CMS 120: Public Speaking Final Exam Review

Communication apprehension / Speech anxiety

Fear or nervousness about public speaking

Hearing

Passive physical process of receiving sound

Listening

Active process of making meaning from sound

Plagiarism

Using someone else’s ideas or words without credit

Specific purpose

Exact goal of a speech

Thesis statement

One-sentence summary of main idea

Demographics

Audience characteristics (age, culture, gender, etc.)

Audience disposition

Audience attitude toward topic/speaker

Impression management

How a speaker presents themselves to audience

Civic engagement

Participation in community or public life

Groupthink

Group prioritizes harmony over critical thinking

Ethos

Credibility of speaker

Pathos

Emotional appeal

Logos

Logical appeal

Inductive reasoning

Specific examples → general conclusion

Deductive reasoning

General principle → specific conclusion

Claim of policy

Statement about what should/ought to be done

Argument

Reasoning used to support a claim

Toulmin model

Claim + Data + Warrant

Ad hominem

Attacking the person instead of argument

Ad populum

Bandwagon fallacy (everyone believes it so it must be true)

Red herring

Distracting from main issue

Slippery slope

Small action leads to extreme outcome

Straw man

Misrepresenting argument to attack it easier

Non sequitur

Conclusion does not logically follow

Spatial pattern

Organization by location

Temporal pattern

Organization by time/process

Topical pattern

Organization by categories

Cause-effect pattern

Shows causes and results

Problem-solution pattern

Identifies issue and solution

Transitions

Connect ideas between speech parts

Enumeration

Listing points (first, second, third)

Preview

Tells audience what is coming

Summary

Recaps main points

Tone

Emotional attitude of speech

Body language

Gestures, eye contact, posture, facial expressions

Vocalics

Voice features (pitch, volume, rate, articulation)

Presentation aids

Visual/support tools to clarify speech

Testimony

Evidence from experts or witnesses

Fact

Statement that can be proven true or false

Value claim

Judgement about worth or importance

Policy claim

Argument about what should be done

Selective perception

Hearing what you expect or want to hear

Selective listening

Focusing only on certain parts of message

Noise

Anything that interferes with communication

Common knowledge

Information widely known and accepted

Misinformation

False or misleading information

Databases

Reliable academic research sources

Internet sources

General web sources, less reliable

Epideictic speech genre

Praise or blame (ancient Greek)

Forensic speech genre

Legal/past

Deliberative speech genre

Future/action

Informative speech

Speech that teaches or explains

Persuasive speech

Speech that changes beliefs or actions

Celebratory speech

Speech that honors or marks an event

KISS principle

Keep It Simple, Students