SPC 1315 / 1321

1. SPC 1315 / 1321 Making Effective Presentations Making Effective Presentations

2. When is the correct time to ask questions during class lectures? When is the correct time to ask questions during someone’s speech? What should you do if you arrive for class while someone is giving a speech?

3. Dealing with Fear • Accept some fear as normal • Desire to do well, adrenalin for energy • Good preparation and practice • Welcoming environment

4. Dealing with Fear • List your fears • I’m afraid ... (will happen) • Classify your fears • Helps identify solutions • Reconceptualize the audience • From ‘critic’ to ‘recipient’ • ‘Talk with’ them • Look for friendly faces

5. Dealing with Fear • Build confidence with preparation and practice • Learn techniques for tension release • Visualize success (field goal / golf shot) • ‘Cognitive restructuring’ -- replace mental negatives with positive ones • Practice ‘systematic desensitization’ -- gradual exposure over time

6. Fear might lead to... • Monotone delivery • Or, a constant vocal pattern • Instead of good pace, rate, inflection and overall good vocal variety • AND -- limited gestures or overexaggerated gesturing, lack of eye contact and effective speaker posture and movement, instead of useful ‘nonverbal communication’

7. Some advice examples • Fear of speaking assessed • Imagine the audience loves you • Overcoming Fear • Four steps for overcoming fear

8. Apprehension or Fear? • True high level nervousness and symptons • Sink or swim? • Shake it off? • Common anxiety and uncertainty • Energy • Breathing right • Just chat

9. Chapter 5 Developing the Presentation: Planning

10. Getting Started • Four phases of the creative process • Preparation, incubation, illumination, refinement • Make a realistic timetable • List tasks, estimate time • Determine order • Set intermediate deadlines • Reason for spreading out speeches, rough draft, final outline and notes before speech due date • Developing a speech Sunday for Monday presentation?

11. Preparation Realities • Extemporaneous speech • Outline organization • Reduced to note cards • Practice with focus on main ideas • Enhanced conversation • Because a speech is delivered orally, it must be composed orally • Three key phases • Preparation, practice, presentation

12. Planning Pitfalls • Failing to allow time for incubation • Not finding good evidence to support assertions • Failing to allow adequate margin of error • Stalling progress because of ‘writer’s block’ • Not practicing orally, and over several practice sessions

13. Chap. 6 -- Topic Selection • Select a topic • Something you like • Something you know about • Something you feel strongly about • Unusual experience you’ve had • Special expertise you have? • Something that fits the occasion • Develop a purpose • Write a statement and summary • Come up with main points

14. Establishing a Purpose • General Purpose Inform? Persuade? Entertain? Invite? • Specific Purpose • Describe the Reaction You Are Seeking • Be As Specific As Possible • Make Your Goal Realistic • Be aware of your audience • Specify the primary audience outcome • Develop a clear Thesis Statement (p. 82)

15. Methods for Defining a Thesis Statement • Imagine that you met a member of your audience at the elevator and had only a few seconds to explain your idea before the doors closed. • Imagine that you had to send a one- or two-sentence text message that communicated your main ideas.

16. Methods for Defining a Thesis Statement continued…. • Ask yourself, “If my listeners heard only a small portion of my remarks, what is the minimum they should have learned?” • Suppose that a friend asked one of your listeners what you were driving at in your presentation. What would you want the audience member to say?

17. Thesis Statement Steps • Formulate a single declarative sentence • All sentences in your outline are declarative • Each sentence is an outline point or subpoint. • Break the thesis statement into a list of questions • This helps you identify subtopics • All speeches have 2-5 main points • Select a speech title if necessary • Not all speeches require a title

18. Audience Analysis -- Ch. 7 • Analyzing the Audience • What are their positions? • What are their personal preferences? • What demographic characteristics are significant? • What size is the group? • Why is the audience there? • What does the audience know? • What are the listeners’ attitudes?

19. Audience Demographics • Age • Sex (gender) • Religion • Cultural Background • Intellectual Level • Occupation • Socioeconomic Level • Community Status

20. How do you get to know them? • Direct Observation • Systematic data collection • Selected interviews or focus groups • Talk with the contact person • Use intelligent inference • Don’t assume ‘they’re all just like the rest of us’

21. Analyzing Yourself As the Speaker • Your Purpose • Your Knowledge • Your Feelings About the Occasion

22. Speaker Credibility • “A speaker’s character is the most important means of persuasion he possesses”. --Aristotle • It consists of… Character Intelligence Good will

23. Analyzing the Occasion • Facilities • Lighting • Furniture arrangement • Physical comfort • Time • Time of day • Time limit • Context • Visit the location

24. Research (Reasoning) • Chap. 8 -- Research • APA style • Citing in the outline / reference list / in the speech • Full sentence outline preparation • Note card preparation • Speech tomorrow • 4 minutes :30 / 3:00 / :30 • Outline and note card Wednesday night • Hard Copy – exactly the same version – Thurs. 9 am

25. Research • A good extemporaneous speech is based on information you find, organize, and cite as evidence within your speech • Speech outline must have APA style citations • End of outline must have APA style References • References must come from traditional, retrievable sources • Rerences list: tell me where to find it • NOT: how you found it (database) • APA style online

