Most helpful concept(s)

When it comes to considering what helped me the most in the class, it's hard to narrow it down. In the beginning, I thought the hardest part was the culture speech. Having progressed through the course, I can look back at it and realize that the culture speech was a piece of cake. Having done several speeches in the class, I have learned that the 2 concepts that help me the most were proper preparation and practicing a whole bunch. Of those two, the practice part was the most helpful. On pages 242-244, the book provides some simple suggestions that really worked for me. I would start by practicing my speech in parts, Then , once I got those down, I would move to practicing the whole speech at once. This became very time consuming. However, this over practicing compensated for my fear of public speaking. It helped build my confidence. It may not have showed in my speeches since I was unable to watch my speech at the same time, but I did feel more comfortable up in front of my audience. On the inside though, I was still quite unnerved by my own internal fears. With that said, I also felt that my preparation, and at times, my over preparation, helped my confidence by allowing me to learn things about my topic  I would have otherwise not known. So, my advice to anyone else who has to make a speech and who has not taken this class or any other public speaking class, would be to prepare and practice, practice, practice.

What I will take away from this class

What I will take away from this class for future endeavors is that preparation and practice are extremely important. I found that preparation is important for researching your topic and getting all the information together and organize it in a way that makes sense. I found that I spent a lot of time over preparing and over researching my topics. This led to a lot of wasted time because I found myself going off into areas that either did not pertain to my original concept but it also led to an over production of information that would typically put my speech over on time. This led to spending additional time being spent at working the speech down and triaging out information in order to meet the time requirements. This class allowed me to practice this process a lot. I'm able to streamline and focus my research work more efficiently. The other concept I'm taking away from this is the practice part. I've given a few speeches in the past and I had never practiced my speech before hand. This was key for me. I'm not real comfortable speaking in front of people but I found that the more I practiced my speech, the more comfortable I was speaking in front of the class. So, I'm guessing my fear is confidence related. Practicing my speech more and efficient preparation time seem to be the most important things I will take away from this class for my future endeavors.

My favorite speech

I think my favorite speech I gave was the tribute speech I made to my wife. I've never made a tribute speech to anyone before. When the concept was introduced, I thought of her right away and knew I had to do it about her. Her influence on me and my life is unquestionably the most amazing thing I could't have ever imagined. Before the speech, when we were told that some students have had to use extra time because they were "balling", I thought, what bunch of weenies. Well, call me a weenie then. Not that I was balling but I did get very chocked up and teary. That totally caught me off guard. I knew I had very strong feelings for her going into the speech but about half way through, I had this unexpected emotional response. I stopped, motioned to the teacher and jokingly said "stop the clock". After that, I thought it would pass and I proceeded on. Towards the end, that previously felt emotional response resurfaced and began to overwhelm me. I paused, covered my mouth with my hand (for some reason I don't know why) and then resorted to just reading the rest. So, apparently my wife means more to me than words alone can say. My tribute to her could not possibly do her presence in my life justice. This is why the tribute speech was my favorite. It brought on feelings in me I knew I had but un a way I had not expected.

Appeals to emotion

I know I've written many things that connect the class assignments to this years election, but, it's a current event that makes it an easy target.

Pathos, the emotional appeal, is one of the most powerful tools used in today's marketing. When it comes to politics, all political ads really are just marketing poly's. Not to sound too cynical but for the most part, politicians just tell you what you want to hear at election time. Then, during their time in office (providing enough people believe their rhetoric and vote them in) they always stray away from many things they "marketed" to you during the election. This whole marketing focuses in on pathos. They target your feelings rather than discuss the issues. I know the book spends time talking about Maslow's Pyramid of Hierarchy. Maybe I'm wandering off course. I think my main point is the POWER of emotion when it comes to argumentation. When you give a persuasive speech, you're trying to get your audience to change how they feel about something. This is very similar to how politics operates. Politicians are trying to change the way you feel about them or (or in the case of negative campaigning) how you feel about someone else. Another similar situation is when supporters of a proposition want your vote. Appealing to your fear of "what would happen if it passes or not pass" is very effective. Fear drives more people to decide a certain way than any other tactic. My goal is to try and find some kind of fear in my topic that I can use to try and persuade my audience to see my topic the way I see it.

Speech Buddy 15.1 etc

I always enjoy these videos. They are a real inspiration. Even though I feel much better at public speaking, the people you see in these videos certainly have a knack for it.

