5 Chapter 5: Public Speeches
Thus far in this book we’ve thought quite a bit about the ways in which speeches are given at events, in professional spaces, and at private occasions. These might be in the office, at a conference, or at a party. In all these events you have a general idea of who your audience will be and what they need or expect to hear. However, how do you adapt to situations where your audience is unknown? Put another way, how do we give speeches to the public? In this chapter we will think about the ways in which the public is defined. Then, we will think about several different types of public spaces in which you might be asked to give a public speech either personally or professionally. Finally, we will think about the role of advocacy in the speech by looking at self, peer, and citizen advocacy.
Technical, Private, and Public Communication
Technical Communication
The communication scholar Thomas Goodnight wrote about the public sphere as being uniquely different from the technical sphere and the personal sphere. The technical sphere, according to Goodnight, is a place which requires a high degree of entry. You might also think of this as gatekeeping. To enter this space, you must have a certain set of skills, educational accreditation, and/or sometimes age, gender or other demographic group. For example, your classroom is a technical sphere because you must have completed high school to be able to enter the university classroom. You must also be able to speak English. And, importantly, you must respect the hierarchy which is already in place for the classroom – this is the acknowledgement that the professor is in charge of the students. Similarly, in a workplace many members of an office will graduated from university. They must speak a similar language, have certain technological skills, and they adhere to a strong hierarchy. For example, a manager might introduce a new policy and while she might ask everyone in the office to give feedback, it will be well known that the manager’s has the final say in deciding which feedback will it be accepted and which feedback should be ignored.
Private Communication
Private spheres of communication have a barrier to entry or gatekeeping. However, these requirements are not usually based on education. Instead, they reflect long standing hierarchies, experiences, and personal relationships. The first private sphere which we all participate in is our family. When communicating with members of your family you can reference events that happened decades ago. When you make these references, you do not have to give too many details. You know how the hierarchy of your family works, and it most likely has been in place long before you were born. Often these hierarchies are based on age, but they might also be based on gender, economics, religion, or a weird event that happened decades ago. Sometimes the hierarchy changes based on location and migration. Other times, it changes when children who once needed their parent’s help become the caretakers for their parents. Unlike in technical and professional communication where there may be a HR department to help set the norms and expectations of communication, in the private sphere it is the participants who work together to determine what is acceptable and not acceptable to discuss. Sometimes it is easy to enter a new private sphere – you may have experienced this when visiting a friend’s family and you felt just like you were at home. Other times, it can be difficult to understand your role in a new private sphere and to negotiate exactly how you are expected to participate. This is a common point of stress when a couple is dating and have begun to meet each other’s parents and extended families. Learning how to speak with different relatives, what topics are taboo, and what the gendered expectations are in a private sphere are critical to the success of many relationships and can sometimes take a lifetime to master.
Private sphere communication an occur in the home, but it sometimes also occurs when the speakers are in public. Imagine for example that my mother and I are riding the subway. We sit together discussing the ways in which we will make a cake for my brother’s birthday. We might say things along the lines of ” remember that pineapple cake?” and then we would both start laughing. In my family we all remember the pineapple cake and we don’t need to elaborate because everyone remembers the time that my father and I attempted to make my mother a cake. We didn’t turn the oven on, and for an hour we attempted to bake it using only the oven light. Then, once the neighbor finally helped get the cake baked, we attempted to decorate the cake using the entire can of crushed pineapple. We did not drain the can, instead we poured an entire can of pineapple and pineapple juice all over the cake. Needless to say, when my mother came home, she was not eager to eat the cake. However, she did get a good, sustained laugh when she heard about our efforts. When speaking in the private sphere, everyone in my family automatically knows this story. If my mother and I are on the subway laughing about the pineapple cake, we are participating in a private sphere discussion. Even though we are in a public space, the conversation itself is still private. It would be very strange if someone on the subway tried to participate and asked “tell me about your pineapple cake! Why is it so funny? Can I have the recipe?” This stranger might be sitting next to us, but they are not invited to participate in that discussion. And unless they marry into the family, they are unlikely to ever be invited to participate in this private sphere.
