The Art of Public Speaking 2015 Ch 5 Selecting a Topic and a Purpose

half-dozen.1 General Purposes of Speaking

Learning Objectives

1. Differentiate among the three types of general spoken communication purposes.
2. Examine the basics of informative speech topics and some common forms of informative speeches.
3. Examine the basics of persuasive speech topics and some common forms of persuasive speeches.
4. Examine the basics of entertaining speech topics and some common forms of entertaining speeches.

Jeffrey Beall – Search! – CC By-ND 2.0.

What practice you think of when you hear the word "purpose"? Technically speaking, a purpose can exist defined as why something exists, how we use an object, or why we make something. For the purposes of public speaking, all three tin exist applicative. For example, when we talk virtually a speech's purpose, we tin question why a specific speech was given; we tin question how we are supposed to utilise the information inside a spoken communication; and we tin question why we are personally creating a speech. For this specific chapter, we are more interested in that final aspect of the definition of the give-and-take "purpose": why we requite speeches.

E'er since scholars started writing almost public speaking as a distinct phenomenon, there have been a range of dissimilar systems created to classify the types of speeches people may give. Aristotle talked about iii speech purposes: deliberative (political spoken communication), forensic (courtroom speech), and epideictic (speech of praise or blame). Cicero also talked about iii purposes: judicial (courtroom speech), deliberative (political oral communication), and demonstrative (ceremonial spoken communication—similar to Aristotle's epideictic). A niggling more recently, St. Augustine of Hippo also wrote well-nigh three specific speech purposes: to teach (provide people with information), to please (entertain people or show people false ideas), and to sway (persuade people to a religious ideology). All these systems of identifying public speeches have been attempts at helping people make up one's mind the full general purpose of their spoken language. A general purpose refers to the broad goal in creating and delivering a voice communication.

These typologies or classification systems of public speeches serve to demonstrate that general spoken language purposes have remained pretty consistent throughout the history of public speaking. Mod public speaking scholars typically use a nomenclature arrangement of three general purposes: to inform, to persuade, and to entertain.

To Inform

The beginning full general purpose that some people accept for giving speeches is to inform. But put, this is about helping audience members acquire information that they exercise non already possess. Audience members can then employ this data to empathise something (e.g., speech on a new technology, voice communication on a new virus) or to perform a new task or improve their skills (east.g., how to swing a golf game guild, how to get together a layer cake). The nearly important characteristic of informative topics is that the goal is to gain cognition. Observe that the goal is not to encourage people to use that knowledge in any specific way. When a speaker starts encouraging people to apply knowledge in a specific fashion, he or she is no longer informing just is persuading.

Let's look at a real example of how an individual tin accidentally go from informing to persuading. Let's say yous are assigned to inform an audience most a new vaccination program. In an informative speech, the purpose of the speech is to explicate to your audition what the programme is and how it works. If, however, you start encouraging your audience to participate in the vaccination program, you are no longer informing them about the program but rather persuading them to become involved in the program. I of the near common mistakes new public speaking students make is to blur the line between informing and persuading.

Why We Share Cognition

Noesis sharing is the process of delivering information, skills, or expertise in some class to people who could benefit from information technology. In fact, understanding and exchanging noesis is so important that an unabridged field of study, called knowledge management, has been created to assist people (especially businesses) get more effective at harnessing and exchanging cognition. In the professional earth, sharing knowledge is becoming increasingly important. Every yr, millions of people attend some kind of knowledge sharing conference or convention in hopes of learning new information or skills that will assistance them in their personal or professional lives (Atwood, 2009).

People are motivated to share their knowledge with other people for a variety of reasons (Hendriks, 1999). For some, the personal sense of achievement or of responsibility drives them to share their knowledge (internal motivational factors). Others are driven to share knowledge because of the desire for recognition or the possibility of task enhancement (external motivational factors). Knowledge sharing is an important part of every society, so learning how to deliver informative speeches is a valuable skill.

Mutual Types of Informative Topics

O'Hair, Stewart, and Rubenstein identified six general types of informative speech communication topics: objects, people, events, concepts, processes, and problems (O'Hair, et al., 2007). The first type of informative spoken language relates to objects, which can include how objects are designed, how they office, and what they hateful. For instance, a student of i of our coauthors gave a speech on the design of corsets, using a mannequin to demonstrate how corsets were placed on women and the corporeality of strength necessary to lace one up.

The 2nd type of informative speech focuses on people. People-based speeches tend to exist biography-oriented. Such topics could include recounting an individual's achievements and explaining why he or she is important in history. Some speakers, who are famous themselves, will focus on their own lives and how various events shaped who they ultimately became. Dottie Walters is near noted as being the start female in the Usa to run an advertising agency. In addition to her work in advertising, Dottie likewise spent a great deal of time as a professional speaker. She often would tell the story about her early years in advertising when she would push around a stroller with her daughter inside as she went from business concern to business trying to generate involvement in her copywriting abilities. You don't accept to be famous, however, to give a people-based spoken communication. Instead, you could inform your audience about a historical or contemporary hero whose achievements are not widely known.

The third type of informative speech involves explaining the significance of specific events, either historical or contemporary. For example, you could deliver a speech on a specific battle of World War II or a specific presidential administration. If you're a history buff, outcome-oriented speeches may be right up your alley. There are countless historical events that many people aren't familiar with and would find interesting. You could also inform your audience about a more recent or gimmicky event. Some examples include concerts, plays, and arts festivals; athletic competitions; and natural phenomena, such equally storms, eclipses, and earthquakes. The point is to make sure that an informative speech is talking most the event (who, what, when, where, and why) and not attempting to persuade people to pass judgment upon the consequence or its effects.

The fourth type of informative speech involves concepts, or "abstract and difficult ideas or theories" (O'Hair, et al., 2007). For instance, if you want to explicate a specific advice theory, Eastward. M. Griffin provides an excellent list of advice theories on his website, http://www.afirstlook.com/main.cfm/theory_list. Whether you want to hash out theories related to business organisation, folklore, psychology, religion, politics, art, or any other major area of study, this blazon of speech tin can be very useful in helping people to empathize complex ideas.

The fifth blazon of informative speech involves processes. The procedure voice communication can exist divided into two unique types: how-it-functions and how-to-do. The first blazon of process speech helps audience members empathise how a specific object or system works. For example, you could explain how a pecker becomes a law in the Usa. There is a very specific set of steps that a bill must go through before information technology becomes a law, so at that place is a very articulate process that could be explained to an audience. The how-to-practise speech, on the other mitt, is designed to help people come up to an end outcome of some kind. For example, you could give a speech on how to quilt, how to change a tire, how to write a résumé, and millions of other how-to oriented topics. In our feel, the how-to speech is probably the most commonly delivered informative speech in public speaking classes.

The last type of informative speech involves bug, or "problems or matters of dispute" (O'Pilus, et al., 2007). This informative spoken communication topic is probably the most difficult for novice public speakers because it requires walking a fine line between informing and persuading. If you lot endeavour to evangelize this type of speech, remember the goal is to be balanced when discussing both sides of the issue. To see an example of how you can take a very divisive topic and make it informative, bank check out the series Point/Counterpoint published past Chelsea House (http://chelseahouse.infobasepublishing.com). This series of books covers everything from the pros and cons of blogging to whether the The states should take mandatory military service.

Sample: Jessy Ohl'south Informative Speech

The post-obit text represents an informative speech prepared and delivered by an undergraduate student named Jessy Ohl. While this speech is written out as a text for purposes of assay, in your public speaking course, yous will most likely be assigned to speak from an outline or notes, not a fully written script. Every bit you read through this sample speech, notice how Ms. Ohl uses informative strategies to present the information without trying to persuade her audition.

In 1977, a young missionary named Daniel Everett traveled deep into the jungles of Brazil to spread the give-and-take of God. However, he shortly found himself working to translate the language of a remote tribe that would ultimately change his religion, lead to a new profession, and pit him in an intellectual fistfight with the world-famous linguist Noam Chomsky. Equally New Scientist Mag of January 2008 explains, Everett'south research on a small-scale group of 350 people called the Pirahã tribe has revealed a linguistic communication that has experts and intellectuals deeply disturbed.

