Relate the topic to the audience early in the speech
This tactic is effective for ensuring audience’s interest and understanding. Again, you must be explicit. It may not be enough to assume that the audience understands the connection between themselves and the topic. Instead, it is best to be direct: specifically tell the audience how the topic relates to them. Remember, too, that many topics may be very difficult to justify to an audience. An informative speech on taxes is lost on an audience that pays none. An informative speech on raising thoroughbred horses is lost on an audience that has very little money. Therefore, the informative speaker is encouraged to scrutinize audience-analysis information to discover indications of audience’s interest in a topic.
This example demonstrates the rhetorical principle of relating the topic to the audience:
Over half of you indicated on the audience analysis form that you participate in team sports. We have two football players, two university tennis players, one gymnast, three hockey players, and four persons in men's and women's basketball. Because you already possess the necessary dexterity and coordination for this sport, you are going to find out today about curling.
This speaker carefully detailed the many ways in which the topic was appropriate for the particular audience. When you deliver your informative speech, remember to relate the topic to yourself and your audience.
Informative speakers have one big barrier to overcome. They must recognize that what is fascinating to them may not be fascinating to everybody. A mathematician, for example, might be truly enthralled by a perfect equation, but most people wouldn't want to hear about it. Once you have chosen a topic that could possibly be interesting to your listeners, you should take special steps to relate it to them. You should tie it in with their interests and concerns.
Start in the introduction. Instead of saying,
I want to talk with you about stress.
You could say,
Do you get butterflies in your stomach when you have to give a speech? Can you feel your blood pressure rising when you have an argument with your spouse or your roommate? Are you worried sick about finishing the paper you've been putting off all week? If so, you have experienced the symptoms of stress.
Get your audience involved right at the beginning. Let them know why your message is important to them. Do not assume they will figure it out for themselves. Do not leave it to chance. Tell them.
Do not stop with the introduction. Whenever you can, put your listeners into the body of the speech. After all, nothing interests people more than themselves. Don't just rattle off statistics and concepts as if you were reciting a shopping list. Find ways to talk about your topic in terms of your listeners. Bring your material home to them. Get it as close to them as possible.
Don't overestimate what the audience knows
As many speakers have discovered, it is easy to overestimate the audience's stock of information. In most informative speeches, your listeners will only be vaguely knowledgeable (at best) about the details of your topic. (Otherwise, there would not be much need for an informative speech!) Therefore, you must lead your listeners step by step, without any shortcuts. You cannot assume they will know what you mean. Rather, you must be sure to explain everything so thoroughly that they cannot help but understand. As you work on your speech, always consider whether it will be clear to someone who hears about the topic for the first time.
Suppose you are talking about the protective tariff. Although many of your classmates might have heard of the protective tariff, you cannot assume they have a firm grasp of it. So you should start by telling them what it is. How will you tell them? Here's one way:
A protective tariff is a form of customs duty. It is a tax on imported goods, but it differs from other taxes in that its primary purpose is not financial but economic— not to increase a nation's revenue but to protect its domestic industry from foreign competition.
To someone who knows a lot about business and commerce this is perfectly clear. But someone who does not will probably get lost along the way. The tone of the statement is that of a speaker reviewing information already familiar to the audience—not of speaker introducing new information.
Here, in contrast, is another explanation of protective tariffs:
What is a protective tariff? Let me explain with an example.
Suppose you make shoes. So does a business in Taiwan. But that business can sell its shoes here cheaper than you can. As a result, you are going bankrupt.
So, you appeal to the government for help. The government sets up a tariff to protect you from being ruined by the cheap foreign shoes. This means that the government puts a tariff-a tax—on every shoe that comes into the United States for sale from Taiwan. If the tariff is high enough, the shoes from Taiwan will now be more expensive than yours.
Your business has been protected by the tariff. Hence the name, protective tariff.
This statement is clear and simple. Its tone is that of a teacher unraveling a new subject. Many students hesitate to speak simply because they are afraid they will sound simple-minded. They think they need big words and complicated sentences to sound intelligent. But nothing could be further from the truth. The test of a good speaker is to communicate even the most complex ideas clearly and simply. Anyone can go to a book and find a learned-sounding definition of a protective tariff like the first one above. But to say in plain English what a protective tariff is – that takes hard work and creative thinking.
Also, remember that readers can study a printed passage again and again until they extract its meaning, but listeners don't have that luxury. They must understand what you say in the time it takes you to say it. The more you assume they know about the topic, the greater your chances of being misunderstood.
If you have circulated a questionnaire among your listeners before the speech, you should have a good idea of their knowledge about the topic. If not, you will usually do better to aim for the low end of the knowledge spectrum. Some experts recommend preparing a speech as if the audience had never heard of the subject. That may be a bit extreme, but it is one way to make sure you define every special term, clarify every idea, illustrate every concept, and support every conclusion. You cannot go wrong by following the news reporters' code: "Never overestimate the information of your audience; never underestimate the intelligence of your audience."
