Jenifer Butler is an assistant professor and speech coordinator at Francis Marion University in South Carolina, where she primarily teaches Public Speaking 101 and develops new media communication courses.

Let’s be honest—there is no shortage of textbook options. As such, how do you know which textbook is a fit for your course and students? While it may seem like a daunting task, whether you’re making an individual choice or reviewing for your whole department, there are ways to get a head start on the hunt for the perfect textbook. My recent search for a public speaking book for my school’s speech courses taught me some tips that I found invaluable to my selection process.

Testing Texts & Making the Choice

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding the right book. I chose a long-term, practical application approach, revising my course each semester over two years. For others, short-term reviews and collaborations with colleagues might be more realistic.

First and foremost, write out exactly what you are looking for in a textbook. What matters the most to you? For me, it was a strong blend of contemporary public speaking practices and traditional frameworks. For one of my colleagues, the most important part was access to resources that would help with lesson planning. One person even said they simply wanted something easy to integrate with the LMS system. All these needs went onto my list because I was looking for a book for departmental use.

Once you know what you want, collaborate with other teachers. This collaboration might involve a simple question like, “What textbook are you using for this course?” Discuss the rationale for selecting the book, flexibility for teaching styles, how students interact with the text, and how connected resources, like presentation PowerPoints or assessment tools, can help with lessons. The more conversations you have, the more you can determine which books are most likely to meet your needs and are worth trying.

What if you really want to test a book and get that in-person observation, but a two-year investment just isn’t on your BINGO card? You undertake a one-term collaborative effort with other teachers doing the same search. First, identify agreed-upon criteria for evaluating texts; each teacher takes one of the books from a short list and integrates it into their lessons, whether by adopting the book in its entirety for the term or simply using various components or sections. At the end of the term, feedback and discussion allow all participating teachers to gain insight into the practical application of each book in a much shorter period.

Working alone? No problem! I recommend narrowing potential books down to no more than three and then dividing your course into three sections. Based on what you believe each textbook’s strengths are, prioritize integrating material from that section into the correlating section of your course. For example, since Contemporary Public Speaking has a very strong section on psychographics for an audience versus demographics, I would focus on lessons from that textbook during my section on knowing one’s audience. In doing this, a teacher can observe which lessons seemed to resonate the most with their students while also ensuring a comprehensive understanding of course objectives.

My Review Criteria

Student support:

At my university, we serve a student body that tends to have a lower average GPA, so we can serve the underserved. This requires a focus on meeting students where they are. My students need a textbook that allows them to learn at fundamental levels while also achieving the course’s learning outcomes.

I tested textbooks that first take students step-by-step through the basics and then work toward the more detailed components of the course. I also tested field guide–style textbooks that do exactly what they say they will; they guide students, usually assuming some fundamental understanding or ability to infer information. Both are extremely viable structures, but the question you must ask yourself is simple: What do my students need? While my students did okay with the field guide, I was regularly having to use extra class time to ensure understanding. The need for strong basics and explanations, visuals, and better pacing were essential.

Accessible pricing:

Next, there is the matter of cost. College is expensive, now more than ever. The economic strains on students are also increasing. Recently, I reviewed a report for my department indicating that roughly 98% of the students in my program work at least one job. Given the economic stressors students already face, we can help alleviate the distraction of cost a little by choosing a reasonably priced textbook that includes all the bells and whistles students need to succeed in the course.

Why Norton’s Contemporary Public Speaking?

With this textbook, I saw the strongest student engagement and, as a result, better student performance. It came with essentials instructor resources, like PowerPoint lectures and suggested class activities, along with student resources, like online homework and sample speeches; all which could easily be integrated into my LMS. The following are the primary benefits that solidified my decision to adopt Contemporary Public Speaking.

Addressing new audiences and technology:

Rhetorical strategies from antiquity have served as a reliable framework for strong public speaking for centuries. That said, nothing remains the same for centuries, and public speaking is no exception. While tradition assumes that public speaking requires an in-person audience, the realities of an increasingly digital society have changed what it means to deliver an address to the public thanks to video conferencing, streaming, and prerecorded video speeches. Even podcasts have become a means by which people deliver speeches to the public without video.

