{"id":929,"date":"2015-03-08T10:50:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T10:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/businesscommunication\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=929"},"modified":"2015-03-08T16:47:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T16:47:10","slug":"13-1-functions-of-the-presentation-to-inform","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/chapter\/13-1-functions-of-the-presentation-to-inform\/","title":{"raw":"Functions of the Presentation to Inform","rendered":"Functions of the Presentation to Inform"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>LEARNING OBJECTIVES<\/h3>\r\nBy the end of this section, you will be able to:\r\n<ul id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\r\n\t<li>Describe the functions of the speech to inform.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Explain the difference between exposition and interpretation.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n\r\nInformative presentations focus on helping the audience to understand a topic, issue, or technique more clearly. You might say, \u201cIs that all?\u201d and the answer is both yes and no. An affirmative response underscores the idea that informative speeches do not seek to motivate the audience to change their minds, adopt a new idea, start a new habit, or get out there and vote. They may, however, inform audiences on issues that may be under consideration in an election or referendum. On the other hand, a negative response reaffirms the idea that to communicate a topic, issue, or subject clearly is a challenge in itself and shouldn\u2019t be viewed as a simplistic process. There are distinct functions inherent in a speech to inform, and you may choose to use one or more of these functions in your speech. Let\u2019s take a look at the functions and see how they relate to the central objective of facilitating audience understanding.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Share<\/h2>\r\nThe basic definition of communication highlights the process of understanding and sharing meaning. An informative speech follows this definition in the aspect of sharing content and information with an audience. You won\u2019t be asking the audience to actually do anything in terms of offering a response or solving a problem. Instead you\u2019ll be offering to share with the audience some of the information you have gathered relating to a topic. This act of sharing will reduce ignorance, increase learning, and facilitate understanding of your chosen topic.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Increase Understanding<\/h2>\r\nHow well does your audience grasp the information? This should be a guiding question to you on two levels. The first involves what they already know\u2014or don\u2019t know\u2014about your topic, and what key terms or ideas might be necessary for someone completely unfamiliar with your topic to grasp the ideas you are presenting. The second involves your presentation and the illustration of ideas. A bar chart, a pie graph, and a video clip may all serve you and the audience well, but how will each ingredient in your speech contribute to their understanding? The audience will respond to your attention statement and hopefully maintain interest, but how will you take your speech beyond superficial coverage of content and effectively communicate key relationships that increase understanding? These questions should serve as a challenge for your informative speech, and by looking at your speech from an audience-oriented perspective, you will increase your ability to increase the audience\u2019s understanding.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Change Perceptions<\/h2>\r\nHow you perceive stimuli has everything to do with a range of factors that are unique to you. We all want to make sense of our world, share our experiences, and learn that many people face the same challenges we do. Many people perceive the process of speaking in public as a significant challenge, and in this text, we have broken down the process into several manageable steps. In so doing, we have to some degree changed your perception of public speaking. When you present your speech to inform, you may want to change the audience member\u2019s perceptions of your topic. You may present an informative speech on air pollution and want to change common perceptions such as the idea that most of North America\u2019s air pollution comes from private cars, or that nuclear power plants are a major source of air pollution. You won\u2019t be asking people to go out and vote, or change their choice of automobiles, but you will help your audience change their perceptions of your topic.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Gain Skills<\/h2>\r\nJust as you want to increase the audience\u2019s understanding, you may want to help the audience members gain skills. If you are presenting a speech on how to make salsa from fresh ingredients, your audience may thank you for not only the knowledge of the key ingredients and their preparation but also the product available at the conclusion. If your audience members have never made their own salsa, they may gain a new skill from your speech. In the same way, perhaps you decide to inform your audience about eBay, a person-to-person marketplace much like a garage sale in which items are auctioned or available for purchase over the Internet. You may project onto a screen in class the main Web site and take the audience through a step-by-step process on how to sell an item. The audience may learn an important skill, clean out the old items in their garage, and buy new things for the house with their newfound skills. Your intentions, of course, are not to argue that salsa is better than ketchup or that eBay is better than Amazon, but to inform the audience, increasing their understanding of the subject, and in this case, gaining new skills.