6.4.1 Define/Describe Speech Requirements and
Guidelines
Title Slide:
Your third graded speech in this course is the
Define/Describe Speech. Let’s talk about the requirements for this speech.
Slide 1:
To start, let’s discuss the goal of this speech. In your
first informative speech (the “How To”) your goal was to explain a process –
you told us “how to” do something. This speech takes informative speaking a
step further; we are moving beyond a simple explanation of a process to sharing
much more information about a topic. Essentially, your goal is to teach your
audience about your topic by defining and/or describing your topic. This means
that you have a lot more freedom in what information to include. You must
decide are the most important basics of your topic (what your audience must know to understand your topic) AND
what other information you feel is most important for them to leave your speech
knowing about your topic.
These are important decisions, because this speech is only
four (4) to six (6) minutes long. This means that you do not have time to share
everything about your topic – you
must be conscious and selective about what you include. Remember, adhering to
the time requirements is very important;
it is a critical skill for a speaker to be able to be clear and informative in
a given amount of time. This means that there will be a point deduction for
going both under and over these time requirements; you will lose half a point
for every ten seconds you are under or over time.
Slide 2:
This is the first
speech that you will complete for this course that requires research. You MUST
include AND CITE at research resources in this speech. Research is a critical
part of this speech, as it allows you to be informed and knowledgeable about
your topic, and sharing your research can help build your credibility with your
audience.
Information on how to cite your resource verbally is
available in the “Citing Research Resources” video lecture in this module;
please take some time to review this lecture. Detailed information about the
types of research resources you may use is available in the “Guidelines and
Requirements for Research Resources” video lecture and document in this module.
To briefly review, you MUST cite at least 3 research resources in this speech.
Of these resources, only ONE may be an online source; your other 2 research
resources MUST be print sources. You may include more than 3 research resources
if you’d like; three is just the minimum.
However, regardless of the total number of research resources used, ONLY
ONE may be an online source.
Slide 3:
As mentioned previously, the goal of this speech is to teach
your audience about your topic; this means that this is solely an informative speech. You SHOULD NOT include any persuasive elements in this speech; focus
solely on being informative.
There are many different topics that would work well for
this speech. Medical diseases,
disorders, and/or conditions (such as ADD/ADHD, diabetes, lupus, etc.) are
commonly used as topics for this speech.
You could also choose to discuss a musical genre, providing your
audience information about popular artists in the genre, the history of the
genre, etc. You could do the same for any of the world religions, such as
Christianity or Islam. As you can see,
the only limit on topics in this speech is the time (you want to be able to
adequately cover your topic in 4 – 6 minutes), requirements for research (you
need to choose something you can research in reputable, print sources) and your
own interests!
I would like the topic to be something extremely simple and easy to be able to present this speech to my five audience members.
