Assignment: Channel Nervous Energy
Assignment: Channel Nervous Energy
Assignment: Channel Nervous Energy
Because managing communication apprehension is such an im- portant skill for most public speakers, in each chapter of this book we’ll remind you of tips to help you enhance your confidence. Look for techniques of confidently connecting with your audience in the margin.
An Overview of Audience- Centered Public Speaking Although you’ve been speaking to others since you were two years old, the process of preparing and presenting a speech may seem daunting and even frightening. But a better understanding of the entire process of how to design and deliver a speech can help you manage your apprehension. The skill of public speaking builds upon your
CONFIDENTLY CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
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Begin with the End in Mind One of the habits cited by Stephen Covey in his well-known book The 7 Habits of Highly Success- ful People is “Begin with the end in mind.”58 From the moment you begin thinking about preparing and presenting your speech, picture yourself being confident and successful. If you find your anxiety level rising at any point in the speech- preparation process, change your mental picture of yourself and imagine that you’ve completed your speech and the audience has given you a rousing round of applause. Begin imagining suc- cess rather than focusing on your fear. Using the principles, skills, and strategies we discuss in this book will help you develop the habit of speech success.
R E
C A
PBuild Confidence • Label your physical arousal as excitement.
• Understand and plan for your anxiety style.
• Focus on your audience and message.
• Don’t wait; prepare early.
• Follow guidelines for speech assignments carefully.
• Make practice as real as possible.
• Breathe and exercise to channel nervous energy.
• Visualize success and use mental pep talks.
• Look for support from listeners.
• Form a “support community” of classmates.
• Congratulate yourself after you speak.
18 CHAPTER 1 Speaking with Confidence
normal, everyday interactions with others. But there are three key differences be- tween conversation and public speaking:
● Public speaking is more prepared than conversation. Although there may be times when you are asked to speak on the spur of the moment, you will usu- ally know in advance whether you will be expected to give a talk on a spe- cific occasion. A public speaker may spend hours or even days planning and practicing his or her speech.
● Public speaking is more formal than conversation. The slang or casual lan- guage we often use in conversation is usually not appropriate for most pub- lic speaking. Audiences expect speakers to use standard English grammar and vocabulary. The nonverbal communication of public speakers is also more formal than the nonverbal behavior of ordinary conversation.
● Public speaking involves more clearly defined roles for speaker and audience than conversation. During a conversation, there is typically interaction be- tween speaker and listener. But in public speaking, the roles of speaker and audience are more clearly defined and remain stable. Although in some cul- tures a call-and-response speaker-audience interaction occurs (such as say-
ing “That’s right” or “Amen” when responding to a preacher’s sermon), audience members rarely interrupt or talk back to speakers during
most speeches. And if there is an interruption, it’s unusual and noteworthy, as when President Obama’s speech to Congress
on September 9, 2009, was interrupted by Florida Con- gressman Joe Wilson’s shouting “You lie!” in response to
something the President said.
As you think about preparing your first speech for your speech class, you may wonder, “What do I do first?” Your assignment may be to introduce yourself to the class. Or your assignment may be a brief in- formative talk—to describe something to your au- dience. Regardless of the specific assignment, however, you need some idea of how to begin. In- stead of reading this book cover-to-cover before your first speech, you can consider this chapter’s
Because managing communication apprehension is such an im- portant skill for most public speakers, in each chapter of this book we’ll remind you of tips to help you enhance your confidence. Look for techniques of confidently connecting with your audience in the margin.
An Overview of Audience- Centered Public Speaking Although you’ve been speaking to others since you were two years old, the process of preparing and presenting a speech may seem daunting and even frightening. But a better understanding of the entire process of how to design and deliver a speech can help you manage your apprehension. The skill of public speaking builds upon your
CONFIDENTLY CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Begin with the End in Mind One of the habits cited by Stephen Covey in his well-known book The 7 Habits of Highly Success- ful People is “Begin with the end in mind.”58 From the moment you begin thinking about preparing and presenting your speech, picture yourself being confident and successful. If you find your anxiety level rising at any point in the speech- preparation process, change your mental picture of yourself and imagine that you’ve completed your speech and the audience has given you a rousing round of applause. Begin imagining suc- cess rather than focusing on your fear. Using the principles, skills, and strategies we discuss in this book will help you develop the habit of speech success.
R E
C A
PBuild Confidence • Label your physical arousal as excitement.
• Understand and plan for your anxiety style.
• Focus on your audience and message.
• Don’t wait; prepare early.
• Follow guidelines for speech assignments carefully.
• Make practice as real as possible.
• Breathe and exercise to channel nervous energy.
• Visualize success and use mental pep talks.
• Look for support from listeners.
• Form a “support community” of classmates.
• Congratulate yourself after you speak.
18 CHAPTER 1 Speaking with Confidence
normal, everyday interactions with others. But there are three key differences be- tween conversation and public speaking:
● Public speaking is more prepared than conversation. Although there may be times when you are asked to speak on the spur of the moment, you will usu- ally know in advance whether you will be expected to give a talk on a spe- cific occasion. A public speaker may spend hours or even days planning and practicing his or her speech.
● Public speaking is more formal than conversation. The slang or casual lan- guage we often use in conversation is usually not appropriate for most pub- lic speaking. Audiences expect speakers to use standard English grammar and vocabulary. The nonverbal communication of public speakers is also more formal than the nonverbal behavior of ordinary conversation.
● Public speaking involves more clearly defined roles for speaker and audience than conversation. During a conversation, there is typically interaction be- tween speaker and listener. But in public speaking, the roles of speaker and audience are more clearly defined and remain stable. Although in some cul- tures a call-and-response speaker-audience interaction occurs (such as say-
ing “That’s right” or “Amen” when responding to a preacher’s sermon), audience members rarely interrupt or talk back to speakers during
most speeches. And if there is an interruption, it’s unusual and noteworthy, as when President Obama’s speech to Congress
on September 9, 2009, was interrupted by Florida Con- gressman Joe Wilson’s shouting “You lie!” in response to
something the President said.
As you think about preparing your first speech for your speech class, you may wonder, “What do I do first?” Your assignment may be to introduce yourself to the class. Or your assignment may be a brief in- formative talk—to describe something to your au- dience. Regardless of the specific assignment, however, you need some idea of how to begin. In- stead of reading this book cover-to-cover before your first speech, you can consider this chapter’s
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
- The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.