Sp Cm 212 Fundamentals of Public Speaking
Preparation Outline
Lecture 4W
The Informative Speech; The responsibility to say something worth hearing
Welcome to Unit 2! The first unit of this course, in the first few weeks, were meant to get you
on your feet, introduce you and your classmates to each other, and to get you familiar with how
this course works. Having succeeded at that, it's now time to get down to the real work of this
course: creating speeches. As you recall, the overall goal of the course is that in ten years you
will be giving great speeches. The overall goal of this unit is for you in two weeks to be giving a
good Informative Speech.
You can find exact details of assignment in the Workbook. Today, I want to focus on the big
picture—your basic responsibilities as an Informative speaker.
I. An informative speaker has an important role in our society.
A. The basic task of an informative speaker is to be a teacher.
1. Some of you are planning on being teachers!
2. But all of us are going to function like teachers at least at some points in our
lives and careers. In fact, the very idea of going to college is to gain knowledge,
so you can share it with others and make the world a better place.
B. An informative speaker has three responsibilities:
1. To say something worth hearing. You owe your audience sound information.
2. To say it in a way that it can be understood. You owe your audience clear
organization.
3. To say it in a way that it will be understood. You it to your audience to engage
them in your topic.
Preview:
2. A review of where we've been & preview of what's to come.
3. The first responsibility of an informative speaker: sound information.
4. Practice analysis for test.
Before starting with today's topic, let's briefly review where we have come, and where we're
going.
II. In this unit, we will be carrying over the basic skills of unit 1, and applying them to the
challenging tasks of analyzing, evaluating, and creating Informative speeches.
A. Concepts we'll be carrying over from the previous unit include GP, SP, CI,
Invention/Organization/Style/Memory/Delivery, CARRP, conclusions and connectives.
B. This unit is meant to put you in a position to give your informative speech.
1. We'll start with a series of three lecture sessions on the three responsibilities of
the informative speaker.
2. Next will come test 1.
3. There will also be a lab session to practice delivery, and another to workshop
your informative speech.
C. Test 1 will be a challenging assessment of your skills.
1. For test 1, you'll listen to a speech, discuss it in your group, listen again, and
then answer 5 Analysis Questions about it.
2. All 10 possible Analysis Questions are now online: check them out!
3. This test is meant to focus you on high level skills: Analyzing and Evaluating
real speeches.
a. Expect it to be challenging! We'll be practicing in lecture, and you
should practice on your own as well, as individuals and as a group.
b. If you need "special accommodations," then ask!
(goodwin@iastate.edu). For example, some may need extra time to listen
and write in a language that is not their native language. We can offer
extended time and a lower-distraction environment.
So, let's begin to prepare for Test 1 by considering the Informative Speaker's first duty: to have
something worth hearing.
III. The Informative Speaker's first duty is to say something worth hearing. This is a matter of
Invention in the Informative Speech.
A. Sound information is essential for the Informative Speech.
1. If you don't know what you're talking about, it doesn't matter how good your
speaking skills are.
2. Unfortunately, I've even seen college professors lack the knowledge they need
(story).
3. There are three steps to meeting your responsibility.
a. Choose a great topic.
b. Rely on sound sources of information.
c. Develop the information fully.
B. Choosing a great topic is key to giving a great speech.
1. If you're not engaged, interested and knowledgeable about your informative
speech topic, why should your audience be? For help, see "Your Topic-Your
Self."
2. By report from the lab instructors, some of the same PP topics were both the
best and the weakest—like "living off campus/living on campus." It depends on
the passion with which the students approached them.
3. In general, the only bad topics are the ones you aren't interested in. All other
topics have their own challenges.
EXERCISE.
Second exercise?
4. Reminder: Your topic is due next Monday!
C. After a great topic, the next thing you need is solid research.
1. We will be discussing good research in more detail in the next unit.
Meanwhile: use your common sense! A source of information is good when:
a. You can figure out who is responsible for the information.
b. That source knows what it's talking about.
c. That source is honest and unbiased.
Demonstration?
2. Remember, you are required to use at least 3 different and strong sources for
this speech.
3. It's vital not just to have strong sources, but to let your audience know you
have them.
a. Citing your sources will confirm your credibility on your topic.
b. Citing our sources will prevent any suspicion of plagiarism.
4. To cite your sources, identify the source, and then consider adding information
about who this person or group is, when the information was published, and
where you found it. (Examples.)
D. Finally, you need to develop your ideas fully.
1. This is hard to describe, but relatively easy to spot when you're listening
carefully.
2. An information-poor speech is like a grocery list: it just goes through a series
of items without developing any one in detail.
3. An information-dense speech is like a good novel: it is detailed, coherent,
vivid—it creates a world for you to step into.
So, now we've reviewed the informative speaker's first responsibility; let's put these ideas to
work in analyzing a sample speech, just like on the test.
IV. A partial analysis of a sample speech will help you prepare for the exam.
A. Today we will focus in on five of the 10 Analysis Questions:
1. The Introduction/Conclusion and Sources, plus
2. The two final evaluation questions—one, the other, or both of those will be on
the test.
B. A good response is accurate, detailed and in correct form.
1. Use course concepts.
2. Use details from the speech.
3. Notice gaps, and fill them.
C. The final two questions call for good judgment.
1. What is most important? Think about the speaker's three responsibilities.
2. Only say one thing, and explain it in detail.
3. The lab instructors and I will assess the speech as well, and come up with the
three most important things we think the speaker needs to hear; you need to get
one of the three.
ANALYSIS EXERCISE
Topic exercise?
So today we've considered the speaker's first responsibility: to say something worth hearing.
Next time, we move on to the second responsibility: to say something clearly enough and with
good enough organization that it can be heard.