Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides

Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides

This course is part of Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization

Instructor: Dr. Matt McGarrity

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6 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

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Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

1 week at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

6 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

465 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

1 week at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

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Assessments

8 assignments¹

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Taught in English

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There are 6 modules in this course

In the professional realm, most speeches and presentations we give are informative in scope. A scientist needs to explain her recent research findings. A financial officer needs to report on quarterly earnings to his company’s board. A technology professional needs to educate a consumer about a new product. Any time you need to convey ideas or demonstrate a process, you’re dealing with informative speaking.

Informative speaking is a fun puzzle. You need to think from the perspective of your audience to identify what they need to hear in order to understand the key ideas. How much does the audience already know? What are the most important elements to convey? How should one convey these ideas with appropriate breadth and depth given the time constraints of the speech? This demands a strategic approach to speech design that we’ll undertake in this class. By the end of the course, you should be able to explain complex ideas vividly and accessibly, design clear and compelling presentation slides, convey your passion for a topic while maintaining your professional credibility, and speak dynamically from notes and/or a manuscript. Learners will record speeches, providing and receiving peer feedback.

Welcome. This is a big week. Here’s what we’ll be doing. We’ll start with an overview of the course. This course is about developing interesting and informative speeches. The way we’ll work on these skills is through the informative speech assignment. Next, we’ll focus on the key challenge in informative speaking. remaining audience-oriented. This requires us to assess what the audience knows and how our speech can be of the most value. We need to design our goals for the speech. Too often, speakers simply just dump their information on the audience. We need to be precise about what we want our speech to accomplish to protect against being boring. After we think about audience and our goals, we can start planning out our speech. A good outline is the foundation for a good talk. We want to adhere to the principles of simplicity, balance, and order. In this module, we'll work through a case study of a TED talk. Once we have a sense for informative speaking, you’ll perform a short introductory speech. It’s a fun and easy speech that allows you to get to know some of your classmates.

What's included

15 videos6 readings3 assignments1 peer review

15 videos Total 82 minutes

Welcome to speaking to inform 2 minutes
What's this course about? 6 minutes
Informative speech assignment 6 minutes
Your speech should be audience-oriented 6 minutes
What do I know about my audience? 7 minutes
What does my audience know about the topic? 8 minutes
Identifying goals. What do you want the speech to achieve? 8 minutes
Planning goals. Be concrete to be successful. 4 minutes
Revising goals. Be realistic given the time and audience. 6 minutes
Start with an outline that clarifies key themes. 5 minutes
Simplicity. Focus on a few key ideas 8 minutes
Order. Make the speech easy to follow along with. 6 minutes
Balance. Are you spending time in the right sections? 4 minutes
Sample introductory speech 2 minutes
Recording good speech videos (optional) 4 minutes

6 readings Total 57 minutes

Week one overview 2 minutes
Get help and meet other learners. Join your Community! 5 minutes
Informative speech assignment description (Optional reading) 10 minutes
Case study. Juliana Rotich at TED 20 minutes
Week one lesson summaries 10 minutes
Week one assignment check-in 10 minutes

3 assignments Total 45 minutes

Week 1 quiz 10 minutes
Valuable talks 30 minutes
Speech goals 5 minutes

1 peer review Total 30 minutes

Introductory speech 30 minutes

Last week, we worked on developing the basic outline for of our speech. This week, we’ll take that structure and build a speech around it. We'll begin with discussing ideas clearly. This is the big challenge in informative speaking. With the body of the speech taken care of, we can now turn our attention to writing a full draft. This means thinking about the iterative process of good speech preparation. We also look at how to open and close the speech. Each speech will be arranged differently, but there are some broad genres. We'll talk about the various goals and arrangement models that might work for different types of informative speaking. Having discussed invention and arrangement, we'll watch and evaluate a sample speech. You’ll watch a speech, write up some feedback, and read how others analyzed the speech.

