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1 Becoming a Public Speaker
<A> OBJECTIVES
To recognize the many benefits of public speaking.
To enhance your career as a student.
To find new opportunities for civic engagement.
To recognize the classical roots of public speaking.
To draw on the familiar skills of conversation and composition.
To recognize unique aspects of public speaking.
To become an inclusive speaker.
To recognize public speaking as a category of communication.
To recognize that public speaking is an interactive communication process.
To recognize the similarities and differences between public speaking and the other
forms of communication.
<A> CHAPTER CONTENT OUTLINE
I. Why study public speaking?
A. Public speaking offers communication theories and practical principles that, when
mastered, can help students gain real-life skills, achieve personal goals, and attain
greater confidence and satisfaction in all aspects of life.
B. Public speaking allows individuals to realize and advance professional goals.
Ability in oral and written communication is the top skill that employers look for
when hiring college graduates.
1. Public speaking skills provide an edge, and can lead to greater
confidence and satisfaction.
C. Public speaking skills will enhance students’ academic careers. The same skills
that are necessary for delivering a public speech are useful in writing or
composition and in critical thinking abilities across disciplines.
D. By encouraging civil discourse, public speaking allows speakers and listeners to
explore and share their values, entering public discussions about the issues of the
day. This dialogue offers individuals ways to become more engaged citizens.
1. When citizens make their voices heard in greater numbers,
democracies function better, and are more reflective of the will
of the people.
II. The classical roots of public speaking
A. The practice of oratory, called rhetoric, began in Greece in the fifth century
B.C.E.
B. Believing that citizenship required participation, the Athenians demonstrated their
oratorical skills in the agora, or public square. Citizens of the Roman republic
later met in a forum to voice opinions and to exercise their democratic rights.
Today, we use the term public forum to denote a variety of physical and virtual
media for the voicing of ideas.
C. The Greeks used oratory to settle civil disputes, to determine public policy, and to
establish laws.
2. Legislative or political speech was termed deliberative oratory.
3. Speech delivered in ceremonies, such as celebrations or funerals,
was termed epideictic oratory.
D. Greek and Roman teachers instructed that there were five parts in the process of
preparing a speech, called the canons of rhetoric. In order, they are:
1. Invention, discovering the arguments and evidence you will use
and adapting it to your audience
2. Arrangement, organizing your speech based on the topic and
audience
3. Style, using specific language to express ideas
4. Memory, practicing the speech until it can be artfully delivered
5. Delivery, the vocal and nonverbal behavior during your
presentation
E. Though they may be identified by different terms, the five canons of rhetoric
remain important to public speaking today.
III. Learning to speak in public
A. Public speaking is an acquired skill that requires practice.
B. Speakers should draw on conversational skills, as conversation and public
speaking both require a speaker to consider the audience, the topic, and the
occasion.
C.
a
Speakers should draw on skills in composition, as preparing a speech and writing
n essay both require topic research, a focused sense of the audience, and a clear
organization and structure.
D. Speakers should develop an effective oral style.
1. Successful public speakers use familiar language, straightforward
organization and transitions, and repetition.
2. Spoken language is usually more interactive and inclusive than
written language.
3. Conversation is more informal; public speaking requires more
formal language usage.
4. Quality public speakers provide something of value for their
audiences.
E. Speakers should strive for inclusion, addressing diverse audiences with sensitivity
and respect. Speakers who display cultural intelligence assess audience
members’ cultural values, become more sympathetic to these values, and
become more skilled in interactions with members of these cultures.
1. Becoming inclusive and audience-centered allows speakers to
develop a genuine connection with their audiences.
IV. Public speaking as a Form of Communication
A. Communication scholars typically identify four categories of human
communication: dyadic, small group, mass, and public speaking.
1. Dyadic communication occurs between two people.
3. Mass communication is a form of speech in which the receivers
of the message are not present or are part of such an immense
crowd that there can be no interaction between speaker and
listener.
4. Public speaking occurs when a speaker delivers a message with a
specific purpose to an audience of people who are present at the
delivery of the speech.
B. There are several elements common to all forms of communication.
1. The source is the person who creates and delivers a message through
a process called encoding.
3. The receiver is the recipient of the source’s message. The receiver
interprets the message through decoding, a selective process based
on a person’s own experiences and attitudes.
4. The audience’s response is called feedback, and can be either verbal
or nonverbal.
5. The message is the content of the communication process. It is
thoughts and ideas put into meaningful expression.
6. The channel is the medium through which the speaker sends a
message.
8. Shared meaning is the mutual understanding of a message between
speaker and audience.
10. All speeches are delivered in response to a rhetorical situation or
circumstance. Keeping this in mind ensures that the speaker
maintains an audience-centered perspective, with the needs, values,
and attitudes of listeners as the focus.
11. The speaker must have a clearly defined goal; developing a speech
purpose will help with speech preparation and ensure a focused
delivery.
C. Public speaking shares many characteristics with the other forms of
communication, including sensitivity to listeners and a message that is organized,
easy to follow, believable, relevant, and interesting. In addition, the speaker must
be knowledgeable, unbiased, and clear.
1. As in small group communication, public speaking requires
addressing a group of people who are focused on you.
2. As in mass communication, public speaking requires you to
3. As in dyadic communication, public speaking requires you to
attempt to make yourself understood, involve and respond to
your conversational partners, and take responsibility for what
you say.
D. Several factors distinguish public speaking from other forms of communication.
1. Opportunities for feedback are more limited than in dyadic or
small group communication, but greater than those provided by
mass communication.
2. Because of feedback limitations in public speaking situations,
preparation must be more careful and extensive.
3. Public speeches tend to occur in more formal settings than do
other forms of communication.
1. Because a more systematic presentation is expected, public
speaking requires more preparation and practice than the
other forms of communication.
<A> KEY TERMS
rhetoric the practice of oratory, or public speaking. More broadly, the term has
multiple meanings, all of which relate to an aspect of human communication.
oratory in classical terms, the art of public speaking.
agora in ancient Greece, a public square or marketplace. See also forum.
forum in ancient Rome, a public space in which people gathered to deliberate about the
issues of the day. See also agora and public forum.
public forum any space (physical or virtual) in which people gather to voice their ideas
about public issues.
forensic oratory in ancient Greece, speech addressing legal matters, such as the
settlement of disputes.
deliberative oratory in ancient Greece, speech addressing legislative or political policy
issues.
epideictic oratory in ancient Greece, speech addressing special occasions, such as
celebrations and funerals.
canons of rhetoric a classical approach to speechmaking in which the speaker divides a
speech into five parts: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.
invention the classical term for the process of selecting information to illustrate or prove
speech points.
arrangement (of the speech) the strategic process of deciding how to order speech
points into a coherent and convincing pattern for your topic and audience.
style the specific word choices and rhetorical devices (techniques of language) speakers
use to express their ideas and achieve their speech purpose.
memory one of five parts of the classical canons of rhetoric; refers to the practice of the
speech until it can be artfully delivered.
delivery the vocal and nonverbal behavior that a speaker uses in a public speech; one of
the five canons of rhetoric.
culture the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are
passed from one generation to the next.
cultural intelligence the willingness to learn about other cultures and gradually reshape
one’s thinking and behavior in response to what one has learned.
dyadic communication communication between two people, as in a conversation.
small group communication communication involving a small number of people who
can see and speak directly with one another, as in a business meeting.
mass communication communication that occurs between a speaker and a large
audience of unknown people. The receivers of the message are not present with the
speaker, or they are part of such an immense crowd that there can be little or no
interaction between speaker and listeners. Television, radio news broadcasts, and mass
rallies are examples of mass communication.
public speaking a type of communication in which the speaker delivers a message with a
specific purpose to an audience of people who are physically present during the delivery
of the speech. Public speaking always includes a speaker who has a reason for speaking,
an audience that gives the speaker its attention, and a message that is meant to
accomplish a purpose.