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Exposition versus Interpretation<\/h2>\r\nWhen we share information informally, we often provide our own perspective and attitude for our own reasons. But when we set out to inform an audience, taking sides or using sarcasm to communicate attitude may divide the audience into groups that agree or disagree with the speaker. The speech to inform the audience on a topic, idea, or area of content is not intended to be a display of attitude and opinion. Consider the expectations of people who attend a formal dinner. Will they use whatever fork or spoon they want, or are there expectations of protocol and decorum? In any given communication context there are expectations, both implicit and explicit. If you attend a rally on campus for health care reform, you may expect the speaker to motivate you to urge the university to stop investing in pharmaceutical companies, for example. On the other hand, if you enroll in a biochemistry course, you expect a teacher to inform you about the discipline of biochemistry\u2014not to convince you that pharmaceutical companies are a good or bad influence on our health care system.\r\n\r\nThe speech to inform is like the classroom setting in that the goal is to inform, not to persuade, entertain, display attitude, or create comedy. If you have analyzed your audience, you\u2019ll be better prepared to develop appropriate ways to gain their attention and inform them on your topic. You want to communicate thoughts, ideas, and relationships and allow each listener specifically, and the audience generally, to draw their own conclusions. The speech to inform is all about sharing information to meet the audience\u2019s needs, not your own. While you might want to inform them about your views on politics in the Middle East, you\u2019ll need to consider what they are here to learn from you and let your audience-oriented perspective guide you as you prepare.\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Exposition<\/h2>\r\nThis relationship between informing as opposed to persuading your audience is often expressed in terms of exposition versus interpretation. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Exposition<\/span><\/span> means a public exhibition or display, often expressing a complex topic in a way that makes the relationships and content clear. Expository prose is writing to inform; you may have been asked to write an expository essay in an English course or an expository report in a journalism course. The goal is to communicate the topic and content to your audience in ways that illustrate, explain, and reinforce the overall content to make your topic more accessible to the audience. The audience wants to learn about your topic and may have some knowledge on it as you do. It is your responsibility to consider ways to display the information effectively.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Interpretation and Bias<\/h2>\r\n<span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Interpretation<\/span><\/span> involves adapting the information to communicate a message, perspective, or agenda. Your insights and attitudes will guide your selection of material, what you focus on, and what you delete (choosing what not to present to the audience). Your interpretation will involve personal bias. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Bias<\/span><\/span> is an unreasoned or not-well-thought-out judgment. Bias involves beliefs or ideas held on the basis of conviction rather than current evidence. Beliefs are often called \u201chabits of the mind\u201d because we come to rely on them to make decisions. Which is the better, cheapest, most expensive, or the middle-priced product? People often choose the middle-priced product and use the belief \u201cif it costs more it must be better\u201d (and the opposite: \u201cif it is cheap it must not be very good\u201d). The middle-priced item, regardless of actual price, is often perceived as \u201cgood enough.\u201d All these perceptions are based on beliefs, and they may not apply to the given decision or even be based on any evidence or rational thinking.\r\n\r\nBy extension, marketing students learn to facilitate the customer \u201crelationship\u201d with the brand. If you come to believe a brand stands for excellence, and a new product comes out under that brand label, you are more likely to choose it over an unknown or lesser-known competitor. Again, your choice of the new product is based on a belief rather than evidence or rational thinking. We take mental shortcuts all day long, but in our speech to inform, we have to be careful not to reinforce bias.\r\n\r\nBias is like a filter on your perceptions, thoughts, and ideas. Bias encourages you to accept positive evidence that supports your existing beliefs (regardless of whether they are true) and reject negative evidence that does not support your beliefs. Furthermore, bias makes you likely to reject positive support for opposing beliefs and accept negative evidence (again, regardless of whether the evidence is true). So what is positive and what is negative? In a biased frame of mind, that which supports your existing beliefs is positive and likely to be accepted, while that which challenges your beliefs is likely to be viewed as negative and rejected. There is the clear danger in bias. You are inclined to tune out or ignore information, regardless of how valuable, useful, or relevant it may be, simply because it doesn\u2019t agree with or support what you already believe.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2>Point of View<\/h2>\r\nLet\u2019s say you are going to present an informative speech on a controversial topic like same-sex marriage. Without advocating or condemning same-sex marriage, you could inform your audience about current laws in various states, recent and proposed changes in laws, the number of same-sex couples who have gotten married in various places, the implications of being married or not being able to marry, and so on. But as you prepare and research your topic, do you only read or examine information that supports your existing view? If you only choose to present information that agrees with your prior view, you\u2019ve incorporated bias into your speech. Now let\u2019s say the audience members have different points of view, even biased ones, and as you present your information you see many people start to fidget in their seats. You can probably anticipate that if they were to speak, the first word they would say is \u201cbut\u201d and then present their question or assertion. In effect, they will be having a debate with themselves and hardly listening to you.