Overview

While maintaining its reputation for balancing the practice of public speaking with its classical and contemporary foundations, the 4th edition of Between One and Many provides students with the tools necessary to reach their audiences at school, in the workplace, and in the community. In this edition the authors use more accessible language, less jargon, and clear links between skills derived from theory and research and the actual practice of those skills. Based on the idea that the transaction between speakers and audiences determines the meaning of the message, Between One and Many demonstrates that public speaking is a refined and extended version of the conversational skills students put to use daily.

Divided into four parts, the book first introduces students to the elements of the speaking transaction, guides them through the process of developing their first speeches, provides them with skills they can use to manage their natural anxieties about public speaking, and emphasizes the relationship between their listening and speaking skills.

In Part Two students learn to consider the audience and situation as they develop their speeches, how knowledge of audience diversity can make them more competent speakers, and about the knowledge and skills necessary to practice ethical speaking and listening. In Part Three, students begin to apply their knowledge and skills. They learn how to invent and organize their speeches, how to use language and deliver their speeches, and are shown how they can complement but never substitute their speech with presentational media. Part Four guides students in the practice of informative and persuasive speaking. It also focuses on the relationship between persuasive speaking and critical thinking, and helps students anticipate and prepare for the predictable occasions where they should expect to speak.