informative speech topics

informative speech topics

Informative Speech Topics

1. Choosing the Right Informative Speech Topic

Choosing a good informative speech topic might not be so easy. Remember the primary goal of your speech is to educate the audience. Depending on the concept, the scope for research will be relatively high. You must be able to demonstrate concepts to the audience in a way that they will understand. Using props may be able to enhance your explanation. So make sure you choose a topic that you can provide in-depth information on and one that you can use props etc. to help explain. Always consider the interests of your audience while selecting a topic. The speech will be more effective if the audience is able to relate to it. High School students might want to give a speech on something that they want to try out themselves. For example if you were to give a speech on Tibetan Buddhism, this topic would be of interest to someone seeking to learn about a new religion. Coming up with a topic that is unique will be a bit of a challenge. Usually we tend to come up with informative topics that have been done to death. For example, if you were to search for information on global warming on the Internet, you would find loads of information on this topic. So try coming up with something less common. For example, if it were a biology class, you could give a speech on the biological reasons for sleep.

Choosing the right topic for an informative speech is as important as drafting the speech. Picking a topic which does not appeal to your audience would not be a very good idea. Selecting the right topic will enhance the effectiveness of your speech. The first step in finding the right topic is understanding what qualities will it take for you to come up with an effective speech. Ask yourself if you are clear with the concepts and are confident that you can explain it to your audience. Your interest in the topic is the most important factor. Unless you find the topic interesting, the audience will not be interested. It is very important that the speech explains something that is meaningful to the audience.

2. Crafting a Captivating Introduction

Crafting an impactful and captivating attention-grabbing intro. Before anything else, the first thing you need to know is what is the effect or the result of a good public speech. The audience will begin to listen to you, and they will remember what you said after your speech was done. You also need to know, the audience is usually busy with their own activity, so the audience sometimes become not easy to be attracted to listen to your speech. You need to attract their attention to listen to your speech. There’s no better way than beginning your speech with some exciting story. That way, they will put their focus to listen to your speech. You also need to give your speech with confidence, good body language, and good eye contact. Through delivering a speech, it means that you are trying to convince people what you thought about some specific topic. With good body language and good eye contact, and a confident speech will make your speech more persuasive. The first step you need to do in making a good speech is, of course, preparing your speech. After finishing preparing your speech, try to make your speech interesting and short. Regarding how to make your speech interesting, that will be covered in the next chapter, and for the length of the speech, do not make your speech too long. Imagine if your speech was very interesting, but it’s too long, it will make the audience bored. With enough 10 to 15 minutes, you can deliver both an attractive and persuasive speech. After that, you better rehearse your speech, see how much time you need to deliver all of the speech. Will you finish it within the allowed time? If not, you need to revise your speech to be simpler and shorter.

3. Providing In-Depth Information and Examples

There is a craft to providing in-depth information and examples to an audience. You must always remember that the audience will follow you best if you are showing a clear link to the subject with a series of logical steps. A logical sequence can be compared to a road map; if your audience can clearly follow you from one point to the next, in order to arrive at your conclusion, then you have done your job in providing a logical sequence. Remember that you are not always giving a series of facts. You may at times be explaining a concept or theory. To explain something is to make it plain and understandable. If you are talking about a complex theory that most of your audience are not familiar with, you may need to spend a lot of time breaking it down into its core parts and then explaining each part, before you move on to the next point. When you have found a good explanation at some point in your speech, it is often helpful to provide an example to your audience in order to illustrate your point. Of course, there is no need to tell your audience that you are about to give them an example! You may just say “for example” and continue. This is what we call an example lead-in. Always make use of suitable examples when explaining concepts; it is a key point in helping your audience understand. Always remember to evaluate how well your audience is receiving your explanation. Look for feedback clues, from their facial expressions to their body language. If it looks like they do not understand, repeat your explanation again and if necessary, provide further examples. Always keep in mind the level of understanding of your audience. It may be that a particular explanation or example that is suitable for one audience is not suitable for another.

4. Engaging the Audience with Visual Aids

Content for this section should focus specifically on the use of visual aids to enhance audience understanding of your message. Step 1 and 2 of this chapter dealt with choosing a topic and adapting to your audience. Both are important considerations when deciding to use visual aids. Your topic needs to be able to be supported by a prop. If no appropriate aid can be found, it is best not to use one. An audience of children might be better able to understand your message if you were to use flash cards or pictures, rather than attempt to explain thought processes or abstract ideas. Step 3 deals with the logistics of using a visual aid. Step 4 discusses why we use visual aids and how they can affect your audience. A thorough explanation of this will give you a better understanding of what makes a visual aid effective. Step 5 gives clear guidelines on what makes a visual aid effective and how to avoid common problems in creating and presenting them. A complete understanding of all of these concepts will enable you to create an effective visual aid to support your message.

5. Concluding with Impact and Call to Action

Move them to feel a certain way. Once your audience has heard your speech, what do you want them to do? Do you want them to stop doing something? Do you want them to do something? Do you want them to do something to prevent a certain effect? Having a concrete call to action is a great way to solidify your ending and ensure that your audience will be thinking about your speech. It is also a way to make sure that your speech fulfills its purpose. A call to action is the most powerful way to finish a speech. Make sure that you have a clear and concise call to action, and that it is directly linked to your purpose. Briefly, restate your purpose and your call to action, and your audience will surely be motivated. Do not end abruptly. Once you have delivered your call to action, provide a very brief summary of your points. This will refresh your audience’s memory of the speech and will create a smooth ending. Finally, end with impact. This can be a quote, a rhetorical question, a strong statement, or anything else that will stick in your audience’s mind. You want to end with a powerful statement and be able to have your audience remember your speech. By following these specific steps, you can better ensure that you will be able to produce a speech that will be remembered.