KARATINA UNIVERSITY

CCM 211PUBLIC SPEAKING

Course Instructor: Prof. Juliet Macharia

Email :jmacharia@karu.ac.k

Topic 1-Introduction to Public Speaking

Learning Outcomes.

i. Articulate at least four reasons why public speaking skills are important.
ii. Describe the difference between the linear and the transactional model of
communication.
iii. Define, and give an example of each of the components of communication process.
iv. Differentiate between the major types of speeches.
v. Demonstrate an understanding of the benefits of public speaking
vi. Show the relationship between public speaking and a conversation
vii. Demonstrate the relevance of the historical basis of public speaking.

Introduction:

According to Lucas (2015), public speaking is an “enlarged conversation,” and as such it has
some similarities to conversations but some major differences, too. ... a dependence on feedback
to know if you are successful in being understood.

Public speaking is also defined as a continuous communication process in which messages and
signals circulate back and forth between speaker and listeners. Simply stated, public speaking is
talking to a group of people.The Oxford English Dictionary defines public speaking as: "The
action or practice of addressing public gatherings; the making of speeches" (Oxford English
Dictionary, 3rd Edition).

Importance of Public Speaking

Every time you greet a friend or make a telephone call, give a short introduction to the paper
you’re presenting in class or share with your teenage child some sage advice, you are making a
speech. While you might not be standing in front of a large audience to give an Independence

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day speech/Address or a commencement speech with the whole world watching, the same
principles apply to your telephone conversations and casual chat with friends that apply to the
President of the United States and president of your university. The message must be
appropriate and comprehensible. Otherwise, what’s the point of speaking at all?

No matter how often you speak or how comfortable you may be in front of an audience, there
are some basic principles that everyone should master in order to create and deliver the best
possible message. Simply being able to talk out loud does not qualify everyone to give a good,
solid, useful speech because there is a huge difference between simply sharing information with
another person and rousing an audience to action with the power of your words.

A public speaking course is focused on three primary elements: the speaker, the audience, and
the message. In order to understand the importance of speaker credibility on the message, we
study the speaker and the message separately. What are the elements that make a speaker
good? Better? The best? How much influence does the speaker’s appearance have on the
message? How about the way they pronounce their words? Whether you can hear them?

Does the audience have any responsibilities other than to sit quietly until the speaker is done?
What does the speaker “owe” the audience and what does the audience “owe” the speaker? By
separating these elements of the public speaking situation, we can look at each in depth and
answer these questions. We study these elements separately so that we understand them
thoroughly, and then we put them together when it is time to give a classroom speech.

If you interview for a job; if you give presentations at work; if you hope to enter graduate
school; if you wish to create messages that are clear and comprehensible to your listeners in any
situation, then your class in public speaking will serve you well for your entire professional life.

Functions of Public Speaking

Without making a real effort to sit down in front of C-SPAN or seek out broadcasts of election
events during major political campaigns, we have few opportunities to observe live public
speaking in our contemporary society with the exception of preaching in our churches and the
occasional, often ceremonial, national televised addresses of political leaders. Yet, any college
course in history will remind us of those moments when the outcome of a war or the spoiling of

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a treaty, inciting the violence of a mob or the quieting of some angry crowd turned on the
words of a single speaker.

In 1940, Winston Churchill rallied the English people to face the ugly reality of impending war
with Germany while delivering his first speech in the House of Commons as Prime Minister.
His speech was short – less than 700 words -- and it took only five minutes from introduction to
conclusion. Yet, phrases from that speech became watchwords of confidence and identity for
England during the difficult years

to follow. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat” is a famous phrase both
because of the place and time they were uttered as well as the peculiar eloquence of his
phrasing.

Even Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address is short and, at the time it was delivered,
was not particularly memorable. Read by actor Jeff Daniels against a musical background on the
site Americanrhetoric.com, the whole speech lasts just over two minutes. Yet the opening
phrase “Four score and seven years ago” is familiar to most Americans, and the closing phrase
“of the people, by the people, and for the people” But Lincoln wasn’t eventhe featured speaker
that day in November of 1863. Lincoln, by contrast, was invited only a few weeks before the
ceremony to give some remarks in his official capacity as President after Everett delivered his
two hour oration.

