Consider your audience. For this assignment, your audience is a prospective employer in your chosen career field/area. You must keep this audience in mind throughout the speechmaking process.
Your audience is a prospective employer in your chosen career field
Elevator Speech Directions
Description
An elevator speech is a brief, conversational speech designed to gain the attention of an audience with the goal of securing an appointment to discuss the topic in more detail.
This assignment requires you to design and present an original 2 minute “personal pitch” elevator speech in which you describe yourself and what you have to offer a prospective employer in your chosen career field/area and what you like about your chosen career/area.
Objectives
To practice techniques of building confidence as a speaker.
To apply the key steps of designing and presenting a speech to a real-life speaking situation.
To observe guidelines for ethical speech.
Process
After completing the reading and viewing assignments associated with the elevator speech, follow the key steps below to complete your Elevator Speech Worksheet and design and present your speech.
1. Consider your audience. For this assignment, your audience is a prospective employer in your chosen career field/area. You must keep this audience in mind throughout the speechmaking process.
2. Select and narrow your topic. For this assignment, the topic is you as a potential employee in your chosen career field/area.
3. Determine your general and specific purposes. The general purpose of a personal pitch elevator speech is to inform. The specific purpose of your elevator speech might be stated as, “At the end of my speech, the listener will invite me for an interview.”
4. Develop your central idea. The central idea summarizes your speech in a single sentence. The central idea of your elevator speech should include the contributions you could make to the prospective employer’s company/area and why you are interested in the employer’s company/area.
5. Generate the main ideas. The main ideas are the key points in a speech; these are derived from the central idea. Your Elevator Speech will have two main ideas. One main idea will be the contributions you could make to the prospective employer’s company/area. The other main idea will be why you are interested in the employer’s company/area.
6. Gather supporting material. Supporting material includes facts, examples, definitions, and quotations from others. Supporting material for your elevator speech will most likely include specific examples that illustrate your strengths and specific facts about the employer’s company/area that support your interest in the company/area. Remember that sources must be acknowledged in the speech.
7. Organize your speech. Every speech, including the elevator speech, should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction gains audience attention, previews the major ideas in the speech, and provides audience members with reasons to listen to the speech. The body presents and supports the main ideas. The conclusion summarizes the main ideas and restates the central idea.
8. Rehearse your speech. You may not use speaking notes. This speech is about you, so you have no need for crib sheets. Practice your speech several times, preferably with a partner, before you record the speech. Be sure to time the delivery of your speech to make certain it falls within the 2-3 minute time limit. DO NOT READ YOUR SPEECH.
9. Audience Requirement: All speeches must be recorded in live video format; audio-only recordings are not allowed. Your audience may either be live and in-person or live and digital. In either configuration, your audience must experience your speech live and in real-time.
When recording your speech, make sure you are well-lit and not washed out with light from behind you. Ensure you record your speech on a tripod or solid surface. You must deliver your speech from a standing position, unless otherwise approved by your instructor. Your audience and your instructor must see you on camera at all times.
Students will be required to show the in-person audience at the beginning and end of each recorded in-person presentation. Students will not cut-in the audience to the recording; rather the recording will flow from showing the audience at the beginning of the speech, to the delivery of the speech, then back to the audience at the end of the speech with no breaks in the video.
Digital audiences must be viewable on-screen for the entire recorded presentation. The recording of the speech must display the student presenter and the complete digital audience for the entirety of the speech.
To earn a speech grade of C- or higher, all CA 109 students are required to record their graded speeches in front of a live audience, either in-person or digital, of at least five adult humans, age 18 or older.
10. NOTE: All CA 109 students are required to submit their written speeches to Turnitin. Failure to submit a written speech to Turnitin will result in a grade of zero for the “Ethicality” section of each speech rubric. Turnitin is an electronic text matching system that compares text in a student assignment against a database of sources. As students are required to produce original speeches – not copy other pieces of work – Turnitin is another resource for students and instructors to ensure students’ work is their own.
11. In Week 3, you will deliver your speech. Record your speech and upload it to your Group Discussion Board.
Week 3
Discussion Questions:
Question 1 (Chapter 3)
Which of the four causes of poor listening do you consider the most negative? Why? Give examples that support your reasoning.
Choose a specific case of poor listening in which you were involved. Explain what went wrong. Then, explain what you would do differently to turn this into a positive experience.
Question 2 (Chapter 4)
Why should an introduction to a speech gain the attention of the audience?
Why should an introduction to a speech offer the central idea and preview the main points to be discussed?
Why should a conclusion to a speech reinforce the central idea of the speech?
For an occasion outside the classroom where you might give a speech of self-introduction, explain how you would apply the principles of introductory speeches discussed in Chapter 4.
Week 5
PowerPoint Speech Directions
Description
An informative speech increases the audience members’ understanding of a topic. For this speech, you will inform your audience about a significant popular culture product or personality from the last five years. “Popular culture (or “pop culture”) refers to the traditions and material culture of a particular society. [In first-world countries], popculture refers to cultural products such as music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, cyberculture, television, and radio that are consumed by the majority of a society’s population. Popculture is those types of media that have mass accessibility and appeal” (Crossman, 2020).
