Self-Evaluation

It is important to self-evaluate yourself after doing a speech because you can think about how you did critically and decide what you did wrong, what you could improve on, and what your strengths were. I think that I was successful in achieving the purpose of my speech. I had sufficient background information on my topic and was able to demonstrate my topic clearly. I was fairly confident during my speech. I did stutter once or twice when trying to get out a long sentence, though. In my next speech, I will improve by remembering not to use fillers. In my last two speeches, I used a few umm’s and uh’s between sentences and when I lost my train of thought. If I were to do the whole speech over again, I would have practiced my conclusion more. At the end I was not as confident because I had focused a lot more on the beginning and middle of my speech. In delivery, I would improve a little by slowing down a bit. I thought that my organization worked just fine though because it felt like each point followed the last logically and flowed into one another. My one goal for improving the content of my speech would be to choose a topic that was of more interest to me. I found it hard to say anything interesting about the subject when I did not find it interesting or entertaining at all. As I said before I could improve my delivery by slowing down, but I could also make sure that I remember to speak clearly. When I first thought back on my video, the first thing that I thought about was that my delivery was not bad, but that it could have been more conversational. The most distracting thing that I did during my speech was to touch my hair quite a few times. I will definitely remember to pull my hair back next time because it kept falling in my face, so I would move it away out of habit, without even noticing. I would rate my eye contact as an 8.5/10. I thought that through the beginning and middle I had good eye contact, but I remember that towards the end, where I did not know my speech as well, I was forced to look down to check my note cards. I only cited my sources twice, which was obviously not enough. I think it was because I would remember the statement that I was trying to make, but I would have trouble remembering which citation went with which one, so I did not say them aloud. The other reason was that it felt a little strange saying your citation aloud, so I kind of just passed over them. Based on my memory of how I did, I would give myself an A because I think that I was able to meet each of the requirements well. I did not miss any of the points that we were supposed to make and was able to go above and beyond on some of them. Specifically, I followed the outline well, which made my speech flow well from intro to each main point and then concluded in a logical manner. I also think that I had practiced adequately for my speech and was able to deliver it without reading directly from my  note cards, and I did manage to make it sound fairly conversational. 

Discussion on Testimony

The concept from the reading that I would like to discuss today is the use of testimony as a type of supporting material. I chose this because it was one that I was unfamiliar with on its definition and usage. The definition of testimony is that they “rely on an individual's opinions or experiences related to a particular topic.” Expert testimony is when you rely on the stories and opinions of someone that is considered an “expert” on a particular subject. This would typically make your speech more credible. The second type is celebrity testimony. This is when  you use testimony from someone that is well-known and famous and because of that person’s status they are considered to be knowledgeable and trustworthy on whatever the particular subject  is. Lay testimony is when you use normal people who are next experts or celebrities, but they may have close experience with the topic. An example of this might be to interview teachers when discussing state budget cuts. They’re not experts, but they could be considered to have a relevant opinion about it. 

Facts & Statistics

Including facts and statistics in your speech can cause you to increase your credibility. It can also help your audience to come to an agreement with your on how important your topic is. Using facts and statistics can be the most effective in a speech when you are trying to make a logical appeal. They can help you to prove your point by showing support for your topic with concrete information that is hopefully verifiable and credible. Facts and statistics have been very helpful to me when making persuasive speeches. Facts and statistics might not be as effective if you are making an emotional appeal. Facts and statistics can be interpreted differently by different people who each have their own knowledge base, opinions, and backgrounds. In this case facts and statistics could hurt your topic if you are not extremely clear on how you mean them to be interpreted, but even then there is a chance that the right message will not be received. 

Speech Buddy Videos (7.1)

The information I found that will be most helpful in my speech was in video 7.1. Knowing about supporting material can be helpful in my demonstration speech particularly when I talk about the history behind my demonstration, but it will also be good to know when to include stories when I talk about how my project affected me personally. The first thing that I learned was that narratives can be useful, but that they only show one perspective, and if they are too long they can be distracting and take away from your speech. Examples can be helpful to clarify something that is confusing, but they are not usually “generalizable”, meaning that may not accurately represent your topic. Definitions are pretty self-explanatory, but they can be boring if you just continually define everything in your speech.  I will definitely be sure to choose my supporting materials carefully, and now I have a greater understanding of the pros and cons of each type of material that I can use. 

Topic from Chp 5

The topic from the reading that I would like to discuss today is about adapting to a diverse audience. I think this is one of the most important topics to talk about because in today’s society we are constantly being sold to or convinced of something. More and more often, people have to convince large groups of people to follow them or buy what they are selling or do something a certain way. People like politicians and advertising companies have to find a way to speak to us as their audience in a way that connects with each of us, who are all very different and unique. This just shows how important finding your “target audience” is. It must be very difficult to find a way to connect with so many people who have varying opinions and backgrounds. In our public speaking class, we have quite a few things in common, so find your target audience is not really an issue, but out in the real world it makes all the difference. Your information must be adjusted to interest and appeal to a diverse group of people in order for you to be heard at all when speaking in public.

