Descriptions

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 528.

Explanations of processes

Lecture 8. Communicating to the public. Informative and Persuasive Speaking.

Outline.

1. Speaking informatively.

2. Types of informative presentations.

3. Persuasive speaking.

1. Whenever you prepare an informative speech, your goal is to offer your audience more information than they already have about the topic. Your objective is to update and add to their knowledge, refine their understanding, or provide background.

2. There are three types of informative speeches: (1) messages of expla­nation, (2) messages of description, and (3) messages of definition.

If your purpose is to explain how to do something (for example, how to moti­vate employees), how something is made (for example, how to make glass), or how something works (for example, how a slot machine works), then you are preparing to deliver an explanation of a process. Your primary goal is to share your understanding of the process or procedure with your listeners and, in some instances, to give them the skills they need to replicate it.

One of your responsibilities as a speaker is to be able to describe a person, place, or thing, for your listeners. For instance, if you were a "site-location specialist" for a fast-food chain, you would have to describe potential store loca­tions to the management. Whatever the nature of a descriptive mes­sage, your aim is to help your listeners form mental close-ups of places, people, or things. To do this you will need to find ways to describe condition, size, shape, color, age, and so on, to make your subject "live" for your audience. Of course, visual aids will be par­ticularly relevant to a descriptive presentation.