What is the Course About?
People do many things with speech. They create intimate and working
relationships with others. They teach and they learn various kinds of
technical and personal knowledge. They entertain and annoy. Of all the
things that people do with speech, perhaps the most important is public
speaking: speaking that weaves personal experiences into texture of
community. With voice people make the communities in which they live,
and use them as a way to share and improve the experience of life with
others. If you listen and study the speech that reaches your ear, you
will hear a rich tapestry with which you and those around you accomplish
the day-to-day acts that form your public lives.
Action by a community requires public leadership. Frankly, in the twentieth
century, under the influence of the mass media with its stark contrast
between active speaker and passive listener, we came to think of leadership
too directionally. Effective leaders do not do things to their communities,
they do things for and through their communities. Those who lead communities
use their voices to organize, to motivate, and to enhance the power
of people to affect their public commitments. Our focus this semester
is on the history of these voices in the United States in the twentieth
century and how the leaders have empowered the communities they have
led to achieve and advance.
We have two objectives in listening ever so carefully to these voices
of leadership. First, we want to understand the moment in which these
people led. They have a faith or a vision that they feel deeply should
guide their community. Those in that community – you for instance
– share that faith and vision. You (and they) can influence your
own life only with the leadership that motivates others to join with
you to make your community better – as you see better. Those we
study need not be political leaders. Communities empower many who are
not involved in politics. So we study these leaders at their moment
of influence. What sorts of problems did they face? How did they use
their voices to address those problems? What can we learn about providing
leadership for a community through such moments?
Second, we want to understand the historical context of the twentieth
century. Many of you will serve your communities in large or small moments
of leadership. A large portion of the role of a leader is to connect
the activities of the community with its history and traditions. Leaders
help us see the relationship of our moment to our past. What makes us
a community? What are we trying to accomplish together? How does our
present fulfill our past and our vision of the future? Understanding
the character of motivation and power in American communities will help
you when your moments of leadership arrive.
Who is the course for?
This course is in the tradition of the humanities, particularly history
as a humanity. My objective is to give you a sense for other times and
places, a sense for communication in the lives of Americans of earlier
times and places.
There is also a practical angle here, however. Since ancient times,
studying exemplars of effective speaking has been a recognized technique
for learning to think through and perform in moments when speaking is
demanded.
So this course is for someone who is curious about other places and
times, who marvels at the power of language to define our lives, who
wishes to understand the potential of the human speaker in public life.
What knowledge should you have before you
come into this course?
Not a lot. Some knowledge of American history will aid you. You may
have acquired that knowledge in a history course or through some other
method including your own reading. This is not a course in history but
in the place of orality in American history. Your understanding of the
material will be fuller if you have an understanding of the context.
Unlike some other instructors you may have had, I will encourage you
to use wikipedia occasionally. That is about the level of knowledge
you need to have.
Some understanding of how people use language to accomplish objectives
by working with others will also give you a step up. If you do not understand
this power, you probably will by the end of the course. If you do understand
it, you may get into the swing of the course earlier. There are a number
of courses in communication that should have introduced you to that
idea including COMM 401. If you have not had COMM 401, drop by after
class and talk to me a bit about other things you have had that may
compensate.
What will the course be like?
There will be two major activities that will dominate the class. First
will be discussion of discourse. This will dominate. You will be responsible
for this discussion, but I will lead. Since half of all exams will be
on questions that employ the methods of these discussions, your participation
in them is essential to your preparing for the exams.
The other major activity will be lectures to inform these discussions
and guide you in framing them. The lectures are designed to stimulate
your historical imagination about the speaking of particular times and
particular leaders during the century. There is little coverage of this
material in the readings. If you miss the class, you have missed the
material. I will encourage your questions.
Readings and Other Learning Resources
Book
- Ronald F. Reid and James F. Klumpp, comps. American Rhetorical
Discourse. 3rd ed. Prospect Heights IL: Waveland, 2005. ISBN:
1577663675
Several notes on the book. The speeches that you will encounter in
the book (and internet) will take you longer to assimilate than mere
reading. You will not read them like you do a textbook, there are no
textbooks for this course. You will learn what you will from the classroom
and from your own analysis. Nor will you read them like an information
source, you are reading for much more than information. Rather, you
will need to study these pieces of discourse to understand their moment
in time. You will not be able to scan them at the last minute. You will
need to read them many times through, take lots of margin notes, and
contemplate the relationship of these speeches to their time. The speech
abstract assignment should assist in achieving the reading required.
Website
You may access the course website through ELMS or use the URL (http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~jklumpp/comm461/home.html)
in any browser. Additional material for the course will be placed on
the website. Some of your readings will be accessed there. The website
will also include outlines of lectures. You will not need to consult
the website every day, but you will want to consult it some time between
classroom sessions. If you encounter the need for an ID and a password
they are at the top of your written syllabus.
Advice from Previous Students of the Course
Each semester I ask students as part of evaluation (you will be asked
too) to make recommendations to future students to help them prepare
for the course. Following are some of the comments offered by former
students in this or similar courses:
- Really concentrate on looking into speeches and discourse and not
just look at the surface.
- As the semester proceeds, make connections while you are studying
the speeches and in class discussion. Be intentional about this. Do
not take it for granted.
- This course makes you look at the big picture. I found myself rereading
the packet material in order to make correlations. Take this course
seriously, and do your readings and be prepared to re-read.
- Read all material several times throughout the semester so you don't
forget! Be prepared for all quizzes. Being in class is a must!
- Read the speeches and take excellent notes. Ask questions because
this professor is willing to answer them.
- Read carefully and be an active participant in the discussions to
learn the most from this class.
- Read and come to class. Really think about the situation the speeches
are addressing and they will be much easier, and more enjoyable to
read.
- This isn't a course where you can just memorize facts. You need
to think.
- Read the speeches at least twice. Use the questions provided at
the beginning of the course for each speech. It gets easier over time.
- Really read the text, 10 times if you have to! Understand it and
bring questions for discussion.
- Come to class. It is very helpful in understanding the material
you read in more depth than you ever thought possible.
- Come to class every day because what is discussed in class is always
relevant and useful.
- Go to class, take careful notes, and use the study notes on the
website. They are so helpful!
- In your abstracts, write a clear thesis. Then use the rest of the
abstract to provide textual support for your argument relating the
speech to concepts we've learned in class. Do not simply provide a
summary of the content of the speech.
- Apply what you learn in class to your abstracts! This is the key
to getting a passign grade on them.
COMM 461