Course Overview

📺 Watch the following video to get an introduction to the course from your instructor, Dr Oumaima Elghazali.

Course Description

Communicating for Success 2 supports you in developing communication skills that are essential for success in your personal and professional lives.  The course will focus on listening and speaking to help you improve your ability to receive and communicate ideas orally. You will learn how to evaluate and refine your listening and speaking skills through videos, online readings, role plays, and live class activities.  To kick off the course, you will learn how to utilize the listening process to improve your ability to receive, interpret, and respond to spoken messages. Next, you will learn to be more confident and effective in spontaneous speaking situations.  Finally, you will learn how to confidently and skillfully deliver oral presentations while also exploring the impact of non-verbal communication on how messages are received. An emphasis will be placed on frequent submissions and peer and instructor feedback to allow you to practice and improve your skills.

Enduring understandings of the course:

• Speaking effectively with others is essential for professional success.
• Active listening promotes good relationships with others and paves the way for professional success.
• Impromptu and planned speaking skills expand opportunities for professional development.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Utilize the listening process and apply techniques to overcome barriers to listening.
• Apply active listening techniques to improve their understanding of spoken communication.
• Diagnose their communication challenges and utilize techniques to help convey their messages more accurately.
• Apply techniques to establish credibility, trust, and professionalism in spontaneous and planned speaking.
• Use non-verbal communication to support the delivery of their messages

Instructor

• Dr. Oumaima Elghazali (oumaima.elghazali@kibo.school)

Live Classes

• Live classes will be held on Tuesday 5:30 - 7:00 PM GMT. The live classes are mandatory.

Office Hours

• Office hours will be held on Wednesday 5:30 - 6:30 PM GMT. These are optional chances to get additional support from the instructor.

Overview

Course Topics

Course Expectations

Course Assessments

Live Classes

Course Assessments

Formative Assignments (40%)

Over the duration of the course, there will be four formative assignments that will help you reinforce your speaking skills while performing different speaking tasks, and they are as follows:

Week 1: My Elevator pitch (Due: January 21, 2024)

Week 2: Listening in Practice (Due: February 4, 2024)

Week 3: Mock Interviews (Due: February 18, 2024)

Week 4: Presentations- Midterm project (Due: March 3, 2024)

Class Participation (10%) (Due date: by the Sunday after each live class)

Reflection question to be submitted after each live class (Due date: by the Sunday after each live class)

Final Presentation (15% of final grade) (Due date: March 17, 2024)

An oral reflection of your C4S Speaking experience.

Final Project (15% of final grade) (Due date: March 17, 2024)

Your final assessment for this course will require you to create an online portfolio where you include your own self-introduction and the description of the job you are seeking. It will also include the video of your project and, most importantly, 2-minute informative videos of applications/ projects you have developed so far at Kibo and how they connect to the professional area you are seeking.

Late Policy

You are expected to submit your work by the deadline. Each assignment page will include instructions and a link to submit.

The table above specifies the assignments for which late submission is possible. Any work submitted late will incur penalties in accordance with Kibo's Late Work Policy.

Below is information about which assignments are eligible for late submission.

Course Expectations

Attendance and Engagement Policies

Please make sure you have reviewed all the Kibo Academic Policies that are found in the Catalog.

The general Kibo attendance and engagement policy is as follows:

Students are expected to remain academically engaged in all classes. The requirement for satisfactory academic engagement is to maintain a cumulative grade above 65% in each class.

Students will be deemed academically disengaged in a class if the student’s grade falls below 65%. Academic disengagement carries with it a number of possible penalties, including and up to dismissal from Kibo. In particular, students who are failing all their classes (average 59% or below) may be dismissed from Kibo during or at the end of the current term.

In addition to meeting the requirements for academic engagement, students are expected to actively participate in learning activities. Learning at Kibo involves a variety of experiences, including:

• Attending scheduled sessions (e.g., live class or office hours) where there is an opportunity for interaction with the instructor and/or peers
• Submitting academic assignments, quizzes, or projects
• Taking exams or engaging in online tutorials and instruction
• Attending a study group that is assigned by the instructor
• Participating in an online discussion about academic matters
• Initiating contact with an instructor to ask a question about the class

You should inform your instructor if personal emergencies arise that prevent satisfactory academic engagement. If you are ill for more than a week and/or expect to not remain academically engaged due to personal, family, or other emergency, you should also contact your advisor and the Dean.

• For this course specifically, you are expected to engage in the online discussion and reflection questions and activities that are embedded throughout the online lessons. You are also expected to attend the weekly 90-minute live class. If you are unable to attend the live class, you are required to notify the instructor at least 24 hours in advance of the live class that you will be missing and watch the recording of the live class that you have missed.

If you have any questions, please be sure to post them in the #help-eng4dev channel in Discord, and the instructor will be able to answer your questions there.

Academic Integrity

This course is run in accordance with Kibo School's Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy, which can also be found in the Catalog. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of academic misconduct, including cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication. If you are found to be in breach of the Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy in any of the assignments that you submit, you will be subject to disciplinary action.

When you turn in any work that is graded, you are representing that the work is your own. Copying work from another student or from an online resource and submitting it is plagiarism. Using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to help you understand concepts (i.e., as though it is your own personal tutor) is valuable. However, you should not submit work generated by these tools as though it is your own work. Remember, the activities we assign are your opportunity to prove to yourself (and to us) that you understand the concepts. Using these tools to generate answers to assignments may help you in the short-term but not in the long-term.

As a reminder of Kibo's academic honesty and integrity policy: Any student found to be committing academic misconduct will be subject to disciplinary action, including dismissal. Note that assisting another student in the violation of this policy also constitutes a violation of academic integrity (e.g., letting someone copy your assignment counts as a violation for both the person who copied the work and the original owner of the copied work).

Disciplinary action may include:

• Failing the assignment
• Failing the course
• Dismissal from Kibo

For more information about what counts as plagiarism and tips for working with integrity, review the "What is Plagiarism?" Video and Slides.

The full Kibo policy on Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy is available here.

Communication Expectations

The most effective way to communicate with the instructor for this course is through posting a message in the #help-c4s2 channel in Discord. All questions posted there will receive a response within 24 hours.

All course announcements from the instructor will also be posted in the #help-c4s2 channel in Discord.

Course Topics

As we previously covered, communication skills refer to the ability to effectively exchange information, ideas, and thoughts through speaking, writing, and other means.

In the first C4S course that you took in term 1, our focus was on the Reading and Writing skills of communication. In this C4S course, the focus will be on Listening and Speaking skills. As a refresher, the definitions of both skills are listed below:

Speaking:

Speaking is the process of communicating through spoken language. It involves using one's voice to convey a message to an audience, typically in the form of words and sentences. However, speaking is more than just saying words. It involves considering the needs and interests of the audience, choosing the right words and tone of voice, and organizing the content of the message clearly and logically.

Listening:

Listening is the process of paying attention to and understanding spoken language. It involves using one's ears to hear the words that are being spoken and using one's mind to comprehend the meaning of those words. However, effective listening involves more than just hearing the words that are being spoken. It also involves paying attention to the speaker, interpreting their message, and responding appropriately.

Being a good Speaker and Listener is usually thought of as a given, but the greatest communicators in the world are the ones who are aware of how well they can communicate and what else they can do to improve. For a successful personal, academic, and professional career, in addition to good Reading and Writing skills, it is important that you also have good Speaking and Listening skills.

The second part of the C4S aims to help you:

1. Build on your previous knowledge from the first part of C4S

2. evaluate your current Speaking and Listening skills

3. introduce you to strategies to strengthen your Speaking and Listening skills

4 ) Create real-life contexts for you to practice Speaking and Listening skills.

Course Structure

Topic 1- Listening

As a receptive skill, Listening is a valuable skill for your personal, academic, and professional success. Listening can help you build strong relationships with people you interact with every day. It improves your understanding of things and those around you. It also helps people learn great insights. People gravitate usually to those who show empathy and understanding, which are also qualities of a good listener. Being a good listener is known to help resolve conflicts and disputes because the person takes enough time to listen and understand all the variables that contribute to the issue without judgment before they can suggest solutions. The latter set of skills also makes a good listener better at solving problems at work or in their day-to-day environment. The C4S 2 course is developed to tap into your listening skills, evaluate them, put them into practice, and also create real-life situations that position you at the heart of being a listener. Lesson 2 of the course directly addresses Listening and will provide you with various tools to strengthen your skills and get you ready for life outside of the class.

Topic 2 - Speaking

The second topic in this course is Speaking. Spoken communication is one of the strongest, most needed forms of communication in academic and professional settings. Like writing, speaking also allows us to communicate our thoughts with others and express our feelings and ideas. Having the eloquence, structure, right use of body language, and other sub-skills of speaking allows a person to show confidence as they communicate their ideas. It is helpful when doing presentations, going through job interviews, and interacting with clients at work. Speaking skills also simplify peer collaborations and successful presentations and engage in networking opportunities for further growth.

The goal of the C4S2 is to help enhance your speaking skills as a computer science student and set you up to succeed in the dynamic and collaborative context of the computer science industry. From finding your spot through job interviews and pitching your skills to being part of a team and presenting your ideas and projects.

Live Classes

This page will be updated weekly with the slides and recordings from the live classes.

Below is the live class schedule.

Introduction to Speaking

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in lesson 1.

Lesson Overview

Lesson 1 of your course C4S2 starts with a refresher on the communication process and builds on what we have previously covered in the C4S1. It stresses the importance of effective communication and what is considered effective communication. Aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication are also introduced in this lesson, mainly how they can be used to effectively communicate in different contexts. The main technical skill we will practice in this lesson is an elevator pitch, how you can introduce yourself and your idea to a potential employer. At the end of the lesson, skills and technicalities on how you can record your assignments are also presented.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Refresh your knowledge of what makes an effective communication process.
• Demonstrate a better understanding of the principles of verbal and non-verbal communication.
• Practice your spoken skills as you prepare and deliver an introductory speech in the form of an elevator pitch.

Motivation

📺 Watch the video below by Nina Legath on the power of communication.

In a constantly changing world, communication is becoming more and more important for businesses and for personal growth. Having to communicate in school, present speeches at school and the university, take job interviews, and create your way in the working world all depend heavily on how good and effective of a communicator you are. Currently, and moving forward, machines and robotics will also take on most tasks, but the value humans have that AI tools won’t have is effective communication. Relationship tasks will still be reserved for only humans, which is the most human side of communication. The world will still need strong visionary leaders who oversee and inspire others with their communication. Communication is also about meaning and connection; both are human needs that will persist in an ever-changing world.

Discuss

💬 Think back over your experiences in school and giving a speech:

• How do you feel when you are asked to deliver a speech in class?
• Do you feel able to evaluate the quality of your speech accurately? What went wrong, and what did you do well?
• Have your spoken skills helped (or hurt) your ability to accomplish an important goal? If so, how? Submit your reflections in the Padlet below.

