Week 9 · Chapter

Chapter 9 — Delivery & the Modes of Delivery

Public Speaking Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~40–50 minutes · Objective 5 (use clear, vivid, and appropriate language written for a listener, including ethical and inclusive language, and deliver extemporaneously with effective vocal delivery (rate, pitch, volume, pauses, articulation, vocal variety) and physical delivery (eye contact, gestures, movement, posture, facial expression), distinguishing the four delivery methods), Objective 1 (explain how communication works using the course's six-element process model (source, message, channel, receiver, noise, feedback) traced to the linear, interactional, and transactional models, speak ethically — honestly, prepared, crediting sources aloud, never fabricating — and manage communication apprehension with evidence-based strategies) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slide deck, the tutorial, the quiz, and the Speech Workshop all build on it.

In plain language

This week your speech leaves the page and comes out of your mouth. Delivery (how you present a prepared speech with your voice and body) can make a strong outline land or sink. You learn the four ways to deliver a speech and why this course aims for extemporaneous delivery (speaking from brief notes after real practice). You learn what your voice and your body each add, and how to watch a recording of yourself and name one moment to fix. You also learn why a famous claim about "body language" does not mean what people say it means.

Why you already care about this

A parent volunteer stands up at a youth soccer team's fundraiser meeting in front of about 40 families. The job is a 3-minute ask: sign up for the bake sale. The volunteer reads every word from a phone, eyes down, in one flat tone, with an "um" before each sentence. Half the room checks their own phones. When the meeting ends, the sign-up sheet on the table holds 2 names.

A month later the same volunteer stands up again, holding 1 card with 4 words on it. This time the volunteer looks up, pauses before the sign-up time, and points to the sheet on the table. The sheet fills. The scene is illustrative and attributed to no one, but you have watched both versions happen.

Here is the strange part. The words barely changed. The facts, the date, and the ask were the same. What changed was the delivery: where the eyes went, where the silence fell, and whether the speaker sounded like a person talking or a person reading. Week 8 named delivery as the fifth canon of rhetoric. This week it gets its own tools.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

name the four delivery methods, match each one to a speaking moment, and tell extemporaneous delivery from memorized and from impromptu delivery;
use the six elements of vocal delivery, and tell a strategic pause from a filler;
use the five elements of physical delivery, and glance at your notes without reading them;
correct the "7-38-55" figure in words, from the researcher's own statement of its limits;
fill in a delivery self-assessment table for two takes, compare them measure by measure, and name one moment to fix;
check a chatbot's delivery feedback by hand, since it cannot watch your recording.

Carry this line with you: prepared, not memorized; practiced, not read.

Where we are

Already covered: Weeks 1 to 7 built the message: the audience, the purpose and central idea, the evidence and its oral citations, the pattern, the two outlines, and the words chosen for the ear. Week 8 laid all of that on the five canons of rhetoric.
This week: the four delivery methods, vocal delivery, physical delivery, the "7-38-55" figure corrected, the delivery self-assessment table across two takes, and a chatbot's delivery feedback.
How they connect: Week 6 turned the running speech into five speaking-outline cards, and this week you deliver the speech from those cards.
Where we're going next: Week 10 adds presentation aids, the slides and objects that support a speaker without replacing one.

Here is what each earlier week gives you now. Week 1 previewed the four delivery methods, named extemporaneous delivery as the target, and showed the first take of the rehearsal loop; this week you see both takes. Week 1 also framed nerves as common and manageable, and that framing returns in section 4. Week 6 built the speaking outline: five cards of keywords and citation cues that keep you from reading. Week 7 wrote your sentences for the ear. Week 8 placed this week on the map: invention, arrangement, and style are done, and memory and delivery begin.

1. The four delivery methods: match the method to the moment

Think about four times you have heard someone speak. At a memorial, a family member reads a eulogy from a printed page. At a wedding, a friend recites a toast from memory. In a seminar, the instructor turns to you with a question and you answer on the spot. In class, a classmate gives a talk from three small cards. Each of those speakers made a different choice about how to get the words out.

This course names four delivery methods, the four ways to deliver a speech:

Manuscript delivery is reading a speech from a full written text, word for word; it suits moments when exact wording matters, but it pulls the eyes down and tends to flatten the voice.
Memorized delivery is reciting a speech word for word without notes after learning the text by heart; it suits a short, formal moment, but a single lost word can leave the speaker blank.
Impromptu delivery is speaking with little or no preparation, such as answering a question on the spot; it is the opposite of extemporaneous delivery, which is prepared and practiced.
Extemporaneous delivery is speaking from brief notes after careful preparation and practice, so the words come out conversationally rather than read or recited; it is this course's target method.

