10 Chapter 10: Developing Business Presentations
“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
—Mark Twain
“Being in the right does not depend on having a loud voice.”
—Chinese Proverb
Opening Case Study: The Keynote Weekend
Iolanthe Borisova-Nakashima had been staring at the same blank slide for forty minutes. It was 11:17 p.m. on Thursday, and the one-room schoolhouse that served as the home of the Tidewater Heritage Seed Library felt colder than it should have been for early March in the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin. Through the tall east-facing windows, she could see moonlight on the frost-stubbled ridge that rose behind the seed library’s back garden. Forty-two hours. That was how long she had before she was supposed to walk onto the stage at the Upper Midwest Regional Food Sovereignty Conference in Madison and deliver a forty-five-minute keynote address to six hundred people.
She was not a keynote speaker. She was the program coordinator. She cataloged seeds, wrote grant reports, and taught the occasional Saturday morning workshop to volunteers who wanted to learn how to save tomato seeds. The keynote was supposed to be given by Dr. Meshach Wolfgramm-Opoku, the seventy-eight-year-old founder of the seed library, a man who had been giving public talks about seed sovereignty for forty years, a man whose slow, deliberate cadence could quiet a rowdy conference hall in ten seconds flat. Dr. Wolfgramm-Opoku was currently recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery in a hospital room in La Crosse.
Iolanthe had gotten the call at 6:42 p.m. Temperance Kirkbride-Awolowo, the board chair, hadn’t wasted any words. “Meshach is fine. He’ll be out of the hospital Saturday, but the surgeon says no travel, no speaking, no stress. The conference organizers already paid for the hotel block and the printed program. They need a keynote. I’ve watched you give workshop talks, Iolanthe. You can do this. I need you to do this.”
Iolanthe had said yes because she was twenty-nine years old, and because Temperance was the kind of person you said yes to, and because somewhere in the back of her head she’d always assumed that someday, probably twenty years from now, she would stand on a stage like this. Just not in forty-two hours.
She’d driven back to the schoolhouse at 10 p.m. after her second cup of coffee at the Viroqua Food Co-op. She’d pulled open the file cabinet beside the front desk and retrieved the folder labeled MESHACH TALKS 2018–2024. She had started reading through his old notes looking for something she could use, something she could adapt, because that seemed reasonable—because the audience would expect Meshach’s material, and she could at least deliver his material honestly. Now, at 11:17 p.m., she was staring at a blank slide and feeling the shape of a much bigger problem.
The problem had three parts, and they were sitting in front of her in three separate stacks on the long oak table where she usually packed seed orders.
The first stack was Meshach’s notes themselves. They were beautiful. They were also, she now realized, impossible to separate from the person who had written them. The stories he told about the Lemon Drop tomato and the Cherokee Trail of Tears bean and the hand-me-down wheat from his grandmother’s farm in Cape Coast were his stories. She could read them out loud, but she couldn’t own them, and six hundred people in Madison would feel the difference in the first three minutes.
The second stack was a printout of the conference program. Iolanthe had read it four times now. The audience was going to be more diverse than any audience she’d ever spoken to. Commercial corn and soybean farmers from the flatter counties to the west. Organic vegetable growers from the Driftless itself. Indigenous seed keepers from the Ho-Chunk Nation and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. University extension specialists from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Policymakers from four state departments of agriculture. Graduate students. Food co-op board members. Climate scientists. The conference theme was “Seed Sovereignty in a Changing Climate,” which sounded like a theme you could build a speech around until you tried to, at which point it dissolved into six hundred different speeches depending on who was in the front row.
The third stack was a small pile of handwritten notes in black ink on lined index cards, bound by a rubber band. Meshach had given her these cards two years ago when she’d been hired, and she had almost forgotten about them. They weren’t his talk notes. They were notes about Aisosa Pinecrest-Yellowhair, a Ho-Chunk seed keeper who had worked with Meshach on the seed library’s founding in 1997 and who had asked, several years ago, that certain stories about the Ho-Chunk sacred corn varieties not be shared in public venues anymore. The card at the top of the stack, in Meshach’s blocky capitals, read: ASK AISOSA FIRST. ALWAYS.
Iolanthe had been moving through Meshach’s 2023 talk notes at 10:50 p.m. when she’d realized that two of the stories he used in his standard keynote were about Aisosa and her mother’s flour corn. She’d stopped reading. She put down her pen. Then she sat very still for seven minutes, staring at the window, because she understood that if she walked onto a stage in Madison on Sunday morning and told those stories—stories that didn’t belong to her, stories that Aisosa had specifically asked be taken out of the public talks—she would be doing something that couldn’t be undone.
She couldn’t give Meshach’s speech. That was the first thing. The second thing was that she didn’t yet know what speech she could give. She didn’t know her topic. She didn’t know her purpose. She didn’t know what subset of seed library knowledge she could ethically share, and she didn’t know which subset would mean anything to a room that contained both a soybean farmer from Dodge County and a Ho-Chunk elder from Black River Falls and an extension agent from Ames.
At 11:23 p.m. Iolanthe picked up her phone and composed a text to Aisosa. She wrote it three times before she sent it, because she didn’t want it to sound like a panic message even though it was a panic message. She settled on this:
Aunt Aisosa—it’s Iolanthe from the seed library. Meshach is in the hospital. I’ve been asked to give his keynote at the food sovereignty conference Sunday morning. I will not use the Ho-Chunk stories. I don’t yet know what I will use. I’m not sleeping much tonight. If you have five minutes tomorrow I would be grateful. I’ll come to you.
She hit send and watched the screen for a while. Then she got up, walked over to the window, and pressed her forehead against the cold glass. The moon was high enough now that she could see her own reflection, faint and doubled, against the frost-stubbled ridge.
Her phone buzzed at 6:04 a.m. She was still at the schoolhouse table. She’d fallen asleep with her head on Meshach’s 2018 talk notes. She fumbled for the phone. It was a one-line reply from Aisosa.
Come to the tribal garden at 7. Bring coffee. Bring questions, not answers.
Iolanthe checked the clock. She had fifty-six minutes to get from Viroqua to Black River Falls, which was a drive that normally took seventy-five minutes. She closed the laptop. She picked up the stack of handwritten index cards with the rubber band. She put them in her coat pocket, turned off the schoolhouse light, and walked out to her truck.
Forty hours remained.
What Iolanthe has to figure out by Sunday morning. She has to decide what her general and specific purpose are. She has to choose a topic she can ethically own and that a wildly mixed audience can actually use. She has to do real research in less than two days without plagiarizing Meshach, Aisosa, or anyone else. She has to manage her own fear of standing on that stage without pretending she isn’t afraid. And she has to speak in a way that bridges co-languages, cultural differences, and the ever-present risk of ethnocentrism. In short, every decision in this chapter is a decision she now has forty hours to make.
Before You Read
Before you start working through this chapter, take a minute to find out what you already know and what you expect. You’re going to answer the same questions again at the end of the chapter, so don’t spend energy trying to be “right”—just be honest about where you are right now.
Self-Check Diagnostic
- On a scale of 1–5, how confident are you that you could prepare a ten-minute speech on a topic you care about and deliver it to a mixed audience next week? (1 = terrified; 5 = totally comfortable.)
- Write one sentence explaining the difference between a general purpose and a specific purpose for a speech.
- Name as many of the five general purposes of public speaking as you can from memory. (There are five.)
- A classmate asks you to evaluate the credibility of a website they found while researching a speech. What three questions would you tell them to ask?
- Define, in your own words, what it means to plagiarize a source in a public presentation. Is it only about direct quotations?
- When you get nervous before speaking in public, what does your body do? Do you think of that response as helpful, unhelpful, or neutral?
- What’s the difference between jargon and slang? Can you give one example of each from your own life?
- Have you ever been in a room where you were the only person whose cultural background differed from everyone else’s? What did you notice about how you communicated? If you haven’t, imagine it and describe how you’d prepare.
- A friend says, “I don’t have time to prepare. I’ll just wing it.” What do you think, and why?
- Finish this sentence: The scariest thing about giving a speech is ____________. The most exciting thing about giving a speech is ____________.
Keep your answers. You’ll revisit them at the end of the chapter.
Getting Started
Introductory Exercises
1. Complete the following self-inventory by brainstorming as many items as you can for each category. Think about anything you know, find interesting, or are involved in that relates to the topics below. Have you traveled to a different city, state, or country? Do you have any projects in other classes you find interesting? List them in the questions below.
- What do you read?
- What do you play or do for fun?
- What do you watch (visual media)?
- Where do you live or have you lived?
- What places have you visited (travel)?
- Whom do you know?
- What’s important to you?
- If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
Choose your three favorite categories from the list above and circle them. Then ask a friend what they’d be most interested in hearing about. Ask more than one friend and keep score of which item attracts the most attention. Make sure you keep track of who likes which category.
2. What do you know about the world?
-
What is the most populous country on the planet?
- United States
- India
- China
- Brazil
-
The United States is home to more foreign-born residents than any other country. Which country has the next-highest number of foreign-born residents?[1]
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- India
- Argentina
-
As of 2024, what percentage of the world’s population lived in an urban setting?
- 15 percent
- 30 percent
- 58 percent
- 68 percent
-
The world’s population was about 8.1 billion in early 2024. In what year is this figure expected to reach 10 billion?
- 2090
- 2027
- 2058
- 2109
Answers: 1. b, 2. b, 3. c, 4. c.
Mark Twain makes a valid point that presentations require preparation. If you have the luxury of time to prepare, take full advantage of it. Speeches don’t always happen when or how we envision them. Preparation becomes especially critical when the element of the unknown is present, forcing us to improvise. One mistake or misquote can and will be quickly rebroadcast, creating lasting damage. Take full advantage of the time to prepare for what you can anticipate, but also consider the element of surprise. In this chapter, we discuss the planning and preparation necessary for an effective presentation. You’ll be judged on how well you present yourself, so take the time to prepare when possible.
Now that you’re concerned with getting started and preparing a speech for work or class, let’s consider the first step. You may be part of a team developing a sales presentation, preparing to meet with a specific client in a one-on-one meeting, or even setting up a teleconference. Your first response may be that a meeting isn’t a speech, but your part of the conversation has a lot in common with a formal presentation. You need to prepare, organize your message, and consider the audience’s expectations, their familiarity with the topic, and even individual word choices that may improve your effectiveness. Regardless of whether your presentation is to one individual (interpersonal) or many (group), it has as its foundation the act of communication. Communication itself is a dynamic and complex process, and the degree to which you can prepare and present effectively across a range of settings will enhance your success as a business communicator.
If the teacher or your supervisor has assigned you a topic, you may be able to go straight to the section on narrowing your topic. If not, then the first part of this chapter will help you. This chapter will help you step by step in preparing for your speech or oral presentation. By the time you’ve finished this chapter, you’ll have chosen a topic for your speech, narrowed the topic, and analyzed its appropriateness for yourself as well as the audience. From this basis, you’ll have formulated a general purpose statement and specific thesis statement to further define the topic of your speech. Building on the general and specific purpose statements you formulate, you’ll create an outline for your oral presentation.
Through this chapter, you’ll become more knowledgeable about the process of creating a speech and gain confidence in your organizational abilities. Preparation and organization are two main areas that, when well developed prior to an oral presentation, significantly contribute to reducing your level of speech anxiety. If you’re well prepared, you’ll be more relaxed when it’s time to give your speech. Effective business communicators have excellent communication skills that can be learned through experience and practice. In this chapter, we’ll work together to develop your skills in preparing clear and concise messages to reach your target audience.
10.1 Before You Choose a Topic
Learning Objectives
- Describe the steps in the process of planning a speech.
- Distinguish between the five general purposes of public speaking and identify which one fits a given situation.
- Write a clear, single-sentence specific purpose statement for your own topic.
- Evaluate whether a topic is a realistic fit for your time limit, your audience, and the information you can access.
As you begin to think about choosing your topic, there are a few key factors to consider. These include the purpose of the speech, its projected time length, the appropriateness of the topic for your audience, and your knowledge of the topic or the amount of information you can access on it. Let’s examine each of these factors.
Determine the General and Specific Purpose
You need a clear understanding of your purpose, as all the other factors depend on it. Here’s a brief review of the five general purposes for speaking in public:
- Speech to inform. Increase the audience’s knowledge, teach about a topic or issue, and share your expertise.
- Speech to demonstrate. Show the audience how to use, operate, or do something.
- Speech to persuade. Influence the audience by presenting arguments intended to change attitudes, beliefs, or values.
- Speech to entertain. Amuse the audience by engaging them in a relatively light-hearted speech that may have a serious point or goal.
- Ceremonial speech. Perform a ritual function, such as giving a toast at a wedding reception or a eulogy at a funeral.
You should be able to choose one of these options. If you find that your speech may fall into more than one category, you may need a better understanding of the assignment or goal. Starting with a clear understanding of why you’re doing what you’re supposed to do will go a long way in helping you organize, focus, prepare, and deliver your oral presentation.
Once you’ve determined your general purpose—or had it chosen for you, if this is an assigned speech—you’ll still need to write your specific purpose. What specifically are you going to inform, persuade, demonstrate, or entertain your audience with? What type of ceremony is your speech intended for? A clear goal makes it much easier to develop an effective speech. Try to write in just one sentence exactly what you’re going to do.
| Examples |
|---|
| To inform the audience about my favorite car, the Ford Mustang |
| To persuade the audience that global warming is a threat to the environment |
Notice that each example includes two pieces of information. The first is the general purpose (to inform or to persuade) and the second is the specific subject you intend to talk about.
Case Connection — Iolanthe’s Five-Minute Problem. On the drive from Viroqua to Black River Falls, Iolanthe tried to name her own general purpose. She couldn’t. “Seed sovereignty in a changing climate” wasn’t a general purpose—it was a topic area, and a huge one at that. Was she going to inform the audience about what a seed library does? Persuade them to fund one in their own community? Demonstrate seed-saving technique on stage? Something ceremonial, honoring Meshach’s forty years? She realized she’d been trying to write a speech without knowing what kind of speech it was. Aisosa’s first question, thirty minutes later in the tribal garden, was: “What do you want the people in that room to do differently on Monday morning?” That was a general-purpose question dressed up in different words.
Can I Cover the Topic in Time?
Your next key consideration is the amount of time you plan to spend accomplishing your purpose. Consider the depth, scope, and amount of information available on the topic you have in mind. In business situations, speeches or presentations vary significantly in length. Still, most often the speaker needs to get the message across as quickly as possible—for example, in less than five minutes. If you’re giving a speech in class, it will typically be five to seven minutes; at most, it may be up to ten minutes. In a five- to seven-minute speech, covering the entire history of artificial intelligence would be impossible. However, you could focus on a narrower, more engaging topic, such as a comparison of the three most popular generative AI models and their different applications for students and professionals. This would make the topic more relevant and manageable.
You may have been assigned a persuasive speech topic linking global warming to business, but have you been given enough time to present a thorough speech on why human growth and consumption are clearly linked to global warming? Are you supposed to discuss “green” strategies of energy conservation in business, for example? The topic of global warming is quite complex and, by definition, involves a great deal of information, debate over interpretations of data, and analysis on the diverse global impacts. Rather than try to explore the chemistry, the corporate debates, or the current government activities that may be involved, you can consider how visual aids can enhance the speech’s impact on the audience. You might decide to focus on three clear examples of global warming to capture your audience’s attention and move them closer to your stated position: “green” and energy-saving strategies are good for business.
For a speech on climate change, you could start with a dramatic visual, like a time-lapse video of a retreating glacier. Then you might display a chart showing the recent increase in extreme weather events and a map of coastal cities currently at risk of flooding. This would make the topic more current and directly relevant to your audience.
Pro Tip — The Fifteen-Word Rule. When you’re trying to decide whether a topic will fit your time slot, try to write what you want the audience to leave with in fifteen words or fewer. If you can’t do it in fifteen words, your topic is still too big. “I want them to leave knowing that saving one regional vegetable variety is a climate action they can take at home this spring.” Fourteen words. That version of the topic fits a seven-minute speech. “I want them to understand everything about seed sovereignty and climate change and food systems and Indigenous rights” doesn’t fit anything shorter than a graduate seminar.
Will My Topic Be Interesting to My Audience?
Remember that communication is a two-way process; even if you’re the only one speaking, the audience is an essential part of your speech. Put yourself in their place and imagine how to make your topic relevant to them. What information will they actually use once your speech is over?
For example, suppose you’re speaking to a group of auto mechanics who specialize in repairing and maintaining classic cars. In that case, it might make sense to inform them about the body features of the Mustang, but they may already be quite knowledgeable about these features. If you represent a new rust treatment product used in the restoration process, they may be more interested in how it works than any specific model of car. However, if your audience belongs to a general group of students or would-be car buyers, it would be more useful to inform them about how to buy a classic car and what to look for. General issues of rust may be more relevant and can still be clearly linked to your new rust treatment product.
For a persuasive speech, in addition to considering the audience’s interests, you’ll also want to gauge their attitudes and beliefs. Suppose you’re speaking about global warming to a group of scientists. In that case, you can probably assume they’re familiar with the basic facts of melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and ozone depletion. In that case, you might want to focus on something more specific, such as strategies for reducing greenhouse gases that businesses and industry can implement. Your goal might be to persuade this audience to advocate for such strategies and support or even endorse the gradual implementation of cost- and energy-saving methods that may not solve all the problems at once but serve as an essential first step.
In contrast, for a general audience, you may anticipate skepticism that global warming is even occurring, or that it poses any threat to the environment. Some audience members may question the cost savings, while others may assert that the steps aren’t nearly enough to make a difference. The clear, visual examples described above will help get your point across. Still, if you’re also prepared to answer questions—for example, “If the earth is heating up, why has it been so cold here lately?” or “Isn’t this just part of a warming and cooling cycle that’s been happening for millions of years?”—you may make your speech ultimately more effective. By asking your listeners to consider what other signs they can observe that global warming is occurring, you might highlight a way for them to apply your speech beyond the classroom setting. By taking small steps as you introduce your assertions, rather than advocating a complete overhaul of the system or even revolution, you’ll more effectively engage a larger percentage of your audience.
Common Mistake — Speaking to the Imaginary Audience in Your Head. The audience in your head is usually much smarter, more prepared, and more interested in your topic than the audience in the actual room. That’s why so many speakers “aim high” and leave half the room behind in the first two minutes. Before you finalize your topic, picture three specific people you know who will be in the audience and write down what each one probably already knows about your subject. If you can’t picture three, you don’t know your audience well enough yet.
How Much Information about My Topic Is Readily Available?
For a short speech, especially if it’s a speech to entertain, you may be able to rely completely on your knowledge and ideas. But in most cases, you’ll need to gather information so you can make your speech interesting by telling the audience things they don’t already know. Try to choose a topic that can be researched in your college or university libraries. You may need to do some initial checking of sources to be sure the material is available.
Putting It All Together
When you’ve determined your general purpose, the amount of material appropriate to the time allowed for your speech, and the appropriateness for your audience, you should be well on your way to identifying the topic for your speech. As a double-check, you should be able to state your specific purpose in one sentence. For example, the specific purpose of our “Classic Cars” speech could be stated as, “By the end of my speech, I want my audience to be more informed about the three ways in which they can determine whether a classic car is a rust bucket or diamond in the rough, and be aware of one product solution.”
Key Takeaways
Exercises
- Complete the following sentence for your speech: By the end of my speech, I want the audience to be more informed (persuaded, have a better understanding of, entertained by) about ___________________.
- If you can’t finish the sentence, go back and review the steps in this section. Make sure you’ve given them sufficient time and attention. An effective speech requires planning and preparation, and that takes time. Know your general and specific purpose, and make sure you can write it in one sentence. If you don’t know your purpose, the audience won’t either.
- Make a list of topics that interest you and meet the objectives of the assignment. Trade the list with a classmate and circle three topics you’d like to learn more about on their list. Repeat this exercise. What topic received the most interest and why? Discuss the results with your classmates.
- Case application. Iolanthe’s audience on Sunday morning contains at least six very different constituencies (commercial row-crop farmers, organic growers, Indigenous seed keepers, extension specialists, policymakers, and graduate students). Pick any two of those groups and write one sentence describing what that group probably most wants to get out of a keynote on “seed sovereignty in a changing climate.” Then write a second sentence describing what that group probably doesn’t want to sit through.
10.2 Choosing a Topic
Learning Objectives
- Identify the general purpose and specific purpose of a speech.
- Use a self-inventory to generate candidate topics drawn from your own experience and expertise.
- Evaluate a candidate topic using the Appeal, Appropriateness, and Ability framework.
- Write a thesis statement that satisfies Beebe and Beebe’s five guiding principles.
Now that you have a clear idea of your general and specific purpose, the allotted time, your audience’s expectations, and the amount of information available, you’re ready to commit to a topic. We have several strategies you can use to help select and narrow the topic appropriately.
Know Yourself and Your Audience
The first strategy is to identify an area of knowledge or an issue that deeply interests you. If you haven’t already completed the first of the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” for this chapter, work with it, identifying as many activities, areas of interest, places you’ve traveled to, and things you find interesting as possible. Once you’ve completed the exercise, identify three broad subject areas where you have some knowledge or experience and consider at least one link to business and industry for each area. Talking about what you know will make you a more credible speaker, but it must clearly connect with your employer’s goals for your presentation. If, for example, you like doing a scrapbook, what kind of glue do you prefer and why? That may make for a natural speech topic that calls on your previous experience while requiring you to learn more about the glue and its properties. You may need to compare and contrast several types of glues as part of your preparation. Your in-depth awareness of scrapbooking and the importance of glue will make you a more credible speaker.
In the first of the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” for this chapter, you were asked to choose three questions from the list and then survey people you know to find out which of the three they prefer to hear about. Make sure you keep score by writing down factors like age, gender, and any other elements you think your audience may have in common. This exercise reinforces the idea of being audience-centered, or tailoring your message to your specific audience. The third of the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” for this chapter should highlight that our perception of the world isn’t always accurate, and there’s no substitute for thorough, objective research when preparing a speech. The more you know about yourself and your audience, the better you can prepare to meet their needs and accomplish your goals as a speaker.
You’ve now used the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” to help identify some broad topic areas that might work for you. If you find the topic interesting, your enthusiasm will show, and your audience will become interested, too. Next, you’ll want to decide which of these areas would work best for your speech and how to narrow it down.
Saving Time
Here are some strategies you can use to save yourself time in selecting a speech topic.
First, consider the information you already have close at hand. Do you already have a project you’re working on, perhaps in another course? What are you currently studying in your other classes? What topics do you want to know more about? Which issues or aspects initially drew you to this topic or area? Chances are that whatever piqued your interest the first time will also get your audience interested.
Next, conduct a search (online, in the library, or interview people you know) in your subject area to get an overview of the subject. Explore topics, issues, places, or people that fascinate you.
Appeal, Appropriateness, and Ability
These are the three main factors to consider when choosing a topic. All three aspects are related to one another, but by systematically focusing on each one, you’ll help address the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen subject.
Appeal involves the power to arouse a sympathetic, stimulated response from the audience. Your audience will have expectations of you as a speaker and of your purpose for speaking. We all tend to seek novelty and find something that’s not part of everyday life interesting, attractive, or appealing. A good example is the melting ice cream used in the speech on global warming. The elements are nothing new. We’ve all seen plates, brownies, and ice cream before, but how many of us have seen a speaker use them together to symbolize the melting ice caps associated with global warming? There’s an inherent novelty present when we adapt something from its original purpose to make it appealing. You’ll need to consider an appealing way to start your speech, and you’ll look for ways throughout your speech to reaffirm that appeal to the audience. When considering a topic, also think about the visual or auditory images that come to mind, or how you might represent it to an audience in ways other than your words. This can guide you as you proceed to select your topic, considering what makes it appealing to your audience.
It also follows that the appeal applies to the speaker as well as the audience. You may find the prospect of discussing global warming not very interesting, and if you feel this way, it will come through in your speech. You need to be attracted, interested, or find your topic appealing to convey this appeal to your audience. Find something that catches your interest, and that same spark is what you’ll cultivate to develop ways to stimulate the spark of curiosity in your audience.
Appropriateness involves a topic that’s especially suitable or compatible with your audience’s interest, expectations, norms, or customs. Everyone will have expectations about roles and outcomes associated with your speech. Some may be looking for information, while others may already know something about your topic and want to learn more. You’ll need to reach both groups within the audience. As we saw earlier in the Ford Mustang example, a highly technical speech may lose the more novice members of your audience.
Appropriateness matters because some topics are more effective in a classroom setting than others. Will everyone find a new rust treatment product interesting? Will everyone find a car speech interesting? Whether you’re in the classroom or a business office setting, consider your audience and the appropriateness of your topic.
Regardless of where you give a speech, you should always choose topics that won’t promote harmful or illegal actions. It’s also essential to consider whether your topic might offend members of the audience. If this is a possibility, can you find a way to present the topic that will minimize offense? Similarly, if your subject is controversial and you know that your audience has strong feelings about it, consider how you can convey your message without alienating or antagonizing your listeners. Finally, it’s usually wise to avoid topics that the audience is already familiar with.
Ability involves the natural aptitude or acquired proficiency to perform. If you have a lot of prior information on flying, gained over years of experience flying aircraft, you may have a natural aptitude and knowledge base to use to your advantage. If, however, you’ve never flown before, you may need to gather information and visit an airport to approach a proficient level of understanding to discuss the topic.
In addition to your ability to draw on your natural strengths, you’ll also want to consider your ability to research a topic where you’re located. If you want to develop a speech on a particular subject but you find information hard to come by, this will make your job even harder and could have a detrimental impact on your speech. You may find that two similar topics interest you. Still, your ability to gather information from more diverse sources, from places that are more readily available, or from your background and experience, makes one topic more attractive than the other.
Consider topics that are:
- new,
- possibly controversial,
- clear,
- supported by information you can find in outside sources,
- interesting to you.
Individual course guidelines vary, so make sure your instructor approves your topic and that your topic is appropriate for your audience. At some colleges and universities, broad topics are designated as part of the curriculum, including, for example, environment, diversity, and technology. In your class, you may be challenged to link any of those topics to business and prepare an informative or persuasive speech. Some college and university instructors may also encourage you not to choose topics that have been done repeatedly over the years, like abortion or the death penalty, unless you can connect the issue to a current event or a new perspective. Don’t avoid all controversial topics, as they often intrigue your audience and help maintain interest. Just make sure to consider the pre-existing attitudes of your audience when attempting to create an effective, engaging speech.
In a business setting, you’ll rarely be given complete freedom to choose your topic. You may even have a script and visual aids prepared in advance. In the real world, the luxury of time for preparation and topic selection is rare, but in a classroom setting, you’re often given more of an opportunity to choose. That choice shouldn’t be taken lightly and should be viewed as an opportunity. The classroom is a training ground, and your freedom to explore and experiment is designed to build skills and strengths. When you join an employer, you’ll be asked to prepare a presentation as part of the job; more often than not, there are clear guidelines on what’s acceptable, and your professionalism is expected.
Try It — The Triple-A Stress Test. Pick any topic you’ve been kicking around for a class speech. Write it at the top of a page. Under it, write three subheadings: Appeal, Appropriateness, Ability. Score your topic from 1 to 5 on each one. A topic that scores below a 3 on any of the three is a topic that will fight you every step of the way. Most of the time, you’ll find you already know the weakest leg of the stool—you just haven’t let yourself say it out loud. If your weak leg is Ability, you have a research problem. If it’s Appeal, you have an energy problem. If it’s Appropriateness, you have an audience problem. Each one has a different fix.
Use Your Self-Inventory
Choosing a topic can be difficult, but your self-inventory of things you already know should get you started. By doing a little exploring, you can often help yourself come up with several possible topics. The topic itself won’t exclusively make a “good” or “bad” speech. How you develop that topic and discuss its points and issues, however, will make a significant impact. Before moving on to the next step in this chapter, make sure you have a topic in which you’re relatively confident. If you have trouble selecting a topic, take your self-inventory to your instructor or librarian. They may be able to help guide you to a topic that works for you.
Here are some examples to get you started. Let’s say your self-inventory response from the first of the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” for this chapter to the question, “What do you play or do for fun?” is to play sports, and it also happens to be one way you’re earning your way through school on a scholarship. You could consider a topic like the history of your sport for an informative speech, or how to tell the difference between three classic types of pitches in baseball, and you can involve an audience member for a demonstrative speech. You could also consider stereotypes of athletes in college and some of the common misperceptions, and persuade the audience that athletes often handle the issues of time management well, can get good grades (provide statistics as evidence and ask a coach for examples), and are actively developing both their minds and their bodies through participation in sports. You might even take on a topic of why basketball is more interesting than football, or vice versa. You might decide instead to entertain the audience and tell stories associated with game travel, buses breaking down, or road trips gone bad. Finally, you might put together a ceremonial speech honoring an Academic All-American player, recognizing their excellence both in academics and in athletics.
If you’re not a student athlete but a college student, you may have answered that same question by indicating you’re taking classes for a degree as well as for fun. You could put together an informative speech on the steps involved in applying for financial aid, or produce a demonstrative speech on how to gather the information required and complete the application process. You might persuade the audience to apply for financial aid, even if they think they might not be eligible, and cover the options within the program. You might entertain the audience with funny stories about the challenges of registering for classes, completing financial aid, and meeting graduation requirements. (There’s always just one more class, right?) You might also draft a ceremonial speech as if you were presenting the commencement speech at your graduation.
These two scenarios should stimulate some ideas, or you might already have a clear purpose and topic in mind. It’s essential to be clear on both your purpose and your subject as you begin to put pencil to paper, or keystroke to computer, and start the process of writing your general purpose and thesis statements.
Writing Your Thesis Statement
Earlier in the chapter, you wrote a statement expressing the general and specific purpose of your speech. Now that you’ve explored further and identified a definite topic, it’s time to write a thesis statement. This thesis statement should be a short, specific sentence capturing the central idea of your speech. Steven Beebe and Susan Beebe recommend five guiding principles when considering your thesis statement.[2] The thesis statement should:
- be a declarative statement;
- be a complete sentence;
- use specific language, not vague generalities;
- be a single idea;
- reflect consideration of the audience.
For example, if you plan to inform a general audience about the Ford Mustang, a good thesis statement might be, “Ford produced five ‘generations’ of the Mustang, each with a distinctive body style that audience members can learn to recognize.” If you plan to persuade a group of investors that rising sea levels could threaten a beachfront property, a good thesis statement might be, “Sea levels are predicted to rise because of global warming, and if these predictions are correct, the beachfront property my audience is considering investing in may be threatened.”
The thesis statement is key to the success of your speech. If your audience has to work to find out what exactly you’re talking about, or what your stated purpose or goal is, they’ll be less likely to listen, be impacted, or recall your speech. By stating your point clearly in your introduction and then referring back to it during your speech, you promote the cognitive strategies of emphasis, clarity, and conciseness, and help your audience to listen while meeting the expectations of the rhetorical context.
Case Connection — The Thesis Iolanthe Wrote at the Picnic Table. By 9:40 a.m. Friday, Iolanthe was sitting at a weathered picnic table in the Ho-Chunk tribal garden with a thermos of coffee, a legal pad, and Aisosa. Aisosa had been weeding a row of squash for twenty minutes while Iolanthe talked. Finally Aisosa said, “Stop. Write one sentence. What is your speech about?” Iolanthe wrote: “I will explain how a regional seed library actually works, and why the people in this room—whatever seed tradition they come from—can use their local seed library as a concrete climate adaptation starting this spring.” Aisosa read it. “That’s five things,” she said. “Pick one.” Iolanthe crossed out everything except the last clause. She rewrote: “Your local seed library is a concrete, low-cost climate adaptation tool you can use this spring.” Aisosa nodded. “That’s your Monday morning.”
Key Takeaways
Exercises
- Which of the following qualify as good thesis statements? Take any that are faulty and rewrite them to remedy their weaknesses.
- Living in the desert as we do, my listeners and I can grow many beautiful and interesting plants in our gardens without using large amounts of water.
- To inform patients about how the medical insurance claims process works.
- Because recent research suggests children develop positive self-esteem through recognition for their achievements, not from indiscriminate praise, I will persuade the parents and teachers in my audience to modify their behavior toward children.
- Tourists can learn a lot from visiting the European battlefields of World War II, and unexploded land mines from past wars are a serious problem throughout the world.
- As a student attending this college on an athletic scholarship, I lead a very busy life because I’m responsible for working hard at my sport as well as being held to the same academic standards as my non-athlete peers.
- Answers: Examples a, c, and e are good thesis statements. Example b is not a complete sentence. Example d contains more than one main idea.
- From your list of possible topics, write several sample purpose or thesis statements. Share and compare your results with classmates.
- Write a general purpose, a specific purpose, and a thesis statement for a speech to inform. Now, adapt these statements for a speech to persuade.
- Case application. Reread the thesis statement Iolanthe wrote at the picnic table. Run it through Beebe and Beebe’s five criteria one at a time. Where does it pass clearly? Where does it pass but barely? If you were Iolanthe’s editor, what’s one word you’d tighten?
10.3 Finding Resources
Learning Objectives
- Understand the importance of research in developing your topic.
- Use resources to gather information effectively.
- Document your sources correctly and avoid plagiarism.
- Evaluate source credibility using Paul and Elder’s six criteria for quality reasoning.
- Move a research project through the seven-stage compiling process from sensitivity to revision.
Now that you know your general purpose, have committed to a topic, and have written your thesis statement, it’s time to gather information. If you’ve chosen the topic from your list, you probably already know a lot about it. But in most cases, you’ll still need information from sources other than yourself to establish credibility, create a more comprehensive speech, and ensure no critical aspect of your topic is left out.
Your time is valuable, and you’ll need to plan to avoid a rushed frenzy right before your due date. You’ll feel more confident if you budget your time wisely and give yourself an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve prepared, and this will help you feel more relaxed as you deliver your speech, reducing your speech anxiety.
Narrow Your Topic and Focus on Key Points
By now, you’ve developed an idea of your topic, but even with your purpose and thesis statement, you may still have a broad subject that will be a challenge to cover within the allotted time. You might want to revisit your purpose and thesis statement and ask yourself: How specific is my topic? If flying an airplane is your topic area, and you’re going to inform your audience on the experience, discuss the history and basic equipment, and cover the basic requirements necessary to go on your first flight—plus look at reference information on where your audience could go locally to take flying lessons—you might find that five to seven minutes isn’t enough time. Rather than stating that you need more time or that you’ll rush through it, consider your audience and what they might want to learn. How can you narrow your topic to consider their needs better? As you edit your topic, considering what’s essential information and what can be cut, you’ll naturally focus on the key points and reduce the pressure on yourself to cover too much information in a short amount of time.
If you haven’t presented many speeches, five to seven minutes may seem like an eternity, but when you’re in front of the audience, the time will pass quickly. Consider how you feel about the areas of your speech, and you’ll soon see how it could easily turn into an hour-long presentation. You need to work within the time limits and show your audience respect as you stay within them, recognizing that they, too, will be presenting speeches in the same time frame. For yourself and your audience, narrow your topic to just the key points. Perhaps you’ll begin with a description and a visual image of your first flight, followed by a list of the basic equipment and training needed. Finally, a reference to local flying schools may help you define your speech. While the history of flying may be fascinating and may serve as a topic in itself for another speech, it would add too much information to this particular brief speech.
As you begin this process, keep an open mind for the reference materials available. Access to information on the Internet is amazing, but not all information is equally valuable. Try not to go with the first three examples, websites, or sources you run across; instead, skim rather than read in-depth the information that relates to your topic and what you find of interest. Look for abstracts or summaries of information before you commit time to reading an article all the way through. Look for indexes to identify key terms you might want to cover before eliminating them as you narrow your topic. Take notes as you search or bookmark pages with your web browser to go back to a site or source that at first you passed over but now think may make a relevant contribution to your speech. Consider the source and its credibility. While a high school Web page assignment may prove interesting, the link to the research in the field, the author of a study, or a university source may provide much more credible information. Once you’ve identified sources you consider valuable, you’ll assemble the information and key points needed to make your speech much better.
Plan Your Search for Information
When preparing a speech, gather information from books, magazines, newspapers, electronic sources, and interviews from experts in your field. With information from a variety of sources, you’ll have many possibilities when it comes to developing your speech. If you keep in mind the key information you need to support your thesis, you’ll save yourself time, as you can choose and edit information as you go along. Also, consider your other responsibilities in other classes or with work and family. You’ll have to schedule time for your investigation and make it a priority, but it will necessarily compete with other priorities. Perhaps scheduling for yourself time in the library, a visit to the local flight school to interview a flight instructor, and some Internet search time in the evenings may help you create a to-do list that you can use to structure your research. Remember that this investigation will be more fun if your topic genuinely interests you.
Before you go to the library, look over your information sources. Do you read a magazine that relates to the topic? Did you read a recent news article that might be relevant? Is there a book, CD-ROM, or music that has information you can use? Think of what you want your audience to know, and how you could show it to them. Perhaps cover art from a CD, or a line from a poem, may make an important contribution to your speech. You might even know someone who has experience in the area you want to research.
As you begin to investigate your topic, make sure you consider multiple perspectives. Let’s say you’re going to make an informative speech at a town council meeting about the recent history of commuter rail service in your town. At first, you may have looked at two sides: rail versus private cars. Automobile dealers, oil companies, and individual drivers wanted the flexibility of travel by car, while rail advocates argued that commuter trains would lower costs and energy consumption. If you take another look, you see that several other perspectives also have a bearing on this issue. Many workers commuted by bus prior to the railroad, so the bus companies wouldn’t want the competition. Property owners objected to the noise of trains and the issue of eminent domain (i.e., taking of private property by the government). To serve several towns that are separated by open space, the rail lines cut through wildlife habitat and migration corridors. We now have five perspectives on the central issue, which makes the topic all the more interesting.
Make sure, as you start your investigation for information, that you constantly question the credibility of the information. Sources may have no review by peers or an editor, and the information may be misleading, biased, or even false. Be a wise information consumer.
Ethics, Content Selection, and Avoiding Plagiarism
An aspect of sifting and sorting information involves how you’ll ethically present your material. You may be tempted to omit information that may be perceived as negative or may not be well received. For example, you may be tempted to omit mention of several train accidents that have occurred, or of the fact that train fares have risen as service has been cut back. If your purpose is to inform, you owe it to your audience to give an honest presentation of the available facts. By omitting information, you’re not presenting an accurate picture and may mislead your audience. Even if your purpose is to persuade, omitting the opposing points will present a one-sided presentation. The audience will naturally consider what you’re not telling them as well as what you’re presenting, and will raise questions. Instead, consider your responsibility as a speaker to show all the information you understand to be complete, and do it honestly and ethically.
As another example, suppose you work for a swimming pool construction company and are speaking to inform a neighborhood group about pool safety. You have photos of pools you’ve worked on, but they aren’t very exciting. There are many more glamorous swimming pool photos on the internet. Who can really tell if the pool in the picture is yours? Furthermore, the “Terms of Use” on the site state that photos may be downloaded for personal use. Wouldn’t this speech to inform be considered personal use? In fact, it probably wouldn’t, even if your informative speech isn’t a direct sales pitch. And even if you don’t actually tell your audience, “My company built this pool,” it would be reasonable for them to assume you did unless you specifically tell them otherwise.
As a student, you’re no doubt already aware that failing to cite sources or including a sentence or paragraph you copied from a blog on the Internet for an English essay is called plagiarism and is grounds for an F on your paper. At many schools, plagiarism can even be grounds for expulsion. Similarly, in your professional life, being truthful with your audience and giving credit where credit is due benefits you for several reasons. First, misrepresenting your employer’s work could be illegal under statutes related to fraud; it could put not only your job but also your employer’s contractor license in jeopardy. Second, someone in your audience could recognize one of the photos (after all, they can browse the Internet as easily as you can) and embarrass you by pointing it out during your presentation. Third, by using photos that display your company’s actual work, you’ll feel more confident, which can help reduce your speech anxiety. You have a responsibility to your audience, and engaging in plagiarism fails in that responsibility.
Ethical Consideration — Whose Story Is It to Tell? Plagiarism in an academic paper is usually a question of words: did you put someone else’s sentences under your own name? In a live speech, plagiarism can be a question of stories. A story you heard from your grandmother is hers, not yours. A story an elder shared with you in a private conversation is theirs, not yours. A technique a coworker taught you on a shop floor belongs, in some sense, to that shop floor. You can reference these sources on stage, but the ethical move is to ask first and name the source clearly. When in doubt, the question isn’t “Can I get away with using this?” It’s “Would the person who gave me this be proud of how I’m using it?” If you can’t answer yes without hesitating, you have your answer.
