Public Speaking

Public Speaking

An organized, face-to-face, prepared, intentional (purposeful) attempt to inform, entertain, or persuade a group of people (usually five or more) through words, physical delivery, and (at times) visual or audio aids

Glossophobia

A severe fear of public speaking

Communication

Sharing meaning between two or more people

Culture

Th system of learned and shared symbols, language, values, and norms that distinguish one group of people from another

Channel

The means through which a message gets from sender to receiver

Feedback

Direct or indirect messages sent from an audience (receives) back to the original sender of the message

Noise

Anything that disrupts, interrupts, or interferes with the communication process

Encode

The process of the sender putting his/her thoughts and feelings into words and other symbols

Decode

The process of the listener or receiver understanding the words and symbols of a message and making meaning of them

Symbol

A word, icon, or picture, object, or number that is used to stand for or represent a concept, thing, or experience

Denotative

The objective or literal meaning shared by most people using the word

Connotative

The subjective or personal meaning the word evokes in people together or individually

Audience Analysis

Examining and looking at your audience first by its demographic characteristics and then by their internal psychological traits

Demographic Characteristics

The outward characteristics of the audience

Stereotyping

Generalizing about a group of people and assuming that because a few persons in that group have a characteristic, all of them do

Totalizing

Taking one characteristic of a group or person and making that the “totality” or sum total of what that person or group is

Heterogeneous

A mixture of different types of people that are very similar in many characteristics

Psychographic Characteristics

The inner characteristics of the audience; beliefs, attitudes, needs and values

Beliefs

Statements we hold to be true

Attitude

A stable positive or negative response to a person, idea, object, or policy

Values

Goals we strive for and what we consider import and desirable

Needs

Important deficiencies that we are motivated to fulfill

Hearing

The physical process in which sound waves hit the ear drums and send a message to the brain

Listening

An active process where you are specifically making an effort to understand, process, and retain information

Comprehensive Listening

Listening focused on understanding and remembering important information from a public speaking message

Empathetic Listening

Listening for understanding the feelings and motivations of another person, usually with the goal of helping the person deal with a personal problem

Appreciative Listening

Type of informed listening needed to listen to and interpret music, theatre, or literature

Critical Listening

Listening to evaluate the validity of the arguments and information and deciding whether the speaker is persuasive and whether the message should be accpeted

Planned Redundancy

The use of a clear central idea statement, preview of the main points, connective statements, and overall summary in the conclusion to reinforce the main ideas or points of a speech; the deliberate repeating of structural aspects of speech

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions