[Course Summary] Public Speaking - Introduction & Unit 1

Introduction

Three specific things in public speaking:

1. Preparing
2. Delivering
3. Evaluating

UNIT 1 SUMMARY

A.PREPARING PRESENTATIONS 

Below is a list of key concepts covered in this unit and organized by the steps in the public speaking flowchart.

1. Accept the Speaking Assignment
• Who are you speaking to?
• What is the occasion?
• What are you speaking about?
2. Analyze the Audience
• Demographically: age, gender, sexual orientation, racial, ethnic, or cultural background, religion, group membership
• Psychologically: beliefs, attitudes, values
• Get Information About the Audience
1. Interviewing
2. Questionnaires
3. Analyze the Occasion
What type of context will you be presenting in? 
• Informal
• Formal
Find out the size of the audience, the physical setting of the presentation (the time of the day you're giving speech; morning, after lunch, after dinner?), inspect you room (think about how you're going to present yourself to the audience based on the layout of that room).
4. Establish the Objectives
Three objectives of Public Speaking are to Inform, Persuade, Entertain. Types of Informative Speeches:
1. Speeches about objects: anything that is visible, tangible, or stable in form. So they may have moving parts or even be alive
2. Speeches about processes. There are two types:
• to make the audience understand a process
• to enable the audience to perform a process)
3. Speeches about events: anything that happens or is regarded as happening
4. Speeches about concepts: beliefs, theories, ideas, principles, and the like. They include most of your "isms."
Choosing the topic you will speak on
Start with your experience, what you value? Always approach it from the angle of a general purpose, to inform, to persuade, to entertain. Then go to specific purpose which deals with the specific topic. And then finally give a preview which previews those main points of your presentation.


General Purpose ➠ Specific Purpose (topic) ➠ Preview the main points

5. Analyze Your Knowledge of the Subject
• Use information already available to you
• Research: factual information that comes in the forms of examples anecdotes or illustrations that you will use in the speech (the sources can be from the mass media, interviews, library research)
• Gather supporting materials (definitions, statistics, testimony, quotes)
6. Synthesize the Speech
• Organize Information
Every speech has those three things-- an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Start with body. Ways to build body:
1. chronological patterns/time patterns
2. spatial order
3. problem-solution order (for persuasive speech)
4. problem-cause order (causes and effects, also for persuasive speech)
5. topical order: how many topic you would like to present (have minimun two, don't have more than four)


PRINCIPLES OF OUTLINING
* The following is modified from:  Carlile, Clark S. and Daniel, Arlie V. (1987).  Project Text for Public Speaking (5th ed.). New York, NY:  Harper & Row, Publishers.

In formulating your outline, you will need to follow the three principles of outlining, which are subordination, division, and parallelism.


1. The Principle of Subordination
The first principle of outlining is one of isolating main points and subordinate points and organizing the ideas in the speech to represent that intention.  For example, suppose that your thesis is to give you a glimpse of India’s diversity by looking two aspects of the culture.  Your main points in the body of the speech would then become these two aspects of the culture.  Your subordinate points would be those ideas and concepts that support your main points.
Subordination indicates that something is less than or is dependent on something else.  In an outline, subordinate points are elements of the main points.  These minor points, as they are sometimes called, should equal the major point if they are all put together.

2. The Principle of Division
The second principle of outlining is dividing topics into subordinate areas.  Whenever anything is divided, it is segmented into a minimum of two parts.  In an outline, when a topic is divided, you must also have a minimum of two parts, thus the reason for the rule that “every 1 must have a 2 and every A must have a B.” According to the principle, then, all items in the outline are either undivided or are divided into two or more parts.  For example, in the speech on India’s diversity, the topic was divided into two main ideas.  The main ideas each could be further divided into subordinate points that support each of the main points.

3. The Principle of Parallelism
The third principle of outlining is the principle of parallelism.  This principle states that all main points in the outline are approximately equal; that all subpoints of a main point are approximately equal; and that the construction of the outline demonstrates their equality.  Outlines can be written in two basic styles, as you will see in the next section.  The principle of parallelism states that all items in the outline that are approximately equal be shown as equals.  Thus, all main points are equal and all subpoints are equal.  These are shown by the same grammatical structure on the outline.  If the outline is a key word outline, for example, then the main points could be represented by words or phrases of the same magnitude (a noun-verb construction, for example; or all nouns).


Monroe's Motivated Sequence (for persuasive speeches)


1. Getting the attention of audience members
2. Establishing a need for something. The need is generally synonymous with identifying a problem, but there is a need to address an issue that is very dear to us
3. Satisfaction step. Now that you have gotten the attention, you have established a need, how long you provide a solution, or satisfaction, for addressing that particular need
4. Visualization step. Now what the visualization step consists of is that I have given you a solution to addressing the need that I have introduced in this speech. I want you now to visualize the positive outcomes if you accept my particular recommendation. Or, on the opposite side of that, visualize the negative outcomes if you choose not to accept my particular recommendations.
5. Moving the audience to action. And what that consists of, it's not enough that I simply give you a solution and I say visualize the results, positive or negative, but then, finally, you want us to move to action.

• Prepare Introduction
1. capture the attention of audience members : simply glance at your notes, take a few deep breaths, and when you are ready to begin simply look up, and begin.
• one way to capture the attention of the audience is simply to share a poem, to share a quote, something that's extremely important to you. That's an effective way to capture the attention.
• You could also consider asking rhetorical questions. Questions that you will present when you don't want an answer from the audience, but you simply want them to think. What do you want out of life? Where do you see yourselves one year from now?
• tell a humorous anecdote. Now, a few tips about humor. Number one, make sure that the humor is appropriate for the occasion. And then I would say number two, do not become alarmed if you tell a humorous anecdote and you don't find audience members falling out of their chairs laughing.
• a startling statement. Now a startling statement is something that sort of jolts us, but it is not something that is so startling that we can not connect with you in the presentation. So think of something that really captures our attention in a startling way
2. reveal the topic.
3. establish your credibility and good will.
4. preview the main points of your presentation.  Preview in the same order that the main points will appear in the body, and make sure that you preview using consistent wording in the body that you would use in the preview
• Prepare Conclusion. Summarize in the same order with consistency and wording. Close your presentation with a solid closing (startling statement, humor, quotations). Now, if it is an informative speech, you will always summarize, because clarity will come from you're summarizing once again those main points. If it is a persuasive speech, then you may issue a challenge or an appeal to the audience. Your goal is to advocate and to move audience members to action. So keep these thoughts in mind when you prepare the introduction of the speech as well as when you conclude any presentation you give.