Speech Buddies

I thought homeschooling was a good topic to talk about because a lot of people have very different opinions on this. Also I can relate to this topic because one of my sisters did a
year of homeschooling. The first speaker was for homeschooling and she stressed the importance of children attending college. She was very persuasive and believed that since family is very influencial on their child's education, then homeschool is a very good option. I agree that homeschool will prepare you for college because when my sister did homeschool for a year her grades were very high but she complained about not getting the social aspect of school which is needed I believe. As far as the second speaker, he had some persuasive points in the sense that parents have a big enough job trying to raise you why would they add on teaching. They have jobs and other things to be responsible for which is why teachers should help fill in this void.

Personally, I think that homeschooling is an option that should be determined by the child. Every child is unique and some are fit for this type of schooling while others may perform better in a school. It all depends.

Recent Persuasive Discussion

Hey Class,

Recently I had a persuasive discussion with my two other soon-to-be roommates about our apartment living situation. When we arrived at a potential apartment, we were talking to the manager and questioning the pricings and several other questions. However, my other two roommates are inexperienced and are in a rush to just get approved for an apartment now since we will have to move out of the campus apartments soon.

The lady was telling us that we had to all sign one lease and that we could not sign individual leases. I found a problem with that because there are many active court cases right now in which college students are suing their roommates because something happened and the other roommates stopped paying the rest of their lease leaving the balance on the other roommate. I asked the lady if it was possiblity for us to all get individual leases however my potential roommates were telling me to let it go and that the lady already said no.

I kept pleading my case however, and I stressed the importance of individual leasing because if anything happens I want us to be accountable for only ourselves. Finally after using cause-and-effect reasoning I was finally able to get it through my roommates heads as well as the apartment supervisor. In result we were able to sign individual leases.

Chapter 14 Useful Information

I was please that we read chapter 14 this week because it is on persuasive speaking and that is exactly what I needed to read since our speech is coming up soon. The whole chapter was filled with useful and important information however, I will narrow it down the the concepts that I liked the most. This chapter explains how to set up your topic so that you can best persuade your audience. For example you can set it up as a question (ex: should consumers buy products made in the United States?). What I also liked was "Monroe's Motivated Sequence" which is composed of five steps that require speakers to identify and respond to what will motivate the audience to pay attention. The five steps include gaining the audiences attention, establishing the need for something, satisfying the problem, helps audience members visualize an outcome and moves audience to action. If I don't do anything else I am definitely going to apply Monroe's Sequence to my next speech.

Next Speech

Hi Everybody,
The main points of my next speech include: why should you exercise, what are the potential advantages and disadvantages, and how to exercise. I plan on beginning my speech with a shocking statistic that will one get the audience's attention, and two persuade them that there needs to be a change. I plan on ending the speech by reviewing my main points and emphasizing the severity or importance of exercising. I am going to persuade my audience towards my point of view by giving factual information from credible sources that will make it easy to persuade my audience to consider my point of view. Also by explaining the advantages as well as the disadvantages it will help my audience see that I am not being bias and that I am giving all of the sides, not just the good ones. However, I feel that the positives tremendously outweigh the negatives so I am convinced that my audience will take in the information I give and hopefully apply it to their lives.

Immersed in a Sea of Persuasion

Hey Class! This is a great topic to discuss because everybody can relate. Persuasion is one of the most influential factors in decision making. In my personal life I have been persuaded by my peers, family, and sales representatives into making a decision like what to buy, what to wear, where to go, what to do, and etc. Most of the time when I was younger it was easy to persuade me because I looked up to anyone that was an adult and believed that they would give me the best and most honest advice. However as I got older, I began to realize many people are manipulative and have secret agendas in which they try to get another person to do something. Not to say all persuasion is BAD, but now I am very inquisitive and am not easily persuaded (unless it is credible and factual).

Through public speaking and mass media contexts a lot of information is presented. Most of the time the speaker fails to discuss potential negatives of the product of whatever is being represented which makes it easier for me to reject. I know nothing is perfect so unless I hear the cons I am not persuaded. However I am not close-minded so I give everyone the chance to present something to me and I will not say they are right or wrong.

To become a more critical consumer I can try to lighten my idea that "everyone has a secret agenda or is trying to get over" because that is not true. Also I think I can continue to be inquisitive because the more questions you ask to the less indeterminable you will be.

Speech Buddy Videos Response

After watching the videos, I feel that I know a lot about how to speak to an audience. I learned that it is very important to speak in a way that your audience will feel included, and understand everything you have to say especially the important concepts. A way to help your audience to feel included is to use pronouns such as "you" "I" and "us" which are words that do not exclude anyone. Because delivery is key, it is important to focus on its components which include: volume, rate, pitch, variety, pronunciation, and articulation. If you practice each of these, you will surely keep you audience interested and understanding the important concepts of you speech. Also, I learned to be conscious of your physical delivery which includes: eye contact, gestures and body language. People can easily be distracted so make sure to practice each of these things in a way that is not distracting but to enhance your speech.

Flickr

Hello All!
After viewing the comments on Flickr I was pretty interested and somewhat surprised at some of the comments that were being made about "sexist language". Although most people do not think that calling a woman a "girl” or a man a "boy" can be offensive, I can think of some situations where those terms can be pretty disrespectful. For example, if there is an older man or woman and you introduce them to someone else by saying "hi this girl/boy is (and then state their name". The older person will be offended because it will seem as though you do not respect them.

