Explain the differences seen among the three major speech purposes, and provide concrete examples to illustrate your points

What will be an ideal response?


Public speeches are structured and presented for different reasons – to inform, to persuade, or to perform a function during a special occasion. These three types differ in several ways: 1) The informative speech creates understanding – clarifies, instructs, corrects misunderstandings, or demonstrates how something works. 2) The persuasive speech influences attitudes or behaviors – strengthens or changes audience beliefs, or inspires listeners to take some specific action. 3) The special occasion speech contains elements of both information and persuasion – introduces another speaker or a group of speakers, presents an award or tribute, secures the goodwill of listeners, or entertains the audience.

Communication & Mass Media

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Students in Matt's communication class are required to present an informative speech. Matt decides he wants to talk about the use of genetically engineered food. He gathers his material and develops an outline of what he wants to cover

After he delivers his speech, some of the questions his classmates ask him are about his main point, to which Matt was perfectly clear. How could Matt have avoided this? A. He should have used the manuscript mode of delivery. B. He should have composed a statement of the central idea. C. He should have used prior analysis more effectively. D. He should have chosen a different topic.

Communication & Mass Media

Communication focused on the purposeful exchange of questions

and answers is the A. dialogue. B. forum. C. interview. D. panel. E. interlogue.

Communication & Mass Media

According to the text, measuring actions against words refers to

a. honesty and the speaker b. the speaker’s reliability c. the speaker’s motivations d. the speaker’s policies.

Communication & Mass Media

Answer the following statement(s) true (T) or false (F)

1. You can assess intentions by focusing on the assumed social desirability of the 2. Cognitive dissonance is a post-decision theory. 3. To persuade someone, we should focus on the irrelevance between beliefs and behaviors. 4. Hedonic relevance shapes your assessment of the actor’s intentions. 5. We might judge an actor’s distinctiveness, that is, whether the person acts differently depending on the situation.

Communication & Mass Media