Worked example — four moments, four methods. All four scenes are illustrative and attributed to no one.

Four speaking moments sorted by delivery method, with the reason for each
Moment	Method	Why it fits, or what it risks
A eulogy read from a manuscript on purpose	Manuscript	Emotion runs high and every word matters, so the page is a safety rail.
A wedding toast recited from memory	Memorized	The toast is short and formal, but one lost line can stop it cold.
A seminar question answered on the spot	Impromptu	There was no time to prepare, so the speaker builds the answer live.
The running speech spoken from its five cards	Extemporaneous	The ideas are prepared and practiced; the exact words are chosen fresh each time.

That makes 4 moments for 4 methods. In words: no method is wrong in every case. The eulogy reader chose the page on purpose, because a shaking voice and an exact text go well together. For a class speech, though, extemporaneous delivery keeps your eyes on the room and your voice sounding like you.

Notice the two distinctions that trip almost everyone. Extemporaneous delivery is not memorized: you practice the ideas and their order, not a string of exact words. It is also not impromptu: it is prepared, rehearsed, and outlined. Week 15 practices impromptu speaking as its own skill; this week it is only defined and contrasted.

Misconception check. Students often say "I memorized my extemporaneous speech" or call extemporaneous delivery "making it up as you go." Both are tempting, because extemporaneous speech sounds natural, and natural can look unplanned. The cure is the definition. Extemporaneous means the ideas are prepared and practiced, but the exact words are chosen fresh each time, so it is not memorized; it is prepared, so it is not impromptu. A second wrong turn says "no notes means better delivery." The goal is not reading; it is not "no notes." A speaker who glances at a card and then talks to the room is doing extemporaneous delivery exactly right.

Memory hook: prepared, not memorized; practiced, not read.

2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning

Think about a friend telling you about a near-miss on the highway. Their voice speeds up as the truck swerves, drops low at the scary part, and stops dead for a second before "and then it missed us." You were not listening to a recording of words. You were listening to a voice that did half the storytelling.

Vocal delivery is the way a speaker uses the voice to carry a message, which this course checks through six elements: rate, pitch, volume, pauses, articulation, and vocal variety.

Rate is how fast a speaker talks, often measured in words per minute; a comfortable rate depends on the speaker, the topic, and the room, so no single number is correct.
Pitch is how high or low a speaker's voice sounds; rising and falling pitch signals questions, emphasis, and feeling, while one unchanging pitch sounds flat.
Volume is how loud or soft a speaker's voice is, adjusted to the size of the room and the distance to the farthest listener.
Pauses come in two kinds. A strategic pause is a planned moment of silence in a speech, such as after a hook or before a key line, that lets an idea land and gives listeners time to think. A filler is a sound or word such as "um," "uh," "like," or "so" that a speaker uses to fill a silence; it carries no meaning and is cut back through rehearsal.
Articulation is how crisply and completely a speaker forms each sound and word, so that a listener can tell the words apart the first time.
Vocal variety is the combined effect of changing rate, pitch, and volume and using pauses, so the voice sounds conversational and stresses what matters; it does not mean speaking louder.

Honesty note on rate: you will see books and websites name a "normal" rate in words per minute, and they do not agree. A comfortable rate depends on you, your topic, and your room. A dense statistic needs a slower pace than a familiar story. So this course teaches rate in words and never as a target number.

Worked example — a strategic pause on card 1. The running speech opens with an illustrative hook from its first speaking-outline card: "Picture the dish-return conveyor at closing time." Here are two ways to say what comes next, both illustrative.

Take 1. The speaker says the hook, then "um, so," then races into the central idea. The listeners have no time to picture the conveyor, and "um, so" tells them nothing.
Take 2. The speaker says the hook, then stops for a full second of silence, then says the central idea. The picture has a moment to form before the next idea arrives.

In words: the words on the card did not change. The silence changed. A filler fills a gap with noise; a strategic pause fills it with the listener's own thinking.

Misconception check. Students often think vocal variety means being louder. That is tempting, because a loud speaker is easy to notice. But volume is only one of the six elements, and a speech delivered at one loud level is as flat as one delivered at one soft level. Vocal variety is rate, pitch, and volume changing together, plus silence. Sometimes the strongest moment in a speech is the quietest one.

Memory hook: change the pace, change the pitch — and let the silence talk.

