How to Master the Demonstration Speech

Adapted fromAndrew Dlugan

The demonstration speech is one of the fundamental types of presentations.

Demo speeches are ubiquitous. They are assigned to students in high school and college. They are a staple in corporate and other adult training environments. They are among the most common speeches given in Toastmaster clubs.

Due to the popularity of this speech form,the well-rounded speaker must master the demonstration speech. Despite this, many speakers don’t know the basics to delivering an effective demonstration speech. Do you?

In this article, we present ademonstration speech outlinewhich gives the best chance for success, and discuss thenecessary elements for a great demo speech.

Definition: The Demonstration Speech

A demonstration speech is a form of informative speech in whichthe speaker’s primary purpose is to teach the audience how to complete a task (or process), and this is largely accomplished by demonstrating the task (or process) through a series of steps.

The Demonstration Speech Outline

Just as there are many demonstration speech topics, there are many ways to organize a demonstration speech. You will rarely go wrong, however, if you apply this basic speech outline:

Start with why
Give a brief overview of the entire process
Go through the steps, one-by-one: for each, describe it, then show it
(Optional) Discuss options, extras, or variations
Summarize briefly
Allow time for Q&A

Each of these six steps is described below.

1. Start with why

A demonstration speech is about training the audience to perform a task or complete a process. Just as with any educational task, it helps tremendously if your audience is motivated to learn.

This is why it’s important totell your audience how they will benefitfrom the knowledge you are about to share.Once your audience knowswhythey are learning this new task, they will be motivated to learn.

There are many ways to motivate your audience, but one of the best ways is to open with a story.Paint a picture of how their life will improvewith this new knowledge.

2. Give a brief overview of the entire process

Before you dive too deep in the details, it is essential to present an overview of the overall task or process.

A brief, high-level overview of the steps involvedprovides a mental frameworkfor the audience upon which they can hang the details as you provide them later in the speech.

When learning a new task, some people in your audience will fear that it is complicated. An early overviewassures your audience that it is not overly complex. For example, “We’re going to discuss how to cook a quiche in just four easy steps…”

If you fail to present an outline, it’s difficult for your audience to see how the steps will fit together later on.The audience won’t have the necessary context.

A great way to present the overview is witha diagram illustrating the stepsof the task at a high level. You can refer to this diagram throughout.

Along with the overview, you should alsolist the prerequisites neededfor the task, and any assumptions you are making. For example, what is needed before one begins this task? What supplies or resources are assumed?

3.Go through the steps, one-by-one

From a speaker’s perspective, one of the best things about a demonstration speech is thatthe core of your outline is prepared for you: you simply need to go through the steps of the task in sequential order. (Occasionally, you may decide to present the steps in a different way, but be sure to let your audience know that you are breaking a convention.)

Keep the series of steps as simple as possible. Break the process down to the most essential steps that will lead your audience successfully from start to finish. There’s no “best” number of steps, but keep the number of steps as low as possible. Don’t present a 19-step process unless your goal is utter confusion.

Defer optional steps for laterin your presentation (or, for the Q&A). It is best to avoid complicating matters on the first pass.

For each step, you should:

Explain the purpose of the step (whyis this step necessary)
Explain the step in simple, straightforward language (whatneeds to be done)
Show how to complete the step (howshould it be done)

4. (Optional) Discuss options, extras, or variations

Now that your audience has seen the task or process demonstrated from start to finish, you can (if time permits) provide some additional options or variations.

For example, if you are explaining how to cook a certain recipe, start with the basic version first. After that’s done, you can discuss alternate ingredients, different flavours to try, and other ways to build on the basic recipe.

5. Summarize briefly

Finally, you should summarize the process briefly, and recap the benefits that your audience will realize if they perform the desired process or task.

6. Allow time for Q&A

Many types of speeches benefit from taking questions from the audience and answering them, anda Q&A session is particularly well-suited for a demonstration speech. This allows the audience to seek clarification on any of the steps which were unclear.

Note: While you should write an outline to flesh out your speech, you can only have two 4” x 6” note cards with key words to guide you when you give your speech in class. This fact means you have to practice. You will fail if you read your speech from any kind of script.