Informative and Persuasive Speaking

Read the slides in this deck to learn about the basics of informative and persuasive speaking and how to gather and use evidence in a presentation of either kind.

Transcript

1. Informative and Persuasive Speaking
2. In this presentation • Informative speaking •Persuasive speaking •Rhetoric and evidence •Finding and using evidence
3. Speaking to Inform
4. The goal • To educate or enlighten •NOT to persuade • To teach •NOT to advocate • To provide facts •NOT to take a stand on one side 
 or another
5. What can they do? •Informative speeches can…. •Share ideas and information •Raise awareness •Articulate alternatives
6. How audiences learn • Listener motivation • Intrinsic to the listener • Created by the speaker • Capturing and maintaining motivation • Show the relevance of your information • Use novelty/unusualness • Vary speaking tone and use visuals
7. Types of informative speeches •Speech of description •Language is important •Precision, clarity, vivid language •Speech of demonstration •Range from simple to complex •Often use visuals
8. Types, cont. •Speech of explanation •Define key terms or concepts •Use clear language •Informative oral report •Handouts are helpful •Provide necessary background information
9. Organizing your speech •Chronological •Categorical •Spatial •Causal
10. Chronological pattern •Often used with: history •Shows change/events over time •Also used to demonstrate sequence of events in order
11. Spatial pattern •Often used with: geography •Helps the audience visualize •Can also describe by moving point to point
12. Categorical pattern •Often used when categories are important •Useful when you see obvious groupings
13. Causal pattern •Often used in: politics •Tell the audience what factors (causes) have contributed to an outcome •Tell the audience about the impact (effects) of some action or phenomenon
14. Building your outline •Choose appropriate organizational pattern •Determine the headers for each section of the outline – main idea •Decide what’s needed to support the main idea
15. Speaking to Persuade
16. How do you do it? •Get the audience’s attention •Present your evidence* •Make your conclusion •Call to action ! * More on evidence in later section titled “Finding your Evidence”
17. What’s the hook? •Need to get audience’s attention •To do this, topic can: • Be relevant • Be intrinsically interesting • Shock the audience • Establish an emotional connection
18. Provide your evidence • Organize logically so evidence supports claim using one of these patterns: • Inductive • Deductive • Causal • Analogical
19. Organize your evidence •Inductive • Create generalizations and theories based on examples •Deductive •Causal •Analogical
20. Organize your evidence •Inductive •Deductive • Begin with theory/hypothesis and prove true or false •Causal •Analogical
21. Organize your evidence •Inductive •Deductive •Causal • Identify a cause and effect relationship •Analogical
22. Organize your evidence •Inductive •Deductive •Causal •Analogical • Compare to an example that would be familiar to the audience
23. Make your conclusion •Based on the logical reasoning pattern you choose • Inductive, deductive, analogical, causal •Should be clear how evidence supports your claim
24. Call to Action •Tailored to audience •Needs to seem reasonable/doable •Make it as simple as possible •Emphasize the hook (importance, relevance, etc.)
25. Building Your Argument
26. Backing Up Your Words •Rhetorical structure of argument • Claim: What you are trying to prove • Data: Evidence that supports your claim • Warrant: Explanation of why/how data supports your claim
27. Some examples • Claim: It’s important to get a college education • Data: The Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce says that a college graduate (with a bachelor’s degree) earns, on average, twice as much as someone with a HS diploma. • Warrant: The investment in a college education will result in greater earnings over your lifetime.
28. Some examples • Claim: It’s important to get a college education • Data: The unemployment rate for people with a college degree is 4.5% (6.8% for recent grads), according to Huffington Post. For those with a HS diploma, the rate is 24%. • Warrant: Having a college degree will improve your chances of getting a job.
29. Some examples • Claim: It’s important to get a college education • Data: According to a personal story, Steve Jobs learned about typography and typefaces in college, knowledge that he used when inventing the Macintosh computer. • Warrant: You will learn things in college that will benefit you later in life.
30. Finding Your Evidence
31. Why gather evidence? •Inform your writing •Ensure factual correctness •Support your arguments
32. Your goal: Credibility •Sources must exhibit • Authority • Objectivity • Quality • Currency
33. Authority • Who wrote it? • What are his/her credentials? (degrees, experience) • What is his/her reputation among peers? • Who published it? • Is the author affiliated with a reputable organization?
34. Objectivity • Are goals for publication stated? • Does the author exhibit bias? • Does affiliation viewpoint show in work? • Does information appear valid and 
 well-researched?
35. Quality • Is information well-organized? • Is writing grammatically correct and free of errors? • Are graphics appropriate, clearly labeled? • Is information complete, accurate?
36. Currency • When was it published? • Does your topic require current information? • Has this been revised or updated in another edition?
37. Guidelines for providing evidence • Complex/abstract ideas need concrete support • Visual aids, graphs, specific examples • Controversial points require authoritative evidence • Low credibility speakers need more support overall
38. Guidelines for providing evidence • Topics that don’t connect with listeners’ experiences need concrete evidence • Audiences with low attention/ comprehension need more examples
39. Kinds of evidence • Comparisons and contrasts • Examples • Hypothetical or factual • Should be relevant, fair, vivid • Statistics • Magnitude, trends, segments
40. Using statistics •Translate difficult-to-understand numbers into concrete examples •Round off complicated numbers •Use visuals whenever possible •Use stats fairly and ethically