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Public Speaking for the Curious

Chapter 11: The Benefits and Necessity of Public Speaking Education – Tony Docan-Morgan & Laura L. Nelson

Tony Docan-Morgan, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Professor Tony Docan-Morgan (Ph.D., University of Washington) is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. His research interests include interpersonal communication, instructional communication, and public speaking pedagogy. He directs the UW-L Public Speaking Center (www.uwlax.edu/psc) and teaches courses titled Communicating Effectively, Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication Studies, Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Lying and Deception in Human Interaction, Theories of Communication, and Public Speaking Center Practicum.

Laura Nelson, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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Public Speaking for the Curious

Professor Laura L. Nelson (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University at Carbondale) is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Her research interests include rhetoric in public discourse, public speaking pedagogy, and curriculum development in Communication Studies. During her career UW-L, she has been deeply engaged in improving the basic course in communication required of all UWL graduates, improving the curriculum in Communication Studies, and building the Communication Studies program from a small program allied with Theatre Arts to the large independent program it is today. She served as Department Chair of the Speech Communication and Theatre Arts Department (1994-1997) and of the Communication Studies Department (1997-2003).

Learning to be an effective, ethical public speaker is one of the most empowering, rewarding educational goals you can set for yourself. Even the best ideas are worthless and receive no credit if they cannot be shared effectively with others. Acquiring skills for effective oral public communication has been central to becoming an educated person from ancient times to the present. As Clark observes in the Epilog to his Rhetoric in Graeco-Roman Education, “Unless the student is led to organize and synthesize the learning he acquires by exercises in making and doing, speaking and writing, the learning is not truly his own. This art, which teaches the student how to acquire learning, to organize it, and to present it persuasively to an audience, is traditionally called rhetoric . . . Isocrates [a famous teacher of public speaking in ancient Greece] truly declares, ‘None of the things which are done with intelligence are done without the aid of speech’” (1966, p. 264). Being able to speak clearly and succinctly, to effectively inform and persuade others, and to move people to action are absolute necessities for professionals in a wide array of fields including law, banking and finance, counseling, teaching, public relations, politics, and sales. These abilities are also essential assets for all professionals in all fields who aspire to leadership, as the ability to influence others is a crucial part of leadership.

In fact, employers consistently report that public speaking is one of the most important and sought after skills a prospective employee can possess (O’Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2010; Ulinski & O'Callaghan, 2002). Students entering

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a business career, for example, need to be well versed in giving training workshops, sales presentations, investment proposals, briefings, status reports, technical business presentations, and/or research presentations (DocanMorgan, 2009; Guffey, 2006). College graduates also confirm that skills in oral communication, written communication, public speaking, and motivating and managing others are “most essential for career improvement” (Zekeri, 2004, p. 412). Therefore, it is not surprising that job interview panels frequently ask candidates to deliver sample presentations, which are then used in making hiring decisions (Allen, 2014). The ability to speak well in public contexts is not only desirable but also necessary. Unfortunately, because the vast majority of people experience at least some anxiety about public speaking, college students rarely will choose voluntarily to take a course in public speaking or a course in which development of public speaking skills is a major component. However, to succeed in their professional lives and to enhance their personal lives, college students in particular need coursework in intensive public speaking training. But first, what exactly is public speaking? What is Public Speaking? Many people mistakenly think that public speaking only involves formal situations in which a speaker is ‘on stage’ in front of a large audience. However, the nature of a public speech or presentation can vary tremendously depending on the speaker’s goals, make-up and size of the audience, environment in which the speaking occurs, and historical context. Lucas, author of the most popular current basic public speaking textbook in the United States, observes that the complex speech communication process includes the following seven basic elements: “speaker, message, channel, listener, feedback, interference, and situation.” The speaker is the person who initiates a speech transaction. Whatever the speaker communicates is the message, which is sent by means of a particular channel. The listener receives the communicated message and provides feedback to the speaker. Interference is anything that impedes the communication of a message, and the situation is the time and place in which speech communication occurs. The interaction of these seven elements is what determines the outcome in any instance of speech communication (2007, p. 28).

