← Back to the Public Speaking outline The Course Maker
← Public Speaking outline
Week 8 · Midterm study guide

Midterm Exam — Study Guide

Public Speaking Free sample edition

Coverage — what the midterm covers

The midterm is cumulative over Weeks 1–7. It opens in the Week 8 module and closes at the due time your instructor sets. There is no time limit, and you get one attempt. The questions appear one at a time, and you cannot go back once you move on.

Format: 25 questions, and every question counts the same. Twenty-two ask you to pick one option, two ask you to judge a statement as true or false, and one asks you to pick every option that applies. Every speech moment, message, outline line, or chatbot exchange a question uses is written out in the question, and no question needs a recording, a chart, or a calculator.

What is in scope, with the number of midterm questions on each course objective:

Midterm coverage by course objective: the weeks its questions come from, its main skills, and its number of questions out of 25
Course objective Weeks its questions come from Main skills Questions
The communication process, ethics, and nerves 1 and 2 The six elements and where each came from; channel and message; four kinds of noise; feedback; plagiarism and fabrication; nerves as normal; the four delivery methods 6
Listening and audience analysis 2 Hearing and listening; the five stages; the five types of listening; the three lenses; tendency and stereotype; adaptation 4
Purpose, central idea, and evidence 3, 4, and 5 General purpose, specific purpose, and central idea; the four tests; supporting material; expert and lay testimony; the credibility checklist; the oral citation 8
Organizing and outlining 5 and 6 The six patterns and the decision logic; the introduction's functions and the conclusion's jobs; the four outlining rules; the four connectives 3
Language and style 7 Oral and written style; the four killers of clarity; the six devices; appropriateness; denotation and connotation; inclusive language 4

Purpose, central idea, and evidence carry the most questions, 8, so put the most review time on Weeks 3 and 4. The communication process comes next with 6, almost all of them from Week 1. By week, Weeks 1 and 2 have 5 questions each, Weeks 4 and 7 have 4 each, Week 3 has 3, and Weeks 5 and 6 have 2 each. Organizing and outlining carry only 3 questions, yet the body you built in Weeks 5 and 6 rests on the central idea from Week 3, so review them together. By difficulty, 9 questions are easy, 11 are medium, and 5 are hard. Week 8's five canons of rhetoric are not tested on their own, and they still make a good map for review.

Topic-by-topic review

Each topic gives the key idea in plain words, the course's own definitions, a course example, and the mistakes students make most often with their cures. Each week also names the one distinction it asks for: the swapped pair Week 8 taught you to look for. The deeper review for every topic is that week's chapter, lecture page, and slide deck.

Week 1 — The communication process, ethics, and nerves

  • The distinction: channel vs. message. The channel is the route a message travels; the message is what is said.
  • Key idea: communication can fail even when every word is said, because it works only when the listener's meaning lands close to the speaker's.
  • Definitions: communication is the process of creating shared meaning between people through words, tone, and gesture; it succeeds only when the receiver's meaning matches the source's closely enough to act on. Public speaking is a prepared, continuous message delivered by one speaker to an audience, in which the speaker carries the talk and the audience responds mostly without words.
  • The six-element model, a classroom model and the course's own simplification: the source encodes the idea; the message is the content (the words, tone, and gestures themselves); the channel is the route; the receiver decodes; noise is anything that gets in the way of shared meaning; feedback is the receiver's verbal or nonverbal response, which the source reads and adjusts to.
  • Where the elements came from: source, message, channel, receiver, and noise come from the linear model drawn from Shannon (1948), "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", and Shannon and Weaver (1949), The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Feedback and the field of experience come from Schramm's interactional model (1954). Berlo's model (1960) is named in words. Barnlund's transactional model (1970) adds no element: speaker and audience send and receive at the same time, inside a shared context, and it is the picture the course lands on.
  • Noise, four kinds: physical (a distraction in the setting), physiological (a condition of the body), psychological (a thought or feeling), and semantic (a word, term, label, or accent the receiver cannot decode).
  • Ethics: ethical speaking is honest, prepared, respectful of the audience, and free of fabrication, with every source credited out loud. The course's ethics anchor is the Credo for Ethical Communication (1999), with nine principles, named and linked, never reproduced. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own: delivering a speech someone else wrote, stitching passages together without credit, or using a quotation, paraphrase, or idea without naming its source out loud. Fabrication is making up a quotation, statistic, study, or source and presenting it as real, including passing along one a chatbot invented. It is a separate and more serious breach.
  • Nerves: communication apprehension is McCroskey's term for fear or anxiety about real or anticipated communication. Most speakers feel it, it can be managed, and it is not a diagnosis. The strategies are to prepare and practice out loud, reframe the adrenaline as energy, breathe, visualize, focus outward on the audience, find friendly faces, and expect the nerves to peak early. The "feared more than death" line traces to a 1973 survey that never asked people to rank their fears; Dwyer and Davidson (2012) found public speaking the most commonly selected fear, while death was most often the top fear.
  • The icebreaker and the delivery methods: an icebreaker speech has four beats: a hook, who you are, one detail that makes a point, and a close. The four delivery methods are manuscript (reading word for word), memorized (reciting without notes), impromptu (little or no preparation), and extemporaneous (prepared and practiced, then spoken conversationally from brief notes), which is the course's target.
  • Course example: the lobby announcement. A building manager says into the lobby microphone that the north lot closes at noon and drivers should move to the south lot. The channel is spoken words carried through the lobby speakers; the message is the closing and the move. Noise comes four ways: a leaf blower, a headache, a listener rehearsing for an exam, and not knowing which lot is "north". When a listener calls out "Which lot is north?", the manager adds "the lot beside the gym", which is feedback changing the message while it is sent. Count: 5 elements from the linear model + 1 from Schramm = 6 elements.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) "good speakers are not nervous." Cure: most are, and they channel it. (2) noise read as sound only. Cure: noise is anything that blocks meaning, including a confusing word. (3) the channel confused with the message. Cure: ask whether you are naming how it travels or what is said. (4) the audience treated as passive. Cure: communication is transactional, and feedback is constant. (5) "if I found it online, I can say it." Cure: credit it out loud and check that it is real. (6) planning to memorize the icebreaker. Cure: aim for extemporaneous.

