978-1305502819 Chapter 15

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Chapter 15

Delivery

What you’ll know:

• Some of the symptoms and causes of public speaking apprehension

• Several techniques you can use to manage public speaking apprehension

• Pros and cons of different delivery methods

What you’ll be able to do:

• Engage in productive speech rehearsals

• Use your voice effectively when giving a speech

• Use your body effectively when giving a speech

• Use presentational aids effectively during your speech

• Evaluate speech effectiveness

Chapter Outline

I. Public Speaking Apprehension: a type of communication anxiety that reflects the level of fear a

person experiences when anticipating, or actually speaking to, an audience

A. Symptoms and causes

1. Signs and symptoms vary from person to person

2. Symptoms include physical, emotional, and cognitive reactions

3. Anticipation reaction: the level of anxiety you experience prior to giving the speech

4. Confrontation reaction: the surge in your anxiety level you feel as you begin your speech

5. Adaptation reaction: the gradual decline of your anxiety level that begins about one

minute into the presentation

6. Negative reinforcement from the past may increase apprehension

7. Many of us may become nervous because of underdeveloped skills

II. Effective Delivery Style

A. Conversational: an informal style of presenting a speech so that your audience feels you are

talking with them, not at them

B. Animated: lively and dynamic

C. Spontaneity: a naturalness that seems unrehearsed and un-memorized

III. Use of Voice

A. Intelligibly: be sure listeners can understand you

IV. Use of Body

A. Appearance

1. Consider the audience and the occasion

2. Consider your topic and purpose

3. Avoid extremes

B. Posture: the position or bearing of the body

C. Poise: refers to assurance of manner

D. Eye contact: looking at the audience

1. Helps the audience concentrate

2. Increases the audience’s confidence in you

3. Helps you respond to audience feedback

E. Facial expressions: eye and mouth movement

F. Gestures: movements of your hands, arms, and fingers that describe and emphasize what you

are saying

G. Movement: motion of the entire body

VI. Rehearsals: Practicing the Presentation of Your Speech Aloud

A. Preparing speaking notes: a word or phrase outline of the speech put onto note cards, plus

hard-to-remember information such as quotations and statistics

B. Handling presentational aids: visuals must be handled well to avoid problems

1. Carefully plan when to use presentational aids

2. Consider audience needs carefully

3. Position presentational aids and equipment before beginning your speech

4. Reveal a presentational aid only when talking about it

5. Display presentational aids so that everyone in the audiences can see and hear them

6. Reference the presentational aid during the speech

7. Talk to your audience, not to the presentational aid

8. Resist the temptation to pass objects through the audience

C. Rehearsing and refining delivery

1. First practice

a. Record (audio or video) yourself giving your speech

b. Read through your outline before delivering the speech and then put the outline out of

sight and practice the speech using only note cards

c. Mimic actual speech conditions

d. Write down the time that you begin

e. Begin speaking

f. Write down the time that you end and calculate the length of the speech.

2. Analysis

a. Listen to or watch your tape

b. Check your outline

c. Consider changes to improve your speech

3. Second practice

a. Immediately follows analysis and first practice

b. Make adjustments

4. Additional practices

a. Practice two times and then put the speech away for the day; it is possible to over–

rehearse

b. Consider practicing right before bed

c. The number of times you should practice depends on many variables

V. Adapting While Delivering the Speech

VI. Evaluating Speeches

A. Content: speech goal, high-quality information, variety of developmental material, appropriate

visual aids, adaptation

B. Organization: introduction, conclusions, meaningful points, clear transitions

C. Presentation: language clarity, vividness, emphasis, enthusiasm; vocal expressiveness,

fluency, spontaneity, eye contact, pronunciation, articulation, poise, posture, gestures

Discussion and Assignment Ideas

I. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, question perspectives, or gain individual opinion.

Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or reflect on their personal feelings

about the quote can help to spark discussion and interest. Suggested prompts may include “Define this

concept in your own words”; “Do you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be

used to support or refute this idea?”

Think you can, think you can’t; either way you’ll be right.

—Henry Ford

Technology Resources

Access cengagebrain.com to find Web Links: Body Motions and Audience Attention. After reading the

article, do you recognize any of your habitual body motions that you would like to change? Can you

think of any other body motions that you would like to add that aren’t mentioned in the article?

Movies

The King’s Speech (2010)

Rated: R (Biography, Drama, History)

Synopsis: The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the

speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it, The King’s Speech deals with

heavy speech apprehension and anxiety. Specifically noting the extenuation of communication

apprehension in high stress situations.

Questions for discussion

1. Of the many embarrassing and troubling moments, which is the most monumental and important

for King George?

2. Why is King George’s speech therapist helpful? What helpful (and hurtful) advice does the

therapist offer?

3. What is the breakthrough moment for King George? Could he have achieved this moment without

speech apprehension?

Executive Edge: Presentation Skills (1998)

Additional suggested movies: Conquering Communication Anxiety (1998) (managing anxiety)

Other Media Resources

Skills and Competency

Please refer to the core text for a prompt to Web Resource 14.1: Visualizing Your Success. The

following visualization exercise can also be found in the Communicate! online textbook resources.

