Public Speaking for Lawyers, University of Pennsylvania (Carey)

Lawyers are communicators. And oral communication is a required skill, no matter the context in which the lawyer practices. But what does it take to create clear and compelling content? And what does it mean to deliver your ideas with confidence and conviction? This course takes an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to teaching oral communication and presentation skills. We investigate what we know about the way people take in information and make decisions. We put our answers to use by designing and delivering effective presentations. Course material will draw from a variety of fields including communication science, rhetoric, storytelling, visual communication, and theater. Each week, we'll have two classes. One will be a lecture or seminar. The other will be a workshop where students will practice what they have learned in presentations, exercises, and small group activities. Class attendance is essential. The course will be broken down into a series of modules designed to teach the tools, methods, and concepts that students will put to use in a final presentation. You should expect long modules on topics like collaborative critical thinking and brainstorming, storytelling, and visual communication. You can expect short modules on topics like finding the core of a message and performance skills like voice and body language. The direct goal of this course is to improve students’ oral presentations skills. But the methods and tools used in this course will improve communication in other contexts, including written and informal speaking. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.