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.

Sea of Persuasion

Every day I am in a sea of persuasion. Everywhere that I look there are always TV commercials telling me to buy something. Or when I'm walking out of SJSU, heading down the street to catch the light rail, there are tons of stores and signs that either persuades me to buy some shoes or to switch to Geiko! There are so much persuasion going on, but you just need to be asked the question for you to realize the persuasions around you. Even when I am having conversations with my friends, they are trying to get me to do buy something or to go somewhere or even to do something. I view that the media has an impact on persuading people. But usually it seems to come naturally. For example, the weatherman! They can simply give you a temperature and tell you that it's going to rain. People will automatically know to carry their umbrellas the next day. As for public speaking, I can think of school events that try to get us to either join a club, or to not smoke and what not. I was in a program which went around persuading people too. We did skits of real life scenarios to teach Junior High students how to say no to drugs and pure pressure.
As your own being and caring for what's good for you is how you can more of a critical consumer. Obviously, there will always be something that you don't favor so you would go against it.

Actuative Speech

As for my speech I am going to be persuade my audience to learn and to keep their native language. For my first main point I am planning to explain the problem with young adults, and them not understanding their language fluently enough. In my second main point I am going to explain about the benefits of keeping your native language, and what it can provide in your life along the way. Finally in my third main point, I'm going to suggest 3 reasonable actions my audience can take to learn more of their native language.
For my introduction, I'm going to start off with a question as a grabber. Afterward I am going to give a few facts and statistics on how many people in the Unites States speak English. These fact will be through a credibility. For my conclusion I am going to try to persuade my audience to consider one of the suggestions that I offered. Then I will review my main speeches again and close it up with strong ending. For the ending I hope to get my audience to at least think about how much they know their language, and hopefully try to learn more.
To persuade my audience, I'm going to give a few narratives that tie in with my topic. Because I know almost all of my audience can relate to this topic, I'm going to emphasis my 3 suggestions very clearly and strongly.

Interesting Concept

One concept that I found interesting in these readings was in chapter 13. I found it convenient, because it broke down the different patterns to organized the informative speeches. I used this chapter to help me a lot with the prior speech, so I was really familiar with this chapter and its content. Not only did they provide specific examples for each one, but the chapter also gave tips on how to make it more interesting depending on which style pattern you use. This chapter basically broke down the steps to forming a well organized informative essay. It obviously helped me a lot, because I did well on both my outline and my speech.

Sexist language

The discussion of Fickr captured my interesting very much. I didn't think anyone would feel indifferent about the use of the word "girl" to describe a women. I don't feel degraded or offended with people labeling me or any other female a girl. It's nice to be called a woman or lady, but being labeled as a "girl" in tags are just about the same. I don't view the word "girl" as to be a sexist term. There are a lot of words that label things and people (gender) that are closely related to "girl". Such examples were given by Rippie: Contra Censura:

"i suppose one solution is to ban words like girl, boy, black, white, red, yellow, etc...
asian should go, and indian is probably a hot-button, too."

I've never came across this kind if topic before. I can imagine labeling some religion or nationality something other than the original can be demeaning, but something as simple as boy, girl, yellow, red is natural. In the text book, it claimed that certain words and sentences can be viewed differently to the opposite sex. I see it all the same. I don't mind the gender use at all.

Interactive Videos 10.1, 10.2, 12.1, 12.2 and 12.3

A concept that I learned from these video 12.1 was the use of your voice. Volume can be a very effective way to get your audience's attention. Luckily, from the comments that I receive from my presentations, most people have mention that I do have a clear and loud voice. Another concept I've learn was how to control your tone. Speaking too lively and quickly can easily distract the audience. They won't really pay attention to the content of your speech, but they would be distracted by the way you are talking. Speaking calmly, yet no with a monotone, at a decent pace is the most effective way to capture your audience's attention to maintain that attention through out the presentation.
In video 12.2 I gained more knowledge about how presenters should maintain their postures and their appearance. The video also taught about eye contact and your body movement. These tips do help because again, these are the main points to delivering a good speech. You want the audience to focus on what you have to say rather than to focus on your appearance only.

From tte videos, what I plan on applying to my third speech is body gestures. For me though, it's the hand gestures in general. Some of the audience noted that I have hand gestures. I think that might be distracting some people a little.

Useful or Interesting in Chp 11.

In this chapter I learned a lot overall about presentation media. I learned more about my choice of presentation, which is the use of the Power Point. I was glad to see that for most of the tips given for using Power Point was what I was already doing. If I had to pick another way of presenting , I would choose the overhead transparency. I choose this type of media, because it's almost very similar to the Power Point. The only difference I see with the transparency is that I have the ability to write on it as I am giving the presentation. Even though as a negative, the speaker would most likely bow their head down to face the transparency, equally it is like facing the Power Point. Although with control and practice, a speaker can present while using the overhead transparency very professionally. As I read through the chapter, the guidelines for using an overhead transparency is very similar to the Power Point as I have already pointed out. I think this can also help to engage the audience, because from drawing and writing availability for the speaker, the speaker can draw more attention by asking questions and or conducting an activity of the transparency.

Presenting in front of 5 people

As for the presentation, I decided to present my speech in front my close friends. Their names were Jessica, Rushkin, Angelo, Avin, and Patty. I decide to present in front of them, because they have been through giving speeches also. I thought that maybe they could give me advice and tips that I've never received before from previous teachers and colleagues.

This time around I decided to keep my introduction, yet I added a second question to capture my audiences attention a little more. I asked my audience "Now that counterfeit has been rising, how many of you are checking the change that you get back?". I still gave my audience eye contact throughout my speech, as I did during the class presentation. Another different approach was the way I ended my conclusion. I tried to reorganize my thoughts more and continues on with what I left off in my introduction. I briefly summed up my main points again. Then I went back to the audience and reminded them to next time, wherever they may be, check the change that they receive even if the amount is correct. The bill can always be counterfeit.

From the comments that I had received, it seemed more like I improved with the content of my speech; although at some points I did stutter a little. I did get all of my main points across as I did with my speech on Friday. So as for my opinion, I did the same as I did on Friday, but the question and the the way I summed up my conclusion was a bit of an improvement. Another improvement that i accomplished was the hand gestures. I tried to keep my hands calm, but I did make small movements to make myself more interesting. I didn't want to look too boring up there.

If I had the chance to do the speech again for the third time, I wouldn't focus on changing anything much at all. I'd rather try to improve on what I already have, plus the mistakes that I made with the power point. With the power point, I talked towards the wall, instead of towards the audience. That was the only weakness that I saw that I had. Or at least, that was the main improvement that I needed to work on. So that would be the only one that I would try my best on.

The exercise was pretty useful. It's like having another chance to revise your speech. I felt a lot more comfortable though, because it was in front of people that I know very well. It helped me become aware of my content and also the delivery of my speech. At the time I was presenting, I could also picture myself standing in front of class on Friday presenting the speech. I was almost very sure of what I had said Friday, so I tried to repeat those words, but also added some new sentences/words to improve the speech a little.

Second Speech Evaluation

As for the second time around, I am glad to say that I did correct myself and my mistakes from the last presentation. I reviewed over my "needs improvement" on the comments paper from my colleagues from the last speech. I made sure to improve as much as I can, and I am glad to say that I greatly achieved the purpose of my speech.

Luckily, this time I was the fourth person to present. Versus the last time, I was actually one of the last few people to go! As I got up to the front, I felt very confident, because I felt that this subject was going to catch my audience's attention effectively. Money in general is what everyone deals with everyday, and so counterfeit money seemed like a good subject to catch their attention. As I had said before, I went up to the front with a lot of confidence. More than I did from the last speech, because this time I was aware of my mistakes. Also I was familiar with how the environment is like, and how the whole speech process was going to go. If I had to do it over, I definitely would not change my introduction or my conclusion. Unfortunately, I stuttered at the beginning. I had my citations highlighted, and so I kept trying to mention the high lighted part too early!

One goal that I accomplished through the content of my speech was the conclusion. I remembered during my last speech, I did not sum up my conclusion very well. I had left out the part of reciting my main points. Although this time, I had just enough time to summarize my main points again, and also added a clever ending to wrap up my speech. I also remembered to use transitions to make my speech flow better. I took the time to present my three main points during my introduction.

As for the deliverance of my speech, from both of my speeches I thought that I presented very clearly and loudly for the audience to hear. For improvement, I limited my speech fillers. I remembered during my last speech I kept repeating the phrase "what not". Even I noticed that I kept saying that. So this time, I avoided that phrase completely. Which was successful!

