Concept- ch14

I thought the section on the apathetic audience to be very interesting. For apathetic audiences, the book dicusses the ways you can deal with that kind of audience. This type of audience usually knows of the topic but doesn’t feel it applies to them. So it is important to make a connection between the topic and the audience. There are four things the speaker must do and they are to: get the their attention and make them care about the issue, show how the issue will effect them, the speaker should display passion for the topic with a lot of energy, and lastly emphasize on a main idea that relates to why the audience should be concerned. This section to me is important because when I speak to people about any topic, I think most of the time they will be familiar with it but might not care, so this section helps me understand what I need to do when im in front of this type of audience.

Concept-ch.12

I found a lot of useful and interesting concepts in chapter twelve but the couple ones I found particularly useful and most interesting were “Gender” from Understanding Factors that Influence Delivery and the second was Facial Expressions. For the Gender section, it discussed the difference in delivery for most genders. Women usually speak softly because of the way most are brought up and encouraged to speak quietly, while it was the opposite for men and boys. The chapter points out that when asking a question, our voice pitch goes up, making us sound less confident. The second concept I found amusing was, Facial expression. The chapter discussed that if you are talking about a serious topic, you should try not to smile because it sends off different messages. But it is important to smile when starting the speech because it shows the audience that the speaker is happy to speak to them and be there.

Self Evaluation #2

Speaking in front of an audience has become a lot less stressful for me. For my second speech I felt more at ease in front of the audience. The book gave a lot of suggestions for how to be less nervous and I used the exercises for the last speech and this past one.

For this past speech, I spoke about water pollution in China. Although I was less prepared, I felt comfortable in front of everyone. I had a powerpoint presentation with clear points and images. With the visual aid and my speech, I felt I achieved my purpose to inform students about water pollution. I spoke about the causes, effects, and improvements of the water issue in China. During the speech I felt comfortable because I my goal up in front was to get my message across to the class and that was all I focused on. I also practiced projecting my voice a couple times in my room and in my car before the day of the speech. As far as confidence, I was not as confident this time. I did not know my information as well as the last speech. I read a lot from my cards and looked at my powerpoint. I think that was also another reason, I was comfortable.

Some of the things I found that were distracting in my speech was not looking at the audience because I did not feel connected at all with them. I wanted to look at the audience but if I did, I did not know what to say. I relied on my cards way too much this time and this were I feel I faltered. I was very confident in my information and the organization of it but the presentation lacked a bit much. The part I felt I improved on since the last speech was definitely the sources and information I had. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give myself a 3 because did look up a couple times, my conclusion was the only time I spoke to the audience and it felt really good because I meant what I said at the end about how lucky America is lucky to have the technology to keep our water clean. After all the research and stories I learned about the suffering people have through because of polluted, it made really appreciate the life we have here in the United States. Based on my performance in the class, I would give myself a B grade because I spoke clearly, it was well organized and filled with interesting information with sources. The reason I can not give my performance an A because I did not make eye contact, read a lot off of my cards.

In my speech I mentioned eight source citations. This speech, if I had memorized my information and could have just spoke to the class about it, I think it would have been better than the last speech. But altogether, I do not think it was better especially because of the eye contact. I think in a speech, as a speaker we have to make a connection with the audience and in my case I did not do that, expect for the ending because I related it to the class. If I were to do the speech again I would definitely, prepare my outline earlier, finish my research as soon as possible, practice by myself until I had the timing correct an then practice in front of a couple of friends, and possibly two different times to different groups.

One goal for the content, I think I will continue what I have been doing and keep referencing and keep the flow of the information. One goal for improving delivery is to speak to the class and not the cards or the visual aid. The bad thing about this speech was eye contact and the good was the content and organization. The bad of the last speech was too many distracting hand movements and the good was delivery, visual aid, and organization.

Overall, I think the presentation went well with the fact that I did not get the chance to practice as much as I had hoped to. I really enjoyed researching and learning about my topic and in some way I hope the class took something from the issue of water pollution in China.

