The biggest thing that I will take from this class would be how to prepare myself and how to recognize my mistakes in the things that I do. As I have mentioned in my previous post, learning how to prepare for my speech and manage my time are the biggest concepts that I had developed throughout the semester. From that, I can see myself better preparing for things, almost anything in my educational and career futures. If I were to ever have any presentation, particularly those that relate to my major, I am able to see what expectations from a speech are, and what I can do to hopefully influence everyone to believe what I say.

Concepts

Probably the biggest difference and concept that communications 20 has helped me to develop was time management and speech preparedness. I had taken a communications 40 class prior to this class, but was more focused on the arguments and rebuttal rather than my actual presentation. Especially after the first speech, I better prepared myself for the following speeches to allow a more fluent speech with less word fillers and more eye contact so that overall the things I did were extremely effective. I learned also how to incorporate narrations, stories, personal experiences and how to have an effective introduction. Up until this class, I had always kept my speeches to improvisational needs, mostly because that was what I was experienced in. The problem with that, which I quickly learned, was that improvising is really good for shows, jokes and action, but in speeches where you are required to be informative and credible, it just isn't enough. So with that, time management, speech preparedness and research were all concepts and ideas that I had developed to further improve my overall speech presentations.

Self-Evaluation 3

On April 8th, 2009 my communications 20 class required us to present a persuasive/actuative speech that involved a big issue that concerned society. For my topic, I had decided to talk about a controversial issue, suicide. The reason I had chosen this topic was because it was something I could kind of relate to, being that I had experience with depression, and that it pertains to my major. Overall, the speech was a good experience, though I can say personally that it doesn’t compare to that of what I had done before in the class, my informative speech. Following the informative speech, I presented suicide as a threat and wanted to address solutions, but I felt that there were trade-offs in terms of what was being followed and what I made mistakes on.

As far as getting the job done with my speech, I think that I had done an effective job in doing so. The biggest thing that I decided to include in the persuasive speech was my experience not with suicide, but with one of the biggest contributors to suicide which was depression. With that, I enabled myself to talk about my life experiences and attain more credibility throughout my speech. This went on further as I discussed what helped me in my depression stages, and allowed the audience to know what was expected out of depressed people. Emotional narratives helped me in the deliverance of my speech, but also the way I worded things, to where it was almost like an epidemic. Besides that, I felt that my speech had major room for improvement.

To be completely honest, I was had little to no confidence WHILE I was speaking. For some reason, prior to going up, I wasn’t nervous at all and was very confident but as soon as I hit F5 to begin my slideshow, fear struck and wouldn’t stop impeding on my overall performance. I felt my voice shaking from time to time, my memory being lost at every pause, and my overall posture not as perfect as I wish it were. With that in mind, I think it could easily be traced to my lack of preparedness in terms of organization. Admittedly, I felt the strain of finals falling upon me and ended up focusing on the other classes’ finals rather than my speech, and was obviously affected. From my old speech, I saw that my ability to cite sources was at least noticeable, both on my slideshow as well as verbally. Comparing this to my other speeches, I did terribly in terms of citing my sources. But in my other speeches, I obviously had a bit more organization and structure even though there may have been fewer citations. Comparing it to my first speech, they were slightly similar, only my first speech had confidence and speed, a couple of things that I obviously lacked in my final speech. One thing that came back from my first speech was my speech fillers. With improvisation, I always tend to blurt random “Uhs..” here and there to give me a split second to digest what my next few words are. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an improvement from my last speech because I actually eliminated the speech fillers in my second speech as I had learned from my first speech.

My eye contact on the other hand, was considerably better compared to my second speech. I would rate my eye contact an 8, because like I said, no matter how hard and perfect a speech may be, there will always be room for improvement. In the end, I would give myself a B-, mostly because I saw a decrease in performance when I believed that there should have been improvement. True, I did manage to improve some parts of my speech-giving abilities, but I felt that an overall improvement was what I was looking for. For example, I gave better source citations and research, but unfortunately came back with speech fillers and gaps in my speech. I would improve the use of vocal fillers, my preparation once again, and more on my research. Even though I felt I gave an adequate amount of research, I felt that my topic depended mostly on statistics and personal opinions in terms of persuasion. I only verbally cited one source, even though I had more on my note card, probably due to my lack of preparation. As I’ve said, I believe that this speech was a minor improvement over my last speech, with both mistakes and improvements that carried over and old ones.

In the end, I still think that my second presentation/speech was possibly one of the best I have done this semester, mostly because I felt I was more prepared and able to give a presentable informative speech. Otherwise, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence was one of the best structures that I have heard of in terms of speech persuasion, and I felt that I could carry on the knowledge of this idea over to real-life situations.

Favorite Speech

In class we were required to present three speeches, cultural artifact, informative as well a persuasive or actuative speech. These speeches altogether were a good experience, but if I had to choose one, my favorite speech would have to be the one about graffiti, but informative speech. I love being able to present about things that I am more passionate about, particularly those things that are associated with hip hop. Every year, in every class that requires a speech, if we are able to choose our topic, mine always would pertain to the media, hip hop culture or music in general.

And not only did the content reflect how I did, but I felt that the informative speech about graffiti had to be my most prepared, as far as I feel. I made sure that I had dedicated time to practice it as much as I needed, and with passion in the culture, it only helped to fuel me to work harder. Continuing on, I have always felt that speeches were a downside to my communications skills, but with enough passion in any subject, one, including myself, can produce a speech that is exceptional.

Speech Budday

The speech buddy videos started with how to identify the elements of argument. The following is as listed, thesis, claim, evidence and reasoning are all elements of a successful argument. With a clear thesis, the audience is able to prepare for anything that you are about to say, in the logical and chronicle order that you stated. I believe the strongest part of the arguments are evidence and claim. In order for the harder truth, one must do professional research from credible sources to have a claim to even be valid.

