I think that there are several things that I will take from this class that I will use in my future. The first thing that I know that I will use is the organizational patters that we learned throughout the class. It has taught me to be better organized and to think about the different ways to organize information. I also found the adapting to the audience concept to be very useful and there were several things about that that I did not think about before we read it in the book. I also think that relating to the audience, like we learned in a few of the chapters, will be useful later in life. I never realized that letting people know how something affects them and relates to them was so important in persuading them. The practicing and preparation concepts that I learned and used for the speeches will also help me in life.

Class Concepts

There were quite a few concepts that really helped me in preparing my speech. First off, the chapter detailing how to organize the outline was very helpful since I'm always a little confused with how the outline is supposed to be arranged. It helped me to arrange my points in a way that would be comprehensible to my audience and also let me plan where to put my supporting material. The second chapter that helped me in the book was the chapter on the introduction and conclusion, I didn't realize how important they were in my speech and that it was important in getting and keeping my audience’s attention. I really improved my introduction and conclusion by the final speech by using a story that caught everyone’s attention and a conclusion that made people think. And the last concept from the book that I really thought was important was adapting to the audience. I never really thought much about how the audience could be different merely because of the time of day or the location. It’s definitely something that I will take into account if I ever need to give a speech again.

Favorite Speech

My favorite speech that we did for this semester probably had to be the informative speech. The reason that speech was my favorite because I really loved the subject that I picked since it has been a long time hobby of mine. I also learned a lot about the camera's history and mechanics in my research, benefitting not only my audience but myself as well. This was also the speech that I was the most comfortable giving, I knew the material fairly well and was very confident in what I was presenting. I usually am pretty nervous speaking up front, but speaking on something that I really loved helped me overcome that pretty easily. Unfortunately I did have to rush through some of the material because of the time limit, so I hope that everyone was able to understand everything that I was saying. I definitely have improved a lot because of this class, and I know that it will help me in my future.

Fallacies in arguing

So far in our book, we have covered good persuasion techniques and the different ways to present the evidence. Another thing to take into consideration is avoiding using flawed arguments, or fallacies. It is very important to not use fallacies in trying to persuade someone. Although it may convince someone who is uninformed, it will leave a very bad impression on someone if they catch your bad logic and will prevent them from trusting you in the future.  There are four different kinds of fallacies: Faulty assertions, flawed evidence, defective reasoning, and erroneous responses. Faulty assertions are where the speaker tries to convince the audience that there is only two choices. Flawed evidence is where the speaker's evidence is used inappropriately or deceptively to try to influence the audience. Sometimes when someone doesn't have enough evidence to support their claim, they throw in some "filler" evidence to try to impress the audience to sway them in their favor. The next fallacy is the fallacy in responding. This is where one makes an error when responding to someones idea, mainly by throwing false accusations to discredit the person. The last fallacy is through reasoning. This is where the speaker is missing the link between his evidence and the conclusion. I found the table in the book was extremely helpful, and plan on using it to prevent myself from using them in my own speech.

Question #2

One of the most recent times that I tried to persuade someone actually happened on facebook about a very controversial topic. One of the first reasoning types that I used was an analogy, comparing a point that he had made to an exact same situation (that he agreed with me on) to show that his point was not reasonable. The analogy type of reasoning was one of the reasoning types that I used the most, but I also used the inductive reasoning in a few situations. One example was that  he pointed to someone else (scientists) saying that those people believe the same way he did, so he must be right. I then pointed out that on another issue that he believed in, those same people have "proved" that his side of the issue is wrong, so either he was wrong on the second issue or there was a possibility that those scientists are wrong on the first issue, just as he believes that they were wrong on the second issue.
We were both strongly set in our opinions, and even though my family and friends said my reasoning and persuading techniques were very good, the guy that I was debating with would not be persuaded in any way.

Speech Buddy

For this week, I found the speech buddy videos really caught my attention since it is an issue that I am familiar with. I have been homeschooled almost all of my life, so naturally I wanted to start on the video about the pros of homeschooling. One of the things that I probably would have changed about this speech was to add some statistics about the success rates of homeschoolers or to include a small narrative from someone that was homeschooled. I did like how she included a couple of quotes in her speech (this would qualify as the logos type of appeal). The second type of appeal that the speaker used would have been ethos, as she stated in the very beginning of her speech that she had studied the topic thus helping her credibility.
 Listening to her speech, I completely agree with all of her points. I and my siblings spent less hours on school material than most schooled students and we did a lot better than most California students on the end of the year star testing. One of my brothers was constantly being picked on and even had his tooth punched out in the first grade in public school; homeschooling solved this problem for him. Also, the flexibility of homeschooling was incredible! We had our school curriculum program on our laptops, and this allowed us to be able to bring our school with us when we visited family or went on a trip. It also allowed my younger brother to complete two years of school in one.
Now looking at the speech with the cons of homeschooling, I feel that the speaker did not research homeschooling too well. His first point addressed parents being the teachers, and he made a statement about how the parents could never be as qualified, if not more qualified, than a teacher. First off, the parent knows the child better than a teacher ever could. The parent knows the child's strengths and weaknesses, they know the learning techniques that help the child learn better, and they also know what motivates their child to learn. Almost all of the charter schools that I have been to have offered classes to their students that include all of the classes from math and english, to digital photography, cosmetology classes, and web design and golf classes. All of these classes are taught by certified teachers, so if a parent has trouble in a certain subject, they can sign their child up for that class, for free (as long as you stay in the budget per child amount which could be from $1000 - $2000 a year. You can also use this money for curriculum or other school supplies). And as I mentioned before, me and my homeschooled siblings were scoring advanced on almost every subject area in the star testing, so clearly my parents were doing as good, if not better, than most teachers. Yes, there is the occasional parent that doesn't take their child's education very seriously, but there are teachers in schools that feel the same way about their students. I know because my brother had a teacher like that in public school. One of the last points that the speaker makes is the need for parental involvement for the student success, I totally agree with that point since the main reason that my parents homeschooled me was to be more involved in my education and my life.

Monroes Motivation Sequence

Monroes Motivated Sequence is a series of six steps that are used to help persuade the audience and stir them to action. The first part of Monroes Motivation Sequence is using a great attention getter, like a shocking statistic or a story that will grab the hearts of the audience so they are hooked on the topic and want to hear more. After you have their attention, you want to give proof of the problem existing using statistics or facts. Now you will have the audience wondering what they can do to fix the problem, so listing some possible solutions is the next step. Then explain what will happen if these solutions aren't initiated, and how the solutions will make the problem better. The next step is then listing some actions that the audience can do personally. And finally, review the main points and conclude the speech so that the audience will leave with those main points on their mind. Although I think that this is a good speech organizational pattern, I think the topic that I will be doing for my persuasion speech would do a little better with the problem-solution pattern since I will be using a lot of statistical information.

Wherever I go I am surrounded by people trying to persuade me. When I am on facebook, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper in print and online, and even when I am talking with my coworkers, family, and friends. For every decision that we have to make, there will be something there trying to persuade us, even something as simple as trying to decide what to wear. There are even times when we go looking for someone to persuade us what to buy, like when I am trying to decide what camera I want to get next. I will go to a professional reviewer or even go to amazon or another online store that sells the camera that I am looking at and try to read the reviews to determine what the pros and cons of the camera are, if there is anything that I haven't already considered, whether they think that the camera is worth the money or if another model is better, and if I there is any issues with the camera. If persuasion wasn't a part of our day to day lives we would end up making a lot of uninformed decisions, or even not caring about something that should be important to us.

