A Powerful Demonstration Speech

In one of my classes we are coming up on the demonstration speeches. It is interesting to me how, every year, people forget some of the rules of informative speeches when it comes to demonstration speeches. For instance they think rather than using a creative introduction to capture the attention of the audience, they can just say “Today I’m going to demonstrate how to…”.

Another mistake that students often make is thinking a demonstration speech can contain no information beyond how to demonstrate the process. I tell students that these speeches should also contain new information. So, if a student is demonstrating new techniques when it comes to cataract surgery, it is appropriate to issue factual statements such as, “This is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness, effecting millions each year” or “People can have cataracts and not even know it”. It is even appropriate to tell us there is a way for the elderly community to be able to possibly get the process done for free. Of course any such statements need to be accurate.

It is these types of techniques that lead to a more powerful demonstration speech.