Week 2 — Listening and audience analysis

  • The distinction: hearing vs. listening, with tendency vs. stereotype as its neighbor.
  • Key idea: your words can reach a listener's ears without reaching the meaning, and a speaker who knows the room can adapt to it.
  • Definitions: hearing is the physical, automatic process of sound reaching the ears and the brain registering it. Listening is the mental, deliberate process of paying attention to a message, making sense of it, responding to it, and remembering it; unlike hearing, it is a choice. The listening process has five stages: receiving, attending, understanding, responding, and remembering. Hearing covers only receiving.
  • The five types of listening: discriminative (telling sounds and cues apart); comprehensive, also called informational (taking in content); critical, also called evaluative (weighing evidence and reasoning, which means judging fairly, not being negative); empathic, also called therapeutic (understanding a speaker's feelings without judging or fixing); and appreciative (listening for enjoyment).
  • Barriers and cures: physical noise, psychological noise, information overload, pseudolistening (pretending to listen), prejudging (deciding what a message is worth before it is heard in full), and semantic noise. Active listening answers them with four habits: focus, withhold judgment until the end, paraphrase, and take lean notes.
  • Audience analysis is the work a speaker does to learn who the listeners are, what they believe and know, and what situation they are in. Audience-centeredness is making every choice with those listeners in mind. The three lenses: demographic (group traits such as age, year in school, background, and major), psychographic (attitudes, beliefs, values, and prior knowledge about the topic), and situational (size, occasion, setting, time available, and whether listeners chose to attend). A voluntary audience chose to come; a captive audience is required to be there.
  • The caution and the payoff: analysis finds tendencies across a group and checks them; stereotyping pins a trait on a person, or on every member of a group, because of a group they belong to. Adaptation is a change to content, examples, language, or level because of what the analysis found. Common ground and identification help listeners see the topic as theirs.
  • Course example: the running speech's audience, a first-year seminar of about 30 students who all eat in the dining hall. It is a required seminar, so the audience is captive, and the slot is five minutes. Each lens gets one finding and one adaptation, so 3 × 2 = 6 filled cells. "Most first-year students are new to the dining hall's routines" is a tendency worth checking. "This audience does not care about waste" is stereotyping.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) hearing and listening treated as the same act. Cure: only receiving is automatic. (2) "critical listening means being negative." Cure: critical means evaluative. (3) empathic confused with comprehensive. Cure: the feeling vs. the content. (4) demographics treated as the whole picture. Cure: attitudes and the situation often matter more. (5) analysis confused with stereotyping. Cure: a tendency you check vs. a trait you pin. (6) a profile with no adaptation column. Cure: analysis without adaptation is description.

