The future

For the future, I believe this class has given me good experience and practice for when I need to give some kind of public presentation whether it's for work or even for another class. It has also given me good practice in writing outlines which we did plenty of! Certain speeches, like for example the persuasive speech, have given more of a structured way of presenting something to another person to give them a better understanding without forcing something on them but at the same time educating them. Most of all what this class has helped me in is speaking in public, in front of an audience. Since I get extremely nervous speaking to large groups of people, this was great practice for me. It helped me get not completely over this fear but get better with time!

Favorite speech

My favorite speech was probably the informative speech. Mostly because all you do is give information. I don't particularly like persuading people and although the demonstrative speeches were very interesting to watch, it was a bit of a hassle. Also in the informative speeches I liked hearing all the different topics and learning about them. There was a lot of new things that I had learned because of the informative speeches that I hadn't known before. Over all, out of all the speeches, I was least nervous in the informative speech. I was able to do it on a topic that I knew a lot about, that I was comfortable with and actually excited about it too. So that's why the informative speech was my favorite.

Concepts

There have been many helpful concepts in preparing for my speeches. I definitely like the speech buddy videos because instead of just being told what to do and how to say our speeches we were able to actually see it. That helped a lot I think because we were able to see what looks good when saying a speech as well as see what not to do in a speech. It also showed us the different ways to sat the speech. I remember one of the videos showed me how to incorporate visual aid into the speech and make it more smooth. I also like that we had many outline examples. It made it more enjoyable to do an outline knowing that I was doing it right! I was able to do it with ease as well as include everything that the teacher wanted in it. Lastly, the thing that helped in preparing the speeches I think were the mini speeches in between the major speeches. I like that particularly because I get extremely nervous going up in front of class and doing the little speeches in between helped me "face my fear" you could say. Just gave me more practice in front of the class.

Persuading

In most recent experience, I had to persuade more than just one person. It seems that I have this experience quite often because each time someone finds out I'm a vegetarian, I not only have to explain to them why but persuade them that it is a good idea. I found that if I don't persuade them, they look at me doubtfully. First I tell them my reason, next I go into some of the pros of being vegetarian. I also tell them that if I raised my own animals then I wouldnt mind eating meat because then I become more level with them. I never try to force anyone into it because I feel that it is everyones own choice. I do like being able to tell them the healthy side of it so that they can think about it for themselves. I find that it also is good not to tell someone that they are eating wrong and harming themselves because then that just puts the person into defense mode and makes them want to argue with you.

Speech buddy videos

In the speech buddy videos, the girl talked about home schooling and public schools. I understand a lot of where she is coming from because I had homeschooling but I also went to public school. From what I know and heard, there isn't that much violence in public school. It seems that if someone is looking for a fight, they'll find anywhere whether or not in school. I did like that she had both pros and cons. She did a good job of talking about both sides. Addressing questions/arguments that the other side is important. Like having a problem and solution to the questions/arguments. I do think that she needed something more like statistics and more facts than stories and opinions. In my opinion it is the best way to persuade and get your audience to agree with you. Overall it was enjoyable and good example of how to show both sides in our speeches.

chapter 14 reading

In chapter 14, it talks about Monroe's five step pattern as well as the problem solution pattern which we talked about in the earlier post. I found most helpful reading about what kind of audiences there are to persuade. I guess that its true that you get a variety of different audience types when giving a speech so it is important to make sure you can meet or at least try to meet the needs of each person to get your point across. there are negative, positive, sympathetic, divided, apathetic and uninformed. I liked how this chapter went over how to deal with each type of audience, showing what techniques to use and what kind of questions to answer for each group. Very helpful and I shall be taking that into consideration.

