Approved April 25, 2005
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
- Compose and deliver extemporaneous public presentations. Rationale: this style of delivery, as opposed to manuscript speaking, is widely agreed to be the most effective for most speakers in most settings
- Effectively create, organize, and support ideas in public presentations. Rationale: effective speaking is much more than strong delivery. The careful planning of content ensures quality public messages
- Evaluate audiences’ contexts, attitudes, values, and responses and adapt messages accordingly. Rationale: public speaking is communication. For any communication to be effective, listeners must be considered as carefully as speakers. An audience-centered approach ensures public messages will be meaningful to listeners, rather than simply exercises in talk.
- Effectively listen to and critically evaluate others’ messages. Rationale: we spend much more time as listeners than as speakers. Students must be equipped with the ability to make good use of time spent listening and be able to respond critically to others’ messages
- Contribute to active and ongoing discussions of issues in the discipline. Rationale: a great deal of oral communication occurs in smaller groups, with the discussion and deliberation of ideas. Students should be held to high standards of class participation as a means to help them discover their "voice" and gain experience sharing their ideas
Desirable but Optional Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
- Define the principle of freedom of expression and explain its role in a democratic society. Rationale: beyond providing our students with basic skills for their careers, we also want them to understand the role their voices play in the broader context of civic engagement in the democratic process
- Identify the ethical responsibilities of a public speaker. Rationale: the power of speech has been used to accomplish great good and great evil. It is incumbent upon us to help students understand that public speaking skill provides them with power and to encourage them to use it responsibly
