Be memorable.

Whether you like it or loathe it, public speaking is something many of us have to do. Be it presentations to colleagues or speeches to a room full of near strangers, we all want to shine...or at least get through it with our dignity intact. Luckily Philip Collins, former Chief Speech Writer to Tony Blair, knows exactly what's needed to give a storming speech.

The secret, according to Philip, is content. Too many of us focus on "how" we're presenting, and don't spend enough time thinking about "what" we're presenting. The secret to memorable, polished speeches is to think more about the material you're sharing - to pay attention to detail and choose your works carefully. Speech writing is and art - and art we can all learn.

When the content's right, the confidence will follow.

In "The Art of Speeches and Presentations" Philip Collins provides you with a concise set of tools, preparing you for any speaking occasion. Ranging from the ancient history of rhetoric to what makes Barack Obama such a good speaker, it's packed with practical examples and tips to teach you the craft of speaking well and making people remember what to say.

"Does Phil Collins know what he is talking about? Here's the answer - he isn't just good, he is the best. It's as simple as that. I spent years writing speeches for major politicians and I now speak publicly myself all the time, and yet there is so much that I can pick up from him and anyone who re4ads this book will too."--Daniel Finkelstein, Executive Editor, "The Times "and former speech writer to William Hague

Tones are the most challenging aspect of learning Chinese as a second language, and L2 learners' perceptual categories differ in important and fascinating ways from those of native speakers. This book explores the relationship between tone perception and production among native speakers and non-native learners as illustrated in the experiments the author conducted with native speakers, true learners and heritage learners, all of whom were tested on their ability to produce tones naturally and to perceive 81 synthesized tones in various contexts. The experiments show that each group processes tones differently with regard to both register (tonal level) and contour (tonal shape). The results also reveal how three types of cues - acoustic, psychological and contextual - influence non-native speakers' tone perception and production.

It's easy to teach yourself Greek! "Complete Greek: A Teach Yourself Guide" provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Greek, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing Greek with confidence. Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society. Features: One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language

Southerners love to talk food, quickly revealing likes and dislikes, regional preferences, and their own delicious stories. Because the topic often crosses lines of race, class, gender, and region, food supplies a common fuel to launch discussion. Consuming Identity sifts through the self-definitions, allegiances, and bonds made possible and strengthened through the theme of southern foodways. The book focuses on the role food plays in building identities, accounting for the messages food sends about who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we see others. While many volumes examine southern food, this one is the first to focus on food's rhetorical qualities and the effect that it can have on culture. The volume examines southern food stories that speak to the identity of the region, explain how food helps to build identities, and explore how it enables cultural exchange. Food acts rhetorically, with what we choose to eat and serve sending distinct messages. It also serves a vital identity-building function, factoring heavily into our memories, narratives, and understanding of who we are. Finally, because food and the tales surrounding it are so important to southerners, the rhetoric of food offers a significant and meaningful way to open up dialogue in the region. By sharing and celebrating both foodways and the food itself, southerners are able to revel in shared histories and traditions. In this way individuals find a common language despite the divisions of race and class that continue to plague the South. The rich subject of southern fare serves up a significant starting point for understanding the powerful rhetorical potential of all food.

This book offers an overview of some recent advances in the Computational Bioacoustics methods and technology. In the focus of discussion is the pursuit of scalability, which would facilitate real-world applications of different scope and purpose, such as wildlife monitoring, biodiversity assessment, pest population control, and monitoring the spread of disease transmitting mosquitoes. The various tasks of Computational Bioacoustics are described and a wide range of audio parameterization and recognition tasks related to the automated recognition of species and sound events is discussed. Many of the Computational Bioacoustics methods were originally developed for the needs of speech, audio, or image processing, and afterwards were adapted to the requirements of automated acoustic recognition of species, or were elaborated further to address the challenges of real-world operation in 24/7 mode. The interested reader is encouraged to follow the numerous references and links to web resources for further information and insights. This book is addressed to Software Engineers, IT experts, Computer Science researchers, Bioacousticians, and other practitioners concerned with the creation of new tools and services, aimed at enhancing the technological support to Computational Bioacoustics applications. STTM, Speech Technology and Text Mining in Medicine and Health Care This series demonstrates how the latest advances in speech technology and text mining positively affect patient healthcare and, in a much broader sense, public health at large. New developments in text mining methods have allowed health care providers to monitor a large population of patients at any time and from any location. Employing advanced summarization techniques, patient data can be readily extracted from extensive clinical documents in electronic health records and immediately made available to the physician. These same summarization techniques can also aid the healthcare provider in extracting from the large corpora of medical literature the relevant information for treating the patient. The series topics include the design and acceptance of speech-enabled robots that assist in the operating room, studies of signal processing and acoustic modeling for speech and communication disorders, advanced statistical speech enhancement methods for creating synthetic voice, and technologies for addressing speech and language impairments. Titles in the Series consist of both authored books and edited contributions. All authored books and contributed works are peer-reviewed. The Series is for speech scientists and speech engineers, machine learning experts, biomedical engineers, medical speech pathologists, linguists, and healthcare professionals

