A CASE STUDY: MIA

Let’s take a look at how Mia began her speech preparation process.

Early in the semester, Mia’s teacher assigned an informative speech in her public speaking class. It would require a full-sentence outline, presentation aids, supporting materials that appeal to different learning styles, and at least four credible research sources. Mia felt stressed: with the speech and outline due in four weeks, there was a lot of work to be done! Mia’s first speech in class—a three-minute speech about a hero in her community—had gone pretty well, and she’d gotten a B. But she’d felt nervous in front of the class and knew that her presentation had been a bit choppy and disorganized. This time, Mia wanted to do even better.

To prepare, Mia reviewed the steps of speech preparation and created a schedule for accomplishing each stage. She gave herself a couple of days to relax and made no plans on the day before an exam or major assignment for another class. But she planned to spend time on her speech most other days and leave enough time to practice after her outline was complete. Mia also took note of her instructor’s office hours, just in case she had questions along the way.

Mia wanted to select her topic early so she could get started on preparation. She made a list of possible topics on the night she received the assignment. The next day, she stopped in the library to do some research on additional possibilities. Whenever Mia felt a pang of anxiety about the assignment, she thought positively and visualized a successful performance. She also scheduled one more item—a home-cooked meal at her aunt’s as a reward after she presented the speech.

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.

A CASE STUDY: JACOB

Let’s consider how Jacob used his time after receiving a persuasive speech assignment.

Jacob was not thrilled when the instructor passed out a persuasive-speech assignment. He needed to prepare an eight-minute original speech about a serious problem in his local community, supported by credible research and organized using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. (You’ll read about this organizational pattern in Chapter 17.) His two previous presentations had not gone well, and the last thing he needed was another speech assignment. Jacob had one advantage—he was comfortable speaking in front of a class. Unfortunately, this self-confidence led him to believe that he would be able to present a high-quality speech without much preparation.

Jacob’s instructor had invited students to come by the office and discuss their ideas for a topic. But instead of going, Jacob figured that he could check with one of his roommates who had taken public speaking last year and see if he might have an idea.

Confident that he would come through at the last minute, Jacob thought little about his speech during the two weeks after he received the assignment. Once he went to the library to do some research but got distracted by an art exhibit on the second floor. He had a paper due in another course two days before the speech was due and then a midterm exam in a third class the following day. He tried to repress thoughts of all three assignments. Why get stressed out now when there were two weeks to go?

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.