Overview of Course

This course is an introduction to several forms of public communication. Emphasis is placed on the development and practice of public speaking content, organization, delivery, and audience response. Students are taught an audience-sensitive approach to the invention, arrangement, and delivery of public messages. The destinations we visit will be the subject of student speaking assignments, each based on their study of the history, architecture, art, culture, and political life of the country. This class aims to inspire and enhance student’s cultural knowledge and civic engagement by using examples of famous orators and public speaking practices from countries we visit. Students will emerge from this class as practiced orators with an acute understanding of how rhetoric, with its foundation in public speaking, is infused into the lives of citizens across the globe.