types of informative speeches 15.2 319
talk about every aspect of any of the objects listed. You will need to focus on a
specific purpose. Here’s a sample outline for a speech about an object:
TOPIC: Dead Sea Scrolls
GENERAL PURPOSE: To inform
SPECIFIC PURPOSE: At the end of my speech, the audience should be
able to describe how the Dead Sea Scrolls were
found, why they are important to society, and
the key content of the ancient manuscripts.
I. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found by accident.
A. The scrolls were found in caves near the Dead Sea.
B. The scrolls were first discovered by a shepherd in 1947.
C. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, archaeologists and Bedouins found
ten caves that contained Dead Sea Scrolls.
II. The Dead Sea Scrolls are important to society.
A. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known manuscripts of any
books of the Bible.
B. The Dead Sea Scrolls give us a look at Jewish life in Palestine over
2,000 years ago.
III. The content of the Dead Sea Scrolls gives us a glimpse of the past.
A. The Dead Sea Scrolls include all the books of the Old Testament
except the book of Esther.
B. The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments of the Septuagint, the earli-
est Greek translation of the Old Testament.
C. The Dead Sea Scrolls include a collection of hymns used by the
inhabitants of the Qumran Valley.
Speeches about objects may be organized topically, chronologically, or
spatially. The speech about the Dead Sea Scrolls is organized topically. It could,
however, be revised and organized chronologically. The first major idea could
be Jewish life in Palestine two thousand years ago. The second point could
present information about how the scrolls were found in the 1940s and 1950s.
The final major idea could be the construction in the 1960s of the museum in
Jerusalem that houses the famous scrolls. Or the speech could be organized
spatially, describing the physical layout of the caves in which the scrolls were
found.
Speeches about Procedures
A speech about a procedure discusses how something works (for example, the
human circulatory system) or describes a process that produces a particular out-
come (for example, how grapes become wine). At the close of such a speech,