and a speech to persuade specifically, it’s important to recognize the principles about emotions in communication that serve you well when speaking in public.   The video below reviews how to effectively integrate emotion, logic and credibility into your presentation.

DeVito (2003) offers five key principles to acknowledge the role emotions play in communication and offer guidelines for there expression.

Emotions Are Universal:  Emotions are a part of every conversation or interaction that you have. Whether or not you consciously experience them while communicating with yourself or others, they influence how you communicate. By recognizing that emotions are a component in all communication interactions, you can place emphasis on understanding both the content of the message and the emotions that influence how, why, and when the content is communicated.

Expression of emotions is important, but requires the three Ts:  tact, timing, and trust . If you find you are upset and at risk of being less than diplomatic, or the timing is not right, or you are unsure about the level of trust, then consider whether you can effectively communicate your emotions. By considering these three Ts, you can help yourself express your emotions more effectively.

Emotions Are Communicated Verbally and Nonverbally:  You communicate emotions not only through your choice of words but also through the manner in which you say those words. The words themselves communicate part of your message, but the nonverbal cues, including inflection, timing, space, and paralanguage can modify or contradict your spoken message. Be aware that emotions are expressed in both ways and pay attention to how verbal and nonverbal messages reinforce and complement each other.

Emotional Expression Can Be Good and Bad:  Expressing emotions can be a healthy activity for a relationship and build trust. It can also break down trust if expression is not combined with judgment. We’re all different, and we all experience emotions, but how we express our emotions to ourselves and others can have a significant impact on our relationships. Expressing frustrations may help the audience realize your point of view and see things as they have never seen them before. However, expressing frustrations combined with blaming can generate defensiveness and decrease effective listening. When you’re expressing yourself, consider the audience’s point of view, be specific about your concerns, and emphasize that your relationship with your listeners is important to you.

Emotions Are Often Contagious:  It is important to recognize that we influence each other with our emotions, positively and negatively. Your emotions as the speaker can be contagious, so use your enthusiasm to raise the level of interest in your topic. Conversely, you may be subject to “catching” emotions from your audience.

In summary, everyone experiences emotions, and as a persuasive speaker, you can choose how to express emotion and appeal to the audience’s emotions.

Presenting Ethically

What comes to mind when you think of speaking to persuade? Perhaps the idea of persuasion  may bring to mind propaganda and issues of manipulation , deception , intentional bias , bribery , and even coercion . Each element relates to persuasion, but in distinct ways. We can recognize that each of these elements in some ways has a negative connotation associated with it. Why do you think that deceiving your audience, bribing a judge, or coercing people to do something against their wishes is wrong? These tactics violate our sense of fairness, freedom, and ethics.

Figure 33.4 offers eleven points from the book Ethics in Human Communication (Johannesen, 1996).   These points should be kept in mind as you prepare and present your persuasive message.

In your speech to persuade, consider honesty and integrity as you assemble your arguments. Your audience will appreciate your thoughtful consideration of more than one view, your understanding of the complexity, and you will build your ethos, or credibility, as you present your document. Be careful not to stretch the facts, or assemble them only to prove yourself, and instead prove the argument on its own merits. Deception, coercion, intentional bias, manipulation and bribery should have no place in your speech to persuade.

Key Takeaway

• Understand the function of your informative presentation in order to communicate the right message to the right audience.
• Organize your information presentation using the five main parts of an informative presentation
• Use the six principles of persuasion to develop your persuasive presentation
• Use the Rhetorical Strategy to construct will developed arguments
• Integrate emotional appeal to effectively engage your audience

• An elevator speech is to oral communication what a Twitter message (limited to 140 characters) is to written communication. An elevator speech is a presentation that persuades the listener in less than thirty seconds, or around a hundred words.

Creating an Elevator Speech

An elevator speech does not have to be a formal event, though it can be. An elevator speech is not a full sales pitch and should not get bloated with too much information. The idea is not to rattle off as much information as possible in a short time, nor to present a memorized thirty-second advertising message, but rather to give a relaxed and genuine “nutshell” summary of one main idea. The emphasis is on brevity, but a good elevator speech will address several key questions:

What is the topic, product or service? 2. Who are you? 3. Who is the target market? (if applicable) 4. What is the revenue model? (if applicable) 5. What or who is the competition and what are your advantages?

The following are the five key parts of your message:

• Attention Statement – Hook + information about you
• Introduction – What you offer
• Body – Benefits; what’s in it for the listener
• Conclusion – Example that sums it up
• Residual Message – Call for action

Task:  Write an elevator speech for your next networking event to introduce yourself to prospective employers.

Comm Studies. (2019). Informative speech example [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StPSgqwCnVk&t=60s

eCampusOntario. (2020). Chapter 7: Presentation to inform . Communication for business professionals. Retrieved from https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/commbusprofcdn/chapter/introduction-5/

eCampusOntario. (2020). Chapter 8: Presentation to persuade . Communication for business professionals. Retrieved from https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/commbusprofcdn/chapter/introduction-6/

Guffey, M., Loewry, D., & Griffin, E. (2019). Business communication: Process and product (6th ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education. Retrieved from http://www.cengage.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780176531393&template=NELSON

Littleleague.org. (2020). “Calm” emotions & “positive” feelings: Two keys to stay healthy during self-Isolation. Resources for parents . Retrieved from https://www.littleleague.org/news/calm-emotions-positive-feelings-two-keys-to-stay-healthy-during-self-isolation/

Lyon, A. (2017). Ethos Pathos Logos [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ey232I5nUk

Lyon, A. (2017).  How to Organize a Persuasive Speech or Presentation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnfoFN7TBhw

Lyon, A. (2019). Informative vs persuasive [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=85gg_pgij4I

Reciprocity is the mutual expectation for exchange of value or service.

You want what you can’t have, and it’s universal. People are often attracted to the exclusive, the rare, the unusual, and the unique

Trust is central to the purchase decision

People like to have consistency in what is said to them or in writing. Therefore, it is important that all commitments made are honored at all times.

People often look to each other when making a purchase decision, and the herd mentality is a powerful force across humanity

We tend to be attracted to people who communicate to us that they like us, and who make us feel good about ourselves. This principle involves the perception of safety and belonging in communication.

management of facts, ideas or points of view to play upon inherent insecurities or emotional appeals to one’s own advantage

use of lies, partial truths, or the omission of relevant information to deceive your audience

the selection of information to support your position while framing negatively any information that might challenge your belief

giving of something in return for an expected favour, consideration, or privilege

use of power to compel action

Communication at Work Copyright © 2019 by Jordan Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Public Speaking - COM 231: Informative and Persuasive Speeches

• Informative and Persuasive Speeches
• Find Articles and Videos
• Evaluating Information
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• MLA Citation
• In-Class Activity

Informative Speaking

Informative speaking generally centers on talking about people, events, processes, places, or things. Informing an audience about one of these subjects without being persuasive is often a difficult task to complete. For example, a speech informing an audience about growing peace lilies as houseplants might ultimately persuade the audience to buy and grow peace lilies. All speech has an effect that might enable individuals to self-persuade themselves. The line walked during an informative speech, as opposed to a persuasive speech, is to not make persuasion an explicit and obvious goal. An informative speech on peace lilies might cover both the advantages and disadvantages of these houseplants; a persuasive speech would take a firm position on the virtues of peace lilies.

Tips for Informative Speaking

Analyze the audience. What can the audience be reasonably expected to know? If talking to a field of medical professional about cloning, they likely know the basics of DNA. An audience of lay people might not be so fluent in the language of biomedical engineering, and so basic concepts like this will have to be explained. Never presume that an audience has a thorough background in the subject.

Use appropriate language. What are the norms for speaking style for the audience? If they expect lots of jargon and specialized language, the speech should be peppered with such language or else the audience will feel like they are being talked down to. If the audience is unfamiliar with these technical terms, avoid using them or introduce them with an explanation of what they mean.

Explain the importance of the topic. Why should the audience listen? Will this information improve their lives in some meaningful way? Especially with a captive--involuntary--audience, a speaker must establish a connection between their topic and the interests of the audience.

Express interest in the subject material. Why should an audience listen if the speaker seems just as bored as they do? A speaker who confesses their own interest in the topic might activate the audience to share a similar interest.

Show, don't tell. Don't most people learn through doing or seeing? Being told about a process, like cloning, could be informative, but probably not have as great an impact as being shown the process with pictures or perhaps even lab equipment. Informative speeches often benefit from a demonstration or visual aid. Technology can assist "showing" when the subject is not easily brought physically into the room (imagine the troubles of an informative speech on the sun if a prop was required!)

Be specific. Informative speeches thrive on detail, and dive on generalities. If speaking about basket weaving, carefully note what types of weaving materials work and do not work for basket making. Audiences are often impressed by detail, but be careful not to become so detail-oriented that the big picture of the speech is lost (missing the forest for the trees).

From the University of Pittsburgh

Persuasive Speaking

Persuasive speaking is the type of speaking that most people engage in the most. This type of speech can involve everything from arguing about politics to talking about what to eat for dinner. Persuasive speaking is very connected to the audience, as the speaker must, in a sense, meet the audience halfway. Persuasion, obviously, is not entirely controlled by the speaker--persuasion occurs when an audience assents to what a speaker says. Consequently, persuasive speaking requires extra attention to audience analysis.

Traditionally, persuasion involves ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion). By performing these three elements competently, a speaker can enhance their persuasive power.

Tips for Persuasive Speaking

Recognize that the audience is constantly processing what the speaker is saying. Nonverbal reactions are common for an audience listening to a persuasive speech--a furrowed brow, nodding head, or rolling eyes can be signals from audience members that they either like or dislike what the speaker is saying. Acknowledging these nonverbal reactions can help a speaker explain more in detail certain points.

Identify the target audience. In almost any persuasive speaking situation, there will be a subset of the audience that agrees, that disagrees, and that are undecided about the topic. Preaching to the choir--speaking to persuade those that already believe the speaker--might consolidate the audiences' beliefs but has little benefit beyond that. Trying to persuade the segment of the audience that adamantly disagrees with the perspective voiced is generally unlikely (though not unheard of). Therefore, a speaker ought to focus on the part of the audience that is undecided on the issue. Speaking more directly to this group of undecideds allows a speaker to tailor their speech more towards their concerns.