While all languages are unique, experts like Noam Chomsky have argued that they all have universal similarities, such equally counting, that are difficult-wired into the human brain. So equally National Public Radio reported on April viii, 2007, without the ability to count, conceptualize time or abstraction, or create syntax, the Pirahã take a language that past all accounts shouldn't exist.

Daniel Everett is now a professor of linguistics at Illinois State University, and he has created controversy by calling for a complete reevaluation of all linguistic theory in low-cal of the Pirahã. Exploration of the Pirahã could bring further insight into the understanding of how people communicate and fifty-fifty, perhaps, what it means to be human. Which is why we must: first, examine the unique civilisation of the Pirahã; 2d, explore what makes their linguistic communication then surprising; and finally, detect the implications the Pirahã take for the way nosotros look at linguistic communication and humanity.

Taking a closer look at the tribe's civilisation, we can identify two key components of Pirahã culture that aid mold language: showtime, isolation; and second, accent on reality.

First, while globalization has reached nearly every corner of the world, it has not been able to penetrate the Pirahã natives in the slightest. As Dr. Everett told the New Yorker of April 16, 2007, no grouping in history has resisted change similar the Pirahã. "They refuse everything from outside their earth" as unnecessary and empty-headed. Distaste for all things foreign is the reason why the people have rejected technology, farming, religion, and even artwork.

The lack of artwork illustrates the 2nd vital part of Pirahã culture: an emphasis on reality. According to the India Statesman of May 22, 2006, all Pirahã agreement is based around the concept of personal experience. If something cannot be felt, touched, or experienced directly then to them, it doesn't exist, essentially eliminating the beingness of abstract thought. Since art is often a representation of reality, it has no value amid the people. During his work as a missionary, Everett was amazed to find that the natives had no involvement in the story of Jesus in one case they constitute out that he was dead. The Pirahã psyche is and so focused on the present that the people have no commonage memory, history, written documents, or cosmos myths. They are unable to fifty-fifty remember the names of dead grandparents considering once something or someone cannot be experienced, they are no longer important.

Since his days every bit a missionary, Everett remains the only Western professor able to translate Pirahã. His research has discovered many things missing with the language: words for time, direction, and colour. But more importantly, Pirahã too lacks three characteristics previously thought to exist essential to all languages: complexity, counting, and recursion.

Beginning, the Pirahã language seems incredibly simple. Now, this isn't meant to imply that the people are uncivilized or stupid, simply instead, they are minimalist. As I mentioned earlier, they merely talk in terms of direct experience. The London Times of Jan xiii, 2007, notes that with only eight consonants and 3 vowels, speakers rely on the employ of tone, pitch, and bustling to communicate. In fact, Pirahã almost sounds more similar song than speech.

2d, Noam Chomsky's famous universal grammar theory includes the ascertainment that every language has a means of counting. However, every bit reported in the June 2007 issue of Prospect Magazine, the Pirahã but accept words for "one, ii, and MANY." This demonstrates the Pirahã's inability to anticipate a difference between three and five or 3 and a chiliad. Dr. Everett spent half-dozen months attempting to teach even a unmarried Pirahã person to count to ten, but his efforts were in vain, as tribal members considered the new numbers and attempts at math "childish."

Third, and the biggest surprise for researchers, is the Pirahã's apparent lack of recursion. Recursion is the ability to link several thoughts together. It is characterized in Christine Kenneally's 2007 book, The Search for the Origins of Language, every bit the fundamental principle of all language and the source of limitless expression. Pirahã is unique since the language does non have whatsoever conjunctions or linking words. Recursion is and then vital for expression that the Chicago Tribune of June 11, 2007, reports that a language without recursion is similar disproving gravity.

Although the Pirahã don't care what the exterior world thinks of them, their language and world view has certainly ruffled feathers. And while culture hasn't been able to infiltrate the Pirahã, it may ultimately be the Pirahã that teaches culture a thing or ii, which brings us to implications on the communicative, philosophical, and cultural levels. By examining the culture, language, and implications of the Pirahã tribe we are able to see how this pocket-sized Brazilian village could shift the way that we think and talk almost the world. Daniel Everett'southward research hasn't made him more popular with his colleagues. Merely his findings do bear witness that more critical research is needed to make sure that our understanding of language is not lost in translation.

