Assignment: Ethically Using Information
Assignment: Ethically Using Information
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Assignment: Ethically Using Information
Assignment: Ethically Using Information

Assignment: Ethically Using Information

common ground Similarities between a speaker and audience members in attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors

relationship An ongoing connection you have with another person

audience adaptation The process of ethically using information about an audience in order to adapt one’s message so that it is clear and achieves the speaking objective
Adapting to Your Audience 83

your listeners and to adapt to them can help you maintain your lis- teners’ attention and make them more receptive to your ideas.

Here’s an example of how analyzing and adapting to others works: Mike spent a glorious spring break at Daytona Beach. He and three friends piled in a car and headed for a week of adventure. When he re- turned from the beach, sunburned and fatigued from merrymaking, people asked how his break had been. He described his escapades to his best friend, his mother, and his communication professor.

To his best friend, he bragged, “We partied all night and slept on the beach all day. It was great!” He informed his mother, “It was good to relax after the hectic pace of college.” And he told his pro- fessor, “It was mentally invigorating to have time to think things out.” It was the same vacation—but how different the messages were! Mike adapted his message to the people he addressed; he had analyzed his audiences.

When you speak in public, you should follow the same process. The principle is simple yet powerful: An effective public speaker is audience-centered. These key questions can help you formulate an effective approach to your audience:

Consider Your Audience

● To whom am I speaking? ● What topic would be most suitable for my audience?

Consider Your Speech Goal

● What is my general objective (to inform, persuade, or entertain)? ● What is my specific objective (precisely what do I want the audience to do)?

Consider Your Speech Content

● What kind of information should I share with my audience? ● How should I present the information to them? ● How can I gain and hold their attention? ● What kind of examples would work best? ● What method of organizing information will be most effective?

Winston Churchill (1874–1965)

The great British prime minister Winston Churchill was noted for his ability to connect with his listeners. He spoke to audiences as diverse as groups of school children; the cit- izens of Britain; academics at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, who first heard Churchhill use the phrase “iron curtain”; and the United States Congress. When award- ing Churchill the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, the Nobel Committee praised his “brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”1

Because Churchill was a master at empathizing with his audience’s emotions, he knew how to motivate them to endure and persevere in the face of adversity. Like Churchill, you will want to be mindful of audience members’ attitudes, beliefs, values, backgrounds, and emotions. An audience-centered speaker is skilled at speaking both to listeners’ minds and to listeners’ hearts.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASSDiscussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.