Pre-empt common objections. Many audience members might be skeptical of the viewpoint advanced by a presenter. Consequently, an orator ought to acknowledge and respond to these objections within the speech. This approach might answer some of the questions that audience members might be asking of themselves.

Most persuasive speeches concern questions of fact, value, or policy. Issues of fact are similar to informative speeches in that they review findings. The difference is that persuasive speeches make judgments about which findings are accurate. Issues of value tackle the time-honored questions of what is good, right, or beautiful. Values can be either individually, communally, or nationally held, and are thus contentious and often clashing. Issues of policy concern what actions should be taken to resolve a particular problem. Policy questions posit a problem and a solution.

Articulate the goals of the speech. Does the speaker want the audience to sign a petition, write their legislator, boycott a product, talk to their friends, buy a certain product, or take some other tangible action? Oftentimes, the conclusion enables a speaker to make a call to action that is the culmination of a persuasive speech.

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11: Informative and Persuasive Speaking

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• 11.1: Informative Speeches
• 11.2: Persuasive Speaking We produce and receive persuasive messages daily, but we don’t often stop to think about how we make the arguments we do or the quality of the arguments that we receive. In this section, we’ll learn the components of an argument, how to choose a good persuasive speech topic, and how to adapt and organize a persuasive message.
• 11.3: Persuasive Reasoning and Fallacies
• 11.4: Persuasive Strategies

Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/man-bes.ground-716276/

8 Informative Speaking

Vincent (Tzu-Wen) Cheng, Ph.D.

Learning Objectives

• Define and identify informative speeches.
• Explain and analyze the general criteria for a good informative speech.
• Describe and list the major categories of informative speeches.
• Describe and explain the special considerations to be given in the informative speech-making process.
• Apply informative speech-related knowledge and skills into the development, presentation, and assessment of informative speeches.

“I cannot tell the truth about anything unless I confess being a student, growing and learning something new every day. The more I learn, the clearer my view of the world becomes.” 

–Sonia Sanchez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sanchez

The inspiring quote above from Sonia Sanchez, a US-American poet, playwright, professor, and activist who emerged out of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960’s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arts_Movement ), beautifully captures how we as a species and individuals may strive to develop and build knowledge/skills throughout our lifetime for a better self and a better world—by recognizing our own limitations as human beings and by learning something new every single day.

Do you know the main source and driving force of this daily process of renewing ourselves? It is the information that intrigues, captivates, enlightens, and/or educates us; the information that we consume and share through informative speaking.

What is informative speaking or an informative speech?

The main goals of informative speaking or an informative speech are to describe , demonstrate , and/or explain certain information to our audience members by telling , teaching , instructing , updating , and/or notifying them as a reporter and/or educator .

Important to note…

The main goals of informative speaking or an informative speech are categorically different from the main goals of persuasive speaking or a persuasive speech which are to convince , compel , and/or influence our audience members by challenging , changing , urging , imploring , and/or affirming them as a champion and/or advocate . Refer to the chapter “Speaking to Persuade/Advocacy” for information on persuasive speaking.

A key element of informative speaking or an informative speech is neutrality . Informative speakers should be fair and balanced without choosing a side or taking a stance while imparting information. They should also let audience members come to their own conclusions about the information imparted without trying to influence them.

For example, when giving an informative speech on the Korean popular music (K-Pop) group BTS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTS ), an informative speaker should strive to present it neutrally by including both positive and negative information found in research about BTS rather than sharing only favorable information about them from the perspective of an adoring fan (e.g., a BTS ARMY https://time.com/5912998/bts-army/ ).

Similarly, when developing an informative speech on caffeine, an informative speaker might want to discuss the effects of caffeine found in research neutrally (both positive and negative) rather than focusing only on either the dangers or the benefits of caffeine.

In addition, neutrality relates to the way in which a statement is made. For example, your friend A in a conversation makes the following statement:

“The film Roma [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(2018_film) ] directed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón is wonderful; you should see it!”

Here, A is not neutral nor speaking informatively since the statement is a persuasive one that expresses A’s positive assessment of the film and A’s clear intention to influence you. Let’s say later you tell your friend B that, “According to A, the film Roma is wonderful, and I should see it!” Here, you are speaking informatively since your statement neutrally describes the content of a previous persuasive statement from A; whether Roma is a wonderful film and whether you should see it are debatable and a matter of personal opinion, but what you share with B about A’s statement is undoubtedly factual, neutral, and informative.

At this point you might wonder—since neutrality is a key element of informative speaking, does that mean you can’t discuss controversial topics?

No, it doesn’t. No matter how controversial a topic is, there are ways to talk about it neutrally as an informative speech.

For example, we all know that abortion is a very controversial topic/issue over which we are still debating as a country and as a society. Can one develop an informative speech under the general topic of abortion? It certainly can be done as long as neutrality is observed and maintained.

A speech on how abortion laws have evolved in the United States and/or internationally over the years can be an informative speech, as long as it is designed to neutrally demonstrate and explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how (i.e., The Six W’s The “6 W’s” Method – Public Speaking & Speech Resources – Library at Windward Community College (hawaii.edu) ) associated with abortion law changes without arguing whether these changes are good or bad, right or wrong, ethical or unethical.

Similarly, a speech on the two major camps currently involved in the abortion debates and their respective main arguments can be an informative speech, as long as both sides are presented  neutrally without arguing whether one particular side and its key arguments are better or worse, right or wrong, ethical or unethical.

Some might argue that it is impossible to be absolutely objective and neutral as an informative speaker since the way we think and the way we speak are all influenced by our own unique experiences and subjective perceptions—in a way, we are already being subjective and biased by simply selecting the points we want to include in our presentation, however neutral they might be, and interpreting the information based on our own frame of reference.

Having said that, just because we don’t have access to an absolutely germ-free or virus-free environment for a surgery doesn’t mean that we should perform it without even sanitizing or disinfecting the instruments; there are things we can still do to make the surgery safer. Similarly, while it might be impossible for us to attain absolute neutrality as an informative speaker, we can still strive to make our information and presentation as neutral as possible.

Criteria for a Good Informative Speech

If neutrality is the key to make a statement/speech an informative one, what are the criteria for an informative speech to be considered good? They can be summed up as the CIA’s of a good informative speech ; an informative speech must be clear , interesting , and accurate all at once to be good.

“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.”

–Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli public intellectual , historian, and professor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari

In order for our audience to be able to understand us when listening to our informative speeches, we as informative speakers must treat our information and presentation with care and make them as clear as possible.

Other than making sure that our informative speeches are clearly presented through the use of structured organization, visual aids, clear language, and effective nonverbal delivery (e.g., gestures, volume, articulation, and fluency), all of which are discussed in more detail in other chapters of this textbook, here are three additional guidelines we should pay special attention to as informative speakers:

Make our information more concrete and less abstract.

Abstract information tends to be more vague, ambiguous, and/or undefined; it is thus harder to process for any audience. The more abstract our information is, the harder it will be for our audience to listen to, grasp, and retain. Therefore, it is up to us as informative speakers to make any information we would like to impart in our presentation as concrete as possible.

How? By defining, describing and illustrating abstract information through the use of examples that our audience already has the frame of reference to understand.

For example, reciprocity as a concept, as an ethical principle, moral virtue, and/or social norm can be rather abstract for our audience to process. According to the Webster-Merriam Dictionary, “reciprocity” is defined as “the quality or state of being reciprocal: mutual dependence, action, or influence.”

To make it more concrete, we may want to tap into our audience’s frame of reference and define/describe reciprocity by comparing it with, and highlighting its similarities to, other abstract concepts already known to our audience such as:

• “What comes around goes around.”
• “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
• The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (treat others the way you want to be treated).

Other than using comparisons to highlight reciprocity’s similarities to more well-known abstract concepts, we can also make it more concrete by contrasting it with, and highlighting its differences from, other abstract concepts already known to our audience such as:

• “It’s my way or the highway.”
• one-sided love/crush or unrequited love/crush, and/or
• narcissism/narcissistic personality disorder (NPA).

Another way to make it more concrete is to tap into our audience’s frame of reference and illustrate reciprocity by using concrete and relatable examples such as:

Example 1: A volunteer working in at a street fair for a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the COVID-19 vaccination rates for underserved/minoritized communities offers free gifts and a $100 vaccination incentive to unvaccinated fair attendees with the hope that that they will return the favor by getting themselves fully vaccinated.

Example 2: Student A is a native speaker of English and is in the process of learning how to speak Spanish more fluently. Student B is a native speaker of Spanish and is in the process of learning how to speak English more fluently. Through a language exchange program, they have been meeting regularly to discuss current events by using only Spanish during the first half of the meeting and only English during the second half.

Make our information more accessible, more user-friendly, and less technical.

Technical information tends to be more incomprehensible, unrelatable, alienating, and/or challenging. The more technical our information is, the harder it will be for our audience to listen to, grasp, and retain. Therefore, it is up to us as informative speakers to choose a subject matter that is not too technical and explain it in a more accessible and user-friendly language.

How can we make our information more accessible and user friendly? By avoiding jargon and by using examples and analogies that our audience already has the frame of reference to understand.

For example, a computer motherboard as a subject matter might be rather technical for our listeners, especially those who are not computer savvy, to comprehend and feel eager to learn. Instead of using jargon such as CPU Socket, DRAM Memories Slots, and PCI Slots to discuss its main components, an informative speaker might want to use the human body as an analogy to describe/illustrate a motherboard and its various components.

More specifically, a motherboard is like our nervous system—it is where all computer parts are connected to each other and through which all electrical signals are conducted.

A hard drive on a motherboard is like the hippocampus region of our brain dealing with long-term memory—it is where all programs, files, and data are stored.

On the other hand, a motherboard’s DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) slots are like the Prefrontal Cortex of our brain dealing with short-term memory—it is a holding area of files and instructions that are to be used and then forgotten about; the more DRAM our computer has, the better and faster it can multi-task and perform.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) chip on a motherboard is like our spinal cord—it is responsible for processing instructions (commands) received from the hard drive (brain).

