Public Speaking (COM110) Chapter 1 Notes from Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach Authored by Steven A. Beebe and Susan J. Beebe Chapter 1 : Speaking in Public Public speaking, much like conversation requies re quies you to organize your thoughts into words to be presented to an audience. You will usually be forced to make decisions "on your feet", even thought the speech is prepared ahead of time. Public speaking does intend to be more intentional than conversation, because the speaker and listener tend to be well defined and unchanging roles. The language used in a speech tends to be much more formal than normal conversation, and contains less slang. Declamation is the delivery of an already famous speech. Elocution is the delivery of a speech with an elaborate set of stances, gentures, and facial expressions which are supposed to be used to convey the speaker's feelings.
The ethical bounds of speech include that a speaker should have a responsible goal and use sound evidence, reasoning, and communications. An e thical speaker should also be honest. The parts of public speaking include the source, receiver, message, channel, feedback, context, and noise. The source is the origin of the speech, while the receiver is the receipient of the speech. The message is the actual content of the speech being delivered, including the gestures which accompany the actual words. The channels are the means over which the receiver obtains the message, which usually include auditory and visual. Feedback is the resulting information that the receiver gives back to the source during the process of the speech. The environment and situation under which the speech occurs are the context. Finally, you have noise which is any outside factor interfering with the total transmition of the message the the receiver.
Chapter 2 : Ethics and Public Speaking A good public speaker should be audience-centered, present good and well organized ideas, choose the right words, deliver a message well, have good research skills, and be able to think and listen carefully. The speaker must be audience-centered which means being able to adapt to the expectations of the group receiving the message. This not only includes the topic and the presentation of the topic, but the manner in which the speaker associates with the audience. For a speaker they must develop good ideas and organize those ideas well. Finding something interesting to say is critical to a speech. Once you have found something to say, delivering it in a orderly manner is critical to the speech. This logical presentation is known as disposition. Choosing the right words to convey your idea, and be able to keep the audience awake with those words, is central to a speech. If nobody listens than the message, no matter
how important, is lost. The actual content is very important. The speaker must learn to listen to the ideas of others, research the topic, and then think out and effective manner to relay their message using the facts they have avaliable to them. Selecting and narrowing down a topic can be difficult. You must determine who the audience is, what the occasion is, and what background you have that applies to the situation. A specific-purpose sentence is one method of telling the listeners waht you want them to do once you finish your speech. This lets the audience know what your speech is about and the purpose of the speech: to inform, persuade, or entertain. Each speech must contain a topic, general purpose, specific purpose, and central idea. Once you have picked the central idea, you must find facts that support the idea and organize them into a speech. Practicing the speech is the next step in a successful development process, which leads into the actual delivery. Delivery is the stage in which most speakers feel very nervous, but the speaker tends to feel more nervous than they appear. Developing confidence in yourself is key to becoming less nervous. Some suggestions to developing confidence include knowing your audience, being prepared, speaking on the appropriate topic, having rehearsed, being organized, knowing your topic, and focus on remaining calm and concentrated on your messages. In all cases, the more practice speaking you have, the less nervous you will feel.
Chapter 3: Listening Listening critically is an important talent because it helps you to be able to think critically. Humans use the ability to select what they listen to to determine what they hear. To catch the attention of a person you must speak on something interesting or different from what they are used to hearing. To keep their attention you must vary your presentation. To listen well to a speaker you must be attentive, must remember what has been said, and must avoid information overload. You must also avoid allowing your mind to wander or be distracted as you work. To be a better listener you must be able to adapt to the speaker's deliver, and listen well to the message. You must avoid overreacting or jumping to conclusions. Taking some notes often will help improve your listening skills. Remember to not take too many notes, but take enough so that you can remember what was said. Be careful not to take so many notes that you are not listen anymore.
Chapter 4 : Selecting a Topic and a Purpose Audience analysis is the process of analyzing the expected audience. Demographics involve statistical facts of the audience including age, gender, culture, ethics, racial background, religion, and education. Always attempt to perform some form of survey of the audience to determine these factors. Many good speeches can be ruined by insulting the audience. Attitudinal analysis is another important factor of audience reaction. This includes the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the audience. Attitude reflects likes and dislikes, while beliefs are what the individual holds as true or false. Values, separate from attitude and beliefs, are what a person judges to be right or wrong. Knowing your audience's attitude on a topic is necessary before presenting a speech.
