Penn State Greater Allegheny
Department of Communications
Fall 2014 CAS 100A
Public Speaking
Instructor: Michael Vicaro
Email: mpv2@psu.edu
Office: 106A Main
Office hours: M/W 10:45am-1:00pm and by appointment
Class Meetings: Monday and Wednesday 9:25-10:40
Class Room: Frable 227
This course seeks to prepare students to compose and deliver speeches for a variety of
situations and purposes with eloquence, confidence, and conviction. The course will
guide students’ development in the art of public speaking through a wide array of
classroom activities including writing and speaking exercises, speech analysis, and
several formal speech performances. The course will also include a focus on using
presentation software to develop artful, engaging slide presentations.
Goals
Upon successful completion, students will have:
1) Composed and performed a series of speeches of significance
2) Gained a deeper proficiency with principles of persuasive reasoning.
3) Developed responsible research practices
4) Enriched vocabularies for thinking critically about the centrality of public speech to
political and community life.
Your goals:
Each student will be asked to submit a set of personal learning objectives. What goals to
you wish to achieve? What problems do you wish to overcome? What one or several
topics would you like to speak about in your formal presentations?
Texts
You are not required to buy a book for this course. I will provide a number of articles
and handouts to be posted on our class website (https://sites.psu.edu/cas100avicaro/). I
will also place several speech textbooks on reserve at the library for those who wish to
consult a text. There is also a good free online text available here:
http://www.publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html
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Requirements/Assignments:
1. First Speech (100 pts): This assignment will ask you to compose and perform an
original speech that provides some introduction to your life, interests, character, or
beliefs. A list of topics will be provided. For those with public speaking experience,
you should take this as an opportunity to do something creative and daring. If you
have little experience, your goal should be simply to get up there and speak. The
assignment is lightly weighted and I will provide extra help for those with special
concerns. DUE: 9/8-9/10
2. Midterm speech (300 pts): This assignment will ask you to persuade your audience
to make a judgment about some issue of consequence. Your topic may be drawn
from your academic and/or professional interests or you may take on some
controversial policy or value-question. Your speech should demonstrate creative
invention of audience appeals; excellent research, clear and orderly arrangement of
your ideas in good form; artful writerly style with example, imagery, and cadence;
and engaging extemporaneous delivery. DUE: 10/13-10/15
3. Epideictic speech: (100 pts): This assignment will ask you to produce a special kind
of speech designed to praise virtue or shame vice. You may choose from a variety of
approaches, including writing a eulogy for someone who has passed, a wedding
speech, a speech of praise for a person, institution, event, group, or idea, or a speech
shaming/blaming someone for wrong-doing. The focus here should be on great
writing and passionate delivery. DUE: 11/10-11/12
4. Final Speech (400 pts): The final speech assignment will ask you to build on the
skill set from the midterm speech, and add two significant elements. First, the speech
will be composed and delivered as a multi-media presentation using the audio/visual
capacities of presentation software (e.g. PowerPoint or Prezi). Second, the
presentation will take place in a new venue (an auditorium) before an audience
including some relative strangers (friends, colleagues, faculty, employers, etc.). Due:
TBA (finals week, on or around 12/15)
5. Short speeches (100 pts): Each student will be ask to compose and deliver a set of
short speech assignments designed to emphasize some elements of the speech-making
process. These assignments provide an opportunity to get feedback from the class and
instructor without the stress of a heavily weighted evaluation. I will provide a list of
topics and ideas. Each student is expected to complete at least 2 short speeches
during the course. Due: throughout the semester
Extra Credit- Extra credit may be earned in a variety of ways. Some examples include
writing an analysis of a public speaking event (lectures, political speeches etc.) or
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completing an additional formal speech. If you are interested in doing an extra credit
project, see me first and we will work out the details.
Attendance and Participation:
Attending class regularly is essential for success in the course. Each student is
personally responsible for the quality of discourse in our class and failure to
participate productively on a daily basis will result in a qualitatively poor class
experience. Each class will feature some speaking, writing, and discussion activities
designed to improve your speaking effectiveness. In addition to daily class work,
you will also be asked to volunteer ideas and criticism of our short speeches—
distilling key principals and helping your peers to improve. Attendance is especially
important on formal speech days. Students who miss a speech assignment due to a
legitimate health problem or other reason must give prior notification at least 24 hrs
in advance of the class meeting.
Additional Resources:

Helpful websites to check out: www.ablongman.com/pubspeak;
www.americanrhetoric.com; http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
Students with Special Needs
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you
are encouraged to contact your instructor and Victoria Garwood (Frable 102,
vkg2@psu.edu), the campus’ Disability Contact Liaison. Please do so at the very start of
the semester so that we can provide appropriate support.
Academic Integrity
Students in this course will be expected to comply with Penn State’s Policy on Academic
Integrity. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and
responsible manner.
Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The
Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are
expected to act in accordance with this principle. Consistent with this expectation, the
University's Code of Conduct states that all students should act with personal integrity,
respect other students' dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an
environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts.
Academic integrity includes a commitment by all members of the University community
not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Such acts
of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles of the University community and
compromise the worth of work completed by others. Any student suspected of violating
this obligation will be required to participate in the disciplinary processes outlined in the
guidelines on Academic Integrity. www.psu.edu/dept/ufs/policies/47-00.html#49-20
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Tentative Schedule
Week
8/25
8/27
Class Activity
Introduction and Basic Principles:
 Outline of the course
 Writing and delivering your first
speech
9/3
Essential elements of speech-writing
(No class Monday)
9/8
9/10
9/15
9/17
What is Due
Student goals (by the end of the week)
Draft of first speech
**Introductory Speeches**
On invention
 Argument and other elements of
persuasion
9/22
9/24
On Arrangement
 The basic form
 Outlining
9/29
10/1
On Credibility
 Strengthening your arguments
 Drawing on research
10/6
10/7
On Style
On Delivery
Initial topic, specific purpose, central idea
Arguments and initial bibliography
First draft of your speech
Bring draft for work-shopping
Bring Sample section to practice delivery
10/13
10/15
**Mid term speeches Due **
10/20
10/22
Epideictic Speaking
*Basic elements
Topic proposal (by the end of the week)
10/27
10/29
Epideictic Speaking
* Advanced approaches
Initial draft of Epideictic Speech
11/3
11/5
Introduction to the Final Project
Developed draft of Epideictic Speech
11/10
11/12
***Epideictic Speeches***
11/17
11/19
Working with Images and Presentation
Software
11/24
11/26
Thanksgiving Break
Arguments and initial bibliography
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12/1
12/3
Working on the final Project
Sample Slides and Initial Draft
12/8
12/10
Working on the final project
Sample Slides and Advanced Draft
12/15- Finals week
12/19
**Final Speeches**
Date/time/location TBA:
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