Public speaking

1. Public speaking • Basics

3. Objectives Identify the major similarities and differences between public speaking and everyday conversation. Discuss methods of controlling nervousness and of making it work for a speaker. Identify the basic elements of the speech communication process.

4. Public speaking vs. conversation • A. Public speaking and conversation share major goals: to inform, to persuade, to entertain. • B. Public speaking and conversation require similar skills. In both, people: • 1. organize their thoughts logically. • 2. tailor their message to an audience. • 3. tell a story for maximum impact. • 4. adapt to feedback from listeners.

5. Differences between public speaking and everyday conversation • A. Public speaking is more highly structured than ordinary conversation. • B. Public speaking requires more formal language than ordinary conversation. • C. Public speaking requires a different method of delivery from ordinary conversation. • D. With study and practice, most people are able to master these differences and expand their conversational skills into speechmaking.

6. Public speaking helps people develop critical thinking skills • Critical thinking involves: • being able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument. • distinguishing fact from opinion. • judging the credibility of sources. • assessing the quality of evidence. • discerning the relationships among ideas.

7. Critical thinking skills are enriched by a public speaking class • As students organize their speeches, their ideas will become more clear and cohesive. • As students work on expressing their ideas accurately, their thinking will become more precise. • As students learn about the role of reasoning and evidence in speeches, they will become better able to assess reasoning and evidence in all types of situations.

8. Understanding your nervousness • Fear of failure • Fear of being judged • Fear of humiliation

9. Some steps students can take to control their nervousness • Be thoroughly prepared for every speech. • Think positively about yourself and the speech • Know that your nervousness is usually not visible to the audience. • Don’t expect perfection. • Be at your physical and mental best. • Concentrate on communicating with the audience rather than on worrying about your nervousness. 

10. How it works?

11. Elements of the speech communication process • The Speaker (source) • The message • The channel • The listener (receiver) • Feedback • Interference (external or internal). • The situation/context

12. Communication Process Situation MES SAGE CHAN NEL Situation Situation FEED BACK Interference Situation

13. Encoding and Decoding

14. The key concepts:encoding / decoding • Encoding: ‘translating’ ideas and images into a code (e.g., language) that the audience can recognize • Decoding: understanding / deciphering received messages (encoded ideas and images) • Communication as: • Action, Interaction and Transaction

15. Channels Verbal Spoken/written words Nonverbal cues Personal appearance Bodily action, Gestures Attitudes toward Time, Space Voice, Articulation / Dialect

16. Noise • Physical • Physiological • Psychological • Semantic

17. Situation Influences on the form and content of messages: Physical setting Cultural / social milieu

18. Communication principles Inevitability: Everything communicates Intentional vs. Unintentional Irreversible Unrepeatable

19. Communication competence Achieving one’s goals: Effectiveness + Ethics A Large Communication Repertoire Ability to Choose the Right Approach Self-Monitoring Cognitive Complexity / Knowledge: “Well-developed person”

20. Questions of ethics • Public speakers should • make sure their goals are ethically sound • be fully prepared for each speech. • be honest in what they say. • avoid all forms of abusive language. • put ethical principles into practice.

21. Listeners • Listeners should be courteous and attentive during the speech. • Listeners should avoid prejudging the speaker. • Listeners should maintain the free and open expression of ideas.

22. Freedom of Speech • Free speech is a means to an end: discovering the best idea possible. • Free speech is also an end itself: the desire for free expression, self-fulfillment.

23. The Case for Free Speech • Discovery of Truth: The pursuit of political truth through competition of ideas. • A means of political participation. • Check on Government: The restraint on tyranny, corruption, and ineptitude. • Social Stability: The facilitation of majority rule.

24. Free expression and human dignity • The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit—a spirit that demands self-expression (Thurgood Marshall) • Self-fulfillment • Pleasure, Gratification • Respect

25. What is Speech • All forms of expressions: • The actual spoken/written communication • Symbolic speech / Expressive conduct to convey a message

26. Flag burning

27. Texas v. Johnson (1989) • During the protests against the Republican National Convention in Dallas in 1984 Gregory Johnson set on fire a national flag. • He was convicted under Texas criminal statute making: it is a criminal offense to… desecrate… a state or national flag.” • He was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $2,000.

28. Texas v. Johnson (1989) • The Supreme Court ruled for Johnson. • It ruled that the desecration was “expressive conduct.” Thus, Texas statute prohibited expressing ideas, not desecration and thus was not permissible.