A Refresher on the Communication Process

📺 Watch the video below to refresh your definition of Communication in a historical timeline with Doctor Alex Lyon.

As we have seen in the first part of the course C4S, communication is an important skill for your professional, academic, and personal success. There are different models that have been developed to address the needs of communicators, and up until now, the most prominent model is the one we previously looked at in the first part of this course, the Transactional Model.

The Transactional Model of Communication recognizes communication as more than sending and receiving messages like computers and alternating between sender and receiver roles. Instead, the model perceives communicators as constantly generating social realities within a social and cultural context. It goes beyond merely communicating to using communication to create relationships, form alliances, and share self-concepts.

We have also previously learned about the different components of the communication process, as presented in the graph below:

📝 Complete the following quiz to refresh your memory on the different key terms composing a communication process:

At Kibo, one of our core beliefs is that learning should be connected as much as possible to daily experiences. This next section will explore how communication is relevant in your academic, professional, and personal aspects of life.

Academic

Having good communication skills can help you in doing well in school and beyond. Improving your communication skills can lead to better grades and confidence in your ability to communicate and make it less likely for you to quit school. According to a study by Zabava & Wolvin (1993), taking a communication class can improve your talking, body language, and interaction with others.

Professional

Employers highly value good communication skills. In fact, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that good communication skills are the most desired quality in college graduates (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2010). Different careers may require different communication skills, but introductory communication courses can provide important skills for entry-level jobs. These skills include listening, writing, motivating/persuading, interpersonal skills, informational interviewing, and small-group problem-solving (DiSalvo, 1980). Employers also look for good interpersonal communication skills, which consistently rank in the top ten in national surveys (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2010). On the other hand, poor listening skills, lack of conciseness, and inability to give constructive feedback can be potential communication challenges in professional contexts. Employers appreciate good listening skills and the ability to communicate concisely because efficiency and clarity are often directly tied to productivity and success.

Personal

Communication plays a huge role in forming, maintaining, and ending our interpersonal relationships. While many students have personal experiences with communication and may have seen it discussed on television talk shows and in self-help books, they may not fully understand the extent to which communication impacts their lives. Becoming familiar with specific vocabulary and developing foundational knowledge of communication concepts and theories can give us the tools we need to make sense of our experiences. Having a vocabulary to name communication phenomena increases our ability to consciously alter our communication to achieve our goals, avoid miscommunication, and learn from our mistakes.

We also previously made an agreement over the ultimate goal of communication as accurately getting the thoughts in the sender's head into the receiver's head.

Throughout this course, we will focus on the spoken form of communication and how it relates to the different aspects of your life. But you might ask, what is the difference between Written and Spoken forms of Communication? and how do I connect my learning from the previous class to the current one?

The chart below compares both forms of communication using 9 different variables.

Comparison Chart: Written Vs Spoken Communication

Communication, whether spoken or written, is crucial for survival in our social world. It is a means of bringing people together and fostering closer relationships between them. To that end, it is important to improve the quality of both spoken and written communication. Written communication is often used in business or official matters since it is considered a more reliable way to communicate. It provides a record of the conversation and can be referred back to at any time.

However, spoken communication is still very important in personal dealings. It allows for a more personal touch and enables us to convey our emotions and intentions more effectively. A spoken conversation can also offer immediate feedback and clarification. Therefore, it is essential to be proficient in both written and spoken communication in order to navigate our social world effectively.

Moreover, effective communication is not just about the words we use, but also about non-verbal cues. Body language, tone, and facial expressions can all convey meaning and emotion. Being aware of these cues and utilizing them effectively can greatly enhance our communication skills.

Discuss

💬 Reflect on your experience using both forms of communication (spoken and written), and share in the Padlet below in what social contexts you use each of them.

It can also be important to know when to use either or both forms of communication to create an effective exchange of information.

📺 Watch the video below to get a better understanding of the impact of the form of communication you chose on the effectiveness of your communication.

In conclusion, communication is a vital aspect of our social world, and improving its quality is essential for building strong relationships. Both written and spoken communication are important in different contexts, and mastering them can help us navigate through our personal and professional lives with ease.

Effective Communication: What it is and How it Happens

📺 Watch the video below to understand what effective communication is.

Most people tend to think communication is important when they are asked, but it has always been looked at as a spontaneous process. Bringing awareness to how you communicate will bring many positive effects to your life.

Speaking effectively is defined as speaking in such a way that your message is clearly heard and, if possible, acted upon. There are two main elements to speaking effectively: what you say and how you say it.

1. What you say means your choice of words. The words you might use when chatting to a friend are likely to be quite different from those used in a formal presentation or interview.

2. The way that you speak will also vary in different situations. However, there are also likely to be some common factors: for example, whether you naturally talk quietly or loudly and how you use body language, which we will explore in depth as we move forward in this course.

One way by which one can effectively communicate is by constantly evaluation our communication. We have previously looked at a practical strategy to evaluate your communication using the 7Cs.

The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

📺 Watch the video below to refresh your use of the 7 Cs in communication.

Summary of the 7Cs of Communication

• Clarity: Keep it simple
• Conciseness: Get to the point
• Concreteness: Be specific
• Correctness: Be accurate and error-free
• Coherence: Make it logical
• Completeness: Include all necessary information
• Courtesy: See things from the audience's point of view

Barriers to Effective Communication

📺 Watch the video below on Barriers to Effective Communication.

Discuss

💬 Reflecting on the tips in the video above, which of these communication barriers you would like to improve? Use the Padlet below to share your response.

Becoming a Better Speaker

The following section will look at how you can have better speaking skills for everyday communication, academic and professional aspects of life.

📺 Watch the video below to learn how you can improve your communication skills as a student.

📺 Watch the video below to learn how you can improve your communication skills at work.

In summary, you should have a better understanding and practice of the following strategies to become a better speaker in all of your life aspects:

1. Think before speaking: Avoid saying something inappropriate or unconsidered. Reflect on a subject before engaging in a conversation.
2. Use concise language: Avoid using complicated words that can confuse people. Prioritize important points and information you want to get across. Explain complex or technical topics in a way that everyone can understand.
3. Understand your audience: Tailor communication to suit their needs. Consider the context, culture, demographics, and shared characteristics of the audience. Provide relevant information regarding the topic. Show that you care about what they are saying and value their opinions.
4. Be mindful of your tone: Use a tone of voice to emphasize ideas and opinions with clarity and conviction. An enthusiastic tone can ignite passion and enthusiasm in others. A monotonous tone can put people off. Amplify emotions and express feelings effectively.
5. Speak with confidence: Use rhetorical questions, strong verbs, active voice, and vivid adjectives/adverbs. Speaking confidently can help project your message more effectively. Convey your ideas with clarity and precision.
6. Show your authentic self: Avoid pretense. Express emotion appropriately. Connect with your audience.
7. Practice active listening: Focus on what the other person is saying without making judgments or making assumptions. Avoid getting distracted. Pay attention to body language to ensure proper understanding and foster relationships.
8. Pay attention to body language: Facial expressions, gestures, eye gaze, and body movements can help build rapport and strengthen relationships. Pay attention to the expressions you use, the energy you emit, and the attitude you demonstrate.
9. Prepare for any audience: Assess the situation and consider who you’re speaking with and what information will be helpful. Consider if they possess any unique knowledge that you need to take into account. Knowing these factors can help inform how you communicate.
10. Actively listen: Focus your energy on hearing precisely what the other person has said, ask questions to demonstrate understanding, and provide feedback to show you have actually listened. Listening actively can ensure an understanding of needs and draw people closer together.
11. Be empathetic: Acknowledge other aspects of their life. Pay attention to their tone and adjust yours accordingly. Try to “connect emotionally” by noting certain life events or interests they may possess.
12. Use the full range of your voice: Use the right tone of voice to reinforce verbal communication. Use vocal inflection to emphasize the point and vary the pitch of your voice to keep the audience engaged while showing enthusiasm. Use appropriate emphasis on key points and vary the pace to avoid monotony.

How to Speak Well

📺 Watch the video below by Alex Lyon and Mary Daphne to learn more about Verbal and Nonverbal Communication and how they both differ.

Speaking is the process of communicating through spoken language. It involves using one's voice to convey a message to an audience, typically in the form of words and sentences. However, speaking is more than just saying words. It involves considering the needs and interests of the audience, choosing the right words and tone of voice, and organizing the content of the message in a clear and logical way. Therefore, speaking actually contains multiple components:

1. The words that you use. (The verbal message)
2. How you say those words. (Vocalics = The vocal nonverbal message)
3. Your body language and other nonvocal nonverbal cues.

In this section, we will explore each of the three aspects of speaking introduced above so that you can feel more confident in achieving your speaking goal of ensuring your message is accurately heard, understood, and acted upon.

Your Words

When you are speaking and interacting with other people in everyday situations, you should know what you want to accomplish (i.e., know your purpose) and know who you are speaking to (i.e., analyze your audience). The same tips that you learned for writing during the first Communicating for Success course an be used here. Ensure the words you select will be understood by your audience and serve your purpose. Also, similar to writing, selecting the correct level of formality is important. Ensure you use the appropriate level of formality based on the purpose, audience, and context of your spoken interaction. Finally, speaking in shorter sentences will make it easier for people to process what you are saying and understand you better.

📺 Watch this video to learn how to be clear and concise in your speaking

Step 1 - What - What's your main point?

Step 2 - So What - Why is it important?

Step 3 - Now What - Based on the above, what are the next steps?

Speaking with Clarity

📺 Watch this video for tips for improving the clarity of your speech, especially in professional settings.

What is Nonverbal Communication?

While we tend to focus on the words that we say as the most important part of speaking, they actually account for less than 10% of the meaning that people attribute to our message. Vocalics (the vocal nonverbal message) account for around 40% of the meaning, and body language and other nonvocal nonverbal cues account for over 50% of the meaning that is made.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about nonverbal communication.

Here is a summary of the types of nonverbal communication:

Your Voice

📺 Watch this video to learn more about vocalics.

Examples of vocalics include:

• Tempo (Rate/Pace)
• Pitch
• Intensity (Volume)
• Inflection (Vocal Variety)
• Stress
• Tone
• Timbre (Vocal Quality)
• Verbal Fillers

📺 Watch this video to hear some examples of the different components of vocalics.

📺 Watch this video to learn some tips to get rid of verbal fillers.

Here is a summary of some of the tips mentioned in the video:

• Get comfortable with silence
• Record yourself speaking
• Replace filler words with "period" or "pause"
• Stop and take a breath
• Name them and shame them
• Filler word bell
• Chunk your information
• Make eye contact
• Calm your nerves
• Use gestures
• Keep your sentences short
• Preparation and practice are key
• Realize you are your own worst critic

Your Body and Other Cues

Finally, to round out this section, we will explore the final component of speaking, body language, and other nonvocal nonverbal cues. Remember that these nonverbal cues account for the majority of meaning that people take away from your spoken communication.