The first video intro'd with a question that allowed the audience to listen and answer accordingly to see that she was diving deeper into their ideas. Homeschooling was introduced as a safe and protected area for those who are exposed to violence that is experienced in public schools. This may seem a little pathos and a little mythos from our reading. Another is an appeal to the audience's past experience of how 8 straight hours of school actually affects how they feel about school. From the benefits of homeschool, one can spread it out in a comfortable pace. A lot of her arguments pertained to experience, opinion and ideas. The video that was against homeschool started off with more ideas and concrete views to allow the audience to focus to more facts that come after. Parents vs. Teachers is an argument that seems almost factual, that some teachers have gone to school to actually teach as opposed to a parent who might have learned from home.

Chapter 15 Goodness

Chapter 15 dives into an explanation of how deductive reasoning can help influence the outcome of your speech. What I learned from this section was that it was not only essential to include a major premise, minor premise and a conclusion, but also to integrate it so that the topic and general purpose do not interfere with how the rest of the speech and/or paper goes. If one can successfully integrate some deductive reasoning into his or her paper, he or she will have a very big impact on the audience and create a stronger essay. Every component, particularly in our upcoming actuative speech, is vital, especially with those parts that concern swaying the ideas of your audience. Chapter 15 also described inductive reasoning which I believe is also vital in contributing to a speeches idea. Supporting a claim by example, I believe, is one of the strongest things you can do to put an image in the audiences' mind.

Posts

There are a whole load of times when I attempted to persuade my fellow peers into believing a sort of idea that I had believed in. One of the biggest topics that I tend to be very defensive about is the whole media and the image of hip hop in society. During the second semester freshman year, we were required to write and prepare a speech and paper to persuade the audience into one belief. I am very defensive when people start to criticize hip hop and generalize the form of music as gangster, low life and for black people. I used research and experience of hip hop as my type of reasoning to allow the audience to believe what I had to say. Understandably, I had to put up with peoples' ideas and open up my mind to their perspectives, but I took them into account and implemented them into my sorts of reasoning. I eventually explained the way media infects our mind with their own sort of perspective, and played a song commonly played on the radio and compared it to a song that no one has heard but is considered "real hip hop."

Mass

Especially living in America, we are probably victims of general and every day persuasion.


One day, I was watching TV, unfortunately, and was watching the Super Bowl. Next thing you know you see the most intriguing and hilarious video generated by Burger King, which ultimately leads me to driving over there and buying that darn new burger. I am yet another victim of persuasion produced by the mass media. But persuasion isn't always that obvious. For example, in school, one person may convince another person to do more work simply cause the teacher seems to be critical of that one person's ideas. But that does not necessarily mean that person B should carry the burden, it just means person A should work on his or her ideas.

No matter where you look, particularly in today's society, advertisements, people on the streets, your friends and higher authorities, persuasion is unavoidable. And when we see these types of powers in the world, being the humans we are, we tend to listen to them. What can we do as people to finally be critical of these techniques? Be critical of what comes before you. If something seems to obvious and simple, or pushy and testing, ask yourself if this is really your independent idea? Did something else cause that thought to occur in your mind, or did you truly master the idea yourself?

Suicide

Our next speech, the actuative speech, is a kind of speech that allows us to help persuade the audience into believing a sort of idea that you may believe in. For my speech, I decided to go with the controversial topic of suicide. As far as paragraphs and ideas go, my main points will be dealing with the symptoms of suicide, for example depression, ways for the symptoms to be diagnosed in everyday situations, and lastly how the world would be if no one truly cared about those who are on the edge about life. Through Monroe's motivated sequence, I will be able to enhance my speech as to how the audience can interpret and visualize the information I will be presenting with. To begin, I am actually going to begin my speech with a true to life story that I had experienced personally. I am one person who suffered through depression, and am willing to open up about it to include credibility and emotional impact on my audience. Not only that, I am going to enter with frightening statistics and saddening ways that suicide have affected families. Then, in the body, I will go on to state the symptoms, and how to properly find them. Being a psychology major, reading some of the signs is simple, yet to an untrained person it may seem like nothing. After that, I will propose a situation/change that will need to be made in American society so that the symptoms and suicide itself can be avoided one person at a time. Lastly, visualization would be consisted of how to imagine yourself with the depressing symptoms and how it would be to live in a world where no one even notices or cares about how you are.

Chapter 14

One of the bigger things that I have learned from Chapter 14 was the speeches on questions of policy. The question of policy by definition is a course of action of how a certain problem should be addressed or solved. This is very interesting through the examples that the book provides us, such as "should consumers buy products made in the United States?" This makes us, the speech givers, realize that the perspective that speech allows us to present is very broad. Whether the question of policy is referring to a change in graffiti laws, or a change in government, it is a way to convince and persuade people into what you believe in. Sometimes through the idea of questioning the policy, government itself takes issues at hand and sees what the public may or may not feel about a certain topic. For example, the government might ask the public if they are happy with the way government is running the health care system, to see if any proper adjustments are required.

In the speech buddy video 10.1, one of the biggest things I learned was to make the audience much more interactive. Always use the words we, us, and I to make them feel like that you aren't just speaking to get a grade, but also to spark a relationship with your audience. This makes the audience much more interested in your presentation, and humor may even improve your speech. I think with both of the chapter 10 videos that speech videos present, the biggest idea is to incorporate the audience into your speech, whether it be shaping the outcome of the speech or even including them in short stories that you may have in your speech.

