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Even if you feel you know almost everything you need to know about your topic, you should begin by reading an authoritative review of your subject. This allows you to check the comprehensiveness and accuracy of your personal information. You may find new information or discover areas of the topic you hadn’t considered.

The review also can help you focus your topic by pointing out the most important ideas. Review articles are found mainly in encyclopedias and specialized dictionaries, housed in the reference section of the library. On the Internet, go to The Page Site (http://www.thepagesite.com/encycl_p.htm) for links to most of the encyclopedias online. General encyclopedias, such as Encyclopaedia Britannica (http://www.eb.com/), contain background information, specify key words to use in your search for in-depth information, and often list references for additional research. The articles are brief and written in lay language. Specialized encyclopedias, such as the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, cover specific topics in greater detail. Specialized dictionaries, available on diverse subjects ranging from American slang to zoology, provide more than definitions and pronunciations. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary presents the origin, meaning, and history of English words.

Just as gender stereotyping and sexist language can block communication, so can racism. Although blatant racism and discrimination are no longer socially acceptable in most circles, a subtle form of such prejudice can still infect our thinking. While we may pay lip service to the principles of racial equality, we may still engage in symbolic racism, which is expressed subtly or covertly. For example, if we say, “In our [white] neighborhood we believe in family values,” the unspoken message may be, “You don’t, and therefore we are superior.” Or we might say, “We believe in hard work and earning our way,” when we really mean, “Why don’t you [blacks] get off welfare!” Thus we may excuse the vestiges of racial stereotypes by appeals to values like family stability or the Protestant work ethic. In such cases our underlying message may be, we honor such values and you don’t.
It may be helpful to view the impact that symbolic racism can have from
the perspective of someone on the receiving end. Television commentator
Bryant Gumbel commented on how it feels:
It is very hard for any white person to appreciate the depth of what it means to be black in America. . . . Racism isn’t only being called a nigger and spit on. It’s being flipped the bird when you’re driving, or walking into a store and being asked to check your bag, or being ignored at the checkout counter, or entering a fine restaurant and being stared at.
As you take the factor of race into consideration in your audience analysis, examine your thinking for biases and stereotypes that you may rationalize as value or lifestyle differences. Be sensitive about the language you use. When you are referring to a different racial or ethnic group, use the terms that members of that group prefer. Stay away from examples that cast members of a particular ethnic group in stereotypical roles that imply inferiority. And of course, avoid racist humor.
One language problem that relates to all three of these negative “isms” is marking, adding an irrelevant reference to gender, ethnicity, race, or sexual preference when none is needed. For example, if you refer to “Thompson, the African American engineer,” you may be trivializing her contribution by drawing attention to her race when it is irrelevant. Some audience members may interpret your remarks as suggesting that “Thompson is a pretty good engineer for a person of color,” whether you intend that or not. The following excerpt from a speech by Martina Navratilova, who was the world’s top-rated female tennis player for seven years, shows how marking affects people:
Labels, labels, labels—now, I don’t know about you, but I hate labels. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player. They don’t say Joe Montana, the heterosexual football player. One’s sexuality should not be an issue. .. . I did not spend over 30 years of my life working my butt off trying to become the very best tennis player that I can be, to then be called Martina, the lesbian tennis player. Labels are for filing. Labels are for bookkeeping. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.

Overhead projections and slides allow audiences to see graphics or photographs more easily or to look at an outline of your main points while you are making them. They help listeners remain on track during long or complicated presentations. Business speakers often prefer overhead projections and slides to poster boards or flip charts because of their professional quality and adaptability. Most personal computers now come packaged with graphics software for the preparation and presentation of projections and slides. Projections are most useful for audiences of up to fifty people; for larger audiences, slides presented on large screens are better.
Overhead projections are popular because they are easy to make, inexpensive, and adaptable. Transparency projectors transmit an image from an acetate original. You can draw, print, or type your material on plain paper and convert it to a transparency on a copying machine. Transparencies are also one of the best ways to use computer-generated graphics. You can create transparencies directly through your computer printer. If you have access to a color printer, the transparencies can be quite professional-looking and dramatic. If you have only a black-and-white printer, once you have made your

Overhead projections lend themselves easily to your needs. You don’t have to darken the room to use overhead projections, and you can continue to face your audience, maintaining direct contact with them. You can revise transparency while it is being shown, adding flexibility and spontaneity your presentation. You can use a pencil as a pointer to direct listeners’ attentions to features you want to emphasize.
To prepare materials for use as projections, you should follow the general guidelines presented earlier for the use of graphics. You should frame your transparencies to avoid glare from light showing around the outside edges the projection. Frames can be purchased at most copy shops or made from construction paper or poster board.
With traditional equipment, such as a carousel projector, you will find that slides are more difficult to handle than transparencies. Often the room has to be darkened, and the illuminated screen becomes the center of attention instead of you. When you arrange slides in a carousel, be sure that (hey are in the proper order and that none of them are upside down. Traditional slides also require specialized equipment to prepare. Today, however, many personal computers are packaged with software that allows you to prepare and present slide presentations. We will discuss this in greater detail as we discuss computer assisted presentations.

