Favorite Speech

As for the speeches, I felt that my favorite speech was the second speech. I did mine on how to detect counterfeit money. I thought this topic was interesting, because I also learned from this along the way. Also I'm sure that everyone could relate to this topic, because everyone is dealing with money almost everyday. I had a lot of fun researching upon this topic and I learned a great deal from it also. Making the power points for all of my speeches were a lot of fun though. I enjoy making power points if you all have not noticed! I also enjoyed the second speech, because I had a good grade on the outline, which made me confident about my speech. The main points were not off, so I was sure of what I was going to present during my speech. Also, while I was presenting my speech, I noticed everyone gluing their eyes onto my power point and some watching me present. it was overwhelming how everyone was staring, but I could tell that they were just interested about hearing more.

Self Evaluation #3

This was actually my first time to volunteer to go first. I wanted to get my speech done and over with. So When Carol told us to just get up there and write out names down, the top 3 spots were not yet taken. So once it was my turn to write my name down I took the first spot right away. I was up there and done before I even knew it. It was a good feeling.

Overall, my speech experience overall is super different from my last 2 speeches! I felt that I delivered my speech very effectively. Regarding the critiques that I got back from my colleagues, I think it’s safe to assume that they enjoyed my topic. I felt that I delivered my speech and the purpose of my speech very effectively. I started off with a question that would capture the majority of my audience, and then I begin to narrowing it down to the issue that I’ve seen with the youth today. I mentioned the 3 main points that I was going to discuss and that went very smoothly. During my speech, I had cited two citations. Once in the beginning, and then another before my first transition to my second main point. I had a lot more citations before I had to change my outline around. Unfortunately I was unable to attain more citations.

As I mention, this speech was very much different from my last two. I began to notice my “mistakes” from previous speeches as I was up there presenting this third speech. Surprisingly I remember when I looked to see where I was at [timing wise] I noticed that I had already taken up 1 minute. At that moment, I looked back at the audience and this feeling of comfort came upon me. It felt as though I was only talking to a group of very close people. I felt totally comfortable up there. I have never felt that way, ever, standing up in front of a class giving a speech. I always get a little jittery when I’m up there. As for my confidence, I would have to say that I was pretty much very knowledgeable upon my topic. But whenever I do get up to speak, I get this nervous feeling. It causes me to worry about forgetting to mention something or to have this worry about leaving something out. This always happens. Overall, I was pretty confident though. I did leave a few things out, but those were pretty much repetitive information.

Comparing this speech to my last, I can tell of the bat by watching the video that was super comfortable up there. As for another good attribute, I did no focus on the power point this time. I accidently looked up there once really quick to point out a statistic, but I turned back to the audience and began to elaborate about it. This time around, I also noticed that I looked into my audience’s eyes a lot more than I did before. I used to look at each person individually, but never for more than second. With how comfortable I was being up there, I did look at people for more than a second this time. I noticed this myself while I was up there. I realized how much more I looked out towards the audience literally presenting eye contact; therefore I would rate my eye contact to be a 10. I did make a slight mistake by looking at my power point once, but that was only for a split second. My last video, I noticed that I kept moving around, this time I stayed more in one spot. As for the negative, I did catch myself with the hand gestures. I noticed it, but I guess it is part of my nervous habit. I kept throwing my hands here and there. I tried controlling though. I did have better control with it comparing it to my last speech.

The hand gesture was the only thing that was quite distracting that I could tell from the video. I couldn’t tell with anything else. I did not move around as much this time. From my last video I thought moving around and pointing on the power point would keep my audience alive and awake; therefore that was why I was doing those things. Luckily, through the reading and from Carol’s speech tips, I’ve learned that those two factors are a big not on the good list when giving speeches.

From this speech comparing to my last speech, I would have to say that it was a bit better in some parts, but overall it’s about the same. I just improved a bit more on this third one. I think that they’re both almost the same, because I did enjoy giving the informative speech a lot. It was a fun topic to present it about. I did make more mistakes in the second speech though, but overall it was fun. If I could do this speech over, I’d actually be more aware of my third main point. Carol pointed out that I had to fix it up a bit. I was not sure how to exactly “fix” it up, but I did the best I could. So if I could re-do this speech, I’d look more into my third main point an research on it a lot more so I could include more citations.

With all three of the speeches done and over with, I would have to say that my best performance was with the third speech. The first speech was alright, because I’m sure we were all very nervous and unaware of how it was going to feel. Our audience wasn’t familiar to us so that was a negative factor. With the second speech I saw myself improving. It was helpful to have tips and what not after each speech during our class meeting. Also, the note taking for the each of the colleagues speeches were very helpful too, because that gave some insights on how they saw things while I was up there giving my speech. This only helped me to improve more and more. As we went on, definitely with my third speech I even felt the comfort being up there. I volunteered to go first and I got it all over with within seconds it felt like. I learned from my last two speeches to now focus on the power point. I also controlled my hand gestures a bit, and also my habit of moving around. I took my time and even heard everything that I presented. Usually when I’m nervous, I don’t really pay attention to what I’m saying sometimes. Like it just flies into one ear and out the other you know? So this time, I took more time and effort and that resulted with me feeling more comfortable.

