 Have you ever thought about sticking the tongs of a fork in the creamy part of your Oreos so that you can dunk it in milk without getting your fingers messy? Missing an earring or other small object? Put a stocking around the end of your vacuum hose and use it to search so that it will be pulled up without being sucked all the way into the vacuum. Anyone with internet access can tell you that there are all kinds of these types of life hacks out there. In this video, though, we're going to give you some life hacks for informative speaking. We'll detail some techniques you'll want to use in your informative speeches, and we'll also discuss some helpful tips to becoming an effective informative speaker. Let's get started. Let's begin with some of the basic techniques you will use to inform. Generally speaking, there are four ways to impart knowledge. You can provide a definition, you can describe, you can explain, and you can demonstrate. The French Enlightenment era philosopher Voltaire once famously said, If you wish to converse with me, define your terms. Defining is an essential first step to most educational endeavors. In addition to defining, though, you may also choose to describe something to your audience. How would you do this? The best way is to use vivid, concrete language and imagery. The goal is to help your audience picture in their mind what you're talking about as they're listening to you. Check out this example from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. Words like bank, funds, vaults, and check all give us visual metaphors to think about the promises made to all Americans. When you use vivid descriptive language, you're making the ideas in your head concrete and tangible so that there's clear as possible for your audience to understand. Take a look at this example of the latter of abstraction, a conceptual metaphor intended to help us understand the varying levels of concrete language. As you can see from this example, the farther down the latter you go, the more specific and definite the nouns become, making the meaning much clearer along the way. Explanations, the third basic teaching technique, are great to detail how something works or how to address cause and effect, while the final technique, demonstrations, are perfect in teaching others how to do something. While using these four basic techniques and organizing your speech appropriately will be essential, you'll also want to remember a few other tips. First, while there are exceptions, objectivity is key to most forms of informational speaking. The basic idea behind this concept of objectivity is that you aren't intentionally taking aside like you would in a persuasive speech. In an informative speech, your goal is to present the information in an impartial and balanced way. The second important tip is that you must develop and appeal to your credibility as the speaker. Think of it this way. We trust, believe and learn the most from those whom we believe are the most credible. Remember that credibility consists of two basic components, your competence and your character. While both are important, competency or your expertise, experience and knowledge within a field is essential to effective teaching. A third tip would be to make sure the topic you're speaking on is relevant. If it isn't immediately evident to the audience, then you have to make the cell by making it personal. Give them a reason to listen to your speech. Don't assume they automatically want to hear what you have to say. Another way to increase your effectiveness as an informative speaker is to engage the audience. Yes, sometimes this may include inviting them to join you as you teach them how to draw or make origami, but it might also be as simple as asking a poll type question like, quick show of hands, how many of you have ever…or even a simple rhetorical question that gets them thinking but does not require a response. Finally, and related to the idea of engagement, is the fact that it is often better to show than simply tell. If the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words holds true, then you'll be much more efficient and effective as a speaker using visuals to help enhance your audience's retention and understanding. These tips and techniques may or may not be as useful as knowing that using a can opener can help you cut through that annoying blister pack packaging without cutting yourself, but we hope that they will be helpful as you prepare your next informative speech.