Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach, 10th edition

A focus on the importance of becoming audience-centered guides students through the text

• Authors Steven and Susan Beebe’s audience-centered approach serves as the key theme that guides students through the text. Throughout every chapter, the authors emphasize the importance of considering the audience at each stage of the speech preparation and delivery process. From the overview of the public-speaking process early in the text until the final chapter, the authors encourage students to relate to their audience by keeping their listeners foremost in mind.

• The authors focus on ethics from the first chapter onward, linking being an audience-centered speaker with being an ethical speaker. The presented strategies for becoming rhetorically skilled are anchored in ethical principles that assist speakers in articulating a message that connects with their audience.
• Chapter 3, Speaking Freely and Ethically, is fully devoted to how to become an ethical speaker In addition, the authors offer reminders, tips, and strategies for making ethical speaking and listening an integral part of human communication.
• Questions to spark discussion about and raise awareness of ethical issues in effective speechmaking are included in the Study Guide at the end of each chapter.
• Inherent in the process of being audience-centered is a focus on the diverse nature of listeners in contemporary audiences. That’s why the authors have integrated coverage of diversity throughout the text to enable students to learn how to communicate effectively with a range of audiences. Diversity is addressed not as an add-on to the main discussion but rather as an integral part of being an audience-centered speaker.

Tools to tackle communication apprehension help students overcome this common hurdle

• Beginning in chapter 1, the text offers the most contemporary research conclusions to help students overcome the anxiety that many people experience when speaking publicly.
• Confidently Connecting with Your Audience features in each chapter offer powerful pointers for managing anxiety, and help students learn how to employ confidence-boosting strategies.

An emphasis on skill development helps students become effective public speakers

• The authors’ concise, lively writing style engages students, and fosters the sense that the reader is having a conversation with their instructor.
• NEW! New speeches throughout the text, as well as two of the speeches in the revised Appendix B, provide readers with a variety of positive models of effective speeches.
• UPDATED! Students need to be not only told how to speak effectively, but also shown how to speak well. Fresh examples and illustrations, both classic and contemporary, help students master the art of public speaking. As in previous editions, the authors draw on speeches delivered by both well-known people and students.
• UPDATED! In order to ensure an up-to-date learning experience, each chapter has been revised with new examples, illustrations, and references to the latest research conclusions.
• Integrated learning tools help students get the most out of the text.
• Learning objectives at the start of each chapter provide students with strategies and key points for approaching the chapter. Objectives reappear at key points in the chapter to help students gauge their progress and monitor their learning.
• A Study Guide at the end of each chapter revisits the learning objectives and key terms, and guides students to think critically about chapter concepts and related ethical issues.
• Recap boxes and tables help students check their understanding and review for exams.
• UPDATED! An extended speech example appears in the Developing Your Speech Step by Step boxes, which appear throughout the book. In the Tenth Edition, the authors have also added new tables and illustrations to help summarize content.

Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach, Tenth Edition is also available via Revel™, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.

Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach, Tenth Edition is also available via Revel™, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.

An emphasis on skill development helps students become effective public speakers

• New speeches throughout the text, as well as two of the speeches in the revised Appendix B, provide readers with a variety of positive models of effective speeches.
• UPDATED! Students need to be not only told how to speak effectively, but also shown how to speak well. Fresh examples and illustrations, both classic and contemporary, help students master the art of public speaking. As in previous editions, the authors draw on speeches delivered by both well-known people and students.
• UPDATED! In order to ensure an up-to-date learning experience, each chapter has been revised with new examples, illustrations, and references to the latest research conclusions.
• UPDATED! An extended speech example appears in the Developing Your Speech Step by Step boxes, which appear throughout the book. In the Tenth Edition, the authors have also added new tables and illustrations to help summarize content.

