SPE 111 Introduction to Public Communication

Keith Corso

OM 308

MWF 9:20 – 10:20

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 1- 2; Tuesdays 12:30 -1:30, others by appointment

Contact Information:

Office - TC 309

Office Phone – 724-946-7235

Home Phone – 330-539-4298

Email –

Website:

Course:

Let’s be honest. At some point in the future (not counting this class) you will need to speak in front of a group of people. Mostly likely in the immediate future it will be in one of your classes. When you enter the business world there is a high likelihood that you will need to get up in front of people to present something. Probably not in front of hundredsor thousands of people but somewhere for some reason. It could be a sales pitch to a prospective client, a presentation to fellow employees, or impromptu comments at a meeting.

You will need to speak, but the question is will you have any idea of what you need to do to make it a successful endeavor. The purpose of this class is to give you some experience and skills you can take will you to use when you face that speaking situation.

Let’s make this simple. There are really two main objectives of this class:

1)Provide students with speaking experience to create comfort and confidence as a speaker.

2)Provide students with a process they can use when constructing speeches in the future.

It’s really that simple and it makes no sense to complicate the matter.

In this course you will be introduced to a step-by-step approach to constructing an effective speech. You will complete activities that will allow you to build an effective speech that will be delivered in the last third of the semester.

Approach to Learning:

There are two things that I as a teacher am concerned about with this class. The first is that you learn the content of the class and the second is that you develop as a learner (develop learning and critical thinking skills). All too often college classes focus on dumping loads of content into your brain much like we load information onto the hard drive of the computer.

Yes, this class does focus on content. After all I want you to be a better public speaker when all is said and done. I would like you to demonstrate competence in all the areas we cover in this course from audience and situational analysis to effective speech organization to effective use of delivery skills. These are all important.

But what is just as important to me is that this class in some manner contributes to your development as a learner. Here is how the typical college class works. You get a book and you read it (hopefully). You go to class and the teacher lectures on the material or hold some lecture that masquerades as a class discussion. You are told what to know, when to know it and how much of it to know. You take a test or write a paper and then move on to the next piece of material. This method of instruction creates the impression that when you enter the “real” world, everything you need to know to complete your job successfully will be supplied to you. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

It is very typical that in a job you are given a task or problem to solve. Part of this responsibility is to seek and find the information you need to successfully complete the task. You have to take the responsibility to teach yourself what you don’t know and then often teach it to others. No one is there to give you all the information you need. What many people lack today are the skills to find information and to critically apply it to the task at hand.

It is my hope that not only will this class cover “content” but that you will be introduced to how to become a life-long learner and to be skilled at it. So how we learn material and explore it is just as important as what we learn.

Course Materials:

Textbook – A Concise Public Speaking Handbook, 2nd edition. Steven A. Beebe and Susan J. Beebe. Published by Pearson/Allyn & Bacon

This book is intended to be a resource for you throughout your entire college career and beyond. We expect you to not only use this in this class, but others classes where you need to make an oral presentation. It is for this reason that the college bookstore will NOT buy these books back at the end of the semester.

Attendance:

You need to attend class. I do realize that there are instances when one circumstance or another will prevent you from attending. It is for this reason that you are granted three (3) unexcused absences during the course of the semester. Use these for illness and other emergencies

Notes from the student health center that say “sick in room” DO NOT constitute a valid excuse. If you miss a class because you were sick in your room, this comes off your three (3) allowed absences.

The attendance policy is enforced in this class the following way:

  • The first two (3) absences can occur without penalty. Remember to use these for illness or emergencies
  • Your third absence will lower your final percentage grade by 3 points.
  • Each subsequent absence will result in your final percentage grade being reduced by 3 points.
  • Arriving more than 10 minutes late without a prior excuse is considered an absence.

You are responsible for work covered on days you miss. All assignments and reading are due as normal even if you miss class. Arrange with another student to get the work you miss. Your instructor is under no obligation to provide you with the work assignments or spend extra time explaining what was missed.

There may be instances where a student can be granted release time. This is defined by having to miss class to take part in another college activity that will take you off campus (i.e. sporting event, field trip, etc.) If you aren’t sure whether an activity counts as release time, just ask me. PLEASE BE ADVISED that if you are going to miss class due to release time, YOU ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE for completing the class work and getting it to me on time. Release time does NOT excuse you from getting the work done and on time.

NOTE: If you need to leave campus for an extended period of time, it is advisable to let Student Affairs know.

