SPEAKING ON A SCIENTIFIC TOPIC

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 388.

Oral reports are speeches to inform. They tell how, what or why.

1. Research the subject.*

2. Make the report brief and factual. Listeners should be able to find confirmation of your facts in references.

3. Avoid too much detail. Stick to the facts.

4. Use appropriate speaking tools.**

5. Establish yourself as someone who knows the subject. Try to communicate your own interest in the subject to your audience. Tell them how you learned about the subject.

6. Select the most important facts.

7. Tie your information to what your listeners know, but try to include information that will be new to them.

8. Prepare an outline.***

9. Begin the report with an attention-getting opener.****

10. Restate the main idea of the report in the conclusion.

11. Use your outline to prepare note cards, or write out the report on paper. If you are to read your report, you must write it in an oral style. Imagine that you are saying the report as you write it. Mark your copy so you will know where to pause and where to stress words and phrases.

12. Practice giving the report exactly as you plan to give it in class.

* Every speech has one of three main purposes: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. A speech can, of course, contain two or more general purposes at the same time. A persuasive speech usually also gives information – facts and figures that help prove your point. And you might entertain an audience – to get them on your side – in order to persuade them. Sometimes you can make a serious point by using humor.

**A speaking tool is anything other than words that a speaker uses to make the major points of a speech clearer and more interesting. Speaking tools include visuals, projected visuals, audio tools, and audio-visual tools. Sometimes it's best to use no speaking tools. Be sure the tools you use contribute to the meaning of your speech.

***Organize the information you have gathered into an outline. It is the plan of your speech. Use Roman numerals for the main points of your speech. Each main point should support the purpose of your speech. Develop each main point with two or more subpoints. Use capital letters for these in your outline. Each subpoint can have two or more subordinate points. These are numbered with Arabic numerals. Avoid putting too many subordinate points into your outline, or you will find yourself writing an entire speech instead of an outline.

The skeleton of an outline might look like this:

I.____________________________________

A. ________________________________

B. ________________________________

I. ___________________________________

A. ________________________________

B. ________________________________

1._______________________________

2._______________________________

a) __________________________

b) __________________________

C. _________________________________

**** Your speech must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. These parts are called the introduction, the body, and the conclusion of your speech.

(From "The World Book of Word Power").

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