Paper describes a public speaking course that has been taught successfully for six quarters at Florida State University. (Author)

Four teaching approaches are discussed. (CH)

Genre studies are offered as a needed alternative to the historical approach to the study of public speaking. Five ways to classify rhetorical genres are suggested: (1) by the changes which messages produce in audiences, (2) by the dominant methods or characterizing strategies of a message, (3) by style, (4) by culture or world view, and (5) by…

The rationale and procedures for assessing students' oral communication skills at Alverno College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) are outlined in this paper. Since the curriculum at Alverno emphasizes ongoing performance assessment as an integral part of the learning process and as an effective measurement of educational progress, the discussion focuses on…

The Speech Department at New Jersey's Brookdale Community College conducted a study to determine if cooperative learning strategies could be effectively incorporated into a basic public speaking course to enhance student outcomes. The course was revised by reducing the number of speech performances and adding cooperative learning experiences.…