Summary: A Pocket Guide To Public Speaking

The twenty-second chapter of A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking is all about informative speaking. The authors break down informative speaking into five categories; those being, gaining and sustaining audience involvement, finding ways to increase understanding, what informative speeches are about, deciding how to communicate the information, and reducing the confusion.

In order to gain and sustain audience involvement the speaker must adapt their speech accordingly based upon the audience analysis. In addition, they (speaker) must provide the audience with new information on the topic they were not aware of. Nobody wants to listen to information they already knew.

“Audience members cannot put the speaker on “pause” in order to digest information”.

(p. 157) Speakers should prepare a well-organized introduction that clearly discusses what will talked about and the main points. The use of transitions, repetition, organizational pattern, and presentation aids are ways to increase the audiences understanding of a particular topic.
Informative speeches cover a wide range of subjects and include, people, events, objects, etc. While there are a wide range of subject matters, the topics covered under those subjects are narrower.
“Typically, we communicate information by defining, describing, demonstrating, and/or explaining it.” (p. 159) Defining is used when the information being discussed is new to the audience. Sometimes speeches need demonstrations or “how to” type speeches. Explanation speeches are for topics that require something needing to be explained, i.e., what makes it rain?
Finally, speakers must reduce chances of confusion through the use of analogies to build on any knowledge the audience already has. In addition, speakers have to counter any wrong assumptions and take into account the different learning styles of the audience.
When it comes to informative speaking, the goal is to provide the audience with knowledge on a specific topic. This is accomplished through gaining audience involvement, increasing understanding, communicating information correctly, and reducing confusion.