1. Understanding audience disposition will help you craft an effective message. How would you handle a situation if you misjudged your audience despite your best effort at audience analysis? Explain your answer by using terms from Chapter 3 and at least 2 examples.

2. Good topic choices reflect your passion and personal investment. Sometimes speakers have no choice in their topics. How would you approach developing a topic that you had no investment or interest in? (For example, salt.)

3. Current research in psychology and sociology says that people are generally close-minded and resist persuasion. Listeners are more persuadable when they hear about an issue for the first time or if they haven't made up their minds yet. What do you think about this conclusion? Given this research, do you think that trying to persuade people is worthwhile or pointless? Defend your answers with ideas from Chapter 15 and use at least 2 examples to illustrate.

4. Even though you've only been working at your new job for about a month, your team members asked you to present the status report on your team's project to the department heads. You know very little about the culture of your company. What would you do to prepare for your presentation?

 

 

5. Throughout the semester we learned several attention-getting techniques for speeches. You can review them in Chapter 8 of your textbook for reference. After reviewing the list of attention-getting techniques, which do you think are the most effective and which do you think might cause potential problems? Explain your answer and use at least 2 examples to support your points.

6. Imagine you are about to deliver a speech. You are prepared, your slides are in order, and you are confident about your presentation. When you arrive, you realize you left your flash drive at home. What strategies would you use to handle this situation?

 

 

7. You volunteer for a specific charity because it helped someone close to you, maybe a sibling or parent. You're preparing a speech for a fundraiser and you want to talk about why you are passionate about the organization. What is the best way to include your personal experience? Defend your answer using terms or reasons from chapter 6 of your textbook and provide at least 2 examples.

8. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of an online class setting. Based on your experience in this setting, what are some similarities between an online class and an online speech situation? What does the comparison suggest about how you should craft your speeches?

9. Even though the textbook discusses a variety of appeals, it states that speakers still require reason and logic to be successful persuaders. Do you agree that reason and logic are necessary today for successful persuasion? Defend your answer with ideas from the Chapter 15 and provide at least 2 examples to illustrate.

10. Watch President George W. Bush's "Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People" from September 20, 2001. Start video 1 at 3:50 on the video (everything before this is just political commentary and not the actual speech). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uie6uKmano The speech is in two videos. Here is the second link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lisgy3qb-l4

Answer the following after watching the videos:

Who is/are the audience (s) that President Bush is speaking to? What is the main point and thesis of his speech? What types of support did he use to support his thesis? How does President Bush begin and end his speech? What tactics does he use that we learned during the semester? Overall, what do you think he did well and what could he have improved upon with this speech? Your response should be 2-3 paragraphs.