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- Types of speeches
The 4 types of speeches in public speaking
Informative, demonstrative, persuasive and special occasion.
By: Susan Dugdale
There are four main types of speeches or types of public speaking.
- Demonstrative
- Special occasion or Entertaining
To harness their power a speaker needs to be proficient in all of them: to understand which speech type to use when, and how to use it for maximum effectiveness.
What's on this page:
An overview of each speech type, how it's used, writing guidelines and speech examples:
- informative
- demonstrative
- special occasion/entertaining
- how, and why, speech types overlap
Return to Top
Informative speeches
An informative speech does as its name suggests: informs. It provides information about a topic. The topic could be a place, a person, an animal, a plant, an object, an event, or a process.
The informative speech is primarily explanatory and educational.
Its purpose is not to persuade or influence opinion one way or the other. It is to provide sufficient relevant material, (with references to verifiable facts, accounts, studies and/or statistics), for the audience to have learned something.
What they think, feel, or do about the information after they've learned it, is up to them.
This type of speech is frequently used for giving reports, lectures and, sometimes for training purposes.
Examples of informative speech topics:
- the number, price and type of dwellings that have sold in a particular suburb over the last 3 months
- the history of the tooth brush
- how trees improves air quality in urban areas
- a brief biography of Bob Dylan
- the main characteristics of Maine Coon cats
- the 1945 US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- the number of, and the work of local philanthropic institutions
- the weather over the summer months
- the history of companion planting
- how to set up a new password
- how to work a washing machine
Click this link if you'd like more informative topic suggestions . You'll find hundreds of them.
And this link to find out more about the 4 types of informative speeches : definition, description, demonstration and explanation. (Each with an example outline and topic suggestions.)
Demonstration, demonstrative or 'how to' speeches
A demonstration speech is an extension of an informative process speech. It's a 'how to' speech, combining informing with demonstrating.
The topic process, (what the speech is about), could either be demonstrated live or shown using visual aids.
The goal of a demonstrative speech is to teach a complete process step by step.
It's found everywhere, all over the world: in corporate and vocational training rooms, school classrooms, university lecture theatres, homes, cafes... anywhere where people are either refreshing or updating their skills. Or learning new ones.
Knowing to how give a good demonstration or 'how to' speech is a very valuable skill to have, one appreciated by everybody.
Examples of 'how to' speech topics are:
- how to braid long hair
- how to change a car tire
- how to fold table napkins
- how to use the Heimlich maneuver
- how to apply for a Federal grant
- how to fill out a voting form
- how to deal with customer complaints
- how to close a sale
- how to give medicine to your cat without being scratched to bits!
Resources for demonstration speeches
1 . How to write a demonstration speech Guidelines and suggestions covering:
- choosing the best topic : one aligning with your own interests, the audience's, the setting for the speech and the time available to you
- how to plan, prepare and deliver your speech - step by step guidelines for sequencing and organizing your material plus a printable blank demonstration speech outline for you to download and complete
- suggestions to help with delivery and rehearsal . Demonstration speeches can so easily lurch sideways into embarrassment. For example: forgetting a step while demonstrating a cake recipe which means it won't turn out as you want it to. Or not checking you've got everything you need to deliver your speech at the venue and finding out too late, the very public and hard way, that the lead on your laptop will not reach the only available wall socket. Result. You cannot show your images.
2. Demonstration speech sample outline This is a fully completed outline of a demonstration speech. The topic is 'how to leave an effective voice mail message' and the sample covers the entire step by step sequence needed to do that.
There's a blank printable version of the outline template to download if you wish and a YouTube link to a recording of the speech.
3. Demonstration speech topics 4 pages of 'how to' speech topic suggestions, all of them suitable for middle school and up.
Persuasive speeches
The goal of a persuasive speech is to convince an audience to accept, or at the very least listen to and consider, the speaker's point of view.
To be successful the speaker must skillfully blend information about the topic, their opinion, reasons to support it and their desired course of action, with an understanding of how best to reach their audience.
Everyday examples of persuasive speeches
Common usages of persuasive speeches are:
- what we say when being interviewed for a job
- presenting a sales pitch to a customer
- political speeches - politicians lobbying for votes,
- values or issue driven speeches e.g., a call to boycott a product on particular grounds, a call to support varying human rights issues: the right to have an abortion, the right to vote, the right to breathe clean air, the right to have access to affordable housing and, so on.