Sea of Persuasion

I think that persuasion is a part of our every day life and in everything we do, see and hear. If you are watching a television show, you are going to see a bunch of commercials in between. All those commercials are made to persuade you in something. Whether its to persuade you to buy something or with the recent elections, vote for someone. I remember reading a magazine and after wanting to buy that miracle lotion they were writing about. All of the ad campaigns for the election are also still burned into my skull because there were so many of them. There were negative ads and positive ads, so you can also get persuaded to dislike something. While it easy to get caught up in all of this, it's important to look into whatever it is you've decided to purchase or believe through an ad. When you research it, it will make you a better consumer.

Monroe's motivated sequence

Monroe's motivated sequence is basically the directions on a persuasive speech broken down. It consists of getting peoples attention which you can do by shocking them with a story or perhaps a statistic. Then you need to explain the need to the problem and how it can affect your audience. Next you want to have a solution to the problem being presented. Lastly, you need to show people visually what will or can happen if no measures are taken and call them to take action, making them feel important and like they have a hand on the issue. The problem solution pattern is pretty much the same in steps. I think that the main purpose of these two systems is to get the audience involved in what you are talking about. This helps make your topic an important issue and calls the audience out to do something about the issue. I think that these are great methods to use for a persuasive speech not only because it is a good attention holder though out the speech but also because it pretty much rounds out your speech.

Flickr

I think that some of the things being said on flickr about the sexist words arent necessarily correct there are certain words that can definitely be taken seriously when it comes to sexism or racism but when you call someone "girl" or "boy" I don't think that that is sexist at all. I personally use that on a regular day basis. If my girlfriend calls me, I usually answer and say "hey girl!" most of the comments that were there on Flickr didn't seem to mind these words either. Most of them said that as a matter of factly, they use those words as well on a regular day basis. I see sexism more as downgrading a man or a woman when you say that the person can't do a certain thing because they are a man or woman. I don't have a Facebook so I don't know how the whole tagging thing works but reading the comments, it doesn't sound like ppl think it is a big deal at all and I agree!

Speech Buddy Videos: Ones voice

I think what I got most out of the speech buddy videos this week was the tone of voice used and how it affects our speech  from how a person perceives it to how it just comes out sounding in general. I found it interesting that it also affects the time length in which it takes to present your speech. I have noticed that when I practice my speech and time myself at home, it turns out longer than when I actually present it. I know for a fact that it is because the nervousness but maybe if I concentrated on the tone of voice, it would be the same time length. I also think that it is a good idea to watch the tone of voice because it will help people perceive it the way you want them too. Our voice should be clear and loud enough for everyone to hear but not so loud that it sounds like you are shouting. I didnt give "voice" much thought before but now its definitely something to practice!

Self evaluation assignment#2

1) I think that achieved my purpose well in the assignment. I wanted to get across to the audience what it was that I was presenting and what it does.
2) I felt pretty confident because I knew what I was talking about and did my research as well as had some back round experience in it. However I was not very comfortable because I was extremely nervous speaking in front of a group of people.
3) If I had to do it over again, I would change the delivery of the speech. I really need to work on how nervous I am when I get up in front of people to talk because I tend to fidget with my hands, not really do the whole eye contact thing and stand in front of furniture. I definitely need to work on the delivery.
4) My one goal for improving the content in my next speech is to have better source citations, I was using wikipedia as one of my sources and that was a bad idea.
5) My goal for improving the delivery in my next speech is to give a stronger performance. I want to have better eye contact with the audience and not fidget with my hands. I need to pay attention to how stand when I am giving a speech.
6) I think that in my last speech I gave a better delivery because there was no furniture to hide behind like this time :) but what I think was better about my speech this time was that I knew the material I was talking about much better.
7) One distracting thing I noticed that I had done this time was I cracked my knuckles. No this was not an improvement from my last speech.
8)  On a scale of 1-10, my eye contact was probably a 5.
9) On a scale of A-F, I would give myself a B. I think that I did well as far as organization and how I explained and talked about the material, but I need to work on eye contact and not stand behind or lean on furniture.
10) I believe I mentioned 4 source citations. I used the company that pattented the product, a magazine article on it, and two different people I took interviews from.
11) I think that my last speech was better because of the wasy I delivered it. I had better eye contact and didnt lean on any furniture.