To Persuade

The 2d general purpose people can have for speaking is to persuade. When we speak to persuade, we attempt to get listeners to embrace a point of view or to adopt a beliefs that they would not take done otherwise. A persuasive speech tin be distinguished from an informative spoken communication by the fact that it includes a call for action for the audience to make some change in their behavior or thinking.

Why We Persuade

The reasons behind persuasive voice communication autumn into two chief categories, which nosotros will call "pure persuasion" and "manipulative persuasion." Pure persuasion occurs when a speaker urges listeners to engage in a specific behavior or change a betoken of view because the speaker truly believes that the change is in the best interest of the audition members. For example, you may decide to requite a speech on the importance of practicing skillful oral hygiene considering y'all truly believe that oral hygiene is important and that bad oral hygiene can pb to a range of physical, social, and psychological problems. In this instance, the speaker has no ulterior or hidden motive (e.g., y'all are not a toothpaste salesperson).

Manipulative persuasion, on the other hand, occurs when a speaker urges listeners to engage in a specific behavior or change a point of view by misleading them, oft to fulfill an ulterior motive across the face value of the persuasive attempt. We call this form of persuasion manipulative because the speaker is not being honest most the real purpose for attempting to persuade the audience. Ultimately, this form of persuasion is perceived every bit highly dishonest when audience members discover the ulterior motive. For example, suppose a physician who also owns a large amount of stock in a pharmaceutical company is asked to speak before a grouping of other physicians well-nigh a specific disease. Instead of informing the group about the disease, the physician spends the bulk of his time attempting to persuade the audience that the drug his company manufactures is the best treatment for that specific illness.

Obviously, the cardinal question for persuasion is the speaker's intent. Is the speaker attempting to persuade the audience because of a sincere belief in the benefits of a sure behavior or bespeak of view? Or is the speaker using all possible ways—including distorting the truth—to persuade the audition because he or she will derive personal benefits from their adopting a certain behavior or indicate of view? Unless your speech assignment specifically calls for a voice communication of manipulative persuasion, the usual (and ethical) understanding of a "persuasive speech" consignment is that you should employ the pure form of persuasion.

Persuasion: Behavior versus Attitudes, Values, and Behavior

Equally we've mentioned in the preceding sections, persuasion tin can accost behaviors—appreciable actions on the part of listeners—and it can also accost intangible thought processes in the grade of attitudes, values, and beliefs.

When the speaker attempts to persuade an audience to modify beliefs, we tin often observe and even measure how successful the persuasion was. For example, after a voice communication attempting to persuade the audience to donate money to a charity, the charity tin can measure how many donations were received. The post-obit is a short list of diverse behavior-oriented persuasive speeches we've seen in our own classes: washing 1'due south easily frequently and using manus sanitizer, adapting 1's driving habits to better gas mileage, using open-source software, or drinking i soft beverage or soda over another. In all these cases, the goal is to make a change in the basic behavior of audition members.

The 2nd blazon of persuasive topic involves a change in attitudes, values, or beliefs. An attitude is defined every bit an individual's general predisposition toward something equally being practiced or bad, right or wrong, negative or positive. If you believe that wearing apparel codes on college campuses are a skillful idea, you want to give a speech persuading others to adopt a positive mental attitude toward campus dress codes.

A speaker tin likewise attempt to persuade listeners to change some value they hold. Value refers to an individual's perception of the usefulness, importance, or worth of something. We can value a college didactics, we tin can value engineering science, and we can value liberty. Values, as a general concept, are fairly ambiguous and tend to be very lofty ideas. Ultimately, what we value in life actually motivates usa to engage in a range of behaviors. For example, if you value protecting the environment, yous may recycle more of your trash than someone who does not concord this value. If y'all value family unit history and heritage, you may exist more motivated to spend time with your older relatives and ask them about their early on lives than someone who does not hold this value.

