GE Elec Chapter 1

• Throughout history, people have used public speaking as a vital means of communication.
• What the Greek leader Pericles said more than 2,500 years ago is still true today: “One who forms a judgment on any point but cannot explain” it clearly “might as well never have thought at all on the subject.”
• Public speaking, as its name implies, is a way of making your ideas public – of sharing them with other people and of influencing other people.
• During modern times, many women and men around the globe have spread their ideas and influence through public speaking.
• In a survey of 480 companies in public organizations, communication skills – including public speaking – where ranked first among the personal qualities of college redwoods sought by employers.
• In another survey, college graduates in the workforce were asked to rank the skills most essential to their career development. What was at the top of their list? Oral communication.
• Public speaking is a vital means of civic engagement. It is a way to express your ideas and to have an impact on issues that matter in society.
• Public speaking offers you an opportunity to make a difference in something you care about very much.
• Almost all cultures have an equivalent of the English word “orator” to designate someone with special skills in public speaking.
• The oldest known handbook on effective speech was written on papyrus in Egypt some 4500 years ago.
• Eloquence was highly prized in ancient India, Africa, and China, as well as among the Aztecs and the other pre European cultures of North and South America.
• Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation

  1. Organizing your thoughts logically.
  2. Tailoring your message to your audience.
  3. Telling a story for a maximum impact.
  4. Adapting to listener feedback.
• Differences Between Public Speaking and Conversation

  1. Public speaking is more highly structured.
  2. Public speaking requires more formal language.
  3. Public speaking requires a different method of delivery.
• stage fright – the anxiety over the prospect of giving a speech in front of an audience
• In other words, it is perfectly normal – even desirable – to be nervous at the start of the speech. Your body is responding as it would to any stressful situation – by producing extra adrenaline.
• adrenaline – a hormone released into the bloodstream in response to physical or mental stress
• Rather than trying to eliminate ever trace of stage fright, you should aim at transforming it from a negative force into what one expert calls positive nervousness.
• positive nervousness – controlled nervousness that helps a speaker for 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
• 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
• Speaker. Speech communication begins with a speaker. He/she is the person who is presenting an oral message to a listener.
• The Speech Communication Process

  1. Speaker
  2. Message
  3. Channel
  4. Listener
  5. Feedback
  6. Interference
  7. Situation
• Message. It is whatever a speaker communicates to someone else.
• Channel. It is the means by which a message is communicated.
• Listener. The listener is the person who receives the communicated message from the speaker.
• frame of reference – the sum of a person’s knowledge, experience, goals, values, and attitudes. No two people can have exactly the same frame of reference
• Feedback. Communication is a two-way process.
• Interference. It is anything that impedes the communication of a message.
• internal interference – this comes from within your audience
• external interference – these happens outside you audience