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3. Use descriptive language. Abstract or vague language creates misunderstanding. It is
usually best to point out specific things you saw and heard. Although it’s not easy to do,
4. Don’t overload the person with information. People have a limit on how much they can
5. End on a positive note. It’s important to leave on good terms with the person. Make sure
your closing offers hope or encouragement.
USING FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE YOUR SPEECH PERFORMANCE
• Feedback is helpful during your speech rehearsal and after you have delivered your actual
presentation. When practicing your speech, feedback will guide your revisions to the speech
outline or your delivery. Making such changes is key to ensuring that your presentation is
well received by the audience.
• Feedback is wasted if you don’t act on it. However, not all feedback will be useful.
Seriously consider what advice you should take and what can be ignored. Make the changes
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Give an example of a presentation you recently attended that used a presentation aid
ineffectively. Why was it ineffective? What could the speaker have done to improve
the presentation?
2. Of all the nonverbal cues discussed in this chapter, which do you think is the most
important when delivering a speech? Which one do you think is your greatest
strength? Which is your greatest weakness? Why?
3. What is extemporaneous speaking? What are the advantages of using this speaking
style over impromptu and manuscript styles?
4. Describe the steps for conducting an effective situational analysis. What should be
considered when conducting a situational analysis? Why?
5. Discuss the aspects of delivering a speech that you feel will be most challenging for
you. What does the text suggest you do to master these challenges? What aspects of
speech delivery do you feel most comfortable performing?
• Have students discuss their concerns about their delivery styles and help them realize
VIDEO SCENARIOS
HOW TO COMMUNICATE: DELIVERING A SPEECH
This video feature shows students competent communication skills in action based on the
scenario following. The first video illustrates an ideal outcome, whereas the What if?
challenges prompt them to apply their own skills to times when their communication partner is
more difficult. To access the videos, go to bmacmillanhighered.com/choicesconnections2e.
The text suggests students use the following skills when delivering a speech:
1. Convey immediacy. Use an oral style of language and create a conversational tone with
your voice. Make eye contact with your audience and use expressive gestures and facial
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2. Convey power. Avoid powerless language, hedging, and disclaimers. Practice your
pronunciation and minimize your use of vocalized pauses and fillers. Dress appropriately
3. Know how to use your presentation media. When presenting with slides, use a clicker
and laser pointer so you aren’t stuck behind a computer. Move around purposefully,
staying focused on your audience, not on your presentation media.
You might say, “Switch the slides right before the DeNoon quote so the audience can see
the graphic. Gesture to, but don’t stare at, the slide.”
Instructor Note: Online, students will be asked a multiple-choice question after the first
video. For Chapter 15, it’s this:
How does the speaker, Kate, properly use her slides during the practice session?
A. She only uses images on her slides.
B. She gestures to her slides but speaks to her audience. *
C. She ignores the suggestion to add a slide.
D. She saves time by completely ignoring her slides.
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Wrong answer: Incorrect. When using slides or other presentation aids during speeches, it is
important to integrate them properly, so your audience knows what they are about to see and
hear. But it is important to talk to your audience, not to your slides. See the sections “Types of
WHAT IF?
This section challenges students to adapt their skills and communication plans when things
don’t work out as shown previously. Students will view two videos. In each video, the
encounter becomes challenging, and students must choose how they would respond based on
the open-ended question.
1. If you speak very quickly and use vocal fillers, such as “Okay. There’s a medical writer,
Daniel DeNoon, who says that . . . um . . . nine out of ten Americans . . . ,” what steps
would you take to improve during your next practice session?
2. How could you improve your delivery if your slides distract you from the audience?
• If a student feels distracted by their slides, they may want to include a copy of their
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Let’s Get Vocal in Here!
