COURSE DESCRIPTION & OVERVIEW

Rhetorical principles. Practice in the technique of speech construction and delivery. Manuscript and extemporaneous delivery of several types of speeches.

Public Speaking takes on many forms and is something that everyone will use in some form in their careers. The skills of strong oratory rhetoric date back thousands of years. At its most basic, public speaking is about the individual communicating with the group. This course will focus on varying verbal and nonverbal ways to communicate messages in a public setting.

This is an asynchronous course aimed at teaching you the skills and techniques of public speaking. It may seem strange to be learning to speak for the public without being physically present with that public. For the sake of this course, the public will have different meanings. Your work will (almost) always be shared publicly with your fellow classmates. You will be each other’s public through video recordings and engagement. And, of course, as the instructor, I am your public as well.

Throughout your work in the course, I encourage you to think about the multiple publics you interact with on any given day. Where are your opportunities to practice the techniques of public speaking?

By the end of every week (Sunday) you will complete a weekly module that will ask you to look at specific skills and techniques through analyses of a historical and contemporary speech and engagement with your classmates through writing and video recordings. You will be asked to record a series of public speeches to share with your classmates.  As each other’s public, you will be providing feedback and engaging with one another throughout the course.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: 

By the end of this course, you will: 

• Identify formal and informal speech categories in everyday life.
• Critique and analyze varying types of rhetoric.
• Understand the historical and contemporary role of rhetoric.
• Give a formal speech in a manner of different styles.
• Effectively organize and present ideas in an engaging manner.
•  Appreciate how delivery affects reception. 
• Speak easily and extemporaneously on a variety of topics.
• Become an active, connected, engaged, and critical listener.
• Understand public speaking as including elements of storytelling and narrative.
• Understand the role of public speaking in being an active and engaged civic participant
• Analyze your own strengths and weaknesses in public speaking and opportunities to continue practicing it in your daily life

I expect you to schedule at least one appointment with me at some point over the course of the semester. I encourage you to schedule more.

CONTACTING ME

I encourage you to meet with and contact me as needed!

Email

• Please be sure to use: [email protected] to reach me more quickly than the various CUNY emails I have.  
• I check my email a minimum of twice a day except on Friday-Saturday. 
•  Please resend if your message requires a response and you have not received one in 48 hours.
• Before sending any message, please check that the answer is not already available somewhere on the course website or syllabus.

Office Hours

• I am available for Zoom appointments outside of my regular Friday 10:30-11:30 am office hours. 
• I would like each of you to meet with me at least once via Zoom during the course of the semester. 
• You are required to have a final grade meeting with me at the end of the semester. 

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

You have chosen to take an asynchronous course that will require the use of multiple technologies. One of the learning goals for this course is to increase your comfort and familiarity with digital tools that can aid speech and research.

Course Content & Class Website

The first module of this course will take you through the set up for our shared digital platform: The Academic Commons and Hypothes.is.

• All required materials for this course will be available either directly on or linked through the classroom website 
• Materials on the class site are publicly available Open Educational Resources
• All of our class readings and assignments are listed and linked on this website in weekly modules.  You should work through modules in the order they are presented.
• You should know how to access digital materials through the college library.
• The class website is hosted on the  CUNY Academic Commons.
  • The CUNY Academic Commons is a WordPress-based platform that is available to the entire CUNY community. It allows anyone to create their own website or become an author on another site. You can interact with all content without being logged in, but to ‘post’ and ‘respond’ to the site, you will need to be logged in.
  • You will be posting some of your presentations and assignments. As this is a publicly oriented course, the majority of what you will be submitting is for the general public- in this case, your classmates and instructor.
  • By creating posts for your assignments, you will be learning to use the technology that powers a large portion of the internet.
  • Most materials on the site are publicly available Open Educational Resources. Any comments you leave on these site portions are publicly accessible and optional, though encouraged.
• The “Submissions” section is password-protected using the password provided to you on the first day of class through Blackboard.
  • You will need access to a CUNY email to get set up on the Commons. After that, you can shift to use any email you wish.

Required Technology

• An Academic Commons account
  • Access to your CUNY email to get started 
• Hypothes.is account
  • You will be set up on these first two with the first class module.
  • Ideally, you will have access to a laptop or desktop computer. (Mobiles and tablets will work, but be slightly more challenging)
• Blackboard: Used for tracking assignment completion
• Word processing software (Google Docs is fine)
• Something in which you will create digital speech visuals – we will cover some of these options.
• You must be able to record yourself delivering speeches, including your entire body. While this isn’t a video-making or cinematography class, please be aware of your surroundings and sound quality. I highly recommend having a friend, family member, or classmate film for you to provide an audience and/or use a stand.
• A YouTube account (to host your videos; or an alternative)

If at any time you are having issues with technologies in this course please reach out to me. 

DISABILITY SERVICES: 

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Official BC policy: The Center for Student Disability Services (CSDS) is committed to ensuring students with disabilities enjoy an equal opportunity to participate at Brooklyn College. In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations, students must first be registered with CSDS. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to schedule an interview by calling (718) 951-5538 or emailing [email protected] 

If you have already registered with CSDS, email [email protected]  or [email protected] to ensure accommodation emails are sent to your professor.

My Addendum:

I do my best to make my materials as accessible as possible.  I am aware that the process of seeking official accommodations is challenging and may take a prolonged time.  If you have a specific need that is not already being met, please let me know, regardless of official status. Accessible accommodation is something that we should all default to and that we will work as a class to increase.

Other Important Brooklyn College Policies

• Student Bereavement Policies – https://www.brooklyn.edu/policies/bereavement/
• Observance of Religious Holidays: information about non-attendance because of religious beliefs, noted in the frontmatter of the Undergraduate Bulletin and Graduate Bulletin. These may be found on the Bulletins page of the Registrar’s website. – https://www.brooklyn.edu/registrar/bulletins/ 

Sexual and Gender-based Harassment, Discrimination, and Title IX

Brooklyn College is committed to fostering a safe, equitable and productive learning environment. Students experiencing any form of prohibited discrimination or harassment on or off campus can find information about the reporting process, their rights, specific details about confidentiality, and reporting obligations of Brooklyn College employees on the Office of Diversity and Equity Programs website.

All reports of sexual misconduct or discrimination should be made to Michelle Vargas, Title IX Coordinator (718.951.5000, ext. 3689), and may also be made to Public Safety (719.951.5511), the New York City Police Department (911 or a local NYPD precinct), or Melissa Chan, Associate Director of

Judicial Affairs, Division of Student Affairs (718.951.5352), as appropriate.

The CUNY Equal Opportunity and Non-discrimination Policy includes additional information regardingreporting discrimination and/or retaliation

Course Breakdown or What you Will Do

Course Modules

 Each week’s Module will have a few different Topics and Activities to explore that ask you to Read/Watch, Engage, and Speak, Write and Research. Each week will include an analysis of at least one historical speech, a contemporary talk, video lectures, or other reading content. You will find oral and written tasks throughout each module as you go, including opportunities for interaction and responses to your fellow classmates.

Full directions will be included on the class site for all assignments. 

Read. Watch.

It truly is the best way to learn.  

Collective Reading

We will be making use of Hypothes.is to collectively work through some of the readings for this class. Hypothes.is is a tool that allows for collaborative annotation and note-taking.  The first module will walk you through how to use this tool and assignments in future modules will tell you when to engage this way. 

Speak. Research. Write. Edit.

Public Speaking utilizes some similar techniques to academic writing.  Speech-making takes research, writing, and editing. (And practice!)  While speeches are the basis of this course, the ability to communicate ideas in writing is a vital skill that needs continuous practice to build and maintain. Academic writing is a way for you to respond to the views around you and synthesize them with your thoughts creating new knowledge that can be shared.  This process is one of the most challenging things that we can do as human beings. It involves constant decision-making.  Good academic writing requires you to hold multiple pieces of information in your brain, think about what they mean,  and anticipate a potential reader (even if it is just yourself!) to whom you have to explain the connections that underlie your thinking.  Giving a public speech involves a very similar process.

Speeches

Speeches are the basis of this course. These are where you will put into action the presentation skills that this course is meant to focus on.

• There will be five formal speeches.
  • Introductory Speech
  • Narrative Speech
  • Informative Speech
  • Persuasive Speech
  • Speech of Occasion
• REHEARSE. It helps.  Don’t rely on taking multiple takes, rehearse first. 
• Please pay close attention to the directions for each assignment.
  • Follow the guidelines for speech length.  Please, I and your fellow classmates will thank you.
• You will be asked to submit your topics ahead of time. This will help me guide you and warn you if something may not work for the assignment parameters. 
• Try things out! Experiment! Be creative! Don’t be afraid not to have something work out just right. These are learning experiences, not perfection. 
• Everyone starts from a different comfort level in public speaking. Please be respectful to one another. 
• This isn’t a class on video production. Your video presentations do not have to be elaborate, we are looking at your presentation skills, not your house.
  • They can be recorded on your phone, laptop, by you, by someone else, etc. Someone else is ideal given that this is PUBLIC speaking. 
  • The focus is on developing your skill as a speaker, not on additional effects or video production.  
  • With the exception of what you choose to do for your final assignment there should be no internal editing to your speech.
  • Practice your speech before you record it. 
  • Try not to do multiple takes.  Public speaking happens at a specific moment in time.
  • YOU are the focus.  Please show us your whole body.  

Research. Write. Edit.

• Full directions will be included on the class site for all assignments. 
• In each module, there will be different response questions to engage with related to the materials.  This is discursive public writing for you to engage with your classmates.  Give care and consideration to these prompts.  There isn’t a required minimum length, but the quality of your engagement matters.
• Even though writing may seem like a solitary process, it never really is.  The best writing is collaborative somewhere in the process and goes through edits.   Expect throughout the semester to share your writing not only with me but also with your peers. 
• Formal writing will include two 500-750 word speech analyses that will be posted and shared with your classmates.
• You will share outlines of your informative and persuasive speech ahead of time for feedback.
• You will be required to make one visual aid on a platform of your choice (there will be guidance on different options for this and I encourage you to think outside of the box of traditional slides.)
• There will be a final 500-word self-reflection for the course required to receive a final grade and will be submitted privately to the instructor. 
• Please be sure to edit your work as you are sharing it with your peers. 

Engage. 

To have a successful asynchronous public speaking class you must be regularly engaged. This will necessitate active participation and listening to your peers.  

Participate.   

• In discussion responses, creative activities, and collective reading. 
• Interact with checkpoints
• Try out the physical and vocal exercises
• Go back to the ones that are challenging or most helpful

Listen/Give and Recieve Feedback

• For each major assignment, you will be asked to give feedback to your peers. You will be assigned a group (A, B, or C), which will determine who you are responsible for offering feedback and constructive criticism on any given assignment. While your group won’t change, which group you are giving feedback to will rotate so that you see many of your classmates.
• Examples of feedback include:
  • Do you tend to do something that they are doing? How do you overcome it? Do you have a question for the presenter (or me) about how to do something that you see and like? What might help the speaker go further the next time? 
  • Do you have a question or comment about the material that they are presenting? Ask!
  • Be thoughtful and honest.  Giving feedback is hard and can be stressful.  Assume good intentions from each other.
  • Try to be specific and limit criticism to one point or idea, but ask as many questions and give as many compliments as you wish!
• I will give feedback on performances.  Read or listen to what I’ve said to you and others, especially those who you have responded to, and consider how you might apply it to your own performances.  

GRADING 

In this course we will be using a form of  what has become known as “ungrading.”  More appropriately, however, it should be called “alternative assessment.”  

Extensive research has shown that grading is often prohibitive of deeper learning and reinforces existing biases and injustices. Materials on this will be on our course site and discussed in further detail – to start you may wish to read: https://tinyurl.com/7h2j2udy. Grades encourage distance from the learning process, can inhibit creativity, and reify structural hierarchies of race, gender, and class. 

For this course, I am providing you with a component breakdown and a holistic grading rubric that addresses the different elements of the course that we will use together to determine your final grade for Brooklyn College.

In choosing to give qualitative feedback and not assign letter grades for each assignment., I hope to encourage you to engage with this course more deeply.  You are in control of your final grade, but you must earn that grade and at the end of the semester justify to me how you have.  Think of this as a contract.  I have presented you with a range of activities that are meant to build and practice your knowledge and experience with the course subject. 

You know when you are doing the bare minimum or when you are giving it your all and fully engaged. 

How is my grade determined?

In lieu of a final exam, you will write a detailed self-reflection and you and I will meet to discuss the justification for the grade you will give yourself via Zoom.  In nearly all past cases, students and I have immediately agreed with the grade that they have given themselves.   In the rare event that we do not agree we will discuss why and possible options to bring your grade in line with your thinking or come to a mutually agreeable grade based on the evidence of your work. 