Chapter 11 Reading

In chapter 11 it talks about using media to grab attention to your speech. It talks about how media can draw attention as well as give a good visual to your topic. They talk about how keeping it simple and using big lettering with Key ideas to emphasize your main points. I think that using media this way is a great idea to grab attention and use visual aid to show the audience what your talking about. I also think that keeping it simple is important in order to keep your audience from getting confused and making your speech look like its all over the place. I've seen someone do a presentation before where they weren't entirely coherent with the media being presented and it just ended up looking very sloppy and not very professional. Good to know what to avoid!

Media presentation

I was at a seminar recently for our dental office. The seminar was about the ceric machine which makes crowns. The speaker used Slides and video clips as part of the presentation. It gave the speech credibility as well as visual aid and at the same time made the speech very interesting to listen to. He used good sources as well as cited the information while giving the presentation. I think it made the speech flow very good and added to the presentation by making it more interesting with a funny clip. I don't think that it distracted from the speech at all but actually pulled the audience attention in more and made us want to hear more. The person that was giving the speech did a very good job and I don't think there was anything that needed to be added to it, the order in which it was prepared and presented was right on the dot and in a good order. I enjoyed it very much and will use it as an example for myself.

speakers ethic responsibility

A speakers ethical responsibility when developing presentation media for a speech is to make sure not to plagiarize. When presenting media and or other facts, it is easy to forget to mention or cite the source orally. Citing the source orally will help not plagiarize the material being presented. It is the speakers responsibility to reference where they got their information from. I think its also probably a good idea to reference sources even if they are pictures. On power point presentations, I think it would be much easier to do the reference or source citation on the bottom of the power point and that would help to avoid not giving credit. Media can have a very good effect on your presentation but if the information is not used properly it may have a very negative effect. The speaker must make sure to check their sources properly when using the media in order to have a positive effect on the audience with their speech and let the audience know that the speech is credible.

Reading; connection and purpose

Out of the reading this week, what I most agreed with was speech purpose. I think that I have actually mentioned in one of the previous blogs that you have to believe in "what you preach." If you go up and start telling the audience something that you yourself don't believe in then chances are your audience will not either. Further more the audience won't be hooked and probably loose interests in what you are saying. You need to connect with what your purpose to the speech is in order to get a point across. Without that connection, there is not a point in going up and talking at all I think. This means that your topic and thesis should match what you think in real life so that you have a well rounded speech with a good point and get a good grade!

Intro and conclusion

The intro according to the book needs to contain your attention grabber, credibility, thesis and preview to your main points. The conclusion needs to be a review of your thesis and main points. My topic is on the Cerec machine. I have in my intro what it is, a source and thesis. My main points include its history, what it does and what it will do for future dental work for offices and their patients. My conclusion will be a brief review of that and also what I wanted the audience to remember out of it. Still working on thesis statement. It seems difficult sometimes not to sound persuasive in this speech. Also working on an attention grabber, I think I want to incorporate the visual aid in the introduction and be able to show it again in the conclusion that way it is remembered better. I haven't used a power point presentation in a while so hopefully it won't be choppy and the speech will flow smoothly. I hope

Everyone does great, good luck:)

Week Oct 8-14 speech buddy videos

The speech buddy videos this week had a couple good examples on informative speeches. I mainly like the Kodak speech. I think she did a good job keeping the audience hooked from the intro of the speech to the conclusion. It was also a very clever way to incorporate the visual aid into the speech smoothly. Although the cell phone speech was moving, I think that it is a good idea to be careful when doing a subject like that in an informative speech because you arent supposed to persuade the audience, just inform. Doing a topic like that might cross the fine line of informing and persuading. Overall, I think that the videos were pretty good examples of doing introductions and conclusion. I hope that I am able to keep the audience hooked in the introduction of the speech and leave them thinking about it in the conclusion as well.