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O’Hair and Wiemann define public speaking as “a powerful form of communication that includes a speaker who has a reason for speaking, an audience that gives the speaker attention, and a message that is meant to accomplish a specific purpose” (2012, p. 340). Stated even more concisely, public speaking is “the act of preparing, staging, and delivering a presentation to an audience” (Gamble & Gamble, 2008, p. 369). The terms public speech and presentation are often used synonymously in everyday language. Engleberg notes, “the term speech often connotes a public speech, that is, a presentation to a large public audience. The term presentation encompasses other more common forms of speaking such as business briefings, oral reports, ceremonial presentations, or other types of speeches that do not often take place in the public arena” (2007, p. 1). Speeches and presentations come in many forms, including training workshops, lectures, sermons, sales presentations, investment proposals, briefings, status reports, protests, political debates, political campaign speeches, technical business presentations, research presentations, courtroom presentations (e.g., cross examination, rebuttal, and closing arguments), humorous or entertaining performances (e.g., standup comedy), oral press releases, and special occasion speeches (e.g., farewells, eulogies, and commencement addresses). Whether you speak in public to a large audience or in more intimate contexts with a small audience, the same skills are needed whenever one person has the responsibility for delivering a message successfully to a group of others. When a particular message is important for some reason, speakers need skills to enhance odds that the message will not be misunderstood but instead contribute to creating shared meaning among speaker and listeners—shared meaning upon which important relationships, lives, and dollars may depend. What are the Benefits of Study Public Speaking? The benefits of studying public speaking are numerous. These ten benefits are by no means all of the advantages entailed by becoming a competent public speaker but are some of the most compelling ones. To succeed in college. Courses on public speaking typically cover topics such as listening, critical thinking, writing outlines, and effectively organizing ideas and information—all of which are critically important skills for college success. Bodie argues that “competence in public speaking is paramount to student success in and out of the classroom” as public speaking is a “necessary part of both college and work responsibilities”

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(2010, p. 71). Learning how to listen, plan formal messages in writing, and finally deliver those messages orally by speaking well will better prepare you for other courses. You will almost certainly be asked to prepare and deliver oral presentations in many college courses in a wide variety of disciplines. Your ability to do this competently will enhance your grades in those courses. The centrality of rhetoric (broadly defined as the practical art of using language well) in education from the classical period of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the present day testifies to its essential nature. Because of the recent electronic communication revolution, today you may deliver or receive messages face to face or through use of communication technology. Regardless, the same foundational communication skills apply. These skills have very high ‘transferability’ to all other courses you will take in college as well as the demands you will face later in entering and succeeding in the workplace. To get hired and advance in your career. Once you successfully finish your college degree, your next intimidating life task is to find a good job that leads to a thriving career. Employers want to hire and work with good communicators. In fact, they continually report that good communication skills, such as public speaking and presentation ability, are the most important and desired qualities a job candidate can possess (e.g., O’Hair et al., 2010; Ulinski & O'Callaghan, 2002). A public speaking course or program of study will make you a significantly more marketable job candidate. To strengthen critical thinking skills. Do you think it is better to lazily and instantly accept everything we are told by everyone or to separate facts from opinion and to critically evaluate messages? Students who study public speaking learn how to think critically, which is the “ability to form and defend your own judgments rather than blindly accepting or instantly rejecting what you hear or read” (Zarefsky, 2005, p. 6). Students in public speaking courses become critical thinkers in part by learning about adapting one’s message to their audience, strategies for organizing persuasive messages, and techniques for listening. Studying public oral communication is an opportunity for you to develop critical thinking skills that are relevant to all professions and life situations. Aristotle noted that rhetoric—the study of effective, ethical oral communication—is unique because it has no limit in its subject matter as