Attendance and Speech/Assignment Grades. PLEASE realize that if you miss class on a day a speech or other assignment is due, you will receive a “zero” on that assignment and will not be able to make it up.

Other Policies:

1. Misinformation (other than plagiarism--see below) will result in a penalty. When a student provides information that is false, inaccurate, or incomplete in such a way that it misleads or tends to mislead the audience, he or she violates the ethical duty of the speaker. At the very least, any student who significantly misinforms the class will be required to give a speech of apology and retract the misinforming statements. Grade penalties, up to failing the assignment in question, may also be assessed. The severity of misinformation depends on the extent to which it is avoidable, the extent to which it varies from accepted knowledge, failure to cite qualified sources of the information, and other factors. Any student concerned that her or his speech might violate this policy should contact me ahead of time and we can resolve the issue.

2. Time penalty: You are required to complete your speech in the time allocated. You will be penalized 1 point for every 10 seconds under the time limit, and 1 point for every 20 seconds over the time limit. Students who go extensively beyond the allocated time may be asked to stop speaking, whether they are finished or not, as serious overtime speaking can disrupt the speaking schedule and is unfair to the other students.

3. Late Policy: Very simple…late work is not accepted. Period. Printers jam, ink runs out, the network is down…all of these possibilities need to be addressed by working early and leaving nothing to the last minute.

READ THIS SECTION VERY CAREFULLY.

Your must deliver your speeches on your scheduled day. If you fail to deliver you speech on your day without receiving PRIOR APPROVAL from me, then you will deliver you speech the next class period with a 10% reduction in your grade. If you then miss the next scheduled period, you will receive a “zero” on the speech.

4. Cell Phone and computer usage. I DO NOT permit the use of cell phones, laptops, or other electronic devices during class unless you need these pre-approved learning reasons. In particular, texting during class in strictly prohibited. If you are texting during class then you may be physically present and not mentally, so I will mark you absent for any day I see you texting, or heaven forbid, talking on a cell phone during class.

Course Communication:

There are a number of ways that we can communicate in this class. First, the GroupWise email system is the first line of communication. Quick questions or correspondence can be carried on through this. If you have something detailed to discuss, in person is the best way.

Speech Evaluation:

The purpose of an evaluation is to offer constructive criticism for the speaker. In this class, evaluations that you receive back after a speech ARE NOT EXHAUSTIVE. What does this mean? Exhaustive evaluations attempt to evaluate all of, or even the majority, of those things a speaker does well on a speech and those thing that need improvement. An evaluation should be a springboard for improvement. A speaker should be able to pick two or three things to work on after a speech but an exhaustive evaluation just provides too much information.

With this in mind, when you get an evaluation back from me you will get two or three things to work on for the next speech as well as some things you did well on. So do not expect a long detailed written evaluation from me on any of your speeches. In the end if I am focusing on the major strengths and weaknesses I can spend more of my time listening to your speech and less time writing things down. The end result is an evaluation that you can use to improve.

Just to restate. Please do not expect long detailed evaluations of your speeches. These generally don’t help the student improve and that is what I want for you in this class. If you need more feedback, then you need to make arrangements to see me in my office.

Assignments:

The grade in this class is determined by all speaking assignments and one written assignment. Below is a brief description of the assignments. More detailed information regarding each assignment will be provided when necessary,

Introduction Speech. This is your first speech and is considered a low risk speech.There is no research needed for this speech and it is designed for you to pay attention to basic speech structure of developing an introduction, body and conclusion. Speech length is 3 to 4 minutes

Literature Speech . In this speech you take a piece of literature and explain how the messages contained within are meaningful to you. You will need to pay attention to the structure of the speech including introduction, body and conclusion. You should look over the evaluation of the first speech and work on improving areas where the evaluation indicated you should improve. This is a 3 to 4 minute speech.

Power Point Speech. PowerPoint is the most used and misused application in speechmaking today. This speech asks you to demonstrate how something works by using power point slides alone. This is a 4 to 6 minute speech.

MAJOR SPEECHES

The purpose of these assignments is to bring all of the public speaking skills together in one experience. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their competence in both delivery and content development of a speech.

A student must complete these two (2) speeches plus the oral final exam in order to pass the class. If a student fails to complete these assignments or receives a zero (0), they will fail the class. There are no exceptions to this policy.

