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MATT MCGARRITY: Now that we've overviewed the speech, I want to work
through the actual rubric we're going to be using in the discussion of the
informative speech itself.
So I like doing this and we did this in the impromptu.
I'm sure you remember.
I like doing this because on the one hand, I think it's fair.
I think it's fair for everybody to know where I'm running, where this
course is running, in this speech.
What are the exact skills that I think are important and that I'm going to be
teaching to you?
So I think it's good to be transparent in that teaching.
I also think it's good as a learning strategy because it allows us to look
at something like speaking to inform, which is a very broad category and can
pop up in all sorts of different types of settings--
but it allows us to look at that but think about, what are the constituent
skills that build up to the larger whole?
Also, I want to be going through the rubrics because, in the functionality
of an online class, I want to make sure peer evaluation is as good as it
possibly can be in this class.
I think one of the best ways to get to that is to make sure that there is
some sort of communal understanding, shared public understanding, about
what these terms mean and how they can be evaluated.
So I like going through the feedback form in general because it helps us
set up a general framework for studying specific genres of speeches
but also in a very practical way, because it's going to be important to
the class as an online class.
So let me just go through the various components of the rubric.
There are two invention categories, an arrangement category, a style
category, and a memory and delivery category.
So, to begin with, invention--
topic, time, and audience.
So here I've got a couple of concerns.
The speaker addressed points appropriate to the
topic and the audience.
So once again, you're making judgments here.
Did you select the right material for the speech to be covered, OK?
Did you talk about the things that had to be discussed?
Now certainly, outside of this class, that's a huge consideration.
Because you've got to figure out, well, what's the audience?
What does audience already know?
What shouldn't I say because they already know?
Or what should I say because I need to inform them?
So you got to get a read on what that audience is.
Are they experts?
Do they know a lot?
Are they relatively uninformed?
Certainly, for-- we'll talk more about this-- but in this class, your
audience is the definition of a universal audience.
And so you can assume a certain level of education but you probably can't
assume a lot of background knowledge with your topic.
But so you're addressing points that are appropriate for the topic, yeah,
you covered the right stuff, and for the audience, yeah, that's what we
needed to do hear.
Also what's under this category, you balanced breadth and depth well in
discussion of the topic.
So I mentioned this in the last lecture, sometimes people getting lost
in the details without the larger sense of context, or sometimes people
only talking about the big ideas without providing a sense of evidence.
So you can think about the breadth and depth.
Big ideas, concrete details.
We have this problem in business.
We have this problem in science.
We have this problem any time somebody stands up to speak.
And it's finding that appropriate balance between breadth and
depth that is key.
So that's our first category of invention--
big picture ideas.
Is this speech fitted appropriately to the topic and to the audience?
Also under invention, we've got evidence and explanation.
Because that's what you're doing a lot in the speech is you're informing us.
So you're relying on evidence and your ability to explain it well.
So in this, we're looking at, did the speaker include
appropriate, varied evidence?
So, are you looping in a number of different types of evidence.
It's not 100% statistics, but you've got some statistics, some interesting
narratives, a nice example.
You're providing that audience with multiple pathways into your topic.
So you've got a good variety of evidence.
And then, most importantly, you're using that evidence to explain the
topic clearly and effectively.
So the evidence isn't cluttering the ground of your speech, rather the
evidence is really sharpening what's going on in your
explanation of those ideas.
Then we get to arrangement.
Arrangement, once again, you've got to make a decision here.
Did the speaker arrange the speech in a clear and logical manner?
So since it's informing, we want crystal clarity when it comes to this
idea or these topics.
So you have to make a decision about-- and we'll talk to these--
about what arrangement pattern, what way of structuring the speech, is the
most logical and accessible for an audience that doesn't
know the topic well?
Then we get into some of the nitty gritty parts of arrangement.
Did you orient the audience to the topic in the introduction clearly and
effectively?
So we did some stuff in the impromptu under introductions.
We're going to be talking more about introductions for
an informative speech.
They're more-- probably more elaborate.
They've got more going on in them.
But it's really about bringing that audience up to speed so they can
follow along with what you're going to say.
So introductions--
orientations and the introduction.
Transitions.
Did you transition between the main parts clearly and effectively?
Conclusion.
Again, these are going to be bigger than they were in the impromptu.
But did you conclude the speech appropriately and effectively?
Then we get into style.
So under style, did you use clear and accessible language?
Was the very vocabulary that you used helping you convey information or was
it getting in the way?
Did you demonstrate an understanding, a thorough
understanding, of the topic?
Once again, this is sort of that credibility issue.
Do you sound like you know what you're talking about?
And I'm not here, by the way, I'm not saying, in this class, we focus merely
on effective lying about one's expertise.
That's not it at all.
But I would say, you must know what you're talking about.
But that in and of itself may not be sufficient.
You need to not only know what you're talking about, but you need to be able
to look like you know what you're talking about.
I don't want to say that you can look like you know what you're talking
about without knowing what you're talking about.
I don't think the inverse is true.
Or at least I certainly don't want to talk to it
because it's hugely unethical.
But I do want to say, not only should you know what you're talking about,
but it should look like it.
So too with your sense of excitement.
And again-- well, I'll link to a number of TED talks.
But one of things that you see in a lot of those TED talks, and is perhaps
pushed in those TED talks, is very much performing your interest in it.
And, as a speaker, we do this all the time, right?
So it's not enough to be interested in it, you have to look like it.
And I think we can get at that through a study of imitation.
I think we can get at being able to perform that sense of investment and
excitement in a topic.
Then we get into memory and delivery.
Did you use notes effectively and appropriately?
It's a more elaborate speech.
It's fine that you use notes.
But I want to make sure that you're not reading a manuscript, that you've
developed notes that are helpful to you in order to present this.
By the way, this is a five- to ten-minute speech.
You don't need notes for a five- to ten-minute speech.
Certainly, you can prep something, refine it, and practice it such that
you can do a ten-minute speech without ever looking at notes and not having
to memorize it.
That's doable.
You have the mental capacity.
Insofar as you were able to click a mouse and see this video, you can hold
a ten-minute speech in your head.
But also, are you using delivery to distinguish between key ideas and
elaborating detail?
That's some arrangement issues, but it's in how you're performing that.
Are you distinguishing between big ideas and detail for us?
And then many of the other delivery categories are the same as they were
in the impromptu speech.
You're using projection, pacing and pausings, gesture and movement,
effectively and appropriately.
So I like being able to use rubrics.
I think they're useful because it helps us think about the
next couple of weeks.
So as we move through the various video lectures for the rest of this
week and the next two weeks, you'll notice that almost all--
each one of them is hitting one of those learning objectives, one of
those evaluation criteria.
So there's nothing that is on that evaluative form that we haven't talked
about in this class.
This is a useful way of thinking about informative speeches, for practicing
speeches for this class.
And I would say that the categories that we just talked about, the
concerns that we just talked about, are certainly useful for any type of
informative presentation you're going to give outside of this class.
I would hope if you have to give a presentation tomorrow presenting
information at work, that you could use that rubric as a way of at least
clarifying some issues for you.
But above all, what I think that-- not above all.
I like ending on "above all," but this is a not an "above all," this is an
"also."
So you should be able to use it for practice.
You should be able to use it to help your informative presentations outside
this class.
And also, it provides quality feedback.
The peer review system needs to have, on the front end, clarity as to what
evaluation means.
And so I think going through the rubric helps us with that.
In the next lecture, what we'll do is we'll take a look at-- like we did
last time-- a sample speech using the rubric.