Demonstration Speeches
Definition
A demonstration speech, also known as a how-to speech, is a type of informative speech, which pursues a practical
goal of instructing the audience how to perform an action easily and effectively.
Characteristics
A demonstration speech is complex. The speaker combines verbal explanations, visual aids and practical showing. A
demonstration speech can teach how to acquire a skill, accomplish some procedure, and understand the nature of a
process.
Topic Selection (teacher approval is required)
1) When considering a topic for your demonstrative speech, think about what special skills you have or what
activities you are involved in that might be of interest to others.
2) Choose a topic that will be useful for your audience.
3) Choose a topic that is easy for all of your audience members to understand.
4) Choose a topic that is free of jargon (does not require a great deal of specialized terminology or skill).
5) Do not choose a topic that is too complex, like making a computer program. Your audience will quickly become
disinterested.
6) Do not choose a topic that is too simple, like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Your audience will also
disconnect from what you are saying.
7) Do not choose a topic that disconnects the audience from your speech. Find a balance between what you are
physically doing and what you are saying. Do not choose a topic that is overly physical and may cause you to be
unable to describe the process you are completing.
Preparation
Careful preparatory research should precede the writing of a demonstration speech. The speaker should be able to
answer the following:
1) Will the group be interested in the topic? In case the answer is negative, the speaker should think over some
additional attention-getters such as visuals aids, testimonies and/or statistics to justify the importance of learning
the skill or concept;
2) Is the process of learning the skill properly timed? Be sure that the topic is something that can be achieved within
the time limit. To speed things up, you can have several versions of your visuals in various stages of production.
For example, rather than showing us how to hot-glue each of 300 sequins on a widget, show us how to glue a few,
then move on to the next process using a widget that you have prepared in advance with 300 sequins already glued
to it.
3) Is the audience prepared for learning the skill? Do they have the proper background knowledge to effectively
learn the skill or concept? If not, what form of support or knowledge can be offered to supplement the audience’s
learning.
4) Which are the hardest and the easiest stages of learning the skill? Be sure to plan accordingly (time, detail and
emphasis).
Requirements
1) Length: 5 minutes
2) Logical and Simplistic: speech is dedicated to learning the most effective way to fulfill a task
3) Definite Ending Point: task is fully completed
4) Visual Support: must incorporate a visual aid(s)
5) If you involve the audience, it needs to be appropriate and capable to be done by everyone.
Due Dates
Full-Sentence Outline
Note Cards
Speech
Self-Evaluation
Additional Information
This original, factual speech is designed to demonstrate the steps of a physical activity using concrete procedures. Much of our
daily exchange of messages involves explaining a process. We explain how to do something, how to make something, or how
something works. We give instructions, we share ideas; we discuss how something operates. In this speech, you will not only
explain a physical process, but simultaneously show the process using visual aids. It is not easy to work with your hands and
verbally explain the process at the same time. But, it is a valuable skill.
In this speech, you will attempt to provide worthwhile information to your audience. The physical process you demonstrate
should be relatively new to most of your audience. It should not be something they could easily figure out for themselves.
Remember that your goal in any speech is to give something of value to your audience.
You are required to use visual aids as part of your speech. Your visuals will be graded on appearance, clarity, variety, how well
they support the content of your speech and integration of visuals into your presentation. You will not be allowed to draw on the
chalkboard during your presentation. Have your visuals prepared in advance.
Giving a demonstration speech can be a lot more nerve racking than any other type of speech. Unlike a casual or formal speech,
when something goes wrong it often times slows down the entire speech or brings it to a halt, which can be a bone chilling
experience filled with anxiety. There are numerous things you should and shouldn’t do while giving a demonstration speech and
sticking to the fashion in which you give a casual speech usually ends in a somewhat lackluster performance. With a basic
foundation in public speaking, giving a demonstration speech is a piece of cake.
The preparation process for giving a demonstration speech is similar to that of a regular presentation. It’s important to
spend a great deal of time organizing your thoughts and what exactly you want to say. In order to do this, it’s
important to decide on one concrete goal and work towards that through your entire speech. If you choose something
such as showing how to use a word processor, then all of your information should be related to the subject and
somehow helping someone accomplish the goal of using a word processor. The next step during presentation is
practice, a lot. Run through the exact things you are going to be demonstrating over and over again and also take note
of where you make mistakes. Making a mistake during a demonstration speech is much more difficult to recover from
due to the fact you have to reset your demonstration or fix it. If you don’t take note of where you’re making errors, if
and when it does come up during the real thing, you’ll look highly unprofessional having to take a moment to think
the problem through. A demonstration speech relies heavily on preparation and practice.
While the actual speech during a demonstration speech is important, it’s much less important than the actual
preparation. Some things to remember while giving the speech is to always make sure what you’re doing is clear and
also visible to the audience. Often times an audience won’t speak up when then don’t understand or they can’t see, so
it becomes your job to be sure that everything is clear and visible. You can make sure the audience is included either
by being incredibly careful on how you operate and visually checking every few minutes, or periodically asking if
anyone has a question thus far or is having trouble seeing. Due to the highly visual nature of the speech it’s important
that you explain what you’re doing also. Simply performing the task rarely clues the audience in to what you’re
actually teaching them and it’s important that you clarify anything you’re doing with a short audio explanation. In a
demonstration speech always use the speech as a tool to enhance the demonstration.
While simply talking about a subject can seem difficult, often times even the most masterful of presenters have a
difficult time with demonstration speeches. A demonstration speech has a whole different set of rules and many of the
basic speech and presentation rules no longer apply. When practicing a demonstration speech it’s important to
remember that the demonstration and visual part of the presentation is the most important and that the speech portion,
while strong, should mostly accent the task which you’re doing for the audience.