Since we’re all getting to know each other, why not kick off our first week together in a way that allows us to connect, work out some of the kinks you might experience throughout the course, and learn more about who you’ll be learning alongside.

In your initial post, you will upload a video (no less than 60 seconds no more than 90 seconds), in which you:

Introduce yourself: Tell us who you are, where you’re from, what you’re studying, and a few things we should know about you!
Tell us why public speaking matters: In a few short sentences, tell us what you’re studying and what your current and/or planned future career path is. Think about the role that public speaking might play in that career. Of course, you won’t always find yourself speaking to hundreds or thousands—but consider how you might connect some of the principles we’ll discuss in this course to your day-to-day life, either now or in the future.
Write a 75-150 word introduction to your video.
In your follow up posts, you will view at least two other videos posted by your classmates and respond in a substantive way. Please be sure to review the guidelines for both uploading videos and succeeding in the course discussion forums before completing this task!

View your discussion rubric.

WEEKLY READING
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To access your eBook:

Select the link above
Select “My Home”
Select the eBook module for your text
Required textbook reading for this week:

Part 1: Orientation

Chapter 1 – Foundations of Public Speaking
Chapter 2 – Your First Speech
Chapters 1-2 Outline

Introductions and Overview

W1 QUIZ

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Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers.

Planning Your Informative Speech

As you’re well aware, you’ll be speaking in this course. The first major speech you’ll be giving (in just a few weeks!) is an informative speech. The purpose of an informative speech is to inform others. Often, when students pick a topic, the first place they go is Google—where they pull up speech topics that have been done and redone time and again. This isn’t good informative speaking—good informative speaking comes from within. You shouldn’t have to gain a LOT of new knowledge about your chosen topic; you should already have a solid arsenal of information about this topic at your disposal.

In your initial post, you will identify three topics that you think you know more about than most everyone else in the class. You should tell us that topic area (e.g., HIV/AIDS, the impact of divorce on small children, etc.) and also tell us (1) why you care about this topic, and (2) why you think you know more than most (e.g., my father has been diagnosed with HIV; I grew up with divorced parents). Finally, tell us what an informative speech on that topic would look like—what, specifically, would you inform us about? Remember—you should do this for THREE separate topics.

In your follow-up posts, you review the ideas of others regarding their informative speech and offer feedback. What topics are interesting to you and why? Any that you wouldn’t really want to hear about? What about ideas to tailor that informative speech in a different direction? Give each other feedback.

NOTE: Based on your interactions with peers this week, you will select one of the three topics you posted in your initial post as your official speech topic for the informative speech. You will be able to select another (new) topic for your persuasive speech but you must pick one of the three topics you provided in the forum this week as your informative speech topic. Note that we’ll be building upon that topic in the weeks to come.

View your discussion rubric.

WEEKLY READING
eBook Banner

To access your eBook:

Select the link above
Select “My Home”
Select the eBook module for your text
Required textbook reading for this week:

Part 1: Orientation

Chapter 3 – Listening
Part II: Principles

Chapter 4 – Determining an Appropriate Speech Goal
Chapters 3-4 Outline

Let’s Talk about Topics

W2 ASSIGNMENT
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Here’s a link to your week 2 assignment details: TED Talk Analysis

Your week 2 assignment rubric is included in the assignment details page, or you may also click on the “See Rubric” button at the top of your dropbox page to view how the instructor will grade your assignment. Assignment dropboxes are available by clicking on the module link above.

After you have completed your assignment, title your file(s) with: CourseID_LastNameW2Assignment (ex. EN101_SmithW2Assignment), attach them to this dropbox, and press Submit.

W2 QUIZ
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W3 Discussion Options Menu: Forum
Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers.

Audience Engagement

Last week, you analyzed a TED speaker, providing a section-by-section breakdown of their performance. This week, you will select another TED video to analyze, with a specific focus on audience engagement. Visit TED.com and watch several TED speakers. Note that you can sort by topic, speaker, and a host of other criteria. You can watch any TED talk you wish—except for the one you watched for the Week 2 assignment. If you’re looking a more concentrated list, you might also wish to visit this link, which highlights the 25 most popular TED talks of all time.

In your initial post, you will identify a TED speaker who engages the audience effectively (using principles from our reading and course content to justify your position). Be sure to provide a link to the talk, summarize their speech, and tell us what mechanisms of speech delivery they use that make them so effective. Tell us what you have learned from them as it applies to your topic and your speech. At a minimum, your posts should answer the following questions:

What does the speaker do in the introduction to grab the audience’s attention?
How does the speaker demonstrate their credibility?
What techniques of delivery does the speaker use effectively (e.g., motion, vivid language, nonverbal, humor, visual aids, etc.)?
How does the speaker “leave” the audience (i.e., what do they do in the conclusion to wrap it all up)?
Why is this speech engaging to you? What have you learned and what can you weave into your upcoming speeches to make them more engaging?
In your follow up posts, you will view at least two other posts by your classmates, viewing the TED talks they posted as well. Your responses should clearly reflect that you have viewed these additional talks and things that you observed about the speaker’s effectiveness above and beyond what your colleague has already posted.

View your discussion rubric.

WEEKLY READING
eBook Banner

To access your eBook:

Select the link above
Select “My Home”
Select the eBook module for your text
Required textbook reading for this week:

Part II: Principles

Chapter 5 – Adapting to Audiences
Chapter 6 – Topic Development
Chapters 5-6 Outline