In chapter 12, the videos helped me to project my voice. One of my faults in presenting a speech, is that I fill my speech up with so much information, I am constantly speaking. With speech buddy, they helped me to realize this fault in which I am able to continue to improve my speech giving abilities. This includes vocal fillers, pauses and constant run ons. Enough practice can eliminate this, and I can reassure myself that with the valuable knowledge from these videos, I can continue to improve.

Chapter 12 Goodness

As with a lot of the information we read in the class, they are almost common knowledge, only that we as students never truly recognize it until the book places it in our lap. But one of the biggest things that I've noticed this year, and because of the book, is the reliance of a podium, table or object to cover half of our bodies. To be completely honest, I have to say that before this year began, most, if not all, my classes relied on hiding behind the podium, which would somehow decrease the awkwardness that presenting a speech may give. Ever since we had begun presenting in comm20, we were forced to not present behind a podium and rely on our words and slight actions to move our presentations along, not the act of hiding behind a podium. As far as being active during your speech, radiating positivity is probably the most vital thing to a speech. If one were to present a speech and not even be interested in what he or she were speaking about, it definitely shows that if the speaker is not interested in what he or she is speaking about, why should the audience care? I mostly have a problem with this not because I am never interested in my topic, but more because I need more practice to improve the confidence that is required with all speeches. One last idea from the reading that was very interesting was to involve the audience. Referring to other speakers from the room is probably one of the best examples to 1) show that you are an attentive listener, therefore possibly an effective speaker and 2) to show that people should pay attention to your speech as much as you paid to theirs. I never really do this, mainly because I focus on exactly what my speech has been practiced with but I am firmly going to practice in incorporating this into my next speech.

Flickr?

The discussion on Flickr has quickly captured my attention because you can see the war with words that people had. With a simple word such as "boy," I wasn't too aware of the fact that it could offend people. I actually thought it was a joke at first until someone put the word "boy" into context. It made me realize that sure it may be a part of racism, but to be honest, it is only that way if someone decides to interpret it in such a way. But banning every word as one person is offended by it, will eventually create a void of words to describe a person, whether it be "woman" or "boy" or even "person." Once you start the snowball, it will continue to grow, and people of all cultures, races, ethnicity, and gender will be offended by anything other than "it," even "it" is pretty offensive in itself. I see the world as incredibly sensitive beings, those that need to be taken care of constantly, with every word we say under surveillance. Kyudos says, "Flickr is not going to change the way people use English," which I believe is extremely true, with people trying to fight arguments online, people are never really taken seriously. Either way, relating it to the language given by our textbook, I feel that it is more of finding out whether or not to use a certain word in its context. Depending on the subject and idea that is being presented in either a speech or presentation, one should watch what he or she says, in efforts to please the audience.

Personal Evaluation

On April 3rd, 2009 my communications 40 class required us to present an informative speech on a topic of our choice. Initially, I wasn’t too sure as to what I was interested in doing, but I ended up choosing graffiti, a topic that I was more familiar with. After some preparation I then presented it in front of my fellow communications 40 class. In a nutshell, I felt that I did mildly better than I had done in the cultural artifact speech we had done a few months back, definitely still leaving room for improvement in all aspects.

To begin, I believe that the main purpose I was trying to portray through my speech was to show both sides of the war against graffiti and its relation to hip hop. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel too prepared for this presentation as much I was for my previous presentation. Reason being, I was caught up with midterms and such that week that practicing for me was almost out of the question. I managed to fit in about 2-3 hours of dedicated time to actually practicing my speech, but that did not compare to my 2-3 hours of practice for 3 days. So because of that, I saw myself looking at my note cards a little bit more than last time, as well as staring at the PowerPoint longer to have a guide. If I were able to retry my whole speech over again, one of the things I would change would be to refine the last few parts of my speech. As I’ve said, I vocally practice my speech until I get a whole structure with my PowerPoint down, and unfortunately was not able to fully accomplish this due to lack of time. Another part I would improve upon would be my research. Unfortunately, the amount of research I have done was not significant enough for me to inform people enough about my topic. It seemed as though my speech was mainly an opinion of graffiti, not more information.

Overall, the biggest thing I would have to look forward to changing would have to be my whole delivery set up. I simply was not prepared as much as I was for my first presentation and showed through my lack of eye contact. So what does this mean? I am going to practice for sure the following meeting, as well as increase my level enthusiasm to get the audience more into what I am actually saying. As far as content goes, I definitely needed more research towards my topic. I felt that as I was short on time, I simply put a lot of opinions and past knowledge into my topic without truly citing sources for things that I said. If I were to notice one of the biggest differences between my old speech and this one, first, the good would be that I improved slightly my voice projection, as well as my volume for confidence. Also, I think my presentation media was organized well enough for people to be intrigued. As far as what were bad, it would definitely be the lack of eye contact, the focusing of my PowerPoint slides and notes and lastly my lack of research. I eliminated most of my previous speech fillers, probably one of the more distracting things, but they could still use some work.

Unfortunately, as I’ve stated from before, I had limited eye contact and verbally spoken source citations. As far as eye contact goes, I would rate myself anywhere between 5-6, a step down from last time where my eye contact seemed to be top-notch. Based on my last performance, I would rate myself another B, only because there are other flaws that I still have yet to work on. But I think in order to gain credibility and trust from the audience, I need to prove that I have done my research more. I actually did have the source citations on my note card; I just was not fully able to implement them into my actual speech, which in turn hurt me. My performance overall was satisfactory to me, especially after watching the video. I feel I have completely developed over the years of public speaking training and seem to better prepare myself in one aspect or another. To be completely honest, I feel that this speech almost breaks even with my first speech because even though I managed to fix the problems that were around in the first speech, a brand new group of problems came afterward. Overall, this informative speech was pretty fun, being that it was a topic that I was extremely interested in, and is yet another assignment that will help me develop my speech techniques.

