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.
Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides
This course is part of Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization
Taught in English
Some content may not be translated
Instructor: Dr. Matt McGarrity
Sponsored by University of Szeged
49,341 already enrolled
Course
(375 reviews)
98%
Skills you'll gain
Details to know
Add to your LinkedIn profile
8 quizzes
Course
(375 reviews)
98%
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
Build your subject-matter expertise
- Learn new concepts from industry experts
- Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
- Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
- Earn a shareable career certificate
Earn a career certificate
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV
Share it on social media and in your performance review
There are 6 modules in this course
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 quizzes1 peer review
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 quizzes1 peer review
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 quiz
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 quizzes1 peer review
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.
What's included
2 videos
What's included
1 video1 reading2 peer reviews
Instructor
Offered by
Why people choose Coursera for their career
Learner reviews
Showing 3 of 375
375 reviews
- 5 stars
85.10%
- 4 stars
10.90%
- 3 stars
1.59%
- 2 stars
1.06%
- 1 star
1.32%
Recommended if you're interested in Personal Development
University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Colorado Boulder
Open new doors with Coursera Plus
Unlimited access to 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription
Advance your career with an online degree
Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online
Join over 3,400 global companies that choose Coursera for Business
Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy