Public Speaking and Persuasion
Similarities Between Public Speaking and
Conversation
1. Organizing your thoughts logically
2. Tailoring your message to your
audience.
3. Telling a story for maximum impact.
4. Adapting to listener feedback.
Differences Between Public Speaking and
Conversation
Three major differences between conversation
and public speaking:
1. Public speaking is more highly
structured.
2. Public speaking requires more formal
language.
3. Public speaking requires a different
method of delivery.
NERVOUSNESS IS NORMAL
DEALING WITH NERVOUSNESS
positive nervousness – controlled nervousness
that helps a speaker with her or his
presentation.
Six (6) Ways to Turn Nervousness from a
Negative Force into a Positive One:
1. Acquire Speaking Experience.
2. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.
3. Think positively.
4. Use the Power of Visualization.
5. Know that Most Nervousness is Not
Visible.
6. Do not Expect Perfection.
Public Speaking and Critical Thinking
critical thinking – focused, organized thinking
about such things as the logical relationships
among ideas, the soundness of evidence, and
the differences between fact and opinion.
The Speech Communication Process
1. Speaker
2. Message
3. Channel
4. Listener
5. Feedback
6. Interference
 Internal Interference
 External Interference
7. Situation
Public Speaking in a Multicultural World
Public speaking in a multilingual world. How
levels of directness in feedback vary by culture
and why that matters. Whether presenting
virtually or face-to-face, ensure your humor is
universal. Engaging people of different cultures
requires special tact on the part of the speaker.
ETHICS AND PUBLIC SPEAKING
ethics – the branch of philosophy that deals
with issues of right and wrong in human affairs.
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.
PLAGIARISM
Kinds of Plagiarism
1. Global plagiarism
2. Patchwork plagiarism
3. Incremental plagiarism
3.1. Quotations
3.2. Paraphrases
GUIDELINES FOR ETHICAL LISTENING
1. Be courteous and attentive
2. Avoid prejudging the speaker
 3. Maintain the free and open expression
of ideas.
Listening
Listening and hearing are two VERY different
things.
Listening - is hearing with understanding.
Hearing - refers to the awareness of sounds and
placing meaning to those sounds.
Active Listening - giving undivided attention to a
speaker in a genuine effort to understand the
speaker’s point of view.
Writing a speech
3 main parts:
1. Introduction
2. Body
3. Conclusion
SELECTING A TOPIC AND A PURPOSE
Choosing a Topic:
topic – it is the subject of the speech.
There are two broad categories of potential
topics for your classroom speeches:
(1) you know a lot about and
(2) subjects you want to know more about.
BRAINSTORMING FOR TOPICS
If you are having trouble selecting a topic, there
are a number of brainstorming procedures you
can follow to get started.
brainstorming – a method of generating ideas
for speech topics by free association of words
and ideas.
DETERMINING THE GENERAL PURPOSE
general purpose – the broad goal of a speech.
1. To inform
2. To persuade
ANALYZING THE AUDIENCE Good public
speakers are audience-centered. They know the
primary purpose of speechmaking is not to
browbeat the audience or to blow off steam.
Rather, it is to gain a desired response from
listeners. You are an audience-centered speaker
if your purpose in your speech is to gain a
favorable response from the major groups in
your audience. You can do it by presenting
yourself and your ideas in ways that are
connected with the audience’s goals, values,
and beliefs.
audience-centeredness – keeping the audience
foremost in mind every step of speech
preparation and presentation.
To be audience-centered, you need to keep
several questions in mind when you work on
your speeches:
 To whom am I speaking?
 What do I want them to know, believe,
or do as a result of my speech?
 What is the most effective way of
composing and presenting my speech to
accomplish that aim?
YOUR CLASSMATES AS AN AUDIENCE
Positive - to view the classroom as an artificial
speaking situation.
Negative - to get too comfortable to the point
that the body language and the mindset is no
longer aligned with the purpose of delivering a
speech.
GETTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUDIENCE
Three Major Types of Questions
1. Fixed-alternative questions
2. Scale questions
3. Open-ended questions
ADAPTING THE AUDIENCE
1. Audience adaptation before the speech
2. Audience adaptation during the speech