As far as the topic goes, I'm not a fan of home schooling. Even though I know many that have been home school, I think public school was the right choice for my kids. but, that's not what the assignment was about. My observations were that they really did well on delivering the preview of main points. This made it especially easy for me to follow their message. The funny thing is, it looks like they both wore the same sweater. The girl was a little too dramatic when she said something to the effect about "not coming home alive" from public school". This overly dramatic comment can almost turn a listener off. I think speakers have to be careful about that. They both seemed to have practiced their speeches a lot. This really showed. They were both smooth and incorporated their research into their speech very well. Neither of them used power point though.So, it''l be different to see how we can all do that with our upcoming speeches. One other quality of note was they both used good eye contact. That is one area I need to work on and now having seen it, I think I have a good idea on how to do it.

F.D.

Recent Discussion

This last election I spent a lot of time trying to convince some co workers that the GMO proposition was a good idea. I explained as best as I could that GMO's in our food supply may not be a good idea. They were convinced that the whole thing was getting blown out of proportion. To them, I was not understanding that food was more expensive now than it had been in a long time and if the proposition passed, it was going to get even more expensive. Sometimes I get real frustrated with the people I work with. They get a thought in their head and there's no changing it. One of the angles I tried working was that they used to think that DDT was OK to spray throughout neighborhoods to kill insects. Then, later, that same chemical was determined to cause cancer. For all any of us know, these GMO's that companies like Monsanto are using, may cause the same thing (or worse). At the end of the whole thing, I was able to convince them that first of all, organic IS better than non-organic (when you have the choice) and the other is, wouldn't you at least like to have the choice? I think when they realized that they could still buy the GMO's but it would have to be labeled. They really came around with the "choice" concept. I think we'll find down the road the as natural as possible is best for our food supply.

A Sea of Persuasion

The question is about how we are immersed in a sea of persuasion. Well, if you are awake, and paying attention then you're probably  being exposed to some kind of persuasion. Now that's a little bit of a dramatic statement (attention getter...lol) but the point is, we live in a sea of persuasion. Television is the most prominent form.  Commercial breaks during programing is basically all it is. Trying to persuade you to buy, do or think something. Even if you have a DVR and fast forward through the commercials, the programs themselves are trying to incorporate commercial like behavior. all of this, of course makes sense. T.V. stations and programs operate on money and money is generated by commercials. Outside of T.V., we see persuasion in the form of advertising all over the place. Billboards, bumper stickers and various signs on businesses are all used to get your attention. Advertising sells and selling creates success. Success creates jobs and more jobs moves the economy.

As far as "Give some examples of persuasive messages you’ve received in interpersonal, public speaking, and mass media contexts"? Most recently: 1) Interpersonal = Being asked by co-workers to vote on a specific proposition a certain way. 2) Public Speaking = Listening to a debate between political candidates in the recent presidential election, 3) Mass Media = Anytime I watch T.V.

To become a more critical consumer, all you have to do is think "how does this address my needs or wants? It also a good idea to research things online to make sure you're not being given bad information. And, most importantly, with regards to elections, READ the propositions! Don't rely on commercials for your information. Become an informed voter!

F.D.

Monroes Motivated Sequence

Looking at Monroe's Motivated Sequence (MMS) and the problem/solution pattern. Before reading these, I thought I knew which direction I was going with my speech. But now, I think I have a better handle on how to present my speech. Monroe's Motivated Sequence simplifies the process into the "needs" (a necessity) and "wants" (a desire for) of the audience. You need to know whether you're going to "build" a need or a want in your audience so you can focus your persuasive speech in a particular way. Once you've determined which one works best for your speech, organize your speech around that objective. The problem lies when your goal is to provide your audience with a need and your presentation focuses on fulfilling a want, then your audience could be offended. Where as if you present your speech with the goal of satisfying the audiences want and you do it with the aspects of filling their need, then you may miss some strong persuasive appeals. MMS breaks it down into 5 steps:1) Get Attention, 2) Build the Need/Want, 3) Satisfy the Need/Want, 4) Visualize the Results and 5) Call for Action.

The Problem-Solution Pattern divides the persuasive speech into 2 parts. The first part is to present a "problem" and the next part is to provide the "solution". The first part involves having to show different aspects of the "problem" to include some type of facts or evidence. Later, in the second part, a potential "solution(s)" is/are presented and provides support for the effectiveness of this or these "solution(s)". This plan appears somewhat easy to follow. It's probably the easiest to understand and implement. this will probably be the pattern I use in my speech. since I seem to run out of time on my speeches, then I'll want to keep it as simple as I can.

