Delivering the Mini-Speech: Connecting Public Speaking Concepts

Goals:
The goals for this activity are for students to:

• Gain more experience by delivering brief, short speeches in which they can apply the public speaking concepts discussed throughout the semester.
• Receive additional feedback on their public speaking ability.
• Reduce public speaking anxiety.

Rationale:
Instructors who teach public speaking are limited with class time due to lecture, administering tests and quizzes, and listening to speeches. In addition to assigning long speeches (4-8 minutes in length depending on the assignment), some instructors find it frustrating that not enough time may be dedicated to simply delivering speeches. A "mini-speech" is a brief speech, lasting anywhere from 1-3 minutes in length, that allows the student to gain more experience in front of an audience. Instructors can assign any point value to these in order to give credit to students (I assign a 10-point value to each mini-speech).

Directions:
"Mini-speeches" should take place throughout the entire semester and instructors should go over the various speeches early on in the semester and begin assigning them immediately. Approximately 5-7 students are assigned a mini-speech the class period before they are expected to deliver. Students will eventually be able to deliver every mini-speech assignment sometime throughout the semester.

There are a number of "mini-speech" ideas that the instructor can assign to students during the semester — I typically like to assign four of the following speeches to each student. Each "mini-speech" is unique and the content is different in order to allow students to exercise individual creativity. Here are six mini-speech ideas that have proven to be successful for a public speaking course:

*Please note that every speech should last anywhere from 1-3 minutes in length and it's the option of the instructor to time these speeches.

1. The Impromptu or "If Speech"
   The instructor should obtain a copy of The Big Book of If (McFarlane, 2002) from a local bookstore. This book provides a number of questions stated in "What if' scenarios (e.g., "If you can have lunch with anyone from history, who would it be and why?"). Students should be given approximately 15-30 seconds to collect some thoughts before delivering. Since this is an impromptu speech, students should be expected to elaborate on their answers.
2. The Quote Speech
   Students are asked to find a quote of their choice. Students in the past have chosen quotes from songs, holy texts (including the Koran, Tao Te Ching, Torah, and the Bible), philosophers, friends, family, etc. If students do not know what quote to discuss, they can be directed to such websites as http://www.quoteland.com/ For this speech, students are expected to read the quote to the class and then thoroughly describe the quote.
3. The Word Speech
   For this speech, students are asked to "invent" or come up with a word that doesn't exist in the English dictionary. This could be a word that is used in their respective social groups or an acronym that creates a word and means something. The student should write the word on the board and thoroughly describe the word, its meaning, and origin.
4. Joke/Funny Story
   This speech allows the student to exercise his or her humorous talents. If a joke or funny story was not originally created by the student then a source citation is expected. It is recommended that students try to keep the joke "clean" and appropriate for classroom decorum.
5. Speech from the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
   For this speech, a subject can be chosen by the instructor or the student from the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, et al., 1993). This book is filled with many interesting facts where the students are able to make connections with other realms of knowledge. This will not only inform the student, but his or audience, about a concept, idea, or event.
6. Award Acceptance Speech
   The award acceptance speech can be for any award that the student wishes to create for her or himself (i.e. an Academy Awards speech, Grammy, Student of the Year, etc.). Students can "thank" a person or people and could tailor the award to his or her personal experiences.

Explanation:
By spending a little time at the beginning of class to listen to students deliver brief, "mini-speeches," allows them to gain more experience in front of an audience and to utilize the concepts taught in the public speaking course.

Typical Results:
Over the course of four years and many public speaking courses, students have responded enthusiastically to these speeches. In addition to helping improve their major, 100-point speeches, these "mini-speeches" have also been implicated in the reduction of communication apprehension, a major barrier to successful public speaking. In fact, course evaluations have often reflected student's interest in having additional "mini-speeches" assigned during the semester than would be normal.

Bibliography:

Hirsch, Jr., E.D., Kett, J. F., & Trefil, J. (1993). The dictionary of cultural literacy: What every American
needs to know. (2^nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

McFarlane, E. (2002). The big book of if. New York: Random House.