GATHERING MATERIALS
1. USING YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE AND
EXPERIENCE
2. DOING LIBRARY SEARCH
3. SEARCHING THE INTERNET
4. EVALUATING INTERNET DOCUMENTS
5. INTERVIEWING
ORGANIZING A SPEECH
ORGANIZATION IS IMPORTANT
SUPPORTING YOUR IDEAS
Supporting materials are used to support a
speaker’s ideas. These include:
-Examples. It is a specific case used to illustrate
or to represent a group of people, ideas,
conditions, experiences, or the like. It gives us a
specific incident to focus on. It sets the stage
with details of time, place, color, action.
Without examples, ideas seem vague,
impersonal, and lifeless. With examples, ideas
become specific, personal, and lively.
-Brief Examples. These are called specific
instances. They may be referred to in passing to
illustrate a point. Another way to use brief
examples is to pile them one upon the other
until you create the desired impression.
-Extended Examples. These are often called
narratives, illustrations, or anecdotes. By telling
a story vividly and dramatically, they pull
listeners into the speech.
-Hypothetical Examples. These are examples
that describe an imaginary or fictitious
situation. Usually, such examples are brief
stories that relate a general principle. These
create a realistic scenario, relate it directly to
the listeners, and get the listeners involved in
the speech.
-Statistics These are numerical data. Most of us
would be hard-pressed to say. Yet we feel more
secure in our knowledge when we can express it
numerically. Statistics, when used properly, is an
effective way to clarify and support ideas. These
are often cited in passing to clarify or
strengthen a speaker’s points. Statistics can also
be used in combination to show the magnitude
or seriousness of an issue.
-Testimony These are the quotations or
paraphrases used to support a point.
These include:
 Expert Testimony. This comes from
people who are acknowledged
authorities in their fields.
 Peer Testimony. These are opinions of
people like us; not prominent figures,
but ordinary citizens who have firsthand
experience on the topic.
Quoting vs. Paraphrasing. Direct quotation is a
testimony that is presented word for word.
Meanwhile, to paraphrase is to restate or
summarize.
OUTLINING THE SPEECH
The Preparation Outline The preparation
outline is just what its name implies—an outline
that helps you prepare the speech.
USING LANGUAGE
Language helps create our sense of reality by
giving meaning to events.

Meanings of Words
Words have two kinds of meanings—denotative
and connotative.
 Denotative meaning is precise, literal,
and objective. It describes the object,
person, place, idea, or event to which
the word refers. One way to think of a
word’s denotative meaning is as its
dictionary definition.
 Connotative meaning is more variable,
figurative, and subjective. The
connotative meaning of a word is what
the word suggests or implies.
DELIVERY
Speech delivery is a matter of nonverbal
communication. It is based on how you use your
voice and body to convey the message
expressed by your words. There is a great deal
of research showing that the impact of a
speaker’s words is powerfully influenced by his
or her nonverbal communication.
Methods of Delivery
There are four basic methods of delivering a
speech:
(1) reading verbatim from a
manuscript;
(2) reciting a memorized text;
(3) speaking impromptu; and
(4) speaking extemporaneously.
The speaker’s voice
 Volume
 Pitch
 Rate
 Pauses
 Vocal Variety
 Pronunciation
 Articulation
 Dialect
The Speaker’s Body
Posture, facial expression, gestures, eye contact
—all affect the way listeners respond to a
speaker. How we use these and other body
motions to communicate is the subject of a
fascinating area of study called kinesics.
Personal Appearance
Listeners always see you before they hear you.
Just as you adapt your language to the audience
and the occasion, so should you dress and
groom appropriately.
Movement
As important as how you act during the speech
is what you do just before you begin and after
you finish. As you rise to speak, try to appear
calm, poised, and confident, despite the
butterflies in your stomach.
Gestures
Gesturing tends to work itself out as you
acquire experience and confidence. For now,
make sure your hands do not upstage your
ideas. Avoid flailing them about, wringing them
together, or toying with your rings. Once you
have eliminated these distractions, forget about
your hands. Think about communicating with
your listeners, and your gestures will take care
of themselves—just as they do in conversation.
Eye Contact
The eyeball itself expresses no emotion. Yet by
manipulating the eyeball and the areas of the
face around it—especially the upper eyelids and
the eyebrows—we convey an intricate array of
nonverbal messages. So revealing are these
messages that we think of the eyes as “the
windows of the soul.” We look to them to help
gauge a speaker’s truthfulness, intelligence,
attitudes, and feelings.
Practicing Delivery

Here is a five-step method that has worked well

for many students:

1. Go through your preparation outline

aloud to check how what you have
written translates into spoken
discourse.
2. Prepare your speaking outline.
3. Practice the speech aloud several times
using only the speaking outline.
4. Now begin to polish and refine your
delivery.
5. Finally, give your speech a dress
rehearsal under conditions as close as
possible to those you will face in class.

Argumentation and debate

ARGUMENTATION - the action or process of

reasoning systematically in support of an idea,
action, or theory.

DEBATE - a formal discussion on a particular

topic in a public meeting or legislative assembly,
in which opposing arguments are put forward.

Types of Debate

1. Parliamentary Debate
2. Lincoln-Douglas Debate
3. Cross Examination Debate
4. Academic Debate

Structure of a debate

 A formal debate usually involves three

groups:
 one supporting a resolution (affirmative
team),
 one opposing the resolution (opposing
team),
 and those who are judging the quality
of the evidence and arguments and the
performance in the debate