Page 154 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 5 Listening 121

Sharing appropriate information about yourself in both your speeches and oral
contributions to class discussions will also contribute to their understanding.

Tips and Tactics
Improving Empathic Listening
• Try to focus on people’s general comments about topics of discussion and
their possible relationship to underlying attitudes, beliefs, and values.
• Take note of information about people’s geographic background and group
affi liations.
• Listen with your eyes and ears for vocal and facial expressions that may re-
veal what a speaker is feeling.

Listening to Provide Feedback

One of the unique features about a public speaking class is that audience mem-
bers are not just listening to speeches for their own benefi t. Typically, they are
also called on to provide feedback to speakers to assist them in improving their
public speaking skills. Although an excessive focus on delivery skills is normally
a bad listening habit, in a public speaking class, paying attention to the level of
those skills in your classmates is often an integral part of the classroom experi-
ence. Not only may you be asked to provide written or oral feedback about other
students’ delivery, you may fi nd things in your classmates’ style that you will
want to emulate in your own speeches.
As you provide feedback, keep in mind that your goal should be construc-
tive criticism. If a speaker’s delivery was ineffective, for example, don’t just say
the delivery was poor, give specifi c suggestions for how the delivery could be
improved. Rather than saying, “I couldn’t hear you,” say something like “You
should try to increase the volume of your voice so people in the back can hear
you clearly.” Rather than saying, “Your speech was totally disorganized,” try
something like “It would be easier to follow the speech if you previewed your
main points at the beginning.” If comments are to be provided orally, we always
recommend that critics begin with a positive and avoid statements that could
be embarrassing. Written comments should also be balanced between positive
and those that suggest areas in need of improvement. However, one can often be
more direct in writing because the comments are only seen by the speaker.
A few guidelines for giving feedback and receiving it as well will help you
improve your own performance. Much of what we say here harkens back to the
basics of the speech process, which we explained in Chapter 2. Here are some
things to look for in evaluating a speech. Your instructor may have specifi c ad-
ditional requirements and may provide a standard form for speech evaluation.

Tips and Tactics
Listening to Provide Feedback

• What was the speaker’s purpose? Did the speech successfully fulfi ll that pur-
pose? Was the purpose appropriate to the audience and the situation?
• Did the speaker introduce and conclude the speech with impact?
• Did the speaker have a clear thesis for the speech?