The process of developing and delivering a speech requires you to use eight categories of critical

thinking skills. Name these and explain how each category is used as you develop and deliver a
speech.

What will be an ideal response?

(1 ) Focusing: A speaker must determine what s/he will speak about, set goals, and select pieces
of information for the speech. (2 ) Information Gathering: In order to have something of substance to
say during a speech, a speaker must collect data. (3 ) Remembering: A speaker must be able to learn
information, store it in her/his long-term memory and retrieve it at the time of the speech. (4 )
Organizing: In order for an audience to understand the information presented, a speaker must arrange
information effectively. (5 ) Analyzing: The speaker must clarify existing information by examining parts
and relationships both for him/herself and for his/her audience. (6 ) Generating: Not everything said in a
speech can be taken from sources; some of the information must be novel. A speaker must draw
conclusions from information gathered and generate new ideas to share with an audience. (7 )
Integrating: On most speech subjects, there is so much information available about the topic that it
would be overwhelming for an audience to hear it all. It is a speaker's job to combine, summarize, and
restructure information. (8 ) Evaluating: It is never enough to just gather information from a variety of
sources. A speaker must access the quality of ideas against some established criteria and determine if that
information is worthy of passing along to an audience.