With all said, I feel that I deserve at least a B+ or higher with this speech. I felt very comfortable. I presented everything in a decent amount of time, and I clearly had transitions and main points covered. Then again I never ask for an A because then I’m putting my standards way to high and would be disappointed if I did not get that A. I’ll stick with w B for now.

Helpful Concepts

I thought that the lessons going over the Monroe's Motivated Speech was really helpful. The book has it much more complicated and it seems as though we need more than what you expected. It was good that Carol decided to go over it. Also the talk about speaking towards the power point was very helpful. I personally did not know that this was a bad quality when giving a speech. I thought it helped the audience to stay more focused because the speaker is up there moving around. After we had that talk from the second speech, I was much more aware of it. I caught myself turn to the screen once for a split second; although right after I turned back and began to talk to the audience. Another important factor was also just knowing about the eye contact. Going over this problem over and over again reminded me what to focus on more. So that greatly helped me to improve it all in my third speech.

Interesting Concept Chp 15-16

In chapter 15, there was a discussion about the types of appeals that the speaker can demonstrate when giving their speech. I found Pathos, the appeal to emotion, to be very helpful. In my opinion when speakers give a narrative or personal experience within their speech, it helps to get the audiences attention. A story being told by an audience is something new and different. The audience can already tell that it's something that happened in reality and so they pay attention to the story a lot more. Examples, stories, and testimonies can contribute to the speech to make it much more interesting. As for my upcoming speech, I plan to incorporate many narratives and personal experiences to make my points across to the audience. Everyone has emotions and opinions about different topics, so by using pathos I feel that it can make the audience want to do or say something about the problem that I will be suggestion. If anything, I hope that my examples would only help connect to my audience in a positive way.

Persuasion

The most recent situation where I can remember myself persuading someone was actually a few days ago. It was pretty late at night and a few of my friends wanted to go get a snack. As a snack I thought they meant something of a small portion. A few of my friends suggest Dennys! Don't get me wrong, Dennys is an alright place to go for a late night snack, but I wasn't feeling Dennys that night. So I suggested to go get some yogurt at Yogurt Delight. Most of them said that they wanted to go to Dennys, because some people wanted real food. Some people agreed with me, because yogurt is good, and plus it's cheap! So my friends and I actually sat there and began to list the good things from eating at the yogurt place. I remember there being a sign at little shop telling us how yogurt is actually good for your digestive system. So I started to list that and I told him that it's good and healthy for you! Dennys is just greasy and fattening. Plus, we're not going to go work out after this, we're going to go home and sleep! By then, a few had changed their minds. Eventually, we all headed to go eat yogurt. It was pretty late, so Yogurt Delight was closed, but there was another shop called whimsical. They are opened until midnight. So for my reasonings, I used causal reasoning and inductive reasoning. So I would say that my persuasive skill works pretty well.

Video 15.1 and Schooling Pros & Cons

The video of 15.1 was useful because it broke down the elements of an argument. Of course we already know what a thesis is by now, I hope! On the other hand, I found that the simple explanation of each element and the showing of each sample is helpful. I was a bit stuck with how to make my speech a little more interesting, but from this video it did help me to develop it.
With the school pros & cons, the videos set a really good examples of transitions. I really liked how both speakers were speaking very clearly. I also intrigued by the their enthusiastic voices. The speakers connected with the audience very well, because the topic was very common. Schooling is and was something that everyone has gone through once before in their life. Presenting an option of home school to prevent those dangers that Dixie presented is quite adequate. On the other hand, Robert also did a well job with presenting the cons of home schooling. Overall, I would want the experience at a real school, because I see that there are more benefits to it on top of what Robert had explained.

Interesting Concept in Chp 14

What I found interesting in chapter 14 is the way the whole chapter greatly explains how to construct a good persuasive essay. The patterns are well explained in the chapters. It's not too hard to comprehend, because the explanations are straightforward. Also from each pattern, the book also included a sample outline. I thought that this was very useful. This helped me a lot to figure out what pattern my outline should follow. Also from some of the guides in the book such as question of policy and the different audiences are very useful. It help to guide me on what I should include in my outline. In a way it helped me to organize my ideas and main points, because it helped me to narrowed down the topic.
So hopefully with that in mind, the main points and sub point ideas I present will relate to the audience and persuade them thoroughly.