\r\n\r\nYou can anticipate the effects of bias and mitigate them to some degree. First, know the difference between your point of view or perspective and your bias. Your <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">point of view<\/span><\/span> is your perception of an idea or concept from your previous experience and understanding. It is unique to you and is influenced by your experiences and also factors like gender, race, ethnicity, physical characteristics, and social class. Everyone has a point of view, as hard as they may try to be open-minded. But bias, as we\u2019ve discussed previously, involves actively selecting information that supports or agrees with your current belief and takes away from any competing belief. To make sure you are not presenting a biased speech, frame your discussion to inform from a neutral stance and consider alternative points of view to present, compare and contrast, and diversify your speech. The goal of the speech to inform is to present an expository speech that reduces or tries to be free from overt interpretation.\r\n\r\nThis relates to our previous discussion on changing perceptions. Clearly no one can be completely objective and remove themselves from their own perceptual process. People are not modern works of minimalist art, where form and function are paramount and the artist is completely removed from the expression. People express themselves and naturally relate what is happening now to what has happened to them in the past. You are your own artist, but you also control your creations.\r\n\r\nObjectivity involves expressions and perceptions of facts that are free from distortion by your prejudices, bias, feelings or interpretations. For example, is the post office box blue? An objective response would be yes or no, but a subjective response might sound like \u201cWell, it\u2019s not really blue as much as it is navy, even a bit of purple, kind of like the color of my ex-boyfriend\u2019s car, remember? I don\u2019t care for the color myself.\u201d Subjectivity involves expressions or perceptions that are modified, altered, or impacted by your personal bias, experiences, and background. In an informative speech, your audience will expect you to present the information in a relatively objective form. The speech should meet the audience\u2019s need as they learn about the content, not your feelings, attitudes, or commentary on the content.\r\n\r\nHere are five suggestions to help you present a neutral speech:\r\n<ol id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\r\n\t<li>Keep your language neutral and not very positive for some issues while very negative for others.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Keep your sources credible and not from biased organizations. The National Rifle Association (NRA) will have a biased view of the Second Amendment, for example, as will the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on civil rights.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Keep your presentation balanced. If you use a source that supports one clear side of an issue, include an alternative source and view. Give each equal time and respectful consideration.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Keep your audience in mind. Not everyone will agree with every point or source of evidence, but diversity in your speech will have more to offer everyone.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Keep who you represent in mind: Your business and yourself.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<div id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_n01\" class=\"im_key_takeaways im_editable im_block\">\r\n<h3 class=\"im_title\"><\/h3>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\r\n<h3>KEY TAKEAWAYS<\/h3>\r\n<section>\r\n<div data-type=\"note\">\r\n<ul id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l02\" class=\"im_itemizedlist\">\r\n\t<li>The purpose of an informative speech is to share ideas with the audience, increase their understanding, change their perceptions, or help them gain new skills.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>An informative speech incorporates the speaker\u2019s point of view but not attitude or interpretation.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>EXERCISES<\/h3>\r\n<section id=\"self-check-questions\">\r\n<ol id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l03\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\r\n\t<li>Consider the courses you have taken in the past year or two, and the extent to which each class session involved an informative presentation or one that was more persuasive. Do some disciplines lend themselves more to informing rather than interpretation and attitude? Discuss your findings with your classmates.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Visit a major network news Web site and view a video of a commentator such as Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) or Glenn Beck or Bill O\u2019Reilly (Fox News). Identify the commentator\u2019s point of view. If you were giving a presentation to inform, would you express your point of view in a similar style?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>On the same network news Web site you used for Exercise no. 2, view a video reporting a news event (as opposed to a commentator\u2019s commentary). Do you feel that the reporter\u2019s approach conveys a point of view, or is it neutral? Explain your feelings and discuss with your classmates.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>What is the difference between an informative presentation and a persuasive one? Provide an example in your response.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Consider a sample speech to inform on a topic where you have a strong opinion. In what ways would you adjust your key points so as not to persuade your listeners? Discuss your ideas with a classmate.