Body Movement (Kinesics)

📺 Watch this video to learn more about kinesics.

Eye Movement (Oculesics)

📺 Watch this video to learn more about ouculesics.

Space (Proxemics), Time (Chrometics), Touch (Haptics)

📺 Watch this video to learn about using space, time, and touch when communicating.

Discuss

💡 As a practice, record yourself spontaneously speaking in front of your camera about a topic of your choice. After you are done recording, re-watch the video and pay close attention to your voice, speech clarity, language fillers, and body language (hands, eye movement, and how you move in your physical space). Use the Padlet below to share what patterns you have noticed while you are speaking: what would you keep, and what will you improve? and why?

Assignment Guidance: Preparing Your Elevator Pitch

What is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch (also known as an elevator speech) is a short, persuasive speech you use to introduce yourself, your product, or your company. It aims to explain the concept quickly and clearly to spark interest in who you are and what you do.

Source

Elevator pitches can be used in a variety of situations, including:

• General networking
• Introducing yourself at a career fair
• Introducing yourself at the start of an interview
• Pitching your project or ideas to different stakeholders

The information that you include in your elevator pitch will differ depending on your goal. So one of the first steps when creating an elevator pitch is to determine what you want to accomplish with your pitch.

Introducing Yourself

📺 Watch this video for an introduction to elevator pitches.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about crafting your elevator pitch.

As mentioned in the video, your elevator pitch should be around 30 - 60 seconds and it should include the following information:

• Who you are
• A little background information about yourself
• Explain and provide context
• Make the connection to the listener
• What you are asking for
• A closing

Creating Your Elevator Pitch

1 - Clarify your job target So when you begin putting an elevator pitch together, nail down the best way to describe your field and the type of job you’re pursuing. Until you can clearly explain the type of position you want, nobody can help you find it or hire you to do it.

2 - Put it on paper Write down everything you would want a prospective employer to know about your skills, accomplishments, and work experiences that are relevant to your target position. Then grab a red pen and mercilessly delete everything that’s not critical to your pitch. Keep editing until you’ve got the speech down to a few key bullet points or sentences. Your goal is to interest the listener in learning more, not to tell your whole life story. So remove extraneous details that detract from your core message.

3 - Format it A good pitch should answer three questions: Who are you? What do you do? What are you looking for? That should take about 15-30 seconds. The next 15-30 seconds should add details about your unique selling proposition, special skills, and specific ways you could help a potential employer.

4 - Tailor the pitch to them, not you It’s important to remember that the employers listening to your speech will be asking, “What is in it for me?” So be sure to focus your message on their needs.

5 - Eliminate industry jargon You need to make your pitch easy for anyone to understand, so avoid using acronyms and tech-speak that the average person or job interviewer might not understand. The last thing you want to do is make your listener feel stupid or uninformed.

6 - Read your pitch out loud and then edit it again The language you write in is different than how you speak. Practice your pitch out loud and then edit your written pitch to sound more natural.

7 - Prepare a few variations You might want to say things slightly differently to a potential business employer than you would to a professor you hope to work with. Also, sometimes you’ll just have 15 seconds for a pitch (kind of a short elevator ride). Other times you may have a minute or two. Focus on mastering a few key talking points, then work up ways to customize your speech for particular situations.

Source

Avoiding Common Elevator Pitch Mistakes

Speak naturally

Deliver your elevator pitch in a conversational tone. Write down abbreviated bullet points for reference and practice speaking from those points. This will help you remember ideas instead of memorizing a direct script and sound more organic. If you prefer to memorize your pitch, practice until it feels natural to say it aloud.

Slow it down

Speak slowly and thoughtfully to ensure the listener has time to process what you’re saying. Take relaxed, deep breaths to slow your speech if needed.

Use one pitch for most (but not all) occasions

Have one general pitch that you can use at any moment, but tailor it whenever you can. For example, if you are approaching a programming company’s booth at a career fair, include why you’re especially excited about programming. Personalized ideas show your depth of interest and respect for the listener’s time.

Make it easy to understand

Use plain language in your elevator pitch that all audiences can understand. Avoid technical jargon and industry-specific terms that only someone with your skill level would know. This can make it difficult for them to ask you follow-up questions, and it might make them less likely to continue the conversation with you. Save niche terms for a technical interview, and make your pitch easy for everyone to follow.

Assignment Guidance: Technical Skills to Record Your Assignment

Having a good setup while recording a message is crucial to ensure that the message is clear and understandable. A poor setup can result in noise, distortion, and other audio issues that can make it difficult or impossible for listeners (the instructor and your peers) to understand the message. To ensure a good setup, as well as an accurate evaluation of your recorded submission, it is important to record in a quiet environment that is free from background noise. Additionally, it is important to take the time to properly set up and test the equipment before recording to ensure that the audio quality is optimal. By following the guidelines in the videos below, you can ensure that your recorded messages are clear, professional, and effective.

Audio - Make Sure You Can Be Heard

Using the right distance, headphones, and recording in a quiet space are all tips you can use to optimize the quality of your recorded videos for this course, its assignments, and future professional and academic opportunities.

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about optimizing your recorded audio.

📺 A good video is also a video with no background noise. Watch this video to learn how to remove background noise from your video.

Video: Make Sure You Can Be Seen

An easy, free, and accessible way to record your videos is using a free Zoom account. Through Zoom, you can share your screen, address an audience, and save your video for editing before submission.

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about recording a video via Zoom.

If you like Canva and its aesthetics, you can also record your presentation on it.

📺 Watch the video below to learn how to use Canva to record a presentation video.

Aesthetics

The effort you make before recording a video to share as an assignment or a video for a job can be noticed in the quality of your product. For technical, but also merit reasons, this might have an impact on the assessment of your video. Bad product quality also impacts the evaluator because it can be disturbing to listen well, distracted by a messy background, or bad video quality.

For that, it is of utmost importance that you pay attention to the details outlined on this page of the lesson. It is also important to ensure that you find a place with non-distracting background. Avoid windows, moving objects, or a vital space in the house where people are moving in the background. Tidy up your space and ensure that it is not cluttered or messy, and do your best to let the video watcher focus on only you and nothing else in the background.

If possible, add a plant or bookshelf as prompts to show off some personality, and finally, pick locations with good natural light.

Assignment 1 - Elevator Pitch

Due date: January 21, 2024

Instructions

• Read the assignment brief below.
• Record an elevator pitch in response to the brief.
• Upload your video to YouTube (make sure it is "Unlisted").
• Submit the link to your video on Gradescope and upload the original video file to Anchor.

Brief

One afternoon, you come into your local co-working space and notice a tech professional sitting across from your usual seat. They look like they are finishing their work and heading out. They are using a laptop with the sticker of your dream company on it, have a notebook with the company's logo on it, and are wearing a t-shirt from the company as well. All signs point to the fact that they work at your dream company. Since it looks like they are heading out, you only have about 1 minute to speak with them.

Record an elevator pitch that you could use for this interaction.

Remember the tips provided in the previous section on elevator pitches, and make sure you include:

• Who you are
• A little background information about yourself
• Additional context about your background
• A connection to the listener
• What you are asking for
• A closing

Your elevator pitch should be between 30 - 60 seconds.

Honing Your Listening Skills

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in lesson 2.

Lesson Overview

Our goal in this lesson is to improve your listening skills, which are the key to success in your future workplace. The lesson begins with introducing the different types of listening, as well as the listening process. This lesson also covers barriers then strategies to improve your listening skills. It introduces you to situations where you should act as an effective listener and creates opportunities for you to respond as a listener in various situations.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Differentiate between hearing and listening and recognize the importance of establishing effective communication.
• Identify barriers to effective listening and apply different strategies to improve your listening skills.
• Practice dialogue as a technique to improve your listening skills.

Motivation

📺 Watch the video below to learn what Listening is as a day-to-day skill.

Discuss

❓ Take a moment to reflect on your experience of Listening.
1- Recall and describe a time when you felt truly heard in a conversation. How did it feel?
OR
2 - Think of a time when you listened well to someone else. What did you observe about the conversation and the results?

📺 Watch the following video on why we are losing our ability to listen and how we can counteract this loss.

As mentioned in the video, listening is a mental process of extraction, which uses a couple of interesting techniques, including:

• Pattern Recognition
• Differencing
• Filters that determine what we pay attention to. For example:
  • Culture
  • Language
  • Values
  • Beliefs
  • Attitudes
  • Expectations
  • Intentions

The video also talked about these 5 exercises and tools to improve listening:

• Exercise 1: Silence. Practice silence for just 3 minutes a day to reset your ears.
• Exercise 2: Mixer. When you are in a place filled with noise, try to notice and focus on the individual channels of sound. (Note: A great way to practice this exercise is to listen to music with headphones on and see if you can focus on different layers in a song).
• Exercise 3: Savoring. Listen to and savor the mundane sounds in your daily life (e.g., clocks ticking, traffic noise, household electronics).
• Exercise 4: Listening Positions. Consciously play with your listening filters to change the way you are listening.
• Exercise 5: RASA. Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask.

Discuss

❓ Reflect on the content from the video by answering the questions in the padlet below.

How to Listen Well

In our society, listening is often overlooked in communication. However, research shows that adults spend about 45% of their time listening, making it the most common communicative activity. In certain contexts, such as work, we spend even more time listening. Listening is crucial for learning new information, which can help us complete tasks at school or work. Listening also supports relational maintenance and helps us meet our relational needs. It can even help us develop an accurate self-concept, which is important for projecting our desired self to others. Improving our listening skills can make us better students, better relational partners, and more successful professionals.

How Listening Occurs

Consider the following situations:

• Scenario 1: You are studying in your room with your headphones on, and your mother suddenly comes in. You take out your headphones and hear her say angrily, "I have been calling your name for the last 5 minutes. Why weren't you listening to me."
• Scenario 2: You are in a lecture, and the teacher asks you to summarize the key point they just made, but although you were paying attention, you can't answer correctly because you didn't understand their main point. Your teacher says, "Why didn't you listen to what I was saying."
• Scenario 3: At the end of your monthly meeting with your advisor, they ask you to summarize the action items the two of you just discussed and agreed on for the next month. However, you realize that you don't remember what the action items are anymore. Your advisor wonders aloud, "were you not listening during our discussion?"
• Scenario 4: You are a huge Ronaldo fan, and your classmate is a massive Messi fan. Every time you discuss football together, they try to convince you that Messi is better, and while you listen patiently to their arguments, you always tell them that you disagree and still think that Ronaldo is better. After the fiftieth time that the two of you have had this argument, they say, "You never listen to me."
• Scenario 5: Your brother keeps borrowing your laptop without asking, so you decide to ignore him for a few days. He comes into your room to ask what you are cooking for dinner. Although you can hear him, you refuse to look at him or speak to him. He gets upset and asks, "Why aren't you listening to me?"

