Four basic types of speeches
Four basic types of speeches
are: to inform, to instruct, to motivate, and to persuade. These are not
mutually exclusive of one another. You may have several purposes in mind
when giving your presentation. For example, you may try to inform in
an entertaining style. Another speaker might inform the audience and try
to persuade them to act on the information.
However, the principle purpose of a speech will generally
fall into one of four basic types:
Informative – This speech serves to provide interesting and
useful information to your audience.
Some examples of informative
speeches:
- A teacher telling students about earthquakes
- A student talking about her research
- A travelogue about the Tower of London
- A computer programmer speaking about new software
- Demonstrative Speeches – This has
many similarities with an informative speech. A demonstrative speech
also teaches you something. The main difference lies in
including a demonstration of how to do the thing you’re teaching.
Some
examples of demonstrative speeches:
- How to start
your own blog
- How to bake a
cake
- How to write a
speech
- How to… just
about anything
Persuasive – A persuasive speech works to convince people to
change in some way: they think, the way they do something, or to
start doing something that they are not currently doing.
Some examples of persuasive
speeches:
- Become an organ donor
- Improve your health through better eating
- Television violence is negatively influencing our
children
- Become a volunteer and change the world
- Motivational - The aim
of the motivational speech is to get your audience acting or changing their behavior or beliefs in some way. Try to
strengthen commitment and at least get them to agree with your proposal. This
kind of public speaking is mainly based on a question of policy. So, build in
emotional appeals in your motivational speech, as well as evidence and
reasoning.
Example:
Ask them to donate money towards a charity organization.
Persuade them to increase their personal productivity.
