Food blogger and editor Peggy Paul was offered the opportunity to appear on The Rachael Ray Show after informing the celebrity host that she could prepare a four-course gourmet dinner in her tiny apartment with just a toaster oven, a microwave, and a hot plate (Annino, 2007). Sound impossible? But what if she showed you? Rachael Ray (and Peggy Paul) caught on to an important truth: often the best way to explain how something works is to demonstrate it. Demonstration speeches answer “how” questions—how to use a Roku, how to bake a pie crust, how to salsa dance—by showing an audience the way something works. In this case, Peggy used a combination of explanatory narration and physical demonstration to show how she whips up baked apple pork chops, pear and gorgonzola salad, and chocolate hazelnut quesadillas as easily as we make grilled cheese, all the while making use of props, models, and other visual aids.

The key to delivering an effective demonstration speech is to begin with a clear statement of purpose and to follow a very straightforward organizational pattern. In most cases, a chronological pattern works best for a demonstration, with the process broken down into a number of steps that are presented in order of completion. The following steps in the process of decorative painting techniques illustrate a demonstration speech in chronological order. You can imagine the speaker showing each of the three methods.

To demonstrate how to liven up a room with faux paint, you can use three popular types of decorative wall painting: color washing, sponging on, and ragging off.

Color washing hides flaws in the wall and gives it a textured look. First, paint your wall a base color. Next, with short strokes, brush one or more glaze colors loosely over the contrasting base color (show photographs).

The sponging-on technique gives the wall depth and texture with a variable pattern. Apply two or more coats of paint—satin, flat, semigloss, or gloss—on your wall. After the base coat dries, apply a glaze coat using a sea sponge (show sea sponge and photograph).

Ragging off gives the wall a delicate, evenly textured appearance. Apply two base coats of two colors. While the second color is still wet, use a clean dry rag wrapped around a paint roller, and roll it across the wall (demonstrate technique).²