Defining Persuasion

I found the segment on this subject on page 274 titled "Defining Persuasion" rather interesting. It talks about some very basic, everyday situations that we all found ourselves in that involves persuasion. When you think about it, it's something we are all in involved in everyday. So much of what we come into contact with involves the art of persuasion. A couple examples include someone wanting to to make plans with you for the weekend; T.V. commercials trying to convince you that that you need their products, pop-ups on your computer trying to get your attention when you're online; Charity organizations wanting you to give money etc. When you think about it, persuasion is all around us.
  For me, I don't watch a TV commercial and go "Wow, I need to get me one of those.....". I have often laughed at how silly and stupid commercials are, I also wonder (out loud) who are they trying to appeal to. Sometimes I wonder if market researchers must think the average TV viewer is a bunch of idiots.
  The other part of the section also said that persuasion involves choice.  It compared that to coercion. This was an interesting section since we just came off about 2 years of political adds. Coercion is described as when  "a person feels compelled to think a certain way or feels compelled to act under pressure..." (pg 274). Doesn't that sound a lot like these recent political ads? If you apply the tactic of "fear mongering" that was used in a lot of these ads, then you gotta agree that they crossed the line of persuasion and entered the world of coercion. Either way, when I  read that part in the book, that was the first thing I thought about.

Speech buddy10.1 - 12.3

The Speech Buddy videos presented are always good. I get more out of watching the actual speeches than I would have expected. Even though I get good information from the speech buddies that provide technical information, I like seeing how the speeches are supposed to be presented.

For example, the one speech that was titled "Funeral" seemed very geniune. It was almost like he was just telling a real story rather then giving a speech. I need to work on the more. I was hoping that my last speech would have felt better to me but I got wrapped up in the technical information. The funeral story was a real story. I found his delivery very credible.

Video 10.1 went over "Audience Centered" techniques. I think I've actually done that oncce or twice but it was by accident. I liked the idea of inclusive language. It looks like would be a good way to pull them into your topic. I'll try that one on my tribute speech. Even though I have not finished my outline, I'm going th try and work that one in.

Video 12.1 provided information and examples that were helpful. The volume thing is a given. I've never spent much time worrying about pitch but I will now. I've never heard myself or seen myself give a pseech. I think that would be an inportant thing to try. So, I'm not sure how my volume and pitch are.

Flickr.com response

The question is to read the above exchange and comment on the exchange based on what is in the book. I look at it all as two different issues but with one similarity, gender. The online exchange is about language and specific words used to describe people. The book ( at least the parts I found) refers more to how a person is looked at as a speaker with regards to whether they are male or female.
  The online discussion is interesting. I have had a similar issue recently regarding whether a woman should be called "Miss" or "Ma'am". Apparently this is a big issue for many women. If you're young and unmarried, you're supposed to be called a "Miss". If you're older and married, you're supposed to be called "Ma'am". Or, something like that. I don't know really. I used to just call all unknown females "Ma'am" so I thought I was covered. But, that's not the case now. It kind of reminds me of the women's liberation movement back in the 70's (yeah, I'm the old one in the room) when they tried to get the "Ms" thing going (pronounced Mizzzzzzz). They wanted to use it as a generic female version of "Mr". You know, how you can call anyone that's a male over the age of 2 Mister and nobody cares. They wanted some kind of an equal salutation or greeting to the men and that's what they came up with. As confusing as this has become lately, I wish it had stuck. But, as we can see, it's nowhere to be found in our culture.
  As for me? You can call me anything you want; Dude, guy, man, mister, boy, dick, dip shit, moron, dumb ass...I do not define myself by a word and thus I'm not easily offended. My self esteem is high, but I don't think it's any higher than the average person. I just have better things to get upset about. Like, when I can't find my keys. Now THAT'S worth being mad about.

F.D.

P.S. After writing this, I showed it to my 22 year old daughter and my wife. My daughter told me she and a bunch of her friends use "Ms." all the time. Looks like things have changed and I'm just out of touch.

Gender and Delivery

Well, I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but apparently something is wrong. The reason I say that is because when I listen to speakers talk, I listen to the message. It makes no difference to me whether they are a male of a female. Maybe because I'm older and look at the world differently than most others. I listen to what people are saying and not how they are saying it. Especially this time of year with all the politics and the adds. What and how people say things can be deceiving. One of the big issues in politics these days revolves around the woman's vote. So, how else can you reach out to woman? Put them in political adds. With this, it's even more important to listen and think and even read about the issues. Women can be used to make the simple minded people think that what they are saying must be important to women because a woman is saying it. It makes it very easy to use women to manipulate voters.
  Regarding the issues of gender and delivery in the book, I don't think that pitch and volume are an issue with women. Maybe because when I listen to women, they are usually talking into a microphone and on TV. The only way other way I can apply those situations would be to those who speak in class. I have not seen much of a pitch or volume problem but maybe because it's a small room.
  Earlier in the article, it explains that woman are judged on what they wear where a man would be given a higher status just because he's a man. I cant disagree with this more. Even though it does say "much has changed over the years", I can never remember a time that I felt that way.

