Speech

Speech Study Guide

• Stereotypes are common assumptions about people of a particular group, and are often proven misguided and nearly always harmful. • Generalities are generalizations made about a group of individuals based on observational facts and attributes. Generalizations are not meant to be harmful. • Initial audience disposition relates to the knowledge and opinions an audience has about a specific topic before they hear a speech. • Credibility is the audience’s perception of a speaker as knowledgeable and trustworthy on a topic. It is a fundamental concept in public speaking since Aristotle, more than two thousand years ago. • Being personable is the extent to which one projects a pleasing and agreeable personality. Audiences have more confidence in people they like. • Learning style is a person’s preferred method or most effective way of receiving and retaining information. • Common ground is a sense of a shared background, knowledge, attitudes, experiences, and philosophies between the speaker and audience members. • Rhetorical questions are questions phrased to stimulate a mental response from audience members and are often used in speech introductions, but may also be used as transitions. • Relevance is adapting information in such a way to make it more important to the listeners. It is demonstrated by emphasizing timeliness, proximity, and personal impact of ideas throughout the speech. • Timeliness is using information that is pertinent now or in the near future. • Proximity speaks to how geographically close a speaker is to their audience and the values and beliefs the audience holds. • Personal impact appeals to and emphasizes physical, economic, or psychological impact of a topic. • Transitions are a sentence or two which summarizes one main point while introducing the following idea. • Specific language clears up confusion caused by general words by narrowing the focus/definition in some way. • Physiological needs for humans are food and drink, clothing, shelter, and sexual gratification. These needs need to be met in order for people to feel comfortable and to avoid the discomforts of pain, illness, injury, and other negative consequences. • Personal safety needs involve the human desire, regardless of race and culture, to be protected from dangerous, surprising, or unfamiliar situations that threaten personal safety. • Belonging needs are thought about after safety needs are met and involve the human desire to be accepted, wanted, or welcomed into groups. • Self-esteem needs constitute people feeling as though they belong, have worth, and are important. In addition, people want to be in control of their destiny and to have others recognize them as good and important. • Self-actualization needs reflect what most humans what--to realize our own potential. People want to better themselves (generally speaking) however few feel absolutely satisfied with their accomplishments.

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