Models of the persuasive process
The most frequently cited model we have for effective persuasion is thousands of years old. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, 384–322 BC , explained it as being supported by three pillars: ethos, pathos and logos.
Briefly, ethos is the reliability and credibility of the speaker. How qualified or experienced are they talk on the topic? Are they trustworthy? Should we believe them? Why?
Pathos is the passion, emotion or feeling you, the speaker, bring to the topic. It's the choice of language you use to trigger an emotional connection linking yourself, your topic and the audience together, in a way that supports your speech purpose.
(We see the echo of Pathos in words like empathy: the ability to understand and share the feels of another, or pathetic: to arouse feelings of pity through being vulnerable and sad.)
Logos is related to logic. Is the information we are being presented logical and rational? Is it verifiable? How is it supported? By studies, by articles, by endorsement from suitably qualified and recognized people?
To successfully persuade all three are needed. For more please see this excellent article: Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion
Monroe's Motivated Sequence of persuasion
Another much more recent model is Monroe's Motivated Sequence based on the psychology of persuasion.
It consists of five consecutive steps: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization and action and was developed in the 1930s by American Alan H Monroe, a lecturer in communications at Purdue University. The pattern is used extensively in advertising, social welfare and health campaigns.
Resources for persuasive speeches
1. How to write a persuasive speech Step by step guidelines covering:
- speech topic selection
- setting speech goals
- audience analysis
- empathy and evidence
- balance and obstacles
- 4 structural patterns to choose from
2. A persuasive speech sample outline using Monroe's Motivated Sequence
3. An example persuasive speech written using Monroe's Motivated Sequence
4. Persuasive speech topics : 1032+ topic suggestions which includes 105 fun persuasive ideas , like the one below.☺
Special occasion or entertaining speeches
The range of these speeches is vast: from a call 'to say a few words' to delivering a lengthy formal address.
This is the territory where speeches to mark farewells, thanksgiving, awards, birthdays, Christmas, weddings, engagements and anniversaries dwell, along with welcome, introduction and thank you speeches, tributes, eulogies and commencement addresses.
In short, any speech, either impromptu or painstakingly crafted, given to acknowledge a person, an achievement, or an event belongs here.
You'll find preparation guidelines, as well as examples of many special occasion speeches on my site.
Resources for special occasion speeches
How to prepare:
- an acceptance speech , with an example acceptance speech
- a birthday speech , with ongoing links to example 18th, 40th and 50th birthday speeches
- an office party Christmas speech , a template with an example speech
- an engagement party toast , with 5 examples
- a eulogy or funeral speech , with a printable eulogy planner and access to 70+ eulogy examples
- a farewell speech , with an example (a farewell speech to colleagues)
- a golden (50th) wedding anniversary speech , with an example speech from a husband to his wife
- an impromptu speech , techniques and templates for impromptu speaking, examples of one minute impromptu speeches with a printable outline planner, plus impromptu speech topics for practice
- an introduction speech for a guest speaker , with an example
- an introduction speech for yourself , with an example
- a maid of honor speech for your sister , a template, with an example
- a retirement speech , with an example from a teacher leaving to her students and colleagues
- a student council speech , a template, with an example student council president, secretary and treasurer speech
- a Thanksgiving speech , a template, with an example toast
- a thank you speech , a template, with an example speech expressing thanks for an award, also a business thank you speech template
- a tribute (commemorative) speech , with a template and an example speech
- a welcome speech for an event , a template, an example welcome speech for a conference, plus a printable welcome speech planner
- a welcome speech for new comers to a church , a template with an example speech
- a welcome speech for a new member to the family , a template with an example
Speech types often overlap
Because speakers and their speeches are unique, (different content, purposes, and audiences...), the four types often overlap. While a speech is generally based on one principal type it might also have a few of the features belonging to any of the others.
For example, a speech may be mainly informative but to add interest, the speaker has used elements like a demonstration of some sort, persuasive language and the brand of familiar humor common in a special occasion speech where everybody knows each other well.
The result is an informative 'plus' type of speech. A hybrid! It's a speech that could easily be given by a long serving in-house company trainer to introduce and explain a new work process to employees.
Related pages:
- how to write a good speech . This is a thorough step by step walk through, with examples, of the general speech writing process. It's a great place to start if you're new to writing speeches. You'll get an excellent foundation to build on.
