Public Speaking
The following is meant to be used as support material related to a library instruction session conducted by a library instructor and an instructor from a BHCC department.
Many of the sites below require certain applications to be installed on your local drive. Don't worry- the free version of these types of software is usually sufficient.
Introduction
This web file is divided into two basic sections. The first is a list of electronic sources for Eng 171, Oral Communication. The second section provides information on how to find and evaluate sources of your own.
Web Sites: Speeches in Video and Audio
- American Rhetoric Go to this site first, and spend some time exploring it. This website has many resources. It's 'Online Speech Bank' has 5000 speeches, many in audio and video, arranged alphabetically. It has a special section on movie speeches, and pages on the theory of rhetoric, as well as speeches on current topics.
- Churchill Speech Interactive This web site is devoted to the famous 'Iron Curtain' speech of Winston Churchill. It illustrates how a speech can be a part of history, and make history as well.
- The History Channel: Speeches and Video This web page contains brief clips of speeches, and shows the range of topics a historical speech can cover.
- UC Berkeley Lectures and Events A diverse selection of speakers, many of whom, but not all, are scholars and political figures.
- Former President Bill Clinton's 1999 State of the Union Address
President George W. Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address
Compare these two examples of a 'State of the Union Address', a standard political speech.
Web Sites: Text of Speeches
- Oprah Winfrey: Wellesley College Commencement Address Oprah shares her wisdom with the women of Wellesley College.
- Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World An archive of speeches by prominent Women from 1848 to the present.
- Yahoo Directory: Commencement Speeches Use this site to find the many possible ways of addressing a speech with a common theme.
- HistoryPlace Great Speeches Collection A collection of text of historical speeches ranging from 1220 AD to 2005 in English, and with a brief biography of the speaker.
Web Sites: Applied Commentary
- Advanced Public Speaking Institute A resource on how to write and deliver a good speech. Subjects include personal appearance, humor, and how to deal with stage fright. Some pop-up advertisements.
Databases
- EBSCO-"Vital Speeches of the Day" Vital Speeches of the Day is a periodical that contains speeches about current topics and events. It is included in the EBSCO database "Academic Search Premier", and is fully searchable by author, title, subject, and other catagories.
USING THE ONLINE CATALOG
The BHCC Library online catalog is the most efficient way to find a book in the BHCC library. If you take some time to master it, your task will be much easier when you need to stop in and borrow a book. Remember, the online catalog can be searched from any PC connected to the Internet with a Web browser.
If you take a look at the online catalog, you'll see that there are many ways to search for a book: author, title, subject, keyword, and more. To start, try the keyword search, which is the broadest possible search. Subject, author, and title searches are more specific. Before you enter your search, read the screen. There are always useful tips that will save your search time. To see an example of how to do a search in the catalog, you can go to the Web page entitled How to use the online catalog.
Your end goal should always be the book's call number, which is like the book's address and tells you where to find the book in the library. This BHCC Library web page on Finding a Book in the Library is a good place to start for more detailed information on how call numbers work.
USING ONLINE DATABASES TO LOCATE CRITICISMS AND REVIEWS RELATED TO SPEECHES AND SPEAKING
The Library currently subscribes to over 200 different periodicals and over 40 online databases, many of which provide periodical articles on virtually any subject you can name. To help you sort through this vast amount of information and find what you need, we will be focusing on two broad-based periodical databases here, EBSCOhost and InfoTrac Web. For a full list of all the databases we have to offer, take a look at our databases page.
Recommended databases: try starting your search with
- FACTS.com -- a great source for current events, contains information, including statistics, about key events, people, and issues of the last 20 years. See particularly the Issues and Controversies section.
- EBSCOhost -- once you're into the general EBSCO database, select sources like Academic Search Premier, which has access to thousands of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, or Newspaper Source, which has selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers as well as 23 national (U.S.) and international newspapers.
USING THE WORLD WIDE WEB TO FIND RELIABLE INFORMATION
Anyone can put in information on the Internet. Unfortunately, not all of this information is reliable. It is very important to make sure that your sources are credible. It is your responsiblility to critically analyze the information you find. Check out a great resource for Evaluating Websites from the Cornell University Library. Wesleyan University has also put together a mini-tutorial on evaluating Web sites, available on the Wesleyan library Web site at Evaluating what you Find.Four criteria to keep in mind while considering websites are:
- Accuracy- Are there spelling errors or incorrect data? Is the information too generalized?
- Authority- Who is the author? What are their credentials? Can they be contacted?
- Currency- When was the material written? Are the links live? Has the site been updated?
- Objectivity- Is more than one view presented? What is the goal of this site?