Week 9 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Delivery & the Modes of Delivery

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective tested: Objective 5 (delivery portion) — the four delivery methods; vocal delivery elements; physical delivery elements; using keyword notes.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 9.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-09-qti.xml (generated by the shared validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The reusable item-bank entries and the Canvas placement block are at the bottom of this file.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 9 misconceptions named in the lecture outline (esp. memorized vs. extemporaneous, filler vs. pause, adaptors vs. purposeful gestures, and the Mehrabian overgeneralization).

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (Matching). Match each delivery method to its best description.

Feedback: The signature confusion is memorized vs. extemporaneous: extemporaneous uses keyword prompts and thinks through the speech in the moment; memorized recites stored word-for-word text. Impromptu has little or no prep — it is NOT the same as extemporaneous.

Q2 (MC). A student has rehearsed their speech six times from a one-page keyword outline and delivers it to class — speaking conversationally, glancing at their notes briefly, but never reciting memorized words. This is best described as —
- A. manuscript delivery
- B. extemporaneous delivery ✅
- C. memorized delivery
- D. impromptu delivery
Feedback: Extemporaneous = prepared + practiced + keyword outline + conversational delivery. The student is NOT reciting stored words (that's memorized) and NOT reading (that's manuscript) and NOT unprepared (that's impromptu).

Q3 (MC). A head of state reads a carefully worded statement on a sensitive diplomatic matter from a full written text. This is most appropriate because —
- A. extemporaneous delivery is too risky for any formal setting
- B. memorized delivery always sounds more polished to a national audience
- C. manuscript delivery suits high-stakes, precision-critical situations where exact wording matters ✅
- D. impromptu delivery is preferred by professional communicators
Feedback: Manuscript delivery is appropriate when precise wording is essential and the cost of a verbal slip is high — diplomatic statements, legal announcements, and formal scripted broadcasts. The main cost is reduced eye contact and a reading-aloud register.

Q4 (MC). During a business meeting, a colleague unexpectedly calls on you to share your thoughts on a proposal you have not prepared for. You must speak immediately. This is an example of —
- A. extemporaneous delivery
- B. manuscript delivery
- C. impromptu delivery ✅
- D. memorized delivery
Feedback: Impromptu = little or no advance preparation. It is NOT extemporaneous — extemporaneous requires thorough preparation and practice. Being called on unexpectedly = impromptu.

Q5 (True / False). "In extemporaneous delivery, a skilled speaker never looks at their notes — glancing at a keyword outline during the speech means the speaker is doing it wrong."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. Brief glances at a keyword outline are completely appropriate in extemporaneous delivery — that's what the outline is for. The problem is reading from notes, not consulting them. A quick one-second keyword glance, then eyes back to the audience, is the target behavior.

Q6 (MC). A speaker pauses silently for two full seconds after delivering the speech's central claim, before continuing. This is best described as —
- A. a filler word / vocal filler
- B. a strategic pause ✅
- C. poor articulation
- D. a sign of memorization failure
Feedback: A strategic pause is a deliberate, silent beat used to emphasize a key idea and give the audience time to absorb it. It is a vocal delivery tool. A filler ("um," "uh," "like") is an involuntary sound that fills silence. The strategic pause is the cure for fillers.

Q7 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are elements of vocal delivery? Select all that apply.
- A. Rate — how fast or slow you speak ✅
- B. Pitch — how high or low your voice sits ✅
- C. Vocal variety — deliberately varying rate, pitch, and volume together ✅
- D. Articulation — forming sounds clearly ✅
- E. Eye contact — sustained gaze with the audience
- F. Posture — standing with weight evenly distributed
Feedback: Vocal delivery elements are A–D: rate, pitch, vocal variety, and articulation (plus volume, pauses, and emphasis). Eye contact (E) and posture (F) are physical delivery elements, not vocal ones.

Q8 (MC). In extemporaneous delivery, the recommended approach to eye contact is —
- A. scanning quickly back and forth across the entire audience every few seconds
- B. looking at a fixed point above the audience's heads to avoid nervousness
- C. sustained "conversational" gaze — approximately 3–5 seconds with one person before moving to another ✅
- D. maintaining eye contact with only the instructor or evaluator throughout
Feedback: Conversational gaze — holding eye contact with one person for about 3–5 seconds (one complete thought) before moving to another — is the target. Scanning feels mechanical; "looking over heads" is visible to the audience and still breaks connection.

Q9 (MC). A speaker at a podium keeps pushing their hair back, clicking a pen, and shifting their weight from foot to foot throughout the speech. These behaviors are best described as —
- A. emphatic gestures — they reinforce key words
- B. descriptive gestures — they help the audience visualize the content
- C. adaptors — habitual self-touching behaviors that signal anxiety ✅
- D. purposeful movement — strategic steps to engage different sections of the audience
Feedback: Adaptors are habitual self-touching or object-touching behaviors (clicking a pen, pushing hair back, gripping the lectern) that signal anxiety and distract the audience. The goal is to reduce adaptors and replace them with purposeful emphatic or descriptive gestures.

Q10 (MC). Someone argues: "The '7%/38%/55%' research proves that the actual words of a speech barely matter — delivery is everything." What is the most accurate critique of this argument?
- A. That formula was derived from studies of large-audience speeches, so it does apply here
- B. The research studied narrow emotional-decoding contexts, not content-rich public speeches in general, and was not intended by Mehrabian to describe communication overall ✅
- C. The formula is exactly correct: 55% of any message is body language regardless of context
- D. The research is invalid because Mehrabian never published it
Feedback: The "7%/38%/55%" claim comes from researcher Albert Mehrabian's late-1960s studies on judging emotional signals in very specific laboratory conditions. Applying it broadly to say "words don't matter in a speech" is an overgeneralization — for complex, content-rich speeches, the message content, structure, AND delivery all matter significantly.

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q2, Q3, Q4, Q6, Q8, Q9, Q10) has exactly one correct option; Q5 is True/False with one correct answer (False); Q7 (multiple-answer) marks all four vocal elements correct (A–D) and requires E and F to be left unselected; Q1 (matching) is one-to-one, four pairs; no item asserts an unverified statistic; the Mehrabian claim (Q10) is presented factually — named, sourced to its correct researcher, and scoped accurately. No fabricated quotations or statistics anywhere in this quiz.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the final)

All ten items are tagged course=COMM1 · week=9 · objective=5 · topic=delivery-modes-vocal-physical and deposited in Item Bank: Week 9 — Delivery & the Modes of Delivery. The final (Week 16) and per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 delivery-method-match, q2 extemporaneous-scenario, q3 manuscript-appropriate, q4 impromptu-scenario, q5 notes-myth, q6 strategic-pause, q7 vocal-elements, q8 eye-contact, q9 adaptors, q10 mehrabian.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 9 Quiz — Delivery & the Modes of Delivery"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"