- how to plan a speech - an overview of ALL the things that need to be considered before preparing an outline, with examples
- how to outline a speech - an overview, with examples, showing how to structure a speech, with a free printable blank speech outline template to download
- how to make and use cue cards - note cards for extemporaneous speeches
- how to use props (visual aids)
And for those who would like their speeches written for them:
- commission me to write for you
speaking out loud
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Types Of Speech According To Purpose, According To Delivery
These are the types of speech according to purpose and delivery. check it out.
TYPES OF SPEECH – A short discussion about the types of speech that is according to purpose and according to delivery.
The core of speech is to deliver a message to a group of people called the audience. But the speeches are divided according to the goal of the speaker or the one who is giving the message. The categories have four main concepts: entertaining, informing, demonstrating and persuading. It can also be differentiated according to purpose and delivery.
ACCORDING TO PURPOSE
- Expository or Informative Speech This is the type that provides information history, theories, practical applications, and others of sort. The main purpose of this is to share information to an audience and allow them to be informed – not persude or making them believe about something.
- Persuasive Speech This is where a speaker persuades or convinces his audience to believe his argument. It also elaborates about something to change the opinion of someone over something. It can be either pure or manipulative
- Entertainment Speech Ths speech is when someone catches the attention of the audience because of his amusing speech. The main goal is to make the audience laugh throughout the speech without necessarily telling jokes the whole time.
ACCORDING TO DELIVERY
- Reading From A Manuscript This is purely reading a whole scripted speech. The words are planned, written, and placed in front of the speaker to be read precisely in front of an audience.
- Memorized Speech This happens if the speaker recited a scripted speech from his memory. He is free of notes.
- Impromptu Speech One example situation that best defines this is wheh you are cheered to give a speech during your best friend’s wedding. It’s a spur of the moment message.
- Extemporaneous Speech The speaker prepares a note in advance that will help them lay out their message and in planning in what they are going to say in front of the audience. One disadvantage of this there’s a great chance that one may forget the notes he prepared.
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6.4 Specific Purposes
Learning objectives.
- Understand the process of extending a general purpose into a specific purpose.
- Integrate the seven tips for creating specific purposes.
Andrew Sutherland – Roma Street Steps – CC BY-SA 2.0.
Once you have chosen your general purpose and your topic, it’s time to take your speech to the next phase and develop your specific purpose. A specific purpose starts with one of the three general purposes and then specifies the actual topic you have chosen and the basic objective you hope to accomplish with your speech. Basically, the specific purpose answers the who , what , when , where , and why questions for your speech.
Getting Specific
When attempting to get at the core of your speech (the specific purpose), you need to know a few basic things about your speech. First, you need to have a general purpose. Once you know whether your goal is to inform, persuade, or entertain, picking an appropriate topic is easier. Obviously, depending on the general purpose, you will have a range of different types of topics. For example, let’s say you want to give a speech about hygiene. You could still give a speech about hygiene no matter what your general purpose is, but the specific purpose would vary depending on whether the general purpose is to inform (discussing hygiene practices around the globe), to persuade (discussing why people need to adopt a specific hygiene practice), or to entertain (discussing some of the strange and unique hygiene practices that people have used historically). Notice that in each of these cases, the general purpose alters the topic, but all three are still fundamentally about hygiene.
Now, when discussing specific purposes, we are concerned with who, what, when, where, why, and how questions for your speech. Let’s examine each of these separately. First, you want to know who is going to be in your audience. Different audiences, as discussed in the chapter on audience analysis, have differing desires, backgrounds, and needs. Keeping your audience first and foremost in your thoughts when choosing a specific purpose will increase the likelihood that your audience will find your speech meaningful.
Second is the “what” question, or the basic description of your topic. When picking an effective topic, you need to make sure that the topic is appropriate for a variety of constraints or limitations within a speaking context.
Third, you need to consider when your speech will be given. Different speeches may be better for different times of the day. For example, explaining the importance of eating breakfast and providing people with cereal bars may be a great topic at 9:00 a.m. but may not have the same impact if you’re giving it at 4:00 p.m.
Fourth, you need to consider where your speech will be given. Are you giving a speech in front of a classroom? A church? An executive meeting? Depending on the location of your speech, different topics may or may not be appropriate.
The last question you need to answer within your speech is why. Why does your audience need to hear your speech? If your audience doesn’t care about your specific purpose, they are less likely to attend to your speech. If it’s a topic that’s a little more off-the-wall, you’ll really need to think about why they should care.
