Mid Term Exam (Unit 1)

Chapter 1: Becoming a Public Speaker

Used to enlighten, persuade, entertain, and move others to act
Social media saturation has not diminished public speaking
Guidebook will offer tools to compose and deliver effective speeches in any setting

Why Study Public Speaking?

Gain a vital life skill.
Offers a way to fulfill your goals
Interviewing
Standing up in front of class
Leadership roles
Networking
Advance your professional goals.
In a recent survey of 500 hiring managers conducted by Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), 90 percent ranked oral communication as the most important skill they seek in new hires
Enhance your career as a student
Preparing speeches develops numerous skills:
Researching topics
Analyzing topics
Outlining and organizing ideas
Supporting claims with evidence
Find new opportunities for civic engagement
You will learn to distinguish between argument that advances constructive goals and uncivil speech that serves merely to inflame and demean others

Learning to Speak in Public

Public speaking is an acquired skill that improves with practice
Public speaking shares traits with other familiar activities, so you can draw on skills you already have

Draw on Conversational Skills

Resembles an important conversation

Check and adjust for understanding
Discuss issues that are appropriate
Try to uncover the audience’s needs before speaking

Develop an Effective Oral Style

Speeches have a unique, oral language style versus everyday conversation and writing

Audience expect clear, recognizable, organized speech communication

Spoken language is:

Simpler
More rhythmic
More repetitious
More interactive
More inclusive

Demonstrate Respect for Difference

Create sense of inclusion by addressing diverse audiences with sensitivity
Demonstrate respect for differences in culture: language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects passed through generations
Cultivate cultural intelligence: willingness to learn about other cultures and gradually reshape thinking and behavior in response to what you’ve learned

Public Speaking Is an Interactive Communication Process

All communication involves the elements:

Source
Receiver
Message
Channel
Shared meaning

Other important elements to consider:

Context
Goals
Outcome

Chapter 2: Giving It a Try: Preparing Your First Speech

Public speaking is an applied art
To know how well you do something and how to begin improving on it is to do it
This chapter will preview steps involved in putting together any speech or presentation

Analyze the Audience

To first prepare for a speech, learn about your listeners relative to the speech topic and occasion (audience analysis)
Strategies include: Interviews, Surveys, Observation, Demographic characteristics, & Prior knowledge about your topic

Select or Adapt a Topic

Use your personal interests, and passions as a guide
Consider the speech purpose and occasion, plus recent local, national, or world events
Think about your audience’s needs and wants

Determine the General and Specific Speech Purposes

Three general speech purposes are to: Inform, Persuade, & Mark a special occasion
Your speech should have a specific speech purpose that declares what you want the audience to learn or do as a result of the speech

Gather Supporting Material

Research your topic with supporting material that clarifies, elaborates, and verifies your ideas
Potential supporting material includes all information available
Research the topic to provide evidence for your argument and lend credibility, unless the speech is autobiographical

Compose a Thesis Statement

Clearly expresses the central idea of your speech
Directly expresses, in a single sentence, what the speech is about
Keeps you on track as you develop your speech

Develop the Main Points

Choose two to three main points around which to organize your speech
Main points serve as:

Primary pieces of knowledge

Informative speech

Key claims

Persuasive speech

Separate the Speech into Its Major Parts

Introduction: serves to draw the audience’s interest to the topic, the speaker, and the thesis
Body: contains the main points and supporting points, arranged to reflect the speech’s thesis

Use the supporting material you have gathered to clarify, elaborate, or substantiate your points

Conclusion: restates the thesis and reiterates how the main points confirm it

Outline the Speech

An outline arranges speech elements that support your thesis based on coordination and subordination

The logical placement of ideas relative to their importance to one another

Coordinate points: points of equal importance placed in parallel alignment
Subordinate points: points that support the main points and identified by placement below and to right of points they support
Detailed speeches will need an organizational pattern and need both working and speaking outlines
Working outlines: Contain points stated in complete or nearly complete sentences
Speaking outlines: Use key words or phrases to present points

Consider Presentation Aids

May help your audience understand your points
May take many forms, such as: Audio, Visual, Objects, Other

Practice Delivering the Speech

Practice often to feel and sound more “natural”
Rehearse both verbal and nonverbal speech delivery at least six times
Record yourself with an audio or video recorder to self-critique
Hearing your speech helps you with: Pronunciation & Articulation

Take the Plunge

Follow each step in the speechmaking process
Take note of progress and how you feel throughout the process

Chapter 3: Managing Speech Anxiety

Identify What Makes You Anxious

Public speaking anxiety: a situation-specific social anxiety that arises from anticipating giving an oral presentation

Lack of Positive Experience

Either have had no exposure to public speaking or had prior unpleasant experiences
Solution: Gain experience to overcome speech anxiety’

Feeling Different

Novice speakers often feel extra-sensitive to their personal being that they make them feel inferior to others
Solution: Acknowledge that everyone is different from everyone else

Being the Center of Attention

Speakers can become sensitive to things that might be wrong with what they’re doing, making them feel even more conspicuous (illusion of transparency)
Solution: Remember that you will always see yourself more critically than your audience
Solution: Put the focus on your speech, not on yourself

