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SPCH 201H: Honors Public Speaking: Assignments

Informative Identity Spech

You will present a 7-minute informative identity speech. Your goal for this speech is to inform (teach) the class about an aspect of your identity (heritage, ethnicity, social class, race, gender, religion, sexuality, and/or talents (musician, singer, artist, etc.). As you consider a topic, keep in mind that you need at least 1 academic peer-reviewed source to support your discussion.  

Gather supporting information and use at least 1 academic peer-reviewed source in your actual presentation. For this assignment, a credible source is defined as a peer-reviewed journal article, book, and/or book chapter of an academic edited book. Internet sources such as Wikipedia are non-academic sources and cannot be used in the place of an academic peer-reviewed source. 

  • Compile your research into a manageable amount of information to present in 7 minutes.  
  • Design a PowerPoint slide show 

Persuasive Speech

The purpose of a persuasive speech is to convince or motivate your audience to action. This is a 10-minute presentation. Choose a campus, community, or societal topic of interest. Topics can include sexual assault on campuses, recycling in the Upstate, Black Lives Matter, etc. 

  • Use at least two peer-reviewed academic sources to convince your audience that the issue is important and motivate your audience to take a particular action.  
  • Use at least two additional credible sources from the internet (e.g. government agencies, statistics, etc.) 
  • You must cite all sources on your outline, reference list, and PowerPoint  
  • Establish ethos, logos, and pathos 
  • Avoid fallacious reasoning (see pages 327-329) 
  • Use a PowerPoint (or similar software) presentation aid. 

Group Presentation Assignment

You will be assigned to a group to collectively gather and present research on a national (cultural) or global topic of interest.

Examples of organizational topics include

  • sexual harassment in the workplace
  • The January 6 insurrection
  • toxic ideologies such as racism, sexism, nativism, classism, whiteness, or heteronormativity in U.S. culture
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Covid-19 vaccine etc.
  • Anglo European immigration to the United States
  • Violence against women act VAWA
  • environmental issues
  • educational issues
  • food insecurity
  • depression

All group members will receive the same grade for the group outline and group presentation. The presentation must be presented within a 35-45-minute time frame.