Speech

  • Central processing vs. peripheral processing - how the audience is thinking 

-central: audience is actively engaged with message and information/facts

-peripheral: audiences opinion is based on superficial persuasion, and is swayed easily, without engaging much with the core message

  • Write speeches for the ear

  • Not concerned about how it looks on paper. Focus is on how it will sound 

  • Vocal fillers

  • Fill pauses with “um” “ah” thinking about what to say next 

  • Mumbling 

  • Quiet or indistinct 

  • Scanning 

  • Either: words are broken syllables or speaker moves their gaze to different people 

  • Talking head

  • Talking directly to the audience/camera 

  • Enlighten vs. advocate

  • "enlighten" focuses on imparting information 

  • "advocate" focuses on persuasion and taking a stance

  • Backstory

  • Set up of events before the main story 

  • problem/solution organizational pattern in informative and persuasive speaking

  • Present problem, present one or more solutions

  • What do emotion and reasoning do for a speech audience? 

  • Reveal your personal moral standards, stress your expertise on the topic, and emphasize commonality with audience

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

  • a theory of human motivation; physiological needs<safety needs<love and belonging<esteem<self-actualization

  • Claim 

  • a statement essentially arguable but used as a primary point to support or prove an argument

  • Evidence

  • Support for an argument 

  •  One-sided message vs two-sided message 

  • One sided: evidence for only one side of argument/ two sided: present both sides of evidence 

  • Comparative advantage pattern of arrangement for persuasive speaking

  • Compares opinions and convincing why one is better 

  • Refutation pattern of arrangement for persuasive speaking

  • presenting and then disproving opposing arguments

  • Persuasive speeches that reaffirm audience values

  • Beliefs 

  • Impact how an audience receives a message 

  • Etymology

  • study of the origin and history of words

  • Characteristics of the speaker’s voice 

  • Intonation: rise and fall of pitch

  • Enthusiasm

  • Confidence

  • Deliberate pauses, not vocal pauses


From the text (chapters 12,13,15,16,17) 

  • Connotative vs. denotative meaning 

Denotative: the literal or dictionary meaning of a word or phase

Connotative: the meaning suggested by the association or emotions triggered by a word or phrase

  • Thesaurus :A book of synonyms 

  • Concrete vs. abstract words 

Concrete words: words that refer to tangible objects

Abstract words: words that refer to ideas or concepts 

  • Clutter :discourse that takes many more words than are necessary to express an ideas

  • Rhythm: the pattern of sound in a speech created by the choice and arrangement of words

  • Alliteration: repetition of the initial consonant sound of close or adjoining words

  • Antithesis: the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, usually in parallel structures

  • Extemporaneous speaking :a carefully prepared and rehearsed speech that is presented from a brief set of notes

  • Conversational quality :presenting a speech so it sounds spontaneous no matter how many times it has been rehearsed 

  • Inflections :changes in the pitch or tone of a speaker's voice

  • Dialect :a variety of a language distinguished by variations of accent,grammer, or vocabulary

  • Kinesics: the study of body motions as a systematic mode of communication

  • Gestures : motions of a speakers hands or arms during a speech

  • Process  :a systematic series of actions that leads to a specific result or product

  • claims/questions of policy:a question about whether a specific course of action should or should not be taken 

  • Question of Value :a question about the worth, rightness, morality and so forth of an idea or action

  • Question of fact: a question about the truth or falsity of an assertion

  • Pathos :the name used by aristotle for what modern students of communication refer tri as emotional appeal 

  • Ethos :the name used by aristotle if what modern students of communication refer to as credibility 

  • Logos: the name used by aristotle for the logical appeal of a speaker. The two major elements of logos are evidence and reasoning 

  • Persuasion :the process of creating, reinforcing, or changing peoples beliefs or actions

  • comparison/contrast : compare: a statement of the similarities among two or more people events or ideas

Contrast: a statement if the differences among two or more people events or ideas

  • Personalize : to present one's ideas in human terms that relate in some fashion to the experience of the audience 

  • Mental dialog with the the audience :the mental give and take between speaker and listener during a persuasive speech

  • Speech to gain passive agreement :

  • Speech to gain immediate action :a persuasive speech in which the speakers goal is to convince the audience to take action in support of a given policy

  • Need :the first basic issue in analyzing a question of policy: is there a serious problem or need that requires a change from current policy

  • Burden of proof : the obligation facing a persuasive speaker to prove that a change from current policy is necessary 

  • Plan :the second basic issue in analyzing a question of policy: is there a problem with current policy, does the speaker have a plan to solve the problem?

  • Practicality:the third basic issue in analyzing a question of policy: will the speaker's plan solve the problem? Will it create new or more serious problems? 

  • Monroe’s Motivated Sequence :a method of organizing persuasive speeches that seek immediate action. The five steps of the motivated sequence are attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action

  • Initial credibility : the credibility of a speaker before she or he starts to speak

  • Derived credibility :the credibility of a speaker produced by everything she or he says and does during the speech

  • Terminal credibility : the credibility of a speaker at the end if the speech 

  • Creation common ground :a technique in which a speaker connects himself or herself with the values, attitudes or experiences if the audience

  • Reasoning from specific instances :reasoning that moves from particular facts to a general conclusion

  • Reasoning from principle :reasoning that moves from a general principle to a specific conclusion

  • Fallacy in reasoning :an error in reasoning

  • Hasty generalization :a fallacy in which a speaker jumps to a general conclusion on the basis of insufficient evidence 

  • False cause :a fallacy i9n which a speaker mistakenly assumes that because one event follies another the first event is the cause of the second 

  • Invalid analogy :an analogy in which the two cases begin compared are not essentially alike 

  • Bandwagon :a fallacy which assumes that because something is popular, it is therefore good correct or desirable 

  • Red herring :a fallacy that introduces an irrelevant issue to divert attention from the subject under discussion

  • Ad Hominem :a fallacy that attacks the person rather than dealing with the real issue in dispute

  • either/or :a fallacy that forces listeners to choose between two alternatives when more than two alternatives exists

  • Slippery slope :a fallacy which assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented 

  • Appeal to tradition :a fallacy which assumes that something old is automatically better than something new

  • Appeal to novelty :a fallacy which assumes that something new is automatically better than something old