This assignment requires you to design and deliver an original 4-5 minute informative speech, with supporting PowerPoint slides.
For this speech, you will inform your audience about a topic by answering the question:
What is the most significant popular culture product or personality from the last five years and why is that product or personality the most significant?
The ideas in your speech must be supported by evidence. A minimum of three viable, relevant, timely sources is required. For this speech, you will confine your research to newspapers from across the country. You may choose from the following online newspapers:
“LA Times”
“Chicago Tribune”
“USA Today”
“Atlanta Journal-Constitution”
“Detroit Free Press”
“Arizona Republic”
“The Dallas Morning News”
“Boston Herald”
“New York Post”
“The Washington Times”
Sociological Definition of Popular Culture, Crossman, A., ThoughtCo., 2019
Objectives
To practice techniques of building confidence as a speaker.
To apply the key steps of designing and presenting an informative presentation to a real-life speaking situation.
To observe guidelines for ethical speech.
To demonstrate the skills of effective speech delivery.
To demonstrate effective use of visual aids.
Speech Development Process
After completing the reading and viewing assignments associated with the PowerPoint Speech, follow the key steps below to complete your PowerPoint Speech Worksheet and design and present your speech.
Note: You will film yourself presenting the “speaking” part of your presentation and post this to your Group Discussion Board. You will upload your PowerPoint slides to your Group Discussion Board.
1. Consider your audience. For this assignment, your audience is made up of college graduates. You must keep this audience in mind throughout the speech-making process.
2. Select and narrow your topic. For this assignment, you will present on the topic of the most significant popular culture product or personality from the last five years.
3. Determine your general and specific purposes. The general purpose of this PowerPoint Speech is to inform. The specific purpose of this speech will explain a significant popular culture product or personality from the last five years you want your listeners to remember.
4. Develop your central idea. The central idea summarizes your speech in a single sentence and previews your main ideas. The central idea of your PowerPoint Speech will identify a popular culture product or personality and state why this is the most significant popular culture product or personality from the last five years.
5. Generate the main ideas. The main ideas are the key points in a speech; these are derived from the central idea. Your PowerPoint Speech will have two main ideas. The first main idea will identify and explain the pop culture product or personality. The second main idea will explain why this is the most significant pop culture product or personality from the last five years.
6. Gather supporting material. Supporting material includes facts, examples, definitions, and quotations from others. For this speech, your sources will come from the list provided to you of U.S. newspapers. Remember that sources must be acknowledged in the speech. An oral source citation typically includes the author, title, and year of publication.
7. Organize your speech. Every speech should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction gains audience attention, previews the major ideas in the presentation, and provides audience members with reasons to listen to the presentation. The body presents and supports the main ideas. The conclusion summarizes the main ideas and restates the central idea.
8. As you are organizing the presentation, you should also be developing the slides for the PowerPoint presentation. See information below.
speech. Your speech must be delivered from limited speaking notes (a maximum of three 3×5 notecards written on one side only). DO NOT READ YOUR SPEECH. Practice your speech several times from your notecards, preferably with a partner, before you record the speech. Be sure to time the delivery of your speech to make certain it falls within the 4-5 minute time limit. DO NOT READ YOUR SPEECH.
10. Audience Requirement: All speeches must be recorded in live video format; audio-only recordings are not allowed. Your audience may either be live and in-person or live and digital. In either configuration, your audience must experience your speech live and in real-time.
When recording your speech, make sure you are well-lit and not washed out with light from behind you. Ensure you record your speech on a tripod or solid surface. You must deliver your speech from a standing position, unless otherwise approved by your instructor. Your audience and your instructor must see you on camera at all times.
Students will be required to show the in-person audience at the beginning and end of each recorded in-person presentation. Students will not cut-in the audience to the recording; rather the recording will flow from showing the audience at the beginning of the speech, to the delivery of the speech, then back to the audience at the end of the speech with no breaks in the video.
Digital audiences must be viewable on-screen for the entire recorded presentation. The recording of the speech must display the student presenter and the complete digital audience for the entirety of the speech.
To earn a speech grade of C- or higher, all CA 109 students are required to record their graded speeches in front of a live audience, either in-person or digital, of at least five adult humans, age 18 or older.
11. NOTE: All CA 109 students are required to submit their written speeches to Turnitin. Failure to submit a written speech to Turnitin will result in a grade of zero for the “Ethicality” section of each speech rubric. Turnitin is an electronic text matching system that compares text in a student assignment against a database of sources. As students are required to produce original speeches – not copy other pieces of work – Turnitin is another resource for students and instructors to ensure students’ work is their own.
12. In Week 6, you will deliver your speech. Record your speech and upload it to your Group Discussion Board.
Week 5
PowerPoint Slide Deck Development Process
Your speech must be illustrated by a PowerPoint slide deck that meets the following specifications:
Title slide with speech title and speaker’s name.
Preview slide showing the main points in the speech.
Body slides to illustrate each of the two main points and sub-points.
References slide in APA format.
No text on body slides; use powerful images instead of words when possible.
A minimum of 13 slides must be used.
No more than 16 slides in total.
Follow the advice in our textbook and videos from Week 6 for developing effective PowerPoint visuals.
Attachments