Avoid overestimating what our audience knows.

A huge part of audience analysis and adaptation as an informative speaker is to properly gauge how much our audience already knows about our topic (see the chapter entitled “Andiene Analysis” for more details). If we overestimate what our audience knows and impart information completely outside of their frame of reference (see diagram below), they will feel totally lost and find our information frustratingly unclear.

Let’s say you collect and trade sneakers as a hobby. After brainstorming a few possible topics for your informative speech, you decided to build on what you already know and develop an informative speech on the co-culture of sneaker collecting (or sneakerheads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneaker_collecting ).

Assuming that all your audience members either have heard of or already know something about this particular co-culture, you focused your presentation on the major brand identities, trading platforms, as well as potential benefits and risk factors associated with collecting sneakers while using lingo (similar to jargon discussed earlier on page 6) such as Bred, Hypebeast, Grail, and DS/Deadstock ( https://www.farfetch.com/style-guide/how-to/sneaker-terms-urban-dictionary/ ) commonly used by sneakerheads throughout your presentation without any explanations. It turns out that many of your audience members have never even heard of this co-culture called sneakerheads and thus have no frame of reference to clearly understand/follow your information/presentation. This outcome is very unfortunate and is something an informative speaker should strive to avoid.

Be Interesting.

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”

Doris Lessing, a British-Zimbabwean novelist who was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing

Other than making sure that our informative speeches are interestingly presented through the use of visual aids, vivid language, and effective nonverbal delivery (e.g., gestures, facial expressions, and vocal varieties), all of which are discussed in more detail in other chapters of this textbook, here are four additional guidelines we should pay special attention to as informative speakers: In order for our audience to be able to not only clearly understand us but also learn something relatable and new from us when listening to our informative speeches, we as informative speakers must treat our information and presentation with love and make them as interesting as possible.

Always bring something new to the table.

Nothing motivates our audience members to listen to and engage with our informative speeches more than the anticipation that our information might educate and enrich them in such a way that they transform themselves. It thus behooves us as informative speakers to avoid the same old, same old and always bring something new to the table when we present our information. The last thing we want is for our audience members to find our information and presentation boring, predictable, uninspiring, and a waste of their time.

Information-wise, we as informative speakers should find creative and innovative ways to open eyes, provoke thoughts, and expand horizons every step of the way, including selecting a suitable topic, locating credible supporting materials through research, organizing information in the speech body, as well as designing effective speech introduction and conclusion.

Certain informative speech topics (e.g., cigarettes, condoms, marijuana, or recycling) are so commonplace and overused that they have become rather clichéd. As informative speakers, we might want to consider taking our audience on a journey less travelled by others with our presentation and staying away from these overused topics. This does not mean that it is impossible to create a good informative speech on one of these overused topics; it just means that an overused topic especially needs creativity and innovation to keep its information interesting.

For example, if you want to develop a cigarette-related informative speech, instead of focusing your presentation on well-known common-sense facts (e.g., its ingredients and health effects), you might want to bring less-known facts and cutting-edge technologies and/or new developments and phenomena in the tobacco industry to your audience’s attention.

Even with an informative topic that is not too commonplace or overused, there are also ways for us as informative speakers to make it even more interesting by finding through our research and including in our presentation some topic-related historical, political, economic, social, and/or cultural discoveries, perspectives, insights, analyses, and applications that are new to our audience.

For example, if you want to develop a Carnival-related informative speech, instead of focusing your presentation only on the usual suspects (e.g., its masks, costumes, music, and dance), you might want to offer your audience some fresh new perspectives on Carnival as well (e.g., why/how it takes on very different forms around the world or even just among different islands in the Caribbean? What are the impacts of colonialism and imperialism on the celebration of Carnivals in different countries? How Carnival culture has manifested itself in popular culture?)

Presentation-wise, an informative speaker may keep an audience interested by using the following nonverbal strategies (all of which are discussed in detail in other chapters):

• Use vocal varieties in pitch, volume, tone, pace, pause, intensity, inflection, and accent.
• Employ engaging gestures, facial expression, and eye contact.
• Provide dynamic presentation aids such as overhead projection, slides, electronic whiteboards, video conferencing, and multimedia tools.

Avoid underestimating what our audience knows.

Whereas overestimating what our audience knows as an informative speaker and imparting information outside of their frame of reference , as discussed earlier on page 7, will make our information unclear and hard to comprehend, underestimating what our audience knows and imparting information completely inside of their frame of reference (see diagram below) will make our information uninteresting and uninspiring. In this instance, while our audience might be able to easily and readily understand every single piece of information imparted in our presentation, they will find our speech boring, redundant, unsatisfying, and a waste of their time.

Let’s say you enjoy and spend a lot of time on social media. After brainstorming a few possible topics for your informative speech, you decided to build on what you already know and develop an informative speech on one of the major social media platforms called X.

Assuming that all your audience members either have never heard of or know very little about this particular social media platform,  you include in your presentation only basic information on its history, users, and major features. It turns out that most of your audience members are avid users of X themselves; they feel disappointed by the rudimentary information provided in the presentation and wish they had learned something new from it. This outcome is very unfortunate and is something an informative speaker should strive to avoid.

Relate the subject and information of our speech directly to our audience.

One major challenge for us as informative speakers to recognize and overcome is that what is interesting to us may not be interesting to everybody. Rather than developing and presenting an informative speech that only we find interesting, we must take it upon ourselves to make our speech something our audience members will find interesting as well by relating its subject and information directly to them; the more our audience members find our speech relatable, the more interesting it is to them.

For example, if you plan to develop and present an informative speech on the five pillars of Islam ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pillars_of_Islam ), in addition to defining, describing, and explaining them from a Muslim perspective, you might want to consider comparing and contrasting them with concepts/perspectives from other major religions and/or other non-religious ethical principles around the world to which your non-Muslim audience can easily relate.

More specifically, when developing an informative speech on the five pillars of Islam, you might want to consider comparing and contrasting:

• the pillar of Shahada (profession of faith) with confirmation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation ) and adult baptism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Believer%27s_baptism ) in Christianity;
• the pillar Salah (prayer) with other forms and practices of prayer in Hinduism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_in_Hinduism ) and in the Jewish religion ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_prayer );
• the pillar Zakat (obligatory charity) with the practice of dana (alms-giving) in Hinduism and Buddhism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dāna );
• the pillar Sawm (fasting) with ta’anit, a fasting practice in Judaism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%27anit );
• the pillar Hajj (pilgrimage) with the practice of Buddhist pilgrimage ( https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism/Buddhist-pilgrimage ).

In so doing, you as an informative speaker not only can fascinate a Muslim audience who does not know about the similarities and differences between the five pillars of Islam and other religious and/or non-religious ethical principles, you can also fascinate a non-Muslim audience who finds the subject and  information of your speech relatable, interesting, and eye-opening.

Humanize our information.

As an audience, nothing bores us to tears and/or puts us to sleep faster than listening to a string of dry facts and statistics that mean nothing or very little to us, no matter how important they are. A good informative speech is one that not only enlightens and educates us, but also keeps us engaged and entertained with its information and presentation. It is thus our job as informative speakers to make any information included in our presentation as engaging, relatable, and interesting to our audience as possible by humanizing and dramatizing it when we can.

For example, if you want to develop and present an informative speech on the internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. during World War II ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans ), instead of filling your presentation only with a laundry list of internment camp locations, number and names of Japanese American internees in each camp, and/or where in the U.S. from which each camp’s Japanese American internees were forcibly relocated, you might want to consider featuring/highlighting in your speech powerful quotes, vivid personal accounts, and/or emotional reflections from camp survivors and their children.

Similarly, you might want to also consider humanizing and dramatizing the Japanese American internment related information by comparing and contrasting it with information related to other internment camps around the world in different historical eras with which your audience has personal and emotional connections. In so doing, you have enlivened your presentation as an informative speaker and your audience will be more likely to enjoy your speech without feeling bored by, indifferent towards, and/or apathetic to the information presented.

So far, we have discussed why being clear and being interesting are both integral to a good informative speech as well as the various practices and additional guidelines we as informative speakers can follow to be clearer and be more interesting. A very helpful way to conceptualize how we may develop, research, and organize the content of our informative speeches so that they will be both clear and interesting to our audience is illustrated in the diagram below. It shows that we as informative speakers should first tap into something that is clear to our audience members (and for which they already have the frame of reference) before taking them with us on an eye-opening, thought-provoking, and horizon-expanding journey to an uncharted territory where our information is new and interesting to them (and for which they don’t already have the frame of reference). This means that not only will our audience members find our informative speech presentation both clear and interesting at the same time, their frame of reference will also be enlarged as a result of listening to our presentation.

Be Accurate.

“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.”

Margaret Mead,  a US-American cultural anthropologist and writer Margaret Mead – Wikipedia

While meeting both criteria of being clear and being interesting is crucial to a good informative speech, there is one more equally important criterium for a good informative speech—be accurate. No matter how clear and interesting an informative speech is, it will not be considered good unless it is accurate as well. We as informative speakers thus must treat our information and presentation with integrity and make them as accurate as possible.

Other than making sure that our informative speeches are accurately presented through the use of proper citations, accurate language, and credible supporting materials (e.g., examples, statistics, and testimonies), all of which are discussed in more detail in other chapters of this textbook, here are two additional guidelines we should pay special attention to as informative speakers:

Avoid making things up and/or spreading disinformation.

Words have real consequences. Throughout human history, especially in recent decades with the advance of internet, information technology, and social media, we have seen many examples of:

• hoax : a falsehood intentionally fabricated to masquerade as the truth ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoax ),
• disinformation : false information that is spread intentionally to deceive ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation ),
• misinformation : false or misleading information unintentionally presented as fact ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation ),
• fake news : false or misleading information presented as news ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news ),
• conspiracy theory : an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a sinister conspiracy by powerful groups when the are other more probable explanations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory ), and/or
• deepfake : are synthetic media in which person A’s face or body has been digitally altered so that Person A appears to be Person B instead ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepfake ).

