Exam 12: Planning Your Presentation

Two presentations on the same topic can have very different purposes.

In the best of circumstances, an effective purpose statement should

If possible, arrive forty-five minutes early to the location where you will be making a presentation.

If you were making a presentation comparing two advanced computer systems, which of the following questions would be most important when analyzing your audience?

Aristotle's definition of rhetoric is the ability to discover in a particular case all the available means of persuasion.

As long as you have changed a few words of someone else's work to make it sound more like your style of speaking you have avoided plagiarism.

Your textbook lists five audience analysis questions that can help you adapt your presentation to audience characteristics. Use three of these questions to explain how you would craft a speech about lowering the drinking age to an audience of teenagers versus an audience of their parents.

Identify a speaker with the highest ethos you have ever heard. That speaker may be a teacher, preacher, politician, entertainer, community leader, family member, or anyone "using verbal and nonverbal messages to generate meaning with audience members." Why did you choose this person and how did that person exemplify any or all of the three characteristics of ethos: character, competence, and charisma?

You have been asked to welcome a group of new freshmen to your college. The setting is an auditorium that seats 800 people. The dean of students expects a full house. How will you adapt to the logistics and occasion? What logistical guidelines would you use in planning your presentation?

Plagiarism is not just unethical; it is illegal.

Purpose asks, "What should I talk about?"

Which of the following is a common characteristic of charisma?

All of the following answers reflect the Audience's Bill of Rights except:

Ethos is a Greek word meaning "ethics."

If you examine the values that are most important to you, you may find a speech topic that's right and appropriate for you and your audience.

A purpose statement specifies whether a presentation is informative, persuasive, entertaining, or inspiring.

The most important and, unfortunately, the most ignored question to consider when you speak is:

If most audience members represent a high-power-distance culture, you can ask them to challenge authority and make independent decisions.

Which of the following purposes would be appropriate for an informative presentation?

Write two purpose statements that adhere to the characteristics of specificity, achievability, and relevance. Explain why each purpose statement conforms to these characteristics.