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other fields of study do: “Rhetoric [public speaking] is the counterpart of dialectic [logical discussion]. Both alike are concerned with such things as come, more or less, within the general ken of all men and belong to no definite science. Accordingly all men make use, more or less, of both . . .” (Rhetoric, p. 19). Furthermore, he notes, “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art. Every other art can instruct or persuade about its own particular subject-matter . . . [Rhetoric] is not concerned with any special or definite class of subjects” (Rhetoric, p. 24). The corollary truth is that skills of effective oral communication have unlimited application with respect to subject matter. They are necessary assets in all fields of study and occupations. For example, learning common patterns of organization for oral messages sharpens your awareness of common patterns of human thought: you learn to recognize logical relationships among equivalent parts and a whole, among a sequence of related actions or events, between a cause and an effect, between a problem and its solution. Learning how to reason inductively and deductively enables you to think more systematically and clearly. Learning common logical fallacies enables you to avoid them in your own thinking and recognize them when others present invalid arguments. Acquisition of skills for effective communication of information and ideas is necessary in and applicable to all fields of study as well as all careers. To reduce speaking anxiety and increase self-confidence. If you have ever spoken to an audience, chances are that you have felt at least a twinge of “stage fright,” a common and complex reaction involving fear, apprehension, tension, and nervousness. Studies show, however, that if you learn and practice anxiety reduction techniques, you will experience less speaking anxiety (e.g., Docan-Morgan & Schmidt, 2012). Many public speaking textbooks and classes cover three techniques to reduce public speaking anxiety. First, systematic desensitization involves relaxation, deep breathing, and visualization (Friedrich, Goss, Cunconan, & Lane, 1997). Second, cognitive restructuring requires you to create a negative self-talk list, identify irrational beliefs embedded in each thought, develop a coping statement for each irrational belief, and practice the coping statements until they become second nature (Ayres, Hopf, & Peterson, 2000). The

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third method, skills training, refers to learning and practicing techniques targeted toward improving individual speaking behaviors (Kelly, 1997). In addition to these specific strategies for reducing public speaking anxiety, it is only common sense to note that the more you practice and successfully employ a set of skills—in this case, skills for public speaking—the less anxiety you will suffer when you next need to use them. Undergraduate students frequently report that they gain increased self-confidence upon completion of a public speaking course (e.g., Finn, Sawyer, Schrodt, 2009). Acquiring the skills needed to be an effective oral communicator has a ‘halo effect’ that enhances your overall self-confidence. To deliver your message as effectively as possible. You may have heard the saying that “how you say something is as important as what you say.” Good public speakers learn how to express their ideas through effective delivery techniques, or how one presents her or his message through the voice and body. Those who are naive about communication do not understand the essential functions of nonverbal communication in conveying meaning or how much meaning is conveyed nonverbally. Many public speaking contexts call for a speaker to deliver extemporaneously, which includes using a conversational tone and occasionally referring to a keyword outline. Effective delivery requires preparation and practice. As a public speaking student you will learn how to use effective vocal volume and pitch, speaking rate, pauses, diction, tone, facial expressions, eye contact, and hand gestures. Each of these nonverbal cues work to contribute to the overall meaning of a message. For example, consider all of the different ways you can say, “I love you”: I love you. I love you. I love you. Now, consider how the meaning of “I love you” may be affected by physical as well as vocal nonverbal communication accompanying this verbal message. Is it said with direct eye contact, a smile, a hug or pat on the back, or is it said with rolled eyes, a sneer, a particular gesture, a particular stance that contradicts its verbal meaning? Those who understand the importance of nonverbal communication know that receivers of messages trust the nonverbal component of messages more than they trust the verbal message (Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1996). To listen more intently and effectively. As a public speaking student, you also will learn to be a better listener. Listening is a prominent feature of

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our everyday interactions (Docan-Morgan & McDermott, 2009). Our educational system devotes much time to teaching reading, writing, and speaking, but as noted in a very recent Wall Street Journal article, few of us receive any formal training in how to listen well. That article also reports, “Even before the age of digital distractions, people could remember only about 10% of what was said in a face-to-face conversation after a brief distraction, according to a 1987 study that remains a key gauge of conversational recall. Researchers believe listening skills have since fallen amid more multitasking and interruptions” (Shellenberger, 2014). And yet Johnson (1996), for example, highlights that people spend 45% to 70% of their time listening to others, and in certain contexts (e.g., classroom lecture or speech) listening is the primary activity in which we engage. Perhaps even more powerfully, Purdy (1991) astutely observes, “among the basic skills we need for success in life, listening is primary” (p. 4). In close relationships, for example, “positive and responsive listening behavior benefits marital interaction” (Pasupathi, Carstensen, Levenson, & Gottman, 1999, p. 173). Similarly, Haas and Arnold (1995) point out the saliency of listening in the business context: “One common weakness of many executives is the failure to recognize that listening is equal in importance to talking” (p. 125). The importance of listening has also been cited in medical (e.g., Ruusuvuori, 2001) and educational contexts (e.g., Do & Schallert, 2004). There is no surprise, then, that listening is an important topic in public speaking courses (Johnson & Long, 2007). You will learn about types of listening in which you engage (e.g., empathic), obstacles to effective listening (e.g., preoccupation), forms of ineffective listening (e.g., pseudo-listening), and effective listening strategies (e.g., perspective taking). More effective listening skills improve our ability to respond more satisfactorily to others, to benefit ourselves by recognizing opportunities, and last but not least, protect ourselves from exploitation by others. Our contemporary media environment includes not only responsible ethical messages intended to benefit listeners but also unfortunately includes highly irresponsible, unethical messages that seek to take advantage of listeners. The ability to listen critically to messages and protect yourself from selfish manipulation and exploitation by others is an essential life skill.