Another important attitude is that of the audience toward the speaker. A credible speaker is more likely to be believed and listened to than a person speaking from research. The environment can also determine the outcome of a speech, which makes envrionmental analysis important. The more attractive the decor the more open the audience tends to be to a message, but a room that is too flashy can detract from the message, by distracting the audience. A speaker must be able to adapt to the nonverbal clues an audience gives as well as the verbal responses. Clues such as eye contact with the speaker, the facial expressions of the audience, and restless movement within the crowd tend to be indicative of the audience's interest in the message and the speaker. You must be able to make changes to grab the audience's attention when their attention begins to wander.
Chapter 5 : Analyzing the Audience To present a speech you must follow four basic steps which include: selecting and narrowing your topic, determining your purpose, developing your central idea, and generating your main ideas. When selecting your topic you must consider the audience, the occasion, your background and interests. Next you must brainstorm and list as many ideas as you can. Next you must go thought the list you have created and decide which topic you can reasonably narrow down to a managable size to speak on. Next you must decide the general purpose of your speech. More information on this is given in Chapter 14. Once the general purpose is decided you should write the specific purpose of the speech. This can be phrased as "At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to . . .". It should be very precise, and be limited to a single idea.
The central idea is sometimes called the thesis. This is stated as as declarative statement. It should summarize the entire speech in a single line. The final step is generating your main ideas. The main ideas should be divided into logical divisions (usually three of four), each of which support the central idea. In most cases the ideas can be represented as logical steps or progression.
Chapter 6 : Gathering Materials Supporting materials are critical to any speech. One of the strongest most useful supporting materials is that of the story. Everybody loves to hear a story. You may also use the idea of a hypothetical illustration in the same manner as a conventional story. When using either a story of hypothetical illustation it is important to follow certain guidelines. Make sure the illustration is relevant to your topic. The illustration should represent a common trend, not outlying oddities. Make your illustrations vivid and specific. Make sure your listeners can identify with the story. Remember the best illustrations are personal ones. Another form of supporting material is the explanation, which is a statement that makes clear how something is done or why it exists as it does. Descriptions, which explain what something is like, are closely related to explanations, and are also often used. In the use of either an explanation or description, it is also important to follow a few basic guidelines. Make sure the explanation or description are brief and concise. Use language that is concrete and specific in any explanation or description. In many speeches it is necessary to use definitions to explain little known terms. Remember to only use definitions when needed, and to make sure that they are understandable. Also make sure if you use a definition that it fits the way in which you used the word within the speech. Analogies, or comparisons, can be used to relate very similar items. You must make sure that you make the similarities between the two objects readily apparent to the audience. Statistics, can be very influential within a speech. Make sure to always quote where the statistics were found, and that the source is reliable. It is often also helpful to round statistics and present graphic representations to help make the numbers easy to remember.
The final source that is commonly used is that of the quotation, which is an excerp from an authority on a topic. You must make sure you identify the source of the quote, and why they not only are an expert, but are unbiased on the topic. Make sure you also quote your source accurately.
Chapter 7 : Supporting Your Ideas How to plan an interview
1. 2. 3. 4.
Obtain background information about the person you wish to interview Design the questions you will ask Plan a questioning sequency, know in what order you will ask the questions Determine the method of recording the responses
Developing a Reaseach Plan
1. Develop a preliminary bibliography 2. Locate the materials you need 3. Determine which material is most important 4. Take notes as you read
CHAPTER 8 : Organizing the Body of the Speech You must organize your main points. You may use either chronological, topical, spatial, causal, or problem-solution organization to organize the points. Chronological order is organization by time or sequence. Topical order is order by recency or complexity. Spatial order is order by location or position. Causal order is cause-effect pairing. Problem-solution ordering is the lists of the problem and then solutions to the problem. Once you have your main points in order you must determine in which order you wish to present the supporting material for each point. You may choose primacy, recency, specificity, complexity, or soft to hard evidence as order methods. Primacy is most important material first, which is opposite of recency. Specificity means going from specific to general or vice-versa. Complexity moves from simple ideas to more difficult ones. The final way is soft to hard evidence ordering, which moves from opinion or inference to hard facts such as statistics.