26. Research -- Gee Library

27. Research -- Gee Library

28. Research -- Gee Library • http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/library/

29. NOT .... • Google, Bing, Yahoo and related web pages • Wikipedia, or encyclopedias in general • More than a a few ‘unretrievable sources’ • Primary evidence is better than secondary • Personal interviews are not cited • APA (and all others) have specific citation styles -- you must check and use APA style

30. Best sources • Recent, relevant evidence found in journal article • Recent, relevant evidence found in magazine, newspaper or similar publication • Recent, relevant evidence found in a book or book chapter • Primary evidence collected from your own research

31. Example • Thesis statement: “Sexual content on television leads to an increasingly relaxed sexual attitude in American society.” (a persuasive topic) • Main point: Teenagers are more frequently engaged in sexual activity now than a generation ago. • Main point: Society is more accepting of homosexuality than a generation ago. • Main point: Married Americans are more promiscuously unfaithful to their marriage than a generation ago.

32. What do I need to define? • Sexual content on TV • Teenagers. 13 or 19? • ‘A generation’ • Relaxed sexual attitude • What is ‘on television?’ Prime time TV shows? Movies? Soap operas? Reality shows? Sit-coms? Children’s shows? • Importance of topic?

33. What facts are important? • Studies from the 1950s to today showing a relationship between TV viewing and human behavior • Studies from the early 1900s about film content and audience behavior • Sociology / psychology studies about changes in ethical perspectives over the past 100 years • Broader history of human sexuality over hundred of years (Romans, Greeks, Shakespeare plays)

34. What evidence? • Find only studies that support my thesis? • What theoretical basis was there for a particular study? (qualitative / quantitative) (of these, specific theories) • ‘hegemony’ is qualitative. Social learning / cognitive is quantitative (measure statistics -- Bobo doll) • Facts, statistics, expert opinions... (more on this later) • ‘Proof’ • Revisit ethical perspectives

35. Research strategy • Refer back to Topic Selection issues • Refer back to Planning issues • Prepare based on speech time allotted • Move from General to Specific • Develop a list of key terms and do some overall reading about your topic • Use the library --->>

36. Library Research • Online -- as demonstrated • Talk to a librarian • Locate books, journals, specialized dictionaries etc. • Use the Internet • Some information on web pages • The Netherlands: Hilversummary • Johnson, D. (1993, October 11). Dutch need to feed a second private station. Variety, M6.

37. Doing Research • Talk to people • Locate people with information • Conduct interviews • Conduct surveys • BACK TO CITING • APA & MLA -- us, APA (pp. 121-123 / online) • Conversational in speech, style in outline

38. More Speech samples as time permits • Persuasive ? -- or motivational? Correction of errors? Clear overview? Enough evidence? (answers.com as a source?) His verbal ‘filling in of silence? His attention getting technique? His ‘are you ready’? Pounding the lectern a problem? • Informative with annotations • Pacing issue? Enough vocal variety? Thesis tied to clincher? Good transitions?

39. Summary of main ideas from this week... • Are improved communication skills important? • What and who do we use as a theoretical basis for evaluating ‘good communication’ • ‘Western’ perspective • Negotiating shared meaning • What goes into an extemporanous speech?

40. Main ideas... • Talk about things you have an interest in • Understand how we communicate • Importance of listening • Ethics • Fear • Preparation • Planning • Topic Selection • Audience Analysis • Research

41. Organization of Ideas • Full sentence outline • Specific purpose and thesis statement • Main Points with subpoints and ‘proof’ • Transitions (connectives) between points • Introduction and Conclusion • Staying on time -- based on organization and practice

42. Finally... • The basic issue of a speech is • Get the audience’s attention and tell them what your speech is about • Guide the audience through the speech by your language and delivery -- making main points obvious • Transition into a conclusion and remind the audience what the speech was about. Have a clear ‘clincher.’

43. Thursday / Friday • 9:00 - speeches -- final Informative preparation • After test Friday, go to ‘Mini Lab’ or Gee Library computer lab and work on Informative Speech (Gee Library -- librarian help) • Find a minimum of 5 retrievable sources • Create a rough draft full sentence outline • Create a rough draft 4x6 note card (see sample) • Weekend: continue reading, fine tune outline and note card, practice and time speech, submit final draft of outline and note card by 10 pm Sunday • Submit these as .doc, .pdf or .rtf attachments to demarsmedia@gmail.com

46. Samples linked on course outline

47. Other Speech reminders • Timing Speeches • 3:30 - 4:30 / 9:30 - 10:30 • letter grade reduction per :30 / stopped after 4:30 • Practice timing to 4:00 / 10:00 • Length of intro? Length of conclusion? Length of each main point? • Attention-getting open , clincher close? • How to practice? Record yourself / use an audience / realistic set up

48. What you turn in at 9:00 Monday -- late to class = late • Final Draft full sentence outline -- same as was sent to e-mail address • Final draft note card -- same as was sent to e-mail address • No outline and note card = no speech • Improper note card will not be given back for use • Whatever you hand me must be what you take to the lectern for your speech • Speech order selected at random / posted on outline

49. Questions / Discussion

50. Break ... 10 minutes .. speeches