The Public Speaking Public: An Analysis of a Rhetoric of Public Speaking Pedagogy

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the Communication discipline rhetorically constructs the public speaking course. Following the work of Stephen North, who studied the oral and textual means by which the field of Composition created a shared frame for teaching and discussing the composition class, this dissertation studies how teachers and scholars of Communication create a shared frame for teaching the public speaking course. North calls this shared frame a discipline's "teaching lore." In this dissertation, I examine how aspects of public speaking lore operate in textbooks and teaching materials, how lore is critiqued in journals, and how the field might best challenge this public speaking lore.

This dissertation examines those aspects of lore appearing in textbooks, teaching materials, syllabi, and interviews with public speaking teachers and textbook writers. This dissertation argues that the lore that appears in such materials minimizes the role that invention plays in a study of rhetoric.

This dissertation examines how teachers and scholars of Communication critique public speaking lore in academic journals. It argues that such critiques avoid close analysis of public speaking texts. Instead, these critiques attack lore with straw arguments.

Finally, this dissertation provides some strategies for challenging public speaking lore. It outlines a model for the public speaking class that challenges lore's weak form of rhetorical invention. This dissertation also calls for changes to disciplinary discourse in order to improve the quality of public speaking lore criticism.