Chapter 1

Introducing Public Speaking

Introducing Public Speaking: Introduction • Effective public speaking can inspire, persuade, educate, and entertain.

• Because of this, public speaking is a required course at many colleges.

• Despite this, many employers report a lack of public speaking skills among job candidates.

• You

can

learn to overcome speech anxiety and master public speaking just like you can learn to read, ride a bicycle, or use the Internet.

Introducing Public Speaking: Introduction

Introducing Public Speaking: An Overview • This introduction to public speaking reviews: – What is public speaking? What distinguishes it from other types of speech?

– Why study public speaking?

– Public speaking: a great tradition – Public speaking: a dynamic discipline

What Is Public Speaking?

• Public speaking features communication between a speaker and an audience.

– The speaker does most of the talking.

– The audience listens and gives feedback.

What Is Public Speaking?

• Public speaking is audience centered.

• Good speakers: – Consider audience's interests and needs – Adapt to the occasion

What Is Public Speaking?

• Public speaking emphasizes the spoken word. – Visual aids should supplement the speech.

– Good speakers spend their time speaking to their audience.

– Good speakers heighten their words with other forms of communication.

What Is Public Speaking?

• Public speaking is usually a prepared presentation.

– The best speakers spend significant time preparing.

– Even impromptu speeches typically piece together a string of relevant ideas.

Why Study Public Speaking?

• Studying public speaking can help you deliver effective presentations in the classroom, on the job, and in your community.

Why Study Public Speaking?

• Using public speaking as a student – Many courses require speeches.

– Strong speeches make a better impression on the professor and the class.

– Extracurricular groups often have a public speaking component.

Why Study Public Speaking?

• Using public speaking in your career – Employers cite communication skills as the most important quality for a job candidate.

– Workers report that communication is important in their jobs.

Why Study Public Speaking?

• Using public speaking in your community – Membership in community organizations may require speaking.

– Community leadership will require speaking.

– Other special occasions may require speaking.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • There is a great tradition of the study of speaking in antiquity.

• In fifth-century B.C.E. Greece, speaking at assembly gave rise to the first formal studies of rhetoric, the craft of public speaking.

– Aristotle formalized the analysis of rhetoric.

– His work influences the study of public speaking today.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • In first-century B.C.E. Rome, vigorous debate took place in the Senate.

– Cicero was a senator and famous orator who wrote prolifically on rhetoric.

– Quintilian emphasized the notion of the ethical orator —the good person speaking well.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • Historically, public speaking has been important across the globe.

– From the fifth through third centuries B.C.E., traveling scholars debated philosophies throughout ancient China.

– Traveling storytellers and Islamic scholars spoke throughout Africa in the fifteenth century.

– Many Native Americans prized oratory over bravery in battle.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • The tradition of public speaking flourished in colonial American history.

– The Great Awakening of the 1730s-1740s was an oratorical religious revival.

– George Whitefield spoke in fields because churches weren't big enough.

– Jonathan Edwards made worshippers shriek in fright with “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • There were many key speaking opportunities in revolutionary America.

– The Boston Tea Party is a well-known instance of colonists speaking out in protest of taxation.

– Numerous political debates arose around the framing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

– The Lincoln-Douglas debates before the Civil War drew massive crowds.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • The antislavery movement was one of great oratory.

– Frederick Douglass moved audiences with accounts of life under slavery.

– Women joined the abolitionist movement and spoke out publicly.

– Abolitionist Angelina Grimké won adherents with her tales of slave abuse in South Carolina.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • The women's suffrage movement emerged at the same time.

– Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and others led the movement.

– They used oratory to persuade Americans that women deserved the vote.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • Public address flourished in the twentieth century.

– After World War I President Wilson traveled through the U.S. to promote his League of Nations idea.

– In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. brought 250,000 to the Capitol with his march on Washington and his “I have a dream” speech.

– In the mid-1990s, activists participated in the Million Man and Million Woman marches.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition • Today, it may seem as if speaking is less important.

– We are more likely to communicate now by cell phone or text message than to listen to a speech.

– Yet public speaking remains a potent leadership tool.

– Presidents still speak directly to the people in various ways.

Public Speaking: A Great Tradition

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • From linear to transactional: Evolving views of the public speaking process – The linear model emphasized a

source encoding

a

message

through a

channel

impeded by

noise

to a

decoding receiver

.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • From linear to transactional: Evolving views of the public speaking process – Recent models stress the idea of

transaction

: both parties are in communication, sending and receiving messages and

feedback

, and creating

shared meaning

.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • Awareness of audiences’ cultural diversity • The United States is culturally diverse.

–

Culture

is the traditions, values, and rules for living that people pass from generation to generation.

– Increasingly, Americans come from other countries, bringing cultural diversity.

– Speakers must consider these differences.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • Awareness of audiences’ cultural diversity • Because of cultural diversity, it is unlikely people you interact with share the same

worldviews

and values.

– We must adapt the way we use humor.

– We must adjust our understandings of how audiences express feedback.

– The recent immigration debates illustrate the complexity of this issue.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • Emphasis on

critical thinking

– You should feel confident that all the ideas you present to an audience are reasonable.

– You should always evaluate the truth claims you make.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • – A focus on free and ethical communication

Freedom of expression

democracy.

is vital in a – Speakers have a responsibility to express ideas

ethically

.

– Unethical communication seems to have increased in the United States.

Public Speaking: A Dynamic Discipline • A focus on free and ethical communication – It is thus even more important that we treat our audiences ethically. – The persuasive power of public speaking comes with responsibilities.

– Always tell the truth.

– Provide balanced, accurate information.

– Avoid manipulative reasoning.

– Supply proper support for your argument.