Concept- Ch.5

I found the section on “developing credibility with your audience” to be very informative. I learned that what goes under a speakers credibility are competence, socialabilty, dynamism, and trustworthiness. For competence, it means to be knowledgeable about your subject. So that means that a lot of researching should go into talking about the topic. Secondly, is being trustworthy which means the audience wants to feel the sincerity of the speaker and actually cares about them. Thirdly, dynamism is being about to put on a good performance in a way. Lastly, sociability is being able to connect with audience. These are four things I will keep in mind while I practice for my speech. I find that all these dimensions to be very important for the speaker to keep in mind. I want to make sure that know as much as I can about my topic, be lively, sincere, and make people feel that they can relate to what I speak about.

Speech Buddy: Ch.6

There was a lot of useful tips in the video 6.1. I learned that preparing for research is crucial to having good content for a speech. When I start researching for my topic, I should write out what I do know the topic and what I want to know about the topic. This I find very helpful because what I do know might be what someone else knows in the audience and what I don’t know they might not know either. This gives me a chance to look up what I want to know about the topic and hopefully it appeals to the audience as well. I also learned that gathering multiple perspectives is also key in gathering information. Having valid and different opinions help balance the speech.

Conducting Research Interviews

The last time I conducted a research interview was when I was sophmore in high school and it was for a term paper on World War II. The research was on the experience of people in the United States, and what the families who had son’s in the war went through. I interviewed an old friend of my mothers. The process of getting the questions together was not that difficult. The important thing I remember was to know the purpose of the research, and having some idea of what kind of answer you are expecting. I made observations on other research interviews and used them as models to conduct my own. This was a pretty big paper so the interview took quite some time. I brought with me an audio recorder and a notepad to write with as well. I had a lot of fun doing this especially because the topic was personal to me. I would say the difficult part of this was not the interview but more after the interview and how to gather the information and put it into my research paper.

Concept- Ch.6

In chapter 6, I found the concept of “examining your own experience” very useful. It explains when choosing a topic, you can associate the topic to your own experiences. I find most times it can be hard to think of what to talk about and how to prepare for the research, so the book also suggested to jot down some words that related to the topic or to just make a list of what you do know about the topic. This will help lead me to finding better sources. From what I understood, keywords can really help my research. Also, how I learned it, so from where I learned about the topic. So its original source can assist me know where to look for more information.

Concept- Ch.2

The concept of “Relabeling” in chapter 2 is very useful for me. It explains that replacing a negative word or feeling with a positive word or thought will help ease anxiety. Most of the time when I get nervous, I tend to say to myself, “stop being nervous” which never helps because it makes me even more nervous. So by telling myself when I am nervous that, “im very excited” makes it more of a positive feeling. I understand that it wont instantly go away but hopefully it will help ease the nerves.

I guess it is all in how you think about the experience. This chapter also mentions that if we think public speaking is chore, we most likely will not be excited about it but if we think that public speaking gives us a chance to express our ideas and get feedback from an audience, we will be more enthusiastic about public speaking. Even though its still a challenge for me, I will try replacing negative words for optimistic words.

interactive video ch2

I enjoyed watching the videos because they all gave really good advice. From video 2.1 I learned that the preparation for each speech is crucial to having a successful presentation. I have never tried relabeling a negative feeling before, so I will try that the next time I feel like I have a negative thought. Visiting the location of the speech room, never commenting on being nervous, and visualizing the speech going well are all things I will keep in mind when preparing for the upcoming speech.

I had a hard time choosing a topic for each speech and I wanted to find something I cared about, so I agree with the buddy in 2.2 when she suggested to find a topic we are most interested in. I think that way, I can be more engaged and enthusiastic about what I am talking about.

I also did the ch.2 activity from the video and l learned that if I have a shaky voice I should try increasing my voice and be as loud as I can. I find myself being nervous and I getting all choked up when speaking, so this was really important to me. Also breathing, I guess when I am a little more than anxious I forget to breathe, so the activity suggested that on the top of a note-card, write “Breathe” to remind myself to take a deep breath.

What makes you apprehensive about public speaking?

In the book, it mentions the sources of speech anxiety which are uncertainty about your role as a speaker, your speaking abilities, your ideas, the audience’s response, the setting, technology, and evaluation. There are three of these that make me apprehensive about public speaking. First, is the uncertainty of my speaking abilities mostly because when I get nervous my voice is either really low or really “quivery” which can be very embarrassing. Second, is the uncertainty about my ideas because I worry I don’t know enough about what I am talking about. And lastly, my uncertainty about the audiences response. This goes with the second one for me and the reason that is, is I worry about if I know enough and then it makes me stress about what the audience think about what I am saying and usually what comes to mind are pretty negative, something I am working on. The book also mentions to stay positive, so that is something ill try next time.