Lastly, a speaker tin attempt to persuade people to change their personal beliefs. Beliefs are propositions or positions that an private holds as true or simulated without positive knowledge or proof. Typically, beliefs are divided into 2 basic categories: core and dispositional. Cadre beliefs are beliefs that people take actively engaged in and created over the course of their lives (east.one thousand., conventionalities in a higher ability, belief in extraterrestrial life forms). Dispositional beliefs, on the other paw, are beliefs that people have not actively engaged in; they are judgments based on related subjects, which people brand when they come across a proposition. Imagine, for example, that yous were asked the question, "Tin gorillas speak English?" While yous may never have met a gorilla or even seen one in person, you can make instant judgments about your understanding of gorillas and fairly certainly say whether you believe that gorillas can speak English.

When information technology comes to persuading people to alter beliefs, persuading audiences to change core beliefs is more hard than persuading audiences to alter dispositional beliefs. If you discover a topic related to dispositional beliefs, using your spoken communication to help listeners alter their processing of the belief is a realistic possibility. But every bit a novice public speaker, you lot are probably best brash to avoid core behavior. Although core beliefs often appear to be more exciting and interesting than dispositional ones, you are very unlikely to alter anyone's core behavior in a 5- to 10-minute classroom speech.

Sample: Jessy Ohl's Persuasive Oral communication

The following speech was written and delivered past an undergraduate student named Jessy Ohl. As with our earlier example, while this spoken language is written out every bit a text for purposes of analysis, in your public speaking grade, you volition most probable be assigned to speak from an outline or notes, non a fully written script.

Take a few minutes and compare this persuasive spoken communication to the informative speech Ms. Ohl presented before in this affiliate. What similarities do y'all see? What differences do you lot see? Does this speech communication seek to change the audience'southward behavior? Attitudes? Values? Dispositional or cadre beliefs? Where in the speech practice you come across one or more than calls for activeness?

With a declining population of around half-dozen,000, my home town of Denison, Iowa, was on the brink of extinction when a new manufacture rolled in bringing jobs and revenue. However, equally the Canadian Globe and Mail service of July 23, 2007, reports, the industry that saved Denison may ultimately atomic number 82 to its demise.

Denison is 1 of 110 communities across the country to be revolutionized by the production of corn ethanol. Ethanol is a high-powered alcohol, derived from establish thing, that can be used like gasoline. According to the Omaha World Herald of January viii, 2008, our reliance on foreign oil combined with global warming concerns have many property corn ethanol as our best free energy solution. Merely despite the adept intentions of helping farmers and lowering oil consumption, corn ethanol is filled with empty promises. In fact, The Des Moines Register of March i, 2008, concludes that when ethanol is made from corn, all of its ecology and economic benefits disappear. With oil prices at 100 dollars per barrel, our nation is in an energy crunch, and luckily, the production of ethanol tin exist a major help for both farmers and consumers, if done correctly. Unfortunately, the manner we make ethanol—over 95% from corn—is anything but correct. Although hailed as a magic bullet, corn ethanol could be the worst agricultural catastrophe since the Dust Basin.

The serious political, environmental, and fifty-fifty moral implications demand that we critically rethink this so-called yellow miracle by: commencement, examining the issues created by corn ethanol; second, exploring why corn ethanol has gained such power; and finally, discovering solutions to forestall a corn ethanol disaster.

Now, if you take heard annihilation near the issues of corn ethanol, it probably dealt with efficiency. As the Christian Science Monitor of November 15, 2007, notes, information technology takes a gallon of gasoline or more to make a gallon of ethanol. And while this is an of import concern, efficiency is the to the lowest degree of our worries. Turning this crop into fuel creates two major issues for our society: first, environmental deposition; and second, acceleration of global famine.

First, corn ethanol damages the environment as much equally, if not more than than, fossil fuels. The journal Ethanol and Bio-diesel News of September 2007 asserts that the production of corn ethanol is pushing natural resource to the breaking point. Since the Dust Bowl, traditional farming practices have required farmers to "rotate" crops. But with corn ethanol being then profitable, understandably, farmers have stopped rotating crops, leading to soil erosion, deforestation, and fertilizer runoff—making our soil less fertile and more toxic. And the story merely gets worse in one case the ethanol is manufactured. According to National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation of Feb ten, 2008, corn ethanol emits more carbon monoxide and twice the corporeality of carcinogens into the air every bit traditional gasoline.

