Journal #1
This chapter introduces to us public speaking and why it is important. It tells us in which settings it is important, such as in school, in politics, and in potential careers. The chapter delves even further into public speaking when it begins to talk about the audience. I really connected with this part as I explained in my impromptu speech that I feel a need to connect with my audience. I feel like the chapter is saying that it is important to stay engaged with your audience, as this generates feedback. The chapter explained what noise was, and I also thought that it was interesting and important that noise can also be psychological distractions. Another important point that the chapter addresses the fact that public speaking is to a large group of people. It is not between two people or even a small group, where the listeners can make direct eye contact with you and you are talking to them. It is a much larger unknown group that you really have to keep engaged and they should all feel like you are talking to them in some way. You should be appealing to each of them. Another important and interesting detail I found was that it is common to adapt to a conversation with someone. This is another point that I mentioned in my impromptu speech. I tend to stay pretty quiet at first and the more I know them through the conversation, the more I am prepared to talk about.
Journal #2
Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Kianna. She lived in the small town of Detroit, Maine. When she was little, she spent most of her time at her grandparents house in Troy, Maine about 2 miles up the road. As her grandparents got a divorce, Kianna began to spend more time with her grandmother, because her grandfather’s new wife wasn’t very nice. Kianna’s grandmother went through a lot after the divorce, and even in her next marriage. She always used to tell Kianna how she was her best friend. Kianna would reply with “bestest friend in the whole wild world!” This is how it was for a very long time. Miemie (the grandmother) was in love with fairies. Kianna, on the other hand, loved her dolls.
For Kianna’s birthday one year, Miemie bought her a collectable baby doll that had fairy wings. The doll was wearing a green outfit that covered its whole body and even had a hood. From the hood rose two green, malleable antennae. From the babies back spread the most wonderful wings. The doll was almost like a beanie-baby, but had a hard head with sleeping eyes and the smallest button nose. Kianna immediately fell in love with the doll, carrying it wherever she went. After some time, as all kids do, Kianna began to lose interest in the doll, but she put it on her bookshelf and never forgot about it. Every night she would look at it and think of her Miemie. Since the doll’s clothes didn’t come off, Kianna associated this “stuck-ness” as the bond between dolls and fairies, and her and her Miemie. To this day, Kianna still has the doll and her Miemie is still her bestest friend in the whole wild world.
Outline:
Introduction-
-Miemie is mom’s mom
-Locate Detroit ME
Body-
-Talk about the divorce, spending time with Miemie
-talk about getting the doll as a gift
-describe the doll
Conclusion-
-the doll is still wearing the outfit and I am still just as close with my Miemie
Journal #3
The biggest things I took away from chapter 11 were mostly having to do with setting up your story. You should have an introduction, something that I did not do so well with during my impromptu speech. Next, something that I think will be very important to focus on in the future, is that main points should be concise and only about one idea, but that you really do not need more than 5-7 main points. After this you may start to lose your audience. The next thing I thought was important was to make sure your speech is organized and transitions well from one point to the next, whether this is by a preview or summary, and to make sure you use transitional words (first, next, etc). Chapter 12 was very similar to this in the way that both of the chapters have to do with organization. However, the main points in chapter 12 talk about how one would go about presenting their information. The organizational patterns that I read about in chapter twelve talk about how you can organize your speech in many different ways including: chronologically, using a spacial pattern, using a causal pattern, using a problem-solution pattern, topically, or using the narrative pattern. I think the one that I identify with most of the time is either chronological or causal. I tend to usually either talk about things in the order of which they happened or I talk about them in a cause-effect kind of way. Sometimes I think I mix the two together by talking about the order in which things happen but adding in the causes and effects of each point.
Journal #4
In my impromptu speech, I think I did a good job at pausing for the most part, and with my tone. I definitely needed to work on eye contact. Overall, my delivery, content and organization went fairly well. However, if I were an audience member present for this speech, I would not feel engaged, as it lacked eye contact, and a hook or intro to pull in the audience. It also ended very abruptly.
Journal #5
The biggest takeaways in chapter 13 have to do with outlining your speech properly. It talks about how you should have a working outline and a speaking outline. I thought this was interesting because I do this already. I find that it is easier to jot down all main points, transitions and the introduction and conclusion to begin, and organize my thoughts in a way that makes sense. However, when presenting a speech you don’t read from a bulleted list. This is where the speaking outline comes into play. I find myself taking the working outline and converting it into words that I will actually use. Some phrases, and some full sentences just to jog my memory while I rehearse. I find that the less words you have, the easier it is to either remember what you are saying or improve. When you are delivering the speech, you don’t have to try to remember full paragraphs of sentences. Instead you can remember key words and remember where you were supposed to go with it. For me, outlining a speech is the foremost and more important part.