Persuading different audience types

While reading through chapter 14, one thing that I found to be very useful to me was how the book listed out the different audience types for a persuasive speech and what strategy to use for each situation. The book listed five different types of audiences: Informed and negative about the speaker's standpoint, informed and positive about the speaker's standpoint, informed and divided, uninformed, and apathetic. When the audience is informed and negative against your stand on the topic, some of the best ways to persuade them is to establish credibility, find common ground, focus on the positive, and anticipate the audiences objections.
When the audience is positive towards your standpoint, reinforcing the topic to the audience would be a great strategy. Incorporate narratives when you can and suggest ways that they can take action.
When dealing with an audience that is divided on the issue, try to address both sides of the argument. Establish your credibility with the audience, and try to find common ground.
If the audience is not informed on the topic, first explain to them why it is relevant to them and be subtle in persuading them, and also show your expertise on the topic.
And finally, when your audience is informed and just does not care about the topic, start with a great attention getter and really hit the audience with why the topic is important to them. If you can get them interested in the topic, you'll be more likely to get them to think about your side of the topic.

Gender neutral language

After reading a little into the discussion of using gender neutral language, I would have to say that I tend to agree with some of the participants on the flickr post. If we worry too much about making something gender neutral or politically correct, in the end we won't have very many words left in the dictionary to say. I do agree that we should be careful about what we say and how we say it. Even when writing on the internet how something is written can make me cringe, kind of like how "eye eye eye" uses texting language when writing his or her posts. It is important to know what words to avoid when preparing a speech, since one does not want to upset the audience especially when trying to persuade the audience to his or her opinion. But we don't have enough time in our life to be able to worry too much about making sure everyone says police officer instead of saying police man or woman. And about calling a woman a girl, I don't really see too many situations where that would be inappropriate. I don't think complete strangers should call a woman that they dont know a girl, but there are several situations where the people that we know very well will call us a girl. For instance, women call their friends "the girls" sometimes. There are instances where a guy friend might greet his female friends with "hey girl!" I think for the most part what I'm trying to say is, I don't think that we should worry too much about gender neutrality or political correctness, but in a speaking setting, it probably wouldn't hurt to make sure our language is less likely to offend someone.

Different speaking styles

In chapter 12 of this week's reading, one of the topics was the different speaking styles and the uses, pros, and cons of each. I found this section interesting since I never thought of there being different speaking styles. I've always thought of public speaking as preparing an outline and then giving the speech.

One of the first types of speaking styles includes extemporaneous, which is the style that we have been using for this class. It involves the most research and preparation, since you are expected to be an expert on the topic that you are speaking about so that you can give the speech several different times and having it be different each time. This is the speaking style most commonly used in the workplace, since it is used for meetings and classroom and community presentations.

The next type is impromptu. This speaking style involves no preparation time, and thus no practice in giving the speech. Unless one is an excellent speaker, Impromptus are usually disorganized and choppy. This is usually used for most question and answer types of speeches.

The third type is the manuscript speech. With this speaking style, the speech is prepared word for word, sometimes so that the speaker can time something perfectly within the speech. One can also plan out exactly what they want to say, so they don't leave out anything important. This speaking style is used mostly by politicians when they are speaking to their constituents.

The last speaking style is the memorized style. This is the style that requires the most preparation time since the speaker must memorize every aspect of the speech. Unfortunately the words used in this style will seem flat and artificial to the audience. One of the advantages include being able to give the speech without notes, and the speaker will know how the speech is organized and will not have any problems remembering what to say. This speaking style is used mostly for speeches given during ceremonies.

Speech Buddy

While watching the speech buddy videos for this week, one of the topics mentioned was using audience centered speech. Audience centered speech is where you use language that helps make the audience feel included, thus making them more attentive to the speech. Some of the words that help include are we us you and I. Another way of helping to keep the attention of the audience includes using humor, as long as it doesn't offend the audience, and language that helps the audience to use their imagination. I especially liked the "Effective uses of vocal delivery". Making sure you have the proper voice projection is important. If the audience can't hear what you are saying they will strain their ears and will be the only thing that they remember about your speech. Pitch is the next item in vocal delivery. A lower pitched voice is easier on the human ear, making listening to your speech more pleasant. Rate is something that you need a lot of variety in. If you keep to one rate for too often, you will appear monotonous and will lose and bore the audience. Vocal variety is when you take volume, pitch, and rate and mix a veriaty of all three into the speech, and is important to do when you want to keep your audiences attentio. Articulation is also very important since it is important to make sure what you say is clear to the audience.

