Speech study guid quiz # 6

Distinguish between informative and persuasive speaking and recall three principles to help you make sure that your message stays informative.

Informative: To teach an audience something using objective factual information. Persuasive: goal is for speaker to convince audience of his or her point of view or perform a desired action. Speakers can look to three areas to help determine if their speech is more informative or persuasive: speaker purpose, function of information, and audience perception.

Recall your author's suggestions for applying brainstorming to generate topic ideas and the four "tips" to help you narrow and select.

-Brainstorm topics that you are familiar with, interest you, and/or are currently topics of discussion. -Choose a topic appropriate for the assignment/occasion. -Choose a topic that you can make relevant to your audience. -Choose a topic that you have the resources to research (access to information, people to interview, etc.).

Distinguish between audience attitudes, beliefs, and values, and recall how these variables influence the speaking situation.

A final aspect of psychological audience analysis involves considering the audience's attitudes, beliefs, and values. At the outermost level, attitudes are our likes and dislikes, and they are easier to influence than beliefs or values because they are often reactionary. If you've ever followed the approve

Define "specific purpose statement", recall the qualities they should have, and recognize examples of properly worded specific purpose statements.

An audience-centered specific purpose statement usually contains an explicit reference to the audience. for example, "my audience" or "the audience." Since a speaker may want to see if he or she effectively met his or her specific purpose, the objective should be written in such a way that it could be measured or assessed, and since a speaker actually wants to achieve his or her speech goal, the specific purpose should also be realistic.

Recall strategies to help engage your audience.

As a speaker, you are competing for the attention of your audience against other internal and external stimuli. Getting an audience engaged and then keeping their attention is a challenge for any speaker, but it can be especially difficult when speaking to inform. As was discussed earlier, once you are in the professional world, you will most likely be speaking informatively about topics related to your experience and expertise. Some speakers fall into the trap of thinking that their content knowledge is enough to sustain them through an informative speech or that their position in an organization means that an audience will listen to them and appreciate their information despite their delivery. Content expertise is not enough to be an effective speaker. A person must also have speaking expertise (Verderber, 1991). Effective speakers, even renowned experts, must still translate their wealth of content knowledge into information that is suited for oral transmission, audience centered, and well organized. I'm sure we're all familiar with the stereotype of the absentminded professor or the genius who thinks elegantly in his or her head but can't convey that same elegance verbally. Having well-researched and organized supporting material is an important part of effective informative speaking, but having good content is not enough. Audience members are more likely to stay engaged with a speaker they view as credible. So complementing good supporting material with a practiced and fluent delivery increases credibility and audience engagement. In addition, as we discussed earlier, good informative speakers act as translators of information. Repackaging information into concrete familiar examples is also a strategy for making your speech more engaging. Understanding relies on being able to apply incoming information to life experiences. Repackaging information is also a good way to appeal to different learning styles, as you can present the same content in various ways, which helps reiterate a point. While this strategy is useful with any speech, since the goal of informing is teaching, it makes sense to include a focus on learning within your audience adaptation. There are three main learning styles that help determine how people most effectively receive and process information: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (Fleming, 2012). Visual learners respond well to information presented via visual aids, so repackage information using text, graphics, charts and other media. Public speaking is a good way to present information for auditory learners who process information well when they hear it. Kinesthetic learners are tactile; they like to learn through movement and "doing." Asking for volunteers to help with a demonstration, if appropriate, is a way to involve kinesthetic learners in your speech. You can also have an interactive review activity at the end of a speech, much like many teachers incorporate an activity after a lesson to reinforce the material.

Recall why audience analysis is key for a speaker to achieve his or her speech goal.

Audience analysis is key for a speaker to achieve his or her speech goal. One of the first questions you should ask yourself is "Who is my audience?" Even though you should remain conscious of the differences among audience members, you can also focus on commonalities.

Distinguish between captive and voluntary audiences, the characteristics of each, and how speakers need to adapt to them.

Captive audience: includes people who are required to attend your presentation. Voluntary audience: includes people who have decided to come hear your speech.

Recall the guidelines and different techniques that can be used for informing through definition.

Informing through definition entails defining concepts clearly and concisely and is an important skill for informative speaking. There are several ways a speaker can inform through definition: synonyms and antonyms, use or function, example, and etymology. Defining a concept using a synonym or an antonym is a short and effective way to convey meaning. Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meanings, and antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. In a speech about how to effectively inform an audience, I would claim that using concrete words helps keep an audience engaged.

Recall the guidelines and different techniques that can be used for informing through description. (Scroll down to Informing Through Explanation)

Informing through description entails creating verbal pictures for your audience. Description is also an important part of informative speeches that use a spatial organizational pattern, since you need to convey the layout of a space or concept. Good descriptions are based on good observations, as they convey what is taken in through the senses and answer these type of questions: What did that look like? Smell like? Sound like? Feel like? Taste like? If descriptions are vivid and well written, they can actually invoke a sensory reaction in your audience. Just as your mouth probably begins to salivate when I suggest that you imagine biting into a fresh, bright yellow, freshly cut, juicy lemon wedge, so can your audience be transported to a setting or situation through your descriptions. I once had a student set up his speech about the history of streaking by using the following description: "Imagine that you are walking across campus to your evening class. You look up to see a parade of hundreds upon hundreds of your naked peers jogging by wearing little more than shoes."

Recall the guidelines and different techniques that can be used for informing through explanation.

Informing through explanation entails sharing how something works, how something came to be, or why something happened. This method of informing may be useful when a topic is too complex or abstract to demonstrate. When presenting complex information make sure to break the topic up into manageable units, avoid information overload, and include examples that make the content relevant to the audience.

Define information overload, recall the various things that create it, and ways to ensure that you do not let it happen in your speech.

Many informative speakers have a tendency to pack a ten-minute speech with as much information as possible. This can result in information overload, which is a barrier to effective listening that occurs when a speech contains more information than an audience can process.

Recall the guidelines that are suggested for researching an informative speech topic.

Since informative speaking is supposed to convey factual information, speakers should take care to find sources that are objective, balanced, and credible. Periodicals, books, newspapers, and credible websites can all be useful sources for informative speeches. Aside from finding credible and objective sources, informative speakers also need to take time to find engaging information. This is where sharp research skills are needed to cut through all the typical information that comes up in the research process to find novel information. Novel information is atypical or unexpected, but it takes more skill and effort to locate. Even seemingly boring informative speech topics like the history of coupons can be brought to life with information that defies the audience's

Recall why speakers should consider audience demographics in preparation for a speech.

Since you are always going to have diverse demographics among your audience members, it would be unwise to focus solely on one group over another. As a speaker, being aware of diverse demographics is useful in that you can tailor and vary examples to appeal to different groups of people.

Recall how an audience's perception of a speaker's credibility can impact a speaking situation and ways that you can boost speaker credibility.

The audience may or may not have preconceptions about you as a speaker. One way to positively engage your audience is to make sure you establish your credibility. In terms of credibility, you want the audience to see you as competent, trustworthy, and engaging. If the audience is already familiar with you, they may already see you as a credible speaker because they've seen you speak before, have heard other people evaluate you positively, or know that you have credentials and/or experience that make you competent. If you know you have a reputation that isn't as positive, you will want to work hard to overcome those perceptions. To establish your trustworthiness, you want to incorporate good supporting material into your speech, verbally cite sources, and present information and arguments in a balanced, noncoercive, and nonmanipulative way.

Recall the goal of informative speaking.

The goal of informative speaking is to teach an audience something using objective factual information.

Recall the three general purposes for speeches and distinguish between them through examples.

To inform, persuade, entertain.

Define "thesis statement", recall the qualities they should have, and recognize examples of properly worded thesis statements.

Your thesis statement is a one-sentence summary of the central idea of your speech that you either explain or defend. First, the thesis statement is content centered, while the specific purpose statement is audience centered. Second, the thesis statement is incorporated into the spoken portion of your speech, while the specific purpose serves as a guide for your research and writing and an objective that you can measure. A good thesis statement is declarative, agrees with the general and specific purposes, and focuses and narrows your topic.

Recall the specific variables that should be considered in psychological audience analysis with regard to an audience's knowledge about a topic.

audience may or may not have preconceptions about you as a speaker. One way to positively engage your audience is to make sure you establish your credibility. In terms of credibility, you want the audience to see you as competent, trustworthy, and engaging. If the audience is already familiar with you, they may already see you as a credible speaker because they've seen you speak before, have heard other people evaluate you positively, or know that you have credentials and/or experience that make you competent.