Week 3 — Topic, purpose, and central idea

  • The distinction: specific purpose vs. central idea, with the general purpose above them both.
  • Key idea: a topic names a subject but does not say what the speech is for, so you decide the purpose first, then the message, and only then research.
  • Definitions: the topic is the subject in a word or phrase. The general purpose is the broad aim, one of three: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain or mark an occasion. The specific purpose is one audience-centered goal written as an infinitive phrase, such as "To inform my audience about…"; it is a planning tool the speaker writes down and does not read aloud. The four tests: it holds one idea, it is an infinitive phrase, it is centered on the audience, and it can be achieved in the time. The central idea, also called the thesis, is one complete declarative sentence that states the speech's message; the speaker says it aloud near the end of the introduction.
  • Finding and narrowing: brainstorming lists topics fast with no judging; a self-inventory lists what you know, have done, and care about. Narrowing runs the topic through four filters, in order: purpose, audience, context, and time. Narrow first, then research.
  • Course example: "food" narrows to "food waste in our campus dining hall". The general purpose is to inform. The specific purpose is "To inform my audience about how our campus dining hall handles its plate waste." The central idea is "A dining hall's plate waste is measured by weighing what comes back on plates, targeted by changing how food is served, and diverted through donation and composting." The specific purpose passes 4 tests and the central idea passes 3 checks (declarative, states the message, plain language), so 4 + 3 = 7 checks. The outline-error set's item 5, "Food waste in the dining hall.", is a topic written where a specific purpose belongs.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) the topic handed in as a specific purpose. Cure: add the infinitive phrase and the audience. (2) the specific purpose and the central idea treated as one sentence. Cure: a planning goal vs. a spoken message. (3) the central idea written as a question. Cure: a thesis asserts. (4) two ideas crammed into one specific purpose. Cure: one idea per speech. (5) "I will narrow it as I go." Cure: narrow first, then research. (6) "the chatbot can write my specific purpose." Cure: it does not know your audience, your occasion, or your clock.

Week 4 — Research and supporting materials

  • The distinction: expert vs. lay testimony, and a complete oral citation vs. "studies show".
  • Key idea: evidence only counts when your listeners can tell where it came from, so you say the source out loud.
  • Definitions: supporting material comes in three kinds. An example is a real case told in a sentence or two (a brief example) or as a short story (an extended example), or an invented case (a hypothetical example) that an honest speaker always flags as invented. A statistic is a number from a credible source, used accurately, dated, and made meaningful. Testimony is another person's words or findings: expert testimony comes from a person qualified in the field, and lay testimony comes from an ordinary witness speaking from firsthand experience.
  • Judging sources: the five-question credibility checklist asks about currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose; the course teaches it as one common checklist among several. Checking a source against independent sources catches claims that do not hold up, including a chatbot's. A peer-reviewed article was examined by other experts before a journal published it, and a DOI is a permanent code for finding that exact article.
  • Statistics in words: say average (the typical value), spread (how far the values scatter), and range (lowest to highest). Ask who counted, when, and how many. One well-sourced number beats a wall of unverified ones.
  • The oral citation: a spoken credit, placed in the sentence before the evidence, that names who produced the source (with one clause on why they are credible), what the source is (its title or venue), and when it appeared. The written bibliography sits at the end of the preparation outline, and listeners never hear it. A paraphrase still needs its source. An uncredited quotation or paraphrase is plagiarism; an invented quotation, statistic, or study is fabrication.
  • The Truth case, in words: two published versions of Sojourner Truth's 1851 convention speech differ so much that the famous refrain is missing from the earlier report. A quotation is only as good as the transcript it comes from, so the course quotes no line from it.
  • Course example: the mini-source set: a U.S. Department of Agriculture FAQ page, a 2022 peer-reviewed study by Wenhao Zhang and Junehee Kwon in Sustainability, and a 2022 news article by Dee-Ann Durbin of the Associated Press for PBS News. The researchers reporting their own study give expert testimony; a crossing guard describing the corner every school morning gives lay testimony. Running 3 sources through 5 questions makes 3 × 5 = 15 checks, and 3 citations × 3 parts = 9 parts named. The part that most often goes missing is when.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) expert and lay testimony treated as the same thing. Cure: qualified judgment vs. what an experience was like. (2) "more statistics make a speech more persuasive." Cure: one well-sourced number beats a wall of unverified ones. (3) an oral citation treated as a bibliography. Cure: one is said aloud during the speech; the other is written at the end. (4) "paraphrasing means I do not have to cite." Cure: the idea still needs its source. (5) "the chatbot gave me the citation, so I can use it." Cure: a chatbot is not a source; find it at the original or drop it. (6) "studies show" offered as a citation. Cure: which study, by whom, and when?

Week 5 — Organizing the speech

  • The distinction: match a pattern to its use. Name the purpose, ask which logic fits the audience's question, and only then pick the pattern.
  • Key idea: listeners cannot flip back a page, so the order of your ideas is part of your message.
  • Definitions: the introduction gains attention, reveals the topic (with the central idea stated near its end), establishes credibility, and previews the main points; that four-function list is the course's own convention. The body holds the main points and is planned first. The conclusion has three jobs: signal the end, summarize and reinforce, and land a memorable clincher. Main points are the few big ideas of the body, usually two to five, each distinct, balanced, and parallel; subpoints support them.
  • The six patterns this course names: chronological (time order), spatial (location or direction), topical (distinct categories of similar weight), causal (causes to effects or effects back to causes, with a real causal link), problem–solution (two parts: the problem, then the fix), and Monroe's Motivated Sequence. Monroe (1935), Principles and Types of Speech, set out its five steps: attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. It is built for a speech that asks an audience to act. Many treatments add other patterns, so the count of six is this course's choice.
  • Course example: the running speech informs, and its audience asks "how is it handled?", so the topical pattern fits, with one main point each for measuring, targeting, and diverting. The chronological alternative, a tray's path from the serving line to the bin, is set aside, not wrong. Around the body sit 4 introduction functions + 3 conclusion jobs = 7 door sentences.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) main points and subpoints swapped. Cure: a main point is a big idea; a subpoint supports one. (2) "topical means whatever I want." Cure: the categories must be distinct and parallel. (3) a causal pattern built on events that only happen together. Cure: show a real causal link. (4) problem–solution confused with Monroe's sequence. Cure: two parts against five steps. (5) "Monroe's sequence is for informative speeches." Cure: it is built for a call to action. (6) writing the introduction first. Cure: build the body first. (7) "in conclusion" mistaken for the clincher. Cure: it is the signal, not the last line.

