The Informative Speech Body

What Are The Main Concerns In Creating the Body?

The creation of the Informative Speech Body requires three main concerns be addressed.

• What are we really saying? What is our purpose?
• What organization will allow it to be best presented?
• What structure will best suit the audience?

What are we really saying? What is our purpose?

The informative speech body is the part of the talk where you have to answer a simple question. What are we really saying? In sales terms, it’s, what are we really selling. It is not just an informative speech. It is much more.

The much more can be illustrated by a personal experience. When showing one of my paintings to a prospective collector, whether it costs $35 or $6000, I came to realize that people are not buying a picture to put on their wall. They are buying the feeling they get from looking at my art.

There are visceral needs we all have and try to fulfill. I know this when ever I hear a patron say, “This makes me feel...” The purchase is to fill or fulfill a need.

What visceral need does the audience have? What is the purpose of your information? What is the end result or benefit? How does what your offering fill that need. If the informative speech body addresses this and you make it more than just an informative speech, you will be well on your way to Speechmastery.

Think of it this way. McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc once asked if anyone in a particular audience knew what business they were in. The reply came back, “hamburgers.” How would you reply? Probably the same as most do, hamburgers.

No they are not in the hamburger business. They are in the real estate business. They own more prime commercial real estate than just about any body else.

So what is the real meaning of the information you are presenting. List all of the various meanings. Share or weave the most relevant meanings into the body of the talk. Help the audience to see past the hamburgers to the real estate as it were.

The Organization of What You Say

The best organization of the material is dependent on what the goal is. The informative speech body can be arranged several ways. They include, chronologically, logically, or the least important to most important point. How to structure your talk is sometimes dictated to you by the material or your host. For this reason, informative speeches can be the most challenging.

For instance one of the biggest challenges, giving the history of the company. You basically have to start at the beginning. At least you would think. Yet if every year at annual meetings, the same theme is developed, ask yourself the question, are there are other ways to explore that information.

Consider all the things the company is doing right now that are profitable. As you go from least to greatest you could correlate each with the history of the company from founding to the present.

Perhaps relate the history milestones to lives touched. Focus on the lives and their stories and share at what point in the company history they happened. Following a time line this way could introduce an new element into what some might consider just another boring informative speech.

What Structure Will Best Suit the Audience?

structure of an informative speech body is usually in the form of main points.

Because of the way the human mind works, three is the best number to limit it to. If necessary, some go as high as five. Beyond that, most will not remember and the effectiveness of your public speaking will be diluted.

Sometimes it is possible to structure and informative speech in the form of a story or through an illustration. Look at the series of books including "The One Minute Manager," and "Who Moved My Cheese." The training and principles were told within a story.

With an informative speech, the points can be woven into an illustration to aid the audience to remember and motivate them to use it.

Experiences and Stories are useful ways to share information and make it interesting. Real life stories have the ability to motivate as well.

Note...Caution needs to be used here as the story can overshadow the points so that everyone remembers the story and not the main points.

We cannot explore all the ways to diversify the informative speech body. The goal is try to find a fresh way at looking at the information. Look for creative ways to share and create an informative speech that touches the audience. To be able to deliver the information differently than it has been shared before.

The Informative Speech Conclusion is the next in this series on informative speech building. Do you know what the purpose a conclusion should fulfill?

Speechmastery.com: The Informative Speech Body Website

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