Also I can see if someone calls a girl a "tom-boy" that can be sort of sexist because that means you automatically assume that girls are supposed to dress a certain way and are not supposed to be into sports or other activities that would be considered "boy-ish".

On the other hand, I believe that terms do not necessarily have to be defined as "sexist language" because it all depends on the person’s intentions. So in conclusion I would be careful when using words that can sound "sexist" to ensure that others do not get offended.

Ch. 12 Useful/Interesting Concepts

Hello Class!

In chapter 12, I liked the section on impromptu speaking because it is speaking with little or no preparation which is how everyone converses everyday. "Learning how to express yourself on the spot without relying on research, extensive preparation, or notes will help you do well in your public speaking class and in less structured speaking situations beyond the classroom." (pg 229) I think this concept can come in handy when giving speeches because that way a few parts can be more relaxed as opposed to sounding scripted.

Some tips for managing your voice during your speech include include: speak loudly enough, vary your rate pitch and volume, avoid vocalized pauses and articulate your words clearly and pronounce them correctly. All these tips come in handy because i notice from my last speeches I sometime had a problem variating my rate pitch and volume so I am going to pay attention to the rest of these so that I can better my delivery.

Chapter 11

Hello All!
One concept that I found interesting were the different types of visual aids and media presentations. There is almost no limit to a visual aid since technology is so advanced, some examples include: white boards, chalk boards, over head slides, video clips, sound clips, and etc. Also when using PowerPoint (since that is one of the most effective visual aids) you can add video clips, music, clip art, or other digital images that are easy to insert and help keep the audience engaged and can help create relevance to your topic. The chapter also taught me to be well organized on each slide and to not write out all your points completely as it gets distracting for one the audience to look up and start reading it. So for my next speech I plan to use a video clip on my PowerPoint and to only put a few bullet points on each slide so that I can have a reference to what I am saying and so that the audience can easily follow along.

Self-Evaluation #2

I believe that I improved a lot from my last speech to my “The History of Make-Up Speech.” Because I reviewed the feedback from both my colleagues and well as professor Perez, I was able to utilize those constructive criticisms into my next speech. Also, after reading the book I was able to see what patterns are good to use in the outline structure of the informative speech. After really self-evaluating myself I noticed a lot of good things I did as well as not-so-good. Nonetheless I learned from my mistakes from the last speech which made this one, in my opinion, a lot better and more improved.

I think I achieved the purpose of me speech very well as several times I stated what the purpose was and I feel that I my topics summed it up as well. During the speech I was very confident and comfortable because I felt relaxed and knowledgeable about the topic since I did a lot of research on it. If I had to do it over again, I would improve on my preparation and organization. Although I was prepared to give my speech, I need to improve on preparing with everything needed such as the visual aid, and bringing a video tape! As far as organization I will improve on my time-management because I went over the limit by a few minutes so I am going to be more organized next speech.

I think the content of my speech was pretty good, but I can improve on the emphasis of the key points so that the important concepts are apparent. To improve on the delivery of the speech, I can slow down a bit as I tend to talk fast sometimes which can make the speech sound rushed and distract the audience from the points. From my last speech I think I improved on my delivery and stating my sources. Unfortunately I still spoke a little too fast at some points so I am going to be more conscious of that in my next speech and make the needed changes. It was probably distracting when I looked at my note-cards and I did use a few “umms” here and there. However I do think I looked at my note-cards a lot less than I did the first time so that is definitely and improvement.

On a scale from 1-10 I would rate my eye-contact a 7.5. I think I did a good job looking at the audience but with more practice I could have been less dependant on my note-cards. On a scale from A-F I think I deserve a B- because I think overall I did a good job and I showed several improvements from my last speech which I got a C+ on. Those improvements include but are not limited to: delivery, and research. I mentioned four different sources in my speech. This speech was a lot better than my last speech as I had a better overall delivery and preparation than the last speech.

Speech to my Family

Because I went back home this weekend, I presented my "The History of Make-Up" speech to my family. Luckily for me I have a BIG family which consists of 8 people total including myself. But because one of my sisters and one of my brothers were not home, I presented to the rest of my family which includes my Dad, Mom, sister Leah, sister Gina, and brother Dante. Because I only presented my speech in front of Professor Perez I had limited yet helpful feedback. I noticed that from her feedback that my citations were clear; however they were not incorporated smoothly as I just simply stated them at the beginning of each transition. I used that feedback and instead of simply stating where I got each fact from, I combined the sources into the sentences. For example: "According to the Bible, around 840 BC was the first recorded usage of make-up." Instead of "I found my information of the origin of make-up at WebMD."

Also, Professor Perez noted that at times I did speech fast which did not allow me to put emphasis on certain topics. I did catch myself doing that at times, so I made sure to slow down a bit when speaking in front of my family that way they could grasp the essential points. Overall I do believe that I improved on this speech in front of my family because of the feedback I got. I was able to see what I could improve on and apply that changes to my speech in front of my family in which they thought was "very good."

If I had to do the speech all over again, I would create and present a power point presentation because I think that would be a much better visual aid than the one I previously used. Also, I would be more time conscious as I exceeded the allotted time by a couple of minutes. After receiving feedback I was very much so able to improve my speech because I was able to get another perspective on what could be improved which made it easy for me to apply those constructive criticisms the second time around when presenting in front of my family. This exercise was very helpful because I used the feedback that was given to me which made it easy for me to see that I am really capable of presenting a powerful speech.