Answers for Oral Communications 120 Midterm
1. Hormones released in the bloodstream when speaking:
a. Adrenaline: a hormone released in the bloodstream in response to physical
or mental stress.
b. Makes the heart race, skin sweat, knees knock, and hands shake.
c. It is important to channel your nervousness to your advantage.
2. Mental Imaging
a. “Visualization” : A speaker vividly pictures him or herself giving a successful
presentation. Creating a vivid mental blueprint in which you see yourself
speaking in the speech.
3. Communication process
a. Diagram
4. Dealing with nervousness
a. It is normal, nothing to be afraid of.
b. Use it to your advantage
c. “Positive nervousness”: a zesty, enthusiastic feeling with a slight edge to it.
You are no longer victimized by it, but are in control of it.
d. Bet at your best physically & mentally. Get a good night’s rest. Tense muscles
and relax them. Deep breathing breaks the cycle of tension that helps calm
nerves.
e. Anxiety begins to drop significantly after the first 30-60 seconds.
5. Frame of reference
a. Sum of a person’s experience, goals, values & attitudes.
b. Everyone has his or her own unique frame of reference.
6. Types of listening
a. Appreciative listening: content that you listening because you want and like
to.
b. Empathetic listening: Listening to provide emotional support
c. Comprehensive listening: listening to understand
d. Critical listening: listening critically to a message for the purpose of accepting
or rejecting it.
7. Causes of poor listening
a. Not concentrating
b. Resisting distractions- tired, phones, music
c. Focusing on delivery and appearance
d. Jumping to conclusions.
e. Brain time: daydreaming or doze off.
8. How to improve listening
a. Just do the complete opposite!
9. Audience analysis
a. Situational audience analysis: Audience analysis that focuses on situational
factors, such as size of the audience, the physical setting, and the disposition
of the audience towards the topic, speaker, and occasion
b. Demographic audience analysis: Audience analysis that focuses on the
demographic factors, such as age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
10. How to find information in the library
a. The catalogue lists all the books, periodicals, and other resource materials
owned by the library
b. Database: newspapers, journals
c. Reference: encyclopedias, yearbooks, bibliographical aids, books in
quotations
d. Ask a librarian for help
11. Speaking orders
a. Speeches about objects are usually in special or chronological or topical
order.
b. A process is a series of actions that work together to produce a final result.
i. Speeches about process explain how something is made, done, or
works.
ii. The most common types of organization for speeches about process is
topical or chronological.
c. An event is anything that happens or is regarded as happening.
i. Speeches about events are usually arranged in chronological or
topical order.
d. Concepts include beliefs, ideas, theories, or principals.
i. More complex
12. Body of speech
a. The longest and most detailed part.
b. Easier to create it first when writing the speech.
13. Connectives, transitions, signposts
a. Connectives: A word or phrase that connects the ideas of a speech and
indicates the relationship between them.
b. Transitions: A word or phrase that indicates when a speaker has finished one
thought and is moving on to another.
c. Signposts: Very brief statements that indicate where you are in your speech
or that focuses attention on key ideas.
14. Formats, reference pages, and bibliographies
a. Reference pages: a work that synthesizes a large amount of related
information for easy access by researchers.
i. The major kinds are encyclopedia, yearbooks, quotation books, and
biographical aids.
b. Bibliography: a reference work that provides information about people.
15. What is a good speech delivery?
a. A matter of non-verbal communication based on how you use your voice and
body to convey the message expressed by your words.
b. Audience prefers a deliver that combines directness, spontaneity, animation,
vocal expressiveness, lively sense of communication, formality.
c. Well rehearsed, well practiced
d. Avoid distracting mannerisms
e. Maintain eye contact with listeners
f. Methods of delivery
i. Reading verbatim from a manuscript
ii. Reciting memorized text
iii. Speaking impromptu
iv. Speaking extemporaneously.
16. Speaker’s body and voice
a. Volume: loudness or softness of a speaker’s voice
b. Conversational quality: presenting a speech so it sounds spontaneous no
matter how many times it has been rehearsed.
c. Pitch: the highness or lowness of a speaker’s voice.
d. Inflections: changes in the change or tone of a speaker’s voice
i. If happy or sad, sincere or sarcastic, ext.
e. Monotone: a constant pitch or tone of voice.
f. Rate: the rate at which a person speaks.
g. Pauses: a momentary break in the vocal delivery of a speech.
h. Vocalized pause: a pause that occurs when a speaker fills the silence between
words with “uh”, “er”, and “uhm”
i. Vocal variety: changes in a speaker’s rate, pitch and volume that gives the
speaker expressiveness.
17. Gestures
a. Motions of a speaker’s hands or arms during a speech.
b. Should appear natural and spontaneous
c. Clarify your ideas
d. Be suited to audience and occasion
18. Principles of speaking to inform
a. Description: a statement that depicts a person, event, idea, or the like with
clarity and vividness.
b. Comparison: a statement of the similarities among two or more people,
events, ideas, etc.
c. Contrast: a statement of the differences among two or more people, etc.
d. Personalized: to present one’s ideas in human terms that relate in some
fashion to the experience of the audience.
i. Personal stories, experiences