Staying Organized
Before you start browsing on your computer, going to the library, or making the trip for an interview, make sure you’ve designated a space where you can keep all your materials in one place. Decide on a name for the project and use it to set up a subdirectory on your computer as well as a physical receptacle, such as a cardboard box or a manila folder.
As you gather information online, open a new document in whatever writing program you use and save it as “Sources.” Every time you find information that may prove useful, copy the Web address or reference/citation information and paste it into your document. If you’re gathering information from books or periodicals, use one sheet of paper as your “Sources” document. This will save you a lot of time later when you’re polishing your speech.
Plan to use your time effectively. What information do you hope to find in the library? Make a list. Try to combine tasks and get your investigation completed efficiently. Go to the library once with a list, rather than three times without one. Ask the research librarian for assistance in organizing and locating information.
As you search through articles, books, websites, and images for your presentation, consider how each element relates specifically to the key points in your speech. Don’t just look for the first citation or reference that fits your list. Rushing through the research process can result in leaving out key areas of support or illustration in your speech, which may not be satisfactory. Instead, enjoy the fun of searching for material for your speech—but be aware that it’s easy for your list under each key point to grow and grow with “must include” information. As we discussed earlier, narrowing your topic is a key strategy in crafting a good speech. Try not to “commit” to details until you’ve gathered more than you need, then go back and choose the most relevant and most interesting facts, quotations, and visual aids.
You might think of this as the “accordion phase” of preparing your speech, as the amount of material first gets bigger and then smaller. You’ll feel a sense of loss as you edit and come to realize that your time frame doesn’t allow for all the great information you found, but remember that nobody else will know what didn’t go into your speech; they’ll just appreciate the good material you did choose. As you sift through information, look for the promising, effective elements to include and omit the rest. In your English class, you often need to edit and revise a paper to produce a rough draft before your final draft. This process parallels the production of a rough draft. By taking notes with your key point in mind, you’ll begin to see your speech come together.
Searching for Information on the Internet
Finding information on the Internet or in electronic databases can decrease your search time. However, you’ll still need to budget time to accomplish the tasks associated with reviewing, selecting, interpreting, and incorporating information for your particular use.
The World Wide Web is a fantastic source of information, but for that very reason, getting the information you actually need isn’t easy. Let’s look at two issues that can make searching online easier: where and how to search for information.
Knowing where to go for information is as essential as knowing keywords and concepts related to your topic. Do you need general information? Do you need to quickly survey what’s available? Do you prefer searching only reviewed sites? Is your topic education-related? Depending on your answer, you may want to consider where to start your search.
Table 10.1 “Some Examples of Internet Search Sites” presents a summary of the main search engines and how they might work for you.
| Description | URL |
|---|---|
| General Web searches that can also be customized according to categories like news, maps, images, video | |
| Dictionaries and encyclopedias | |
| Very basic information on a wide range of topics | |
| To find people or businesses in white pages or yellow pages listings | |
| Specialized databases—may be free, require registration, or require a paid subscription |
At the end of this chapter, under “Additional Resources,” you’ll find a list of many websites that may be useful for public speaking research.
Evaluating Your Sources
Be aware of how much online information is incomplete, outdated, misleading, or downright false. Anyone can put up a website, and once it’s up, the owner may or may not enter updates or corrections on a regular basis. Anyone can write a blog on any subject, whether or not that person actually knows much about that subject. Anyone who wishes to contribute to a Wikipedia article can do so, although the postings are moderated by editors who have to register and submit their qualifications. In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. This freedom is restricted by laws against libel (false accusations against a person) and indecency, especially child pornography, but those laws can be challenging to enforce. Always look beyond the surface of a site to who sponsors it, where the information displayed came from, and whether the site owner has a certain agenda.
In gathering information for your speech, you’ll want to draw on reputable, reliable sources—printed ones as well as electronic ones—because they reflect on the credibility of the message and the messenger. Analyzing and assessing information is an important skill in speech preparation, and here are six main points to consider when evaluating a document, presentation, or similar source of information.[3] In general, documents that represent quality reasoning have:
- a clearly articulated purpose and goal;
- a question, problem, or issue to address;
- information, data, and evidence that is clearly relevant to the stated purpose and goals;
- inferences or interpretations that lead to conclusions based on the presented information, data, and evidence;
- a frame of reference or point of view that is clearly articulated;
- assumptions, concepts, and ideas that are clearly articulated
An additional question to ask is how credible the source is. This question can be hard to answer even with years of training and expertise. Academic researchers have been trained in the objective, impartial use of the scientific method to determine validity and reliability. But as research is increasingly dependent on funding, and funding often brings specific points of view and agendas with it, pure research can be—and has been—compromised. You can no longer assume that “studies show” something without finding out who conducted the study, how it was conducted, and who funded the effort. This may sound like a lot of investigation and present quite a challenge, but again, it’s worth the effort.
Information literacy is an essential skill set in the process of speech preparation. As you learn to spot key signs of information that won’t serve to enhance your credibility and contribute to your presentation, you can increase your effectiveness as you research and analyze your resources. For example, suppose you’re preparing an informative speech on safety in the workplace. You might come upon a site owned by a consulting company that specializes in safety analysis. The site might give many statistics, illustrating the frequency of on-the-job accidents, repetitive motion injuries, workplace violence, and so on. But the sources of these percentage figures may not be credited. As an intelligent researcher, you need to ask yourself whether the consulting company that owns the site performed its research to get these numbers. Most likely it didn’t—so why are the sources not cited? Moreover, such a site would be unlikely to mention any free workplace safety resources available from sources like the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Less biased sources of information would be the American Management Association, the U.S. Department of Labor, and other not-for-profit organizations that study workplace safety.
The internet also encompasses thousands of interactive sites where readers can ask and answer questions. Some platforms, like Quora, Reddit, and Stack Exchange, are open to almost any topic. Others, like What to Expect and WebMD, focus on specific subject areas. Chat rooms on bridal websites allow couples who are planning a wedding to share advice and compare prices for gowns, florists, caterers, and so on. Reader comment sites like Newsvine facilitate discussions about current events. Customer reviews are available for just about everything imaginable, from hotels and restaurants to personal care products, home improvement products, and sports equipment. These contributors aren’t experts, nor do they pretend to be. Some may have extreme opinions that aren’t based on reality. Then, too, it’s always possible for a vendor to “plant” favorable customer reviews on the Internet to make its product look good. Although the “terms of use,” which contributors must agree to, usually forbid the posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks, some sites do a better job than others in monitoring and deleting such material. Nevertheless, suppose your speech research involves finding out how the “average person” feels about an issue in the news, or whether a new type of home exercise device really works as advertised. In that case, these comment and customer review sites can be very useful indeed.
It may seem like hard work to assess your sources, to make sure your information is accurate and truthful, but the effort is worth it. Business and industry rely on reputation and trust, just as we individuals do, to maintain healthy relationships. Your speech is an important part of that reputation and interaction.
Compiling Your Information
When you’ve investigated and narrowed your topic, it’s time to compile your information. Compiling involves composing your speech out of materials from the documents and other sources you’ve collected. This process has seven significant steps: sensitivity, exposure, assimilation and accommodation, incubation, incorporation, production, and revision.[4]
Sensitivity
Sensitivity refers to your capacity to respond to stimulation, be excited, be responsive, or be susceptible to new information. This starts with your self-inventory of what you’re interested in or involved in, as you did in the first of the Note 10.1 “Introductory Exercises” for this chapter. If you’re intrigued by a topic or area of interest, your enthusiasm will carry through to your speech and make it more stimulating for your audience. You may not have considered, or even noticed, elements or ideas associated with your topic, but now that you’ve begun the process of investigation, you see them everywhere. For example, have you ever heard someone say a word or phrase that you’d never heard before, but now that you’re familiar with it, you hear it everywhere? This same principle applies to your sensitivity to ideas related to your topic. You’ll notice information and it will help you as you develop your awareness of your topic and the many directions you could take the speech. Cognitive psychologists use the term “priming” to refer to this excited state of awareness.[5]
Exposure
Exposure involves your condition of being presented with views, ideas, experiences, or made known to you through direct experience. For an informative speech on a topic like cybersecurity, you might decide to expose yourself to more information through a range of sources. Your awareness might be high after hearing news stories about recent data breaches or ransomware attacks, but your research will help you develop a deeper understanding of the subject.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Assimilation and accommodation refer to the process by which you integrate (assimilate) new ideas into your thinking patterns and adopt (accommodate) or filter out new sources of information as they relate to your goal. You may have had preconceived notions or ideas about airline security before you began your investigation, but new information has changed the way you view your topic. You might also find issues (e.g., right to privacy) that may be points of conflict with your beliefs as you review information. This stage is essential to the overall process of developing your topic and takes time. You need time to contemplate, review, and reflect on how the new information fits or fails to connect clearly to your chosen subject.
Incubation
Incubation is the process by which you cause an idea or ideas to develop in your mind. This might not happen all at once, and you might spend time thinking about the new information, directions, or ways you might develop or focus your topic. Consider the meaning of the word “incubation” as it relates to chickens and eggs. An egg may look ready to hatch as soon as the hen lays it, but it needs time and a warm environment to develop. You might have an idea but need to create an environment for it to develop. This might involve further investigation and exploration, or it may include removing yourself from active research to “digest” what you’ve already learned. If you feel “stuck” on an idea or struggle to move forward with your ideas or topic, giving it a rest may be the best course of action. You may also find that just when you least expect it, an idea, fully formed, flashes into your mind and you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I see that before?” Before the concept escapes you, write it down and make sure you can refer to it later.
Incorporation
Incorporation refers to the process by which you bring the information into a whole or complete topic. By now, you’ve investigated, chosen some information over others, and have started to see how the pieces will come together. Your perceptions of how the elements come together will form the basis for the organization of your speech. It will contribute to the logic of your message and help you produce a coherent, organized speech that your audience can follow clearly.
