Resource of the Week #97: A Resource on Public Speaking

Hello again. This week’s resource was mentioned by the director of our university writing center. The topic is public speaking. Although this resource is primarily for students, it also can help researchers.

The resource is titled The Public Speaking Project. At present, it consists mainly of an openly accessible textbook titled Public Speaking: The Virtual Text.

This multi-author textbook has 18 chapters. Chapters can be downloaded in color or grayscale (black-and-white) versions. Supplemental resources accompany some chapters.

One chapter that seems especially relevant to AuthorAID is Chapter 14, “Speaking to a Global Audience”.  Examples of other chapter titles include “Delivering Your Speech”, “Visual Aids”, and “Group Presentations”. Interestingly, the book includes a chapter titled “Listening Effectively”.

The resource also contains video modules (in the section titled “Classroom”). I looked at the pair of videos on dealing with nervousness about giving a speech. The advice was good. And the pronunciation was quite clear, which could aid understanding by non-native users of English.

This resource still is somewhat under construction, and I look forward to seeing it develop further. Meanwhile, I hope that some of you, and some of your students, will find it useful.

Until the next post—

Barbara