Reading Worksheet 2
Structure and Organization!
D2L Structure Reading, Chapters 8, 9, & 10
1. Several of the readings for today deal with structure! Discuss two concepts about
structure that were new or interesting to you. (Please feel free to quote the book or tell
me which exact page your concept was on)
2. What did you learn or review which will help you organize the information in your first
speech?
3. I think structure and organization are CRUCIAL to building a strong speech. That is why
we start with them and also why I gave you an extra reading!!! I know there was some
overlap, but anything specific from the D2L reading you found especially helpful?
4. How will these concepts help you with building a speech?
5. Tell me how you feel about outlines. Did the readings change your mind at all or
influence your feelings?!
6. What concepts were very helpful from the introduction and conclusion chapter?
7. Was there anything in the readings you did not like, did not understand or had
questions on?
STAND UP, SPEAK OUT
S TAND UP, S PEAK OUT
The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
Christopher Anderson, Leslie J. Harris, Marnie
Lawler Mcdonough, Josh Miller, Stacey MirvissJossart, Emily Mueller, Megan Orcholski, Kristin
Woodward
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Adapted
from University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition,
2016. This edition adapted from a work originally
produced in 2011 by a publisher who has requested that it
not receive attribution.
Milwaukee, WI
Stand up, Speak out by https://press.rebus.community/
uwmpublicspeaking is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
License, except where otherwise noted.
CONTENTS
Publisher Information
ix
PART I. P UBLIC S PEAKING : S PEAKERS
AND A UDIENCES
1. Why Public Speaking Matters Today
Why is Public Speaking Important?
The Process of Public Speaking
2. Speaking Confidently
What Is Communication Apprehension?
All Anxiety Is Not the Same: Sources of
Communication Apprehension
Reducing Communication Apprehension
Coping with the Unexpected
3. Engaging Your Audience
Ethical Considerations
The Literal and Target Audiences
Audience Analysis
Your Constructed Audience
Conclusion
3
6
16
31
34
41
47
58
58
61
63
65
69
71
80
89
vi
4. Understanding the Ethics of Public
Speaking
The Ethics Pyramid
Ethics in Public Speaking
Free Speech
5. Listening
Listening vs. Hearing
Listening Styles
Why Listening Is Difficult
Stages of Listening
Listening Critically
91
93
98
117
123
125
129
134
141
147
PART II. C RAFTING Y OUR S PEECH
6. Topic, Purpose, Thesis
161
General Purpose
Selecting a Topic
What If You Draw a Blank?
Specific Purposes
Crafting and Understanding Thesis Statements
for Speeches
Conclusion
7. Researching Your Speech
8. Building and Organizing Your Speech
162
181
187
195
203
Determining Your Main Ideas
Using Common Organizing Patterns
Keeping Your Speech Moving
9. The Importance Outlining
227
238
247
257
Why Outline?
Types of Outlines
Using Outlining for Success
212
215
225
259
267
285
vii
10. Effective Introductions and Powerful
Conclusions
291
The Importance of an Introduction
Putting Together a Strong Introduction
Why Conclusions Matter
Steps of a Conclusion
11. The Importance of Language and Style
292
297
303
306
319
Oral verses Written Language
Using Language Effectively
Six Elements of Language
12. Developing Strong Arguments
322
328
342
351
Principles of Argumentation
The Parts of an Argument
Types of Arguments
Counter Arguments
Logical Fallacies: Weaknesses in Reasoning
Conclusion
13. Delivery: A Recipe for Great Speaking
352
356
359
369
374
380
383
How to Effectively Use Your Voice
How to Effectively Use your Body
Types of Preparation and Delivery
Delivery and Audience Connection
14. Presentation Aids
385
394
403
409
415
What Are Presentation Aids?
Functions of Presentation Aids
Types of Presentation Aids
Media to Use for Presentation Aids
Tips for Preparing Presentation Aids
415
418
427
448
458
viii
PART III. T YPES
OF
P UBLIC S PEECHES
15. Informative Speaking
469
Informative Speaking Goals
Types of Informative Speeches
16. Persuasive Speaking
472
482
499
Why Persuasion?
How to Persuade
Types of Persuasive Claims
17. Ceremonial Speaking
501
510
514
523
Functions of Special Occasion Speeches
Types of Special Occasion Speeches
Keynote Speaking
Delivering Your Special Occasion Speech
525
527
538
542
PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public
Speaking is adapted from a work produced and
distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BYNC-SA) in 2011 by a publisher who has requested that
they and the original author not receive attribution.
The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries
edition builds on the University of Minnesota version
with the following changes and additions to the content:
• The original publication was edited for both
content and clarity.
• Some content was removed or added, but most
chapters remain similar to the original version.
Exceptions include:
Chapter 3: Engaging your Audience and Chapter
12: Developing Strong Arguments. These
chapters were written by Josh Miller. Chapter 7:
Researching your Speech was written by Kristin
Woodward. Chapter 12, Delivery: A Recipe for
Great Speaking was written by Megan
Orcholski. Chapter 16: Persuasive Speaking was
modified from: Tucker, Barbara and Barton,
Kristin, “Exploring Public Speaking” (2016).
Communication Open Textbooks. Book 1.
http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/communicationtextbooks/1
x
This adapted edition is produced by the University
of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning
Support Initiative.
[Note from University of Minnesota Libraries
Publishing Adaptation] This adaptation has reformatted
the original text, and replaced some images and figures
to make the resulting whole more shareable. This
adaptation has not significantly altered or updated the
original 2011 text. This work is made available under
the terms of a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
PART I
PUBLIC SPEAKING:
SPEAKERS AND
AUDIENCES
CHAPTER 1
WHY PUBLIC SPEAKING
MA
MATTERS
TTERS TODA
TODAY
Y
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Explore the types of public speaking.
• Understand the benefits of public speaking.
• Distinguish between the interactional models of
communication and the transactional model of
communication.
• Understand the basic principles of public speaking.
P
ublic speaking is the process of designing and
delivering a message to a public audience. Effective
public speaking involves understanding your
audience and speaking goals, choosing elements for the
speech that will engage your audience with your topic,
and delivering your message skillfully. Effective public
speakers understand that they must plan, organize, and
revise their material before speaking. This book will help
you understand the basics of effective public speaking
and guide you through the process of creating your own
4
presentations. We will begin by discussing the ways in
which public speaking is relevant to you and can benefit
you in your career, education, and personal life. Then,
we will introduce some of the basic principles of public
speaking.
In a world where people are bombarded with
messages through television, social media, and the
Internet, one of the first questions you may ask is, “Do
people still give speeches?” Well, type the words “public
speaking” into Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com, and
you will find more than two thousand books with the
words “public speaking” in the title. Most of these and
other books related to public speaking are not college
textbooks. In fact, many books written about public
speaking are intended for very specific audiences: A
Handbook of Public Speaking for Scientists and Engineers (by
Peter Kenny), Excuse Me! Let Me Speak!: A Young Person’s
Guide to Public Speaking (by Michelle J. Dyett-Welcome),
Professionally Speaking: Public Speaking for Health
Professionals (by Frank De Piano and Arnold Melnick),
and Speaking Effectively: A Guide for Air Force Speakers (by
John A. Kline). Although these different books address
specific issues related to nurses, engineers, or air force
officers, the content is basically the same. If you search for
“public speaking” in an online academic database, you’ll
find numerous articles on public speaking in business
magazines (e.g., BusinessWeek, Nonprofit World) and
academic journals (e.g., Harvard Business Review, Journal of
Business Communication). There is so much information
available about public speaking because it continues to
be relevant even with the growth of technological means
of communication. As author and speaker Scott Berkun
writes in his blog, “For all our tech, we’re still very fond of
the most low tech thing there is: a monologue” (Berkun,
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2009). People continue to spend millions of dollars every
year to listen to professional speakers. For example,
attendees of the 2010 TED (Technology, Entertainment,
Design) conference, which invites speakers from around
the world to share their ideas in short, eighteen-minute
presentations, paid six thousand dollars per person to
listen to fifty speeches over a four-day period.
Technology can also help public speakers reach
audiences that were not possible to reach in the past.
Millions of people heard about and then watched Randy
Pausch’s “Last Lecture” online. In this captivating speech,
Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University professor
who retired at age forty-six after developing inoperable
tumors, delivered his last lecture to the students, faculty,
and staff. This inspiring speech was turned into a DVD
and a best-selling book that was eventually published in
more than thirty-five languages (Carnegie Mellon
University, 2011).
We realize that you may not be invited to TED to give
the speech of your life or create a speech so inspirational
that it touches the lives of millions via YouTube; however,
all of us will find ourselves in situations where we will be
asked to give a speech, make a presentation, or just deliver
a few words. In this chapter, we will first address why
public speaking is important, and then we will discuss
models that illustrate the process of public speaking itself.
6
WHY IS PUBLIC SPEAKING IMPORTANT?
In this book we are beginning with assumption that
public speaking matters. It matters to our world,
personal lives, and professional lives. Public
speaking is not simply about conveying
information, but it can be a powerful tool for
change. In what follows we will introduce some of
the basic principles and benefits of public speaking.
ROOTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest people to
write about public speaking because they viewed speech
as critical to a democracy. The Greeks began
studying rhetoric in the 5th century BCE when adult
male citizens had a duty to participate in government
and the courts (Kennedy 1991, p. vii). Some Greek
philosophers were deeply skeptical about rhetoric
because they recognized its power to be used for both
good and evil. However, other scholars, such as Aristotle,
insisted that rhetoric is morally neutral. If people are
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mindful of ethics, rhetoric can be a powerful tool of both
social good and individual benefit.