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>LEARNING OBJECTIVES<\/h3>\n<p>By the end of this section, you will be able to:<\/p>\n<ul id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\n<li>Describe the functions of the speech to inform.<\/li>\n<li>Explain the difference between exposition and interpretation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<p>Informative presentations focus on helping the audience to understand a topic, issue, or technique more clearly. You might say, \u201cIs that all?\u201d and the answer is both yes and no. An affirmative response underscores the idea that informative speeches do not seek to motivate the audience to change their minds, adopt a new idea, start a new habit, or get out there and vote. They may, however, inform audiences on issues that may be under consideration in an election or referendum. On the other hand, a negative response reaffirms the idea that to communicate a topic, issue, or subject clearly is a challenge in itself and shouldn\u2019t be viewed as a simplistic process. There are distinct functions inherent in a speech to inform, and you may choose to use one or more of these functions in your speech. Let\u2019s take a look at the functions and see how they relate to the central objective of facilitating audience understanding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Share<\/h2>\n<p>The basic definition of communication highlights the process of understanding and sharing meaning. An informative speech follows this definition in the aspect of sharing content and information with an audience. You won\u2019t be asking the audience to actually do anything in terms of offering a response or solving a problem. Instead you\u2019ll be offering to share with the audience some of the information you have gathered relating to a topic. This act of sharing will reduce ignorance, increase learning, and facilitate understanding of your chosen topic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Increase Understanding<\/h2>\n<p>How well does your audience grasp the information? This should be a guiding question to you on two levels. The first involves what they already know\u2014or don\u2019t know\u2014about your topic, and what key terms or ideas might be necessary for someone completely unfamiliar with your topic to grasp the ideas you are presenting. The second involves your presentation and the illustration of ideas. A bar chart, a pie graph, and a video clip may all serve you and the audience well, but how will each ingredient in your speech contribute to their understanding? The audience will respond to your attention statement and hopefully maintain interest, but how will you take your speech beyond superficial coverage of content and effectively communicate key relationships that increase understanding? These questions should serve as a challenge for your informative speech, and by looking at your speech from an audience-oriented perspective, you will increase your ability to increase the audience\u2019s understanding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Change Perceptions<\/h2>\n<p>How you perceive stimuli has everything to do with a range of factors that are unique to you. We all want to make sense of our world, share our experiences, and learn that many people face the same challenges we do. Many people perceive the process of speaking in public as a significant challenge, and in this text, we have broken down the process into several manageable steps. In so doing, we have to some degree changed your perception of public speaking. When you present your speech to inform, you may want to change the audience member\u2019s perceptions of your topic. You may present an informative speech on air pollution and want to change common perceptions such as the idea that most of North America\u2019s air pollution comes from private cars, or that nuclear power plants are a major source of air pollution. You won\u2019t be asking people to go out and vote, or change their choice of automobiles, but you will help your audience change their perceptions of your topic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Gain Skills<\/h2>\n<p>Just as you want to increase the audience\u2019s understanding, you may want to help the audience members gain skills. If you are presenting a speech on how to make salsa from fresh ingredients, your audience may thank you for not only the knowledge of the key ingredients and their preparation but also the product available at the conclusion. If your audience members have never made their own salsa, they may gain a new skill from your speech. In the same way, perhaps you decide to inform your audience about eBay, a person-to-person marketplace much like a garage sale in which items are auctioned or available for purchase over the Internet. You may project onto a screen in class the main Web site and take the audience through a step-by-step process on how to sell an item. The audience may learn an important skill, clean out the old items in their garage, and buy new things for the house with their newfound skills. Your intentions, of course, are not to argue that salsa is better than ketchup or that eBay is better than Amazon, but to inform the audience, increasing their understanding of the subject, and in this case, gaining new skills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Exposition versus Interpretation<\/h2>\n<p>When we share information informally, we often provide our own perspective and attitude for our own reasons. But when we set out to inform an audience, taking sides or using sarcasm to communicate attitude may divide the audience into groups that agree or disagree with the speaker. The speech to inform the audience on a topic, idea, or area of content is not intended to be a display of attitude and opinion. Consider the expectations of people who attend a formal dinner. Will they use whatever fork or spoon they want, or are there expectations of protocol and decorum? In any given communication context there are expectations, both implicit and explicit. If you attend a rally on campus for health care reform, you may expect the speaker to motivate you to urge the university to stop investing in pharmaceutical companies, for example. On the other hand, if you enroll in a biochemistry course, you expect a teacher to inform you about the discipline of biochemistry\u2014not to convince you that pharmaceutical companies are a good or bad influence on our health care system.