Preparation Meeting Opportunity: How Do College Students Prepare for Public Speeches?

Nearly half a million students prepare classroom speeches each year, but little is known about overall preparation time and the relative proportions of time used for each speech preparation activity. Further, we do not know the specific speech preparation activities that result in higher speech grades. Public speaking students completed journal entries over the course of a semester detailing their speech preparation process. Multiple regression revealed the relationship of time spent in five writing activities and overall speech grade averages. Overall preparation time correlated significantly with higher speech grades; in addition, students who spent more time in delivery and practice earned higher speech grades.