Self Evaluation Assignment #1

1) I think that I achieved the purpose of my speech fairly well. I had gotten through all of my points that I had, given enough information on the history and also demonstrated in good efficient order.
2) I felt as comfortable as I ever do when speaking in front of class. I was a nervous wreck! I was pretty confident in my speech because I did the research and work as well as practiced it many times but I am still nervous about talking in front of groups of people.
3) If I had to do it over again, my main fix would be my sources. I think I could have done a better job citing them and in the midst of my nervousness I forgot to use the sources or give credit to them during my actual speech. To fix that problem I would write them or a quote even on the note cards.
4)My one goal that I have in improving the context of my speech is to actually mention my sources during my speech. Like I said in the question before, I didn't do a very good job mentioning sources in my speech.
5) One goal I have in improving the delivery of my next speech is not to be so nervous because it make me overuse the non existent word "UUMM" and forget things. Maybe I will practice saying the speech in front of someone next time instead of by myself so that I can get used to someone watching me and that way I wont be as nervous.
6) After the speech, the first thing I noticed was that it was a lot faster than I had practiced it at home. When I practiced the speech at home, I was just under five minutes and worried about taking too long, however, my actual presentation was right on the dot of four minutes. I think that is because when you are speaking in front of the class, you tend to rush through it more.
7) I think I have a tendency to cross my legs and put my hands in tight fists while presenting because of the nervousness but other than that I don't think I did anything distracting during the speech.
8) On a scale of 1-10, I would give myself a 9 for eye contact. I wasn't amazing at it but I think I did pretty well. I memorized most of the speech and information so I didn't have to look down at my note cards much at all.
9) I unfortunately mentioned only one source, me. If that even counts.
10) I would give myself a B grade because I did a good job at getting my information right and my demonstration good but what killed me were probably the source citations. I maintained good eye contact, had a good outline and tried to keep my voice from shaking during the speech.

Reading chapter 7/8

In chapter 8, the book goes into detail about organizing your main points in pattern. After you select your main points, they need to be put in a clear pattern/order. The book talks about 7 different patterns you can use to organize your main points. To choose the correct pattern, you look at what your speech topic is. The seven patterns are: chronological, spatial, topical, narrative, cause-and-effect, problem-solution, and monroes motivated sequence. I think I am most familiar with chronological order, this is where you you organize it in a time sequence. For example, from a to b to c ext.. Its an order of doing things or explaining something from beginning to end. Used most commonly when your teaching or showing how to do something, or also used if you are explaining something from history,  you would start from one thing that led to the next.

Facts and Statistics

I find that giving facts and statistics are most affective when you are trying to persuade the audience to believe or do something one way. They may help because it will show the audience that you did your research and make your speech more believable in a way. No one for example will buy a $200 tooth brush unless there is research and logic behind why they should spend so much on a tooth brush. However, in order to do so, you must research the opposing side or in this case the regular $4 dollar one and see what difference there are between the two. When giving facts and statistics, it will not be helpful if you do not research the other or opposing side because it will make the audience question you and they may just look at it as a scam. Either way, I believe that looking into both sides of the story so to say, will make your speech seem a lot more believable and reliable.

Speech Buddy Videos

This weeks speech buddy videos were pretty informative what you should do in a speech and what you should try to avoid doing in a speech. What I found helpful was the transition phrases, they gave a lot of different ones, I had probably only known three good ones. I also thought that the speech buddy videos helped a lot in explaining how to use statistics and facts to benefit you in your speech. There are a lot of statistics out their but its also good to investigate both sides of the argument and in maybe using the opposing sides facts or statistics, you make your speech more credible. That way the audience sees that you did have an open mind about it and considered all the facts before coming to your conclusion. I especially liked the part where they showed how using examples can be tricky, not always beneficial and sometimes unrealistic. Never really though of it that way.

