CHAPTER 1: SPEAKING IN PUBLIC

Instructor’s Manual (Lecture Notes Only) for A Concise Public Speaking Handbook Sixth Edition Steven A. Beebe Susan J. Beebe By 1 / 4

A Concise Public Speaking Handbook, 6e Instructor’s Manual 1 Copyright © 2024, 2018, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

CHAPTER 1: SPEAKING IN PUBLIC

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.1 Explain why it is important to study public speaking.

1.2 Discuss in brief the history of public speaking.

1.3 Sketch and explain a model that illustrates the components and the process of communication.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Why Study Public Speaking?
• We study public speaking to learn and practice strategies for effective delivery and critical

listening.

• We study public speaking to discover new applications for skills we already possess, such as

researching and organizing ideas.

• The study of public speaking provides long-term advantages related to empowerment and

employment.

• Empowerment gives you an edge over less-skilled communicators.
• Communication skills are the top factor in helping college graduates obtain employment.

II. The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking

• Fourth to first centuries BCE: golden age of public speaking in which Aristotle and other orators

refined speaker guidelines still followed today.

B. Nineteenth century: public speakers practiced declamation and elocution.

1. Declamation: speakers delivered already famous speeches.

• Elocution: speakers practiced the expression of emotion through posture, gestures,

movement, facial expression, and voice.

• Twentieth and twenty-first centuries: technology expands the parameters of public speaking while

drawing on age-old public-speaking traditions.

III. The Communication Process

• Communication as Action

1. Speaker: a source of information and ideas for an audience.

• Speaker’s job: to encode, or translate, ideas into a code, or verbal or nonverbal symbols that

the audience can recognize.

3. Message: the speech itself.

• Listener’s job: to decode or translate the speaker’s verbal and nonverbal symbols back into a

message.

• Channels: the message is transmitted from sender to receiver via two channels.
• Visual: audience members see the speaker and decode the speaker’s nonverbal symbols.

b. Auditory: audience members hear words and vocal cues.

6. Receiver: individual audience member decodes the message.

• Noise: anything that interferes with the communication of a message. 2 / 4

A Concise Public Speaking Handbook, 6e Instructor’s Manual

2 Copyright © 2024, 2018, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

• External noise is physical, such as incessant coughing or a noisy air conditioner.
• Internal noise may stem from either physiological (a bad cold) or psychological causes

(worry about an upcoming exam) and may directly affect either the source or the receiver.

• Communication as Interaction
• Without an audience to hear and provide feedback, public speaking serves little purpose.

2. Context: the environment or situation in which the speech occurs.

• Physical context includes the temperature or lighting of a room.
• Cultural context includes the speaker’s and audience’s cultural traditions and expectations,

their identification with social groups, and their level of perceived power, influence, and social standing.

• Communication as Transaction
• The most recent communication models focus on communication as a simultaneous process.
• Listeners nonverbally express their thoughts and feelings at the same time the speaker is

talking.

• Public Speaking and Conversation
• Public speaking requires more preparation than conversation.
• Public speaking is more formal than conversation.
• Roles of speakers and audiences are more clearly defined in public speaking than in

conversation.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

As you study public speaking, you will discover new applications for skills you may already have, such as focusing and organizing ideas and gathering information. You will also gain long-term advantages related to empowerment and employment.

Public speaking has a long history. The guidelines formulated by Greek philosopher Aristotle in the fourth century BCE are still followed today. Students of public speaking in the nineteenth century practiced the arts of declamation and elocution. Contemporary students of public speaking draw on previous traditions and use digital technology to reach worldwide audiences.

Linear communication models include the source, the message, channels, receivers, and noise.Interactive models of communication add two dimensions to the communication process: feedback and context. Feedback refers to the verbal and nonverbal messages provided by the audience. Context refers to the actual environment in which the speech occurs. Physical context includes the temperature and lighting of the room. Cultural context includes the audience’s and speaker’s cultural traditions and expectations. Public speaking is an important skill that is different from everyday conversation because it is more formal, requires more preparation, and establishes the roles of the speaker and the audience more clearly.

KEY TERMS

public speaking empowerment declamation elocution source encode code message decode 3 / 4

A Concise Public Speaking Handbook, 6e Instructor’s Manual 3 Copyright © 2024, 2018, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.channel receiver external noise internal noise feedback context

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