Your Reference
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A Study Tool
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you can
public speaking and how preparation eases natural nervousness. Identify the purpose of your speech:
- Informative speeches aim to increase the audience’s understanding and knowledge of a topic (pp. 235–236).
- Persuasive speeches are intended to influence the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of your audience (pp. 237–238).
- Special-occasion speeches are given at common events (like weddings and funerals), and many of us will deliver them at some point in time (pp. 238–239).
audience analysis—the process of getting to know your audience:
- It is important to understand and appreciate your audience’s expectations for the speech as well as key situational factors (p. 240).
- Knowing demographics, the quantifiable characteristics of your audience, will help you identify topics that the audience would be interested in learning about (pp. 240–242).
- You will want to anticipate your audience’s response by considering their motivation, seeking common ground (homogeny), determining prior exposure, and considering disposition (p. 242).
- You can learn about your audience by observing people, getting to know people, conducting interviews, using surveys, and researching their traits by using the Web (pp. 242–243).
brainstorming and clustering to amass information, think creatively, and consider problems and solutions related to your topic (p. 243).
- A specific purpose statement expresses the topic and the general speech purpose in action form and in terms of the specific objectives you hope to achieve with your presentation (p. 244).
- Narrow your topic and write a thesis statement
, a summary of your central idea (p. 245).
expert testimony, the opinion of an authority, or lay testimony, opinion based on personal experience (p. 246).
- Scientific research findings carry weight in topics on medicine, health, media, and the environment; statistics, information in numerical form, can clarify your presentation (pp. 246–247).
- Anecdotes , relevant personal stories, bring the human experience to the speech (p. 247).
- Surveys will add the point of view of a larger range of people (pp. 247–248).
- Use databases to find material, such as directories, library gateways, search engines, and metasearch engines (pp. 248–249).
credibility—the quality, authority, and reliability—of each source you use (pp. 249–250).
- Up-to-date information convinces the audience of its timeliness (p. 250).
- Citing accurate and exact sources gains audience respect (p. 250).
- Compelling information is influential and interesting (pp. 250–251).
plagiarism, presenting someone else’s intellectual property as your own (p. 252).
- Keep accurate track of all your references to avoid unintentional errors (p. 252).
- Keeping a running bibliography, the list of resources you’ve consulted, will free you from having to write the same information over and over (pp. 252–253).
- Honor the basic rules for ethical speaking (pp. 254–255).