Chapter 13 Thoughts

With our next speech being our Informative speech, Chapter 13 was very helpful to read. I was having a hard time coming up with a topic and trying to define the difference between an informative speech and a persuasive speech. In my brainstorming process I kept mixing the two up by trying to convince my audience to do what I was speaking about. The Chapter mentions this as being something that often happens with informative speeches. I also liked reading about the different patterns to use for writing an informative speech. I tend to just go for topical, but chronological, cause and effect, spatial, and narrative are also choices. Choosing a pattern that fits your topic is important. For instance, if you are doing a speech on something that happens over a period of time chronological is a good way to organize you speech. A narrative speech is a creative way to inform your audience, using a story or a few shorter stories to convey your topic. Cause and effect is good for speeches about events. It can show what caused the event to happen and the relationships among the occurences that led up to the event. Spatial is helpful if there is a geographic element to your speech, such as when your topic is about people of a certain region or animals in a particular country. Topical to me is the most basic structure. It is simple dividing your speech into main topics that serve to help explain your overall topic. It is important to choose a pattern and stick to it to give your speech a flow of events that fits your topic. My next speech is going to be topical, because it is the pattern I am the most comfortable with for now.