The second trouble created from corn ethanol is the acceleration of global dearth. According to the United states of america Grains Council, last year, 27 million tons of corn, traditionally used as nutrient, was turned into ethanol, drastically increasing food prices. The March 7, 2007, issue of The Wall Street Periodical explains that lower supplies of corn needed for necessities such equally farm feed, corn oil, and corn syrup have increased our nutrient costs in everything from milk to staff of life, eggs, and even beer as much as 25 percent. The St. Louis Post Dispatch of April 12, 2007, reports that the amount of corn used to fill one tank of gas could feed i person for an unabridged year. In October, Global protests over corn ethanol pb the United Nations to call its product "a crime confronting humanity."

If you weren't aware of the environmental or moral impacts of corn ethanol, you're not lone. The Fiscal Times of May 27, 2007, reports that the narrative surrounding corn ethanol equally a homegrown fuel is so desirable that critical thinking is understandably almost nonexistent. To showtime thinking critically about corn ethanol, we need to examine solutions on both the federal and personal levels.

First, at the federal level, our regime must stop the ridiculously high subsidies surrounding corn ethanol. On June 24, 2007, The Washington Post predicted that subsidies on corn ethanol would cost the federal government an extra 131 billion dollars by 2010.

This isn't to say that the federal government should abandon modest farmers. Instead, permit's take the excitement around alternative fuels and direct it toward the right kinds of ethanol. The Economist of June 2, 2007, reports that other materials such as switch grass and wood chips can be used instead of corn. And on July half-dozen, 2011, The New York Times reported on ethanol made from corn cobs, leaves, and husks, which leaves the corn kernels to be used as food. The government could utilise the money paid in subsidies to support this kind of responsible production of ethanol. The point is that ethanol washed right can honestly assist with energy independence.

On the personal level, nosotros have all participated in the virtually important step, which is existence knowledgeable about the true face of corn ethanol. Withal, with big business and Washington proclaiming corn ethanol's greatness, we need to spread the give-and-take. So please, talk to friends and family about corn ethanol while at that place is still time. To make this easier, visit my website, at http://www.responsibleethanol.com. Here you will find informational materials, links to your congressional representatives, and ways to invest in switch grass and woods ethanol.

Today, we examined the problems of corn ethanol in America and discovered solutions to make sure that our need for energy reform doesn't sacrifice our morality. Iowa is turning and so much corn into ethanol that soon the state will take to import corn to eat. And while my hometown of Denison has gained much from corn ethanol, we all have much more to lose from it.

To Entertain

The final general purpose people can have for public speaking is to entertain. Whereas informative and persuasive speech making is focused on the end consequence of the spoken communication process, entertainment speaking is focused on the theme and occasion of the spoken language. An entertaining speech can be either informative or persuasive at its root, just the context or theme of the speech requires speakers to think about the speech communication primarily in terms of audience enjoyment.

Why We Entertain

Entertaining speeches are very common in everyday life. The key goal of an entertaining spoken communication is audience enjoyment, which tin come in a variety of forms. Entertaining speeches tin be funny or serious. Overall, entertaining speeches are not designed to give an audience a deep understanding of life simply instead to function as a style to divert an audience from their 24-hour interval-to-day lives for a short menstruation of fourth dimension. This is not to say that an entertaining voice communication cannot accept existent content that is highly informative or persuasive, but its goal is primarily most the entertaining aspects of the speech and not focused on the informative or persuasive quality of the speech communication.

Common Forms of Amusement Topics

At that place are three bones types of entertaining speeches: the after-dinner spoken communication, the ceremonial spoken language, and the inspirational voice communication. The after-dinner speech is a form of speaking where a speaker takes a serious voice communication topic (either informative or persuasive) and injects a level of humor into the voice communication to get in entertaining. Some novice speakers will attempt to turn an after-dinner spoken language into a stand-up comedy routine, which doesn't have the same focus (Roye, 2010). Subsequently-dinner speeches are first and foremost speeches.