First published in 1983, this book represents a substantial body of detailed research on children's language and communication, and more generally on the nature of interactive spoken discourse. It looks at areas of competence often examined in young children's speech have that have not been described for adults - leading to insights not only in the character of adult conversation but also the process of acquiring this competence. The authors set forward strategies for conversing at different stage of life, while also relating these strategies to, and formulating hypotheses concerning, the dynamics of language variation and change.

A follow-on from Actors' Audition Speeches" this title includes speeches from plays written and produced in the 1990s, with extracts from West End productions ("Art" and "Cressida"), and films ("Pulp Fiction"). Comments from directors, casting directors, actors and teachers are included."

The revised edition of 20 Questions about Youth and the Media is an updated and comprehensive guide to today's most compelling issues in the study of children, tweens, teens and the media. The editors bring together leading experts to answer the kinds of questions an undergraduate student might ask about the relationship between young people and media. In so doing, the book addresses a range of media, from cartoons to the Internet, from advertising to popular music, and from mobile phones to educational television. The diverse array of topics include government regulation, race and gender, effects (both prosocial and risky), kids' use of digital media, and the commercialization of youth culture. This book is designed with the undergraduate youth/children and media classroom in mind, and features accessible writing and end-of-chapter discussion questions and exercises.

"I want to teach you how to cook good food at home. By stripping away all the hard graft and complexity, anyone can produce mouth-watering recipes. Put simply, I'm going to show you how to cook yourself into a better cook." GORDON RAMSAY Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course is about giving home cooks the desire, confidence and inspiration to hit the stoves and get cooking, with over 120 modern, simple and accessible recipes. The ultimate reference bible, it's a lifetime's worth of expertise from one of the world's finest chefs distilled into a beautiful book. Learn how to cook incredible, flavoursome dishes in just ten minutes with Ramsay in 10, the new book out 14/10/21.

Lysias' 21st speech "On a charge of taking bribes" is an important example of Attic oratory that sheds significant light on Classical history and society. Delivered after the restoration of democracy in 402 B.C.E., this speech provides information that is critical for our understanding of the relationship between the Athenian demos and aristocrats, Athenian civic institutions (e.g., taxation, liturgies and conscription), religious beliefs, moral values, political behavior, and, in particular, of the legal and rhetorical treatment of embezzlement and bribery. It also supplies unique information about the military engagement of the Athenians at Aegospotami and the role of Alcibiades in the political life of Athens. Despite its importance, however, Lysias' speech has never been the subject of an extensive study in its own right. This volume seeks to fill that gap by presenting the first systematic commentary on this speech. The author puts much emphasis on its structure, strategy, and argumentation, focusing especially on the tension between the actual practices of the anonymous client of the logographer and civic ideals invoked in the present case. The book is intended to be of interest to classicists, ancient historians and political theorists, but also to the general reader.

The book presents the issue of impoliteness in media discourse found in television debates, films and computer-mediated communication. The phenomenon is viewed from different theoretical perspectives, namely prosody studies, corpus linguistics, media studies and audiovisual translation, neo-Gricean approaches, reception-oriented investigations and context-bound interpretations. Authors from ten different countries - Sweden, USA, Norway, New Zealand, Mexico, Georgia, France, Poland, India, and UAE - analyse data from nine languages - English, Swedish, Georgian, Polish, Arabic, Persian, French, Croatian and Montenegrin.