With both speeches though, I made an error by talking towards the Power Point, again. On the other hand, with the second speech, I presented my conclusion very well. I included the main points, and added a good ending to finish up my speech. Between the last two speeches, I can see that I really improved. I knew more of what I had to focus on and so I tried to present that a lot better the second time around.

As for a distraction, I don't think I did anything that was distracting. Except for one comment on a colleague's paper. Someone mentioned that I had "hand gestures". I don't realize that I'm doing weird distracting hang movements, but I'll try to eliminate that also in my third upcoming speech. Other than that, I don't notice anything distracting. As for eye contact, I think that I had did that well. Despite the mistake of facing the power point a few times. Otherwise, my eyes were focused on the audience the whole time. I would give myself a 9.

For the mistakes that I did, such as stuttering in the beginning and talking towards the Power Point I thought that I was going to get a B. And also I think I went over time a little bit, which I knew would have docked off some points. I know that I did better than a C, because I did include citations, and I left out my speech fillers. I did not focus too much on my Power Point. In addition I used transitions which made my speech flow a lot smoother. I set my standards low so when the results do come back I won't be too disappointed or too over confident. Fortunately, I am very satisfied with my grade! I did better than I expected!

I remembered the citations being a problem with my last speech, so I made sure to include them in the second speech. From watching the video I did cite two citations. Once in the beginning introduction. The other citation was during my explanation about one of the security features on counterfeit money. That was one of my improvements since the last speech.

This second speech was definitely better than my last speech. By watching myself over again, I can see my improvement significantly. I made sure to fill in the mistakes that I made during my first speech, and made it better in my second speech. I felt that the audience did understand my main points for both of speeches; although with the transitions for my second speech it made much more understandable.

What I found useful in chapter 9 and Chapter 13

From what I've read, I found both chapters to be very important regards to our upcoming informative speech. Chapter 9 explained very well about how to improve our introductions and how to fully cover our conclusions. I liked how the book broke down the components to forming both the introduction and the conclusion.
In the chapter 13, it was very useful because they gave us many examples of how to make an outline for our speech. It also gave us key points on how to keep the audience engaged. The most important thing that I received from this section was that to keep the audience's attention, we must give a speech on a topic that can relate to our audience. Hopefully I achieved that with my subject! I find it very common nowadays with the economy struggles and what not, but you guys won't know what I'm talking about until April!

Introduction & Conclusion

According to the book, as part of the introduction, grabbing the audience attention is the first and foremost important key. You want the audience to be engaged by the first few seconds of speech, because that is the way to determine if they will pay attention or not. To keep them captivated, the second factor you should have in your speech is to give the audience the purpose o your speech. The purpose is what the audience is keeping track of, because they would like to know what you're going to be talking about. Integrated with the purpose of your speech, is your thesis. The thesis is mainly the points that you are going to be talking about. It gives the audience an idea of what they are going to be paying attention to. Giving credibility, which I lacked during my last speech, is another component in your introduction. This alerts the audience that you are the authority of your topic and that you have done good research. At the end of the introduction, simply go over your main points again so that the audience can refresh their memories.

As for the conclusion, there are 3 components to cover. The first component is to again review your main points. This was left off at the introduction before you begin to go further in depth with the main points. Reinforcing the purpose of the speech is to highlight what was important from your speech. The audience obviously didn't sit through your speech not expecting to learn anything. To reassure them with the reinforcement would give them a sense that they did learn something, hopefully, from your speech. As for the last factor, asserting a well put together closure is needed to end the speech. You want to end the speech with a smooth ending. You don't want to leave the audience confused and full of questions.

As for my speech, I'm going to make sure that I introduce my main points precisely. I also want to make sure that I have a well put together conclusion to finish my speech off at the end. As of right now, I am working on my outline and coming up a good conclusion. You guys can be the judge when we meet next!

