Speech Buddy, Chapter: 10 & 12

After watching the Speech Buddy videos for this week, it brought to my attention the importance of verbal and body language during a speech. This is the one thing I believe my speeches lack the most in. Although now I am more comfortable speaking, I need to get more in tune with mannerisms and delivery. Those videos really show the difference between good and awkward symbolic language. The audience is more likely to be interested and aroused with someone who is confident in their ability to speak. This doesn’t just mean knowing the information, but also how they are delivering that information to the audience. A few things I am going to start practicing more on are: the rate at which I give the speech, the volume and enthusiasm depending on the mood, and also the pitch to draw attention. Articulating these three aspects will be the key ingredient in making a more entertaining and insightful speech people will want to listen to.

Self-Evaluation #2

1) I practiced my speech endlessly a day before, and I gave myself the minimal amount of time. Once I got up there, I wasn’t as nervous as before, and I even took the time to breathe and rehearse the first part in my head. I think this prevented a lot of pausing. I feel like the purpose of my speech was communicated briefly, but it would have been nice to flesh out more detailed aspects of it. Furthermore, I wasn’t able to completely give the entire speech, but I had it broken into sections just for that matter. It was a safety net. 2) I felt pretty confident during my speech, like I said, “not as nervous as before”. However, I noticed a couple of the students laughing for some reason, and it sort of caught me off-guard. It made me stop because laughter is contagious at times, but I quickly looked away and reformed my thoughts. I lost a few seconds, but I regained myself. 3) I would change the beginning if I could. I knew I wasn’t going to fulfill all of my speech, but the beginning was a little slow at the start. I wanted a smooth transition to my major subjects, but time was of the essence so I had to act swiftly. I skip over a lot of examples. Some of the less important aspects I kept out, so the important subjects made it in still. The power-point was really helpful at times because some things I couldn’t remember, so I’d turn to it from time-to-time for clues. I had almost forgotten at one point about the note cards. Next-time I would like my delivery to be more conversational. 4) I want the next speech to be interesting and entertaining, so I’d like to implements stories that are captivating. I might use my best friend for examples, she has years of experience. Her stories are hilarious and yet heart wrenching. 5) I’d like to be able to take my time when delivering my next speech. I feel so rushed through them. I’m not sure what steps to take, but I figure I’d try and be more cut and dry with the next one. Of course, I’ll be descriptive with the examples, but leave it simple with the subject. 6) I wasn’t nervous going on to speak. It was the people that made me feel nervous, the whole spotlight effect. Between my last one and this one, I was only nervous with a crowd and not so much the speech itself. Also, I thought that my intro and conclusion were well executed out of everything. 7) This is a tough one, but I know I wasn’t too distracting. We used power points this time, but that wasn’t the issue. The class room was extremely cold, so I had my hands in my pockets for the majority of the speech. I guess it could be seen as either distracting or keeping warm. 8) Again, eye sight was good, lot of contact with the audience. Just need to stay in control! 9) Overall if I could give myself a grade, I’d probably stick with a solid A. I know that I am not perfect but I do try very hard at getting my speeches down. 10) This was tricky, but I know that I at least said three. I was hoping to add in more, but I wasn’t able to get to the other parts of my speech that needed it. 11) I think this speech went will given it was my first power point presentation. Hopefully my next speech will be even better because I know what to expect.

Digital Presentation

This week is about presentation media. The digital aspect of society has allowed us to enjoy things we take for granted. Perhaps you need mail, news, food, entertainment, all of these things aren’t a problem. With one click of a button, you can have whatever you need in minutes. The same concept also applies to public speaking. Let’s say you are describing a scene with your audience, but you can’t find the right words to express it. Well, with a document camera you can easily give a presentation with vivid images in seconds. Although digital presentations can enhance a speaker’s speech, it can also take away the connection one makes with their audience. If a speaker is relying heavily on presentation material to carry the speech, one might find themselves lacking conviction in words. It’s important to find a balance between the two. Having both verbal facts along with visual sources to back up your claims is a great duo.