The central focus of the book is the identification of the ways people engage in communicative encounters to (re)constitute personal and social identities. Its aim is to identify some principal themes that have emerged from the ample research on identity in a variety of contexts. A common thread of the articles is the role of language in the construction and performance of identities. It embraces an exploration of the sociocultural environments in which human communication takes place, the interplay between these environments, and the construction and display of identities through our communicative performances. Research located in a range of literary, sociological, psychological and linguistic perspectives is used to illustrate the potential of communication in establishing a sense of identity.

This volume has its origins in an international conference on emotions organized by the Polish Association for the Study of English and held at the University of Wroclaw in April 2015. In the course of the conference, it became clear that emotions are productively explored with relation to motion for the reason that emotion(s) and motion(s) constitute profoundly intertwined dimensions of physical and cultural embodiment reflected in language. The relationship between motion(s) and emotion(s) became the underlying theme of this volume, which comprises nineteen contributions presenting exploratory and applicative accounts of (e)motion(s) situated in topical research areas of linguistic theory, second language acquisition, and translation studies.

This book aspires to make an expedient contribution to the trust-based body of knowledge. Various disciplines analyze the notion of "trust", by addressing it from their own perspectives. The fact that the importance of multilevel and cross-level perspectives is gaining increasing attention in communication management has led to a call for examining trust across levels of communication analysis. The authors approach trust from the standpoint of different sub-branches of communication discipline, including brand management, public relations research, comparative advertising, health communication, political communication and digital communication. In addition, this book provides empirical evidence from a wide range of cases in Turkey, seeking to both reveal the existing situation in details and open up a world of new questions and lines of enquiry to pursue for future research.

As corporations ramp up "workforce globalization" and young professionals increasingly pursue opportunities to work abroad, social entrepreneurs use online digital platforms to create offline social events where foreigners can meet face-to-face. Through ethnographic study of such groups in Paris, Singapore, and Bangalore, Erika Polson illustrates how, as a new generation of expatriates uses location technologies to create mobile "places," a new global middle class is emerging. While there are many differences in the specifics between the expat groups, they share certain characteristics that indicate a larger logic to the way that the increasing mobility of professional career paths is connected to new subjectivities and changing forms of community among a diverse and growing demographic. This book opens up a new field of study, one which pays more attention to middle class mobility while questioning the privileging of mobility more generally.

The business models of traditional media are experiencing a profound crisis. One of the core issues of this crisis is the increasing breakdown of the value chain model - a model based on the numbers of readers, viewers, and users which the mass media can "sell" in exchange for advertising revenue. These formerly stable models of the media value chain are now in perpetual flux, requiring adaptation to the rapid changes in technology and the volatility of user preferences. Can media companies cope with these new circumstances and at the same time fulfill their traditional roles? This volume addresses this question, and others, to explore scenarios, phenomena, and developments which point to new configurations arising from new media business models, innovative ways in which media practitioners engage their audiences, intercontinental media phenomena, user-generated content, and the general disconnect between print and online media paradigms. Contributors point to a way out of the general bewilderment, providing answers to frequently asked questions, and ideas for new guidelines and solutions.

The business models of traditional media are experiencing a profound crisis. One of the core issues of this crisis is the increasing breakdown of the value chain model - a model based on the numbers of readers, viewers, and users which the mass media can "sell" in exchange for advertising revenue. These formerly stable models of the media value chain are now in perpetual flux, requiring adaptation to the rapid changes in technology and the volatility of user preferences. Can media companies cope with these new circumstances and at the same time fulfill their traditional roles? This volume addresses this question, and others, to explore scenarios, phenomena, and developments which point to new configurations arising from new media business models, innovative ways in which media practitioners engage their audiences, intercontinental media phenomena, user-generated content, and the general disconnect between print and online media paradigms. Contributors point to a way out of the general bewilderment, providing answers to frequently asked questions, and ideas for new guidelines and solutions.