Audience Analysis & Adaptation

It is very important to always analyze your audience and adapt to it based on what you know about the people you will be speaking to. One thing that I found helpful is to identify commonalities between yourself and the audience. Not only will this help them to relate to you and your topic better, but it can also help you in feeling more comfortable. It is also important when analyzing your audience to show how credible you are when discussing the subject. Regardless of the diversity of your audience, if you sound knowledgeable on your topic, they will probably be more likely to listen to what you are saying. When adapting to your audience, you have to consider their different backgrounds, beliefs, and/or values. You must be more sensitive to things that may cause a reaction in your audience. I plan on using audience analysis in my speech by remembering to consider the cultural identities of the students in our class, and be sure to include everyone when I speak. Also, I will remember to identify the commonalities we all share, which I’m sure there are many. 

Chp 5 Speech Buddy Videos

In the light pollution speech by Courtney, I thought the introduction could use some improvement, but she had a good opening statement about how we probably have heard about water pollutants, but most of us would not know much about light pollution. It caught my interest. She made good use of her hands during the brief clip that we watched of her speech. I noticed that as she stated her thesis, she used her fingers to count off the three main points that she would be talking about. This is something that I could learn from. Using your body during your speech to accentuate what you’re saying is important. She also seemed to be knowledgeable about her topic from what I could tell from the short clip. In the drinking video from chapter 5, I noticed that Matthew seemed a little nervous. He didn’t seem to have memorized his speech very well. He spent a lot of time looking down at his cards and pausing. I thought his opening statement was pretty funny though. At first, I wasn’t sure if he was hacking like that for real or not. I liked his use of the projector to highlight some statistics that were important to his topic. Being able to read the statistics yourself made them a little bit easier to understand than if you were just listening to the speaker read them for you. Something I could learn from in Matthew’s speech is that almost seemed to use too many statistics, which can be boring.

Chp 6 Concept: Library Resources

Exploring library resources is a valuable tool to have when researching a speech topic. Not only can you physically go to the library and check out what they have in person, but now you can also utilize the library’s online resources. Books are often forgotten in this day and age due to the simplicity and instant access to the internet. According to our text, books are credible because they have already undergone a thorough editorial process and even sometimes peer reviews. This can be crucial to sounding knowledgeable about a speech topic, because you can rest easy knowing that other people have deemed this information suitable enough to be put into print. Because magazines and papers are published on such a regular, frequent basis, they can be great tools for getting up-to-date information, such as recent statistics. The reading this week has really reminded me just how helpful libraries can be in researching a topic. I will have to remember to head to the library instead of always just immediately going to the internet for information. 

Chp 6 Videos

Video 6.1 Managing the Research Process, although short, had some valuable information. I will work harder to determine the validity of my resources. This is something that I have done only half-heartedly in the past, but I see that it is extremely important if you want to sound like a knowledgeable speaker. I do think that finding credible speeches can be difficult because, not being an expert on the subject, I may mistakenly think someone has the credentials to speak on whatever it is that I’m researching. Also, watching the video reminded me what a great resource the library really is. I think we have started to forget how valuable books can be for research because internet is so instant and easy. I also see what a valuable tool the librarian could be in assisting me in the right direction.

One of the most helpful tools for preparing for speeches is watching other people do them. Shaura’s speech was especially helpful because of her use of visual aids. Visual aids are something that I underrate. I forget about how essential visual aids can be in getting your point across. Dory’s impromptu speech was interesting because of her use of a family story to make her point and show how important family is. The story interested you enough to keep listening so that she would be able to hold your attention to make her point.

Conducting Research Interviews

When I first thought about it, I didn’t think I had ever conducted any kind of interview. But once I thought about it for a while I remembered that as a freshman in high school I had to interview someone in a career I was interested in. I still remember it pretty well, though, because I was so nervous that it took me hours before I could get the courage to call the radio DJ I had decided to talk to. The whole thing went well, mostly because he could tell I didn’t know what I was doing, and he was great at interviewing, so he helped me out a lot. The part that needed the most improvement was my questions that I had set up for the interview. I realized afterwards that I had asked some of the wrong questions, so I didn’t get all the information that I wanted. In chapter 6 of our book it tells us that the interview guide will serve as a “road map” for getting the right information. At the time I didn’t realize there were so many questions that you could develop, such as primary versus secondary or open versus closed. Any advice I have for my fellow classmates would have to be that you need to really research types of questions you need to ask in order to receive the information you need. You have to direct the way the interview is going to go.