Videos: 9.1, 9.2, 13.1A, 13.1B and "Use It" 13.1

In the first video, 9.1, when the speaker had started her introduction by taking a picture of the class, it reminded me of my speech. I was going to do the exact same introduction. Once I got up there, I had changed my mind. Anyways though, the videos were super helpful. In the video 9.2 Evan explained how having a solid conclusion is important in speeches. I forgot to provide a closure to my speech, because I panicked when I saw that I had already taken up five minutes. That was my mistake, so for the next two speeches I'm going to have to remember to add that.
As for video 13.1A, I like how Evan speaks very fluently and clearly. He clearly presents his transitions and makes it very clear of what he's trying to explain about techno. His slide also went well with his speech. The way he incorporated his speech and the slide is very smooth.
In the video 13.1B, Janine delivered her speech very smoothly also. Once she pulled out her notes for that quote, I noticed that she did not use her note cards barely at all. This shows how practice is very important in part of delivering a well speech.
As for the "use it" video, I think that Katherine is speaking too quick. This may be just because she's nervous, but clearly she is experiencing some anxiety. Another factor that I've noticed is that she stumbles upon her words quite a few times. She also is focusing a lot of her note cards.
All of these features, positive and negative, are the skills that I've learned to integrate or to watch out on for my own speech. Remembering to speak slowly and clearly is important while giving a speech. Even if I were to take a look at my note card, it won't look as if I am forgetting my speech completely. Whereas, the way Katherine is viewing her note cards, it just makes it looks like she didn't practice much at all.

Chp 7 and Chp 8

In chapter 7, the whole chapter describing the different supporting materials was interesting to me. Because for the most part, a single sentence definition is often said to describe "narrative" or " examples". Chapter 7 went into more depth upon each supporting material. It gave me a better meaning of what each means. From that I feel more comfortable using those different materials in my speech, because I have a better understanding of it.
As for chapter 8 showing the different patterns or organization help to put together a speech effectively. With the help of the supporting materials and the ways to organize certain speeches to an online, the speech can be presented very smoothly. Patterns help to determine what is needed for a speech. What to provide as the main points and sub points no matter what kind of speech it is. It can be a topical speech or informative speech, ect. I like how the chapter also provided a chart for the readers. It clarified the different patterns and also when to use each one.

Facts & Statistics

As for me facts and statistics are important in speeches, because it helps to provide specific evidence. For an example, back to the video we watched Matthew give a speech about drinking, and the harmful affect of drinking and driving, he provided facts and statistics. In my point of view, providing those information captures the audience more. This is because it gives a definite number and percentage of what can happen. I don't know if that's quite understandable but here's an example. I'm sitting in class and someone is giving a speech about drinking and driving. Of course there's going to be death in this situation; although if the speaker were to just say "Death is involved in drinking an driving" it doesn't exactly grasp our attention. Giving statistics in this speech would capture my attention. For an example, "two out of ten people are killed during drunk driving." See the difference? It helps to give a steady ground to approximately how many people die from drinking and driving.
Facts and statistics are not as effective when it gets to much out of hand. For example you don't want to give all facts and just base your speech off of that. Putting in personal opinion and experience is mainly necessary to have an effective speech. Sometimes giving too much statistics can make an speech seem unreliable. Or at least it would show that the speaker is not familiar with their topic at all, because they are just giving out straight facts and statistics.

7.1, 7.2, 8.1 and 8.2 Videos

Within chapter 7, the videos explained supporting materials. I found that in my favor, I prefer to start off an introduction with a narrative. When I'm the audience, what captures my attention is an everyday story as a grabber. I view that examples are also very inmportant within speeches. Without speeches, the information that we give out can seem to be to generalized. People won't understand more in depths; therefore they wouldn't be as into your speech. And I also agree with the idea that a media slide should be included when there are facts and statistics. Simply stating statistics and giving out facts would not appeal to the audience too much.
Chapter 8 went over the patterns of organization. I view that this is important, because it can help bring out the speech more effectively. By knowing the pattern, the speaker can also make it easier for themselves, because this makes it easier to create an outline. In a way, it helps to organize and simplify your topic.
From chapter 8 I've learn a bit more about transitions and how to include them into my speech. I know that I needed to make sure that I include these smooth transitions into my next two speeches. In addition, pattern organization is an important factor, because it helps to organize the speech topic.