Providing a comparative study on celebrity advocacy - from the work of Bono, George Clooney, Madonna, Greg Mortenson, and Kim Kardashian West - this book provides scholars and readers with a better understanding of some of the short-term and long-term impacts of various forms of celebrity activism. Each chapter illustrates how the impoverished rhetoric of celebrities often privileges the voices of those in the Global North over the efforts of local NGOs who have been working for years at addressing the same humanitarian crises. Whether we are talking about the building of schools for young women in Afghanistan or the satellite surveillance of potential genocidal acts carried out in the Sudan, various forms of celebrity advocacy resonate with scholars and members of the public who want to be seen "doing something." The author argues that more often than not, celebrity advocacy enhances a celebrity's reputation - but hinders the efforts of those who ask us to pay attention to the historical, structural, and material causes of these humanitarian crises.

The testing and assessment of second language learners is an essential part of the language learning process. Glenn Fulcher's Testing Second Language Speaking is a state-of-the-art volume that considers the assessment of speaking from historical, theoretical and practical perspectives. The book offers the first systematic, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the testing of second language speaking. Written in a clear and accessible manner, it covers: Explanations of the process of test design Costing test design projects How to put the test into practice Evaluation of speaking tests Task types for testing speaking Testing learners with disabilities It also contains a wealth of examples, including task types that are commonly used in speaking tests, approaches to researching speaking tests and specific methodologies that teachers, students and test developers may use in their own projects. Successfully integrating practice and theory, this book demystifies the process of testing speaking and provides a thorough treatment of the key ethical and technical issues in speaking evaluation.

Marshall McLuhan made many predictions in his seminal 1964 publication, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man. Among them were his predictions that the Internet would become a "global village," making us more interconnected than television; the closing of the gap between consumers and producers; the elimination of space and time as barriers to communication; and the melting of national borders. He is also famously remembered for coining the expression "the medium is the message." These predictions form the genesis of this updated volume by Robert K. Logan, a friend and colleague who worked with McLuhan. In this second edition of Understanding New Media Logan expertly updates McLuhan's Understanding Media to analyze the "new media" McLuhan foreshadowed and yet was never able to analyze or experience. The book is designed to reach a new generation of readers as well as appealing to scholars and students who are familiar with Understanding Media.

This book outlines a coherent genre history of the personal weblog from the perspective of media linguistics. An analysis of a diachronic corpus (1997-2012) suggests distinct phases in the history of the genre. In addition to media linguistics, the author draws on methods from textual and corpus linguistics as well as the social sciences. He traces the personal weblog's various relations to different on- and offline genres and describes the blog communication form as well as the communicative situation, structural features and several posting genres characteristic of personal weblogs. The findings are embedded into theoretical considerations on genre change in general as well as stability and change of web-based genres in particular.

This book contains a selection of articles on new developments in translation and interpreting studies. It offers a wealth of new and innovative approaches to the didactics of translation and interpreting that may well change the way in which translators and interpreters are trained. They include such issues of current debate as assessment methods and criteria, assessment of competences, graduate employability, placements, skills labs, the perceived skills gap between training and profession, the teaching of terminology, and curriculum design. The authors are experts in their fields from renowned universities in Europe, Africa and North-America. The book will be an indispensable help for trainers and researchers, but may also be of interest to translators and interpreters.

This collection of papers addresses new trends in Cognitive Linguistics. Three parts of the book focus on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Integration Network Analysis. Both the theoretical contributions and the empirical case studies stress the importance of contextual factors in the meaning making processes. They employ qualitative methods to analyze the use of metaphor in political discourse and in the conceptualization of emotions. The data sets include multimodal data, sign languages and co-speech gestures. The fourth part of the book contains two corpus-based studies. The fifth part concentrates on the grammatical categories of passive voice and aspect. One contribution discusses the problem of categorization in phonology.

The author examines the cultural identity development of Oromo-Americans in Minnesota, an ethnic group originally located within the national borders of Ethiopia. Earlier studies on language and cultural identity have shown that the degree of ethnic orientation of minorities commonly decreases from generation to generation. Yet oppression and a visible minority status were identified as factors delaying the process of de-ethnicization. Given that Oromos fled persecution in Ethiopia and are confronted with the ramifications of a visible minority status in the U.S., it can be expected that they have retained strong ties to their ethnic culture. This study, however, came to a more complex and theory-building result.