Public Speaking 101 Information Literacy Competencies

Please note that Public Speaking 101 is one of the foundational courses in NKU's information literacy sequential curriculum. The Public Speaking 101 library component is intended to be an introduction to the competencies needed to prepare for freshman-level informational and persuasive speeches. Different foundational research components are introduced in University 101, English 101, and English 291 and are not duplicated in the library's Public Speaking 101 curriculum. This approach addresses students' concerns that they not receive redundant instruction.

The library component of Public Speaking 101 emphasizes the following competencies:

  1. Explore topical information sources to generate and refine ideas; select and refine a topic
  2. Understand that some types of sources (books, magazines, newspapers, web sites, recordings) may be more useful than others for a given research need
  3. Know that careful scrutiny of information sources is essential
  4. Be aware that certain factors affect the quality, reliability, or usefulness of information (authority, intended audience, point of view or bias, timeliness, format, accuracy)
  5. Describe criteria to be used in making information decisions and choices and evaluate information based on those criteria
  6. Legally obtain and store text, data, images, or sounds, respect intellectual property rights, and post permission granted notices, as needed, for copyrighted material
  7. Investigate the scope, content, and organization of the print and electronic information retrieval systems being used
  8. Identify key concepts and terms that describe the information needed
  9. Understand basic Boolean searching and practice using it in the search process
  10. Interpret citations in order to identify the material they represent (book, chapter, article, web page, government document, etc.)