New examples, illustrations, and references ensure an up-to-date learning experience

• Chapter 1, Speaking with Confidence, now begins with a new example about the annual Technology, Education, and Design (TED) Conference. The section on the rich heritage of public speaking has been moved before coverage of the communication process. In addition, updated research reinforces advice on the importance of developing public speaking skills.
• Chapter 2, Presenting Your First Speech, provides an overview of the audience-centered speaking process, jumpstarting the speechmaking process for students who are assigned to present speeches early in the term. To better streamline the chapter and reduce repetitive topics, The authors have reduced the number of sections from nine to two. Additional coverage has been added on considering the culturally diverse backgrounds of your audience. New research on the importance of speech rehearsal has also been included.
• Chapter 3, Speaking Freely and Ethically, begins with a new, real-world example on racial tension at the University of Missouri–Columbia in order to highlight the balance between the right to speak freely and the responsibility to speak ethically. Coverage of free speech in the twenty-first century has been updated to include the Arab Spring and the terrorist attacks at the French humor magazine, Charlie Hebdo. The authors have also included new research on the consequences of plagiarism.
• Chapter 4, Listening to Speeches, has been streamlined by removing topics already covered in other chapters. The discussion on prejudice has been updated. Research has been added on listening skills, including the influence of technology.
• Chapter 5, Analyzing Your Audience, offers a revised discussion of sex, gender, and sexual orientation which has been updated with new research and examples. This chapter introduces the first of the updated Developing Your Speech Step by Step boxes, which provide students with extended examples of how to implement audience-centered speech making concepts. The definition of race has also been revised.
• Chapter 6, Developing Your Speech, includes a number of new figures, illustrating topics such as brainstorming, using Web directories, narrowing a broad topic, preparing a specific purpose statement, and wording the central idea. A new example on guidelines for selecting a topic has also been added. Discussions on using Web directories and writing a specific purpose have been streamlined and updated.
• Chapter 7, Gathering and Using Supporting Material, offers revised coverage of the Internet in order to provide more updated information on locating resources online. New figures have also been added to this chapter, including an illustration highlighting the limitations and advantages of Wikipedia. The section on interviewing has also been streamlined and revised.
• Chapter 8, Organizing and Outlining Your Speech, now includes new examples of purpose statements, central ideas, and main ideas. In addition, new figures illustrate how to organize supporting material and how to use your preparation outline as a guide to analyzing and revising your speech. A new Sample Preparation Outline gives students a complete model of the best practices in organization and outlining.
• Chapter 9,  Introducing and Concluding Your Speech, provides new examples on humor, inspirational appeals, and references to the occasion. Coverage of illustrations and anecdotes has been updated and revised. Content throughout the chapter has been streamlined to reduce repetitive topics.
• Chapter 10, Using Words Well: Speaker Language and Style, features three new tables: Table 10.1 provides explanations and examples of different types of figurative language; Table 10.2 offers four strategies for creating drama in speeches; and Table 10.3 summarizes ways to create cadence by using stylistic devices. A new figure illustrating three key guidelines for using memorable word structures effectively has also been added.
• Chapter 11, Delivering Your Speech, has been streamlined from seven sections to six. Selected content from former Section 11.4 (Audience Diversity and Delivery) has been distributed throughout the chapter where appropriate. Discussions on how to develop your message effectively and use gestures effectively have also been updated.
• Chapter 12, Using Presentation Aids, has been reorganized so it now has a greater focus on computer-generated presentation aids. Additional content on visual rhetoric has been added. New Table 12.1 highlights the value of presentation aids, along with visual examples of each aid. The chapter also features updated figures, including examples of bar, pie, line and picture graphs.
• Chapter 13, Speaking to Inform, offers revised discussions on speeches about procedures and speeches about events. “Developing an Audience-Centered Informative Speech,” the final section in the chapter, has been streamlined to reduce repetitive topics.
• Chapter 14, Understanding Principles of Persuasive Speaking, includes additional content about changing and/or reinforcing audience values. The discussion of fear appeal has also been updated.
• Chapter 15, Using Persuasive Strategies, has been streamlined to eliminate repetitive topics. Discussions on how credibility evolves over time and improving your credibility have been updated and revised. The authors have also added suggestions for telling stories with an emotional message.
• Chapter 16, Speaking for Special Occasions and Purposes, features a new discussion on mediated workplace presentations. New examples throughout the chapter demonstrate models of speeches for ceremonial occasions including acceptance speeches and commencement addresses. There is also a new table on formats for sharing group reports and recommendations with an audience. A new figure illustrating suggestions for enhancing teamwork has also been added to the chapter.