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Solutions – Chapter 12 ⚫ 1
CHAPTER 12 SOLUTIONS AND DISCUSSION MATERIAL
Activities and Cases
12.1 Learning From the Best: Analyzing a Famous Speech
If your students are giving oral reports for your class, this would be an effective activity for them,
especially if they critique a speech based on their written and oral report requirement.
12.2 Sizing Up Your Audience
Be prepared to set your parameters for defining “recent issue” and also for limiting or not
12.3 Hiring a Famous Motivational Speaker
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 desirable
12.4 Follow Your Favorite Business Personality on Twitter
Students who don’t yet have a Twitter account must create a profile to be able to follow a
businessperson of their choice. Twitter is still not as popular as Facebook and other social media
sites among our typical student groups. However, signing up is easy, and instructions abound on
12.5 Taming Stage Fright
This activity could help students come to grips with their fears. After completing this discussion
and/or writing memos, students will realize that they share many of the same anxieties. Stress
that all speakers suffer stage fright occasionally and that controlled stress can contribute to a
presentation.
12.6 How Much Speaking in Your Field?
You may want students to discuss this activity in groups of three or four and then have one
Solutions – Chapter 12 ⚫ 2
12.7 Creating an Outline for an Oral Presentation (Obj. 2)
This outline should be the basis for each oral presentation. You might want to ask students to
label each part of their presentation with the parts represented on the outline.
12.8 Learning From “Life After Death by PowerPoint”
Electrical engineer turned comedian Don McMillan is famous for his humorous critique of
PowerPoint misdeeds and other office life. The don’ts in the newly revised version, “Life After
12.9 Observing and Outlining a TED Talk
Answers will vary. TED Talks are consistent in their quality because the organizers invite only
the most accomplished personalities from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design
(TED) who also happen to be captivating speakers. TED conference participation is by invitation
only, and the annual membership fee is $6,000. Following are two authentic samples of tweets
about TED.
TED Talks @TEDTalks
12.10 Talking About Your Job
Students should present a three- to five-minute talk about the duties of a current or a past job, volunteer
activity, or internship. Following is a model of a typical professor’s job duties. This PowerPoint
presentation is also available at the instructor’s website under the Solutions and Supplements tab.
12.11 Calling All Angel Investors
Answers will vary. Students typically enjoy assignments that encourage them to discuss their future
entrepreneurial endeavors. In each class you will most likely have a few students who want to start their
own businesses. This assignment also lends itself to role-playing. Students could take turns as future
entrepreneurs and angel investors.
12.12 Perfecting the Art of the Elevator Pitch
This activity works best if you reveal the particulars of the topic at the last minute and the
Solutions – Chapter 12 ⚫ 3
Powerful Black Executives, China 100, Fortune 40, Blue Ribbon Companies, MBAs’ Top 50
Employers, 40 Under 40, Most Powerful Women in Business, and 25 Most Powerful People
in Business. You may want to refer students to
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/rankings for additional information.
Following are descriptions of the four lists from this assignment:
a. 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
b. Global 500. First published in 1995, this list ranks world companies based on sales revenues.
c. 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
d. 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,
12.14 Something to Talk About: Topics for an Oral Presentation
You can treat Activity 12.7 and this activity as a unit. Students could first be required to submit an outline
of their chosen topic. Then they would prepare a presentation with effective visual aids.
12.15 Impromptu or Extemporaneous Talk: Becoming a Professional
Speaker
This activity offers flexibility in designing assignments. First, it might be used to have students
Solutions – Chapter 12 ⚫ 4
12.16 Reporting About a Relevant Business Topic in the Media
A simple verbal summary might be combined with professional tweets about the chosen article
12.17 Persuasive Presentation: Become an Ambassador for a Cause Close
to Your Heart
This assignment helps students practice researching, outlining, and persuasive speaking skills. In
12.18 What Is My Credit Score and What Does It Mean?
Researching this topic will reveal many misconceptions about credit scores. Students can test
12.19 Creating a Multimedia Presentation
(No additional research required)
Use this exercise as (a) a graded assignment; (b) an ungraded learning experience in which some
or all students display their slides for class review and comment; or (c) a combination of these
two approaches. You may be amazed at some of the creative ideas your students come up with.
In assigning this activity, recognize that your class may include students at a variety of
Finally, remind students that their slides are supposed to be a visual component to accompany
the spoken word. Therefore, you are expecting more than just bulleted lists. Minimum
requirements might include, for example, one photograph and one other graphic element.
To make this assignment more challenging for advanced PowerPoint users, you might add
Solutions – Chapter 12 ⚫ 5
Notes on the suggested answer key are pictured here and available as a PowerPoint file at
the instructor’s website under the Solutions and Supplements tab.
1. Slide 1 uses AutoShapes on the Drawing toolbar to highlight the two choices.
2. All the slides use the title and text layout option except for Slide 3. Slide 3 uses the title slide
to illustrate how the title slide layout can be used in other places besides the opening slide.