What is going on in each of these scenarios? On the surface, the person you are communicating with has accused you of not listening. But each situation is very different.

• In scenario 1, you never received the message because your headphones blocked you from hearing.
• In scenario 2, you heard the information but didn't understand it well enough to act on what you heard.
• In scenario 3, you heard and understood the information at one point, but when asked to recall it, you could not.
• In scenario 4, you heard and understood the information but evaluated it differently than the speaker intended.
• In scenario 5, you heard and understood the information but refused to respond.

These scenarios point to the reality that listening is far more complicated than we realize!

One common misconception is that hearing = listening. However, this is not the case. Hearing is just one part of listening in which you receive auditory information. However, actual listening requires you to process the information you receive so you can understand and respond to it appropriately.

So, what is Listening?

Listening is the process of receiving, interpreting, recalling, evaluating, and responding to messages. We start listening long before we communicate verbally or nonverbally. After listening for months as infants, we develop our own ways of expression.

📺 Watch the following video for an introduction to listening.

Types of Listening

📺 Watch the video below to learn about 4 types of Listening.

Note: As you watch and listen, take notes of how each type applies to your personal, academic, and professional life.

From the video, we learned that there are four types of listening:

1) Appreciative Listening: Listening to appreciate, like Music and poetry or an inspirational message.

2) Comprehensive Listening: Listening to comprehend and learn.

3) Empathetic Listening: Listening to people’s emotions.

4) Critical Listening: Listening to scrutinize a message.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about comprehensive listening.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about empathetic listening.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about critical listening.

Reflection

❓ In the appropriate column of the padlet below, describe a situation that has required you to use each of the four types of listening described in the videos.

The Process of Listening

Listening is a complex process with cognitive, behavioral, and relational elements that do not occur in a linear, step-by-step fashion. The stages of the process include receiving, interpreting, recalling, evaluating, and responding, but it is important to remember that real-life listening is much more complex and dynamic than any model can capture.

1) Receiving: To listen effectively, we need to take in stimuli through our senses. We return to the receiving stage many times as we process new messages. This part of listening is more physiological than cognitive or relational. We primarily use our auditory and visual channels to take in information, and visual cues from facial expressions and eye contact influence how we interpret messages. Without visual cues in e-mail, text, and phone interactions, it's difficult to read contextual clues into meaning received through only auditory channels.

2) Interpreting: During the interpreting stage of listening, we try to understand visual and auditory information by connecting contextual, informational, and relational cues to our previous experiences using schemata. This engages cognitive and relational processing. The interpreting stage helps us understand the stimuli we have received and attach meaning to it by comparing new information with old information. If we find the new information relevant and credible, we may also update or revise our schemata.

3) Recalling: Our ability to remember information is limited by the way memory works. Our memories are not always accurate and we forget about half of what we hear immediately, 35 percent after eight hours, and 20 percent after a day (Hargie, 2011). Memory is made up of different types of storage units, including sensory storage, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory (Hargie, 2011). However, being good at recalling information doesn't necessarily make you a good listener. Some people have great memories and can accurately recount stories from years ago, but this doesn't necessarily mean they were paying attention at the moment. The recall is important to assess listening abilities, but relying on it to test someone's listening skills is not always accurate.

4) Evaluating: When we evaluate something, we make judgments about its credibility, completeness, and worth. We try to determine the degree to which we trust a speaker's remarks are correct and/or true in terms of credibility. In terms of completeness, we try to "read between the lines" and analyze the message in light of what we know about the issue or situation under consideration. We assess a message's worth by making a value judgment about whether we believe the message or idea is good/bad, right/wrong, or desirable/undesirable. All of these components of evaluating necessitate critical thinking abilities, which we do not inherit but must acquire via our own personal and intellectual development.

5) Responding: Responding involves conveying verbal and nonverbal feedback to show attentiveness and understanding or the lack thereof. Verbal cues like "uh-huh," "oh," and "right," along with nonverbal cues such as eye contact, head nods, and leaning forward, serve as positive back-channel cues indicating active listening. Conversely, behaviors like looking away, fidgeting, texting, or turning away suggest a lack of engagement.

Discuss

❓ Based on your experience with listening, which of the steps above do you think is the most challenging? Use the Padlet below to share your response.

Self-Assessment

📝 To develop an action plan to improve your listening skills, use the link below to take the “How Good Are Your Listening Skills” survey linked below, to learn more about how you can develop your listening skills. After you are done, share one area of strength as a Listener and one area for improvement and how you intend to improve it in the Padlet below.

MindTools - How Good Are Your Listening Skills?

Listening Styles

As mentioned in the video at the start of this lesson, there are different styles that people take when listening. These include:

• People-oriented - Focused on offering support and evaluating the emotional state of the speaker.
• Action-oriented - Focused on the plan and what next steps will be needed based on what they are hearing.
• Content-oriented - Focused on listening to complex information and processing it in all of its nuance.
• Time-oriented - Focused on how long an exchange is taking more than they are on any other element of the message.

Source

Reflection

❓ Answer the following questions in the padlet below:

1. Which one (or more) of the listening styles do you use? Why do you think that is?
2. Have you ever used the wrong listening style for a given situation? What was the consequence?

Barriers to Effective Listening

There are a variety of causes for poor listening. Some people may be more focused on their own thoughts and ideas and may not fully pay attention to what others are saying. Others may be easily distracted by external stimuli (e.g. noises) or may not be interested in the topic being discussed. Some people may also have difficulty processing spoken information at the pace that the speaker expects. These challenges can be considered barriers to listening and can impact any of the stages of the listening process.

• At the receiving stage: incoming stimuli can be blocked by noise or physical barriers.
• At the interpreting stage: complex or abstract information may make it hard to reach an understanding.
• At the recalling stage: natural limits to short-term and working memory, as well as issues with transfer to long-term memory, and problems with concentration and attention may interfere with remembering.
• At the evaluating stage: personal biases and prejudices can interfere with how well we analyze and evaluate information.
• At the responding stage: poor paraphrasing and questioning skills can result in misunderstanding.

Source

There are several types of listening barriers, including:

• Environmental and physical factors
  • Lighting
  • Temperature
  • Furniture arrangement
  • Proximity to speaker
  • Environmental noise
  • Physiological noise
    • Pain from illness, bodily stress, etc.
    • Tiredness
  • Psychological noise
    • Mood, interest level, emotional stress, etc.
• Cognitive factors
  • Cognitive limits
  • Lack of listening preparation
  • Difficult or disorganized messages
  • Difference between speech and thought rate
• Personal barriers to concentration
  • Prejudices against the speaker or message content
  • Self-centeredness and self-consciousness
  • Lack of motivation
  • Multitasking
  • Daydreaming
  • Pretending to pay attention
  • Response preparation
• Bad listening practices
  • Interrupting
  • Distorted listening
  • Eavesdropping
  • Aggressive listening
  • Narcissistic listening
  • Pseudo-listening

Discuss

❓ Answer the following question in the padlet below: Have you ever experienced any of the barriers to listening? If so, which ones?

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about listening barriers.

From the video, we learned about the following barriers to listening:

1) Distraction: Using your phone, noise, or other conversations happening around you can all act as a source of distraction to your listening process.

2) Preoccupation: Thinking about something else, anxiety, drifting, and thinking about the future.

3) Focusing on the details: Focusing on the details and missing the bigger picture.

4) The topic: boring, no interest.

5) Rebuttal tendency: Trying to figure out what to say next instead of focusing on the communicated message.

6) The speaker: boring or uninteresting, speaking in an off way.

Discuss

❓ What are some of the barriers you struggle with as a listener?

Effective Listening Skills

📺 Watch the video below to explore effective listening skills.

How do I improve my listening skills in each of the stages of the process?

Rudge (1993) suggests strategies to improve listening in each of the stages of the listening process:

1) To improve listening at the receiving stage, ◦ Prepare yourself to listen, ◦ Discern between intentional messages and noise, ◦ Concentrate on stimuli most relevant to your listening purpose(s) or goal(s), ◦ Be mindful of the selection and attention process as much as possible, ◦ Pay attention to turn-taking signals so you can follow the conversational flow, and ◦ Avoid interrupting someone while they are speaking in order to maintain your ability to receive stimuli and listen.

2) To improve listening at the interpreting stage, ◦ Identify main points and supporting points; ◦ Use contextual clues from the person or environment to discern additional meaning; ◦ Be aware of how a relational, cultural, or situational context can influence meaning; ◦ Be aware of the different meanings of silence; and ◦ Note differences in tone of voice and other paralinguistic cues that influence meaning.

3) To improve listening at the recalling stage, ◦ Use multiple sensory channels to decode messages and make more complete memories; ◦ Repeat, rephrase, and reorganize information to fit your cognitive preferences; and ◦ Use mnemonic devices as a gimmick to help with recall.

4) To improve listening at the evaluating stage, ◦ Separate facts, inferences, and judgments; ◦ Be familiar with and able to identify persuasive strategies and fallacies of reasoning; ◦ Assess the credibility of the speaker and the message; and ◦ Be aware of your own biases and how your perceptual filters can create barriers to effective listening.

5) To improve listening at the responding stage, ◦ Ask appropriate clarifying and follow-up questions and paraphrase information to check for understanding. ◦ Give feedback that is relevant to the speaker’s purpose/motivation for speaking, ◦ Adapt your response to the speaker and the context, and ◦ Do not let the preparation and rehearsal of your response diminish earlier stages of listening.

Listening Practice

Now that we have a better understanding of what Listening is, its types, and the process of Listening, we will spend some time practicing the different types of Listening we have covered and connect them to your personal, academic, and professional aspects of life.

1) Appreciative Listening

👂🏿 Listen to the following poem by William Morris. As you listen, try to get into an appreciative mood and enjoy!

Discuss

❓ What audio content do you appreciate the most (share a link below if you can)? do you listen to it regularly? and how does it make you feel?

2) Comprehensive Listening

👂🏿 Watch and listen to the following video about how AI will change the world. As you listen, keep track of the key points.

Discuss

❓ Now, summarize the points of the video using the Padlet below.

3) Empathic Listening

👂🏿 Watch the following video to learn more about empathic listening and critically review the mom’s use of empathic listening with her son.

Discuss

❓ What type of language did the mom use to show empathy as a listener? & How would handle this situation if you were his friend? would you use the same strategies or others?

4) Critical Listening

👂🏿 Watch the following interview between Elon Musk and an AI named Patricia. As you listen to the video, try to critically analyze the arguments both parties are giving.

Discuss

❓ Now, share your own opinion about the topic in the Padlet below. Do you think AI is a threat to humanity, as Musk claims? or is it just a form of technophobia humans have, as the AI claims?

