The Speaker's Primer [3 ed.] 168036877X, 9781680368772

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PREFACE Language and the ability to communicate are things that make human beings unique. Our ability to connect with others and share our thoughts, ideas, interests, and specialties makes our lives richer and more special. That is why communication skills and the ability to speak publicly and deliver presentations are often key requirements in undergraduate education programs across the country. Learning how to communicate is an essential skill for any profession or vocation. We wrote this textbook with the goal of helping you, the reader, quickly learn the various components of effective oral communication. Most handbooks on public speaking claim to have the same mission, so what makes this book any different? The answer is simple: context. This book still addresses all the nuts and bolts of crafting and delivering different types of presentations, just like other handbooks, but it also takes those principles and offers guidance for how to speak in particular professional arenas. For example, throughout the book you will find informational boxes where we address the importance and application of particular public speaking principles within the areas of business, health care, education, politics, and the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our book tries to not just introduce communication to students whose major area of study is not communication, but show them why it is essential to their long-term success in those fields. That is why when we cover informative speaking, we discuss it in terms of how to deliver complicated information to an audience of nonexperts. This is surely something doctors, teachers, and engineers do on a daily basis. We discuss persuasion as advocacy for a position and detail how to try and use persuasive principles to ethically appeal to others. Marketing and sales professionals, as well as politicians, do this on a daily basis. Regardless of which field you choose to launch your career, you will need to know how to speak well, and this book aims to help you understand how to do this in specific contexts. Handbooks, however, are essentially quick guides, and so the chapters are designed to be short and to the point. You will not find many stories herejust tips. tricks, guidelines, and suggestions to help you become a successful speaker. To do this, you will notice the book has lots of tables, bullet points, and lists rather than extended narrative discussions. Key vocabulary is often highlighted to help you reference important terms and concepts. The book is

also structured so that each chapter relates to and builds upon the previous ones. In the beginning of the book, we address some basic concepts and issues, such as anxiety, ethics, culture, diversity, and civility in communication. We detail the important role listening plays in public speaking for both presenters and audience members. We then move on to preparation, where we discuss selecting a topic, audience analysis, and researching information. Once you gather information, it must be organized, and so we cover outlining and creating a strong speech structure through introductions, conclusions, and the body of the message next. We then address the different types of speeches you might be called upon to deliver (informative, persuasive, epideictic) while also addressing reasoning and how it relates to effective messages. We cover topics most connected to the actual speech itself, like delivery, presentation aids, language, and the importance of prior practice. Finally, we use up-to-date research to help explain group presentations and communication, as many people will eventually find themselves delivering talks in this format. New to the third edition of the book is a complete chapter on civility in communication. Additionally, we have updated examples, including a new speaking outline in the outlining chapter and additional examples of professions in which certain public speaking skills are particularly useful. We feel this book and our efforts fill a gap in the current textbook offerings for public speaking and oral communication. As schools move toward a more integrated general education curriculum, communication instruction has never been more important. We feel by creating a handbook that links basic principles of communication and public speaking to the varied disciplinary interests of our students, we will make communication courses appear more applicable to their educational experience. In short, students will see and read about why they should be in a public speaking course. We believe this book will help the future doctors, sales professionals, engineers, senators, teachers, industry professionals, and others in our classes become more ethical and more effective public speakers. Joseph M. Valenzano III Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post Stephen W. Braden

TE TS

1 UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC COMMUNICATION Communication Models Linear Model of Communication Interactive Model of Communication Transactional Model of Communication Conversation Versus Speech Public Speaking Myths Public Speaking Is a Talent, Not a Skill Speech Is Easy; We Do It All the Time There Is No "Right Way" to Deliver a Speech

2 SPEECH ANXIETY

1 2 2 5 6 7 9 9 10 10

Communication Apprehension

Physical Effects of Communication Apprehension Rise in Blood Pressure Shortness of Breath Galvanic Skin Tightening and Sweat Visibility of Communication Apprehension

16 16 16 17 17

Combating Communication Apprehension

Practice, Practice, and Practice Employ Relaxation Techniques Visualize Success Dialogue With the Audience Systematic Desensitization

3 SPEAKING AND ETHICS

19 20 23 23 24

Public Messages Cannot Be Taken Back

Ethical Responsibilities of Speakers The Ethics of Choosing a Topic The Ethics of Research The Ethics of Language and Delivery

29 29 30 33

Ethics as an Audience Member

Listening as an Audience Member Other Responsibilities for Audience Members

4 CIVILITY Defining Civility Politeness Good Manners Courtesy

38 40

43 44 44 45 46

Respect for Others Assertiveness Foundational Civil Behaviors Mutual Respect Listening Disagree Without Being Disagreeable Contemporary Contexts for Civility Civility in the Classroom and on Campus Civility in Interpersonal Relationships Civility in Business Civility and Social Media

46 47

48 48 48 49 50 50 51 52 52

5 SPEAKING IN YO =-U =-R ~ CA ~R-=-=E=-= E..R :. . :. _ _ _ _ _ _---=5=-=-5 Contextual Factors External Environment The Speaking Format General Audience Characteristics Speaking in Different Fields and Professions Politics and Speech Speaking for Educators Speaking in the STEM Fields Speaking in Business Settings Speaking in Health Care Settings

56 57 58

59 59 60 61 62

64 65

6CUITUREAN~D~D ~I~ V~ ER~S~Irr ~------~6~ 7 Understanding Culture Race and Ethnicity Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Age Physical and Cognitive Diversity Ideological Diversity Religious Diversity Socioeconomic Status Communication, Culture, Diversity, and Dialogue

7 TOPIC SELECTION General Purpose Statements Choosing Your Topic Narrowing the Topic Determining the Specific Purpose General Guidelines for Specific Purpose Statements

67 70 71

73 74

75 76 76

81 81 83

84 87 90

8 RESEARCH AND PREPARATION Information Literacy Characteristics of Information Literacy Types of Information Background Information Unique Information Evidentiary Information Places to Research Libraries The Internet Interviews Documenting Your Research Modern Language Association Style Guide (MLA) American Psychological Association Style Guide (APA) Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) Oral Citations

9 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

93 93 94 97 98 98 99 99 99 101 103 107 108 110 112 115

119

Before the Speech

119

Direct Observation Demographics Methods of Analysis During the Speech Direct Observation Polling the Audience

120 121 123 123 125

Other Ways of Gathering Audience Information Contact Persons Scientific Surveys Personallnterviews

126 126 126 128

10 SUPPORTING MATERIALS

131

Examples Statistics

132 133

Testimony Guidelines for Using Supporting Materials

137 138

11 CONTEXT AND THE SPEECH SITUATION

141

Basic Components of the Speaking Environment Physical Location Speaking Tools The Speaker Media

142 143 145 147 150

Room Size Versus Audience Size

152

12 OUTLINING Outlining Principles

157 157

Subordination Coordination Division

158 159 159

Preparation Outline

160

Example Preparation Outline Speaking Outline Other Forms of Speaking Materials Example Speaking Outline on a Note Card

13 INTRODUCTIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND CONNECTIVE STATEMENTS Structure of the Introduction Get the Audience's Attention

161 165 167 168

171 172 172

Clearly State the Relevance of Your Topic

174

Establish Your Credibility State Your Argument Preview Main Points Transition to the Body

175 175 176 177

Transitions Between Main Points Internal Summaries Signposts Internal Previews

178 178 179 179

Structure of the Conclusion

179

Signal the Conclusion Provide a Summary Memorable Closer

179 180 180

14 REASONING

183

Types of Reasoning Deductive Reasoning Inductive Reasoning

183 184 185

Forms of Reasoning

186

Reasoning by Cause Reasoning by Example Reasoning by Analogy Reasoning by Sign Reasoning Fallacies

186 186 187 188 189

Ad Hominem Ad Verecundiam

189 189

Sli ppery Slope

189

Non Sequitur Straw Man Hasty Generalization Either-Or False Cause Red Herring Begging the Question

190 190 191 191 192 192 192

15 INFORMATIVE SPEECHES 195 ~-------------------Types of Informative Speeches Speeches about Objects Speeches about Processes Speeches about Events Speeches about Concepts Organizational Patterns Chronological Cause-Effect Problem-Solution Spatial Topical Explaining Difficult Concepts Difficult to Understand Difficult to Picture Difficult to Believe Strategies to Help Your Audience Understand Use Repetition Give Rewards Show and Tell Build on What Your Audience Already Knows Use Humor Check for Understanding Goals and Strategies for Informative Speeches Tips for Informative Speeches about Objects Tips for Informative Speeches about Processes Tips for Informative Speeches about Events Tips for Informative Speeches about Concepts

196 196 197 198 198 199 200 200 201 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 207 207 207 208 208 209 209 209 210 210 211

~ 16~P~E~R~ S~ U~ AS~I~ VE~ SP~E~E~ C~ HE~S~------------------~ 213 The Persuasive Process Stage 1: Issue Awareness Stage 2: Comprehension Stage 3: Acceptance Stage 4: Integration

213 214 214 215 215

Types of Credibility Initial Credibility Derived Credibility Terminal Credibility Types of Persuasive Speeches Questions of Fact Questions of Value Questions of Policy Refutation Persuasive Speech Organizational Patterns Problem-Solution Problem-Cause-Solution Comparative Advantages Monroe's Motivated Sequence Adjusting to the Audience During the Speech Adapting to a Favorable Audience Adapting to a Neutral Audience Adapting to a Hostile Audience

216 216 217 217 218 218 219 219 220 220 220 221 222 222 224 224 224 225

17 COMMEMORATIVE SPEECHES

227

Types of Commemorative Speeches Eulogies Toasts Presenting an Award Receiving an Award Graduation Addresses Characteristics of Commemorative Speeches Language Differences Emotional Quality The Importance of Context Less Rigid Organization Guidelines for Commemorative Speeches Connect the Audience to the Event Use Descriptive Language Consider the Audience

227 228 228 229 230 230 231 231 232 232 232 233 234 234 235

18 PRESENTATION AIDS Traditional Aids Models Charts Graphs Objects Photographs

237 237 238 238 238 241 241

Technological Aids Video Audio Slideshow Presentations Embedding Video and Audio Color Schemes Animation Dos and Don'ts of Slideshow Usage Guidelines for Using Presentation Aids

19 LANGUAGE Language Characteristics Arbitrary Ambiguous Abstract Hierarchical Spoken Versus Written Language Structuring Language Repetition Alliteration Parallelism Antithesis Language Devices Similes Metaphors Narratives Guidelines for Using Language

20 DELIVERY Modes of Delivery Memorized Speeches Manuscript Speeches Impromptu Speeches Extemporaneous Speeches Components of Delivery Verbal Delivery Physical Delivery Functions of Physical Delivery Tips for Good Delivery

241 242 243 243 243 244 245 245 247

249 249 250 250 250 251 251 252 252 252 252 253 254 254 254 255 256

261 261 261 262 263 263 264 264 266 268 269

21 PRACTICE

273

Quality and Quantity Mirror, Mirror Friends and Family, Gather 'Round Lights, Camera, Practice! Stages of Practice Early Stages: Organization Middle Stages: Feedback Final Stages: Refining Your Speech Good Practice Sessions

273 273 274 274 275 275 275 276 277

22 GROUP PRESENTATIONS

279

Leadership Styles Coercive Leadership Style Authoritative Leadership Style Affiliative Leadership Style Democratic Leadership Style Pacesetting Leadership Style Coaching Leadership Style Being a Good Team Member Group Discussion and Q&A Sessions

279 281 281 282 283 284 284 284 285 285 285 286 289

APPENDIX: A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION

291

Group Presentation Formats Group Roles Task Roles Maintenance Roles

The Greeks and Romans Greeks Romans Contemporary Scholars Marie Hochmuth Nichols Kenneth Burke Others of Note

291 292 293 294 294 294 295

KEY TERMS

297

INDEX

307

CHAPTER

UNDERSTA DING PUBLIC COMMUNICATION Objectives 0 Understand how communication works 0 Differentiate between conversation and formal presentations 0 Dispel myths about public speaking The ability to use symbols, create meaning, and communicate ideas defines what it means to be human. To be sure, many different species communicate in their own way-dogs bark, snakes hiss, and some species of insects dancebut human beings are unique in our complex use of symbols to define ourselves and the world in which we live. Even more so, we influence people and move them to action through the creative and effective presentation of our ideas. Think about the different contexts in which we do this-contexts specific to the human world. When we think of public speaking, the first context that comes to mind is politics. Public speaking is certainly an integral part of any democracy, and it remains one of the more commonly understood venues in which people deliver remarks to audiences. Debates, campaign events, presidential addresses, and a myriad of other situations provide politicians with opportunities to speak to audiences. However, the political realm is not the only one in which public speaking skills are a necessity. In the private sector, where companies seek to convince consumers to purchase their goods or services, representatives are often called upon to deliver presentations designed to facilitate sales. Corporate executives also address their employees and investors periodically to inform them about the state of the company's finances and what the goals are for the coming quarter or year. In business, these modes of interaction involving speech have been

influenced greatly in recent years by the development of electronic media, such as Skype, Prezi, and even something as simple as conference calling. But the importance and utility of speech do not stop with politics and business-it even extends to our personal lives. At some point in all our lives, we will attend a wedding and a funeral. We may also go to an anniversary celebration, awards ceremony, or some other function where we hear, and perhaps even deliver, speeches. Each of these situations requires us to know how to properly develop and deliver remarks to a specific audience in much the same way that political and business contexts demand we do. Quite simply, the use of symbols through speech is a central part of what it means to be human. In this handbook, we will help you learn how to create and convey effective presentations so that you can maximize your ability to deliver information, change minds, and influence audiences. In this chapter, we provide a brief foundation of some important concepts related to understanding how the communication process works. This breakdown of the central components of communication is then followed by an explanation of how public speaking is different from casual conversation. Finally, we dispel some popular myths about public speaking so that you can move forward and learn how to deliver effective presentations.

COMMUNICATION MODELS We use theories to explain most, if not all, human behaviors. The field of communication has several models that illustrate how communication functions between people. It is essential to understand how these models work because they inform the choices we make in preparing and performing a speech. In this section, we will cover three different models, each of which is a valid way of explaining communication in different contexts. First, we discuss the most basic model of the communication process, the linear model of communication. Then we explain the interactive model of communication, which complicates the linear model by introducing a few new variables to linear model of communication theory that views communication as a one-way process in which a source conveys an encoded message through a channel to a receiver, who then decodes that message

the communication process. Finally, we delve into the transactional model of communication, which is a bit more involved than the interactive model.

Linear Model of Communication The first model developed to explain the communication process was the linear model of communication (Figure l.l), which is also known as the Shannon and Weaver model of communication or the action model of

communication. This model views communication as something that one person does to another. In this model, communication flows in one direction only, much like a river. The idea is very basic and, at its most complicated, contains seven elements.

source Figure 1.1 Linear model of communication

The first of these elements is the source, which in terms of public speaking is the speaker. The speaker is the person responsible for inventing the idea on which he or she intends to speak and crafting the message that conveys that idea to an audience. When the speaker converts the idea into words, he or she is encoding it. This encoding process is simply taking an abstract notion and giving it meaning through the application of symbols. The end result of the encoding process is a message, which is the content or idea the source initially wanted to provide to the audience. This message is then delivered through a channel, which in the case of public speaking is the voice. A person's voice is the channel through which a source's encoded message travels to an audience in a presentation. So far this sounds fairly simple, and you may be wondering how it could get confusing or how a person's message could be misinterpreted. Well, even in that simple initial stage of encoding and delivery through the channel,

the person responsi for inventing the ide on which he or she intends to speak an1 crafting that idea to audience

encoding taking an abstract notion and providin: meaning

message the content or idea that the source trie~ convey to the audie1

channel the medium througt which an encoded message is transmit from a source to a receiver

speakers can make poor word choices that do not accurately reflect the meaning they wish to convey. The speaker may also use words the audience does not understand when encoding the message. These are two small ways this seemingly easy process can get confusing. Problems, however, are not limited to the source in the linear model, so let's take a look at how the linear model explains what happens after the message travels through the channel to its destination. When a message is sent, it is also received, and the audience, also called the receiver, processes those symbols. The processing done by the receiver is called decoding, which essentially takes the symbols used to encode themessage and draws meaning from them. This is much like what some kids do with decoder rings in cereal boxes. To understand the message, you need the

receiver the person or audie that a message is being transmitted tc

decoding the process of draw meaning from the symbols that were used to encode a message

key to understand how it was encoded. In terms of public speaking, receivers need to understand the symbol system, or language, used by the speaker when sending the message. As before, this may seem easy, but all of us have been in a situation where,

as the receiver of a message, we did not exactly understand what was being said. Tilis can occur in a classroom during a lecture, in a debate between two political candidates, and even in a casual conversation with a friend. We may be speaking the same language, but when we have different definitions of words we process them differently than the speaker might intend, resulting in confusion. What leads to the interruption or inaccurate decoding of a message sometimes comes not from a person's listening ability but from some other force. noise anything that can change the message after the source encodes and sends it

The other force that can impede the delivery and proper decoding of a message is called noise, and noise is the final component of the linear model of communication. Noise refer s to anything that can change the message after the source encodes and sends it. There are a variety of different types of noise, some physical and some psychological, but all throw a wrench into the communication process. Table 1.1 shows the different types of noise speakers and audiences might encounter during a presentation. Table 1.1

TYPES OF NOISE PHYSICAL NOISE

PSYCHOLOGICAL NOISE

Other sounds

Preoccupation with other thoughts

Visual barriers

Emotional reaction to the topic

Poor volume and projection

Prejudice or ill will toward the speaker

Distractions in the room

Unwillingness to listen

Hunger, tiredness, and other bodily

Resistance to the message

limitations

The linear model seems to adequately explain a basic form of communication, but we all know that the process is more involved, because receivers are not simply sponges that absorb information provided by a source. So, although usable, this model provides an incomplete explanation of how communication functions between people. It was not long after the model was developed that it was rethought and extended to include a more active role for receivers. Next, we will go over the changes that were made in the more thorough interactive model of communication.

Interactive Model of Communication

interactive mod• communication

The interactive model of communication (Figure 1.2) expands our understanding of the communication process by taking into account that messages flow back and forth from the receiver. Whereas the linear model of communication views the communication process as complete when the receiver decodes the sender's message, the interactive model does not; here we will see the sender and receiver are both responsible for encoding and decoding messages.

communication theory that views communication as two-way process tl includes feedback the environment

The main way in which the interactive model is different from the linear feedback model is in the concept of feedback. Feedback occurs after the receiver the receiver's resp to a message that decodes the sender's message and is essentially the receiver's response to the sent to the sender message. This new message then flows linearly back to the sender, who becomes the receiver of the feedback to the original message.

CONTEXT

Figure 1.2 Interactive model of communication

When you say something to the receiver, the receiver processes your message and responds either verbally or nonverbally. You then receive that response, thus completing the communication process. The introduction of feedback creates a fuller picture of what happens when two or more people interact. A second aspect added in the interactive model of communication is that of environment environment. The environment provides a deeper understanding of con- the context in whic the communicatio1 text than noise did in the linear model. In fact, noise is part of the environ- process takes plac ment, but not the whole thing. The environment is the context, which includes a plethora of different things that both help and hinder the communication process. See Table 1.2 for a few aspects of the environment that both senders and receivers should consider when encoding and decoding messages.

Table 1.2

ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS Beliefs

Physical setting

Context

Relationships

History

Values

Participants

Although it provides a better picture of how communication works, even the interactive model is not perfect. One of the major missing components in this model is the idea that receivers and senders do not wait to provide feedback. Next, we will look at perhaps the richest explanation of the communication process, the transactional model.

Transactional Model of Communication Although more illustrative of how the mechanics of the communication process works, the interactive model of communication did not take into account transactional model of communication theory that views communication as a constant process in which all parties simultaneously play the roles of sender and receiver

one very important aspect ofhowwe communicate: the fact that both encoders and decoders send and receive messages simultaneously, and both parties use the same channel. The transactional model of communication (Figure 1.3) is a far more complete explanation of communication because it recognizes that communication is constant, and we play the roles of sender and receiver simultaneously in just about every interaction.

•A·N••·'mugn•

Channel

.....

_______ _

Figure 1.3 Transactional model of communication

This model is particularly useful when explaining the dynamic context of face-to-face communication, such as what occurs when we have a conversation or deliver a presentation to an audience. In both of these scenarios, the sender is also reacting in real time to how the audience is receiving the

message. If the sender notices confused looks, perhaps he or she then asks a question to find out what needs to be clarified. This change in remarks is a direct result of feedback from the audience. The transactional model of communication helps us understand that things never go as planned, and so we constantly adapt to feedback. This dynamic model, which explains how communication functions most accurately, reflects public speaking as a process. Now that we have a model for appreciating the complexity of the speech process, let's get a picture of how not all speech is the same by differentiating speech from casual conversation.

CONVERSATION VERSUS SPEECH All speaking situations, and thus all forms of speech, are not equal, although there are similarities among contexts. Informal conversations and speech have several such overlaps but also some significant differences. When we understand some of these similarities and differences it can place public speaking in a new, less threatening light (see Table 1.3). Table 1.3

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN CONVERSATION AND SPEECH SlMILARITIES

DI FFERENCES

Audience -centered

Language choices

Attention to feedback

Speeches require more organization

Goal-driven

Use of notes

Logic is required

No interruptions

Stories for effect

Delivery style Physical arrangement

We all know how to talk to each other, and rarely does a day go by when we don't have a casual conversation with someone. Certain aspects of those interactions also color public speaking situations. First, both conversations and speeches are audience-centered. By this we mean that we pay attention to the audience when making choices regarding our speech. In conversations as well as speeches there are certain topics we address only with particular people or groups. We also pay attention to the feedback we receive from the receivers in both situations so we know how to respond. Both conversation and speech are activities centered upon the audience.

A third quality shared by conversation and speech is that both are goaldriven activities. We seek to accomplish something, whether it is conveying information or changing the audience's mind, whenever we have a casual conversation with someone or deliver more formal remarks. These goals differ with each event and interaction, but there is always something we want to achieve. A fourth area of overlap related to the achievement of goals is that, in both conversation and public speaking, we need to organize our thoughts logically in order for the receiver to understand what we are saying. Finally, in both situations, we want to tell stories to our audiences for maximum effect. In short, conversation and public speaking both seek the same outcome in an organized way that does not bore people. However, there are differences between the two communication practices. One significant difference between the two relates to the language choices we make. Conversations tend to be colloquial and relaxed, while public speaking requires more formal language. For instance, in public speaking contexts speakers should not swear or use slang terms, but in conversations these things may very well happen. There are a few other notable differences between public speaking and conversation. One of those pertains to the structure of the remarks. Although both conversations and speeches present information in a logical manner, speeches are more clearly organized and less prone to tangents than conversations, and note cards or outlines are often employed to help speakers stay on track. Additionally, whereas we all know people who interrupt a conversation, such interruptions are not the norm during formal presentations. A final area of difference can be seen in delivery. Conversations often occur in very small, intimate settings that do not require people to raise their voices; however, when giving a speech you must make sure everyone in the audience can hear you. Physical delivery is also different in that when giving a speech we should avoid distracting mannerisms and verbal pauses, while these things often feature prominently in conversations. During a conversation, people are usually sitting or standing together so that every person can see the others' faces, but during a speech, the speaker usually stands at the front of the room facing a seated audience that is looking only at the speaker. Now that we understand how communication works, and how public speaking is not all that different from conversation, let's cover some common misconceptions regarding public speaking that many people hold.

PUBLIC SPEAKING MYTHS It is no secret that people communicate with varying degrees of skill. Some

people are adept at interpersonal conversation, while some are more comfortable communicating in groups. When it comes to public speaking and formal presentations, some people naturally feel more comfortable, and even enjoy the experience, while others fear it more than they do death. While most people will feel a little bit of anxiety when asked to give a speech, with training and practice, anyone can deliver a competent speech. However, there are some myths that sometimes stand in the way of building speaking skills. In this section, we will cover those myths that keep people from developing their public speaking skills-and as the first myth indicates, public speaking is a skill, not a talent.

Public Speaking Is a Talent, Not a Skill Good speakers are made, not born, and they are made through hours of practice and preparation. Like any skill or complicated task, public speaking takes time to develop because of the many components involved. Thankfully, many ways exist to hone this skill and become a competent public speaker. People can start improving their speaking skills by taking a public speaking course and reading and studying texts such as this one. These courses are available at colleges and universities around the country as well as more informally through organizations such as Toastmasters International. One course, though, is not a silver bullet and will simply provide you with the tools you need to improve. The real work comes when you practice with the tools provided to you. Another way to develop your speaking skills is by watching and listening to good speakers. Many people learn well through modeling, and there is no shortage of good speakers or speeches for you to read and watch. This exposure to good practices will help spark ideas and provide samples upon which you can reflect as you work to improve your own speaking skills. Finally, there is no substitute for preparation and experience. Taking as much time as necessary to develop your speech, practicing, and editing it will pay off. Additionally, the more speeches you deliver, the better you will be because you will become more comfortable with the context and more familiar with your own speech patterns. Don't shy away from chances to give presentations, but rather embrace them as opportunities to hone your skills.

WdijjilitW

Speech Is Easy; We Do It All the Time As we have shown, communicating is a natural human activity. As children,

we begin trying to speak very early in life, and because we have been speaking for so long we think it is easy to do. But just because we do it all the time doesn't mean we do it correctly or as well as we could. We are all guilty of having said something at an inappropriate moment or of not being prepared to answer a question or deliver remarks. Presentations are not something that can be prepared the night before and then flawlessly delivered. They are, in fact, the opposite. Choosing the right words to convey ideas to an audience takes thought, and thought takes time. It takes even more time to organize your thoughts into a coherent presentation, and so waiting until the last minute is simply not an option. Finally, we may be comfortable with speaking in conversation, but presentations to attentive audiences in a formal setting are an entirely different matter. This is why it takes time and practice to speak well. There is a big difference between speaking well and delivering a good, effective speech. Just because we have been doing something for a while does not mean that we do it well.

Wdfijillii

There Is No "Right Way" to Deliver a Speech Many people believe that there is no correct way to give a speech and that all ways of delivering a speech are equally acceptable and effective. If that were the case, we would not have great speeches or speakers, because we would all be equally good. There is a proper way to construct and deliver a speech, and to be a competent presenter you need to learn what is and is not effective. To say there are "right" ways to deliver a speech does not mean there is only one way to approach a speech topic. There are untold ways in which a topic could be covered by a speaker; however, the principles of organization, delivery, language, and style apply to how the treatment of that topic is conveyed. In this book, we will show you these guiding principles for effective speech and illustrate that the idea that all speeches are equally good is simply not correct.

Summary In this chapter we introduced you to some foundational ideas regarding communication and public speaking. We explained the three models of communication: linear. interactive. and transactional. We then showed how conversation and public speaking share certain simila1·ities and differences. Finally, we dispelled a few myths people hold about public speaking. This overview of foundational concepts related to public speaking will help provide a clearer understanding of how to develop effective public presentations.

Key Terms channel 3

linear model of communication 2

decoding 3 encoding 3

message 3 noise 4

environment 5

receiver 3

feedback 5 interactive model of communication 5

source 3 transactional model of communication 6

Activities

Consider the three models of communication. For each model, provide an example of a situation that best illustrates communication happening in a format that reflects that modeL Think about a recent conversation you had with another person. What types of noise distracted you and your partner during that conversation? How might you reduce or overcome some of those types of noise during your next conversation? How can you help reduce noise for your audience when you are giving a speech?

Re-examine the myths about public speaking on pages 9-10. Describe how these myths may have impacted you in the past when delivering a presentation.

CHAPTER

SPEECH ANXIETY Objectives 0 Define communication apprehension 0 Explain the physical effects of anxiety in speaking situations 0 Suggest ways to manage communication apprehension Many people have fears and anxieties about a variety of issues. Some people fear animals, others shiver at the thought of entering open spaces, some go rigid when they see spiders, and yet others are afraid of tight spaces. Fears are a part of being human, and either we must find a way to manage our fears, or they will manage us. In this chapter, we examine a common fear that grips people from all walks of life: the fear of delivering a speech. Most communication scholars label this anxiety communication apprehension. There has been a plethora of research and testing done in the communication discipline over the last forty years, and coping methods of varying degrees of success have been developed to help alleviate the anxiety produced by the mere prospect of public speaking. We have many anxieties, and some of these manifest as a phobia, or "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid." 1 Phobias are more than discomfort or anxiety; they are an intense activation of the base instinct to avoid a threat. For instance, those with arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, will run at the sight of a spider or leap onto a couch just to avoid contact with the small creature. Phobias are, in many instances, irrational responses to something that should not be perceived as a significant threat. There are a great many phobias. These phobias impact our lives, often in negative ways. They may prevent us from doing things we want to do, sometimes including advancing our own careers, because a fear makes us incapable of completing a task. In this respect, it is not hard to imagine how a fear of public speaking, or communication apprehension, can impede our ability to get a promotion, complete a sale, or excel in a classroom. In this chapter, we 1. Dictionary.com, s.v. "phobia," accessed January 31, 2012, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phobia; Corinne O'Keefe Osborn, "Common and Unique Fears Explained," Hea1thline, updated January 3, 2019, https://www.hea1thllne.com/bealthllist·of·phobias.

phobia a persistent, irrati01 fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads a compelling desire to avoid

will focus on apprehension in a public speaking situation. We will provide an overview of communication apprehension, go over the physical effects induced by this condition, and finally present some ways in which you can cope with anxiety in public speaking situations.

