Informative Speeches and
The Six Cs of Public Speaking
What is an Informative Speech?
• An informative speech is a “just the facts
approach” to communicating with an audience
• You are NOT trying to convince someone,
change someone’s mind, or motivate someone
• Your goal is to educate your audience (Give
them more knowledge)
The Six Cs of Public Speaking (all types)
• Be Clear
• Be Concise
• Be Complete
• Be Correct
• Be Concrete
• Connect with your Audience (very crucial)
Be Clear…
• Being clear is not always easy
• Make sure that you are defining any words, or
JARGON, that your audience may not
understand
• Definitions create a common ground between
the speaker and the listener
• Don’t use TOO MANY definitions though
• Use the right words for the right meaning
Be Concise…
• Don’t be redundant; don’t be redundant (ha!)
• If you can get your point across with only 50
words, rather than 150, then use 50
• MAKE EACH WORD COUNT
• Use precise and specific language
• Increase your word power, but don’t be wordy
Be Complete
• You cannot cover all the possible material, but
you can cover the important stuff
• If your audience is expecting you to talk about
x, y, and z, then you better talk about x, y, and
z!!
• If you tell your audience you are going to talk
about something, then by all means talk about
it!
• Your speech should not have any missing
parts…YOUR AUDIENCE WILL KNOW
• Don’t do something contrary to what your
audience is expecting…Why?
•
•
Also make sure you have a plan and your
audience knows you have a plan (Preview
Statement)
STICK TO YOUR PLAN (thesis and preview
statement)!!
Be Correct
• Accuracy is the bedrock of an ethical speech
• Your credibility as a speaker is very dependent
upon your ability to be accurate
• Tell your audience where you found things so
they know that you are being accurate
• Verbal citations show PROOF – USE THEM!
Be Concrete
• Focus on the immediate and the actual
• Talk in terms of people, places, and things
• Be specific – If you are going to talk about
basketball then focus your speech down to a
single player, or a team
• The careful speaker always supports a general
statement with a concrete statement
Ex: There are many amazing basketball
players…Michael Jordan was one such player
• Concrete examples contain physical details
• Never let a general statement stand alone
Connect
• This requires you to analyze the people in your
audience
• As speakers we have to put ourselves in the
shoes of our audience members (empathy)
• Study your audience’s social, economic, and
cultural characteristics
To Connect, Ask Yourself the Following:
• What makes me want to listen to someone
talk/give a speech?
• How do I feel when someone has not taken the
time to prepare something high quality for me?
• What might my audience believe/already know
about my topic?
• What might their attitude be towards this
subject/topic?