The difference between persuasive and informative has been elusive for competitive speakers for some time, likely since they first appeared as different categories. I have encountered confusion about them in my own speech writing, coaching, and judging. And, I’ve certainly read many ballots where judges expressed confusion about the category of the speech they watched. I am not going to attempt to provide a definitive answer to the question, but to offer some theoretical and definitional explanations of the two types of speeches as well as some considerations for choosing which category your speech should be entered in.
Definitions
We will, of course, start with some definitions. Information is defined by Oxford as “facts or details about somebody/something.” Merriam-Webster elaborates on this and gives us a more specific understanding that is more helpful in this context: “knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction.” This now begs the question: what is knowledge? I’ll leave that to the LD debaters from the ‘23-‘24 season. Suffice it to say that understanding the definition of information isn’t enough. Clearly even in a persuasive speech you are presenting information. So, what does it mean to inform someone? Again, I turn to my friend Merriam-Webster. It says to inform is “to communicate knowledge to.” I like to think about this as teaching someone something. Let’s hang onto these ideas as we move into a summary of the definitions of persuasion.
Instead of turning to a traditional dictionary for a definition of persuasion, I’ll turn to the communication scholar Ann Frymier. She explains that there are four characteristics of persuasion: Persuasion occurs between two or more people, it uses shared language, it has an intention, and it is an attempt to change someone’s attitude, belief, or behavior. While I could go into the details of that 4-part definition, and indeed in my course “Persuasive Theory” I do (shameless plug for the communication major at Cedarville), let’s summarize it by saying persuasion occurs when our declared purpose is to to move someone from one position or behavior to another. The key here that we will come back to later is that persuasion must have intent to change someone.
Let me summarize the difference as it applies to speeches. A persuasive speech has the specific purpose to change someone, while an informative speech has the specific purpose to teach someone about something. Intent is a pivotal aspect of this difference.
Persuasion is Always Happening
Let’s make a significant acknowledgment. All communication, especially a speech in competition, has the intention to persuade. At the very least you want the judge to give you high ranks. Therefore, your purpose is to impress them enough that they give you 1st place in the round. But even outside competition, every speech at least has the intention of convincing the audience that what you have to say is important. Even if your goal is to teach the audience something, you want them to accept that this new information is valuable. That often relies on strategies of persuasion.
Testing Your Topic
Let’s look at competitive speaking and try to figure out how these definitions impact the events of Persuasive Speaking and Informative Speaking.
Intent
You must ask yourself, what do I want out of this speech? Am I more interested in eliciting a visible response or behavior change, or am I more interested in giving my audience something to think about and expanding the knowledge that they have? Answering these question can help you decide which event the speech should be entered in.
Language
Examine the language you find yourself using. If you’re talking about the issue with language like “we have to recognize the problems,” “we need to do something,” or “there is a better way,” then this indicates a persuasive intent because you are advocating for a change. However, if you find yourself thinking about your topic with the language of “this is fascinating,” “people will be amazed by this,” or “I wish everyone knew this,” then you might have an informative speech.
A Call to Action
The tell-tale sign that a speech has moved from simply presenting information to persuading is the presence of a call to action. The moment your speech has some form of the sentiment “here’s what we should do now,” you have a persuasive speech on your hands. Even the most ordinary information can be turned into a persuasive speech by asking the audience to do something with that information. This is why informative speeches are hard. There is almost no information that exists without an implied “so what.” And don’t get me wrong. Every speech, even an informative one, needs to have a “so what” moment. But that “so what” moment in an informative speech can’t be “we should change the way we think,” or it is now a persuasive speech. A call to action inherently makes it persuasive.
Two More Challenges
There are two more situations that complicate the matter. First, it is tempting for us to treat informative speeches like persuasive ones and persuasive speeches like informative ones in other ways.
Scenario 1: You have knowledge that you want to communicate (calling back to the definition of “to inform”) so you call it an informative speech. But the reality of your intent is that you want this information to change the audience in some way. Your desire is to present information that encourages one to think about something differently or challenges them to act in a different way. Essentially, your speech looks and sounds like an informative speech, but its explicit intent is to persuade.
Scenario 2: You want to inform your audience about a problem, its causes, and potential solutions related to an issue in our world. Your intended purpose may be to inform, but the speech takes on the look of a persuasive speech because it presents problems and solutions, which function as a call to action. Anytime there’s a call to action, the speech is inherently persuasive because you are prompting your audience to do something or to change.
What we have is a situation where you have an informative speech that you’re treating like a persuasive speech and you have a persuasive speech that you’re treating like an informative speech. In those tricky situations we have to actually start to ask: “What do I want to do with this speech?” and “Why do I want to do it?” Then you have to just make the choice and lean into the conventions of the event you choose in order to make it better fit that category. Thus, you follow the most fitting persuasive or informative structure and lean into the language choices that reflect your desired outcome.
Closing Thoughts
This is not the end of the conversation. There are so many more things to discuss for a more robust understanding of the topic and event choices you make: the competitive success of certain topics in certain events, what judges want, norms and conventions of the league, various structures of argumentation or presentation of information, motivational and inspirational speeches, and even whether we should have different categories of platform speeches in the first place. These are conversations I hope you continue to have with each other in your clubs and at tournaments. But until then, I hope you carefully evaluate what you want out of your speech and that you make intentional choices that serve your topic and your audience well.
Eric Mishne is a loyal alumni judge and has been instrumental in his current role of Director of Forensics at Cedarville University in helping us further our relationship with this excellent, mission-minded school.
