What does Toastmasters say about informative speech topics?

According to Toastmasters International, best known public speaking organization, people learn when information is relevant, relates to what they already know, involves them, is clearly organized, is presented in an interesting way, is repeated, and involves visual aids.

So, in some ways, your informative speech topic is not as important as spin you put on it, how your package it, and how you present it.

First it must be interesting to you. Second, information must reach your audience by being interesting to them... there are all kinds of presentation tricks you can do to involve them, but that's another topic!

But here's an example- I wanted to inform people about something specific with acupuncture. People are afraid it will hurt. Yet, most of my patients think it's basically painless, and were pleasantly surprised first time how good it made them feel. I wanted to contrast negative expectation with positive reality. So my informative speech topic was "How Acupuncture Feels" but I used surprise as a tactic to deliver message. I also used analogy, because "Acu Buzz" was so elusive- I compared it to a number of good and complicated experiences (swimming and taste of oysters) that were hard to describe but fairly commonplace. I answered their questions, kept it interesting, delivered something unexpected, and related it to something they already knew about.

4. It's not about you: only time it's about you is if one of your goals is to impress them, build your credibility, etc. Other than that, forget your fear, your self consciousness, etc. Let those things go in service of your audience and your purpose.

5. Writing is editing. Editing is writing. The first time you write speech, don't criticize it, don't edit it, just let everything flow out. You'll organize it and choose better words and rephrase it later. Just be creative.

6. Organize your ideas into an outline. Make sure each idea follows other logically. Ask yourself if your audience needs to know anything to understand any part of it. Ask yourself if any part needs more fleshing out

7. Rewrite it according to outline.

8. Beef it up. Use examples for difficult to understand points or concepts. Find some jokes. If no one laughs at first one, be careful, though. You might lose credibility if they think you're an idiot. You can also find great quotes online, even search on whatever topic you're writing your speech about.

9. Do an edit. Use MS Word for grammar checking. A big part of how to write a speech it editing. The next few steps involve editing and speaking. This step is about editing on paper. Replace long words and rephrase jargon. Imagine if it would make sense to your best friend, your mom, your grandma, etc. (caveat: if jargon is required to impress in business, use it)

10. Say it all out loud. Is anything missing? How does it sound? Change words and phrases that sound unnatural when spoken.

11. Record it on a tape recorder or your computer. Is it missing anything? Add it. Are any parts of it boring, unneccesary, stupid, offensive? Cut off fat.

12. Do it in front of a test audience. Get their feedback. Make sure they know your audience and purpose before you do speech for test audience.

13. Go give your speech to real audience with confidence! If you're interested in tips on presentation or voice sides of things, you'll need another resource, but...

Now you know how to write a speech!