Informative.You will impart some level of new information to the audience that they do not already know. This is different from the previous speech in that you are explaining something rather than showing it. (5 to 7 minutes)

Persuasive Speech .This is a speech designed to apply the concepts of constructing and delivering a persuasive message. (5 to 7 minutes)

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY. This semester you will be asked to voluntarily participate in a research project conducted by Keith Corso of the Communication Studies department. This study will take place over the course of a two week period of time. You will be asked to learn material about conducting internet research. At the end of the study you will take a quiz to see how much you learned. The grade on this quiz WILL NOT be factored into your grade in this class. However, if you complete all parts of this short study you will receive 35 extra points toward your final grade in this class.

Grading:

The grade for this class will be calculated as follows:

Assignment / Points
Introductory Speech / 20
Literature Speech / 100
PowerPoint Speech / 200
Informative Speech / 300
Persuasive Speech / 400
Total / 1020

Your grade will result in a percentage that will be translated into a letter grade. The following details how the letter grades are assigned.

93-100A90-92 A-87-89B+

84-86B80-83B-77-79C+

74-76C70-73C-67-69D+

64-66D61-63D-60 or below F

Academic Integrity:

Page 22 of your student handbook states:

Central to the purpose and pursuit of any academic community is academic integrity. All members of the Westminster Community, including students, faculty, staff, and administrators, are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty and integrity, in keeping with the philosophy and mission of the College.

The most flagrant violation of academic integrity is cheating on an exam or a quiz. Students caught participating in such an activity (either for their own or for another's benefit) will receive a course grade of "F," with no opportunity for the student to receive a "W" or "WF."

Other forms of scholastic dishonesty will be dealt with in a like manner. These may include (but are not limited to):

  1. Copying/turning in another's work (e.g., a fellow student's, a past student’s, or work from the internet) as one's own.
  1. Lending of one's work to another so that he/she may turn it in as his/her own.
  1. Stealing class materials from students, the professor, or from the library.
  1. Inhibiting another student from using library materials or other resources necessary for the class.

*NOTE: See your Student Handbook, pp. 22-24 for more exhaustive explanations of Academic Integrity.

For this class, full sentence outlines are required for the final two speeches. These outlines must be typed and submitted through Turnitin.com. This is a web based application used throughout the college to assist students in completing original work. Instruction on how to set up an account and submit the outline will be discussed in class.

Tentative Class Schedule:

Note that this schedule does not in any way represent a contract. It is fully up to my discretion to change this schedule to meet the needs of the course goals and other practical matters.

Date / Class Content / Chapter
1/20
1/22 / Introduction to class/Syllabus
Purpose of Communication/Introductory Speech / Chs. 1 & 2
1/25
1/27
1/29 / Ethics
Anxiety
Listening / Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
2/1
2/3
2/5 / Delivery
Delivery Continued
Introductory Speeches / Chs. 17, 18 & 19
2/8
2/10
2/12 / Introductory Speeches
Audience Centered Speaking
Topic selection/Specific Purpose/Thesis / Chs. 6 & 7
Chapter 8
2/15
2/17
2/19 / Finalize Topics
Researching
Literature Speeches / Chs. 9
2/22
2/24
2/26 / Literature Speeches
Presentation Aids
Presentation Aids (software) / Chs.20, 21 & 22
Chapter 23
3/1
3/3
3/5 / Supporting Material
Citing Sources
Outlining / Ch. 11
Ch 10
3/9
3/11
3/13 / SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
3/15
3/17
3/19 / SPRING BREAK
Power Point Speeches
Power Point Speeches
3/22
3/24
3/26 / Power Point Speeches
Power Point Speeches
Intros / Ch. 13
3/29
3/31
4/2 / Conclusion
Outlines due
EASTER BREAK / Ch. 14
4/5
4/7
4/9 / EASTER BREAK
Workshop Day
Informative Speeches
4/12
4/14
4/16 / Informative Speeches
Informative Speeches
Informative Speeches
4/19
4/21
4/23 / Persuasive speaking
Persuasive speaking continued (interview a persuader)
Persuasive strategies / Ch. 25
Ch. 26
4/26
4/28
4/30 / Persuaders presentations
NO CLASS
More persuasive strategies
5/3
5/5
5/7 / Workshop Day (First two groups)
Workshop Day (Last two speaking groups)
Persuasive Speeches
5/10 / Persuasive Speeches

FINAL EXAM PERIOD

Friday, May 14, 2010

8:00 - 10:30 AM

Last Two Speaking Groups

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