The Art of Public Speaking - Final Exam Questions with 100% Correct Solutions Graded to Pass

Audience-centeredness - Keeping the audience foremost in mind at every step of speech preparation and presentation. Good public speakers are audience-centered; primary purpose of speech-making is to gain a desired response from listeners. * To whom am I speaking? * What do I want them to know, believe, or do as a result of my speech? * What is the most effective way of composing and presenting my speech to accomplish that aim? Egocentrism - The tendency of people to be concerned above all with their own values, beliefs, and well-being. * Every speech contains two messages; one sent by the speaker, and one heard by the listeners (largely shaped by egocentrism) * Cater to your audience and they will be engaged Demographic audience analysis - Audience analysis that focuses on demographic factors such as age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, group membership, and racial, ethnic, or cultural background. 1. Identify the general demographic features of your audience 2. Gauge the importance of those features to a particular speaking situation Stereotyping - Creating an oversimplified image of a particular group of people, usually by assuming that all members of the group are alike. * Want to avoid when doing demographic audience analysis Situational audience analysis - Audience analysis that focuses on situational factors such as the size of the audience, the physical setting for the speech, and the disposition of the audience toward the topic, the speaker, and the occasion. Attitude - A frame of mind in favor of or opposed to a person, policy, belief, institution, etc. Fixed-alternative questions - Questions that offer a fixed choice between two or more alternatives. Do you know what the insanity plea is in the U.S. legal system? Yes No Not sure * Limited responses, clear and unambiguous responses; tend to yield superficial responses. Scale questions - Questions that require responses at fixed intervals along a scale of answers. How often do you believe the insanity plea is used in U.S. court cases? Very seldom -------------- Very often * Good at gauging strength of respondent's attitudes Open-ended questions - Questions that allow respondents to answer however they want. What is your opinion about the insanity plea in U.S. court cases? * May not get the intended narrow, usable responses Supporting materials - The materials used to support a speaker's ideas. The three major kinds of supporting materials are examples, statistics, and testimony. * V. important in establishing credibility for the speaker Example - A specific case used to illustrate or represent a group of people, ideas, conditions, experiences, or the like. * Vivid, concrete examples have a strong impact on listeners' beliefs and actions Brief example - A specific case referred to in passing to illustrate a point. * Used for one short instance, or can be in succession to build for a more dramatic impact Extended example - A story, narrative, or anecdote developed at some length to illustrate a point. * By telling a story vividly and dramatically, the pull listeners into the speech. Hypothetical example - An example that describes an imaginary or fictitious situation. * Usually are brief stories that relate a general principle or a point that speaker is trying to prove Statistics - Numerical data * Often cited in passing to clarify or strengthen a speaker's points * Have to be careful that statistics aren't framed in a tricky manner * Make sure that statistics are representative, statistical measures are used correctly, are they from a reliable source? Mean - The average value of a group of numbers. Median - The middle number in a group of numbers arranged from highest to lowest. Mode - The number that occurs most frequently in a group of numbers. Testimony - Quotations or paraphrases used to support a point. * We are often influenced by the testimony of other people; audiences tend to respect the opinions of people who have special knowledge or experience on the topic at hand Expert testimony - Testimony from people who are recognized experts in their fields. * Lends credibility to your speeches; even more important when a topic is controversial or when the audience is skeptical about a speaker's point of view Peer testimony - Testimony from ordinary people with firsthand experience or insight on a topic. * Valuable because it gives a more personal viewpoint on issues than can be gained from expert testimony. Direct quotation - Testimony that is presented word for word. * More effective when they are brief or when they convey meaning better than you can. Paraphrase - To restate or summarize a source's ideas in one's own words. * Better than direct quotation when the wording of a quotation is obscure or cumbersome and when it is longer than two or thee sentences. Quoting out of context - Quoting a statement in such a way as to distort its meaning by removing the statement from the words and phrases surrounding it. * Making sure that you do not misquote someone, you do not violate the meaning of statements you paraphrase, and making sure you don't quote out of context. Denotative meaning - The literal or dictionary meaning of a word or phrase. Connotative meaning - The meaning suggested by the associations or emotions triggered by a word or phrase. Thesaurus - A book of synonyms. * Important to use language accurately Concrete words - Words that refer to tangible objects. * More likely to capture an audience's attention Abstract wods - Words that refer to ideas or concepts.