How to Speak Effectively in Any Setting

Follow along with Professor Molly Bishop Shadel as she details the highlights of this vital series, focusing in this lesson on ethos—“good sense, good moral character, and good will.” Learn how you, as other great speakers have throughout history, can use each aspect of ethos to generate trust, understanding, and support from audiences.

Think of your favorite speech from a movie or play. How does it make you feel? Here, Professor Shadel connects audience emotional response to speech success through pathos. In short, she helps you consider your audience by building a relationship, creating a receptive frame of mind, and avoiding the negative emotions that can undermine your success.

Most humans are single-path thinkers with relatively limited attention spans. Follow along as Professor Shadel concisely addresses the role of logos, or logic, in effective speech organization and delivery. From first impression to final comments, learn to engage your audience, keep the audience focused, and make your argument clearly and succinctly.

Flaws in reasoning, also known as logical fallacies, can derail your arguments by undermining your credibility and the integrity of your position. By learning the specifics of more than a dozen types of logical fallacies, you can become a more effective speaker and a more discerning consumer of information.

Aristotle persuaded his audiences through good character, stirring emotional appeal, and sound logic. He also understood that skill in public speaking could be used to stir up fear and discord. In this lesson, learn more about how propaganda—deliberately false or misleading rhetoric—operates, and how it can be disarmed.

Writing for public speaking is different than writing that is composed to be read rather than spoken. Readers control the environment and the pace; listeners do not. Unpack the common pitfalls and opportunities in writing for speaking and construct a speech of your own that establishes credibility and amicability, grabs your audience’s attention, and makes clear your central premise.

Once you have written an outstanding speech, how do you present it in a way that brings your words alive? Take advantage of expert guidance as Professor Shadel walks you through the process of organization, revision, and practice. Explore a variety of techniques used by actors as you also prepare to take the stage.

Break problematic physical and vocal habits and practice delivering your speech with confidence. Delve into the specifics of stance, movement, blocking, power posing, and assertive posturing. Body language and tone can help communicate far more to our audience than words alone. Convey confidence and competence when you speak, and people will believe the message you wish to convey.

Lean in as Professor Shadel leads you through a series of rehearsal exercises designed to hone your performance, establish your credibility, and create connection with your audience. Learn how rhythm, tone, and cadence affect the meaning of your words. Finally, discover the importance of settings, lighting, and costume in bringing your speech to life.

Many people know that the human voice can be a powerful tool; far fewer realize that it can be trained to develop projection, enunciation, and articulation. With a series of physical stretches, diaphragmatic breath exercises, and tricks to support volume and vocalization, investigate ways to stay calm, collected, clear-headed, and heard by your audience.

Most of us have experienced anxiety about public speaking at some point, even people who speak for a living. Delve into the role of the amygdala in fear response, and the pre-frontal cortex in overcoming that fear. With a series of easy exercises, walk step by step through the feeling of panic and beyond it to improved outcomes.

Visual aids can be the difference between a good speech and a great one. With them, your logic can be clear, your presentation exciting, and your audience attentive. Learn how to design effective visual aids and to deploy them skillfully to prove a point, visualize a situation, or make an impact.

Pivot from public speaking basics to the first of several specific speech contexts. Prepare now to speak publicly at some of the most important celebratory occasions: weddings, graduations, retirement parties, and other rites of passage. With great writers and rhetoricians as your guides, learn to craft your own epideictic speeches.

Few speeches are more important—or challenging—than the funeral address. Many of us will be called upon at some point to offer a few words in celebration of the life of a loved one. Continue your study of powerful presentations with an exploration of the purpose and process behind an outstanding eulogy.

Have you ever avoided a social event because you were anxious, afraid you would say the wrong thing or even freeze up and say nothing at all? Discover how to make a great first impression. Then unpack the particulars of how to tell a good story and how to prepare your audience for being effective listeners.

Often, communication at work focuses on persuasion, rather than the ceremonial discourse common in social settings. Here, investigate best practices for effective workplace communication through strategic selection of position, audience, environment, and approach. Finally, learn how to build critical relationships and foster a positive workplace reputation, supporting all types of communication.

In this second lesson on business communication, focus on business presentations that are more formal. Learn how to pitch your product, attract a potential client, impress your board of directors, and convince your colleagues, all by employing the same theory of ethos, pathos, and logos that have made you successful in other speech settings.

Are you certain that you could handle a media interview effectively? Professor Shadel teaches you how to share your expertise with the media in ways that emphasize competence and credibility. Discover how best to establish your theme, choose quotable verbiage, set ground rules, dress appropriately, and project confidence.

Everyone negotiates, but not everyone does it well. Employ the wisdom of the courtroom to help you prepare, think creatively, and keep a clear head as you practice the strategies necessary to negotiate with skill and verve. By asking good questions and keeping an open mind, you can create win-win outcomes for yourself and for others.

There is an art in managing people, especially in giving effective feedback. It isn’t always easy, especially if it is negative or unexpected feedback. Fortunately, here, you will discover how to apply many of your new skills in public speaking to feedback situations, changing the dynamic of the listener from resistance and anxiety to one of accepting development and support.

Calling all teachers! Whether you are a seasoned professional educator, or simply appearing as a guest speaker, you want to make the most of your time in the classroom. Examine the role of negative self-talk and change the narrative. Consider the best ways to focus on your contributions and connect with your students.

Even under the best of circumstances, political discussions can often prove caustic and divisive. Using the wisdom and strategy of that master communicator, Mister Rogers, you can deploy ethos, logos, and pathos to help your audience see the logic of your position, diffuse anger, and create a path to better understanding.

Most of us are not lawyers, but understanding legal argument makes us better informed and more prepared as citizens. Professor Shadel explains the history and the function of federal and state courts, criminal and civil. In easy-to-understand terms, she reviews jurisdictions and rules, helping you prepare a clear legal argument sufficient for any courtroom.

Finally, put it all together and finish this remarkable series with a critical review of key concepts that will remind you of what is both important and effective in public speaking. You will be able to employ a new understanding of context, occasion, purpose, and audience in order to craft and deliver discourse for any occasion and every situation.