F.D.

Self Evaluation #2

I got an A- on my last speech. I'm good with that as a grade. I had, however, prepared for an A++ by spending some countless amount of hours getting ready for it. But, that's my style, over work and under perform. That has always been one of my issues when I prepare for something. I always over prepare and over think every step of the way.  That leads to creating doubt and then I go back and redo it. Most of the time if I had just left it alone in the first place, it would have been just fine. In the end, I feel that the execution went as well as it could have.
   When I chose the subject, I was excited since I knew a lot about the subject I would speak about. I had just spent 3-4 years researching the subject and I had just spent the last 8 months actually preforming a hands on project. Later, as I prepared for the speech, I had found myself not as informed on the subject as I had once thought.
    I believe in the end I got my point across. My goal was to explain how solar energy works, make some pros and cons and explain how to get solar if someone wanted it. I am a big supporter of solar energy and I had been hoping I could inspire others to go solar . I had looked into it a long time ago and now it seems it is cheaper than it has ever been.
    With every speech I give, it seems to get easier. I have found that a good outline is important. My comfort level with speaking in front of people has gotten better too. I believe it's about structure, experience and knowledge of the topic. If I were to have done it differently, I would have done a single rough draft then let it sit for awhile before rewriting it. I kept writing and rewriting right away and at times, lost track of what I was trying to do. If I were to follow this one concept, I think I would have been able to improve my content and delivery.
    The differecne between this speech and last was of course the power point. I have never done power point before. This was a challenge. However, when I consider my goal, using power point was a good thing. This was also a bad thing. It definitely cut into my time for preparation. having to use power point was very time consuming. I tried to implement using a laser pointer but this proved to be a distraction from my focus on the content and delivery. I don't think I'll try that one again.
   I though my eye contact was good. When I read my grading paper, apparently it needed improvement. On a scale of 1-10, I would have given myself an 8. I'll have to work harder at it and try and keep in mind a goal of a 10. I agree with the grade of A-. I worked for a higher grade but it all came down to execution. For example, I had planned on being within the time limit, but as before, I went over. I had practiced 10-15 times. The last 5 I was under time. However, I strayed off course and went off script. I have to stay on course next time.
   I made sure I mentioned 4 citations in my speech. I also made sure they were in my power point. This was an area I messed up on last time. So, I made sure to include them in my notes as well.
  In all, I feel this last speech was better than my last. Probably because I had a little more passion and personal knowledge of the subject. I also think the power point helped deliver my message better than the demonstration speech. I'm looking forward to using the things I have learned from these speeches on my next speech. Even writing these self evaluations has given me some things to think about when I prepare for my next presentation.

Digital Slides Do's and Don'ts

I guess I should have looked more closely to this section. I did my power point early. Then, I read someone else's post and saw they wrote about this same section in the book. I then re-did much of my power point. Now that I read the part about the do's and don'ts, I think I was OK to begin with. Either way, I'm sure I'll get a lot out of watching everyone else's speeches. I am an over thinker and an over doer'. I have spent dozens of hours on this speech to the point where I believe it's going backwards. I did like the examples they have on page 221. I went back and removed some of my bullet points. There were many of them and I think I was still able to get my point across. That way, I was able to make the fonts bigger and easier to read. On page 220, it talks about write your speech THEN do your power point. I kind of did that and kind of not. I wrote then rewrote the speech. Then I started doing the power point. I struggled with concepts and messaging. So, I did all the power point, then worked much of the speech around it. Now that I've gone back and forth so much, I'm not sure where I am. I think a good nights sleep and a fresh look at it in the morning is in order. I'm a wreck and should be on some type of prescription to just not worry about this so much. I feel like I'm back discussing my fears at the beginning of the semester.

Public speaking event I've been to

Probably one of the most significant public speakers I have heard was a guy from the National Weather Service. He came to fire behavior class I was taking and spent 2 days explaining how weather happens and how it affects fires. If not for his seemingly endless media displays, it would have been very boring. Instead his diagrams, pictures, charts and actual videos of weather and fire behavior were fascinating. These images captivated all of us and we actually not only paid more attention, we learned a whole bunch. His advantage was that he had been doing the same presentation to the same category of audience for 10-15 years. So, he had honed his Craft very well. One of the more interesting videos he showed us was a time lapse video of what's called"The Day of Transition". That's the day that, after the winds have been blowing from the land(high desert region) to the ocean for 4-5 days during the Santa Ana Winds, they turn 180 degrees and blow from the ocean to the land in the course of about 4-5 hours. This is the day most injuries to firefighters occur. Having actually seen it in the course of about 2-3 minutes was amazing.  It was a very humbling demonstration. only through media was this possible.