Contemporary Public Speaking takes all the reliable aspects of rhetorical history and strategy and makes one vital step toward applying them to present-day public speaking realities—it redefines the concept of audience. Rather than use the word audience, the authors shift to the word public. They explain that by using the word public instead of audience, we can broaden our understanding of what constitutes an audience, rather than being limited to the narrower view of predigital tradition. As such, students can better understand the value of tradition in a world that continues to change.

Empowering my students:

One of my favorite parts of this textbook has been the way it approaches common topics like speaking anxiety as well as general and specific purpose. Speaking anxiety is mentioned in nearly every public speaking textbook on the market. However, most tend to state how common speaking anxiety is and that preparation and practice are key to managing it. While this is true, Contemporary Public Speaking takes it a step further by discussing affective, behavioral, and cognitive anxieties. Chapter 2: “Confidence and Anxiety” explains what they are, how to identify them, and options for turning them into strengths. I have found that students are a bit more willing to tackle their fears once they can name their primary form of speaking anxiety. This has proven to be so helpful that I’ve adopted the phrase, “If you can name it, you can tame it.” Students are more empowered at the start of the course, having detailed information on the very thing that usually impedes success before they start: anxiety.

Contemporary Public Speaking has one of the strongest approaches to explaining general and specific purpose statements. When students clearly know their general and specific purposes, they are better prepared for research, speech writing, and speech delivery. Again, most textbooks mention these principles, but they do so in ways that would require a degree of inference that my students are not quite ready to provide.

These principles are so well presented in Chapter 6: “Topic and Purpose” that I was inspired to create a new speech called The Road Map. Performed before the Informative Speech (students’ first formal speech of the semester), this assignment walks students through the speech-crafting process including brainstorming topics, investigating what students know and don’t know, outlining their research plan, and constructing a purpose statement that identifies the target public/audience, the topic itself, and what they hope to achieve from the speech. Since implementing this assignment, along with lessons on anxiety and other useful tips from the textbook, students have shown marked improvement in formal speeches each semester.

Flexible pricing with courseware:

It was important for me that the textbook be reasonably priced, ideally under $100, and included helpful instructor and student resources that were easy to navigate.

Contemporary Public Speaking comes with an online assessment tool, InQuizitive, that includes quizzes that align with every chapter, ensuring students use it to some degree (we all know how hard it can be to get them to read everything). While my course design does not allow me to cover all quizzes, the most successful approach for me has been selecting the top ten quizzes out of all chapters taught and assigning one quiz every Sunday that covers the chapter discussed in the previous week. My quizzes are each worth 16.5 points out of a 1000-point grading system, which balances the need for clear consequences for not doing them while also allowing me to enforce the value of the material they cover versus the value of the grade itself. The fact that students are given the entire week to do the quiz for the best possible grade also ensures students are at least engaging in key points in the chapters closely and, often, repeatedly. Success has been seen in the quality of questions students have when asking for advice ahead of their speeches. I have noticed an increase in appropriate terminology from the text as well as an awareness of key speech components that students in the past simply struggled to recall.

Having instructor resources to set up and prep the class are key. PowerPoints for lectures, suggested exercises, and many more resources are provided with the access code that comes with the book.  It really has everything a teacher could need to create a cohesive course.

And finally, integrating everything in my learning management system was essential—making it a one-stop shop for students. Contemporary Public Speaking has one of the most seamless integration methods I have used recently, which is a massive time-saver. A Norton team member sent me easy-to-follow instructions on how to integrate the textbook files into Blackboard, and she provided fast responses to my inquiries about how to set something up for my specific course in a very specific fashion. In fact, it made course setup for the semester faster and far easier than it ever was before, which was the proverbial cherry on top.

Whether you decide to take the longer process that I’ve used, or a more time-conservative approach, students must remain the focus when choosing a textbook. While one textbook might seem appealing to those of us who are trained in the fields, our students come to us at various levels of skill and education. Therefore, the textbooks we choose must inspire us as teachers and connect with our students where they are, so we can get them to where we want them to be.

Learn more about Contemporary Public Speaking here and review Jenifer’s syllabus.

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