Maxwell Wildcat Speech Tournament
2022 — Maxwell, NE/US
Informative
Event Description:
An informative speech is one that informs and educates the audience. The purpose of the informative speech is to provide interesting, relevant, useful, and unique information to the audience so that they understand the main points regarding this subject. The text of the speech should be well-developed, explain concepts and ideas clearly, and be well organized. The most important characteristic of informative topics is that the goal is to gain knowledge, not to encourage people to use that knowledge in any specific way. When a speaker starts encouraging people to use knowledge in a specific way, he or she is no longer informing but is persuading.
There are many ways to inform an audience. The speech to inform may describe, clarify, illustrate, or define an object, person, idea, concept, or process. For example, the speech may:
-Describe something viable, tangible and stable in form;
-Explain a series of actions that leads to a specific result or product;
-Explain any kind of happening or occurrence; or,
-Convey information concerning beliefs, theories, principles or other
abstract subjects.
Speakers should demonstrate effective research strategies and skills, and supporting materials should be credible, wide-ranging, and effectively documented. Although not required, the speaker may incorporate purposeful audio or visual materials to illustrate concepts or ideas that are difficult or impossible to explain in words. Audio-visual material should enhance understanding, not distract from the primary focus of evaluation, which is the speech and its effective delivery.