Ten Most Common Phobias 0

acrophobia: fear of heights

aerophobia: fear of flying

arachnophobia: fear of spiders

astraphobia: fear of thunder and lightning

autophobia: fear of being alone

claustrophobia: fear of confined or crowded spaces

hemophobia: fear of blood

hydrophobia: fear of water

ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

zoophobia: fear of animals

https://www.healthline.comlhealth/lisl-of-phobias

communication apprehension the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with another or others

COMMUNICATION APPREH ENSION Anxiety caused by the prospect of public speaking is often referred to as communication apprehension. Communication apprehension is defined as "the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with another or others.'' 2 This is a broader definition than simply calling it a "fear of public speaking" for two reasons. First, communication apprehension is not specific to public speaking; rather, it can manifest in a variety of different speaking contexts, including one-on-one interactions. Second, "fear" is an absolute term, whereas apprehension is best understood on a linear scale (see Figure 2.1): On one end, we are completely comfortable communicatingwith others, and on the other, we are always reluctant and fearful to communicate with others. Most people fall somewhere in the middle of the continuum and experience some communication apprehension in some communication contexts.

2. James C. McCroskey, "Oral Communication Apprehension: A Summa ry of Recent Theory and Research,"

Human Communication Research 4, no. I (September 1977): 78-96.

There have been numerous studies regarding communication apprehension and its effects on people. Those who experience higher degrees of communication apprehension are less satisfied with their ability to express themselves and are not as assertive in interactions with others. 3 One would think that, as a result of this, those with high communication apprehension would begin working on presentations in advance, but the opposite is actually typically true. People with high communication apprehension often procrastinate because they do not believe they will succeed. • This is an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a process in which your expectations about yourself, another person, or an entity eventually lead to you, the other person, or the entity behaving in ways that confirm your expectations. The self-fulfilling prophecy can be negative or positive. If you convince yourself that you will fail a calculus examination, then with that mindset, you likely will. However, convincing yourself that you will do well in an upcoming soccer game, although certainly not a guarantee, will enhance your chances of success. These preconceived notions have a powerful effect on people, and later we will suggest some ways to help ensure that you have a positive vision of delivering your speech. One important step in understanding your level of communication appre hension is identifying to what degree you are anxious about interacting with others. Professor James McCroskey developed a survey instrument

self-fulfilling prophecy a process in which your expectations about yourself, a no· person, or an entity eventually lead toy the other person, O! the entity be having ways that confirm y expectations

apprehensiv·

e• =

that helps individuals measure their level of communication apprehension in a variety of contexts. The PRCA-24, the latest version of this scale, can be very helpful in identifying your own degree of communication appre hension. You can get a copy of the PRCA-24 online and calculate your score at http:/ /www.jamescmccroskey.com/measures/prca24.htm. Another measure, the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety, measures the anxiety that you feel specifically during public speaking situations, and can be found online at http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/measures/prpsa.htm. Learning about yourself is just one step in managing communication appre hension; you must also understand what the fear physically does to you. Many people believe they know the answer to this, but what we are about to tell you may surprise you and help you find ways to overcome your fear.

3. JoeAyres and Brian L. Heuett, "The Relationship between Visual Im agery and Public Sp eakingAppreh en sion ," Communication Reports 10, no. 1 (1997): 87-94.

4. Ralph R. Behnke and Chris R. Sawyer, "Public Speaking Procrastin ation as a Correlate of Public Speaking Communication App reh ension and Self-Perceived Public Speaking Competence," Communication Research Reports 16, n o. I (1999): 4D-47.

comfortable Figure 2.1 Communication apprehension

PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION Anxieties begin in the brain with thoughts and perceptions about things around us that we believe threaten us. Once they emerge in our thoughts, anxieties then physically manifest themselves, and to some people this is more distressing than the mental duress. In fact, the physical dimensions of anxiety are what we naturally focus on when we feel fear or trepidation toward some external stimulus. Suppose you are batting in a fast-pitch softball game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning; the bases are loaded, and your team is down by three runs. You go to the batter's box, your stomach is churning, you are perspiring, and there are butterflies in your stomach. You are aware of all these physiological feelings, but how much do the fans in the stands actually see? The answer is that they see very little, and often none, of your anxiety-even the physical effects. The same principle is true of giving a speech to a live audience. You may have the same feelings as the batter, but the audience is likely to notice very few, if any, of the physical symptoms of your anxiety.

Rise in Blood Pressure To further illustrate the invisibility of anxiety, let's take a look at some of the common physical reactions that occur when we are anxious or stressed. One physical effect of anxiety is a rise in blood pressure. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can give you energy, nor is it anything an audience will notice and correctly attribute to fear on your part. Higher blood pressure in these situations sends signals to the brain that it needs to pay heightened attention to your surroundings. Blood pressure is also something that is internal, and thus not likely to be noticed by people around you, though it can cause your face to flush red.

Shortness of Breath In addition to higher blood pressure, some people also experience shortness of breath when they are anxious, and in speaking situations this can negatively affect the delivery of the speech. Speakers sometimes speak too quickly, fail to project their voice enough, or do not have enough vocal variation when they are experiencing shortness of breath.

Galvanic Skin Tightening and Sweat A third physical effect of stress and anxiety is called galvanic skin tightening. Your skin, like any organ, responds to stimuli and stress. Specifically, your skin tightens when you are anxious, nervous, or stressed. Obviously we do not even feel this happening, so it stands to reason that the audience cannot see it either. Interestingly enough, this particular response to anxiety is used as an indicator of deception on lie detector tests and is virtually impossible to fake. The tightening of the skin also causes a fourth symptom of anxiety, perspiration.

Visibility of Communication Apprehension Most of the time, your audience will not notice these four symptoms of anxiety, even if they feel really significant and seem like they must be obvious from your perspective as the speaker. Even if your audience can see some of these symptoms, however, they are likely to recognize that these are symptoms that most people (including your audience members) experience to some extent while giving a speech or might even attribute them to other causes, such as a warm or crowded room, a cold, allergies, or extra heat from the sun or spotlights. There is no doubt that stress and anxiety, particularly in public speaking settings, can elicit physical reactions from each of us, from heightened blood pressure to perspiration. There is also no doubt that audiences do not automatically correlate the physical responses to the anxiety we may be feelingthat is, unless we tell them the two are related! The more you focus on your physical responses, the more likely you are to experience even more anxiety. It is far better to just let the body do what it does and not focus on it. After all, if you pay attention to your physical response to anxiety, your audience will do so as well. So, we now know that everyone experiences communication apprehension to some degree or another and that our bodies react to the stress produced by anxiety in these situations in ways that are virtually invisible to the audience. Both of these facts should provide some comfort when you prepare a presentation, but there is more we can do to manage our anxiety than simply understanding the situation. In the final section of this chapter, we will go over a few things to assist you with managing both the mental and physical manifestations of anxiety.

Personal Report of Communication Apprehension This instrument is composed of 24 statements concerning feelings about communieating with others. Please indicate the degree to which each statement applies to you by marking whether you: Strongly Disagree = l; Disagree = 2; are Neutral = 3; Agree = 4; Strongly Agree = 5 I dislike participating in group discussions. Generally, I am comfortable while participating in group discussions. I am tense and nervous while participating in group discussions. I like to get involved in group discussions. Engaging in a group discussion with new people makes me tense and nervous. I am calm and relaxed while participating in group discussions. Generally, I am nervous when I have to participate in a meeting. Usually, I am comfortable when I have to participate in a meeting. I am very calm and relaxed when I am called upon to express an opinion at a meeting. __ 10. I am afraid to express myself at meetings. __ II. Communicating at meetings usually makes me uncomfortable. __ 12. I am very relaxed when answering questions at a meeting. __ l.

__ 2. __ 3. __ 4. __ 5. __ 6. __ 7. __ 8. __ 9.

__ 13. While participating in a conversation with a new acquaintance, I feel very nervous. __ 14. I have no fear of speaking up in conversations. __ 15. Ordinarily I am very tense and nervous in conversations. __ 16. Ordinarily I am very calm and relaxed in conversations. __ 17. While conversing with a new acquaintance, I feel very relaxed. __ 18. I'm afraid to speak up in conversations. __ 19. I have no fear of giving a speech. __ 20. __ 21. __ 22. __ 23. __ 24.

Certain parts of my body feel very tense and rigid while giving a speech. I feel relaxed while giving a speech. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I am giving a speech. I face the prospect of giving a speech with confidence. While giving a speech, I get so nervous I forget facts I really know.

Scoring: Group Discussion: 18- (scores for items 2, 4, & 6) +(scores for items 1,3, & 5) Meetings: 18- (scores for items 8, 9, & 12) +(scores for items 7, 10, & ll) Interpersonal: 18- (scores for items 14, 16, & 17) +(scores for items 13, 15, & 18) Public Speaking: 18- (scores for items 19, 21, & 23) +(scores for items 20, 22, & 24) Group Discussion Score:

Interpersonal Score:

Meetings Score:

Public Speaking Score:

To obtain your total score for the PRCA, simply add your sub-scores together. Scores can range from 24-120. Scores below 51 represent people who have very low CA. Scores between 51 and 80 represent people with average CA. Scores above 80 represent people who have high levels of trait CA. To see entire report, go to: http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/measures/prca24.htm.

COMBATING COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION Our bodies' reactions to stress may be outside our direct control, but there are several ways we can mitigate the potential damage that anxiety can cause. In this section we will provide several simple tips for preparing a presentation that will help reduce communication anxiety.

Practice, Practice, and Practice We mentioned earlier that people with high communication apprehension are more likely to procrastinate preparing a speech, despite the fact that they should be spending more time getting ready so they can overcome their fear. So it stands to reason that the first suggestion we have for coping with communication anxiety is to practice your presentation as much as possible for as long as you can. At first, practice giving the speech alone so that you become more comfortable with what you plan to say. Once you have a final version of your speech prepared and you have practiced it alone, add a mirror to the practice equation. Practicing in front of a mirror can increase your comfort and allow you to see what you look like when delivering the speech. Practicing in front of a mirror is not enough, though, as it does not accurately simulate the situation in which you will be presenting. So, after taking advantage of the mirror, add some actual people to create an audience. Make sure these are people you know and with whom you are comfortable, such as friends and family. Ask them for honest feedback, and make some adjustments. This practice regimen helps simulate the experience of delivering your remarks to an actual audience, but there is something else to try to simulate when practicing. We will cover practice regimens more extensively in Chapter 21. In addition to an audience, whenever possible you should try to have a few practice sessions in the environment within which you will be speaking. If it's a boardroom, then practice at a dining room or kitchen table; if it's a large conference room, see if you can get access to it in advance; if it's a classroom, try to go when there is not a class occupying the space. It is as important to become comfortable and to practice within the environment in which you will speak as it is to simulate the audience to whom you will speak. Practicing with both of these things in mind will help alleviate some apprehension about delivering your talk.

Communication Apprehension Sarah was not looking forward to taking a public speaking class. She remembered the time that she had to give a speech in her history class and was afraid she would have to relive that speech all over again. On that day, Sarah had been so anxious about giving her speech that she waited until the day before to prepare, didn't sleep at all, and did not even eat breakfast before she went to class. Throughout the morning she couldn't concentrate on anything except the fear of standing up in front of the class to speak. By the time Sarah got to her history class she was sweating, having trouble breathing, and worrying that she would forget everything. While she was speaking, Sarah kept tripping over her words, forgot several things she wanted to say, and could feel her face flushing as she struggled to get back on track. This time, Sarah decided to do things a little differently. As soon as her instructor handed out the first speech assignment, she began doing research and creating an outline, even though she knew she would not need to give her speech for a couple more weeks. She practiced her speech in a mirror several times and then asked several of her friends to listen and provide feedback as she practiced a few more times. Each time she practiced her speech, Sarah could feel her fear subsiding, and she became more and more confident. The night before her speech, Sarah felt ready to give her speech, so she went to bed early, and before she fell asleep she spent some time visualizing herself giving her speech successfully. The next morning, Sarah still felt a few butterflies in her stomach and could feel her palms sweating, but she tried to keep her focus on her speech and on her audience. Though she still made a few mistakes, Sarah could see her audience nodding in support, and when her speech was over she felt like she had done a great job and was even starting to look forward to the next speech assignment.

Employ Relaxation Techniques Practicing remarks in advance is the best suggestion we can offer, but oftentimes you will not be afforded much notice before giving a presentation, thus limiting the amount you can feasibly practice. Such short-term presentations only serve to heighten our apprehension about public speaking, so they require more immediate methods for reducing stress and tension. One such method is to learn to use relaxation techniques before presentations. This is very useful in situations in which you have little time to prepare and practice but can also be helpful when you have had time to practice. There are a variety of relaxation techniques that can help calm nerves, lower blood pressure, and help you focus before giving a talk. Some require a little

more time than others, but all are helpful in a pinch. Simply taking a few minutes to stretch your back, shoulders, and legs will help unleash some pent-up tension in your muscles and allow you to feel and look more comfortable in front of an audience. Remember, public speaking is a physical activity in much the same way jogging and weightlifting are, so it stands to reason that we should prepare for giving speeches in a way similar to how we prepare for workouts. For some people with high communication apprehension, it might also be beneficial to engage in more structured and consistent stretching exercises. In these instances, joining a yoga or pilates class might help train you in more varied methods of relaxation and stretching. It also might provide the opportunity for you to go to a class before or even after a presentation to help reduce tension and relax. A third relaxation technique is deep breathing, and of all the relaxation techniques we have discussed, this one takes the least amount of time . There is a lot to be said for closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths before beginning a presentation. This helps improve the flow of oxygen in your blood, reduces blood pressure, and focuses your thoughts. There are various forms of deep breathing exercises in which you can engage, and all are helpful in reducing anxiety before speaking situations.

Breathing Exercises 4-7-8 Breathing

This exercise also uses belly breathing to help you relax. You can do this exercise either sitting or lying down.

1 2

To start, put one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.

Hold your breath and silently count from one to seven.

4 5

Breathe out completely as you silently count from one to eight. Try to get all the air out of your lungs by the time you reach eight.

Take a deep, slow breath from your belly and silently count to four as you breathe in.

Repeat several times or until you feel calm.

Breath Counting Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight and head inclined slightly forward. Gently close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Then let the breath come naturally without trying to influence it. Ideally it will be quiet and slow, but depth and rhythm may vary.

To begin the exercise, count to one as you exhale.

The next time you exhale, count to two. Repeat until you're counting to five .

Then begin a new cycle, counting to one on the next exhalation.

Never count higher than five, and count only when you exhale. You will know your attention has wandered when you find yourself up to eight, twelve, or even nineteen. Try to do ten minutes of this form of meditation. Finally, it is imperative that when speaking you feel your best, and so you should always get a good night's sleep before your presentation and make sure you are not hungry. When it comes to sleep, you may feel the need to stay up late the night before a talk to practice as much as you can, but if this keeps you from being well rested the next day, the efforts will be counterproductive. In terms of food, be careful not to be hungry when you talk but also not to be so full that you want to take a nap. Before you speak, have a nutritious meal that includes a healthy balance of complex carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that will be digested slowly, and try to avoid simple carbohydrates and refined sugars that will give you a burst of energy followed by a crash as your blood sugar levels spike and then fall quickly. You should also avoid eating heavy meals that might make you drowsy (see Table 2.1). Table 2.1 '

WHAT SHOULD I EAT BEFORE I GIVE MY SPEECH? POOR CHOICE

MEAL

Breakfast

Lunch

BETTER CHOICE

Sugary cereal and white toast

Oatmeal with fruit, nuts, and a

with jam

glass of milk

Pancakes or waffles with maple

Scrambled eggs and whole

syrup

wheat toast

Fettuccini alfredo

Grilled chicken with steamed

Large burger and fries

vegetables and brown rice Turkey, Swiss, Lettuce, and tomato sandwich on whole grain bread

WHAT SHOULD I EAT BEFORE I GIVE MY SPEECH?

MEAL Snack

POOR CHOICE

BETTER CHOICE

Cookies or candy bar

Fruit and yogurt

Potato chips and energy drink

String cheese and whole wheat crackers

Visualize Success Those with high communication apprehension envision giving a speech as a torturous experience, and they see all the possible ways they can fail or make mistakes. Like the self-fulfilling prophecy, visualizing failure often leads to that result, thus perpetuating the cycle of communication apprehension. No amount of practice or relaxation techniques can change the way we envision the speaking experience, so this third way to reduce anxiety aims to combat the negative mental picture we might have of delivering a presentation. The best time to visualize success is following a practice session; however, it works just about any time you want to do it. After you have practiced your speech a few times and feel more comfortable with it, get in a relaxed position on your bed, the sofa, or a recliner. One thing that is required is for you to be alone, with no distraction. Visualization requires concentration, and so it is important that you do not listen to music, watch television, email, text, or use Facebook or Twitter when trying to do this. Close your eyes and see yourself giving the speech from beginning to end. Visualize your confidence, pride, and good delivery. Concentrate on visualizing what you have control over instead of focusing on audience reactions. Focusing on audience reactions might lead to a letdown if the visualized responses do not occur when you deliver the speech. Visualizing success can work, just like the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Dialogue With the Audience One of the scariest aspects of public speaking is that you are speaking to an audience of many people, all of whom are focused on you. One way to reduce the anxiety this situation creates is to change the way we understand the public speaking context. Instead of viewing it as a presentation to a large group, treat it like multiple simultaneous dialogues or conversations. That is to say, instead of presenting to a class of thirty, you are holding thirty conversations

at the same time. We all have conversations daily, and so this may help you reduce the anxiety that a group of people may induce. This dialogic approach can be extended as well if you want to create actual give-and-take with the audience. This can work, especially if the audience is small and well mannered. Before letting audience members join in the discussion, make sure you have a strong grasp of the makeup of your audience and their feelings toward you and the ideas you plan to advocate. One final word of caution regarding dialoguing with an audience: If someone asks a question to which you do not know the answer, be honest and tell the audience you do not know, but that you appreciate the question and will find out and get back to them if you can.

Systematic Desensitization Each of the suggestions we have made thus far pertains to specific speech situations, and although they are applicable every time you deliver a systematic desensitization the process whereby a person is slowly introduced to a fear such that each time he or she overcomes the fear the intensity is decreased

speech, in isolation they can have little impact on your overall apprehension toward public speaking. This is where the approach called systematic desensitization comes in. Systematic desensitization is the process by which a person is slowly introduced to a fear, and each time he or she overcomes the fear the intensity decreases. So, in the case of a fear of heights, a person might go to the second floor of a building until he or she is comfortable there, then the third, and so on. This gradually desensitizes a person to the cause of their anxiety. This approach can be applied to help overcome a fear of public speaking. First deliver a speech to one person until you are comfortable, then add a person you do not know, and soon you will be speaking to larger and larger groups. This slow immersion can only happen over a long period of time, but it is tremendously effective at assisting people in overcoming their fear. It can also be applied to practice sessions before a single speech to help speakers slowly get used to the audience they will soon encounter. Ultimately, managing our communication apprehension involves a combination of each of these strategies but also requires persistent, consistent, and dedicated practice.

Summary In th is chapter we defined speech anxiety, which is more broadly labeled communication apprehension. We then covered the physi cal effects of speech anxiety and explained that. although we might believe we know what causes it, the audience does not necessarily know. Finally. we provided several ways to help manage communication apprehension but emphasized that practice and repeated public speaking experiences were key to managing apprehension .

Key Terms communication apprehension 14

self-fulfilling prophecy 15

phobia 13

systematic desensitization 24

Activities

Think about the last presentation you gave. Which symptoms of communication apprehension did you experience? Public speaking anxiety is the type of communication apprehension experienced specifically while giving a speech. While still thinking about your last speech, go to http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/measures/ prpsa.htm and complete the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety. Calculate your score. Do you have high, moderate, or low public speaking anxiety?

Once you reflect on your speaking anxiety after completing the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety, consider ways that you can cope with any kind of speaking anxiety you might experience. Make a list of which ways of coping make the most sense for you and describe how you will employ those mechanisms as you prepare for your next speech.

CHAPTER.

SPEAKING AND ETHICS Objectives 0 Understand the importance of ethical speech 0 Recognize the ethical responsibilities of a speaker 0 Appreciate the ethical obligations of audience members Communication, and speech in particular, is a very powerful tool. It can be used to enhance the public good, or it can be wielded in a way that manipulates and harms people. Like any tool, the operators involved need to understand how to apply the device to achieve the maximum benefits from it. Instruction manuals are easy to identify for things like drills, Blu-ray Disc players, and even cars, but for good speech there is no such manual. Instead, good speakers follow good ethical principles, and those principles constitute the "instruction manual" for speech-making. In this chapter, we will broadly define ethics and discuss why speech must be governed by sound ethical principles. We will then lay out the basic ethical responsibilities of speakers and audiences, both of whom play a role in speech-making and meaning construction. Before we explain why ethics are important to the practice of speech, however, we must provide you with a ethics definition of ethics. Ethics involve morals and the specific moral choices to be made by a person. It is, for all intents and purposes, a way for people to make good, sound choices for themselves and their communities. Since we build communities through communication with others, ethical speech is at the core of a healthy community, and we must be careful about what we say and how we interact with others.

PUBLIC MESSAGES CANNOT BE TAKEN BACK Once we say something, we cannot take it back. In that way it is much like shooting a bullet from a gun, because you cannot "un-say" the words, just as you can't "un-fire" a gun. Think of an interpersonal situation in which

morals and the spec moral choices to be made by a person

a couple is dating and one partner is angry with the other. In a moment of frustration, one shouts out, "I hate you!" to the other person. The sender of that message may begin to regret the words and apologize, noting that anger and emotional pain caused the outburst. The offended party can accept the apology and forgive the person, but the words were said and an apology in this situation can't fully undo the damage. Words matter because they leave an indelible mark on a relationship. We all knowwords can inflict significant damage in an interpersonal relationship, but they can do even more damage in a public speaking setting. Even though public speaking may seem like a less intimate setting, saying something unethical or offensive can be more damaging than in an interpersonal setting. Whereas much of interpersonal communication is spontaneous, public speaking is more planned and formal, so the audience often attributes careful thought to the speaker in a public speaking setting. That is to say, they believe you say what you mean. Of course, in interpersonal settings, especially those with people who know you, such a slip can be explained away as just that-a "slip." In speeches, it is harder to say you "slipped" when you had time to prepare your comments. The damage done when we say something unethical or offensive is not just done to the listener. Yes, the audience may take offense, walk out, and suffer discomfort after hearing your comments, but you also are harmed when this happens. Your credibility as a speaker takes the brunt of this damage, and you may not be invited to speak again, depending upon what you said. Knowing that communication is irreversible, and thus permanent, as well as acknowledging the lasting impact our words have on ourselves and others is an important step toward becoming an ethical speaker. Our words also let the audience into our minds, allowing them to see how we see the world. Our word choices reflect our impressions of our environment and carry with them significant meaning for ourselves and others. The words we use reveal what we feel about everything from the audience to our political views and reflect our personal values and beliefs. In this way, our messages to audiences in public speaking settings impact how the audience sees us and will have an impact on the effectiveness of our messages. If the audience does not understand or agree with our worldview, it can increase the challenges we face in a public speaking setting. In today's mediated environment, this is especially crucial. Many people upload commentaries, speeches, presentations, and even casual blogs to

the internet via YouTube and other online websites. We may not think that what we say will hurt anyone, because there is no one in front of us when we videotape these comments and post them. The truth is that once we send our videos into the digital world, they can reach many people, even those we don't know. For that reason alone, it is especially crucial that we pay careful attention to our words and what we say; once we send them into cyberspace, they will never disappear and may go viral.

ETHICAL RESPONSI Bl LIT I ES OF SPEAKERS the originator of a message in a public speaking situation, the speaker is bound by several ethical responsibilities. These obligations begin at the start ofthe speech-makingprocess, then progress through the research stage, and

culminate with the delivery of the presentation itself. It is important to be attuned to the moral issues that arise throughout the development of your remarks, because doing so will help you keep the best interests of your audience in mind. In this section, we briefly cover the ethical responsibilities of speakers from the planning of a presentation, to researching the topic, all the way through the delivery of the speech.

The Ethics of Choosing a Topic In many instances, speakers know the broad topic on which they will present, but even in these instances it is important to maintain a focus on ethics when narrowing the topic. This means that speakers must choose topics and messages they firmly believe are in the best interests of their audience. Choosing self-serving messages or crafting topics in a way that is designed to manipulate an audience is a perversion of a speaker's responsibilities. As the creator of the message, you own what you say and so you should take care to keep others in mind when you decide what you will say. Remember, words cannot be taken back. When choosing or narrowing the topic of a presentation, we often find ourselves balancing various ethical responsibilities that sometimes compete with one another. Upon entering the workforce, we have a duty to ourselves to do the best we possibly can, a duty to our families to provide for them by keeping our jobs, a duty to the audience and the greater public to seek the common good, and a duty to our employers to achieve results. It is not hard to envision a situation in which these duties conflict and present us with anethical dilemma. When it comes to message construction and meaning-making

through speeches and statements, how do we maintain our ethical principles when the situation is not so clear? This is the hard work we must do before we even decide what to say to someone, but once we know what we will say and how we will balance our ethical obligations, our requirement to do what is right does not stop.

Personal Duties for Balancing Ethical Responsibilities When Choosing a Topic 0

A duty to ourselves to do the best we possibly can

A duty to our families to provide for them by keeping our jobs

A duty to the audience and the greater public to seek the common

good 0

A duty to our employers to achieve results

The Ethics of Research The ethical requirements of speech-making are not restricted to keeping the audience in mind when we choose a topic; they also come into play in research and speech development. In almost every instance in which you will be called upon to deliver a speech, you will need to incorporate some degree of evidence that you researched. In a business meeting, it could entail explaining sales figures; in a design presentation, it could be the history of the site upon which you plan to build; and in a class, it will most likely be scholarly research on a topic. In each instance, however, you must keep the interests of the audience in mind, properly evaluate the evidence you choose to cite, and properly attribute the sources of that information. Thanks to technology, we have vast amounts of information at our fingertips. This is both good and bad-good because we can easily conduct research from our desks, but potentially hazardous because the internet is rife with biased and fabricated information. For that reason, it is essential we know how to properly evaluate information we find before we decide to use it in a presentation or report. As researchers, we need to discern the true from the false and facts from opinions. Facts are bits of information that can be verified and substantiated. They can be qualitative, as in historical events or testimony, or quantitative, as in polling results and the outcomes of scientific experiments. Opinions, on the other hand, vary from person to person and from group to group and are not as reliable as facts because they are often biased. Identifying the differences between opinions and facts will help you

enhance your credibility. That credibility can be greatly diminished if the audience realizes you are citing a biased source. When evaluating a source, there are several questions you should ask yourself to help determine whether the source can be trusted.

Will this person benefit from getting me to believe that this information is true? A source who is being paid as a spokesperson for a company and who is trying to sell you something or trying to win your vote is biased. Sometimes biased sources are accurate, but they are often misleading, and as an ethical communicator, you have a responsibility to do additional research and find a more credible source.

Is this person an expert in this area or in a position to know this information? Individuals who have special training and experience related to the information they are sharing are more reliable sources than those who do not. For example, a cardiologist is a better source than an auto mechanic for information on how to keep your heart healthy, but an auto mechanic is a better source than your family doctor for learning how to change the oil in your car.

Are the claims made by this source substantiated by other credible sources? If you have a single source that makes a claim, but find ten other reliable sources that say the opposite is true, it is likely that the ten sources that agree are accurate. For example, if you find one source that says you can lose weight by eating three pizzas every day, but find many other sources that say you must limit your calories and exercise in order to lose weight, it is probably not true that eating large quantities of pizza will help you lose weight.

Is this source recent enough to be relevant? If you are speaking about a current topic, you should use the most recent sources you can find. For example, an article written twenty years ago is not a good source for learning about the most energy-efficient cars available today. However, if you are giving a speech about an important figure in the Civil War, a source that is twenty years old might be acceptable.