29. New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) • “The debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials” (from Justice Brennan’s opinion)

30. New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) • Public officials may not recover damages for defamatory falsehood relating to their official conduct unless they can prove actual malice; • “that the statement was made with… knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”

31. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) • In a parody that appeared in Hustler magazine the prominent fundamentalist evangelist Reverend Jerry Falwell was depicted as a drunk in a sexual liaison with his mother in an outhouse

33. From the “Campari Ad” • But your mom? Isn’t it a bit odd? • I don’t think so. Looks don’t mean that much to me in a woman. • Go on. • Well, we were drunk off our God fearing asses on Campari, ginger ale and soda… And mom looked better than a Baptist whore with a $100 donation.

34. From the “Campari Ad” • Did you try it again? • Oh, yeah. I always get sloshed before I go out to the pulpit. You don’t think I could lay down all that bullshit sober, do you?

35. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) • Falwell sued for: 1. libel, 2. invasion of privacy, 3. intentional infliction of emotional distress. • In the trial court he lost on (1) and (2) but prevailed on (3). He was awarded $200,000 damages for emotional distress

36. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) • The Supreme Court reversed (8 to 0): • a public figure or official may not recover for intentional infliction of emotional distress arising from a publication unless the publication contains a false statement of fact that was made with actual malice.

37. Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) • That the material might be deemed outrageous and that it might have been intended to cause severe emotional distress were not enough to overcome the First Amendment.

38. Obscenity test (not protected by 1st Amendment) • 1. The average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest • 2. The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law • 3. The work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

39. Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center were indicted for pandering obscenity hours after the opening of the show that exhibited several portraits, mostly of sadomasochistic acts.         Mr. Barrie and the arts center he directed were acquitted in a much-publicized trial that lasted six months. Protesters outside the Contemporary Arts Center Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio: Robert Mapplethorpe Show

40. Obscene versus indecent • Obscenity:a class of sexual material so offensive that is deemed by the Supreme Court to have virtually no 1st Amendment protection • Indecency:not necessarily obscene, but deemed inappropriate for the airwaves

41. Obscene? Indecent? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koRlFnBlDH0 • European Union Official advertisement for European Cinema • http://www.ifilm.com/video/2671016 • Carls Jr commercial

42. Indecent: Definitional problems • Indecent: offending against decency; unsuitable • Decency: correct, honorable, or modest behavior • Special legal meaning: a class of speech that is restricted on the broadcast airwaves, even though is not necessarily obscene and would be legally allowable in other avenues of expression.

43. Seven Dirty words • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFmRypAYz_E • George Carlin: Seven Dirty Words • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o • George Carlin on God • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLFo9Aoomw • Lewis Black • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCDZMWVWuc • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Cj5usuA-Q&feature=related • Deadwood

44. $550,000 Moment (FCC Fine)

45. Plagiarism: presenting another person’s language or ideas as one’s own • Global plagiarism is copying an entire speech and passing it off as one’s own. • Patchwork plagiarism occurs when a speaker patches a speech together by copying verbatim from two or three sources • Incremental plagiarism occurs when a speaker fails to give credit for specific parts of the speech that are borrowed from other people (plagiaphrasing)

46. Ways to avoid plagiarism • Start work on your speeches as early as possible so you will have plenty of time to prepare a speech that is truly your own. • Consult a large number of sources in your research so you do not rely too heavily on one or two sources. • Be careful when taking research notes to distinguish among direct quotations, paraphrases, and your own ideas (avoid accidental plagiarism)

47. Choosing a topic • From subjects about which students already know a great deal. • From subjects about which a student is interested and wants to learn more. • From issues about which students hold strong opinions and beliefs. • Students can use several brainstorming procedures (make inventory of interests, skills, experiences or browse through encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other reference materials)

48. Determining the general purpose • When the general purpose is to inform, speakers act as teachers. • Their goal is to communicate information clearly, accurately, and interestingly. • When the general purpose is to persuade, speakers act as advocates. • Their goal is to change the attitudes or actions of their audience.

49. Narrowing to the specific purpose • The specific purpose should indicate precisely what the speaker wants the audience to know or believe after the speech. • 1. It should focus on a clearly defined aspect of the topic. • 2. It should be expressed as a single infinitive phrase that includes the audience.

50. Five tips for forming a good specific purpose statement • It should be a full infinitive phrase, not a fragment. • It should be phrased as a statement, not a question. • It should avoid figurative language. • It should not contain two or more unrelated ideas. • It should not be too vague or general.