In the past, before the invention of broadcast media, public speech was just about the only way
to bring together communities and cement public opinion. Before television, before radio –
skilled speakers would travel from community to community giving prepared speeches on the
issues of the day. Those speeches were both community entertainment and community
building. Audiences may have agreed with the speaker and roared their approval. Some
audiences may have disagreed and thrown rocks or rotten vegetables at the speaker. But
opinions – public opinions – were expressed verbally by individuals who were given the
opportunity to stand before an audience and share ideas, repeat common themes, and look for
agreement among supporters. That’s where Mark Twain stayed in touch with his audiences; he
wrote,but he also spoke and spoke prolifically!

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Even today, speakers remind their audiences of their shared values and common needs. We all
have our own dreams, but the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated brilliantly in 1963 a
common dream for our American community.

The Value of Public Speaking in the Electronic Age In spite of YouTube, Facebook, and various
other electronic message media where we can interact with hundreds or even thousands of
people anonymously and asynchronously if we wish, we still look to our politicians and our
preachers, our entertainers and our rebels, our sports heroes and our military heroes and our
everyday heroes to be able to say something meaningful when thrust in front of a camera. We’re
embarrassed when they fumble for words; pleased when they have something meaningful to
say; disappointed when they refuse to speak; and bored when they speak too long about
subjects that don’t interest us.

There are very few professions where one will not be called upon at some time to stand up and
“say a few words.” Knowing how many words constitute “a few,” which words are appropriate
to the occasion and the audience, and how to conduct yourself as a confident, polished speaker
might mean the difference in getting that job, earning a promotion, being considered for a
leadership position. Because, no matter how electronically connected we might be, most of us
spend the better parts of each day with people . And we need to interact with those people by
speaking with them and sometimes for them.

In most cultures, leaders of every stripe are expected to speak well. Most of those in leadership
positions are speaking for others, representing individuals who may not have the skills to speak
effectively or who may not have access to the audiences who need to hear the message. The
public speaker, then, represents a large number of people and gives a public voice to those who
may not have an opportunity to share their opinions widely.

I hope that speakers engage our minds as well as our hearts – and the aim of this class is to
assist students of public speaking to be as engaging as possible.

You will have to give presentations at work, talk on the telephone in some fashion or another,
and interact with human beings every day. In order to do so effectively, it pays to understand
the principles of good public speaking and to practice those skills once you understand the
concepts. This is a life-long learning experience!

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Questions

1. What are the three (3) primary elements of the public speaking course?

2. Why is it difficult to find examples of live public speaking?

3. How did the speeches of Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt differ?

4. What was Edward Everett supposed to do?

5. What is the primary purpose of public speaking today?

The History of Public Speaking

History of public speaking. Public speaking has existed since the dawn of human history. The
first known work concerning public speaking was written over 2500 years ago. Since then,
public speaking has evolved to encompass various techniques and technologies.

About 2,500 years ago in ancient Athens, men were required to give effective speeches as part of
their duties as citizens. The key word here is “effective” because they had much to gain or lose
depending upon their level of eloquence. High political office and wealth came to those with
the right connections and a ready wit; those who failed to speak well could possibly lose their
land in property disputes should they be unable to argue well their cases when sued by a
neighbor and end up selling themselves into slavery as debtors.

During the time that Socrates, Plato (427-347 BCE), and Aristotle taught their pupils philosophy
and rhetoric, democracy was on the rise in Athens. However, this isn’t democracy as we know
it in the modern world. This was a form of democracy where only a limited number of people
could participate because citizenship was defined narrowly. In general, think of those citizens of
Athens as a family – there would have been ties of kinship, religion, and culture. And this
family of citizens would have been exclusively male

Athens is located right on the sea and would have had significant contact with other cultures
because of trade routes which brought goods and people to the city via the sea, and a
population large enough to support specialized trades and intellectual activity. In fact, the
population (including slaves) may have been as large as 300,000 prior to Socrates birth,
depending upon which sources you find.

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Citizens met in large Assemblies in the marketplace (agora) to debate issues of war and
economics and politics. Athenian tribes were represented in the Council of Four Hundred,
citizens could take their grievances before a magistrate and argue their cases or stand up in the
assembly to speak against the actions of the wealthy who formed the Areopagus, essentially a
high court after Solon’s reforms. Note that this court and the assembly were established well
before Socrates was born, so there was already an active arena for public speaking when he
began teaching.

