Informing Ch.13 Test Bank Answers Zarefsky

Chapter 13 Informing

Multiple Choice

1. The process of deciding how a speech can best achieve its purpose is called __________.

a. strategic planning

b. agenda setting

c. strengthening the purpose

d. inducing reinforcement

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Easy

Skill Level: Remember the Facts

2. When asked to deliver a speech for which you are allowed to decide the purpose, what should you assess?

a. how the audience and occasion create opportunities or constraints

b. how specific purpose creates opportunities or constraints

c. how the topic creates opportunities or constraints

d. how thesis and main ideas create opportunities or constraints

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

3. Shondra’s speech will help her audience learn how to plant a rose garden. What strategy should she use?

a. persuasive

b. entertaining

c. informative

d. forensic

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

4. Neal’s speech shares his ideas for cutting energy costs in the home. What strategy did Neal use?

a. informative

b. entertaining

c. persuasive

d. forensic

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

5. The class lectures you attend every week are based on a(n) __________ strategy.

a. persuasive

b. forensic

c. entertaining

d. informative

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

6. Kaylee attended a conference where the main speaker helped the audience understand how to use the new accounting software. What strategy did this speaker use?

a. informative

b. entertaining

c. persuasive

d. forensic

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

7. Informative strategies ask listeners to __________.

a. change their understanding of a subject

b. believe what the speaker believes about a topic

c. take some action on an issue

d. tell others what they have learned about a subject

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

8. Which goal relies heavily on both informative and persuasive strategies, as well as entertaining strategies?

a. providing new perspective

b. creating a positive or negative feeling

c. creating a utopian vision

d. agenda setting

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

9. Many people know that gas prices keep increasing but Kirk wants to let his audience know how negotiations with the Middle East have played a part in this increase. His purpose is to __________.

a. introduce an action

b. set the agenda

c. provide a new perspective

d. create a positive feeling

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

10. Global warming, which was not always perceived as an issue, is now an important concern because of public messages that served the purpose of __________.

a. creating a positive feeling

b. converting

c. agenda setting

d. inducing a specific action

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

11. Dr. Chadi spoke to a group of senior citizens about alternative treatments available for the most common medical complaints. Her speech served which purpose?

a. providing new information

b. agenda setting

c. creating a positive feeling

d. creative a negative feeling

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

12. When you aim to make the audience aware of an issue or problem that they had not previously known about, your informative purpose is likely __________.

a. creating a feeling

b. converting the audience

c. providing new perspective

d. agenda setting

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

13. Manuel knew his speech was successful when several audience members came up to him and said, “I never thought about it like that before.” What was Manuel’s informative purpose?

a. agenda setting

b. request action

c. provide new information

d. create a positive feeling

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

14. Karla knows that her audience is familiar with public messages about the dangers of alcohol. Her speech focuses on recent studies showing that one drink per day can have health benefits, such as significantly reducing the risk of heart attacks. Her informative purpose is __________.

a. agenda setting

b. providing new perspective

c. creating a negative feeling

d. strengthening a feeling

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

15. Which informative purpose requires a combination of informative and persuasive strategies?

a. agenda setting

b. inducing action

c. creating a positive or negative feeling

d. weakening commitment

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

16. After listening to the financial investment presentation, Tina felt like she had the knowledge to save enough money to buy a house. What was the informative purpose of this presentation?

a. agenda setting

b. inducing action

c. weakening commitment

d. creating a positive or negative feeling

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

17. Lars listened to his classmates debating the provisions of the Patriot Act and decided to give a speech clarifying their understanding of the term “patriotism.” Which informative strategy might he have relied on most in his speech?

a. reporting

b. explaining

c. defining

d. comparing

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

18. Hillary’s informative speech focused on clarifying the audience’s understanding of feminism. Which informative strategy did she need to rely on most?

a. reporting

b. defining

c. demonstrating

d. describing

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

19. Which example best demonstrates the informative strategy of defining?

a. The speaker tells the audience about the events surrounding a political debate on campus.

b. The speaker shows the audience how to practice T'ai Chi Ch’uan.

c. The speaker clarifies the similarities and differences between censorship and rating systems.

d. The speaker clarifies the concept of affirmative action.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

20. Speeches relying on the strategy of reporting almost always use which organizational pattern?

a. topical

b. chronological

c. spatial

d. cause-effect

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

21. Natalie told her audience about the timeline of events as she helped build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Which organizational pattern did she use?

a. cause-effect

b. topical

c. spatial

d. chronological

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

22. Magda attended a two-day celebration of campus diversity. She decided to make this event the topic of her upcoming informative speech. Which informative strategy is she most likely to use?

a. defining

b. reporting

c. describing

d. explaining

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

23. June wants to give a speech about her radiation and chemotherapy treatments for cancer. She plans to relate her experiences in chronological order. Which informative strategy is best suited to this goal?

a. describing

b. repeating

c. reporting

d. relating

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

24. Which example best demonstrates the informative strategy of reporting?

a. The speaker tells the audience about the events surrounding a political debate on campus.

b. The speaker shows the audience how to practice T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

c. The speaker clarifies the similarities and differences between censorship and rating systems.

d. The speaker clarifies the concept of affirmative action.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

25. John gave an account of his trip to North Carolina to help Hurricane Florence victims. He wanted to convey, in vivid detail, the conditions faced by those victims. His best choice of strategy to achieve this was __________.

a. describing

b. repeating

c. reporting

d. relating

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

26. Sun-Yun told his audience about the amazing rusty-red color of the mountains and the prickly leaves on the cactus that he saw on his trip through Arizona. Which strategy did he use?

a. defining

b. repeating

c. describing

d. reporting

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

27. Which strategy should a speaker use to help listeners distinguish between the essential meaning of a difficult concept and its other less central meanings?

a. describing

b. reporting

c. demonstrating

d. explaining

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

28. Talia presented a speech on how to give a pedicure, covering several steps in a specific order. Her informative strategy was __________.

a. describing

b. comparing

c. reporting

d. demonstrating

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

29. To help his audience understand the hands-free parking system, Derek set up a model of a car on the stage and showed the audience how it worked. His informative strategy is __________.

a. demonstrating

b. story-telling

c. reporting

d. reporting

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

30. Garrett knows he won’t be able to explain to his audience how to properly hit the tennis ball, so he plans to bring in his racquet and ball and show them. What informative strategy is he using?

a. reporting

b. storytelling

c. demonstrating

d. explaining

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

31. Which question is least relevant when preparing a demonstration?

a. Can the subject be demonstrated in the time available?

b. Does the subject need to be seen to be understood?

c. Are my actions coordinated with my verbal instructions?

d. Can my audience learn this procedure by any other method?

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

32. When the speaker’s informative strategy is storytelling, he or she should remember that __________.

a. stories are useful as introductions but should not serve other functions in the speech

b. stories are less useful than technical approaches if the audience is diverse

c. stories should include anecdotes and moments of reflection

d. stories inform but do not persuade

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

33. Incorporating a narrative into a speech is a way to use which informative strategy?

a. explaining

b. comparing

c. demonstrating

d. storytelling

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

34. The strategy of __________ provides listeners with a basis for making a choice, without telling or urging them to make a particular choice.

a. explaining

b. comparing

c. demonstrating

d. storytelling

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

35. Marli told the audience that if they knew how to use Page Express software, they would have little trouble adapting to Ruled Lines software because they had many similarities. What informative strategy is Marli using?

a. explaining

b. storytelling

c. comparing

d. defining

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

36. Jaxon told his listeners, “As you will recall, I talked about the importance of good health insurance when I began my talk and as I end my talk, I want to tell you it’s still important.” What device is Jaxon using to encourage retention?

a. reinforcement

b. comparison

c. explanation

d. retrieval

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Apply What You Know

37. Which strategy encourages information retention during an informative speech?

a. reinforcement

b. comparison

c. explanation

d. storytelling

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Easy

Skill Level: Remember the Facts

38. The forgetting curve is a measure of __________.

a. how listeners’ opinions change from positive to negative

b. how easy it is for speakers to forget parts of their memorized speeches

c. the relationship between what listeners understand and what they remember

d. the rate at which information is forgotten over time

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Easy

Skill Level: Remember the Facts

39. When a speaker uses “we” rather than “you” to refer to his or her relationship with the audience, what is the speaker doing?

a. comparing

b. reinforcing

c. agenda setting

d. clarifying

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

40. Explicit references to the audience, inclusive language, and a clear organizational pattern are all strategies for encouraging __________.

a. decorum

b. resonance

c. commitment

d. reinforcement

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

Essay Questions

41. List the three general strategies for accomplishing speech goals. Identify how they are different, and tell when each might be appropriate.

• The three general strategies for accomplishing speech goals are (1) informing, (2) persuading, and (3) entertaining.
• The principal goal of informative strategies is to share information.
• The goals of these strategies overlap and are not distinct; the answer should identify that all speeches probably include all elements and that the appropriateness of each is defined by the primary role each will play in a speech.

Learning Objective: 13.1 Distinguish between informing and persuading as purposes for a speech while recognizing that they often overlap.

Topic: Planning Your Strategy

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

42. What three purposes are most closely associated with informative strategies? Why are these purposes more suitable for informing than persuading?