Many of these incidents have caused serious and even deadly harms to not only individuals but also their communities. It is thus our ethical imperative as informative speakers to be truthful with the information we share in our presentations; we must not make things up and pass them on as facts, nor should we spread disinformation by sharing false information with the intention to deceive and mislead others.

Imagine that you have selected for yourself an informative speech topic on how to perform a CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) but failed to conduct any research before the presentation. During your presentation, you shared with your audience CPR steps that are completely made-up and without any validity or factual basis. Five years later, one of your audience’s loved ones encountered an emergency situation that calls for a CPR, and he/she performed the made-up CPR steps as instructed by you and caused his/her loved one’s death as a result. While you might not be legally responsible for this unfortunate death, you surely are ethically responsible for it on some level.

Check things through and avoid spreading misinformation.

Another ethical imperative for us as informative speakers is to avoid spreading false information unintentionally by checking things through and conducting sufficient research to ensure the accuracy, authenticity, and validity of the information we share in our presentations. We may do so by using a variety of sources when conducting our research so that we can get more well-rounded and less biased information that include several voices, viewpoints, and perspectives (see the chapter on research methods and skills for more details).

For example, you have seen many Wikipedia links/articles embedded throughout this chapter to help you understand and explore various subjects and concepts. To use these links/articles properly and ethically, you must know their strengths and limitations first:

• Wikipedia provides free access to information on millions of topics to anyone with Internet capabilities.
• Wikipedia links/articles are constantly updated.
• Sources used by Wikipedia content contributors are cited; they allow further investigation into any topic.

Limitations

• Wikipedia links/articles are not considered scholarly credible and should not be cited for academic purposes since their content is written by unknown contributors (anyone can create, edit, or delete the information on Wikipedia articles).
• Wikipedia links/articles are works-in-progress with constant changes to their information.
• Wikipedia links/articles are sometimes vandalized.

Based on the aforementioned strengths and limitations, these Wikipedia links/articles should be used only as a starting point for you to conduct more in-depth research elsewhere; they are meant to be the beginning rather than the end of your exploration and research on these subjects and concepts.

Different Categories of Informative Speeches

Space/Place

A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of a space or place, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it fictional or real, existing in the past, present, or future, located on planet earth or somewhere else in the universe, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

For instance, a neutral presentation on the various aspects of:

• the community roles of the barbershop and beauty salon for Black Americans in the United States ( The Community Roles of the Barber Shop and Beauty Salon | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu) ),
• the mythical paradise called Shangri-La ( Shangri-La – Wikipedia ),
• the Mare Tranquillitatis or Sea of Tranquility on the Moon ( Mare Tranquillitatis – Wikipedia ), and
• the Korean Demilitarized Zone ( Korean Demilitarized Zone – Wikipedia ( United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus – Wikipedia )

are examples of an informative speech in the Space/Place category.

Process/Procedure

A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of a sequential, step-by-step, process or procedure, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it fictional or real, existing in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner. Informative speakers often present this type of informative speech as either a “how-to” speech or a demonstration speech.

• how to make the Puerto Rican dish called Mofongo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mofongo ),
• the development or distribution process for COVID-19 vaccine ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine ),
• how to overcome the fear of public speaking ( https://zapier.com/blog/public-speaking-tips/ ), and
• how to ace an interview: 5 tips from a Harvard career advisor ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDrj0_bMQ0 )

are examples of an informative speech in the Process/Procedure category.

Event/History

A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of an event or history, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it fictional or real, happening in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

• the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 ( https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/ ),
• the Zoo Suit Riots of 1943 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots ),
• the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_United_States_Capitol_attack ), and
• the gender-fluid history of the Philippines ( https://www.ted.com/talks/france_villarta_the_gender_fluid_history_of_the_philippines?language=en )

are examples of an informative speech in the Event/History category.

Concept/Idea

A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of an intangible and abstract concept or idea, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it an ideology, theory, philosophy, principle, doctrine, or school of thoughts, fictional or real, existing in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

• the critical race theory ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory ),
• the trickle-down theory ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics ),
• the intersectionality concept ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality ), and
• the principles of shamanism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism )

are examples of an informative speech in the Concept/Idea category.

Institution/Movement

A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of a human-organized and human-developed institution or movement, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it fictional or real, existing in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

• the World Health Organization ( World Health Organization – Wikipedia ),
• the Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba ( Alibaba Group – Wikipedia ),
• the Arab Spring movement ( Arab Spring – Wikipedia ), and
• the African Union ( African Union – Wikipedia )

are examples of an informative speech in the Institution/Movement category.

Artifact/Object

Whereas a concept/idea is something that is intangible and abstract, an artifact or object is something that is tangible and concrete. A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of an artifact/object, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it fictional or real, existing in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

• the Tibetan prayer wheel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel ),
• the headwrap called do-rag or durag ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-rag ),
• the musical instrument didgeridoo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo ), and
• the traditional African masks( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_African_masks )

are examples of an informative speech in the Artifact/Object category.

Living Being

Whereas an artifact/object is something that is inanimate, a Living Being is something/someone that possesses the characteristics of being alive. A presentation focusing on certain specific aspects of a Living Being, especially a lesser-known one or lesser-known information about a well-known one, be it a plant, animal (including a person or a group of people), insect, fungus/yeast, bacterium, or amoeba, fictional or real, living in the past, present, or future, is suitable for an informative speech as long as it is presented in a neutral manner.

• the Uyghur ethnic group  ( Uyghurs – Wikipedia ),
• the U.S. American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin ( James Baldwin – Wikipedia ),
• how fungi recognize (and infect) plants ( How fungi recognize (and infect) plants | Mennat El Ghalid – YouTube ), and
• the Amazon Rainforest ( Amazon rainforest – Wikipedia )

are examples of an informative speech in the Living Being category.

Special Consideration to Be Given in the Informative Speech-Making Process

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

–Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer who was awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimamanda_Ngozi_Adichie

As the saying goes, history is written by the victors. This means that those who are in positions of power and dominance, be they based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the other major identity markers, have the ability to dictate, censor, control, distort, and/or erase histories as they see fit to maintain and perpetuate their own wealth, power, privilege, and dominance.

This also means that in order for our community/society/world to change its course for the better and become a more equitable, inclusive, and just one, histories of those who have long been marginalized must be actively uncovered/recovered, publicly acknowledged, widely made visible, and systematically preserved. Our textbook’s earlier chapter entitled “Questioning and Decentering the History of Public Speaking” is written with this same goal in mind—to challenge the mainstream, Eurocentric, narrative about public speaking and to shed light on other lesser-known histories about, and cultural perspective on, public speaking.

Similarly, when it comes to information, those who are in positions of power and dominance tend to use it, intentionally or unintentionally, to maintain and perpetuate their own wealth, power, privilege, and dominance; not only do they have much greater access to receive and share information, the information they receive and share is also considered by most to be of much greater value and influence. Therefore, while we as informative speakers may freely choose any topics in the aforementioned major categories (i.e., SPECIAL: Space/Place, Process/Procedure, Event/History, Concept/idea, Institution/Movement, Artifact/Object, and Living Being) on which to develop our presentations, to help our community/society/world evolve into a more equitable, inclusive, and  just one, I encourage everyone to disrupt and enrich dominant,  mainstream public discourse by choosing topics related to communities, be they based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the other major identity markers, that have been historically marginalized, underrepresented, and/or underserved.

In so doing, we may avoid the danger of a single story discussed in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s aforementioned inspiring quote on page 19 and in her celebrated TED talks here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg ) and collectively make lesser-known histories, experiences, perspectives, and voices more visible, acknowledged, and valued.

We have discussed in this chapter why neutrality is key to informative speaking/speeches, how being clear , interesting , and accurate all at once (i.e., the CIA’s of a good informative speech ) makes any informative speeches good, and the major categories (i.e., the acronym SPECIAL ) on which we can develop our presentations as an informative speaker. It’s now time for us to apply the knowledge, strategies, guidelines, and special considerations that we’ve learned from this chapter to practice as we develop and present our informative speech presentations.

Remember Ms. Sanchez’s inspiring quote in the beginning of the chapter  “I cannot tell the truth about anything unless I confess being a student, growing and learning something new every day. The more I learn, the clearer my view of the world becomes”? Your informative speech presentations for this course are not merely assignments/exercises for points/grades; rather, they are  powerful vehicles to help your audience grow/evolve and see the world more clearly. Take full advantage of them and make our community/society/world a better place with your informative speech presentations!

Class Activities

Watch the following youtube clips:

• The Danger of a Single Story
• How Fungi Recognize (and Infect) Plants
• The Gender-Fluid History of the Philippines
• How to Ace an Interview: 5 Tips from a Harvard Career Advisor

After reviewing these clips, reflect on the following questions:

• Are these presentations considered  more informative or persuasive (e.g., are they neutral in their content and presentation)? If so why and if not why not?
• If these presentations are more informative than persuasive, do you consider them good informative speeches (e.g., are they clear, interesting, and accurate all at once)? If so why and if not why not?
• If these presentations are more informative than persuasive, which major informative speech category or categories (i.e., SPECIAL: Space/Place, Process/Procedure, Event/History, Concept/Idea, Institution/Movement, Artifact/Object, and Living Being) do they each fall under?
• If these presentations are more informative than persuasive, do you think they help disrupt and enrich dominant,  mainstream public discourse by sharing information related to communities, be they based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the other major identity markers, that have been historically marginalized, underrepresented, and/or underserved? If so why and if not why not?

For more information about the author of this Chapter, please visit Professor Vincent (Tzu-Wen) Cheng’s faculty page here .

Works Cited

Lucas, Steven. “Speaking to Inform.” The Art of Public Speaking , 13th. ed., McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY, 2019, pp. 268–289.

“Public Speaking & Speech Resources: The ‘6 W’s’ Method.” Windward Community College Library, 4 Jan. 2022, https://library.wcc.hawaii.edu/c.php?g=35279&p=3073195.

“Reciprocity Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster , https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reciprocity.

“Jargon Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster , https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jargon.

“Wikipedia: Strengths and Weaknesses.” LibGuides , https://pitt.libguides.com/wikipedia/prosandcons.

HarvardExtension. “How to Ace an Interview: 5 Tips from a Harvard Career Advisor.” YouTube ,  27 Mar. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDrj0_bMQ0.