Production
Production involves creating your speech from the elements you’ve gathered. You may start to consider what comes first, what goes last, and how you’ll link your ideas and examples together. You may find that you need additional information and can go back to your notes to find the source quickly and easily. You may also start to communicate with friends, sharing some of the elements or even practicing the first drafts of your speech, learning where the connections are clear and where they need work.
Revision
Revision is the process by which you look over your speech again to correct or improve it. You’ll notice elements that need further investigation, development, or additional examples and visual aids as you produce your speech. This is an essential step to the overall production of your speech, much like revising an essay for an English course. The first time you said, thought, or wrote something, it may have made sense to you, but upon reflection and after trying an idea out, you need it revised to work effectively as part of your speech. You may revisit the place where you started, and start all speeches, by reconsidering the rhetorical situation and seeing if what you’ve produced is in line with the expectations of the audience. Your awareness of the content, audience, and purpose of the rhetorical situation will guide you through the revision process and contribute to the production of a more effective speech.
Real-World Application — The Seven Stages in Forty Hours. Iolanthe didn’t have the luxury of letting the seven stages of compiling unfold naturally over a semester. She had to compress them into two days. Sensitivity came in the first coffee cup: after her talk with Aisosa, she started seeing “climate adaptation” stories everywhere in her own seed catalog. Exposure took most of Friday afternoon, in a frantic but focused round of reading. Assimilation and accommodation happened at the kitchen table Friday evening, as she threw out three entire sections of her first draft because they didn’t fit the thesis. Incubation came unexpectedly: she fell asleep on her couch at 8 p.m. Friday for ninety minutes, woke up, and immediately wrote her strongest transition. Incorporation, production, and revision ran together through Saturday. You may not be on a forty-hour deadline, but the seven stages will all happen to you on any real project—the only question is whether you notice them.
Reflection Write. Think about the last time you had to produce something under a real deadline—a paper, a job application, a wedding toast, a cover letter for a position you really wanted. Write a paragraph naming which of the seven stages you clearly remember experiencing, and which (if any) you think you skipped. What did the skipped stage cost you? If you could go back, what would you have done with an extra six hours?
Key Takeaways
Exercises
- Find at least one example of an Internet site sponsored by each of the following:
- Local, state, or federal government in the United States or another country
- A for-profit corporation that sells a product or service to the general public
- Not-for-profit organization
- Private or public college, university, or other school
- Describe the type of information available on each of your chosen sites. How do they differ from one another? What do they have in common? Discuss your findings with your classmates.
- Find a website you find particularly useful in terms of information. Write a brief review and then share with classmates.
- Find a website you find particularly poor in terms of your ability to access information. Write a brief review and then share with classmates.
- When creating a speech, is it appropriate to omit certain information? Explain and discuss your thoughts with a classmate.
- How can a persuasive speech be ethical? Explain your opinion and give some examples. Compare and share in class.
- Case application. Iolanthe’s single biggest ethical landmine is using a story that isn’t hers. Draft a three-sentence “attribution rule” she could apply, in real time on stage, whenever she wants to reference something she learned from someone else. Your rule should work even when the original source isn’t in the room.
10.4 Myths and Realities of Public Speaking
Learning Objectives
- Describe common myths and realities of public speaking.
- Explain how the body’s stress response can be reframed as a useful resource rather than a flaw to be eliminated.
- Identify at least two organizational habits that reduce speech anxiety in advance of presentation day.
Now that you’ve identified your purpose, chosen your topic and thesis statement, and gathered and organized your material, you’re almost ready to put your speech into its final form. At this juncture, let’s examine some common public speaking myths and outline the guidelines you’ll need to consider as you prepare to face your audience. There are many myths associated with public speaking. In many ways, these guidelines dispel common perceptions of public speaking and may lead you to be more open with yourself and your audience as you prepare and present your speech.
Speaking in Public Is Not Like Killing Lions
From an evolutionary biology perspective, our bodies have developed to respond to stress in advantageous ways. When we needed to run from a bear, hunt a lion, or avoid a snake, our bodies predictably got us prepared with a surge of adrenaline.[6] Hunters who didn’t respond well to stress or failed at hunting were less likely to live long enough to reach maturity and reproduce. So we have the successful hunter to thank for our genes, but people in developed countries today don’t need hunting skills to feed their families.
While food is still an issue in many parts of the world, our need to respond to threats and stress has shifted from our evolutionary roots to concern over our job, our relationships, and how we negotiate a modern economy. Communication is a valuable resource, and we can apply the principles and lessons to ourselves. We can create the perception that the speech is like defeating the lion and really get ourselves worked up. Or we can choose to see it as a natural extension of communication with others.
Speaking in public itself isn’t inherently stressful, but our response to the stimulus can contribute to or reduce our level of stress. We’ll all have a stress response to a new, unknown, or unfamiliar stimulus. Nevertheless, the butterflies in our stomachs are a response we can choose to control by becoming more familiar with the expectations, preparation, and performance associated with speaking in public.
You Don’t Have to Be Perfect
Letting go of perfection can be the hardest guideline to apply to ourselves. It’s also in our nature to compare ourselves to others. You might forgive a classmate for the occasional “umm” during a speech, but then turn right around and spend a lot of mental effort chastising yourself for making the same error in your presentation. We all have distinct strengths and weaknesses. Knowing yourself and where you need to improve is an essential first step. Recognizing that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that you won’t become a world-class speaker overnight, may be easier said than done.
It may help to recognize that your listeners don’t want to see you fail; on the contrary, they want you to do well, because when you do, they’ll be able to relax and enjoy your presentation. You might be surprised to know that not everyone counts each time you say “umm.” However, if “umm,” “ahhh,” or “you know what I mean” are phrases you tend to repeat, they will distract your audience from your message. Eliminating such distracting habits can become a goal for improvement. Improvement is a process, not an end in itself; in fact, many people believe that learning to speak in public is more about the journey than the destination. Each new setting, context, and audience will present new challenges, and your ability to adapt, learned through your journey of experience, will help you successfully meet each new challenge.
Common Mistake — Treating Nervousness as a Red Flag. Many speakers read their own nervousness as evidence that something has gone wrong—that they’re not ready, not qualified, not cut out for this. That’s almost always wrong. Nervousness usually means the speech matters to you. The goal isn’t to get rid of it; the goal is to get it pointed in a useful direction. A speaker with zero nerves is either a liar or doesn’t care about the outcome. If you stop being nervous entirely, that’s your sign that you’ve stopped taking the audience seriously.
Organization Is Key to Success
Have you ever thought of a remarkable comeback to something someone said a while after they said it? Wouldn’t it have been nice to be quick and articulate and able to deliver your comeback right then and there? Speaking in public gives you a distinct advantage over “off the cuff” improvisation and stumbling for the right comeback. You get to prepare and be organized. You know you’ll be speaking to an audience to persuade them to do, think, or consider an idea or action.
What issues might they think of while you’re speaking? What comebacks or arguments might they say if it were a debate? You get to anticipate what the audience will want to know, say, or hear. You get to prepare your statements and visual aids to support your speech and create the timing, organization, and presentation of each point. Many times in life, we’re asked to take a position and feel unprepared to respond. Speaking in public gives you the distinct opportunity to prepare and organize your ideas or points to make an impact and respond effectively.
Speaking in Public Is Like Participating in a Conversation
This may sound odd at first, but consider the idea of an “enlarged conversation” described by Julia T. Wood.[7] She expresses a clear connection between everyday speech and public dialogue. Sometimes we take a speech turn, while at other times we remain silent while others take their turn. We do this all day long and think nothing of it. We’re often the focus of attention from friends and colleagues, and it hardly ever makes us nervous. When we get on a stage, however, some people perceive that the whole game has changed. It hasn’t. We still take turns, and the speaker will take a longer turn as part of an enlarged conversation. People in the audience will still communicate feedback, and the speaker will still negotiate their turn just the way they would in an everyday conversation. The difference is all about how we, as the speaker, perceive the context.
Some people feel that the level of expectations, the need for perfection, or the idealistic qualities we perceive in eloquent speakers are required, and then focus on deficiencies, fears, and the possibility of failing to measure up. By letting go of this ideal, we can approach the challenge with a more pragmatic frame of mind. The rules we play comfortably in conversation every day are the same as we shift to a larger conversation within the context of public speaking. This viewpoint can offer an alternative as you address your apprehensions and help you let go of unrealistic expectations.
Case Connection — Saturday, 4:12 p.m. Iolanthe was practicing her speech alone in the schoolhouse for the fourth time Saturday afternoon, and it kept dying in the same place—the transition from “what a seed library does” to “why it’s a climate adaptation tool.” The fourth time through, she stopped. She sat down on the old pine bench by the window. She took out her phone and called her younger brother in Minneapolis, who knew nothing about seed libraries. “Can I tell you a thing for two minutes?” she said. “Sure.” She told him. At the end she said, “Does that make sense?” He said, “Mostly. But when you said ‘ex situ versus in situ conservation,’ I totally checked out. Use the word ‘living library’ instead.” She wrote it down. The transition worked on try number five. That phone call was the conversation turn Wood was talking about. Everything after it was an enlarged version of the same conversation.
Key Takeaways
Exercises
- Have you ever done a creative visualization exercise? Try this one and see how it helps you prepare your speech. Choose a quiet place, sit in a comfortable position, and close your eyes. Picture yourself getting up to give your oral presentation. Picture what you want to happen—you’ll speak confidently, clearly, and engagingly. Your audience will listen attentively and consider the merit of your points. When you’re finished, they’ll applaud and express appreciation for the good job you’ve done.
- Write out a series of goal statements, one for each part or point of your presentation. What do you want to accomplish with each section, visual aid, or statement? Share your results with classmates.
- Consider the elements of a speech to inform and adapt them for a speech to persuade. In what ways would you adjust key points or issues?
- Case application. Iolanthe reframed her nervousness by calling her brother and having a conversation. Describe one “conversation move” you could make the day before a high-stakes speech that would let you reset your relationship with the material. Who would you talk to, and what one question would you ask them?
10.5 Overcoming Obstacles in Your Presentation
Learning Objectives
- Overcome common obstacles in public speaking.
- Distinguish between jargon and slang as co-languages and explain how each can unite or exclude listeners.
- Apply Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Dodd’s explicit/implicit rules framework to adapt a speech for a mixed audience.
- Recognize stereotypes, prejudice, and ethnocentrism as barriers and describe one strategy for working against each.