Once you’ve determined the who , what , when , where , and why aspects of your topic, it’s time to start creating your actual specific purpose. First, a specific purpose, in its written form, should be a short, declarative sentence that emphasizes the main topic of your speech. Let’s look at an example:
Topic | The military |
Narrower Topic | The military’s use of embedded journalists |
Narrowed Topic | The death of British reporter Rupert Hamer in 2010 in a roadside bombing in Nawa, Afghanistan, along with five US Marines |
In this example, we’ve quickly narrowed a topic from a more general topic to a more specific topic. Let’s now look at that topic in terms of a general purpose and specific purpose:
General Purpose | To inform |
Specific Purpose | To inform my audience about the danger of embedded journalism by focusing on the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer |
General Purpose | To persuade |
Specific Purpose | To persuade a group of journalism students to avoid jobs as embedded journalists by using the death of British reporter Rupert Hamer as an example of what can happen |
For the purpose of this example, we used the same general topic area, but demonstrated how you could easily turn the topic into either an informative speech or a persuasive speech. In the first example, the speaker is going to talk about the danger embedded journalists face. In this case, the speaker isn’t attempting to alter people’s ideas about embedded journalists, just make them more aware of the dangers. In the second case, the specific purpose is to persuade a group of journalism students (the audience) to avoid jobs as embedded journalists.
Your Specific Statement of Purpose
To form a clear and succinct statement of the specific purpose of your speech, start by naming your general purpose (to inform, to persuade, or to entertain). Follow this by a capsule description of your audience (my peers in class, a group of kindergarten teachers, etc.). Then complete your statement of purpose with a prepositional phrase (a phrase using “to,” “about,” “by,” or another preposition) that summarizes your topic. As an example, “My specific purpose is to persuade the students in my residence hall to protest the proposed housing cost increase” is a specific statement of purpose, while “My speech will be about why we should protest the proposed housing cost increase” is not.
Specific purposes should be statements, not questions. If you find yourself starting to phrase your specific purpose as a question, ask yourself how you can reword it as a statement. Table 6.3 “My Specific Purpose Is…” provides several more examples of good specific purpose statements.
Table 6.3 My Specific Purpose Is…
General Purpose | Audience | Topic |
---|---|---|
To inform | my audience | the usefulness of scrapbooking to save a family’s memories. |
To persuade | a group of kindergarten teachers | adopt a new disciplinary method for their classrooms. |
To entertain | a group of executives | describing the lighter side of life in “cubicle-ville.” |
To inform | community members | the newly proposed swimming pool plans that have been adopted. |
To persuade | my peers in class | vote for me for class president. |
To entertain | the guests attending my mother’s birthday party | telling a humorous story followed by a toast. |
Basic Tips for Creating Specific Purposes
Now that we’ve examined what specific purposes are, we are going to focus on a series of tips to help you write specific purposes that are appropriate for a range of speeches.
Audience, Audience, Audience
First and foremost, you always need to think about your intended audience when choosing your specific purpose. In the previous section, we talked about a speech where a speaker is attempting to persuade a group of journalism students to not take jobs as embedded journalists. Would the same speech be successful, or even appropriate, if given in your public speaking class? Probably not. As a speaker, you may think your topic is great, but you always need to make sure you think about your audience when selecting your specific purpose. For this reason, when writing your specific purpose, start off your sentence by including the words “my audience” or actually listing the name of your audience: a group of journalism students, the people in my congregation, my peers in class, and so on. When you place your audience first, you’re a lot more likely to have a successful speech.
Matching the Rhetorical Situation
After your audience, the second most important consideration about your specific purpose pertains to the rhetorical situation of your speech. The rhetorical situation is the set of circumstances surrounding your speech (e.g., speaker, audience, text, and context). When thinking about your specific purpose, you want to ensure that all these components go together. You want to make sure that you are the appropriate speaker for a topic, the topic is appropriate for your audience, the text of your speech is appropriate, and the speech is appropriate for the context. For example, speeches that you give in a classroom may not be appropriate in a religious context and vice versa.
Make It Clear
The specific purpose statement for any speech should be direct and not too broad, general, or vague. Consider the lack of clarity in the following specific purpose: “To persuade the students in my class to drink more.” Obviously, we have no idea what the speaker wants the audience to drink: water, milk, orange juice? Alcoholic beverages? Furthermore, we have no way to quantify or make sense of the word “more.” “More” assumes that the students are already drinking a certain amount, and the speaker wants them to increase their intake. If you want to persuade your listeners to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, you need to say so clearly in your specific purpose.
