Chapter 1

Introduction to
Public Speaking
“I’ll pay more for
a person’s ability
to speak and
express himself
than for any other
quality he might
possess.”1
—Charles M. Schwab

Outline
1.1 What Is Public Speaking? 1.4 The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking
1.2 Why Study Public Speaking? The Golden Age of Public Speaking
Empowerment Nineteenth- and Twentieth-
Employment Century Age of Political Oratory
1.3 Public Speaking as a Communication The Technological Age of Public
Process Speaking
Communication as Action Your Speeches in Today’s Age of
Public Speaking
Communication as Interaction
Communication as Transaction

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 2 1.1 Introduction to Public Speaking

Learning Objectives
1.1 Compare and contrast public speaking and conversation.
1.2 Explain why it is important to study public speaking.
1.3 Sketch and explain a model that illustrates the components and the
process of communication.
1.4 Discuss in brief the history of public speaking.

Perhaps you think you have heard this speaker—or even taken a class from him:
His eyes were buried in his script. His words in monotone emerged
haltingly from behind his mustache, losing volume as they were sifted
through hair. Audiences rushed to see and hear him, and after they had
satisfied their eyes, they closed their ears. Ultimately, they turned to
small talk among themselves while the great man droned on.2

The speaker described here in such an unflattering way is none other than
Albert Einstein. Sadly, although the great physicist could attract an audience
with his reputation, he could not sustain their attention and interest because he
lacked good public-speaking skills.
The good news is that this book and this course will provide you with the
knowledge and experience you need to become what Einstein was not: a com-
petent public speaker. Right now, however, gaining that experience might seem
less like an opportunity and more like a daunting task. Why undertake it?

1.1 What Is Public Speaking?

1.1 Compare and contrast public speaking and conversation.
Public speaking is the process of presenting a message to an audience, small or
large. You hear speeches almost every day when watching the news, listening to
an instructor’s lecture, or viewing a late-night comedian.
The skill of public speaking builds upon the same communication processes
you use in your normal, everyday conversations. Speaking in public, however,
requires you to sharpen existing communication skills and to learn and apply
new ones. There are three key differences between 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
usually know in advance if you will be expected to give a talk on a specific

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 Why Study Public Speaking? 1.2 3

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 language
that we often use in conversation is not appropriate for most public speak-
ing. Audiences expect speakers to use standard English grammar and vo-
cabulary. The nonverbal communication of public speakers is also more
formal than nonverbal behavior in ordinary conversation.
• Public speaking involves more clearly defined roles for the 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 cultures, a call-and-response speaker—audience interaction occurs
(such as saying, “That’s right” or “Amen” in response to a preacher’s ser-
mon),3 audience members rarely interrupt or talk back to speakers during
most speeches.

Why Study Public Speaking? 1.2

1.2 Explain why it is important to study public speaking.
Nearly a half-million college students each year take a public-speaking class,
and two-thirds of those students have had little or no prior public-speaking ex-
perience.4 Why should you join these thousands of other students? Here are two
reasons: By studying public speaking, you will gain long-term advantages re-
lated to empowerment and employment.

Empowerment
The ability to speak with competence and confidence will provide empower-
ment. To be empowered is to have the resources, information, and attitudes that
allow you to take action to achieve a desired goal.
Being a skilled public speaker will give you an edge that other, less
skilled communicators lack—even those who may have superior ideas, train-
ing, or experience. It will position you for greater things. Former presiden-
tial speechwriter James Humes, who labels public speaking “the language
of leadership,” says, “Every time you have to speak—whether it’s in an au-
ditorium, in a company conference room, or even at your own desk—you
are auditioning for leadership.”5 You feel truly empowered when you speak
with confidence, knowing that your ideas are being expressed with convic-
tion and assurance.
One of the empowering resources that you develop by studying public
speaking is critical thinking. To think critically is to be able to listen and analyze

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 4 1.2 Introduction to Public Speaking

information you hear so that you can judge its accuracy and relevance. Being a
critical thinker and an effective communicator is a powerful and empowering
combination that can also open career opportunities for you.

Employment
If you can speak well, you possess a skill that others will value highly. Whether
you are an entry-level employee or aspire to the highest rung of the corporate
leadership ladder, being able to communicate effectively with others is key to
success in any line of work. The skills that you learn in a public-speaking course,
such as how to ethically adapt information to listeners, organize your ideas, per-
suade others, and hold listeners’ attention, are among the skills that are most
sought by employers. In a nationwide survey, prospective employers of college
graduates said that they seek candidates with “public-speaking and presenta-
tion ability.”6 As Table 1.1 shows, other surveys of personnel managers, both in
the United States and internationally, have confirmed that they consider com-
munication skills to be the top factor in helping graduating college students to
obtain employment.7 Billionaire investor Warren Buffet also suggests that higher
pay might be another employment benefit of learning public speaking, saying,
“If you improve your communication skills, I guarantee you that will earn
50 percent more money over your lifetime.”8

Quick Check
Why Study Public Speaking?