Villarta, France. “The Gender-Fluid History of the Philippines.” TED , https://www.ted.com/talks/france_villarta_the_gender_fluid_history_of_the_philippines?language=en.

TEDtalksDirector. “How Fungi Recognize (and Infect) Plants | Mennat El Ghalid.” YouTube , 19 Apr. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfq3xCdAu4.

TEDtalksDirector. “The Danger of a Single Story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” YouTube , 7 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg.

Informative Speaking Copyright © by Vincent (Tzu-Wen) Cheng, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Rhetoric: How to Inform, Persuade, or Motivate your Audience

June 12, 2018 - Gini Beqiri

Persuasive speaking is needed in a wide range of situations; from arguing with a colleague, to haggling down a price, to performing a speech. Rhetoric is the key to developing this skill. In this article, we discuss how to use rhetoric for effective public speaking.

What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the study and art of writing and speaking persuasively. Its aim is to inform, educate, persuade or motivate specific audiences in specific situations. It originates from the time of the ancient Greeks.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men  – Plato

Rhetoric is not just a tool used only in speeches, you use it in everyday life when, for example, you only disclose certain parts of your weekend to certain people.

Treatise of rhetoric

Aristotle stated that there are three types of persuasive speech:

• Forensic / judicial rhetoric  – looks at the justice or injustice of accusations and establishes evidence about the past. It’s used mainly in a court of law.
• Epideictic / demonstrative rhetoric  – praises or blames and makes a declaration about the present situation. It’s used in, for example,  wedding  and retirement speeches etc.
• Symbouleutikon / deliberative rhetoric  – tries to get the audience to take action by talking about a possible future. Politicians often use this approach and Martin Luther’s “I have a dream” speech is a good example.

Rhetorical situations

To use rhetoric you must first:

• Analyse the rhetorical situation you are in – an effective speech is one that responds to its rhetorical situation (context)
• Identify what needs to be communicated
• Provide a strategic response using rhetorical tools

When you analyse the rhetorical situation think about the following:

The rhetor (yourself)  – the person speaking to the audience. Your personal characteristics and beliefs will influence what you decide to say, such as:

• Geographical location
• Previous experiences
• Socio-economic status, etc

The audience  – the people you are  trying to persuade . Usually the same factors that affect the rhetor affect the audience. Think about what they already know. What questions or reservations might they have? What expectations do they have? Where should you conform to and stray from these expectations?

The setting  – the situation which causes the need for your speech, for example, current events, location, time period, political situation etc. Where is the speech happening and when? How do these this impact you? For example, speeches may need to differ between countries.

The topic  – needs to be relevant to the rhetorical situation you are in. How does your topic limit what you can do for the audience? Depending on your audience, what should you include or exclude?

The purpose  – why are you saying this? Is it to:

• Instigate action, etc

Five canons and three appeals

The five canons of rhetoric.

The Five Canons of Rhetoric are tools for creating persuasive speeches:

• Invention  – the process of developing an argument. For this you need to pick effective content and sort through everything you could say and decide what should be included or excluded. There needs to be a balance between what the audience needs to hear and what you need to say.
• Arrangement  – once you have determined the content you must organise and order your speech to create the most impact, such as thinking about how long each section should be and what should follow on from one point etc.
• Style  – deciding how to present your chosen arguments, including thinking tactically about how your audience will respond to your word choices. Perhaps include visualisation or other techniques to evoke emotions. (See rhetorical devices and tools)
• Memory  – memorising your speech.
• Delivery  – this includes your projection,  gestures ,  eye contact , pronunciation, tone and  pace .

The three appeals

According to Aristotle, rhetoric rests on the three appeals:  ethos, logos and pathos . They are modes of persuasion used to convince an audience.

• Ethos : your credibility and character
• Pathos : emotional bond with your listeners
• Logos : logical and rational argument

Ethos – the ethical appeal

Ethos consists of convincing your audience that you have good character and you are credible therefore your words can be trusted. Ethos must be established from the start of your talk or the audience will not accept what you say. In fact, ethos is often established before your presentation, for example, you may be the CEO of the company you’re presenting to so you’re already perceived as a specialist.

Characteristics of ethos

There are four main characteristics of ethos:

• Trustworthiness and respect
• Similarity to the audience
• Expertise and reputation/history

Improve ethos

• Ensure that people know about your expertise by promoting yourself, for example, ensure that people can easily access testimonials, reviews, papers etc.
• In your introduction draw attention to your ethos.
• Tell personal stories  that show the audience that you follow your own recommendations because they are more likely to believe you on other points that cannot easily be confirmed.
• Facts, stats and quotes should be up-to-date and from reputable sources, for example, between choosing from social media or Mind’s website to  quote a statistic  about anxiety, you would choose Mind’s website as this has high ethos which in turn increases your ethos.
• Be unbiased by admitting that you and your opposition’s side agree on at least one matter. This highlights that you are credible because you are treating the topic with consideration and fairness.
• Stick to your promises, for example,  during the Q&A  you may have agreed to find out an answer to a question and tell everyone – ensure that you do this to be seen as honest.

Pathos – the emotional appeal

Pathos is to persuade by appealing to the audience’s emotions. Pathos is more likely to increase the chances of your audience:

• Understanding your point of view
• Accepting your arguments
• Acting on your requests

Improving pathos

• Use  analogies and metaphors  – linking your ideas with something your listeners already know about and feel strongly about can trigger emotional responses. For example, “They are terrible” compared to “They are poisonous.” This will use the audience’s knowledge that poison is bad and therefore this issue needs to be dealt with.
• Use emotionally charged words, for example, say “This brush is a life-saver” rather than “This brush is amazing.”. Another way to make a statement more emotional is to use vivid and sensory words which allow the audience to experience the emotion. For instance, “The smell of your grandparent’s house” will increase the recollection of, hopefully warm memories, and therefore will trigger certain emotions.
• Positive emotions, such as joy, should be linked with your claims.
• Negative emotions, such as anger, should be linked to your rival’s claims.
• Visual aids can sometimes be more powerful than words
• Storytelling is a quick way to form an emotional connection
• Match what you’re saying with your body language, face and eyes
• You may target the audience’s hopes by describing a positive future situation if your proposed actions are followed

Logos – logical appeal

Logos is to appeal to logic by relying on the audience’s intelligence and offering evidence in support of your argument. Logos also develops ethos because the information makes you look knowledgeable. Logos is important because logical arguments are not easily dismissed.

Improving logos

Be comprehensive : Make sure your points and arguments can be understood

• Use language that your audience will understand. Avoid jargon and technical terminology
• Use figures and charts
• Make the relationships between your evidence and conclusions clear
• Use analogies and metaphors

Be logical : Ensure that your arguments make sense and that your claims and evidence are not implausible. Have a plan for dealing with opposing viewpoints that your listeners may already believe.

• Ensure that the  audience is involved  by asking them engaging questions.
• Talk about opposing views as this allows you to explain why your logical arguments are more reasonable.
• Build your argument on the audience’s widely held beliefs – commonplaces. For example, a company’s main value and therefore commonplace may be “Compassion makes us the best company”. Use the audience’s commonplace like a fact and apply it to a new situation. So if you want to encourage your staff to join a committee, use their commonplace, for example, rather than your belief say: “This committee needs considerate and kind-hearted people.”

Be specific : Base your claims on facts and examples as your arguments will be accepted quicker than something nonspecific and non-concrete. The more easily the evidence is accepted, the more easily the conclusions will be accepted.

• Facts and stats cannot be debated and they signify the truth.
• Visual evidence, such as, objects and videos are hard to challenge.
• Citing specialists and authorities on a topic increases the quality of your evidence and therefore your claims.
• Tell stories, such as, case studies or personal experiences. The audience would like to hear your own stories if you’re a specialist, for example, “When I was excavating in Nottingham…”

There is uncertainty over which pillar is the most important – Aristotle thought that logos was vital but when used by itself it lacks impact. So ensure that you treat all three pillars with equal importance to succeed in persuading your audience.

Rhetorical modes

Rhetorical modes are patterns of organisation used to produce a specific effect in the audience. They assist in increasing the speaker’s ethos, pathos and logos.

• Telling a story or narrating an event.
• Uses facts – what happened, where it happened, when it happened and who was there.
• It helps put information into a logical order – usually chronological order.
• Purpose : to evoke certain emotions in the audience.

Description

• Re-create, inventing or visually presenting a person, place, object, event or action through words
• This helps the audience imagine what is being described
• Use precise verbs and nouns and vivid adjectives
• Using the five senses is especially useful
• Purpose : to evoke certain emotions in the audience

Argumentation/Persuasion

• Articulating your opinion about an issue – proving or contesting a point or view or an issue.
• Consists of presenting the evidence.
• Inductive arguments- Forming generalisations from the evidence. For example: “All the theme parks I have been to have been safe. This is a theme park. So it must be safe.”
• Deductive arguments – Forming conclusions from generalisations. For example. “I don’t like busy places. That shopping centre is really busy. So I won’t like that shopping centre.”
• Persuasion is a type of argumentation with a call to action directed at the audience.
• Purpose : the speaker tries to get the audience to agree with their opinion and in the case of persuasion the speaker tries to get the audience to take action.
• Informing, instructing or presenting ideas objectively. Exposition can use the following techniques:

Illustration/Example

• Using evidence to explain a general idea or statement.
• The stronger your evidence, the more likely the audience will consider your points.
• Usually used to support an argument.
• Use evidence suitable for your topic and audience.
• How complex the topic is
• The audience’s knowledge
• Purpose : gives your statements/arguments more credibility and helps the audience understand more quickly.
• Explaining what a word, idea etc means to your audience and/or to explain what it is not.
• This is more difficult than looking up the term in a dictionary because you may be re-defining a common term or explaining a term that is commonly used incorrectly, such as, the word depression.
• By reshaping what the audience thought a concept meant they can see and think about that concept in a different way.
• There are multiple ways you can define something, it doesn’t have to be in a clinical way – you can use the rhetorical strategies discussed later.
• Purpose : helps the audience see things from your point of view.