source the source, or sender, is the person who creates a message. The speaker
transforms ideas and thoughts into messages and sends them to a receiver, or an audience.
encoding the process of organizing a message, choosing words and sentence structure,
and verbalizing the message.
receiver the recipient (an individual or a group) of a source’s message.
decoding the process of interpreting a message.
feedback audience response to a message, which can be conveyed both verbally and
nonverbally through gestures. Feedback from the audience often indicates whether a
speaker’s message has been understood.
message the content of the communication process—thoughts and ideas put into
meaningful expressions. A message can be expressed both verbally (through the
sentences and points of a speech) and nonverbally (through eye contact, body language,
and gestures).
channel the medium through which the speaker sends a message (e.g., sound waves, air
waves, and electronic transmission).
noise anything that interferes with the communication process between a speaker and an
audience, so that the message cannot be understood; noise can derive from external
sources in the environment or from internal psychological factors.
shared meaning the mutual understanding of a message between speaker and audience.
context anything that influences the speaker, the audience, the occasion, and thus,
ultimately, the speech.
rhetorical situation the circumstances that call for a public response and for the speech
itself; in broad terms, consideration of the audience, occasion, and overall speech
situation when planning a speech.
audience-centered perspective an approach to speech preparation in which each phase
of the speech preparation process—from selection and treatment of the speech topic to
making decisions about organization, language, and method of delivery—is geared
toward communicating a meaningful message to the audience.
CHAPTER STUDY GUIDE
I. SUMMARY QUESTIONS
What are some of the benefits of public speaking in terms of personal and
professional development?
How did the Greeks use oratory and what are the three different types of oratory?
What are the canons of rhetoric, and how do they function?
The canons of rhetoric detail a five-part process to preparing a speech. The five-part
Why is being culturally sensitive so important to success as a public speaker?
Audience members want to feel included and recognized in the speaker’s remarks. To
foster this sense of inclusion, today’s public speaker must attempt to identify and
What are the four categories of human communication and how is each one
defined?
Dyadic communication, or conversation, happens between two people. Small group
communication involves a small number of people who can see and speak directly with
What are the elements of the interactive communication process?
The source is the sender, or the person who creates a message. The source engages in
encoding, which involves creating, organizing, and producing the message, or converting
thoughts into words. The receiver is the recipient of the source’s message, or the
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”
speech. Why do you think this speech has had such a lasting impact on our culture
and on the way we think about effective public speaking?
Discuss the historical significance of Dr. King’s speech, his effective use of language
In what specific ways can effective public speaking benefit both your professional
and personal life?
Students should be able to touch on several of the following: Professional benefits
include being a sought-after employee; getting information to employees, team members,
Think of a speaker you think is effective. What makes that speaker effective? In
what ways does that speaker influence people?
Students should feel free to cite both historical speakers of note and contemporary and/or
celebrity figures. Encourage students to identify individuals who speak within the
People such as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein could certainly be identified as
persuasive speakers. Would you claim they were “effective?” Why, or why not?
Discuss the basic elements that make a speaker effective, such as audience analysis,
Public speaking allows you the opportunity to voice perspectives and opinions about
important issues, whether they be political, social, or cultural. What issues do you
feel most passionately about? How could you use public speaking skills to become
more engaged with these issues?
Students should take time to examine their passions and interests early in the semester.
By allowing them the freedom to discuss relevant issues, you communicate that their
How would your life change if you were unable to or prevented from making a
public address—if, for example, public speaking was against the law? How would
society be affected?
This question addresses The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although they
may be aware, The First Amendment addresses free speech, students may not be as
III. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
QUESTIONS
The following questions may help you illustrate important points in the chapter and
facilitate students’ learning of this material. These questions can be used as:
homework questions
quizzes
in-class work (individually or in groups)
topics to generate discussion
question-and-answer sessions between instructor and students