Self-Assessment

❓ Take this quiz to learn more about what type of listener you are. When you are done, share your results in the Padlet below and discuss how you plan on leveraging this skill to achieve your goals.

Responding as a Listener

A tough task that listeners have is to respond. Responding might not be as easy when you are expected to comfort and validate the speaker’s experiences and feelings or help them process ideas and make decisions. It is also not easy when you are expected to comprehend a new task, grasp the intended message, positively respond that you got it, and then act upon it. All of these are skills that can be developed depending on the type of listening one is engaged in. In this part of the lesson, we will look at what could be the best way one can respond in different listening contexts.

📺 Watch the video below to learn how ego, desperation, arrogance, and ignorance are the enemy of 5-star listening.

Types of Listening Responses

According to Jason S. Wrench, Narcissa M. Punyanunt-Carter & Katherine S. Thweatt, there are 7 different types of listening responses:

1) Silent Listening Silent listening occurs when no verbal response is given. It can be effective in certain situations and detrimental in others. When utilized appropriately, it can hold significant power, but if used improperly, it may convey the wrong message. Silent listening is suitable when there is no desire to encourage further conversation and when one wants to demonstrate openness to the speaker's ideas.

Sometimes, the absence of a response can provoke anger in people, leading them to believe that the listener is disinterested or attempting to avoid the situation. However, silence may arise from the listener needing time to collect their thoughts or from the recognition that a response would be inappropriate. In certain contexts like counseling, silent listening can prove advantageous as it allows individuals to explore their emotions and gain clarity.

2) Questioning Questioning is a useful approach when seeking answers or information. There are various ways to employ questioning in a sincere and non-directive manner. Different types of questions can be used. Sincere questions aim to elicit genuine answers, while counterfeit questions serve as veiled attempts to convey a message rather than seek information.

📺 Watch the following video to learn how to ask promoting questions as you listen.

3) Paraphrasing Paraphrasing involves restating the speaker's message in your own words, demonstrating understanding. Three types of paraphrasing can be employed: rephrasing the speaker's words to convey their intended meaning, providing examples to illustrate the speaker's point, or reflecting on the underlying theme of the speaker's remarks. Paraphrasing exemplifies attentive listening, as it involves analyzing and comprehending the speaker's information. Paraphrasing can be used to summarize facts and achieve consensus in important discussions. In a business meeting, for instance, it can ensure that all details have been adequately discussed and agreed upon. Paraphrasing is also valuable in accurately grasping personal information. In counseling, for instance, counselors often employ paraphrasing to gain a better understanding of a person's emotions and facilitate analysis.

📺 Watch the video below to have a better understanding of how paraphrasing is done while you are a listener.

4) Empathizing Empathizing aims to convey that you understand and relate to the speaker's information. It is crucial to avoid denying others their right to their own feelings. Statements like "It's not a big deal" or "Who cares?" dismiss the significance of the situation and reflect.

📺 Watch to the video below and check out 5 key phrases you can use as an empathic listener.

5) Supporting At times during discussions, individuals seek your emotional support rather than an analysis of the topic at hand. Various types of supportive responses can be employed, including agreement, offering assistance, praising, providing reassurance, and diverting attention. Receiving support when facing personal problems holds significant value and has been shown to enhance psychological, physical, and relational well-being. To effectively support others, certain criteria must be met: ensuring that your expression of support is genuine, verifying that the person is open to receiving support, and focusing on the present rather than dwelling on the past.

Keischa Pruden, LCMHCS, LCAS, CCS, owner and therapist of Pruden Counseling Concepts recommends the following phrases and techniques you can use to show that you are a supportive listener:

A. Please tell me more.

This shows the listener that you are fully attentive and want to hear more of what they have to say.

B. Go on.

This is usually used when a person pauses to ensure you are following, and using this phrase is to show reassurance that they can continue talking.

C. I'm listening.

This is used to invite the person to talk and that you are paying attention to what they say.

D. Lean in/lean forward toward the other person

Using body language as a way to show attentiveness also invites the speaker to speak comfortably.

E. Maintain eye contact

If culturally appropriate, maintaining eye contact is body language that lets the other person know you are following the conversation and ready to respond.

6) Analyzing Analyzing aids in exploring different perspectives and alternatives by offering an interpretation of the speaker's message. However, this approach can be problematic at times. The speaker may struggle to understand your viewpoint or become even more confused by accepting it. To mitigate such issues, certain steps can be taken. Tentatively presenting your interpretation instead of asserting it as an absolute fact can make it more palatable for the speaker. It is essential to be sensitive and considerate in your approach to increase the likelihood of acceptance. Additionally, ensuring the reasonableness of your analysis is crucial. An inaccurate analysis would only lead to further confusion. Furthermore, it is important to ensure that the person is receptive to your analysis and that your motive for offering it is genuinely to assist them. Analyzing provided under any other circumstances would be futile.

7) Evaluating Evaluating involves assessing the thoughts or behaviors of the speaker. Evaluations can be positive, such as acknowledging that something makes sense, or negative, involving passing judgment. Negative evaluations can take the form of critical feedback or constructive criticism. The best chance for evaluations to be well-received is if the person facing the issue explicitly requests an evaluation and if it is genuinely constructive rather than intended as a personal attack.

📺 Watch this example of an Evaluative listening scenario and notice how the listener thinks and asks follow-up evaluative questions to have a general evaluation of the issue at hand.

8) Advising Advising differs from evaluations as it involves offering guidance or suggestions. However, it is not always the optimal solution and can occasionally have adverse effects. To avoid potential harm, four conditions should be met: ensuring that the person is receptive to your advice, verifying their readiness to accept it, having confidence in the correctness of your advice, and making sure that if the advice does not yield the desired outcome, the receiver will not blame you.

📺 Watch how advising can only be one of two options you can offer as a listener.

And, of course, interrupting people as they speak is a big faux pas, and it should be avoided.

📺 Watch the following video to notice the impact of interruption of communication as a listener on relationships.

Non-verbal Cues of a Listener

• Maintain good posture by sitting upright or slightly leaning forward to convey attentiveness.
• Avoid smiling or laughing in serious discussions.
• Use expressive hand gestures and facial expressions to appear dynamic, but avoid excessive hand movements that may come across as unprofessional.
• Remove distractions like phones, drinks, or other items during interviews or meetings.
• Minimize fidgeting or shaking of limbs.
• Make frequent, but not constant, eye contact with interviewers.
• Stay focused on the conversation at hand.
• During group interviews, shift your eye contact among different speakers.
• Keep your hands away from your face and hair.
• Listen attentively and avoid interrupting.
• Maintain open arms, as folded arms can convey defensiveness.
• Vary your vocal tone to convey enthusiasm and emphasize key points.
• Nod to show understanding.
• Pay attention to others' reactions to your statements.
• Read nonverbal cues from others and provide clarification if they appear confused or wrap up if they seem to have heard enough.
• Avoid forced laughter in response to humor.
• Avoid checking the clock or your phone, and show genuine interest to avoid displaying disinterest.
• Respect the personal space preferences of your communication partners.
• Rotate eye contact among speakers during group interviews or networking situations.
• Use a smile to indicate amusement or satisfaction during the conversation.
• Remain calm even if you feel nervous.
• Avoid speaking in a monotonous tone.
• Wait for the person to finish talking before responding.

Assignment 2 - Listening in a Conversation

Due date: February 4, 2024

Instructions

• Read the assignment brief below.
• Record your conversation in response to the brief.
• Upload your video to YouTube (make sure it is "Unlisted").
• Submit the link to your video and feedback form on Gradescope and upload the files to Anchor.

Brief

Pick a scenario from the list below and pair up with a partner. Using Zoom, you should get together with your partner and record yourselves as you act out the scenario. One of you as the speaker and one of you as the listener.

You should do two different scenarios, where each of you plays the listener in one of the attempts and the speaker in the other.

After you are done, use the form below to give each other feedback and submit the feedback along with your recorded video.

Listening Scenarios

• Scenario 1

  Your colleague had a very bad argument with their officemate about him bringing his friends over to chat and not respecting his space and privacy.

• Scenario 2:

  You are wearing a T-shirt from your favorite TV show, and a woman at the store comes up to you very excitedly and mentions how much she liked your shirt and the show, then starts describing her favorite parts.

• Scenario 3:

  Your friend had a very rough day between school, a part-time job, and her responsibilities at home. She asks for a meeting to talk.

• Scenario 4:

  Your friend has been applying to multiple companies for the past six months as a programmer but hasn’t heard from anyone. They feel very desperate, and they start venting to you.

Feedback Form

Make a copy of this feedback template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WwF9HjSAv4yUWnRACxeMNvYC145AbCfa0f8N7SqvIXc/template/preview

Submission

Please make sure you submit:

• The recording of the assignment where you are the Listener.
• The feedback form filled out by your colleague on your performance as a listener.

Impromptu Speaking

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in lesson 3.

Lesson Overview

In lesson 3 of the course C4S 2, we will dive deeper into the different types of speaking situations you might encounter. Then, our focus will be on impromptu speaking, or speaking that happens with no prior preparation. Skills like asking and responding to questions are discussed in this lesson. The technical context we will be practicing in this lesson is sitting for job interviews and responding to interview questions. Activities and situational exercises for practice are provided on the course site, in the live class, and as an assignment.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Get acquainted with impromptu speaking and how it differs from planned speaking.
• Review ‘small talk’ and ‘interviews’ as a form of impromptu speaking.
• Practice interviewing techniques for professional contexts.

Motivation

Diverse speaking situations require diverse delivery styles. While speaking from memory is fine in some instances, lengthy notes may be required in others. In this part of the course, our focus will be on impromptu speaking, where a speaker has little to no time to prepare for a speech.

📺 Watch the video below as those people try to promptly respond to a question from a stranger.

Discuss

❓ What are your impressions about the respondents? Were they able to respond easily? 1. Did the speaker effectively respond to the question? Why or why not? What do you think we need to do in order for us to respond to such a question effectively? Use the Padlet below to share your reflections.

Responding to and Asking Questions

Part of being a good communicator is knowing how to respond and ask questions. In this part of the lesson, we will look into how to respond to different impromptu questions and how we can ask follow-up ones.

Responding to impromptu questions

A well-known framework used in impromptu speech is the PREP framework. PREP stands for Position, Reason, Evidence, and Position.

📺 Check out the video below to learn more and reflect on the examples provided of the PREP framework.

Point: The claim represents the main point or proposition that you want to convey in your speech.

Reasons: Reasons explain why you believe your claim to be true, providing evidence or supporting arguments to strengthen your case.

Evidence: Examples or illustrations help to further support your main point and reasons by providing real-life scenarios, anecdotes, or testimonies that resonate with your audience.

Point: Conclude your speech by reiterating your claim and emphasizing its validity. Address any counterarguments or opposing viewpoints and demonstrate why your position is strong and supported by scientific, biblical, practical, or other relevant evidence.