3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words

Picture a server at a busy diner who says "No rush at all" while tapping a pen and glancing at the door. You believe the pen, not the words. Your body sends a message every second you stand in front of a room, so the question is whether it agrees with what you are saying.

Physical delivery is the way a speaker uses the body to carry a message, which this course checks through five elements: eye contact, gestures, movement, posture, and facial expression.

Eye contact is looking at individual listeners in a conversational way, finishing a thought with one person before moving to another, which lets the speaker read feedback and makes each listener feel spoken to.
A gesture is a movement of the hands or arms that supports a speaker's words, either by showing something or by stressing it. A descriptive gesture is a gesture that shows the size, shape, direction, or location of what the speaker is describing, such as spreading the hands to show a width. An emphatic gesture is a gesture that stresses a word or idea, such as a firm downward motion of the hand on a key line.
An adaptor is an unplanned nervous movement, such as clicking a pen, touching the hair, or shifting from foot to foot, that a speaker works to reduce because it pulls attention from the message.
Movement is how a speaker moves around the speaking space; purposeful movement, such as a step toward the audience at a transition, supports the message, while constant pacing distracts.
Posture is how a speaker stands or sits while speaking; an upright, balanced stance with weight on both feet signals readiness and helps the voice carry.
Facial expression is the look on a speaker's face while speaking, which should match the message, such as a warm look for a welcome and a serious look for a sobering fact.

Eye contact does a second job that Week 1 set up. Communication is transactional: your listeners send feedback while you speak. A nod, a frown, or a puzzled look is feedback, and you can only read it if your eyes are on the room.

Worked example — three gestures on one speech. All three moments are illustrative and come from the running speech.

Descriptive. Under main point I, the speaker describes the scale at the dish-return window and spreads both hands to show the width of its tray. The gesture shows a size.
Emphatic. In the clincher, "Every plate that comes back full was a choice somebody made," one hand moves firmly down on "every." The gesture stresses a word.
Adaptor. Through the whole first take, the speaker clicks a pen. That is the one to cut, because it adds no meaning and pulls the eye.

Worked example — reading from the card the extemporaneous way. Card 2 of the running speech's speaking outline reads "weigh · scale at the return window · USDA FAQ, ERS, 30 to 40." The speaker glances down for the citation cue, looks up, and says oral citation 1 to the room:

"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Waste FAQ page, which draws on the department's Economic Research Service, between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply in the United States goes to waste."

Across all 5 cards, the speaker sees keywords and citation cues, never a full sentence of the body. In words: the card reminds; it does not speak for you. You look down for a cue, then up for the sentence.

Misconception check. Students often think constant movement shows energy, and that looking over the audience's heads counts as eye contact. Both are tempting. Pacing feels like a way to burn off nerves, and the back wall feels safer than a face. But purposeless pacing pulls the eye away from your words, and a gaze over the heads sends no one a message and reads no feedback. The cure is a step with a purpose, at a transition, and a gaze that finishes one thought with one person before it moves.

Pause and reflect. Choose one option and jot two or three sentences.

(a) Think of a speaker you have watched in person, such as a coach, a manager, a teacher, or a guide. What did their body do that made you trust or doubt their words?

(b) Stand up and say the first sentence of your own speech to an empty chair. Which of the five physical elements did you notice first in yourself?

Memory hook: one person, one thought — then move.

4. The "7-38-55" figure and the nerves: keep both in proportion

You may have heard someone say that only a small slice of any message comes from your words, and the rest comes from your voice and body. It turns up in workshops, posters, and social media posts, usually as the "7-38-55" figure. It sounds precise. It is also widely misused.

The 7-38-55 figure is a widely repeated claim that words carry only a small share of a message, with voice and body carrying the rest. It comes from Albert Mehrabian's 1967 studies of feelings and attitudes conveyed by single words, and by his own statement it does not apply to communication in general.

Worked example — correcting the figure in words. Here is the reasoning, one step at a time.

Where it comes from. Mehrabian's 1967 studies looked at how people judged feelings and attitudes, such as liking or disliking, from single words said in a certain tone.
What Mehrabian himself says. In his own statement, the equations do not apply unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes.
Test the running speech. An informative speech about how a dining hall weighs its plate waste is not a message about the speaker's feelings. So the figure tells you nothing about how much of that speech rides on its words.
What is left. Delivery matters, and the words matter too. Neither one replaces the other.

In words: a number that came from a narrow experiment got stretched into a rule about all speaking. Week 4's habit of asking where a claim came from catches it.

Limitation: this course never asks you for the three numbers in that figure, and it never treats them as a fact about speeches. They are taught here only so you can recognize the claim and correct it.

Nerves show up in delivery, and that is normal

Here is where Week 1 returns. When your heart is racing, it shows up in delivery: a few extra fillers, a pen that starts clicking, feet that start pacing. That does not mean something is wrong with you. Most speakers feel nervous, including strong ones; they channel it. Fillers and adaptors are common signs of nerves, not proof that you are a poor speaker.

The tools are the same ones Week 1 named. Rehearse out loud, more than once. Treat the adrenaline as energy. Slow your breathing before you start. Put your attention on the message and the listeners rather than on yourself. Expect the nerves to spike at the start and then ease. Two tools come from this week: a planned pause after the hook gives your breathing a moment to settle, and a card in your hand gives a nervous hand a job.

Misconception check. Students often think the "7-38-55" figure applies to all communication, so the words of a speech barely matter. That is tempting, because the numbers look scientific and the claim is everywhere. But the figure comes from studies of feelings and attitudes conveyed by single words, and its own author says it does not apply outside that case. A second wrong turn is "good speakers are not nervous." Most are nervous; they rehearse, and they use the energy.

Memory hook: ask where the number came from — and let the nerves be fuel.

5. The rehearsal loop: compare two takes and check the machine

Think about a basketball player watching game film. They do not say "I played okay." They say "I left the corner open on that third possession." Watching yourself works the same way when you name a moment instead of a mood.

The rehearsal loop is the practice cycle of recording a take, watching it, naming one specific moment to fix, and recording again. The record of the loop is the delivery self-assessment table. It is a table a speaker fills in after recording two takes of a speech, listing measures such as words per minute, fillers per minute, eye-contact share, and deliberate pauses, plus the one moment to fix.

Two of those measures get their own names. Fillers per minute is a measure of how often a speaker uses filler words, found by dividing the filler words counted in a take by the minutes it lasted. Eye-contact share is the percent of a timed sample a speaker spends looking at listeners, found by dividing the seconds of eye contact by the seconds in the sample and multiplying by 100.

In practice (your tools). You need a recording tool, such as a phone camera or a video-call app, and the stopwatch on your phone. Record the whole take. For the 30-second sample, start the stopwatch at any point and count the seconds your eyes are on the room. Count fillers by listening once with a pencil. Your recording is yours: you can record audio only and count pauses and fillers, or delete the video as soon as you fill in the table. No one else needs to see it, and you never need to share it with a chatbot.

Worked example — the delivery self-assessment table. One illustrative speaker delivers the running speech twice from its five speaking-outline cards and records each take for 6 minutes. The table and the speaker are illustrative and attributed to no one, and none of these numbers is a target or a "correct" rate.

Illustrative delivery self-assessment table for two 6-minute takes of the running speech
Measure	Take 1	Take 2
Words spoken in 6 minutes	780	720
Words per minute (words ÷ 6)	130	120
Filler words counted ("um," "like," "so")	12	6
Fillers per minute (count ÷ 6)	2	1
Seconds of eye contact in a 30-second sample	21	24
Eye-contact share (seconds ÷ 30 × 100)	70 percent	80 percent
Deliberate pauses counted	9	12
The one thing to fix	"Pause after the hook instead of racing into the central idea."	"Look up through a whole main point before glancing at the card."

Now walk the arithmetic, one measure at a time.

Rate. Take 1: 780 ÷ 6 = 130 words per minute. Take 2: 720 ÷ 6 = 120 words per minute. The rate fell by 130 − 120 = 10 words per minute, and the take held 780 − 720 = 60 fewer words.
Fillers. Take 1: 12 ÷ 6 = 2 fillers per minute. Take 2: 6 ÷ 6 = 1 filler per minute. That is 1 versus 2 fillers per minute, a 2-fold drop from take 1.
Eye contact. Take 1: 21 ÷ 30 × 100 = 70 percent. Take 2: 24 ÷ 30 × 100 = 80 percent. Eye contact rose by 24 − 21 = 3 seconds, from 70 to 80 percent of the sample.
Pauses. Take 1 holds 9 deliberate pauses and take 2 holds 12, so the pauses rose by 12 − 9 = 3.
Read the comparison. You do not call take 2 "better" because a number went down or up. It is better because the fix named after take 1 shows up in take 2, where the speaker now pauses after the hook. Then take 2 names its own next fix.