Five Friends.

Following our second speech, in informative form, we were required to integrate the lessons we learned from our mistakes into a second attempt, but this time in front of an audience of our choosing. So I decided to present my speech in front of my closest friends. They all go by the names Jennifer, Jessica, Addy, Raymond and Justin.

To begin, the speech that I had done in class, I feel was improved on a bit from my first speech. I felt that my delivery was one of the biggest improvements in terms of vocal delivery. I remember one of the biggest flaws, that I noticed myself was I was constantly using vocal fillers to fill in those "thinking gaps." So I decided to focus on that during my second speech. I saw drastic differences from the comments that people wrote on their evaluation papers, but I did notice a second thing that came up. The fact that I focused on the powerpoint slides too much seemed to be dominant. I believe this is because of the fact that because I tried to create these "thinking gaps," I wanted some sort of direction and comfort so that my speech would be flowing.

So I decided to implement the lesson learned from my mistake into my second speech. Fortunately I was able to improve upon my speech to where my friends didn't have too much to say against my presentation. I wasn't too sure if they didn't know exactly what to look for in terms of an informative speech and communications 20 went, but their minor gripes retained to by inability to stay still. Which surprised me because I never really had that problem in class where my motion would distract the audience. Other then that, it seemed to have gone well enough to merit a B+. I believe that the perfect presentation does not exist, but if I were to improve upon both of the informative speeches, I would have practiced much more. I wasn't as prepared this time around as I was for the first time which is why I felt uncomfortable with some of the words that I had to say.

What do I have to say about actually presenting in front of my friends? I felt it was a very different atmosphere being that I was at my friends' house, with people that I probably the most comfortable with. Being that all of our presentations are presented in a classroom with people that we aren't too familiar with, it does have a different impact on your speech. I feel that this assignment didn't necessarily implement new skills into my speech, but rather an understanding of how the settings differ and practicing under those different conditions can prove vital. Overall, this was a different experience, something that definitely will affect my speech ideas later on.

Chapter 11 Goodness

Chapter 11, as you all know, is all about how we can integrate presentation media. Most of the information provided and explained is general knowledge that many communications associated students are familiar with. What I never really thought about was about the simplicity of the types of presentation media. To begin, I never really thought about making a presentation myself with overhead transparencies, actual audience handouts, models and even real time web access. I always thought of a presentation media outlet as a simple, but well constructed powerpoint slide presentation. Fortunately for us, powerpoint can incorporate almost all aspects of presentation media, by displaying information by slides, being able to play movies, settings up pictures and customizable entrances.

I believe that in any speech or presentation, a powerpoint can prove useful, but shouldn't be the driving force in a presentation. I was at fault during my second speech my relying on my powerpoint a bit more than I should have. I believe that Chapter 11 also shows the significance of the presentation, by proving that it could create structure in the audience's mind, and by creating visuals in the audiences' minds to see what the speaker is talking about.

According to Coopman and Lull, several things go into both the introduction and conclusion. In the introduction, it is a matter of grabbing your audience's attention, establishing credibility, show in plain form your main points, and most importantly stating your thesis. In a conclusion, it is identical to the introduction, only this time you REVIEW your main points, answer what you said in your thesis and create a memorable message. I will definitely incorporate these ideas into my upcoming informative speech, and for all speeches to come. I believe that the book helps me to define what is exactly needed in both the introduction and conclusion enough for me to realize that all good speeches begin and end in a similar fashion. Specifically, I need to work on how to present my main points to the audience in a way that is simple, yet effective. I believe that in my last speech I had trouble wording it in a way that made both me and the audience happy, but ended up being hidden in a cloud of words. I understand now that even proclaiming the main points is better than one that may sound "smart." Another thing I lacked on was my usefulness of my conclusion. I had a very weak conclusion, which ended with a simple memorable statement, when I SHOULD have put in my main points just so the audience does not forget what I had just talked about.

Here is an example from my actual informative speech, "derives itself from its rich history, a kind of art that is now generally accepted and is strong with its’ roots in hip hop and individualism." It kind of states exdactly what I'm going to say in a way that isn't too tacky.

Chapter 9 and 13. (Repost)

There are several things that I have effectively taken away from both Chapter 9 and 13. Establishing my credibility, previewing my main points, creating a memorable message, and using an informative speech as a learning opportunity.

First off, establishing my credibility was something I evicted from my first speech. I went from the story straight to my main points and never really allowed the audience an opportunity to learn from what I was about to say. I believe that depending on how credible a speaker is right from the very beginning gauges how much his or her audience is going to remain attentive to his or her speech. Next, I learned to make very, very clear exactly what your main points are. I tend to disguise my main points into several phrases or sentences so that the speech does not feel so structured, but I learned that making it clear cut so that the audience hears it right away can prove much more effective.

Creating a memorable message in my conclusion is one thing I always strive for. When concluding a speech I tend to come up with a corny moral message or ending sentence that may seem outrageous, just so that audience can remember what I had just said, particularly by anything that I believe is memorable. I never really thought about what I did until the book mentioned it, and now I know that it merely another tactic for the audience to become more attached to the words that one may say.

Lastly, using the informative speech as a teaching/learning tool. I believe that the informative speech isn't just for getting the grade, but also to inform the audience of something that he or she may not be too familiar with. It can prove very effective if one person is giving an informative speech about something that people is generally fond of, and throws in an alternative perspective, or even something that is completely new and the audience knows nothing about.

Chapter 9 and 13 Goodness

There are several things that I have effectively taken away from both Chapter 9 and 13. Establishing my credibility, previewing my main points, creating a memorable message, and using an informative speech as a learning opportunity.

