1 Public Communication  Public communication as enlarged conversation (James Winans, 1938)  Preparation time  Turn-taking delay  Public speaking in everyday life: A means to three important goals  Personal satisfaction to give voice  Being effective citizens  Linking to professional success ( Stanford study)

2 Types of Public Speeches  Speaking to entertain  To engage, interest, amuse listeners  May include information about occasion  Humor and offense  Narrative speaking  Speaking to inform  To increase listeners’ understanding, awareness  May take form of demonstration  Speaking to persuade  To change attitudes, beliefs, behaviors

3 Features of Public Speaking  Greater responsibility to plan and prepare  Evidence  Reasoning  Structure of ideas  Delivery practice  Less interaction  Speaker dominates  Listeners still participate “actively”

4 Preparing and Presenting  Effective public speaking is a process, not an isolated event. The process begins with understanding of credibility and ways to earn it.  Earning credibility  Listener believing in a speaker and trust what is said  Based on listeners perceptions of speaker’s position, authority, knowledge, dynamisms, and trustworthiness  Initial credibility: Titles, experience  Derived credibility: During presentation  Terminal credibility: Cumulative combination of two above

5 Preparing and Presenting 1. Planning Public Speeches 2. Researching and Supporting Public Speeches 3. Organizing Speeches 4. Developing Effective Delivery

6 Planning Public Speeches  Selecting a topic  Topic that you care about  Appropriate to listeners  Appropriate to situation  Limited in scope  Defining the purpose  General and specific purpose  Developing the thesis  Clear thesis statement – “I want listeners to buckle up.”

7 Researching and Supporting Public Speeches  Evidence  To make ideas more clear, more compelling  To fortify speakers opinions (more persuasive)  To heighten speaker’s credibility  Effectiveness depends on whether listeners accept.  Five forms of evidence:  Statistics, Examples, Comparisons, Quotations, Visual aids

8 Researching and Supporting Public Speeches  Checking on evidence  Statistics still valid?  Quoted person’s personal interest (biased?)  Quoted person an expert?  Example representative?  Comparison fair?  Visual aids clear?

9 Organizing Speeches  Effectiveness can be increased:  Structure - Ideas coming in some order  Organized speech more persuasive than disorganized one  Organization reflects preparation and enhances credibility.  Organization:  The introduction  The body  Conclusion  Transitions

10 Organization of Speech  The introduction  To gain attention, state the thesis, preview the claims  The body of the speech  To organize content into related points  Temporal (Time) pattern  Spatial pattern  Topical pattern  Comparative pattern  Problem-solution pattern  Cause-effect; effect-cause pattern  Motivated sequence pattern: Order of human thought

11 Organization of Speech  Motivated sequence pattern: 5 sequential steps  Attention step  Need step  Satisfaction step  Visualization step  Action step

12 Organization of Speech  Conclusion  A good speech ends on a strong note.  Summarizing main ideas  Leaving a memorable final ideas  Transitions  Moving from one idea to another  Words, phrases

13 Developing Effective Delivery  Speaker’s credibility  Oral style is more personal than written: I vs. The speaker  Eye contact  Immediacy; short sentences rather than long ones  Rhetorical questions, interjections, redundancy

14 Four Styles of Delivery  Impromptu delivery  Little or no preparation; not for novice speaker  Extemporaneous delivery  Substantial preparation; relying on notes not exact words; politician, attorney  Manuscript delivery  Presenting written manuscript; precision  Memorized delivery  Presenting memorized text; risk of canned delivery lacking dynamism; forgetting

15 Challenges in Public Speaking  Understanding and controlling anxiety  Causes of communication apprehension  Reducing communication apprehension  Adapting to audiences  Learning about listeners  Tailoring speeches to listeners  Listening critically to speakers  Four checking questions (p. 298)

16 Understanding Anxiety  Causes of apprehension  Unfamiliar with people (audience)  Uncertain situations  Being in the spotlight  Being evaluated  Past failure  Chronic; Learned apprehension

17 Reducing Anxiety  Methods of reducing apprehension  Systematic desensitization  Relax and reduce psychological features  Cognitive restructuring  Identify and challenge negative self-statement  Positive visualization  Enact positive mental pictures in speaking situation  Skills training