Mastering Public Speaking

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RHET 300: Mastering Public Speaking

David Elder • LC*107 • M-F 10:30-12:00Ofce Hours: MWF 9:30-10:30

Email: [email protected]

Course Description and

Outcomes

Rhet 300 provides students withthe opportunity to investigate and

practice various rhetorical strate-gies, research their own topics,organize and support their ideas/arguments, and present their

ideas/arguments in speeches.

Required Texts and Materials

• The Essential Guide to Rhetoric. William

Keith, Christian Lundberg.

• Public Speaking: The ACA Open Knowl-

edge Guide. http://textcommons.org/node/2

Course ObjectivesSpeaking:

Students will demonstrate improvement in their

speaking skills through extensive and varied speak-

ing assignments.

Students will show in oral projects hat they

can develop good theses and support them well,using language that is clear, concise and correct.

Technology:

Students will demonstrate competence in presenta-

tion software use.

Students will demonstrate an ability to use database

research.

General Knowledge

Students will gain an understanding of rhetoric and

its historyStudents will be able to put rhetorical concetps into

practice through speaking



Policy Pictoral

Policy on Laptops (and other electronic equipment):

Attendance

Mastering Public Speaking LC*109

General Policies Elder

M-F 10:30-12:00



Late and Missed Work

Freedom of Expression and Respect for the Opinions of Others:

Academic Honesty



Policy on Laptops (and other electronic equipment): Please bring your laptops to class every day unless

otherwise noted. We will write a lot in class, and who wants to waste paper? However, when the class is not

using laptops, please keep yours closed. It is disrespectful and disruptive to be checking email or surng the

web while other students are actively engaged in classroom activities. Also, remember to turn off cell phones

and other electronic equipment so you can be fully prepared to participate in class.

Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. In order for you to succeed in this course (and the rest of your college

classes), you will need to actively participate in the reading, writing, and analytical activities. The skills you

acquire in this class will build on one another and enable you to excel in other courses as well. I expect that youcome to class well-prepared.

Late and Missed Work : Meeting deadlines is an important part of success in college and beyond. If you sus-

pect you can’t make a deadline, please talk to me before the project is due. If you do submit a formal essay or

semi-formal essay after the due date, points will be deducted from the overall grade (usually enough to lower

the grade signicantly).

Informal writing, quizzes, and exams occur during class and can not be made up. If you have an

excused reason to miss a quiz, however, you have two opportunities to replace the quiz by attending a

Campus Event Series (CES) program and writing a one-page response.

All Semi-formal Essays, Formal Essays, as well as the Midterm and Final exams must be completed

if the student is to pass the course. Taking exams early is not allowed.

Freedom of Expression and Respect for the Opinions of Others: This class should be a place where all

students feel comfortable asking questions and participating in the discussion. Dissenting views presented in

a reasonable manner are welcome and encouraged; the class should be a place where we can agree to disagree

while still respecting the rights and feelings of others. Should any disrespectful conversations take place, those

involved will be addressed privately.

Academic Honesty: Our Academic Honesty Policy can be found in the College Catalog and the Student

Handbook (print versions or on-line). Each student should read this policy; it denes the expectations of the

faculty related to honest academic work as well as the consequences that occur when a student engages in

plagiarism and/or other forms of academic dishonesty.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism involves presenting someone else’s written work or unique ideas as if they were your

own. Plagiarism is illegal penalties for it can range from failure of the assignment to failure of the course. If

you have questions about what might be considered plagiarism or how to avoid it, please ask your instructor.

Assignment Formats: All written material must be produced in Microsoft Word and handed in according to

the requirements of the assignment. All semi-formal and formal essays will be turned via Moodle and will go

through Turnitin.com, which is a site that helps review for plagiarism. If an essay is NOT received in this way, i

will NOT receive a grade. When you submit your papers, you will be required to do the following:1. Name the le – it should have this general format:

Yourlastname.assignment.passport10.date

(i.e. Anderson.essay1nal.passport10.10Oct2009)

2. Submit the paper through the designated assignment option on Moodle.

3. You will not need to email a separate copy to me.

Accommodation: If you have an identied disability that may adversely affect your performance in this class

you should schedule a meeting with me or with someone in the achievement center as soon as possible to

discuss accommodations that may be necessary to provide you with an equal opportunity for success in this

class.



Mastering Public Speaking LC*107

Assignments Elder

M-F 10:30-12:00

Formal Speeches

Speeces 1 and 2

For these speeches, we will focus on Invention, the rst canon of rhetoric, and arrangement, the second canon

of rhetoric. Thus the topics you choose to speak about will be up to you. Choose two different genres in the

informative speaking section of the ACA Open Guide to Public Speaking. You should choose the genres based

on what might help you most in your intended career, not which seems easiest. The speeches will be short (2

minutes and 3 minutes, respectively). However, just because they are short does not mean you should take them

less seriously, and with a focus on arrangement, they should be well organized. Combined, they account for

10% of your grade.

Required elements (same for all speeches):

Formal outlineThe speech itself

Audience feedback

2-page mini-research paper about how one of the speaking styles will help you in your intended profession

(separate assignment, worth 5 % of your grade)

Speech 3

This speech will focus on the 3rd canon of rhetoric, style. For this speech, you will choose an argumentative

speech genre and incorporate at least three elements of rhetorical style as outlined by Chapter 6 in The Essential

Guide to Rhetoric. Because the speech is argumentative, you will need to have a good ethos, and one thing that

helps create a good ethos is good research. You will need to incorporate at least three sources into your speech.

You will then write a 2-page paper analyzing your use of these stylistic elements and how they helped you ac-

complish your argument in your speech. 5 minutes.

Speech 4

This speech will focus on memory, the fourth canon of rhetoric. As such, you will be required to memorize a

5-minute speech. To ease your workload, you will not write the speech. Instead, you will choose a speech from

the American Rhetoric Top 100 speeches database and memorize 5 minutes. Please choose a speech that has

both audio and a written transcript as these will help you with memorization.

Speech 5

This speech asks you to combine all the elements of rhetoric we have studied this semester and combine them

into the fth canon of rhetoric, delivery. There are many elements of delivery, especially in a digital age. This

speech will be longer (8 minutes), require more research (at least ve sources), incorporate a visual aid, and be

mostly memorized. This, too, will be an argumentative speech, and we will discuss genre of argument in class.

Accompanying this speech will be a 6-8 page research paper on the same topic. The paper will help you orga-

nize your thoughts and incorporate the research before you start speaking on the subject and it will be worth

15% of your grade. In addition to the previous required elements for this speech/paper, you will be required to

evaluate peers’ papers.



Grading: All elements described below are considered requirements to pass this course. The focus of the

course is to urge you to become a condent speaker. And, of course, at some point a grade must be assigned

for the work completed. Therefore, the following point system will be used for this section of RHET 300 (with

descriptions of the assignments to follow):

Formal Speeches 450 points (5 formal speeches, 2 @ 50pts, 2 @ 100pts, 1

@150 pts)

Quizzes 100 points (5 @ 20 pts)

Informal Speeches 100 points (10 @ 10 pts)

Papers 250 points

Participation 100 points

TOTAL 1000 points

Documents

Mastering Public Speaking