I can't think of anything this guy could have done to have improved his presentation. It was about 16 hours long over 2 days and we all enjoyed it very much. Like I said, without presentation media, it would have been very boring and nobody would have stayed awake. I can't think of anything that had detracted from the speech due to the media presented. He was an accomplished speaker and knew his audience. Everything fit together very well. I felt bad for the guy who taught the last 2 days. By comparison, he was boring and unexciting.

F.D.

Ethical Responsibilities

The questioned asked was what are the speakers ethical responsibilities in the world of digital and audio files. It is clearly asking if it's OK for a speaker to alter files when they are preparing their speech. Right away, most people would say "No Way!". I say, most likely not, but, it all depends on the speakers motives. If the speakers intent is to manipulate a topic to convince the audience to think or feel a certain way because the alternative may not make his case because the original, unaltered file would not bring about the desired effect, than I would say no. This happens all too often. Now, an exception might be that of, lets say, late night TV shows. They often take public figures and current events and play with the pictures to make a joke. as long as it's obvious that it's a joke, then in my opinion, no harm, no foul. Some times they take a series of statements a person makes (usually a politician) and string them together to make them sound funny. Same thing, it's obvious that it's supposed to be entertainment so that's still OK. The problem would be if it's supposed to be inflammatory or create a controversy to a person or event. Another category where it might be OK, is if whatever image a person has to show, if that image is not real clear or the need to highlight a particular aspect of it is needed, than there should not be too much of a problem with that. If a speaker does anything to alter an original picture, audio file, song or taped conversation, then the ethical thing to do is to include that in their presentation somehow and explain why they made a change. Anything but full disclosure would be improper.

Speeches About Processes

My speech will be about a process. I'm not sure if this is an easy or difficult choice. When I first stated I would do it, it's because I have a good amount of knowledge about it. Now, when I'm putting together my outline, I'm finding that I'm struggling with the complexity of it. I usually have a problem of over-thinking things. This leads to a tremendous amount of wasted time in the preparation phase.The explanation of this process is well illustrated on page 253 of our text book.  Basically, all I have to do is "facilitate the audiences understanding of the process or explain how audience members can engage in the process themselves". This helped make it sound easier than my own definition of the requirements needed to successfully deliver this speech. The next page goes further to explain that the speaker needs to decide whether to just inform the audience of a process or actually expect them to do it. Luckily, this is simply a "to inform" speech. To actually do it would require an entirely different approach. hopefully, it' will turn out better than I think at this point. As I said, I over think things most of the time and I've already spent many hours working the outline forwards and backwards to the point where I'm almost back to the beginning.

Intro and conclusion components

My speech will be about solar energy. The components of my introduction are as follows:1) Get your audiences attention, 2) Indicate purpose and thesis, 3) Establish Credibility and 4) Preview main points. I plan on getting their attention by showing how easy it is to get what I'm talking about and how it applies to them. Here:s my thesis: " Thesis Statement: Solar Energy could be the future of energy resources because it is easy to install, cheap and renewable". I will establish my credibility by showing a picure of the system I just personally installed. I will then take the 3 main elements of my thesis and make them my main points (Easy to install, Cheap and renewable) . That will make up my intro.  As far as my conclussion, I'm still working on it. The elements of the conclussion are as follows: 1) Review main points, 2) Reinforce Purpose and 3) Provide closure. What I'll probably do is remind them that of how easy it is to install solar. The cost has come down a lot over the years so it's much cheaper now than ever before. One of the best parts of solar energy? It's renewable and plentiful. It's an almost endless source of energy. To show an example, here's a small part of the body of my outline: "Every second, the sun pumps out 9.192 × 1010 megatons of TNT of energy to earth (Williams)". Hopefully, all this will come together over the next 2 weeks. Time flys by and it seems that this speech will be here in no time.

FD

Speech buddy 9.1,9.2, 13.1A and 131.B

I watched the videos and wish I had gotten more out of them that would help to prepare me for this blog. The first video was about techno music. I think the speaker did fine but I was not really pulled into his speech much. I think his intro fell flat (to me). Maybe because I don't have much of an interest in the topic but I found myself disinterested. Well spoken, good format and probably hit all the right points. He had a very specific conclussion.

The next speech was about Kodak Cameras. I liked her intro by taking a picture of the audience. This brought me into the speech and I was interested to hear more. I think the advatage this speech had was she was giving the speech one sentence at a time. This worked well for editing and made it look pretty smooth. I used to have a browning camera and liked the detail of the history of Kodak. Her conclussion was cleaver; she took a picture of the audience just like she did in the introduction.