I liked how there was several different examples for each chapter. It definitely makes it easier for me to learn from and apply to my own speech. :)

Self Evaluation: Informative speech

Looking back at my speech on Monday, I would have to say that I was very pleased with how it went. I usually have a lot of trouble with my mind going blank on me when I am up front, but it only happened to me once and even then it only lasted for a brief moment. I felt more confident than the last two speeches, with my only nervousness happening while I was waiting to give my speech and as I was walking up. Some of the ways that I feel that this speech went better than last speech include saying "umm" a lot less, being more prepared to give my speech, I felt less nervous while giving the speech which allowed me to think more clearly, I transitioned better between topics, I feel like my introduction went better, I did not have to use my notecards at all, I did not have any of the nervous gestures of tucking my hair behind my ears, I went less over the time limit than the last speech, and I was more clear to the audience. One of the reasons that I think I did better this time was the fact that I practiced a lot more and was constantly reviewing, in my head, about what I should say and how to transition. Before, I just thought that all I needed to do was go through my speech once or twice to show that I knew how to do my speech, but what I didn't account for was the fact that I would be nervous and shaking which would cause me to blank out and my speech to fall apart. I also think that the powerpoint helped a lot with keeping me on track. I feel that my powerpoint was fairly well put together so that it helped the audience with visual aid. Using the laser pointer that I had brought with me also allowed me to direct my audiences eyes towards the area of my powerpoint that I was currently talking about. Some of the ways that I feel my speech did not go as well as the previous speeches? I had a lot less eye contact with the audience since I was using the pictures on my powerpoint to explain some things, and I talked a lot faster. I also feel that my conclusion could have used a little more work. This was the one area where I blanked, which would not have happened if I had remained in the time limit that we were given. I had looked up and saw the five minute card displayed which caused me to panic and then blank out. Two things that I would have done differently If I could redo my speech would have been to practice the conclusion more and maybe shave off a little bit of info in the speech so that I could have stayed in the time limit. I would have also practiced my speech a little more while using the powerpoint in order to be as comfortable as I could be with the information presented on the powerpoint so that I could focus more on making eye contact with the audience.

Digital Media Ethics

With how easy it is today for any digital media to be significantly altered to lean towards one side or the other, the speaker has a responsibility to make sure the media that they are using is legitimate. Photo editing software is available to everyone, and an audio file can be edited to twist around what the original author was trying to say. As someone who is supposed to be an expert when giving a speech to the audience, if the speaker gives any illegitimate photos or quotes in their speech, the audience immediately casts doubt on any other information that the speaker might have given. When gathering information, especially from the internet, the person putting together a speech should research all of his or her information and make sure it is coming from a credible source. Making sure that the media that one is using is from the original source, like quoting something from the original document that it appeared in or hearing the original audio file of what you are citing, would also be a good idea when incorporating media into a speech.

Using presentation media in a speech

The last speech that I heard included a PowerPoint that was actually used fairly well. The speaker used several images relating to what he was talking about and also included some text in the slides. The speaker also used very simple animations and transitions that didn't detract from the speech, and also didn't distract the audience. The introduction slide was used as an effective attention getter, comparing two people side by side that he would use to make a point. The slides used colors that went well together and also used some fairly large text so that it could be read. There was a slide or two where the slide did have a lot of text, and it probably needed to be bigger so the people in the back could read it a little better. Being a visual person myself, The PowerPoint did help keep my attention and also helped to make a confusing topic more clear to me; there is no doubt that I would have been lost without it.

Using PowerPoint

The speech buddy videos for chapter eleven were reviewing some of the good techniques on how to use presentation media, like PowerPoint, in a speech. Knowing what to use and what not to use in presentation media helps to make what you are trying to say more clear to the audience. If used incorrectly, it will only make the audience more confused. It is important to use large letters in PowerPoint, since it isn't a paper that someone will be holding in their hand, but will be viewing from the back of the room. It's also important to use as little as possible on each slide. If a slide is cluttered it will leave the viewer overwhelmed and make him or her lose interest in the topic being discussed.
The second speech buddy video also included a small example of both good and bad presentation media. The slides on the first example were simple and added some visual aid to the audience. The second example had the slides with bad color combinations and cluttered slides that didn't help make the topic more clear for the audience at all, but instead made the speech more confusing and distracted the audience.

