What I Got Out of this Class

I got a lot from this class that I did not expect. Going into it I did not have high expectations. I was dreading speaking in front of a room full of people. I thought the speeches would be more loose, I did not realize that we had to do different styles, timing, delivery methods, and use of supporting materials. I learned a lot from the extra work, and I know I will use it all again eventually. My husband has to prepare power point demonstrations and give speeches to students regularly ( he is an instructor pilot in the Air Force). I know that it is highly likely that at some point in my career I may have to do the same. I am currently applying to nursing school, and being able to explain concepts in a timely manner will be a huge asset. I expect that there will be some presentations required for me nursing classes as well. I have been a stay at home mom for the past 6 years, so this class has also prepared me for job interviews. Being able to speak confidently to people I do not know well will help me eventually find a job. The relaxation techniques we learned to combat anxiety have already stuck with me in other areas of my life. I find myself relabeling a lot, and trying to channel negative energy into positive. I also learned a lot from watching the other speakers and seeing them evolve as public speakers. It taught me that almost everyone is nervous speaking in front of people, but when you learn to control the anxiety and channel the energy you can give a great speech. I am happy to be finished with the class, and I am positive I will use some of what we have learned this semester in the near future.

Favorite Speech

My favorite speech was by far the informative speech. Providing an audience with information that I was interested in felt very comfortable, like teaching. There was no pressure to persuade, to do a demo, or to get anything accomplished other then teaching the audience about a subject. I really liked both of our speeches that used power point. Dimming the lights so the power points were easier to see made me feel way more at ease. Also having the slides as another focus for the audience to look at, other than me, made me much less nervous. The challenge with the informative speech was being able to get my points across in a short amount of time. I imagine teachers deal with this all the time, being able to lecture on a subject within class time constraints. It was also difficult to keep my content strictly informative and not persuasive, which the book gave some pointers on doing. It was interesting how each speech was so different in how I felt about them. I was nervous every time, but definitely the least with informative. As an audience member I enjoyed the informative speeches the best also. I liked seeing what people in the class find important enough to tell an audience about. I would say I learned a lot from everyone's speeches!

Most Useful Information

I would have to say that the most useful things we covered in the book as far as our speeches go are the things that helped me get started and work on presenting my speech. Initially with the culture speech I went into planning it by writing a paper and trying to memorize it. I have never done extemporaneous speaking before, so learning how to create a speech and organize it in a way that it could be delivered conversationally was really hard. One thing that helped me a lot was from Chapter 12 where it was suggested that you practice your speech in sections. Diving in and trying to recite the whole thing at once left me feeling really lost. Learning how to write an outline for a speech also helped me organize my thoughts without just writing the whole thing out. Chapter 2 is still the one that sticks with me the most, especially the various relaxation techniques for preparing yourself to deliver your speech. Relabeling is my favorite, taking the negative energy and making it positive. When I would practice I would always use visualization also, and try to picture a sea of eyes on me while I talked. One last thing I found useful was Chapter 5 Adapting to Your Audience. It was nice that we are in a class of students all from CA, so we have some common links. The speeches allowed us to get to know each other more, and I noticed people used a lot of audience interaction when delivering their speeches. Many people began with questions directed at the audience, or related their data to our classroom. I would say I learned a lot more than I thought I would in this class, and despite the nerves enjoyed it overall!

Chapter 16 Thoughts

I always love to hear good special occasion speeches. On the flip side a bad special occasion speech can be a real drag for whatever the event is. Every year I have a friend who hosts an Oscar party and one of the things I like to do is listen to the different speeches made by winners of an Oscar and see how well some people express gratitude while others are terrible. I will focus my discussion on Acceptance speeches because these to me must be very difficult (I have never had to do one!) I think it would be very challenging to humbly and gratefully accept an award, thank those who helped you get there, deal with being nervous, and be concise all at once. I always wonder how many people forget to thank someone major and really regret it later. I like it when people are humble and take the focus from their accomplishment to the bigger picture of what they accomplished. Being succinct I would imagine is the most difficult aspect of delivering an acceptance speech. I know when I am nervous I ramble, especially when I am excited. I love it when someone can say so much in just a few words, its really a gift. Our book also indicates that you should provide the context in which the event leading up to the award occurred. If I ever had to deliver an acceptance speech for receiving an award I would hope that I would be humble and able to acknowledge everyone who helped me get there, I would be concise but would do a thorough job expressing my emotions, and I would contextualize the event.