The last speech was about kosher food. This was a more realistic class room speech. I think she did ok but she spoke way to fast. I became over saturated with information (to me). I still got a lot out of it. I liked the combination of poerpoint and an easil with poster board. The inro and conclussion went well together. I had jewish friends growing up and never paid much attention to the whole kosher thing. I found this speech entertainingly informative.

Self Evaluation Demo Speech

I feel I did OK on my speech. I did better than I thought I'd do but not as well as I had hoped. I felt a little more comfortable than lst time but I was still nervous. I felt better prepared though. If I was to do it over again, I may have done a few more practice runs. I need to decide what is and is not important  with the content. I hope to improve o my timing. I went WAY over on time. I would give my self an 8 for eye contact. I only mentioned 2 of my four sources. As to the last question, As far as trying to give a speech on an important topic, I'd say my grade was worthy of an A. However, when it comes to following instructions, I went over time by quite a bit. That means my B+ was a generous grade. I'm happy with that. I now know to focus more on citing my four sources and staying within the timeline. I think I can do it next time now that I have a better feeling for it.

FD

Transitions (concept)

One of the many issues I have with public speaking is that of staying focused on what it is I'm trying to say in an organized manner. I think going through this course will definitely help me. One of the topics that caught my attention was that of transitions. By not staying focused and organized in the past, I feel that the coherence of my topic gets diluted or at times lost. This creates boredom in the minds of the audience and they seem to mentally check out. being able to flow effectively from one area of the discussion to the next through proper use of transitions is going to be challenging for me. Especially since we are supposed to do these speeches extemporaneously. By not reading right off the card, I may loose my transition words. I may be over thinking this entire thing. By reading through the chapter section on this (page 158) I'm finding myself get caught up in the specifics at the cost of losing the idea of how to use transitions. It all makes sense when I read it, but applying it may be more difficult. The research part is easy. Putting it on paper in an organized manner is not too difficult but for some reason I'm coming up with a mental block on the transitions. I'll go back over it and maybe repetition is the key. I think the phrases on page 158 are the key. I think if I can plug those in the right places, it'll all make sense when I give the speech.

Facts and statistics

When I listen to a speech, many times I hear facts (an observation based on actual experience) and statistics (numerical data or information) tossed around. For the most part, I enjoy these elements of a speech. I like hearing new information that has real meaning. Speeches given using a lot of facts and statistics are most effective, I think, when you're main purpose for giving the speech in the first place is to inform your audience. It seems like if you are trying to effectively inform your audience on a place, or a thing or even some event that has occurred, then using facts and statistics are the ideal ingredients to have in that speech.  When properly used, facts and statistics are effective tools in a speech. There are, however, times where facts and statistics are not as effective. I find that many times, facts and statistics can be manipulated in a speech to not inform but to persuade and audience into thinking a certain way. This manipulation is on display now in the presence of political speeches. Every politician of every party often uses facts and statistics in a way that distorts the truth in a way that tries to get an emotional response from the audience. This response is then used to try and persuade the audience to vote in a certain way that would benefit the speaker. It is very frustrating because the truth, the real truth, is almost never found. When this occurs as often as it does, it directly affects a speakers credibility.

Speech buddy videos Week 5

    I finally got on with the speech buddy program. I like these videos. I watch, pause take notes and watch some more. I like watching the speeches from the other students. It's great to see what can be learned in a speech class.
   As far as this week's videos go, I watched them and some good information out of them. The ones in chapter 8 were more like an English class than expected. However, if we're giving speeches, it obviously involves English. So, knowing many of the words and phrases discussed actually help. When a person gives a speech, knowing these phrases would allow them to not only deliver their information in a better organized manner, but they will sound a lot better too. This sounding better will help the speaker with his audience connection in the form of credibility. When a speaker understands "Patterns of Organization" and "Linking Effectively: Transitions", they can take their speech, craft it in an organized manner and link all the bits of information within the speech so that the audience hears it and understands it.
   These videos help me by allowing me to see speeches from other students. I hope I can apply this technique next week in a similar way.