Process analysis

• Explaining how a particular event occurs or how something is done or how something works, for example, how to sew, or how to move on from the death of a loved one.
• This procedure is usually explained in clear steps.
• Purpose : to provide clear information so the audience can fully understand – the more the audience understands, the more likely they will be persuaded.
• Dividing one concept into smaller ones.
• This can be helpful for you, the speaker, as it can provide the audience with an insight of how you view a concept.
• Purpose : to help the audience understand a complex issue.

Classification

• Often looking at a diverse group of objects and finding similarities.
• The rhetor creates categories based on the similarities and gives each category a name.
• Purpose : useful for organising complex issues.

Cause and effect

• Examining the causes of a situation and the consequences of it.
• Causes help you understand why something happened and effect helps you understand what could happen or what has happened.
• Especially useful when the rhetor can show a cause and effect relationship the audience haven’t noticed before because this helps the audience see the situation in a different way.
• Often leads to debates as it’s not always easy to determine this relationship.
• Purpose : to determine how concepts are related to each other.

Comparison and contrast

• Comparison looks at similarities and contrast looks at differences.
• The more divergent the two things initially appear the more interesting it will be to look at the similarities.
• Purpose : generally to show something is more superior to another, to show unexpected similarities or to help the audience understand a person, place, idea etc in relation to another.

Rhetorical devices and tools, with examples

Rhetorical devices can be useful for assisting with the above modes of persuasion:

Adynaton  – a type of hyperbole (exaggeration) in which the exaggeration is taken to such extreme lengths to suggest impossibility.

• Example: “When pigs fly!”

Alliteration  – the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of several words that are close in proximity to each other.

• Example: “The dog dived deeply.”
• Example: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe its Maybelline.”

Allusion  – a reference to an event, literary work, person etc usually within popular culture.

• Example: “It’s only £10, you’re acting like Scrooge.”

Anaphora  – repeating a word or phrase in successive phrases.

• Example: “As you know, we’ve got the iPod, best music player in the world. We’ve got the iPod Nanos, brand new models, colours are back. We’ve got the amazing new iPod Shuffle.” – Steve Jobs

Antanagoge  – when a negative point is followed by a positive one to reduce the impact.

• Example: “It’s expensive but it’s unbreakable”

Antimetabole  – a phrase or sentence is repeated in reverse order.

• Example: “It is not even the beginning of the end but is perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Winston Churchill

Antiphrasis  – a phrase or word that is opposite to its literal meaning to create an ironic or comic effect.

• Example: Calling your friend Tiny even when they are 6 foot 5.

Antithesis  – two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence for contrast.

• Example: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong

Appositive  – places a noun or phrase next to another noun for descriptive purposes.

• Example: “Your friend Sam is waiting outside for you.”
• Example: “The neurologist, a well-renowned expert in Paediatric Neurology, looked at the scans.”

Epanalepsis  – repeating the initial part of a sentence at the end of the same sentence.

• Example: “Today, I want it done today.”

Epithet  – using an adjective or phrase to emphasises a person’s characteristics. Often, this adjective or phrase becomes linked to the person and can be used with their name or instead of their name.

• Example: Eddie the Eagle

Epizeuxis  – repeats one word in immediate succession for emphasis.

• Example: “That film was great, great, great.”

Hyperbole  – an exaggeration not meant to be taken literally.

• Example: “I’ve got tons of work to get through.”
• Example: “I’m freezing.”

Metanoia  – correcting a statement you just made deliberately to strengthen or soften it.

• Example: “This has made my day, no, my month.”

Metaphor  – a comparison made by stating one thing is the other.

• Example: “This cake is heaven.”

Metonymy  – where something is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it.

• Example: Referring to business professionals as “suits.”
• Example: Referring to royals as “Crown.”
• Example: Referring to a plate of food as a “dish.”

Onomatopoeia  – words that are similar to the sound they describe.

• Example: Drip, pop, buzz, bang

Oxymoron  – a combination of contradictory words.

• Example: Cruel kindness, definitely maybe, open secret

Parallelism  – uses components in a sentence that are similar grammatically or in their construction, sound or meaning. It makes sentences flow better by adding rhythm.

• Example: “The dog was barking, the bell was ringing and the children were shouting.”

Personification  – The attribution of human characteristics to something non-human.

• Example: “The traffic slowed to a crawl.”

Simile  – compares one thing to another to make a description more vivid, usually uses “as” or “like”.

• Example: “As light as a feather.”

Understatement  – deliberately making a situation sound less important or serious than it is. You can use it for humour, to be polite or to remain modest over something.

• Example: You won an award for a piece of artwork but you say “It’s no big deal.” (Modest)
• Example: Your friend is worried about people staring at a stain on his T-shirt, you say “I wouldn’t have even noticed if you hadn’t said anything.” (Polite)
• Example: You walk outside with your coat on and realise it’s very hot – “I may be a little over-dressed.” (Humour)

Criticisms of rhetoric

Some people believe that rhetoric is a type of lying or false behaviour and manipulation. However, even when you’re criticising rhetoric, you are engaging in an act of rhetoric because you are trying to get others to agree with you.

Rhetoric works well in many situations, such as, in business presentations, lectures etc. So rhetoric is a good tool but, like with other tools, it’s up to you how to use it effectively.

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• Types of speeches

The 4 types of speeches

Informative, demonstrative, persuasive and special occasion.

By:  Susan Dugdale  | Last modified: 01-31-2024

There are four main types of speeches or types of public speaking.

• Demonstrative
• Special occasion or Entertaining

To harness their power a speaker needs to be proficient in all of them: to understand which speech type to use when, and how to use it for maximum effectiveness.

What's on this page:

An overview of each speech type, how it's used, writing guidelines and speech examples:

• informative
• demonstrative
• special occasion/entertaining
• how, and why, speech types overlap

Return to Top

Informative speeches

An informative speech does as its name suggests: informs. It provides information about a topic. The topic could be a place, a person, an animal, a plant, an object, an event, or a process.

The informative speech is primarily explanatory and educational.

Its purpose is not to persuade or influence opinion one way or the other. It is to provide sufficient relevant material, (with references to verifiable facts, accounts, studies and/or statistics), for the audience to have learned something. 

What they think, feel, or do about the information after they've learned it, is up to them.

This type of speech is frequently used for giving reports, lectures and, sometimes for training purposes. 

Examples of informative speech topics:

• the number, price and type of dwellings that have sold in a particular suburb over the last 3 months
• the history of the tooth brush
• how trees improves air quality in urban areas
• a brief biography of Bob Dylan
• the main characteristics of Maine Coon cats
• the 1945 US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• the number of, and the work of local philanthropic institutions
• the weather over the summer months
• the history of companion planting 
• how to set up a new password
• how to work a washing machine

Click this link if you'd like more informative topic suggestions .  You'll find hundreds of them.

And this link to find out more about the 4 types of informative speeches : definition, description, demonstration and explanation. (Each with an example outline and topic suggestions.)  

Demonstration, demonstrative or 'how to' speeches

A demonstration speech is an extension of an informative process speech. It's a 'how to' speech, combining informing with demonstrating.

The topic process, (what the speech is about), could either be demonstrated live or shown using visual aids.

The goal of a demonstrative speech is to teach a complete process step by step.

It's found everywhere, all over the world: in corporate and vocational training rooms, school classrooms, university lecture theatres, homes, cafes... anywhere where people are either refreshing or updating their skills. Or learning new ones.

Knowing to how give a good demonstration or 'how to' speech is a very valuable skill to have, one appreciated by everybody.

Examples of 'how to' speech topics are:

• how to braid long hair
• how to change a car tire
• how to fold table napkins
• how to use the Heimlich maneuver
• how to apply for a Federal grant
• how to fill out a voting form
• how to deal with customer complaints
• how to close a sale
• how to give medicine to your cat without being scratched to bits! 

Resources for demonstration speeches

1 . How to write a demonstration speech   Guidelines and suggestions covering:

• choosing the best topic : one aligning with your own interests, the audience's, the setting for the speech and the time available to you
• how to plan, prepare and deliver your speech - step by step guidelines for sequencing and organizing your material plus a printable blank demonstration speech outline for you to download and complete  
• suggestions to help with delivery and rehearsal . Demonstration speeches can so easily lurch sideways into embarrassment. For example: forgetting a step while demonstrating a cake recipe which means it won't turn out as you want it to. Or not checking you've got everything you need to deliver your speech at the venue and finding out too late, the very public and hard way, that the lead on your laptop will not reach the only available wall socket. Result. You cannot show your images.

2.  Demonstration speech sample outline   This is a fully completed outline of a demonstration speech. The topic is 'how to leave an effective voice mail message' and  the sample covers the entire step by step sequence needed to do that.

There's a blank printable version of the outline template to download if you wish and a YouTube link to a recording of the speech.

3.  Demonstration speech topics   4 pages of 'how to' speech topic suggestions, all of them suitable for middle school and up.

Persuasive speeches

The goal of a persuasive speech is to convince an audience to accept, or at the very least listen to and consider, the speaker's point of view.

To be successful the speaker must skillfully blend information about the topic, their opinion, reasons to support it and their desired course of action, with an understanding of how best to reach their audience.

Everyday examples of persuasive speeches

Common usages of persuasive speeches are:

• what we say when being interviewed for a job
• presenting a sales pitch to a customer
• political speeches - politicians lobbying for votes,
• values or issue driven speeches e.g., a call to boycott a product on particular grounds, a call to support varying human rights issues: the right to have an abortion, the right to vote, the right to breathe clean air, the right to have access to affordable housing and, so on.

Models of the persuasive process

The most frequently cited model we have for effective persuasion is thousands of years old.  Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, 384–322 BC , explained it as being supported by three pillars: ethos, pathos and logos. 

Briefly, ethos is the reliability and credibility of the speaker. How qualified or experienced are they talk on the topic? Are they trustworthy? Should we believe them? Why?

Pathos is the passion, emotion or feeling you, the speaker, bring to the topic. It's the choice of language you use to trigger an emotional connection linking yourself, your topic and the audience together, in a way that supports your speech purpose.

(We see the echo of Pathos in words like empathy: the ability to understand and share the feels of another, or pathetic: to arouse feelings of pity through being vulnerable and sad.)

