Charisma

Career Fair Charisma

Objectives

• Use effective verbal and nonverbal communication when delivering a speech
• Identify the audience and environmental variables that influence speech delivery
• Apply common techniques for accepting and managing listener feedback

Assignment Overview

In this case study, you will explore the process of interpreting audience-related and environmental factors as well as adjusting speech content and delivery to adapt to the situation.

Deliverables

Step 1 Consider the scenario.

Your professor has asked you to give a speech at an upcoming job fair that will convince the audience to take the speech class in which you are currently enrolled. The job fair will be held in a part of the city with a relatively low unemployment rate and the people attending are likely to come from middle- to upper middle-class families. Many of them also work full-time and are looking for opportunities to advance their careers with higher education, but do not want to waste time or money on classes that won’t directly relate to their current work or their goals. You can’t gather all the characteristics of all the career fair attendees in advance, but you do know that the way in which you explain the advantages of taking this course and the type of language you use will affect the attendees’ decision on whether or not to enroll.

Step 2 Answer the questions.

In a one-page (250-word) paper, address the following related to the scenario:

• When you state your thesis, how will you phrase it to avoid negative reactions from potential applicants who are expecting more pay and better benefits when they first start with the company?
• What language strategies would you use in your speech to make it sound more appealing to the entire group?
• What techniques could you use to establish common ground with everyone in the audience?
• How would you change your speech delivery if the audience consisted mostly of low-income mothers trying to enter or re-enter the workforce?