Visualization Exercise

I want you to get really comfortable. If you are sitting, uncross your legs and let your arms relax in

your lap. If you can lie down on your back, please do so now. Lie flat with your legs uncrossed and

your arms lying comfortably at your side. Close your eyes. Let the tension drain from your face. Feel

your facial muscles relaxing. Relax your jaw. Let your eyes sink toward the back of your head. Feel

the tension drain out of your neck . . . shoulders . . . abdomen. Relax your arms. Open your fingers

and let them relax. Feel the tension drain from your back muscles. Release your hip sockets. Feel your

legs muscles relax. Unlock your knees. Let the tension drain from your calves . . . your ankles . . .

your toes.

Focus your attention on your breathing. Slowly inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale.

Now I want you to visualize how you are going to prepare for this speech. It’s about ten days before you

are to give your speech. See yourself choosing a topic that you are personally passionate and

knowledgeable about. How do you feel? Excited? Confident? [PAUSE]

Now picture yourself learning about your audience, studying their demographics, finding out how

much they know about your topic, deciding what they need to learn. Imagine learning about the

occasion of your speech. What is expected of you on this occasion? How will the physical set-up of the

room and the size of your audience effect what you do? Think about how you have chosen your

speech goal based on what you have learned. How do you feel? Are you looking forward to helping your

audience understand more about this topic? Picture yourself developing a strategy for how you will adapt

to this particular audience. [PAUSE]

Now see yourself gathering the information you need. See yourself searching databases, reading

articles, scanning websites, and making note cards for the information you are finding. [PAUSE]

Next, imagine yourself identifying the three or four main ideas you want to share with your audience. See

yourself writing them in full sentences. Now picture yourself deciding on the order in which you will

present these ideas, figuring out how to move from one point to the other. [PAUSE]

Now visualize choosing the statistics, illustrations, and examples from your research that are

appropriate to this audience and that will develop each of these points. [PAUSE]

When you have finished thinking about the body of your speech, begin to consider the introduction.

See yourself creating three different interesting introductions, and then choosing one you know will

capture the interest of your audience and lead smoothly into the body of your speech. [PAUSE]

Now imagine yourself creating three different conclusions, each of which summarizes your main ideas

and leaves the audience with a final thought that will cement your speech thesis in their minds. See

yourself choosing the best of these conclusions and using it in your speech. [PAUSE]

Now visualize writing your speech outline, carefully constructing full and meaningful sentences. Marvel at

how well you have managed to organize your ideas. [PAUSE]

It’s now three days before you are to speak. See yourself practicing your speech out loud, playing with

different ways to phrase your ideas. Notice how after each run-through you work on a section of your

speech that was rough, correcting any errors you made, editing your speaking notes to add mental

prompts or deleting unneeded notes, adjusting the length of your supporting material for each main

idea so that you meet time expectations. See yourself smoothly using the visual aids you have

planned. [PAUSE]

It’s the day before you are to speak. Enjoy watching yourself as you flawlessly deliver your speech in

your final practice run-through. [PAUSE]

Now see yourself entering the room in which you will speak. You’re relaxed, composed, and looking

forward to sharing your ideas with your audience. You enjoy talking with several people before class

begins. Take your seat and confidently wait for your turn to speak. Feel how pleased you feel to have this

chance to share what you have planned with your audience. Remind yourself of why your

audience needs to hear this information. [PAUSE]

It’s time. Feel the little kick of adrenalin . . . smile, relax. You know that you’re just feeling a little

edge that will help you be animated and alert as you speak. Picture yourself walking confidently to the

front of your audience. As you take your place, stop. Quickly scan your notes. Look up and see your

audience looking at you expectantly. As you look back at them, you smile to help them relax. You take a

deep breath and begin your well-rehearsed introduction. You deliver it smoothly and your audience is

engaged in what you are saying.

As you transition to your first main point, see yourself really focused on having a deep conversation with

your audience. As you finish your second point, you notice quizzical looks on the faces of several audience

members, so you explain your point again and offer another short example. Heads begin to nod in

comprehension, so you move on to your final point. Look at how actively your audience is

listening to what you are saying.

As you smoothly finish your final point, you begin your well-planned conclusion. As you make your

final comments, notice how attentive the audience is. Visualize their applause. Smile. Relax. They got it.

Your hard work and careful planning paid off. You were awesome!

Chapter Activities

15.1: Impromptu Speaking

Purpose: To give students further practice in preparing short speeches with minimal preparation

time

Time: 40 minutes

Process: Create a list of topics (or, alternatively, provocative quotations). Write each topic on a

strip of paper, one topic per strip, and put the strips into a manila envelope. Ask for a

student volunteer to draw two topics from the envelope, select one, and take three

minutes to prepare a three-minute speech. Just before the first person starts

speaking, have a second person draw two topics. This second person, and each

subsequent speaker, also has three minutes to prepare a three-minute speech and does

so while the previous speaker is giving his or her speech.

At the end of five speeches, have the class discuss what they considered the strengths of

each speech in terms of delivery and organization.

15.2: Vocal Variety

Purpose: To give students practice using vocal variety in their speaking

Time: 30 minutes

Process: Divide the class into pairs and instruct each pair to write the following words on strips

of paper, one word per strip. Students should then fold each strip in half so that the

word is inside. Then they should mix all of the strips together in a manila envelope.

Here are the words: anger, love, happiness, joy, excitement, fear, sadness, anxiety,

Journal Assignments

A. Communication Apprehension

Make a list of all the fears you have related to speech presentation. Order them on a continuum from

least feared to most feared. Decide which fears are preventable and describe how they could be

prevented. For the unpreventable fears, decide what you will do it they occur.