Goal: To give students an opportunity to work on their vocal delivery
Time: 15 minutes
1. Prepare a handout with the following quotes:
a. “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of
the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln
2. Ask students to stand next to their chairs.
3. Lead the class in a stretching exercise: for example, stretch toward the ceiling and
stand up straight. You can have some fun with them and add more stretching if you
like.
4. Lead the class in the following exercises:
a. Have students read quote a to practice volume variety. Read it the first time very
low, then louder, and then ask them to read it and vary the volume as they read.
Quote a: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people
some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham
b. Have students read quote b to practice variations in rate. Ask them to read the
quote very slowly, very quickly, and then with at a varying rate.
c. Ask students to read quote c in a very low pitch, a very high pitch, and then a
varying pitch.
d. Have students try to use varying rate, volume, and pitch while reading quote d.
Have them try it three different times to experiment with different possibilities.
2. The Power of Articulation
Goal: To allow students an opportunity to understand how articulating improves their
presentation style
Time: 20 minutes
1. Create a handout with the following copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address:
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot
hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is
3. Have students quickly read the Gettysburg Address aloud to each other using their
normal voices.
4. Once complete, tell students to read the passage again to each other very slowly,
5. Once complete, ask them to try it one more time at a more normal pace but still
6. Ask students to discuss with their partner whether they could detect a difference in
the readings. Was there improvement with each one?
7. Discuss with the class the power of articulation. Ask them which public figures they
feel need to work on their articulation. Has this shortcoming affected that person’s
career? If so, how?
3. Rehearsal Dinner—Without the Dinner!
Goal: To give students an opportunity to practice important nonverbal behavior during a
speech and relieve stress
Time: 30 minutes
2. This exercise can be conducted in small groups or as a whole class.
3. Ask the class to describe why there is a rehearsal dinner before a wedding. Explain
4. Demonstrate or explain the following:
a. Appropriate speed while walking to podium.
b. Items the speaker should and should not bring or wear to the podium, such as
coats, sunglasses, and backpacks.
5. Have each student take a turn at walking to the podium with a few note cards,
4. Breaking Down the Fear
Goal: To help students overcome the fear of public speaking
Time: 20 minutes
1. Divide the class into groups of four or five.
2. Ask students to discuss the following common fears about public speaking, and
brainstorm ways to overcome the fear:
a. My audience will hate my speech.
3. Once complete, ask them to identify which one they are most concerned about and
5. I Bet Theodore Roosevelt Would Have Loved PowerPoint!
Goal: To challenge students’ creativity with visual aids
Time: 60 minutes
1. Make copies of the following excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech, “Duties of
American Citizenship,” given January 26, 1883.
Of course, in one sense, the first essential for a man’s being a good citizen is his
possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the
emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good
appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material
prosperity can possibly atone for the lack of the great virile virtues.
But this is aside from my subject, for what I wish to talk of is the attitude of the
American citizen in civic life. It ought to be axiomatic in this country that every
man must devote a reasonable share of his time to doing his duty in the political
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sacrifice other things to enjoyment), rather plume themselves upon being good
citizens if they even vote; yet voting is the very least of their duties, Nothing
worth gaining is ever gained without effort. You can no more have freedom
without striving and suffering for it than you can win success as a banker or a
lawyer without labor and effort, without self-denial in youth and the display of a
2. Divide students into groups of four or five.
3. Ask students to imagine how public speaking during the early 1900s might have
4. Have each group present their visual aid.
5. Allow the class to vote on the most creative and the one that most embodied the
message of the speech.
MEDIA RESOURCES
1. Speaking Mistakes to Avoid
This 7-minute video from Toastmasters International discusses common presentation
2. How to Offer Feedback
This 5-minute video from Toastmasters International explains how to offer effective
3. Presentation Magazine
4. The King’s Speech (Weinstein Company, 2010)
This film starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush is based on the true story of King
5. Richard Quest: “I Hate Public Speaking. But I Must Face My Fears”
Richard Quest, a CNN foreign international business correspondent, faces his fear of
