SPEAKING CENTER
The
Speaking Center is open to all COM 220 students. The lab is located
in the Communication Building (CMU) room 325. I consider the Center
to be an extension of the class. The center is a space to refine
your skills, address questions, and practice your speeches. I and
the TAs will hold our office hours in there. Additionally, the
Center’s undergraduate tutors are there to help you with your
speeches. Each one of these tutors has completed COM 200 (and did
quite well). Students who make regular use of this resource become
better speakers and do better on their assignments. The Center’s
hours for the quarter are posted on the course website.
CLASS EXPECTATIONS
1.
Arrive on time, leave on time. I will start class on time and
end it on time. I realize that you have many demands on your time,
but you signed up for this class at this time. I now expect you to
schedule around it. You may think that arriving late/leaving early
is simply a personal issue; that you can get in or out of class
without disturbing class. This is false. It disturbs me in my
lecture and it draws the class’s attention to your movement. Do not
arrive late and do not leave early (this includes packing up).
2. Do
the reading and homework. I will start the lecture on the
assumption that you have completed the reading. The same holds true
for the homeworks. They are not busy work—I don’t have time to look
at busy work. These are assignments designed to reinforce certain
themes or give you focused practice on some element of speech
preparation.
3. Be
here mentally and physically. You will notice that there are a
few days when class is cancelled. I didn’t want to have a class
meet unless I could pack it with essential information. The flip
side of this is that each day is important. Don’t come to class and
sleep. I want you here and thinking about the information. Most of
the material is covered in lecture so it is in your best interest to
be in lecture.
4.
Attend section. Sections are not optional. This is where you
deliver the speeches and hand in assignments. Beyond that, sections
are essential since they provide audiences for speeches. You owe it
to your classmates and to yourself to attend section. A speaker
needs an audience.
5.
Work on your speeches. I know you are busy. Speeches, however,
are time intensive, both in terms of researching and practicing. If
you wait until the night before to put together your speech, your
grade will suffer. I have built in assignments that give you
feedback at various levels of speech preparation. Again, this isn’t
busy work; the assignments are there to give you feedback at key
points during speech preparation process. Also, you are responsible
for setting up your practice time. The speaking center is there to
give you a space to practice and get quality feedback from the
tutors. But only practicing once isn’t sufficient (or only
practicing the day before your speech). It’s like signing up for a
gym membership. Just signing up won’t make you loose weight or
build muscle; you have to get yourself in the gym and use the
equipment. Just signing up for this class doesn’t guarantee that
you will become a significantly better speaker; that’s up to you. I
provide the equipment and training, but you gotta provide the
muscle.
SPEAKING ASSIGNMENTS
We will
discuss the course assignments in greater detail in the lecture and
in later parts of this packet; this is a brief overview of the
course work.
This
course takes the public in “public speaking” very seriously.
All speech assignments will be about issues that spark disagreement
in the public. These issues can range from the local to the
regional to the national and international. But all speeches will
address issues that affect the public as a collective and are
debated publicly by at least two sides.
Impromptu Speech (6 minutes of preparation followed by a 4 minute
speech):
Impromptu speaking reinforces all aspects of good public speaking:
quick thinking, sound argumentation, strategic word choice, and
engaged delivery. Each student will randomly pick two thesis
statements from an envelope. Choosing one of them, the student will
go into the hallway for 6 minutes to prepare, the student will then
return to the room and deliver a 4 minute speech supporting or
opposing the thesis. Your speech will be assessed based on your
ability to come up with credible arguments, which are appropriately
arranged and effectively presented, within the constraints of the
short preparation time allowed. Please see the assignment
description in this book for a detailed list of the assignment
requirements.
Persuasive Speech (6-8 minutes): Unlike the impromptu
speech, where your goal is to simply develop and deliver credible
arguments clearly and effectively, your goal in the persuasive
speech is to persuade those who disagree with you. The
persuasive and the advocacy speeches require you to speak to a
public issue. Given what you know about the controversy, the
arguments circulating in the public forum, and the classroom
audience, you should attempt to increase the audience’s
understanding and support for your position. Your speech will be
assessed based on your ability to develop a logically sound and
persuasive speech that moves disagreeing members of your audience.
Please see the assignment description in this book for a detailed
list of the assignment requirements.
Advocacy Speech (4-5 minutes):
Rather
than persuade disagreeing members of your audience, your goal
in the advocacy speech is to intensify beliefs already held
by the sympathetic members of your audience and motivate them
to take some form of action. This speech round will be held in an
outdoor public location to allow us to work on delivery and audience
engagement. Your speech will be assessed based on your ability to
develop convincing arguments that intensify commitment and encourage
action. Please see the assignment description in this book for a
detailed list of the assignment requirements.
QUIZZES
Periodically, there will be quizzes on the lecture material, the
textbook readings, and the online videos. These quizzes will
generally be announced ahead of time, but they also may be pop
quizzes. You should always come to class prepared to take a quiz on
the lecture material and recent course readings and online videos.
THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES. IF YOU MISS CLASS ON A DAY OF A
QUIZ, YOU RECEIVE A 0 FOR THAT QUIZ. For this reason, your
lowest two quiz grades will be dropped from the calculation of
your final grade. Do not email me or your TA ahead of time asking
if there will be a quiz in class on a certain day.
HOMEWORK
ASSIGNMENTS
Topic Selection Paper: Since you will address the same topic
for both your persuasive and advocacy speeches, it is important that
you select a good one that addresses a public issue and interests
you and your audience. In order to assist you on that path, this
assignment asks you justify your proposed topic. You must select
two potential topics. For each topic, you must show that this topic
is debated publicly and provide an annotated bibliography
demonstrating that there are enough sources to support your claims.
Your TA will read these and provide recommendations on which topic
might serve as the best one. Please see the assignment description
in this book for a detailed list of the assignment requirements.
Gallery Walk Presentations: Prior to delivering your
persuasive and advocacy speeches for a grade, you will deliver a
full run through to get some practice and feedback. The gallery
walk presentations are full practiced run throughs. Each student
will be assigned to a gallery walk day (based on the speaker
order). On that day, the presenters will deliver their speech for a
small audience a few times and receive some feedback from that
audience. Please see the assignment description in this book for a
detailed list of the assignment requirements.
Persuasive Speech Outline: Outlining your speech provides
you an opportunity to develop argument and make language choices in
a format conducive to extemporaneous speaking. Your outline will be
assessed based on you ability to arrange your speech material in a
clear and effective manner, reference relevant evidence in
appropriate places, and provide a map of the speech. You will turn
in an outline for your persuasive speech. Your TA will review this
outline and return it to you with recommendations for your speech.
You must turn in two copies of your outlines to your TA.
Failure
to turn in two copies of your outline will mean that the assignment
is incomplete. One copy will be graded and returned to you with
recommendations; the other will be kept in a departmental file used
to detect plagiarism. Please see the assignment description in this
packet for a detailed list of the assignment requirements..
- YOUR OUTLINE IS DUE THE DISCUSSION
SESSION AFTER YOU PRESENT IN THE GALLERY WALK
Self-Critiques: After
delivering a speech, you should spend some time critically
reflecting on that speech. You must complete a self-critique of
both your impromptu and persuasive speeches. You will need to view
a DVD of your speech and write a short paper evaluating your speech
according to the standards set in class. Your self-critiques will
be assessed based on your ability to provide clear, insightful, and
accurate analysis. Please see the assignment description in this
book for a detailed list of the assignment requirements and
instructions for obtaining and viewing your performance DVD.
YOUR SELF-CRITIQUES ARE DUE ONE WEEK AFTER YOU
DELIVER YOUR SPEECH.
Peer Critiques:
Like a number of other arts, we refine our public speaking abilities
through a mixture of instruction, practice, and imitation. As such,
critically examining your peers’ speeches provides you another venue
for thinking about how to adapt to the complexity of different
rhetorical situations. Additionally, individual speakers benefit
immensely from articulate feedback from their audiences. Over the
course of the quarter, you will be required to critique your
classmates’ speeches. These peer critiques will be assigned before
the speech rounds begin. You will be required to provide oral
criticism following a peer’s speech. This is another speech
assignment in this class; this is not simply “giving your thoughts.”
Rather, this is like a short impromptu speech aimed at identifying
some of the strongest and weakest elements of a peer’s speech.
All homeworks will be graded on a √/-
system. The distribution system is as
follows:
9 completed homeworks = 35 points
4 completed homeworks = 15 points
8 completed homeworks = 31 points
3 completed homeworks = 11 points
7 completed homeworks = 27 points
2 completed homeworks = 7 points
6 completed homeworks = 23 points
1 completed homeworks = 3 points
5 completed homeworks = 19 points
0 completed homeworks = 0 points
NOTE: Self critiques, the topic
selection paper, and the persuasive outlines must be typed).
POLICIES
First Week of
Class:
Students who are enrolled in this course but do not attend all
regularly scheduled class meetings during the first week of the
quarter are subject to being dropped from the course. Students
should contact the course instructor if they must be absent any day
during the first week of the quarter. Students must not assume that
not attending class will automatically result in their being
dropped. Students themselves are responsible for officially
dropping courses.
Adding the Course:
There are no add-codes for this course. All adds and drops will be
taken care of automatically by the University registration system.
Late Assignments: For
purposes of equity and fairness for all students, you will be given
a reasonable amount of time to complete all written assignments
(e.g. outlines, self-critiques, peer critiques). Since the
deadlines for some assignments are different for different students
(depending on which day you speak or critique), it is up to you to
keep track of when your assignments are due. An assignment is on
time when it is delivered to the teacher at the beginning of the
class session on the day it is due.
