Page 386 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 13 Informative Speaking 353

impeached—his affair with an intern and his alleged perjury about the relation-
ship. When the impeachment was dominating the news, to talk only about the

reasons offered in support of Clinton’s removal from office would undoubtedly
have been controversial. Further, the audience would probably not learn any-
thing new, since one could hardly turn on the TV or glance at a newspaper
without seeing a story about the topic. Such a speech would have been seen as a
persuasive message designed to move the audience to support the impeachment.
By 2008, few college students would have much detailed knowledge or strong
attitudes about the topic, having been in about third grade in 1998. With the
outcome no longer in doubt, the controversy would now be irrelevant to most
students. Thus, essentially the same speech would likely be seen as simply an
informative presentation of historical data. This example illustrates that know-
ing the audience’s prior level of knowledge and attitudes about the topic help us
adapt a speech to fulfi ll either persuasive or informative purposes.

Informative Speaking

Throughout the Life Span

Informative speaking is probably the form of public speaking you’re most likely
to be called on to do throughout your life. One of the chief reasons is that infor-
mative speaking is used in so many settings, including the classroom, the work-
place, and the community.

Informative Speaking in the Classroom

Two time-honored traditions in the college classroom are the term paper and the
oral report. Although most students have at least passing familiarity with the el-
ements of a good term paper, many students don’t make the connection between
the elements of a good oral report and the process of informative speaking.
An oral report basically is an informative speech. Thus, by putting to use
what you know about informative speaking, you will be able to give oral reports
that are both substantively and stylistically more effective than those of your
classmates.
Viewing the oral report as an opportunity to speak informatively has sev-
eral advantages. First, it provides you with an organizational framework for con-
structing your report. Second, it reminds you that you have an audience for your
report whose background and perceptual reality must be taken into account.
Finally, it forces you to think about how relevant the information in your report
is to both your instructor and student colleagues.

Informative Speaking in the Workplace

No matter what you plan on doing to make a living, the odds are great that you
will need to make informative presentations. Although you won’t necessarily
have to speak to large numbers of people, you can reasonably expect to speak