First off, establishing my credibility was something I evicted from my first speech. I went from the story straight to my main points and never really allowed the audience an opportunity to learn from what I was about to say. I believe that depending on how credible a speaker is right from the very beginning gauges how much his or her audience is going to remain attentive to his or her speech. Next, I learned to make very, very clear exactly what your main points are. I tend to disguise my main points into several phrases or sentences so that the speech does not feel so structured, but I learned that making it clear cut so that the audience hears it right away can prove much more effective.

Creating a memorable message in my conclusion is one thing I always strive for. When concluding a speech I tend to come up with a corny moral message or ending sentence that may seem outrageous, just so that audience can remember what I had just said, particularly by anything that I believe is memorable. I never really thought about what I did until the book mentioned it, and now I know that it merely another tactic for the audience to become more attached to the words that one may say.

Lastly, using the informative speech as a teaching/learning tool. I believe that the informative speech isn't just for getting the grade, but also to inform the audience of something that he or she may not be too familiar with. It can prove very effective if one person is giving an informative speech about something that people is generally fond of, and throws in an alternative perspective, or even something that is completely new and the audience knows nothing about.

Speech Bud.

The speech videos were pretty good in informing us what they wanted us to know. As far as learning things for our upcoming informative speech, I have learned more about how to capture the audience's attention and mindset, as well as how to summarize all of my main points and conclude in my final words. The introductions that were presented to us as attention-getters actually worked on me as I tuned in to listen to the rest of the things they wanted to say. I must say though that depending on the method that I typically open with, it could grab the audiences' attention a lot better. I only recently started to open up my speeches with little anecdotes to hopefully create an image in the audience's minds.

Next, I learned a lot from the conclusion video. From my last speech I didn't do a good job of relaying and summarizing my information so that audience could leave with the last main points in their mind. I must admit though that the techno speech was mildly boring, but the kodak speech was a bit more interesting. I believe that her visual aid assisted in her speech more than the techno visual did, and in the end created a much more interesting and effective speech.

Media, Credibility. (Repost)

"Despite the growing popularity of the internet, television remains the most popular news source for Americans."

While we continue living everyday, news is constantly being broadcasted. Whether it may be a new piece of information or an issue that must be once again brought to the audience's attention, it is the popular media that most people are listening to. Myself, I tend to listen to the radio more than I watch TV. Fortunately, when reading chapter seven about popular media supporting our speeches, I thought that the radio, depending on the channels, can be very credible. Unfortunately, many of of the media outlets are easily trusted which is why a form of media that doesn't "seem to have a blatant bias or project an air of overwhelming self-interest" would be beneficial towards society (183).

I completely agree when the book says, "The first electronic mass medium, radio, still maintains an important role in disseminating information, especially through local news stations" (185). Though it may seem primitive now because of the advancing technology, there's nothing like unbiased news coming straight to you from your car radio or even a home radio. I tend to stay away from television and internet news outlets mostly because I believe in the fact that these stations are paid by sponsors, and they could be heavily influenced by the money, not the news. For example, hypothetically if global warming were never an issue in the world, then the television would have done the complete opposite of its' job, creating global warming as the biggest issue. (But I do believe in global warming, just a hypothetical situation.)

Statistics?

Facts and statistics are the foundation for a strong speech, enhances credibility and backs up any details that may be in a speech. I think they are mandatory, possibly even for some narrative projects because they provide the audience with an understanding that whatever your topic is, that it is somewhat unbiased, filled with truth, and has adequate research to merit its' credibility. When describing an event, particularly with facts and statistics, it is most likely required to have an abundance of sources with credible background for the audience to believe whatever your point may be. Statistics are primarily most effective when describing something in numbers, when statistics work towards your goal and ideas more effectively. Statistics can prove that at least the majority of the population or controlled population is somewhat leaning on your side. For example, if you were required to present a speech about how smoking is a bad habit, you could present statistics to show how many lives the cancerous drug has infected and also the suffering/death rate near the end of the smokers' lives.

I tend to look for statistics first before diving into my topic. I like to make sure that there is adequate evidence, facts and statistics that usually follow my main points, just so I have that sort of foundation for a stronger delivery. Even though I may forget the numbers that a speaker may say in his or her speech, it does somewhat enhance my understanding of their viewpoint, and especially when backed with a credible source, I would typically tip my hat to their effective and strong research.

The only time I would truly see facts and research not so effective would be in personal stories and narratives. Being that these are mostly comprised of independent ideas and personal opinions/experiences, the narratives wouldn't exactly be enhanced by statistics, but maybe only facts. Again, during a story, if facts and/or statistics are blurted out during an emotional scene in a story, then it would definitely be non-effective, if not just plain wrong.

Those Videos

The speech video 7.1, it talks about how narratives, audience perceptions and definitions, testimony and statistics can all contribute to the credibility and effectiveness of your speech. Narratives are fun, simple and should be short ways to capture the audiences' attention and create a simple, yet comfortable bond between the speaker and the audience. These are easy ways to let the audience know that you are entering with confidence and a story that could possibly be true. With every audience, every person has a their own view and definition of anything that may be said, so allowing yourself to make your speech unbiased will positively affect your outcome. I see the credibility factor as one of the more important ideas to any speech.

A speech without credibility, in my eyes, (besides personal narratives) are almost not worth saying. With that said, I believe that every single topic and speech is able to be credible, knowing that there are many views on every subject. We in society learn to trust those that are credible, be it your friends, or family, and tend to believe what they say, so long as they prove worthy. This applies directly towards speeches as well, where if the audience can catch a glimpse of not credible work, they won't like to listen.

Speech buddy video 8.1 helps us to break down how to organize our speeches. Spatial, topical, narrative, cause and effect and problem solution patterns are what are given to us. Each and every single pattern listed are extremely effective in any specific speech so long as it applies. For example, if one were to create a persuasive speech, a cause and effect and even possibly a narrative would be effective, showing the effects and personal impact that any particular event can have. I wasn't too aware of these ideas up until they were actually mentioned, to where I can actively categorize my speech and create a pattern to make it that much more effective. Lastly, transitions are important just as everything else we are taught about in public speaking. With basic transitions such as contrasting, chronology, causality, ordering and others, we learn to effectively let our audience know that we are moving on from a different main point and that they should prepare for a different set of ideas. That said, it is important because losing the audience at any point of your speech can deeply affect the outcome.

With the information provided by the videos, I think I will better prepare myself by thinking about the audiences' ideas more. I would learn to deliver my speech in a way where it is clear, credible and organized so that the outcome, and my grade, will come out better than I had done before.

Media, Credibility

"Despite the growing popularity of the internet, television remains the most popular news source for Americans."

While we continue living everyday, news is constantly being broadcasted. Whether it may be a new piece of information or an issue that must be once again brought to the audience's attention, it is the popular media that most people are listening to. Myself, I tend to listen to the radio more than I watch TV. Fortunately, when reading chapter seven about popular media supporting our speeches, I thought that the radio, depending on the channels, can be very credible. Unfortunately, many of of the media outlets are easily trusted which is why a form of media that doesn't "seem to have a blatant bias or project an air of overwhelming self-interest" would be beneficial towards society (183).

I completely agree when the book says, "The first electronic mass medium, radio, still maintains an important role in disseminating information, especially through local news stations" (185). Though it may seem primitive now because of the advancing technology, there's nothing like unbiased news coming straight to you from your car radio or even a home radio. I tend to stay away from television and internet news outlets mostly because I believe in the fact that these stations are paid by sponsors, and they could be heavily influenced by the money, not the news. For example, hypothetically if global warming were never an issue in the world, then the television would have done the complete opposite of its' job, creating global warming as the biggest issue. (But I do believe in global warming, just a hypothetical situation.)

On February 27th, 2009 we, being my online communications 20 class, were asked to prepare a speech based on any cultural artifact we desired. A strong deliverance as well as thorough research would help to enhance the audiences' experience and was the main focus of the cultural artifact speech. To be honest, I was fairly satisfied with how I presented, knowing that I had practiced for a couple days ahead of time extensively. But as with every single speech and event out there, there was definitely room for a substantial amount of improvement that could have potentially made my speech more of a grade A level speech.

For this first time in my short history, I actually prepared diligently, but still late, a few days before the speech. With a stopwatch in hand and my powerpoint slideshow prepared on my laptop, I did a fair amount of test runs to get the timing down and to judge what was needed to be cut in my speech. Going up, I actually breathed more calmly and slower breaths to calm my nervousness. In all honesty, I never usually do the tactics that I did on February 27th, 2009, but I'm going to have to say that they are completely effective. I felt very comfortable and calm up in front of everyone.

There are several flaws that I definitely took notice while I was presenting my speech. One of the flaws was the habitual use of verbal fillers such as, "Um" and "Uh." I think after watching my personal video of how I presented, I see the difference and impact that the verbal fillers can have on our presentation. Secondly, I think my information seemed very basic and only touched the surface. Though we did have only about five minutes to present, I still feel that I could have delved deeper into a particular subject about Jeepneys. Another thing I felt that should have been improved was my lack of mention for source citations. Obviously, if I ever am to present a speech to a bigger public audience, citing my sources is going to be much more necessary, if not already. Lastly, I see my biggest flaw in the project of my voice. Believe it or not, I truly felt that I was actually speaking out louder than I should have, when it really sounds differently through the video. I didn’t feel upset or uncomfortable in front of people; I just never felt the need to up my vocal volume. I was always upstage with a microphone or some sort of amplifier to raise my volume automatically. I believe that making a change in all four of those departments would significantly enhance my overall grade.

What are the biggest changes that I will make for the next speech? In terms of content, I will be a little more specific, even though there may not be as much time, with certain topics, just to have a speech with depth, and in terms of delivery, it would definitely have to be the omission of verbal fillers, a projected voice and citing sources verbally or on the slideshow.
When I first popped in the video and pressed play, I immediately noticed my voice projection was weak. On top of that, the most distracting thing that I noticed was the annoying verbal fillers that kept coming up unconsciously. To add, I saw my voice projection just drown out my ums and uhs and unfortunately I think it greatly impacted the outcome and power of my speech. Just to reiterate, I would work heavily upon my voice projection, source citing, removing verbal fillers to further enhance my speech. All variables in a speech; preparation, support, delivery and organization, all aren’t perfect in my speech, and definitely calls for attention. As far as my eye contact goes, I would rate myself a seven or eight out of ten, because I remained consistent but did glance at my powerpoint presentation more then I should have. I believe that keeping your eyes on the audience will keep their eyes on you, which ultimately results in a much more powerful speech.

So what would I give myself in terms of grades for my speech? I felt a little confidence, and for a first speech in introduction to public speaking, I feel a solid B is what I would have received. I feel I prepared my speech and delivery well enough to merit a decent grade, and people will only learn from their mistakes. Experience through mistakes is the best and easiest way to become better in any skill, especially public speaking. I felt that my presentation never truly halted in the idea of forgetting what I wanted to say, particularly throughout the whole speech. I practiced enough for me to remember what would fit between four and five minutes with consistent talking. One other reason why I see myself with a B is that my information was strong, IN MY OPINION. I felt that even if the information wasn’t too diverse, it still provided a wide spectrum of ideas on a topic/object not often discussed about. I only verbally cited one of my sources once throughout my video, and even though they were cited on the slideshow, I believe that verbally citing them would have been more effective.

Overall my experience was a significant one in terms of presenting in front of an audience. I have never truly prepared for any speech before, and I must say that giving it my best has definitely provided a better outcome. Of course, I have my fair share of flaws that definitely leave room for improvement. As far as standing up in front of the class though, I was considerably comfortable and calm compared to my past years.

Question..

Hello Communications 20,

Chapter 5 is all about the adaptation to any certain audience. One idea in particular that I was aware of, but never really took advantage of were audience questionnaires. I never really used them mostly because I was already placed in a class where our speeches were usually set ideas or concepts that we had to revolve around. But I believe that if our assignment were to make a speech that were to be presented in front of an audience that I am not too familiar with, I think an audience questionnaire would prove important. Not only does it get the general idea of what your audience is expecting, but it also gives you background on the ideas of your topic, so you know what would easily please them.

In all honesty, I see the execution of audience questionnaires as a difficult one. To plan a questionnaire would probably require the audience to fill it out prior to the actual event to actually allow the speaker to make use of it. Typically speakers practice for weeks before the actual event and if they attempt to acquire the information before hand, the speaker not might be able to implement the information he or she acquires before he or she actually speaks.

If I were given the opportunity to acquire questionnaires, I think I would implement the information of it onto my own speech. Even though I think it's a great idea, I don't think it could be executed well, at least for my use.

What a Fine Audience

Hey guys,

When someone goes to a show, the moment they leave the show, regardless of what kind of show it happened to be, they judge and analyze what they have just spent their time watching. For example, when we go to a movie or a play, we go in and spend the hour or so watching what we'd expect as entertainment. As the actor or presenter in these events, we are expected to deliver the appropriate information that the audience has come to see, whether it be an informative speech about dancing or a movie about Spartans.

How does that weave into audience analysis and audience adaptation? Easy. With the presenters, particularly with speakers and emcees, they need to learn to adapt to the audience depending on what the audience is built up of, either ethically, psychologically, tastes, personality and so on. Being able to adapt to what the audience is accepting of yields better results at the end. For example, I once hosted an art show, that had difference performances, such as a fashion show, art displays, body paint and such that had a big audience. Knowing that much of the audience had a strong interest in art, I cracked jokes that related to art, praised different forms of such and was careful to not criticize what one interested in art might be offended by.

Adapting to what the audience believes and is interested in will greatly affect what the audience thinks of you. Curving your speech to better suit the audience yields better outcomes. For example, if an audience were to walk into a play called, "The Happy Joker Rides the Elephant," one would typically not expect a play full of sadness or action, but rather a happy or joyful one. Going against the audiences' expectations could deeply affect what they think about the performance.

Using audience analysis and adapting to the audience is very important to all my speeches so I try to make the topic both personal to me, and appealing to my audience. As I've said, I always try to make sure that as long as my topic fulfills requirements, I try to make it as interesting as possible TO my audience before I delve deep into it. After reading the chapter, I figured that with my topic, even if it may not be too interesting to other cultures, I will try to appeal it with my words or a strong opening statement.

Don't Drink

Hey guys,

The speeches were overall a good performance by the respective speaker. From the first video, I saw the slides as a more interactive part of the speech. Even though the audience didn't participate, reading something during a speech definitely helps to reinforce what he or she is intending to say. Matthew Naso was a good, strong speaker who delivered was confidence and was somewhat ready for any information flow. What did I learn? This video made me believe that the visual aid will help me, as the audience, digest his information and hopefully end up with a few questions in the end for more expansive knowledge. I think that maybe with a little more practice Matthew could have projected his speech with much more confidence and straight. I think adding some pictures and some graphs would help develop a much more clear message right off the bat.

Courtney Stillman also presented a successful introduction to a potentially great speech. She entered by presented her thesis and her essay in a couple sentences to ready the audience into what kind of information they are going to receive. She makes it a bit personal by including herself as a person who is speaking to the audience directly. What did I learn from Courtney's video? Possibly to go ahead and to not be afraid to let out the gist of the speech in a couple sentences. It's seems better to have an audience that is ready for anything than an audience that is caught off guard.

A Conductor of Interviews

Hey,

So when I read the question about whether or not I have success in conducting interviews, I cannot say that I have effectively been able to integrate such research into any speech or project. Even though I firmly believe that interviews provide the deepest, and strongest information one can obtain for anything that requires research. In all honesty, I've only interviewed reliable professionals only twice in my life for a school project, and one of them was actually semi-recently during my class, "Creating a Meaningful Life."

As far as conducting the interview went for that one, it went fairly well. For my class, we had to interview someone who inspired us to do what we do in life, whether t be a person from the same educational field, or simply someone who has inspired you to live on to the next day. So I had my parents look for someone who was either a Psychology major or worker, and they ended up finding a Human Resources manager who had a degree in psychology.

The interview process was fast, yet effective. We had planned a date ahead of time due to our busy schedules, and one weekend we met and had an interesting talk. What went well was the fact that I was able to even find a successful person to interview. What could have been improved would have been a bigger variety of questions to acquire a wide set of knowledge and information to cover all bases. I think if one were to arrive with papers of questions, they could at least hand select a few at the moment to suit the situation.

What do I advise for other interviews? Prepare 100% ahead of time, with a set full list of questions, outline of how the interview should go, a set time and schedule for the actual interview and be aware that depending on the person, the answers may vary. Learning from mistakes, I think that a 30 minute interview is kind of long if questions are redundant, so try a variety of questions to refrain from being bored!

