This collection contains four papers that were presented as part of a short course delivered at the 1991 annual meeting of the Speech Communication Association. The papers discuss various aspects of the development and use of "The Competent Speaker," a public speaking assessment instrument designed for the college sophomore level. The papers and their authors are as follows: "'The Competent Speaker' Assessment Instrument: Its Nature and Rationale" (Michael R. Moore and Conrad C. Awtry); "The Competent Speaker Assessment Instrument: Uses and Logistics for Administration" (Sherwyn P. Morreale and K. Phillip Taylor); "The Competent Speaker Speech Performance Evaluation: A Rasch Analysis" (Donna Surges Tatum); and "'The Competent Speaker': Development, Reliability, and Validity of a Communication-Competency Based Speech Evaluation Form" (Donald D. Morley and others). (SR)