Journal #6
One of my biggest accomplishments this semester is my third speech. I am feeling really good about it, and I was confident in doing it. I thought that it was really cool that we got to choose a skill to teach, and then found it difficult to choose a skill. However, using crutches is something that I have done a lot, and I felt really good about teaching it once I decided on it. I thought that my tone and energy were good, and I feel like my instructions were clear and I would have engaged the audience throughout. Overall, I am pleased with my delivery. However, one thing that was pointed out to me by one of my peers was the fact that I did not make eye contact as much as I should have. I tried to fix this a little bit during my next run, because I agreed that it might entertain the audience more, and it would include them a little bit better. However, I found this slightly challenging, as it is difficult to watch/ pay attention to what I am doing, and talk, and look at the audience. Although I think I did better in my final run.
Journal #7
Chapter 25 resonated greatly with me, in the way that I have listened to many speeches that occurred on special occasions, and I have particularly listened to speeches a lot that entertain, celebrate, commemorate, or inspire. I do not have as much experience listening to speeches that set social agendas, but I have heard a few of these. The chapter goes over the goal of each type of speech, how you prepare for it, and what to include. I have personally never given a speech at any of these events because of my stage fright, but through watching so many of them I can almost see each different part that the chapter talks about. Lastly the chapter gives an example speech, and it was Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela- the one we listened to earlier this week! I really resonated with this in the way that I had already listened to it, so reading it really helped me to pick out the type of speech and what went into it that was also discussed in the chapter.
Journal #8
Speech 4 went the best for me in terms of eye contact. I think that I did a much better job at pausing and keeping eye contact than I did previously. I think if I were to do anything differently it would have to do with my content. I felt a little repetitive, and like I should have maybe picked more diverse traits to maybe give a more well rounded idea of my mom. I also think that my speech could have used just a little bit more energy. I think that if I wasn’t so focused on eye contact and delivery, I could have brought more energy and body language to the piece. For next time I will rehearse even more until my delivery and eye contact are second nature, and then focus on energy and body language, and keeping the audience more engaged in this way. Other than this- I think that I am improving a lot.
Journal #9
Chapter 23 talks about why persuasiveness is important. It goes to talk about how it relates to human psychology. This part really spoke to me because I am really into psychology. it talks about the appeal and then goes to talk about ethos pathos and logos. This part also really resonated with me because I had a teacher in high school, she taught my AP English class, and she based a lot of what we did on these three appeals. The chapter breaks down each appeal, appeal to reason, emotion and credibility. But then the chapter started to discuss something that I have never really thought about. They started talking about how to appeal to what motivates your audience and the audiences needs. I haven’t really thought about this aspect, but will when trying to do my final version of speech 5. Lastly, it talks about encouraging mental engagement of the audience. I try to do this already, usually through emotion. For example, in speech 5, I talk about a friend that died, and how this connects to why my topic is important. Chapter 24 talks about the more literal aspect of making a persuasive speech. It builds on claims backed up by evidence and then warranted. But then, it breaks down claims even more- claims of fact, value and policy. This resonated with me because this is another thing that my teacher in high school heavily focused on. She used ethos, logos and pathos to start building this setup and these types of claims. The chapter talks about using convincing, evidence, touches on the sources you use, and then breaks down how to select which type of warrant will work best for your speech. It then talks about reasoning, and counterarguments, which I am very familiar with because of that same teacher. It also talks about organization and outlines. But the last thing that stuck out to me, again, because I have put a lot of focus on it in the past, is the fallacies. I wish it broke down each type instead of only talking about logical fallacies, because although a lot of them seem obvious, it is very easy to use one!
Journal #10
Final Speech Page
Journal #11
I think in my final speech, something that went well was that my conclusion helped to tie together my points but also add a lot of persuasion. I think it did this because it almost made the audience feel like my whole future depends on passing this class. Although that is slightly exaggerated, it definitely helps. I think the organization of my speech also went very well. My pausing was a little too long at times and I have done better with eye contact. But this class has taught me well enough to recognize this myself!
