Lesson 6

Communication for Various Purposes:

Informative, Persuasive, and Argumentative Communication
Public Speaking

What to achieve?
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
 compare and contrast different modes of delivering a speech;
 adopt awareness of audience and context in presenting ideas; and
 deliver effectively a message to an audience

What to ponder?
In a table, list example informative, persuasive and argumentative communicative situations.

Informative Persuasive Argumentative

What to learn?

Informative Communication Persuasive Argumentative

- involves giving of information
than asking
- you want your listeners to
understand, but not to change
their behavior or perspective
- e.g. news anchor delivers
updates regarding the covid-
19 pandemic
- e.g. announcement posted in
the social media about the
Enhanced Community
Quarantine
- an art of gaining fair and
favorable considerations for
our point of view
- convince somebody to
believe something by giving
reasons
- appeals to feelings
- uses supporting materials to
justify advices
- turns the audience into
agents of change
- e.g. a sales agent promotes
a product to the customers
- e.g. a priest giving a homily
during a holy mass
- relies heavily on soundproof
and reasoning
- expressing different opinion
about something or disagree
with a reason given in proof
- to avoid defective
argumentation, you must
avoid evidential fallacies
(slippery slope, red herring,
and myth of the mean)
- e.g. a lawyer is defending his
client in a court trial
- e.g. debate among students
regarding the change in the
school calendar

What do you mean?

 Slippery slope – a course of action is rejected because with little or no evidence,
one insists that it will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end
- This involves an acceptance of a succession of events without
direct evidence that this course of events will happen.

1
 - e.g. Today late for ten minutes, tomorrow late for an hour, and
then someday you will simply cease to show up.
- e.g. I don’t think it’s a good idea to lower the drinking age. Next
thing we know kids will get to drive at age ten, and vote fifteen. Let
kids be kids and adults be adults.
 Red herring – a deliberate diversion of attention with the intention of trying to
abandon the original argument
- This also refers to a literary device frequently used in suspense
and mystery literature which misleads the readers from the right
conclusion by planting false clues to add suspense to the story.
- e.g. The mother of a young child tells him to go to bed, and he
begins to ask questions, say that he is hungry, or say that he
needs to go to the bathroom – all to avoid bed and distract mom.
- e.g. A teacher caught a student cheating during a test. The
student in response says, “I know I have made a mistake. But
think of my parents. They’re going to be heartbroken.”
 Myth of the mean – the “averages” or “outlier” fallacy, illusion of averages
- is where statistics hide the reality
- when an average does not allow people to see a problem
- used in debates to make points (not necessarily good
points)
- e.g. The average grade on the last test was 75.
- e.g. The average number of hours that a person watches
TV per week is 12 hours.

What to ponder?
Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements. Check the box to
indicate your answer.

Agree Disagree
1. I am excited at the thought of speaking in public.
2. I see myself speaking in public often in the future.
3. I think I can be a very good speaker.
4. The thought of public speaking terrifies me.
5. I would avoid speaking in public as much as I can.
6. No amount of practice can make me a better speaker.
7. “Your ability to communicate with others will account for fully
85% of your success in your business and in your life.” –Brain
Tracy
8. “Ninety percent of how well the talk will go is determined
before the speaker steps on the platform.” –Somers White
9. “Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.” –Dale
Carnegie
10. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence
of fear.” –Mark Twain

Items 1, 2, 4 and 5 determine your public speaking anxiety. If you answered items 1 and
2 with a yes, you probably have a low anxiety. If you answered items 4 and 5 with a yes, you
most probably have a high public speaking anxiety. Items 3 to 10 determine your attitude toward

2
public speaking. If you answered item 3 with a yes, you have a growth mindset. If you answered
item 6 with a yes, you have a closed mindset. If you agree with item 7 this shows that you
consider public speaking as an essential skill that can help you in your future career. Item 8
demonstrates your belief that preparation is the key to be an effective speaker. Lastly, item 10
acknowledges that to be able to conquer your fear you need to face the challenge. This means
that you are willing to exert effort to improve your public speaking skills.

What to learn?
Public speaking is a process of speaking in a structured, deliberate manner to inform,
influence or entertain an audience.

4 types of Public Speaking:

1. Ceremonial – e.g. special occasion, wedding, funeral and graduations
2. Demonstrative – e.g. science demonstrations and role playing
3. Informative – explain a concept and disseminate vital information
4. Persuasive – this is what politicians, lawyers and businessmen usually utilize

Speech is the term used to refer to the body spoken expressions of information and
ideas. The choice of mode of speech delivery is determined by factors such as length of
preparation, complexity of message, purpose and occasion. A speech may be delivered in any
of the following modes:

Reading from a Memorized Speech Extemporaneous Impromptu

Manuscript Speaking
- appropriate when - requires a speaker - may have a short or - speaking at the spur
the speech is long commit everything to long preparation of the moment
and when details are memory - speaker may use an - Since there is very
complicated, essential - excellent for short outline to guide him minimal or no time for
and needs to be given messages although it through his speech to preparation given for
completely is also used for long achieve better impromptu, the
- appropriate when pieces in oratorical, organization and to content and
one is asked to declamation, and avoid living out details organization may
deliver a prepared a other literary contest - a method that most suffer
speech on behalf of - poses challenge to lecturers and teacher - may not deliver the
another speaker naturalness during use best thought in the
- the force, delivery - A good best way but it brings
naturalness, and eye - drawback: when a extemporaneous out the most natural
contact may be speaker forgets the speaker must be thing to say at the
diminished lines and fails to shift spontaneous (speaker moment
smoothly to another formulates his
mode of delivery sentences while he is
speaking)

What to do?
Extemporaneous Speech
 Pick from the teacher’s box a question or a quote.
 From either a question or quotation, develop a 3-5 minute extemporaneous speech.
 You may answer, explain, argue, support, and/or illustrate the question or quote you
picked.
 The rubric on the next page will be used to evaluate your speech.

3
 Criteria 8-10 5-7 4-3 1-2
Content Fully developed Developed Some Vague sense of
topic/idea with topic/idea with understanding of the topic or idea
unified unified the topic with
substantial supporting few supporting
supporting details details
details
Language use Excellent Good command Understandable Inaccurate
command of the of the language, language yet words and
language, uses somewhat lacks accuracy marked with
varied and accurate and and with some grammar errors
accurate words with few grammar errors that affect the
to express ideas, grammar errors message
grammatically
correct
expressions
Spontaneity and Very natural and Natural and Somewhat Marked with
naturalness spontaneous spontaneous natural with long awkward
with appropriate with some some awkward pauses
pauses awkward pauses pauses
Vocal clarity and Very clear and Clear and varied Somewhat clear Monotonous and
dynamics appropriately voice and varied voice lacks vocal
varied voice clarity
Eye Maintains eye Maintains eye Inconsistent eye Avoids eye
contact/connection contact with the contact most of contact contact with the
audience the time audience
throughout the
speech
Relevance of the Very relevant Relevant to the Somewhat Of little
chosen topic and useful to the majority of the relevant to the relevance to the
majority of the audience majority of the audience
audience audience

What to think about? Answer the questions below.

1. Has your attitude toward public speaking become more positive? Why or why not?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.

2. In what area of public speaking do you feel you need the most improvement?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________.

3. What will you do to be able to improve your skills in public speaking?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________.

4
5