Late Work

• Assignments in this course have been chosen for specific pedagogical reasons, so I always accept late work (within reason.)  I would rather you do it late and learn something than not do it at all.  I would rather you do it well then turn in something incomplete.
• Excessive late work should be factored into your final grade outcome and I expect you to do so. You know, however,  if you need an extension and why on an assignment. That’s fine; it happens.  
•  I want you to engage with the work fully rather than be rushed and turn it all in at the last minute.
• When you turn in late work, your peers are not required to give you feedback and  I will not be able to give it back to you with the same timeliness and thoroughness as if you submit it on time. 

Breakdown of Course Elements

Collective Reading and Module Engagement – 25%

Reponse Discussions – 10%

Written Assignments (Includes Outlines, Speech Analyses, etc.) – %15

Speeches (Introductory, Narrative, Informative, Persuasive, Occasion) – 45%

Final Self-Reflection – required in order to receive a grade in the course

A HOLISTIC COURSE GRADING RUBRIC

	READ	ENGAGE	SPEAK. RESEARCH. WRITE.
A	I did all the readings in the modules.I responded to readings throughout to express my own ideas and questions as I read.I engaged in collaborative annotated reading throughout.I investigated and explored when I didn’t understand something.I contemplated and absorbed complicated ideas.	I was an active contributor to discussion responses and collective reading.I engaged with my classmates.I offered frequent and productive feedback to the group members I was assigned.I embraced the creative assignments.I tried all the vocal and physical exercises. I went back to those that were helpful or hard.I asked for help when I needed it.I took a lot away from the course.	I posted all of my speeches on time and they were within the time limits.I always practiced my speeches.I submitted all the written  work on time.I put my all into the work I submitted.I engaged critically in my speaking and writing.I made thoughtful and careful edits and took and applied feedback.I know my work was consistently strong.
+/-	Falls somewhere in-between the above and below	Falls somewhere in-between the above and below	Falls somewhere in-between the above and below
B	I did all the modules but not as thoroughly as I could have. I responded to all the prompts, but just the minimum required.I engaged in collaborative annotated reading throughout but mostly by responding rather than pointing out ideas or asking questions..I engaged with most readings but didn’t always process them fully.	I contributed to response discussions and collective reading.I offered regular and productive feedback to the group members I was assigned.I put effort into the creative assignments.I tried most of the vocal and physical exercises.I could have put a little bit more in some areas.I mostly asked for help when I needed it.I took quite a bit away from the course.	I posted all of my speeches on time and they were within the time limits.I practiced my speeches.I submitted all the written work mostly on time.I put in the effort in the work I completedI could have gone a bit deeper in analysis.I made recommended edits and took and applied some feedback.I know my work was good but could be improved further.
C	I did most of the modules but not as thoroughly as I could have.I know I skipped some sections of the modules.I responded to some of the prompts but I missed some.I engaged in some collaborative annotated reading but mostly by responding rather than pointing out ideas or asking questions.I engaged with some readings but didn’t really process most of them fully.	I  contributed to response discussions, but only the minimum and often late.I didn’t contribute as much as I could in terms of feedback to my peers though I commented on some.I did the creative assignments without putting in a lot of effort.I tried some of the vocal and physical exercises.I could have put a lot more into this class overall.I never really asked for help when I needed it.I took some things away from the course.	I posted all of my speeches, though some were late and they weren’t always within the time limits.I needed to practice my speeches more.I submitted almost all of the written work more or less on time.I put in some effort in the work I completedI could have gone deeper in analysis.I didn’t really apply feedback as well as I might have.I know my work was okay but could be improved a lot further.
D	I did some reading, but not much. I read a couple of modules or parts of some.I didn’t participate in any collective reading.	I made some responses but missed a lot or did them very late.I didn’t really contribute feedback to my classmates. I didn’t do many of the creative assignments.I never asked for help or clarification.I didn’t take away much from the course.	I posted some of my speeches, though they were often late and they weren’t always within the time limits.I needed to practice my speeches more.I submitted some written work but didn’t put much effort in. I could have gone deeper in the analysis.I didn’t really apply feedback as well as I might have.I know my work wasn’t great.
F	There was a website? Readings?	I actively distracted or hindered my group or the class.I probably should have withdrawn.	I didn’t turn in a self-reflection or meet with the professor.

Academic Integrity