Fundamentals of Communication

General Education Common Graded Assignment

Speech Critique-

Textbook: Understanding Human Communication by Adler

Purpose: CMNS 101 Fundamentals of Communication is a general education course designed to assist students in the development of critical life skills. One of the goals of this assignment is to assess student competence for each of these objectives:

1. Written and Oral Communication-demonstrate effective verbal and nonverbal techniques in a variety of settings;

2. Critical Analysis and Reasoning-explain the impact of language on communication;

3. Technological Competence- employ appropriate technology in the design and delivery of messages in various formats

4. Information Literacy- demonstrate critical thinking in researching, organizing, and presenting information;

5. Local and Global Diversity-analyze the variables that influence communication, including culture, gender, nonverbal settings, and symbols;

6. Personal and Professional Ethics- identify factors that constitute ethical and unethical communication in a variety of contexts and audiences, including family, social, school, speech audiences, career environments, and diverse populations.

In addition to the above general education objectives, this assignment assesses students' understanding and application of the following skills and knowledge specific to the public speaking unit of this course:

1. Ability to distinguish factors that constitute effective verbal and nonverbal delivery

2. Ability to identify reliable and timely sources of information

3. Ability to analyze effective organization and support of speech content

Assignment Specifications

1. Review the rubric and the assignment instructions before you start writing your essay.

2. Students who do not follow the instructions will receive a zero and "F" for the assignment. Essays submitted after Spring Break will result in a two letter grade penalty.

3. Assignment Instructions

4. Write an essay in which you analyze various aspects of Megan Kamerick's presentation by answering the following questions. Each question must be fully answered with examples to support your statements

Introduction

The introduction of the paper should provide insight and interest to the audience. Lead with a hook or an attention getter. If you would like to summarize the speech or provide background information, please do so. Last, form a thesis statement that will include you main points (Hacker, p.13).

Body of Paper

1. What aspects of the speaker's delivery were effective? Ineffective? Why?

Verbal delivery (e.g., volume, enunciation, language choice, etc.)

Nonverbal delivery (e.g., eye contact, body movement, gestures, etc.)

2. Discuss how the information and/or language the speaker used indicated awareness of and/or sensitivity to diversity as it related to the topic. If recognition of diversity was absent from the presentation, suggest how it might have been incorporated.

3. Describe the effectiveness of the types of support material (evidence) used. How does the support material expand the speaker's point? If lacking, discuss what types of information the speaker might have included.

4. Evaluate the credibility of the research sources used by the speaker and indicate whether the presentation might have been strengthened with other sources of information. Check the sources so that you can adequately determine the relevance to the topic, reliability of the source, and its timeliness.

5. Describe how the speaker used technology during the presentation. Explain with examples whether you believe the technology enhanced audience understanding of the point being discussed. If no technology was used, suggest how it might have been incorporated.

6. Describe and evaluate ethical issues in the speech, regarding such issues as use of pathos, possible biased information, etc. Identify with examples any logic fallacies present.