There were no lawyers and since people sued each other frequently, it was important that each
citizen be able to represent himself and his family. In addition, as the Assembly and other
democratic reforms became more important, the cultural notion of the citizen orator emerged.

Rise of the Citizen Orator

The citizen not only had the right to be a member of the Assembly or the Areopagus or to be
elected a magistrate, he had a duty to do so. In Athens, for example, any citizen who seldom
spoke in Assembly or held no office was called an idiotai – no translation necessary. In Sparta,
this sort of social disruption was called being “an Inferior.” Since it was important to participate
and to participate constructively in the public life of the polis, teachers of speech began to
emerge.

Teaching, governing, business – everyone with something to transact would have relied mainly
on their rhetorical skills. In other words, the ancients made use of their literary skills in some
contexts but relied mainly on oral interaction for teaching, government, and much daily
business.

These early teachers were labeled Sophists. They accepted money for teaching public speaking
as a skill, including how to argue either side of an argument

Before the emergence of the big three (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), sophistry was focused on
winning only the argument at hand which bothered the philosophers. It didn’t matter whether
the case was true; it didn’t matter whether the speaker was looking out for his self-interest
while harming another – all that mattered was who spoke the better argument

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Socrates took issue with this sort of instruction and the use of argument just for the sake of
winning. As a philosopher, he was interested in discovering the truth through discourse.

Socrate wasn’t pleased that sophists would take money for teaching. Instead, he gathered those
interested in arguing about ideas by going to the agora and engaging young men in discussion,
challenging their beliefs and reasoning in conversation. From this, we draw our modern concept
of the Socratic Method, a dialog between instructor and student in which the instructor extends
remarks made by the student to some logical end which the student must justify.

Rise of the Art of Oratory

We’re not sure what Socrates actually taught or said. Philosophers were likely literate (as was a
great percentage of the population) but they did not always write down what they taught
Although Plato published dialogues and possibly letters, literature structured like philosophical
conversation with Socrates as his main character, he was uneasy with the written word.

Plato was a student of Socrates who opened a formal school around 387 BCE called the
“Academy” which remained open until 83 BCE. This was something of a club where invited
members would gather to engage in “dialectic” – discussion between two people or two
opposing views for the purpose of discovering the truth of the issue.

Plato is also known for his contribution to politics which has a direct bearing on the teaching
and use of oratory in government

Aristotle: The Father of Modern Public Speaking

Aristotle seemed to be interested in everything from poetry to zoology, drama to physics,

astronomy, logic, and physics. Math wasn’t his strong suit. He began attending the Academy at
the age of 18, studying with Plato who was then in his sixties. He opened his own school in 335
BCE, the Lyceum, and it is from either his own notes or student notes related to the Lyceum that
we have a great deal of information about both what he taught and how he taught. Aristotle’s
nickname is the “Great Encyclopedist.” For our purposes, we’ll define this as having a wide
variety of interests, all recorded in any number of works, plus the ability to see connections
among unlike bodies of material. What he did for the study of oratory was to determine

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categories of actions that could be replicated, naming them and defining them so that they
could be identified and could be discussed.

He identified the basic elements of good speech and persuasion as ethos, logos, and pathos. The
ethos (credibility, believability) of the speaker was important; the logos (logic) behind any
conclusions drawn by the speaker during the course of the speech needed to be valid and clear;
and the pathos (emotional appeals) were important in making human connections between the
speaker and the listener. These are the same categories that we teach today in our public
speaking classes because they work. They allow us to teach the basic elements of oratory and
rhetoric (composition) without regard for time or place. And that’s why we like to say that
oratory is one of the oldest academic disciplines in the history of education – it’s been around
for nearly 2,500 years and the principles hold true.

Public speech is still the cornerstone of both our governmental system and our judicial system
Politicians speak aloud on the floors of the Senate and the House-parliament

Our courts of law demand that those accused step before the bar and explain themselves. Our
preachers stand before our congregations and speak aloud their interpretations of scripture. So,
Americans have both a national tradition and an historical culture of public speech that cannot
be ignored.

