Public Speaking - UNIT 1 - MILESTONE 1

Sandra, a school gym teacher, is preparing to speak at the opening of a children's playground. Sandra knows that the whole town is invited and that the school children will be very excited to use the new playground. After determining the probable perspectives and interests of her audience, Sandra adds slang to her speech, and encourages the audience members to text their friends about the event. In the situation above, Sandra attempts to account for __________ when preparing her speech.

age

Speakers want well-organized speeches in order to keep their audiences engaged. When developing a speech, a speaker must select a topic, a purpose, and a thesis. In order to come up with a topic for a speech, a speaker can try __________, a method of problem solving in which individuals or group members contribute ideas quickly and spontaneously.

brainstorming

As James prepared his speech, he made sure to stay on-topic and write a well-organized speech. James remembered the public speaking best practice of __________.

holding the audience's attention

Janet squirmed in her chair as the school board candidate presented his agenda. She had been sitting all day, and her chair was aggravating her lower back pain. This is an example of __________ leading to poor listening.

low concentration

Kelly spent the last ten minutes screaming at Jackson about how angry she is that Issac jammed the copier. Which action, by Jackson, best fits the evaluating stage of the listening process?

Jackson determines that Kelly is reacting this way, in part, because she was up all night with a sick child.

Which of the following speeches is primarily meant to inform?

A CEO gives a presentation on how to properly report business expenses.

Select the action that represents the remembering phase of the listening process.

A boy tells his friend that his behavior resembles that of a character from a novel he read last year.

Which of the following speeches is an example of a special occasion speech?

A father delivers a toast to his daughter during her wedding ceremony.

Jeremy tucked his t-shirt into his jeans as he walked to the front of the conference room to present a new concept to the board of directors. His hands shook when he flipped through his note cards. Before beginning his presentation, Jeremy introduced himself and noted how nicely the audience was dressed. After his presentation, as he returned to his seat, Jeremy wondered why some of the audience gave him funny looks. Based on this scenario, which public speaking best practice did Jeremy neglect?

Appropriate dress

Select the statement on public speaking that most closely relates to St. Augustine.

Argued for the continued development of rhetorical ideas that originated hundreds of years before

Which of the following situations describes the actions of an unethical speaker?

Edgar endorses a new political candidate without mentioning that the candidate is married to his best friend.

Which of the following scenarios describes an effective way to give criticism?

Focusing on the behavior that could be changed in an objective way

Which of the following statements represents the purpose of a speech?

Helping the elderly prepare for death

Laykin was nervous about speaking to the Columbia School Board. She knew that it would be difficult to convince them to provide more funding for music education, but she also knew that the band depended on her to get them new uniforms. Which of the following circumstances describes an environmental context that will affect Laykin's speech?

Laykin's microphone was amplified louder than she anticipated. One of the school board members covered his ears when she began to speak.

Which of the following scenarios best depicts culture getting in the way of effective listening?

Lucy focuses on the new executive's accent as he speaks; she feels it causes him to talk more slowly, thus making his speech duller.

Max and his business partner, Jolee, are about to open a second restaurant. Which speech below is a special occasion speech?

Max asks all of their employees to raise their glasses as he describes how proud he is of the work they have done, and the adventures involved in opening a new restaurant.

Which of the following is an example of a physical contextual factor that James should consider when preparing for his speech to the CEO of a social media company?

There will be no podium on which James can put his note cards.

John is taking an accounting class at the local community college. The course targets small-business owners and offers students the option to watch prerecorded videos of the instructor delivering a lecture on their own time. The lectures represent an example of __________.

asynchronous communication

Alejandro was surprised to read negative feedback on his course reviews at the end of the semester. He thought that his students would have been grateful that he had dismissed them from class early on Friday afternoons, as was customary when he taught in Grenada. Unfortunately, many of his current students felt that they weren't receiving his full attention. In this example, Alejandro failed to account for __________ when considering his audience.

culture

A speaker decides to use a particular cartoon as an example after speaking with two students who wear t-shirts bearing an image of that cartoon. This is an example of using __________ to solicit information from an audience.

direct observation

Jennifer was on a mission. She was passionate about the message she planned to deliver when she made her graduation speech. However, she didn't know that her speech would be live-streamed on social media. Later that evening, after delivering her speech, Jennifer logged on to her social media account. She saw that her speech had been shared and viewed by over 3,000 people. Reading the encouraging comments that had been posted, and realizing how many people - people she didn't know - had acknowledged her call to action, made her feel great. This experience shows how Jennifer benefited from __________ through public speaking.

external influence

Anna was pouting again. Mike had tried to get his daughter to brush her teeth before going to bed, but she refused. Mike decided he would sing her a song from her favorite TV show. In his best Timmy the Toothbrush voice, Mike said, "Brush those teeth, don't miss even one, a clean mouth makes us healthy, and then we all can have fun." Mike was engaged in the act of __________ when he reminded his daughter about the benefits of brushing her teeth.

repeating

Raul is a sales representative working for a software company. While he gives a presentation at a consumer electronics show, his coworker Morgan watches him and takes notes. Morgan's job is to judge Raul's presentation and give him feedback. After Raul finishes, Morgan informs him that while his speech had its strong points, the audience seemed bored at times. In order to fix this, Morgan advises Raul to find "a deeper level of focus." Morgan's feedback on Raul's speech was not an example of effective criticism because it was not __________.

specific