TASK 1 - Unit Project

Attend a group meeting in your community or some other decision making group. Select a group with a limited number of members so that you can observe interactions among them. Take notes during the meeting.

Using the lists of responsibilities for group members and group leaders on the attached "textbook inserts - attached" as a guide, write an analysis, 500 word minimum, of the group's interactions.

Be sure to answer the following questions in your analysis:

Which responsibilities did the group perform well?

Which responsibilities seemed to receive little attention?

What could the group do to foster more effective interactions?

If the group had a leader, what strengths and weaknesses did you observe in his or her communication behaviors.

TASK 2 - Speech Performance (Draft 8 minute speech)

Persuasive Speech:

Description: Please read the following instructions before beginning your speech.

Speech content and topic: Your Persuasive Speech must be delivered using Monroe's Motivated Sequence. Your speech must be about (stopping sexual harassment at work). Many people in the audience may already believe that something should be done about the problem but do not have enough motivation to take action. Your task is to persuade them.

Monroe's Motivated Sequence consists of five steps that are delivered sequentially as follows:

1. Attention Step: When you begin, you want to get your audience's attention. Your first words should be a dramatic story or a rhetorical question; you can give a shocking statistic, or repeat a well-known quotation. Next, state your name and say why you are credible to give this speech. You end this step by telling the audience what specific action you are going to persuade them to take.

2. Need Step: In this Step, you must show that a significant problem exists that will not go away unless the audience takes action. Everyone in the audience should believe that a problem exists. Document each problem with statistics, examples, testimony, etc.

3. Satisfaction Step: Now you must offer a solution or solutions for the problem that you explained in the Need Step. This solution or these solutions are your ideas. They should be well thought out and explained clearly. You must also explain, step by step, how to
do what you propose.

4. Visualization Step: In this Step, you must create a mental picture of the benefit(s) of carrying out your solution, or, alternatively, of the consequences of not doing anything to resolve the problem. Audiences are persuaded when they understand the benefits or consequences that will affect them as individuals.

5. Action Step: You must now persuade the audience to take action to resolve the problem. Do not give the audience choices. Tell them specifically what you want them to do. If you offered more than one solution, choose one solution that they can begin to do immediately. It must be something that they can do as individuals. If you ask the audience to do more than one specific thing, it is likely that they will not do anything and your Persuasive Speech is wasted.