1. Empowerment: You will gain confidence and skill in communicating with others.
2. Employment: You will enhance your career and leadership opportunities.

Table 1.1 Top Skills Valued by Employers

Results of Survey Results of Survey Survey Results
Results of Survey of of a College Career of Prospective Compiled from Several
Rank Personnel Directors9 Services Department10 Employers11 Research Studies12
Spoken communication Communication and
1 Communication skills Communication skills
skills interpersonal skills
Written communication
2 Intelligence Honesty and integrity Analytical/research skills
skills
3 Listening ability Enthusiasm Teamwork Technical skills
4 Enthusiasm Flexibility Interpersonal skills Flexibility/adaptability
5 Technical competence Leadership Motivation/initiative Interpersonal skills

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 Public Speaking as a Communication Process 1.3 5

Public Speaking as a 1.3

Communication Process
1.3 Sketch and explain a model that illustrates the components and the
process of communication.
Even the earliest communication theorists recognized that all communication is
a process. We’ll look next at a variety of models that theorists have developed
over the decades to describe the communication process.

Communication as Action
The earliest models that communication theorists formulated were linear, sug-
gesting a simple transfer of meaning from a sender to a receiver, as shown in
Figure 1.1. Although theorists later realized that these ideas were too simplistic,
early models did identify most of the elements of the communication process.
We will explain each element as it relates to public speaking.

Source A public speaker is a source of information and ideas for an audience.

The job of the source or speaker is to encode, or translate, the ideas and images in
his or her mind into verbal or nonverbal symbols (a code) that an audience can
­recognize. The speaker may encode into words (for example, saying, “The fabric
should be 2 inches square”) or into gestures (showing the size with his or her hands).

Message The message in public speaking is the speech itself—both what is

said and how it is said. If a speaker has trouble finding words to convey his or
her ideas or sends contradictory nonverbal symbols, listeners might not be able
to decode the speaker’s verbal and nonverbal symbols into a message.

Channels A message is usually transmitted from sender to receiver via two

channels: visual and auditory. Audience members see the speaker and decode his
or her nonverbal symbols—eye contact (or lack of it), facial expressions, posture,

Noise

Source Message Channel Message Receiver

Figure 1.1 A Model of Communication as Action

Copyrighted by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

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 6 1.3 Introduction to Public Speaking

gestures, and dress. If the speaker uses any visual aids, such as graphs or
models, these too are transmitted along the visual channel. The auditory channel
opens as the speaker speaks. Then the audience members hear words and such
vocal cues as inflection, rate, and voice quality.
Receiver The receiver of the message is the individual audience member,
whose decoding of the message will depend on his or her own particular blend
of past experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and values. An effective public speaker
should be receiver- or audience-centered.
Noise Anything that interferes with the communication of a message is called
noise. Noise may be physical and external or internal. External noise such as a
lawnmower outside, a noisy air conditioner, a crying baby, or incessant cough-
ing can make it difficult for audience members to hear or concentrate on a
speech. Internal noise may stem from either physiological or psychological causes
and may directly affect either the source or the receiver. A bad cold (physiologi-
cal noise) may cloud a speaker’s memory or subdue his or her delivery. An audi-
ence member who is worried about an upcoming exam (psychological noise) is
unlikely to remember much of what the speaker says. Whether it is internal or
external, whether it is physiological or psychological, or whether it originates in
the sender or the receiver, noise interferes with the transmission of a message.

Communication as Interaction
Realizing that linear models were overly simplistic, later communication theo-
rists designed models such as the one in Figure 1.2 that depicted communica-
tion as a more complex process. These models were circular, or interactive, and
added two important new elements: feedback and context.

Context

Noise

Source Message Channel Message Receiver

Feedback

Figure 1.2 An Interactive Model of Communication

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 Public Speaking as a Communication Process 1.3 7

Feedback One way in which public speaking differs from casual conversa-
tion is that the public speaker does most or all of the talking. But public speaking
is still interactive. Without an audience to hear and provide feedback, public
speaking serves little purpose. Skillful public speakers are audience-centered.
They depend on the nods, facial expressions, and murmurings of the audience
to signal them to adjust their rate of speaking, volume, vocabulary, type and
amount of supporting material, and other variables to communicate their mes-
sage successfully.