Anticipating for my turn has always been the cause for my speech anxiety. I could be an expert on my speech topic, but getting in front of an audience would still cause me to become nervous. As I watched my video, I noticed that I had a confident body postures and a presentable approach. I talked loudly and clearly, or at least as much as I could since I was getting over a cold. I also thought that the idea with pointing out things at the power point was a plus, because it kept me moving and that would help the audience to stay focus; rather than just to focus their eyes on my just standing at one spot.
As for the deliverance of my speech, I believed that I got my purpose across. I addressed that I was going to compare how cameras are used back when it was first introduced, and how it has evolved into a cultural artifact for the American culture today. I felt very confident in my speech. I had done enough research to narrow it down to specifically what I wanted to talk about. With all of the research and being able to smoothly give a speech along with a power point made me feel comfortable enough.
Unfortunately during my speech, I did not recite any credibility. That’s one of the few negatives that I noticed during my speech. I had a few pauses during my speech. Some of the pauses were actually for the audience to take their time to view my slide page. Other times I slightly stalled because I lost some thought, but usually that shows in my face expression. I also noticed that at the end of some sentences I mumbled and said “what not” a few times. I guess I say that, because it works as a wrap for my sentence. So for my improvement for the content of my speech, I should focus on how to smoothly transition my sentences and topics. I have mentioned this before, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to giving speeches. Even after I feel confident about giving a speech, I begin to notice the smaller factors that I could have added to make my speech more effective. Another factor that I should improve on is to specifically use transitions in my introduction. I didn’t clarify my main points using the right transition words as some of my colleagues did.
As for positive notes, my posture was fine; it showed that I had confidence. I felt that moving around and pointing back at the power point kept my audience awake. I didn’t want to just stand in one spot an only have semi hand gestures, so I thought that if I were to direct my audience’s attention around, it would keep them entertained. As for giving eye contact, I believe that I did that very well. I’d give myself an 8, because I did stare out at the audience majority of the time. The other times I stared back at the power point to help point out some of the images for the audience. I didn’t rely on my note card. I noticed that only once did I check my note card. Other than that, everything flowed out in order and I got most of my points across.
If I had to do anything over, I would definitely have practiced a little more with my speech along with my power point. I was able to practice that a few times; although when I do get up to give the actual speech, sometimes I change my words around. So then I confuse myself and that causes me to become more nervous than I already am. This just shows me that I need to keep my speech very constant, instead of adding new sentences and new words to make my speech confusing for me. I would try to incorporate transition words too and make it clear to my audience of what it is that I’m going to be talking about.
Overall, I would actually give myself a B. For the mistake of not clearly mentioning my main points should dock some points off. Not using transitions during my speech was also a negative; A little bit of mumbling and using “what not” as a filler was a factor too. But other than that, I believe that my speech was fine and that I was still able to get my point across to the audience.
I know there’s more that I need to work on to improve my speech deliverance. For the upcoming speeches, I hope to at least accomplish each of these negatives that I have mentioned above. I found that the notes taken down by my colleagues helped out a lot. They are the audience and since the papers were anonymous, each of them can be honest and just write down our errors. Again, public speeches will never be flawless for me; therefore I hope to still learn and improve my speech giving skills.

Chapter 5: Useful or Interesting

In this chapter, the subject of time was interesting to me. I never thought that the hours have that much of an affect of the audience. It's interesting to point out that the audience would be more influenced at a certain time of the day. When a person is hungry, I guess that does distract them from hearing a speech. I just thought about when I had to listen to speeches and or presentations. I had an English class in the morning and there was definitely no time for me to eat then. Plus, the class was at 7:30AM. It was way too early for me already, and I didn't even have time in the morning to eat. The hunger did distract me here and there; although when a person said something interesting or brought out an important fact I payed attention to that. It's just everything else kinda just went into my ear and flew out of the other [not to sound rude at all, but I'm proving that the timing does affect a person!]. I don't have that food coma after I eat a meal usually. But I found this to be a interesting fact, because we are meeting up at around noon, and that's definitely during lunch time. I'm sure people are going to eat before they head out to meet for our class. So the subject upon time caught my attention. I just never thought about how time can be an "important" factor, but after reading this I found it to make more sense.

Audience Analysis and Audience Adaptation

As for chapter 5, adapting and analyzing an audience requires similar tasks. In order to be confident in your speech, the book suggested that the speaker should gather information about their audience. I think that gathering demographic data and psychographic data are equally as important when a speaker is wanting to successfully adapt to their audience. Knowing the audiences age limits an ethnicity are the two important information in my opinion. With knowing the age limit, the speaker has knowledge of what kinds of subject he/she should mention in the speech. Also, the speaker would be aware of how easy or difficult they should make the speech in order for the message to come across. As for demographic data I believe that knowing the vast majority views and beliefs are important when giving a speech. This can also tie in with the location that the speaker is giving their speech at. For an example, a public speaker cannot just go to a church and present a speech about questioning the believers of God. Therefore depending on the location and depending on the demographic data, the speaker should definitely want to gather that information prior to presenting his/her speech.
As for my speech, it's hard because we've all never seen each other before. I don't exactly have your guys' opinions on certain subjects nor do I hear people talking about different subjects before class starting. Maybe at the first meeting we have, when people start to give their presentations I can try to pay attention to certain things that they talk about in their speech. Since they are talking about subjects that mainly interests them, by listening to the speech, I can get a feel of what each person may like and what not. Then from there, I can try to incorporate some of it in my speech if there are any relations at all to my topics.
The chapter also mentions about how the time of the day can also affect the audience. Since we're meeting at noon, I'm going to try to volunteer myself as one of the first few people to go, because I know that the audience can get super dull and doze off after the first couple of presenters! :[

Chapter 5: Drinking & Light Pollution

I viewed the drinking video first. This video had Matthew presenting his persuasive speech about drinking, and the harmful affect of drinking and driving. From this video, I think that Matthew did not have as much eye contact, and his voice is slightly dull in a way. Not to criticized harshly, but it's that kind of presentations that makes the audience shift away. What's very interesting about this presentation is all of his statistics and facts about irresponsible drinking. He gives percentage and also specific statistics during his speech. I believe that giving statistics such as "1 out of 3 of you..." are very helpful for the audience to really grasp that fact. Matthew did not just verbally giving statistics, but also provided the facts on the overhead as a mean of media for the audience. The light pollution video was super short in comparison to Matthew's speech. From Courtney's speech I could already tell that did a lot of research, because her persuasive speech contained many parts. Her voice and the way she started off her speech was very lively. In addition, she kept changing her tone here and there which made it interesting to listen, and not too boring. She used hand movements and also had eye contact. She also incorporated transition words such as finally. I liked how she presented what she was going to be explaining during her essay. From both of these videos, I've learned that speaking monotonously is definitely a bore to the class. On the other hand using hand gestures and using slide shows or providing some kind of physical object can keep the audience's attention. That is what I plan on doing in my speech.

Chp 6. Speech Buddy Videos

The video with Evan talked about how to do research on your essay topic. What I found interesting from the reading and from this video is to incorporate both sides of the topic; such as taking a person who is anti-abortion and a person who is pro-abortion. As a expert on this topic, I must take in both views and conduct a speech presenting those two opinions even if I was an anti-abortionist. As for previous speeches and research papers that I have written, I always found myself limiting to just Google and Yahoo! search. I did not go abroad and search on different search engines as much. I have used the Academic Search Premiere at our school's library. You can also access that at home. This site was super useful, because all of the results were fully reliable. And also, as for the citing, the site does the citing for you! Cool right? :]
As for the other video titled: Gastropods, Shaura started out telling her audience her dream. Then tying it down to what she wanted to talk about, slugs. I liked how she started out with a clever introduction to grab the audience's attention. Some of the speeches that I've done, it was usually hard to come up with a clever grabber. I should try with my 3 upcoming speeches though. Also, using the power point is another digital media that I'm going to be using for, at least, two of my speeches.

Chp 6. Useful & Interesting

In this chapter, I found the list of search engines very useful actually. Sad to say, even after all of these research papers that I have done, I rarely find myself using anything else but Google and Yahoo! search. For some reason, those two are the only ones that come to mind when I need to search for something.
Also I found the metasearch engines to be very interesting. Not only does it provide you with links to your search, but it also combines other websites from other search engines. I thought that that was pretty neat. Since I solely focus on two engines, I will be sure to use metasearch for my papers. Just so I can get more related links instead of only relying on two search engines for most of my resources.
I also noticed that whenever I have an assignment that requires me to think of my own subject, I usually come up with something that I've experiences before. I don't get too creative with my ideas until I sit there and brainstorm ideas that are familiar to me. Then I begin to jot down other possible ideas and think of how it could relate to the speech assignments.