What's included

12 videos8 readings2 assignments1 peer review

12 videos Total 70 minutes

Support overview 6 minutes
Include clear examples and illustrations 6 minutes
Summarize complex information 7 minutes
Give the audience time to process what you're saying 6 minutes
Refining your speech 5 minutes
Good introductions set you up for an interesting and clear speech 6 minutes
Good conclusions allow you reinforce and end on a strong note. 5 minutes
Briefings and updates 4 minutes
Product and design presentations 4 minutes
Explaining research to a general audience 7 minutes
Teaching talks 6 minutes
Conference talks 7 minutes

8 readings Total 64 minutes

Week two overview 2 minutes
Case study. Explaining bee death 15 minutes
Case study: Hans Rosling's magic washing machine 10 minutes
A note on these models 2 minutes
Speech analysis #1 overview 10 minutes
Matt's feedback (Optional) 10 minutes
Week two lesson summaries 10 minutes
Week two assignment check 5 minutes

2 assignments Total 40 minutes

Week 2 quiz 10 minutes
Introductions and conclusions 30 minutes

1 peer review Total 30 minutes

Speech analysis #1 30 minutes

This week is all about slides! They can make or break a speech. We’ll talk about how to design slides so that they support you as a speaker (not replace you). By the end of the week, you should have skills and experience explaining ideas richly and designing and using clear presentation slides.

What's included

12 videos3 readings1 assignment

12 videos Total 65 minutes

What's the purpose of your slides? 7 minutes
Slides aren't simply your notes 5 minutes
Keep slides simple 5 minutes
Use slides to clarify the speech's arrangement 4 minutes
Using text in slides 5 minutes
Using images in slides 4 minutes
Using video in slides 5 minutes
Presenting with slides 6 minutes
Case study. Slides and text 8 minutes
Michael Alley, Penn State: What's wrong with slides? 4 minutes
Michael Alley, Penn State: How to make slides better 5 minutes
Sara Battersby from Tableau Software 6 minutes

3 readings Total 17 minutes

Week three overview 2 minutes
Week three lesson summaries 10 minutes
Week three assignment check-in 5 minutes

1 assignment Total 10 minutes

Week 3 quiz 10 minutes

Now for some delivery work. We start with the concept of ethos. It is that performance of credibility that all great informative speakers have. We'll dive deep into how you can refine your ethos as a speaker. We’ll finish this course by focusing on the unique delivery demands of informative speaking: using notes, mics, and podiums effectively. Interacting with the audience well. By the end of the week, you’ll have some strategies for speaking more smoothly and with greater credibility. Having discussed invention and arrangement, we'll watch and evaluate a sample speech. You’ll watch a speech, write up some feedback, and read how others analyzed the speech.

What's included

11 videos5 readings2 assignments1 peer review

11 videos Total 70 minutes

Ethos. Demonstrating your credibility 5 minutes
Arete: Performing your passion 7 minutes
Phronesis. Showing your knowledge 6 minutes
Eunoia. Displaying your goodwill 4 minutes
Presidential ethos analysis 10 minutes
Using podiums 6 minutes
Using microphones 6 minutes
Using notes 7 minutes
Where and how to interact with your audience 7 minutes
Audience getting sleepy? Try a delivery change up 4 minutes
Sample informative speech 8 minutes

5 readings Total 26 minutes

Week four overview 2 minutes
Speech analysis #2 2 minutes
Matt's feedback (Optional) 10 minutes
Week four lesson summaries 10 minutes
Week four assignment check-in 2 minutes

2 assignments Total 40 minutes

Week 4 quiz 10 minutes
Interacting with your materials 30 minutes

1 peer review Total 30 minutes

Speech analysis #2 30 minutes

Thank you for time in this course! I hope that the material has proven helpful to you. We concluded our discussion of the speech last week. This week, I would like to spend a bit of time reflecting on the course and talking about other exercises and activities that you can use to continue improving your public speaking abilities. We will end this week with your final informative speech.