In his book, On Rhetoric, Aristotle argued that rhetoric
can be divided into three general categories: judicial,
deliberative, and epideictic. In judicial rhetoric
audiences are asked to make a judgement about the past,
and in deliberative rhetoric audiences are asked to make
a judgement about the future. Epideictic rhetoric is not
asking the audience to make a judgement about the past
or future, but instead it can be ceremonial, often calling
for praise or blame.
We can continue to learn from the ancient Greeks.
First, many of the theories of public speaking developed
from the ancient Greeks continue to be applicable today.
For example, we will often return to the concepts of
ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to the character
of the speaker, pathos refers to generating emotional
responses in the minds of the audience, and logos is about
utilizing strong arguments and logic. Each of these there
elements need to be utilized in delivering an effective
speech, and in later chapters we will discuss each in more
detail. Second, the Greeks considered speech to be part
of what creates and maintains a public. Public speaking
was not an abstract concept. Instead, it was a vital tool
for daily life and necessary to sustain a democracy.
THE PUBLIC
A public is a community of people with shared concerns.
Sometimes we think about a public in terms of nation or
community (people of the United States of America or
Milwaukee), but we can also think about publics as being
organized around shared interests or identities (fans
of Dr. Who, students, or people who support drug
legalization). Furthermore, we always belong to multiple
8
publics at the same time.Through speech, we can create,
shape, and influence publics. We will return to the
concept of a public in the chapter about audience, but it
is important to recognize that part of the reason public
speaking is valuable is because of its relationship to a
public.
COMMON TYPES OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Every single day people across the United States and
around the world stand up in front of some kind of
audience and speak. In fact, there’s even a monthly
publication that reproduces some of the top speeches
from around the United States called Vital Speeches of the
Day (http://www.vsotd.com). Although public speeches
are of various types, they can generally be grouped into
three
categories:
informative,
persuasive,
and
ceremonial/entertaining.
INFORMATIVE SPEAKING
One of the most common types of public speaking is
informative speaking. The primary purpose of
informative presentations is to share one’s knowledge of
a subject with an audience. Reasons for making an
informative speech vary widely. For example, you might
be asked to instruct a group of coworkers on how to
use new computer software or to report to a group of
managers how your latest project is coming along. A local
community group might wish to hear about your
volunteer activities in New Orleans during spring break
or learn about the different approaches to reduce
homelessness in your community. What all these
examples have in common is the goal of imparting
information to an audience.
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Informative speaking is integrated into many
different occupations. Physicians often lecture about
their areas of expertise to medical students, other
physicians, and patients. Teachers find themselves
presenting to parents as well as to their students.
Firefighters give demonstrations about how to effectively
control a fire in the house. Informative speaking is a
common part of numerous jobs and other everyday
activities. As a result, learning how to speak effectively
has become an essential skill in today’s world.
PERSUASIVE SPEAKING
A second common reason for speaking to an audience
is to persuade others. In our everyday lives, we are often
called on to convince, motivate, or otherwise persuade
others to change their beliefs, take an action, or
reconsider a decision. Advocating for music education in
your local school district, convincing clients to purchase
your company’s products, or inspiring high school
students to attend college all involve influencing other
people through public speaking.
For some people, such as elected officials, giving
persuasive speeches is a crucial part of attaining and
continuing career success. Other people make careers out
of speaking to groups of people who pay to listen to them.
Motivational authors and speakers, such as Les Brown
(http://www.lesbrown.com), make millions of dollars
each year from people who want to be motivated to do
better in their lives. Brian Tracy, another professional
speaker and author, specializes in helping business
leaders become more productive and effective in the
workplace (http://www.briantracy.com).
Whether public speaking is something you do every
day or just a few times a year, persuading others is a
10
challenging task. If you develop the skill to persuade
effectively, it can be personally and professionally
rewarding.
CEREMONIAL SPEAKING
Ceremonial speaking involves an array of speaking
occasions ranging from introductions to wedding toasts,
to presenting and accepting awards, to delivering
eulogies at funerals and memorial services in addition
to after-dinner speeches and motivational speeches.
Entertaining speaking has been important since the time
of the ancient Greeks, when Aristotle identified epideictic
speaking (speaking in a ceremonial context) as an
important type of address. As with persuasive and
informative speaking, there are professionals, from
religious leaders to comedians, who make a living simply
from delivering entertaining speeches. As anyone who
has watched an awards show on television or has seen an
incoherent best man deliver a wedding toast can attest,
speaking to entertain is a task that requires preparation
and practice to be effective.
BENEFITS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Once you’ve learned the basic skills associated with
public speaking, you’ll find that being able to effectively
speak in public has profound benefits, including
• influencing the world around you,
• developing leadership skills,
• becoming a thought leader.
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INFLUENCING THE WORLD AROUND YOU
If you don’t like something about your local government,
then speak out about your issue! One of the best ways to
get our society to change is through the power of speech.
Common citizens in the United States and around the
world, like you, are influencing the world in real ways
through the power of speech. Just type the words “citizens
speak out” in a search engine and you’ll find numerous
examples of how common citizens use the power of
speech to make real changes in the world—for example,
by speaking out against “fracking” for natural gas (a
process in which chemicals are injected into rocks in an
attempt to open them up for fast flow of natural gas or
oil) or in favor of retaining a popular local sheriff. One
of the amazing parts of being a citizen in a democracy
is the right to stand up and speak out, which is a luxury
many people in the world do not have. So if you don’t
like something, be the force of change you’re looking for
through the power of speech.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Have you ever thought about climbing the corporate
ladder and eventually finding yourself in a management
or other leadership position? If so, then public speaking
skills are very important. Hackman and Johnson assert
that effective public speaking skills are a necessity for all
leaders (Hackman & Johnson, 2004). If you want people
to follow you, you have to communicate effectively and
clearly what followers should do. According to Bender,
“Powerful leadership comes from knowing what matters
to you. Powerful presentations come from expressing this
effectively. It’s important to develop both” (Bender, 1998).
One of the most important skills for leaders to develop
is their public speaking skills, which is why executives
12
spend millions of dollars every year going to public
speaking workshops; hiring public speaking coaches; and
buying public speaking books, CDs, and DVDs.
BECOMING A THOUGHT LEADER
Even if you are not in an official leadership position,
effective public speaking can help you become a “thought
leader.” Joel Kurtzman, editor of Strategy & Business,
coined this term to call attention to individuals who
contribute new ideas to the world of business. According
to business consultant Ken Lizotte, “when your
colleagues, prospects, and customers view you as one
very smart guy or gal to know, then you’re a thought
leader” (Lizotte, 2008). Typically, thought leaders engage
in a range of behaviors, including enacting and
conducting research on business practices. To achieve
thought leader status, individuals must communicate
their ideas to others through both writing and public
speaking. Lizotte demonstrates how becoming a thought
leader can be personally and financially rewarding at the
same time: when others look to you as a thought leader,
you will be more desired and make more money as a
result. Business gurus often refer to “intellectual capital,”
or the combination of your knowledge and ability to
communicate that knowledge to others (Lizotte, 2008).
Whether standing before a group of executives discussing
the next great trend in business or delivering a webinar
(a seminar over the web), thought leaders use public
speaking every day to create the future that the rest of us
live in.
PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS
Oral communication skills were the number one skill that
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college graduates found useful in the business world,
according to a study by sociologist Andrew Zekeri
(Zekeri, 2004). That fact alone makes learning about
public speaking worthwhile. However, there are many
other benefits of communicating effectively for the
hundreds of thousands of college students every year who
take public speaking courses. Let’s take a look at some
of the personal benefits you’ll get both from a course in
public speaking and from giving public speeches.
In addition to learning the process of creating and
delivering an effective speech, students of public speaking
leave the class with a number of other benefits as well.
Some of these benefits include
• developing critical thinking skills,
• fine-tuning verbal and nonverbal skills,
• overcoming fear of public speaking.
DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
One of the very first benefits you will gain from your
public speaking course is an increased ability to think
critically. Problem solving is one of many critical
thinking skills you will engage in during this course. For
example, when preparing a persuasive speech, you’ll have
to think through real problems affecting your campus,
community, or the world and provide possible solutions
to those problems. You’ll also have to think about the
positive and negative consequences of your solutions and
then communicate your ideas to others. At first, it may
seem easy to come up with solutions for a campus
problem such as a shortage of parking spaces: just build
more spaces. But after thinking and researching further
14
you may find out that building costs, environmental
impact from loss of green space, maintenance needs, or
limited locations for additional spaces make this solution
impractical. Being able to think through problems and
analyze the potential costs and benefits of solutions is an
essential part of critical thinking and of public speaking
aimed at persuading others. These skills will help you not
only in public speaking contexts but throughout your life
as well. As we stated earlier, college graduates in Zekeri’s
study rated oral communication skills as the most useful
for success in the business world. The second most
valuable skill they reported was problem-solving ability,
so your public speaking course is doubly valuable!
Another benefit to public speaking is that it will
enhance your ability to conduct and analyze research.
Public speakers must provide credible evidence within
their speeches if they are going to persuade various
audiences. So your public speaking course will further
refine your ability to find and utilize a range of sources.
FINE-TUNING VERBAL AND NONVERBAL SKILLS
A second benefit of taking a public speaking course is
that it will help you fine-tune your verbal and nonverbal
communication skills. Whether you competed in public
speaking in high school or this is your first time speaking
in front of an audience, having the opportunity to actively
practice communication skills and receive professional
feedback will help you become a better overall
communicator. Often, people don’t even realize that they
twirl their hair or repeatedly mispronounce words while
speaking in public settings until they receive feedback
from a teacher during a public speaking course. People
around the United States will often pay speech coaches
over one hundred dollars per hour to help them enhance
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their speaking skills. You have a built-in speech coach
right in your classroom, so it is to your advantage to use
the opportunity to improve your verbal and nonverbal
communication skills.
OVERCOMING FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
An additional benefit of taking a public speaking class
is that it will help reduce your fear of public speaking.
Whether they’ve spoken in public a lot or are just getting
started, most people experience some anxiety when
engaging in public speaking. Heidi Rose and Andrew
Rancer evaluated students’ levels of public speaking
anxiety during both the first and last weeks of their public
speaking class and found that those levels decreased over
the course of the semester (Rose & Rancer, 1993). One
explanation is that people often have little exposure to
public speaking. By taking a course in public speaking,
students become better acquainted with the public
speaking process, making them more confident and less
apprehensive. In addition, you will learn specific
strategies for overcoming the challenges of speech
anxiety.
KEY DEFINITIONS
• Deliberative: a genre of speech that concerns the future,
often asks the audience to determine what should be
done
• Epideictic: a genre of speech that often calls for praise or
blame, it is often ceremonial
• Ethos: appeals to the character of the speaker
16
• Judicial: a genre of speech that concerns the what
happened in the past, often asks the audience to
determine guilt or innocence
• Logos: appeals to logic or argument
• Pathos: emotional appeals
• Public: a community with shared concerns or interests
• Rhetoric: the study and practice of communication that
can persuade audiences
THE PROCESS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
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Looking4poetry – megaphone head man – CC BY-NCND 2.0.
In this section, we’re going to examine the process of
public speaking by first introducing you to a basic model
of public speaking and then discussing how public
speaking functions as dialogue. These models will give
you a basic understanding of the communication process
and some challenges that you may face as a speaker.
MODELS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
A basic model of human communication is one of the
first topics that most communication teachers start with
in any class. For our focus on public speaking, we will
introduce
three
widely
discussed
models
in
communication: linear, interactional, and transactional.
LINEAR MODEL
Receiver -> Source -> Receiver” width=”497″
class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-36″ />
The linear model of public speaking comes from the
work of Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver (Shannon
& Weaver, 1949). The original model mirrored how radio
and telephone technologies functioned and consisted of
three primary parts: source, channel, and receiver. The
source was the part of a telephone a person spoke into,
the channel was the telephone itself, and the receiver was
the part of the phone where one could hear the other
person. Shannon and Weaver also recognized that often
18
there is static that interferes with listening to a telephone
conversation, which they called noise.
Although there are a number of problems with
applying this model to human communication, it does
have some useful parallels to public speaking. In public
speaking, the source is the person who is giving the
speech, the channel is the speaker’s use of verbal and
nonverbal communication, and the receivers are the
audience members listening to the speech. As with a
telephone call, a wide range of distractions (noise) can
inhibit an audience member from accurately attending to
a speaker’s speech. Avoiding or adapting to these types of
noise is an important challenge for public speakers.
INTERACTIONAL MODEL
Receiver. Receiver -> Source” width=”497″
class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-37″ />
The interactional model of communication developed
by Wilbur Schramm builds upon the linear model
(Schramm, 1954). Schramm added three major
components to the Shannon and Weaver model. First,
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Schramm
identified
two
basic
processes
of
communication: encoding and decoding. Encoding is
what a source does when “creating a message, adapting it
to the receiver, and transmitting it across some sourceselected channel” (Wrench, McCroskey & Richmond,
2008). When you are at home preparing your speech or
standing in front of your classroom talking to your peers,
you are participating in the encoding process.
The second major process is the decoding process, or
“sensing (for example, hearing or seeing) a source’s
message, interpreting the source’s message, evaluating the
source’s message, and responding to the source’s
message” (Wrench, McCroskey & Richmond, 2008).
Decoding is relevant in the public speaking context when,
as an audience member, you listen to the words of the
speech, pay attention to nonverbal behaviors of the
speaker, and attend to any presentation aids that the
speaker uses. You must then interpret what the speaker is
saying.
Although interpreting a speaker’s message may sound
easy in theory, in practice many problems can arise. A
speaker’s verbal message, nonverbal communication, and
mediated presentation aids can all make a message either
clearer or harder to understand. For example, unfamiliar
vocabulary, speaking too fast or too softly, or small print
on presentation aids may make it difficult for you to
figure out what the speaker means. Conversely, by
providing definitions of complex terms, using well-timed
gestures, or displaying graphs of quantitative
information, the speaker can help you interpret his or her
meaning.
Once you have interpreted what the speaker is
communicating, you then evaluate the message. Was it
good? Do you agree or disagree with the speaker? Is a
20
speaker’s argument logical? These are all questions that
you may ask yourself when evaluating a speech.
The last part of decoding is “responding to a source’s
message,” when the receiver encodes a message to send
to the source. When a receiver sends a message back to
a source, we call this process feedback. Schramm talks
about three types of feedback: direct, moderately direct,
and indirect (Schramm, 1954). The first type, direct
feedback, occurs when the receiver directly talks to the
source. For example, if a speech ends with a questionand-answer period, listeners will openly agree or disagree
with the speaker. The second type of feedback,
moderately direct, focuses on nonverbal messages sent
while a source is speaking, such as audience members
smiling and nodding their heads in agreement or looking
at their watches or surreptitiously sending text messages
during the speech. The final type of feedback, indirect,
often involves a greater time gap between the actual
message and the receiver’s feedback. For example,
suppose you run for student body president and give
speeches to a variety of groups all over campus, only to
lose on student election day. Your audiences (the different
groups you spoke to) have offered you indirect feedback
on your message through their votes. One of the
challenges you’ll face as a public speaker is how to
respond effectively to audience feedback, particularly the
direct and moderately direct forms of feedback you
receive during your presentation.
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TRANSACTIONAL MODEL OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
One of the biggest concerns that some people have with
the interactional model of communication is that it tends
to place people into the category of either source or
receiver with no overlap. Even with Schramm’s model,
encoding and decoding are perceived as distinct for
sources and receivers. Furthermore, the interactional
model cannot handle situations where multiple sources
are interacting at the same time (Mortenson, 1972). To
address these weaknesses, Dean Barnlund proposed a
transactional model of communication (Barnlund, 2008).
The basic premise of the transactional model is that
individuals are sending and receiving messages at the
same time. Whereas the interactional model has
individuals engaging in the role of either source or
22
receiver and the meaning of a message is sent from the
source to the receiver, the transactional model assumes
that meaning is cocreated by both people interacting
together.
The idea that meanings are cocreated between people
is based on a concept called the “field of experience.”
According to West and Turner, a field of experience
involves “how a person’s culture, experiences, and
heredity influence his or her ability to communicate with
another” (West & Turner, 2010). Our education, race,
gender, ethnicity, religion, personality, beliefs, actions,
attitudes, languages, social status, past experiences, and
customs are all aspects of our field of experience, which
we bring to every interaction. For meaning to occur, we
must have some shared experiences with our audience;
this makes it challenging to speak effectively to audiences
with very different experiences from our own. Our goal
as public speakers is to build upon shared fields of
experience so that we can help audience members
interpret our message.
DIALOGIC THEORY OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Most people think of public speaking as engaging in a
monologue where the speaker stands and delivers
information and the audience passively listens. Based on
the work of numerous philosophers, however, Ronald
Arnett and Pat Arneson proposed that all
communication, even public speaking, could be viewed
as a dialogue (Arnett & Arneson, 1999). The dialogic
theory is based on three overarching principles:
1. Dialogue is more natural than monologue.
2. Meanings are in people not words.
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3. Contexts and social situations impact perceived
meanings (Bakhtin, 2001a; Bakhtin, 2001b).
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
DIALOGUE VS. MONOLOGUE
The first tenet of the dialogic perspective is that
communication should be a dialogue and not a
monologue. Lev Yakubinsky argued that even public
speaking situations often turn into dialogues when
audience members actively engage speakers by asking
questions. He even claimed that nonverbal behavior (e.g.,
nodding one’s head in agreement or scowling) functions
as feedback for speakers and contributes to a dialogue
(Yakubinsky, 1997). Overall, if you approach your public
speaking experience as a dialogue, you’ll be more actively
engaged as a speaker and more attentive to how your
audience is responding, which will, in turn, lead to more
actively engaged audience members.
MEANINGS ARE IN PEOPLE, NOT WORDS
Part of the dialogic process in public speaking is realizing
that you and your audience may differ in how you see
your speech. Hellmut Geissner and Edith Slembeck
(1986) discussed Geissner’s idea of responsibility, or the
notion that the meanings of words must be mutually
agreed upon by people interacting with each other
(Geissner & Slembek, 1986). If you say the word “dog”
and think of a soft, furry pet and your audience member
thinks of the animal that attacked him as a child, the
two of you perceive the word from very different vantage
points. As speakers, we must do our best to craft messages
that take our audience into account and use audience
24
feedback to determine whether the meaning we intend
is the one that is received. To be successful at conveying
our desired meaning, we must know quite a bit about our
audience so we can make language choices that will be
the most appropriate for the context. Although we cannot
predict how all our audience members will interpret
specific words, we do know that—for example—using
teenage slang when speaking to the audience at a senior
center would most likely hurt our ability to convey our
meaning clearly.
CONTEXTS AND SOCIAL SITUATIONS
Russian scholar Mikhail Bahktin notes that human
interactions take place according to cultural norms and
rules (Bakhtin, 2001a; Bakhtin, 2001b). How we approach
people, the words we choose, and how we deliver
speeches are all dependent on different speaking contexts
and social situations. On September 8, 2009, President
Barack Obama addressed school children with a televised
speech
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/mediaresources/
PreparedSchoolRemarks). If you look at the speech he
delivered to kids around the country and then at his
speeches targeted toward adults, you’ll see lots of
differences. These dissimilar speeches are necessary
because the audiences (speaking to kids vs. speaking to
adults) have different experiences and levels of
knowledge. Ultimately, good public speaking is a matter
of taking into account the cultural background of your
audience and attempting to engage your audience in a
dialogue from their own vantage point.
Considering the context of a public speech involves
thinking about four dimensions: physical, temporal,
social-psychological, and cultural (DeVito, 2009).
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Physical Dimension
The physical dimension of communication involves the
real or touchable environment where communication
occurs. For example, you may find yourself speaking in
a classroom, a corporate board room, or a large
amphitheater. Each of these real environments will
influence your ability to interact with your audience.
Larger physical spaces may require you to use a
microphone and speaker system to make yourself heard
or to use projected presentation aids to convey visual
material.
How the room is physically decorated or designed can
also impact your interaction with your audience. If the
room is dimly lit or is decorated with interesting posters,
audience members’ minds may start wandering. If the
room is too hot, you’ll find people becoming sleepy. As
speakers, we often have little or no control over our
physical environment, but we always need to take it into
account when planning and delivering our messages.
Temporal Dimension
According to Joseph DeVito, the temporal dimension “has
to do not only with the time of day and moment in
history but also with where a particular message fits into
the sequence of communication events” (DeVito, 2009).
The time of day can have a dramatic effect on how alert
one’s audience is. Don’t believe us? Try giving a speech
in front of a class around 12:30 p.m. when no one’s had
lunch. It’s amazing how impatient audience members get
once hunger sets in.
In addition to the time of day, we often face temporal
dimensions related to how our speech will be viewed
in light of societal events. Imagine how a speech on the
26
importance of campus security would be interpreted on
the day after a shooting occurred. Compare this with the
interpretation of the same speech given at a time when
the campus had not had any shootings for years, if ever.
Another element of the temporal dimension is how
a message fits with what happens immediately before it.
For example, if another speaker has just given an intense
speech on death and dying and you stand up to speak
about something more trivial, people may downplay your
message because it doesn’t fit with the serious tone
established by the earlier speech. You never want to be
the funny speaker who has to follow an emotional speech
where people cried. Most of the time in a speech class,
you will have no advance notice as to what the speaker
before you will be talking about. Therefore, it is wise to
plan on being sensitive to previous topics and be prepared
to ease your way subtly into your message if the situation
so dictates.
Social-Psychological Dimension
The social-psychological dimension of context refers to
“status relationships among participants, roles and games
that people play, norms of the society or group, and the
friendliness, formality, or gravity of the situation”
(DeVito, 2009). You have to know the types of people
in your audience and how they react to a wide range of
messages.
Cultural Dimension
The final context dimension Joseph DeVito mentions is
the cultural dimension (DeVito, 2009). When we interact
with others from different cultures, misunderstandings
can result from differing cultural beliefs, norms, and
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practices. As public speakers engaging in a dialogue with
our audience members, we must attempt to understand
the cultural makeup of our audience so that we can avoid
these misunderstandings as much as possible.
Each of these elements of context is a challenge for
you as a speaker. Throughout the rest of the book, we’ll
discuss how you can meet the challenges presented by the
audience and context and become a more effective public
speaker in the process.
KEY DEFINITIONS
• dialogic theory: a theory that public speaking involves
an exchange of com munition and audiences are NOT
passive receivers of communication
• field of experience: the experiences, culture, and
background that shape communication
• interactional model: a model of communication where a
message moves from speaker to receiver. This model
accounts for the encoding and decoding of messages.
• linear model: a model that is based on radio
transmission where communication moves in a linear
pattern from speaker to receiver
• transactional model: a model of public speaking where
people are sending and receiving messages at the same
time
REFERENCES
Arnett, R. C., & Arneson, P. (1999). Dialogic civility in a
cynical age: Community, hope, and interpersonal relationships.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
28
Bakhtin, M. (2001a). The problem of speech genres.
(V. W. McGee, Trans., 1986). In P. Bizzell & B. Herzberg
(Eds.), The rhetorical tradition (pp. 1227–1245). Boston,
MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s. (Original work published in
1953.).
Bakhtin, M. (2001b). Marxism and the philosophy of
language. (L. Matejka & I. R. Titunik, Trans., 1973). In P.
Bizzell & B. Herzberg (Eds.), The rhetorical tradition (pp.
1210–1226). Boston, MA: Medford/St. Martin’s.
(Original work published in 1953).
Barnlund, D. C. (2008). A transactional model of
communication. In C. D. Mortensen (Ed.), Communication
theory (2nd ed., pp. 47–57). New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction.
Bender, P. U. (1998). Stand, deliver and lead. Ivey
Business Journal, 62(3), 46–47.
Berkun, S. (2009, March 4). Does public speaking matter
in
2009? [Web
log
message].
Retrieved
from http://www.scottberkun.com/blog.
Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Randy Pausch’s
last lecture. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from
http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.
DeVito, J. A. (2009). The interpersonal communication
book (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Edmund, N. W. (2005). End the biggest educational and
intellectual blunder in history: A $100,000 challenge to our top
educational leaders. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Scientific Method
Publishing Co.
Geissner, H., & Slembek, E. (1986). Miteinander
sprechen und handeln [Speak and act: Living and working
together]. Frankfurt, Germany: Scriptor.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2004). Leadership:
A communication perspective (4th ed.). Long Grove, IL:
Waveland.
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Lizotte, K. (2008). The expert’s edge: Become the go-to
authority people turn to every time [Kindle 2 version]. New
York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from Amazon.com
(locations 72–78).
Mortenson, C. D. (1972). Communication: The study of
human communication. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Rose, H. M., & Rancer, A. S. (1993). The impact of
basic courses in oral interpretation and public speaking
on
communication
apprehension. Communication
Reports, 6, 54–60.
Schramm, W. (1954). How communication works. In
W. Schramm (Ed.), The process and effects of communication
(pp. 3–26). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Shannon, C. E., & Weaver, W. (1949). The mathematical
theory of communication. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
Press.
West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2010). Introducing
communication theory: Analysis and application (4th ed.).
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, p. 13.
Wrench, J. S., McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P.
(2008). Human communication in everyday life: Explanations
and applications. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, p. 17.
Yakubinsky, L. P. (1997). On dialogic speech. (M.
Eskin, Trans.). PMLA, 112(2), 249–256. (Original work
published in 1923).
Zekeri, A. A. (2004). College curriculum competencies
and skills former students found essential to their careers.
College Student Journal, 38, 412–422.
CHAPTER 2
SPEAKING CONFIDENTL
CONFIDENTLY
Y
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Explain the nature and types of communication
apprehension.
• Identify different misconceptions about communication
anxiety.
• Identify effective techniques of coping with speech
anxiety during speech preparation and delivery.
• Describe some basic strategies for dealing with
unexpected events during a public speech.
32
Ron Bulovs – Speech! – CC BY 2.0.
One of your biggest concerns about public speaking
might be how to deal with nervousness or unexpected
events. If that’s the case, you’re not alone—fear of
speaking in public consistently ranks at the top of lists of
people’s common fears. Some people are not joking when
they say they would rather die than stand up and speak
in front of a live audience. The fear of public speaking
ranks right up there with the fear of flying, death, and
spiders (Wallechinsky, Wallace, & Wallace, 1977). Even
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if you are one of the fortunate few who don’t typically
get nervous when speaking in public, it’s important to
recognize things that can go wrong and be mentally
prepared for them. On occasion, everyone misplaces
speaking notes, has technical difficulties with a
presentation aid, or gets distracted by an audience
member. Speaking confidently involves knowing how to
deal with these and other unexpected events while
speaking.
In this chapter, we will help you gain knowledge about
speaking confidently by exploring what communication
apprehension is, examining the different types and causes
of communication apprehension, suggesting strategies
you can use to manage your fears of public speaking, and
providing tactics you can use to deal with a variety of
unexpected events you might encounter while speaking.
34
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION?
Speaker at Podium – CC BY 2.0.
“Speech is a mirror of the soul,” commented Publilius
Syrus, a popular writer in 42 BCE (Bartlett, 1919). Other
people come to know who we are through our words.
Many different social situations, ranging from job
interviews to dating to public speaking, can make us feel
uncomfortable as we anticipate that we will be evaluated
and judged by others. How well we communicate is
intimately connected to our self-image, and the process
of revealing ourselves to the evaluation of others can be
threatening whether we are meeting new acquaintances,
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participating in group discussions, or speaking in front of
an audience.
DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
According to James McCroskey, communication
apprehension is the broad term that refers to an
individual’s “fear or anxiety associated with either real
or anticipated communication with another person or
persons” (McCroskey, 2001). At its heart, communication
apprehension is a psychological response to evaluation.
This psychological response, however, quickly becomes
physical as our body responds to the threat the mind
perceives. Our bodies cannot distinguish between
psychological and physical threats, so we react as though
we were facing a Mack truck barreling in our direction.
The body’s circulatory and adrenal systems shift into
overdrive, preparing us to function at maximum physical
efficiency—the “flight or fight” response (Sapolsky, 2004).
Yet instead of running away or fighting, all we need to
do is stand and talk. When it comes to communication
apprehension, our physical responses are often not well
adapted to the nature of the threat we face, as the excess
energy created by our body can make it harder for us to
be effective public speakers. But because communication
apprehension is rooted in our minds, if we understand
more about the nature of the body’s responses to stress,
we can better develop mechanisms for managing the
body’s misguided attempts to help us cope with our fear
of social judgment.
KEY DEFINITION
Communication Apprehension: The fear or anxiety people
36
experience at the thought of communicating with others or in the
act of communicating with others.
PHYSIOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF COMMUNICATION
APPREHENSION
Isaac Mao – Brain – CC BY 2.0.
There are a number of physical sensations associated with
communication apprehension. We might notice our heart
pounding or our hands feeling clammy. We may break
out in a sweat. We may have “stomach butterflies” or
even feel nauseated. Our hands and legs might start to
shake, or we may begin to pace nervously. Our voices
may quiver, and we may have a “dry mouth” sensation
that makes it difficult to articulate even simple words.
Breathing becomes more rapid and, in extreme cases, we
might feel dizzy or light-headed. Anxiety about
communicating is profoundly disconcerting because we
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feel powerless to control our bodies. Furthermore, we
may become so anxious that we fear we will forget our
name, much less remember the main points of the speech
we are about to deliver.
The physiological changes produced in the body at
critical moments are designed to contribute to the
efficient use of muscles and expand available energy.
Circulation and breathing become more rapid so that
additional oxygen can reach the muscles. Increased
circulation causes us to sweat. Adrenaline rushes through
our body, instructing the body to speed up its
movements. If we stay immobile behind a lectern, this
hormonal urge to speed up may produce shaking and
trembling. Additionally, digestive processes are inhibited
so we will not lapse into the relaxed, sleepy state that
is typical after eating. Instead of feeling sleepy, we feel
butterflies in the pit of our stomach. By understanding
what is happening to our bodies in response to the stress
of public speaking, we can better cope with these
reactions and channel them in constructive directions.
Any conscious emotional state such as anxiety or
excitement consists of two components: a primary
reaction of the central nervous system and an intellectual
interpretation of these physiological responses. The
physiological state we label as communication anxiety
does not differ from ones we label rage or excitement.
Even experienced, effective speakers and performers
experience some communication apprehension. What
differs is the mental label that we put on the experience.
Effective speakers have learned to channel their body’s
reactions, using the energy released by these
physiological reactions to create animation and stage
presence.
38
MYTHS ABOUT COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
A wealth of conventional wisdom surrounds the
discomfort of speaking anxiety, as it surrounds almost
any phenomenon that makes us uncomfortable. Most of
this “folk” knowledge misleads us, directing our attention
away from effective strategies for thinking about and
coping with anxiety reactions. Before we look in more
detail at the types of communication apprehension, let’s
dispel some of the myths about it.
1. People who suffer from speaking anxiety are
neurotic. As we have explained, speaking
anxiety is a normal reaction. Good speakers can
get nervous just as poor speakers do. Winston
Churchill, for example, would get physically ill
before major speeches in Parliament. Yet he
rallied the British people in a time of crisis.
Many people, even the most professional
performers, experience anxiety about
communicating. Such a widespread problem, Dr.
Joyce Brothers contends, “cannot be attributed to
deep-seated neuroses” (Brothers, 2008).
2. Telling a joke or two is always a good way to
begin a speech. Humor is some of the toughest
material to deliver effectively because it requires
an exquisite sense of timing. Nothing is worse
than waiting for a laugh that does not come.
Moreover, one person’s joke is another person’s
slander. It is extremely easy to offend when
using humor. The same material can play very
differently with different audiences. For these
reasons, it is not a good idea to start with a joke,
particularly if it is not well related to your topic.
Humor is just too unpredictable and difficult for
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many novice speakers. If you insist on using
humor, make sure the “joke” is on you, not on
someone else. Another tip is never to pause and
wait for a laugh that may not come. If the
audience catches the joke, fine. If not, you’re not
left standing in awkward silence waiting for a
reaction.
3. Imagine the audience is naked. This tip just
plain doesn’t work because imagining the
audience naked will do nothing to calm your
nerves. As Malcolm Kushner noted, “There are
some folks in the audience I wouldn’t want to
see naked—especially if I’m trying not to be
frightened” (Kushner, 1999). The audience is not
some abstract image in your mind. It consists of
real individuals who you can connect with
through your material. To “imagine” the
audience is to misdirect your focus from the real
people in front of you to an “imagined” group.
What we imagine is usually more threatening
than the reality that we face.
4. Any mistake means that you have “blown it.”
We all make mistakes. What matters is not
whether we make a mistake but how well we
recover. One of the authors of this book was
giving a speech and wanted to thank a former
student in the audience. Instead of saying
“former student,” she said, “former friend.” After
the audience stopped laughing, the speaker
remarked, “Well, I guess she’ll be a former friend
now!”—which got more laughter from the
audience. A speech does not have to be perfect.
You just have to make an effort to relate to the
40
audience naturally and be willing to accept your
mistakes.
5. Avoid speaking anxiety by writing your
speech out word for word and memorizing it.
Memorizing your speech word for word will
likely make your apprehension worse rather
than better. Instead of remembering three to five
main points and subpoints, you will try to
commit to memory more than a thousand bits of
data. If you forget a point, the only way to get
back on track is to start from the beginning. You
are inviting your mind to go blank by
overloading it with details. In addition,
audiences do not like to listen to “canned,” or
memorized, material. Your delivery is likely to
suffer if you memorize. Audiences appreciate
speakers who talk naturally to them rather than
recite a written script.
6. Audiences are out to get you. With only a few
exceptions, which we will talk about, the natural
state of audiences is empathy, not antipathy.
Most face-to-face audiences are interested in
your material, not in your image. Watching
someone who is anxious tends to make audience
members anxious themselves. Particularly in
public speaking classes, audiences want to see
you succeed. They know that they will soon be
in your shoes and they identify with you, most
likely hoping you’ll succeed and give them ideas
for how to make their own speeches better. If
you establish direct eye contact with real
individuals in your audience, you will see them
respond to what you are saying, and this
response lets you know that you are succeeding.
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7. You will look to the audience as nervous as
you feel. Empirical research has shown that
audiences do not perceive the level of
nervousness that speakers report feeling
(Clevenger, 1959). Most listeners judge speakers
as less anxious than the speakers rate themselves.
In other words, the audience is not likely to
perceive accurately the level of anxiety you
might be experiencing. Some of the most
effective speakers will return to their seats after
their speech and exclaim they were so nervous.
Listeners will respond, “You didn’t look
nervous.” Audiences do not necessarily perceive
our fears. Consequently, don’t apologize for your
nerves. There is a good chance the audience will
not notice if you do not point it out to them.
8. A little nervousness helps you give a better
speech. This “myth” is true! Professional
speakers, actors, and other performers
consistently rely on the heightened arousal of
nervousness to channel extra energy into their
performance. People would much rather listen to
a speaker who is alert and enthusiastic than one
who is relaxed to the point of boredom. Many
professional speakers say that the day they stop
feeling nervous is the day they should stop
speaking in public. The goal is to control those
nerves and channel them into your presentation.
ALL ANXIETY IS NOT THE SAME: SOURCES OF
COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
We have said that experiencing some form of anxiety
is a normal part of the communication process. Most
people are anxious about being evaluated by an audience.
42
Interestingly, many people assume that their nervousness
is an experience unique to them. They assume that other
people do not feel anxious when confronting the threat of
public speaking (McCroskey, 2001). Although anxiety is a
widely shared response to the stress of public speaking,
not all anxiety is the same. Many researchers have
investigated the differences between apprehension
grounded in personality characteristics and anxiety
prompted by a particular situation at a particular time
(Witt, et. al., 2006). McCroskey argues there are four types
of communication apprehension: anxiety related to trait,
context, audience, and situation (McCroskey, 2001). If
you understand these different types of apprehension,
you can gain insight into the varied communication
factors that contribute to speaking anxiety.
TRAIT ANXIETY
Some people are just more disposed to communication
apprehension than others. As Witt, Brown, Roberts,
Weisel, Sawyer, and Behnke explain, “Trait anxiety
measures how people generally feel across situations and
time periods” (Witt, et. al., 2006). This means that some
people feel more uncomfortable than the average person
regardless of the context, audience, or situation. It doesn’t
matter whether you are raising your hand in a group
discussion, talking with people you meet at a party, or
giving speeches in a class, you’re likely to be
uncomfortable in all these settings if you experience trait
anxiety. While trait anxiety is not the same as shyness,
those with high trait anxiety are more likely to avoid
exposure to public speaking situations, so their
nervousness might be compounded by lack of experience
or skill (Witt, et. al., 2006). People who experience trait
anxiety may never like public speaking, but through
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preparation and practice, they can learn to give effective
public speeches when they need to do so.
CONTEXT ANXIETY
MTEA – Michelle Alexander at Podium – CC BY-NC
2.0.
Context anxiety refers to anxiety prompted by specific
communication contexts. Some of the major context
factors that can heighten this form of anxiety are
formality, uncertainty, and novelty.
FORMALITY
Some individuals can be perfectly composed when
talking at a meeting or in a small group; yet when faced
with a more formal public speaking setting, they become
intimidated and nervous. As the formality of the
44
communication context increases, the stakes are raised,
sometimes prompting more apprehension. Certain
communication contexts, such as a press conference or a
courtroom, can make even the most confident individuals
nervous. One reason is that these communication
contexts presuppose an adversarial relationship between
the speaker and some audience members.
UNCERTAINTY
In addition, it is hard to predict and control the flow of
information in such contexts, so the level of uncertainty
is high. The feelings of context anxiety might be similar
to those you experience on the first day of class with a
new instructor: you don’t know what to expect, so you
are more nervous than you might be later in the semester
when you know the instructor and the class routine
better.
NOVELTY
Additionally, most of us are not experienced in hightension communication settings. The novelty of the
communication context we encounter is another factor
contributing to apprehension. Anxiety becomes more of
an issue in communication environments that are new
to us, even for those who are normally comfortable with
speaking in public.
Most people can learn through practice to cope with
their anxiety prompted by formal, uncertain, and novel
communication contexts. Fortunately, most public
speaking classroom contexts are not adversarial. The
opportunities you have to practice giving speeches
reduces the novelty and uncertainty of the public
speaking context, enabling most students to learn how
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to cope with anxiety prompted by the communication
context.
AUDIENCE ANXIETY
For some individuals, it is not the communication
context that prompts anxiety; it is the people in the
audience they face. Audience anxiety describes
communication apprehension prompted by specific
audience characteristics. These characteristics include
similarity, subordinate status, audience size, and
familiarity.
You might have no difficulty talking to an audience
of your peers in student government meetings, but an
audience composed of parents and students on a campus
visit might make you nervous because of the presence
of parents in the audience. The degree of perceived
similarity between you and your audience can influence
your level of speech anxiety. We all prefer to talk to an
audience that we believe shares our values more than to
one that does not. The more dissimilar we are compared
to our audience members, the more likely we are to be
nervous. Studies have shown that subordinate status can
also contribute to speaking anxiety (Witt, et. al., 2006).
Talking in front of your boss or teacher may be
intimidating, especially if you are being evaluated. The
size of the audience can also play a role: the larger the
audience, the more threatening it may seem. Finally,
familiarity can be a factor. Some of us prefer talking to
strangers rather than to people we know well. Others
feel more nervous in front of an audience of friends and
family because there is more pressure to perform well.
46
SITUATIONAL ANXIETY
Situational anxiety, McCroskey explains, is the
communication apprehension created by “the unique
combination of influences generated by audience, time
and context” (McCroskey, 2001). Each communication
event involves several dimensions: physical, temporal,
social-psychological, and cultural. These dimensions
combine to create a unique communication situation that
is different from any previous communication event. The
situation created by a given audience, in a given time, and
in a given context can coalesce into situational anxiety.
For example, I once had to give a presentation at a
general faculty meeting on general education assessment.
To my surprise, I found myself particularly nervous about
this speech. The audience was familiar to me but was
relatively large compared to most classroom settings. I
knew the audience well enough to know that my topic
was controversial for some faculty members who
resented the mandate for assessment coming from top
administration. The meeting occurred late on a Friday
afternoon, and my presentation was scheduled more than
an hour into the two-hour meeting. All these factors
combined to produce situational anxiety for me. While I
successfully applied the principles that we will discuss in
“Reducing Communication Apprehension” for managing
stage fright, this speaking situation stands out in my mind
as one of the most nerve-wracking speaking challenges I
have ever faced.
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REDUCING COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
Freddie Pena – Nervous? – CC BY-NC 2.0.
Experiencing some nervousness about public speaking
is normal. The energy created by this physiological
response can be functional if you harness it as a resource
for more effective public speaking. In this section, we
suggest a number of steps that you can take to channel
your stage fright into excitement and animation. We will
begin with specific speech-related considerations and
then briefly examine some of the more general anxiety
management options available.
SPEECH-RELATED CONSIDERATIONS
Communication apprehension does not necessarily
remain constant throughout all the stages of speech
preparation and delivery. One group of researchers
studied the ebb and flow of anxiety levels at four stages
48
in the delivery of a speech. They compared indicators of
physiological stress at different milestones in the process:
• anticipation (the minute prior to starting the
speech),
• confrontation (the first minute of the speech),
• adaptation (the last minute of the speech), and
• release (the minute immediately following the
end of the speech) (Witt, et. al., 2006).
These researchers found that anxiety typically peaked at
the anticipatory stage. In other words, we are likely to
be most anxious right before we get up to speak. As we
progress through our speech, our level of anxiety is likely
to decline. Planning your speech to incorporate
techniques for managing your nervousness at different
times will help you decrease the overall level of stress
you experience. We also offer a number of suggestions for
managing your reactions while you are delivering your
speech.
THINK POSITIVELY
As we mentioned earlier, communication apprehension
begins in the mind as a psychological response. This
underscores the importance of a speaker’s psychological
attitude toward speaking. To prepare yourself mentally
for a successful speaking experience, we recommend
using a technique called cognitive restructuring.
Cognitive restructuring is simply changing how you label
the physiological responses you will experience. Rather
than thinking of public speaking as a dreaded obligation,
make a conscious decision to consider it an exciting
opportunity. The first audience member that you have
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to convince is yourself, by deliberately replacing negative
thoughts with positive ones. If you say something to
yourself often enough, you will gradually come to believe
it.
We also suggest practicing what communication
scholars Metcalfe, Beebe, and Beebe call positive self-talk
rather than negative self-talk (Metcalfe, 1994; Beebe,
2000). If you find yourself thinking, “I’m going to forget
everything when I get to the front of the room,” turn that
negative message around to a positive one. Tell yourself,
“I have notes to remind me what comes next, and the
audience won’t know if I don’t cover everything in the
order I planned.” The idea is to dispute your negative
thoughts and replace them with positive ones, even if
you think you are “conning” yourself. By monitoring how
you talk about yourself, you can unlearn old patterns and
change the ways you think about things that produce
anxiety.
REDUCING ANXIETY THROUGH PREPARATION
As we have said earlier in this chapter, uncertainty makes
for greater anxiety. Nothing is more frightening than
facing the unknown. Although no one can see into the
future and predict everything that will happen during a
speech, every speaker can and should prepare so that the
“unknowns” of the speech event are kept to a minimum.
You can do this by gaining as much knowledge as possible
about whom you will be addressing, what you will say,
how you will say it, and where the speech will take place.
ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE
The audience that we imagine in our minds is almost
always more threatening than the reality of the people
50
sitting in front of us. The more information you have
about the characteristics of your audience, the more you
will be able to craft an effective message. Since your stage
fright is likely to be at its highest in the beginning of your
speech, it is helpful to open the speech with a technique
to prompt an audience response. You might try posing a
question, asking for a show of hands, or sharing a story
that you know is relevant to your listeners’ experience.
When you see the audience responding to you by
nodding, smiling, or answering questions, you will have
directed the focus of attention from yourself to the
audience. Such responses indicate success; they are
positively reinforcing, and thus reduce your nervousness.
CLEARLY ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS
Being prepared as a speaker means knowing the main
points of your message so well that you can remember
them even when you are feeling highly anxious, and the
best way to learn those points is to create an outline for
your speech. With a clear outline to follow, you will find it
much easier to move from one point to the next without
stumbling or getting lost.
A note of caution is in order: you do not want to
react to the stress of speaking by writing and memorizing
a manuscript. Your audience will usually be able to tell
that you wrote your speech out verbatim, and they will
tune out very quickly. You are setting yourself up for
disaster if you try to memorize a written text because
the pressure of having to remember all those particulars
will be tremendous. Moreover, if you have a momentary
memory lapse during a memorized speech, you may have
a lot of trouble continuing without starting over at the
beginning.
What you do want to prepare is a simple outline that
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reminds you of the progression of ideas in your speech.
What is important is the order of your points, not the
specifics of each sentence. It is perfectly fine if your
speech varies in terms of specific language or examples
each time you practice it.
It may be a good idea to reinforce this organization
through visual aids. When it comes to managing anxiety,
visual aids have the added benefit of taking attention off
the speaker.
ADAPT YOUR LANGUAGE TO THE ORAL MODE
Another reason not to write out your speech as a
manuscript is that to speak effectively you want your
language to be adapted to the oral, not the written, mode.
You will find your speaking anxiety more manageable if
you speak in the oral mode because it will help you to
feel like you are having a conversation with friends rather
than delivering a formal proclamation.
Appropriate oral style is more concrete and vivid than
written style. Effective speaking relies on verbs rather
than nouns, and the language is less complex. Long
sentences may work well for novelists such as William
Faulkner or James Joyce, where readers can go back and
reread passages two, three, or even seven or eight times.
Your listeners, though, cannot “rewind” you in order to
catch ideas they miss the first time through.
Don’t be afraid to use personal pronouns freely,
frequently saying “I” and “me”—or better yet, “us” and
“we.” Personal pronouns are much more effective in
speaking than language constructions, such as the
following “this author,” because they help you to build a
connection with your audience. Another oral technique is
to build audience questions into your speech. Rhetorical
questions, questions that do not require a verbal answer,
52
invite the audience to participate with your material by
thinking about the implications of the question and how
it might be answered. If you are graphic and concrete
in your language selection, your audience is more likely
to listen attentively. You will be able to see the audience
listening, and this feedback will help to reduce your
anxiety.
PRACTICE IN CONDITIONS SIMILAR TO THOSE YOU WILL
FACE WHEN SPEAKING
It is not enough to practice your speech silently in your
head. To reduce anxiety and increase the likelihood of a
successful performance, you need to practice out loud in
a situation similar to the one you will face when actually
performing your speech. Practice delivering your speech
out loud while standing on your feet. If you make a
mistake, do not stop to correct it but continue all the way
through your speech; that is what you will have to do
when you are in front of the audience.
If possible, practice in the actual room where you will
be giving your speech. Not only will you have a better
sense of what it will feel like to actually speak, but you
may also have the chance to practice using presentation
aids and potentially avoid distractions and glitches like
incompatible computers, blown projector bulbs, or
sunlight glaring in your eyes.
Two very useful tools for anxiety-reducing practice
are a clock and a mirror. Use the clock to time your
speech, being aware that most novice speakers speak too
fast, not too slowly. By ensuring that you are within the
time guidelines, you will eliminate the embarrassment
of having to cut your remarks short because you’ve run
out of time or of not having enough to say to fulfill the
assignment. Use the mirror to gauge how well you are
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maintaining eye contact with your audience; it will allow
you to check that you are looking up from your notes.
It will also help you build the habit of using appropriate
facial expressions to convey the emotions in your speech.
While you might feel a little absurd practicing your
speech out loud in front of a mirror, the practice that you
do before your speech can make you much less anxious
when it comes time to face the audience.
WATCH WHAT YOU EAT
A final tip about preparation is to watch what you eat
immediately before speaking. The butterflies in your
stomach are likely to be more noticeable if you skip
normal meals. While you should eat normally, you should
avoid caffeinated drinks because they can make your
shaking hands worse. Carbohydrates operate as natural
sedatives, so you may want to eat carbohydrates to help
slow down your metabolism and to avoid fried or very
spicy foods that may upset your stomach. Especially if
you are speaking in the morning, be sure to have
breakfast. If you haven’t had anything to eat or drink
since dinner the night before, dizziness and lightheadedness are very real possibilities.
REDUCING NERVOUSNESS DURING DELIVERY
ANTICIPATE THE REACTIONS OF YOUR BODY
There are a number of steps you can take to counteract
the negative physiological effects of stress on the body.
Deep breathing will help to counteract the effects of
excess adrenaline. You can place symbols in your notes,
like “slow down” or ☺, that remind you to pause and
breathe during points in your speech. It is also a good
54
idea to pause a moment before you get started to set an
appropriate pace from the onset. Look at your audience
and smile. It is a reflex for some of your audience
members to smile back. Those smiles will reassure you
that your audience members are friendly.
Physical movement helps to channel some of the
excess energy that your body produces in response to
anxiety. If at all possible, move around the front of the
room rather than remaining imprisoned behind the
lectern or gripping it for dear life (avoid pacing nervously
from side to side, however). Move closer to the audience
and then stop for a moment. If you are afraid that moving
away from the lectern will reveal your shaking hands, use
note cards rather than a sheet of paper for your outline.
Note cards do not quiver like paper, and they provide you
with something to do with your hands.
Vocal warm-ups are also important before speaking.
Just as athletes warm up before practice or competition
and musicians warm up before playing, speakers need to
get their voices ready to speak. Talking with others before
your speech or quietly humming to yourself can get your
voice ready for your presentation. You can even sing or
practice a bit of your speech out loud while you’re in the
shower (just don’t wake the neighbors), where the warm,
moist air is beneficial for your vocal mechanism. Gently
yawning a few times is also an excellent way to stretch the
key muscle groups involved in speaking.
Immediately before you speak, you can relax the
muscles of your neck and shoulders, rolling your head
gently from side to side. Allow your arms to hang down
your sides and stretch out your shoulders. Isometric
exercises that involve momentarily tensing and then
relaxing specific muscle groups are an effective way to
keep your muscles from becoming stiff.
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FOCUS ON THE AUDIENCE, NOT ON YOURSELF
During your speech, make a point of establishing direct
eye contact with your audience members. By looking at
individuals, you establish a series of one-to-one contacts
similar to interpersonal communication. An audience
becomes much less threatening when you think of them
not as an anonymous mass but as a collection of
individuals.
A colleague once shared his worst speaking
experience when he reached the front of the room and
forgot everything he was supposed to say. When I asked
what he saw when he was in the front of the room, he
looked at me like I was crazy. He responded, “I didn’t see
anything. All I remember is a mental image of me up there
in the front of the room blowing it.” Speaking anxiety
becomes more intense if you focus on yourself rather
than concentrating on your audience and your material.
MAINTAIN YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR
No matter how well we plan, unexpected things happen.
That fact is what makes the public speaking situation
so interesting. When the unexpected happens to you, do
not let it rattle you. At the end of a class period late in
the afternoon of a long day, a student raised her hand
and asked me if I knew that I was wearing two different
colored shoes, one black and one blue. I looked down and
saw that she was right; my shoes did not match. I laughed
at myself, complimented the student on her observational
abilities and moved on with the important thing, the
material I had to deliver.
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
Even when we employ positive thinking and are well
56
prepared, some of us still feel a great deal of anxiety about
public speaking. When that is the case, it can be more
helpful to use stress management than to try to make the
anxiety go away.
One general technique for managing stress is positive
visualization. Visualization is the process of seeing
something in your mind’s eye; essentially it is a form of
self-hypnosis. Frequently used in sports training, positive
visualization involves using the imagination to create
images of relaxation or ultimate success. Essentially, you
imagine in great detail the goal for which you are striving,
say, a rousing round of applause after you give your
speech. You mentally picture yourself standing at the
front of the room, delivering your introduction, moving
through the body of your speech, highlighting your
presentation aids, and sharing a memorable conclusion. If
you imagine a positive outcome, your body will respond
to it as through it were real. Such mind-body techniques
create the psychological grounds for us to achieve the
goals we have imagined. As we discussed earlier,
communication apprehension has a psychological basis,
so mind-body techniques such as visualization can be
important to reducing anxiety. It’s important to keep in
mind, though, that visualization does not mean you can
skip practicing your speech out loud. Just as an athlete
still needs to work out and practice the sport, you need
to practice your speech in order to achieve the positive
results you visualize.
Systematic
desensitization
is
a
behavioral
modification technique that helps individuals overcome
anxiety disorders. People with phobias, or irrational fears,
tend to avoid the object of their fear. For example, people
with a phobia of elevators avoid riding in elevators—and
this only adds to their fear because they never “learn” that
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riding in elevators is usually perfectly safe. Systematic
desensitization changes this avoidance pattern by
gradually exposing the individual to the object of fear
until it can be tolerated.
First, the individual is trained in specific muscle
relaxation techniques. Next, the individual learns to
respond with conscious relaxation even when confronted
with the situation that previously caused them fear. James
McCroskey used this technique to treat students who
suffered from severe, trait-based communication
apprehension (McCroskey, 1972). He found that “the
technique was eighty to ninety percent effective” for the
people who received the training (McCroskey, 2001). If
you’re highly anxious about public speaking, you might
begin a program of systematic desensitization by
watching someone else give a speech. Once you are able
to do this without discomfort, you would then move to
talking about giving a speech yourself, practicing, and,
eventually, delivering your speech.
The success of techniques such as these clearly
indicates that increased exposure to public speaking
reduces overall anxiety. Consequently, you should seek
out opportunities to speak in public rather than avoid
them. As the famous political orator William Jennings
Bryan once noted, “The ability to speak effectively is an
acquirement rather than a gift” (Carnegie, 1955).
58
COPING WITH THE UNEXPECTED
Des Morris – I H8 PC – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Even the most prepared, confident public speaker may
encounter unexpected challenges during the speech. This
section discusses some common unexpected events and
addresses some general strategies for combating the
unexpected when you encounter it in your own speaking.
SPEECH CONTENT ISSUES
Nearly every experienced speaker has gotten to the
middle of a presentation and realized that a key notecard
is missing or that he or she skipped important
information from the beginning of the speech. When
encountering these difficulties, a good strategy is to pause
for a moment to think through what you want to do next.
Is it important to include the missing information, or
can it be omitted without hurting the audience’s ability
to understand the rest of your speech? If it needs to be
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included, do you want to add the information now, or
will it fit better later in the speech? It is often difficult
to remain silent when you encounter this situation, but
pausing for a few seconds will help you to figure out what
to do and may be less distracting to the audience than
sputtering through a few “ums” and “uhs.”
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
Technology has become a very useful aid in public
speaking, allowing us to use audio or video clips,
presentation software, or direct links to websites.
However, one of the best known truisms about
technology is that it does break down. Web servers go
offline, files will not download in a timely manner, and
media are incompatible with the computer in the
presentation room. It is important to always have a
backup plan, developed in advance, in case of technical
difficulties with your presentation materials. As you
develop your speech and visual aids, think through what
you will do if you cannot show a particular graph or if
your presentation slides are hopelessly garbled. Although
your beautifully prepared chart may be superior to the
oral description you can provide, your ability to provide
a succinct oral description when technology fails can give
your audience the information they need.
EXTERNAL DISTRACTIONS
Although many public speaking instructors directly
address audience etiquette during speeches, you’re still
likely to encounter an audience member who walks in
late, a ringing cell phone, or even a car alarm going off
outside your classroom. If you are distracted by external
events like these, it is often useful, and sometimes
60
necessary (as in the case of the loud car alarm), to pause
and wait so that you can regain the audience’s attention
and be heard.
Whatever the unexpected event, your most important
job as a speaker is to maintain your composure. It is
important not to get upset or angry because of these types
of glitches—and, once again, the key to this is being fully
prepared. If you keep your cool and quickly implement
a “plan B” for moving forward with your speech, your
audience is likely to be impressed and may listen even
more attentively to the rest of your presentation.
REFERENCES
Bartlett, J. (comp.). (1919). Familiar quotations (10th ed.).
Rev. and enl. by Nathan Haskell Dole. Boston, MA: Little,
Brown, and Company. Retrieved from Bartleby.com
website: http://www.bartleby.com/100.
Beebe, S.A., & Beebe, S. J. (2000). Public speaking: An
audience centered approach. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Carnegie, D. (1955). Public speaking and influencing men
in business. New York, NY: American Book Stratford
Press, Inc.
Clevenger, T. J. (1959). A synthesis of experimental
research in stage fright. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 45,
135–159. See also Savitsky, K., & Gilovich, T. (2003). The
illusion of transparency and the alleviation of speech
anxiety. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39,
601–625.
Kushner, M. (1999). Public speaking for dummies. New
York, NY: IDG Books Worldwide, p. 242.
McCroskey, J. C. (2001). An introduction to rhetorical
communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, p. 40.
McCroskey, J. C. (1972). The implementation of a
large-scale program of systematic desensitization for
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communication apprehension. The Speech Teacher, 21,
255–264.
Metcalfe, S. (1994). Building a speech. New York, NY:
The Harcourt Press.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why zebras don’t get ulcers (3rd
ed.). New York, NY: Henry Holt.
Wallechinsky, D., Wallace, I., & Wallace, A. (1977). The
people’s almanac presents the book of lists. New York, NY:
Morrow.
Witt, P. L., Brown, K. C., Roberts, J. B., Weisel, J.,
Sawyer, C., & Behnke, R. (2006, March). Somatic anxiety
patterns before, during and after giving a public speech.
Southern Communication Journal, 71, 87–100.
See also Boyd, J. H., Rae, D. S., Thompson, J. W., Burns,
B. J., Bourdon, K., Locke, B. Z., & Regier, D. A. (1990).
Phobia: Prevalence and risk factors. Social Psychiatry and
Psychiatric Epidemiology, 25(6), 314–323.