The major disadvantage of overhead projections and slides is that often you must speak from where your equipment is located. Unless you have remote-control equipment, you may have to stand behind or in the middle of the audience to run the projector. As a result, you may be talking to someone’s back. If you do not have remote-control equipment, your best solution may be to have a classmate change the projections or slides on cue. You will need to practice with this assistant to coordinate the showing of the projections with your words.
If you decide to use overheads or slides, check the equipment ahead of time and become familiar with its operation. You may need a long extension cord in order to position your equipment where you want it. Check the location of electrical outlets in advance, and be sure the cord fits. Practice using the equipment as you rehearse your speech. Be sure you have a spare light bulb for the machine. A burned-out light bulb has ruined many a presentation. Finally, don’t use too many slides or transparencies in a short speech. A presentation aid should do just that—aid your speech, not compete with or replace it.

Videotapes and audiotapes can authenticate a speech and add variety to your presentation. Today’s audiences, described by Roger Williams, senior writer for Newsweek Interactive, as “the first generation that has never watched television without a remote control,” may regard such presentation aids as essential to a polished presentation. Videos are especially useful for transporting the audience to distant, dangerous, or otherwise unavailable locations. Although you could verbally describe the scenic wonders of the Grand Canyon, you could reinforce your word-pictures with actual photos of the site or, better still, with living scenes from a videotape. An effective speaker uses video clips for support, but still supplies “the live human touch needed to help move an audience of one, or of hundreds, to the desired conclusion or action.”
Using videotapes presents some special problems. Moving images attract more attention than the spoken word, so they can easily upstage you. Moreover, a videotape segment should be edited so that splices blend without annoying static. Editing videotapes takes special skill and equipment. Finally, it can be difficult to work videotapes into a short speech without consuming all of your time. If they are not carefully managed, properly cued, and artistically edited, they can become more of a handicap than an aid.

For certain topics, however, carefully prepared videos can be more effective than any other type of presentation aid. One student at Northwest Mississippi Community College, who was a firefighter by trade, used videotape in an informative speech on fire hazards in the home. By customizing the videotape to fit the precise needs of his speech, he was able to show long shots of a room and then zoom in on the various hazards.He prepared the videotape without sound so that his speech provided the commentary needed to interpret and explain the pictures seen by the audience. Using this technique, he made his subject come to life. When in doubt about the wisdom or practicality of using such aids, consult your instructor.
Audiotapes may also be useful as presentation aids and are not as difficult to handle and integrate into your speech. If you wanted to describe the alarm cries of various animals or the songs of different birds, an audiotape could be essential. Consult your instructor about the availability of equipment if you think your speech would benefit from such a tape.

Basically, there are three types of premedical students. The first is the most familiar. They knew they were going to be physicians from the very beginning. At age two, they were playing with stethoscopes. In high school, they chose a college based on how it would affect their medical school acceptance. The second and probably largest group are those who decided to undertake the quest for medical school in their undergraduate years. The third group consists of people who decided on med school after college graduation—and sometimes after being established in another career. So it’s not too surprising that many premedical student are conscious (almost paranoid) about the most minor details of their undergraduate curriculum. The unfortunate reality is that the paranoia is unfounded. It’s based on pervasive myths spread by other premedical students, not on the true details that admissions committees consider important.
So what is important? At the risk of over-simplifying, you must have (or create) a quality that makes you stand out from the pack. Standing out is another way of saying that you are “interesting,” and “interesting” is what medical schools go for.
Once you decide to pursue medical school, it’s essential that you remain you. It’s okay to explore your talents and curiosity in college (indeed, we heartily recommend it). Go ahead and learn to scuba dive or take a course on Emily Dickinson, if that’s what you’d like to do. With this philosophy, you need not worry about the person next to you all the time, and you’ll be much more relaxed. If you want to become a “doctor to the stars” in Hollywood, get a degree in business or, better yet, film. Don’t laugh! Patients want to be able to relate to their doctors.
If you are like most premedical students, you probably don’t know what kind of doctor you want to become. So our advice is simple: major in whatever interests you.

While different in many ways, all three groups share two common misconceptions. First, they think that just because medicine draws upon science, every premed should major in biology or chemistry. Second, they think the quality of their college and their major are decisive factors in their admission to medical school.
In fact nothing could be further from the truth, Because the spectrum of physicians is so broad, there is no preferred major to enter the medical profession. In some cases, the quality of the undergraduate university can affect your chances of admission to medical school, but usually it’s irrelevant. (An important exception are undergraduate colleges that have an affiliated medical school. More on this later.)