<\/p>\n<p>The speech to inform is like the classroom setting in that the goal is to inform, not to persuade, entertain, display attitude, or create comedy. If you have analyzed your audience, you\u2019ll be better prepared to develop appropriate ways to gain their attention and inform them on your topic. You want to communicate thoughts, ideas, and relationships and allow each listener specifically, and the audience generally, to draw their own conclusions. The speech to inform is all about sharing information to meet the audience\u2019s needs, not your own. While you might want to inform them about your views on politics in the Middle East, you\u2019ll need to consider what they are here to learn from you and let your audience-oriented perspective guide you as you prepare.<\/p>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Exposition<\/h2>\n<p>This relationship between informing as opposed to persuading your audience is often expressed in terms of exposition versus interpretation. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Exposition<\/span><\/span> means a public exhibition or display, often expressing a complex topic in a way that makes the relationships and content clear. Expository prose is writing to inform; you may have been asked to write an expository essay in an English course or an expository report in a journalism course. The goal is to communicate the topic and content to your audience in ways that illustrate, explain, and reinforce the overall content to make your topic more accessible to the audience. The audience wants to learn about your topic and may have some knowledge on it as you do. It is your responsibility to consider ways to display the information effectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Interpretation and Bias<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Interpretation<\/span><\/span> involves adapting the information to communicate a message, perspective, or agenda. Your insights and attitudes will guide your selection of material, what you focus on, and what you delete (choosing what not to present to the audience). Your interpretation will involve personal bias. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Bias<\/span><\/span> is an unreasoned or not-well-thought-out judgment. Bias involves beliefs or ideas held on the basis of conviction rather than current evidence. Beliefs are often called \u201chabits of the mind\u201d because we come to rely on them to make decisions. Which is the better, cheapest, most expensive, or the middle-priced product? People often choose the middle-priced product and use the belief \u201cif it costs more it must be better\u201d (and the opposite: \u201cif it is cheap it must not be very good\u201d). The middle-priced item, regardless of actual price, is often perceived as \u201cgood enough.\u201d All these perceptions are based on beliefs, and they may not apply to the given decision or even be based on any evidence or rational thinking.<\/p>\n<p>By extension, marketing students learn to facilitate the customer \u201crelationship\u201d with the brand. If you come to believe a brand stands for excellence, and a new product comes out under that brand label, you are more likely to choose it over an unknown or lesser-known competitor. Again, your choice of the new product is based on a belief rather than evidence or rational thinking. We take mental shortcuts all day long, but in our speech to inform, we have to be careful not to reinforce bias.<\/p>\n<p>Bias is like a filter on your perceptions, thoughts, and ideas. Bias encourages you to accept positive evidence that supports your existing beliefs (regardless of whether they are true) and reject negative evidence that does not support your beliefs. Furthermore, bias makes you likely to reject positive support for opposing beliefs and accept negative evidence (again, regardless of whether the evidence is true). So what is positive and what is negative? In a biased frame of mind, that which supports your existing beliefs is positive and likely to be accepted, while that which challenges your beliefs is likely to be viewed as negative and rejected. There is the clear danger in bias. You are inclined to tune out or ignore information, regardless of how valuable, useful, or relevant it may be, simply because it doesn\u2019t agree with or support what you already believe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"im_section\">\n<h2>Point of View<\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you are going to present an informative speech on a controversial topic like same-sex marriage. Without advocating or condemning same-sex marriage, you could inform your audience about current laws in various states, recent and proposed changes in laws, the number of same-sex couples who have gotten married in various places, the implications of being married or not being able to marry, and so on. But as you prepare and research your topic, do you only read or examine information that supports your existing view? If you only choose to present information that agrees with your prior view, you\u2019ve incorporated bias into your speech. Now let\u2019s say the audience members have different points of view, even biased ones, and as you present your information you see many people start to fidget in their seats. You can probably anticipate that if they were to speak, the first word they would say is \u201cbut\u201d and then present their question or assertion. In effect, they will be having a debate with themselves and hardly listening to you.