Biased sources and opinions are not the only pitfalls of which researchers

plagiarism

must be aware, and their use is not even the most grievous mistake a speaker taking the intellect can make. Plagiarism is perhaps the greatest offense a speaker can commit achievements of another person an1 because it takes advantage of both the audience and the actual source of the presenting them a~ information. When speakers plagiarize, they steal the intellectual achieve- one's own ments of another person and present them as their own, thus deceiving the

audience into believing the speakers were responsible for more than they actually were. Like many crimes, plagiarism comes in many forms, so let's take a moment and describe what these various forms look like. global plagiarism taking an entire piece of work and saying that it is your own

The first type of plagiarism is global plagiarism, which is taking an entire piece of work and saying it is your own. Suppose a roommate gave a speech in a class different from your class and you took that speech and put your name on it. That would be an example of global plagiarism. Many consider it the worst kind of academic dishonesty. In these cases, speakers do no original work, but act as ifthey did. They have robbed the source ofthe credit deserved

incremental plagiarism using part of someone else's work and not citing it as a source

for creating the speech and tricked the audience into believing they themselves are a reliable source of information. The second type of plagiarism is incremental plagiarism, which involves using part of someone else's work and not citing it as a source. An example of incremental plagiarism would be copying a few sentences from someone else's speech or paper and putting them directly into your speech without

patchwork plagiarism taking ideas from more than one piece of work and putting them together into a new piece of work, and then presenting them as original work without giving due credit to the sources

patchworking taking original source material and changing a few words in it, but not enough to consider it a paraphrase, all the while not citing the original source material

citing the source or using quotation marks. Despite the fact that in this case the work is not stolen in its entirety, it is clearly still an incident of dishonesty. This type of plagiarism is a bit more common than global plagiarism, but it is just as unethical because of the way it treats the source and the audience. The last type of plagiarism we will address is patchwork plagiarism. Patchwork plagiarism takes ideas from more than one piece of work and presents them as original work without giving due credit to the sources. This is perhaps the most common form of plagiarism, but just because more people do it does not make it right. It is deceitful and unethical in that it still robs others of the credit they deserve for work they conducted, and it falsely inflates the credibility ofthe speaker. Patchworking is a process that closely resembles patchwork plagiarism. When writers or researchers employ patchworking, they take original sentences or work from another source, changing a few words in it and not citing the source. The changes are minimal and do not really change the idea presented in the original source; without any attribution to the source material, this remains plagiarism. It is sometimes evidence of a poor attempt at paraphrasing, but may also be a deliberate attempt to deceive an audience. In both instances, however, it is an unethical practice and speakers and writers need to avoid it. AB we have mentioned when discussing each of these types of plagiarism, it is

important to cite sources in your written work. It is also essential that when

speaking we verbally attribute those sources, because failure to do so also constitutes plagiarism. Having the sources in your outline or manuscript is not enough; you must mention them to your audience as well. When delivering a speech, you must note where the work came from by mentioning the author or publication in which you found the information. Ideally, your verbal citation should include as many of the following four pieces of information as possible for your source: (1) the name of the publication, (2) the date the source was published, (3) the author of the work and/ or name of the person who is providing the information used in the source, and (4) the credentials of the source. It is best to cite your source first and then give the information, not the other way around. Citing the source after sharing the information is awkward and can hurt the flow of your speech, but citing the source before sharing the information can heighten audience attention and help the audience sense the importance of the information you are sharing. For example, in a speech you might cite your source by saying, ·~ccording to the February 10, 2012, issue of Time, Dr. Gary Landreth, a scientist at Case Western Reserve University, has discovered that a drug called bexarotene can reverse Alzheimer's disease in mice." Thus far we have discussed the ethical requirements of a speaker when choosing and researching a speech topic. There is one more area in which speakers have an ethical requirement, and that is when they actually deliver the speech. In the next section, we will provide some general guidelines for ethical speech delivery.

The Ethics of Language and Delivery Even if you prepare a topic with the best interests of the audience in mind and research the topic appropriately and thoroughly, there are still ethical pitfalls of which you must be aware when you actually deliver the speech. These ethical responsibilities primarily involve the language you choose to use when describing ideas, people, or things to an audience. Let's look at some general guidelines that will help you make good choices regarding the language and delivery of your presentations. Maintain Composure. Every time we speak to someone, whether individu-

ally or in group settings, we must pay the person the same respect we hope he or she will give us. Sometimes our audience agrees with us, which makes conversation and discussion easier in many ways. Other times, some or even all of an audience will disagree with what we are saying, but that doesn't allow

us to suspend civility and respect for them. In fact, it makes it even more important to be respectful and civil. There are also times when an audience will be neutral toward you and your topic, but respect is important in these instances as well. Regardless of how the audience feels toward you or your topic, always show them respect. Knowingly insulting or offending an audience, even a single audience member, will get you nowhere. You may not like a particular person or his or her position, but purposely injecting unneeded negativity into the situation will damage your credibility and destroy any chance of conveyingyour message successfully. Sometimes it is hard to maintain your composure if someone is heckling or being rude when you are speaking, but even in these instances you should keep a moderate tone of voice. People always respond to your tone before your message, so staying moderate and calm will help diffuse the situation and enhance your credibility because you will be seen as reasonable. Beyond keeping a moderate tone, you also owe it to yourself and your audience to be polite and professional. Losing your patience or temper will eliminate any chance of reaching an audience, and you could even lose the respect of those people who support you. This does not mean you cannot call the hecklers out on their behavior, but you must do so in a civil way. This involves first describing their behavior and then asking them to hold their comments and concerns until after you have finished speaking. Unfortunately, there are occasions when this technique does not work, but you still cannot allow yourself to get agitated and focus on the heckler. This is not what the rest of the audience came for, and you should not give one person more attention than everyone else in the room. Explaining this may also help the situation. Additionally, members of the audience may come to your aid if you appear reasonable in dealing with the heckler. Describe People With Respect. As speakers, we often like to use colorful language to describe ideas, places, and even people. We must be careful, however, in choosing how we describe others so we don't risk offending our audience by not treating others as people. When we use images of animals or objects to refer to people in a negative way, we are dehumanizing the people-that is, making them appear to be less than human. This insults and demeans people by depriving them of being the very thing that they are: human beings.

Using dehumanizing language to describe people is very tempting when we do not agree with them or if we are in conflict with them over something. In fact, such a technique is very common in presidential war rhetoric. It makes it more likely that other people will see the person being dehumanized as an animal and not a person, thus making it less likely that the target audience will respect the person. In war, such imagery actually makes it easier for peo ple to engage in violent behaviors against an enemy they do not view as being human. Furthermore, it is important to use gender-inclusive language when describing roles so you are not using language to inadvertently exclude a particular group. The titles of many professional roles have changed to reflect the inclusion of both men and women in those professions, and as a speaker you should respect others by using inclusive language. Table 3.1 provides several examples of gender-inclusive language. Table 3.1

GENDER INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE INAPPROPRIATE

APPROPRIATE

Policeman

Police officer

Mailman

Mail carrier

Stewardess

Flight attendant

Mankind

Humankind

Language, as we will discuss later, is a very powerful tool. Being an ethical speaker requires you to respect your audience's humanity even when you do not agree with them. Such respect will help foster a more effective dialogue over differences, instead of a combat rooted in insults. Carefully Consider Profanity. Profanity is a common part of everyday language. We see it in movies, hear it on television, laugh at it when it is used by comedians, and even use it to describe everyday situations and frustrations. Despite its common usage, you should think very carefully before making an intentional rhetorical decision about whether to use profanity in your presentation. Evaluate your audience; while some audiences might be amused at a well-placed curse word, others may find the use of profanity offensive and unprofessional. Curse words can be used to convey powerful emotions, which in some situations might deepen the impact of a particular moment in your speech, but in others can damage your credibility and leave

an impression that you do not respect the audience or that you do not have the linguistic sophistication to choose more meaningful language. Balance Simplicity and Complexity. Acting ethically when delivering a speech also requires that you make an honest attempt to speak to your audience on their level. What this means is that you take care not to oversimplify or overcomplicate things for your audience. To ensure you understand what your audience knows about a subject or concept, you should review any audience analysis data available. This will enable you to approach topics with a clearer idea of what the audience knows and what they do not. If you walk into a speech expecting that your audience knows nothing about

the subject on which you are speaking, then you run a high risk of insulting their intelligence and losing their attention during the presentation. For example, if an engineer delivers remarks to a group of mechanics on the model for a new engine design and begins with a detailed description of why cars need engines, the speaker will have lost the audience and will likely be perceived as condescending. On the other hand, if you expect your audience to know things they do not know, it will result in negative audience perceptions as well. Take the case of the engineer and change the audience to a group of middle school students. If the engineer uses technical terms that middle schoolers do not know, then he will lose the audience, and they will also see the engineer as arrogant and ineffective. For this reason, knowing your audience and making an attempt to meet them on their intellectual level is essential for ethical speaking. No one likes to be made to feel unintelligent. Balance Emotion and Logic. Oftentimes when we feel passionate about an issue or idea, we inject that enthusiasm into our speech. Additionally, we try and "push" people to agree with us by using emotional stories. These elements of an appeal definitely have their place, but capitalizing on emotion to move an audience denies them the opportunity to sift and weigh the evidence for themselves and come to their own decisions on the matter. As speakers, we need to respect the ability of our audience to make an informed decision for themselves and not fear that they might disagree with our position. To that end, we must balance emotion with logic, for emotional appeals can be very influential when speaking to an audience. Emotions are a powerful force in our lives, and some of the strongest emotions are negative. Consider anger, rage, jealousy, hatred, and envy. These are powerful forces that have been manipulated by speakers time and again throughout history to get audiences to act in ways they normally would not if

they were also provided accurate evidence. Look no further than the case of Adolf Hitler, whose words capitalized on a downtrodden German populace by igniting anger in them toward a specific group of people. This resulted in one of the most inhumane periods in human history: the Holocaust. The power of emotions does not solely lie in negative feelings; positive emotions can also be powerful. Some of these are love, pride, joy, and gratitude. Think of commercials calling on you to donate to Doctors Without Borders, a charity that finances medical assistance in impoverished countries. The appeal focuses on activating your love, or even sympathy, for the plight of other humans in order to get you to donate to their cause. This is a positive emotion you feel, and an equally positive cause, but creating an appeal based on emotion alone denies the audience the opportunity to properly evaluate the organization and its mission. Although humans are emotional beings and emotions can be used successfully, especially in a persuasive speech, relying upon them alone constitutes unethical behavior. If people make decisions based primarily on emotion, then they might make decisions that lack logic and reasoning. Audiences make better decisions, and speakers make better cases for their argument, when emotions are tied to logic. So, when developing your speech, incorporate appeals to emotions in tandem with the logic and evidence you use. Up until now, we have focused our attention on the ethical requirements of speakers, but they are not the only ones with such obligations. In the next section, we discuss the ethical dimensions of being a good audience member.

ETHICS AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER Even though the spotlight remains on a speaker during a presentation, there are still ethical responsibilities to which audience members are beholden. Too often in today's smartphone-dominated world audience, members do things such as send text messages, check emails, or even do work during someone else's presentation. These types of behaviors are not innocuous and innocent; rather, they are rude and unethical. Speakers put a lot of work into their presentations, and audience members have the responsibility to listen attentively and respectfully.

Listening as an Audience Member One of the most important ethical obligations of audience members is to lishearing the physiological process of capturing sound conducted by ears to the brain

listening the process of receiving and interpreting spoken and/or nonverbal messages

listening for appreciation listening for enjoyment; it is not high in cognitive commitment

ten to the speaker. Listening is more complicated than people realize. Often we confuse it with hearing, which is the physiological process of capturing sound conducted by ears to the brain. Listening, however, as defined by the International Listening Association, is "an information processing task carried out in a social, interactive, or communicative environment." 1 More succinctly, listening is the process of receiving and interpreting spoken or nonverbal messages. Listening, therefore, is communicative, while hearing is physiological. Hearing is something our bodies do, while listening is a skill we can develop and improve. There are four primary listening purposes that we can engage in. The first reason we engage in listening is for appreciation. When we listen for appreciation, our goal is to enjoy something on which we focus our attention. The most common examples of this type of listening are listening to music while driving or working out, listening to dialogue in a movie or television show, listening to a comedian on the radio, and listening to a story told by a friend. There is not a high degree of cognitive effort when we listen for appreciation. The goal here is to have fun with what you are listening to, and not to necessarily understand the motives behind what is said or to disagree with what the other party may be proposing.

listening for comprehension listening to understand and learn something new; requires a significant degree of mental effort

listening to show support listening to someone in order to make them feel valued and to show that we care about what they have to say

The second reason we listen is to comprehend or understand something. When we listen for comprehension, we want to understand something we do not know so that we can learn something new. We engage in listening for comprehension when we take a class and listen to a lecture, go through orientation with a new employer, and even when we meet someone new and they share information about themselves. This type of listening requires more mental effort than appreciative listening, and the goal is not necessarily enjoyment, but rather, understanding. The third reason we listen is to show support in a relationship. When we listen to show support, we are listening to someone else because we want the

other person to feel like they are valued and that we care about what they have to say. The goal in this type of listening is to develop or maintain a relationship and to demonstrate how much we care about the other person. When we listen as someone tells us about their day, share in a friend's good

1. International Listening Association, Priorities of Listening Research: Four Interrelated Initiatives, 2008, http:/I www.listen.org/Resources/DocumentsMhiteJ>aper_FrioritiesResearch.pdf, 9.

news, or lend a sympathetic ear to someone who needs to vent about a tough situation, we are listening to show support for that relationship. The fourth, and final, purpose listening serves is criticism, but not in the form of negative attacks on someone else. Critical listening is when we evaluate a message and assess whether or not we agree with what is said. When we listen critically, we also are open to the fact that we may disagree with a part or even all of a message, yet we take in everything offered by the other side before making our judgment. To do this requires the largest degree of

critical listening when we evaluate a message and assess whether or not we agree with what is said; requ ires the m• cognitive effort of ar listening purpose

cognitive effort of the three listening purposes. We may listen critically to a political speech, a proposal for weekend plans by friends, and sometimes to lectures on controversial topics or materials. Regardless of what our goal is with listening, we use listening in one of two different ways. The first is active listening, which occurs when we pay a high degree of attention to a message. We process, store, and potentially evaluate the content of the message to come to conclusions or an understanding about what was said. We also usually show that we are listening by using eye contact and facial expressions to respond to the message, and perhaps even leaning in or nodding. We use active listening at times for each of the four

active listening when we pay a high degree of attention a message; we procE store, and potential evaluate the conten the message to com to conclusions or ar understanding aboL what was said

purposes we just explained. We might be watching a murder mystery or someone may be telling us a very engaging story about a trip he or she just took, and we pay those messages a great deal of attention because we want to understand or evaluate what is being relayed to us. That would constitute active listening for appreciation. Active listening for comprehension or criticism would involve paying attention so you completely understand what is said and can either integrate it into your own body of knowledge (comprehension) or determine whether you agree with what was proposed or not (criticism). The second way we might listen is passively. Passive listening occurs when we do not engage the topic in any noticeable way and just try to absorb what is said. When we listen passively, we do not engage in much evaluation, nor do we question our own understanding of what is said. Most listening for appreciation is passive listening, but you can also see examples of people who are passively listening for comprehension or criticism when you look around a classroom and see people who do not participate or ask questions about the content. Passive listening can be risky because you elevate the chances of daydreaming and losing your ability to follow the speaker.

passive listening occurs when we do engage the topic in noticeable way and just try to absorb w is said

Regardless of which listening purpose we try to achieve and whether we do so actively or passively, we do not always listen the way we want, and sometimes we fail to listen at all. In the next part of this chapter we will unpack several different behaviors people may think are listening, but really are not.

Other Responsibilities for Audience Members Keep an Open Mind. Audience members should always approach a speech or presentation as an opportunity to learn something new. If you do this and keep an open mind to what the speaker is saying, you are giving the speaker the respect that their work and effort deserve. There might be ideas in the speech with which you disagree, but there might also be ideas in the speech with which you agree. Being ethical and responsible audience members means that we should give the speaker the benefit of the doubt and hold our own biases in check so we can concentrate on the message. It is entirely possible that the speaker might change our opinion on something, but even if we do not ultimately change our opinion, we have allowed the speaker the opportunity to present ideas to us. It is, after all, what we would want if the situation were reversed. Do Not Heckle. Too often we see people attending political meetings who interrupt speakers and yell at them in the middle of their presentations. Just because we disagree with speakers does not give us the right to attack them and interrupt their remarks. Heckling is particularly nasty when the interrupter tries to demean the speaker. The end result of heckling is an uncomfortable environment for everyone else, and hecklers actually call negative attention to themselves. A heckler's disruptions can upset and throw off the speaker, and heckling can upset and interfere with the message reception of the other audience members. Just as you have ethical responsibilities to the speaker, you have ethical responsibilities to your fellow audience members. If the speaker or the message upsets you so much that you feel warranted to engage in heckling, you should remove yourself from the environment and let the event continue instead of disturbing it for everyone else. Hecklers often wrongly assume that everyone else in the audience agrees with them, and they have thus prejudged not only the speaker, but also their fellow audience members. Pay Attention. It is true that we will find some speakers and their topics boring, but our lack of interest doesn't mean we can do something else during the presentation. We might think speakers can't see us holding our cell phones, searching the internet, or sending a text, but they almost always

notice, and it distracts them. Such behavior tells speakers that you think they are boring and unimportant and can damage the speaker's confidence in an already challenging situation. There are nonverbal behaviors that audience members engage in that distract the speaker and the audience. For example, putting your head down on your desk, slouching in your seat, and closing your eyes are all disrespectful to a speaker. A speaker could infer a lot of different things from these

behaviors, such as laziness, indifference, and even contempt. That said, these nonverbal behaviors are not the worst things an audience member can do; the worst is when members of the audience start talking to each other during a presentation. It is a simple rule not to engage in side conversations when someone else is speaking. In your public speaking class, you have the ethical obligation to pay attention to all speakers, just as you would want your classmates to do when you're speaking. Giving a speech is hard for many people, as we covered in the last chapter, and your attention can actually give them support and strength while they are speaking and can improve their performance. No one likes to be ignored or mocked when they are speaking, so we should all be respectful audience members when someone is delivering remarks.

Summary In this chapter, we discussed the concept of ethics and how it applies to public speaking. We explained that messages cannot be retrieved once spoken, and we covered the ethical responsibilities of a speaker throughout the speech preparation and delivery process. Finally, we covered the ethical obligations of audience members. Ethics are important in all walks of life and are certainly an important element in the communication process.

Key Terms active listening 39 critical listening 39 ethics 27 global plagiarism 32

listening for comprehension 38 listening to show support 38 passive listening 39 patchwork plagiarism 32

hearing 38 incremental plagiarism 32

patchworking 32 plagiarism 31

listening 38 listening for appreciation 38

Activities

For each of the four purposes of listening, identify a couple of situations not already included in the book in which you should use each type of listening.

Find a newspaper article or academic research article. Write a oneparagraph summary of the article that uses appropriate paraphrasing rather than patchwork plagiarism.

Identify three words or phrases (not the ones already identified in the book) that might exclude members of your audience. What are some more inclusive words or phrases you can use instead?

Find three examples of what you consider to be unethical behavior by a speaker or an audience member. Explain why they are unethical.

CHAPTER

CIVILITY Objectives 0 Define the core components of civility and its relationship to communication 0 Identify foundational civil behaviors that can increase communication effectiveness 0 Discuss civility in action in a variety of different contexts At some point in all our lives we all have, or will be, subjected to the rude, nasty, and impolite comments or behaviors of others. Incivility takes many forms, from the "horrible boss" to the lazy colleague, from vandalism to making physical threats, from belittling others to interrupting someone when they are speaking, from giving someone the silent treatment to talking over them, and the list goes on and on. Even though most people believe that incivility is unethical, wrong, and inappropriate, people fail to realize it comes with tangible costs from the damage it does to the receiver. The Harvard Business Review conducted a survey in 2013 and discovered that incivility results in significant unforeseen expenses to the organization; those expenses come from the way people internalize such actions. They found that of those who been treated uncivilly in the workplace: 0 48% decreased their work effort 0 47% intentionally decreased the time spent at work 0 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work 0 80% lost significant time worrying over the uncivil incident 0 63% lost time avoiding the perpetrator of the offense 0 66% reported their productivity declined 0 78% reported that their loyalty to the organization declined Of all who responded to the survey, a quarter of those even said they took out their frustrations on customers. 1

I. Christine Porath and Christine Pearson, "The Price of Incivility,'• Harvard Business Reuiew, January/February, 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/0Vthe-price-of-incivility.

These facts are staggering and should serve as further evidence as to why civility is an effective and ethical part of our communication repertoire. In this chapter we will discuss the concept of civility, specifically as it pertains to our speaking choices. First, we will define the core components of civility and illustrate that the concept is not what many people seem to think it is. We will then describe the foundational behaviors of civility. Finally, we will describe what civility looks like in action in a variety of contexts.

DEFINING CIVILITY Many people today confuse the notion of civility with a form of fakery, where people hide their own feelings about something or someone to avoid conflict. Others view civility and politeness as a form of weakness that invites bullying and leads to sacrificing personal positions, goals, and feelings for no good reason. These misconceptions make the idea of civil behavior appear useless and ineffective in society. Instead of viewing civility in a negative light, it is useful to conceive of it in relation to "civilization" and "being civilized." In these contexts, civility does not mean fakery. Rather, it means the ability to have lasting, stable, and peaceful interactions with others. In this part of the chapter, we explore some of the components that serve as the foundation of civility. Understand that each of these is a component of civility, but on their own, the components are not synonymous with civility.

Politeness It is understandable that civility is often confused with politeness because

polite showing consideration for others in accordance with social decorum

politeness is a component of civility; however, the two are not the same. The term polite refers to showing consideration for others in accordance with social decorum. Politeness may be best understood in contrast to rudeness, which is acting in a way that violates social decency or demonstrates a lack of social skill~ and appreciation for others. On the one hand, people who are deemed "polite" have made some effort to consider other people and how they feel. On the other hand, we sometimes view politeness in others not as a nicety, but as a tool to manipulate and deceive us or as a condescending form of communication. Politeness can mask our own feelings, but being civil requires us to assert our feelings in a respectful manner. A civil person is honest, but not in a way that offends the other party. Civil politeness requires that we be polite not by sparing others the truth, but by making both them and us feel good about our

deeds and actions through an honest and respectful delivery of information. For instance, there should not be a need to issue a polite lie, because it comes across as disingenuous and simply plays upon the perception most people have today when someone is "just being polite." Rather, polite civility issues the truth in a way that does not intentionally hurt anyone involved. This is, as you can imagine, a challenging task to accomplish. Politeness, though, is only one part of the civility equation.

Good Manners The second component of civility might remind you of children because they good manners are constantly reminded to say "please" and "thank you" as elements of good behaviors that manners. Good manners refer to behaviors that societies deem appropriate societies deem as appropriate and and positive ways of interacting with others. As you can imagine, when positive ways of interacting with ott understood this way, good manners are not restricted to children, nor are they as simple as just saying "please" and "thank you." In fact, we have even gone so far as a society to police certain types of manners to ensure they are practiced. 2 Some good manners are laid out in rules, while others are born more out of social expectations. In terms of rules, consider when we go to the movies or a play and we are asked to silence cell phones before the start of the show because the noise of a phone ringing, holding a conversation, or texting during a show distracts others from enjoying it. There are other good manners people should practice simply because they demonstrate an appreciation for other people, such as the following: 0 Be on time for meetings and appointments. 0 Don't gloat when you win or sulk when you lose. 0 Don't talk with your mouth full. 0 Patiently wait in line. 0 Don't ask intimate or sensitive questions-even if you ask permission first. 0 Don't make rude or sarcastic comments that devalue the work or character of others. Such behaviors are core elements of civility and represent practicing politeness, especially in American culture. They also easily apply to public speaking. If you are speaking, be on time and stay within the time you are given 2. For examples of the codification of manners in society, see the Miss Manners website, which can be found at http://www.rrussmanners.com/.

to speak--especially if others will be speaking after you. Do not use a speech to gloat, ask insensitive questions, make rude comments, or attack another's character. Civility is, however, even more than being genuinely polite and practicing good manners.

courtesy a show of consideration for and attention to others

Courtesy A third component of civility is courtesy, which refers to showing consideration for and attention to others. We often refer to courtesy as common because we believe that everyone exhibits these basic behaviors. Common courtesies include actions such as holding a door open for the next person to come through, standing up to greet someone when he or she enters your room or office, and acknowledging drivers who allow you into traffic in front of them. These are small gestures in a day that cost nothing, but generate good feelings by letting others know we pay attention to and value them. In a speaking situation, courtesy can be waiting for someone to finish speaking before leaving or speaking yourself, and perhaps even clapping at the end of a presentation, even if you disagreed with the presenter. At their heart, common courtesies involve an understanding of one's surroundings and respect for others, which brings us to our next component of civility.

Respect for Others Civility requires that we be polite, practice good manners, and extend courrespect an acknowledgment of the inherent humanity and dignity of other people

tesy to others because it is fundamentally about respecting other people. By respect we mean to say an acknowledgement of the inherent humanity and dignity of other people. Respect does not require deference to others, but rather an acknowledgement of them, and an attempt to understand how they may feel about a statement, action, or event. We belittle others when we ignore them or behave as though their thoughts, feelings, and opinions do not matter. When such things are done to us, we become upset and feel as though we do not belong. Referring to people by their proper names and titles, and learning how to correctly pronounce their names before speaking are all basic ways we can show respect to others when we deliver remarks. Respect can be shown in different ways. It can mean we place individuals or their opinions in high esteem and value them more than others because of an existing relationship or some type of expertise they bring to the table. It can also mean an appreciation for an honor or the position a person holds. At a minimum, however, we should display empathy toward everyone as individuals and acknowledge their feelings and thoughts. Doing so will encourage

reciprocity, which means the other person would hopefully return that respect in their interactions with you. This is the road to creating a culture of civility, and is also the road to creating a positive environment in which to speak. There is, however, one more dimension of civility we must discuss.

Assertiveness After detailing the first four elements of civility, it may seem as though civility largely asks us to suppress our own ideas and thoughts in deference toothers, but nothing could be further from the truth. It may seem easier to simply try to please others by allowing them to state their positions while we keep ours to ourselves, but such actions actually do not demonstrate a respect for ourselves or others. Civility demands honesty and the ability to clearly and confidently state our positions, as well as respectfully listen to those of others. In fact, one of the hardest actions to assert is also the first word many children learn: the ability to say "no." As Pier Massimo Forni, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who taught

and wrote about civility, notes, '"No' to others is nothing but a 'yes' to ourselves," and by saying "no" we aren't "taking something that belongs toothers; we are simply keeping something that is rightfully ours." 3 When people ask something of us, we are not required to give it, nor are we required to explain why to them, though we may feel it right and necessary to do so in some situations. The ability to say "no" to others and "yes" to ourselves is a key element of civility. We may believe that saying "no" will injure, or perhaps even destroy, our relationship with the other person, but if we do not protect our own interests and time, we might be doing that anyway. 4 In freely giving our time, treasure, and talents to others, even when we do not want to do so, we may create an imbalanced relationship with the other person. Being assertive simply means we respect ourselves just as much as we respect others. Without this final piece, civility is nothing more than sacrificing oneself to the interests of the other. To that end, we define civility as the use of tact when dealing with others-a genuine and reciprocal expression of respect for ourselves and others through our actions and statements. Now that we have explained the characteristics of civility, we turn our attention to how we practice civility.

3. Pier Massimo Forni, Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002). 4. Forni, Choosing Civility, 2002.

civility the use of tact whe dealing with others genuine and reciprc expression of respE for ourselves and others through acti and statements

FOUNDATIONAL CIVIL BEHAVIORS We have already covered the five core components of civility and how civility relates to the presentation of ourselves to others. We now move to a discussion of three foundational behaviors that all civil communication has in common: mutual respect, listening, and disagreeing without being disagreeable.

Mutual Respect A civil culture depends on its members valuing mutual respect. We all must begin believing in the best that people can be and the goodness of their intentions, and show respect for their values, experiences, and expertise in the same way we wish them to do for us. Mutual respect is not driven by our achievements, positions, or titles, but rather by our inherent humanity and value as human beings. All people bring something to the table from which we might learn, and we must respect that for them to respect what we have to offer. Without genuine mutual respect, we cannot have a civil society. This is not to say that everyone must behave this way for it to work; in fact, that is not the case even today. It is, however, an invitation to begin the effort of making society more civil by respecting those with whom we come into contact. Think about other people and their potential reactions when crafting your speeches, pay attention to their reactions when they hear what you have to say, and show appreciation to them for listening to you. This applies to audience members as well; when acting in that capacity, pay attention to your reactions and show mutual respect while listening and asking questions.

Listening To be civil, we must listen to what the other party is saying, giving them our undivided attention. We may believe we can multitask and pay attention to multiple items at once, but this is a myth. In his book Brain Rules, John Medina explains that it is actually physically impossible for our brains to focus on two things at once, which makes paying attention to more than one person impractical and uncivil. 5 Genuine listening is the manifestation of respecting other people and being present with them. Listening also entails the ability to come to an understanding of what the other person is saying. This may require you to ask clarifying questions,

5. John Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008).

paraphrase messages, or otherwise check perceptions when the time is appropriate to do so. Remember that making sure you understand the other person is a hallmark of genuine listening. It does not mean that you agree with the other person, just that you understand what is being said.

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable Civility requires us to express ourselves and assert our positions. This does not limit itself to moments of agreement. We also must be able to express ourselves when we disagree. Unfortunately, people tend to view agreement and disagreement as the only two options available, when in fact they are not absolutes. More often than not, we find ourselves wanting to agree with parts of a person's argument while disagreeing with other aspects of it. To express such complicated positions in which we both agree and disagree at the same time calls for specific and delicate skills. In order to do this, it is important to first stress areas of agreement with the other party. This establishes a more comfortable climate for the interaction and enables both parties to see the exchange in a positive and constructive light. When focusing on areas of agreement, be as detailed as you would be with those things with which you disagree. Then, after expressing agreement, detail those points with which you disagree and explain why. The explanation is important because it shows you listened to the other party but have information of your own to offer to the discussion. In more tense situations, it may also be necessary to conclude with a statement reinforcing that just because you disagree with all or parts of the other person's argument, it does not mean you do not like or appreciate that person. The position is not the person, and agreement and disagreement are not "all or nothing" propositions. Now that we have reviewed the foundational civil behaviors (which are also listed in Table 4.1), next, we will briefly explore the practice of civility today.

