In public speaking, you are expected to provide your audience with thorough information on your topic. This requires you to research your speech. Even if you have experience and knowledge on the subject you're presenting. It is still important to seek out sources of information that will not only increase your knowledge of a topic but demonstrate to your audience that you are a credible source of information in that you've sought out various forms of information. The information discussed this week will help guide you in identifying credible sources and determining how to gather information by taking deliberate approaches.

In this unit, we are focusing on the elements of speech practice and delivery. Once you have developed a speech outline, you will want to set aside time to rehearse your speech and make changes as necessary. You may be familiar with the saying, "practice makes perfect." This is not correct. Practice does not guarantee success it only makes things permanent. The right type of practice will make you better. The wrong type of practice can potentially make you worse. Therefore, it's important to take a deliberate approach as you prepare for your presentation.The coursework in this unit is as follows:Read chapter 11 in your class textTake the assessment covering questions from the chapter readingReview the PowerPoint. It will assist in the review that follows.Complete the Kahoot Review   

In this unit, you will learn about dealing with one of the most common fears in our society: the fear of public speaking, which is referred to as communication apprehension (CA).  By reading this chapter, you will learn about CA; not necessarily how it develops, as that can be different in every individual, but rather about how people can deal with it effectively. You will learn how therapies employed by psychologists to help people deal with phobias can be translated into effective techniques to deal with CA.Your coursework for this unit consists of the following:1. Read about the nature of public speaking anxiety and approaches to cope with it.2. Next, you will evaluate your personal level of public speaking anxiety.3. Then you will watch and reflect on a Ted Talk about the importance of embracing public speaking4. Next you will watch a second Ted Talk on coping with speech anxiety.5. Finally, you will assess your knowledge of the concepts discussed in this unit through a game-style review.

The speech concepts you have examined in Units 1-8 culminate in the speech project featured in this unit. This unit contains the requirements for the informative speech.  You have already seen most of this material from previous course weeks.  This was to give you an early opportunity to become acquainted with it. You are now viewing the formal folder where you will read the speech requirements and submit your speech outline.