Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Module: Week 16 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objectives covered: cumulative — Objectives 1–8 (Weeks 1–15): the communication process, ethics & apprehension; listening & audience analysis; topic, purpose & thesis; research & supporting materials; organizing & outlining the speech; language & style; delivery & the four modes; presentation aids; informative speaking; persuasive speaking & the rhetorical appeals; reasoning & logical fallacies; special-occasion & small-group communication; impromptu speaking & Q&A.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 16 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. This is finals week — it runs differently from a regular week. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with the Week 16 in-class review on Tue Dec 15; the Final window opens Mon Dec 14 and the exam is due Fri Dec 18, 11:59 p.m. (end of finals). Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 16 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 16: Final Review & Exam

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

Heads-up: this is finals week, so it runs differently. There is no quiz, no discussion, no assignment, and no Speech Workshop this week — the comprehensive Final replaces all of them. The week is built to get you ready: we spend our class session reviewing the whole course, you work through a three-part prep kit, and you sit the exam. The Final is cumulative over Weeks 1–15 (Objectives 1–8) — everything from how communication works and the ethics of speaking, through listening and audience analysis, building and organizing a speech, researching evidence, outlining, language and style, delivery and the four modes, presentation aids, informative and persuasive speaking, the rhetorical appeals, reasoning and fallacies, special-occasion and small-group communication, and impromptu speaking with Q&A. The midterm already covered the concept objectives through Week 7 (language and style), so the Final still tests those as the foundation the later skills rest on, while leaning into the post-midterm material — delivery, presentation aids, informative and persuasive speaking, reasoning and fallacies, and special-occasion and impromptu delivery.

The week's big question

"Across the whole course — from the communication process through impromptu delivery — what is the one move each objective asks of me, and where do I need to not slip up on the Final?"

By the end of the week you will have walked the entire Objectives 1–8 arc once more, found the exact spots where points get lost, and shown what fifteen weeks of speaking, studying, and practicing built.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all eight out loud, you are ready for the exam.

• [ ] Apply the communication process and ethics (Obj 1) — name the parts of the model (source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, noise, context), identify all four types of noise, and state the course's ethics rule on fabrication.
• [ ] Analyze listening and adapt to an audience (Obj 2) — tell the five types of listening apart, distinguish demographic from psychographic from situational analysis, and identify a correctly formed specific purpose statement and thesis.
• [ ] Evaluate and cite sources (Obj 3) — tell expert from peer testimony, describe source-credibility criteria, and recognize a correctly formed oral citation.
• [ ] Organize and outline a speech (Obj 4) — match each organizational pattern to the type of speech it fits, identify the rule that requires at least two sub-points under a divided point, and tell the preparation outline from the speaking outline.
• [ ] Use effective, ethical language and deliver (Obj 5) — distinguish oral style from written style, name common vivid-language devices, and match the four delivery modes to their descriptions.
• [ ] Design and use presentation aids (Obj 6) — name the types of graphs and match each to its best use, describe the integration rule, and name at least two design principles.
• [ ] Distinguish informative from persuasive, name the appeals, and identify fallacies (Obj 7) — classify a speech as informative or persuasive, match ethos/pathos/logos to examples, name the Toulmin model components, and match logical fallacies to their definitions.
• [ ] Handle special occasions and deliver impromptu (Obj 8) — name the types of special-occasion speeches, identify the three group-role categories, state the PREP framework in order, and describe the best practice for a hostile Q&A question.

What's due this week, and what to do

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next. This is the finals-week list; there is no quiz, discussion, assignment, or Workshop here — the Final stands in for all of them.

There is no Quiz 16, no Discussion 16, no Assignment 16, and no Workshop 16 this week — the Final stands in for all of them. The Study Guide, Exam-Prep Tutorial, and Practice Final are your prep kit; the Final is what's graded.

A note on the AI prep tutorial: the Exam-Prep Tutorial works like every weekly tutorial — the chatbot teaches and quizzes you, and you judge its work against what we covered. It will sometimes misname or reverse a fallacy (for example, calling a straw man an ad hominem), invent a speech quotation or a source, or confuse delivery modes (calling extemporaneous "memorized"); catching that is part of being ready. No AI is permitted on the Final itself.