Context The context of a public-speaking experience is the environment or

situation in which the speech occurs. It includes such elements as the time, the
place, and the speaker’s and audience’s cultural traditions and expectations. To
paraphrase John Donne, no speech is an island—no speech occurs in a vacuum.
Rather, each speech is a blend of circumstances that can never be replicated
­exactly again.
The person whose job it is to deliver an identical message to a number of
different audiences at different times and in different places can attest to the
uniqueness of each speaking context. If the room is hot, crowded, or poorly lit,
these conditions affect both speaker and audience. The audience that hears a
speaker at 10 a.m. is likely to be fresher and more receptive than a 4:30 p.m. audi-
ence. A speaker who fought rush-hour traffic for 90 minutes to arrive at his or
her destination may find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for delivering
the speech.
Many of the skills that you will learn from this book relate not only to the
preparation of effective speeches (messages) but also to the elements of feedback
and context in the communication process. Our audience-centered approach fo-
cuses on “reading” your listeners’ responses and adjusting to them as you speak.

Communication as Transaction
The most recent communication models do not label individual components.
Transactive models focus instead on communication as a simultaneous process.
As the model in Figure 1.3 suggests, we send and receive messages concurrently.
In a two-person communication transaction, both individuals are sending and
receiving at the same time. When you are listening, you are also expressing your
thoughts and feelings nonverbally. A good public speaker shouldn’t wait until a
speech is over to gauge its effectiveness but, because of the transactive nature of

Source/ Receiver/
Receiver Source

Figure 1.3 A Transactive Model of Communication

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 8 1.4 Introduction to Public Speaking

communication, should be scanning the audience during the speech for nonver-
bal clues to the audience’s reaction.
Although communication models have been developed only recently, the
elements of these models have long been recognized as the keys to successful
public speaking. As you study public speaking, you will continue a tradition
that goes back to the very beginnings of Western civilization.

Quick Check
The Communication Process

Audience and speaker send messages simultaneously. The process includes these
elements:
• The speaker is the source of information.
• The message is the speech.
• The message is transmitted through visual and auditory channels.
• The receiver decodes the message.
• Noise (external or internal) interferes with the message.

1.4 The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking

1.4 Discuss in brief the history of public speaking.
Long before the time when many people could read, they listened to public
speakers. Rhetoric is another term for the use of words and symbols to achieve
a goal. Although rhetoric is often defined as the art of speaking or writing aimed
at persuading others (changing or reinforcing attitudes, beliefs, values, or be-
havior), you are using rhetoric whether you’re informing, persuading, or even
entertaining listeners, because you are trying to achieve a goal.

The Golden Age of Public Speaking

The fourth century b.c.e. was a golden age for rhetoric in the Greek Republic,
because it was during this time that the philosopher Aristotle formulated guide-
lines for speakers that we still follow today. Roman orators continued the Greek
rhetorical tradition. Two famous Romans, Cicero and Quintilian, both sought to
define the qualities of the “true” orator. On a lighter note, it is said that Roman
orators invented the necktie; fearing laryngitis, they wore “chin cloths” to pro-
tect their throats.13
Centuries later in medieval Europe, the clergy were the most polished pub-
lic speakers. In the 1500s, Europeans gathered eagerly to hear Martin Luther
expound his Articles of Faith. In the 1700s, colonists in what would one day be-
come the United States listened to the impassioned speeches of patriots.

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 The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking 1.4 9

Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Age of

Political Oratory
Vast nineteenth-century audiences heard speakers such as Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster debate states’ rights; they listened to Frederick Douglass,
Angelina Grimke, and Sojourner Truth argue for the abolition of slavery and
to Lucretia Mott plead for women’s suffrage; they gathered for an evening’s
entertainment to hear Mark Twain as he traveled the lecture circuits of the
frontier.
Students of nineteenth-century public speaking spent very little time de-
veloping their own speeches. Instead, they practiced the art of declamation—
the delivery of an already famous address. Favorite subjects for declamation
included speeches by Americans such as Patrick Henry and William Jennings
Bryan and British orator Edmund Burke.
Hand in hand with declamation went the study and practice of elocution,
the expression of emotion through posture, movement, gestures, facial expres-
sion, and voice. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century,
elocution manuals, providing elaborate and specific prescriptions for effective
delivery, were standard references not only in schools but also in nearly every
middle-class home in the United States.14

The Technological Age of Public Speaking

In the first half of the twentieth century, radio made it possible for people around
the world to hear Franklin Delano Roosevelt decry December 7, 1941, as “a date
which will live in infamy” following the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In the
last half of the century, television was the medium through which audiences saw
and heard the most stirring speeches:

