Joe Willis, Katherine Allen, Tyler Tindall

A year-and-a-half after the process began—a process that Speech Instructor Tyler Tindall called both "enjoyable and difficult"—the Speech workbook, Journey, written by Midland College's three full time Speech instructors, arrived in time to start the fall semester.

The three instructors—Tyler Tindall, Ed.D; Katherine Allen, M.A.; and Joe Willis, M.A.—wanted a unified way of measuring student performance, and they wanted a less expensive textbook. So, they decided to work together to develop a supplemental workbook for the textbook required for the "Public Speaking" courses.

"We really did have the student in mind as we wrote the book," Tindall said. "We wanted something they could put their hands on and use."

The title, Journey, which refers to the journey to being a better speaker , reflects the teaching philosophy of all three instructors. "Giving a speech is a process—not a happening," Tindall said. "Very few people are asked to speak because they are good speakers," he said, as Allen and Willis nodded in agreement.

Giving an effective speech is a multi-step process—a journey—that involves analyzing the audience, deciding on, researching and organizing the topic, finding effective ways to use the body and voice, and deciding what visual aids to include.

Journey presented practical exercises, based on experience, for each step in the process, and the book reflects the expertise of each of the three instructors. Allen developed the exercises and overall organization; Tindall wrote the chapter beginnings; and Willis, who had been published before, found and worked with the publisher.

The "enjoyable and difficult" process that Tindall referred to was discovering and reconciling the different teaching styles that each instructor brought to completing Journey. "We came from three different places, so we spent a lot of time bouncing ideas off one another," Willis said.

Tindall expressed his love for the discipline—the study of and the theory behind—Speech Communication. Willis described his teaching as more pragmatic and performance-related. He wanted to see the theory of Speech Communication ultimately reflected in his students' presentations. Allen's interest lay in getting people to listen to what a person has to say. She wanted students to have an appreciation of how effective speaking impacts an audience.

The path to writing Journey caused all three instructors to re-evaluate their teaching methodologies and challenged them to integrate the book and its "distilled" knowledge into their individual teaching process, Willis said.

Journey was designed specifically for MC use. So, Allen, Tindall and Willis did not expect it to be picked up by other schools. Neither did they expect to gain any personal profit from the book, although it is required for the six sections of "Public Speaking." The money made on the book goes into MC's Speech Communication lab—helping to keep the technology current.