Table 4.1

SUGGESTED BEHAVIORS FOR A CIVIL INTERACTION Describe instead of evaluate. Focus on the problem, not on controlling the outcome. Acknowledge the feelings of others. Be provisional instead of certain. Control your facial expressions. Do not interrupt others when they are speaking. Do not disparage others when they are not present. When disagreeing, describe both the points with which you disagree and agree.

CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS FOR CIVILITY In this section of the chapter we briefly discuss four settings in which we can apply civil communication to improve understanding and general wellness in our social relationships. We begin with those in your own immediate context: the classroom.

Civility in the Classroom and on Campus Leaming for every student in a classroom depends upon a civil atmosphere, and the responsibility for creating this environment falls on both instructors and students. This is why some faculty choose to engage students in creating a "code of conduct" in their classes, complete with agreed-upon consequences for violations. In public speaking courses, this often takes the form of expectations such as not working on assignments for another class when you should be listening to a peer's speech, waiting outside the room until a speech is finished before coming in, and staying silent during a speech by a classmate, just to name a few. Faculty, on the other hand, may pledge to allow students time to begin their speech so they can get comfortable in front of the classroom, help keep question-and-answer sessions running smoothly, and provide prompt and specific feedback for student performances. Students also bear a significant portion of the responsibility for creating a civil classroom climate. Students should not argue with instructors for the sake of arguing, nor equate instructor experience and knowledge with opinion. Students should also begin emails and visits to the office with cordial introductions and conclude them with genuine notes of gratitude. They also should treat one another with respect and listen to peers when they offer

questions and commentary, and rather than judge peers for their ideas, engage with them to understand the thinking behind the statements their peers make. Finally, students should follow course rules and policies as outlined in the syllabus, particularly those regarding laptop and cell phone use. Searching the internet or texting a friend during class is rude to both one's instructor and classmates. Simple behaviors such as these, when followed by both instructors and students, create a classroom environment that is more conducive to learning.

Civility in Interpersonal Relationships We maintain multiple relationships in our lives. These include those with friends, family, coworkers, and even the barista at your local coffee shop. At home, you probably behave with respect toward your parents, siblings, and significant others, but conflicts still arise. With your friends you also practice a degree of civility, but sometimes you may say something to which they might take offense. Generally, people are accepting of genuine apologies, but these apologies are also simultaneously very difficult for us to issue. We do not like admitting when we are wrong, and even when we do admit it, we often qualify the apology with some explanation. If you are going to apologize, do so earnestly and without a qualification. This civil practice can go a long way toward maintaining healthy relationships with those closest to you. Civility, however, also extends to those you encounter elsewhere, but with whom you may not be close. Salespeople, hotel front desk agents, and even the person who makes your morning coffee all deserve the same type ·of respect and civility you accord to family and friends. Sometimes, simply having a brief conversation in which you ask about a person's day or just say "good morning" can go a long way toward showing appreciation for that other person. It is also important to recognize that people in these roles have lives with which you are unfamiliar, and they are "real people" too. So, if someone in one of these roles says something or behaves in a way that frustrates or upsets you, concentrate your disapproval on the behavior or statement and not the person. If you do this, you will more likely come to a quicker and more acceptable resolution, while not unnecessarily upsetting or ruining someone else's day.

Civility in Business To conduct business effectively requires civil conduct by people in various positions. These behaviors can be as simple as respecting the time of others by not being late to scheduled meetings or calling well in advance to reschedule them if necessary. It also includes things such as knocking before entering offices, not taking calls or checking text messages in the middle of meetings, and learning the names of those present at a meeting. Business relationships occur between two or more people, and the emphasis should be on the fact that they are people first. People are very quick to change providers or go with a different company if they feel they are treated as numbers instead of valued clients. In an increasingly global environment, successful business relationships also require that people learn and value the cultural backgrounds of all parties. This means adhering to cultural expectations of host countries, but also understanding how other people interact. In some Asian cultures, for example, direct discussion of business only comes after a lengthy socialization process so all involved get to know each other. In fact, people often make business deals with others with whom they feel the most comfortable, not necessarily those who submit the best offer. It is important to know that up-front, blunt communication may not always be the best route to go.

Civility and Social Media People today increasingly use social media to stay in touch with friends and family, conduct business, and promote themselves and their products. Snapchat, Instagram, 1\vitter, and the business-oriented Linkedln are just a few of the social media tools employed to accomplish these tasks. Even though these resources do not allow for face-to-face communication, they do not reduce or eliminate the need for civil communication. Civility is more than just behaving well when others are in front of you; it is a lifestyle where we always genuinely think about how what we say and do can affect other people. To this end, it is instructive to think before posting status updates to Facebook, issuing a tweet about how you feel regarding an event or issue, or even uploading your resume to Linkedln. Remember that you need not share everything on social media sites, and that what you choose to share

is now on the internet forever, for everyone.6 The internet is like plastic-it never goes away-so you should make sure that what you post will be acceptable later. as well as now. Take care when issuing comments to others as well, and even if you disagree, do so with respect and make sure it is the position, and not the person, with which you disagree. And yet, just because you may feel a certain way and can post it through social media does not necessarily mean you should. Additionally, we communicate more and more through email, but that medium is not always used in a way that promotes civil correspondence between people. Email is an extraordinary tool for communication, but it is also rife with potential pitfalls. Table 4.2 provides some guidelines for email and social media use that will help ensure you use them to maximum effect while also remaining civil in the tone of what you write. Table 4.2

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WRITING AN EMAIL IN GENERAL Use email to request or provide succinct pieces of objective information. Avoid discussing sensitive issues through email. Use email to publicly praise, but not to blame employees. Use email to share insights, not to instigate confrontation. Judiciously use the "blind carbon copy" function .

AS SENDER Give em ails a clear and direct subject heading. Get to the point. Avoid hedgers and qualifiers as phrases. If asking a question, be sure to ask the question (don't issue evaluation). Specify who should respond. Be clear about when you need a response. Provide relevant context. Limit email to one message, one topic. Provide brief summary when sending an "FYI" or forward email. Don't use sarcasm.

6. Meredith Fineman, "What We Post Online Is Forever, and We Need a Reminder," Inc. , November 24, 2014, https://www.inc.com/meredith-fineman/what-we-post-online-is-forever-and-we -need-a-reminder.html.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WRITING AN EMAIL AS RECEIVER Don't make assumptions about sender's emotional state. Don't escalate by sending an emotionally charged response (sleep on it; perhaps don't reply by email). Don't respond right away. Be careful quoting em ails out of context in a reply.

Summary In this chapter we have covered the concept of civility. We have defined it as something-that contains certain core components. such as polite ness, good manners. courteousness. respect for others. and assertiveness. We detailed some specific behaviors that help us practice civility and described how those behaviors should and could manifest in specific everyday scenarios in which we find ourselves.

Key Terms civility 47 courtesy 46

polite 44 respect 46

good manners 45

Activities

2 3

Using some of the suggested behaviors for civil interaction from the chapter, as well as the foundational behaviors of civil interaction, develop a code of conduct for students and instructors in a classroom environment. Then develop one for the workplace. Are there any differences? What are the differences, and why do you think they exist? Just as the norms of civility in Western civilization have changed throughout history, so too are they different between cultures. What are some cultural differences in expectations for civil behavior? Civility can sometimes be used to silence others from speaking, such as telling someone who is disagreeing with you that they are "not being civil." How does this application differ from the use of civility in this chapter? Does this make civility bad? Why, or why not?

CHAPTER

SPEAKING IN YOUR CAREER Objectives 0 Introduce students to the relationship between speech and context 0 Explain some general contextual factors that can influence a presentation 0 Discuss speech in different academic and professional contexts What is the most important skill for career success? Surveys of employers across a wide range of industries show that oral communication is the most sought-after skill, followed closely by critical thinking and analytic reasoning, ethical judgment and decision-making, and the ability to work effectively on teams. 1 The findings are echoed by numerous other employer surveys. 2 Even Coogle, one of the companies that historically focused on hiring specifically for engineering talent, did an intensive analysis of all hiring, firing, and promotion data since the company was founded, and discovered that communication skills were among the most important skills that predicted success as an engineering manager and as a member of an engineering team. 3 Another even more recent study .sought to identify the most important foundational skills in the digital economy, and again, communication was identified as one of the most important skills, regardless of industry, and was also noted as being critically important for moving up into management roles in the digital economy. 4 Even though I. Hart Research Associates, .FUlfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the .FUture of Work, July 2018, https:/lwww.aacu.org/sites/defaultlfiles/files/LEAP/20!8EmployerResearchReport.pdf.

2. Francesca Levy and Christopher Cannon, "The Bloomberg Job Skills Report 2016: What Recruiters Want," Bloomberg, February 9, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-job-skills-reportl; "Job Outlook 2016: The Attributes Employers Want to See on New College Graduates' Resumes," NACE Center for Career Development and Talent Acquisition, National Association of Colleges and Employers, updated 2016, http:// www.naceweb.org/career-development/trends-and-predictions/job-outlook-2016-attributes-employerswant-to-see-on-new-college-graduates-resumes/. 3. Valerie Strauss, "The Surprising Thing Google Learned About its Employees-and What it Means forToday's Students," Washington Post, December 20, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/ wp/2017/12120/the-surprising-thing-googlc-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todaysstudents/. 4. Burning Glass Technologies and Business-ffigher Education Forum, The New Foundational Skills of the Digital Economy: Developing the Professionals of the Future, 2018, https://www.burning-glass.com/wp-contentluploads!New_ Foundational.Skills.pdf?fbcUd=IwAROOMRKJ>NLXPxwimhhsAotal3dng8myAZy2R9koj4hReQM3yoOxJeoEZ9-M.

communication skills-including public speaking, listening, interpersonal skills, teamwork, intercultural communication skills, and more-are often referred to as "soft skills," they are critical to your success in any career and are now being referred to by many as "essential" or "fundamental skills.'' 5 Communication does not take place in a vacuum. In fact, understanding messages requires an appreciation of the situation in which the message is conveyed. In the United States, people communicate very directly with each other, often trying to "say what they mean." Thls is not the case in other cultures where people will be more indirect, requiring audience members to examine situational cues and information to infer the meaning in a statement. Whether a message is direct or indirect, however, we are still called upon to examine and appreciate context when developing and interpreting messages. In addition to cultural differences, specific fields and professions have certain expectations regarding how messages should be communicated. Regardless of whether you want to pursue a career in teaching, politics, engineering, business, health, or something else, knowing how to present your ideas to an audience is essential. In this chapter we will first discuss the concept of context and some of its common aspects-regardless of your chosen career field-to which you need to pay attention when constructing and delivering messages. Then we will discuss five popular professional contexts in which you may find yourself: politics, education, the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), business, and health. In each of these contexts, the process of developing and delivering messages holds different expectations and challenges. To better appreciate these challenges, though, let's begin with a discussion of some general characteristics of contexts.

CONTEXTUAL FACTORS Regardless of your profession, there are some typical contextual factors that exist in virtually any public speaking situation. These elements of the speaking environment include the external environment, the speaking format, and general audience characteristics. In this section of the chapter, we will briefly discuss each of these before delving into more specific issues pertaining to particular careers.

5. Carmine Gallo, "Public Speaking Is No Longer a 'Soft' Skill. It's Your Key to Success in Any Field," Inc., January 4, 2019, https://www.Jnc.com/carmine-gallo/public-speaking-is-no-longer-a-soft-skill-its-yourkey-to-success-in -any-field. html.

External Environment It's easy to imagine a variety of speaking situations. You could be called upon to deliver remarks outdoors, or in a large or small room. As the speaker, it is important to pay attention to the environment in which you will speak, because each environment carries with it certain advantages and challenges. One speaking environment is outdoors. Despite the fact that we think most presentations take place inside a boardroom or conference hall, there are still plenty of opportunities to speak outdoors, so it is important to understand the environmental issues related to this speaking situation. Many weddings and festivals have moments when key participants are called upon to make brief remarks, and these situations have some challenges not present when speaking in an enclosed space such as a meeting room. When speaking outdoors, there are more competing noises that can overshadow your remarks. Airplanes, cars, and the wind can create an environment that requires you to speak loudly or find a microphone. When a speech takes place outside, audience members may also come and go more freely because of the open nature of the space, creating more distractions. Finally, outdoor presentations are often controlled by weather, so speakers must be prepared to move indoors if the weather changes. When speaking indoors, there are two different environments in which you may find yourself: a large room or a small room. You could have a large or small audience, but let's assume for the sake of the discussion that there is an adequate-sized audience in either environment. There are significant challenges to both situations, so let's discuss the large-room environment first. In a large room, you will not know everyone in the audience, and so the first obstacle is identifying with such a large group. Typically, you must make an effort to verbally identify with the audience early in your speech by mentioning one or two members of the audience whom you do know or the underlying purpose that brought the group together. Another environmental factor you will need to consider is how the size of the room will affect the audibility of your voice. Make sure that everyone in the audience hears you, and whenever possible, try to get to the room early to see if there are microphones available. Smaller rooms with smaller audiences do not usually require microphones, although they might be available. That said, smaller rooms are more intimate, and people tend to pay closer attention to the speaker. With that in mind, you can make your presentation more dialogic and conversational in smaller

venues by asking questions, soliciting verbal feedback, and even conversing with specific people for brief moments. That said, environmental factors are not the only contextual factors that speakers in every situation must confront.

The Speaking Format Thanks to technology, there are now, broadly speaking, two different formats for presentations: in-person and mediated. Both of these have different variations, but for our purposes we will consider these in broad terms. When we speak of in-person formats, we simply mean the traditional format of a presenter and a live audience that are in the same place at the same time. Mediated formats are those that allow a speaker to speak to an audience from an entirely different location, possibly even at a different time. Each of these contains aspects for which speakers must specifically plan. The in-person format is one with which many people are familiar. In these situations, there is often a raised platform from which speakers or presenters deliver their remarks. On the platform there is sometimes a lectern, or stand, behind which the speaker positions themselves to present the speech. This layout is common in large venues, but it is increasingly appearing in small-room formats as well. This setup places the audience directly in front of the speaker, often at a lower level than the presenter. Sometimes this format is used in a room that has stadium-style seating, where the rows of seats for the audience gradually rise like those in an arena. This allows for each audience member to have a good view of the presenter, regardless of where he or she sits. In today's fast-paced environment, it is not always feasible for speakers and presenters to meet their audiences in person. Thankfully, there are numerous technologies that allow people to speak to an audience from a distance. Satellite feeds on news programs make it possible to talk with an audience in a different location, as do more readily available programs such as Skype and FaceTime. Web-based programs such as YouTube and Vimeo also allow taped video presentations to be sent to people across the globe, making it even easier for people to deliver presentations to audiences at more convenient times without the hassle of traveling. When it comes to these mediated formats, however, the expectations of the audience drastically increase, especially for presentations that are prerecorded. Since you can record and rerecord until the presentation is delivered the way you believe it should be, audiences expect more pristine delivery. This requires speakers to prepare and practice the speech more often,

because if they do not, they will be doing numerous retakes of their video remarks. This format also either reduces or greatly eliminates the chance for audience feedback, which means you have no chance to change or adapt mid-presentation. This is a challenge. If you tell a joke that falls flat or report data that is confusing to the audience, you have no ability to recover or to clarify the information. Thus, knowing the format in which you'll be speaking is essential for creating effective presentations and is also a common concern, regardless of your profession.

General Audience Characteristics In a later chapter we will discuss audience analysis techniques, so for the moment, when speaking about common contextual issues confronted by speakers in almost every scenario, we will simply say that audiences are a constant challenge to speakers. Some audiences are large, some small; some audiences agree with you, some are neutral toward your ideas, and others oppose your position; some audiences know a lot about your topic, others know very little but want to know more; some audiences are compelled to be present, while others willingly and voluntarily come to hear your remarks. All of these audience-related potentialities, and others we will explore in greater depth later, exist in every speaking situation and therefore are important contextual factors to which every speaker must pay attention. Ultimately, the more you know about the audience, as well as the speaking format and the environment, the more prepared you will be when deliveringyour presentation. In the following section of this chapter, we will break down five popular professional fields in which speeches take place and briefly explain how each of these three contextual factors manifests itself in those fields.

SPEAKING IN DIFFERENT FIELDS AND PROFESSIONS Many students, once they have decided on a field, believe that there are few, if any, situations in which they will be required to deliver a presentation. However, this is not the case, since professionals in all fields engage in delivering presentations to others. Employers list communication skills among the most important skills they look for in new hires and they would like to see them emphasized more in colleges and universities. 6 In politics, candidates 6. Hart Research Associates, Fu!filling the American Dream, https://www.aacu.org/sites/defau!Vfiles/files/ LEAP/2018Em p loyerResearchReport.pdf.

deliver speeches to gain votes, advisors deliver remarks to staff members on a campaign, and even engaged citizens may prepare remarks for local PTA or Knights of Columbus meetings. Teachers need to prepare effective presentations almost every day so their lessons are coherent and lead to student achievement. Engineers, scientists, and mathematicians need to be able to explain their projects, findings, and recommendations to people unfamiliar with their field. In business, whether in accounting, marketing, or sales, individuals must be able to think on their feet, prepare reports of data for unfamiliar groups, and persuade clients to purchase products. Doctors, nurses, dentists, and other health professionals educate patients about their medical conditions and sometimes give public presentations about health care. Clearly, regardless of the field, it is essential for career success that students learn how to prepare and deliver competent and effective presentations.

Politics and Speech The public is most familiar with speech in the political realm, so much of what we will say here should not come as much of a surprise. Speech for those involved in politics can take many forms and occur in almost all of the contexts we laid out earlier. As a result, political speakers need to be wellversed in speaking in these different situations. We have all seen political speeches in a variety of different settings. Perhaps a mayor has spoken during a festival or celebration outdoors. Presidents often give addresses in the Rose Garden or outdoors at commemorative events. Politicians also give speeches inside to large audiences of people, such as during the State of the Union address or a political debate. Finally, small rooms are often employed as venues for local clubs and organizations, or even town hall meetings with city councils or school orientations for parents. The external environments for political speeches are as varied as the topics and positions taken by the speakers. In terms of the speaking format, again we find great variety for political messages. These occur in person with microphones and elevated platforms, as well as in mediated scenarios in which remarks are taped and delivered on the Web so audience members can watch at their leisure. One wrinkle in both of these settings is the intense desire on the part of the speaker to create an intimate relationship with the audience. When delivering remarks live, this is often done by moving from behind the lectern and speaking from among the audience. In mediated and taped presentations, the focus is on the head

of the speaker to create the impression that he or she is having a conversation with one lone viewer. Audiences also vary a great deal for political speakers, especially during a campaign. Sometimes, such as at rallies, the audience is predisposed to agree with the speaker and thus will be more supportive. At other times, often during town hall meetings, for example, some audience members may be hostile to the speaker's ideas and the situation and topic must then be carefully managed. Audiences can also be both small and large for political speakers, and often you never really know what to expect. The great variance in political speech-making contexts makes it ever more important to learn how to create an effective presentation by understanding the context in which you are speaking.

Speaking for Educators Political speeches receive most of our attention, but the one profession that may deliver the most presentations every year is that of an educator, be it a teacher or professor. Just think about how many times you went to school and listened to a lecture or participated in a lesson during which you took notes and learned something new. Nearly every class taught contains an informative speech, though the format might be a little bit different than the speeches that you will give in class. Some classes also involve persuasive speaking, workshops, and debates, and each of these types of instruction requires attention to organization and delivery, just as are required for any other type of public speaking event. Public speaking in an educational context is largely restricted to an indoor environment. Sure, there are a few exceptions to this, but the overwhelming majority of lessons taught by teachers and professors occur inside a classroom. These classrooms vary in size, especially at the college level. In elementary and high school, we often have classes that do not contain more than thirty or so students with one teacher. In those rooms, instructors do not need to use a microphone and can move about the class, get to know their students as an audience, and be more conversational in their delivery. This size may change in college, when students might register for a large lecture course with hundreds of students. In these situations, microphones may be used and the instructor is less likely to be able to move around the room. The speaking format in the educational field has traditionally been in-person and in a physical classroom, but thanks to technology, even that has begun

to change in recent years. Today, it is not uncommon for students to enroll in hybrid courses that meet online part of the time and in the classroom for part of the time, or to enroll in online classes in which students and instructors might never meet in the same physical location. In some of these classes, students might view prerecorded lectures online and participate in activities and discussions in a virtual environment. The prerecorded lectures present all of the same challenges we mentioned earlier for mediated presentations and, additionally, have to be revisited each term to update their content. In other online classes, students and teachers might hold class using videoconferencing technology that allows everyone in the class to interact at the same time from many different locations. Online instruction is not an easy endeavor for either the instructor or the student, but it does present a wider context in which educators need to be proficient in presentation creation and delivery. Audiences for teachers and professors are also unique. Unlike in most other professions, students are a teacher's typical audience, and the messages teachers create are not usually designed to persuade the audience. Rather, this profession is especially dependent on delivering information to an audience in an unbiased manner, and so informative speaking tends to be its focus. This heightens speakers' concerns about what their audience knows before deciding what to put in a lesson. Should the students be expected to know what was in the book? If so, this drastically changes what information a professor includes in a lecture. It also reduces the speaker's need to worry about whether an audience agrees or disagrees with what is presented because the content is not meant to convince, but rather, to inform.

Speaking in the STEM Fields STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and these fields are typically understood as applied fields of study. In these fields, people apply math and science knowledge to invent, design, create, or build things to solve practical problems, but, more often than not, people in these fields must share their ideas with others who do the work of implementing the plans. Because of this, it is especially important that students in STEM fields learn to deliver effective presentations. Moreover, the work done by people in these fields affects others in very tangible ways, such as in the design of the buildings and roads where we live and work, the medical advances that might save our lives, the computer technologies that are increasingly important in allowing us to work and communicate with others,

and the generation and delivery of electricity to our homes. In these fields, ideas must be explained to others in a way that makes sense-particularly since there is sometimes very little room for error. In terms of the environments in which people in these careers speak, presentations by scientists and engineers often involve speaking to small groups indoors. Sometimes, scientists and engineers give presentations for a larger audience at a conference, such as when Tim Cook announces the development of new Apple products or when Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress. However, most presentations in STEM fields are given for much smaller audiences, such as when a team of engineers presents a proposal to potential investors, scientists share their research findings with other scientists in smaller conference sessions, or developers present their plans to the various team members who will be responsible for the actual work of creating the final product. Thus, it is especially important for people in the STEM fields to understand how to speak in smaller, more intimate environments. When it comes to the speaking format, the focus is usually on the traditional face-to-face format in smaller settings, but there is an increasing emphasis on knowing how to deliver remarks remotely and online. Smaller settings require more ease and finesse , so those in STEM fields must appear comfortable in these settings. In remote presentations delivered online during a WebEx or videoconference session, remarks must also appear polished and often must effectively incorporate visual aids because the material being conveyed is complicated. The expectations of a polished performance are even higher for prerecorded presentations that can be accessed at any time. Audiences for STEM professionals often include colleagues and others in the STEM fields, but it is also just as common to find situations in which scientists and engineers must explain complicated projects and complex ideas to groups of people not familiar with their technical areas of expertise. This can include providing project details to government officials, business professionals, and future investors. Sometimes, scientists and engineers try to craft persuasive arguments for their projects, but more often their responsibility is restricted to helping an audience understand complex processes and projects. This makes it important for STEM professionals to understand language and how it can be used to help uninformed audiences understand what can seem to be inaccessible technical jargon. We will provide greater elaboration about language as a skill later in the book.

Speaking in Business Settings Around the country, faculty in colleges of business and employers hiring their graduates almost always cite public speaking and oral communication as skills they want in university students-and with good reason. The ability to speak effectively, clearly, and coherently is as necessary in business as it is in politics, the field we began this section discussing. Whether it is in accounting, marketing, or sales, the business field is saturated with situations requiring professionals to deliver remarks to an audience. Business professionals most often find themselves in small conference room settings, but every once in a while, they will also need to speak outdoors or even in large conference halls. Think about the chief executive officer who is asked to speak at the company picnic or the chief financial officer who provides details on the performance of the company to an annual meeting of investors. Those situations aside, smaller units of the company often meet when someone delivers a report or recommendation for improvement relevant to the people in that room, and salespeople must frequently prepare remarks to persuade a potential client to purchase the product they are selling. Business settings do vary, but for many, the smaller room remains the most common context in which business presentations take place. Perhaps more than those in the other fields we have discussed, business professionals find themselves meeting with potential clients and delivering pitches in a mediated environment. Computer technologies such as WebEx, GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, and Zoom make it possible for individuals to hold videoconferences during which they can share one computer screen with all attendees, such as when a PowerPoint presentation is used, or to hold videoconferences using webcams, similar to a Skype videoconference, with a large group of people. It is increasingly common for members of the same division or team to be located in different areas of the country or for sales teams to work with clients who are located far away. By giving presentations and holding meetings virtually, businesses can connect with more clients in more locations, reduce travel costs associated with on-location meetings, and reduce the need for and expense of office space, since employees can often work from home. For this reason, it is essential for business professionals to learn how to craft, deliver, and respond to presentations in mediated settings. Audiences also vary for business professionals, depending upon their occupation. Accountants, for example, often deliver financial information internally to colleagues who have only a passing understanding of financial

information. Salespersons, on the other hand, attempt to persuade external parties to buy products or services. Members of the management team may do both of these tasks as well as attempt to inspire their staffs to excel and hit their targets. All of these contexts require very different understandings of context and audience but are essential for a business to thrive and survive. It is no surprise that faculty and employers all want students to learn the skills we are teaching you in this book.

Speaking in Health Care Settings Health professionals speak in a variety of contexts, and effective communication is now seen as so important that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has announced that interpersonal and communication skills will be one of six competencies that will be measured and reported in order for a program to remain accredited. 7 Why do those responsible for overseeing medical education think that communication skills are so important? The ability to communicate effectively with other members of the medical team and with patients is crucial for ensuring effective health care. Health care professionals speak in a variety of contexts, but it is most common to speak to a small group in an intimate situation. Health professionals, including doctors, nurses, dentists, physical therapists, and others, must be able to speak effectively with other members of a health care team. Whether it's sharing a plan before doing a procedure, sharing information about patients when changing shifts, or discussing a diagnosis and trying to decide which treatment is the best course of action, health professionals must be able to speak effectively so that they can share information accurately and quickly in order to ensure the best possible medical care and prevent mistakes. Equally important, health professionals must have strong communication skills to speak with patients. Every conversation with a patient requires the same skills as a more formal presentation: health professionals must adjust their language to the audience and the situation, organize information clearly, use visual aids to enhance comprehension of the material, use informative speaking strategies to teach about health conditions and explain treatments, and use persuasive speaking skills to persuade others to follow care instructions.

7. Thomas J. Nasca, Ingrid Philibert, Timothy Brigham, and Timothy C. Flynn, "The Next GME Accreditation System- Rationale and Benefits." NewEngland]auma1of Medicine Special Reports 366, no. II (March 2012): 1051-56, https://do i.org/10.10561NEJMsrl200117.

However, it is important to note that health professionals also give presentations to much larger audiences from time to time. Health professionals might teach community first aid and birthing classes, give presentations to students at a local school, give presentations at conferences, or even give expert testimony in a trial. In these situations, it is likely that the health professional will be standing in front of a seated audience and, in larger venues, might need to use a microphone and visual aids.

Summary In this chapter. we began to shift our attention from some basic communication principles toward an application of those principles in specific professions. We began by explaining the three aspects of context that are common regardlFss of your career path. We then exp lored how each of those three characteristics manifest themselves within the public speaking settings of five different professional and at.:ademic fields: politics, educaTion. STEM. business. and health care. As we move through the remainder of the book, we ret urn to these three aspects of context to illustrate practical applications and scenarios in which speech played a role for people in these fields .

Activities

Think about a possible situation in which you will need to give a speech in the future. What are some contextual factors that you will need to consider and adapt to in that situation?

What are three ways that you will use public speaking in your future career? What are some of the biggest communication challenges you will likely face in your future career?

CHAPTER

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY Objectives 0 Learn how culture and diversity impact communication with others 0 Understand how specific categories of cultural backgrounds create diverse audiences 0 Enhance communication with diverse groups of people in a variety of situations We live in an increasingly global society, and understanding how this impacts your communication with others is incredibly important. Now, more than ever, speakers encounter diverse audiences, work with a variety of different colleagues, and live in communities with people who are different than them in some ways. Appreciating the backgrounds and the experiences of others helps us become more effective communicators because we become sensitive and respectful toward others when we speak, making it more likely that they will listen to what we have to say. In this chapter, we explain how culture and diversity impact our communication with others. First, we define culture and unpack the different dimensions of it. We then provide some detail on specific categories of backgrounds that create and influence the diverse audiences we encounter when we communicate in almost any context. Finally, we offer some concrete suggestions for enhancing your ability to interact successfully with diverse groups of people in a variety of situations.

