and Situation 25
CHAPTER 2: Selecting Your Topic and Purpose 49
Tab 1 Review 68
1 Be Audience Centered 2 Select Appropriate Topics 3 Be Knowledgeable
4 Use Appropriate Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior
5 Use Appropriate Appeals 6 Be Creative but Organized
7 Select Appropriate Delivery Styles 8 Practice Again and Again
9 Boost Your Con dence
We often know when we hear or see successful public speakers, even if we can t always put our ngers on why we like them.
Good public speaking habits seem to slide right on by, unnoticed, while the speakers can move us and change our lives.
So what makes a good speaker? Scholars have wrestled with this question for centuries, but deep down, you already know the answer. Think about President John F.
Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. Search the Internet for recent famous commencement speeches by entrepreneur Steven Jobs or celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Jon Stewart, or Rachel Maddow, and think about what you like. Even if you disagree with their view- points, it is hard to deny that they all had or have good communication skills. Like you, they initially had certain skills that needed more work as well. For example, former Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher reportedly took voice-training courses to change her high voice to a lower one a pitch that was culturally perceived to be authoritative.
Beginning speakers often see perfection as the key to success, only to be disappointed.
No one is perfect, but successful public speaking grows out of the following qualities.
How Can You Be a Successful Public Speaker?
1 Be Audience Centered
Have you ever heard someone say, You can t understand me until you have walked in my shoes? This phrase symbolizes theorist and philosopher Kenneth Burke s notion of identi cation, as discussed in his book A Rhetoric of Motives. Identi cation (also called empathy) is the human need and willingness to understand as much as possible the feelings, thoughts, motives, interests, attitudes, and lives of others. As human beings, we are born separate but spend much of our lives looking for what we share with others. Good public speakers know that being audience centered allows them to help the audience connect with the speakers and their topics.
*See Chapter 1 (Tab 1) for how to analyze your audience.
*See Chapter 11 (Tab 5) for how to be a better listener.
3 Be Knowledgeable
When the great artist Michelangelo was 88 years old, he allegedly wrote, I am still learning. To be a successful speaker, you must be diligent and know as much as possible about your topic, audience, occasion, language, and methods of delivery right up to the moment the speech ends.
*See Chapter 1 (Tab 1) for how to get to know your audience.
*See Chapter 2 (Tab 1) and Chapters 3 and 4 (Tab 2) for how to learn about your topic.
*See Tab 4 to learn about language and delivery options.
3
HOW CAN YOU BE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC SPEAKER?
2 Select Appropriate Topics
You cannot be audience centered if the topic is not appropriate to your audience and the occasion. However, you must be true to yourself as well. Locating a topic that ts you as well as your audience and the situation is the foundation of a good speech.
*See Chapter 2 (Tab 1) for how to select and narrow your topic.
4 Use Appropriate Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior
Think about how you talk to your best friend compared with how you speak to someone like your mother or grandfather. Most likely, you do not use the same verbal and nonverbal language with your friend that you do with an older relative. The same goes for speaking effectively in public. Speakers must think about the topic, audience, situation, and intent of their speeches when they select their verbal and nonverbal behavior.
*See Chapters 8 and 9 (Tab 4) for tips on appropriate behavior.
5 Use Appropriate Appeals
The great philosopher Aristotle wrote in the Rhetoric about the in uence certain appeals (also called proofs) have on the credibility of a speaker and his or her speech. Aristotle argued that your credibility and that of your speech stems from logos, ethos, and pathos.
Aristotle as well as other scholars reference yet another appeal that is topic speci c and, therefore, not used as frequently. That appeal is mythos.
Logos appeals to your audience s ability to reason or work through your ideas logically.
You use this sort of appeal when you organize a speech and support your speech with material that your audience will accept through reasoning.
*See Tabs 2, 3, and 7 or help with developing stronger logic skills.
