Page 299 - Essentials of Human Communication

278 ChaPtEr 13 The Informative Speech

PublIC SPEakInG SamPlE aSSIStant

an Excellent Informative Speech

This speech was delivered by Marty Wiebe, a student at Centralia College, in Washington, in an introductory
communication course taught by Jeff McQuarrie that used the previous edition of this textbook. You can watch
a video of this speech at MyCommunicationLab. Here is a transcript of that speech with annotations to help
guide your reading/viewing and questions to help guide your analysis. Some of the key terms we used
throughout the section on public speaking appear in the annotations in boldface.
Watch the Video “Communication
Communication in an ever-Changing world in an Ever-Changing World” at
Marty Wiebe MyCommunicationLab
SpeeCh AnnotAtionS And QueStionS
Good morning. Drumming [the sound of drumming on the desk]. That’s one This speech is appropriately titled Communication in a Changing World. It
of the things we just did today. My name is Marty Wiebe, and drumming, we gives you a very clear idea of what the speech will be about. What other titles
just did, is one form of communication. Talking to you like I am doing right might be appropriate if you were giving this speech to your class? [Read or
now is another form of communication. view the speech before creating a title.]
Notice that the speaker not only gained attention by drumming but she re-
lated this attention-getter to the topic of the speech. In what other ways
might she have introduced the speech?

My speech is going to be about how communication is changing and Here the speaker gives a very direct orientation, telling her audience what
how the media is changing and how we as communicators have got to be- her speech will be about. How would you define the purpose and thesis of
come better and more acquainted with the new modes of communication this speech? How appropriate would this speech be if delivered in your class?
and some of the new rules that we’re going to have to learn. Why?

There are two main forms of communication: verbal, which is what I’m You’ll notice that the speaker effectively uses lots of specific examples as
doing right now, and nonverbal, like our drums. They’re nonverbal. Music is supporting materials throughout this speech. What other types of support-
nonverbal. When I smile at you, it’s nonverbal. So verbal and nonverbal go ing materials would be useful in this speech? For example, if this were a lon-
hand in hand, and it’s really, really important that we use both, verbal and ger speech, in what way might the speaker have used illustrations, testi-
nonverbal communication, when we are doing presentations. mony, numerical data, and definitions?

We live in a shrinking world. When I grew up back in the stone age, Here the speaker describes communication as it was in the 70s. How effec-
face-to-face was the normal type of communication that we did. We met tively did the speaker describe communication in the “stone age”? What else
somebody. We talked to them face to face. We sat down, and we wrote a might the speaker have said?
letter, and we sent them, but which is now considered by snail mail. We
had newspapers and televisions and probably in the 70’s when I was just
graduating from high school, we did phone conferencing, which was a
really, really big deal.
Because up to that point, our world was just what was around us. We Here the speaker describes the state of computing in the 70s. If this were a
weren’t global at this point. Computers were just getting developed. My first longer speech, what else might she have mentioned to emphasize this con-
computer was a Commodore 64, and we had little 5 and a half inch floppy trast between then and now?
disks that we used, but there was no Internet. Bill Gates was still in the baby
stage of developing Microsoft.
But today we’ve got tons and tons of communication. Lots of us have Referring to specific audience members is often a useful technique to main-
Facebook accounts. We can now communicate with people around the tain interest and attention. If you were giving this speech in your class, what
world. We have a classmate in here, name is CJ, he lives in Africa, and we can specific references might you make?
actually communicate with him after he gets back to Africa. We can also use
Skype.