Public Speaking, Rhetoric, and Source Evaluation

Purposes and Contexts of Public Speaking

  • Three Main Purposes of Public Speaking:

    • Informative: Focuses on sharing research and information without trying to convince the audience (e.g., explaining the manufacturing of a chair).

    • Persuasive: Aims to convince, persuade, or influence audience decisions through facts and reasoning.

    • Commemorative: Focuses on honoring a person, their life, or accomplishments (e.g., toasts at a wedding, eulogies, graduation ceremonies for awardees).

  • Standard Speech Structure: Follows a narrative arc consisting of an introduction (hook), body (main content), and conclusion (recap and takeaway).

  • Communication Contexts:

    • Academic: Structured learning environments such as university classrooms.

    • Professional: Workplace and employment settings.

    • Personal: Informal interactions with family and friends.

    • Public: Speaking to broad groups in open public spaces (e.g., rallies in Fairfax County).

    • Context Importance: Shifting contexts alter audience expectations; ignoring context can cause distraction, disrespect, or misinterpretation.

Elements of Rhetoric

  • Ethos: Audience trust built on speaker credibility, qualifications, background, and transparency (e.g., a medical researcher speaking on cancer research).

  • Logos: Logical reasoning, facts, real data, and evidence from credible sources.

  • Pathos: Emotional appeals using passion, sadness, or excitement (e.g., anti-smoking or anti-vaping ads, animal shelter commercials, political campaigns).

  • Kairos: Appropriateness of time and place for delivering a message to achieve the intended impact.

Quality Research and Supporting Materials

  • Value of Quality Research: Validates statements, establishes trust, demonstrates audience care, and reinforces logos and pathos. True research requires cross-checking credible sources rather than relying on a single Google search or AI prompt.

  • Types of Supporting Materials:

    • Numbers and statistics

    • Definitions and explanations

    • Examples and non-examples

    • Narratives (storytelling)

    • Testimonies (quotes and direct statements)

  • Types of Research Sources:

    • Books (physical and digital)

    • Peer-reviewed journal articles

    • Popular press sources (credible outlets like New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Forbes; avoiding non-credible sources like Daily Mail or TMZ)

    • Websites and media sources

    • People (direct interviews with professionals like doctors or lawyers, or peers in an EPR assignment)

Evaluating Sources: The CRAAP Test

  • Currency: Timeliness of the information.

  • Relevance: Direct applicability of the source to the specific research topic.

  • Authority: Credentials, expertise, and institutional standing of the author or publisher.

  • Accuracy: Reliability and correctness, best verified across multiple sources.

  • Purpose: The primary intent behind the creation of the content.

Citing Sources

  • Verbal Citation Requirements: Must state the author name, author or organization credentials, publication or update date, and publication source (e.g., citing Sarah Ben Isaac from George Mason University).

  • Three Citation Locations in Presentations:

    1. Verbal Delivery: Spoken aloud during the speech (at least 3 sources required).

    2. Written Outline: Integrated into the structured speech outline.

    3. References Slide: Displayed on the final slide of the presentation deck.