Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation

writers) today.
The great Roman leader Cicero used his speeches to defend

liberty and wrote several works about oratory in general.
Over the centuries, many other notable thinkers have dealt with issues
of rhetoric, speech, and language—including the Roman educator Quintil-
ian, the Christian preacher St. Augustine, the medieval writer Christine de
Pizan, the British philosopher Francis Bacon, and the American critic
Kenneth Burke. In recent years, communication researchers have provided
an increasingly scientific basis for understanding the methods and strategies
of effective speech.
Your immediate objective is to apply those methods and strategies in your
classroom speeches. What you learn, however, will be applicable long after
you leave college. The principles of public speaking are derived from a long
tradition and have been confirmed by a substantial body of research. The
more you know about those principles, the more effective you will be in your
own speeches—and the more effective you will be in listening to the speeches
of other people.
Similarities Between Public Speaking

and Conversation
How much time do you spend each day talking to other people? The average
adult spends about 30 percent of her or his waking hours in conversation. By
the time you read this book, you will have spent much of your life perfecting
the art of conversation. You may not realize it, but you already employ a wide
range of skills when talking to people. These skills include the following:
1. Organizing your thoughts logically. Suppose you were giving someone
directions to get to your house. You wouldn’t do it this way:
When you turn off the highway, you’ll see a big diner on the left. But before
that, stay on the highway to Exit 67. Usually a couple of the neighbors’ dogs
are in the street, so go slow after you turn at the blinking light. Coming from
your house you get on the highway through Maple Street. If you pass the taco
stand, you’ve gone too far. The house is blue.
Instead, you would take your listener systematically, step by step, from his or
her house to your house. You would organize your message.
2. Tailoring your message to your audience. You are a geology major. Two
people ask you how pearls are formed. One is your roommate; the other is
your nine-year-old niece. You answer as follows:
To your roommate: “When any irritant, say a grain of sand, gets inside the oys-
ter’s shell, the oyster automatically secretes a substance called nacre, which is
principally calcium carbonate and is the same material that lines the oyster’s
shell. The nacre accumulates in layers around the irritant core to form the pearl.”
To your niece: “Imagine you’re an oyster on the ocean floor. A grain of sand
gets inside your shell and makes you uncomfortable. So you decide to cover it
up. You cover it with a material called mother-of-pearl. The covering builds up
around the grain of sand to make a pearl.”
6 CHAPTER 1 Speaking in Public

Many skills used in conversation also
apply in public speaking. As you learn
to speak more effectively, you may
also learn to communicate more
effectively in other situations.
3. Telling a story for maximum impact. Suppose you are telling a friend
about a funny incident at last week’s football game. You don’t begin with the
punch line (“Keisha fell out of the stands right onto the field. Here’s how it
started. . . .”). Instead, you carefully build up your story, adjusting your words
and tone of voice to get the best effect.
4. Adapting to listener feedback. Whenever you talk with someone, you are
aware of that person’s verbal, facial, and physical reactions. For example:
You are explaining an interesting point that came up in biology class. Your lis-
tener begins to look confused, puts up a hand as though to stop you, and says
“Huh?” You go back and explain more clearly.
A friend has asked you to listen while she practices a speech. At the end you tell
her, “There’s just one part I really don’t like—that quotation from the attorney gen-
eral.” Your friend looks very hurt and says, “That was my favorite part!” So you say,
“But if you just worked the quotation in a little differently, it would be wonderful.”
Each day, in casual conversation, you do all these things many times with-
out thinking about them. You already possess these communication skills. And
these are among the most important skills you will need for public speaking.
To illustrate, let’s return briefly to one of the hypothetical situations at
the beginning of this chapter. When addressing the school board about the
need for a special teacher:
■ You organize your ideas to present them in the most persuasive manner. You
steadily build up a compelling case about how the teacher benefits the school.
■ You tailor your message to your audience. This is no time to launch an
impassioned defense of special education in the United States. You must
show how the issue is important to the people in that very room—to their
children and to the school.
Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation 7

■ You tell your story for maximum impact. Perhaps you relate an anecdote to
demonstrate how much your child has improved. You also have statistics
to show how many other children have been helped.
■ You adapt to listener feedback. When you mention the cost of the special
teacher, you notice sour looks on the faces of the school board members.
So you patiently explain how small that cost is in relation to the overall
school budget.
In many ways, then, public speaking requires the same skills used in
ordinary conversation. Most people who communicate well in daily talk can
learn to communicate just as well in public speaking. By the same token,
training in public speaking can make you a more adept communicator in a
variety of situations, such as conversations, classroom discussions, business
meetings, and interviews.
Differences Between Public Speaking

and Conversation
Despite their similarities, public speaking and everyday conversation are not
identical. Imagine that you are telling a story to a friend. Then imagine your-
self telling the story to a group of seven or eight friends. Now imagine telling
the same story to 20 or 30 people. As the size of your audience grows, you
will find yourself adapting to three major differences between conversation
and public speaking:
1. Public speaking is more highly structured. It usually imposes strict time

limitations on the speaker. In most cases, the situation does not allow listen-
ers to interrupt with questions or commentary. The speaker must accomplish
her or his purpose in the speech itself. In preparing the speech, the speaker
must anticipate questions that might arise in the minds of listeners and
answer them. Consequently, public speaking demands much more detailed
planning and preparation than ordinary conversation.
2. Public speaking requires more formal language. Slang, jargon, and bad
grammar have little place in public speeches. As committed as he is to improv-
ing the quality of education in urban schools, when Geoffrey Canada speaks
to a legislative committee, he doesn’t say, “We’ve got to get every damn
incompetent teacher out of the classroom!” Listeners usually react negatively
to speakers who do not elevate and polish their language when addressing
an audience. A speech should be “special.”
3. Public speaking requires a different method of delivery. When conversing
informally, most people talk quietly, interject stock phrases such as “like” and
“you know,” adopt a casual posture, and use what are called vocalized pauses
(“uh,” “er,” “um”). Effective public speakers, however, adjust their voices to
be heard clearly throughout the audience. They assume a more erect posture.
They avoid distracting mannerisms and verbal habits.
With study and practice, you will be able to master these differences and
expand your conversational skills into speechmaking. Your speech class will
provide the opportunity for this study and practice.
8 CHAPTER 1 Speaking in Public

Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation

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writers) today.

The great Roman leader Cicero used his speeches to defend

Similarities Between Public Speaking

6 CHAPTER 1 Speaking in Public

Similarities Between Public Speaking and Conversation 7

Differences Between Public Speaking

1. Public speaking is more highly structured. It usually imposes strict time

8 CHAPTER 1 Speaking in Public

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