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE According to the Oxford English Dictionary, culture is "the distinctive ideas, customs, social behavior, products, or way of life of a particular nation, society, people, or period." 1 Geert Hofstede, one of the first social psychologists I. Oxfo rd English Dictionary online, s.v. "culture." h ttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american

_english/cu lture.

culture the collective programming ofth• mind distinguishin! the members of on group or category c people from anoth•

to study culture, defines culture as "the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another. The 'category' can refer to nations, regions within or across nations, ethnicities, religions, occupations, organizations, or the genders." 2 No matter which definition you prefer, culture is a complicated and powerful component of human development and life. It influences our self-concept, our priorities, our personalities, and the ways we communicate with one another. Culture, however, is not so simple as to say a person belongs in, or is affected co-cultures a variety of smaller, specific cultures that intersect in our lives

by, only one culture; the fact is, we belong to and are impacted by a variety of smaller, specific cultures that intersect in our lives. These smaller groups, called co-cultures, exist within and alongside larger cultural groups, allowing individuals to simultaneously belong to several cultures and co-cultures. Let's look at an example to illustrate how cultures work and collide in our lives. Darius grew up in a Russian -American family and is a practicing Roman Catholic. Darius happens to be quite proud of his ethnic heritage, and also makes sure he goes to Mass every Sunday. That said, he does not speak Russian, nor does he agree with all the Church's teachings. Nevertheless, many of the customs and beliefs of both groups inform Darius's perspective on the world around him. Many of his friends in the neighborhood he lives in are Russian, and he belongs to the Knights of Columbus as well, but none of his Russian neighborhood friends are affiliated with that organization. Darius belongs to both cultures, which constitute co-cultures within the larger American or Western culture. One type of culture that is particularly influential is national culture. The specific traditions of a national culture vary greatly between countries, but their national cultures can all be understood through six consistent dimensions. Hofstede identified the following six dimensions that help us understand differences in national cultures: 0 High vs. Low Power Distance: Cultures with high power distance have high levels of inequality in power distribution in organizations, families, and other institutions; cultures with low power distance, on the other hand, have less inequality. This is best understood through where power lies in social structures. For example, democratic countries typically have low power distance because everyone has an equal share in decisions, while high power distance is best 2. Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede, "Culture," Geert Hofstede 2013, http://www.geerthofstede.nl/.

characterized by monarchies and dictatorships where only a few have access to power and others are removed from decision-making. 0 High vs. Low Uncertainty Avoidance: Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance have a low tolerance for ambiguity and minimize the possibility of uncomfortable, unstructured situations by enforcing strict rules, safety measures, and a belief in absolute truth. Cultures with low uncertainty avoidance have fewer rules, take risks, and are more tolerant of change. 0 Individualism vs. Collectivism: Individualistic societies have loose ties between individuals and expect each person to look out for him/herself and their immediate family. Collectivist cultures have strong ties between individuals and strong communal bonds, and members of those cultures often live in extended families that are deeply loyal to the group. 0 Masculinityvs. Femininity: Masculinity and femininity refer to the distribution of emotional roles between the genders and the difference in the values of men and women. In masculine cultures, men are typically highly assertive and competitive, and women are somewhat assertive and competitive. In feminine cultures, men and women are both much more modest and caring. 0 Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation: Cultures with long-term orientation are pragmatic and focus on future rewards, with an emphasis on saving, persistence, and adaptation. Cultures with short-term orientation focus on the present and past and emphasize national pride, tradition, social obligations, and saving "face" in the here and now. 0 Indulgence vs. Restraint: Indulgent cultures freely allow gratification of desires that allow individuals to enjoy life and have fun. Restrained cultures have strict social norms and discourage acting simply out of want. It is easy to see how different nations and countries can differ along these

spectrums. It is important to note, though, that Hofstede felt that these dimensions fell along a continuum, and do not exist as simply "either-or." For example, a culture is not either collectivistic or individualistic, but falls somewhere in between each on a spectrum. In addition to the six dimensions of culture identified by Hofstede, Edward T. Hall explains that most national cultures can also be identified by how much importance is placed on nonverbal cues. 3 In low-context cultures, such as 3. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (New York: Doubleday, 1976).

low-context cultt culture where mear is derived mostly fr the language used in an interaction, and very little emphasis is placed on the nonverbal communication, environment, and situation

high-context culture culture where meaning is derived from the nonverbal expressions, environment, and situation in which the communication is taking place, and less emphasis is placed on the words

the United States and Germany, meaning is derived mostly from the Ianguage used in an interaction, and very little emphasis is placed on the nonverbal communication, environment, and situation. In high-context cultures, such as Korea and Saudi Arabia, a great deal of meaning is derived

from the nonverbal expressions, environment, and situation in which the communication is taking place, and less emphasis is placed on the words. These seven different dimensions of culture allow us to begin to understand the complexity of different cultures. This understanding can enhance our ability to interact with people by helping us see how they might differ from us in terms of values along these continuums. Next we will explore some different cultural categories in addition to nationality, beginning with race and ethnicity.

RACE AND ETH NICITY race a set of physical characteristics shared by a group of people, such as skin color, body type, facial structure, and hair color

ethnicity a group of people who identify with each other based on a common experience, which might include geographic or national origin, ancestry, history, cultural and social norms, religion, race, language, ideology, food, dress, or other factors

A common cultural marker happens to also be a demographic category we find on college and job applications, census data, and other types of reports. Race refers to a set of physical characteristics shared by a group of people,

such as skin color, body type, facial structure, and hair color. These physical characteristics are genetically inherited and reflect adaptations to the geographic region in which someone's ancestors previously lived. However, there is no biological difference between races in other characteristics, such as intelligence, athleticism, or other abilities. Due in large part to the fact that these characteristics developed in particular groups in specific regions, those groups created a culture themselves because ofthe fact that they lived within close proximity. The common physical characteristics helped individuals identify with each other and eventually form communities together. Another cultural marker that developed due to the close proximity of people is ethnicity, but ethnicity should not be confused with race. Ethnicity refers to a group of people who identify with each other based on a common experience, which might include geographic or national origin, ancestry, history, cultural and social norms, religion, race, language, ideology, food, dress, or other factors. Ethnicity can sometimes (but not always) be related to national heritage. At times, violent conflicts and disputes evolve out of differences in ethnic heritage and values between two or more groups. The results of these conflicts can sometimes create new national boundaries, such as when the former Yugoslavia split into the nations that exist today. At other times, several ethnic groups might co-exist in the same nation. In fact, Tufts professor

Colin Woodard argues that the United States is really made up of eleven nations, each of which has a different history, ancestry, and set of deepseated attitudes. 4 A recent example of ethnic tension can be seen in the Crimean region of the Ukraine, where Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine sought support from the Russian Federation when the political situation in the country became unstable. Ukrainian nationals in Crimea disagreed with this approach and an international crisis-which has yet to be resolved-ensued. Ethnic heritage can also be a source of reinforcement for individual identity through cultural celebrations. Twice a year in some major American cities, Italian Americans celebrate the Feast of San Gennaro, a food festival central to their culture. A number of cities also have areas designated as Little Italy, Little China, and so on where people who share that ethnic heritage settled. These areas offer a great opportunity to explore some of the ethnic differences between people in fun, interesting, and if you like food, tasty ways.

SEX, GENDER, AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION Another set of significant cultural categories refers to one's physical, psychological, and romantic definitions of their identity. To properly appreciate how these aspects of a person's self-concept relate to culture, we must first differentiate between the ways we define our sexuality. According to the American Psychological Association, sex refers to one's biological classification as male, female, or intersex (having both male and female physical characteristics) based on one's reproductive organs and chromosomes. 5 Sex is an objective way of identifying the group to which a person belongs based on biology. Often, job applications and college applications ask for this information, but are prohibited from using it to make job hiring decisions.

sex one's biological classification as rna female, or intersex (having both male and female physica characteristics) based on one's reproductive organ' and chromosomes

gender Sex is also often incorrectly used as a synonym for gender, and the two are actually quite different. Gender is a social construction that includes all of the beliefs, attitudes, actions, and roles associated with being masculine or feminine. One's biological sex does inform one's gender identity, but gender is more than a simple reflection of physical characteristics. Gender includes one's psychological sense of self as being male or female, regardless of their physical biology. Gender also includes the societal expectations for 4. Colin Woodard, "Up in Arms," Tufts Magazine, Fall 2013, http:// www.tufts.edu/alumni!magazine/fall2013/ features/up-in-arms.html. 5. American Psychological Association, "Practice Guidelines for LGB Clients," accessed 2014, https://www.apa. org/pillgbt/resources/guidelines.

a social constructio that includes all of the beliefs, attitudE actions, and roles associated with bei masculine or femin

behaviors, attitudes, and roles filled by feminine- or masculine-minded individuals. It is important to note that these expectations vary by the larger culture in which one exists. Where biology defines our sex, psychology creates our gender identity. If a person's gender identity matches the sex characteristics with which they were born, they are considered cisgender, and would likely categorize themselves as male or female. If a person's gender identity is different than the sex characteristics with which they were born, they are considered transgender, and would likely categorize themselves as trans male or trans female. Someone who does not consider themselves to be male or female in gender might identify themselves as gender queer or gender nonconforming. sexual orientation refers to the sex and gender to whom a person is romantically and sexually attracted to

In addition to the physical and psychological aspects of our sexuality, there is an emotional and romantic dimension as well. A person's sexual orientation refers to the sex and gender to whom a person is romantically and sexually attracted. Sexual orientation includes many categories along a continuum. The three most common categories are: heterosexual (attracted to members of the opposite sex), gay or lesbian (attracted to members of the same sex), and bisexual (attracted to members of both sexes). The declaration and enactment of sexual orientation is both an intensely personal decision and, for some people, a public declaration of belonging to a group. This public declaration of belonging to a group presents us with an example of how sexual orientation can be construed as a culture. Many cities across the globe hold Gay Pride Parades which, in effect, are public celebrations of LGBTQculture. These parades reinforce ties between individuals who identify with this culture and help serve to promote their beliefs, attitudes, and values.

AGE We do not often think of age as a cultural marker, but it definitely operates as one in any society. While none of us will be the same age for the rest of our lives, age is not a permanent characteristic; a person's age may tell you something about their life experiences, as well as some possible attitudes and beliefs they may hold. Let's look at a few examples of different generational cultures in the United States: 6 0 The GI Generation: Also sometimes referred to as the Greatest

Generation, this is the generation that fought during World War II. 6. Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage, 2000).

0 The Silent Generation: This generation was too young to fight in World War II, but came into adulthood during the rise of the middle class and the relatively prosperous time that followed. 0 The Baby Boomers: The children of the GI generation; they grew up with Woodstock and the Vietnam War. People in this generation tended to focus on careers and set high expectations for their children. 0 Generation X: Born between the mid-l960s and 1980, many Gen Xers were "latchkey kids" and came from families with high rates of divorce. People of this generation often value self-reliance and maintaining a work-life balance. 0 The Millennials: Born between 1982 and 2004, millenials grew up in an increasingly electronic and online world. This generation is the most ethnically diverse and is most tolerant of difference, but also has the largest amount of student loan debt of any generation. The generation that each person lives in shapes their experiences, expectations, and attitudes toward others. Not everyone from a specific generation acts and believes the same way, but people always identify with the times in which they grew up. As these different generational groupings illustrate, age as a cultural group is not as simple as labeling someone "old" and "young," or "elderly" and "middle-aged." Those labels are defined purely by anumber and fail to recognize the importance of the experiences each person lives through and how those experiences inform a person's generational culture.

PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DIVERSITY Age, ethnicity, race, and sexuality are not the only ways in which we are different. In fact, unless you have an identical twin, you are probably the only person who looks exactly like you, acts like you, and thinks like you. When you consider that there are now over seven billion people on earth, there is inevitably a great deal of physical diversity among humans. However, our differences go beyond appearances to include abilities. Some people have especially high levels of specific physical abilities (for instance, Usain Bolt holds world records in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes), while others have different levels of specific physical abilities (for example, Helen Keller could not see or hear). These differences make us no better or worse than someone else, but rather, add to the richness of the human experience.

At some point, most, if not all, of us will experience some type of physical or cognitive impairment. Some of these are permanent, while others are temporary; some are due to genetics, others still an illness or accident. For example, some people are born blind, while others may develop blindness due to macular degeneration or an accident. Furthermore, other people may temporarily lose their sight after surgery as well. This is important to note because not all people with the same impairment are the same, they just may simply share a limitation or different level of ability. Above all, it is important to note that these differences do not define the person, but rather are a part of them, just as are their age, ethnicity, and race. Likewise, there is great diversity in our cognitive abilities and preferences. There is a broad range in IQ, learning styles and preferences, interests, memory, and experiences among people. Many cognitive challenges-such as dyslexia, ADHD, Alzheimer's, or memory loss-are not immediately apparent when we meet someone. Like the physical impairments we discussed a moment ago, some people live with these challenges for their entire life, while others might experience them for a shorter period of time. For example, medication or a concussion can temporarily impact a person's shortterm memory, while the effects of Alzheimer's are permanent.

IDEOLOGICAL DIVERSITY ideology a set of ideas, beliefs, and ideals that form our worldview and provide a basis for action

Thus far, we have primarily focused on physical differences between people, but the diversity of thought is just as important. Often the debate over this emerges in politics, where people hold different ideas on policy and effective governance. These views are the result of a commitment to an ideology, or set of ideas, beliefs, and ideals that form our worldview and provide a basis for action. Ideology forms the basis for political beliefs and is heavily influenced by both the family and society in which we grow up. As Colin Woodard showed when defining the eleven nations of the US, there is a great deal of ideological diversity even within the United States, and that ideological diversity expands even more when we consider the entire globe. 7 Not every country has, or even wants, a democracy. That said, let's focus a bit on ideological diversity in the United States specifically. We often think of the United States as practicing a two-party system, and for all practical purposes this is true, but to believe the two parties contain groups that completely agree or share worldviews would be foolish. The 7. Woodard, "Up in Arm s," http:/I www.tufts.edu/alumnilmagazine/fall2013/ featur es/up-in-arms.html .

Democratic Party, for example, consists of people who care about different issues in varying degrees, and this sometimes manifests in intra-party squabbles. Some Democrats care about limiting government spending (they are sometimes called Blue Dog Democrats), while others are more concerned with civil rights and social issues. They do not act in unison on every issue. The same can be said for Republicans, who consist of some libertarians who believe in a very small government, others who care about advancing social issues from a religious perspective, and others still who want to lower taxes and promote business. The fact of the matter is the two parties merely cloud the vast political and ideological diversity that exists in the United States. To use "liberal vs. conservative" dichotomies to describe people and groups does not come close to acknowledging the variety of thought on public issues that exists in the United States.

RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY One final area of difference that both creates its own cultural norms and also enhances diversity in the United States and around the world is religion. There are numerous faiths practiced in the United States. Despite the prevalence of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), each contributes to the fabric of our culture in their own way. In 2009, the US Census Bureau issued a statistical breakdown of the religious affiliations of people in the United States. In it they found a tremendous amount of diversity, including within Christian faiths. For instance, the report lumped thirty different denominations of Christianity under one group; each of these faiths has different religious perspectives, practices, and beliefs. The report also included a note to the growing number of Muslim, Wiccan, Buddhist, and nonreligious persons in the US. 8 The growth of nonreligious and unaffiliated but spiritual people requires some discussion. It is a mistake to assume the beliefs of someone based on their specific affiliation, just as it is unwise to assume someone has no faith or belief in morality/spirituality because they are unaffiliated with a religious group. Many people still hold these beliefs privately, and should not be discounted or counted simply based on the religious groups with which they identify. Understanding and appreciating these differences, while not

8. U.S. Cen sus Bureau, "Table 75. Self-Described Re ligious Identification of Adult Population : 1990 to 2008," Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, https://www2 .census.govllibrary/publicationsl2010/compendia/ statab/130ed/tables/lls0075. pdf.

necessarily agreeing with them, is essential for developing a respectful community in which to live. Religious groups also play important roles in local, state, and national communities. They often do good work on behalf of the communities in which their members live and help promote charitable endeavors across the world. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples also practice their own cultures by providing members with opportunities to connect with each other and share stories and experiences. These efforts build their religious culture, but also help to contribute to the larger communal culture.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS socioeconomic status a person's relative position in society, usually measured as a combination of their education, income, and occupation

Another way in which the experiences of individuals differ is socioeconomic status, or the experiences that accompany someone's access to economic resources. Socioeconomic status is usually measured as a combination of someone's education, income, and occupation. 9 What each person considers to be a "normal" part of life, the careers we choose, our expectations, the types of support we might or might not receive from family members, what we believe is attainable, what we eat, where we shop, the type of entertainment we tend to seek out, the types of exercise we select (if any), how we expect to be treated by others, what we think of as expensive or inexpensive, and more are influenced by our own socioeconomic status and the socioeconomic status of the family in which we were raised.

COMMUNICATION, CULTURE, DIVERSITY, AND DIALOGUE As a speaker and listener, it is important to understand, acknowledge, and

appreciate the many dimensions that impact each person's identity and contribute to diverse human experiences and cultural differences that coexist in our society. The differences in language, experiences, values, beliefs, and perspectives can enrich our lives in many ways, but also first requires communication grounded in the purpose of understanding others. It requires us to be perceptive of both the context in which we find ourselves and the way that context might be different for someone else.

9. "Socioeconomic Status," American Psych ological Association, accessed 2016, http://www.apa.org/topics/ socioeconomic-status/.

So far, this chapter has focused primarily on describing some of the differences experienced by groups of individuals to help us build a greater understanding of others and to help to provide a shared language for identifying and describing those differences. However, we must go beyond simply understanding that differences exist and work toward understanding one another, respecting each person's dignity and individual experience, and communicating effectively in ways that help us see beyond our differences. In this final section, we provide several tips to help enhance your ability to use communication to understand and respect differences between people, and then discuss the concept and practice of dialogue as a vehicle to promote understanding. 0 Don't try to define others based on a single demographic characteristic. While it is helpful to understand the ways that various demographic and personal characteristics might influence a person's experience and ways of communicating, we should recognize that a single characteristic does not make up someone's entire experience. Each person's perspective is shaped by a complex combination of experiences, including, but certainly not limited to, each of the dimensions discussed in this chapter. Those unique combinations help each of us see the world a little bit differently. 0 Use appropriate terminology that is respectful of differences. Much of this chapter was descriptive and helped to provide terminology that is generally considered appropriate and respectful when describing specific differences, but is certainly not comprehensive in doing so. When you are speaking with or describing others, use the most respectful language possible. If someone shares terminology that they prefer to describe specific characteristics of themselves, use their preferred terminology. Language is constantly evolving to reflect our changing world and experiences, and this includes the language that we use to describe aspects of our identity. 0 Make the message accessible. As a speaker, it is important to consider the range of abilities in your audience and to adapt your presentation where possible to help the entire audience understand what you are saying. For instance, you might need to add captions to film clips, avoid combining red and green on slides so that those with colorblindness can read your text, and include signposts and transitions that make it easy for your audience to follow along if their attention wavers for a few moments. Using microphones, handouts,

and other assistive methods may help people better follow your message, regardless of any limitations or challenges they may have. 0 Don't highlight differences in others. Though you might think that acknowledging the different abilities or backgrounds of others during a speech makes you seem like you understand them or are trying to help them, highlighting those differences is often unwelcome. It calls others out in front of the audience and specifically heightens the differences that might have been intended to remain private. Whenever possible, if you need to make accommodations during your speech to make your message accessible to meet the needs of specific individuals, do so in a way that makes the accommodation for the entire audience without drawing unnecessary attention to any one person or group so that you do not unintentionally segregate your audience. 0 Avoid "-ist" language. This is the type oflanguage that demeans, ignores, inappropriately calls attention to, or disrespects members of a separate culture or group. This includes ageist, racist, and sexist language that does not respect the humanity of other people. This type of language depicts the other group as a passive object and not an active subject, thus making them seem less than the group of the person making the statement. dialogue speaking in a way that encourages others to listen, and listening in a way that encourages others to speak

In addition to these tips, a commitment to ethical communication is central to respecting diversity. This ethical commitment is made real through the practice of dialogue, or speaking in a way that encourages others to listen and listening in a way that encourages others to speak. 10 In addition, dialogue is communication where the goal of both the speaker and the listener is to understand, not necessarily agree with, the other. Dialogue is key to respecting diversity because it encourages us to understand, though not always agree with, the experiences, perspectives, practices, and beliefs of others. Dialogue is not easy and requires a variety of different skills. First, it involves listening with an open mind and not pre-judging other individuals based on incomplete information or stereotypes. To do this, we must also engage in the dialogue through asking clarifying questions to make sure we understand what the other person is saying before making a decision regarding their statements. These questions should not come in the form of interruptions, but rather after individuals are done speaking. Dialogue also asks us to respect the inherent humanity of the other person in the interaction, and not devalue them or their experiences because they may be different. In 10. Em Griffin, A First Look at Communication Theory, 8th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011).

short, avoid being ethnocentric, or believing your group's perspective is the only correct one and thus judging others based on their conformity to your way of doing things. Dialogue allows us to appreciate cultural differences in a respectful way, thus keeping those aspects of diversity that improve our lives and communities. As you can see, communication is the core of a robust, vibrant, and interest-

ing community that values diversity in appearance, action, and thought.

Summary In this chapter, we discussed the relationship between culture. communication, and diversity. We first explained the theoretical underpinnings of culture and explored the various dimensions all national cultures share to some extent. We then discussed several categories of difference that are their own cultural groups and contribute to a diverse society. We also offered some suggestions for how to effectively engage in understanding and appreciating difference through communication. specifically by practicing dialogue.

Key Terms co-cultures 68 culture 67

ideology 74 low-context culture 69

dialogue 78 ethnicity 70 ethnocentric 79

race 70 sex 71 sexual orientation 72 socioeconomic status 76

gender 71 high-context culture 70

Activities

What are some of the cultures and co-cultures that you identify with? How have these cultures and co-cultures impacted your everyday experiences?

Which national culture most strongly influences you and your family? Identify where you think that culture fits into each of the seven dimensions of culture. (For instance , it is a high or low power distance culture?) How does this culture influence the way that you interact with others?

ethnocentric believing your grour perspective is the 01 correct one and thu: judging others base on their conformity to your way of doin~ things

Watch this video on privilege: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= hD5f8GuNuGQ. How would you define privilege? In what ways have you experienced privilege (or the lack thereof) in your life? How do your experiences help you to understand visible and invisible types of diversity.

CHAPTER

TOPIC SELECTION Objectives 0 Identify appropriate speech topics 0 Help develop appropriately narrowed topics 0 Determine specific purpose for speeches The first and perhaps most important task in the speech-makingprocess is to select your topic. In some situations this can be difficult, and in others it is easy because the topic has already been provided. Determining what to speak about is also called the process of invention because it involves the creation of not only your topic but also what you plan to say about it. Topic selection is a creative process that allows you to identify what you want your audience to

invention the creation of a to1 and how it will be addressed

understand by sharing with them how you understand the topic. In this chapter, we will provide guidelines to help you develop your speech topics. This process begins broadly, with establishing the general purpose of your speech. Once this is clearly laid out, you will begin to narrow that p\lrpose to a specific topic. When you have a more concrete topic, you will then narrow your purpose even further by stating what it is you want to specifically say about that topic. Let's begin by discussing how we figure out the general purpose of a speech.

GENERAL PURPOSE STATEMENTS Every speech begins with a general idea. This general idea covers what you want to do with your presentation. Do you want to inform an audience? Persuade them? Perhaps celebrate some accomplishment? Each of these is a very broad and general purpose, but it helps you begin to identify what you might say in your speech. For that reason, it is important to start by clearly general purpose writing your general purpose statement. statement

A general purpose statement is brief, usually only a few short words. It describes the type or category of speech you will prepare and deliver. There are three types of general purpose statements: those for informative speeches, persuasive speeches, and commemorative speeches. As you

a brief statement representing what' aim to do with the speech; there are tl types

develop your speech, this general purpose can help guide what you choose to say and how you deliver it to the audience. An informative speech gives the audience information but does not try to

convince an audience to do or believe something. Think about instructors' lectures as speeches with the general purpose "to inform." In fact, the general purpose statement for any informative speech begins with "to inform," "to describe," or "to demonstrate." Notice how these general purposes would be helpful if you found yourself veering off and making a case for the audience to agree with something, rather than staying true to informing, describing, or demonstrating something. A persuasive speech has a much different general purpose than an informative speech. Persuasive speeches are intended to change or to reinforce the audience's attitudes, actions, beliefs, or values. These speeches might try to convince the audience to take a particular position on an issue or to induce the audience to take a course of action. Clearly, the general purpose moves beyond informing, describing, and demonstrating. A persuasive speech's general purpose statement is "to persuade" or "to convince." Again, as with an informative speech's general purpose statement, these can help you stay on track when writing the body of your speech. A commemorative speech is generally a speech of celebration, honoring someone, or presenting or accepting an award, such as a wedding toast or a funeral eulogy. Here the purpose is not to simply describe something, as in an informative speech, nor is it to try to convince someone of something, as in a persuasive speech. The general purpose of a commemorative speech is "to honor," "to commemorate," or "to celebrate." Each of these phrases gives a different tone to the speech than that of a persuasive or informative speech. After you decide on the general purpose, you should choose and begin to narrow your topic. This next step is crucial because topics that are too broad will lack substance. For example, an informative speech on the Olympics is extremely broad and could include any number of items. A speech that encapsulates all aspects of the Olympics would take weeks to deliver, and even then it is unlikely that all of it would be covered. There have been books and documentaries about one specific Olympic event, just one sport, or even just one athlete. So, with that in mind and with your general purpose clear, it is time to begin focusing your topic.

CHOOSING YOUR TOPIC Once you know what your general purpose is, the next step is to choose something more concrete upon which to speak. Topics can be chosen in a variety of different ways, depending upon your situation. In many cases, the occasion will determine your topic. At other times you might be asked to speak about something on which you have knowledge or experience. In still other cases, you might decide you want to speak about something that piques your curiosity; sometimes you want to learn about something new and share it with your audience. This last situation maybe the case in most classrooms, but when you are speaking as part of your career, you often do not get this opportunity. In many professional situations in business the occasion will dictate your topic. For instance, salesmen try to sell particular products, thus limiting their ability to create a topic from their own interests. CEOs will provide input on the company to stockholders and employees, again dictated by the situation in which they find themselves. Accountants need to prepare updates on financial information for presentations to colleagues. In each instance, the meeting situation dictates the topic to the speaker. Despite the overwhelming influence of meeting types on selecting a topic, there are times when you might be called upon to speak based on your knowledge or expertise. For example, people who possess expert knowledge in science and engineering are often asked to explain those concepts to an audience with general knowledge. Think about doctors and medical researchers who try to explain cancer, heart disease, and other health risks to patients and advocacy groups, or engineers who need to describe structural changes to bridges and buildings. Experts from medical fields are sometimes called upon as expert witnesses in court cases. In each of these scenarios people from STEM and health care professions give presentations in which their topics flow from their area of expertise. There are also times when your topic is something that interests you, but it is not very familiar to you. When this happens you teach yourself about your topic through your research, and then you teach it to the audience. This opportunity is rare in the professional world but very common in the classroom, where you are encouraged to explore ideas and topics that you are curious about. In education, instructors sometimes develop seminars and courses designed around ideas they want to study. These chances, though

rare, are something you should take advantage of because they give you the opportunity to expand your knowledge. Whichever of these approaches you choose for selecting a topic, it is imperative for you to narrow that topic to something that can be reasonably explored and covered in the amount of time you have for the presentation. In the next section of this chapter, we will discuss how to narrow a topic to a focus that fits your time.

NARROWING THE TOPIC The amount of time you may have to narrow your topic will vary, but in most instances, classes allow more time than the professional world for generating presentations and so give you more time to narrow your topic. Classroom settings mirror professional situations when it comes time for speeches; there are time constraints, and your professor will likely give you minimum

brainstorm to create a list of possible topics and keep adding to this list as you think of new ideas

and maximum time limits for your speech. Many professors will penalize your grade for violating the time target, much like going over the time limit will result in a negative experience in the professional world. This is why it is important to develop skills for quickly narrowing the topic of your speech. One of the most common methods for doing so is to brainstorm (Figure 7.1).

.... 'T" ~

BRAINSTORM

L broad

organize ideas

narrow

specific

general

Figure 7.1 Brainstorm_

Brainstorming involves generating ideas and listing them as they come to mind. The process of narrowing your topic begins with writing down as many ideas as you can come up with regarding a specific topic. In true brainstorming, the strength lies in the spontaneous generation of ideas; initially, every idea is accepted. These ideas can be broad, narrow, specific, or general,

because at this point, it doesn't matter what they are. The list is then organized from general or broad to narrow and specific categories under the broader labels. lhis helps organize your ideas into a more coherent model for coverage of topics.

