Public Speaking

Types of Informative Speeches (^209)
However, it isn’t the word’s etymological history that is meaningful to me.
You see, destiny is a depressing reminder of a car accident....
Terez concluded with the following quotation by William Jennings Bryan:
Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be
waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.
Including both denotative definitions and connotative associations provided a fuller
picture of the concept of destiny.
Giving Explanations
Think of explanations as translations: You take a complex or information-dense concept
and put it into common words and images that make it understandable. Explanations
commonly answer questions about processes (How does it work?) or about concepts
(What’s the theory behind that? or Why?).
How was Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence, Italy, constructed? How do honeybees
communicate? Why do we yawn? To answer questions like these, you’ll describe stages,
ordered sequences, or procedures involved in processes, both natural and cultural. You
can explain how something is done (training guide dogs for the blind, face transplants),
how things work (reverse mortgages, compasses), or how they’re made (driverless cars,
fire extinguishers). Not surprisingly, chronological patterns are common.
Topics about concepts can be challenging because of their complexity. What is
intelligence? What does Main Street mean in American culture? What is a thought?
These questions relate to abstractions—the mental principles, theories, and ideas we
form to explain both natural and social realities. For instance, politicians routinely
In the 1941 movie Meet John Doe, actor Gary Cooper delivers a speech explaining the concept of
“John Doe,” the average person. You can access his speech on your online resources. Notice the
many examples he uses to develop his definition.
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