I have a dream …” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or to provide biting political commentary like
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by
your inferiors” Plato, we cannot escape the influence of public speaking on our daily lives.

Summary

The principles that we use in contemporary public speaking classrooms have been around for a
very long time. We’ve re-named some of those concepts and we’ve refined them to meet the
needs of a society that relies on mass communication for a much of our interaction.

It’s important to understand why these principles emerged when they did – what it was in
Greece and in Rome that allowed for the flourishing of oratorical theory building as well as skill
sets. It’s equally important to understand that we define ourselves culturally by the things we
say and the things that are said about us

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Questions

1. Why was public speaking important in ancient Greece?

2. What was the importance of the citizen orator?

3. What is the primary difference between a sophist and a philosopher?

4. What were the primary contributions of Socrates and Plato to the study of rhetoric?

5. Why do we call Aristotle the father of modern public speaking?

6. What did Cicero add to the study of rhetoric?

Benefits Of Public Speaking

For a globally engaged democracy and for a dynamic-innovation fueled economy” (Rhodes,
2010, p. 10). In the category of “Intellectual and practical skills” public speaking is listed as one
of these core skills. This is not particularly surprising given that communication skills are
critical for intellectual development, career trajectory, and civic engagement. Public speaking is
universally applicable to all types of majors and occupations and is seen by U.S. employers as a
critical employability skill for job seekers (Rockler-Gladen, 2009; U.S. Department of Labor,
2000). No matter what your ambitions and interests are, developing speaking skills will benefit
your personal, professional, and public life

•Personal Life- training in Public speaking can help develop sensitivity and creativity. Public
speaking requires you to explore your own interests and positions on issue and to be become
more sensitive to the needs and interests of others. Preparing an effective speech enhances self-
discovery and creative self-expression as you combine ideas and information in new ways.

You will learn the power of speech itself. As you speak before a group, you become aware of
people responding to you. A responsive audience can make your thoughts and feelings come to
life in a way you have never experienced before.

•Professional Life TV announcers, teachers, lawyers, and entertainers must be able to speak
well, but most other professions require or at the very least can benefit from the skills found in
public speaking. It is believed 70% of jobs today involve some form of public speaking (Aras,

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2012). With the recent economic shift from manufacturing to service careers, the ability to
communicate with others has become crucial. Top CEOs advise that great leaders must be able
to communicate ideas effectively, they must be able to persuade, build support, negotiate and
speak effectively in public (Farrell, 2011).

• Public life- Learning about public speaking will allow you to participate in democracy at its
most basic level. Public speaking is important in creating and sustaining a society, which
includes informed, active participants.- learning about public speaking helps you to listen more
carefully to and critically evaluate other’s speeches.

 Listening skills-In additions to sensitizing and broadening you as a person and teaching
you the technical arts of preparing and presenting speeches, education in public
speaking can help you listen better and critically evaluate what you hear. We will be
able to sort out honest from dishonest public communication. People who cannot make
such distinctions are open to exploitations. You will also learn how to become a
constructive listener. As a listener, you play an essential role in the creation of meaning.
Listening constructively draws you close to speakers and to the others whose lives may
be affected by their words. As a creative, constructive listener you will be alert to the
positive potentials in messages as well as to their defects.
 Organization skills: Lessons in public speaking will help your organizational skills.
Organizational skills are an important part of composing a speech. The ability to
organize ideas is a skill you will employ before you ever write a speech.
 Writing skills: Many of the principles you use to compose good speeches are the same as
those you will need to write well. The practice you gain preparing speeches will
improve your ability to express your ideas on paper. You will learn how to get your
audience’s attention, how to organize clearly and how to support your ideas.
 Critical thinking skills: Public speaking provides valuables tools for the critical analysis
of ideas. By studying the use of supportive materials and persuasive strategies, you will
learn how to find an argument’s weak points. You will learn to ask questions about the
claims speakers make.
 Research skills: As public speaking students, you will be introduced to a variety of
research materials.