A ceremonial speech communication is a type of entertaining speech where the specific context of the voice communication is the driving strength of the spoken communication. Common types of ceremonial speeches include introductions, toasts, and eulogies. In each of these cases, there are specific events that drive the speech. Perchance yous're introducing an private who is well-nigh to receive an laurels, giving a toast at your best friend'south wedding, or delivering the eulogy at a relative's funeral. In each of these cases, the speech and the purpose of the speech is determined past the context of the event and not by the want to inform or persuade.

The final blazon of entertaining spoken communication is one where the speaker's primary goal is to inspire her or his audience. Inspirational speeches are based in emotion with the goal to motivate listeners to alter their lives in some significant way. Florence Littauer, a famous professional speaker, delivers an emotionally charged speech titled "Silverish Boxes." In the speech, Mrs. Littauer demonstrates how people can use positive comments to encourage others in their daily lives. The title comes from a story she tells at the beginning of the speech where she was instruction a group of children about using positive speech, and one of the children defined positive speech every bit giving people little silver boxes with bows on peak (http://server.firefighters.org/catalog/2009/45699.mp3).

Sample: Adam Fink's Entertainment Spoken language

The following spoken communication, by an undergraduate student named Adam Fink, is an entertainment spoken communication. Specifically, this speech is a formalism spoken communication given at Mr. Fink's graduation. As with our before examples, while this speech is written out as a text for purposes of analysis, in your public speaking course you lot will most likely exist assigned to speak from an outline or notes, not a fully written script. Discover that the tenor of this speech is persuasive but that it persuades in a more inspiring way than just building and proving an statement.

Good evening! I've spent the last few months looking over outset speeches on YouTube. The most notable ones had viii things in mutual. They reflected on the past, pondered about the futurity. They encouraged the honorees. They all included some sort of personal story and application. They made people laugh at to the lowest degree fifteen times. They referred to the university as the finest university in the nation or earth, and final but not least they all greeted the people in attendance. I'll begin by doing so now.

President Holst, cheers for coming. Faculty members and staff, salutations to you all. Distinguished guests, we are happy to have y'all. Family members and friends, nosotros could not be here without y'all. Finally, ladies and gentlemen of the course of 2009, welcome to your commencement day here at Concordia University, Saint Paul, this, the finest academy in the galaxy, nay, universe. Really, it'south right up there with Southward Harlem Found of Technology, the Schoolhouse of Difficult Knocks, and Harvard. Check and bank check!

Graduates, nosotros are not here to sentinel as our siblings, our parents, friends, or other family unit walk beyond this stage. We are hither considering today is our graduation solar day. I am going to get off on a tangent for a lilliputian bit. Over the by umpteen years, I have seen my fair share of graduations and ceremonies. In fact, I call back getting dragged along to my older brothers' and sisters' graduations, all 8,000 of them—at least it seems like at that place were that many now. Seriously, I accept more than family members than friends. I remember sitting hither in these very seats, attentively listening to the president and other distinguished guests speak, again maxim welcome and thank y'all for coming. Each yr, I got a little bit meliorate at staying awake throughout the unabridged ceremony. Every time I would come up with something new to keep myself awake, daydreams, pinching my arms, or pulling leg pilus; I was a very creative individual. I am proud to say that I have been awake for the entirety of this ceremony. I would like to personally give thanks my classmates and colleagues sitting effectually me for slapping me every fourth dimension I even thought almost dozing off. Personal story, cheque—and now, application!

Graduates, don't sleep through life. If y'all need a close friend or colleague to keep you awake, inquire. Don't get bored with life. In the words of one of my mentors, the Australian movie director, screen writer, and producer Baz Luhrman, "Do one affair every day that scares you." Keep yourself on your toes. Stay occupied but leave room for relaxation; cover your hobbies. Don't get stuck in a job you hate. I am sure many of you have seen the "Did You Know?" film on YouTube. The picture montages hundreds of statistics together, laying downward the footing piece of work to tell viewers that we are approaching a crossroad. The way we live is most to modify dramatically. We are living in exponential times. It'south a good affair that we are exponential people.

