Curriculum

Course Details

No prerequisites. Limited enrollment.

Instructors: Compton, Drummond, Grushina.

Distributive: ART

Offered: 24F, 25W, 25S

View the ORC description.

Course Summary

In this course, students will discover answers to a seemingly simple question: What is good public speaking? We will find answers to this question using several strategies. We will consult classical canons of rhetoric. We will talk about contemporary findings of social scientific and rhetorical scholarship. Most importantly, we will discover what constitutes good public speaking by doing it. We will try theory-informed strategies, see what works, learn what does not, and try again. We will select and refine topics, organize arguments, support positions, and deliver speeches. Students will create short and long speeches, engage in written activities about their speeches and the speeches of others, give and receive peer feedback in real time, and participate in active class discussions and activities. Most importantly, students will develop their unique voices as speakers. There are no prerequisites. Limited enrollment.

Course Goals

The overriding goal of the course is for you to become a better public speaker, with improved skills in researching, organizing, developing, and delivering speeches.

To achieve this goal, we will aim for two primary learning objectives:

  • to become better speakers through the practice of public speaking;
  • to help others to become better speakers through observation, collaboration, and constructive criticism.

To meet these primary objectives, I will help you to:

  • apply ancient rhetorical principles to contemporary public speaking contexts;
  • approach each stage of speechmaking with a mindfulness of audience and situation;
  • select and refine speech topics and theses;
  • evaluate and implement organizational strategies and craft transitions that guide audience understanding;
  • use wording that is clear, concise, accurate, and interesting;
  • enhance skills of memory and familiarity;
  • practice delivery that aids in audience understanding and elicits and maintains audience interest;
  • create and apply criteria of good public speaking;
  • improve critical listening skills;
  • create, prepare, and deliver public speeches;
  • consider ethics of public speaking;
  • develop a deeper understanding of speech as more than a way of showing what we know.