Week 6 — Outlining

  • The distinction: preparation outline vs. speaking outline, and transition vs. signpost.
  • Key idea: a full plan helps you build a speech, but it makes a poor thing to hold while you speak.
  • Definitions: the preparation outline is the finished, full-sentence plan, with every connective written out and every oral citation written in where its evidence appears; it never goes to the lectern. The speaking outline is keywords and short phrases on cards, one card per section, plus any exact words that must be said exactly.
  • The four outlining rules: coordination (ideas at one level carry the same weight); subordination (every lower item supports the item above it, which the "because" test checks); division (a divided point has at least two parts, so an A needs a B; a lone subpoint breaks it); and parallelism (items at one level share one grammatical form). The symbol system is written one way: I, then A, then 1, then a.
  • The four connectives: a transition bridges two main points by naming the point you leave and the point you enter. A signpost is a short marker such as "first" or "finally" that tells listeners where they are. An internal preview tells listeners which subpoints are coming inside one main point. An internal summary pulls one main point together before you move on.
  • Course example: the running speech's preparation outline holds 3 main points × 2 subpoints = 6 subpoints, so 3 + 6 = 9 lines in the symbol system. Its speaking outline is 1 introduction card + 3 main-point cards + 1 conclusion card = 5 cards. On the outline-error set, item 1 promotes the scale's location to a main point, which breaks coordination. Item 2 lets one main point restate another, which breaks subordination. Item 3 needs a transition that names both sides, and item 4 turns "Also, composting." into a sentence that names the relationship.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) taking the preparation outline to the lectern. Cure: you will read it, so take the cards. (2) a lone subpoint kept "because it is the most important." Cure: fold it into the point above or find a real second subpoint. (3) a subpoint that does not support the point above it. Cure: run the "because" test. (4) a transition and a signpost treated as one device. Cure: a bridge that names both sides vs. a one-word marker. (5) a statistic in the outline with no citation beside it. Cure: write the oral citation in where the evidence sits.

Week 7 — Language and style

  • The distinction: oral style vs. written style.
  • Key idea: a reader can go back and re-read, but a listener cannot, so you choose words for the ear.
  • Definitions: oral style is language built to be heard once: shorter sentences, more repetition, heavier signposting, first and second person, familiar concrete words, and rhythm built in. Written style is built for a reader who can slow down and look back. The read-aloud test says every sentence out loud before you keep it.
  • Clarity and its four killers: abstract words (ideas a listener cannot picture), jargon (a field's insider vocabulary), long sentences, and vague quantifiers (such as "many" or "some"). A concrete word names something a listener can see, hear, touch, or count.
  • Vividness and the six devices: a metaphor describes one thing as if it were another, with no "like" or "as". A simile compares two unlike things using "like" or "as", which is the tell. Parallelism gives equal ideas the same grammatical form. Anaphora repeats the same opening words at the start of several sentences or clauses in a row. Antithesis sets contrasting ideas side by side in matching form, sometimes by reversing the same words. Alliteration repeats the same opening sound in nearby words.
  • Appropriateness and meaning: appropriateness is the fit between your words and four things: the audience, the occasion, the topic, and you as the speaker, including register (the level of formality). A word's denotative meaning is what it names; its connotative meaning is what it suggests. Loaded language pushes a listener toward a judgment the evidence has not earned, so it is an ethics issue. Inclusive language describes people accurately and with respect, through people-first language, unbiased language, and the names communities use for themselves.
  • Course example, the devices on their fragments: "ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country" is antithesis, from Kennedy's inaugural address (1961), with the two-hyphen dash the library's transcript prints. "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans" is a metaphor from the same address. The run of "Last night" sentences in Roosevelt's address to Congress (1941) is anaphora. "of the people, by the people, for the people", from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), is parallelism. Roosevelt's transcript says "a date which will live in infamy", not "a day that".
  • Course example, the flat-to-oral pair: the flat sentence holds 21 words. The oral version's first three sentences hold 16 + 7 + 13 = 36 words, so 36 ÷ 3 = 12 words per sentence, and each runs 21 − 12 = 9 words shorter on average.
  • Predictable mistakes → cures: (1) simile and metaphor treated as one figure. Cure: "like" or "as" is the tell. (2) vividness confused with fancy words. Cure: a plain word can be the vivid one. (3) inclusive language dismissed as a constraint. Cure: it is accuracy and respect for the audience. (4) a speech written and then read. Cure: run the read-aloud test. (5) devices piled into every sentence. Cure: one device used well beats five. (6) denotation and connotation treated as unrelated. Cure: every word carries both.

