Informative Speech
What is an Informative Speech?
The overall goal of an informative speech is to share ideas with an audience. Rather than
view informative and persuasive speaking as dichotomous it is more useful to think about
a range of purposes. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell in The Rhetorical Act (1982) provides the
following spectrum of purposes:
|____________|___________|____________|___________|____________|________….
Creating
Altering
Explaining
Formulating Initiating
Maintaining
Virtual
Perception
Belief
Action
Action
Experience
The informative speech concentrates on the purposes of creating virtual experience,
altering perception, and explaining. Of course, for a persuasive speech these purposes
may be important as foundation for formulating belief, initiating an action, and
maintaining action purposes. It is important that you are able to distinguish between
informative and persuasive purposes and strategies and not give a persuasive speech to
fulfill the informative assignment.
For the informative speech you will be asked to choose a country/culture. You will then
take a certain aspect(s) of that country/culture and inform the audience about those
aspects. Some examples include government/law issues, holidays/special events,
historical moments, marriage/dating issues, collectivist/individualist, and communication
issues. You are also allowed to look at co-cultures (e.g- Homosexuality, gender
differences, disabilities, etc.). (Note: It is up to you to show us, the audience, that your
topic is significant. You will need to choose a specific situation that you are speaking in,
which should help you decide how to frame the significance of your speech).
Our goals for this speech are as follows:
 to understand the different informative goals and be able to enact them singly and
in combination to respond to various rhetorical situations;
 to understand the different informative strategies and be able to enact them singly
and in combination in a speech;
 to understand the importance of research, be able to find appropriate support
materials, be able to use supporting materials strategically, and be able to cite
supporting materials appropriately within the speech; and
 to understand the importance of organization, arrange the main ideas in an
appropriate pattern, develop meaningful introductions, conclusions and
transitions.
Requirements for the speech:
REMEMBER YOUR DVD TAPE!!
 Time limit is 5-6 minutes (Note: you will lose 1 point for every 15 seconds you
are over or under the time limit).
 The focus of this speech will be on informative strategies, organization and
outlining, and topic development, significance, and research.
 Extemporaneous delivery is required.
 Visual aid is optional.
 Topic Assignment (DUE: Tuesday 9/18)
 A working or rough outline is required. (DUE: Tuesday 9/25)
 A final outline with bibliography (Note: You will need to have a minimum of 3
scholarly sources. You will need a total of 6 sources). Your Final outline is
DUE: Thursday 10/4. Your speaking outline will be due the day that you present
your speech.
Self-Evaluations are due the class after you speak