Historical Speech Critique

A true understanding of the elements involved in oral presentations is evident not only in the ability to create and present a speech, but also in the ability to recognize the elements associated with oral presentations in the speeches of others. When we see short sound bites of speeches in the news media, rarely do we understand the context in which they are presented. Therefore, we are unable to truly critically evaluate them.

Your oral presentation for the week is a critique of the speech that you viewed for the Week One Assignment. You will use YouSeeU to deliver your oral critique. This will assist you with exploring the different conventions of presentations and will also be another opportunity for you to demonstrate your own speaking skills. Please review the elements of the communication process that you discussed in your Week One Assignment and provide an oral critique of those elements in this presentation. Use the questions found in the “Becoming a Critic of Public Speaking” excerpt found on page 18 of the textbook to help formulate your critique of the speech.

Your speech critique should be well structured and should include an introduction, body (discussion of the questions), and a conclusion about your overall assessment of the speech. Please review and be mindful of the non-verbal component of speaking and presenting, as reviewed in the course text on pages 266-270 of Chapter 12. The critique should be between three and five minutes in length. Please note that oral presentations will take place in the YouSeeU interface in the window below. This oral critique will be available for both the instructor and your fellow classmates to view.