Logos is related to logic. Is the information we are being presented logical and rational? Is it verifiable? How is it supported? By studies, by articles, by endorsement from suitably qualified and recognized people?

To successfully persuade all three are needed. For more please see this excellent article:  Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion 

Monroe's Motivated Sequence of persuasion

Another much more recent model is Monroe's Motivated Sequence based on the psychology of persuasion.

It consists of five consecutive steps: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization and action and was developed in the 1930s by American Alan H Monroe, a lecturer in communications at Purdue University. The pattern is used extensively in advertising, social welfare and health campaigns.

Resources for persuasive speeches

1.   How to write a persuasive speech Step by step guidelines covering:

• speech topic selection
• setting speech goals
• audience analysis
• empathy and evidence
• balance and obstacles
• 4 structural patterns to choose from

2. A persuasive speech sample outline using Monroe's Motivated Sequence

3. An example persuasive speech written using Monroe's Motivated Sequence  

4.  Persuasive speech topics : 1032+ topic suggestions which includes 105 fun persuasive ideas , like the one below.☺ 

Special occasion or entertaining speeches

The range of these speeches is vast: from a call 'to say a few words' to delivering a lengthy formal address.

This is the territory where speeches to mark farewells, thanksgiving, awards, birthdays, Christmas, weddings, engagements and anniversaries dwell, along with welcome, introduction and thank you speeches, tributes, eulogies and commencement addresses. 

In short, any speech, either impromptu or painstakingly crafted, given to acknowledge a person, an achievement, or an event belongs here.

You'll find preparation guidelines, as well as examples of many special occasion speeches on my site.

Resources for special occasion speeches

How to prepare:

• an acceptance speech , with an example acceptance speech 
• a birthday speech , with ongoing links to example 18th, 40th and 50th birthday speeches
• an office party Christmas speech , a template with an example speech
• an engagement party toast , with 5 examples
• a eulogy or funeral speech , with a printable eulogy planner and access to 70+ eulogy examples
• a farewell speech , with an example (a farewell speech to colleagues)
• a golden (50th) wedding anniversary speech , with an example speech from a husband to his wife
• an impromptu speech , techniques and templates for impromptu speaking, examples of one minute impromptu speeches with a printable outline planner, plus impromptu speech topics for practice
• an introduction speech for a guest speaker , with an example
• an introduction speech for yourself , with an example
• a maid of honor speech for your sister , a template, with an example
• a retirement speech , with an example from a teacher leaving to her students and colleagues
• a student council speech , a template, with an example student council president, secretary and treasurer speech
• a Thanksgiving speech , a template, with an example toast
• a thank you speech , a template, with an example speech expressing thanks for an award, also a business thank you speech template
• a tribute (commemorative) speech , with a template and an example speech
• a welcome speech for an event , a template, an example welcome speech for a conference, plus a printable welcome speech planner
• a welcome speech for new comers to a church , a template with an example speech
• a welcome speech for a new member to the family , a template with an example

Speech types often overlap

Because speakers and their speeches are unique, (different content, purposes, and audiences...), the four types often overlap. While a speech is generally based on one principal type it might also have a few of the features belonging to any of the others. 

For example, a speech may be mainly informative but to add interest, the speaker has used elements like a demonstration of some sort, persuasive language and the brand of familiar humor common in a special occasion speech where everybody knows each other well.

The result is an informative 'plus' type of speech. A hybrid! It's a speech that could easily be given by a long serving in-house company trainer to introduce and explain a new work process to employees.  

Related pages:

• how to write a good speech . This is a thorough step by step walk through, with examples, of the general speech writing process. It's a great place to start if you're new to writing speeches. You'll get an excellent foundation to build on.
• how to plan a speech - an overview of ALL the things that need to be considered before preparing an outline, with examples
• how to outline a speech - an overview, with examples, showing how to structure a speech, with a free printable blank speech outline template to download
• how to make and use cue cards  - note cards for extemporaneous speeches 
• how to use props (visual aids)    

And for those who would like their speeches written for them:

• commission me to write for you

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COM 103: Public Speaking & Presentations (Curry): Persuasive & Informative

• Finding Books and eBooks
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• Persuasive & Informative
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Persuasive Speech

Persuasive speech is given to change audience attitudes and behavior on specific topic or subject. It has to be presented with information collected from different sources, in order to persuade.

• Changes audiences attitudes, beliefs and behavior
• Gets something from the audience
• Persuasion can be informative
• Tends to have more controversial purpose
• Expect powerful response from listers
• Requires greater degrees of proof and earning amounts of credibility

17 Easy Ways to Be a More Persuasive Speaker

Perfect Persuasive Essay Topic

Persuasive Definitions and Public Policy Arguments

• Wikihow: Develop persuasive speech topics
• Effective Persuasive Presentation Purdue University Owl (Online Writing Lab.)

Understand the Difference

Informative and Persuasive Speeches

Informative speech.

Informative speeches are given to increase knowledge on specific topic or subject and can be presented with or without persuasion.

• Instructs, explains and describe topic
• Gives something to the audience
• Information can be persuading
• Promotes understanding of a body of facts

• Wikihow Guidelines to write informative speech
• << Previous: Citing Sources
• Next: Evaluating Sources >>
• Last Updated: Apr 24, 2024 11:56 AM
• URL: https://libguides.middlesex.mass.edu/c.php?g=1000723

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17.3 Organizing Persuasive Speeches

Learning objectives.

• Understand three common organizational patterns for persuasive speeches.
• Explain the steps utilized in Monroe’s motivated sequence.
• Explain the parts of a problem-cause-solution speech.
• Explain the process utilized in a comparative advantage persuasive speech.

Steven Lilley – Engaged – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Previously in this text we discussed general guidelines for organizing speeches. In this section, we are going to look at three organizational patterns ideally suited for persuasive speeches: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantages.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

One of the most commonly cited and discussed organizational patterns for persuasive speeches is Alan H. Monroe’s motivated sequence. The purpose of Monroe’s motivated sequence is to help speakers “sequence supporting materials and motivational appeals to form a useful organizational pattern for speeches as a whole” (German et al., 2010).

While Monroe’s motivated sequence is commonly discussed in most public speaking textbooks, we do want to provide one minor caution. Thus far, almost no research has been conducted that has demonstrated that Monroe’s motivated sequence is any more persuasive than other structural patterns. In the only study conducted experimentally examining Monroe’s motivated sequence, the researchers did not find the method more persuasive, but did note that audience members found the pattern more organized than other methods (Micciche, Pryor, & Butler, 2000). We wanted to add this sidenote because we don’t want you to think that Monroe’s motivated sequence is a kind of magic persuasive bullet; the research simply doesn’t support this notion. At the same time, research does support that organized messages are perceived as more persuasive as a whole, so using Monroe’s motivated sequence to think through one’s persuasive argument could still be very beneficial.

Table 17.1 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence” lists the basic steps of Monroe’s motivated sequence and the subsequent reaction a speaker desires from his or her audience.

Table 17.1 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

The first step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the attention step , in which a speaker attempts to get the audience’s attention. To gain an audience’s attention, we recommend that you think through three specific parts of the attention step. First, you need to have a strong attention-getting device. As previously discussed in Chapter 9 “Introductions Matter: How to Begin a Speech Effectively” , a strong attention getter at the beginning of your speech is very important. Second, you need to make sure you introduce your topic clearly. If your audience doesn’t know what your topic is quickly, they are more likely to stop listening. Lastly, you need to explain to your audience why they should care about your topic.

In the need step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the speaker establishes that there is a specific need or problem. In Monroe’s conceptualization of need, he talks about four specific parts of the need: statement, illustration, ramification, and pointing. First, a speaker needs to give a clear and concise statement of the problem. This part of a speech should be crystal clear for an audience. Second, the speaker needs to provide one or more examples to illustrate the need. The illustration is an attempt to make the problem concrete for the audience. Next, a speaker needs to provide some kind of evidence (e.g., statistics, examples, testimony) that shows the ramifications or consequences of the problem. Lastly, a speaker needs to point to the audience and show exactly how the problem relates to them personally.

Satisfaction

In the third step of Monroe’s motivated sequence, the satisfaction step , the speaker sets out to satisfy the need or solve the problem. Within this step, Monroe (1935) proposed a five-step plan for satisfying a need:

• Explanation
• Theoretical demonstration
• Reference to practical experience
• Meeting objections

First, you need to clearly state the attitude, value, belief, or action you want your audience to accept. The purpose of this statement is to clearly tell your audience what your ultimate goal is.

Second, you want to make sure that you clearly explain to your audience why they should accept the attitude, value, belief, or action you proposed. Just telling your audience they should do something isn’t strong enough to actually get them to change. Instead, you really need to provide a solid argument for why they should accept your proposed solution.

Third, you need to show how the solution you have proposed meets the need or problem. Monroe calls this link between your solution and the need a theoretical demonstration because you cannot prove that your solution will work. Instead, you theorize based on research and good judgment that your solution will meet the need or solve the problem.

Fourth, to help with this theoretical demonstration, you need to reference practical experience, which should include examples demonstrating that your proposal has worked elsewhere. Research, statistics, and expert testimony are all great ways of referencing practical experience.

Lastly, Monroe recommends that a speaker respond to possible objections. As a persuasive speaker, one of your jobs is to think through your speech and see what counterarguments could be made against your speech and then rebut those arguments within your speech. When you offer rebuttals for arguments against your speech, it shows your audience that you’ve done your homework and educated yourself about multiple sides of the issue.

Visualization

The next step of Monroe’s motivated sequence is the visualization step , in which you ask the audience to visualize a future where the need has been met or the problem solved. In essence, the visualization stage is where a speaker can show the audience why accepting a specific attitude, value, belief, or behavior can positively affect the future. When helping people to picture the future, the more concrete your visualization is, the easier it will be for your audience to see the possible future and be persuaded by it. You also need to make sure that you clearly show how accepting your solution will directly benefit your audience.