Chapter 9 Beginning and Ending the Speech Correct Outline Form
1. Use standard outline numbering. Roman numbers first, then capital letters, numbers, lowercase letters...etc. 2. Each point should have at least two subdivisions, if any. 3. Indent each subpoint under the first letter of the main point. The periods of each point on a given level should line up. This means the first column of Roman Numerals do not line up, but the last column does. 4. Capitalize the first word of each point 5. All points at the same level should be parallel in structure. Either they are all single words, single sentences, or something that is the same...
Three types of Outlines Preparation outline A full outline using complete sentences and outline form that includes the entire speech. Also serves as a first rehearsal outline. This outline can also include the purpose, central idea, introduction, preview statement, transitions, and conclusion as outside parts of the speech that are inserted between outline parts. Audience outline This outline once again includes the purpose, central idea, introduction, preview statement, and conclusion. It also includes a dense form of the actual outline short phrase explainations of the mainpoints and major subpoints. Delivery Outline This outline is your speaking notes. It should be brief, but include all key points, statistics, and transitions that the speakers uses. The purpose statment and central idea are not needed in this form of outline, but often part of the introduction and conclusion are included to help the delivery of the speech.
Chapter 10 Outlining the Speech You speech introduction is your introduction of yourself as the speaker to the audience. You must get the audience's attention and let them know not only what you will be talking about, but why they should listen to you. You must establish your credibility, and preview the topic briefly so that you will keep the audience listening. The closing is the most memorable part of the speech for the audience. You should summarize and reemphasize your ideas in a memorable way and then motivate the audience to remember the topic and act on your words. You must also provide a sense of closure to the speech.
Chapter 11 Using Language The manner of delivery of a speech is important to ensuring that the information reaches the listener. As much as 65% of the social meaning of the message is based on non-verbal signals. Communicating in an effective manner will increase audience attentiveness. This makes choosing the manner of speaking very important. There are four methods to choose from. Manuscript reading is the method of delivery preferred for policial speeches which require specific wording, but usually frowned apon for public speaking. Speaking from memory is similar to manuscript reading in the fact that the speech is prewritten and can sound very stiff. It is a good idea to only rely on memorization and reciting for speeches which must be carefully worded. Impromptu speaking is the "off the cuff" method of delivering a speech. There is no preparation, and is reserved for occasions that occur without warning. Extemporaneous speaking is the most used style of giving a speech. You deliver the speech in conversational style with an outline or notecards, but not by memorization.
Effective gestures include natural, relaxed, and unobtrusive gestures which are varied and are in concert with the presentation. These gestures are accompanied by good eye contact with the audience to let them know you are intersted in their reactions. The quality of the vocal delivery is very important. You must clearly articulate the words which you use. You also use inflection, or the varying of the pitch of your voice, to make sure you keep the attention of the audience. You should also dress in a manner which does not disturb the audience to detract from what you are saying.
Chapter 12 Delivery Visual aids help enhance understanding and information retention. They also tend to help the listeners organize ideas and help to illustrate a sequence of events or a procedure. Visual aids also help to keep the audience's attention. Types of visual aids include three-dimensional aids (such as objects), twodimensional aids (such as drawings), or audio-visual aids (such as movies). You should prepare the visual aid before you speak, and rehearse the speech with the visual aid. You should make sure that you acutally use the visual aid to make a point, not just as a showpiece. It is also important to make sure that the visual aid doesn't distract the audience from the speech. Use common sense with your visual aids.
Chapter 14 Speaking to Inform Often the purpose of public speaking is to inform the audience of a topic that you have knowledge with. It is important when you are speaking to attempt to make your message clear and jargan free . It is also important to make your message accurate , vivid, and interesting. These speeches often attempt to explain ideas, objects, procedures, people, or events. In any speech there are several ways to inform the audience. You must define any special vocbulary you intend to use, describe the who, what, when, where, or why, or narrate a story to effectively communicate with your audience. Another important aspect of a speech is making it memorable. This can be accomplished by presenting information that relates to the listeners, giving the listeners a reason to listen to you, using some redundancy, keeping the ideas simple, presenting in a logical connected fashion, reinforcing key ideas both verbally and non-verbally, and pacing the presentation in an orderly fashion.