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To provide more useful feedback to others. In many public speaking classes, students learn to provide constructive criticism to their peers, a useful and life-long skill. Constructive criticism refers to feedback or criticism in which comments are specific, accompanied by a rationale, and phrased as personal opinions using “I” language (Sellnow, 2005). Ineffective feedback, such as, “your speech was interesting,” has little value, compared to effective feedback, such as, “The point you made about how your cultural heritage affects your daily choices was insightful, and seemed to resonate with the audience based on their nonverbal reactions.” If you take a public speaking class, you might learn the D.I.E. method (Wendt, 1984). First descriptive comments report what you observed: “throughout the presentation, you used about 10 different statistics to support your main ideas.” Second, interpretive comments include making an inference or attributing meaning: “I’m assuming you used these different statistics in an attempt at persuading your audience.” Finally, evaluative comments pass judgment: “although statistics can be a very powerful form of evidence, I think there were too many. It may be more effective to…” Effective constructive criticism is a useful tool for helping others improve. To take an audience-oriented perspective. Every good communicator should know his or her audience. In fact, think back to some of the emails, apologies, love letters, or invitations you have written. When writing these, perhaps you considered whom the receiver was and how to shape your message. In public speaking courses, students learn how to conduct audience analysis, which is the process of understanding your audience and adapting your presentation to meet their needs. The following questions are important to consider: What does the audience know about my topic? What does my audience not know about my topic? What is their position on the topic? These answers can be discovered through indirect audience analysis, which refers to using existing sources of information to analyze the audience and requires speculation about listeners’ interests and attitudes toward the topic. Alternatively, direct audience analysis involves gathering information directly from your audience to help craft your message. Doing so can include creating a questionnaire or conducting interviews with audience members before your presentation in order to determine what they know about the topic, their position, and interest. To put it simply: when you learn to adapt your message to its audience by appealing to that audience’s

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experiences and interests, you will more effectively engage those listeners in your message and make them much more eager to listen to you. Experienced public speakers know that to arouse and maintain audience interest, they need to put the audience in the message and directly relate message content to listeners. To excite and engage people. We have all heard boring, dull speakers that figuratively and sometimes literally put us to sleep. The study and practice of public speaking will open you up to a plethora of creative ways to stimulate others’ senses. Good speakers are able to use creative and vivid language to evoke feelings and images in listeners’ minds. They work to describe sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in detail. They might also use alliteration (e.g., “today, there are more than fifty fabulous fruity flavors”), similes (e.g., “she was as tough as a drill sergeant in boot camp”), and metaphors (“given the increasingly deep and wide sea of messages we swim in today, it is ever more important to become an exceptionally good swimmer”). In an article from Academy of Management Executive (1991), Conger observes “Leadership today must embody . . . the capacity to articulate an organization’s mission and communicate it in ways that inspire. Sadly however, this capacity depends upon skills that have been largely neglected by the business world.” He then observes that “executives and managers . . . must learn to sell themselves and their missions—to ‘stump’ for their cause—and this depends on highly effective language skills.” Conger discusses how “the language of leadership” depends on two sets of skills. The first set of skills enables leaders to use “framing” to define the mission of an organization for employees in meaningful, inspiring ways. The second set of skills enables leaders to use “rhetorical crafting” of “symbolic language to give emotional power to his or her message.” Conger observes that Steve Jobs of Apple and other very successful CEOs have been distinguished by their ability to articulate inspiring missions for their businesses above and beyond “straightforward exposition of . . . operating goals, budgets, and policies” (pp. 31-33). After an extremely concrete, specific and useful discussion of both framing and rhetorical crafting, he concludes “the first step must be the formulation of an organizational vision that is meaningful . . . [O]nce such a vision is formulated, the language of leadership plays a vital role in its acceptance and accomplishment” (p. 43). Studying public speaking, particularly speaking to persuade, directly addresses basic skills needed for both effective

