Exam 13: Content and Organization

The great Roman senator and orator, Cicero, used the Latin word __________ to describe the speaker's attempt to "find out what he should say."

Differentiate between a primary and secondary source. Are both types of information good sources? Why or why not?

Cicero described the Latin word dispositio as the task of arranging ideas and information for a presentation in an orderly sequence.

A presentation that begins with "In terms of life expectancy, which country-with a red, white, and blue flag-does not have an average life expectancy as long as citizens in 30 other countries?" uses the strategy of asking a question as an introductory technique.

The textbook presents four criteria for evaluating online information. List and explain the two of the criteria. Choose a website you visit often and evaluate it using the criteria. Make sure your answer provides enough detail so that someone would understand the characteristics of high quality researched information.

Which of the following answers represents the most appropriate sequence of numbers and letters in the overall structure of a formal outline?

If you're one of a series of presenters, plan your presentation so that the key points come first in case you need to cut your presentation short.

A strong ending to your speech doesn't require you to make sure the mood and style are consistent.

What method of concluding did Martin Luther King, Jr. use in his I Have a Dream speech? "…[we] will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the Old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'"

Explain how to use the Speech Framer as a way of organizing the ideas and information you want to include in a presentation. What are the advantages of using this method?

Which of the following methods for determining the key points of a presentation encourages the free flow of ideas and allows you to harness the potential of your whole brain?

What organizational pattern is used in a presentation on how to lower car insurance premiums that covers the following advice? (a) Raise your deductible and save up to 30 percent; (b) compare and contrast costs among insurers and save up to $500; (c) check to see if you qualify for discounts; and (d) report suspected fraud to your state's insurance fraud bureau.

Like the introduction, a conclusion establishes a relationship among you, your topic, and your audience.

Read the following (slightly modified) excerpt from a New York Times article about lying. Identify the different types of supporting material used by the writer. How do these types of supporting material enhance comprehension and interest? Deception is a complex thing, evanescent and difficult to pin down; it's no accident that the poets describe it with diaphanous imagery like "tangled web" and "tissues of lies." Sigmund Freud thought anyone could spot deception by paying close attention, since the liar, he wrote, "chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore." The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, wrote that "the mouth may lie, but the face it makes nonetheless tells the truth." This idea-the notion that liars are easy to spot-is still with us…Charles Bond, a psychologist at Texas Christian University, reported that among 2,500 adults surveyed in 63 countries, more than 70 percent believe that liars tend to avert their gaze. The majority also believe that liars squirm, stutter, touch, or scratch themselves or tell longer stories than usual…The English language has 112 words for deception, each with a different shade of meaning: collusion, fakery, malingering, self-deception, confabulation, prevarication, exaggeration, denial. But studies show that a very small minority of people, probably fewer than five percent, seem to have some innate ability to sniff our deception with accuracy. [Source: Robin Harantz Henig, "Looking for the Lie," The New York Times Magazine, February 5, 2006, pp. 47-53 and 76.]

Why does the textbook urge you to avoid beginning a presentation with "My speech is about…"? Describe at least two more effective ways to begin a presentation.

Unless you have a good, strategic reason for saying "I'm going to talk about…" or "My speech is about…" avoid using this phrase as the opening of a presentation.

Which of the following answers is not an effective way of beginning a presentation?

Your textbook authors claim that different types of information give a presentation added life and vitality. Discuss what they mean by this statement. Do you agree or disagree?

_______________ represent the most important issues or the main ideas you want your audience to understand and remember about your message.

In organizing a presentation on gender communication, a classmate has researched the following topics: (a) the stages of male-female relationship development; (b) the different friendship experiences of females and males; (c) strains in dual-career marriages; and (d) conflicts in intimate heterosexual relationships. What kind of advice would you give this student in terms of how to develop a central idea and how to decide which of the presentation's key points to include? Are there one or two organization patterns that would work better than others? Should the student include all of the information that was researched? Why or why not?