Intro: Why this course
This course was developed because of a change in the needs of our students. More speeches, work, and communication are occurring online. We are frequently asked to move between communication devices – from phone to computer, from Zoom to a lecture room, on a moment’s notice and we needed to prepare students for each of these situations.
For those of us working in person – both returning to the office and starting new careers – the presentation space is very different than before COVID. Workspaces are differently arranged; some employees are in the office and others are working remotely. Sometimes a speech that was meant to be in person is quickly moved online. And other times a critical audience member will suddenly ask if they can phone in. Learning to balance these changing, and sometimes malfunctioning workplaces is critical to your success as a communicator.
In this text you’ll find instruction and examples from several different technologies and situations currently encountered by our students. Some of these examples may seem too old or out of date to you. But we suggest you review them anyway. It can be a wonderful moment of bonding and community when speaking about “how things used to be” and knowing what that comparison is based on will help you to participate in those conversations. Additionally, sometimes new innovations are not the best way to give a speech – and knowing what other alternatives are available can quickly move yourself to something better.
All of the chapters in this text have been prepared with the professional speaker in mine. As students, you are required to focus on practicing speech making and presentation skills. We also want you to be using this time to become more comfortable with the norms and expectations of organizational speech making. For this reason, your assignments and examples have been drawn from a variety of real-world examples.
This text contains 10 chapters:
Chapter 1: Speaking With and Without Technology
Chapter 2: Supporting Everything You Say with Evidence
Chapter 3: Introduction Speeches
Chapter 4: Informative Speeches
Chapter 8: Corporate Policy and Practice
2 Chapters in this textbook are adapted/reproduced from the excellent “Start Here, Speak Anywhere” written by faculty members at the the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). Those chapters are chapter 4: Informative Speaking by Vincent (Tzu-Wen) Cheng, Ph.D and a Spotlight Chapter on Presenting Remotely by Joe Hutcheson, M.F.A.
The entire book, which is an excellent resource for any public speaker, can be found here:
