Informative Speeches: Role of the Speaker

As a speaker you are teaching or informing the audience about your topic. Being clear and concise allows the audience to follow along with the information you are presenting. If the topic is difficult or unfamiliar to the audience, you may need to repeat your purpose throughout your speech, ensuring they are keeping up with the evidence you are presenting.

• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can be made in a number of ways. Today I will show you a way to keep the jelly so that it remains in the sandwich.

Explain the topic to the audience

Relate to what they know—this will help you keep your audience’s interest in your topic.

• All of us can remember eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ending with more jelly on our hands than in our stomachs. The stickiness of the jelly on our fingers seemed to take a full bar of soap to wash away.

Define and explain to the audience how to use the information—letting your listeners know how the information can be used will help make them active listeners.

• Putting peanut butter on both sides of the bread with jelly in the middle will keep the jelly in the sandwich and not on your hands.

Make evidence manageable

Be concise, but not so concise that you leave the audience guessing the meaning of what you are trying to say.

• Jelly is sticky and shouldn’t be spread on the bread, leaves the audience guessing about the speech. Putting peanut butter on both sides of the bread with jelly in the middle will keep the jelly in the sandwich and not on your hands gives the audience enough information to understand your meaning.

Include only necessary information—allows for the audience to focus on the main points and not get caught up in the smaller details.

• Jiff peanut butter and Welch’s grape jelly contains unnecessary information. Peanut butter and jelly is more concise and provides only the relevant information.

Examples and visuals can help break up information while still reinforcing your ideas.

• Showing pictures of a sandwich with peanut butter on both sides of bread versus a picture of peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other, can help reinforce your claim.

References

Beebe, S. A., & Beebe, S. J. (2012). A concise public speaking handbook. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Lucas, S. (2012). The art of public speaking. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Sprague, J. & Stuart, D. (2013). The speaker's compact handbook, 4th ed. Portland: Ringgold, Inc.

Vrooman, S. S. (2013). The zombie guide to public speaking: Why most presentations fail, and what you can do to avoid joining the horde. Place of publication not identified: CreateSpace.