CONCEPTMAP topic

topic topic topic

topic topic Figure 7.2 Concept map

In addition to, or perhaps even in conjunction with, brainstorming, there is another tool you can use to help narrow and focus your topic: a concept map (Figure 7.2). A concept map, also known as a mind map, is a visual representation of the potential areas you could cover in your speech. This more visual model illustrates relationships between the ideas you generated as part of brainstorming. In a concept map, you circle topics that have certain things in common and draw a line connecting them to another group of ideas to which they relate. This visual representation makes it easier for you to understand your topic and eventually helps you organize your ideas into an outline for your speech. Another strategy you can use is to analyze your ideas and choose those that are most important or interesting. Once you develop your concept map and have a better idea of what you plan to talk about, you need to begin considering what aspects of the topic fit in the time you have to deliver the speech. There are three ways to go about making choices about what to cut and what to leave in the speech. You can choose to cover the most important elements of the topic, you can choose the most interesting or fascinating aspects of the topic, or you can combine the important with the interesting. A topic will likely have several elements, but it is unlikely they will be equally necessary for the audience to know. For example, suppose you chose to deliver a speech on the AIDS virus to your class. You brainstormed the topic and generated the following potential topics: history of the virus, biology of the virus, affected populations, government treatment programs, famous people with AIDS, and medical treatments for the disease. Any one of these is too large for

concept map also known as a mind map; a visual representation of th potential areas that you could cover in Y' speech

you to speak about to your class, so you then decide to brainstorm more and come up with Magic Johnson, Arthur Ashe, Mary Fisher, AZT, blood transfusions, the homosexual community, AIDS orphans, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and contaminated needles. Now you are starting to see some links between broader and more specific ideas for your presentation. This particular speech cannot cover all of these points, so you need to choose what to cover. You can elect to cover what you deem the most important elements of the topic, you can include the most interesting points about it in your presentation, or you can combine both. Looking at our example, the most important elements might be how the disease is transmitted and what segments of the population are most at risk. On the other hand, it might be more interesting to the audience to hear about famous individuals who contracted the disease, such as Mary Fisher, Magic Johnson, and Arthur Ashe. Finally, you could decide that the best way to go would be to combine parts of both and talk about at-risk populations and then talk about how PrEP can be used to prevent HIV transmission in high-risk populations. Whatever route you choose, you have successfully employed brainstorming and concept mapping to appropriately narrow your speech's topic. Knowing the elements of your speech topic is half the battle, and it was only made possible with a clear general purpose statement and time spent generating ideas for what to cover in the speech. Now that you have a narrow enough topic, some subpoints related to the topic, and a rough idea of how these all fit together, it is time to clearly articulate a specific purpose statement. In the next section of this chapter, we will discuss what this is and how you can effectively create one for your presentations.

Teacher Tips When you are creating lesson plans, think about each class period as an informative presentation. You will probably know what your general purpose for each class period is based on your syllabus, but you will still need to narrow your general purpose to a more specific purpose statement that will allow you to develop a thesis statement and main points. Here are a few tips: 0 Before you begin creating your lesson plans, brainstorm all of the things that you could teach about your topic.

0 Choose the most important topics from your list to focus on. 0 Organize your topics in a logical order. For example, if you are teaching elementary school students about clouds, you probably need to instruct students about the different kinds of cloud formations before they can understand how to predict the weather by looking at the clouds. 0 Focus on quality, not quantity. It's better if students learn a few key concepts really well than to cover as many topics or textbook pages as possible in a class period.

Other contexts where these skills appry: Human Resources, Corporate Training, and Sales specific purpose statement

DETERMINING THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE The specific purpose statement is derived from both the general purpose and the topic of your speech. It is a far more concise statement than the general purpose and serves as a guide as you go forward developing your speech. Specific purpose statements are composed of one declarative sentence that notes what you will talk about, how you will talk about it, and what you want the audience to walk away with at the end of the speech. Look at your specific purpose as an umbrella; everything you do in your speech should fit under this umbrella. You might discover some interesting information, but if it doesn't fall under the specific purpose, then it probably should not be included in your speech. To include this information might be interesting to the audience, but it will also confuse them and detract from the central idea you wish to communicate. The specific purpose should have a sharp focus. Let's look at an example of a specific purpose: "My speech will inform my audience that the process of hosting a dinner party requires a focus on detail that begins with determiningwhen the party will occur, who will be invited, and what will be served." As you can see, this specific purpose statement provides a sharp and clear

focus for the speech. It indicates the general purpose of the speech (to inform), the topic of the speech (hosting dinner parties), and the main points you will cover (timing, invitations, and menu). This is clearly an informative presentation, but it also has a very sharp focus, making it easy for the audience to follow what you plan to say.

a narrower version ( the general purpose statement that identifies what you will talk about, whal you will say about it and what you hope the audience will ta away from the spee

Specific purpose statements for persuasive speeches are equally clear. Look at the following example: "My speech will convince my audience that Tiger Woods is the greatest PGAgolfer of all time due to his short, middle, and long game, plus his ability to handle pressure and the sheer number of tournaments he has won." Again, all three ofthe purposes mentioned above are accomplished. The central argument is clear (Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever), and the main points that support that claim also are indicated. This allows the audience to prepare to hear this information and think about how it connects to the central argument you make. In commemorative speeches, the specific purpose statement is different from the two previous examples we have discussed. Here is a commemorative speech specific purpose statement: "My speech will commemorate the occasion of Independence Day, a day when we celebrate the founding of our country, the principles that gave this country birth, and our development as a nation." Here we notice the general purpose of celebration, the topic (Independence Day), and the main ideas that are to be celebrated in the speech. In each of these three examples, you see how specific purpose statements help ground speeches in a central idea, prevent you as the speaker from going off on tangents, and provide the audience with a sense of how the speech will unfold.

Health Care Help Health care providers often give workshops to teach first aid or to teach people how to live well with a new health condition. For example, you might be invited to talk with a high school health class about nutrition, teach a roadside emergency class as part of a driv-

er's education class, teach a workshop about living with diabetes, or teach a birthing class. When teaching these sessions, keep these things in mind: 0 Be relevant. If you get to choose your topic, think about what is most important for your audience to know in their current situation. 0 Don't overwhelm your audience with more information than they can take in at once.

0 Keep solutions simple. Focus on things your audience can do to make the biggest difference. If you are breaking your presentation into points based on the steps in a

treatment, make them easy to remember. For example, you might remind your audience they just need to remember CAB (Chest compressions, Airway, Breathing) to do CPR, or to use RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) when treating common injuries.

Other contexts in which these skills appry: Management, Sales, and Government The specific purpose guides you in developing your speech and also serves as the foundation for creating your thesis statement. The thesis statement, which is the core idea you wish to communicate to your audience, comes from rewording the specific purpose statement so that it makes sense to an audience. Let's examine how we would retool the specific purpose statements from above so they work as thesis statements. Informative speech specific purpose statement: "My speech will inform my audience that the process of hosting a dinner party requires a focus on detail that begins with determining when the party will occur, who will be invited, and what will be served." Informative speech thesis statement: "Hosting a dinner party requires a focus on detail that begins with determining when the party will occur, who will be invited, and what will be served." As you can see, all three of the elements of the specific purpose statement

are there, but the thesis statement is constructed to make sense to your audience. The topic and structure of the statement changed very little in this example, except that the first few words of the specific purpose statement were eliminated. Let's see what happens when we use the persuasive speech specific purpose statement. Persuasive speech specific purpose statement: "My speech will convince my audience that Tiger Woods is the greatest PGAgolfer of all time due to his short, middle, and long game, plus his ability to handle pressure and the sheer number of tournaments he has won."

Persuasive speech thesis statement: "Tiger Woods is the greatest PGA golfer of all time due to his short, middle, and long game, plus his ability to handle pressure and the sheer number of tournaments he has won." The same minor changes result in creating a clear thesis statement. Dropping a few words is all it takes to change one to the other. Let's see if the same holds true for commemorative speech specific purpose statements. Commemorative speech specific purpose statement: "My speech will commemorate the occasion of Independence Day, a day when we celebrate the founding of our country, the principles that gave this country birth, and our development as a nation." Commemorative speech thesis statement: "Today we celebrate Independence Day, a day that marks the founding of our country, celebrates the principles that gave this country birth, and marvels at our development as a nation." Here the specific purpose statement and the thesis statement have more differences than a few simple words, but the essence of the idea is still the same. The changes only helped make the statement more appealing to the ear, rather than the eye; after all, the audience is hearing the statement, not reading it.

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSE STATEMENTS There are several things to keep in mind when creating the specific purpose statement. First, ensure that it is one statement. A specific purpose is just that: a statement, not a paragraph or an essay. The one-statement summary approach helps you stay focused and not put too much information in the speech. That said, just because it is a single statement does not mean it cannot have clauses embedded within it; in fact, if you look at the prior examples, there are several clauses in each specific purpose statement. These clauses also help keep you focused. Ultimately, if you have more than one sentence, you are trying to do too much in that speech, and it will confuse both the audience and you. It is also important that this single statement be declarative in nature. This

means that the sentence makes a statement and clearly says something. Go

back and review the statements we used as examples, and you will find that all of them are direct, easy to understand, and declare something that will be done. This declaration weds you to the topic, and the supporting structure you state will support your comments about that topic. Your specific purpose statement is essentially a declaration of intent to the audience regarding what you will say. Finally, understand that the specific purpose statement is not a rigid law by which you must abide but an evolutionary element of your speech. It can change based upon how you find the rest of your speech is corning together. In the end, the specific purpose statement must reflect how all the ideas fit together in your speech, but it can be adjusted as you craft the body of your speech. Summary

Choosing and narrowing a topil' can be a daunting task, even when the topic is provided to you in advance. It is a creative part of the speech-making process, and you must find a way to harness your creativity. In this chapter, we discussed how we invent or generate top · ics based upon identifying the general purpose of your prel>entation. We also discussed how to use brainstorming and concept mapping when developing ideas you think you might wish to include in your remark!>. Finally. we showed you how to combine your general pur· pose and ideas generated through brainstorming to create a clear and concise specific purpose statement.

Key Terms brainstorm 84 concept map 85 general purpose statement 81

invention 81 specific purpose statement 87

Activities

Take five minutes to brainstorm as many potential speech topics as possible. Write them down on a sheet of paper or inside the cover of your textbook so that you can refer back to this list throughout the course.

You will be preparing and delivering a speech in this class soon. While thinking about the guidelines for your next speech assignment, list three potential topics you might choose for that speech. For each topic,

explain why it would be appropriate for you, your audience, and the occasion.

For one of those three topics you chose in activity 2, write out your specific purpose statement. Next, convert your specific purpose statement into a thesis and preview of main points.

CHI~PTER

RESEARCH AND PREPARATION Objectives 0 Introduce aspects of what it means to be information literate 0 Provide details of where to research specific types of information 0 Detail tips for how to keep track of information gathered through research Once you identify your topic, the next step in developing your speech is researching to find the information you plan to use in your presentation. In all but a few cases, speeches require some degree of research, which helps you appear credible and will increase your ability to impact the audience. The information you gather must relate to your topic and to your central idea, and, perhaps most importantly, be data the audience will respect. On one hand, research has become easier today thanks to the internet, which provides people with access to vast stores of data. On the other hand, technology has made it much harder to differentiate between good, credible information and false data, or even opinions. The sheer amount of information available today makes the search for relevant and credible evidence more challenging. In this chapter, we address research and information used in speech construction. We will first explain information literacy, and then we will detail the general types of information you might encounter when researching. Next, we will discuss some places you might go to search for different types of information. Finally, we will cover the importance of keeping track of the information you find and plan to use in your speech.

INFORMATION LITERACY Media, friends, and family deluge us with new information every day. Websites, blogs, videos, advertisements, commercials, banners, billboards, radio programs, and email constantly present us with new information. Navigating through this colossal amount of visual and verbal stimuli makes

it essential for us to become critical consumers of information in our daily lives. The same skills are also necessary when looking for information while preparing a speech. For this reason, we need to familiarize ourselves with what it means to be information literate; the more clearly we understand information and how it works, the better we will be at crafting coherent arguments and ev~luating the arguments of others. In this section, we detail the various skills necessary to become information literate.

information literacy the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION LITERACY The American Library Association defines information literacy as the ability to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." 1 There are five characteristics of information literacy that you should consider as you conduct research:

Know why you want certain information for the speech. You may want the information to catch the audience's attention, to provide background facts, or to make an argument and try to persuade an audience. What you wish to achieve helps you determine where you will go to get the material to help you create your speech.

Know where to get the information you seek. Today we can sit with our computer, tablet, or mobile phone and access much more information than we need, and this can make it difficult for a researcher, especially a novice, to sift through all of the information to find quality sources. Though internet searches are easy to do, they usually result in an overwhelming number of sources with questionable credibility, so they are not typically the best way to begin to gather relevant research information. Most university and college libraries contain expansive online databases that include sources ranging from scholarly journals to trade journals, encyclopedias, legal databases, popular magazines, legal references, and daily newspapers from around the world. If the databases feel overwhelming at first, reference librarians are available and ready to help you find sources. Always remember, though, that

I. American Library Association, Presidential Committee on Information Literary: Final Report (Washington, DC: AIA,l989) http://www.ala.org/acrllpublications/whitepapers/presidential.

print materials and interviews are also possible avenues for gathering evidence to use in your speech.

Know how to assess the quality of the information you have found. Simply stumbling upon information does not mean you should use it-even if, on the surface, it seems to fit what you plan to say. Before you use information, you need to evaluate the source and the information to make sure that the information is reliable, is relevant for your speech, and is a good quality source that will lend credibility to your presentation. In order to evaluate the quality of a source, use the five steps of the CRAAP Test (listed on pages 96-97), which was developed by librarians at California State University, Chico, to determine whether you should use a source.

Create new knowledge. One of the chief aims of research is to pull together information from various sources in order to create a coherent explanation of how those pieces of data fit together. This process creates new knowledge for the audience because they see something in a different, more complex light through your efforts to make connections between sources of information. This synthesis of ideas is one of the most important aspects of information literacy and is highly respected in academia and the professional world. Information literacy does not mean you know a lot of information, but rather, that you know how a lot of information fits together and can explain those connections to others.

Be accountable for your use of information. You are responsible for the things you say, and just as you should respect authorship and not misrepresent yourself in a paper, you should also not misrepresent yourself or someone else when you speak. You need to be honest with your audience about what you know, what you think, and what you do not know. It is important to avoid making broad claims when you speak that you cannot back up with the information you collected in your research. Make sure your audience also knows where they can go to get that information if they wish to locate it. Essentially, accountability in information use means you take ownership of what you say and respect the ownership of what others have said.

The CRAAP Test

Currency: How timely is the information? How recently was the article or book published? Has the source been updated, and does it use current references? Is this something that is likely to have changed since this article was published? For some topics, having the most up-to-date source will matter a lot, but for others, the information is unlikely to have changed much over time. For example, you probably need recent sources for a speech about current immigration policies, but older sources might be just as valuable for a speech about immigrants who arrived in the US at Ellis Island.

Relevance: Is this information important for your needs? Is the information in this source useful for your speech? Does it answer the questions that you have about your topic? Is it at an appropriate level for a college or university audience, or is it too simple or too advanced for your needs? Have you looked at several sources before determining that this is the best source to use? Even if a source is reliable and current, it might not be the best source for your presentation if it does not include the type of information that you need. For example, an article about the history of Ellis Island might be an excellent source, but it might not be relevant for a speech about current immigration issues at border between the US and Mexico.

Authority: Who is the source of the information? Who is the author or the publisher that is sharing the information? What are their credentials? Do they have expertise, experience, or institutional affiliations that qualify them to write about this topic? Is the publisher reputable? Will your audience view this source as a credible authority on this topic (i.e., a pediatrician is a much more credible source for information about vaccines than a celebrityblogger)? Keep in mind that some sources will be viewed as authorities by some audiences, but not others. For instance, while a Catholic audience might view the Catholic Pope as an authoritative source about religious issues, a Buddhist audience is far less likely to do so.

Accuracy: Can you verify that the information is reliable, truthful, and correct? Are there multiple sources that corroborate the information shared by your source? Did your source cite other credible sources and provide evidence for the conclusions that were shared? Was the source reviewed by other experts before it was published? What kind of language is used?

Does it seem like the author left out important information or is making a lot of errors (grammar and spelling errors, poor use of logic, etc.), or does the source appear to be unbiased and sharing well-supported information? If an article seems to be poorly researched, is full of errors, or contradicts other credible sources of information that you have found, then it might not be accurate and should not be used as a source for your presentation.

Purpose: Why is this source sharing this information? What was the author's goal for writing this? Are they trying to inform, persuade, entertain, sell, or something else? Are their intentions clear? Is the author trying to share facts, opinions, or propaganda? Is the source clearly biased or pursuing an agenda, or do they appear to be objective and impartial? Will the author or organization benefit in some way from getting others to believe or do something? When doing research, it is helpful to regard any sources that have a clear political, institutional, ideological, religious, cultural, or personal bias or a vested financial interest with a bit of skepticism and to keep looking for additional sources. For example, you should not rely on a study about the effects of vaping if the study was paid for by a company that makes and sells e-cigarettes. likewise, a website funded by a political candidate is not the best place to find current news.

American Library Association (1989). Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/ whitepapers/presidential

.As you can tell, being information literate is not as simple as it sounds. It

involves developing your research skills and your analytical abilities, as well as adhering to ethical standards as you look for and use evidence. Being information literate allows you to judge information for quality and thus use good evidence to construct stronger, more effective speeches. These standards for assessing quality of information apply to each of the general categories of data you might find in your research. In the next section, we elaborate on those different types of information.

TYPES OF IN FORMATION When conducting research, you will find information that fits into one of three broad categories: background information, unique information, and evidentiary information. Identifying what type of information you find is one of the core characteristics of a strong researcher.

bias an unfair preferenc or distortion of information

Background Information In many speeches, you will need to provide the context for your speech. This may involve providing the audience with the who, what, when, where, why, and how that are relevant to your topic. Background is often the first type of information you encounter when researching a topic with which you are unfamiliar, and finding it will help you refine your topic and could be useful when explaining the topic to your audience.

Unique Information Another type of information you will encounter when researching is data that is unique. It could be statistics, quotations, or stories about people and events that are not common knowledge, but are nonetheless fascinating. This information can be valuable in capturing and maintaining the interest of your audience. Unique information gives your topic a personality by adding colorful facts, stories, or brief anecdotes, and it can also heighten audience appreciation and interest in the evidence you provide.

Practical Politics If you are working in politics, you will need

to spend a lot of time doing research that will prepare you for the situations you will face both during the campaign and after you or the candidate for whom you are working is in office. For example, here are a few things that you will need to have someone on your political team research thoroughly: 0 The issues: Make sure you have the most accurate information about

every issue that you will deal with. When you are in a position to make decisions that will affect others in significant ways, you have a responsibility to make sure your decisions are well-informed and are in the best long-term interest of your constituents and society as a whole. Be prepared to defend your statements and decisions! 0 The voters: Who are they? What issues are most important to them? What information do they have? 0 Your opponents: What are their policy proposals? Where do they

stand on important issues? What are their voting records? 0 Yourself: Someone on your team should conduct research to find out

what your opponents might discover about you during their research.

This will give you the opportunity to correct any factual errors and be prepared to answer questions that will undoubtedly arise about your past.

Other contexts where these skills apply: Sales, Marketing, and Health Professions

Evidentiary Information This type of information is the core of your speech and is what you set out looking for when researching a topic. It is information that lends direct support to both your thesis and the main points of your speech. Evidence can come in the form of statistics, testimony, examples, or a myriad of other materials that directly support the claims you make in your speech. What constitutes evidence varies depending on the topic of the speech, but for all intents and purposes, evidence is the guts of your speech. For example,

businessmen trying to sell a product may use data on cost or performance, or even testimonials from current or prior users of the product. The key element is its central relationship to the topic. Knowing what types of information exist and how to evaluate them are essential for any researcher. Another important aspect of successful research, which we will discuss next, is knowing where to go to get the information you need.

PLACES TO RESEARCH we mentioned earlier, technology has made information more readily available than it was in the past. This means that there are many more places

for you to find research on your topics. In this section, we will discuss three sources of information you can take advantage of when researching: libraries, the internet, and people. Each of these can provide different types of information. Be aware, however, that both your topic choice and the outcome you desire will help determine where you should go to find your information.

Libraries Libraries today do not operate anything like they did twenty years ago, let alone centuries ago. For instance, not too long ago, library patrons used physical card catalogues to search by author or subject, and learning the Dewey Decimal System was an important component of high school curricula. Today we can access research tools at our fingertips through computer

databases and digital catalogues. This allows libraries to store even more information. Although they vary in size and mission, most higher education libraries subscribe to electronic databases that contain an overwhelming number of books, encyclopedias, journals, and periodicals. EBSCOhost, for example, is an online system that can connect you to databases and indices for specific disciplines, providing easy, quick access to years of research. This search engine also provides source citations, abstracts, and many full-text copies of articles you can print, just as if the original source were right in front of you. When researching through this database and others, you can restrict your search to collect only entries that are available in full-text or in peer-reviewed publications. Higher education libraries almost universally have access to search engines that comb through subscriptions to hundreds of journals with thousands of articles in the social sciences, humanities, hard sciences, education, engineering, law, and other disciplines. Many of these resources are in full text in either HTML or PDF format, making it easy to download copies of the material you need or want to your flash drive or desktop so you can open and read them later. There are many databases that can help you refine your search to specific disciplines. One such search engine is the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), which focuses on education. There are military and govern-. ment databases, legal databases, and science databases. One jewel to take particular note of is LexisNexis. This search engine combs through newspaper and magazine articles from around the globe and can pull up a news article or op-ed piece in a local newspaper that may be miles away from where you are located. All of these search engines provide you with easy access to troves of information and include tools to help you find what you are looking for. If you are having trouble deciding which database to start searching in first,

you might also find that Coogle Scholar is a useful resource. On many campuses, if you are using a campus internet connection, Coogle Scholar will link directly to all of the library databases and will allow you to access any full-text articles to which your library has access. To try this on your campus, start by navigating to scholar.google.com. This will allow you to use a search function that is similar to a regular Coogle search, but it will limit your search to academic sources.

With all of this information located in different places, research can easily get frustrating. For that reason, when doing library work, seek out the librarians who work at your particular library before you get too irritated. Reference librarians are trained to search for material and know the library better than you do. You will also find that if you ask them for help, these dedicated professionals will, in all likelihood, save you time and emotional energy. Therefore, we suggest that you take advantage of this tremendous resource when seeking information on specific topics.

The Internet In addition to searching the stacks of information available both on library shelves and in the databases to which they subscribe, you can also search the internet for information. There is a caveat: not all websites are created equal. Some are self-created and contain blogs that often consist of opinions, and thus are not a good source of scientific or factual data. One of the first steps in evaluatingwebsites involves looking at the type of domain they exist on. When using the CRAAP test to evaluate a website, you should pay special attention to the domain name that is designated at the end of the web address because this will tell you something about the source of the information. For example, websites that end in .gov are government-run, and those that end in .edu are managed by educational institutions. The information on these websites is usually reliable, and the source of the information is easy to identify. Historically, web addresses ending in .com were commercial websites, meaning that they are for-profit entities that make money from their websites. Websites ending in .org have typically been nonprofit and noneducation groups and organizations. While both of these types of websites might have accurate information, it is also possible that the information might be biased toward the goals of that company or organization, so careful scrutiny and additional research is necessary to decide whether you can trust the information on these websites. Finally, addresses ending in .net can be created by anyone and are not monitored by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), so they are usually much riskier sources to trust. While these domain names are much less rigidly enforced and applied than they were in the past, and additional domain names have been created to designate other authors and sources of information, the domain name can be a useful part of your evaluation when applying to CRAAP test to determine whether a source should be trusted.

STEM Spotlight

Before you begin to develop a solution to an

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engineering problem, you will need to take 0 • time to go through the discovery process, _: .:._ -- . c:::J = 0 _,.,, which reqmres many of the s~me skills and • _ ~ steps you use when developmg a speech. ----~ ....- -=---"''IP' illll • - • + When you go through the initial discovery process, you will need to be prepared to do the following:

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0 Understand the problem.

0 Identify the requirements for the solution. 0 Understand the policies and obstacles that might limit your options.

0 Learn about the context in which the solution will be enacted.

0 Identify what other solutions have and have not been successful in other contexts. Other contexts in which these skills appry: Management, Human Resources, and Performance Management One of the most common places novice researchers go for information on the web is an online encyclopedia, but this should only be a starting point, not the bulk of your research. Wikipedia, perhaps the most universally known online encyclopedia, can be either an excellent source or a risky one, depending on the page. Some of the pages on Wikipedia are well-researched and written by experts; you can usually identify these pages by the long list of peer-reviewed sources included in the reference page. However, anyone can upload or edit information on Wikipedia, and anyone can change entries that were originally well-researched, calling anything found on the site into question. Information found there might be accurate, but it also might be fabricated, posted out of malice, or even uploaded as a joke. Be sure to check with your instructor before you use Wikipedia as a source. Generally speaking, Wikipedia is a good place to find background information before you begin your research, but you should rely on other sources for supporting materials when developing your speech. One final tip regarding searching for information online relates to the use of proper search terms. Search terms are the keywords that you type into the search engine to help locate material. Understand that Coogle does a

keyword search of the web when you use it to find information. This means that it will call up every website that contains the word or phrase you put in the search, resulting in a mountain of hits. One helpful way to minimize this pile of information and to focus it more succinctly around your topic is to use Boolean operators such as ''AND," "NOT," and "OR" in all caps when typing in terms. As always, evaluate the returns using the website domain system we explained earlier.

Interviews People you know or whom you seek out can be great sources, but this depends upon the topic and your speech goals. One way to gather information from others is through interviews. Interviews can be conducted in face-to-face meetings, over the telephone, through email, or even using technology such as Skype. It is often best to use a method in which you can see the other person during the interview so you can read the respondent's nonverbal communication, but this is not always possible. Using technology to see the other party in a discussion is becoming more and more commonplace in business, families, and even education with online distance courses, and it makes gathering information in a setting where you can see the person's nonverbal reactions much easier. Regardless of what medium you use to conduct the interview, it is important to record what happens and what is said so you can relay accurate information in your speech. Make sure you have the respondent's consent when interviewing, as doing so without his or her knowledge would be unethical. Surreptitiously taping even a lecture without the instructor's knowledge is a grievous violation of someone's trust, and information gathered in this manner should not be used in a speech. When you decide to conduct an interview to gather information for your speech, there are certain steps you should follow to make sure you get the most out of this tactic. First decide which type of interview testimony you want to collect. The two kinds of testimony are peer testimony and expert testimony. Peer testimony is provided by a nonexpert who gives an opinion or story regarding a particular topic. An expert, on the other hand, is someone with credibility and professional experience directly relevant to the topic you plan to discuss. It is distinctly possible that you might use one, the other, or both types of interviews for the same topic.

Boolean operato1 using words such a!

"AND," "NOT," and"( when typing in sear terms to focus the results

Suppose, for example, that you wanted to present a speech about the Great Depression. There are many sources of recorded economic, political, and social information available, but an interview with someone who lived through the Great Depression's hardships would be an excellent source. Another possible source would be someone who had researched the topic and written extensively about the Great Depression in books, newspapers, or journals. Both interviews would provide good information for your speech, and you might use one, the other, or both in your final presentation. After you find someone willing to be interviewed, you must prepare for the interview very carefully. First, decide exactly what you want to learn from the interview. Then, compile a list of questions to ask in order to get at that information. Before the interview begins, ask the person how much time he or she has for your questions. During the interview, do not be afraid to deviate from your list of questions if the interviewee brings up an interesting topic. Much like exploring information in the library or online, what you find out through a person's answers may change the focus of your research, and that is not a bad thing. After all, interviewing and researching are about going where the information takes you. When you finish the interview, be sure to thank the person you interviewed. You should also send a follow-up thank you email or card. These simple courtesies are professional, might help you if you need to speak to the person again, and are a good habit to form. Later, when transcribing your notes, make sure to clarify statements the person made if you are unsure what was said or what the person meant. Interviews are not the only source of information people can provide; you can also sometimes gain access to personal correspondence. Personal correspondence includes emails people send to one another, collections of letters, and personal diaries or journals. Many libraries contain collections of these types of correspondences that may be available to you. These correspondences are generally considered rich data, as they are usually written from a personal perspective and reflect the feelings, opinions, and beliefs of the writers themselves. These primary documents can provide speeches with a degree of color that other information cannot.

Whether you conduct an interview, find an article in a journal or magazine, or use a website from a company, it is imperative that you track where you gathered your information. In the next section, we will provide some tips on doing just that and will supply some examples of common bibliographical techniques used to document sources.

Tips for Successful Research Interviews

Do your research on your topic. The first step to prepare for a research mterview is to learn as much as you can about your topic. If you do not complete background research on the topic in advance, then you might end up asking questions that could have easily been answered with some research. This makes you look unprepared at best and shows disrespect to your interviewee because you are wasting their valuable time by asking questions that you could have easily answered on your own.

Research the person you plan to interview. Learn everything you can about the person that you plan to interview. Read their biography online, articles that have been written about the person and their research or organization, and anything that they have written that is publicly available (articles, books, etc.). What is their history, and what have they already said about your topic? What uniquely positions them to be able to tell you more?

Plan your questions. Only after you have done thorough research on your topic and your interviewee should you begin to write the questions that you will ask in your interview. Your questions should focus on information that you could not find while doing research and should be questions that could only be answered well by your interviewee. Your questions should also be open-ended and give the interviewee an opportunity to explain something that would be a helpful part of your research. For example, if you were interviewing Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, you would be wasting both her time and yours you asked her to explain what DNA is-that information is easily available in any biology textbook. However, you might consider asking, "What motivated you to start 23andMe?" or "What effect do you hope that widely available genetic testing, such as that offered by 23andMe, will have on health care in the United States?"

