Study Questions

Dolores is preparing visual aids for her speech about resources available to the Latino/Latina community and has decided to use a handout. When should she distribute it?

After the speech

____________ is listening to provide emotional support for a speaker.

Empathetic listening

Language mirrors reality.

False

_____________ is controlled nervousness that helps energize a speaker for his or her presentation.

Positive Nervousness

A pie graph should ideally have from two to five segments.

True

Avoiding ethnocentrism is important for listeners as well as for speakers.

True

incremental plagiarism

failing to give credit for particular parts of a speech that are borrowed from other people

stealing a speech entirely from a single source and passing it off as one's own

global plagiarism

Even if you can't identify the author or sponsoring organization for an Internet document, you can still use the document in your speech as long as it is up to date.

False

When selecting a title for your speech, you should avoid phrasing it as a question.

False

Because each person has a different frame of reference, the meaning of a message will never be exactly the same to a listener as to a speaker.

True

You should never cite an article in your speech on the basis of the abstract alone.

True

____________ is mental imaging in which a speaker vividly pictures himself or herself giving a successful presentation.

Visualization

Which of the following does your textbook recommend as a way to help you deal with nervousness in your speeches?

Work especially hard on your speech introduction.

The ability to see clearly the relationships among ideas

critical thinking

Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation

(1) Both involve organizing your thoughts logically (2) Both involve tailoring your message to your audience (3) Both involve telling a story for maximum impact (4) Both involve adapting to listener feedback

Differences Between Public Speaking and Conversation

(1) Public speaking is more structured (2) Public speaking is more formal (3) Public speaking requires a different method of delivery

How to become a better listener

1) Take Listening Seriously. 2) Be an Active Listener. 3) Resist Distractions. 4) Don't be diverted by Appearance or Delivery. 5) Suspend Judgement. 6) Focus your listening. 7) Develop note-taking skills

guidelines for ethical listening

1. Be courteous and attentive 2. Avoid prejudging the speaker 3. Maintain the free and open expression of ideas

Guidelines for ethical speaking

1. Make sure your goals are ethically sound 2. Be fully prepared for each speech 3. Be honest in what you say 4. Avoid name-calling and other forms of abusive language 5. Put ethical principles into practice

Four causes of poor listening

1. Not concentrating 2. Listening too hard 3. Jumping to conclusions 4. Focusing on delivery and personal appearance

Speech Communication Process

1. Speaker 2. Message 3. Channel 4. Listener 5. Feedback 6. Interference 7. Situation

____________ are used in libraries to classify books and periodicals and to indicate where they can be found on the shelves.

Call numbers

____________ is the belief that one's own group or culture is superior to all other groups or cultures.

Ethnocentrism

Although the specific purpose statement for a speech should not be phrased as a question, it is acceptable to phrase the central idea as a question.

False

In a preparation outline, you should state your main points in brief phrases.

False

Listeners usually realize how tense a speaker is.

False

Most successful speakers do not experience stage fright.

False

The central idea of a speech is usually formulated before the specific purpose.

False

The larger an audience becomes, the greater is the speaker's ethical responsibility to be fully prepared.

False

In a preparation outline, main points are identified by capital letters.

False, Roman numerals

Because the brain can process many more words per minute than we talk, the resulting spare "brain time" makes listening easier.

False, we end up thinking about other stuff

According to your textbook, ____________ is anything that impedes the communication of a message.

Interference

Identify the flaw in the following specific purpose statement: "To persuade my audience that Congress should ban smoking in public places and increase spending for education."

It contains two unrelated ideas.

____________ is the use of language to defame, demean, or degrade individuals or groups.

Name-calling

Six tips for handling nervousness

Practice, prepare, think positively, visualize success, know that most nervousness is not visible, don't expect perfection

____________ is anxiety over the prospect of giving a speech in front of an audience.

Stage Fright

Identify the flaw in the following central idea for a speech: "Something should be done about climate change."

Too vague

Because people have different frames of reference, a public speaker must take care to adapt her or his message to the particular audience being addressed.

True

In a preparation outline, the most important ideas are placed farthest to the left and the less important ideas are placed progressively farther to the right.

True

Listening and critical thinking are so closely allied that training in listening is also training in how to think.

True

Presenting a speech online alters almost every aspect of public speaking.

True

Public speaking and ordinary conversation are similar in that both involve adapting to listener feedback.

True

Public speaking has been taught and studied for thousands of years.

True

Questions are particularly effective as signposts because they invite subliminal answers and thereby get the audience more involved in the speech.

True

Speechmaking becomes more complex as cultural diversity increases.

True

The most important task in preparing to conduct a research interview is deciding what questions to ask during the interview.

True

When business managers are asked to rank-order the communication skills most crucial to their jobs, they usually rank listening as number one.

True

"Divided there is little we can do; united there is little we cannot do" is an example of

antithesis

Listening for pleasure or enjoyment is called ____________ listening.

appreciative

Listening to understand the message of a speaker is called ____________ listening.

comprehensive

The two kinds of listening most closely tied to critical thinking are

critical and comprehensive listening

Listening to evaluate a message for the purpose of accepting or rejecting it is called

critical listening

The messages, usually nonverbal, sent from a listener to a speaker are called ____________.

feedback

While listening to a speech about gun control, Scott thought back to his experiences as an intern with the police department and decided that the speaker was knowledgeable about the subject. Scott was

filtering the message through his frame of reference.

The knowledge, experience, goals, values, and attitudes through which each listener filters a message make up the listener's ______________________.

frame of reference

"Our mission is to serve justice, to right wrong, and to protect democracy" is an example of

parallelism

A ____________ is a list, compiled early in the research process, of works that look as if they might contain helpful information about a speech topic.

preliminary bibliography

Three kinds of search aids discussed in the chapter for finding documents on the Internet are

search engines, virtual libraries, and government resources.

patchwork plagiarism

stealing ideas or language from two or three sources and passing them off as one's own

It is normal—even desirable—to be nervous at the start of a speech.

true