Don't be too technical
What does it mean to say an informative speech is too technical? It may mean the subject matter is too specialized for the audience. Any subject can be popularized – but only up to a point. The important thing for a speaker to know is what can be explained to an ordinary audience and what cannot.
Say your subject is stereo amplifiers. It's no trick to demonstrate how to operate an amplifier (how to turn it on and off, adjust the volume, set the tone and balance controls). It's also relatively easy to explain what an amplifier does (it boosts the sound received from a radio, disc player, or tape deck). But to give a full scientific account of how an amplifier works – that is another matter. It cannot be done in any reasonable time unless the audience knows the principles of audio technology. The material is just too technical to be understood by a general audience.
Even when the subject matter is not technical, the language used to explain it may be. Every activity has its jargon. This is true of golf (bogey, wedge, match play); of chemistry (colloid, glycogen, heavy water); of photography (aperture, f-stop, depth of field); of ballet (arabesque, jete, pas de deux). If you are talking to a group of specialists, you can use technical words and be understood. But you must do all you can to avoid technical words when informing a general audience such as your speech class.
You may find this hard to do at first. Many people are so addicted to the lingo of their subject that they have trouble escaping it. As you give more speeches, though, you will become increasingly adept at expressing your ideas in everyday, nontechnical language.
Here, for instance, are two statements explaining the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The first is heavily laden with medical jargon and would have little impact on ordinary listeners:
Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disorder whose initial symptoms are short-term memory loss and impaired concentration. As the disease progresses, its manifestations include dysfunctions of speech, personality, muscle coordination, and mental processes. Eventually, the victim may become incontinent and totally incapacitated. The duration of the disease is variable.
The second statement is perfectly understandable. It shows how technical information can be made clear to an average person:
Of all the diseases which strike people in old age, Alzheimer's may be the cruelest, for it kills its victims twice. First it kills the mind. The simplest tasks—tying a shoe, cooking a hamburger, making a bed — become impossible because the victim can no longer remember how to do them. Names, dates, places—the mental scrap- book of an entire life—fade away like an aging photograph. In the most tragic cases, people with Alzheimer's forget their own names and can no longer recognize their own children.
Then the body dies. No longer able to walk or to control bodily functions, the victim lies curled in a fetal position, gradually sinking into a coma and then death. Most Alzheimer's victims live for six to eight years after the disease begins, although some suffer for as long as twenty years.
The only specialized word in the whole passage is "Alzheimer's." The language is straightforward, the ideas easy to grasp. This is what you should strive for in your informative speeches.
Try to avoid abstractions
One way to avoid abstractions is through description. When we think of description, we usually think of external events, but description is also used to communicate internal feelings. Here is how one student tried to convey to his audience the sensations he experienced when he first began sky diving:
The blast of air resistance blows me backward like a leaf at the mercy of an autumn wind. In about ten seconds, my body levels out and accelerates to a speed of 120 miles an hour. The air supports my body like an invisible flying carpet. There is no sound except for the wind rushing around my face. The earth appears soft and green, rivers look like strips of silver, and in every direction the scenery forms a panoramic landscape. Any fears or doubts I had are gone in the exhilaration of free flight. Every nerve in my body is alive with sensation; yet I am overcome by a peaceful feeling and the sense that I am at one with the sky.
As we listen to the speaker, we are almost up there with him, sharing his thoughts, feeling his heart pound, joining his exhilaration as he floats effortlessly through the sky. The vivid description lends reality to the speech and draws us further in.
Another way to escape abstractions is with comparisons that put your subject in concrete, familiar terms. Do you want to convey what would happen if a comet or large asteroid struck the earth? You could say this:
If a comet or large asteroid struck the earth, the impact would be devastating.
True, but "the impact would be devastating" is vague and abstract. It does not communicate your meaning clearly and concretely. Now suppose you add this:
To give you an idea how devastating the impact would be, it would be like all the nuclear bombs in the world going off at one spot.
Now you have made the abstract specific and given us a sharp new slant on things.
Like comparison, contrast can put an idea into concrete terms. Suppose you want to make the point that a person's chances of winning a state lottery are extremely low. You could say, "The odds, for example, of winning a state lottery are an astronomical 7 million to 1." The word "astronomical" suggests that you consider 7 million to 1 long odds, but long in comparison to what? One speaker offered this contrast:
The odds of picking the correct six-digit sequence in a typical state lottery are more than 7 million to 1. In contrast, the odds of getting hit by lightning are only 2 million to 1. The chances of being dealt a royal flush in a poker game are 650,000 to 1. The odds of dying in an automobile accident are about 6,000 to 1. In other words, the odds are much stronger that you will get hit by lightning or be killed in a car crash than that you will win the jackpot in a state lottery.
Now an abstract fact has been put into meaningful perspective.
(adapted from Lucas)