Pinpoint the Onset of Anxiety

Occurs at different moments during speechmaking for different people
Trait anxiety: the typical level of worry and fear that we experience across many different situations
Can be reduced with relaxation techniques
Anxiety in speechmaking process:

Pre-Preparation Anxiety

Anxiety hinders the start of speech planning
Anxiety causes you to miss information vital to speech assignment
Solution: Use stress-reducing techniques very early

Preparation Anxiety

Anxiety causes you to feel overwhelmed by the amount of time and planning required
Anxiety creates cycle of stress, procrastination, and avoidance
Solution: Immerse yourself in preparation to regain sense of control and confidence
Solution: Avoid over preparation

Pre-Performance Anxiety

Anxiety develops while you rehearse your speech as “reality sets in”
Solution: Try anxiety stop-time technique, allowing yourself to feel anxious for a few minutes until your confidence stops it

Performance Anxiety

Anxiety peaks as you deliver your speech, usually within introduction
Solution: Control your anxiety during introduction section and the rest will go smoothly

Chapter 4: Listeners and Speakers

Successful communication is two-way including public speaking
There is a continual flow of communication between speaker and listener

Recognize the Centrality of Listening

Listening serves many functions, such as:

To gain understanding
To evaluate and act on information
To provide support
To experience the pleasure of receiving sound

Competent listeners tend to be:

Efficient and successful in both personal and professional lives
Better problem solvers
More engaged citizens

Public speaking allows you to practice active listening, which is focused and purposeful
Listening is the most frequent activity that college students and employees engage in

Understand the Difference between Hearing and Listening

Hearing: physiological, largely involuntary process of perceiving sound
Listening: conscious act of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and nonverbal messages

Recognize That We Listen Selectively

Selective perception: paying attention selectively to certain messages while ignoring others
We pay attention to what we hold to be important
Factors that influence selective perception: Interests, Needs, Values, Attitudes, & Beliefs
Take constructive steps to counteract selective perception in communication
Listeners: Maintain open mind and listen with empathy
Speaker: Approach speech as an opportunity to achieve understanding with audience

Anticipate Obstacles to Listening

Active listening is not possible under distracting conditions
Try to identify and overcome common obstacles to listening

Minimize External and Internal Distractions

Listening distraction: anything that competes for attention we are trying to direct to something else
External: Originates in the environment
Solution: Anticipate and plan ahead to minimize their impact
Internal: Occurs within our thoughts
Solution: Avoid daydreaming and monitor your attention

Refrain from Multitasking

Not possible to actively listen well while multitasking:

Checking cell phone or calender
Finishing an assignment
Responding to a text

Solution: Make it a point to minimize distractions in order to focus

Guard against Scriptwriting and Defensive Listening

Scriptwriting: thinking about what you, not the speaker will say next

Solution: Hear speaker out before creating your own argument

Defensive listening: deciding that you won’t like what speaker will say or that you know better

Solution: Focus on speaker’s motives for making remarks that offend you

Beware of Laziness and Overconfidence

Laziness and overconfidence manifest when listeners:

Expect too little from speakers
Ignore important information
Display an arrogant attitude

You may miss important information
Solution: Never assume that you already know what a speaker will say

Work to Overcome Cultural Barriers

Cultural barriers include differences in speaker’s dialect or accent, nonverbal cues, word choice, or appearance
Solution: Focus on speech message rather than speaker
Solution: Reveal your needs to speaker by asking questions for clarification

Practice Active Listening

Practical steps to sharpen your active listening skills include:

Set listening goals
Listen for main ideas
Watch for speaker’s nonverbal cues
Use critical-thinking strategies

Chapter 6: Analyzing the Audience

Audience analysis: process of gathering and analyzing information about audience members’ attributes and motivations
Explicit aim is to prepare speech in way that is meaningful to them

Assume an Audience-Centered Prespective

Audience-centered perspective: Speech-preparation is geared toward communicating meaningful message to audience
Avoid pandering: abandoning your own convictions or catering to audience’s whims

Adapt to Audience Psychology: Who Are Your Listeners?

Psychographics: Focus on audience members’ attitudes, beliefs, and values - their feelings and opinions, including how they relate to the topic, speaker, and occasion

Appeal to Audience Members’ Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values

Attitudes: general evaluations of people, ideas, objects, or events
Beliefs: ways in which people perceive reality
Values: Our most enduring judgments about what’s good in life, as shaped by our culture and our unique experiences within it
Personal values and cultural values

If the Value Fits, Use It

Evoke combination of the audience’s values in the speech will make them more personally relevant and motivating

Assess Listeners’ Feelings toward the Topic, Speaker, and Occasion

Gauge the audience’s feelings and expectations toward the topic of your speech, you as the speaker, and the speech occasion
Assess Listeners’ Feelings toward the Topic:
If topic is new to listeners: Show why topic is relevant to them and relate topic to familiar issues and ideas
If listeners know relatively little about topic: Stick to basics and include background information and repeat important points
If listeners negatively disposed toward topic:

Focus on establishing rapport, credibility
Introduce other side of argument tactfully

If listeners hold positive attitudes toward the topic: Emphasize side of argument with which they already agree and tell stories with vivid language
If listeners are a captive audience: Motivate attention by focusing on what is most relevant to them and pay close attention to length of speech