Chapter 14 Solutions to Activities
14.1 Evaluating a Speech (Objs. 1–3)
If your students are giving oral reports for your class, this would be an effective activity for them,
14.2 Analyzing the Needs of an Audience (Objs. 1, 2)
Be prepared to set your parameters for defining “recent issue” and also for limiting or not
14.3 Hiring a Business Tycoon Who Is an Accomplished Public Speaker (Obj. 1)
In teams or individually, students will have the opportunity to practice some of the insights they
gained in this chapter—for instance, how to analyze an audience and identify the desirable
14.4 Twitter: Follow Your Favorite Entrepreneur or Tycoon (Obj. 1)
Students must create a Twitter account to be able to follow a businessperson of their choice.
Signing up is easy, and instructions abound on the Twitter website. Donald Trump’s tweets, in
14.5 Overcoming Stage Fright (Obj. 4)
This activity could help students come to grips with their fears. After completing this discussion
14.6 The Importance of Oral Communication in Your Field (Objs. 1, 4)
You may want students to discuss this activity in groups of three or four, and then have one
14.7 Outlining Oral Presentations (Objs. 1, 2)
14.8 Critiquing a Satirical Clip Lampooning PowerPoint (Objs. 1–3)
Electrical engineer turned comedian Don McMillan is famous for his humorous critique of
PowerPoint misdeeds and other office life. The don’ts in the expanded version, “Life After Death
14.9 Crafting a Multimedia Presentation: Outline Your Job Duties (Objs. 1–3)
Students are asked to present a three- to five-minute talk about the duties of a current position or
14.10 Delivering an Idea in an Impromptu Speech (Objs. 1–3)
This activity works best if the particulars of the topic are revealed at the last minute and the
14.11 Fortune Lists: How Are They Compiled? (Objs. 1–4)
This assignment provides students with an opportunity to broaden their awareness of the best
companies in the world. You may want to customize which lists your students may research.
The five lists from this assignment are described here:
Fortune 500. Since this annual ranking of America’s largest corporations based on sales
revenues was first published in 1955, 1,857 companies have appeared. Many of them have
100 Best Companies to Work For. This list was first published in 1998. Some 46,526 randomly
selected employees from 304 candidate companies filled out an employee-opinion survey. Nearly
America’s Most Admired Companies. This list was first published in 1983. For the industry list,
the Hay Group started with the ten largest companies by revenue in 64 industries, including
Global Most Admired Companies. This list was first published in 1997. The Hay Group
conducted a survey of more than 10,000 directors, executives, and analysts. A total of 346
companies (208 of them based outside the United States) were divided into 30 industry groups,
14.12 What Is My Credit Score and What Does It Mean? (Objs. 1–4)
14.13 Improving Telephone Skills by Role-Playing (Obj. 6)
14.14 Presenting Yourself Professionally on the Telephone and in Voice Mail (Obj. 6)
14.15 Presenting Yourself Professionally When Texting (Obj. 6)
Other typical scenarios could be used—for example, students could request callback on an
14.16 Choosing a Topic for an Oral Presentation (Objs. 1–5)