Ethos is the appeal of reliability. Your audience must view you and your support materials as reliable. You use this appeal when you demonstrate to the audience that you have their best interest in mind and are con dent in the quality of your support materials as well as of the sources you quote.
Your audience must view you as trustworthy, competent, objective, and enthusiastic for you to have high ethos.
*See the section How Can You Be an Ethical Public Speaker? on pages 8 11 or more in ormation about building your reliability.
*See Tab 2 or in ormation on maintaining source credibility.
Pathos references appealing to the
audience s emotions to maintain their interest or to convince them of your intent. You create pathos through effective use of support materials and language. Speakers engaging an audience s emotions must be careful to balance this appeal with ethos and logos.
*See Chapter 4 (Tab 2) or how to ef ectively use support materials.
*See Chapter 8 (Tab 4) or more on ef ective language usage.
Mythos appeals to your audience s need for group membership and connection to the group s traditions, identity, and values.
Appealing to a U.S. audience s sense of patriotism since 9/11 has become a popular political campaign technique and is a classic use of mythos. As with pathos, you create mythos through effective use of support materials and language, as well as your perceived credibility.
*See Chapter 4 (Tab 2) or how to ef ectively use support materials.
*See Chapter 8 (Tab 4) or more on ef ective language usage.
You must use a combination of these appeals to get your audience to listen, to understand your message, and, ultimately, to react the way you intend. Skillful and ethical speakers learn when and how to use appeals appropriately.
*See Chapter 14 (Tab 7) or more discussion o using appeals.
6 Be Creative but Organized
Individuality, uniqueness, imagination, resourcefulness, and vision are all qualities of creativity. Imagine if Martin Luther King, Jr., had said I have a hope rather than I have a dream. Imagine if Michael Jackson hadn t envisioned the video for Thriller. We might not have one of the greatest speeches of all time, or music videos as we now know them might never have happened. Both men contributed something unique by being creative and resourceful yet organized in a manner acceptable to their audiences. Good speakers think outside the box and take chances that will set them apart from others.
*Tabs 1 5 will show you how to be creative and organized when composing and presenting your speech.
8 Practice Again and Again
In the rst century BCE, Roman author Publilius Syrus wrote, Practice is the best of all instructors. Most often, beginning students do not practice enough or exactly as they plan to give their speeches. Bad habits (such as putting off writing a speech until the last minute, just reading over the speech instead of practicing it, or practicing it only once) can cause many problems. Practicing helps you hone all your skills, locate issues that are not working within the speech, and develop con dence. Let your mind and body become familiar with your speech.
*See Chapter 9 (Tab 4) for rehearsal guidelines.
5
HOW CAN YOU BE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC SPEAKER?
7 Select Appropriate Delivery Styles
As with your verbal and nonverbal behavior, you must select the appropriate style of delivery. For example, reading from a manuscript about your trip to the state fair will seem strange and too formal. Most of the speeches you will give in a class or your everyday life will be extemporaneous.
Speaking extemporaneously requires you to practice suf ciently, logically organize the speech, and use minimal notes while giving the speech.
*See Chapter 9 (Tab 4) for a detailed description of delivery styles.
9 Boost Your Con dence
Boosting your con dence will go a long way toward making you a better speaker. You will begin to actually enjoy giving a speech (Yes, you will!) if you work on how you feel about your abilities. Like creating a speech, boosting your con dence is a process that takes work and time. Most people have some level of anxiety about public speaking, and the next few pages will help you start to control that anxiety.
TIP: Speech Anxiety
Remember that nervousness is normal even important and can help energize you!
How Can You Overcome a Fear of Public Speaking?
1 Face Your Fear Head On
2 Learn Techniques That Work for You 3 Practice, Practice, Practice
1 Face Your Fear Head On
Communication apprehension (also known as speech anxiety) is a term scholars give to the fears you may have about giving a speech. These fears can be so intense that you avoid situations where you must speak in front of a group, and they can manifest into physical distress such as nausea or panic attacks. Clearly, physical distress at this level is something you need to control, but some apprehension is good. The physical and psychological responses you have before a date, a big game, or a speech are normal;
they can help you succeed at the task at hand, and they can be controlled.