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  Self-confidence: By learning how to give a speech in front of a group, your self-
confidence will grow. Each speech will be easier to give. As you become confident as a
public speaker, you will gain confidence in your ability to communicate in general. It
will become easier to speak out in class or in small groups. Interviews will become easier
because you have learned techniques to prepare and present information about yourself.
Social Benefits Of Public Speaking
 Public communication takes place in a social setting. Without open and responsible
communication there can be no freedom of choice, no informed decisions and no
representative’s law making by elected legislators. To be able to speak without fear of
retaliation, to have the opportunity to hear all sides of an issue and to be free to make
informed judgments that affects our lives are rights basic to a democracy. Acquiring the
presentation and evaluation skills and keeping this freedom alive is a central value of
the public speaking course.
Cultural Benefits Of Public Speaking
 The importance of Public Speaking for multiculturalism is that it allows us to listen to
each other directly, the experience and savour that which makes each of us distinct and
valuable. The Public Speaking class provides a setting in which we can experience
cultural diversity, and an opportunity for us all to develop tolerance and appreciation
for the various ways we may choose to live.

The Communication Process

Elements Of The Communication Process

Encoding And Decoding

Encoding refers to the process of taking an idea or mental image, associating that image
with words, and then speaking those words in order to convey a message. So, if you
wanted to explain to your aunt the directions to your new apartment, you would
picture in your mind the landscape, streets and buildings, and then you would select
the best words that describe the route so your aunt could find you.

Decoding is the reverse process of listening to words, thinking about them, and turning
those words into mental images. If your aunt were trying to find her way to your

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apartment, she would listen to your words, associate these words with streets and
landmarks that she knows, aand then she would form a mental map of the way to get to
you. Ramsey’s “Using Language Well” (Chapter 10) provides additional insight into the
encoding and decoding process.

Communicator

The term communicator refers to all of the people in the interaction or speech setting. It
is used instead of sender and receiver, because when we are communicating with other
people we are not only sending a message, we are receiving messages from others
simultaneously. When we speak, we observe others’ nonverbal behavior to see if they
understand us and we gauge their emotional state. The information we gain from these
observations is known as feedback. Over the telephone, we listen to paralinguistic cues,
such as pitch, tone, volume and fillers (i.e., “um,” “uh,” “er,” “like,” and so on). This
means thatprocess. Even in a public speaking situation, we watch and listen to audience
members’ responses

Linear Model Of Communication

The first theoretical model of communication was proposed in 1949 by Shannon and
Weaver for Bell Laboratories (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). This three-part model was
intended to capture the radio and television transmission process. However it was later
adapted to human communication and is now known as the linear model of
communication. The first part of the model is the sender, and this is the person who is
speaking. The second part of the model is the channel, which is the apparatus for
carrying the message (i.e., the phone or T.V.). The third part of the model is the receiver,
and this is the person who picks up the message. In this model, communication is seen
as a one-way process of transmitting a message from one person to another person. This
model can be found in Figure 1.1

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Transactional model of communication

Models of communication have evolved significantly since Shannon and Weaver first
proposed their well- known conceptual model over sixty years ago. One of the most
useful models for understanding public speaking is Barnlund’s (2008) transactional
model of communication. In the transactional model, communication is seen as an
ongoing, circular process. We are constantly affecting and are affected by those we
communicate with. The transactional model has a number of interdependent processes
and components, including the encoding and decoding processes, the communicator,
the message, the channel and noise. Although not directly addressed in Barnlund’s
(2008) original transactional model, participants’ worldviews and the context also play
an important role in the communication process. See Figure 1.2 on the next page for an
illustration.

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Similarities between public Speaking&Conversation

 Organising your thoughts logically

 Tailoring your message to the audience
 Telling a story for maximum impact
 Adapting to listener feedback

Differences:

PS is more highly structured

PS requires more formal language

PS requires a different method of delivery

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References

Devito, J.A(2016) The Interpersonal Communication Book 15th edition.London:

Pearson.

Fraleigh, D. M. and Tuman, J. S. ( 2009) Speak Up! An illustrated guide to Public

Speaking. New York: Bedford/St Martins

Gamble, T and Gamble, M (2013) Communication Works Boston: Mcgraw Hill

Lucas, S.E (2009). The art of public speaking (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Osborn, M., & Osborn, S. (2006). Public Speaking (7th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Pearson J.et al (2011) Human Communication.Boston: Mc Graw – Hill

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