You are Interviewed

Hey guys,

One of the biggest things that I tend to not acquire are proper, first-hand research interviews to provide first-person experience and data. Little to my knowledge did I expect so much depth to be extracted from a first-person interview. Personally, I don't believe I have enough contacts to justify going out and making a big effort for an interview. With that, chapter 6 continues to defy my own ideas by actually pointing out six different types of questions, Primary, Secondary, Open-ended, Closed-ended, Neutral and Leading. Depending on what you expect from the interviewee or the interview itself, you can direct your question to hopefully come out with results that you expect, but not to the point where you make it a biased interview.

I haven't been the best at interviewing, even if a certain class demanded it. I find the biggest difficulty incorporating an interview within a deadline, especially for school, because students in modern-day universities and filled with jobs and assignments from other schools. Personally, I believe that interviews can provide possibly the best information and data for any speech, but is incredibly difficult.

Lastly, I find the information how important the internet sources can be. People take the internet for granted, and many believe that it has false information, but I believe with good enough research and obtaining background information, an internet site can prove much more useful, authentic and convenient. With that, we're taking an online comm class to fulfill university credits, thus the internet can provide sufficient and reliable information for papers and speeches in our university.

Prepare for Confidence..

Confidence, research, relaxation and knowledge are all vital parts of a very strong and virtuous essay. As with all speeches, proper and sufficient research is mandatory for a clear, concise and informative speech. After wards, grabbing the attention of the audience with your research knowledge would be the next step as demonstrated through the video named Gastropods. The speech by Dory concerning her grandparents was also a good show on how to incorporate quotes and ideas given from others without plagiarizing in any form.

Dory's speech was close and comfortable with herself and it seemed that even though most of the research was done through her close family, she still did enough research and listened to enough stories to be fluent in her speech. She has a very high and obvious confidence level to where she shows that her preparation was top-notch.

The Gastropods speech was very good in my opinion. After reading the transcript of the speech, I had learned that beginning with a kind of story and/or analogy will captivate the audience, no matter how corny or cliche it may sound. These videos in general will prepare me better for my speeches, simply through the advice about.. preparing. On top of that, with new insight on how to enter and end a speech with excitement, I think the process of creating a speech now that much easier.

Breathe?

People have always recommended careful, steady and slow breaths to help calm the nerves prior to any frightening event. I never, ever breathed deeply before any show, rally or speech that I ever attended, and it might have showed from time to time when I seemed nervous up on stage. Though I did find the techniques to breathing properly a little funny, I think it stuck in my mind how important this breathing factor is to making a better speech. Another thing that would help me increase my confidence is to remember the introduction and conclusion of my outline. Confidence in the beginning and the end could potentially make the whole middle part of my speech that much better.

So my takeaways? Confidence, relaxing and remembering, to better prepare myself for any upcoming speeches.

Listen Well

From chapter two of the Public Speaking: Evolving Art book, I took away one big thing that both Coopman and Lull leave for the readers. "Concentrate on the other speakers." I have never actually thought of that idea because like most people, I tend to practice and prepare my speech to the very minute that I start to walk up to the stand. That being, you can learn a lot from other peoples' speeches because they tend to add information into your mind that you may have not thought of initially. Specifically, when there happens to be a question and answer portion to a speech you are better prepared to be informed for their speech rather than focusing on your own.

Also, I learned that it can possibly make you much calmer when you are not too focused on your own presentation. I have actually never really tried this tactic, mostly because I stay worried up till my own presentation and keep practicing. From this, I have learned to be better prepared.. if you end up practicing up till the last minute of your own presentation, it probably means that you didn't practice enough to overcome the fear.

Never Scared

A lot of people seem to apprehend public speaking in ways that create a more nerve-wrecking atmosphere. The biggest thing that I apprehend about public speaking personally is that fear of forgetting.

When one is in front of a class or big audience the biggest fear is to look uneducated and/or to say the wrong thing. I, just like many people, fear the same things. I see myself needing to always explain certain ideas because I feel the audience isn't following what I say, but I simply end up prolonging my speech and creating more mess than I would of had.

I have actually hosted a couple shows such as talent shows, improv comedies, school rallys, and others. But the reoccurring problem I panic once I begin to think about potential problems that may occur on-stage. Learning to go with the flow and mediate my speech on my audiences' reactions is my goal out of the class. I would of never had the power to do such shows until I realized that being shy and quiet, unfortunately, does not get you much, and being able to present anything on a whim can prove to be beneficial.

I see visualization as explained in chapter 2 providing help for any presentation that I may run into. To visualize a step-by-step of an outline, or your very own speech just to be more confident and loose. The biggest thing I learned through experience is to prepare adequately for the presentation. A lot of people procrastinate (myself included) their presentations and without building confidence in your own speech, it may fail you. Learning these help to make me apprehend my public speaking abilities in a different fashion.

Introduction

Hey guys,

First off my name is Kevin Felix, a second year at SJSU. My main focus and major in school is Psychology, something I've been interested in since I was in about 5th grade. I live in Milpitas, close to San Jose, and I must say I'm pleased with where I am living.

The reason why I chose to take this online course is because I am extremely busy person. I work at Best Buy with a good amount of hours so I actually only go to school two days a week as a full-time student.

I have actually had experience with the communications studies department at SJSU, with comm40. It was a very interesting and fun class as it related to debate and we were able to hop on the radio. We also were able to enter in a debate tournament so that added much more enthusiasm to my pursuit in better communication skills. My goals are to break out of the shell that I live in and to better myself in the real life. I've always been a shy person and unfortunately I had to take this class online because of my responsibilities for my job. If I were able to, I would have taken this class in person.



Anyways, that's all, nice to meet you all.