Chapters 1-2 Flashcards
Rhetoric
The practice of giving speeches (also called oratory)
Agora
A community in a public square
Forum
Citizens in the Roman Republic used oratory to create the world’s first known representative democracy, assembling in a public space called a forum.
Public Forum
Today, the term public forum denotes a variety of venues for the discussion of issues of public interest, including traditional physical spaces such as town halls as well as virtual forums streamed to listeners online.
Forensic Oratory
People served as their own advocates, so their chances of persuading jurors to vote in their favor depended on the quality of their speaking skills. The Greeks called this kind of advocating or legal speech forensic oratory.
Deliberative Oratory
Speech given in legislative or political contexts
Epideictic Oratory
Speech delivered in special ceremonies, such as celebrations and funerals
Deliberative Oratory
Political persuasion
Canons of Rhetoric
Five parts of preparing a speech:
- Invention
- Arrangement
- Style
- Memory
- Delivery
Invention
Invention refers to discovering the types of evidence and arguments you will use to make your case to an audience.
Arrangement
Arrangement is organizing the speech in ways that are best suited to the topic and the audience.
Style
Style is the way the speaker uses language to express the speech ideas.
Memory
Memory is the practice of the speech until it can be artfully delivered.
Delivery
Delivery is the vocal and nonverbal behavior you use when speaking.
inventio
Discovering the speech material
dispositio
Arranging the material
elocutio
Styling the speech
memoria
Remembering all the various lines of argument to prove a case
pronuntiatio
Vocal and nonverbal delivery
Culture
The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next
Cultural Intelligence
Being skilled and flexible about understanding a culture, learning more about it from your ongoing interactions with it, and gradually reshaping your thinking to be more sympathetic to the culture and to be more skilled and appropriate when interacting with others from the culture.
Dyadic Communication
happens between two people, as in a conversation
Small Group Communication
involves a small number of people who can see and speak directly with one another
Mass Communication
occurs between a speaker and a large audience of unknown people who are usually not present with the speaker, or who are part of such an immense crowd that there can be little or no interaction between speaker and listener.
Source
The source, or sender, is the person who creates a message.
Encoding
The process of converting thoughts into words
Receiver
The recipient of the source’s message is the receiver, or audience.
Decoding
The process of interpreting the message is called decoding.
Feedback
The audience’s response to a message, can be conveyed both verbally and nonverbally
Message
The message is the content of the communication process: thoughts and ideas put into meaningful expressions, expressed verbally and nonverbally.
Channel
The medium through which the speaker sends a message
Noise
Any interference with the message
Shared Meaning
Shared meaning is the mutual understanding of a message between speaker and audience. The lowest level of shared meaning exists when the speaker has merely caught the audience’s attention. As the message develops, a higher degree of shared meaning is possible. Thus listener and speaker together truly make a speech a speech–they “co-create” its meaning.
Two critical factors to consider when preparing and delivering a speech
Context and Goals
Context
Context includes anything that influences the speaker, the audience, the occasion–and thus, ultimately, the speech.
Successful communication can never be divorced from the concerns and expectations of others.
Rhetorical Situation
a circumstance calling for a public response
Audience-Centered Perspective
you keep the needs, values, and attitudes of your listeners firmly in focus
Speech Purpose (Goal)
A clearly defined speech purpose or goal–what you want the audience to learn or do as a result of the speech–is a final prerequisite for an effective speech. Establishing a speech purpose early on will help you proceed though speech preparation and delivery with a clear focus in mind.
