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.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, February 9, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, February 6, 2009
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.
So my takeaways? Confidence, relaxing and remembering, to better prepare myself for any upcoming speeches.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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.
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.
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