• Martin Luther King Jr. proclaiming his dream of equality

• Ronald Reagan beseeching Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”
• Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel looking beyond the end of one millennium
toward the next with “profound fear and extraordinary hope”

With the twenty-first century dawned a new era of speechmaking. It was

to be an era that would draw on age-old public-speaking traditions—an era in
which U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan would watch their chil-
dren’s commencement addresses live via streaming video. And it was to be an
era that would summon public speakers to meet some of the most difficult chal-
lenges in history—an era in which a U.S. president would empathize with the
grief felt by the community of Newtown, Connecticut, after 20 young children
and six adults were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School, telling lis-
teners that “ . . . you’re not alone in your grief; that our world too has been torn
apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you, we’ve pulled our
children tight.”15

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 10 1.4 Introduction to Public Speaking

Aristotle, Daniel Webster, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were all great speakers of their eras.

Your Speeches in Today’s Age of Public Speaking

Today, you may be more likely to hear a speech after it has been recorded as a
YouTube video or a podcast and delivered on your smartphone or other digi-
tal device than you are a live-and-in-person presentation. In fact, you may be
taking this course in an online format and may present your speeches to your
classmates and instructor as video recordings. Although the electronic context
of the message influences both how the message may be prepared and received,
the primary process of developing and presenting your speech is the same as it
has been for centuries. The ancient Romans identified five classical canons, or
elements of preparing and presenting a speech:

• Invention: the creative process of developing your ideas

• Arrangement: how the speech is organized
• Style: your choice of words
• Memory: the extent to which you use notes or rely on your memory to share
your ideas
• Delivery: the nonverbal expression of your message

Whether you are presenting your message in person or via video, you will
find that these same five elements will shape how your audience responds to
your message. You and other speakers in the future can draw on the long and
rich heritage as you forge new frontiers in public speaking.
Another unchanging truth of public speaking is that the core of all you do
in public speaking is a focus on your audience. Your audience will ultimately

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 The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking 1.4 11

determine if your message has achieved your objective. For this reason, we sug-
gest that you keep your audience foremost in your mind from the first moments
of thinking about your speech. In Chapter 3, we present a step-by-step guide
to preparing any speech that will connect speaker to audience regardless of the
channel used.

Quick Check
The Rich Heritage of Public Speaking

Period Event
Fourth to first centuries b.c.e. Greek rhetoric flourishes in the Age of Aristotle. Roman orators continue the tradition.
Sixteenth century European clergy are the primary practitioners of public speaking.
Eighteenth century American patriots make impassioned public pleas for independence.
Nineteenth century Abolitionists and suffragists speak out for change; frontier lecture circuits flourish.
Twentieth century Electronic media first make possible vast audiences.
Twenty-first century Speakers adapt centuries-old traditions of public speaking to rapidly evolving technol-
ogy and media.

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 12 Chapter 1 study guide

Study Guide: Review and Apply

Meet Your Objectives
1.1 Compare and contrast public speaking and conversation.
Public speaking—presenting a message to an audience—is similar to conversa-
tion in that it requires focus, expression, and adapting to an audience. However,
public speaking is more planned, more formal, and has more defined roles for
speakers than conversation.
Key Term
Public speaking

1.2 Explain why it is important to study public speaking.

Since you are highly likely to be called on to speak in public, skill in public
speaking can empower you. It can also help you secure employment or advance
your career.
Key Terms
Empowerment
Critical thinking

1.3 Sketch and explain a model that illustrates the components and the
process of communication.
Like other forms of communication, public speaking is a process. Different theo-
rists have explained the communication process as (1) action, by which a source
transmits a message through a channel to a receiver; (2) an interaction, in which
the receiver’s feedback and the context of the communication add to the action;
and (3) a transaction in which source and receiver simultaneously send mes-
sages and build a shared meaning.
Key Terms
Source Decode Internal noise
Encode Channels Feedback
Code Receiver Context
Message External noise

1.4 Discuss in brief the history of public speaking.

As you develop your own public-speaking skills, your study will be guided
by experience and knowledge gained over centuries of making and studying
speeches, since the golden age of ancient Greece to today, when you are likely to
watch video of speeches rather than hear them in person.
Key Terms
Rhetoric
Declamation
Elocution

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 Chapter 1 study guide 13

Think about These Questions

• How do you think this course in public speaking can help you with your
career goals? With your personal life?
• Give an example of internal noise that is affecting you as you read this
question.
• Declamation is defined as “the delivery of an already famous address.” Is
it ethical to deliver a speech that was written and/or already delivered by
someone else? Explain your answer.

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