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.