Another way in which purpose statements are sometimes unclear comes from the use of colloquial language. While we often use colloquialisms in everyday life, they are often understood only by a limited number of people. It may sound like fun to have a specific purpose like, “To persuade my audience to get jiggy,” but if you state this as your purpose, many people probably won’t know what you’re talking about at all.
Don’t Double Up
You cannot hope to solve the entire world’s problems in one speech, so don’t even try. At the same time, you also want to make sure that you stick to one specific purpose. Chances are it will be challenging enough to inform your audience about one topic or persuade them to change one behavior or opinion. Don’t put extra stress on yourself by adding topics. If you find yourself using the word “and” in your specific topic statement, you’re probably doubling up on topics.
Can I Really Do This in Five to Seven Minutes?
When choosing your specific purpose, it’s important to determine whether it can be realistically covered in the amount of time you have. Time limits are among the most common constraints for students in a public speaking course. Usually speeches early in the term have shorter time limits (three to five minutes), and speeches later in the term have longer time limits (five to eight minutes). While eight minutes may sound like an eternity to be standing up in front of the class, it’s actually a very short period of time in which to cover a topic. To determine whether you think you can accomplish your speech’s purpose in the time slot, ask yourself how long it would take to make you an informed person on your chosen topic or to persuade you to change your behavior or attitudes.
If you cannot reasonably see yourself becoming informed or persuaded during the allotted amount of time, chances are you aren’t going to inform or persuade your audience either. The solution, of course, is to make your topic narrower so that you can fully cover a limited aspect of it.
Key Takeaways
- Moving from a general to specific purpose requires you to identify the who , what , when , where , and why of your speech.
- State your specific purpose in a sentence that includes the general purpose, a description of the intended audience, and a prepositional phrase summarizing the topic.
- When creating a specific purpose for your speech, first, consider your audience. Second, consider the rhetorical situation. Make sure your specific purpose statement uses clear language, and that it does not try to cover more than one topic.
- Make sure you can realistically accomplish your specific purpose within the allotted time.
- You’ve been asked to give a series of speeches on the importance of health care in poverty-stricken countries. One audience will consist of business men and women, one audience will consist of religious leaders, and another audience will consist of high school students. How would you need to adjust your speech’s purpose for each of these different audiences? How do these different audiences alter the rhetorical situation?
- For the following list of topics, think about how you could take the same topic and adjust it for each of the different general purposes (inform, persuade, and entertain). Write out the specific purpose for each of your new speech topics. Here are the three general topic areas to work with: the First Amendment to the US Constitution, iPods, and literacy in the twenty-first century.
Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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Module 5: Choosing and Researching a Topic
Finding the purpose and central idea of your speech, learning objectives.
- Identify the specific purpose of a speech.
- Explain how to formulate a central idea statement for a speech.
General Purpose
The general purpose of most speeches will fall into one of four categories: to inform , to persuade , to entertain , and to commemorate or celebrate . The first step of defining the purpose of your speech is to think about which category best describes your overall goal with the speech. What do you want your audience to think, feel, or do as a consequence of hearing you speak? Often, the general purpose of your speech will be defined by the speaking situation. If you’re asked to run a training session at work, your purpose isn’t to entertain but rather to inform. Likewise, if you are invited to introduce the winner of an award, you’re not trying to change the audience’s mind about something; you’re honoring the recipient of the award. In a public speaking class, your general purpose may be included in the assignment: for instance, “Give a persuasive speech about . . . .” When you’re assigned a speech project, you should always make sure you know whether the general purpose is included in the assignment or whether you need to decide on the general purpose yourself.
Specific Purpose
Now that you know your general purpose (to inform, to persuade, or to entertain), you can start to move in the direction of the specific purpose. A specific purpose statement builds on your general purpose and makes it more specific (as the name suggests). So if your first speech is an informative speech, your general purpose will be to inform your audience about a very specific realm of knowledge.
In writing your specific purpose statement, you will take three contributing elements and bring them together to help you determine your specific purpose :
- You (your interests, your background, experience, education, etc.)
- Your audience
- The context or setting
There are three elements that combine to create a specific purpose statements: your own interests and knowledge, the interests and needs of your audience, and the context or setting in which you will be speaking.
Keeping these three inputs in mind, you can begin to write a specific purpose statement, which will be the foundation for everything you say in the speech and a guide for what you do not say. This formula will help you in putting together your specific purpose statement:
To _______________ [ Specific Communication Word (inform, explain, demonstrate, describe, define, persuade, convince, prove, argue)] _______________ [ Target Audience (my classmates, the members of the Social Work Club, my coworkers] __________________. [ The Content (how to bake brownies, that Macs are better than PCs].
