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.

Sea of Persuasion

Immediately after I read this discussion question I reflected on my morning and so far it has been a bombardment of persuasion. It started with checking my email and glancing through what was mostly emails from online websites that I have previously visited trying to persuade me to buy more things from them. This time of year for some reason I am highly driven to buy new stuff, maybe its the renewed energy of Spring, or maybe its the increased level of persuasion from retailers who know people shop more this time of year. On the way to my children's school I was being persuaded to buy my daughter a doll with real hair and some new puzzles, and my son was being especially persuasive in his request for after school frozen yogurt. I then went to the district office of my kids school district to pick up info on a new charter school in our district, The woman at the front desk gave me her persuasive bit on the school, which was nice because I wanted information and am thinking of switching my kids to the new school anyway. When I got in my car I called a friend who's daughter is best friends with my son and I used my best persuasive speaking skills to hopefully convince her to also switch her child to this school. From there I went to the grocery store, to succomb to mass media persuasion of all sorts. It was interesting to reflect on all these types of persuasive situations and to gauge my reactions and whether the outcome was successful or not. It reminded me of Chapter 14 and how your speech should be modified depending on how you audience feels about your topic, whether they agree, disagree or are apathetic. I think there is so much persuasion going on every day in our lives we definitely have to learn to be critical of what we are really getting into and what the persuader really has to offer. In a persuasive situation the speaker is going to try to convince you to do something, think a certain way, or take an action. As listeners we have to filter through what the speaker has said, think about what their goal is and how they are presenting that, and always consider the things they have left out or have slanted to reach their goal. Its really hard to do with how many times a day we are targeted in our personal lives, at work or school and from the mass media which is practically everywhere. Some persuasion is great and helpful and informative, and a lot of it is unnecessary, manipulated, or driven by money only. As consumers and individuals it is up to us to be aware and open minded to what we are really hearing.

Chapter 14 Discussion

 A part of me has been dreading the persuasive speech this whole semester. Its a big chunk of our grade, and I have never been a very good salesperson (note the gender neutral language!). Chapter 14 made me feel a little more confident, and helped me start to organize my thoughts about how I'm going to pull this off. I liked Monroe's Motivated Sequence in that it provides a template for how to get people fired up. You start with your usual attention getter to get the audience listening. Next you establish the need for something to happen by showing what the problem is. Your audience will want a potential solution to the problem now, to help them feel invested and involved in your topic. My favorite step is visualization. I like it when a speaker gives me the technical side then allows my imagination to take over. With visualization you help the audience see what the solution will look like, cost like, and how it will benefit the problem. Lastly you give the audience a chance to see how they can take action themselves. Compiled together this sequence is a way to  take your audience through a series of steps that will most likely lead them to accept or at least consider your proposition. In the problem solution organization you present a need to the audience and then offer a way to solve it. Its a simpler technique, that the speaker has to be sure to establish what the problem is and make the audience understand its importance. For my next speech I have not started writing yet but I like the idea of Monroe's 5 steps. I think the 5 steps of building up to the action is effective. Hopefully I can convince my audience with this foolproof technique!

Chapter 12 Thoughts

So far each time I have started working on a speech for this class I go through a period of not knowing where to start. We are not supposed to memorize a speech, but part of me wants to write it all out and just learn it. When I write out my outline I do not know where to start with practicing. Do I read the outline out loud and add the details on the fly? Do I write it out then say it without looking? When I practice I feel like I may run through the speeches too much, because for the week before the speech I say my speech while I drive, while I cook dinner, before I go to bed....it helps calm my nerves! Chapter 12 helped me organize some of my thoughts regarding this process. For some reason my first speech I did not think to number my note cards, They of course got out of order and threw me off. Chapter 12 suggests numbering your note cards as well as write out keywords and not sentences. I feel that I write too much on my note cards and they do not help me like they should. Chapter 12 also recommends practicing your speech in stages. This advice has helped me immensely. Its so much better to just work on each section first, working out the kinks before putting it all together. Another point in the book is to give a version of your speech each time you practice instead of one version. I also am guilty of getting stuck and trying to say the same words each time I practice. Doing so affects my delivery because I end up sounding scripted. Timing your speech is also important, as we all found out in our demonstration speeches that all went over the time. I wish I had read this chapter in the beginning of the class because I found it very helpful!

Sexist Language

I am not entirely sure how I feel about the Flickr discussion, and I am curious to see how other people in our class respond. I did find it funny to read the discussion of using gender neutral language written in choppy "netspeak" language. I am with the members of the discussion who were annoyed by the worry over using the right gender words when most of the comments were written in fractured, choppy english. I am a person who tends to take things lightly, and I feel like modern society can be very sensitive concerning some issues. On the flip side there are certain things that trigger me to feel reactive, so I have to be aware that although it may not be an issue to me it might to someone else. With that being said, I feel like attempting to use non sexist language is important in both public speaking and writing. At the same time there are circumstances where using potentially sexist words may fit the context, like a "girls night out" or "the boys." It really depends on the context, the audience, and the way the words are used. I believe in complete freedom of speech, and do not think any words should be censored. I also find it interesting, and this situation was mentioned in the Flickr discussion, that often the most derogatory names like "bitch" and "blonde" are posted by the person the words refer to. When speaking to a class or a group of people in general neutral, inoffensive and all inclusive gender language should be used. On the internet I think its a free for all. You don't know your audience, you aren't seeing them, and they don't have to read what you write. In our class we all have to listen to each others speeches so we may as well make them pleasant and inoffensive. Avoiding sexist language in a public speaking setting will add to your credibility as well as ensure that no one is made to feel different or singled out because of their gender.

Chapter 10 and 12 Speech Buddy Videos

I have finally figured out that the Use It video clips are the ones I get the most out of. There are the Watch it videos, that simply summarize what you read in the chapter, and then the Use it videos that show speeches that highlight the reading. For Chapter 10 3 clips from speeches were used to highlight different techniques for using language. The first speech, Amy's, ends in her using a metaphor between her topic and a "female orgasm." I am still undecided as to whether this word choice was a good move or not. While it could certainly be offensive to some members of the audience, it also was an attention grabber and it definitely made her speech memorable! The second speech clip was by Stacy. I am not sure if the purpose of showing the audience members faces during her speech was to show that some of them looked bored, but I felt her speech was somewhat long winded and her word choice could have been more concise. I liked her speech, just felt that she went into too much description and was a little too formal for the setting. The last speech was Eric, and what I liked about him was that he seemed very comfortable and was a great conversational speaker. He chose simple, clear language to tell the story of his friends funeral. He also incorporated humor, further connecting his audience to his speech. The video for Chapter 12 that I found the most interesting was 12.2 Use it with David and Lisa. David's speech was pretty good, but I noticed he stared in one spot the whole speech. You never saw the audience so he could have been speaking to just one person, but if not he needed to work on his eye contact. I also thought he could have been more presentable. His speech was very well practiced and presented but his hat and outfit seemed sloppy. Lisa used her note cards too much. She held her cards in both hands the whole speech, and looked down every few words. It would have been better for her to hold her cards in one hand and reference her cards less often. Her language was good, but her card reading was distracting. It is helpful for me to watch these speeches not only to further understand the Chapters but also to see why choosing the right language and having the right delivery technique is crucial to the success of your speech.