Most of the time your specific purpose will be reflected in the thesis statement for your speech. The thesis statement condenses your message into a single declarative sentence. It is usually offered as you introduce your speech so that your listeners will understand your intentions. Notice how the following speaker presents his thesis statement:
Today I want to discuss a moral blight on our campus.—the problem of date rape—and what e can do about it.
The thesis statement should be followed by a preview. The preview signals the main points that will be developed in the body of the speech. In effect, it presents an oral agenda for the speech:
I will define date rape, show its causes and consequences, and end with some advice on how to prevent it.

In this example, listeners have been alerted to three main points in the speech:

1. The nature of date rape
II. Its causes and effects
III. The prevention of date rape

Now the audience has a blueprint to help them follow the speech. In long 0,1 complicated speeches, the preview helps audience members listen effectively, thereby reducing misunderstandings.
In ethical speaking, the thesis statement will reveal the speaker’s sp purpose. But Jet the listener beware! Not all speakers will be totally candid.. While a speaker’s specific purpose may be to sell the listeners an encyclopedia, the thesis statement may suggest a different intention:
I want to help you improve the quality of your lives by offering you-free of charge—this wonderful encyclopedia set [thesis statement]. Your only obligation is to help us demonstrate this encyclopedia in your neighborhood. We only ask that you keep your set up to date by purchasing at a special discount rate the annual supplements for the next ten years.
Such disguises of a speaker’s intention may be fairly trivial (unless you buyl the set!), but if you substitute a political philosophy or a religious cause for an encyclopedia, you can see how serious the problem can be. The greater the distance between the hidden specific purpose and the thesis statement expressed in the speech, the larger the ethical problem.
At times ethical speakers may omit the thesis statement from their presentations, leaving it to be constructed by listeners from cues within the speech..
Note how Cecile Larson left the thesis statement implicit in her speech, “The ‘Monument’ at Wounded Knee,” . Speakers may leave the thesis statement unstated in order to create a dramatic effect as listeners discover it for themselves. While it has some artistic merit, this technique also entails considerable risk. Listeners may miss the point! In most cases speakers should integrate the thesis statement into the introduction of their speeches.
Within a speech, the thesis statement should sharpen the focus of your
specific purpose, and the preview should indicate the major points of your
message

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about the less well-known attractions in Yellowstone Park

Thesis statement: Many visitors leave Yellowstone Park without seeing some of its most interesting attractions

Preview: Today I want to introduce you to three of the less well-known attractions in Yellowstone: the Fountain Paint Pots, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and the Firehole River.
Specific purpose: To persuade my audience to accept the idea of responsible drinking and driving

Thesis statement: Responsible drinking and driving can solve a serious social problem and might even save your life.
Preview: You can practice responsible drinking and driving by knowing your tolerance for alcohol, having a designated driver, and not letting friends drive while intoxicated.

A recent study sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews demonstrated that stereotypes and prejudice are present in all groups in our culture. The survey revealed that people of color see whites as “bigoted, bossy, and unwilling to share power.” Although each of the minority groups surveyed also demonstrated negative stereotypes of and feelings toward other people of color, they were united by a sense of being victims of discrimination.
Some 80 percent of African Americans, 60 percent of Latino Americans, and 57 percent of Asian Americans are convinced that their opportunities in work, housing, and education are not equal to those enjoyed by whites. On the other hand, over 50 percent of all whites believe that people of color enjoy equal opportunities. The survey concluded that “most whites simply do not acknowledge the tangible effects that discrimination has on the daily lives of minorities.”
Lest you think the situation is hopeless, we should also point out that
there were some positive results in this research. More than 80 percent of all groups polled expressed admiration of Asian Americans for the value they presumably place on intellectual and professional achievement and for having strong family ties and respecting their elders.
Similarly large majorities felt that Latino Americans take pride in their culture, work hard to attain a better life, and have deep religious and family ties. Equally sizable majorities agreed that African Americans work hard when given a chance, believe strongly in American ideals and the American Dream, are deeply religious, and have made valuable contributions to American society. Over 90 percent of all groups surveyed also agreed that learning to understand and appreciate the lifestyles, tastes, and contributions of other groups was either “very important” or “important.” The most heartening finding of the study was the indication that nine out of ten Americans from all groups would be willing to work with one another to try to solve the most pressing problems in their neighborhoods and communities. They expressed a willingness to work together to help protect their children from gangs and violence, to help improve schools, including teaching understanding and respect for the cultural heritage of all groups, and to look for ways to ease racial, religious, and ethnic tensions.
Institute for Global Ethics identified eight universal human values that transcend cultural differences: love, truthfulness, fairness, freedom, unity, tolerance, responsibility, and respect for life. Contemporary social scientific research has also demonstrated the existence of transcendent social values. Shalom Schwartz and his associates at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted a study of values in twenty different countries.
They identified ten universal values: achievement, tradition, power, enjoyment, self-direction, security, universalism, benevolence, conformity, and stimulation.These universal values and shows how they appear to come together.
If you can appeal to these common values in your speeches to a diverse
audience, you can often unite your listeners behind your ideas or suggestions.