Send the interview request. After you have planned your questions, you should send a request to the person that you want to interview. You will probably want to start by either calling the person's office or sending an email to ask for a short interview. Your communication should be professional and concise. For example, if you send an email request, you should include a

formal greeting and signature line, clearly and concisely state your request, explain how much time you are asking for, and add a formal subject line. See the example below: Subject: Request for an Interview Dear Dr. Wojcicki, I am giving a speech about the effects of genetic testing on health care in the United States in my public speaking class. In my research, I have learned about some of the medical advances that have resulted from the availability of widespread genetic testing, such as that offered by your company, and I would like to interview you about your perspective on how genetic testing might impact health care in the future. Would you be willing to do a 20-minute phone interview with me sometime in the next two weeks? If so, what day and time would be most convenient for you? I appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to talking with you. Sincerely, Melissa Broeckelman-Post

Conduct the interview. If you are doing an in-person interview, you should plan to arrive at the building early in case there are unexpected delays. If you are meeting in your interviewee's office, you might want to find a place to wait nearby, and then go to their office at the arranged time. If you are conducting an interview over the phone or using video conferencing software, you should call at the time that you scheduled the interview. Begin the interview by saying hello, introducing yourself, shaking the person's hand (if it is culturally appropriate to do so) and thanking the interviewee for their time. Listen carefully and take notes as you conduct the interview, and ask follow-up questions when it is appropriate to do so. Keep an eye on the clock so that you stick to your agreed-upon time frame. At the end of your interview, thank the interviewee for their time and for answering your questions.

Follow up with a thank-you note. After your interview is over, send a thank-you note to once again express appreciation for your time and to note something specific that you learned in the interview that was especially valuable. Sending a handwritten thank-you note is a timeless way to express gratitude that will usually make a strong impression, and is especially appropriate

for in-person interviews. If you choose to send a thank-you note via email instead, perhaps following a short phone interview, make sure that you follow the same conventions for professionalism as you did in your interview request email.

DOCUMENTING YOUR RESEARCH Documenting sources is an important element of any paper or presentation. It is important to document sources in two ways in speeches: first, written in the outline or manuscript, and then verbally attributed when referencing them during the speech. One of the most frustrating things about research is also one of the most avoidable. You will never be more irritated than when you reach the end of your preparation and realize that you need to go back and document all the places you found your information. To avoid this time-consuming concern, it is important to develop a way of documenting your research as you go. You may list some things you don't use, but it is easier to not use them than to repeat your search. Here are some ways to keep track of your research sources: 0 Place notes on each piece of information you collect that lists the proper bibliographical citation for that piece of data. Later, when you are finishing your speech bibliography, go back and get the notes for the information you used and log it in your bibliography. 0 Keep a notebook or Word/Google Docs document in which you log all your information and where you found it. 1his is a bit more detailed, in that you are annotating the bibliographical citations so you know what information came from which source, and this process can be instrumental in making decisions about what to include in your speech and what to leave out. As with the notes, once the speech is complete, go through the notebook and create the bibliography from the sources that you did end up using. 0 Keep an ongoing bibliography in the document itself. Each time you encounter information you plan to use, log it in your running bibliography so that you already have it recorded. Then, when the speech is finished, go through the bibliography and delete the sources you did not use. This simple task will save time when you are preparing your speech and will ensure that you are making ethical use of the information you collected.

Generally speaking, there are three style manuals that are most often used to document sources. In English and some disciplines within the humanities, the preferred style manual is published by the Modern Language Association (MLA). In the social sciences and natural sciences, the preferred style manual is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). Finally, in a few select humanities disciplines and in some areas of business, the footnote-heavy Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is preferred.

Modern Language Association Style Guide (MLA) There are two components to any style manual: referencing in the body of the text itself, and referencing in the Works Cited section, which is a list of all the sources used in a speech that generally appears at the end of the speech. MLA style generally prefers to use in-text citations that contain the author's last name and the page number where the information cited can be found. The year of the publication is not required for the parenthetical reference, but the title should be included if you have more than one source by the same author or do not know who the author is. This is required for all references, even when the information is paraphrased. Here are some examples of in-text citations using MLA: One author, not mentioned in sentence: In the United States, having a standardized time became important when the railroad made faster travel possible (Gleick 44). One author, mentioned in sentence: Gleick notes that having a standardized time became important when railroads made faster travel possible (44). Multiple authors, not mentioned in sentence: Entertainment programs can also educate viewers about social issues (Singhal and Rogers 289). Multiple authors, mentioned in sentence: Singhal and Rogers point out that entertainment programs can also educate viewers about social issues (289). Unknown author: People tend to take smaller bites and eat less when their food has a stronger aroma ("Smaller Bites" 43).

Website without an author, not mentioned in sentence: The first blood donation programs began during World War II (www. redcross.org). In addition to including parenthetical references throughout the narrative of the speech outline, you also must include a "Works Cited" page at the end of the document. Here are some examples of common entries in an MLA "Works Cited" page: Magazine/Newspaper Article with Single Author: Smith, John. "Form and Style." The Detroit Free Press, 8 Nov. 2010, p. A8. Magazine/Newspaper Article with Multiple Authors: Smith, John, Stephanie 0. Billbrook, and Melvin Cooper. "Form and Style." Dayton Daily News, 2 Jan. 2008, p. A9. Magazine/Newspaper Article with No Author: "The Form is Not Right." The Sacramento Bee, 18 Mar. 1994, p. Al4. Journal Article: Smith, John. "Bibliographies Can Be Fun." Canadian journal of Communication, vol. 17, no. 3, 2004, pp. 88-124. Chapter in an Edited Volume: Smith, John A., and Gene Lyle. "Chapter 3: The MLAStyle Guide." Fun with Citations, edited by Harold Johnson, Cedric Levi, and Jiwani Jones, Routledge, 2012, pp. 101-lll. Book: Jones, Penelope. Correctly Tracking Sources. Chicago, U of Chicago P, 2010. Website: "Life and Stuff." wuemudr.com. North Southern University, 12 Oct. 2002, wuemudr.com/articles/101202/life-and-stuff. Accessed 12 Jan. 2004. A Letter to the Editor in a Newspaper: Smith, John. Letter. "People like food." Miami Herald, 17 July 2010, p. A9.

Government Reports:

United States, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Citations are Important. Government Printing Office, 2006. Notice that some of the titles of articles are placed within quotation marks, while names of journals, newspapers, books, and magazines are italicized.

American Psychological Association Style Guide (APA) APA, the style favored by the social and natural sciences, is different from MLA style in several respects. For instance, although both MLA and APA

require in-text parenthetical citations, the format in APA differs from that of MLA. Here are some examples of APA parenthetical citation styles:

One author, not directly quoted:

In the United States, having a standardized time became important when the railroad made faster travel possible (Gleick, 1999). Multiple authors, not directly quoted:

Entertainment programs can also educate viewers about social issues (Singhal & Rogers, 2003). Author in text, directly quoted:

Gleick (1999) noted, "With the century ending, some towns and cities resisted the onslaught of precise and standardized railroad time" (p. 44). Website with author, not directly quoted:

This is the first year that people living in the US will watch more movies online than on DVDs (Pepitone, 2012). Website with no author, not directly quoted:

The first blood donation programs began during World War II ("Red Cross blood program," 2012). Website with author, directly quoted:

"That's a 135% year-over-year increase for online video" (Pepitone, 2012, para. 4).

There are several things to note here as well. First, if a work has three or more authors, you should use the last name of the first author and then the phrase "et al." to refer to the rest of the authors. When using the author's name in the sentence, you only need to put the year in the parentheses, or the year and page number if the material is directly quoted. Last, when the author is listed as ''Anonymous," reference it by using the word ''Anonymous," followed by the date in the parenthetical citation. APA, like MLA, calls for a list of all sources used in the speech to appear at the end. However, their list is called a "Reference List," not a "Works Cited" page as it is in MLA. Like the other style manuals, the list is organized alphabetically. Let's look at how entries for some common sources are formatted inAPA: Magazine/Newspaper Article with Single Author: Smith, J. (2010, November 8). Form and style. The Detroit Free Press, AB. Magazine/Newspaper Article with Multiple Authors: Smith, J., Billbrook, S. 0., & Cooper, M. (2008, January 2). Form and style. Dayton Dairy News, A9. Magazine/Newspaper Article with No Author: The form is not right. (1994, March 18). The Sacramento Bee, Al4. Journal Article: Martin,

N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2015). Reconsidering intercultural

(communication) competence in the workplace: A dialectical approach. Language and Intercultural Communication, 15, 13-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2014.985303 0 Include the issue number for all journals that have issue numbers. 0 Include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or URL at the end of the reference. Write both DO Is and URLs as hyperlinks in your reference list (i.e., beginning with either "http://" or "https:/1"), even if you are referencing an older work that uses a different DOI format. If you cannot find the DOl for the journal article on the article itself, try looking it up online at http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/. Some older articles do not have DO Is.

Chapter in an Edited Volume: Smith, J. A., & Lyle, G. (2008). Bibliographies are difficult to master. In H. Johnson, C. Levi, Routledge.

&J. Jones (Eds.), Fun with citations (pp.101-121).

Book: Jones, P. (2010). Correctly tracking sources. University of Chicago Press. 0 Do not include publisher location when citing a source's publishing information. Website: Simpson, H. (2002, October 12). Form and style: Bibliographies are difficult to master. Online Style Dictionary. https://onlinestyledictionary. com/form -and-style-101202 A Letter to the Editor in a Newspap r: Smith, J. (2010, July 17). People like food [Letter to the editor]. Miami Herald,A9.

Government Reports: Office of Communications (2006). Form and style (AHRQPublicationNo. 12-0630). Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://ahrq.gov/reports/2006/ form -and -style. pdf Pay close attention to the capitalization and punctuation schemes in APA, as they can be tricky. Notice, for example, thatin most cases, only the first words of titles and subtitles are capitalized, while the others remain in lowercase. Also note that the full name of the author is not listed; the first name is initialed only.

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) The Chicago Manual of Style is the third style guide accepted in parts of academia and business. This style, unlike that of APA or MLA, does not use in-text parenthetical citations, but requires footnotes in the text. As you can see, this is not the only difference in the guidelines for footnotes, which we placed above the bibliographical entry examples below:

Magazine/Newspaper Article with Single Author: Footnote:

1. John A. Smith, "Form and Style," U.S. News and World Report, April 12, 2006, 30. Bibliography:

Smith, John A. "Form and Style." U.S. News and World Report, April12, 2006. Magazine/Newspaper Article with Multiple Authors: Footnote:

2. John A. Smith and Joanne Doe, "Form and Style," Financial Times of London, June I, 2000, 17. Bibliography:

Smith, John A., and Joanne Doe. "Form and Style." Financial Times of London, June 1, 2000.

Magazine/Newspaper Article with No Author: Footnote:

3. "Footnoting Correctly," Economist, December 7, 1999, 19. Bibliography:

"Footnoting Correctly." Economist, December 7, 1999. Journal Article: Footnote:

4. John Smith, "The Works Cited Page is Awesome," Geopolitics 9, no. 4 (2002): 38. Bibliography:

Smith, John. "The Works Cited Page is Awesome." Geopolitics 9, no. 4 (2002): 35-60. Chapter in an Edited Volume: Footnote:

5. John Smith, "FootnotinginAlphabetical Order," in Proper Citations and Works Cited Pages, ed. Susan Clark, John M. Thompson, and Percy L.

}ones (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987), 10.

Bibliography: Smith, John. "Footnoting in Alphabetical Order." In Proper Citations and Works Cited Pages, edited by Susan Clark, John M. Thompson, and PercyL. Jones, 8-14. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987. Book: Footnote: 6. John A. Smith, The Value of Footnotes (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1981), 212.

Bibliography: Smith, John A. The Value of Footnotes. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1981. Website: Footnote: 7. "PregnancyandAmniocentesis,"WebMD, accessedJuly19, 2008, http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/amniocentesis.

Bibliography: WebMD. "Pregnancy and Amniocentesis." Accessed July 19, 2008. http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/amniocentesis. A Letter to the Editor in a Newspaper:

Footnote: 8. John Smith, letter to the editor, Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 14,2007. Government Reports: Footnote: 9. United States, Department of the Treasury, Citations and Taxation, 2006 (Washington, DC: GPO, 2007).

Bibliography: United States, Department of the Treasury. Citations and Taxation, 2006. Washington, DC: GPO, 2007.

Note that the title of the list at the end of the document is called a "Bibliography," which is a different title than that used in either MLAor APA style. The list, though, is still organized alphabetically. One of the quirks associated with Chicago style is that once you do a complete footnote for an item, you need not repeat the full entry on the next use of the same source. Rather, that note should give only the author's last name and the page number. We want to emphasize that these are short guidelines that by no means encompass all the requirements of each style manual. They should, however, provide you with a good, solid foundation for sources you may encounter and need to document. We encourage you to also think about obtaining copies of the manual that is appropriate for your discipline so that you can follow all the conventions expected in your particular field.

Oral Citations In addition to listing and citing sources at the end of your outline or manuscript, you also need to verbally attribute sources when speaking to your audience. You should include these citations exactly the way that you plan to say them during your speech in your preparation outline. Verbal attribution does not mean that you read the entire bibliographical reference, or even tell the audience the page on which you found the information, but it does mean that you let the audience know that the information came from someone other than you. This is important, as it is an ethical practice that also builds credibility with your audience. Ideally, your oral citation should include (l) the author or person who was the source of information for the article, (2) that person's credentials, (3) the name of the publication, and (4) the date that the source was published. However, you won't always have all four of these pieces of information, so you should share as many of these details as you can to let your audience know where you found the information. Here are several ways in which you could adequately attribute source material during a speech: According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on June 15, 2009, on cnn.com, people who receive email reminders with health tips are more likely to make healthy choices throughout the day. According to a 2016 Gallup Poll, increasing numbers of Americans are worried about the housing market.

In his 2003 book Lamb, author Christopher Moore offers an account of Jesus from the perspective of his fictional childhood best friend, Biff. Some people, such as Washington Post columnist George Will in the June 3, 2016, Washington Post, argue that baseball should not add another wild card team to its playoff structure. The 9111 Commission Report, completed in 2004 by a team appointed by President Bush and members of Congress, recommended a series of changes in government policy to respond to the threat of modern terrorism. All of these statements verbally attribute information gleaned through research to their sources. These statements help increase credibility and also let the audience know where they can find information you used.

Summary Solid research on your topic is the backbone of a strong speech. Conducting good research was the focus of this chapter. and we introduced you to the five characteristics of information litere~cy so the~t you can understand what it takes to gather quality information on your topic. We also explained the different types of information you will encounter in your research. as well as where you can go to locate such information. Finally. we detailed the importance of documenting and attributing the sources you use and briefly explained the three major style manuals used in academics and the business world.

Key Terms bias 97

information literacy 94

Boolean operator 103

Activities

Think about the topic that you are likely to use for your next speech. Using your university's library website, find a book, a newspaper article, a peer-reviewed journal article, and a credible website that are related to that topic. Write out anAPA-format citation that you would include in your references page for each of those sources.

Search your library website to learn more about the resources that are available. Where can you go for help if you have questions? What is the name of your reference librarian? Who are three experts you could potentially interview about your topic? What unique perspectives and experiences could each person contribute?

CHA PTER

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS Objectives 0 Learn basic methods for analyzing an audience before a speech 0 Understand how audience analysis continues during a speech 0 Familiarize yourself with ways to gather audience information Speaking may seem like an act conducted by an individual, but it actually cannot be done without others. The audience is just as important in the speech process as the speaker. This chapter focuses on how to analyze the audience as a speaker so you can craft messages that work with the specific groups to whom you speak. We will first talk about some basic audience analysis methods that can take place before a presentation. Next, we will explain how analyzing the audience does not stop with the start of your talk but rather continues during the entire presentation. Finally, we will discuss different ways to gather audience information using some common interpersonal and social scientific methods.

BEFORE THE SPEECH The amount of time you have with your audience before a speech can vary quite a bit. For instance, you might be delivering a quarterly update on sales figures to your supervisor, in which case you roughly know when you will be asked to speak with your team. On the other hand, you might be asked to develop a presentation on plans for a new engineering project to three different investment companies with only a few days advance notice. In each of these scenarios the phrase "before the speech" means something very different. In the first situation, you have a great deal of time to consider your audience, analyze them for relevant information, and ultimately make adjustments. In the latter, you have precious little time and even less information on your potential audiences. In both situations, there are methods for gathering information on your audience before you give your presentation. In this section, we will discuss direct observation and the collection of demographic data.

Business Basics When preparing for a sales presentation, work to identify what the customer needs (also sometimes called "identifying their pain") so that you don't waste everyone's time trying to sell a solution that won't fix the problem. Find out what the client cares about BEFORE you walk into the meeting, and take some time early in your first meeting to make sure that you fully understand the problem. Here are a few ways to find out about your client: 0 Look at the client's website. Find out what the company does, and look for key terms or a mission statement that sums up the company's values. If you have an opportunity to do so, talk to someone within your

client's company to find out about its goals and concerns. 0 Search for news articles to find out whether anything has happened at the company recently that caught the media's attention (positive or negative). 0 Try to find newsletters, white papers, research reports, and any other documents that might be available that will help you find out what your client has been working on recently. 0 Talk to others in your own company who have worked with this client in the past.

Other contexts where these skills apply: Engineering, Job Seeking, and Counseling

Direct Observation One tool for audience analysis is your perception of the situation in the moment. Through direct observation you can collect a great deal of information on your audience. Let's look at a few things you might observe and how they could quickly be incorporated into your presentation. First, if the speech is at a company's office or complex you can examine the walls for photos, slogans, and materials that are prominently displayed. Companies post information about upcoming events as well, and this data can be easily added to your speech in the form of an offhand reference. Acknowledging the company and the importance of its information demonstrates that you pay attention to detail. In addition to environmental cues, you can get a fairly accurate read on how

many people will be in attendance for the presentation and who they might be. It is not difficult to take a quick mental count of people in the room as you

move about before the meeting or presentation. You can also tell who the people are by examining name badges, paying attention to introductions, and watching where people sit and how they dress. All of these behaviors can provide you with important data you might be able to use in your talk. Finally, through direct observation you can get a feel for the emotional disposition of the audience toward you and your talk. Look at facial cues, eye movement, whether people have notepads, or if they seem excited. This information can give you a heads-up on what to expect when you begin your speech. If the audience looks bored, tired, or disengaged, you may need to begin with great energy or come up with something early in the speech to cause them to want to listen to what you have to say. On the other hand, if they seem interested, tap into that excitement from the beginning.

Demographics Collect simple demographic data on your audience to help provide a picture of to whom you will be speaking. Demographics are categories of definable characteristics of groups of people, such as age, race, religion, socioeconomic status, education level, and sexual orientation. It is not hard to imagine how such data might be useful to a speaker. Demographic data is commonly collected by a variety of institutions. Political candidates make use of this data to know which segment of the audience to target and which message to present to that audience. The same commercials do not air in Oregon as do in Ohio, for example, where different issues matter more to particular demographic groups that reside there. Demographics allow candidates to tailor one message for one group of potential voters and another for a different section of the audience. Elected officials also use demographic data via polling to assess how the public feels about policies that have been passed or policies that are being presented in Congress. Marketers use demographics to evaluate particular strategies about sales. For example, a marketing team for a luxury car manufacturer could analyze Census Bureau demographic data and determine whom they would like to target. Because they are more likely to target those living in high-income zip codes, they will consult the Census Bureau information to find out where those zip codes are located. The Census Bureau report also provides information on religious practices, ethnic origins, and other such data. The one caveat to using Census Bureau data is that it is only collected every ten years, so be sure to get the most current and relevant information from them.

demographics categories of deli na characteristics of groups of people, st as age, race, religior socioeconomic stat1 education level, anc sexual orientation

Demographic data is used in education by teachers as well as administrators. Administrators need to track performance by demographic groups and report it to their accrediting agencies. Students and professors frequently look around on the first day of class and note the number of females versus males, the age of students, and perhaps even ethnic or racial breakdowns of those present. This is in some ways an automatic reflex and illustrates how direct observation can also be used to gather demographic information about an audience. In the United States some demographic categories are protected by federal government laws. For example, protected categories include age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. The law forbids treating people differently because they belong to a particular group within one of these categories. This illustrates the power of demographic categories and data and the information and policies they shape in society. Knowing the reach and influence of demographics can be helpful to speakers who gather data about their audiences ahead of time and make specific adjustments to their messages so they are more likely to resonate with those particular audiences. Ultimately, demographic information can show differences in values, beliefs, and opinions among people-and it is there where the true power of this information resides. As you learned in Chapter 6, demographic characteristics can provide some

valuable insight into the likely experiences, expectations, beliefs, values, and attitudes of your audience. However, each person is a part of several cultures and co-cultures, and an individual's experiences and perceptions are influenced by numerous factors that impact their position in their community, so it is important to recognize that individual experiences likely vary from the general assumptions that you might make based on a group's overall demographic characteristics.

METHODS OF ANALYSIS DURING THE SPEECH The process and usefulness of audience analysis does not end as you begin your speech. In fact, perhaps the most helpful form of audience analysis occurs during the presentation as you observe and adapt to how the audience receives your message. In this section, we will discuss two elements involved in conducting audience analysis during the speech, including the continuing role of direct observation and polling the audience.

Direct Observation As we mentioned when covering audience analysis before the speech, there is

no more valuable tool than your own ability to observe the audience. During a speech, it is more likely that a speaker will react to nonverbal cues from an audience than to anything else. Generally, nonverbal behaviors tell how the audience is truly reacting to the message. This is because nonverbal reactions are very hard to control, and so audience members tend to let them go, especially when they are not the one in the so-called spotlight. These actions are spontaneous and more accurate indicators of how audience members are receiving your message. If the speaker notices certain things about the audience, he or she then has an opportunity to take advantage of that information, often without the audience even knowing it. You might notice that your audience is increasingly more engaged with you and your topic as the speech continues. Certain indicators of this may be head nods, smiles, raised eyebrows, clapping, or even cheering. This is, of course, a positive sign and means you are on the right track with what you are saying. This does not mean you should rest, however, because in their enthusiasm is an opportunity for more emotional connections between them, you, and your topic. You can increase the tone of your voice, use hand gestures more emphatically to make a point, or even reference someone in the crowd or some action taking place. These observations will solidify your identification with the audience and enhance the success of your speech. Another powerful indicator of audience engagement is eye contact. First, as the speaker you should make as much eye contact with the audience as possible. The audience also should be making eye contact with you throughout your speech. This indicates respect and interest in you and/or your topic. If they are not making eye contact, then consider changing the energy of the delivery or the cadence and rhythm of your voice to get their attention and bring them back to the content of your presentation (Table 9.1).

Table 9.1

AUDIENCE INTEREST AND DISINTEREST

GAINING AUDIENCE INTEREST Making eye contact

LOSING AUOifNCE INTEREST Poor delivery skills

Varying tone, pitch, and pace

Not varying your tone, pitch, or pace

Using gestures to make a point

throughout your speech

Using pauses effectively

Reading your speech

Referring to someone in the crowd

Talking about things that are not

Involving your audience (e.g., polling)

relevant to your audience

Lack of eye contact, however, is just one way an audience can indicate a lack of interest in your speech. The audience may show a decreased level of interest in a variety of ways, including shifting in their seats, talking to neighbors, reading, sleeping, or even leaving the room. Another key indicator is if you notice members of the audience looking at their watches or cell phones. This can mean they are impatient and want the speech to end. All these behaviors should communicate to you that the time has come to put some energy into your delivery to help refocus the audience's attention and try to get them engaged with the speech (Table 9.2) . As you can see, direct observation of audience behaviors is a powerful tool

for audience analysis that speakers can take advantage of and use to help deliver a successful presentation. It is not, though, the only strategy for audience analysis in their tool kit. Table 9.2

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT AND DISENGAGEMENT

SIGNALS OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

SIGNALS OF AUDIENCE DISENGAGEMENT

Nodding heads

Shifting in their seats

Smiling

Talking to neighbors

Raising eyebrows

Reading

Clapping or cheering

Sleeping

Making eye contact

Leaving the room Looking at watches or cell phones

Polling the Audience Direct observation is something any speaker can use in virtually any situation; however, other strategies, such as polling the audience, may not be feasible in certain circumstances. Nevertheless, it is important to understand how to employ this technique for gathering information about an audience during a speech. Polling the audience is considered informal because it does not follow the rules of the scientific process, but its results are very helpful to any speaker. There are also different moments when you might consider polling the audience. The first moment when you might poll the audience is during the introduction of your speech. In fact, this could be a creative attention getter. Not only do you get immediate feedback, but it is also a good way to get the audience engaged by asking them to respond and thus invest themselves in the outcome their answer produces. Even if the audience does not verbally or physically respond, they will likely mentally consider the question. Whether they answer or not, polling them has produced both data and attention. Generally, the best way to poll is by asking a question, or series of questions, and requesting that the audience members raise their hands if they agree or disagree with your statement. This can help introduce a topic and give you information about what parts of your topic might be the most relevant to cover. The other instance when polling the audience can come in handy is during the speech when you cover something complex or difficult. This approach allows you to determine if the audience understands the points you are making. If they are following along, then continue as planned, but if they are not, slow down and readjust your coverage of the material so the audience can understand it. It is acceptable, as the speaker, to query them if you have any concerns about their comprehension of the issue, and the information you gather from this analysis holds tremendous value. There is one important caveat to polling the audience to gather information: you cannot control the outcome of your question. Things could go as planned, and that is always a good thing, but they also might not. The audience members could turn to each other to discuss your question, thus taking their attention away from you as the speaker. They also might not answer the way you expect them to, and this may rattle your nerves because you are not prepared for their answer. To this end, be sure your questions are purposeful and get at the information you want to gather. Do not ignore what you

receive from the audience, but rather find the most effective way to use it in your presentation.

OTHER WAYS OF GATHERING AUDIENCE INFORMATION Although we have focused on a few audience analysis methods, there are several others that you can employ, depending upon the time you have to prepare your speech. Some of these methods include talking to a contact person, conducting a statistically valid survey of potential audience members before the presentation, and interviewing people who might attend your talk. As you can imagine, each of these is dependent on quite a few variables but nevertheless can provide you with valid and vital information as you prepare to speak.

Contact Persons In many instances in which you deliver remarks to people outside your organization, there is a contact person responsible for making arrangements regarding your presentation. This could be the person who manages the event at which you are speaking, the person who invited you to deliver a sales presentation, or simply a colleague at another company. If the speech is at a neutral site, such as a hotel conference room, then this contact person likely reserved the room where you will speak, arranged the seating style, and is in charge of the audio-visual equipment. This contact person should be able to give you some insights into the makeup of the audience and the environment in which you are speaking. If audience members are required to reserve seats in advance, you might even be able to get a list of potential attendees. If the list is not available, the contact person should be able to provide their background, their values, and possibly even their disposition toward the event at which you will be speaking. No matter what the situation, it can only help to have a healthy dialogue with your contact person regarding the event and the audience.

Scientific Surveys Previously, we mentioned polling the audience, and we told you it was not scientifically rigorous. Of course, scientifically rigorous polling is not possible during a speech; however, if you have enough advance time you can accurately survey your potential audience. These surveys help to gather demographic data as well as people's feelings toward particular issues or

topics. To do this you need to develop Likert scale questions that help people numerically gauge their feelings regarding a specific idea or object. Likert scales provide a statement to which people circle a number indicating the strength with which they agree or disagree. Individuals must choose only one answer to each statement. Likert scales vary in terms of the ranges from which they ask people to make a selection, but generally they go from either 1 to 5 or 1 to 7, with the middle number representing a neutral opinion. This allows a researcher to see how strongly the population being measured feels regarding an issue. As you can tell, such information would be invaluable for a speaker in advance of a presentation. An audience's answers to these questions can often be broken down by demo-

graphic category, thanks in large part to the inclusion of such questions on the survey. The larger the audience, the more segmented the data becomes when broken into demographic groups. For instance, the Nielsen rating system, which is used to measure television audiences, breaks down surveyed populations according to demographic categories and provides advertisers with information regarding which programs they should advertise during. Scientific surveys are not restricted to gathering demographic data or asking Likert scale questions; they can also contain open-ended questions that ask audience members to use their own words in response to a question. Openended questions allow audience members the opportunity to provide their reasons for feeling a certain way or their impressions of a specific idea or object. How they describe these things also tells you what is important and what might resonate with them. This type of information can be quite helpful, so some surveys ask people both forced-choice and open-ended questions. Ultimately, the success of surveys depends on what information you are trying to gather. Scientifically surveyed data can be rich and provide speakers who plan well with much-needed information as they prepare their speeches.

Teacher Tips Polling the audience (your students) is one way to determine if your students understand the lesson and are ready to move on to the next subject. Checking for understanding is also sometimes called formative assessment and can include any strategy that allows you to find out what students know so you can use that information to adapt your teaching. Here are several ways you can check for understanding: 0 Give a quiz. 0 Ask direct questions about the content. 0 Ask students to give examples that illustrate the concepts (in words, drawings, or role-playing activities). 0 Give students examples and ask them to identify the concept. 0 Do a think-pair-share. Ask students to think about and write down their answers to a question, then talk about their answers in pairs, and then call on several groups to share their answers with the rest of the class. While getting answers from a few students is helpful, you can more effectively assess your class's understanding by getting responses from all of your students at once. In any class, you can ask students to raise their hands to indicate which answer they think is correct, but if the resources are available you should also consider using technology such as clickers or interactive programs/apps like Poll Everywhere. As a bonus, these strategies help keep your students engaged and interested throughout your class!

