 Can you name some of the memorable teachers that you've had in your lifetime? Take a moment to think about your favorite teachers over the years. What made them so great? So effective. How about some of your least favorite teachers? No need to shout out their names, but was there a reason that they weren't as effective as the others? When you're giving an informative speech, your job will be to teach. Your goal should be to be the most effective teacher possible. In this video, we'll talk about who's giving speeches to inform, list some common general informative speech topics, and cover some of the familiar organizational patterns used in informative speeches. Let's get started. We encounter informative speeches each and every day. In fact, you yourself have probably given something similar to an informative speech sometime this week, if not today. For example, when teachers teach, they're informing. When bosses give sales updates and explain policy changes, they're informing. When coaches coach, they're informing. When pastors and other clergy give sermons, they're often informing. When parents or friends share information with us with the goal of imparting knowledge, yep, you guessed it, they're informing. In your everyday interactions, you often need to be able to both give and receive informative messages. Because of that, you'll want to know how you can be the most effective. Before we get to that, though, what are all these informative messages about? Informative speeches can be about pretty much anything, but some common topical areas include speeches about people, places, objects, tacos, actions, processes, events, plants and animals, phenomena, issues, ideas, cats, concepts and theories. If you need some advice on selecting a speech topic, we have a video dealing with precisely that process that can be found on the Compadres Media YouTube channel. To make sense of the topic and help the audience understand and retain as much of your speech as possible, it's important to organize it properly. You've probably already learned about organizational patterns. If not, once again, we have a video on that very topic on the Compadres Media channel. But it bears repeating, as some of those patterns are a better fit for informative speeches than others. For example, process or historical speeches will likely use a chronological pattern. Speeches about places or events might use the spatial organization pattern, which follows a directional flow. A comparative pattern might be used when moving from the known to the unknown or for objectively presenting information about options. The same objectivity would be a hallmark for an informative speech using the pro-con organizational pattern. Pick a topic and then present an unbiased view from both or all sides. The causal or cause-and-effect pattern is great for explaining both what is happening and why. The topical organizational pattern, which simply selects and places main points in a logical order, would work for almost any informative speech topic you can think of. The key to picking the correct organizational pattern is determining which will be the most effective for the information that you plan to present. Start with the end in mind, having a firm understanding of the goals of your speech and then consider which method of organization will best accomplish those goals. So what kind of teacher are you going to be? Carefully considering and selecting the topic for your informative speech and matching it effectively with an appropriate organizational pattern could make all the difference in determining which list you end up on for the folks in your audience. Choose wisely.