Chapter 1 Introducing Public Speaking Introducing Public Speaking

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 1730 s-1740 s 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-1990 s, 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 is vital in a democracy. – 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.