When engaging in a short conversation, it is best to use one series of PREP to respond to your question. When giving a speech, the use of a series of PREP would be more practical to keep the conversation going.

It is also important to maintain a good pace of breathing, speak loudly and slowly, and use pauses between each of the PREP phases.

Example

Point: The departure of Steph from our organization will be a significant loss, and her absence will be deeply felt by all of us.

Reasons: Steph's impact goes beyond being a co-worker; she has been a true friend and a supportive presence for each one of us. Moreover, her exceptional skills as a software engineer, partner-relations coordinator, and office manager have contributed immensely to our organization's success.

Examples: Steph's remarkable work is evident in the creation of our current impressive website, which she meticulously designed, including all the content. Despite the challenges, she approached the task with a positive attitude and collaborated with the team to incorporate our ideas, resulting in a website that resonates with everyone. This effort has led to increased website traffic and donations to support our cause. Additionally, Steph's exceptional relationship-building abilities have fostered strong connections with our partners, allowing us to minister to them effectively and receive generous support for our mission. Furthermore, she has excelled in managing the office, ensuring its smooth operation and organization.

Point: These examples highlight just a fraction of the reasons why Steph's departure will leave a significant void within our organization. We will profoundly miss her contributions and her presence among us.

Practice the PREP Framework

❓ Pick one of the questions below and respond in writing using the PREP framework.

1- What do you find fascinating in computer science as a field?

2- Why is it important to be a continuous learner?

3- How do you think programming languages will evolve in the next decade to meet the changing demands of technology?

4- What does it take to be a passionate individual?

Asking Impromptu Questions

In conversations, you may not, and shouldn’t, always be the respondent. It is also important to be the initiator of a conversation and ask questions to keep the flow of any interaction going.

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about how to ask good questions in a conversation.

Establishing Small Talk

Not everyone likes it, but you might be dragged into small talk on many occasions. With your colleagues, your boss, clients, or other people in your personal life. Small talk is an opportunity to instantly connect with people in your life in professional and personal settings, and it opens up the door to deeper connections. It has also been found to be more beneficial than distracting to employees.

📺 Watch the video below to learn about the art of conversing with anyone.

📺 As small as the question ‘How are you’ sounds, it can also be used to connect with people in your surroundings. Watch the video below to learn more about how it can be said differently.

Impromptu Speaking in Interviews

Interviews are situations where predictable and unpredictable questions are asked. Therefore, It is important to be prepared for both scenarios. In this course section, we will focus on impromptu questions and how we can address them during an interview using the STAR technique.

The S.T.A.R. technique

The STAR technique is an interview technique that offers a simple framework to answer behavioral interview questions. It involves presenting the Situation, Task, Action, and Result of a particular experience.

Situation: Establish the context and provide necessary details about the situation in question.

Task: Describe the specific responsibilities or role you had in that situation.

Action: Detail the precise steps you took to address the situation or fulfill your responsibilities.

Result: Share the outcomes and achievements that resulted from your actions, emphasizing any notable accomplishments or lessons learned.

The STAR technique is used to respond to behavioral questions, such as:

• Tell me about a time when…
• What do you do when…
• Have you ever…
• Give me an example of…
• Describe a situation…

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about the STAR Technique and how it can be used to excel in responding to behavioral questions during an interview.

Putting the STAR Technique into Practice

Like any other communication framework, practice is important in its internalization and successful practice. To see a practical usage of the STAR technique in responding to competency-based and behavioral interview questions, check the video below to review Q and As, putting the STAR technique into practice.

📺 Watch the videos below to review behavioral and competency-based questions and their answers while using the STAR technique.

What to avoid while using the STAR Technique

• Lack of preparation: Rambling and going off-topic by not preparing ahead of time.
• Being too prepared: Over-rehearsed and scripted answers that may not directly relate to the question.
• Telling an 'OK' success story: Sharing a story with no clear positive outcome or learning experience.
• Not actually answering the question: Being honest if you don't have a relevant example and redirecting the response.
• Talking too generally about your experience: Failing to provide a specific example that highlights relevant skills.
• Not providing quantifiable results: Forgetting to mention tangible results and outcomes.
• Detail overload: Including irrelevant details instead of focusing on key actions and results.
• Not choosing strategic-level examples: Failing to showcase strategic thinking and qualities for higher-level positions.
• It's all about 'Us' and not 'Me': Using "I" instead of "we" to emphasize individual actions and desirable qualities.
• Never practicing out loud: Neglecting to practice speaking answers aloud, leading to potential memory lapses or panic during the interview.

Task

• Click on this link to get to a list of category questions.
• Pick one of the list and click Next.
• The website will generate a list of questions for you.
• Choose one and then record your voice/video as you respond to the question using the STAR technique.
• After finishing the recording, listen to it and respond to the following questions: > 1. Using the STAR technique, did you effectively convey your main message or argument? Why or why not? 2. What did you learn from this impromptu speech experience that you can apply to future speaking engagements?

Acing Your Interview

Interviewing involves showcasing effective communication abilities in order to secure employment or promotion. To excel in an interview, a set of prior steps should be undertaken, including responding to impromptu questions, which we have looked at previously in this lesson. So, how do we prepare for an interview?

To be effective in an interview, you must:

• Spend time preparing for the interview
• Make a great first impression
• Be able to answer questions effectively
• Be prepared for phone interviews
• Be prepared for online interviews
• Be prepared for stress interviews
• Communicate effectively after the interview

Source

In this upcoming section, we will look into the steps every interview should take before, during, and after an interview.

Before the Interview

Preparing for Your Interview

In preparing for your interview, it is important to confirm the interview location and direction prior to the day of the interview, or even ensure it is not happening online or which link or platform you will be using. In case the platform is new to you, you definitely should watch tutorials to ensure you do not show poor control of the technicalities of the process. In doubt, you should have access to a contact person and ask them all the questions you should have prior to the interview. Thorough research about the company you are interviewing with is also important. Knowing their culture, values, mission, and vision should help you shape your responses and give them a sense of familiarity with what they seek in a future employee.

📺 Watch the video below for more important tips on preparing for the interview.

Making a Positive Impression

📺 Watch the video below to learn how you can make a good impression during your job interview.

From the video, we learned that to make a positive impression, you should:

1- Get to the interview venue 15 minutes before the interview time and dress up professionally.

2- Offer a firm handshake and make eye contact.

3- Sit in the interview chair when offered.

4- Thank the interviewers for the invite.

5- Take a copy of your CV.

6- Practice your answer to the ‘Tell me about yourself’ interview question.

7- Take a 30-day plan of action: brief on the expectations, goals, and targets, learn about coworkers, learn policies and procedures, and set to work on important asks.

8- Using the STAR technique, prepare an answer to the most asked 10 questions in job interviews. (Check the list of questions below).

9- Ask three smart questions at the end of your interview: ex, what advice would you give to a successful candidate who wants to excel in this job? Can you tell me more about the team? What are the plans of the company over the next five to ten years?

Dressing to Impress

📺 Part of making a good impression as an interviewee is also through the way you dress up. Watch the video below for important tips.

During the Interview

We have previously reviewed how to use the STAR technique to respond to both competency-based and behavioral questions. Let’s watch a couple of responses you can use during the interview as you respond to common questions, such as:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why do you want this job?
3. What are your strengths?
4. What’s your biggest weakness?
5. Why do you want to leave your job?
6. Where do you see yourself in five years?
7. Describe yourself in three words!
8. How would you deal with conflict with a co-worker?
9. What are you looking for in your next job?
10. Why should we hire you? (2 example answers!)

📺 Watch the video below to learn and review how the STAR technique can be used to answer some of the typical questions in an interview.

After the Interview

The communication process for interviewing does not stop on the day of the interview, in fact, it continues until you hear either positively or negatively from the recruiters. Questions like how long will it take for you to hear from the recruiter, what questions to ask when accepted into to job, how to negotiate your job compensation, and what to do in case you are not offered the position. All of these are questions you should think of and start planning for.

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about what to do after the job interview and how to address each of the components stated above.

As discussed in the video above, sending a follow-up email to the hiring committee/ manager could be a great step to leave a lasting impression. It also helps to give them a hint that you are still interested in the position after hearing more about it during the interview. The image below is of a template that can be used to send a follow-up email.

Source

Practice

📺 Using the STAR approach, pick a question from the list below of traditional interview questions, and write up a response to it using the Padlet below. After you have a script that is tailored to your expertise, skills, and personality, record yourself as you rehearse the response to your question. Please keep recording until satisfied with the result. Make sure you follow the guidelines presented in the videos above.

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why do you want this job?
3. What are your strengths?
4. What’s your biggest weakness?
5. Why do you want to leave your job?
6. Where do you see yourself in five years?
7. Describe yourself in three words!
8. How would you deal with conflict with a co-worker?
9. What are you looking for in your next job?
10. Why should we hire you? (2 example answers!)

Assignment 3 - Mock Interview

Due date: February 18, 2024

Instructions

• Read the assignment brief below.
• Complete all the required deliverables.
• Upload your mock interview video to YouTube (make sure it is "Unlisted").
• Submit your video link and written deliverables on Gradescope and upload the original video file and written deliverables to Anchor.

Brief

Step 1: Using some of the portals below, pick a job position you would like to apply for:

LinkedIn

Indeed

Dice

Monster

CareerBuilder

The Ladders

Step 2: Using what we have learned in this lesson about interviewing, pair up with a partner and run through the list of questions we have seen previously in the course.

• List of Qs
  1. Tell me about yourself.
  2. Which experiences do you have that are relevant to this position?
  3. What are your strengths?
  4. What’s your biggest weakness?
  5. Where do you see yourself in five years?
  6. Describe yourself in three words!
  7. How would you deal with conflict with a co-worker?
  8. Why should we hire you? (2 example answers!)

Step 3: Respond thoroughly to each of the questions. Record yourself being an interviewer and then an interviewee with your colleague.

Step 4: Using this template take notes on how your colleague did in responding to each of the questions. Please make a copy of the template and do NOT edit this one. Ensure you also leave your colleague’s comments on how they can improve their responses.

Step 5: After you are done recording the two interviews, each one should select one question they have answered the best and trim the video to only one. Please make sure that your video does not go beyond 2 minutes.

Deliverables to Submit

1. A link to the job description you desire.

2. A trimmed maximum of 2 minutes video of the answer to one question.

3. Your colleague’s assessment of your interview using the provided template. Ensure both of your names are on it.

Planned Speaking

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn what you will study in lesson 4.

Lesson Overview

Lesson 4 of the course C4S2 focuses mainly on the skill of Public Speaking. The lesson starts with an introduction to Public Speaking and its importance in your professional context. It covers skills for creating and producing an effective speech and walks you through the steps of preparing your own speech, from pre-planning to delivery. This lesson requires that you develop, record, and submit a speech as an assignment, which will give you a chance to practice a real-life context situation and receive feedback on your public speaking skills.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Recognize the elements of public speaking.
• Strengthen the necessary skills for effective public speaking preparation and delivery.
• Prepare and deliver an informative speech on your assigned topic.

