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 Public Speaking for the Curious
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Chapter 11: The Benefits and Necessity of Public Speaking

Education – Tony Docan-Morgan & Laura L. Nelson

Tony Docan-Morgan, Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Professor Tony Docan-Morgan (Ph.D., University of Washington) is a faculty

member in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of
Wisconsin-La Crosse. His research interests include interpersonal
communication, instructional communication, and public speaking
pedagogy. He directs the UW-L Public Speaking Center
(www.uwlax.edu/psc) and teaches courses titled Communicating Effectively,
Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication Studies, Interpersonal
Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Lying and Deception in Human
Interaction, Theories of Communication, and Public Speaking Center
Practicum.

Laura Nelson, Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
 Public Speaking for the Curious
Docan-Morgan & Nelson

Professor Laura L. Nelson (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University at Carbondale)

is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Her research interests include rhetoric in
public discourse, public speaking pedagogy, and curriculum development in
Communication Studies. During her career UW-L, she has been deeply
engaged in improving the basic course in communication required of all UW-
L graduates, improving the curriculum in Communication Studies, and
building the Communication Studies program from a small program allied
with Theatre Arts to the large independent program it is today. She served as
Department Chair of the Speech Communication and Theatre Arts
Department (1994-1997) and of the Communication Studies Department
(1997-2003).

Learning to be an effective, ethical public speaker is one of the most

empowering, rewarding educational goals you can set for yourself. Even the
best ideas are worthless and receive no credit if they cannot be shared
effectively with others. Acquiring skills for effective oral public communication
has been central to becoming an educated person from ancient times to the
present. As Clark observes in the Epilog to his Rhetoric in Graeco-Roman
Education, “Unless the student is led to organize and synthesize the learning
he acquires by exercises in making and doing, speaking and writing, the
learning is not truly his own. This art, which teaches the student how to
acquire learning, to organize it, and to present it persuasively to an audience, is
traditionally called rhetoric . . . Isocrates [a famous teacher of public speaking
in ancient Greece] truly declares, ‘None of the things which are done with
intelligence are done without the aid of speech’” (1966, p. 264).

Being able to speak clearly and succinctly, to effectively inform and persuade
others, and to move people to action are absolute necessities for professionals
in a wide array of fields including law, banking and finance, counseling,
teaching, public relations, politics, and sales. These abilities are also essential
assets for all professionals in all fields who aspire to leadership, as the ability
to influence others is a crucial part of leadership.

In fact, employers consistently report that public speaking is one of the most
important and sought after skills a prospective employee can possess (O’Hair,
Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2010; Ulinski & O'Callaghan, 2002). Students entering
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a business career, for example, need to be well versed in giving training

workshops, sales presentations, investment proposals, briefings, status reports,
technical business presentations, and/or research presentations (Docan-
Morgan, 2009; Guffey, 2006).

College graduates also confirm that skills in oral communication, written

communication, public speaking, and motivating and managing others are
“most essential for career improvement” (Zekeri, 2004, p. 412). Therefore, it is
not surprising that job interview panels frequently ask candidates to deliver
sample presentations, which are then used in making hiring decisions (Allen,
2014). The ability to speak well in public contexts is not only desirable but also
necessary. Unfortunately, because the vast majority of people experience at
least some anxiety about public speaking, college students rarely will choose
voluntarily to take a course in public speaking or a course in which
development of public speaking skills is a major component. However, to
succeed in their professional lives and to enhance their personal lives, college
students in particular need coursework in intensive public speaking training.
But first, what exactly is public speaking?

What is Public Speaking?

Many people mistakenly think that public speaking only involves formal
situations in which a speaker is ‘on stage’ in front of a large audience.
However, the nature of a public speech or presentation can vary tremendously
depending on the speaker’s goals, make-up and size of the audience,
environment in which the speaking occurs, and historical context. Lucas,
author of the most popular current basic public speaking textbook in the
United States, observes that the complex speech communication process
includes the following seven basic elements: “speaker, message, channel,
listener, feedback, interference, and situation.”

The speaker is the person who initiates a speech transaction. Whatever the
speaker communicates is the message, which is sent by means of a particular
channel. The listener receives the communicated message and provides
feedback to the speaker. Interference is anything that impedes the
communication of a message, and the situation is the time and place in which
speech communication occurs. The interaction of these seven elements is what
determines the outcome in any instance of speech communication (2007, p.
28).
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O’Hair and Wiemann define public speaking as “a powerful form of

communication that includes a speaker who has a reason for speaking, an
audience that gives the speaker attention, and a message that is meant to
accomplish a specific purpose” (2012, p. 340). Stated even more concisely,
public speaking is “the act of preparing, staging, and delivering a presentation
to an audience” (Gamble & Gamble, 2008, p. 369).

The terms public speech and presentation are often used synonymously in
everyday language. Engleberg notes, “the term speech often connotes a public
speech, that is, a presentation to a large public audience. The term
presentation encompasses other more common forms of speaking such as
business briefings, oral reports, ceremonial presentations, or other types of
speeches that do not often take place in the public arena” (2007, p. 1). Speeches
and presentations come in many forms, including training workshops, lectures,
sermons, sales presentations, investment proposals, briefings, status reports,
protests, political debates, political campaign speeches, technical business
presentations, research presentations, courtroom presentations (e.g., cross
examination, rebuttal, and closing arguments), humorous or entertaining
performances (e.g., standup comedy), oral press releases, and special occasion
speeches (e.g., farewells, eulogies, and commencement addresses).

Whether you speak in public to a large audience or in more intimate contexts

with a small audience, the same skills are needed whenever one person has the
responsibility for delivering a message successfully to a group of others. When
a particular message is important for some reason, speakers need skills to
enhance odds that the message will not be misunderstood but instead
contribute to creating shared meaning among speaker and listeners—shared
meaning upon which important relationships, lives, and dollars may depend.

What are the Benefits of Studying Public Speaking?

The benefits of studying public speaking are numerous. These ten benefits are
by no means all of the advantages entailed by becoming a competent public
speaker but are some of the most compelling ones.

To succeed in college. Courses on public speaking typically cover topics

such as listening, critical thinking, writing outlines, and effectively
organizing ideas and information—all of which are critically important
skills for college success. Bodie argues that “competence in public speaking
is paramount to student success in and out of the classroom” as public
speaking is a “necessary part of both college and work responsibilities”
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(2010, p. 71). Learning how to listen, plan formal messages in writing, and
finally deliver those messages orally by speaking well will better prepare
you for other courses. You will almost certainly be asked to prepare and
deliver oral presentations in many college courses in a wide variety of
disciplines. Your ability to do this competently will enhance your grades in
those courses.

The centrality of rhetoric (broadly defined as the practical art of using

language well) in education from the classical period of the ancient Greeks
and Romans to the present day testifies to its essential nature. Because of
the recent electronic communication revolution, today you may deliver or
receive messages face to face or through use of communication technology.
Regardless, the same foundational communication skills apply. These skills
have very high ‘transferability’ to all other courses you will take in college
as well as the demands you will face later in entering and succeeding in the
workplace.

To get hired and advance in your career. Once you successfully finish your
college degree, your next intimidating life task is to find a good job that
leads to a thriving career. Employers want to hire and work with good
communicators. In fact, they continually report that good communication
skills, such as public speaking and presentation ability, are the most
important and desired qualities a job candidate can possess (e.g., O’Hair et
al., 2010; Ulinski & O'Callaghan, 2002). A public speaking course or
program of study will make you a significantly more marketable job
candidate.

To strengthen critical thinking skills. Do you think it is better to lazily and

instantly accept everything we are told by everyone or to separate facts
from opinion and to critically evaluate messages? Students who study
public speaking learn how to think critically, which is the “ability to form
and defend your own judgments rather than blindly accepting or instantly
rejecting what you hear or read” (Zarefsky, 2005, p. 6). Students in public
speaking courses become critical thinkers in part by learning about
adapting one’s message to their audience, strategies for organizing
persuasive messages, and techniques for listening.

Studying public oral communication is an opportunity for you to develop

critical thinking skills that are relevant to all professions and life situations.
Aristotle noted that rhetoric—the study of effective, ethical oral
communication—is unique because it has no limit in its subject matter as
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other fields of study do: “Rhetoric [public speaking] is the counterpart of

dialectic [logical discussion]. Both alike are concerned with such things as
come, more or less, within the general ken of all men and belong to no
definite science.

Accordingly all men make use, more or less, of both . . .” (Rhetoric, p. 19).
Furthermore, he notes, “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of
observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a
function of any other art. Every other art can instruct or persuade about its
own particular subject-matter . . . [Rhetoric] is not concerned with any
special or definite class of subjects” (Rhetoric, p. 24). The corollary truth is
that skills of effective oral communication have unlimited application with
respect to subject matter. They are necessary assets in all fields of study
and occupations.

For example, learning common patterns of organization for oral messages

sharpens your awareness of common patterns of human thought: you learn
to recognize logical relationships among equivalent parts and a whole,
among a sequence of related actions or events, between a cause and an
effect, between a problem and its solution. Learning how to reason
inductively and deductively enables you to think more systematically and
clearly. Learning common logical fallacies enables you to avoid them in
your own thinking and recognize them when others present invalid
arguments. Acquisition of skills for effective communication of information
and ideas is necessary in and applicable to all fields of study as well as all
careers.

To reduce speaking anxiety and increase self-confidence. If you have ever

spoken to an audience, chances are that you have felt at least a twinge of
“stage fright,” a common and complex reaction involving fear,
apprehension, tension, and nervousness. Studies show, however, that if
you learn and practice anxiety reduction techniques, you will experience
less speaking anxiety (e.g., Docan-Morgan & Schmidt, 2012). Many public
speaking textbooks and classes cover three techniques to reduce public
speaking anxiety. First, systematic desensitization involves relaxation, deep
breathing, and visualization (Friedrich, Goss, Cunconan, & Lane, 1997).

Second, cognitive restructuring requires you to create a negative self-talk

list, identify irrational beliefs embedded in each thought, develop a coping
statement for each irrational belief, and practice the coping statements
until they become second nature (Ayres, Hopf, & Peterson, 2000). The
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third method, skills training, refers to learning and practicing techniques

targeted toward improving individual speaking behaviors (Kelly, 1997).

In addition to these specific strategies for reducing public speaking anxiety,

it is only common sense to note that the more you practice and successfully
employ a set of skills—in this case, skills for public speaking—the less
anxiety you will suffer when you next need to use them. Undergraduate
students frequently report that they gain increased self-confidence upon
completion of a public speaking course (e.g., Finn, Sawyer, Schrodt, 2009).
Acquiring the skills needed to be an effective oral communicator has a ‘halo
effect’ that enhances your overall self-confidence.

To deliver your message as effectively as possible. You may have heard the
saying that “how you say something is as important as what you say.”
Good public speakers learn how to express their ideas through effective
delivery techniques, or how one presents her or his message through the
voice and body. Those who are naive about communication do not
understand the essential functions of nonverbal communication in
conveying meaning or how much meaning is conveyed nonverbally.

Many public speaking contexts call for a speaker to deliver

extemporaneously, which includes using a conversational tone and
occasionally referring to a keyword outline. Effective delivery requires
preparation and practice. As a public speaking student you will learn how
to use effective vocal volume and pitch, speaking rate, pauses, diction,
tone, facial expressions, eye contact, and hand gestures. Each of these
nonverbal cues work to contribute to the overall meaning of a message. For
example, consider all of the different ways you can say, “I love you”: I love
you. I love you. I love you.

Now, consider how the meaning of “I love you” may be affected by physical
as well as vocal nonverbal communication accompanying this verbal
message. Is it said with direct eye contact, a smile, a hug or pat on the back,
or is it said with rolled eyes, a sneer, a particular gesture, a particular
stance that contradicts its verbal meaning? Those who understand the
importance of nonverbal communication know that receivers of messages
trust the nonverbal component of messages more than they trust the verbal
message (Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1996).

To listen more intently and effectively. As a public speaking student, you

also will learn to be a better listener. Listening is a prominent feature of
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our everyday interactions (Docan-Morgan & McDermott, 2009). Our

educational system devotes much time to teaching reading, writing, and
speaking, but as noted in a very recent Wall Street Journal article, few of
us receive any formal training in how to listen well. That article also
reports, “Even before the age of digital distractions, people could
remember only about 10% of what was said in a face-to-face conversation
after a brief distraction, according to a 1987 study that remains a key gauge
of conversational recall.

Researchers believe listening skills have since fallen amid more

multitasking and interruptions” (Shellenberger, 2014). And yet Johnson
(1996), for example, highlights that people spend 45% to 70% of their time
listening to others, and in certain contexts (e.g., classroom lecture or
speech) listening is the primary activity in which we engage. Perhaps even
more powerfully, Purdy (1991) astutely observes, “among the basic skills
we need for success in life, listening is primary” (p. 4). In close
relationships, for example, “positive and responsive listening behavior
benefits marital interaction” (Pasupathi, Carstensen, Levenson, &
Gottman, 1999, p. 173).

Similarly, Haas and Arnold (1995) point out the saliency of listening in the
business context: “One common weakness of many executives is the failure
to recognize that listening is equal in importance to talking” (p. 125). The
importance of listening has also been cited in medical (e.g., Ruusuvuori,
2001) and educational contexts (e.g., Do & Schallert, 2004). There is no
surprise, then, that listening is an important topic in public speaking
courses (Johnson & Long, 2007). You will learn about types of listening in
which you engage (e.g., empathic), obstacles to effective listening (e.g.,
preoccupation), forms of ineffective listening (e.g., pseudo-listening), and
effective listening strategies (e.g., perspective taking).

More effective listening skills improve our ability to respond more

satisfactorily to others, to benefit ourselves by recognizing opportunities,
and last but not least, protect ourselves from exploitation by others. Our
contemporary media environment includes not only responsible ethical
messages intended to benefit listeners but also unfortunately includes
highly irresponsible, unethical messages that seek to take advantage of
listeners. The ability to listen critically to messages and protect yourself
from selfish manipulation and exploitation by others is an essential life
skill.
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To provide more useful feedback to others. In many public speaking

classes, students learn to provide constructive criticism to their peers, a
useful and life-long skill. Constructive criticism refers to feedback or
criticism in which comments are specific, accompanied by a rationale, and
phrased as personal opinions using “I” language (Sellnow, 2005).
Ineffective feedback, such as, “your speech was interesting,” has little
value, compared to effective feedback, such as, “The point you made about
how your cultural heritage affects your daily choices was insightful, and
seemed to resonate with the audience based on their nonverbal reactions.”
If you take a public speaking class, you might learn the D.I.E. method
(Wendt, 1984).

First descriptive comments report what you observed: “throughout the

presentation, you used about 10 different statistics to support your main
ideas.” Second, interpretive comments include making an inference or
attributing meaning: “I’m assuming you used these different statistics in an
attempt at persuading your audience.” Finally, evaluative comments pass
judgment: “although statistics can be a very powerful form of evidence, I
think there were too many. It may be more effective to…” Effective
constructive criticism is a useful tool for helping others improve.

To take an audience-oriented perspective. Every good communicator

should know his or her audience. In fact, think back to some of the emails,
apologies, love letters, or invitations you have written. When writing these,
perhaps you considered whom the receiver was and how to shape your
message. In public speaking courses, students learn how to conduct
audience analysis, which is the process of understanding your audience
and adapting your presentation to meet their needs. The following
questions are important to consider: What does the audience know about
my topic? What does my audience not know about my topic? What is their
position on the topic? These answers can be discovered through indirect
audience analysis, which refers to using existing sources of information to
analyze the audience and requires speculation about listeners’ interests and
attitudes toward the topic.

Alternatively, direct audience analysis involves gathering information

directly from your audience to help craft your message. Doing so can
include creating a questionnaire or conducting interviews with audience
members before your presentation in order to determine what they know
about the topic, their position, and interest. To put it simply: when you
learn to adapt your message to its audience by appealing to that audience’s
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experiences and interests, you will more effectively engage those listeners
in your message and make them much more eager to listen to you.
Experienced public speakers know that to arouse and maintain audience
interest, they need to put the audience in the message and directly relate
message content to listeners.

To excite and engage people. We have all heard boring, dull speakers that
figuratively and sometimes literally put us to sleep. The study and practice
of public speaking will open you up to a plethora of creative ways to
stimulate others’ senses. Good speakers are able to use creative and vivid
language to evoke feelings and images in listeners’ minds. They work to
describe sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in detail. They might
also use alliteration (e.g., “today, there are more than fifty fabulous fruity
flavors”), similes (e.g., “she was as tough as a drill sergeant in boot camp”),
and metaphors (“given the increasingly deep and wide sea of messages we
swim in today, it is ever more important to become an exceptionally good
swimmer”).

In an article from Academy of Management Executive (1991), Conger

observes “Leadership today must embody . . . the capacity to articulate an
organization’s mission and communicate it in ways that inspire. Sadly
however, this capacity depends upon skills that have been largely neglected
by the business world.” He then observes that “executives and managers . .
. must learn to sell themselves and their missions—to ‘stump’ for their
cause—and this depends on highly effective language skills.”

Conger discusses how “the language of leadership” depends on two sets of

skills. The first set of skills enables leaders to use “framing” to define the
mission of an organization for employees in meaningful, inspiring ways.
The second set of skills enables leaders to use “rhetorical crafting” of
“symbolic language to give emotional power to his or her message.” Conger
observes that Steve Jobs of Apple and other very successful CEOs have
been distinguished by their ability to articulate inspiring missions for their
businesses above and beyond “straightforward exposition of . . . operating
goals, budgets, and policies” (pp. 31-33). After an extremely concrete,
specific and useful discussion of both framing and rhetorical crafting, he
concludes “the first step must be the formulation of an organizational
vision that is meaningful . . . [O]nce such a vision is formulated, the
language of leadership plays a vital role in its acceptance and
accomplishment” (p. 43). Studying public speaking, particularly speaking
to persuade, directly addresses basic skills needed for both effective
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framing and rhetorical crafting of messages that excite and engage

listeners.

Last and most crucially, to empower yourself to be a leader. Imagine

someone who you consider a leader. What are some of their
characteristics? What can they do well? You likely imagine someone who
can speak confidently to large audiences, engaging, influencing and
motivating others. In fact, Humes, a former speechwriter argues that
public speaking is “the language of leadership” and that “every time you
have to speak—whether it’s in an auditorium, in a company conference
room, or even at your own desk—you are auditioning for leadership” (pp.
13-14). Church and Slizer (2014) recognize that those who manage human
resources in all organizations are deeply concerned with recognizing and
developing potential leadership talent.

They have created a model for assessing leadership potential called the
“Leadership Potential BluePrint.” Their model has already been adopted
by PepsiCo, Eli Lilly, and Citibank (p. 52). It defines leadership potential
as the apex of a four level pyramid in which the lowest level identifies
“foundational dimensions” of essential personality characteristics and
cognitive abilities; the second level is “growth dimensions” of learning
skills and motivation skills; the third level, which most directly supports
leadership potential, consists of leadership skills and functional/technical
knowledge.

Studying public speaking enhances your ability to stand out as a candidate

for promotion with leadership potential on all three of the defining levels of
this pyramid. As discussed above, studying public speaking enhances your
self-confidence, which directly relates to desired personality
characteristics. It strengthens your capacity for critical thinking, essential
for cognitive capabilities. It enhances the learning skills of adaptability and
openness to feedback as well as the ability to provide useful constructive
feedback to others. Choosing to invest in studying public speaking is
strong evidence of motivation skills.

Finally, Church and Slizer explicitly identify “motivating, influencing and

inspiring others” as a key component of leadership skills necessary in
exhibiting leadership potential (p. 53). This is directly addressed in the
study of public speaking.
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To summarize, these ten advantages are compelling reasons why college

students need to gain effective public speaking skills to succeed in school,
work, and life. There are a multitude of reasons why you should invest in
learning about, improving, and honing your public speaking skills: being
successful in college, getting hired, increasing your critical thinking skills,
decreasing speaking anxiety, increasing self-confidence, and empowering
yourself to be a leader. Furthermore, delivering messages expressively,
listening intently, providing valuable feedback, taking an audience-
oriented perspective, and engaging others will identify you to others as a
competent, respected, and valued communicator.

The electronic media revolution that began in the early 20th century has
made learning effective public oral communication skills as much or more
essential than it ever has been. We share a great deal of important
information and ideas through public oral communication. Today we may
communicate face to face or we may use media technology to reach much
larger and more diverse audiences than ever before. We also receive more
and more messages from more and more diverse sources than ever before.
Influence cannot be wielded without public speech, so learning to be not
only an effective speaker but also a critical listener is essential to
responsible participation in personal, organizational, and societal decision-
making.

Quintilian, the famous Roman rhetorician, in his comprehensive work,

Institutio oratoria, famously defined the ideal “orator” or public speaker as
“a good man speaking well.” His “orator” was the ancient world’s ideal of
an educated, involved citizen, a person of good reputation guided by ethics
and in command of communication skills that enabled effective and
responsible exercise of influence—what we still ideally want to achieve in
learning not only to be competent oral public communicators but also
responsible critical receivers of messages today (Kennedy, 1980, p. 101).

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