<\/p>\n<p>You can anticipate the effects of bias and mitigate them to some degree. First, know the difference between your point of view or perspective and your bias. Your <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">point of view<\/span><\/span> is your perception of an idea or concept from your previous experience and understanding. It is unique to you and is influenced by your experiences and also factors like gender, race, ethnicity, physical characteristics, and social class. Everyone has a point of view, as hard as they may try to be open-minded. But bias, as we\u2019ve discussed previously, involves actively selecting information that supports or agrees with your current belief and takes away from any competing belief. To make sure you are not presenting a biased speech, frame your discussion to inform from a neutral stance and consider alternative points of view to present, compare and contrast, and diversify your speech. The goal of the speech to inform is to present an expository speech that reduces or tries to be free from overt interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>This relates to our previous discussion on changing perceptions. Clearly no one can be completely objective and remove themselves from their own perceptual process. People are not modern works of minimalist art, where form and function are paramount and the artist is completely removed from the expression. People express themselves and naturally relate what is happening now to what has happened to them in the past. You are your own artist, but you also control your creations.<\/p>\n<p>Objectivity involves expressions and perceptions of facts that are free from distortion by your prejudices, bias, feelings or interpretations. For example, is the post office box blue? An objective response would be yes or no, but a subjective response might sound like \u201cWell, it\u2019s not really blue as much as it is navy, even a bit of purple, kind of like the color of my ex-boyfriend\u2019s car, remember? I don\u2019t care for the color myself.\u201d Subjectivity involves expressions or perceptions that are modified, altered, or impacted by your personal bias, experiences, and background. In an informative speech, your audience will expect you to present the information in a relatively objective form. The speech should meet the audience\u2019s need as they learn about the content, not your feelings, attitudes, or commentary on the content.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five suggestions to help you present a neutral speech:<\/p>\n<ol id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\n<li>Keep your language neutral and not very positive for some issues while very negative for others.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your sources credible and not from biased organizations. The National Rifle Association (NRA) will have a biased view of the Second Amendment, for example, as will the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on civil rights.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your presentation balanced. If you use a source that supports one clear side of an issue, include an alternative source and view. Give each equal time and respectful consideration.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your audience in mind. Not everyone will agree with every point or source of evidence, but diversity in your speech will have more to offer everyone.<\/li>\n<li>Keep who you represent in mind: Your business and yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_n01\" class=\"im_key_takeaways im_editable im_block\">\n<h3 class=\"im_title\"><\/h3>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\n<h3>KEY TAKEAWAYS<\/h3>\n<section>\n<div data-type=\"note\">\n<ul id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l02\" class=\"im_itemizedlist\">\n<li>The purpose of an informative speech is to share ideas with the audience, increase their understanding, change their perceptions, or help them gain new skills.<\/li>\n<li>An informative speech incorporates the speaker\u2019s point of view but not attitude or interpretation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>EXERCISES<\/h3>\n<section id=\"self-check-questions\">\n<ol id=\"mclean-ch13_s01_s05_s03_l03\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\n<li>Consider the courses you have taken in the past year or two, and the extent to which each class session involved an informative presentation or one that was more persuasive. Do some disciplines lend themselves more to informing rather than interpretation and attitude? Discuss your findings with your classmates.<\/li>\n<li>Visit a major network news Web site and view a video of a commentator such as Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) or Glenn Beck or Bill O\u2019Reilly (Fox News). Identify the commentator\u2019s point of view. If you were giving a presentation to inform, would you express your point of view in a similar style?<\/li>\n<li>On the same network news Web site you used for Exercise no. 2, view a video reporting a news event (as opposed to a commentator\u2019s commentary). Do you feel that the reporter\u2019s approach conveys a point of view, or is it neutral? Explain your feelings and discuss with your classmates.<\/li>\n<li>What is the difference between an informative presentation and a persuasive one? Provide an example in your response.<\/li>\n<li>Consider a sample speech to inform on a topic where you have a strong opinion. In what ways would you adjust your key points so as not to persuade your listeners? Discuss your ideas with a classmate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-929\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Communication For Business Success. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: anonymous. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/communication-for-business-success\/\">http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/communication-for-business-success\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Communication For Business Success\",\"author\":\"anonymous\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/communication-for-business-success\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-929","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":1034,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/929\/revisions\/1114"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/1034"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/929\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}