Public Sphere
Public sphere discussions and presentations are different from those of the technical and the private sphere because they do not have the same barriers of entry. Anyone, theoretically, can participate in a public sphere discussion or presentation. This entry is permitted regardless of their age, their class, gender, ethnicity, or level of education. We know that there still are barriers to participation. Those barriers might include the ability to speak the language well enough to participate. For example, you may need to be able to speak English well enough to participate in many New York City meetings. However, to ensure that the public is truly able to participate, many meetings also are held in Spanish and American Sign Language. And with notice, meetings can be translated into a wide assortment of languages. Participate in public sphere communication might require speakers to physically attend a meeting, which can put limits on participation. For example, if a public event is held at noon, some people might be able to attend because they are working from home or they have a lunch break at noon. However other members of the public might not be able to physically come to the speech and make it back to work in time. Or they might not be able take time away from their other family and work responsibilities to attend a speech or meeting.
Think for example a school board meeting. School board meetings are designed to be public. All adults are permitted to participate because citizens pay taxes into the school system and should therefore have the ability to learn and speak about what is happening in public schools. Additionally, parents may care to participate because they and their children have the right to education provided at those schools. To accommodate these schedules, school board meetings often occur in the evening with the anticipation that more people will be able to attend. Yet, we know that individuals who work in the evening are not able to attend those meetings. And we should be concerned if those who are excluded from these meetings are from economic groups which do not make as much money, or do not hold the same place in a community social hierarchy, as other participants. Therefore, even though a public sphere deliberation or a public sphere speeches should be open to all members of the public, it is not always the case that everyone is included. The movement of these meetings to zoom enabled more people to attend public meetings and deliberations. However, zoom meetings also have limitations as they allow the moderator to mute participants and also to remove them from the room in the event that their participation is deemed to be unnecessary, unruly, or otherwise unsupportive of the event.
Public Spaces
What are the public spaces in which you might give or listen to a speech? We’ve already mentioned one of them which is school board meetings. Similarly, community planning boards, rental boards, building and parks evaluation, all of these organizations hold public meetings which impact our daily lives. You may choose to participate in these meetings as a speech maker or audience member. Many of these events have time for public comment for which you must sign up in advance or at the start of the meeting. You may then be given a set period of time to make your comment to the elected officials presenting at that meeting. Sometimes speakers are given 90 seconds and sometimes they will have two or three minutes. In that moment of public comment, it is important that you identify yourself as a member of the community. Sometimes speakers identify themselves by only their name. Other times they do so by their specific location such as a building or a block on which they live. This identification is important as it builds the ethos of the speaker as someone that is deeply invested in the topic at hand.
What to include in public speeches
Public speeches are used to advocating for an opinion, policy, program, or value. For example, you might speak about rezoning a building from commercial to residential use. Or you might support the establishment of a public park. When giving your speech, it is critical that you encourage policymakers at the event to see the issue from your perspective. This is done through establishing the pathos, ethos, and logos for your arguments. Additionally, you want to imply or demonstrate that this is not only your own opinion but also the opinion of other members of the community. If you are excited about the proposal, make sure that you are willing to show that excitement. Tell a short story of how the new development will specifically improve your community. Or, if you are saddened or worried you need to explicitly voice those emotions. The expression of sadness at a public meeting is at times difficult to manage as we all express grief differently. It is difficult to give a speech if you begin crying so much that the audience cannot understand you. Or if members of the audience do not know you well, they might not understand that you are sad if you are not crying. Don’t leave them guessing or allow them to misread your emotions. Instead, use a short, clearly instruction such as “I am deeply saddened by this proposal because it will….” to express exactly how you feel.
Because public comment periods are so brief, it is appropriate and recommended that you bring written commentary. Print out your notes, or possibly your entire speech beforehand. Then you can read your comments at the event. As with all speeches it is important that you practice your speech before presenting. Additionally, attend to your non-verbal presentation and attire to best build your ethos at both the event and while giving your speech.
Advocacy Types:
There are three types of advocacy which you might be providing at a public event. These are: self-advocacy, peer advocacy, and community advocacy.