We’ve examined steps to help you develop an effective speech and discussed some myths and realities associated with public speaking. To prepare you for success, let’s revisit some obstacles you’ll want to avoid to make your content as accessible to your audience as possible. To build on what we covered, let’s examine three key barriers to an effective speech: language, perception, and ethnocentrism. As a speaker, you’ll need to consider each one and how you’ll create a bridge, rather than contribute to a barrier, with your audience.
Language
Language serves both to bring us together and to help us reinforce our group status. Language can include established languages (e.g., Spanish or French), dialects, or even subtle in-group language styles within a larger language context. Have you ever been part of a group that has its own words or phrases, expressions that have meanings understood only by the members of your group? It’s not unusual for families, groups of close friends, classmates, and romantic couples to develop these kinds of “private language.” When a group communicates in its way, it can create a sense of belonging, reinforcing your membership and place in that group.
People often tell each other stories, which frequently communicate a value or meaning in the culture. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “The early bird gets the worm,” with its underlying sense that the one who is prepared and ready gets the reward. In North America, this saying is common and reflects a cultural value about promptness and competition. Diverse cultures have diverse sayings that reflect differences in values, customs, and traditions.
Communication scholars describe two key areas of language that serve to bring us together. Still, because they involve specialized knowledge unique to the group or community, they can create barriers to outsiders.[8] [9] These are often called co-languages, because they exist and interact with a dominant language but are nonetheless distinct from it. Jargon is an occupation-specific language used by people in a given profession. Think of the way medical caregivers speak to one another, frequently using abbreviations for procedures and medications. Slang is the use of existing or newly invented words to take the place of standard or traditional words with the intent of adding an unconventional, nonstandard, humorous, or rebellious effect. Think of how the words “cool,” “glitzy,” or “scam” are used in casual conversation. In addition to language-based barriers, there are also several factors, many of which we’ve visited in previous chapters, that can act as barriers to effective intercultural communication.
Nature of Perception
Perception is an essential part of the communication process, and it’s important to recognize that other people’s perceptions may be different from our own in several ways.
Your cultural value system, what you value and pay attention to, will significantly affect your speech and how your listeners perceive it. North American culture emphasizes space, with an “appropriate” distance while shaking hands, for example. If a North American travels to France, Spain, or Chile, they’ll find that a much smaller sense of personal space is the norm, and may receive a kiss on the cheek as a greeting from a new acquaintance. If the North American is uncomfortable, the person from France may not attribute their discomfort to personal space, and they may have a miscommunication. Learning about other cultures can help you adapt your speech in diverse settings and make you more comfortable as you enter new situations where others’ perceptions are different from your own.
Role identities, which involve expected social behavior, are another aspect of intercultural communication that can act as a barrier to effective communication. How does your culture expect men and women to act and behave? How about children, elders, and older citizens? The word “role” implies an expectation of how one is supposed to act in certain settings and scenes; just like in a play or a movie, each person has a culturally bound set of role expectations. Who works as a doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, or a welder? As times and cultures change, so do role identities. Business management was once perceived as a profession dominated by men, but in recent decades, women have become actively involved in starting, developing, and facilitating the growth of businesses. As a speaker, your role will necessarily include preparation and practice, and to a degree, an element of leadership as you present your content and guide your audience through it. Your audience also has a role, which involves active listening and displays of interest. Your overlapping roles of interest in the topic are key to an effective speech.
Goals reflect what we value and are willing to work for and vary widely across cultures. In some cultures, an afternoon lunch is the main meal of the day, a time with the family, which is followed by a siesta or resting period. In some cultures, a longer midday meal with family is highly valued, while in others, a quick ‘working lunch’ is the norm. To someone from a culture with a generous holiday allowance, the American emphasis on limited vacation time might seem unusual. These differences in values—family time versus work time—shape how we live and can be a source of miscommunication if not understood. To a goal-oriented North American, the power weekend may be just the rejuvenation required to get “back in the game.” Time constraints will be a key consideration in your speech.
Geert Hofstede has spent decades researching the concepts of individualism versus collectivism across diverse cultures. He characterized U.S. culture as strongly individualistic: people perceive things primarily from their viewpoint, see themselves as individuals capable of making their own decisions, and feel responsible for their actions and solving their problems.[10] He also found many countries in Asia and South America to be much more collectivistic, focusing on the needs of the family, community, or larger group. In this context, cultural background can become a barrier to an effective speech if you fail to consider your audience and their needs.
In addition, other cultural dimensions influence how we relate to the world, which impact our intercultural communication. Carley Dodd discusses the degree to which cultures communicate rules explicitly or implicitly.[11] In an explicit context, the rules are discussed before we hold a meeting, negotiate a contract, or even play a game. In the United States, we want to make sure everyone knows the rules beforehand and doesn’t get frustrated if people don’t follow the rules. In the Middle East and Latin America, the rules are generally understood by everyone, and people from these cultures tend to be more accommodating to small differences and are less concerned about whether or not everyone plays by the same rules. Our ability to adapt to explicit or implicit contexts is related to our ability to tolerate uncertainty.[12]
In the United States, we often look to guiding principles rather than rules for every circumstance, and believe that with hard work, we can achieve our goals even though we don’t know the outcome. In Peru, Chile, and Argentina, however, people prefer to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty, and like to know exactly what’s expected and what the probable outcome will be.[13]
| Individualistic Cultures. People value individual freedom and personal independence. | Collectivistic Cultures. People value the family or community over the needs of the individual. |
| Explicit-Rule Cultures. People discuss rules and expectations clearly to make sure the rules are known. | Implicit-Rule Cultures. People’s customs are implied and known by everyone, but not always clearly stated. |
| Uncertainty-Accepting Cultures. People often focus on principles, rather than having rules for every circumstance, and accept that the outcome is not always known. | Uncertainty-Rejecting Cultures. People often focus on rules for every circumstance and do not like ambiguity or not knowing what the outcome will be. |
When we consider whether a culture as a whole places more emphasis on the individual or the community, we must be careful to recognize that individual members of the culture may hold beliefs or customs that don’t follow a cultural norm. Stereotypes, defined as generalizations about a group of people that oversimplify their culture, can be one significant barrier to effective intercultural communication.[14] Gordon Allport, a pioneer in the field of communication research, examined how and when we formulate or use stereotypes to characterize distinct groups or communities.[15] He found that we tend to stereotype people and cultures with which we have little contact.
In addition, your first-hand experience will provide you with an increased understanding of prejudice. Prejudice involves a negative preconceived judgment or opinion that guides conduct or social behavior. Within the United States, can you make a list of people or groups that may be treated with prejudice by the majority group? Your list may include specific ethnic, racial, or cultural groups that are stereotyped in the media. Still, it could also include socioeconomic groups or even different regions of the United States. For example, Native Americans were long treated with prejudice in early Western films. Can you imagine, in other countries, they may also treat groups with prejudice? In many parts of South America, indigenous people are treated poorly, and their rights as citizens are sometimes not respected. Has the treatment of indigenous peoples changed in North America? It has also changed, and continues to change, in North and South America.
People who treat others with prejudice often make judgments about the group or communities. As Allport illustrated for us, we frequently assume characteristics about groups with which we have little contact. By extension, we can sometimes assume similarity—that people are all basically similar—in effect denying cultural, racial, or ethnic differences. We sometimes describe the United States as a “melting pot,” where individual and cultural differences blend to become a homogeneous culture. This “melting pot” often denies cultural differences. The metaphor of a “salad bowl,” where communities and cultures retain their distinctive characteristics or “flavor,” serves as a more equitable model. In this “salad bowl,” we value the differences and what they contribute to the whole.
We can also run the risk of assuming familiarity with cultures when we attribute characteristics of one group to everyone who has connections to the larger culture. For example, people may believe that we’re familiar with all indigenous peoples if we know one tribe in our community, forgetting the distinct differences that exist between tribes and even between individual indigenous people who live either in urban areas or on reservations.
Try It — The Co-Language Scan. Pick any three pages of your draft speech. Highlight every word you’d consider jargon (specialized professional or technical language) in one color and every word you’d consider slang in another. Now read the speech to yourself one more time. How many highlighted words do your least-informed audience members probably not know? If the count is above roughly five per page, you have a translation job to do. You don’t have to eliminate co-languages entirely, but every highlighted word is a decision: define it, substitute it, or trust your audience to carry it.
Ethnocentrism
Finally, your experience may help you not to view the world and its diversity of cultures in an ethnocentric way. Ethnocentrism means you go beyond pride in your culture, heritage, or background and hold the “conviction that (you) know more and are better than those of different cultures.”[16] This belief in the superiority of one’s own group can guide individual and group behavior. If you visit a new country where people do things differently, you would be considered ethnocentric if you viewed their way as wrong because it’s not the same way you were taught. Groups are considered ethnocentric if they prejudge individuals or other groups of people based on negative preconceptions.
Case Connection — The Line Iolanthe Almost Said. In Saturday night’s final draft, Iolanthe had written: “Unlike some traditions that focus only on the past, a seed library is a tool for the future.” She read it out loud, winced, and deleted it. The sentence framed her approach as modern and rational and framed older traditions as backward-looking. That was ethnocentrism wearing a polite coat. She replaced it with: “Whatever seed tradition you come from, a regional seed library is one of the tools in the kit.” Same speech length. No implied hierarchy. This kind of edit is one of the most important moves a speaker can make, and it almost always happens during revision, not during drafting.
Key Takeaways
Exercises
- Consider the vocabulary that you and your classmates generally use in casual conversations. Are there slang expressions you often use? Is there jargon related to your career or major field of study? Make a list of slang and jargon words that you might want to use in a speech. Now, consider whether you can substitute standard English words that will be better understood by all your listeners, remembering that in a business context, it’s often best to avoid slang and jargon.
- Pretend you were going to invite someone from a completely different culture to come home with you for a break or holiday. Make a list of ideas, words, or places you’d want to share with them to gain insight into you, your family, or your community.
- How can a speaker prepare a speech for a diverse audience? Explain and give some specific examples. Discuss your thoughts with a classmate.
- Observe someone presenting a speech. Given the discussion in this chapter, what elements of their speech could you use in your speech? What elements would you not want to use? Why? Compare with a classmate.
