CMST100--Fundamentals of Public Speaking  

First Policy Speech    July 16, 17, and 18.

• Time--6-8 Minutes
• Value: 10% of final grade
• Required--Typed outline with bib page, mini-DVD-R (or RW), feedback sheet.
• Sources--Minimum of ten (ask me about appropriate evidence).
• Approval--by me, the Friday before the speech.
• Note--if you use note cards, they can only contain key words or quotations.

Assignment--For your first speech, I would like you to choose a topic (one that you care about) and persuade this audience to support a public policy--a policy you will delineate in detail showing how, and that, it will work. Topics can vary widely, but the thesis must be a policy statement. Topics can include, but should not be limited to, politics ("We should support a flag burning Amendment,"), environmental issues ("We should charge a tax to all home owners who produce more than two standard sized trash cans of garbage per week"), or military issues ("Gays should be allowed to serve in the US military"). My only requirements are that the topics must be ones that both the speaker and the audience care about and ones that the audience needs to be persuaded on (i.e., do not attempt to get your audience to support a policy they already support). Because I have a good deal of experience from past classes knowing what topics work and what topics do not, and because I want to be sure that you are speaking on a policy, you are required to approve your topic with me by Friday, July 13. Failure to do so will meet with a "0" for this assignment.

Because we will have only discussed disposition and invention by the time of your speech, this is primarily what you will be judged on (that, and the delivery, which we will take more seriously with each round of speeches).

Evaluation:

• --did the speaker provide a clear and obvious thesis statement?
• --did the speaker establish ethos, reveal the topic, gain the audience's attention and preview the route of the speech?
• --were the forms of evidence and resources varied and plentiful?
• --did the speaker cite sources in the spoken effort and the outline, and were these citations non-obtrusive?
• --was need clearly understood by the audience?
• --did the speaker adequately satisfy the problem presented?
• --were transitions clear and abundant?
• --did the speaker summarize the main points and come to a clear close?
• --did the speaker "know" the audience to the degree that examples, wording, and arguments were "fitted" to this particular audience/occasion?
• --did the speaker reasonably meet time limits?
• --did the speaker sound like an "automaton" or did s/he appear to be in conversation with the audience?
• --was the outline clear and adequate?

If you need help, please either come by my office, call me (322-2988) or email me.

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