Motivation

📺 Watch the video below of the 2022 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking.

Discuss

❓ What do you think about Cyril Junior Dim’s Public Speaking? & What are some of the strong elements in his speech? Use the Padlet below to share your reflections on the video.

Introduction to Public Speaking

In this part of the course, we will focus on Public Speaking as an oral skill. Public Speaking, or the ability to prepare and present a speech to an audience, is a prominent skill in effective functioning in today’s society.

The Importance of Public Speaking

📺 Watch the video below on the Importance of Public Speaking.

The four main reasons why public speaking is an important skill:

1- Career Development: Being a good public speaker helps in enhancing one’s career. Being able to share the acquired knowledge with others is a sign of great leadership.

2- Personal Development: Getting a sense of personal value and a sense of confidence in doing well as a presenter.

3- Finding your voice: Practicing Public Speaking allows you to share your point of view with the world using your own unique voice and perspective about the subject.

4- Benefit others: The audience of your speech gets to learn from your speech and the knowledge and experience you have to share.

There is a big misconception that people in the field of tech do not need Public Speaking as a communication skill for their profession. But everyone needs to know how they can speak in public to inform, influence, and persuade others of their stand.

Like any other form of communication, Public Speaking also shares some of the most common features: Speaker, Audience, Message and Channel, Noise, Context, and Ethics.

We have looked at each of the latter features in the first part of the course C4S 1, but the newest feature in this list is Ethics. What do Ethics have to do with Public Speaking?

When giving a speech, it's crucial to take into account the ethical and moral implications of your message. This is because what you say can have a significant impact on your audience. Ethical concerns can arise at various stages of public speaking, such as selecting your topic, presenting research, and crafting persuasive appeals. These concerns can be looked at from an objective or subjective standpoint. An objective viewpoint considers the morality of an action to be absolute and not influenced by personal or cultural values, whereas a subjective viewpoint sees the morality of an action as dependent on cultural values and specific circumstances.

Self-Assessment

❓ Complete the quiz below to assess your current public speaking competency level. Please note that this quiz is not meant to label you but more to help you know where you stand as a public speaker now and what areas we should work on developing together.

Source

Discuss

❓ After taking the quiz, what are some of the areas you think you should still develop to be better at public speaking? Use the Padlet below to share your answers.

Skills for an Effective Speech

A public speaker does require a set of skills to be an effective speaker. In this part of the lesson, our focus will be on three main skills that will have a successful impact on your Public Speaking:

• Anxiety Management
• Confidence Display
• Storytelling Skills

Anxiety Management as a Public Speaker

According to Craig N. Sawchuk, Ph.D., L.P. from the Mayo Clinic,

Public speaking can be a source of anxiety for many people, ranging from slight nervousness to extreme fear and panic. Individuals who suffer from this fear may avoid public speaking situations altogether or struggle through them with shaking hands and a quavering voice.

📺 Watch the video below to learn about how to manage anxiety as a public speaker.

Although anxiety is a common issue among public speakers, with preparation and persistence, it is possible to overcome this fear. Here are some steps that may help:

1. It is important to know your topic. The better you understand what you are talking about and the more passionate you are about the subject, the less likely you are to make a mistake or get off track. Take some time to consider what questions the audience may ask and prepare your responses in advance.

2. Get organized. Carefully plan out the information you want to present, including any props, audio or visual aids. The more organized you are, the less nervous you'll be. Use an outline on a small card to stay on track. If possible, visit the place where you'll be speaking and review available equipment before your presentation.

3. Practice, and then practice some more. Practice your complete presentation several times. Do it for some people you're comfortable with and ask for feedback. It may also be helpful to practice with a few people with whom you're less familiar. Consider making a video of your presentation so you can watch it and see opportunities for improvement.

4. Challenge specific worries. When you're afraid of something, you may overestimate the likelihood of bad things happening. List your specific worries. Then directly challenge them by identifying probable and alternative outcomes and any objective evidence that supports each worry or the likelihood that your feared outcomes will happen.

5. Visualize your success. Imagine that your presentation will go well. Positive thoughts can help decrease some of your negativity about your social performance and relieve some anxiety.

6. Do some deep breathing. This can be very calming. Take two or more deep, slow breaths before you get up to the podium and during your speech.

7. Focus on your material, not on your audience. People mainly pay attention to new information, not how it's presented. They may not notice your nervousness. If audience members do notice that you're nervous, they may root for you and want your presentation to be a success.

8. Don't fear a moment of silence. If you lose track of what you're saying or start to feel nervous, and your mind goes blank, it may seem like you've been silent for an eternity. In reality, it's probably only a few seconds. Even if it's longer, it's likely your audience won't mind a pause to consider what you've been saying. Just take a few slow, deep breaths.

9. Recognize your success. After your speech or presentation, give yourself a pat on the back. It may not have been perfect, but chances are you're far more critical of yourself than your audience is. See if any of your specific worries actually occurred. Everyone makes mistakes. Look at any mistakes you made as an opportunity to improve your skills.

10. Get support. Join a group that offers support for people who have difficulty with public speaking. One effective resource is Toastmasters, a nonprofit organization with local chapters that focuses on training people in speaking and leadership skills.

Self-Assessment

📝 Now that you know what to do about anxiety when you are doing public speaking, let’s get you tested and see how well you can manage your anxiety while speaking publicly.

Discuss

❓ After getting your results from the survey above, what are some of the steps you should undertake to control your anxiety better? Please refer to the list of tips above and in the video. Share your thoughts in the Padlet below.

Confidence in Public Speaking

When you're getting ready for a presentation, it's normal to feel overwhelmed. Even if some people seem to be naturally gifted at giving great presentations, it's not an easy task for anyone. But there is always a way to make that better.

📺 Watch the video below to learn about the 3 Ps to becoming more confident as a public speaker.

Other strategies for developing self-confidence can be listening to your favorite music to relax or doing something you like beforehand, wearing a favorite or comfortable outfit, and/or get inspired by a speaker you look up to.

To give a compelling presentation, you need to be in the right state of mind and stay focused. It takes time and mental discipline to pull off a stand-out presentation. With the tips provided, you'll hopefully feel better equipped to prepare and present a powerful speech that you'll be proud of. Keep in mind that building confidence is an ongoing process that becomes easier with practice.

Practice

🗣️ To practice speaking in front of an audience, use the link below to access the virtual speech platform. Before you create an account (the free trial), check out the video below to learn more about how to navigate the platform.

Practice Presentation Skills Online (Interactive Exercises)

Storytelling in Public Speaking

As we have seen in the first video by the Toastmasters winner of 2022, as well as many TED Talks we have reviewed in this course, almost all of them rely heavily on storytelling to share their thoughts. When it comes to captivating your audience, stories tend to be more effective than other forms of information. This is because our brains naturally process information in a narrative format in order to comprehend the world we live in.

📺 Watch the video below to review how storytelling is used in a speech.

📺 Watch the video below to learn about the elements of storytelling.

Practice

❓ To practice storytelling, record yourself telling a story about your first day at school or the earliest memory of your childhood you can recall. Record yourself as you tell that story. Do not forget to use a good level of detail, and watch for your voice flow and volume. After you are done, please post in the Flip grid below.

Preparing Your Speech

Prior to presenting your speech, much preparation should take place. In this part of the lesson, our focus will be on the steps that you should undertake to prepare for your speech.

1) Choosing a Topic & Purpose

In academic situations, there is usually guidance about what to make a speech on. Topics will be either assigned or related to a given subject matter. In the professional context, the choice of the topic is connected to the need or the task. So, as a professional in the tech field, you may find yourself in a variety of situations where you need to present information to others.:

1. Present a project you have been working on to your team or stakeholders.

2. Requested to provide training sessions to new employees or colleagues on specific software, systems, or processes.

3. Update your team during team meetings on ongoing projects or propose new ideas.

4. Keynote speaker or participate in panel discussions when your organization holds conferences or events.

5. Presenting the technical aspects of the solutions your organization offers when your company needs to win new clients or present proposals.

6. Give a speech at industry conferences, seminars, or workshops.

In each of these situations, your ability to communicate clearly, convey complex information effectively, and engage your audience would be essential.

2) Analyzing your Audience

📺 Watch the video below to learn how you can analyze your audience for a public speaking event.

There are 10 questions that you can use to help you have a better understanding of your audience, hence tailor your speech to their specificities.

1. Who comprises your audience? Knowing who my audience is involves understanding their demographic characteristics such as age, income, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, profession, political affiliation, professional experience, jobs, educational background, organizational memberships, and hobbies. This information can shape the way you present your topic as well as the content you include in your speech.

2. How do they perceive you? Do the audience members already hold a particular opinion about you, your organization, or your profession? If there is a preconceived judgment of you or skepticism, it becomes important to establish common ground early on.

3. What do they prioritize? Knowing the values that matter most to your audience allows you to align your speech topic with their core values. For example, if you are addressing a group of tech professionals that highly values the integration of tech in different fields, you might want to highlight how their interests and goals align with your organization’s goals.

4. How relevant is your topic to them? If the audience is already invested in your topic and understands its relevance to their lives, there may be no need to extensively explain why they should care about it. However, if they are unlikely to see immediate relevance, it is crucial to quickly establish the connection between your topic and their interests.

5. How familiar are they with your topic? Understanding the audience's existing knowledge about your topic helps determine whether you should provide basic information, delve into advanced concepts, or strike a balance in between.

6. How much information do they need to achieve your goals? While some speakers may assume the audience requires minimal information, they often end up presenting excessive details. This question serves as a reminder to ensure that the level of detail shared aligns with the necessary amount required to accomplish your goals.

7. Do they hold a positive, neutral, or negative view of your topic? Assessing the level of resistance you may encounter can influence your speech content and sequencing. When dealing with groups that have a negative perception of your topic, it is generally advisable to address their potential objections early on before they raise them.

8. What knowledge gaps or misconceptions do they have about your topic? Addressing significant misconceptions or knowledge gaps is best done early in your speech. Since progress cannot be made until these misconceptions are adequately addressed, you may need to allocate a substantial amount of time to clarify those areas before moving forward.

9. What challenges or issues do they face related to your topic? Understanding the specific challenges or problems your audience confronts provides valuable insights into how they can apply the information you share. This knowledge can shape or narrow the focus of your speech to address their concerns.

10. Are you addressing a single constituency or multiple groups? Many audiences consist of various constituencies, some of which may have conflicting goals, such as senior managers and junior employees, supporters and opponents, or manufacturers and regulators. Andrew Dlugan, on his public speaking website Six Minutes, proposes three approaches for mixed audiences:

• Focus solely on one sub-group and disregard the others, which is a risky approach that works when you only need the buy-in from one segment.
• Tailor different parts of your presentation to address each sub-group individually.
• Ignore the differences among audience members and instead concentrate on common appeals.