2 Learn Techniques That Work for You
The process of controlling your anxiety begins with recognizing exactly what you fear and noting how your body and mind react to stress. Often, just naming what we are afraid of will help us see how unfounded our fears might be. Throughout this book,
Con dence Booster boxes (such as the one to the right) offer insights that may help you respond to your physical and psychological reactions. Note that they are labeled Con dence Booster, not Anxiety Eliminator. A certain amount of intense reaction energizes you and prepares you for the event.
*See Chapter 9 (Tab 4) or more on ef ective delivery practices, and use the Con dence Booster boxes throughout the book to help conquer stage right.
7
HOW CAN YOU OVERCOME A FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING?
3 Practice, Practice, Practice
Often your instinct is to stay away from situations that cause you stress. In the case of speech anxiety, if you really want to overcome it, you have to put yourself in speaking situations. The more you practice your speeches, and the more often you speak in front of an audience, the easier public speaking becomes. Ignoring anxiety makes that monster bigger and stronger.
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER
Training your body to adjust before you experience speech anxiety will help you control that inner demon.
Many psychologists and communication practitioners suggest training your body to breathe deeply and to visualize happy, stress-free images. Remember, the key to training is practicing these techniques before you need them so that your body learns how it feels in a truly stress-free situation. These two techniques nd their true power as a daily form of meditation and not just a quick x for intense stress. The steps below are based on exercises from the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is a great way to relax the body.
1 Sit straight or lie on your back.
2 Slowly relax your body.
3 Begin to inhale slowly through your nose. Fill the lower part of your chest rst, then the middle and top part of your chest and lungs. Be sure to do this slowly, over 8 to 10 seconds.
4 Hold your breath for a second or two.
5 Then quietly and easily relax and let the air out.
6 Wait a few seconds and repeat this cycle. If you become dizzy, slow down or stop.
Guided Imagery
In this technique, the goal is to visualize yourself in a peaceful setting.
1 Get comfortable and close your eyes or focus on a particular spot.
2 Imagine yourself in a place that makes you happy, such as on the beach or in a hammock.
3 Take yourself there mentally. Feel the sun and air on your skin, listen to the peaceful sounds, smell the owers or ocean.
Practicing these techniques daily can have major stress-relieving e ects on your body and will train it to understand what it feels like to relax.
A few deep breaths or taking yourself to your happy place just before a speech can refocus your mind on a body with less anxiety. Try to make it a habit to do one of these techniques four to ve times daily, especially during potentially stressful times.
1 Be Everything Required of a Successful Speaker
2 Be Open to Differences
3 Select and Use Reliable Evidence, Logic, and Reasoning
4 Be Sensitive to the Power of Language
5 Be Dedicated and Thorough in Citing Sources
6 Accept Responsibility for Your Communication
7 Support and Endorse Freedom of Expression
Being ethical means much more than just following the rules. Rules are part of the equation, but ethics grows out of our need to develop social relationships with others and our responsibilities within those relationships.
If you were the only person on an island, your ethics would be of no concern because your actions would affect only you. However, you are not the only human being on an island, and you must construct and maintain relationships with others. To do so, others must view you as trustworthy, competent, objective, and passionate about what you do and support.
Adhering to the following qualities will help you be an ethical public speaker and build a strong relationship with your audience.
To help you build that strong relationship, numerous Practicing Ethics boxes appear throughout this book. Ethics should become a part of every decision you make as you create your speech; it is not simply something to consider only when you read this section.
So use these boxes to help and remind you every step of the way.
How Can You Be an Ethical Public Speaker?
