When you write a speech or create a presentation, do you ever wonder in which category does it falls. You must know that there are different categories of public speaking and it is not limited to any specific genre. These categories are different from each other, in the way of presentation, expression and purpose of speaking. Preparing a speech begins with deciding the topic of the speech and the information or message that it has to convey to the audience. This indicates the purpose of your speech and its end result, and accordingly you get a category for your speech.
Knowing the category of your speech is really important, as when you are fully aware you are able to present the speech in the best possible way. As with different kinds of speeches, the tone, expression and presentation of the speech also changes. Therefore, in order to know the insights of your speech you must have hangs of its category. Here are some of the important categories of speech that you need to know, these are some of the often-used speeches, with this you will be able to add value to your presentation.
- Inform or educate
The first category is to inform or to educate, this category typically belongs to lecturers and teachers, as they have some information to convey or they have to educate you on a particular subject. This category of speech is research based, as the speaker must have proper knowledge regarding the subject, he/she is speaking about. Here you have to share illustrations, examples or even stories to make the understanding better, also using these adds value and excitement to the speech. Another important aspect of this speech is questioning, it means to have a clear understanding of whether the audience have understood your explanation. Cross-questioning helps to overcome discrepancy and attain perfection, the understanding between the speaker and the listener marks the success of this speech.
- Entertaining
The presentation that you want to make entertaining or amusing falls in this category. Here you try to make the audience laugh and smile, the end result is achieved through the audience satisfaction, whether they enjoyed themselves or not. The presentation of entertaining speech often starts with anecdotes, further there is a balance of every emotion in it. To give the best ever experience to the audience, the speaker must be charismatic, energetic and should have a pretty smile on face, this makes the speaker appear appealing and more the audience wish to listen. Your goal in this could be narrating the audience enjoyable stories that fill them with joy and relaxation.
- Informal speeches
Informal speeches have a variety of speeches, such as wedding speeches or birthday speeches etc. These speeches are far from providing any kind of information, the motive of them is to fill the audience with heartfelt emotions. There are no rules to follow and you can go as liberal as you wish, your only motive is to make the audience feel every single word that you speak. For instance, wedding speech where the father of the bride speech is fully dedicated to their daughter and it is written with emotions, sentiments and blessings. These speeches convey a message through emotions and are designed for special days of life.
- Motivational or inspirational
Most speeches that you must have heard belong to this category, as many people resonate speeches with being motivational and inspirational which is of course false. The purpose of this speech is to give the audience will juice and energy to do something out of the box or something that they dream of. As a speaker it is important to have the right selection of words, because you have to keep the direction of speech in one particular direction which is to motivate the audience, avoid using negative words that lack energy. This is one of the toughest categories of speeches as motivating people is not easy, it starts with self-motivating yourself first. Try to add some real-life examples to your speech, to make people believe in it better, when you add real life instances people are able to relate with you more. Hence, have your energy high and appear enthusiastic on stage to have strong impact.
- Transformational
Many people relate this with motivational speeches, but they are different. While motivational speeches ask the audience to do better in life after moving out from the room, this talks about the future action. But transformational speeches are those which try to bring change on the spot. For example, when you are asking the audience to perform any kind of exercises or activities in a room, you seek immediate implementation to bring them out from the hurdle. This happens immediately and further goes with the people, they perform them in their lives to bring change. Thus, this is transformational speech, where your words help to transform the lives of your audience by bringing instant action.
Conclusion
These are some of the essential categories of speeches, there could be more further categories of it, but the rest are initially derived from them only. These categories are a must to know, as many of us listen to public speeches but are unaware of their types. As an active audience and speaker both must be aware of it. Moreover, all these categories suggest that public speaking is not just a one-way thing, to make it successful the participation of both speaker and audience is necessary, while the job of the speaker is to deliver message or information through words. On the other hand, the job of the audience is to respond and show active participation. In this way the ideal purpose of speech is achieved, hence this is only possible when you know these categories well. Moreover, while preparing any speech or presentation figure out if it fits in any of these categories, this will ease your job of writing a speech and this will give you a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve.