In words: the table turns "it went okay" into a moment you can find on the recording. Remember the volunteer at the fundraiser meeting: the second ask worked because of a pause and a look up, and a table like this one is how you find those moments in your own take. A rate of 120 is not the right rate, and 130 is not the wrong one; the numbers describe two takes, nothing more.

Caveat: the 30-second sample is a slice, not the whole speech. A speaker could look up for those 30 seconds and read for the next five minutes. Pick the sample from a main point, not the opening line, and watch the whole take once before you trust it.

What a chatbot can and cannot do with your delivery

You will use a chatbot as a rehearsal coach this term. It can help with an outline or a cue card. It cannot watch you.

Worked example — checking a chatbot's delivery feedback by hand. The exchange is illustrative and names no product. You describe take 1 to a chatbot in a few sentences and ask for delivery feedback. It answers:

"Great energy! Work on your delivery and try to sound more confident."

Run it against your table, one check at a time.

Does it name a moment? No. It does not say where in the take anything happened.
Does it name a measure? No. It says nothing about rate, fillers, eye contact, or pauses.
Does it name a fix? No. "Sound more confident" is a mood, not a move.
Count the problems. 1 piece of hollow praise + 1 piece of feedback that names no moment = 2 problems caught.

Your own table already names the fix: pause after the hook. In words: the chatbot answered a description, not a recording, so it could only guess. Feedback that names no moment cannot be tried in the next take.

Misconception check. Students often think a slower rate or a higher eye-contact share is always better, as if the table gave a grade. That is tempting, because the numbers look like a scorecard. But the table describes two takes; it sets no correct rate. A speaker telling a fast, funny story may need a quicker pace than one walking through a statistic. The cure is to read each number against the one moment you named, and to ask whether the fix showed up.

Memory hook: name the moment, not the mood.

Key terms

Manuscript delivery — Reading a speech from a full written text, word for word; it suits moments when exact wording matters, but it pulls the eyes down and tends to flatten the voice. (first used: 1. The four delivery methods: match the method to the moment)
Memorized delivery — Reciting a speech word for word without notes after learning the text by heart; it suits a short, formal moment, but a single lost word can leave the speaker blank. (first used: 1. The four delivery methods: match the method to the moment)
Impromptu delivery — Speaking with little or no preparation, such as answering a question on the spot; it is the opposite of extemporaneous delivery, which is prepared and practiced. (first used: 1. The four delivery methods: match the method to the moment)
Vocal delivery — The way a speaker uses the voice to carry a message, which this course checks through six elements: rate, pitch, volume, pauses, articulation, and vocal variety. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Rate — How fast a speaker talks, often measured in words per minute; a comfortable rate depends on the speaker, the topic, and the room, so no single number is correct. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Pitch — How high or low a speaker's voice sounds; rising and falling pitch signals questions, emphasis, and feeling, while one unchanging pitch sounds flat. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Volume — How loud or soft a speaker's voice is, adjusted to the size of the room and the distance to the farthest listener. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Strategic pause — A planned moment of silence in a speech, such as after a hook or before a key line, that lets an idea land and gives listeners time to think. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Filler — A sound or word such as "um," "uh," "like," or "so" that a speaker uses to fill a silence; it carries no meaning and is cut back through rehearsal. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Articulation — How crisply and completely a speaker forms each sound and word, so that a listener can tell the words apart the first time. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Vocal variety — The combined effect of changing rate, pitch, and volume and using pauses, so the voice sounds conversational and stresses what matters; it does not mean speaking louder. (first used: 2. Vocal delivery: make your voice carry the meaning)
Physical delivery — The way a speaker uses the body to carry a message, which this course checks through five elements: eye contact, gestures, movement, posture, and facial expression. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Eye contact — Looking at individual listeners in a conversational way, finishing a thought with one person before moving to another, which lets the speaker read feedback and makes each listener feel spoken to. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Gesture — A movement of the hands or arms that supports a speaker's words, either by showing something or by stressing it. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Descriptive gesture — A gesture that shows the size, shape, direction, or location of what the speaker is describing, such as spreading the hands to show a width. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Emphatic gesture — A gesture that stresses a word or idea, such as a firm downward motion of the hand on a key line. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Adaptor — An unplanned nervous movement, such as clicking a pen, touching the hair, or shifting from foot to foot, that a speaker works to reduce because it pulls attention from the message. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Movement — How a speaker moves around the speaking space; purposeful movement, such as a step toward the audience at a transition, supports the message, while constant pacing distracts. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Posture — How a speaker stands or sits while speaking; an upright, balanced stance with weight on both feet signals readiness and helps the voice carry. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
Facial expression — The look on a speaker's face while speaking, which should match the message, such as a warm look for a welcome and a serious look for a sobering fact. (first used: 3. Physical delivery: let your body agree with your words)
7-38-55 figure — A widely repeated claim that words carry only a small share of a message, with voice and body carrying the rest. It comes from Albert Mehrabian's 1967 studies of feelings and attitudes conveyed by single words, and by his own statement it does not apply to communication in general. (first used: 4. The "7-38-55" figure and the nerves: keep both in proportion)
Delivery self-assessment table — A table a speaker fills in after recording two takes of a speech, listing measures such as words per minute, fillers per minute, eye-contact share, and deliberate pauses, plus the one moment to fix. (first used: 5. The rehearsal loop: compare two takes and check the machine)
Fillers per minute — A measure of how often a speaker uses filler words, found by dividing the filler words counted in a take by the minutes it lasted. (first used: 5. The rehearsal loop: compare two takes and check the machine)
Eye-contact share — The percent of a timed sample a speaker spends looking at listeners, found by dividing the seconds of eye contact by the seconds in the sample and multiplying by 100. (first used: 5. The rehearsal loop: compare two takes and check the machine)

