Week of 10/12-18: Question 1

The Speech Buddy video for Chapter 9.2 I found to be helpful after watching. This video covered the conclusion of a speech, an area that was not one of my strong points during the first speech. Within the first 15 seconds of the video, I found I was guilty of not thoroughly developing my conclusion just as the video had stated. The video gave a good recap of the chapter section and then ended with two good examples of conclusions which I found helpful. I plan to make sure to address everything the video stated in my conclusion for the upcoming speech and that should help me quite a bit in improving.

Week of 10/5-11: Question 3

After reading chapters 7 and 8, I found that one of the most useful concepts in the reading was the section on transitions in chapter 8. The chart on page 209 was extremely helpful because it has the different types of transitions used, the special words or phrases, and examples of usage. I think I found this helpful just because of all the transition words they have listed. If I was to try and think of transition words to use in a speech without this table, I would not come close to thinking of all those words. I plan to use this chart as I plan out the next speech to help with the overall flow.

Week of 10/5-11: Question 2

I think facts can be effective in a speech where you have to inform or persuade someone on a matter. You use the facts to help support your topics and make yourself look more knowledgeable on the topic and help back up your topic. I believe statistics are the same way, to reinforce and support an idea or topic. I think one of the most effective uses of facts or statistics is when you use them to grab the attention of the audience in the beginning of the speech. You normally try to find a fact or statistic that is not commonly known, but has significant meaning to try and capture the audience. If successful, most of the audience doesn’t forget that fact or statistic because that’s what you used to grab their attention. These are not as effective in things like demonstrative speeches where you don’t need so many facts and statistics to verbally support your demonstration. I believe they can also be not as effective when given in too much of a dosage. Once that happens, the audience gets lost in those, and concentrate less on what you are trying to say.

Week of 10/5-11: Question 1

After watching the 4 Speech Buddy videos, I found the video on information credibility and the video on transitions very helpful for my next speech. The video on media credibility was helpful to remind me to pick a variety of sources for my speech that are credible so that I am better prepared for my speech topic. Since there is going to be a lot of information out there on my topic, knowing how to differentiate from all the difference sources of information will help. The video on transitions was the most helpful because it got me thinking of a couple different ways I can structure my next speech. The six different types of transitions give me a good selection to choose from when I start to outline the speech.

Week 4: Question 3

One concept from Chapter 5 that I found pretty interesting and possibly useful later on, was using a questionnaire for audience research. I did not realize that people use survey forms to find out more about their audience before they speak to them. While I probably will not get a chance to use this concept in the first speech, I think it was just interesting overall because its one of those no-brainer tools you can use to learn more about a group of people, but I would have never thought to use it in this application. The tips about using close ended questions in your survey to gather demographic information was also helpful because its more of a surefire way to get defined answers.

Week 4: Question 2

After reading Chapter 5, I believe that audience analysis and adaptation are important because they help make the speech more effective when the audience is engaged in what the speaker is talking about and when the speaker can comfortably convey their thoughts. Audience analysis is about knowing who you are speaking to and if your speech was better suited for another crowd, your audience won’t be very receptive to what you are saying. Adaptation is also related to this since audience adaptation is about changing what you are presenting on the fly to best fit your audience. If you mention an idea that gets the majority of the crowd to give a displeasing face, then you know from then on to try and avoid that idea. I think that understanding who you will be talking to, and reacting to how they react to you, will help create an audience centered speech.

Week 4: Question 1

After watching the Speech Buddy “Drinking” and “Light Pollution” videos, I found things I thought both speakers did well and things that I could benefit from. In the “Drinking” video, I really think Matthew did a great job using a shock and awe method to start his speech. The fact he stepped away from the podium to vomit caught my attention immediately because it is something you wouldn’t image seeing in a speech. From then on, he had my attention and could keep presenting facts on drinking. In Courtney’s “Light Pollution” speech, I thought she did a very good job at opening her speech up with a short overview addressing all the points she would be covering in the following eight to ten minutes. The things I learned from both of these videos would be to try and incorporate a few “out of the box” tools to try and captivate and engage my audience. I also learned that when giving a long speech, an overview of your speech can be given in about half a minute that gives the audience an idea of what they will be listening to.