Week 8's new idea (not tested on its own)

The five canons of rhetoric are the Roman rhetorical tradition's division of a speaker's work: invention (finding what to say), arrangement (putting it in an order a listener can follow), style (choosing the words), memory (holding the prepared speech in mind, which in this course means rehearsing from a speaking outline), and delivery (presenting it through voice and body). They are set out in the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium, once credited to Cicero, and in Cicero's own De Inventione. On the course map, Weeks 3 and 4 were invention, Weeks 5 and 6 arrangement, and Week 7 style, so 2 + 2 + 1 = 5 weeks of canon work so far. Of the 5 canons, 3 are walked and 5 − 3 = 2 remain for Weeks 9 to 15.

Representative practice

These are fresh variants, not the midterm's questions. Work each worked example yourself first, then compare your steps. Every scenario below is illustrative, invented for this guide, and attributed to no one; the only real speeches and sources are the ones the course pinned. Every count is computed and checked in advance.

Worked example — a pool announcement through the model (Week 1)

At an illustrative community pool, a lifeguard speaks over the deck loudspeaker at the start of an afternoon session: "The deep end closes at three for a swim lesson; lap swimmers, please move to lanes one and two before three."

  • Source: the lifeguard, who puts the news into words and picks the loudspeaker.
  • Message: the deep end closes at three, and lap swimmers move to lanes one and two before then.
  • Channel: spoken words carried by the deck loudspeaker. That is the route, not the content.
  • Receiver: each swimmer who decodes the words, including a visitor on a day pass.
  • Noise, four kinds: splashing from a busy shallow end (physical); water stuck in one swimmer's ear (physiological); a parent wondering whether a child's lesson starts on time (psychological); the visitor not knowing which lanes the pool numbers one and two (semantic).
  • Feedback: two swimmers stop at the wall and look up at the lifeguard, puzzled. The lifeguard adds "the two lanes nearest the clock" and repeats the time. The listeners changed the message while it was being sent, which is the transactional picture.
  • Tally: all 6 elements are present, and the noise shows up in all 4 of its kinds.

Why it matters: each element answers its own question (who, what, by what route, to whom, what got in the way, and what came back), so naming the question tells you the element.

Worked example — honest credit, plagiarism, or fabrication? (Week 1)

Three illustrative moments at a farmers' market vendors' meeting:

  1. A speaker reads two sentences from another market's newsletter word for word and never says where they came from. Plagiarism: a quotation used without naming its source out loud.
  2. A speaker says a survey of shoppers found that most want later hours, but there was no survey; the speaker made it up to sound convincing. Fabrication: an invented statistic presented as real.
  3. A speaker names the market's posted rules sheet, says who wrote it and when it went up, and then reads one rule. Honest credit: the source is named before the evidence.

Tally: 1 plagiarism + 1 fabrication + 1 honest credit = 3 moments.

Why it matters: plagiarism hides where real words came from; fabrication invents words or numbers that never existed, which is the more serious breach.

Worked example — a shift-change briefing through the five stages (Week 2)

At an illustrative hospital shift change, the outgoing nurse briefs the incoming nurse beside a busy monitor.

  • Receiving: "bed four is a fall risk" reaches the incoming nurse's ears over the monitor's beeping. Hearing covers this stage only.
  • Attending: the incoming nurse sets the clipboard down and faces the speaker.
  • Understanding: the incoming nurse links "fall risk" to the bed alarm that needs checking.
  • Responding: the incoming nurse paraphrases: "So the bed-four alarm gets checked every hour?"
  • Remembering: an hour later, the incoming nurse checks the alarm without looking at any notes.

Tally: 5 stages, and 5 − 1 = 4 of them are choices the listener makes.

The five types of listening, in five fresh scenes (illustrative):

  • On a dawn bird walk, a hiker tells two calls apart by their pitch: discriminative.
  • At a free tax-help workshop, a student writes down which form to file and by when: comprehensive.
  • At a gym, a member weighs whether a trainer's claims about a protein powder are backed by evidence: critical, which means judging fairly.
  • A friend describes the night a kitchen fire forced the family out, and you listen for how your friend feels, offering no fix: empathic.
  • At a jazz night, a listener savors a trumpet solo: appreciative.

Why it matters: the purpose decides the type, so ask what the listener is trying to do before you name it.

Worked example — profiling a hiking club (Week 2)

An illustrative speaker is preparing a ten-minute informative talk on trail etiquette for a hiking club's monthly meeting in a library meeting room.