Other contexts where these skills appry: Human Resources, Marketing, and Project Management

Personal Interviews Perhaps you do not have a contact person or do not have the time to create, implement, and analyze a scientifically valid survey instrument. This does not mean there is nothing you can do to gather more data on your audience. One final strategy you may employ is to personally interview potential audience members to allow you to gauge their interest in your topic and, perhaps, their actual opinions on the matter. If you know the person whom you interview, you also might get information on other potential audience members that can be quite useful-especially in a sales situation.

Interviews also have the added bonus of allowing you to get to know someone who will be in attendance at your talk. Knowing someone in the audience can help reduce tension and anxiety when you actually deliver your remarks. It also allows you to catch up with that person at the event before you talk to see if there is any other information he or she can relay to you. Interviews are an intensely personal matter for several reasons. F1rst, you are asking people to give time from their day to speak with you, and this in and of itself is a big commitment. Second, you are asking them to use that time to shar e their personal attitudes, beliefs, and ideas with you, so you should respect them for sharing that information, even if it might not be what you wanted or expected to hear. Finally, interviews occur in intimate settings, whether they are in person, over the phone, or even via Skype, so nonverbal behaviors that convey information regarding a person's personality will be available. This information must not be abused.

Health Care Help Patient questionnaires (e.g., the forms that everyone must fill out during a first visit to a new doctor or dentist, at a blood drive, etc.) are a survey method for quickly obtaining information about individual patients as well as aggregating data about all of the patients in your practice. To make sure that you get the most accurate information possible and that your patients are comfortable answering the questions honestly, keep these tips in mind when writing your questions: 0 Make your questions as straightforward as possible. 0 Choose a font and format that are easy to read, yet allow the patient to maintain some degree of privacy from nearby wandering eyes. 0 Use familiar, everyday language your patients will understand. 0 Choose neutral language that does not imply that a positive or negative value judgment is associated with particular answers. 0 Questions should be comprehensive and relevant to your medical specialty. Other contexts in which these skills appry:Marketing Research, Human Resources,

and Government

Summary In any speaking situation, even those with no advance preparation time. audience analysis is a key component to a presenter's success. Information about the audience can help you tailor your message in a way that increases the likelihood of success. In this chapter, we have discussed audience analysis from several perspectives, all designed to illustrate how analyzing audience data can help you in crafting and delivering a successful speech. We wvered different methods of audience analysis before the speech. We then provided strategies for audience analysis during the speech. Finally, we went over some specific ways of gathering information about an audience that might provide you with even more insight into their beliefs, attitudes, and personality. Audience analysis is the key to success in any speaking situation.

Key Term demographics 121

Activities

Watch a recent product advertisement. Who are three audiences that you think the message is trying to reach? How did the product advertisers adapt their message to try to connect with each audience?

2 3

Think about the audience that you will be speaking to in this class. How would you summarize your audience's demographics?

Write three survey questions you would like to ask your audience that would give you information allowing you to better adapt your speech for your specific audience.

CHAPTER

SUPPORTING MATERIALS Objectives 0 Become familiar with three different types of supporting materials that can be used in a speech 0 Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each type of supporting material 0 Learn guidelines for using supporting materials for maximum effect Introductions capture the audience's attention and conclusions leave the audience with something to remember, but the real action is in the body of your speech, where you provide materials to support the claims made in your presentation. These supporting materials are the key to successfully influencing an audience. Successfully incorporating strong supporting materials into your speech helps demonstrate your credibility on the subject and supplies the rationale behind why you are telling the audience what you are telling them. It is in finding the best evidence for your speech and connecting it through the reasoning process that you deliver a smooth and effective presentation. In this chapter, we will explore some common supporting materials you might use for any speech, whether it is informative, persuasive, or delivered on a special occasion. First, we will cover examples and how they can be used at different points in a speech. Then we will explain statistics and offer advice on how to effectively incorporate them into your presentation. Third, we will explain testimony and its appropriate place in a speech. Finally, we will offer some guidelines for successfully incorporating and using supporting materials in a presentation.

EXAMPLES Examples can be useful as attention getters when beginning the speech, or they can help explain how data connects to the everyday experience of the audience. In this respect, good examples can enhance your credibility and help connect your audience with the topic by making seemingly abstract information relevant to their lives. In fact, examples are one of the most common forms of supporting materials. We use examples in dialogue every day when talking with friends and family. We use them to make decisions in business, and we use them in small group scenarios. They are the most ubiquitous and versatile form of supporting material available to speakers. Examples are instances we use to help our audience think of an entire category of objects or events. Examples can be used to help define or clarify concepts, draw attention to a particular feature of an experience, or elicit memories and emotions in our audience. Examples can be of a specific object or event and can even include narratives that illustrate a common experience. Whether it's examples of television shows we enjoy, music we like, or athletes we think epitomize good models, we compare people and make judgments based in part upon examples of the best and the worst of a similar event, object, or scenario. One of the powers of examples is that they humanize information, grounding ideas to a concrete reality. real example an example that is factual

There are two types of examples, real and hypothetical, and they come in two forms, brief and extended. A real example is one that is factual, and you will often encounter real examples during the research process. Real examples can be employed as attention getters to open a speech, but can also help support claims within the body of your speech. If you use them for evidence, however, they should be coupled with other forms of information, thus enhancing their appeal. Using only one case or example to illustrate a point opens up the possibility of employing a reasoning fallacy such as the hasty generalization (see Chapter 14).

hypothetical example an example that is fictional

A hypothetical example differs from a real example in that it is not found during the research process. Hypothetical examples are fictional, though believable and relevant, stories that serve to make a point. Like real examples, hypothetical examples can be used to get the audience's attention at the start of the speech and as supporting evidence within a speech. It is even more important to supplement hypothetical examples used as evidence with other data; otherwise the claim you make can be easily dismissed as based

upon a fabricated, unrealistic example. If you are using a hypothetical example, you should not present the example as real, and you should ensure that your example is germane to the point you are making. Both real and hypothetical examples can be brief or extended. A brief example makes a very quick point and can be effective at any point in a speech. These stories require little detail and focus on the connection between an aspect of

brief example an eKample that n a very quick point can be effective a· point in a speech

the example and the argument or claim you are making. They are often only two or three sentences. Brief examples can be especially useful when you have a time limit for your presentation and need to find a way to connect with your audience and humanize your topic. extended exam1

Extended examples require more information than brief examples. These stories take time, and the importance of them lies in the details. Extended

an eKample that t; time; the importa1 lies in the details

examples can be used as attention getters, but they are more useful within the speech as a means to provide the audience with an opportunity to visualize what you are saying and hopefully remind them of what you are talking about. Extended examples can be quite interesting to an audience, but they can also be risky. The danger is that they can encourage speakers to go off on tangents and make it difficult to stay on point. It is also important as a speaker to carefully consider how much time it will take to deliver an extended example to the audience and whether that time is too much of the total presentation. Remember that the extended example is not the speech focus but rather a means to support your overall purpose. Examples are powerful when used appropriately, but they cannot and should not be the crux of your entire argument. They help to humanize your argument, enhance your credibility, and connect the audience with the topic of your speech. Ultimately, however, examples alone will not win the day in your presentation.

STATISTICS "Whereas examples provide color and a means to personalize information for an audience, statistics seemingly represent cold hard facts. Statistics summarize and organize sets of numbers to make them easier to understand or visualize. People generally "want the numbers" and believe numeric data are incontrovertible truths they cannot debate. This data gives your claims an aura of legitimacy and logical appeal. Like examples, statistics come in many forms and can be quite influential on an audience, but they also need to be carefully deployed because statistics can be manipulated, disputed, and used

statistics numbers that summarize and organize sets of numbers to make· easier to understa or visualize

unethically. Perhaps the reason statistics are so powerful is that they surround our lives. Think how much of your academic life is statistically explained: your grade point average (CPA) , cost of tuition, cost of fees, enrollment numbers, open seats in classes, CPA to graduate with honors or to get

measures of central tendency statistics that indicate where the middle of a distribution lies, including the mean, median, and mode

mean the average in a distribution of numbers

off probation, number of absences, and student loan calculations are just a few examples. Statistics provide an air of objectivity and certainty to an otherwise chaotic world, and so audiences tend to appreciate them when offered in support of an argument. Some of the most commonly used types of statistics include measures of central tendency (including the mean, median, and mode), the standard deviation, and percentages. One of the most common statistics used to quantify our experiences is the average, or mean. The average is calculated by adding up all the numbers in a specific group, then dividing that total by the amount of entries added together. We use averages to describe things such as unemployment, salary, temperature, crime rate, and even performance in sports. Averages provide a picture ofthe tendency of a group of like things, but they by no means indicate the certainty of an event's occurring. Just because a ballplayer has a batting average of .300 (meaning he gets a hit on average three out of every 10 times) does not mean he will always get that many hits in that period of time. It just means that, over time, that is what you can expect to occur. Averages

are just one type of statistic that we can use to explain numeric data to an audience, and it is not always the best piece of information. median the middle number in a distribution of numbers

Another way to make sense of a group of numbers is through the median, or the middle number of a group of numbers. To determine the median point, rank the numbers in the group from high to low, or low to high, and locate the middle number of that group. If the total number of numbers is odd, it is easy to ascertain. For instance, if you have eleven numbers you would select the sixth number, as there would be five numbers above and five numbers below it. In a case where there is an even number of numbers, as with the example provided in Table 10.1, you compute the median by combining the two middle numbers and then dividing by two. The median can be better than the average in certain situations, such as when discussing real estate. For example, home sale prices are reported as both average sale prices and median sale prices. If there are a few homes that sell for much, much more than the typical home in an area, those homes would skew the average so that it is higher than someone would typically pay for a home in that area, whereas the median gives you a better idea of the typical price of a home. The median gives you an idea of the spread from low to high of a group of numbers. Medians are helpful at providing a more complete picture when offered

along with the average of the same group of numbers, but one more statistic can aid even further in explaining a set of data to an audience. The mode is the most frequently occurring number within a group of numbers. As in the real estate example, sometimes averages and medians can be skewed by outliers. The mode helps paint a picture of which numbers

mode the score that appears most ofter in a distribution of numbers

occurred the most often, thus showing whether the average and median were in the center or if they were skewed because of outlying numbers. The example in Table 10.1 illustrates this point. Note that the mean and median are more than $80,000 apart. This is because the mean and median have been skewed by three houses sold for way above average prices. Additionally, the mode of $275,000 is more than $120,000 less than the mean, demonstrating that most people paid below what the numbers indicate was typical. Table 10.1

SOLD HOUSES IN A CERTAIN METROPOLITAN AREA PROPERTY NUMBER

SELLING PRICE

$800,000

$770,000

$700,000

$350,000

$330,000

$300,000

$275,000

Here are the measures of central tendency: Mean

$396,250

$275,000

Median

$315,000

$275,000

Mode

$275,000

$250,000

$100,000 standard deviat

One way to explain the spread of numbers in a group like the one we just explored is to calculate the standard deviation. The standard deviation is a measure of variability that shows how far apart the numbers are that create the average. The smaller the standard deviation, the closer the group of numbers is to the average, and thus the more accurate the average. A higher

a measure of variability that indicates how sprE apart the number! in a distribution

standard deviation indicates a group of numbers that are significantly spread out, and so the average becomes less useful. For example, if the standard deviation in home prices is $10,000, then that suggests that most homes are selling for a fairly similar price, whereas a standard deviation of $100,000 would indicate that there are much larger differences in home prices. Finally, many speakers use percentages or proportions to help audiences understand the data being presented. When comparing large numbers it is easier for audiences to visualize what 50 percent of a group looks like, rather

margin of error a measurement of the potential sampling error in polling; it provides a likelihood, not a certainty, that the result of the poll will be within a certain range

than to think what 345 out of 690 looks like. Percentages are often useful when presenting demographic data or comparing the likelihood of two different events happening, such as comparing the likelihood of being in a car accident versus a plane crash. One other statistic that is important to be familiar with is the margin of error. The margin of error is a measurement of the potential sampling error in polling. It provides people with the likelihood that the result of a poll will be within a certain range. The smaller the margin of error, the more accurate the poll. When using survey data it is essential to understand what the margin of error is for the poll you choose to use. No matter how you explain statistics, though, there are risks. You must use the most appropriate statistic for your topic, and present that information as accurately and fairly as possible. Think of the example of the home prices. What if you constructed your argument using the mean and median as supporting materials? Someone could easily refute your argument by pointing to the mode and the standard deviation, thus making your statistics questionable and damaging your ability to connect with your audience. What if you tried to convince your audience that your hometown needed more police officers because crime had doubled in the previous year, and an audience member pointed out that the increase had been from two petty crimes to four petty crimes? While it might be true that the number of crimes doubled, it would not be especially fair to make your audience believe the danger is substantially higher and their lives are in far greater danger. There is one more type of supporting material in addition to statistics and examples, and we will discuss it next.

TESTIMONY Testimony, the third type of supporting material we will discuss, includes the words of other people. There are two types of testimony you can use in a speech: expert testimony and peer testimony. One of the powers of testimony is that it uses people's words, whether quoted or paraphrased, to lend support to an argument. It provides a perspective other than your own, and, like examples, serves to humanize your position. The first type of testimony, expert testimony, can also be the most powerful. To be considered expert testimony, the information must come from someone who is an expert on the topic. This means the person has conducted extensive research on the topic, has significant experience with the topic, or holds a position that lends credibility to his or her ideas on the subject matter. Remember, however, that just because a person is an expert in one area

testimony using the words of other people as evidence

expert testimon testimony from someone who has conducted extensi research on the topic, has significc experience with tr topic, or holds a position that Lend credibility to his o ideas on the subjE matter

does not make him or her an expert in every area. For example, consider a scientist who is an expert on the properties of physics. You would use his or her testimony or words to support an argument about the way things work in the natural world, but the scientist's ideas on constitutional law, for instance, would be no more expert than those of the average citizen. It is also important to consider how the audience will view the person whose

testimony you use. No matter the qualification of the person, if the audience does not see the person as credible, then that person will not be nearly as powerful as he or she could be. Experts need experience and knowledge about the topic as well as good character for the audience to see them as unbiased. Not all testimony you use as supporting evidence comes from experts. It is also effective to use testimony from those in the same peer group as the audience. This helps them connect with the ideas you present in a more meaningful way because they identify with the person whose testimony you provide. Peer testimony requires no advanced degrees or experience with the topic, but it is important for the audience to identify with that peer. They also need to provide testimony relevant to the topic of the speech and the specific claim you are making. Peer testimony can be useful when you are explaining a similar group's opinion on your topic or showing how your audience might be affected by your topic. For example, you might use peer testimony to show how students are affected by increases in tuition. Expert and peer testimony can serve as powerful pieces of supporting material if they fit the topic and the situation. They also help connect you and

peer testimony testimony from someone who is i1 same peer group the audience, but is not necessarily expert on the top

your topic with the audience by enhancing emotional connections and logical assertions with perspectives other than your own. However, as with examples and statistics, testimony alone cannot be the sole evidence upon which you stake your claims. It is, after all, circumstantial evidence if it is used alone. In the next section, we will provide some guidelines for effectively incorporating supporting materials into your presentations.

STEM Spotlight When putting together a research pro-

po"l o' pmject plm, rupporting material' are critically important, especially in the

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rely on statistics and other quantitative data. Additionally, your proposal will likely need to include the following types of evidence to show that your proposal is feasible and will fully address your research problem: 0 formulas and calculations 0 measurements 0 materials specifications 0 references 0 project time line 0 budget 0 other relevant support materials Other contexts in which these skills

appry: Sales, Performance Management,

Engineering, and Accounting

GUIDELINES FOR USING SUPPORTING MATERIALS During the research process you are certain to find more information and supporting materials than you will need in the speech itself. This is a good thing, but it can be frustrating when you decide what should go, what should stay, and where support is best used in the speech. So, when putting your speech together, carefully analyze what will assist you in getting your ideas across to the audience. In this section, we provide some helpful guidelines for doing just that.

0 Be sure to have balance between your types of supporting materials. A1> we have noted throughout the chapter, you cannot rely solely on any one of the three types of supporting materials to make your speech. Using all three types of supporting materials demonstrates a broad knowledge of the topic and its applicability to the audience and also creates emotional and logical dimensions for your presentation. 0 Only use supporting materials relevant to your topic and argument. You may encounter information during the research process that is fascinating and interesting. This information may also be something you really want to share with your audience simply because of its "cool factor," but it has little to do with your topic. Do not include such data in your speech if it does not help you achieve the purpose of your speech. Use only supporting materials that connect to the claims you make within your speech. 0 Make sure you stay focused when using examples. A1> we mentioned earlier, an extended example can be risky, especially within speeches with tight time limits. Examples need to directly relate to the topic and help achieve identification with the audience , but you must also be able to quickly return from the example to the speech itself. In other words, it should not be a digression from the speech purpose but rather a piece of evidence in support of that purpose. When this happens , it allows you to stay focused on your goals. This is especially critical when using examples as attention getters, because if they are too long, you and your audience will quickly lose focus. 0 Choose the type of testimony to use based upon the goal you are trying to achieve. Not all testimony functions equally in a speech. If you want to personalize information to help an audience identify with the topic and with you as a speaker, then it is best to use peer testimony. On the other hand, if the testimony is meant to provide credibility to the information you just provided or to support a claim you are making with objective information, then it is better to use expert testimony. You should never use peer testimony to justify a claim but rather use it to illustrate its applicability to the audience. 0 Use supporting materials ethically. Don't mislead the audience with your supporting materials , as this will alienate them and weaken your speech. The supporting material should be presented honestly, and you should not ignore statistics that weaken your argument or change information for the purpose of influencing the audience. Audiences actually respect honesty and openness, as these are qualities of a

good speaker, and so you should be candid about any potential shortcomings with your information. These are just a few guidelines to help you make judicious decisions regarding the placement and use of supporting materials within your speech. Many of your choices obviously depend upon the goals of your speech, the audience you will be speaking to, and the topic you are addressing.

Summary Supporting material!> are both the evidence for your claims and vehicles through which you can connect with an audience. As we illustrated in this chapter, there are three primary forms of supporting materials, each with a role to play in any speech . Good speakers bal ance their use of examples, statistics, and testimony when articulat ing a position to an audience.

Key Terms brief example 133 expert testimony 137

median 134 mode 135

extended example 133 hypothetical example 132 margin of error 136 mean 134

peer testimony 137 real example 132

measures of central tendency 134

standard deviation 135 statistics 133 testimony 137

Activities

1 2

What are three specific support materials that you can use for your upcoming speech? How will each of these support materials help your audience better connect with and understand your message? Do some research and find several statistics or numbers from credible sources that will help your audience better understand your topic. Who are some potential people who could provide expert and peer testimony that would help to support your speech? What experiences or expertise do they have that would be beneficial?

CONTEXT AND THE SPEECH SITUATION Objectives 0 Understand the differences between various environments in which you might speak 0 Appreciate how different media influence speaking environments today 0 Learn how to effectively adapt to and use elements of the speaking environment when delivering a presentation You may ask yourself when you will ever need to give a speech. You might have to deliver a toast at a wedding or give a report as part of a class project, but those might be all the situations you can envision. The fact of the matter is that in many different professions you will be called upon to deliver a speech, and all of those instances will present different environments in which you must effectively deliver your message. Most, if not all, professions have national associations, business meetings, and client presentations. Each of these different scenarios requires public speaking skills. In fact, media has expanded the potential venues through which you might deliver a speech or presentation. In this chapter, we will first explain some of the basic elements found in any speaking situation. We call these the components of the spealdng environment. We will then discuss how media has changed and expanded the idea of a speaking environment in many ways-ways very relevant to you, regardless of what career path you choose. Third, we will cover the different types of live audiences and rooms that you may encounter when speaking. Finally, we will provide some basic tips for using the speaking environment to your advantage when addressing an audience.

BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT Every speaking situation can be described in three different dimensions. The first is the physical location in which the speech is being delivered. The second dimension details the speaking tools available in that location, and the final dimension of any speaking situation is the speaker. Each of these dimensions is relevant to understanding any speaking environment, and in this section we will explain how these dimensions can manifest differently in various speaking situations.

Teacher Tips The size of your class and classroom, along with the experience and knowledge of your students, will have a large impact on how you teach. Here are some considerations for common scenarios: 0 Large lecture. Large lectures (one hundred or more students) are usually taught in classrooms with stadium or

auditorium -style seating that is higher in the back of the room than in the front of the room. In this type of class, the teacher will need to rely primarily on lectures and will need to use a presentation technology, such as PowerPoint, to ensure that all students in the room can easily see visual cues used throughout the class. These classes typically include the most prepared, formal presentations. 0 Standard classroom. Standard classes usually include twenty-five

to thirty students, and students are usually seated in individual desks on level ground. In these classrooms, teachers use a variety of instructional strategies, including lecture, discussion, small group activities, and more. "When lecturing, instructors should use some type of visual cues, but can be effective using either PowerPoint or a whiteboard. In this kind of classroom you might teach using a balance of formal presentations and informal discussions. 0 Small seminar. Seminars are usually classes with fifteen or fewer students and are often taught with everyone seated around a large conference table. These classes are usually intended to be conducted primarily in a discussion format, so it is common for instructors to remain seated at the table through most of the class and to avoid using any type of presentation technology. When you are teaching in this situation, your presentation will be very conversational.

0 Online classes. In asynchronous online classes, in which students can do the coursework at any time, instructors often need to record video lectures that are posted online, so the class is sometimes taught using strategies similar to those of large lecture classes. Synchronous online classes, in which students and the instructor are in a videoconference at the same time, can be taught more like a standard class or small seminar with a variety of instructional techniques, and discussion can even be done on a discussion board throughout the class.

Other contexts where these skills apply: Sales, Management, Group Facilitation

Physical Location The physical location of a speech refers to the immediate environment in which the speaker will be speaking. Locations vary from large rooms to small rooms, from outdoors to the comfort of your office or home. It is important, however, to stress that the location refers to a physical environment and not the medium through which a speech is delivered. In that respect, the internet is not a location but rather a medium through which a message is transmitted. The location would be the actual location in which the video or audio file was recorded, Now that we have made that distinction clear, let's explore a variety of physical locations in which you might deliver a speech and discuss the challenges and advantages inherent in each. One of the most common venues for a speech of any kind is indoors. The majority of sales presentations, company updates, conference panels, wedding toasts, and eulogies occur inside. "Indoors," however, is a broad description with a lot of variance. Indoors can refer to a small, intimate setting in a conference room; it can mean a classroom; auditoriums and churches are also both indoors, as are large arenas or even a living room in someone's home. Indoor speaking in any of these environments provides some very basic, but important, advantages for a speaker. First, the lighting and air temperature can usually be adjusted for your comfort. Being indoors also minimizes certain types of distractions by blocking out the outside world and its associated sounds, such as airplanes, cars, wind, weather, and even people talking. The contained nature of an indoor room, regardless of how big or small, is generally the most comfortable situation in which speakers may find themselves. Indoor speaking does not encompass all possible speaking environments, as occasions do arise when you might be called upon to speak outdoors. These

physicallocatio1 the immediate environment in wh the speaker will bE speaking

situations could include company picnics, family reunions, golf tournaments, building dedications, political rallies, or facility tours for prospective clients. Compared to indoor presentations, outdoor speaking is more challenging because there are significant distractions for the audience and you, but there are also some unique advantages as well. One prime example of a possible advantage to outdoor speaking situations is the opportunity to adjust the setting in advance of the presentation. In many cases outdoor speech locations are set up before the speech, and so the actual seating style, arrangement, and design of the environment can be influenced in advance with a site trip. When a speech is indoors you have no chance to knock down a wall or create more space, but outdoors you have space to play with, thus allowing you to somewhat customize your speaking situation. Even so, many of the advantages of speaking indoors are challenges when presenting outdoors. For instance, you cannot control the weather outdoors and thus must have backup plans to compensate for rain, wind, or other unforeseen nature-related obstacles that might present themselves. You also might not have some of the comforts available in a conference room, such as electricity, thus inhibiting your ability to project your voice to a large crowd or show slides or videos to your audience. If the weather is nice or the setting is scenic, your audience may easily lose focus on you and your message. For these reasons, outdoor speaking can be more challenging than presenting indoors. When considering indoor or outdoor presentations, here are some basic questions you should ask when preparing to speak:

Indoor Presentations 0

How many people can be seated in the room?

Are you on an elevated platform?

Is the audience elevated above you?

What is the temperature of the room?

What is the lighting like?

How much noise from the outside can be heard in the room?

Outdoor Presentations 0

How is the seating arranged?

Can I influence or change the way the venue is designed?

Is electricity available?

What will the weather be like?

Whether you find yourself indoors or outdoors when delivering your speech, location is just one of the primary components of the speaking environment. Next, we will discuss a second aspect of the speaking environment relevant to both indoor and outdoor speech delivery: speaking tools.

Speaking Tools There will usually be some type of speaking tool to assist you when delivering your speech. These tools include a microphone, a podium, a lectern, lighting, and projectors. Each of these tools can help improve the delivery of a speech in a variety of ways, but you must become familiar with the nuances of the available tools before trying to incorporate them into your presentation. The most common speaking tool is a microphone. Some voices project well, carrying throughout even large rooms, but many people do not have that powerful a voice and need to amplify it. Even those with a booming voice will sometimes need a microphone in large areas or where there may be background noise that interferes with the audience's ability to hear the speaker. Microphones can allow for this to happen, but not all microphones are created equal. Microphones primarily come in three types. The first is a fixed microphone, which may be on or attached to a podium. These microphones are often placed at the top of a stand and can be adjusted to the height of the speaker. This is convenient for speakers, but it is important to adjust the height before the presentation, if possible, so as not to take up time determining how to adjust the stand when you should be speaking to the audience. The second type of microphone is portable and wireless, enabling it to be carried around the room by the speaker. This type is especially advantageous if a speaker or moderator wants to interact with the audience because it allows the presenter to hand the microphone to individuals and allow them to

speaking tool device that assists speakers, such as microphone, podi1 lectern, or lightin§

speak. If you choose to do this, be aware that when you pass the microphone to someone you have lost some control over the situation. Most often this is not a problem, but sometimes individuals who are given a microphone go on rants or do not relinquish the microphone when you want them to. Overall, though, wireless microphones give you more freedom to move about a large room when addressing an audience. The third type of microphone is also portable but is not handheld; rather, it takes the form of a small receiver on your lapel that picks up and amplifies your voice. This device is usually called a hands-free microphone and also comes in the form of headset microphones. These are very useful when the speaker wants to present visual aids or to make demonstrations with products. Sometimes you see people in grocery stores or at conferences who wear these types of microphones to demonstrate how to use a product while also speaking to an audience. podium a raised platform on which the speaker stands

dais a raised platform similar to but larger than a podium, often on which multiple speakers can stand

lectern the stand behind which people speak and on which they place their notes

The next tool is a podium, which is a raised platform that can vary in size that the speaker stands on. As mentioned earlier, it is advantageous to both the speaker and the audience if both are not on the same level, and podiums create this type of atmosphere. Sometimes a podium is in the center of a room, as in an arena, while other times it is at the front of the room. In larger rooms, or in situations when there are multiple speakers, a dais may be used, which is a raised platform similar to but larger than a podium. People commonly confuse a podium with a lectern. A lectern is the stand behind which people speak and on which they place their notes. Lecterns are usually placed on a podium or dais so that there is a designated place from which a person will speak. Another tool available in speaking situations is the lighting of the area. Obviously, in most cases, indoor lighting is more easily controlled than outdoor lighting. The lighting can help create a certain mood, can spotlight the speaker or someone in the audience, or can even be dimmed so that visual aids are more visible to the entire audience. In most cases if the lighting is not uniform the speaker is more brightly illuminated than the audience members. Outdoor speeches are trickier to manage with regard to lighting, as there is often natural light with which a speaker must compete. Natural light, though, is unpredictable, and when the sun goes behind clouds it can significantly alter visibility for a crowd. Many outdoor venues will supply additional lighting if the weather indicates it might be needed. Always pay attention to

weather forecasts and stay in touch with the site coordinator to determine what, if any, adjustments are needed for lighting. The final tool that you might use in a speaking situation is a projector. Projectors are often used to display Power Point slides, video clips, websites, or other audiovisual resources. You will read more about how to use these resources effectively in the chapter on presentation aids, but when planning your speech, you should find out whether you will have access to this resource.

The Speaker The last aspect of the speaking environment we will discuss is perhaps the most important and that is you, the actual speaker. You have the ability to influence how your message is received through the construction of three components of your speech. How you carry yourself, your posture, and your dress all communicate a message to the audience. Your appearance and how you conduct yourself adds importance and influences the mood of the situation. Your choices in clothing and demeanor must convey the same emotional attachment and feeling you want to create for that moment. In this part of the chapter we will first address the three creative elements you bring to the speech as a speaker, and then we will cover the elements of posture and dress that influence the effectiveness of your message. Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher and teacher, identified the artistic and

artistic proofs constructed by th' speaker for the occasion; concern ethos, pathos, an

The Speaker's Primer [3&nbsp;ed.] 168036877X, 9781680368772 - EBIN.PUB (2024)

The Speaker's Primer [3 ed.] 168036877X, 9781680368772 - EBIN.PUB (2024)