Example: The purpose of my presentation is to demonstrate to my coworkers the value of informed intercultural communication .
Formulating a Central Idea Statement
While you will not actually say your specific purpose statement during your speech, you will need to clearly state what your focus and main points are going to be. The statement that reveals your main points is commonly known as the central idea statement (or just the central idea). Just as you would create a thesis statement for an essay or research paper, the central idea statement helps focus your presentation by defining your topic, purpose, direction, angle, and/or point of view. Here are two examples:
- Central Idea—When elderly persons lose their animal companions, they can experience serious psychological, emotional, and physical effects.
- Central Idea—Your computer keyboard needs regular cleaning to function well, and you can achieve that in four easy steps.
Please note that your central idea will emerge and evolve as you research and write your speech, so be open to where your research takes you and anticipate that formulating your central idea will be an ongoing process.
Below are four guidelines for writing a strong central idea.
- Your central idea should be one, full sentence.
- Your central idea should be a statement, not a question.
- Your central idea should be specific and use concrete language.
- Each element of your central idea should be related to the others.
Using the topic “Benefits of Yoga for College Students’ Stress,” here are some correct and incorrect ways to write a central idea.
Yoga practice can help college students improve the quality of their sleep, improve posture, and manage anxiety. | Yoga is great for many things. It can help you sleep better and not be so stiff. Yoga also helps you feel better. (This central idea is not one sentence and uses vague words.) |
Yoga practice can help college students focus while studying, manage stress, and increase mindfulness. | What are the benefits of yoga for college students? (This central idea should be a statement, not a question.) |
Yoga is an inclusive, low-impact practice that offers mental and physical benefits for a beginning athlete, a highly competitive athlete, and everyone in between. | Yoga is great and everyone should try it! (This central idea uses vague language.) |
Yoga practice can help college students develop mindfulness so they can manage anxiety, increase their sense of self-worth, and improve decision-making. | Yoga practice increases mindfulness, but can lead to some injuries and it takes at least 200 hours of training to become an instructor. (The elements of this central idea are not related to one another.) |
A strong central idea shows that your speech is focused around a clear and concise topic and that you have a strong sense of what you want your audience to know and understand as a result of your speech. Again, it is unlikely that you will have a final central idea before you begin your research. Instead, it will come together as you research your topic and develop your main points.
- Purpose and Central Idea Statements. Provided by : eCampusOntario. Project : Communication for Business Professionals. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Finding the Purpose of Your Speech. Authored by : Susan Bagley-Koyle with Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
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Oral Communication In Context Lessons for Grade-11 Senior High School.
Types of speech according to purpose. The document discusses different types of oral communication speeches, including informative, demonstrative, persuasive, and entertaining speeches. It provides guidelines on the objectives, main elements, and structure for each type.
An overview of each speech type, how it's used, writing guidelines and speech examples: informative. demonstrative. persuasive. special occasion/entertaining. how, and why, speech types overlap. Return to Top. Informative speeches. An informative speech does as its name suggests: informs. It provides information about a topic.
The core of speech is to deliver a message to a group of people called the audience. But the speeches are divided according to the goal of the speaker or the one who is giving the message. The categories have four main concepts: entertaining, informing, demonstrating and persuading.
Examples of The Informative Speech • Speeches and processes - Sexual reproduction through pollination. - Life cycle of a frog • Speeches about how something works - How windmills produce electricity - How to build a startup
For example, when we talk about a speech’s purpose, we can question why a specific speech was given; we can question how we are supposed to use the information within a speech; and we can question why we are personally creating a speech.
Types of speeches according to PURPOSE. The document discusses different types of speeches according to delivery method. It identifies four main types: 1) Extemporaneous speaking - speaking with limited preparation using notes as a guide in a conversational style. This is the most popular type.
A specific purpose starts with one of the three general purposes and then specifies the actual topic you have chosen and the basic objective you hope to accomplish with your speech. Basically, the specific purpose answers the who, what, when, where, and why questions for your speech.
Speeches can be categorized into four broad areas depending on the amount of preparation that is undertaken and depending upon the nature of the occasion. The four types of speeches are manuscript, memorized, extemporaneous, and impromptu.
Learning Objectives. Identify the specific purpose of a speech. Explain how to formulate a central idea statement for a speech. General Purpose. The general purpose of most speeches will fall into one of four categories: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, and to commemorate or celebrate.