• The three purposes most closely associated with informative strategies are (1) providing new information or perspective, (2) agenda setting, and (3) creating positive or negative feelings.
• Information is essential to the act of persuading listeners to think about something new or view it from a unique perspective. While all new information might persuade, providing new information is designed to provide details or updated knowledge, agenda setting is designed to create awareness, and providing an audience with options without telling them which to choose can make them feel better about the topic.

Learning Objective: 13.2 Identify which speech purposes are achieved primarily through informative strategies and explain why.

Topic: Clarifying Your Informative Goal

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

43. Identify and define four of the seven informative strategies.

• Defining: clarifying vague or troublesome terms, which is only necessary when meanings are unclear.
• Reporting: telling “what happened” with little overt analysis or interpretation
• Describing: painting a mental picture through the use of vivid details that can make trite claims become interesting.
• Explaining: providing a deeper understanding by considering different views, accounting for how and why things happen, or speculating about meanings and implications.
• Demonstrating: informing by showing how something works or is done, which is the only strategy to break a process into tasks that can be completed.
• Storytelling: the only strategy to involve the use of narrative.
• Comparing: discussing similarities and differences, which is the only strategy to involve more than two items or concepts for contrast.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

44. Discuss the steps that should be considered when the demonstrating strategy is used.

• Sometimes it is necessary for an audience to see how something works in order to understand it
• A demonstration can simplify a complex process
• These questions should be considered before using a demonstration
  • Does the audience really need to see the process to understand it?
  • Is the subject precise enough to be demonstrated in the available time?
  • Are the steps of the process clear, distinct, and in the proper sequence?
  • Are the actions of the demonstration and the verbal instructions coordinated?

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

45. How do the strategies of describing and explaining differ from reporting?

• Reporting involves recounting events with limited analysis or interpretation.
• When describing, a speaker adds vivid details to an account, and when explaining, the speaker examines the complexities, causes, and implications of the topic.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Analyze It

46. How can storytelling be used as a strategy for informing an audience?

• A story, or narrative, can be used to organize new information or perspective, get listeners to think about a subject, or create a positive or negative feeling.
• It can build interest in a topic that the audience is unfamiliar with.
• Stories can be included in the introduction as an attention-getting device.
• Stories can be used to help organize the speech.
• Stories might also be used to create awareness of a situation.
• A story should build upon itself and include anecdotes and moments of reflection.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Skill Level: Analyze It

47. What are three things a comparative strategy can accomplish in a speech?

• It can be used to make things seem more similar than the audience imagined.
• It can help determine in which category something should be placed.
• It can provide the audience with a basis for making a choice.

Learning Objective: 13.3 Illustrate the strategies of defining, reporting, describing, explaining, demonstrating, storytelling, and comparing.

Topic: Informative Strategies

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts

48. What are three strategies for encouraging retention? Why do they work?

• To gain and keep the audience’s attention, a speaker should attempt to make the speech personally relevant to listeners, make the speech stand out, and make it easier to follow. These strategies work because attention improves retention.
• When a speaker challenges the listeners to think, to role-play situations mentally, and to ask and answer questions, audience members engage in active listening. Participation increases motivation and thus retention. Another way to encourage participation is through retrieval, a strategy in which you ask listeners to recall information you have already said previously in the presentation.
• Retention is also strengthened through reinforcement, a response by the speaker that rewards the listener and thereby strengthens the listener’s positive attitudes toward the speech.. Additionally, you can reinforce audience members by how you refer to them. For example, saying “we” instead of “you” conveys the message that you identify with listeners and respect their thoughtful judgment.

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Analyze It

49. Discuss the implications of the forgetting curve.

• This is the concept applied to public speaking in which the horizontal axis represents the amount of time after a speech and the vertical axis represents the percentage of content that is remembered.
• The representative curve is fast falling which indicates that a large percentage of the speech is forgotten quickly. The line then begins to level out.
• The forgetting curve applies to both the main points and the sources of information associated with a speech.
• Over a short period of time, audience members quickly forget what has been said.

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Analyze It

50. Define retrieval and reinforcement as strategies to encourage listener retention.

• A retrieval strategy is one in which a speaker asks listeners to recall information that was said previously in the presentation.
• Retrieval is a popular strategy to help students combat forgetting.
• A reinforcement strategy rewards the listener to strengthen the listener’s positive attitude toward the speech.
• A speaker can reinforce listeners by smiling at them and nodding his or her head in agreement.

Learning Objective: 13.4 Explain how you can design your speech to increase the chances that essential information will be remembered.

Topic: Encouraging Retention

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Skill Level: Understand the Concepts