An illustrative audience profile for a hiking-club talk: one finding and one adaptation for each of the three lenses
Lens Finding Adaptation
Demographic Members range widely in age, and a show of hands at the last meeting suggested many have hiked for years Skip trail basics and build examples from the local trails members already know
Psychographic Most members value quiet trails, and some hear new rules as nagging Frame etiquette as protecting the quiet they value, not as a list of scoldings
Situational About 25 members who chose to come, a ten-minute slot after a gear swap, folding chairs in one room Keep to the two etiquette habits that matter most on crowded weekends, and leave a minute for questions
  • Tendency or stereotype? "Many members have likely hiked these trails for years, which a show of hands can confirm" is a tendency, checked. "Older hikers ignore new rules" pins a trait on people by their age, which is stereotyping.
  • Tally: 3 findings + 3 adaptations = 6 filled cells, a complete profile.

Why it matters: every finding earns a change, and a profile without its adaptation column is description, not analysis.

Worked example — from a topic to a spoken central idea (Week 3)

An illustrative student who works shifts at a campus recycling center prepares a five-minute informative speech for a section of about 20 classmates.

  • Topic, narrowed: "recycling" narrows to "how the campus recycling center sorts the mixed bins from residence halls". The purpose filter keeps the speech on how sorting works, not on what anyone should do. The audience filter keeps it on bins the classmates use. The context filter rules out a demonstration in a classroom. The time filter keeps it to one stream of bins.
  • General purpose: to inform.
  • Specific purpose: "To inform my audience about how the campus recycling center sorts the mixed bins from residence halls." One idea: yes. An infinitive phrase: yes. Audience-centered: yes. Achievable in five minutes: yes. It passes 4 of 4 tests.
  • Central idea: "The campus recycling center sorts mixed bins in three passes: by hand at a conveyor, by magnet for steel cans, and by screen for paper." Declarative: yes. States the message: yes. Plain language: yes. It passes 3 of 3 checks.
  • Tally: 4 tests + 3 checks = 7 checks.
  • Where each one lives: the specific purpose stays on the planning page; the central idea is spoken near the end of the introduction.

A draft that needs fixing (illustrative): "To inform my audience about recycling and get them to start composting at home." One idea: no, since it holds two topics and two aims. An infinitive phrase: yes. Audience-centered: yes. Achievable in five minutes: no. It passes 2 of 4 tests, so 4 − 2 = 2 tests fail. The fix keeps one idea and one aim: the sorting speech above.

General purposes in three scenes (illustrative): a wedding toast for a sibling marks an occasion; a museum guide explaining how a hand loom works informs; a student urging classmates to join a first-year mentoring program persuades. Tally: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 scenes, one for each general purpose.

Why it matters: the specific purpose is the goal you plan with, and the central idea is the message the audience hears; mixing them up costs you both.

Worked example — evidence for a mentoring-program talk (Week 4)

An illustrative informative talk explains how a first-year mentoring program pairs new students with mentors.

  • "One new student in the program met a mentor in the first week and found the tutoring room the same day." A brief example: a case told in a sentence.
  • "My mentor walked me to the writing center before my first paper was due," says a second-year student in the program. Lay testimony: firsthand experience of what it was like.
  • A researcher who studies how first-year students settle in reports what their own study found. Expert testimony: a person qualified in the field.
  • The program's own sign-up count for the year, with who counted and when said aloud. A statistic from a named counter.
  • Tally: 1 example + 1 statistic + 2 kinds of testimony = 4 pieces, covering all 3 kinds of supporting material.

The credibility checklist on an illustrative post. An anonymous post on a travel forum, dated last month, says a city's ferry "carries more riders than any bus line", with no source. The talk is about how that ferry crossing runs.

  • Currency: dated last month. Passes.
  • Relevance: it is about the ferry in the talk. Passes.
  • Authority: anonymous. Fails.
  • Accuracy: no source, so the claim cannot be checked. Fails.
  • Purpose: to share travel tips, with nothing to sell. Passes.
  • Tally: 3 pass + 2 fail = 5 questions. Check the claim against independent sources, such as the ferry operator's own figures, and drop it if nothing holds it up.

A complete oral citation, part by part. The course's third oral citation, with its year: "As Associated Press reporter Dee-Ann Durbin wrote for PBS News in 2022, about 35 percent of the food available in the United States in 2019 went unsold or uneaten, according to ReFED, a group that studies food waste."

  • Who: Dee-Ann Durbin, an Associated Press reporter.
  • What: PBS News, the venue.
  • When: 2022.
  • All three come before the evidence, so 3 of 3 parts are named.
  • The same evidence opened with "Studies show" names no who, no what, and no when: 0 of 3 parts, so 3 − 0 = 3 parts missing.

Why it matters: a listener cannot check a source the speaker never names, and the date is the part that most often goes missing.

