COMM 001 The Informative Speech
I have the outline already and I just need elaboration
DELIVERY: Your speech must be delivered extemporaneously using one of the approved note methods. See “Practicing your speech” in Modules.
TIME: This speech should be 4 minute with a 30 second leeway. That means if you give a speech between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 minutes you will get full credit for the length of the speech. Time your speech when you practice. Make note ahead of time what information you will cut if I tell you that you have to wrap it up because you are going overtime.
Here is a brief reminder of the four part speech:
PART #1
INTRODUCTION
Attention getter/hook: Do or say something to get the attention of your audience. Be sure that it leads into the speech and is appropriate to the setting and to the audience.
Audience Adaptation: This is where you convince your audience in just a few sentences or even a few words why they should care about this topic. How is it relevant to them? Here is where you need to be careful of assumptions. Don’t assume your audience has your same understanding of the topic or the same interest. Be careful of using too much jaron or acronyms if you know more than the audience on this topic. And if you do need to use some terminology–be sure to define up front.
Credibility: So you’ve got your audience attention and convinced them they should care about this topic. Now you need to convince them why they should listen to YOU on this topic. Avoid the temptation to stretch the truth here. Not only is lying unethical but if you are caught in just one lie your credibility on the entire speech is now in jeopardy.
Preview of Mainpoints: Here you list your mainpoints. Be specific. Don’t just say “I’ll talk about the two things…aspects…steps.” etc. Actually say what the two things or aspects are. Even in short speeches this helps your audience stay in sync with where you’re going.
PART #2:
PROPOSITION
Be sure that you have a clear proposition that is appropriate to the assignment. Remember this is the “umbrella” for your entire speech. So be sure you consider how broad or narrow you want your topic to be as you consider your proposition.
PART #3
BODY
Mainpoints: You should have a minimum of two for balance. In this class unless your mainpoints are very short you will not have the time to have more than three. The purpose of mainpoints is to “chunk” the main portion of your speech so that you give your information to the audience in smaller, digestible portions. “Chunking” also makes the information more memorable to the audience.
Subpoints: These always go under a mainpoint, minimum of two per mainpoint. Subpoints elaborate the mainpoints. Depending on the speech subpoints could be examples, stories, explanation, statistics and more.
Complete transition: A complete transition goes at the front of the second (and if you have one the third) mainpoint(s). Remember that a “complete” transition will not just reference that there was a previous mainpoint, ie “then” “additionally” “finally.” But rather reference the actual topic of the previous mainpoint. See “sample informative speech outline” doc in modules or files.
PART #4
CONCLUSION
Summary of mainpoints: Here is where you “bookend” with the preview of mainpoints. You again list the mainpoints–be specific. Not just “So now that I’ve shared the three steps…” actually say what the steps were. See sample informative speech outline in modules or files.
Ending: Be sure you have a definite ending to your speech and don’t just trail off or end with an abrupt “thank you.” An easy way to end a speech is to just reword the proposition. You can also reference back to something in the introduction. You could finish the story you started in your attention getter. You could remind the audience of your audience adaptation and so end with why it’s so important for your audience to remember this information. And so on.
