COMM 1 C1000 - 5Y
Introduction to Public Speaking
Winter Quarter 2026
(CRN: 35484) 5 Units
Mondays & Wednesdays
12:30PM - 2:20PM - L 49
Instructor: James Ahern, M.A., J.D.
Instructor Zoom office hours - Mondays & Wednesday 11AM-12PM
TBA: Wednesdays from 4PM-5PM
Contact the Instructor using the Canvas Inbox. Emails are responded to within 48 hours during the week excluding the weekends and holidays
Instructor Website - De Anza College WebsiteLinks to an external site.
Visit the Student Success CenterLinks to an external site.
Course Description: Theory and techniques of public speaking in a democratic society. An introduction to a variety of perspectives and approaches used to research, organize, deliver, and evaluate public presentations.
Textbook (free) : The Public Speaking Textbook - The Virtual TextLinks to an external site.
Materials: 4 by 6-inch note cards.
Student Learning Outcomes:
- SLO1: Organize, compose, present, and critically evaluate informative and persuasive presentations appropriate in content and style to the audience and situation.
- SLO2: Display increasing confidence in speaking extemporaneously.
- SLO3: Demonstrate effective listening skills in various public speaking contexts.
- SLO4: Identify, locate, evaluate, and use information technologies and information sources.
Course Objectives:
- Examine historical and cultural traditions of public speaking in both domestic and global contexts and their impact on our views, beliefs, and practices relating to speaking in public.
- Evaluate how making the decision to respect diversity, speak ethically, and think critically influences communication outcomes.
- Demonstrate skills in analyzing diverse audiences and creating presentations appropriate to those audiences.
- Research, analyze, organize, prepare, and evaluate informative and persuasive speeches.
- Develop confidence in delivering speeches extemporaneously.
- Develop listening skills to foster respectful, reflective, and critical listening appropriate for public presentations.
Course Requirements:
- Attendance and Participation: This class requires your attendance and participation for every class session. Because your role includes being a speaker, a listener, and an evaluator, your attendance and promptness are vital to this class. Students will be dropped from this class if they have four absences and if they are absent during the first week of this course. School policy dictates that students must officially drop classes in which they no longer attend. All students must attend the final class. Students with three successive absences without instructor notification will be dropped from this class.
- Reading Assignments: Students are responsible for assigned readings and will be called upon to participate in the class discussion.
- Written Assignments: Designated speeches must be accompanied by a typed, full-sentence preparation outline that must be submitted to the instructor before a presentation. Additionally, students must upload their speech outlines to Turnitin on Canvas before delivery to receive credit.
- Online Assignments: Online assignments will be posted in Canvas on Mondays with stated deadlines.
- Quizzes: There will be ten multiple-choice, true-false quizzes with five questions each during this course that will cover assigned readings. Quizzes will be posted on Mondays and are due on Sundays at 11:59PM.
- Academic Honesty: Plagiarism or cheating may result in failing an assignment or this course. “Plagiarism is representing the work of someone else as your own. Incorporating the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, or parts of another person’s writings, without giving appropriate credit, and representing the product as one’s own. Representing another’s artistic or scholarly works such as musical compositions, computer programs, photographs, paintings, drawings or sculptures as your own. Submitting a paper purchased from a research or term paper service, including the internet. Undocumented Web source usage.”
- College course policy: “Students must have access to the following: a computer, the internet, an individual email address, and a webcam-enabled device for on-camera presentations.”
- Speeches: There will be five graded speeches and other speech activities. Sign-up Genius will
be used for the four speeches that will be posted in the Module section. Students
who are unprepared to
deliver their assigned speeches will receive a ten-point deduction unless accompanied by a doctor's note. There are no provisions for extra credit.
Speech Assignments
- Introductory speech of a classmate Not Graded
Time limit: 2-3 minutes
- Narrative speech 50 points
Time Limit: 5-7 minutes
Self-critique
Preparation outline
- Demonstration speech 50 points
Time limit: 5-7 minutes
Self-critique
Preparation Outline
- Informative speech 50 points
Time Limit: 5-7 minutes
Self-critique
Preparation Outline
- Persuasive speech (Audience Analysis) 50 points
Time limit: 6-8 minutes
Self-critique
Preparation Outline
- Impromptu speech 10 points
Time limit: 2-3 minutes
TOTAL: 210 points
GRADING: Your final grade for the course will be based on the following:
- Speeches 210 points
- Preparation Outlines (4 @ ten points) 40 points
- Self-critiques (4 @ ten points) 40 points
- Action Items (10 @ three points) 30 points
- Quizzes (10 @ five points) 50 points
- 6.) Discussion (10 @ 10 points) 100 points
TOTAL: 470 points
|
Grade |
Points |
|---|---|
|
A |
444-470 |
|
A- |
420-443 |
|
B+ |
406-419 |
|
B |
392-405 |
|
B- |
373-391 |
|
C+ |
350-372 |
|
C |
326-349 |
|
D+ |
312-325 |
|
D |
298-311 |
|
D- |
279-297 |
|
F |
0-278 |
|
|
|
|
|---|
Important college dates during Winter Quarter 2026:
- January 19 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday - no classes, office closed
- February 16 - Presidents' Day Holiday – no classes, office closed
- March 23 - March 27 – Finals Week
- This course depends on your active participation, and it will be as exciting, interesting, stimulating, and as fun, as the energy and enthusiasm that you bring to the class. The more you give, the more you will learn about your own strengths and limitations. You will also learn about and from your classmates and that you can be a part of their learning experience as well. Wishing you all the best in the days ahead!