Informative Speaking & Persuasive Speaking

INFORMATIVE SPEAKING AND PERSUASIVE SPEAKING
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INFORMATIVE SPEAKING AND PERSUASIVE SPEAKING
Persuasive speaking refers to a speech given or presented with the purpose of making others feel, think, believe or act in a different way. A good example is that of a salesperson who may give a persuasive speech about a product so as to change how people think about the particular product, how people feel about the product, their beliefs about that product and finally influence the to be loyal consumers of the product in question. Persuasive speaking has three main qualities that are, it’s interactive with the listeners, its impact increases gradually, and it isn’t coercive. In addition to this, persuasive speaking has three pillars namely; ethos, logos, and pathos.
Ethos is described by saying that for the speech to be effective, the leader should be of a good moral character and trustworthy. He should also exhibit, profound knowledge about the topic, goodwill, commitment and enthusiasm towards the theme of discussion. Pathos, on the other hand, is a pillar that points toward the emotional engagement of the speaker. Logic alone is not enough for an effective persuasive presentation. To connect with the audience, the presenter also needs to show emotional commitment towards the topic being presented. The third pillar Logos says that for one to persuade, one needs logical proof, evidence, reasoning and arguments in support of one’s presentation.
Persuasive speaking entails different models, but one of the most efficient among this is the ‘Monroe’s motivated sequence pattern’ (Coopman, 2008).

Alan Monroe, who brought forward this model, was both a scholar and a public speaker. This design has proved to be very effective under different settings primarily because it follows a natural thought pattern. This model first gains the listeners attention before it demonstrates the need. It then offers a solution before it goes further to visualize the solution and urges the audience to act upon the solution. This models increases the listener’s motivation through each step and thus very effective in persuading.
Let’s apply our model so as to illustrate its effectiveness. Suppose a speaker was presenting a speech on the importance of exercising, he may first catch the listener’s attention by opening with a controversial or extreme statement such as, “imagine living in the world where 70% of the youths are obese, and the remaining 30% are sickly. You all know that young people are the propellers of the economy and all other need are secondary to health.” In the second step he will show his/her audience the real magnitude of the problem,” currently 40% percent of the youths are obese, and 2million young people are diagnosed with lifestyle illnesses every year and the number is increasing (Cristiano, 2006).” In the third step the speaker recommends a suitable solution, “the education should integrate and encourage fitness activities into schools so as to cultivate this habit.” In the fourth step, the speaker helps the audience visualize the solution, “paint a picture of an education system that produces disciplined, resourceful and physically fit youths every year.” In the fifth and final step the listener is urged to take action by the speaker, “so today I urge all of you to encourage your children and the rest of the population to start engaging in physical fitness activities alongside signing this petition for so as to influence the government to legislate the suggested policies.
Through this process, the speaker has taken the audience through identification of the problem, its magnitude, its solution and the appropriate course of action thus its very easy for the listener to make the right decision.
Informative speaking, on the other hand, is a presentation of information whose purpose is to increase the audience’s understanding, knowledge or abilities on the topic under study. Informative speaking can be applied in explaining procedures, describing strategies, describing objects, informing others about particular trends among many others.
Informative speaking may be sub-divided into; demonstration speeches such as showing how something is done, description expressions such describing a geographical terrain, instruction speeches such as giving a recipe, explanation speeches which shed light on why certain things happen, briefing speeches that summarize certain information and reporting speeches which provide detailed information resulting from studies which were being conducted.
Despite the fact that informative speaking can be very effecting in relaying information, it is very hard or almost impossible to relay 100% unbiased data through informative speaking (Wood, 1997). This method of public speaking employs certain techniques that makes grasping of concepts and the data communicated but on the other hand also alters the information. Some of these techniques are explained below.
During informative speaking, the speaker adapts to his diverse listeners. This enables the speaker to relate to the whole audience. To do this, the speaker may withhold information that apply only to certain parts of the audience so that he avoids mixed reactions thus altering the information.
In informative speaking, a speaker also limits the information he is presenting to one’s audience. Limiting is used because to make the audience understand everything, too much information may make them understand nothing or grasp the less important point. To avoid this, the speaker selects few but more important points. These interfere with the information in several ways. The first is that the few points chosen don’t paint the whole picture of the situation to the listener. Another way this alters the data is that the judgment on which point is more worthy of presentation lies with the speaker who may also be biased.
The speaker may also highlight main points during a presentation. He does this by emphasizing certain points that he perceives as more important. The listeners are more likely to grasp the points that have been emphasized because they believe that the speaker is credible thus the speaker’s bias of the information is transferred to the listeners
Considering the above illustrations on how bias can occur, it can confidently be summed up that even though informative speaking is an effective way of relaying information, it is not 100% free from bias.
References:
Wood, J. T. (1997). Communication in our lives. Belmont [Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co.
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Cristiano, M. (2006). Training manual for informative and persuasive speaking. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Pub.Bottom of Form
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Coopman, S. J., & Lull, J. (2008). Public speaking: The evolving art. Boston, MA, USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
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