Conducting Research Interviews

As far as interviews go, I have never interviewed anyone "famous" or well known by a lot of people. I've only interview certain teachers at my school and a few students. While conducting a research interview, similar to what the book mentioned, having a few questions at hand is very important. In my opinion, if someone has agreed to giving you their time and day for an interview, it's only best to have your questions and what not organized and ready. If you're coming up with questions off the bat during the interview, the interviewee would not seem to happy about it, because obviously you're not ready and pretty much wasting more time.
This was pretty much all I did when I had to interview people. I didn't use a recorder to record what they had to say. I listened attentively and jotted down a few notes. But don't write down everything that they are saying. I think that would just make the interviewee more nervous because now they're monitoring more of what they're saying.
Overall, having my questions at hand was what helped the interview to go by smoothly. Also from listening to their responses, more questions can arise from that. So I learned not to go over board with so many questions. Also, choosing people is the most important, because they are the ones that are going to supply you with the answers. You don't want to go through an interview and not get any major important information out of it.
As for improvement, I always see room for more improvement throughout everything. Even though I may not notice any flaws at the moment that I am interviewing people, sometimes if I get any feedback I would incorporate that into my next interviewing session.

What I found useful in chapter 2 and chapter 4.

I will admit that this public speaking book seemed like a typical book that told us what we already know. It will just go into more depths on each subject. But as I sat down to read it, it can actually relate to me a lot. I'm sure it relates to every person who has to do public speaking, but it's amazing how it can get all of the emotions and what not just right.
Chapter 2 described about the whole process of how to calm yourself down before and during your speech. The breathing exercises came back up again. Those are probably helpful, but I can't picture myself pausing for so long up there in front of the audience. Dressing appropriately would build your confidence and I agree with that completely. It brings the whole vibe together that way. It also mentions for the speakers to "make no apologies or excuses". Even though people shouldn't do this, I still hear people making such excuses as "Well I misplaced my memory stick, so now I can't show you guys the slides I made." and so on. I won't say that I have never made an excuse or some apology, but I didn't think this was any big deal. But that's another thing that I learned from reading this chapter so I shall be leaving out the lame excuses, if any. :]

As for choosing topics for a speech discussed about in chapter 4, this process is somewhat hard for me, because even though there are plenty of topics to choose from, I want to choose something that interests me and also interests others. I don't want to choose an ordinary topic and bore the audience. I want them to instantly think "Oh hey wow, why didn't I think of a topic like that". So I spend a lot of time brainstorming and thinking about what topics to really talk about that would grasp the audeince's attention throughout my whole speech. The chapter also mentions about writing the thesis down. I think this is important, because from what you have to say [your main points] you're going to make sure that it can still lead back to your main topic.

Video: 2.1, 2.2 & Intro Jessica.

From watching the video 2.1, I learned that there were breathing techniques to manage your anxiety. Janine talked about prior to giving a speech, the speaker should prepare by imagining how the speech will go and try to only focus on the good things. Relabeling emotions is something that I can relate to. When I get nervous I begin to struggle with my words. I start to notice that I’m getting tongue tied, so I pause and smile. If I have notes, I’ll look down at it really quick to get my concentration back. Once I have my thoughts together again, I begin to start again where I had left off.


From the video 2.2, Anthony suggests that every speaker should go to the physical location to get used to the setting. What’s helpful about this video is what Janine had presented. Speakers should really look up useful information about their topic and be ready to answer questions from the audience. Knowing how the professors will grade the speech is also very important, because it will help the speaker to know what to talk about and score all full points on the grading criteria.

The last video of Jenny speaking, I noticed that she had a lot of energy. It then reminded me that I should try to also have confidence in myself and present my speech with as much enthusiasm. She combined two unlikely subjects, but made a very smooth transition. Her technique was very well acted out and as an audience; I could tell that she had practiced many times. Jenny was using hand gestures and she also had eye contact. Hand gestures are important in my opinion, because it puts on a show for the audience. If a speaker just stood there with both of their hands to the side and spoke to the class, it wouldn’t be very entertaining. Eye contact is important, because it gives the audience a sense of connection. When I’m in the audience, listening and watching a speaker, I feel more engaged when they are staring out to their audience. When a speaker is just focusing their eyes on the note card or on the floor it distracts me because I have no one to look at, then I find myself looking around the classroom instead.