Ch. 11 Concept

In chapter 11, I found that the part called “ language enlivens your ideas” very helpful. It discusses the way we use language and words. When we speak to our audience we should try to use a system of words because the people listening can understand it in many different ways because language is ambiguous though culture. We should try to choose our words carefully depending on the audience, tailoring it to culture and gender, so that our purpose is best understood. The book also mentions the we should try to speak in a conversational manner, audience centered language, making it more personal, visual and to help the audience imagine our language.

concept-ch.9

I found the "conclusion development" very useful. The book discusses that as the speaker, I should briefly mention my main points of my presention, encourage my purpose with a memorable message and give some kind of closure with a quote, dramatic statement, or refer to the introduction. The last couple of points that are mentioned in the conclusion are best remembered by the audience than in the body part of the speech, which is also known at recency effect. I found all of this very important so that for my next speech I will put just as much effort in the conclusion as the rest of the speech.

Facts and Statistics

I find facts and statistics are most effective in speeches that need them as a support to prove something like a persuasive speech. But I find that facts are always effective in any speech because they are good for supporting your purpose or main points. For statistics, like the book mentions that statistics are numerical data and too much of them can be boring. Facts and statistics are not effective when a speaker over uses them. As the speaker we have to keep the audience in mind and if it does not keep the audiences attention then that means it is not effective. So I think its important to include just enough facts and statistics to make a point clear to the audience.

Self Evaluation #1

Speaking in front of a crowd of more than five people has always made me nervous. In the past, I have always spoke softly in front of an audience because I was a afraid and never really was prepared for what I had to say. Even if I had practice, I would think negatively about what I had to say and about myself. But for this first speech in Public Speaking, I felt better prepared with all the advice from the blogs and from the book. It was interesting to see myself on the video. I was hesitant to watch it because I thought I did terrible. Before I pressed the play button to watch myself, I remember telling my friends and family a couple hours before that, watching the video of myself is compared to watching a horror movie because I am curious to see how thing turned out but am afraid of it all at the same time.

After watching the video I felt a little better about how everything went. Before going to the class I reminded myself that I should not think about anything but the purpose of why I was going to be there on that day and in that room; that purpose was to inform people about my topic of incense. I felt I achieved this purpose through emphasizing my main points and having visuals to enhancing the presentation. Considering past experiences, I was fairly comfortable and confident in how I delivered my speech. I did notice that my body was a bit tense even though I had a lot of hand movements.

There are a couple of things I would have done differently in the speech if I were to get the opportunity to do I again. First, for preparation I would practice seven times with full sentence outline, another seven times with keyword notecards, and give the speech to three different people to get feedback. Secondly, for delivery I would make sure I would not say “um” and “ugh” so often and try to make more eye contact with the audience. One of the goals I have for improving the content in my next speech and that is to mention my sources briefly when I give proof of something or refer to a point. Another goal I have for the next speech in delivering it is to not say “um” and “ugh” as much.

Some of the things I noticed after watching the video of my speech delivery was that I had a lot of hand movements that became a bit distracting. Also saying “um” and “ugh” repeatedly took a lot away from the information and presentation. Some of the positive things I saw were, I spoke clearly and I was able to touch on the main points. I also noticed that I did not mention any of my sources during the speech. This is something I must remember to do. Making eye contact was also an issue for me and if I were to rate myself on a scale of one to ten, I would have to give myself a 7.5 because I did look at a couple students in the audience, I hardly looked at my note cards, and had very little words to read from the Power Point to force me to look at the audience.

Overall, I enjoyed informing people about incense and I would give myself an A- especially because my purpose was to inform people about incense in a clear way and I feel I was successful in doing that because it was clear in stating them and with the critiques from the classmates, I found that they did understand the main points. Secondly, I put a lot of energy to my voice so that it would not be boring. I was very interested in my topic and I saw through the video that I was excited to tell everyone about it. Thirdly, the Power Point enhanced my presentation because it helped the audience see a visual of what I was speaking about.