Favorite Speech

My favorite speech was the first one. I know that might be a little strange but it really helped me not only get to know my self but my classmates as well. Because of the first speech, even though it was relatively short and sweet,  I got to see on what level of public speaking I was and the main things that I needed to work on. Of course in the beginning of the semester I did have a little trouble getting out in front of the class and presenting, and I can not say that it went away fully towards the end, but it got a lot better. I also like that from the first speech to the last, you can see the great improvement that everybody made and what peoples strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to getting in front of a classroom. All in all, it was a great semester and I really enjoyed it.

Self-Evaluation

Before I got up to do my speech I was much more confident in my head and I was prepared to deliver my speech fantastically and just have everything be so interesting and amazing, until I got up to present, it was not  an issue. As I got up there, it wasn’t the thought that I was scared of the people, it was more of a scared to disappoint and get a bad grade on this assignment. Well when I got there, my note cards that I had prepared blurred in my eyes and what seemed to be something I had very meticulously organized, seemed to be wrong or not in the right order.

1). How well do you think you achieved the purpose of your speech?

The purpose of my speech was to deliver it in a way that would interest people and even though it may not impact somebodies life, it was meant to inform about a current interesting subject that is part of our planet and where we live.

2). How comfortable and confident did you feel during the speech?

I did not feel comfortable or confident, I have an issue with that and it might take a while to get over it.

3). If you had to do it over again, what changes would you make in

preparation, support, organization or delivery?

I would have made my slides a little less and more info that would provide a better understanding of what is being presented. I would also try to practice more so that I can deliver a fast effective speech without talking too much.

4). What one goal do you have for improving the content in your next speech?

Do more extensive research to provide information that is brand new for most of the audience sitting and listening. Also I will try to be a bit more organized with my note cards.

5). What one goal do you have for improving the delivery in your next speech?

Since the next speech is a really short one, and not only that speech but the persuasive also, I will try to get more practice with presenting the speech.

6). What specifically was different from your last speech? BOTH good and

bad?

The good things are that I didn’t totally get lost and I tried to do a little more eye contact and the bad things are that I read a lot of the PowerPoint.

7). Did you do anything distracting? Was this an improvement from your last

speech?

The distracting thing I did was to use word fillers such as uhm. I used them so that I would not get lost at what I was talking about and it helped me get my things organized so that I could read the information correctly on the cards.

8). How would you rate your eye contact on a scale from 1-10?

About a 4. I have a hard time making eye contact with people and even though I am still learning how to make eye contact, I try not to look really long at a person. So it was hard for me to kind of focus.

9). On a scale from A to F, what grade would you give yourself based on your

performance? Why? Use specific examples.

I think I got what I deserved. A b-. I got that grade because of a lot of the word fillers and the huge pause I made to find what song we were about to sing.

10). How many source citations did you mention during the course of your

speech? (Please watch the video and count how many times you

mentioned your sources).

I mentioned my sources at least three different times. I either gave the name of the person or stated the website I found it on.

11). Was this speech better than your last speech? Why or why not?

I think that it was much better than out last one because on the other speech I gave I was not prepared at all and with the jokes I made kind of messed up my train of thought and the first one was just a chaos.

Presentation Media

I don’t ever remember going to a public event that had speakers come out and present their information with a presentation. Actually now, thinking about it, I have but it was all based on high school things. I was in Business Academy and we had many speakers and city councilmen come to talk about business and such things. I would say that most speeches should be accompanied by a visual aid because not only does it give the person who is listening an idea of what the speaker is talking about, it keeps the speaker a chance not to totally sway off topic. Since I don’t have a story to talk about with a speaker that was using presentation media, I will use a popular one that is on the internet. Many people know the show Ted. In these videos where they are talking about very interesting stuff, they use presentation media. It keeps the speaker on track, makes the speech very interesting, and gives visual examples of what is being talked about. Personally I do not think that presentation media is something that distracts unless it is very obnoxious. I really like the Ted presentations, I think if speeches were given in that style, it would probably always be an event that everyone looks forward to.