1 Be Everything Required of a Successful Speaker
Earlier in this Overview, you learned the nine qualities of a successful speaker. These qualities are the foundation of an ethical speaker as well. You have a responsibility to the audience to give a speech that is well researched and well crafted from your audience s perspective. Likewise, creating a well-crafted speech is self-respecting, because a solid speech will boost your con dence and credibility in the eyes of the audience.
*See Tabs 1 5 or more on developing the qualities o a success ul speaker.
4 Be Sensitive to the Power of Language
Words have the power to heal and to destroy.
As an ethical speaker, you must be aware of your language choices and their power. Overly emotional language can cloud your audience s ability to reason. Offensive language directed at someone s race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or culture is inappropriate at the very least and can be the fuel for hate groups at its worst.
Use language for the good of others.
*See Chapter 8 (Tab 4) or how to use language ef ectively and ethically.
9
HOW CAN YOU BE AN ETHICAL PUBLIC SPEAKER?
2 Be Open to Differences
More than 6,000 different languages are spoken in the world. This fact alone makes it necessary to be open to differences in our current global culture. Language is only a small segment of what makes us unique. As an ethical speaker, you must work at recognizing every member of your audience and
respect his or her needs and motives. Avoid ethnocentrism, or the assumption that your own group or culture is better than all others.
Create a sense of inclusion, not exclusion. Be respectful and helpful.
*See Chapter 1 (Tab 1) to help you get to know your audience.
3 Select and Use Reliable Evidence, Logic, and Reasoning
To be ethical, you must dedicate yourself to using reliable evidence, tight organization, and careful reasoning (avoiding fallacies).
When speaking publicly, you have the opportunity to alter people s lives. Be careful with that responsibility. As Aristotle wrote in
De Caleo ( On the Heavens ), The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
*See Chapter 4 (Tab 2) or how to select evidence.
*See Tab 3 or help with organizing a speech.
*See Chapter 14 (Tab 7) or how to create sensible reasoning and avoid allacies.
Avoiding plagiarism is all about protecting the words, ideas, and illustrations created by someone else, no matter if the creation is published or unpublished. When you intentionally or accidentally use all or a portion of the words, ideas, or illustrations created by someone else without giving proper credit, you commit the unethical and potentially harmful act of plagiarism. Plagiarism is not acceptable and may prevent you from passing a class, get you placed on academic probation, or force you to resign from a position.
Recognizing the different types of plagiarism and adhering to preventive techniques will help you avoid plagiarizing in your speech.
Blatant plagiarism can occur either when speakers take an entire speech or document and present it as their own or when a speaker takes parts of information from other sources and links the parts together, creating an entire speech out of someone else s words.
Both of these forms are clearly intentional and highly unethical acts. In both forms, the speaker claims the words of others as his or her own and makes no attempt to recognize the original author.
*See Tab 2 for more details on how to cite sources correctly.
No-citation plagiarism occurs when speakers fail to give source credit to a speci c part of their speech that has been taken from another source. This form of plagiarism can occur once or several times throughout a speech, even when the speech is created mainly by the speaker or when other sources are cited correctly. This form of plagiarism may be accidental but is still unethical.
Be sure that you have carefully cited all your sources.
PRACTICING ETHICS: HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM
Read and make sure you understand your institutions and instructors plagiarism policies.
Do your research early so that you have enough time to properly prepare.
Keep detailed notes on any sources you use and the speci c material you nd there.
Use your own words, sentence structure, and organizational structure.
Utilize a variety of sources.
Make sure that you cite sources of quotations, paraphrased material, facts, de nitions, and statistics.
Cite the sources of illustrations, pictures, drawings, graphs, photos, videos, tables, maps, and other such items if you did not create them yourself.
Follow the class assignment rules for citing sources on your outline, source page, and during your speech.
REMEMBER
Whether blatant or no-citation, intentional or accidental, plagiarism is highly unethical and can be damaging. Be diligent in citing your sources during your speech and on your outline. Citing sources will build your credibility.
5 Be Dedicated and Thorough in Citing Sources