Summary

Delivery is how your voice and body present a prepared speech.
The four delivery methods: manuscript, memorized, impromptu, extemporaneous.
Extemporaneous is prepared and practiced: not memorized, not impromptu.
The goal is not "no notes"; the goal is not reading.
Vocal delivery: rate, pitch, volume, pauses, articulation, vocal variety.
A strategic pause lets an idea land; a filler fills a gap with noise.
Vocal variety is rate, pitch, and volume changing together, plus silence.
Physical delivery: eye contact, gestures, movement, posture, facial expression.
Eye contact finishes a thought with one person, then moves, and reads feedback.
Cut adaptors; keep descriptive and emphatic gestures.
The "7-38-55" figure applies only to feelings and attitudes, by its author's own statement.
Nerves are normal; rehearsal and a planned pause help you manage them.
The delivery self-assessment table names a moment, not a mood, and sets no correct rate.
A chatbot cannot watch your recording; check its feedback against your table.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

A lab group rehearses a 5-minute presentation. One member's take holds 700 words and 15 filler words, and in a 45-second sample their eyes are on the room for 27 seconds. Find the words per minute, the fillers per minute, and the eye-contact share.
Name the delivery method in each illustrative moment. (a) A news anchor reads the evening report from a prompter. (b) A student recites a poem at a talent show. (c) A guest is handed a microphone at a surprise party and asked to say a few words. (d) A club treasurer reports the budget from three keyword cards after two practice runs.
A job candidate rehearses a 2-minute answer. On the recording, they twist a ring the whole time, hold up two fingers on "two reasons," and trace a circle in the air while describing a round table. Sort each movement as descriptive, emphatic, or an adaptor, and say which one to cut.
A friend says, "Studies prove words hardly matter in a speech, so I'm not going to work on my wording." Explain what is wrong with the claim, and give one piece of delivery advice that names a moment instead of a mood.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Rate: 700 ÷ 5 = 140 words per minute. Fillers: 15 ÷ 5 = 3 fillers per minute. Eye-contact share: 27 ÷ 45 × 100 = 60 percent. None of these is a grade. The useful next step is to watch the take again and name the moment where the eyes dropped, such as "I read the whole second main point off my card."
(a) Manuscript: the anchor reads a full text word for word. (b) Memorized: the poem is recited without notes. (c) Impromptu: the guest had little or no preparation. (d) Extemporaneous: the treasurer prepared, practiced twice, and speaks from brief notes. The tell is how much was prepared and whether the words come from a page, from memory, or fresh from notes.
Twisting the ring is an adaptor: it is a nervous habit that adds no meaning, so it is the one to cut. Holding up two fingers on "two reasons" is emphatic: it stresses the count. Tracing a circle for a round table is descriptive: it shows a shape. Keep the last two and give the ring hand a job, such as holding a card.
The claim stretches a narrow finding into a rule. The "7-38-55" figure comes from Mehrabian's 1967 studies of feelings and attitudes conveyed by single words, and by his own statement it does not apply outside that case. Words and delivery both matter. Advice that names a moment sounds like this: "After you say your opening question, stop for one full second before you answer it."

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, and the quiz; next week the reveal-reference-return sequence shows how a presentation aid supports your delivery instead of replacing it.

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