Informative Speech Examples

An informative speech is given for the purpose of providing information about a topic to the audience. Notice that the purpose of an informative speech is similar to the purpose for writing an informative essay. The organizational structure and type of information in an informative speech would be similar to that in an informative essay.

To write an informative speech, you first choose a topic-either one that you already know about or one that you are willing to research and learn about. Then, you outline and draft your informative speech based on the topic, key points, and details and information you want to give about your topic. Make sure you catch your audience's attention and that you summarize key points and "take-aways" as you go.

Examples of Informative Speeches in Literature or Popular Culture:

Excerpt from Marie Curie's speech on the discovery of radium:

I could tell you many things about radium and radioactivity and it would take a long time. But as we can not do that, I shall only give you a short account of my early work about radium. Radium is no more a baby, it is more than twenty years old, but the conditions of the discovery were somewhat peculiar, and so it is always of interest to remember them and to explain them.We must go back to the year 1897. Professor Curie and I worked at that time in the laboratory of the school of Physics and Chemistry where Professor Curie held his lectures. I was engaged in some work on uranium rays which had been discovered two years before by Professor Becquerel.***I spent some time in studying the way of making good measurements of the uranium rays, and then I wanted to know if there were other elements, giving out rays of the same kind. So I took up a work about all known elements, and their compounds and found that uranium compounds are active and also all thorium compounds, but other elements were not found active, nor were their compounds. As for the uranium and thorium compounds, I found that they were active in proportion to their uranium or thorium content.

President George W. Bush's address to the nation as the US attacked Iraq begins as an informative speech:

My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.

On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign.

More than 35 countries are giving crucial support, from the use of naval and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics, to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense.