Effective Speech

Catalog description

This general education course introduces student to principles of effective communication with a specific focus on the analysis and evaluation of messages. It thus offers a specialized variant of the university's required course in effective public speaking skills. Through in-class activities, lectures, and group discussions, students develop skills in effective communication skills based on a combination of practice, theory, and analysis. Class size is limited to ensure that scheduled meetings can support students in focusing on the development of effective communication skills through in-class activities, collaborative learning, peer critiques, and the analysis of written and spoken discourse. In addition to developing presentational skills, students learn some essential components of rhetorical theory. Through analysis and evaluation afforded by those components, students will be able to listen more effectively to persuasive messages, draw on the content of persuasive messages as resources for their own civic engagement, and see how the persuasive messages of others can offer models for their own persuasive efforts. Students will deliver a minimum of two public speeches. Speeches will be evaluated for content, organization, and presentation. Graded preparation assignments will test students' ability to synthesize and apply course concepts from the textbook and lectures in the analysis and evaluation of messages. Student speeches will be prepared, by utilizing such resources, to present such analysis and evaluation. In sum, student will develop a deeper understanding of the persuasive messages they receive and an improved ability to persuasively communicate their own messages. Numerous sections of CAS 100C are offered throughout the university system in any given semester. For that reason, different versions of the course may vary slightly depending on the expertise or professional preferences of the instructor. All versions of the course, however, will be designed according to common learning objectives and major topics in order to introduce undergraduate students to essential aspects of effective oral communication.