Intro and Conclusion.

Having a good introduction and conclusion in a speech is almost as important as the content. They are like the bookends that keep the books together. For the introduction, it is important to have an attention getter, a purpose, a thesis, to establish credibility, and to preview the main points. If any of these are left out, there is a greater risk of losing the audience's attention at the very beginning. For instance, if you don't establish your credibility in the subject that you are speaking about, the audience won't take you very seriously or will even question why they should listen to what you have to say. One of the ways that I plan on establishing credibility will be to explain how I have done this hobby for years and have taken several classes.

The conclusion is also very important to the speech. The conclusion gives a review of the main points, it reinforces the purpose, and it gives the audience closure. Reinforcing the purpose reminds the audience why you were giving the speech and why you feel it is important. Doing so will leave the audience thinking about what you were just talking about, and place what they just heard deeper into their memories.

Attention Getter

The attention getter is a very important part of the speech. It is the audiences very first glimpse into the speech you will be giving and is a great factor on whether or not the audience will pay good attention to the rest of your speech. The attention getter can grab the attention of the audience by being a surprising fact or statistic, or can even be the beginning of a story that you will finish with the conclusion of the speech. It can also help relate you to the audience by being a joke or showing that you selected an appropriate attention getter that relates to them. Showing your awareness of the relation to the audience can be as simple as stating why the topic is important to them. The attention getter can even help eliminate the speaker's nervousness by giving them a good starting point. It can also provide coherence in your speech by providing a theme that the rest of the speech will follow. With how important the attention getter is, I plan on using a statistict or even a story to hopefully grab my audiences attention throughout my speech.

Speech Buddy Ch. 9 and 13

After watching the speech buddies for chapter nine, I have a couple of good ideas for my introduction. I never really thought of using stats or a story for an introduction, and it is definitely something I think I will try for this speech! The second chapter nine speech was not as helpful, mainly because the video frame was constantly moving in and out and making me feel kind of ill. I could not even focus on what the speaker was saying. The chapter 13 videos were helpful, giving good examples of what an informative speech should sound like. They all flowed very well and fit a lot of information into five minutes. I like the second speech where the girl used the camera to start and end her speech; it definitely perked my interest and also added a good visual aid. I have never used any of the activities on the speech buddy website before. I found a couple of the questions useful, having to think about what her main points were, what the thesis statement was, and similar questions made me think about having to make my speech main points more clear for the audience.

Self Evaluation: Demo speech

Looking back on my speech on Monday, I realize there were so many things that I could have done better. My biggest challenge is getting comfortable enough with my speech that I can overcome my speech anxiety of just blanking out on the current idea that I am speaking on. I realize now that I will need to practice twice as much in order to do well on my informative speech. Some of the things that I thought I did bad on were saying "umm" too much and completely losing my train of thought, which left my statements unfinished and choppy. I could have also added a few more quotes from my cards to show that I researched my topic. The ways I did well in my speech? I wasn't as nervous as last time, I was making eye contact with the audience, and I feel that my demo went well with it being visible enough for the class to see.
I'm planning on doing better with my next speech, I already have my outline almost done and I'm working on the powerpoint so that I have more time to practice my speech.

Chapter 7 and 8 speech buddies

Watching the speech buddy videos for chapter seven helped clarify what our book was talking about when it was referring to supporting material. Seeing a visual of the material helped me especially since I am a visual learner. I liked how they summarized each different type with a pro and con and also emphasized that a mix of different type of supporting materials can be more beneficial to ones speech than if the speech only contained one type.
Chapter 8 speech buddy videos also did a good job summarizing the different organizational types. Unfortunately it was obvious on the video that the speaker was reading from a script somewhere behind the camera, which was very distracting. Observing this, I realize that it is important for one to make eye contact with their audience, because if it isn't done, the speech won't feel personal and close to the listener and cause them to be distracted.