Chapter 15 : Speaking to Persuade Persuasion is the process of trying to get a person to change or reinforce an attitude, belief, value, or behavior. The idea of a persuasive speech is to communicate your argument, or reason for believing something, to the audience. The purpose of doing this is to either reinforce what the audience's attitude and behaviors or to influence their attitudes, beliefs or values. Most often you are actually influencing attitudes because beliefs and values are tightly ingrained in a person.
One manner to change the attitude of a person is to present cognitive dissonance which is information which conflicts with what the person believes to be true. The audience will tend to react by either: • • • • •
attaching the credibility of the source reinterpreting the message seeking new infomration stopping listening changing attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors
Another manner to persuade the audience is to appeal to their needs. These needs include physiological, safety, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. According to Abraham Maslow these needs must be satisified in a heirarchy, and the more needs you can appeal to, the more affective you will be. You may also use positive or negative motivation appeals to persuade the audience.
Chapter 16 Methods of Persuasion To effectively persuade an audience you must establish credibility. This includes the factors of competence, trustworthiness, dynamisn, and charisma. To persuade an audience you must use logic, reasoning, and proof to state your case. Some of the types of reasoning avaliable to the speaker are inductive and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is arriving at a general conclusion from specific instances. Analogies are special version of inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is arriving at a specific conclusion from a general statement. Deductive reasoning is based on premises. Causal reasoning is also commonly used as a "cause-and-effect" reasoning pattern. You must support your reasoning with evidence. Evidence may be fact, inference, example, opinion, or statistics. You must avoid fallacies, which arrise when you use evidence that is irrelvant or do not use solid evidence, can be an ethical problem. You must be careful to avoid causal, circular, bandwagon, and strawman fallacies. Ither fallacies include binary thinkings, heasy generalization, attacking irrelavant features of a person, red herrings, appealing to misplaced authority, and non sequitur (illogical arguements). Remember that you can use honest emotions to help pursuade. This includes using emotion-arousing words and actions. You may also appeal to fear, hope, pride,, courage, and reverence. Remember that you may be facing on of three audiences: receptive, neutral, or unreceptive. You must vary your approach with the audience. The organizational patterns of persuasive speeches include the problem-solution method, refutation method, and the cause & effect method.
Chapter 18 : SMALL GROUP A small group is generally defined to be between 3 and 12 people with 5 to 7 being ideal. To constitute a group the body of people must communicate face-to-face, share a common purpose or goal, feel a sense of belonging and responsibility to the group, and exert some influence over one another. The advantages of working in a group include that as a group you have more knowledge and creativity avaliable. Group work also tends to teach and satisfy group members more than individual work. The disadvantages include the effects of group pressure, dealing with dominating or lazy individuals, and the extra time that may be required in making a decision as a body. The method most used in group problem solving is the process called reflexive
thinking. This is a five step method which includes the following parts: (1) Identify and define the problem, (2) analyze the problem, (3) generate possible solutions, (4) select the best solution, and (5) test and implement the solution.
When working in a group it is important to follow certain guidelines. Some of these guidelines include: coming prepared for discussion, analyzing the problem before proposing solutions, avoid opinions and assumtions where facts are avaliabl e, keep the group on track, and be courteous. Another important part of a group is the leadership, which varies from authoritarian, to democratic, to passive. Each style has its advantages and disadvantages, but the democratic style is by far the most common. It is the responsibility of the leader to have a prepared agenda which the group is informed of, and helped to follow in a timely manner. The group has a responsibility to follow the given agenda and accomplish the work with the leader. Once the group has obtained results, it is often necessary to present these results to the public. This can be accomplisheed in a variety of formats including symposiums, forums, panel discussions, or written reports. A symposium presentation is a public discussion in which the group presents the information to the public in a series of short speeches. This contrasts to the forum presentation in which the audience asks questions of the group, and group members return short improptu speeches responding to the question. The less formal method of presentation is the panel discussion during which members present information to the public in an informal moderated discussion, which is usually followed by a question and answer session. The final method of presentation is that of a written paper presented to the public containing the information discovered and the methods used to determine the decision. A written paper often accompanies one of the other forms of presentation.