Self-Advocacy
Self-advocacy is used to advocate for yourself. In a professional setting, this includes when you ask for a raise, when you’re asking to be moved to a different team ,when you’re asking someone to pay attention to the work that you have done, and when you ask for a reward or promotion. In a public setting, self-advocacy is a time in which you are asking for something for yourself or family. This may also benefit your community. For example, in high school you may have participated in this type of self-advocacy if you participated in a competitive team. You may have had to fundraise in the community, at school board meetings, and even to your parents to gain enough money to attend a competition. That money allowed both you, and the team which you were a part of to attend. In this type of self-advocacy, you are a successful speaker if you can get the audience to believe in the importance of the event, your attendance, and the future precedent that your attendance will set. While self-advocacy is truly for yourself, it is often done most successfully when there is a larger picture which the audience can envision and participate in.
Peer-advocacy
Advocating for someone else is known as peer-advocacy. This is done when you speak in support of someone that cannot speak for themselves, such as a child. But it is also done when you are giving support for a proposal or group which is already speaking for themselves. Sometimes peer-advocacy occurs when the speaker indicates that they have been asked to speak on behalf of a group, for example when a union representative speaks for all of their members. Other times, it occurs when a community member was not able to attend a meeting and you’ve been asked to speak on their behalf. Lastly, sometimes peer-advocacy is used when the subject of the speech is present but cannot, or is not confident to, give the speech themselves. For example if you are asked to speak on behalf of your neighbor who does not confidently speak English.
We also provide peer advocacy as audience members. This occurs most noticeably through applause after someone has made a critical point. But it can also occur by simply showing up to a meeting and signaling through your attendance that the topic is important or interesting to you. This advocacy can go even further by bringing a sign, wearing a slogan on your shirt, or wearing a uniform of a group. In all these ways, both verbal and non-verbal community members can advocate for one another.
Citizen advocacy
Self and peer advocacy are used for proposals that immediately affect us. But what of those which effect a much larger or more distant community? In these events we might use citizen advocacy. This form of advocacy occurs when you are a speaker who is working with and supporting local members of a community to achieve a unique goal. Or, when they have taken an interest in a goal of another group.
Citizen advocacy can be found in many places in New York City. One example is city parks budgets. These are prepared with time for deliberation and comment from the public. Many meetings are held, and various proposals are considered. Citizens, even youth, are encouraged to liberate the best way to use park spaces. For example, they might debate if a square should be used to create a basketball arena, a new skate park, or a pickleball court. Alternatively, they might decide if a space should become a children’s park or a dog park. In all these different ideas, citizens are asked to contribute to the deliberation and think about the ways in which their community might best use a park space. We know that these proposals are mutually exclusive. The city cannot build a dog park in the middle of a pickleball court on top of a children’s playground. What is necessary, then, is for the community to deliberate about which of the competing proposals will improve their own lives, but also those of their fellow community members.
Speaking at events that call for citizen advocacy can be difficult. This difficulty is made more difficult if the audience knows, or presumes that it knows, something about you. For example, if a teacher at the elementary school, community members might expect that the teacher will support building a playground. They might be confused if a teacher argues that there are enough playgrounds and instead the community needs a dog park. This confusion occurs because the audience has already made a judgement about the teacher – their ethos is based on their support and work with children. They might be blindsided to the other ways in which that individual is willing to participate in the community as a fully engaged citizen. This does not mean that the teacher cannot support a dog park, but that they need to anticipate the audience’s expectations and explain their perspective in a way that the audience will understand. For example, they might say:
“I am an elementary school teacher and even though I strongly support the ability of children to have open and free play spaces I also as a dog lover know that our community needs more dog parks. As someone that takes care of children I know that providing a safe place for dogs to play can result in a much more hygienic environment both for children and for dogs.”
By acknowledging what the audience knows about them, and then giving a more complex perspective into their lives, this example speaker invites the audience to understand where they are coming from. This type of self-introduction is an excellent way to start a speech of citizen advocacy.
Key Concepts
- Thomas Goodnight’s concept of the technical, private, and public sphere is a useful tool to understand different settings for communication.
- Each communication sphere has different hierarchies, expectations and roles for speakers.
- There are three types of advocacy, self, peer, and citizen.