Using Statistics

When using facts and statistics in a speech, the most useful and effective times to use them would be if you are giving a speech to persuade or to inform. Using facts and statistics appeals to the logic of the audience members, and it causes agreement among them, helping to unify them to your position. Using facts and statistics also increases your credibility, but only when coming from a reliable source. When trying to persuade someone, giving facts and statistics would help back up your position and give them something to ponder about. When using them in an informative speech it can help educate the audience member and bring them to a better understanding of the material that you are presenting. Some of the ways that facts and statistics could be detrimental to your speech would be to present so many that the people listening become overwhelmed and lose focus on what they are hearing. Presenting material with poor credibility and from a bad source could also hurt you. Also, when one starts to present facts and statistics that have no point in your speech, like giving statistics on the economy when you are talking about the ocean, people will be confused about the point that you are trying to get across.

Chapter 5 Speech Buddy

After watching both the speech buddies on light pollution and drinking, I probably got the most from the speech on drinking. The speech was very well put together, the logical thinking flowed smoothly and I liked how he kept breaking down the statistics until the reality of the numbers struck me: statistically, four people will die during the duration of an average college class period. Listening to some of the comments that he made, it is obvious that he paid attention to some of the points that the book hit on, he showed that he was aware of the age demographic of his audience and even threw in some statistics for them to show how his speech was relevant to them.


For the light pollution one, I think the one thing that I picked out that related to chapter five's topic was how she brought up one of the earlier discussions in the class. By doing this it helped unify her audience by bringing up a topic that they all participated in. Something that I think she did a little too much, especially with how early she was in her speech, was how she was looking at her paper almost the entire time she was talking. I can understand a little though, since I have a major problem with this. It will be something that I will be working on for the next speech. :)

The Importance of audience analysis

Audience adaptation is where one learns about the different values and characteristics of the audience and adapts the speech to reflect that. Audience adaptation is important especially when one is trying to persuade the audience of something, if the speaker does not know anything about his audience he will not be as effective at holding the attention and interest of the audience. Before writing the speech the speaker should take into consideration several aspects, like the location, the occasion, and the time of day that the speech will occur. The location could be in an auditorium, in a classroom, or in a conference room and could be a great indicator of what your audience will be and therefore, the speaker can decide how formal or informal the speech will be. The occasion can have two types of audiences: voluntary or captive audiences. Voluntary audiences will attend because maybe they found the topic interesting, or they like the speaker, but they will generally be more likely to listen to what the speaker has to say. Captive audiences are there because they are required to be there and so they won't be as willing to listen. The time of day is an important factor because the audience will have different distractions right before lunch than if it was a couple of hours after. Before lunch the audience will be hungry and have a lower blood sugar, so their attentiveness will be very low.
Some of the ways that I can use this for my speech next Monday is looking at these different pieces of audience adaptation - it's located in a classroom with a captive audience in the evening - and looking how I can capture, and keep, the interest of my audience.

Evaluating Research Materials

In chapter 6, one of the sections was talking about evaluating research materials. There were three criteria that the book listed: reliability, validity, and currency. These three criteria are extremely important, since the research put into an essay or a speech can make or break its credibility. Reliability is where the information comes from a credible course, like a peer reviewed journal or something that is commonly agreed upon among experts in that specific field. One of the examples of getting something from an unreliable source would be a student getting their research from Wikipedia, almost anyone can change the information presented there, so it is in no way reliable, although following some of the links provided on Wikipedia could provide a reliable source. Validity is where an argument or evidence supporting the argument is sound and logical. And currency is where the information is recent and up to date. Getting something with the most recent evidence is crucial. Any research should have these three things in mind. Without any one of these criteria, the person writing the essay or presenting a speech could provide false information to the audience that they are speaking to.

Week 3 Question 1

The only real experience that I had conducting an interview would have been for my nutrition class. The goal of the assignment was to kind of get an idea of what differences there are between peoples eating habits today and compared to 60+ years ago. The person that I interviewed was my coworker, who was a good candidate since she had lived in Kentucky as a child a long time ago. The interview went very well, I had several questions to ask her relating to the assignment, and she was very cooperative and answered the questions well. I interviewed her at her desk just before she left on her lunch break, and since I consider her a friend I wasn't nervous interviewing her. I think the only thing that I would have done differently would have been to record the interview, since I had to write down what she said before going on to the next question.