In the event that you do not turn in your homework in
class on the day it is due, you will not receive credit for that
homework.
Special Needs: To
request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact
Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, 543-8924 (V), 543-8925
(TTY), or
uwdss@u.washington.edu. Please present your letter from DSS
indicating that you have a disability that requires academic
accommodations to your instructor or the course coordinator so we
can discuss the accommodations you might need for the class.
Grievance Policy:
If you have any concerns about the course or your TA,
please see your TA about these concerns as soon as possible. If you
are not comfortable talking with the TA or you are not satisfied
with the response that you receive, you may contact the faculty
course coordinator, Matt McGarrity, at 543-7854 or at
mcgarrit@u.washington.edu.
If you are still not satisfied with the response that you receive,
you may contact the Chair of the Department of Communication, Gerald
Baldasty, at 543-2662.
If you
wish to challenge a grade you received on an assignment, you should
wait 24 hours after receiving the grade. Then, make an appointment
with your TA to discuss the grade. If you are unsatisfied after
that meeting, you should make an appointment to discuss the grade
with course coordinator. You have 2 weeks after receiving a grade
to challenge that grade. After which time, grade challenges will
not be considered.
Attendance: Each class
meeting is an opportunity to participate in lectures and
discussions. Because participation and cooperative learning are
essential to the academic design of this course, your absence on a
day when you are scheduled to speak or critique hurts your fellow
students and impairs your own learning process. For this reason,
the following rule is in place: FAILURE TO ATTEND ON A DAY WHEN YOU
ARE SCHEDULED TO DELIVER A SPEECH OR A CRITIQUE WILL RESULT IN A 0
FOR THAT ASSIGNMENT. If an absence is unavoidable, you can take
some actions to avoid these penalties:
- If you know that you will not be able to
attend on a day when you are scheduled to speak (or critique),
you must make arrangements with a classmate to switch speaking
(or critiquing) positions as soon as possible. You must also
inform your TA of this change. If you are traveling on a
University trip (athletic competition, field trips, etc.), it is
your responsibility to work with your TA to negotiate your
speaking and critiquing schedule with your travel schedule.
- If a serious illness or emergency prevents
you from performing your duties, you should do everything you
can to contact your instructor as soon as possible. Prompt
consultation with your instructor (within 24 hours) and
documentation of the unavoidable incident (e.g., a note from
your doctor, a copy of the accident report, etc.) might result
in the scheduling of a make-up speaking or critiquing assignment
if the instructor deems the circumstances that caused the
absence to be severe enough to merit rescheduling and if there
is time in the schedule to accommodate a make-up assignment.
- Regardless of the reason, a rescheduled
speech is subject to late assignment penalties. If you must
reschedule, that speech will receive an automatic 10% deduction
for each class day that it is late.
Academic Integrity:
The
University’s definitions of academic and personal misconduct are
outlined in the Student Conduct Code (available in your
University of Washington Student Planner pages 97-103 and online at
http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html). It
is your responsibility to read and understand the University’s
expectations in this regard. Until you have read the Code,
do not assume that you know what this University defines as
cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic misconduct.
Plagiarism is a significant violation of the Student Conduct Code
and will be dealt with severely in this class. It is important for
you to know that plagiarism is any representation of another
person’s words or ideas in a manner that makes it seem as if they
were your own, in either oral or written form. This means that you
may not copy another person’s paper or speech. But it also means
that you should not use another person’s unique phrases or
organizational schemes without making it clear to your audience
where those words or ideas originated. Your work should be entirely
your own.
If it
becomes evident that you have collaborated with another student
and/or plagiarized work, the matter will be immediately turned over
to the University’s Committee on Academic Conduct. For more on
plagiarism, including a review of proper and improper paraphrasing
practices, see
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm.
Additionally, it is the policy of the Department of Communication
that the same speech may not be given for credit in more than one
class. If you are taking (or have taken) COM 334 (Essentials of
Argument), or some other course with speech assignments, you may not
recycle a speech by giving it in both classes.
Classroom Conduct: When
engaged in your role as a speech critic, please be constructive in
your comments. This does not mean that you should ignore the flaws
in your classmates’ speeches; on the contrary, it is your
responsibility to identify those flaws and communicate your
suggestions for improvement to your classmates. Always treat your
classmates with respect, framing your comments regarding strengths
and weaknesses of their speeches in a manner intended to help them
improve.
GRADING SYSTEM
There are
300 total possible points in this course.
|
Assignment |
Point Value |
Percentage of the final grade |
|
Impromptu Speech |
55 |
18% |
|
Persuasive Speech |
80 |
27% |
|
Advocacy Speech |
90 |
30% |
|
Quizzes |
40 |
13% |
|
Homeworks |
35 |
12% |
|
Total: |
300
points |
100% |
Grades
will be assigned based on your final number of accumulated points.
For a discussion of the grade ranges, please see your student
handbook or visit:
http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html