CHAPTER 3
ENGA
ENGAGING
GING YOUR AUDIENCE
JOSH MILLER, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Understand the benefits of establishing a bilateral
relationship with your audience.
• Identify the differences between the literal, target, and
constructed audiences.
• Explore strategies effectively communicate to different
audiences.
O
n June 13, 2012, the Michigan House of
Representatives held a debate over a proposed
bill that would limit access to abortion
throughout the state. During that debate, Representative
Lisa Brown rose to speak against the piece of legislation.
She concluded her speech by exclaiming, “I’m flattered
that you’re all so interested in my vagina but no means
no.”[i] This statement might be shocking for some of you,
and it certainly shocked members of the Michigan House
of Representatives. After making this statement, Lisa
Brown was notified that her closing remarks had violated
64
the expectations for civility and decorum for debate on
the House floor; she would no longer be allowed to speak
on the floor of the House of Representatives for the
remainder of that congressional session. Regardless of
whether or not you agree with Lisa Brown’s statement,
you can learn much about the importance of knowing
what audience members might expect from speakers and
the potential repercussions for speakers who violate
those expectations.
People who hear speeches react to them based on their
own beliefs and previous experiences. Violations of
audience expectations might cause audience members to
view the speaker with skepticism or even with open
hostility. As a result, learning about your audience and
thinking about what they might expect from you is an
important element of public speaking. For instance, when
you graduate, someone will deliver a commencement
speech to your graduating class, and it would likely
violate your expectations if that speaker called the
graduating class lazy and uneducated. After all, you will
put in a lot of effort to reach that day. Anyone who
disregarded all of the work you put into reaching your
graduation day would likely anger, sadden, or offend you.
They would certainly violate the expectations for what
you thought you would hear the commencement speaker
say. This example highlights that the effectiveness of
speakers depends on their understanding of the audience
members.
Speeches do not happen in vacuums. Just because you
want to say something does not mean that it will be
appropriate or effective in a speech. Speakers give
speeches to persuade, inform, or entertain others. Those
others—the audience—have the power to accept, reject,
and respond to your speech in the manner that they deem
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fit. Moreover, because each time you give a speech your
audience will be different, you always need to tailor your
speech to each different audience. To craft an effective
message, never forget about your audience.
This chapter will equip you with the tools necessary
to craft speeches that take the importance of audience
into account. First, this chapter explores necessary ethical
considerations and discusses why speakers should work
to foster cooperative relationships with their audience
members. Then, you will learn about the concept of the
target audience and that most speeches focus on
attempting to convince a specific part of the total number
of people in the audience. This chapter also discusses
ways in which you could analyze your audience to
discover information that might help you craft a more
effective speech. Finally, you will learn about how your
speech can craft a specific role for your audience that
might make your audience more likely to accept the main
point of your speech.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
When you give a speech, your audience members
should have the power to decide whether or not they
want to believe what you are saying. You can be certain
that you are saying is correct. However, your job as a
speaker is to work to convince your audience that you
are correct, not trick or force them into doing what you
want them to do. In 1972, Wayne Brockriede articulated
a theory about what constitutes ethical argument, and his
theory offers us much about how we should understand
what counts as an ethical relationship between speakers
and audience members. Brockriede stated that there are
three ways to convince your audience to agree with you.
You could force them to agree, you could trick them into
66
Valerie Everett – Questions? – CC BY-SA 2.0.
agreement, or you could foster a bilateral and cooperative
relationship with them in which they choose to agree
with you.[i] Those who seek agreement by force might
threaten, attack, or demean their audience and those who
disagree with them. According to Brockriede, those who
attempt to persuade through the use of force create a
unilateral relationship with their audience wherein the
speaker views themselves as more important and
superior than their audience. Speakers who use force are
only concerned with getting what they want. Those who
use tricks in order to get their audience to agree with
them also seek a unilateral relationship with their
audience. These speakers attempt to get agreement
through charm, lying, or deceit. For example, a trickster
might take evidence out of context or misuse evidence
to make an argument seem stronger than it actually is.
Tricksters might use logical fallacies to distract their
audience members from the actual substantive issues in a
debate.
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A unilateral relationship works in one direction. The speaker has
power over their audience and does not have a cooperative
relationship with the audience.
Both of these ways of attempting to persuade your
audience are unethical and often ineffective. They are
unethical because they attempt to limit the audience’s
ability to make an informed choice. Also, if you earn the
reputation of someone who uses tricks or forces others,
potential audience members may become skeptical of you
and avoid interactions. If you heard about a store that lies
to customers about the condition of their products and
often yells at or dismisses costumers for asking questions
about their products, I imagine that you would not want
to shop at that store any time soon. Furthermore, if you
enjoyed a presentation given by a speaker but later found
out the facts were made up, you probably be more
hesitant to accept the claims of that speaker in the future.
As an ethical speaker, you should avoid tactics that
attempt to trick or force your audience to agree with you.
Ethnical speakers seek cooperative and bilateral
relationships with their audience—what Brockriede
called a loving relationship. People who want bilateral
relationships with their audience members view
themselves as equal to their audience and recognize the
audience should have the power to make informed
choices. In this form of cooperative relationship, you, as
a speaker, concern yourself with what is good for your
audience, not merely your own best interests. You do not
attempt to force or trick your audience into agreement.
Instead of using force or tricks to get agreement, you
work to earn agreement from your audience by showing
them that you care about what is best for them and let
them ultimately make an informed decision. As such, you
68
should view your role as a speaker as one that attempts
to create and sustain a cooperative relationship with your
audience members.[ii] In these relationships, both parties
work to foster trust with each other, and that trust allows
both parties to listen to and learn from each other.
A bilateral relationship connects speaker with audience. The
speakers works to enable the audience to make an informed choice
about what is best for them.
Those who communicate based on Brockriede’s
principle of cooperation also understand that they should
be willing to change their own minds. Just as you, as the
speaker, are attempting to persuade you audience on a
particular matter, you should also be willing to change
your mind and be persuaded by others.[iii] Only in these
moments when we are willing to change our mind and
work to change the minds of others can genuine personal
growth occur. Moreover, fostering a bilateral relationship
can lead to a long term relationship where you might
be more likely to alter another person’s perceptive on an
issue long after the first time you attempted to persuade
them of something. When we approach public speaking
through an ethical and cooperative relationship between
speakers and audiences, there is a possibility of personal
and social growth.
In order to ensure that you are establishing an ethical
relationship with your audience, remember this: Let your
research determine your argument. Do not let your
argument determine your research. This is a part of being
willing to change your own mind. If you are certain about
something but find study after study shows the opposite
is true, do not ignore those studies. Instead, change your
mind and modify the argument of your speech, tell your
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audience that studies exist that might disagree with what
you believe, or explain to your audience why those
studies do not necessary disprove your point of view.
Similarly, do not ignore alternative viewpoints. If you are
giving a speech on a controversial topic, acknowledge the
differences in opinion exist and try to find a common
ground. If you ignore and dismiss other viewpoints,
audience members who hold those points view might
think that you are ignoring them and, in turn, ignore you.
With these ethical consideration in mind, let’s turn
our attention to how we might define and understand
those who comprise your audience.
THE LITERAL AND TARGET AUDIENCES
Thinkmedialabs – Audience – CC BY-NC 2.0.
We might understand your empirical audience (or
those who you actually speak to) with two terms: the
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literal audience and the target audience. The literal
audience comprises of anyone who hears the speaker’s
message. If you are speaking to your class, then your
literal audience is your classmates and your teacher. If
you upload your speech to YouTube, then your audience
would be anyone who views your upload. For Lisa
Brown’s speech, mentioned in the beginning of this
chapter, her literal audience included those who heard
her speech on the House floor as well as those who later
saw her speech on the news or on YouTube. The literal
audience is simply those who hear the speech or message.
The literal audience members are anyone who hears a message.
The target audience is a subsection of your literal
audience and constitutes the people for whom you
tailored your message. The target audience has two
additional characteristics. First, members of the target
audience are those capable of being impacted or
persuaded by the speaker’s message. Second, members of
the target audience are capable of creating the change that
the speaker seeks. In certain speaking situations, some
people may not be open to persuasion on particular
issues. Similarly, some people in your audience may be
incapable of acting or address a problem you identify.
Imagine for a moment that you would like to give a
speech that attempts to persuade your class that they
should donate blood to the Red Cross. Someone in your
class might be so afraid of needles that no matter how
compelling your speech is they will never give blood. If
this is the case, then that person in your class is not
persuadable and would not be a part of your target
audience. In addition, you might have a few classmates
who are not allowed to give blood—maybe they recently
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got a tattoo or have been traveling outside of the United
States. Even if you convince these people that they should
give blood, they simply cannot. As such, they are not a
part of your target audience.
The target audience comprises anyone (1) capable of being
persuaded and (2) capable of creating the change the speaker wants.
When you give a speech, you might not be able to
persuade everyone to be involved in your solution. People
might be unpersuadable or unable to act. When this
occurs (and it often does), you want to tailor your message
and focus your efforts on convincing those who actually
can change their minds and can do the change that you
seek—the target audience.
This definition of target audience is based off of Lloyd F. Bitzer’s
definition of the rhetorical audience. For more reading see: Lloyd
F. Bitzer, “The Rhetorical Situation,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 1
(1968): 1–14.
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
In order to determine who comprises your target
audience, you might want to engage in a process called
audience analysis. Audience analysis is a process in which
you examine who your audience members are and how to
best connect your beliefs with them. Based on a definition
of rhetoric provided by Donald C. Bryant, we might think
of public speaking as the act of “adjusting ideas to people
and of people to ideas.”[i] The first part of Bryant’s
definition exp...
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