1. What makes you apprehensive about public speaking?

Public speaking is pretty much a self explanatory class. Public speaking is a class that helps you develop your speaking skills in general. What I have always apprehended about public speaking is how others view me. The only thing I’m uneasy about is how my audience would react to my speeches. I’ve always question if they would understand what my point is, and if they would enjoy my whole speech overall. Having the thought of standing up there and just speaking, without making any sense or having my thoughts organized enough, is what makes me concerned. Usually when I have a speech coming up, I would organize it into an outline, make sure I have my main points down, and practice my speech enough until I remember those main ideas that I will be discussing. When I get up to speak though, I have this tendency to speak fast in order to get my speech over with. Once I’m up there delivering my speech, I’m still a bit nervous, because I know that all eyes are on me. Everyone’s watching my every move and listening to every word- or at least I hope so. Because of that bad habit, I sometimes leave some points out that would have boosted my speech just a little bit more. Overall my thoughts about how the audience will judge me are what I’m apprehensive about, because it also ties in with my speech performance. Considering how this is an online course, we have never met each other at all. To know that we are going to meet up at the end of this month, and give a speech is something that I am slightly nervous about. The chapter talks about the process of habituation. I re-read this paragraph twice, because it stood out to me as to be very true. People do have to get used to the environment and the people around in order to feel more comfortable. I’m the same way, once I am comfortable with some people and I know how the classroom is facilitated, I can act more without hesitation. I won’t have to question everything that I do, because by being used to the rules of the class I am able to participate freely. Also, the book mentions about how presentation media is very helpful nowadays. The choice of using PowerPoint or to use any physical object helps me to calm down, because people are also focusing on the object and not just centering their eyes all on me.

G o a l s

Giving speeches isn't the biggest deal to me.
It just always has given me that butterfly nervous feeling everytime I'm waiting for my turn.
I was in a position in High School that required me to give speeches occassionally.
And every day I had to talk to a room full of people.
So I got pretty used to it. Being prepared for it or not, I could still come up and give a speech. May not be organize, but at least I won't run out of things to say.

I've learned that no matter how many times I have to get up and give a presentation, or speak just for a 1 minute in front of group of people, I will always get the same feeling. The feeling of drunk butterflies flying all over the place in your stomach.
I would want to say that from this class, I want to get used to the feeling of having to go up and to give presentations, but obviously that's impossible for me.
So other than that, I want to get a better understanding of how to give presenatations more clearly and efficiently.

My goal for this class is to be able to pass and also learn more techniques and ways of giving a well speech.
There's always more room for improvement!

I n t r o d u c t i o n

Hey Comm Class & Professor Perez :]
To start off, my name is Georgina Nguyen, but I prefer to be called Gina.
I am a Sophomore. I went to Oak Grove High School. I'm from the bay, San Jose to be exact.
This is actually my first time taking a course online. So all of this is pretty much new to me.
Should be exciting though. I'm looking foward to this class.
To be honest, I dislike giving presentations, but once I'm up there talking I go on and on.
I just anticipate my turn and it makes me super nervous.
I guess that's all for now.
Oh! I'm super friendly and love making new friends.
I made this blog a while back, but I had erased the 5 posts that I posted before. I didn't update very often.
Get to know me!

EDiT: So after readinig everybody else's introduction, I thought I should re-do mine. So you guys have my name down. I am 19 years old, and I am an only child. Born and raised in San Jose. I was actually living in L.A. for about a year. I am full Vietnamese, but I'm still struggling to read and write in my own language. I stuck around San Jose, because my mom wanted me near home for a few more years. I was waiting 18 years to break free, but nope. Just one look from her made me stay put in San Jose. So here I am, for maybe another 2 to 3 years. I own a sidekick LX, so therefore I am texting from the time I wake up until I am asleep. Even sometimes when I'm sleeping, if I hear a text, I'll manage to reply. I go shopping, but I'm not exactly a shopaholic. I mainly shop at two main stores Forever 21 & Papaya. Before graduating from High School, I loved to go out and chill all day and night. Home was just a place that I came back to to sleep. Now, it's been 2 years since my graduation and I've turned around a lot. I'm more of a home person. I like the comfort of my house, it's super quiet. I guess that's a little addition to my introduction. Enjoy!