How to succeed this week

• Review actively, not passively. Don't re-read your notes — do the moves. Name the four delivery modes from memory. Match three fallacies to their definitions. Describe the PREP steps in order. The Study Guide and Practice Final are built for exactly this kind of active recall.
• Study the eight moves, not eight thousand facts. The Final tests the objectives — one honest move each, and the mistake that sinks it. Master those and the exam feels manageable.
• Lead with the idea, then the term. Every topic this term was a plain-language idea first. On the exam, name the move before the jargon: Is this ethos, pathos, or logos? Is this informative or persuasive? What kind of noise is this? Which fallacy is this?
• The post-midterm material gets more weight. Delivery and the four modes; presentation aids; informative versus persuasive; the rhetorical appeals; reasoning and fallacies; special-occasion and impromptu — these all appeared after the midterm. Know them deeply. The early material is still on the exam as the tools the later objectives use, so keep it sharp too.
• Use the prep kit in order. Study Guide → Exam-Prep Tutorial → Practice Final. The tutorial finds your weak spots; the timed practice tells you whether you have fixed them.

You have already done every one of these moves — in Workshops, in quizzes, in discussions, in your speeches. This week is pulling it all together and showing it. Come to class ready to review out loud — and bring your questions. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 16

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Mon Dec 14, 2026 (the day the Final window opens) — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled post date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Mon Dec 14."

Subject: Week 16 — Finals week: the whole course, one last time 🎤

Hi everyone,

Here we are — the last week. This one is different: it's finals week. There's no quiz, no discussion, no assignment, and no Workshop — the comprehensive Final takes their place. Everything this week is built to get you ready, and then let you show what fifteen weeks of speaking and studying built.

Here's the shape of it: our class session (Tue Dec 15) is a fast, complete review of the whole course — the communication process, ethics, and apprehension; listening and audience analysis; purpose and thesis; research and credible evidence; organization and outlining; language and style; delivery and the four modes; presentation aids; informative speaking; persuasive speaking and the rhetorical appeals; reasoning and fallacies; special-occasion and small-group communication; and impromptu speaking with Q&A. The Final is cumulative over Objectives 1–8; because the midterm already covered the first half (Objectives 1–5 through language and style), the Final still tests the early material as the foundation the later skills rest on, while leaning into the post-midterm content — delivery, presentation aids, informative and persuasive speaking, reasoning and fallacies, and special-occasion and impromptu delivery.

Your prep kit, in order: work the Study Guide first, then run the Exam-Prep Tutorial with an approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link, then sit the Practice Final timed to find any soft spots. (Remember: no AI on the Final itself.)

The dates that matter:
1. Final — window opens Mon Dec 14, due Fri Dec 18, 11:59 p.m. (end of finals; 20% of your grade; 25 items at 4 points each, all auto-gradable, no AI).
2. Exam-Prep Tutorial — submit your chat share link before the Final closes (Fri Dec 18).
3. In-class review — Tue Dec 15; come with questions.

A word as we close the term. When we started in Week 1, the whole promise was learning that public speaking is a skill, not a personality trait — that a clear message, honest evidence, and reps would carry you from a nervous first icebreaker to a full persuasive speech. Every week we built one more piece: the communication process, then listening, then purpose and thesis, then research, then organization, outlining, language and style — the midterm — then delivery, visual support, informative and persuasive speeches, rhetorical analysis, fallacies, special occasions, and finally thinking on your feet. You did all of it. You recorded speeches, you analyzed arguments, you caught chatbots inventing citations, and you coached yourself and your classmates through the process. This last exam is not about cramming everything — it's about naming the eight moves and showing them in twenty-five items. You are ready.

Open the Start Here / Module Overview page first — it lays out the whole week in order with every due date. Thank you for a terrific semester.

You've got this. Come with questions Tuesday,
Prof. Marchetti