I think one concept that I have a connection to is the one about competence. I think that has been a blocking force for me. I always feel that whatever I'm supposed to speak on makes me nervous because I feel that someone in the audience may think I'm not as knowledgeable on the topic as I should. That comes back to credibility that we discussed earlier in the course. I t also plays on my fears of public speaking. Now, having studied a  lot about research-interviews, I feel that the obvious answer to this dilemma is about knowing more about my subject. Having this knowledge will allow me to have more confidence. With this confidence, I know my speeches will be better just because I can make more eye contact with the audience. That will hopefully work with the audience-connection I blogged about already. So, you see, this is all coming together for me. What I need to do now is put it all together. I'm looking forward to this next Demo speech (kind of). I want to see what the result will be once I do these things I've read and wrote about. Wish me luck! I will also be looking for pointers from you presenters. thanks for reading

Audience Analysis

The reading of audience analysis had some very interesting points. The part of the reading titled "The Audience-Speaker Connection" sounded bland and boring, but, when I read it, it made so much sense to me. It reminded me of other readings we had in a previous chapter about "noise". If you'll recall noise is the internal and external distractions to a listener that blocks the message. To me, getting that connection to the audience would automatically remove the threat of the internal noise. You know, the "I'm thinking of something else while I should be listening to you talk and now I have no idea what you are talking about" noise in your head? Well, if you can make that connection the book talks about on page 78, then I think my speech will be so much better received.

  Why are you making a speech to begin with? You're there to deliver a message. If they can't relate to what your saying then they won't pay attention and your message will be lost. So, when I prepare my next speech (demonstration speech) I have a whole new way to deliver it. I have a couple ideas about  how I can use some of the information I gained about some of the students through their culture speeches and connect that with my upcoming speech. This whole idea of audience-centered approach is very helpful. I thought my culture speech was just OK. But now, coming from this angle and knowing my audience better, I can draw them into understanding why it's important to listen to what I have to say. My speech will now stand a chance of being a little more successsful because it will be about them, my audience. Besides, aren't we all a little bit narcissistic?

A story about the living and the dead (what a concept)

  Chapter 6 is called "Researching Your Topic". This weeks question is to find a concept within this chapter and discuss it. I've recently been exposed to a situation, not necessarily covered in this chapter but related to research that I'll blog about. Hopefully, I'm still within the confines of the academic expectations for the week. If not, maybe this is more of a group therapy blog than anything.
  My mother died about 10 days ago. We were an estranged family and I was the only member of the family that stayed in touch with her. I had agreed to be her executor (the one charged with handling her affairs when she dies). This has become a monumental task. See, mom was a hoarder. Yes, just like on TV, she collected crap and even other peoples crap. My wife and I went up to Oregon last week to start the process of what to do when someone dies and you have to sort out their affairs. This has been the worst case scenario for such an event. Not only did she not have a will, whatever and whoever she was was buried in an ocean of boxes, stacks of paper and magazines and animal excrement. UGH!
  How I'm relating this catastrophe to our class is this; even though my mom kept everything, we have found many items of our families heritage never known before among all her saved belongings. In a sense, we are doing a reverse research project (kind of) into who my family was. It may be more of an archaeological dig (my sister calls it "The Big Dig") than research. But whn you look at how the word is defined, maybe this does apply. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines research as:

1: careful or diligent search

2: studious inquiry or examination; especially: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws

3: the collecting of information about a particular subject

   Part of our research was that, among so many pictures, documents and files, we found my mother's journals. What a tortured soul she was. She shed some light on how she was treated by my dad. What a jerk! But, she's not an innocent person either as she well documented. Kind of explains the alcoholism she had and the disfunctional way of life we all had growing up.

  About a year before my wife's grandmother died in 2007, my father-in-law took my video camera and did an interview with her about her life. We researched what questions to ask, told her what most of the questions were (he wanted to capture a couple candid responses) and set about recording her "life" for future generations to see.What a great idea. What a video.

 My advice is  that it's easier to research your lineage when people are alive than when they're dead. Read chapter 6, go "interview" your family before it's too late. Ask questions about who they were or wanted to be? Were they happy growing up? What were their favorite memories,? What do they want done when they die? Do they have a will or a trust? Do they have any special wishes with their stuff when they're gone? Or, whatever you can think of.  Write all the information down you can so you can pass it along to those who may be interested.

   Thanks for listening.

 

F.D.

Speech Buddy video's chapter 6

I was fortunate to be able to watch the chapter 6 speech buddy videos recently. The first one discussed the research process. This one was good and discussed the things you know and don't know. The next one was an impromptu speech. I thought this speaker was pretty darn good for being pulled from the audience and asked to do a speech right on the spot. This speaker was smooth and did a great job making eye contact with the audience. What really got me was the lady who spoke about the slugs. What an amazing speaker. Her class was titled "introductory to public speaking". At some point, I felt like I had missed that class and that I was in the wrong class. She was no novice. Her delivery was not only amazing but she actually pulled me into her presentation. I found myself interested in listening and learning about slugs. I came away from it feeling bad about all those years I spent as a kid, spreading salt on slugs. I grew up in Oregon and like she has said in her presentation, Oregon has slugs. She showed a few slides in her speech that I couldn't see too well but they seemed to be well timed and appropriate. The good thing was she did not overwhelm me with slides. I'll bet this can be a problem. It was her speech that made it worth watching. I may even consider showing this to my kids as an educational presentation. If this is the level at which we are expected to perform, than I have my work cut out for me

Experience with research interviews.

