Speech Ch.13 terms

Speeches about Events

An event is a significant occurrence you experience personally or otherwise know about. An event can take place in the past, present, or future. It does not necessarily have to occur in public: Important personal or family activities and occurrences like the birth of a child, weddings, or reunions can be events, too. Some events, such as concert tours, holiday rituals, fairs, and athletic contests, take place repeatedly. To call something an event gives it a special status and makes this category of informative speeches appealing to public speakers and their audiences.

Speeches about Objects and Places

An object is any nonliving, material thing that the human senses can perceive. Places are geographic locations.

Which characteristic of competent informative speaking often presents the greatest challenge for speakers?

Clarity is often the biggest challenge for speakers.

In an informative speech, you try to convince your audience to believe or do something.

False

The topical pattern is not recommended for speeches about concepts and ideas.

False

Speeches about Ideas and Concepts

Mental activity produces ideas and concepts, which include thoughts, understandings, beliefs, notions, or principles. Ideas and concepts tend to be abstract rather than concrete. However, over time, an idea or concept may be actualized in the physical world and thus become more concrete.

Gatewatching

Monitoring news sources to analyze and assess the information they produce.

informative speaking

Presenting a speech in which the speaker seeks to deepen understanding, raise awareness, or increase knowledge about a topic. Is Personally Meaningful.Is Clear

The Cause-and-Effect Pattern

The cause-and-effect pattern shows how an action produces a particular outcome. This pattern works well with informative speeches about events—after all, events happen for a reason.

The Chronological Pattern

The chronological pattern allows you to explain how someone or something has developed over a period of time. With this pattern, you highlight the importance of each step in that development. This pattern works well with informative speeches about objects and places, people and other living creatures, and processes. Limit your number of main points to no more than four. In the following example, the chronological pattern is used to describe the stages in the life cycle of a living creature.

The Narrative Pattern

The narrative pattern allows you to retell events as a story or a series of short stories. This pattern works best with informative speeches about objects, places, people, or other living creatures. The narrative pattern has much in common with the chronological pattern but more strongly emphasizes the dramatic unfolding of events, as in this speech about an object.

The Spatial Pattern

The spatial pattern allows you to describe the physical or directional relationship between objects or places. This pattern works well with informative speeches about objects, places, people, or other living creatures. For example, if your specific purpose is to highlight certain locations, areas, or spaces in a particular place, use a spatial pattern of organization, as in the following example.

A speech entitled "The Most Popular Zombie Movies" is likely to be which kind of informative speech?

This speech is most likely to be about objects and places.

Which of the following represents a specific purpose of an informative speech about processes?

To educate my audience about the tactics and techniques of fighting wildfires.

Almost anything that is important or interesting to you can be made important or interesting to an audience.

True

During a speech, listeners act as gatewatchers, expecting speakers to present accurate information based on legitimate resources.

True

Enriching your speech with personal meaning is the first quality you need to satisfy as an informative speaker.

True

For a speech about an event, the event does not necessarily need to take place in public but could include personal activities and occurrences.

True

If you are giving an informative speech about how voting rights have changed over the past 100 years, a chronological pattern would be useful.

True

One strategy for reducing distance between speakers and audiences is for the speaker to explain how audiences may benefit from learning about the subject of the speech.

True

The chronological speaking pattern works well with informative speeches about processes.

True

The Topical Pattern

When using the topical pattern, you divide your topic into subtopics that address the components, elements, or aspects of the topic. Almost any informative speech topic can be organized using this pattern, in which the subtopics become the main points of the speech. For example, when you simply want your audience to understand a process, use the topical pattern to describe the main features of the process.

If you want to give a speech about how activists in your town worked to change a law, what organizational pattern could you use?

You could use a cause-and-effect organizational pattern for this speech.

The five common types of informative speeches

objects and places, people and other living creatures, processes, events, and ideas and concepts.

Which of the following organizational patterns is NOT appropriate for an informative speech?

problem-solution

Speeches about Processes

process—how something is done, how it works, or how it has developed—facilitates an audience's understanding of the process or explains how audience members can engage in the process themselves.

A speech entitled "The Montgomery Bus Boycotts" about the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 is likely to be which kind of informative speech?

speeches about events

A speech about the beliefs of the American Indian Movement entitled "The Meaning of Red Power" is likely to be which kind of informative speech?

speeches about ideas and concepts

A speech entitled "Contemporary Female Comedians" is likely to be which kind of informative speech?

speeches about people

A speech entitled "How to Prepare Sushi at Home" is likely to be which kind of informative speech?

speeches about processes

The phrase "True tarantulas are not deadly to humans, usually live long lives, and make great pets" represents which aspect of an informative speech?

thesis statement