Recent Persuasion

Convincing kids to do anything they don't want to do takes incredible persuasive skills. Every day brings endless opportunities for persuasion. Today for instance it began with trying to convince them that going to the Farmers Market would be fun. I used deductive reasoning by starting with the fact that a lot of people we know would be there, that its only once a week, and finally that we would have a great time. I used causal reasoning to explain that they stayed up too late the night before and that was why they were grumpy.I used examples of what we do there, who we may see, and what foods we like to buy. My final attempt was an analogy between how much fun we were having outside and how we could have the same fun at the market. I was successful! And we had a great time! In my adult life a recent argument with my husband required some strong persuasive skills over why he should clean the kitchen while I'm at school at night. Again I used an analogy, that I keep the whole house clean when I am home, so he should do the same when he's at home. I also used causal reasoning to explain that when I come home and the kitchen is a mess I am not happy, but if it is I am and I am very appreciative. Describing this argument by dissecting it with public speaking terminology make it sounds much more mild than it was...my persuasive skills were highlighted with some anger! Don't know if I won yet, as of tonight I am doing school and our kitchen is a wreck. I'll have to consult my book for some more advice!

Pros/Cons Home School Speech Buddy Thoughts

I liked these videos because they were like watching a debate, and I enjoy a good debate. For Dixie's speech she chose to represent the pro side of home schooling. I recognized her use of a narrative with the story of a child coming home from school upset about something that happened. I however thought this narrative was weak, because kids come home from school crying for dozens of reasons that do not have to do with school security and curriculum, and I do not think this is a common occurrence. I felt that she needed to offer some statistics of public school violence and insufficient curriculum to show that it happens enough that the story of the kid crying is a situation many parents deal with. She did a great job setting up her Monroe's Motivated Sequence with the problem being the public school system, the solution being homeschooling, and the benefits you would see if you became a home school parent. What I did not like about her speech was that I found it to be a little extreme. I thought she needed to do a better job including the audience, many of whom are more likely public school parents than homeschool parents, and acknowledge that not all schools have daily violence. In fact I think thats pretty rare, at least from what I have observed. She could have focused more on statistical evidence that proves that home schooled children come out ahead educationally, or how they fare in college. Focusing on violence in schools should have been part of her reasoning, but not the entire slant. I also thought she talked too fast and it was difficult to follow her path of persuasion. Robert on the other hand did a great job with speaking with inflection and speed, but pausing in the places he felt needed emphasis. I felt his speech was better adapted to convince a group of people to take action, because his action was less extreme. He stressed that in combination to public schooling kids need parental help at home. He did a great job acknowledging that everyone in the audience was from different educational backgrounds, making the audience feel connected to his topic. I don't think he used Monroe's Motivated Sequence, he instead did a few topics to lead up to his solution, public school with parental involvement. Overall I would say his point were better delivered, and more inclusive and less extreme than Dixie's. I did like seeing a speech using Monroe's set up because I am still struggling with writing me next speech not using the usual 3 main points. There were also some narratives, use of statistics, different types of arguments and sociable credibility examples that helped me hear what they sound like in a speech. I found these clips to be helpful, hopefully now I can get this thing written!

Chapter 14 Knowing Your Audience

As I've said in my last post I am pretty nervous about the persuasive speech. After reading Chapter 14 I am at least grateful not to have to persuade a hostile audience to buy into something they are against. I liked the advice the book gave on how to deal with a persuasive speech given to a negative audience. It is important to establish your credibility well. The next step I find helpful in any argument or debate situations, to establish a common ground. Doing so can diminish the audiences hostility by making them aware that you are not just against what they believe in. They will listen and be more open minded once they see that. Getting your audience to see your points in a positive light is also helpful. Being ready for negative feedback is important, and acknowledge it in your speech. That will make the audience aware that you know why they do not agree with you. The last suggestion is to keep your goals within reason, just having a hostile audience listen to what you have to say is a great start. Speaking to a positive audience is much easier. In this situation its important to offer enlightening evidence for your topic, to make it interesting and fresh, to tell a story to help highlight your goals, and to move past just being agreed with and try to get your audience to actually take action. An uninformed audience is open minded but knows nothing about your topic. Its important to show them why your topic is important, to establish your credibility, to use lots of repetition and redundancy in your speech, and to go easy on the persuasion. An apathetic audience requires a skilled speaker. You have to liven up your audience by having a great attention getter. You might need to make your topic personal for them, to show how it directly impacts their life. You also need to only represent one side of the issue. Using presentation media can also help get your audience interested. I expect our class to be a positive, open minded, uninformed on some topics but mostly interested audience.