Worked example — matching a pattern to its use (Week 5)

Six illustrative topics, each matched by the decision logic:

  1. How a ferry crossing runs, from buying a ticket to stepping off at the landing: chronological, because the audience asks what happens first and next.
  2. A walk through a small community museum, from the entrance hall to the back gallery: spatial, because the audience asks where each part is.
  3. The three kinds of volunteer roles at a food bank: topical, because the categories are distinct and of similar weight.
  4. Why a bakery's morning line grew after a large office opened across the street: causal, as long as the speaker shows a real link and not two events that happened at the same time.
  5. Late-night noise in a residence hall, and quiet hours as a fix: problem–solution, two parts.
  6. Urging classmates to sign up for a first-year mentoring program, ending with where to sign up: Monroe's Motivated Sequence, because the speech asks the audience to act.

Tally: 6 topics, one for each of the 6 patterns.

Why it matters: the purpose and the audience's question pick the pattern, so a pattern that ignores either one gets set aside.

Worked example — fixing an outline and naming its connectives (Week 6)

An illustrative draft for an informative talk on a city tool-lending library:

I. The library lends tools for a small yearly fee.
II. The fee is paid at the front desk.
III. Members can borrow tools for home projects.
    A. Ladders must come back within two days.
  • Error 1: point II is a detail of point I. It fails the same-weight test, so it breaks coordination. Fix: make the front desk a subpoint of point I and give it a partner.
  • Error 2: point III has a lone subpoint A, which breaks division. Fix: add a real subpoint B.

The fixed outline:

I. The library lends tools for a small yearly fee.
    A. The fee is paid at the front desk.
    B. Members renew the fee once a year.
II. Members can borrow tools for home projects.
    A. Drills and saws go out for a week.
    B. Ladders must come back within two days.
  • Tally: the draft had 3 main points and now has 3 − 1 = 2. The fixed outline has 2 main points + 4 subpoints = 6 lines. The "because" test passes for each subpoint: members can borrow tools because drills, saws, and ladders go out on set loans.

Four connectives from the same talk (illustrative):

  • "Now that you know what membership costs, let's look at what you can borrow." A transition: it names the point you leave and the point you enter.
  • "Second," a signpost: it marks the place and names no relationship.
  • "This point has two parts: power tools first, then ladders." An internal preview inside one main point.
  • "That covers both kinds of loans: a week for power tools and two days for ladders." An internal summary before you move on.
  • Tally: 4 lines, one for each of the 4 connectives.

The two outlines: the preparation outline holds every line above as a full sentence, with the transition written out. The speaking outline is 1 introduction card + 2 main-point cards + 1 conclusion card = 4 cards of keywords, such as "fee · front desk · yearly renewal".

Why it matters: the rules keep the levels honest, and the connectives tell a listener where they are and how the ideas fit.

Worked example — a gym notice, flat to oral (Week 7)

The flat version (illustrative, written style): "Members are reminded that utilization of equipment is contingent upon completion of an orientation session prior to first use." It holds 19 words in 1 sentence.

The oral version (illustrative): "Before you use a machine, take the orientation. It takes 20 minutes. Then every machine is yours." Its three sentences hold 8 + 4 + 5 = 17 words, none longer than 8, so the whole notice runs 19 − 17 = 2 words shorter and no listener has to hold a 19-word sentence in mind.

  • What changed: abstract nouns ("utilization", "completion") became actions a listener can picture. One long sentence became three short ones, and the notice now speaks to "you".

The four killers of clarity, one fix each (illustrative):

  • An abstract word: "The program enhanced community outcomes." becomes "The garden fed 40 families this year." (illustrative).
  • Jargon: "The kitchen runs FIFO on every shelf." becomes "The kitchen uses the oldest food first."
  • A long sentence: split it into two or three short ones, as the gym notice above shows.
  • A vague quantifier: "Lots of riders take the ferry." becomes a sourced figure said with its oral citation, or a plain count you can check.

More word choices (illustrative):

  • A simile and a metaphor: "The first day of a new job hit like a wave I never saw coming." is a simile, because "like" is the tell. "The ferry is the island's lifeline." is a metaphor, with no "like" or "as".
  • Alliteration: "a calm, clear, confident close" repeats the opening sound of three nearby words.
  • Denotation and connotation: "curious" and "nosy" name the same wish to know, but one praises and one sneers.
  • Loaded language: "the freeloaders who skip the fare" becomes "riders who do not pay the fare", because the evidence has not earned the judgment.
  • Inclusive language: "a diabetic" becomes "a person with diabetes" (people-first), and "chairman" becomes "chair" (unbiased).

Why it matters: a listener hears each sentence once, so short, concrete, accurate words carry the message the first time.

Worked example — the canons on the mentoring-program speech (Week 8)

Lay the illustrative mentoring-program speech from the Week 5 example on the five canons:

  • Invention: the topic, the specific purpose, the central idea, and the evidence with its oral citations.
  • Arrangement: Monroe's Motivated Sequence, the preparation outline, and the speaking-outline cards.
  • Style: oral style, one well-placed device, and accurate, inclusive words.
  • Memory and delivery: rehearsing from the cards and presenting with voice and body, which Weeks 9 to 15 teach.
  • Tally: 3 canons done + 2 ahead = 5 canons.

Why it matters: the canons turn a list of weeks into one workflow you can run on any speech.

Self-check questions

Try each one, then read the check and the one-line why.

  1. At an illustrative concert hall, an usher's announcement is drowned out by a jackhammer on the street. Which kind of noise is it? Check: physical noise. Why: it is a distraction in the setting.
  2. At an illustrative job interview, a candidate reads every word of a prepared reply from a sheet. Which delivery method is it? Check: manuscript. Why: the words are read word for word.
  3. An illustrative listener decides after one sentence that a talk on compost will be dull, and tunes out. Which barrier is it? Check: prejudging. Why: the listener judged the message before hearing it in full.
  4. An illustrative speaker learns that every new employee must attend the orientation talk. Which lens produced that finding, and what kind of audience is it? Check: the situational lens, and a captive audience. Why: whether listeners chose to attend is part of the situation.
  5. "To inform my audience about every bird species in North America." Which test does this specific purpose fail? Check: achievable in the time. Why: no short speech can cover a whole continent's birds.
  6. An illustrative speaker opens a claim with "Studies show". How many of the oral citation's three parts are named? Check: none of the three. Why: it names no who, no what, and no when.
  7. An illustrative volunteer who has sorted donations at a food bank for two years describes a busy morning. Which kind of supporting material does that give a speaker? Check: lay testimony. Why: it is firsthand experience, not expert judgment.
  8. An illustrative speaker ends with "In conclusion, thank you." Is that a clincher? Check: no. Why: "in conclusion" is the signal; the clincher is the memorable last line.
  9. Inside one main point, an illustrative speaker says, "This point has two parts: the cost, then the schedule." Which connective is it? Check: an internal preview. Why: it tells listeners which subpoints are coming inside one main point.
  10. A classmate quotes Roosevelt's address to Congress (1941) as "a day that will live in infamy". What is wrong? Check: the transcript says "a date which will live in infamy". Why: a fragment is either word for word or wrong.

Check yourself — choose one. Write two or three sentences to a friend.

  • (a) Explain why a specific purpose stays on your planning page while the central idea is spoken aloud.
  • (b) Explain why "studies show" is not an oral citation, and what a complete one adds.

Either one rehearses an explain-why skill the midterm checks.

Watch before the exam

These eight videos come from the course's vetted Week 8 pool, and every one has captions. Use them to review and to connect weeks, not to learn anything new.

Study plan

A short countdown. Count back from the day you plan to sit the midterm.

  • Two weeks out: as you finish Week 6, start a one-page list of the course's swapped pairs: channel and message, hearing and listening, tendency and stereotype, specific purpose and central idea, expert and lay testimony, and a complete oral citation and "studies show". Add the preparation and speaking outlines and transition and signpost, then oral and written style when Week 7 arrives.
  • One week out: as you finish Week 7, reread the topic reviews above for Weeks 1 and 2. They are the furthest back, and together they hold 10 of the midterm's 25 questions.
  • At the start of Week 8: take the practice exam once, cold and closed-note. Note which objectives cost you the most, and remember that it leans less on Weeks 1 and 2 than the midterm does.
  • Three or four days before you sit it: reread the topic reviews for your two weakest objectives, and redo the matching worked examples from scratch without looking.
  • Two days before: run the paired exam-prep tutorial (the copy-and-paste chatbot tutor, or its no-AI route) for active recall. Tell it which areas the practice exam exposed.
  • The day before: retake the practice exam, explain every miss out loud, and work the self-check questions above. Saying your one-line cures aloud helps, whether to a friend or alone in a quiet room. You need no camera and no recording, and if you do record yourself, keep it on your own device and never share it with a chatbot.
  • Right before: skim the "predictable mistakes → cures" lines for all seven weeks. Then stop studying. Feeling some nerves before an exam is normal; a few slow breaths and a look at your one-page list are enough.

This guide is for review. The exam-prep tutorial and the practice exam are where you rehearse. Pulling ideas back out of memory, not rereading, is what makes them stick.

Exam format

Every one of the 25 questions counts the same, and the midterm checks your own understanding without AI. The questions come one at a time, and there is no going back, so settle each one before you move on.

Test-taking strategies for this material:

  • Name the pair before you choose. Most questions turn on two neighboring ideas, such as the channel and the message, or a specific purpose and a central idea. Say which pair is in play first.
  • Ask the one-line test. Route or content? Automatic or chosen? A goal on the page or a message said aloud? Firsthand experience or qualified judgment? A bridge between main points or a marker of place?
  • Check every fragment against its pinned words. A quotation is either word for word or wrong, and every pinned speech has one speaker and one year.
  • Treat "illustrative" as a cue. The scene was invented for the question and attributed to no one, so judge it by the course's definitions, not by what you guess happened next.
  • For a "pick every option that applies" question, judge each statement on its own, as if it were a true-or-false question.
  • For a count, write the fixed list out on scratch paper and count its members before you multiply.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com