Page 253 - Essentials of Human Communication

232 CHAPTER 11 Public Speaking Preparation (Steps 1–6)

So, if you’re going to buy a new Sony television—that’s This example does nothing to explain why merchandise
what I really want a big flat screen television—it’s going from Japan or Europe become more expensive as the dol-
to be more expensive. lar goes down. The comment “that’s what I . . .” is personal
and not really related to explaining what happens when
the dollar loses value compared to other world currencies.
The speaker might have said, “How many of you are plan-
ning to buy a new flat-screen TV? Well, if you’re planning
to buy a Sony, a Samsung, a . . . you’re going to be paying
more. And the reason is the decline in the U.S. dollar. Let
me explain how this works . . .”
And if you’re going to buy stuff from Germany or Italy, This kind of comment shows a lack of appropriate prepara-
it’s also going to be more expensive. Like pasta—but I tion and is likely to make the audience wonder why they’re
guess that’s made in this country too. But you know wasting their time when the speaker couldn’t spend the
what I mean. time and energy necessary to come up with a really good
example. A list of popular German and Italian products
that the audience uses (and the speaker would have to
know something about the audience to select the most
meaningful products) would have been appropriate here.
There are in fact no transitions to help the audience
move with the speaker from one topic to another. A tran-
sition is needed here that leads from the first main point
to the next, something like “Not only is merchandise
from Europe and Japan going to cost more, you’re also
going to be paying more for oil.”
As the dollar goes down and oil prices go up—let’s see Again, there is no explanation as to why oil prices go
if I got this right; yes, as the value of the dollar goes up as the dollar goes down. And the examples that fol-
down, the price of oil goes up. low don’t help—they merely give examples of higher
prices. The speaker needs to explain why the prices are
higher.
Notice that there are no signposts that help the listeners
follow the speech. The speaker could have helped the audi-
ence understand the speech by using signposts such as, “the
first change when the dollar goes down is” or “the next
change,” or another example.” Using words like the italicized
ones in these examples help the audience understand your
progression of ideas.

So, your gas and electric bill are going to be higher. Again, the speaker demonstrates a lack of preparation with
And you know how expensive gas is. I last paid 3.29 a the price of gas. The specific figures here and in most cases
gallon—no, it was 3.19, no, no, 3.09. That’s what it was. are less important than the implication of the numbers—
But that’s still a lot. the specific figures can be given, of course. But, the impor-
tant point is the expense and that is what the speaker needs
to emphasize and not go on a detour of the exact price paid
the last time at the pump.
As the dollar goes down the price of merchandise A transition would help. The audience is probably asking
made in this country goes down. So if you buy an itself, “Why does this happen?” The speaker should an-
American-made television, the price will be cheaper. swer these questions that the audience is likely to ask.
And if you buy an American car—instead of a car from Again, parallel structure would help: “Japanese car”
Japan, the car will be less expensive. would have paralleled “American car” and made the
sentence a lot clearer.
As the dollar goes down the price of raw materials—I’m On the surface, this point seems to contradict the previous
not sure what that is, but I think it’s like oil and metal— examples. This speech could have profited greatly from
increases and so the price of American merchandize some simple charts or graphs showing the value of the
increases. U.S. dollar versus the yen and the euro.