chapter 5 reading

I thought it was really interesting reading the story of how Michael Jordan messed up his persona with a bad speech! I never heard that story before. That is a great example of why audience analysis is so important. You can prepare for your speech all you want but if you dont take into account who your talking to then what you say when your presenting can turn out to be a huge flop. I thought it was very interesting that the book said that the speaker and audience are like partners. Its an interesting way to view it but a great way to put it also because no speaker no audience, no audience no speaker. It goes hand in hand. The book also said that what your speaking about has to apply to the audience and fit with their experience. I look at that as almost like having a conversation with someone, you wouldnt talk to your friend about something that offends them. Same concept works with audience, you want your audience to relate to you!

research interview

I havent really done any research interviews for class however I do something similar for work. In my dental office I am responsible for all the ordering and inventory. This requires me to make sure we are ordering good quality for a good price. There are so many different companies that I am able to order from so I have to sit down with reps and interview them to see which company has better costumer service and prices. I also have to compare and contrast all the companies before ordering from them. Not really sure if that counts as research interview but I think it kinda in a way does. My advice to anyone who has to do something similar for work is to remember that those companies want your business, so you have to make sure your getting your business the best deal. thats why researching and interviewing them is an excelent idea, you and your company will benefit from it!

Purpose and goal of your speech

In chapter 4, they go over the types of speeches there are and show how to get your point across for each type of speech. Seeing that its very easy to get off topic, I think that its an awesome idea to follow these guidelines. Once you figure out what your general purpose in the speech is, it shouldnt be hard to go off of it and pick a topic. The book talks about brainstorming and I personally love that idea! From past experiences, ive found this the easiest and most effective way to figure out what you want your topic to be and  what you want your main points off that topic to be. I also thought it was interesting that you can get an idea from a picture or photo. Visual aid is a great way to help yourself and others understand the topic better. I know that brainstorming works best for me so I will most likely be doing that and recomend ffor anyone who hasnt tried it to give it a shot!

post question #2

When looking for a speech topic, I find it incredibly hard to choose a topic that I can research and talk about for a whole 5 minutes. Worst of all is when I choose a topic that I dont care about or really have no interest in. I have done research speeches on many topics and talking about something you are not very passionate about in front of a group of people is almost always a way to set yourself up for dissapointment. Luckily from past experience Ive caught on to and learned that what makes a speech great is how the person themselves feels about the topic. I still have anxiety when talking in front of a group of people that I dont know, but believing in what you are presenting deffinitely helps in giving a succeful speech. I also agree that researching a topic you are interested in makes the process much easier and enjoyable. No one really calls someone to talk about something they have no care for but rather about something they can carry on a conversation or even a debate about.

public speaking

Whether its the thought of a bunch of people that I dont know staring at me or being analyzed by people while I am speaking, public speaking does not come easy to me. I have a hard time opening up to people I dont know and being put into situations and sorroundings that I am not used to makes me extremely nervous. The strangest thing is that when i am working in my offfice, I can become best friends with a patient and dont get nervous at all talking to over 150 people a day that I dont know sometimes. It is my job and what I do on an every day basis. I think that sharing information about myself and doing it in an unfamiliar sorrounding is what makes me so apprehensive. I hope to get better at public speaking through this course and not fiddle with my hands while on stage. What amuses me is how every time you finish saying something, you sit down and start coming up with more clever things you could have said :) oh the irony!

intro post

Hello,
this is my first time blogging, new to this so here goes! I have been a student at Sierra for about a year and am taking my pre req before transfering out into a dental program. I currently work at a dental office and have been there for about 6 yeaers now. I enjoy my job but am tired of paperwork haha :) so im going to be a dental hygenist. I am christian and God is a big part of my life. I attend Bay Side church in Granite Bay which i invite anyone who is interested to check it out! I also run.. a lot! My hobbies include wake boarding in the summer and snow boarding in the winter. Also enjoy going out of town, i try and do that every weekend if possible whether its San Fransisco or LA. Work hard and play hard :)