Reflections of a Speech

The last presentation I went to was one about the Maya calendar. The speaker was discussing how the calendar in no way represents the end of the world in 2012. He used a power-points indicating how the Maya’s used astronomy to calculate the days and years into these calendars. That’s right, there’s more than one. I felt like for the audience, his lecture was designed for listeners who were majoring in the same field. Some of it was difficult to understand, even with the media presentation. I think he tried simplifying his speech by integrating images and graphs into the media. It would have been nicer if he broke down the mathematical aspect better. For a two-hour lecture, he did fairly well. Eventually, he ended up discussing Single Impact Theory which completely threw me off. His ending didn’t recap what he discussed earlier and left a lot of questions to be desired. Luckily, he did have a Q & A towards the end, so that was nice. 

Digital Responsibilities

Whenever a speaker is developing digital presentation material, it’s important to remember a few ethical responsibilities. A speaker should always cite information, especially if its digital. It’s important to prevent plagiarism and copyright infringement, but it also important because it bolsters the audience’s perception of reliable facts. Also, it’s important to not let the digital aspect of the speech take over. You shouldn’t be talking to your digital media but still connecting with the audience. The visual aspect is only there to enhance the presentation, not to run the show. Finally, it’s critical that you keep digital presentations short for each idea. You don’t want to be finding yourself overwhelming your audience with information. This could cause problems even for the most professional speakers. You want to provide short, key point that will enhance the topic. For example, maybe you’re trying to explain how the hippocampus works with memory. For this you might provide a visual image of the brain with pin points displaying each area. In short, remember, it’s about providing information that will help support the ideas of your speech.

Gatewatching

We’ve gone over this time and time again, but let’s emphasize the importance of being accurate with informative speaking. Whenever one is about to educate or inform others (audience), they are expected to be have information that is accurate. The supporting material, statistics, facts, examples, all of this is to be carefully looked over. Now we’ve gone over where to find all these types of evidence, but how are we supposed to know if our facts are valid? Simply, the best way to do this is a little process called “gatewatching”, this allows the speaker to not only analyze data, but also monitor their sources in case if the information changes or has updates for more information. Organizations such as news centers have used this technique in order to create a more trustworthy media. For myself, I will be keeping track of my facts just in case I need to remove or change any of my presentation.

Speech Buddy: Informative Styles (9.1-13.1)

After reviewing the videos on creating an introduction and conclusion, along with watching the informative speeches videos (9.1, 9.2, 13.1A, 13.1B), it seems that the best way to reach the audience is through a series of dynamic, informative characteristics. Probably what stuck out the most with the students was there use of visual aid. This seems to give the audience a sense of physical understanding. I think it will definitely help out tremendously with my speech. It will allow me to go through the times periods and represent history easier without having to elaborate too much on visual past. Furthermore, I thought that the Kodak speech had a powerful and fun ending. This will give the audience something unique to remember. I hope to create a little fun in my informative speech without having it be too sad. However, the Cell Phone speech was also moving. Right before she ended it, she gave a brief story about a young girl that was killed in a horrible car accident. This to sends a great message to the audience they will surely never forget. 

Introduction & Conclusion

When beginning a speech, once you've researched your topic thoroughly, your audience is going to want something that draws their attention. In this case, the first sentence should be a “hook” something that draws your audience in. whether it’s statistical facts, a joke, or perhaps a story everyone could relate to, you are expected to get their attention. Once you've established the first introduction element, everything else should follow: indicate purpose and thesis, establish credibility, and a preview of main points. For my intro, I will most likely take a more serious approach with something statistical and shocking. For example, “According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) working full-time year round, women are paid 77% of what their male counterparts are paid”.  I think starting out with facts, the audience will become aware there is a problem with society and government.

Furthermore, whenever you are about to conclude or end your speech, you should always give your audience a recap of what you just went over. Usually the best way to do something like this is to restate the main points you brought up. In my case, I’ll probably start out my conclusion stating, “In summary, today we went learned about the social impact of women in society. I went over the history of women’s struggle in society, their undervalued achievements, and the future of women globally”. Note that it’s important to use transitions to smooth out your next paragraph when moving on to new ideas. This gives your audience the heads-up that you’re about to end your speech. Not to mention, it reinforces the main ideas of what you just went over.