Steven A. Beebe - A Concise Public Speaking Handbook

Pearson Education, Inc.

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This updated fifth edition of A Concise Public Speaking Handbook integrates the steps in preparing and delivering a speech with the ongoing process of considering the audience. Although developed and delivered by the speaker, a good speech is centered on the needs, values, and hopes of the audience. Therefore, the audience should be kept in mind during every step of the speech crafting and delivery process. Being audience-centered means that, as a speaker, you are constantly aware of and striving to adapt to the cultural, gender, and experiential diversity of the people to whom you are speaking. Adapting to diverse audiences is incorporated into every step of the audience-centered approach.

A Concise Public Speaking Handbook, Updated Fifth Edition, also emphasizes that an effective speaker is an ethical speaker. Ethical speakers articulate truthful messages, formulated so as to give the audience free choice in responding to the message, while also using effective means of ensuring message clarity and credibility. In addition to emphasizing ethics throughout the narrative and specifically in , Ethics and Free Speech, we provide an Ethics Assessment question at the end of each chapter to spark thought and discussion on ethical issues in public speaking.

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Revel is a dynamic learning experience that offers students a way to study the content and topics relevant to public speaking in a whole new way. Rather than simply offering opportunities to read about and study public speaking, Revel facilitates deep, engaging interactions with the concepts that matter most. For example, in , discusses the importance of being truthful and thoughtful when presenting a speech.

As part of our commitment to boosting students communication confidence, our first discussion of improving your confidence in features the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety in Revel. Students can take this assessment in the context of our chapter, get their score, and continue reading about how to improve their own level of confidence. By providing opportunities to read about and practice public speaking in tandem, Revel engages students directly and immediately, which leads to a better understanding of course material. A wealth of student and instructor resources and interactive materials can be found within Revel. Some of our favorites include the following:

• Module Audio and Audio Excerpts Students can listen to audio of the entire text while on the go. Throughout the course, audio excerpts highlight effective speech examples. Students can listen to audio clips while they read, bringing examples to life in a way that a printed text cannot. These audio examples reinforce learning and add dimension to the printed text.

• Videos and Video Self-Checks Videos on topics such as choosing the right speech topic, ethics, audience analysis, outlining, and storytelling appear throughout the course to boost mastery of these essential concepts. These engaging videos enhance existing content and most are bundled with correlating self-checks (in the form of multiple-choice questions), enabling students to test their knowledge.

  Video Self-Check: Why Are Ethics Important When Giving a Speech?
  

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• Interactive Figures Interactive figures help students understand hard-to-grasp concepts through visualizations.

  Figure 3.1

  Consider the Audience

  

• Integrated Writing Opportunities To help students connect chapter content with personal meaning, each chapter offers two types of writing prompts: (1) the Journal prompt, which elicits free-form, topic-specific responses addressing content at the module level, and (2) the Shared Writing prompt, which encourages students to share and respond to one anothers brief responses to high-interest topics in the chapter. Most of the Journal prompts, which appear in almost every module, help students make connections between public speaking topics and their own experiences. At the end of each chapter, a Shared Writing prompt allows students to see and respond to their classmates comments, thereby facilitating discussion online as well as in the classroom. Instructors have access to students responses to these writing activities and can also assign them as homework.

  

For the updated fifth edition, more than two dozen new videos have been added to Revel on the following topics:

• audience analysis,

• the importance of outlining,

• plagiarism,

• finding supporting materials,

• ethics,

• choosing the right speech topic,

• effective listening,

• conquering the fear of public speaking,

• crafting an effective introduction,

• giving constructive feedback,

• writing a perfect 60-second hook,

• learning from legacy speeches,

• Q&A sessions,

• selecting the right typefaces,

• storytelling,

• the difference between persuading and informing,

• spotting faulty arguments,

• presenting a great toast,

• adding humor to a speech, and

• using ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade, among other topics.

The update also features new student speech videos on topics such as audio and video manipulation, preventing child abuse, Zumba, establishing a healthy lifestyle, tie-dying, and the theory of Afro-pessimism.

In addition to the new videos, the updated fifth edition of A Concise Public Speaking Handbook includes a new appendix on mediated communication. Created in conjunction with Pearson and Ohlinger Studios, the new appendix is based on cutting-edge research and includes the latest innovations and information about communicating in a mediated setting. The appendix clarifies the differences among synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid presentations. It also offers strategies on how to engage an audience in a mediated setting. In addition, it covers how to prepare, rehearse, and deliver an online presentation. There is also a discussion on how to be a good digital citizen.

A number of widgets in Revel have also been rebuilt for the update to be more interactive and/or easier to navigate. For example, the Quick Check boxes in are now interactive table drag-and-drop activities. Students can study each table and then check their understanding by dragging individual cells to their correct locations. In addition, Tables 16.1 (Advantages and Disadvantages of Methods of Delivery) and 22.1 (Types of Informative Speeches) have also been rebuilt as interactive table drag-and-drop activities. A number of interactive surveys, including the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety Profile, have also been rebuilt to have more user-friendly interfaces.