Chapter 15 Informative Speaking 439War, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the ter-
rorist attacks on September 11, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and
the 2013 Boston marathon bombings. At a more intimate level, events of local
significance can also make interesting and compelling topics for speeches. For
example, you might develop an informative speech about the upcoming student
film festival at your campus.
You can also build an informative speech around important, tragic, funny,
or instructive events in your personal life—the day you went skydiving, the
day you witnessed a flash mob, the death of a close friend, or the birth of your
first child. Just remember that these stories of personal events must be ethical
and truthful. One of us had a student lie about being in a car that was hit by
a drunk driver to infuse some personal spark in an informative speech about
California drunk driving laws. Such exaggeration and fabrication are never
ethical!
In addition to helping an audience to understand the meaning of personal,
local, and historical single events, a speaker can also explore the social signifi-
cance of collections of events. You might, for example, talk about the significance
of dances for Native American tribes, high school football games in your home-
town, or the role of weddings, reunions, and funerals in your family.
THINK
ABOUT
THIS❶ What are the ethical
obligations of a speaker
in preparing informative
presentations? Can you
ignore the coach’s request
and just say what you
want to say?
❷ Is the coach’s request
really an attempt to inform
alumni of what the swim
program needs in order to
persuade them to donate
money?
❸ Are your motivations
really ethical? Do you
want to avoid talking
about scholarship money
because you think it will
never materialize or be-
cause you’re angry that
the coach misled you?Ulterior Motives
As captain of the school swim team, you’ve been asked to deliver an infor-
mative speech to the school’s alumni during homecoming week detailing the
team’s past three seasons and hopes for the future. You’ve outlined a short,
simple speech that notes individual members’ personal bests, team achieve-
ments, and the coach’s laudable efforts to recruit promising high school ath-
letes. When your coach reviews your speech outline, she asks you to include
more about the many scholarships that the school makes available to athletes.
You know that the coach has many motives for asking you to include
more information about scholarship money. She’s hoping, first and fore-
most, to convince alumni to support the team financially, in order to entice
more financially strapped but talented swimmers to choose your school.
But you’re feeling torn: you know that most of the money that goes to your
school’s sports programs is devoted to the larger and more popular basket-
ball program. You’re also feeling annoyed because four years ago, the coach
recruited you as a high school scholar-athlete with a partial scholarship that
she promised would grow to a full scholarship the following year. The full
scholarship never materialized, and now you’re about to graduate with huge
student loans that you had thought you’d be able to avoid when you chose to
attend this school over others that courted you.
As team captain, you’re proud of your team’s record and eager to inform
the alumni about it. But you also don’t want to give them information that you
feel is somewhat misleading. What should you do?EVALUATINGCOMMUNICATIONETHICS