3) Researching Your Topic and Gathering Materials

To develop a worthwhile speech, it is important that you research your topic and engage in a systematic search for relevant and supporting information. Through research, you will gather examples. supporting illustrations and definitions that will help you inform your listeners and support your major ideas. Research also helps in establishing credibility, competence, and mastery of the material.

Tips for Improving Your Speech Research Habits

Andrew Dlugan, the founder of the SixMinutes platform, suggests 6 strategies for improving your speech research habits, and they are as follows:

1. Focus on your topic before conducting research: Develop a clear speech outline and have a first draft of it. This should help you stay focused as you research the topic.
2. Keep a detailed bibliography: Keep track of your resources by recording their author, resource, location, type as in a journal, magazine, website, and other details that will help you access it as you start putting content together.
3. Check the bibliographies of your sources: An effective hack for finding accurate and better resources is basing your search on the bibliography of the previous sources you have used. There is a big tendency you will find valuable resources using this strategy.
4. Pursue definitive resources: Always go to the definitive and main resource. This way you get access to pure, unchanged content as well as come off as credible.
5. Seek a balanced set of evidence: Use a balanced set of evidence like statistics, illustrations, quotes, citations, and studies. ****
6. Credit sources: Do not take credit for content you did not create, for ethical reasons, make sure you cite the resources you are using.

Finding Research

To reach balance in evidence gathering, you can use a variety of techniques to collect your data:

1. Your personal library: This starts with browsing things you own. As an expert or learner in a given field, you should have some sort of resources about the topic, and that should be your starting point.
2. Libraries and bookstores: A local, university, or online libraries are also good places to find valuable resources for your speech.
3. Peer-reviewed academic journals: Peer-reviewed journals can be the most accurate resources for your research. They follow strict scholarly guidelines and are built on ethical and accurate findings.
4. Google Scholar: Your first go-to platform for research is Google Scholar.  Google Scholar allows you to search a tremendous range of journals and other academic writing. Many articles will be of open access, but others will require a fee or contacting the main author for a free copy.
5. Newspapers: Digital newspapers like the Google News search allow you to search newspaper archives, some of which trace back 200 years or more. This should give you access to historical events that happened early on to support your speech content.

4) Supporting Your Ideas with Materials

Supporting material is usually used to emphasize a concept or a principle through the use of examples, illustrations, narratives, testimony, definitions, statistics, realia, and visual aids.

📺 Watch the video below to see examples of supporting materials and how they were used to supplement different speeches.

Having a better understanding of how to pick a topic, analyze your audience, do your research, and pick appropriate supporting materials takes you one step closer to developing and presenting an effective speech. In the next part of the lesson, we will focus on how you can organize and present your speech.

Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

The way you organize your material will help the audience to better understand and retain the content you are delivering. It will also help them follow your train of thought, hence they will concentrate and engage with you as you present. But before we dive into that, what are the different types of speeches I will have to develop?

There are many types of speeches that people develop and present, including but not limited to, entertaining speech, informative speech, demonstrative speech, persuasive speech, motivational, debate speech, etc. In this course, we will focus on the two most relevant types of speeches to your personal, academic, and professional aspects of life as computer science students.

Let’s first check how the two types of speech differ, then review the content that should go into building each of them.

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about the two forms of speech.

Constructing the Body of Your Speech: The Main Points

1) Informative Speech

It is recommended that when developing the body of your informative speech, you should select and phrase the main points precisely and arrange them strategically. For example:

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about the importance of AI in everyday life.

Central idea: Developed as a high form of technology, AI is a powerful tool and offers a number of efficient, insightful, and personalized experiences to humans.

Main points:

1. AI automates tasks, increasing efficiency.
2. AI provides insights for informed decision-making.
3. AI drives innovation and delivers personalized experiences.

These three main points are the core of the body of your speech and choosing them should be based on your purpose statement, so how should you support it? Helpful questions for creating the main points of your speech are ‘What’ and ‘How’? For example: Using technologies for everyday tasks helps with maintaining a good work-life balance. How is that possible? then you enlist the different ways by which that is true.

2) Persuasive Speech

Developing the body of a persuasive speech is not that different from developing that of an informative one. The difference is the question we ask, and that should be ‘why?’. If your thesis is ‘ we should not adopt technologies for everyday life usage’ then we need to answer the question of why shouldn’t we? and then you need to enlist three main points as an answer.

For example:

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that they should not adopt technology for everyday life tasks.

Central idea: People should reduce their usage of technology for everyday tasks because it impacts their reliability and activity status.

Main points:

1. Technology can experience malfunctions and errors, leading to unreliable outcomes.
2. Overreliance on technology can result in the deterioration of human skills, reducing their reliability in performing tasks manually.
3. Technology lacks the nuanced judgment and adaptability of humans, potentially leading to unreliable decision-making in complex or unpredictable situations.

The number of main points you decide to focus on is up to you and your time for your speech. However, the more points you include, the harder it will be for your audience to sort them out.

Building the Introduction of a Speech

How to start a speech

📺 Watch the video below to learn more about how to start a speech. Please take notes of the different strategies as you watch the video.

Developing Your Introduction

Now that you have a better understanding of how you can start your speech, let’s work on how to develop each of the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. We will start off with the Body and the main points that go into it, then the introduction and conclusion. There are good reasons for talking first about the body of the speech. The body is the longest and most important part. Also, you will usually prepare the body first. It is easier to create an effective introduction after you know exactly what you will say in the body. The process of organizing the body of a speech begins when you determine the main point.

📺 Watch the video below for the steps you should follow to develop your introduction.

Here are the tips from the video for developing your introduction:

1. Attention-getting.

2. Tell the audience what is their win from listening to you.

3. Explicitly mention your thesis statement or your central idea.

4. A brief preview or roadmap of what you will cover.

Building Your Conclusion

📺 The conclusion part is also important to finish on a good note. Watch the video below to learn about the different steps you can use to develop the conclusion of your speech.

Here are the tips from the video for developing your conclusion:

1. Signal the end.

2. Restate a key takeaway.

3. Ask the audience to do the next step.

4. The hook, or sharing one last story, statistic, or quote, building on your introduction section.

Presenting Your Speech

At this stage, you should have a speech ready to be presented. But how should you go about presenting it?

Body Language

We have previously looked at how you can control your anxiety and show self-confidence during your speech. These two elements are important in successfully delivering your speech to the audience. It is equally important to review how your body Language should also align with what you are presenting.

📺 How should I use my body language for my own benefit as a presenter? Watch the video below to learn how you can do that.

Practicing Delivery

Practice, Practice, and Practice a little bit more.

No one can deny that the best way to mastery is practice, and that should be your motto and your first go-to.

These five steps you can use to practice your delivery:

1. Go through your preparation outline aloud to check how what you have written translates into spoken discourse. Is it too long? Too short? Are the main points clear when you speak them? Are the supporting materials distinct, convincing, and interesting? Do the introduction and conclusion come across well? As you answer these questions, revise the speech as needed.

2. Prepare your speaking outline. Use the same visual framework as in the preparation outline. Make sure the speaking outline is easy to read at a glance. Give yourself cues on the outline for delivering the speech.

3. Practice the speech aloud several times using only the speaking outline. Be sure to “talk through” all examples and to recite in full all quotations and statistics. If your speech includes visual aids, use them as you practice. The first couple of times, you will probably forget something or make a mistake but don’t worry. Keep going and complete the speech as well as you can. Concentrate on gaining control of the ideas; don’t try to learn the speech word for word. After a few tries you should be able to get through the speech extemporaneously with surprising ease.

4. Now begin to polish and refine your delivery. Practice the speech in front of a mirror to check for eye contact and distracting mannerisms. Record the speech to gauge volume, pitch, rate, pauses, and vocal variety. Most importantly, try it out on friends, roommates, family members—anyone who will listen and give you an honest appraisal. Because your speech is designed for people rather than for mirrors or recorders, you need to find out ahead of time how it goes over with people.

5. Give your speech a dress rehearsal under conditions as close as possible to those you will face in class. Some students like to try the speech a couple of times in an empty classroom the day before the speech is due. No matter where you hold your last practice session, you should leave it feeling confident and looking forward to speaking in your class. If this or any practice method is to work, you must start early. Don’t wait until the night before your speech to begin working on delivery. A single practice session—no matter how long—is rarely enough. Allow yourself at least a couple of days, preferably more, to gain command of the speech and its presentation.

Answering Audience Questions

📺 At the end of your presentation, questions are inevitable. Watch the video below to learn how you can manage that Q and A section post your presentation.

📺 How do you answer questions when you do not know how to answer them? answer challenging questions and others. Check out the video below to learn how to answer these types of questions like a pro.

Midterm Project - Technical Presentation

Instructions

• Read the assignment brief below.
• Complete all the required deliverables.
• Upload your mock interview video to YouTube (make sure it is "Unlisted").
• Submit your video link and written deliverables on Gradescope and upload the original video file and written deliverables to Anchor.

Brief

For your midterm project, you will be planning and delivering a 2-minute speech on a technical topic of your choice.

Preparation phase:

Please answer the following questions:

1 - What is the purpose and the topic of your informative presentation? And How did you choose them?

2 - Who is your audience, and what will you do to tailor the content of the presentation to them?

3 - How will you gather your information: what are the main resources you are using, and where are you finding them?

4 - What supportive material are you using, and how did you choose it?

5 - Please list three anticipated audience questions you have prepared.

Organizing and outlining phase:

1 - In brief, please discuss the specific purpose, central idea, and main point of your presentation.

2 - Which technique will you be using to start your presentation?

3 - Which technique will you be using to conclude your presentation?

Submission

• Your submission should include all of the following:
  • Your answer to the 5 questions under the preparation phase.
  • Your answers to the 3 questions under the organizing and outlining phase.
  • The written text of your speech (maximum of 300 words).
  • A video of your speech (maximum of a 2-minute).

Speaking Review & Final Assessments

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor for an overview of lesson 5.

The final two weeks of the Communicating for Success - Speaking class are dedicated to reviewing what you have learned this term and completing your two final assessments. Below is a summary of the final assessments. Please take the time to review the individual assessment instruction pages so that you have a clear understanding of what is expected for each assessment.

Final Presentation - Oral Reflection

For your final presentation, you will be recording a video reflection of your experience in the C4S Speaking class. Please ensure that the video covers all the requested information (detailed on the assignment page) while demonstrating the speaking skills that you have learned throughout this course.

Final Project - Speaking Action Plan

For your final project, you will be recording a video describing your action plan for how you will continue to improve your speaking skills beyond this course. More details of the video requirements are provided on the assignment instruction page.