Informative Presentation Directions
An informative speaker shares information with others to enhance their knowledge or understanding of a particular topic. Most adult audiences enjoy information that is relevant to their own lives and needs.
This assignment will give you the opportunity to gain experience speaking extemporaneously, to narrow a topic and organize content using a pattern of organization, and to orally cite sources of supporting material.
- Select a topic which allows you to inform your audience of a significant aspect of a culture that is different than your own. Possible topics include social customs, family traditions, holidays, clothing, food, religious traditions, and sporting activities. Refer to Chapter 7 of your text as a guide.
- Research your topic. Be imaginative in choosing content for your speech. It is not enough to simply summarize basic information from the Internet about a country or culture. Narrow the topic by selecting one specific aspect on which to focus your ideas.
- Organize the main points of your speech using an informative pattern of organization. Your speech should give your audience a deeper understanding of your topic, but should not be designed to affect your audience’s beliefs, attitudes, or behavior.
- Provide adequate support for each main point by citing at least three credible sources in the speech. Incorporate examples, narratives, testimonial evidence, statistics, analogies, explanations, and/or definitions where appropriate. Sources must be cited orally in the speech. If you have had direct contact with a different culture, you should supplement your research with your personal experience.
- Create an introduction and conclusion.
- Once you have thought through each part of the speech (introduction, body, & conclusion), create a rough draft outline of the speech.
- Create speaking notes to use during your delivery. Use key words and phrases rather than complete sentences. Your notes should serve only as a memory aid and should not be a word-for-word manuscript of your speech.
- Practice your presentation before videoing yourself so that you can deliver the information with only occasional glances at your notes.
- Consider asking friends or family members to view your presentation before submitting.
- Sample Speech: “Night Terrors”
- Sample Speech: “Acupuncture”
How will I be graded?
Click here to open the rubric which will be used to evaluate your submission.
Submitting for this assignment is an easy three step process:
Upload to YouTube
Submit a link to your YouTube video
You can record and save videos using software on your computer before uploading them to YouTube. The most common computer recording programs are Camera for Windows 8+ and Photo Booth for Mac OS X (a download may be required). You may also use your device manual to look up how to record videos. After saving your video to your computer, pleaseupload it to YouTube.
An alternative approach is recording a video on mobile device (phone or tablet). Please note that this could affect the quality of your video and you will need todownload the YouTube app to upload your video.
Using YouTube: YouTube is a free service which allows anyone to post videos online and share them. Please understand that your videosdo not need to be public. You may make your video Unlisted as long as you share the link with StraighterLine for evaluation. You should not make your video Private because graders will not be able to view it. Once you have received feedback you can delete your video or make it private, however, good work is always worth sharing (though we do recommend that you edit out any appearance of your ID).
Changing YouTube Privacy Settings
Last modified: Monday, January 9, 2017, 3:50 PM