March 18th Accepting and Implementing Constructive

Criticism and

Outlining Activity

Learning Outcomes Understand the benefits of constructive criticism

through acceptance and the practice of elements of the rhetorical situation in which public speaking occurs through speech creation, delivery and audience analysis.

Learn to accept and process constructive criticism through improving on the area of criticism.

Tailor appropriate, respectful and suitable arguments demonstrating ethical persuasive choices in an outline form that will transfer to speech presentation.

Previous criticism experiences?

Stop Your First Reaction

If your first reaction is to lash out about the criticism, or to become defensive, take a minute before reacting at all. Take a deep breath, and give it a little thought.

Avoid reacting right away. Distract yourself. Return to your self-reflection thoughts to ease your way

into the comments. Cooling off time allows an individual to see beyond their

initial reaction. It allows logic to step in, past the emotion. Then consider a response when you’re calmer.

Turn a Negative Into a Positive

Sometimes a criticism may be rude and mean, but in most criticism, you can find a nugget of gold: honest feedback and a suggestion for improvement. For example: “You say the same things over and over and your

speech is stale.” Can be read: “I need to increase the variety of my facts and

sources and I can find new ways of looking at old things.” Since many times there’s at least a grain of truth in the criticism,

flipping the comment into a positive helps to absorb and process the thought.

This is an opportunity to improve — and without constant improvement, we are just sitting still. Improvement is a good thing.

Thank the Critic Even if someone is harsh and rude, thank them. They

might have been having a bad day, or maybe they’re just a negative person in general. But even so, your attitude of gratitude will probably catch them off-guard.

Learn from the Criticism

After seeing criticism in a positive light, and thanking the critic, don’t just move on and go back to business as usual. Actually try to improve.

That’s a difficult concept for some people, because they often think that they’re right no matter what. No one is always right. You, in fact, may be wrong, and the critic may be right. So

see if there’s something you can change to make yourself better.

And then make that change. Actually strive to do better.

Remember: It’s not usually a personal

attack. Take it as a criticism of your actions, not your person.

This allows you to detach yourself from the criticism and see what should be done.

Many of us handle criticisms that we receive by attacking back. Even if the person was mean or rude, you don’t have to be the

If we can stay avoid participating in the mud-slinging, we feel good about who we are. And that’s the most important benefit of all.

Outlining Activity Take your pen and write helpful guidance on

your classmates’ outlines: Consider the following:

Are introduction/conclusion attention grabbing? Are the points organized in the most appropriate

order? What sources could that presenter utilize? Should the person consider specific alternative

arguments/reasoning?

Next Class? On Thursday, we’ll revisit:

Reasoning Timing Transitions Personal experience Proper citation- how to and what to use Practice Facial expression Nerves