Page 388 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 13 Informative Speaking 355

or (e) all of the above? Because the public speaking transaction is an interdepen-
dent system, the answer, of course, is (e) all of the above.
Research over the past two decades suggests that the likelihood of an audi-
ence’s perceiving information as relevant and conducive to learning depends sig-
nifi cantly on the degree to which they fi nd it involving, appropriate, accessible,
and potentially life enriching. 4

Audience Involvement

Information is worthless unless people pay attention to it. As with any speech,
informative speeches need to be audience involving. The history of the
audience involving
world is full of examples of great ideas, practices, and products that failed be-
Informative topic and
cause no one paid much attention to them. One of the fi rst things we’ll want to
speech that succeeds in
ensure, then, is that our topic and speech get the audience involved. gaining the audience’s
Novelty is the quality of being new and stimulating. It can be useful in gain- attention.
ing an audience’s interest. Just as plants are heliotropic, we human beings are
stimulatropic. Whereas plants continuously orient themselves toward the Sun to
activate the process of photosynthesis, we continually orient ourselves toward
new sources of stimulation.
Although novelty alone is not enough to sustain an informative speech, it cer-
tainly can make a speech more effective. Time and again, research has docu-
mented the fact that the perception of novelty heightens selective exposure, selec-
tive attention, and selective retention of information. In other words, people are
likely to seek out, pay attention to, and remember novel information. The most
obvious way to get the benefi t of novelty in an informative speech is to choose a
topic that is new for the audience. We are much more likely to captivate the audi-
ence members with the unfamiliar than with the mundane. Novelty, however,
shouldn’t be confused with the obscure. For example, whereas computer soft-
ware for accountancy probably would be an obscure topic for most audiences,
the fact that the software could save us money on our income taxes might be a
novel topic.
Another way to use novelty to our advantage is in the construction of the
message. Even though the rule of thumb is to structure a speech so that the au-
dience can predict what comes next, this is not an unbending rule. Sometimes
it is to our advantage to violate the expectancies of an audience. Writers, for
example, sometimes begin with a story’s end and then backtrack. Similarly, a
skilled speaker could start a speech with what normally would be considered its
conclusion and build backward. You may recall this is exactly what the storytell-
ing speech by Montana Kellmer did in Chapter 2.
Novelty in our delivery can work to our advantage when speaking informa-
tively. Audiences, for instance, generally are accustomed to speakers who are
relatively stationary. Movement may add needed novelty to our presentation. In
addition, some of our suggestions about the nonverbal dynamics of delivery in
Chapter 11 will help introduce novelty to a presentation.
Finally, for an audience to become fully involved with an informative speech,
they need to fi nd it enjoyable. One of the most involving experiences of a visit
to a national park, for example, is to go on a guided tour with a knowledgeable
guide who can inform us with facts and anecdotes we might not otherwise learn,
as Yosemite Tour Guide Jack Peters points out in the box, “Speaking of . . .
Learning and Enjoyment.”