Public Speaking Notes.docx - Chapter 4 Choosing a Speech...

Chapter 4: Choosing a Speech Topic and Purpose
 What to remember about speeches.
o What is the speaking situation?
o What topics are interesting and relevant to me?
 What evokes strong feelings
 Positive or negative
o What topics will be interesting and relevant to my audience?
 What are the audience interests?
 Where do those interests intersect with yours?
 How can you build a sense of community?
 Constraints
o Speech context
 Why you are giving the speech
o Speech constraints
 Location
 Audience demographics
 Time
o Types of speeches in this course
 Informative
 Persuasive
 Celebratory
 Brainstorming topics
o Let your mind wander
 Word association
 Also called free association
 No right or wrong answers
 Helps begin the process
o Write down your ideas
o Concept mapping
 Draw a circle
 Label it with your initial concept
 Draw more circles
 Research
o Searching materials for
 Information
 Background
 Context

 Narrowing your topic
o Define your general speech purpose
 To inform or teach
 To persuade
 To celebrate, honor, or mourn
o Write your purpose statement
 Write a thesis statement
 Single sentence
 Should overlap with speech purpose
 Written after the purpose is defined
Chapter 5:
 Types of research
o Common knowledge
 Often times opinion
 Things that you state out loud and everyone agrees
 i.e. “Who is the President?”
o Personal experience
 Use specific examples, but not as citied sources
o Internet research
o Library research
o Interviews
 Why research matters
o Credibility
o Common trust
 Truth
 Misinformation
 Research planning
o Narrow your topic during research
o Allot sufficient time
o Develop a list of possible sources
o Take notes
o Print your sources
 Popular research databases
o Ebsco academic search complete
o Gale academic OneFile
o LexisNexis academic
o JSTOR
o Library

 Researching on the internet
o Research databases vs. web searches
o Assessing reliability
 Who is the information provider?
o Fact checking
 Factcheck.org
 The three “hecks” of internet source reliability
o Who the heck wrote it?
o Who the heck paid for it?
o When the heck was it published?
 To Wikipedia or not to Wikipedia?
o Crowd sourced entries
o Multiple authors
 Anyone can edit
o DO NOT CITE WIKIPEDIA
 The research interviews
o Prepare ahead of time
o Secure recording permissions
o Listen actively
o Transcribe your recording
 Citing sources
o Standard formats
 MLA
 APA
 For public speaking
 Chicago
 AMA

Chapter 10:
 Nonverbal communication
o All communication outside of spoken word
 86-90% of communication is nonverbal
o Often focused on body
 Haptics
 Touch
o How you touch and hold things
 Proxemics
 Distance
o How far away you are
 Body language
 What you say with your body
 Vocalics
o Volume
 Loudness
 Adjust to size of room
 Most important vocalic factor
o Pitch
 Sound frequency (low to high)
 Use to express mood
o Articulation
 Clear pronunciation
 Practice (pen-in-mouth exercise)
o Pronunciation
 Accepted way a word sounds
