Imagine that in your communication class you are assigned to give an informative speech on a

topic related to your major, to your current job, or to your future career. Provide a specific
purpose statement for that topic.

What types of supporting material would you need to
effectively develop your speech? These might include definitions, explanations, examples and
illustrations, comparisons, quotations, and statistics. Define at least 3 of these and discuss how
you would use them in your speech to meet your audience's needs.
What will be an ideal response?

The specific purpose statement should describe what listeners will be able to
accomplish as a result of the speech. Supporting material should be chosen with the audience's
culture and gender in mind, and should either add interest, make the speech more memorable,
add clarity, or add proof. Definitions explain the meaning of a word or idea, explanations make
ideas more understandable, examples are factual instances, illustrations are narratives,
comparison show similarities between known and unknown ideas, quotations are expert
testimony, and statistics are numbers that show relationships between ideas.