Chapter 6 Speech Buddy

Once again, I'm glad there was some speaking examples that was available in speech buddy. The example of the informative speech was helpful in giving me an idea about what an informative speech will be like.

One of the things that I thought was a good thing to bring up in the 6.1 video was going to a librarian for help. Some people might not think about that when they have questions finding reference material.  In one of my English classes I had to do a research essay and I wasn't having much luck finding the information that I needed on my own. After spending quite a few minutes at one of the library search computers a librarian came up and asked me if I needed help. Once I explained what I was trying to do, he immediately started writing down different keywords that I had not thought of to use in the search, and then directed me towards the best search engine to find what I was looking for. I found some of my best material because of that. Next time I have trouble finding reference material, I'll ask a librarian. :)

Building Confidence

One of the topics that the book discussed is helping build your confidence. The two points that I consider the most important from that section would be planning and preparing the speech early, and practice your speech. Since I am not the best writer, I need a lot of time to think about what I am going to write out for my introduction, conclusion, and main points. And of course, starting out on my speech early gives me a lot more time to practice! Practice is extremely important for me since I am pretty nervous giving speeches. Practicing allows me to memorize my speech a little bit so I do not have to focus as much on what I want to say, and instead give more of my energy towards making eye contact with the audience and staying relaxed. I also will not have to worry as much about stuttering and blanking out with my speech, which is something I tend to struggle with a little bit. I have definitely learned a lot in this chapter about helping with my anxiety, and I will for sure be trying to use what I learned in my speech tomorrow.

Speech Buddy

I really liked the Speech Buddy Videos, it provided a nice summary to the book as well as put it in visual and audio perspective, which are two of the ways that I learn well and am more likely to put the information to memory.

The "Intro to Jessica" video was very helpful to me, it provided me with a good example of how a speech should go. I even like how they put up the video regardless of a couple of mistakes that she made. Jessica recuperated well from a couple of stutters that she made and continued without bringing any attention to it, so by the time she ended her speech I almost didn't even remember that happened! It reminded me of another good point in the 2.2 video, never comment on nervousness! This will be one of the areas that I will try to improve on my speech on Monday, since I usually think that I have to explain to an audience that I'm nervous. Another thing that I liked about her speech was the way she was able to tie the conclusion perfectly to the introduction, leaving firmly in the memory of the audience the point she was trying to make.

Public Speaking Apprehension

There are several reasons why public speaking makes me nervous. The biggest reason would have to be that when I'm speaking in front of several people I have pretty much all of the speech anxiety symptoms that the book listed: quavering voice, shaky hands, mind going blank, increased heart rate, and trembling legs. I don't exactly know why I have these symptoms; even when I'm singing with my family in front of several people I get nervous, so I've always just thought I had stage fright. Another part of my anxiety is because I KNOW I'm going to be having trouble with these symptoms up front, which actually makes my symptoms even worse! All morning of the day that I'm supposed to give my speech I'll be nervous and worried that I'll mess it up. A couple of the best things that helps me to relax before and during a speech are practicing my speech until I know it by heart, and taking a couple of deep breaths when I feel my nervousness is building.

Introducing myself

Hello!
My name is Michelle. I'm 22, currently working two jobs (one here at Sierra and another student job at Adventist Health) and taking the last two classes that I need in order to finish my accounting degree. I live at home with my family (which includes four brothers, thankfully I'm the second oldest :) and we have five dogs and four birds. I love doing art and photography. Using several drawing books, I taught myself how to draw over twelve years ago and I have been drawing ever since then. I also do some painting in oil, acrylics, and watercolor. I have been doing photography for a long time and have taken several photography classes over the years, including several here at Sierra.

This is my first comm class that I am taking, I haven't really done that much public speaking so I'm a little bit nervous about taking this class.