Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces to the basic knowledge and skills required for producing accurate, responsible and effective written and verbal academic communication in the arts and social sciences. Topics vary with instructor expertise. No prior knowledge of the topic is required. Suitable for students across all disciplines. Students may take this course for credit up to three times if a different topic is taught. Students with credit for FASS 200 or FASS 205 may not take this course for further credit unless a different topic is offered.

COURSE DETAILS:

Selected Topics: Finding Voice: Public Speaking
This course is a unique opportunity to deepen your presentation skills through an immersive and dynamic workshop-style course. Over five weeks, you will engage with the many skills necessary to develop greater confidence in your abilities to orally communicate. This will include practical exercises aimed at strengthening your voice, widening your repertoire of non-verbal communication skills, and developing techniques to address performance anxiety. You will also be introduced to core public speaking theory which will allow you to analyze speeches for their structure, style and impact. While much attention will be paid to the more skills-based aspects of presenting, at the heart of the course is a focus on connecting with your own personal stories and exploring your relationship with the audience.

Every week you will have readings that allow you to focus on the key principles behind the work that we will be doing, contemplate the frameworks that drive communication and gain greater insight into the historical perspectives that have shaped the techniques you will be employing. You will then watch videos that provide examples of the concepts covered in the written material and have an opportunity to then reflect and synthesize the readings and viewings with your own personal experiences through written reflections. Finally, and most importantly, you will implement and experiment with these ideas by both creating, presenting and providing feedback on a variety of mini-presentations.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• Identify, analyze and demonstrate key rhetorical and non-verbal strategies in a persuasive speech.
• Plan, structure, and deliver a clear, coherent and meaningful message for a specific context.
• Give and receive relevant and constructive feedback.
• Experiment with techniques in managing performance anxiety.
• Reflect on ways that public speech has impacted personal relationships and beliefs.

FASS 222 D300 runs for 5 weeks (sessions on May 9, 16, 23, 30, June 6). The first session is 1 hour, the rest of 4 sessions are 3 hours each. This is a 1 credit course.

You can take more than one FASS Forward 1 credit course, as long as the topic is different. See the other courses here. 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: