Speech Exam 1

false starts

"Before I begin..."; these generally irritate audiences and label you as innefective

central idea

(thesis)

organized audience

A group with a rigid division of labor and authority supported by specific common purposes and interests

unnecessary apologies

Ex: "I didn't have much time to prepare"

perception

How we discern or assign meanings to messages. The theory is that we hypothesize about messages, which we then accept or reject on the basis of personal constructs based on prior learning and experience.

overstatement

Includes distortion, imprudence, misrepresentation, and over exaggeration to get attention.

communication

Primarily concerned with meaning; Meaning becomes a social construction based primarily on our life experiences, our perceptions of reality, and our language habits.

pedestrian audience

a temporary audience, such as a group of pedestrians on a busy street corner

discussion and passive audience

an audience whose attention is already secured or guaranteed by rules of order.

selected audience

an audience whose members are assembled for some common purpose, but not all are sympathetic to one another or to the speaker's point of view

concerted audience

an audience whose members assemble with a common, active purpose in mind, with sympathetic interest in a mutual enterprise, but with no clear division of labor or rigid organization of authority

objectification

an intellectualization or pragmatic explanation of what is happening to you

state anxiety

anxiety due to the particular communication circumstance, not anxiety in general

cognitive restructuring

changing the way one thinks. A technique used to reduce communication apprehension

model

generally refers to a representation of a thing or process

three general purposes of a speech

inform, persuade, entertain

three basic parts of a speech

introduction, body, conclusion

encoding

putting together a message and conveying it symbolically through words and nonverbals to an audience

trait anxiety

refers to anxiety across many or all communication situations

demographics

refers to the study of groups in terms of their common vital statistics. Typically a statistical averaging of your peers' ages, education, politics, etc.

decoding

sorting out, selecting, and eliciting meanings from one's storehouse of knowledge, experience, and training until he or she constructs in his or her own mind a notion of the images and ideas contained in the mind of the sender

transitions

specific language segments that connect one idea to another.

feedback

what the receiver provides to the speaker to let him or her know how the message is coming across to the audience and allows the speaker to make adjustments

specific purpose

your goal of the speech.