Informative Speech Examples

An informative speech is a speaker addressing an individual or several people and talking about an important topic of interest. It works to convey valuable information to the listener and help them understand and remember it.

Informative Speech Examples

Informative Speeches can be about anything:

School, work, sports, travel, ecology, reading.

When writing your speech, there aren't any limits to the topic of discussion. Here are some  short informative speech examples:

Our first informative speech sample is a public Centre addressing the new garbage collection routine:

Orange County government has strived over the years to provide an alternative way of life to its citizens. We have always believed that we should be transparent in what we do and what choices we make on behalf of all of you. That is why I, your Mayor, want to talk about the new plan we have for garbage pickup. Instead of just Wednesday, we want garbage to be collected twice a week - on Monday and Thursday. This decision was made by analyzing the shopping habits of every person in Town. During our research, we found out that not only does garbage pile up over seven days it isn't picked up; but also some people, in a desperate attempt to get rid of their trash, have been throwing it out in various places.

Or, here is another informative speech example of a friend talking to her peers about a concert:

Silky Pumpkins are having a concert, and I believe we should go. Think about it guys, a whole weekend of rock in Las Vegas! It's an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. I know you like their music as much as I do. After all, they've been releasing a new album every year, and their songs have been getting better and better.

I already checked the hotel and tickets, and we can afford it as long as we stay in one room. That's not that big of a problem. We've known each other since we were kids.

The last of our informative speech samples is a video game designer talking about an upcoming new game in a series:

Splash Kingdom has been a work in progress for two years. Myself, Josh, and the rest of the crew have been working very hard to make the game stand out from the rest of our current projects, and we believe we've done it. Splash Kingdom is a new and innovative mobile game that centers around player choice. We think it's imperative to give back the power of choice to our players. The new interactive storytelling system we developed does exactly that - a chance to change the story. We hired several writers who developed alternative endings and branching paths to maximize this new system. Whenever a player makes a choice, an algorithm decides where the next action will happen on a world map.  The possibilities are endless!

All of these informative speech examples have one thing in common. Every speaker is passionate about the subject. Be it garbage collection, concert, or a new video game, the speaker enjoys the subject and holds it dear to heart.

How to write an informative speech: samples and tips

Decide on your Topic

Think about topics you like and things you're good at. Write down a list of subjects like this one:

• Sports
• Arts
• Politics
• Food
• Travel

Then, do some research on all of them. Read articles online and talk to people who share your excitement. If possible, interview people in the industry (like Chefs or Artists). Get their point of view and what they've done through their career.

Start with a general subject that is broad and easy to work with. Try to remember things you found interesting in high school that you would like to learn more about now. The more time you spend researching, the easier it will be to write your speech. If your speech is good, you will probably end up giving it or hearing it more than once in the future. Spend enough time writing and do not take any shortcuts. For instance, if you are going to talk about fishing, make sure you identify different types of fish and what bait works best on each of them. Even if you think you know everything about a subject, still do the research. You never know when something new pops out.

Narrow down your general subjects into topics

Once you've identified some exciting subjects, try to narrow them down as much as you can. Let's say you're interested in Arts:

Arts - Famous Artists - Famous Paintings - The Mona Lisa

This is just an example, but the process should go something like that. Narrowing down your subject into more manageable smaller topics is important, so you know what to focus on. Writing about Art itself will be too grand of an undertaking, and it will take you months of preparation. Your speech will end up the size of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

As you narrow down the topic, try to find interesting and not so well known facts that you can include in your final speech. If you focus on general ideas that everyone knows, your whole speech will be dull and boring.

Form your Thesis

A thesis is just a single sentence that expresses what you are going to talk about. Using your researched topic, try to come up with an interesting thesis. For example:

Michelangelo's paintings were drawn using a special type of paint that he made himself, similar to the way independent artists these days create their own blends.

Here you have narrowed down your topic to custom made paint. This is a fascinating subject because, to be fair, not a lot of people know how paint is made. People who come to listen to your speech will be interested in arts so you will be presenting your subject to people with similar interests.

Consider your audience

It's best to assume that your audience knows nothing about a chosen subject. Even if they do, you will have new things to tell them. With that in mind, you might want to prepare some background information to ease people into the facts. Some useful background information can be historical facts or famous people who practiced it.

Outline your speech

Once you've chosen your topic and done most of your research, try to put it into a well-organized order. Including your thesis, build well-transitioned paragraphs that flow well together. If you are writing about cooking, outline the steps necessary for your selected recipe. Why does milk have to be hot when making mashed potatoes? Do you boil or bake potatoes and which one is more optimal? This sort of information might be obvious for you but for your audience, it may be new and exciting.

Write an introduction

Combine your thesis with a few words to ease your listeners into the topic.  Here you can include background information for the time period and some interesting facts. For example:

The tropical bird is disappearing because of deforestation. A hundred years ago they were quite common in North America. With the development of newer factories, however, their homes have been destroyed, and the tropical bird has had to relocate to other places. This led to a change in their diet and an overall decrease in fertility for the females. They aren't extinct, not yet, but if this deforestation continues, and we attack their new homes, we might endanger and eventually wipe out the entire species.

It's up to you how your introduction will sound. You can open with a joke to ease the listener into a more serious discussion, or you can tell them a story. It all depends on the topic and the seriousness of the debate.

Expand an outline to form the body of your informative speech

Once you know for certain what you will be writing about and your topic is solid, start combining the outline to form the body of your speech. The body is the meat of the whole speech. It is where all the details and arguments go. The body should be built out of several paragraphs that tell your main point. A rule of thumb is that the body should contain three points:

1. Facts
2. Facts + Information
3. Facts + Results

These are just sample constructions. You can alter and add necessary part as you see fit.

Write the conclusion

Your conclusion should summarize all of your points until now and elaborate on your plan of action. A solid introduction if one of those things that make a difference between good examples of an informative speech and no-so-good-ones. So, if you've been talking about Art and painting supplies, summarize the different processes used in the making of paint and remind people of any steps that you have taken. You should also tie your conclusion to the introduction (to emphasize your point). If you open with painting through the ages, try to conclude with an example of the way that painting has evolved.

Finally, open the floor to discussion. Set aside a few minutes to answer questions and hear from the audience. Most times this is when a speech shines, and you see how well the audience has soaked up the information. As a bonus, you might get useful feedback in your writing, presentation and speaking skills that you can use in future projects.