Introduction to Public Speaking

One-semester course. In Introduction to Public Speaking logic stage students will be introduced to different aspects of public speaking through the analysis of an assortment of readings and the completion of various writing and speaking exercises.  We will explore concepts and models of communication, and we will discuss how to select topics and organize ideas in preparation for a speech, how to effectively support one’s ideas in a speech, and how to adapt a speech for different occasions and audiences, among other skills.  This skills-based course is meant to help each student become a confident public speaker through practice. Assignments will include presentations of a demonstrative speech, an informational speech, an expository speech, a persuasive speech, and, time permitting, an epideictic oratory speech (a declamatory speech aimed at lauding or condemning the subject).