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framing and rhetorical crafting of messages that excite and engage listeners. Last and most crucially, to empower yourself to be a leader. Imagine someone who you consider a leader. What are some of their characteristics? What can they do well? You likely imagine someone who can speak confidently to large audiences, engaging, influencing and motivating others. In fact, Humes, a former speechwriter argues that public speaking is “the language of leadership” and that “every time you have to speak—whether it’s in an auditorium, in a company conference room, or even at your own desk—you are auditioning for leadership” (pp. 13-14). Church and Slizer (2014) recognize that those who manage human resources in all organizations are deeply concerned with recognizing and developing potential leadership talent. They have created a model for assessing leadership potential called the “Leadership Potential BluePrint.” Their model has already been adopted by PepsiCo, Eli Lilly, and Citibank (p. 52). It defines leadership potential as the apex of a four level pyramid in which the lowest level identifies “foundational dimensions” of essential personality characteristics and cognitive abilities; the second level is “growth dimensions” of learning skills and motivation skills; the third level, which most directly supports leadership potential, consists of leadership skills and functional/technical knowledge. Studying public speaking enhances your ability to stand out as a candidate for promotion with leadership potential on all three of the defining levels of this pyramid. As discussed above, studying public speaking enhances your self-confidence, which directly relates to desired personality characteristics. It strengthens your capacity for critical thinking, essential for cognitive capabilities. It enhances the learning skills of adaptability and openness to feedback as well as the ability to provide useful constructive feedback to others. Choosing to invest in studying public speaking is strong evidence of motivation skills. Finally, Church and Slizer explicitly identify “motivating, influencing and inspiring others” as a key component of leadership skills necessary in exhibiting leadership potential (p. 53). This is directly addressed in the study of public speaking.

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To summarize, these ten advantages are compelling reasons why college students need to gain effective public speaking skills to succeed in school, work, and life. There are a multitude of reasons why you should invest in learning about, improving, and honing your public speaking skills: being successful in college, getting hired, increasing your critical thinking skills, decreasing speaking anxiety, increasing self-confidence, and empowering yourself to be a leader. Furthermore, delivering messages expressively, listening intently, providing valuable feedback, taking an audienceoriented perspective, and engaging others will identify you to others as a competent, respected, and valued communicator. The electronic media revolution that began in the early 20th century has made learning effective public oral communication skills as much or more essential than it ever has been. We share a great deal of important information and ideas through public oral communication. Today we may communicate face to face or we may use media technology to reach much larger and more diverse audiences than ever before. We also receive more and more messages from more and more diverse sources than ever before. Influence cannot be wielded without public speech, so learning to be not only an effective speaker but also a critical listener is essential to responsible participation in personal, organizational, and societal decisionmaking. Quintilian, the famous Roman rhetorician, in his comprehensive work, Institutio oratoria, famously defined the ideal “orator” or public speaker as “a good man speaking well.” His “orator” was the ancient world’s ideal of an educated, involved citizen, a person of good reputation guided by ethics and in command of communication skills that enabled effective and responsible exercise of influence—what we still ideally want to achieve in learning not only to be competent oral public communicators but also responsible critical receivers of messages today (Kennedy, 1980, p. 101). References Allen, D. (2014). Present and correct. Nursing Standard, 28(21), 63. Aristotle. (1954). Rhetoric, trans. W. R. Roberts. New York: Modern Library, Random House.

