COMM 2004- Chapter 1 Vocabulary

From the book "A Speaker's Guidebook: Text and Reference by Dan O'Hair, Rob Steward, and Hanna Rubstein" (Virginia Tech Edition, Seventh Edition)

rhetoric

the practice of oratory, or public speaking. more broadly, the term has multiple meanings, all of which relate to an aspect of human communication.

oratory

in classical terms, the art of public speaking.

agora

in ancient greece, a public square or marketplace.

forum

in ancient rome, a public space in which people gathered to deliberate about the issues of the day.

public forum

any space (physical or virtual) in which people gather to voice their ideas about public issues.

forensic oratory

in ancient greece, speech addressing legal matters, such as the settlement of disputes.

deliberative oratory

in ancient greece, speech addressing legislative or political policy issues.

epideictic oratory

in ancient greece, speech addressing special occasions, such as celebrations or funerals.

cannons of rhetoric

a classical approach to speechmaking in which the speaker divides a speech into five parts: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

arrangement (of the speech)

the strategic process of deciding how to order speech points into coherent and convincing pattern for your topic and audience.

style

the specific word choices and rhetorical devices (techniques of language) speakers use to express their ideas and achieve their speech purpose.

memory

one of five parts of the classical canons of rhetoric; refers to the practice of the speech until it can be artfully delivered.

delivery

the vocal and nonvocal behavior that a speaker uses in a public speech; one of the five canons of rhetoric.

invention

selecting and adapting speech material to the audience; constructing arguments.

culture

the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.

cultural intelligence

the willingness to learn about other cultures and gradually reshape one’s thinking and behavior in response to what one has learned.

dyadic communication

communication between two people, as in a conversation.

small group communication

communication involving a small number of people who can see and speak directly with one another, as in a business meeting.

mass communication

communication that occurs between a speaker and a large audience of unknown people. the receivers of the message are not present with the speaker, or they are part of such an immense crowd that there can be little to no interaction between speaker and listeners. television, radio news broadcasts, and mass rallies are examples.

public speaking

a type of communication in which the speaker delivers a message with a specific purpose to an audience of people who are physically present during the delivery of the speech.

source

the person who creates the message.

speaker

transforms ideas and thoughts into messages and sends them to a receiver, or an audience.

encoding

the process of organizing a message, choosing words and sentence structure, and verbalizing the message.

receiver

the recipient (an individual or a group) of a source’s message.

decoding

the process of interpreting a message.

feedback

audience response to a message, which can be conveyed both verbally and nonverbally through gestures.

message

the content of the communication process - thoughts and ideas put into meaningful expressions.

channel

the medium through which the speaker sends a message (e.g.: sound waves, air waves, and electronic transmission).

noise

anything that interferes with the communication process between a speaker and an audience so that the message cannot be understood.

shared meaning

the mutual understanding of a message between speaker and audience.

rhetorical situation

the circumstances that call for a public response and for the speech itself; in broad terms, consideration of the audience, occasion, and overall speech situation when planning a speech.

audience-centered perspective

an approach to speech preparation in which each phase of the speech preparation process is geared toward communicating a meaningful message to the audience.