Chapter 1 - Rhetorical Situations

Topic

Setting – Where is the speech happening

Audience – What is the audience already know?

Occasion – Expectations of the speech genre

Credibility – What they know about me?

Skills-Experience-Judgement

The Canons of Rhetoric

1.Invention – Good content what to include and exclude

2. Arrangement – How to organize the speech, main points short or long

– the introduction

3.Style – How will you say it, (Rich Lincolns Gettysburg Address) or
more simple.

4.Memory – You should know the speech very deeply

5.Delivery

Marshall Mc Luhan Understanding Media

Steven Pinker – The Language Instinct

Delivery Problems

When we speak we need to provide cues. Context and Prosody.

Use smaller sentences.

Prosodic cuses, pitch, rate.

Key Point Speech

Summarize-Persuade-Inform.

Rubrics, what will the people be able to do if they hear your speech?

Invention – Explain appropriate main points that clarify your speech.

Arrangement – Arrange the main points appropriately.

Style – Phrase the main points concisely, get in the details of the example
quickly.

Delivery – Be confident and animated, prosodic cues to understand the

content easily.

Memory – Know the speech deeply.

How Should I talk about it – Speech Example

Introduction

An overview of thesis statement

A preview of your key points

1.First key point

Illustrating Example

Illustrating Example

II. Secondy Key Point

Illustrating Example

Illustrating Example

Conclusion

A restatement of your thesis statement and a review of your key points.

A Concluding line.

(longer pause breaks/ movements)

Pitch Changes
The Components of a Memorable Point

Argument is a statement with support and elaboration.

Claim is an assertion that you want the audience to take as valid.

What you want the audience to believe.

Support is evidence used to validate the claim. (Example, statistics)

How and why the support relates to the claim.

Warrant is the thing that links the support to the claim.

Outlining: Preparing a speech in a hierarchical structure.

Flowing: Taking notes on a speech in an outline format.

Inventing your key points.

Six Prompts for Inventing Key Points

1. Short term/long term

2. Past/Present/Future
3. Increase/Decrease
4. Cause/Effect

Online Education Example

1. Short Term/Long Term

Thesis: Online education won’t overturn traditional universities.

I. Online Education will initially challenge traditional
universities
II. They will eventually split into different entities because
they are different.

2. Past Present Future

I. Mail Order Education found its relationship with four
year universities
II. Community college education found its relationship with
four year universities.
3. Increase/Decrease
I. There will be an increase in online courses
II. But we probably won’t see decrease incampus

4. Cause/Effect
I. Online education emerged because of a need for adult
learning.
II. Adult learning will have a small impact on universities.

5. Division
I. Online education is good at broadcasting information.
II. Traditional universities are good at cultivating learning
environemnts.

6. Definition

I’m a climatologist studying the solar impacts on Arctic ice.

I. What does climatology study?
II. What do solar impacts tell us about climate change?
III. Why is Arctic ice a good way to study this?

Inventing Key Points: How many points?

Example for a talk of 75 minutes. Key points 5-10

minutes depending on depth.

1. Main Point Plato’s Key Terms in Gorgias

I. Doxa: Common Opinion
II. Episteme: True Knowledge
III. Techne: A craft or an art with reliable principles

2. Plato’s concern with definitions in the Gorgias

I. Words are tremendously important for Plato.
II. Dialecticians can arrive at correct definitions
through collection and division
 III. The Gorgias might not be a total condemnation
of all rhetoric, but simly the popular form of
rhetoric in place.

3. Plato’s specific definition of rhetoric in the Gorgias.

I. Plato denies the title techne (art) to anything
that cannot deliver an acount of how it
functions.
II. Plato limits rhetoric to belief, not knowledge.
III. Thus rhetoric, for plato, is most successful in
front of an ignorant audience.

There is no perfect number of key points for a speech. Try starting

with 2-5 key points. Break up larger presentations of 2-5 key points.

Stephen Toulmin – The Uses of Argument

Arranging Key Points – Subordination
All of the key points are related to the topic.

Example: Thesis: Public speaking should be a universiy graduation

requirement.

Points have to be subordinate to the topic and relate to some aspect

of your topic.
Subordination: All your key points related to the topic.
Subordinating your points helps you keep the speech from
wandering off on tangents.

Arranging Key Points: Coordination and discreteness.

T: I’m a climatologist studying the solar impacts of Arctic ice.

I. What does climatology study?

II. What do solar impacts tell us about climate change?
III. Why is Arctic ice a good way to study this?
 1. Your points should be coordinate. They should work
together.
2. Your points should be discrete. They shouldn’t overlap too
much.

Stylizing key points, phrasing.

Use Evocative Words: Investigate, equip, push.
Put key terms in important positions.
Use parallel phrasing if its appropriate.

Chapter 2 – Support and Explanations

1. Support shows the validity of the claim.
(concrete evidence, concrete support)

2. Support provides details.

Facts, statistics, testimonies.

T: American Presidential debates are new and uncommon

I: Regular presidential debates are new.

A. We didn’t have a single presidential debate until 1960. Fact.

B. It took until 1976 for presidential debates to become regular.
Fact.
II . Presidential debates are uncommon

A. Only 12 electin cycles have had debates. Fact.

B. That means, that only about 20% of all election cycles
have had a debate. Statistic.
Examples and Illustrations.

I’m a speech teacher at the university of Washington.

I. I teach classes.
A. Undergraduate speech classes.
B. Graduate rhetoric classes.

II. I do administrative work.

A. In charge of the comunication major
B. College curriculum committee.

III. I engage in public outreach.

A. Public speaking MOOC.
B. College orientation programming.

Metaphors and Analogies (Robert Brike)

Discussing your examples concisely

1. Focus on the relevant details.
2. Focus on clarity over comprehensiveness.
(I can’t say everything I want to say I say everything I need to say)
3. Help the audience craft a mental image.

Our goal is to be concrete and concise when discussing our

support.

Performing your Key Point

Help the audience understand and remember the key points.

You must do the following about each key point:

Don’t just march from the top of your outline to the bottom.
Include repetition and ampflication.

State it – give us the claims.

Explain it – Explain it in a sentence or two unpack the claim and
prime us for the support.
Show it – Diving deeper in the support, be concrete, explain he
support and how it relates to the claim.
Conclude it - A little conclusion to the point reinforces what the
key point was. Touch on the key claim again as a way of wrappig
up.

(George Le Master)

Sample Performance of a Key Point

I’m a speech teacher at the University of Washington.

I. I teach classes
A. Undergraduate speech classes.
B. Graduate speech classes.

II. I do administrative service.

A. In charge of the communication major.
B. College curriculum committee.

III. I engage in public outreach

A. Public speaking MOOC.

Chapter 3 – Make your Speech easy to follow

1. Help your audiences orient themselves to your conent

with introductions, transitions and conclusion.
2. Practice this arrangement talk so it doesn’t sound too
blunt.
3. Helping your audience in this way doesn’t spoil the
ending.
4. But save this arrangement talk for appropriate speech
genres when you need to be clear.

Introduction

1.Open the speech

 Take a moment, pause, clap and go ahead.
2 . Orient the audience we want quickly to know the subject
matter.
3 . Provide a preview. Because a preview provides some essential
clarity.

Transitions
1. Transitions demonstrate the distinctness of each point.
2. Transitions help the audience know where you are.
3. Transitions give the audience just a little brea.

Walk on the transition

Many transitions are both performance and content. The

audience should hear and feel a transition.

Conclusions

1. Conclusions reinforce the key points.

2. Conclusions should provide a sense of closure.
3. Your final line should sound like a final line.
(usually, slower and more deliberate.)

Chapter 4 – Dynamic Vocal Delivery

Shallow breathing problem.

Exhale fully not retain air.
Diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing.

Do this as warm up.

1. When speaking, unlike sitting around, we inhale for a

shorter period of time and exhale for a longer period.
2. We need a good volume of air to project well.
3. Diaphragmatic breathing contracts the diaphragm
allowing you to take in more air.
4. When breathing diaphragmatically, your stomach should
move, but your shoulders shouldn’t
Projection

Open your mouth wide when you are speaking.

1.Good projection requires good breath control.

2. Try to expand the pharynx a bit to add to your
resonance.
3. When projecting, speak for 10 rows past the back row.
4. When projecting, listen for a tiny bit of echo.

Pitch-Intonation

When you give a speech:

1.Avoid reading too much

2. If you do manuscript, write for oral performance.
3. Where you falter, alter.
4. Vocal warmp ups.

Use passion when you speak about something.

1.Pitch is the highness or lowness of a tone or a sound.

2. Maintaing good contrastive tone by:
Not reading too much
Writing for oral performance.
Vocally warming up before speaking.

Rates and Pauses

1.Deliver important lines more slowly.

Preview of key points introduction.
2.Use pauses and repetition to direct attention.
3. Privilege the intonation unit.
Speak a little bit slower.

1.Imagine your audience taking notes on your talk.

Where would you need to slow down for them to easily
write down important ideas?

2.Deliver important lines more slowly.

3. Use pauses and repetition to direct attention.
4. Privilege the intonation unit. As much as possible, try
to avoid breaking u a phrase with an um.

Gestures

1. Have controlled gestures.

Imagine a gesture box where you do your gestures.

2. Gestures can augment and emphasize the message

3. Gestures can make the performance more animated.

There is no right or wrong way to gesture. In general,

though, you might want to:

1.Have controlled gestures.

2.Use gestures to augment and emphasize the content.
3. Use gestures to be a more animated speaker.
4. Find speakers you like and model their gestures.

Movement

Look conscious aware of the movements that you are

taking. We do not want movements that reveal a
nervous state. Stand flat on the floor, straight, take
step or two.
Be seen.
You do see the audience and the audience see you.
 Be deliberate.

Your movements are unique to you. You might think

about these principles.

1. Be committed. Your movement shouldn’t look

unconscious. Rather, move purposefully.
2. Be seen. Face the audience. Make sure the majority
can easily see you and your face.
3. Be deliberate. What do you want the movement to
accomplish? Is it illustrating an idea? Conveying
excitement?

Chapter 5 – Public Speaking

Apprehension
What is public speaking apprehension?

A communication-based anxiety where speakers, in response to an actual

or expected presentation, experience psychological, cognitive and
behavioral responses.

It can manifest as a trait (rooted more in the person) and/or a state (rooted
more in the situation)

The Causes of Public Speaking Apprehension

Internal causes, process your body own signals, we assume that the
audience will understand how we feel – illusion of transparency.

External Causes

Novelty, formality, status, degree of evaluation.

Identifying specific problem areas and coming up with specific remedies.

Reducing your public speaking apprehension.

1. Systemic desensizitation
Breathing slowly, relaxing, imaging giving a talk.
2. Visualization.
Imagine yourself doing well when you are speaking.
Anticipation, confrotation, adaptation, release.

3.Cognitive modification
You confront your unstated assumptions. Identify the things that
make you anxious and go to those things and evalute them.

4.Practicing

More speeches help reduce apprehension.