- Case application. Iolanthe’s audience spans Individualistic / Collectivistic, Explicit-Rule / Implicit-Rule, and Uncertainty-Accepting / Uncertainty-Rejecting cultures all in one room. Pick any one of the three dimensions and describe one concrete move she could make in her opening two minutes that serves both sides of the dimension at once.
Closing Case Study: The Keynote Weekend — Sunday Morning
Iolanthe stood backstage at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on Sunday at 8:47 a.m. Her keynote was at 9:00. She could hear the auditorium filling on the other side of the curtain. She had slept for four hours in a motel outside Madison. She had her speech on paper in her left hand and her last index card from Aisosa in her right. The card read: Don’t try to be him. Be you, with a mouth full of his gift.
Here’s what she walked out with when the conference organizer, Marisol Venkatraman-Fielding, said her name at 9:00:01.
- General purpose: To persuade.
- Specific purpose: By the end of this keynote, every person in this room will be able to name one concrete action they can take at a local seed library this spring.
- Thesis statement: Your local seed library is a concrete, low-cost climate adaptation tool you can use this spring.
- Three main points (all drawn from her own experience and research, not Aisosa’s stories):
- Why the Driftless is already warming faster than models predicted.
- What a regional seed library actually does (the “living library” framing from her brother’s phone call).
- Four specific first-spring actions the audience can take starting Monday.
- One explicit attribution: “Everything I know about ethical seed keeping I learned from Aisosa Pinecrest-Yellowhair. I told her about this talk yesterday. Any stories that are hers, I asked her first, and two of them she asked me not to share. I didn’t. That choice is part of what seed keeping looks like.”
- One acknowledgment of the range in the room: “Some of you farm 4,000 acres of soybeans. Some of you plant six tomato varieties in a backyard. Some of you are seed keepers whose families were doing this before my family spoke English. This speech is for all of you and it will not serve any of you perfectly.”
- A closing line she wrote at 3:14 a.m.: “A seed is a bet on a future nobody has seen yet. Keeping one is an act of memory. Saving one is an act of hope. Sharing one is an act of citizenship. The library is open Monday at 9. I’ll be there. You can be, too.”
The talk ran forty-two minutes, not forty-five. She skipped the final section entirely because she could feel the room tighten at minute thirty-eight. Afterward, twenty-two people came up to the seed library table. Three of them were from the Ho-Chunk delegation. Aisosa, who had driven up on Saturday without telling Iolanthe, was sitting in the fourth row the whole time. When Iolanthe finally saw her, Aisosa smiled, shook her head once, and mouthed, See?
Meshach came out of the hospital on Saturday afternoon and listened to a recording of the keynote on Monday in his living room. He called Iolanthe Monday evening. “That thesis,” he said. “Did Aisosa help you with that thesis?” Iolanthe said yes. Meshach was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Next year, you’re giving the keynote again. And I’m going to be in the second row. Not the first. The second. Do you know why?” Iolanthe said no. “Because the first row is for the elders,” Meshach said. “And the second row is for the people who need to watch the elders do their job. You did your job.”
Closing Case Discussion
- Walk back through Iolanthe’s seven-item opening list (general purpose, specific purpose, thesis, main points, attribution, acknowledgment, closing line). Identify which chapter section each item comes from. Is anything missing that you’d expect from a well-prepared speech?
- Iolanthe cut three minutes off her speech in real time when she sensed the room tighten at minute thirty-eight. Was that a good choice? What’s the cost-benefit of cutting live vs. pushing through to the prepared ending?
- When she said, “Two of them she asked me not to share. I didn’t,” what happens to her credibility in the room? Is this a persuasion risk, a persuasion asset, or both?
- Meshach’s comment about the elders in the first row and his new seat in the second row is a claim about roles and role identities. Tie that claim back to the discussion of role identities in Section 10.5. What’s he saying about how Iolanthe’s role changed over the weekend?
- If you were giving Iolanthe feedback on the speech, what’s one question you’d ask her to think about before next year’s keynote?
End-of-Chapter Activities
Review Questions
- Name the five general purposes of a speech and give a one-sentence example of each.
- What’s the difference between a general purpose and a specific purpose? Illustrate with an example.
- What are the three factors in the Appeal, Appropriateness, and Ability framework, and what does each ask you to check?
- List Beebe and Beebe’s five guiding principles for writing a thesis statement.
- What are Paul and Elder’s six criteria for evaluating whether a source represents quality reasoning?
- Name the seven stages of compiling information for a speech in order.
- What does it mean to say nervousness before a speech is a useful signal rather than a red flag? Explain in your own words.
- Define jargon and slang. Why are both considered co-languages, and why can both serve as barriers?
- Describe the difference between explicit-rule and implicit-rule cultures. Give one example of each.
- Define ethnocentrism. How does it differ from cultural pride?
Matching Exercise
Match each term to its definition.
Terms:
- General purpose
- Specific purpose
- Thesis statement
- Appeal
- Appropriateness
- Ability
- Priming
- Incubation
- Jargon
- Slang
- Individualistic culture
- Implicit-rule culture
- Ethnocentrism
- Enlarged conversation
Definitions:
- Julia T. Wood’s framing of public speaking as an extended conversational turn rather than a performance.
- A statement capturing, in one sentence, the central idea of your speech.
- The belief that one’s own culture is superior to others.
- Occupation-specific language used by members of a profession.
- Inform, demonstrate, persuade, entertain, or ceremonial (the overall function of a speech).
- The cognitive state in which you start noticing your topic everywhere after you commit to it.
- Your natural aptitude and research access for a given topic.
- A culture in which expectations are understood without being stated aloud.
- Nonstandard words used for unconventional, humorous, or rebellious effect.
- The targeted sentence describing exactly what you intend to accomplish by the end of your speech.
- The stage of preparation in which you step back and let an idea develop without active work.
- A culture that emphasizes individual freedom and personal independence.
- A topic’s power to arouse a sympathetic response in the audience.
- Whether a topic suits the audience’s norms, expectations, and customs.
Answer key: 1–e, 2–j, 3–b, 4–m, 5–n, 6–g, 7–f, 8–k, 9–d, 10–i, 11–l, 12–h, 13–c, 14–a.
Application Exercises
- The fifteen-word test. Take any topic you’re kicking around for a class speech and write the takeaway in fifteen words or fewer. Cut it to ten if you can. Then write down what you had to leave out to get there.
- Appeal/Appropriateness/Ability scorecard. Take three possible speech topics and score each one on a 1–5 scale for Appeal, Appropriateness, and Ability. Which topic had the highest combined score? Which had the lowest weakest-leg score? Use the weakest-leg score to pick.
- The source audit. Find three websites on a topic you might speak about. Run each of them through Paul and Elder’s six criteria. Which ones pass, which ones fail, and what specifically disqualifies the failures?
- The co-language scan. Draft one section of a speech on any topic you work in professionally or academically. Highlight every jargon and slang term. Rewrite the section for an audience that includes your grandmother and your twelve-year-old cousin. How much did you have to change?
- The cultural-dimensions adapter. Imagine you’re giving a ten-minute speech on “what a great workday looks like.” Write a version aimed at an individualistic, uncertainty-accepting audience. Write a second version aimed at a collectivistic, uncertainty-rejecting audience. Compare them side by side. Which paragraphs had to change the most?
Discussion Questions
- Iolanthe made an ethical decision not to tell two of the Ho-Chunk stories even though Meshach had used them publicly for years. Was she right to hold a stricter standard than her mentor? What does your answer say about how professional ethics move across generations?
- The chapter frames nervousness as useful information rather than a flaw. Does that reframing feel true to you, or does it feel like a pep talk you’re supposed to swallow? Defend your position with one example from your own experience.
- Public speaking instructors often say, “know your audience.” What does that actually mean when the audience is six hundred people and genuinely not a single one of them is like any other?
- Read the paragraph about the “salad bowl” vs. “melting pot” metaphors one more time. Which metaphor better describes the community you come from? Which one do you wish described it?
- At the end of the closing case, Meshach tells Iolanthe, “The second row is for the people who need to watch the elders do their job.” What’s the rhetorical and professional weight of that line? What would you do next if you were Iolanthe on Monday afternoon?
Extended Project: The Forty-Hour Speech
Working individually or in a team of three, design a full preparation plan for a forty-minute keynote you’d have to deliver in exactly forty hours. Choose a realistic scenario (an industry conference, a regional policy forum, a campus event, a professional association meeting). Your deliverable is a single document containing all of the following:
- A one-paragraph description of your speaker and the situation (like Iolanthe at the start of this chapter).
- Your general purpose, specific purpose, and a thesis statement that passes all five Beebe and Beebe criteria.
- An Appeal/Appropriateness/Ability scorecard for the topic.
- A realistic research plan with at least five sources, each one evaluated against Paul and Elder’s six criteria and flagged as pass, caution, or discard.
- An explicit ethics note: Is there any material you’re considering using that isn’t yours to use? How will you handle attribution? Is there anything you’d refuse to include even if it would strengthen the speech?
- An anxiety-management plan with at least three concrete actions (visualization, practice schedule, one phone-a-friend moment, etc.).
- A two-paragraph intercultural adaptation note: Given the specific audience for your scenario, which of Hofstede’s and Dodd’s dimensions are you crossing, and what will you do in your opening three minutes to serve both sides of at least one dimension?
- Your prepared opening line and your prepared closing line, written out in full.
Trade documents with another team and give each other feedback on the weakest element. Revise. Submit.
Self-Assessment
Pull out your answers from the Before You Read Self-Check Diagnostic at the beginning of this chapter. Without looking at the chapter, answer each of those ten questions again. Compare your current answers to your earlier answers. Where did your answer change the most? Where did it stay the same? Write a one-paragraph reflection on what you now understand that you didn’t before you read this chapter, and name one specific area you still want more practice in. Bring the reflection to the next class session.
10.6 Additional Resources
Oral communication skills are key to success in politics. Visit the C-SPAN website to watch and listen to speeches, interviews, and other public speaking events. https://www.c-span.org/
The Nation’s Forum Collection of the Library of Congress consists of recordings of dozens of speeches from the period 1918 to 1920. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml
The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress offers a wide variety of resources for understanding copyright law and how to avoid plagiarism. http://www.copyright.gov
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets the standards and conducts inspections to ensure safety and prevent accidents in the workplace. http://www.osha.gov
v
- https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country ↵
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