Plans and Policies

Page 316

Allen and McKerrow’s final category for informative speeches concerns plans and policies (1985). In such speeches, the speaker tries to help an audience understand the important dimensions of potential courses of action (for example, raising fares on commuter trains in your city or eliminating work-study scholarships at your college). Such speeches do not argue for a particular plan or policy; they simply lay out the facts. Like issue speeches, plan and policy speeches can easily evolve into persuasive addresses, so you must be very careful to focus on objective facts; if you find yourself unable to keep your opinion from influencing your speech, consider a different topic.