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I wrote Confident Public Speaking because I believe anyone can become an effective
public speaker, and that all of us can improve our public speaking skills. Effective
public speaking is a process that improves as we cultivate it. Confident
public speakers are not perfect at this craft but are effective at it, and effective
public speakers are those who choose to work to develop their skills. Fundamentally,
public speaking is a process that involves a series of steps focusing on aspects
of content, structure, and delivery. That’s why each chapter of this book teaches
important concepts and then step-by-step methods for applying the concepts to
a speech.
Communication can be defined as the sending and receiving of verbal and
nonverbal messages to create shared meaning. Public speaking is one context
for communication. It is not, however, simply linear, the mere sending of a message
by the speaker to be received by the listener. It is actually transactional, because
messages are sent and received simultaneously by both speaker and listener.
Both therefore play important roles in creating shared meaning, and Confident
Public Speaking carefully considers the role each plays in a presentation.
Because becoming an effective public speaker is an evolutionary process that
requires continual development and adaptation of skills for diverse audiences that
change not only in specific situations but with society and the times, treating
public speaking as a fixed set of skills ignores the opportunity to grow through
such changes. Confident Public Speaking embraces those opportunities by considering
public speaking skills to be fluid and adaptive, and trusting that everyone
is capable of developing the skills to address diverse audiences in American society
and others. Confident speaking is a journey, not a destination. |