Chapter 1 Introducing Public Speaking. Introducing Public Speaking: Introduction Effective public speaking can inspire, persuade, educate, and entertain

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.


• Public speaking is audience centered.

• Good speakers:– Consider

audience's interests and needs

– Adapt to the occasion


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.



• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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 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.


• 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 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.



• A focus on free and ethical communication– Freedom of expression is vital in a

democracy.– Speakers have a responsibility to express

ideas ethically.– Unethical communication seems to have

increased in the United States.


• 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.

Documents

Chapter 1 Introducing Public Speaking. Introducing Public Speaking: Introduction Effective public speaking can inspire, persuade, educate, and entertain