According to Monroe, visualization can be conducted in one of three ways: positive, negative, or contrast (Monroe, 1935). The positive method of visualization is where a speaker shows how adopting a proposal leads to a better future (e.g., recycle, and we’ll have a cleaner and safer planet). Conversely, the negative method of visualization is where a speaker shows how not adopting the proposal will lead to a worse future (e.g., don’t recycle, and our world will become polluted and uninhabitable). Monroe also acknowledged that visualization can include a combination of both positive and negative visualization. In essence, you show your audience both possible outcomes and have them decide which one they would rather have.

The final step in Monroe’s motivated sequence is the action step , in which a speaker asks an audience to approve the speaker’s proposal. For understanding purposes, we break action into two distinct parts: audience action and approval. Audience action refers to direct physical behaviors a speaker wants from an audience (e.g., flossing their teeth twice a day, signing a petition, wearing seat belts). Approval, on the other hand, involves an audience’s consent or agreement with a speaker’s proposed attitude, value, or belief.

When preparing an action step, it is important to make sure that the action, whether audience action or approval, is realistic for your audience. Asking your peers in a college classroom to donate one thousand dollars to charity isn’t realistic. Asking your peers to donate one dollar is considerably more realistic. In a persuasive speech based on Monroe’s motivated sequence, the action step will end with the speech’s concluding device. As discussed elsewhere in this text, you need to make sure that you conclude in a vivid way so that the speech ends on a high point and the audience has a sense of energy as well as a sense of closure.

Now that we’ve walked through Monroe’s motivated sequence, let’s look at how you could use Monroe’s motivated sequence to outline a persuasive speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that the United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments.

Main Points:

• Attention: Want to make nine thousand dollars for just three weeks of work lying around and not doing much? Then be a human guinea pig. Admittedly, you’ll have to have a tube down your throat most of those three weeks, but you’ll earn three thousand dollars a week.
• Need: Every day many uneducated and lower socioeconomic-status citizens are preyed on by medical and pharmaceutical companies for use in for-profit medical and drug experiments. Do you want one of your family members to fall prey to this evil scheme?
• Satisfaction: The United States should have stronger laws governing the use of for-profit medical experiments to ensure that uneducated and lower-socioeconomic-status citizens are protected.
• Visualization: If we enact tougher experiment oversight, we can ensure that medical and pharmaceutical research is conducted in a way that adheres to basic values of American decency. If we do not enact tougher experiment oversight, we could find ourselves in a world where the lines between research subject, guinea pig, and patient become increasingly blurred.
• Action: In order to prevent the atrocities associated with for-profit medical and pharmaceutical experiments, please sign this petition asking the US Department of Health and Human Services to pass stricter regulations on this preying industry that is out of control.

This example shows how you can take a basic speech topic and use Monroe’s motivated sequence to clearly and easily outline your speech efficiently and effectively.

Table 17.2 “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist” also contains a simple checklist to help you make sure you hit all the important components of Monroe’s motivated sequence.

Table 17.2 Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Checklist

Problem-Cause-Solution

Another format for organizing a persuasive speech is the problem-cause-solution format. In this specific format, you discuss what a problem is, what you believe is causing the problem, and then what the solution should be to correct the problem.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my classroom peers that our campus should adopt a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech.

• Demonstrate that there is distrust among different groups on campus that has led to unnecessary confrontations and violence.
• Show that the confrontations and violence are a result of hate speech that occurred prior to the events.
• Explain how instituting a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy against hate speech could stop the unnecessary confrontations and violence.

In this speech, you want to persuade people to support a new campus-wide policy calling for zero-tolerance of hate speech. Once you have shown the problem, you then explain to your audience that the cause of the unnecessary confrontations and violence is prior incidents of hate speech. Lastly, you argue that a campus-wide zero-tolerance policy could help prevent future unnecessary confrontations and violence. Again, this method of organizing a speech is as simple as its name: problem-cause-solution.

Comparative Advantages

The final method for organizing a persuasive speech is called the comparative advantages speech format. The goal of this speech is to compare items side-by-side and show why one of them is more advantageous than the other. For example, let’s say that you’re giving a speech on which e-book reader is better: Amazon.com’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. Here’s how you could organize this speech:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the Nook is more advantageous than the Kindle.

• The Nook allows owners to trade and loan books to other owners or people who have downloaded the Nook software, while the Kindle does not.
• The Nook has a color-touch screen, while the Kindle’s screen is black and grey and noninteractive.
• The Nook’s memory can be expanded through microSD, while the Kindle’s memory cannot be upgraded.

As you can see from this speech’s organization, the simple goal of this speech is to show why one thing has more positives than something else. Obviously, when you are demonstrating comparative advantages, the items you are comparing need to be functional equivalents—or, as the saying goes, you cannot compare apples to oranges.

Key Takeaways

• There are three common patterns that persuaders can utilize to help organize their speeches effectively: Monroe’s motivated sequence, problem-cause-solution, and comparative advantage. Each of these patterns can effectively help a speaker think through his or her thoughts and organize them in a manner that will be more likely to persuade an audience.
• Alan H. Monroe’s (1935) motivated sequence is a commonly used speech format that is used by many people to effectively organize persuasive messages. The pattern consists of five basic stages: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. In the first stage, a speaker gets an audience’s attention. In the second stage, the speaker shows an audience that a need exists. In the third stage, the speaker shows how his or her persuasive proposal could satisfy the need. The fourth stage shows how the future could be if the persuasive proposal is or is not adopted. Lastly, the speaker urges the audience to take some kind of action to help enact the speaker’s persuasive proposal.
• The problem-cause-solution proposal is a three-pronged speech pattern. The speaker starts by explaining the problem the speaker sees. The speaker then explains what he or she sees as the underlying causes of the problem. Lastly, the speaker proposes a solution to the problem that corrects the underlying causes.
• The comparative advantages speech format is utilized when a speaker is comparing two or more things or ideas and shows why one of the things or ideas has more advantages than the other(s).
• Create a speech using Monroe’s motivated sequence to persuade people to recycle.
• Create a speech using the problem-cause-solution method for a problem you see on your college or university campus.
• Create a comparative advantages speech comparing two brands of toothpaste.

German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2010). Principles of public speaking (17th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, p. 236.

Micciche, T., Pryor, B., & Butler, J. (2000). A test of Monroe’s motivated sequence for its effects on ratings of message organization and attitude change. Psychological Reports, 86 , 1135–1138.

Monroe, A. H. (1935). Principles and types of speech . Chicago, IL: Scott Foresman.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Informative Speeches — Types, Topics, and Examples

What is an informative speech?

An informative speech uses descriptions, demonstrations, and strong detail to explain a person, place, or subject. An informative speech makes a complex topic easier to understand and focuses on delivering information, rather than providing a persuasive argument.

Types of informative speeches

The most common types of informative speeches are definition, explanation, description, and demonstration.

A definition speech explains a concept, theory, or philosophy about which the audience knows little. The purpose of the speech is to inform the audience so they understand the main aspects of the subject matter.

An explanatory speech presents information on the state of a given topic. The purpose is to provide a specific viewpoint on the chosen subject. Speakers typically incorporate a visual of data and/or statistics.

The speaker of a descriptive speech provides audiences with a detailed and vivid description of an activity, person, place, or object using elaborate imagery to make the subject matter memorable.

A demonstrative speech explains how to perform a particular task or carry out a process. These speeches often demonstrate the following:

How to do something

How to make something

How to fix something

How something works

How to write an informative speech

Regardless of the type, every informative speech should include an introduction, a hook, background information, a thesis, the main points, and a conclusion.

Introduction

An attention grabber or hook draws in the audience and sets the tone for the speech. The technique the speaker uses should reflect the subject matter in some way (i.e., if the topic is serious in nature, do not open with a joke). Therefore, when choosing an attention grabber, consider the following:

What’s the topic of the speech?

What’s the occasion?

Who’s the audience?

What’s the purpose of the speech?

Common Attention Grabbers (Hooks)

Ask a question that allows the audience to respond in a non-verbal way (e.g., a poll question where they can simply raise their hands) or ask a rhetorical question that makes the audience think of the topic in a certain way yet requires no response.

Incorporate a well-known quote that introduces the topic. Using the words of a celebrated individual gives credibility and authority to the information in the speech.

Offer a startling statement or information about the topic, which is typically done using data or statistics. The statement should surprise the audience in some way.

Provide a brief anecdote that relates to the topic in some way.

Present a “what if” scenario that connects to the subject matter of the speech.

Identify the importance of the speech’s topic.

Starting a speech with a humorous statement often makes the audience more comfortable with the speaker.

Include any background information pertinent to the topic that the audience needs to know to understand the speech in its entirety.

The thesis statement shares the central purpose of the speech.

Demonstrate

Preview the main ideas that will help accomplish the central purpose. Typically, informational speeches will have an average of three main ideas.

Body paragraphs

Apply the following to each main idea (body) :

Identify the main idea ( NOTE: The main points of a demonstration speech would be the individual steps.)

Provide evidence to support the main idea

Explain how the evidence supports the main idea/central purpose

Transition to the next main idea

Review or restate the thesis and the main points presented throughout the speech.

Much like the attention grabber, the closing statement should interest the audience. Some of the more common techniques include a challenge, a rhetorical question, or restating relevant information:

Provide the audience with a challenge or call to action to apply the presented information to real life.

Detail the benefit of the information.

Close with an anecdote or brief story that illustrates the main points.

Leave the audience with a rhetorical question to ponder after the speech has concluded.

Detail the relevance of the presented information.

Before speech writing, brainstorm a list of informative speech topic ideas. The right topic depends on the type of speech, but good topics can range from video games to disabilities and electric cars to healthcare and mental health.

Informative speech topics

Some common informative essay topics for each type of informational speech include the following:

Informative speech examples

The following list identifies famous informational speeches:

“Duties of American Citizenship” by Theodore Roosevelt

“Duty, Honor, Country” by General Douglas MacArthur

“Strength and Dignity” by Theodore Roosevelt

Explanation

“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry

“The Decision to Go to the Moon” by John F. Kennedy

“We Shall Fight on the Beaches” by Winston Churchill

Description

“I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Pearl Harbor Address” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Luckiest Man” by Lou Gehrig

Demonstration

The Way to Cook with Julia Child

This Old House with Bob Vila

Bill Nye the Science Guy with Bill Nye