Altered Images

There are many ways and opportunities that the internet and many programs that are available almost anywhere that give us a chance or possibility to alter how no only how we or someone else looks  like, but information that could benefit us as well, such as audio tapings, videos, and songs. What I mean is that it is possible to take trusted information and alter it so that it fits our needs and presents something that could persuade someone to think that what is presented is true. There are so many cases in which there is a lot of “evidence” brought against a person and it could ruin the person socially, mentally, financially, morally, etc. As an ethical person, even if there are a million ways you can alter the truth of the presentation, you shouldn't.  Not only because it is unethical but it could obviously come back around and bite you in the you know what. As it is said, what goes around, comes around. Also, when you are preparing for a speech, make sure that the information you are presenting is positively right and comes from a trusted source so that something altered and untrue does not get spread around.

Speech Buddy!!!

The first video explained how to get an introduction ready. The main thing is the attention getter. According to the video it should be a surprising fact or statistic, an interesting story, or some humor. The other things you need to do in order to have a good introduction is to establish a purpose and the thesis, and the third thing is to preview the main points.

The second video went over how to set up a good conclusion. The conclusion is as important as the introduction and has to be solid. There are three main parts to a great conclusion. It is review of the main points, reinforcement of purpose, and providing closure.

The rest of the videos were examples of speeches and as I was paying attention to the speeches introduction and conclusions I really liked it, I can take a lot of information and learn because I have to admit that my intros and conclusions are not that great and these videos are helping me a lot.

Happy Intro and conclusion to you!!

The main points that were outlined which help get the introduction  written out was to get your audience’s attention, consider the purpose of your speech, watch out for the time, be creative, use common attention getters, get a thesis together, establish credibility, preview main points. The conclusion consists of reviewing main points, reinforcing the purpose, providing closure. It does branch out and go into a lot of detail of what exactly sits behind each topic. I will be able to use this for my informative speech because I usually get either stuck when I am writing out the intro and conclusion or I go way off subject and get off track because I am not really sure of the outline.

                My intro will probably be something like this. Have you ever seen a picture that looked so weird but fascinating at the same time? When I saw pictures of unusual deep sea creatures, I was captivated by the weirdness of how they look. Etc. Of course it will be much better when I actually work it all out.

My Conclusion is definitely not worked out yet but it would probably go like this. Unusual sea creatures are very interesting and are definitely unique to this world. Who they are, what they do and what they eat are part of their remarkable selves. Etc. 

Giving the Facts and Statistics!!

I think the best times to give facts and statistics are when you are either trying to prove a point, or make somebody aware of something. The only way that it works is if you can find information that will back up your speech. It is also a good idea to use facts and statistics is when you want to present an idea. Even though you may not be able to give facts and statistics about the “idea” itself, you may use facts and statistics to give the audience an idea of what could be. Thinking about it, most speeches would benefit from facts and statistics.

Giving facts and statistics would not be a good idea if you were presenting your opinion. But then thinking about it, you would need to find facts and statistics to back your opinion up. Maybe you would not need facts and statistics in your speech if what you were talking about is general knowledge, other than that, I can’t think of anything.

Speech Buddy Videos!! 9/22

In the first video, I observed that she had a lot of information to back up her speech. The first sentence was a little weird though because after her “hook” I spent at least a minute going “what???” I like that she incorporated her personal experiences and she did a lot of research and it seemed like she knew what she was talking about. The second video does point out how visual aids help out with the presentation. While I was watching, I imagined if he didn’t have anything to show. I think that without visual aid it is not as memorable and doesn’t bring the main point into focus fast. The third video was a bunch of information on how to organize your speech. I’m sure I will be using that information at some point in creating a speech. The fourth video was very useful. I’m not very good with transitions and it is very important when presenting information. Showed some very good examples.

