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The Canons Of Rhetoric
This CourseWeb is organized along the lines of the five Canons of Rhetoric. The Canons were considered the key elements of a good speech, and a good speaker's education would be centered around these five areas. You can see the tabs at the top of this window for each, and choose which section you would like to visit.
- Invention - The Canon concerned with what to say - How do I determine my points? Where do I go for information? How do I prove something to an audience?
- Arrangement - The Canon concerned with the order of the points of your speech - Do I lead with the most important, or most interesting point? How do I move between points? How do I structure an Introduction or Conclusion?
- Style - The Canon concerned with the understandability of your speech - Should I use slang or formal language? How do I get a technical term across to an audience of laypeople? How do I put myself across as being trustworthy?
- Delivery - The Canon concerned with how you use your voice and body to get your point across. What gestures are good or bad? What is a good amount of eye contact? Where do I stand? How do I use powerpoint; do I stand in front of it?
- Memory - The Canon concerned with how to remember what you want to say - What format of notes is best? Should I present with an outline or a full text of my speech? Are notecards ok? How can I use important, shared memory of the audience members to help me prove something?
Course Description
SPE 1000 C - Public Speaking for the College Student
Course Description:
The activity we call “public speaking” has existed at least since the time of ancient Athens, and has been studied under the names “rhetoric,” “persuasion,” and “communication” by many different people of various cultures and geographic locations. In contemporary times most of this attitude has been replaced with an art of studying effective practice in the act of presentations before live audiences. Although this is a useful study, I hope to provide you with a sense of the richness of this literature on balance with effective practices that will improve your ability to convey your ideas to the audience (whoever might compose it) thoroughly, thoughtfully, and with a minimum of anxiety.
What counts as public speech?
Objectives
At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to:
1. Know the parts of a speech and how to effectively construct them.
2. Be able to identify modes of proof, and evaluate effectiveness of proof in speech
3. Be able to criticize a speech and explain why you feel one part is effective or ineffective
4. Use electronic research methods in speech preparation.
5. Apply visual aids effectively in verbal presentations.
REQUIRED READING
Available on the CampusGuides site (http://stjohns.campusguides.com)
Quality Speeches
You will receive a rubric for what is required for each specific speech assignment. But here are things to think about for each and every speech you do in this class.
C range Speeches will:
- Have a clear thesis
- Have a clear organizational form
- Be an original topic at a college level of complexity
- Have adequate, explained supporting ideas for each point
- Use an extemporaneous outline
- Have regular eye contact with the audience
- Have minimal distracting movement
- Be spoken at an appropriate volume
- Use appropriate language for the audience and environment
B range speeches will:
- Have an engaging and interesting thesis
- Have an organizational form that assists the content and development of the speech
- Be a topic that pushes the range of thinking for the audience or presents an unusual take on a subject
- Have well thought out and explained supporting ideas for each point
- Use an extemporaneous outline at a minimum; perhaps a key word outline
- Have good eye contact and be speaking to the audience at least 85% of the time
- Use planned movement and gestures to assist message development
- Use volume, pitch and tone to develop the message of the speech
- Use language that challenges the thought patters of the audience or style that accents the thesis of the speech.
A range speeches will:
- Have a thesis that authentically engages the audience in a fascinating idea or subject
- Have an organization that leaves an impact on the audience as well as drives the main ideas home to the audience
- Be a topic that inspires or enlightens the audience beyond being just another assigned speech
- Have superior supporting evidence and ideas from many sources that are explained thoroughly
- Uses a note card with key words at a minimum or uses an extemporaneous outline as a reference point only a few times during the speech
- Be carrying on a personal conversation with the audience through intense eye contact
- Use well staged movement and the front of the room as integral in presenting the ideas of the speech
- Use volume, pitch and tone as elements of support for the speech ideas
- Use eloquent language that inspires the audience to want more from the speaker on the topic long after the speech is over.
Professor Steve Llano, Ph.D. |
 Stephen Llano        |
Required Reading
Speech Anxiety
Laptops
Laptop Policy
Students are welcome and invited to use their laptops in class, but if you have it out and open you will be called upon from time to time by the instructor to look things up and do on-the-spot internet research.
We have the aggregate knowledge of humanity at our fingertips in these machines, we might as well use it during class to increase our potential to realize cool things.
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