We are at a crossing betoken here, now. Each of us is graduating; we are preparing to exit this place we have called home for the past few years. It's time to move on and flourish. Only let's not get out this place for skillful. Let united states walk away with happy memories. We accept been fortunate enough to see more modify in our time here than about alumni see at their alma mater in a lifetime. We accept seen the destruction of Centennial, Minnesota, and Walther. Ladies, it might non mean a lot to you, but gentlemen, we had some good times there. We accept seen the building and completion of the new Residence Life Center. We now run across the ancestry of our very own stadium. We have seen enough offices and departments move to last any business a lifetime. Allow us remember these things, the flooding of the knoll, Ultimate Frisbee beginning at ten o'clock at night, and two back-to-back Volleyball National Title teams, with i of those title games held where you lot are sitting at present. I encourage all of you to walk out of this identify with flashes of the old times flickering through your brains. Reflection, cheque!

Honorees, in the words of Michael Scott, only slightly contradistinct, "They have no thought how loftier [we] can wing." Correct now you are surrounded by futurity politicians, movie critics, producers, directors, actors, actresses, church workers, artists, the teachers of tomorrow, musicians, people who volition alter the world. We are all held together right hither and now, by a common bond of unity. We are 1 graduating grade.

In ane of his speeches this year, President Barack Obama said, "Generations of Americans have continued their stories to the larger American story through service and helped move our country forward. We need that service now." He is right. America needs selfless acts of service.

Hebrews x:23–25 reads, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope nosotros profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let united states of america consider how we may spur ane another on toward love and good deeds. Let us non give up meeting together, as some are in the addiction of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you lot run across the 24-hour interval budgeted." Let us not leave this place as enemies only rather as friends and companions. Allow us come back next fall for our first reunion, the Null Class Reunion hosted by the wonderful and amazing workers in the alumni department. Let the states become and brand disciples of all nations, guided by His Give-and-take. Permit usa spread God's peace, joy, and love through service to others. Congratulations, graduates! I promise to see you next homecoming. Encouragement, check!

Key Takeaways

• In that location are 3 general purposes that all speeches fall into: to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. Depending on what your ultimate goal is, you will start by picking one of these general purposes and so selecting an appropriate speech communication pattern that goes along with that full general purpose.
• Informative speeches can focus on objects, people, events, concepts, processes, or issues. It is important to remember that your purpose in an informative speech is to share data with an audience, not to persuade them to exercise or believe something.
• There are two basic types of persuasion: pure and manipulative. Speakers who attempt to persuade others for pure reasons do so because they actually believe in what they are persuading an audience to practice or call up. Speakers who persuade others for manipulative reasons do so frequently by distorting the support for their arguments considering they have an ulterior motive in persuading an audience to do or think something. If an audience finds out that y'all've been attempting to dispense them, they will lose trust in y'all.
• Entertainment speeches can be after-dinner, ceremonial, or inspirational. Although there may be informative or persuasive elements to your speech, your primary reason for giving the speech is to entertain the audience.

Exercises

1. Imagine you're giving a voice communication related to aardvarks to a grouping of fifth graders. Which blazon of informative spoken communication do you think would be the well-nigh useful (objects, people, events, concepts, processes, and bug)? Why?
2. Imagine you lot're giving a oral communication to a group of prospective voters supporting a specific political candidate. Which type of persuasive speech do you think would be the nigh useful (alter of behavior, change of attitude, change of value, or change of belief)? Why?
3. Imagine that you've been asked to speak at a business lunch and the host has asked yous to keep it serious merely lighthearted. Which blazon of entertainment oral communication practice you think would be the almost useful (the afterward-dinner speech, the ceremonial speech, or the inspirational speech)? Why?

References

Atwood, C. Thousand. (2009). Knowledge management basics. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Hendriks, P. (1999). Why share knowledge? The influence of ICT on the motivation for knowledge sharing. Knowledge and Process Direction, half dozen, 91–100.

O'Pilus, D., Stewart, R., & Rubenstein, H. (2007). A speaker'southward guidebook: Text and reference (tertiary ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.

Roye, Southward. (2010). Austan Goolsbee a funny stand-up comedian? Not even close… [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.realfirststeps.com/1184/austan-goolsbee-funny-standup-comedian-close

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/chapter/6-1-general-purposes-of-speaking/