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Ayres, J., Hopf, T., & Peterson, E. (2000). A test of communicationorientation motivation (COM) therapy. Communication Reports, 13, 3544. Bodie, G. D. (2010). A racing heart, rattling knees, and ruminative thoughts: Defining, explaining, and treating public speaking anxiety. Communication Education, 59, 70-105. Burgoon, J. K., Buller, D. B., & Woodall, W. G. (1996). Nonverbal communication: The unspoken dialogue (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Church, A., & Slizer, R. (2014). Going behind the corporate curtain with a blueprint for leadership potential. People and Strategy, 36(4), 50-58. Clark, D. L. (1954, 1966). Rhetoric in Graeco-Roman education. New York and London: Columbia University Press. Conger, J. (1991). Inspiring others: The language of leadership. Academy of Management Executive, 5(1), 31-45. Do, S. L., & Schallert, D. L. (2004). Emotions and classroom talk: Toward a model of the role of affect in students’ experiences of classroom discussion. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 619-634. Docan-Morgan, T. (2009). “I now see how I can use these skills”: An applied project for the public speaking course. Communication Teacher, 23, 110-116. Docan-Morgan, T., & McDermott, V. (2009). The listening log assignment. In B. Hugenberg & L. Hugenberg (Eds.), Teaching ideas for the basic communication course 12 (pp. 175-182). Dubuque, IA: Great River Technologies. Docan-Morgan, T., & Schmidt, T. (2012). Reducing public speaking anxiety for native and non-native English speakers: The value of systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring, and skills training. CrossCultural Communication, 8(5), 16-19. Engleberg, I. N. (2007, February). Speech evaluation: Do you see what I see . . . Do you hear what I hear? Part two. Paper presented at the

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Friedrich, G., Goss, B., Cunconan, T., & Lane, D. (1997). Systematic Desensitization. In J. A. Daly, J. C. McCroskey, J. Ayres, T. Hopf, & D. M. Ayres (Eds.), Avoiding Communication: Shyness, Reticence, and Communication Apprehension (2nd ed., pp. 305-329). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. (2008). Communication works (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Guffey, M. E. (2006). Essentials of business communication (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Finn, A. N., Sawyer, C. R., Schrodt, P. (2009). Examining the effect of exposure therapy on public speaking state anxiety. Communication Education, 58(1), 92-109. Hass, J. W., & Arnold, C. L. (1995). An examination of the role of listening in judgments of communication competence in co-workers. Journal of Business Communication, 32, 123140. Humes, J. C. (1991). The Sir Winston method: Five secrets of speaking the language of leadership. New York: Morrow. Johnson, D. (1996). Helpful listening and responding. In K. M. Galvin & P. Cooper (Eds.), Making connections: Readings in relational communication (pp. 91-97). Los Angeles: Roxbury. Johnson, D. I., & Long, K. M. (2007). Student listening gains in the basic communication course: A comparison of self-report and performance based competence measures. International Journal of Listening, 21, 92101. Kelly, L. (1997). Skills Training as a Treatment for Communication Problems. In J. A. Daly, J. C. McCroskey, J. Ayres, T. Hopf, & D. M. Ayres (Eds.), Avoiding Communication: Shyness, Reticence, and Communication Apprehension (2nd ed., pp. 331-365). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

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Kennedy, G. A. (1980). Classical rhetoric and its Christian and secular tradition from Ancient to Modern Times. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Lucas, S. E. (2007). The art of public speaking (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. O’Hair, D., Stewart, R., & Rubenstein, H. (2010). A speaker’s guidebook: Text and reference (4th ed.). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction (2nd ed.). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Pasupathi, M., Carstensen, L. L., Levenson, R. W., & Gottman, J. M. (1999). Responsive listening in long married couples: A psycholinguistic perspective. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23, 171-194. Purdy, M. (1991). What is listening? In D. Borisoff & M. Purdy (Eds.), Listening in everyday life: A personal and professional approach (pp. 319). Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Ruusuvuori, J. (2001). Looking means listening: Coordinating displays of engagement in doctor-patient interaction. Social Science & Medicine, 52, 1093-1108. Sellnow, D. D. (2005). Confident public speaking (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning. Shellenberger, S. (2014, July 22). Tuning in: Improving your listening skills; how to get the most out of a conversation. Wall Street Journal (Online). Ulinski, M., & O'Callaghan, S. A. (2002). Comparison of MBA students’ and employers’ perceptions of the value of oral communication skills for employment. Journal of Education for Business, 77(4), 193-197. Wendt, J. R. (1984). Die: A way to Communication Education, 33(4), 397-401.

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Zekeri, A. (2004). College curriculum competencies and skills former students found essential to their careers. College Student Journal, 38(3), 412-422.