1. Research Interviews

This reminds me, just last week in my health class I had to interview family about health history. It was not a big deal because that was pretty easy. I did not have many research interviews in school, mainly my family and that does not cause my public speaking nightmares to come crashing in. I did have some assignments that required being in an interview and then having to write about it, it did require a lot of research. The assignment was to prepare for mock interviews to prepare for future job world. We had to research what to wear, how to speak, how to fill out your resume, how to fill out applications, common courtesy. During this interview, I was shaking at first and when I got to know the other person, I became comfortable with speaking and sharing my thoughts and experiences. It does depend on how open the other person is, because I noticed that if somebody is talking to you and you feel like a mouse and hes the trap, it is hard to keep a friendly conversation going. This is my experience, not much but I hope it has some use.

3. Concept

There are many concepts to public speaking, but I picked the topic we read about in chapter 2 that will hopefully help me when getting up in front of an audience. The concept is Practice Your Speech. I will probably have to remind myself that an infinite amount of times this semester, but it really does help. I understand that I may not be able to create the conditions that the book suggests like practice in a place that is similar to the place you will be speaking and I may not be able to get an audience of four or more people who would be willing to sit through my practice speech, but I think it is a brilliant idea to practice. I know from personal experience that if I do not practice, my confidence falls, I will definitely mess up something that will be very visible, and sometimes it causes me to forget what I was talking about and I would venture into another territory that would kind of mess up what I was talking about in the first place. I remember when my brother took speech class and he would go into the garage and talk about his subject with such passion and he would do hand gestures to go along with what he was talking about, we all laughed and kind of poked fun at him at times, but now I understand how valuable practicing is and how vital it is to deliver an effective speech with less worrying and stress symptoms.

Speech Buddies!!

The Speech Buddy Videos are a great tool to learn from. The first video shows different ways to get over speech fear and present your material well. The methods are visualizing, relabeling, and relaxing.  I’ve always had a problem with the visualizing part. I try to imagine myself going in front of an audience and everything is going good, and then, all of a sudden, something horrible has to happen. But I definitely agree that it is a good tool if you know how to control how you imagine things. Relabeling comes to play when I get stressed out about going in front of a class, it is good to imagine that everything will be good no matter what. Relaxation always works about 20 minutes before the speech, and then it all flies out the window for me. But it is a great idea to actually pause before giving a speech and mentally relax yourself, and as the second video shows, get familiar with your surroundings. I never really thought about it that intensely, but it makes sense. If you want to be comfortable in your surroundings, get comfortable and get to know the place around you. I would say it’s like meeting new people. It is so much easier to talk to them once you get to know them a little better. These methods are great and I hope that I will one day be able to use the effectively and to my benefit.

1. Fear of Public Speaking

                Fear of public speaking is something that almost everybody can relate to. As you get up to speak, the shaking of the hands, legs, and voice becomes a familiar feeling. As I was reading chapter 2 in the book Public Speaking the Evolving Art by Coopman, they listed two reasons why people may be afraid to speak in public. “Fear of public speaking stems from two sources: your temperament and how you’ve learned to respond to uncertainty.” (Coopman, 26) For me, my temperament is a problem when it comes to public speaking. I am the kind of person who is very shy in front of people and get very flustered when it comes to getting in front of a group of people and everything that I had prepared would come flying out of my head, my voice will start shaking, I will laugh nervously, look at the floor hoping that nobody is looking at me. This all started way back in elementary school when I would get teased about my appearance and it made me a little shy and more reserved. I was afraid that if I would try to speak in front of an audience, I would get laughed at or teased. I spent most of my time reading books and would speak only when it was necessary. In the past couple years my fear of speaking in front of an audience has improved because I decided that I need to start facing my fears to get over it. Hopefully, one day, I will get up in front of an audience in total confidence and be able to speak my part with only the minimal symptoms of fear.