To put it honestly, I've never done a research interview. Unless you count to interviews I do at work. As a fire captain, I have to "interview" patients, family members and/or bystanders as to what happened or what they can tell me about the individual we are there to take care of. If that counts, than I have lots of experience. However, in the book on page 110, it discusses and outlines something much different. I have done research online and at a local library in the past but that was only for an English class I took at Sierra College. I did help my father-in-law do a video interview of his mother before she died. All we did back then was prepare some questions to ask her about her life and experiences and any advice she had for her children and grand children. We wanted to get her on video so future generations could see and hear her. It was kind of neat to do and we plan on doing more with additional family members in the future. Unfortunately, finding people who are willing to do it is difficult. Applying that to research interview environment sounds like it would not be much different. The six steps outlined seem to really make sense and I can see where, if you followed them exactly, you would be in great shape to have a successful interview. That is the only advice I can provide.

Visualization, anxiety and nervousness

The Speech Buddy videos were short. It's hard for me to get a lot of detail out of such a short presentation. The videos talk a lot about techniques to address anxiety. These techniques involved breathing exercises. I've never thought that a breathing exercise could help me out with my anxiety with public speaking but I'll try it. The demonstration was helpful but I have tried it and it did not seem to work. I'll keep trying and hope I can get it right. The other video about nervousness had some suggestions that I don't think are very practical except one. Visiting the location before seemed difficult to make happen just because that requires a little more planning than I typically have time for. however, the suggestion that you "don't comment on your nervousness during your speech" is good. I've seen that and it's not a good idea. Later, the video suggests "choosing a topic that interests you". This seems to make sense since talking about something you don't care about would be difficult to really get into. The last video, the introduction of Jessica, was just  good to watch. She was so smooth and and great eye contact. She almost never read her speech. She just looked up and spoke to the audience. That is the part that is difficult for me. I hope I can somehow work my way towards that type of speaking ability.

Noise and effective listening

One of the concepts from the assigned reading that definitely caught my attention was the one on page 17 of chapter one called noise. It states that " ...something that interferes with understanding the message". It can be either internal or external distractions. What they're referring to is something that happens to me all too often. I am either engaged in a discussion or listening to a monologue when my mind tends to wander. I'm finding that the older I get, the more stuff I have to try and keep track of. This seems to be OK most of the time. I used to think it was just me. But, as I found out, it's not.

   Chapter three discusses listening effectively. This can sometimes be more important than speaking effectively. I have had many conversations with people that when they stop talking, I have no idea what they said. What's worse is when they expect me to respond to what was obviously a question at the end of their statement. This has always been an awkward moment for me.We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. We should listen twice as much as we speak. Chapter three mentions that the brain can process information 3 times faster than someone can talk. This made me feel a little better. Not sure they were talking about my brain though. My goal in this class will be to work on my effective listening abilities.

Week 2, question #1 posting

   What makes me apprehensive about public speaking? Everything about it. I'm a private person and I hate being in the spot light. I am the furthest thing from being a narcissist. So, that's one thing. Another is the fear of not sounding articulate. I sometimes doubt myself when it comes to speaking on intellectual issues when I'm around people a lot smarter than I am. I guess I always assume everyone else around me is smarter and that they're are thinking my presentation is wrong or inaccurate.  Sounds like a real confidence porblem doesn't it? Even though it sounds like it, I don't suffer from a lack of self esteem. It's just a lack of confidence.

   After reading some of the information in the book, one of my many issues might just be with poor planning. You see, when I get up in front of people to speak, it's usually a last minute "can you do this now" sort of thing. Then, when I get up in front of people, I speak in an unorganized manner on something I wasn't prepared to do.  Add that to me now having a negative attitude beacuse someone else's bad planning has now fallen on me to take care of it for them. One example recently was, "Hey, can you guys go to a high school and speak at a job's fair right now? The other person said they were not prepared and that you would do a better job anyway". 30 minutes later, I'm on stage ata big high school auditorium with a microphone in my hand. That was not a good morning. high School kids are a tough crowd.
  
    I say "uh" a lot too and when I catch myself doing that, internally I start to fell like I'm blowing it. That only leads to me getting distracted and off point because I start to think about how I must be messing up .

     So hopefully, at the end of this class, these issues can be resolved. In the meantime, be patient with me. I'll try not to bore you.

FD