Visual Aid Speech Reflection

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

One thing that was stressed mostly in regards to completing our visual aid speech was to make sure that our visual aid complimented our speech rather than take over and be an entity in itself. With that being said, I attempted to make a PowerPoint which featured mostly pictures on each slides and these pictures were put in to supplement what I was saying. The speech that I chose to do was on the Green Movement and the reason I did it was because not only was it very near and dear to my heart but also it was something that I felt like had a profound impact on the Middle East being that it was the first attempt at a revolution of its caliber in over three four decades to have erupted.  With that being said, I think being that it was something I was extremely interested in and experienced I was a lot more natural. The only problem I have with myself is that when I get up there I kind of lose track of where I was trying to go with my idea sometimes only because I’m so scared of being graded. I know I have a natural feel to public speaking but I think the fact that I am being graded puts on an extra amount of pressure which results in me not really performing the best that I can. My visual aid itself I felt like was actually pretty good being that the pictures were very to the point and they featured the interesting parts of my speech. I tried to not make them boring so not only was it only one picture per slide and not many words except a title but I also didn’t have too many slides to make it a drag. Overall, I’m proud of my improvements in regards to the way I carried myself up there and being to the point. I do however wish I actually had an audience because maybe that would have had an impact on my performance. In regards to the other speeches that I liked, I must say Emma’s was one that I enjoyed simply because I am really interested in art and she seemed to have a personal connection to the artist and the pieces that he had constructed. Another speech that was interesting to me was the speech in regards to a typical day or week in the life of a student athlete. It wasn’t anything complicated, most of it featured her own schedule and pictures of places she practices or has to attend but it was so simple and to the point that it caught my attention.

Visual Aid Speech

I got very nervous for my speech because I was supposed to do a taste test with one person in the beginning but it didn't work out because I kept running out of time which ended up negatively impacting my speech because I had to improvise my attention getter. My PowerPoint also opened wrong (wrong font and images messed up) on the computer so I had to open the pdf version of it. Since it was a pdf I couldn't pass to the next slide and instead had to scroll down which also got me nervous because it kept going back to the first slide and then I had to scroll down all the way to the slide I was talking about. I also had problems with timing, so I had to skip one of the sub points of my last point. Since I was nervous with all the things that went wrong, I also talked fast and didn't pause between my points as much as I wanted to. Overall I think if I had practiced more it would have been better.
But, I think my PowerPoint looked good and my images easily portrayed my points and was also visually interesting. My research was also really good because my two points were really tied together and managed to portray my thesis. Even though I had a rocky start with the complications of my PowerPoint, I managed to recover towards the end and left a good question for the public to linger on. I think my eye contact this time was better than last time because I was very interested in the topic. I also think i tailored it to the audience because it is something that we deal with everyday. Overall my visual aid props and presentation were good but a little more practice could have made it better.

visual aid reflection blog

Visual Aid Reflection Blog

I was nervous before giving this speech because I have found it difficult to find a happy medium of amount of info to cover during my speeches. The first informative speech I had too much info to go over and the second persuasive speech I feel as if I did not have enough, even though I made the same number of points (difference due to elaboration/length of points/etc).  This time, I was able to cover all my info within 7 minutes / appropriately fill the time slot so I was satisfied with this.

Additionally, I usually don't really notice audience reaction while I am talking (perhaps because I was not used to public speaking so the last thing I'm observing is if everyone is paying attention). However this time, I feel as if I got positive audience feedback (Laughs, nods) which made me feel like I did a better job in making my points easy to understand and more entertaining to watch.

I think I potentially spent too much time facing my visual aid as I had to make many references to it and I was not familiar enough to the layout of the magazine to point out where everything was. I think I also could have worked better on integrating my quotes as I would be talking extemporaneously and then suddenly look down and read a quote verbatim from my note cards.

I wrote a lot on my note cards but did not end up using them much so I was excited about this point as well. Overall, I think this was my best speech (as it should be being the end of the semester) and I am satisfied with what I have learned in this class/how I have incorporated it into my speaking both in this class and in Comm 322 (debate).

Julia Tseng visual aid speech reflection

               I wasn't as nervous to give the speech this time. I learned that there were a good amount of peer reviewed articles regarding crossfit which was all very interesting to read. This topic was very important to me because I did crossfit, and I didn't look at the negative sides of it. It was until after I was done with Crossfit that I started hearing about the negative side of this sport. I still would like to get back to Crossfit if it was not so expensive. The Crossfit I went to was great and all the members were very supportive of each other which I really appreciated. Some of the challenges I faced were trying to condense the important parts of the speech. I know so much about this topic that I feel like everything is important. Overall, I feel like I should work on condensing the speech even more. 

              After doing this speech, I am still in support of Crossfit. I would just advise everyone to be cautious of how their bodies feel after each workout, and to rehab correctly. I feel like the visual aid speech was the best speech I have given because I liked the videos I showed. I think searching for the Crossfit fail videos was the best part because there were many funny ones and funny commentaries. It was hard to pick which video to show because they were all really good funny videos. I also learned that Crossfit is not as terrible as everyone thinks it is. Most of the critics have not even tried Crossfit, but I have tried Crossfit therefore, I can give an objective view on Crossfit. Many of the videos that I found were not in Crossfit. I just feel like whenever there is something bad about a sport people will just jump on the bandwagon to make fun of something. Moving on, The only thing that I was disappointed about was that I forgot to show the reference page at the end of the speech. I feel that Crossfit is a good topic to do because it is such a controversial topic. 

Visual Aid

Kha, Cheannie
November 26, 2014
COMM 204, Wang
Visual Aid Speech Reflection

Choosing a visual aid speech topic was definitely the most difficult out of all the speeches we had to do. I did like that we were able to pick an informative or a persuasive speech to do because it did open up more possibilities. The thing that made it most difficult was finding a topic that would be best presented with visual aids! My first thought was to do a topic about “media representation of women” because there are SO many visuals that can demonstrate that topic, just walk into any grocery store or watch ANY movie. But I didn’t want to choose a topic that almost every communication student has seen if they’ve ever taken COMM 203 with Stacy Smith, so I veered away. The first topic idea I sent to Cynthia was to present a speech on the effects of Reality TV. When she got back to me about the topic, she pointed out that it might be a difficult topic to explain and effectively present my ideas in such a short amount of time, and I agreed so I started back at square one. I had another topic idea in mind that utilized a series of pictures but I wanted to save that for the final project so in the end I decided to go with a topic that related to my COMM 422 class. The topic was “How Facebook Became The King of Social Media”.

            I thought this topic would be good to use because it’s relevancy and importance to our generation. Facebook is widely recognized, utilized, and the second most popular website on the Internet, just under massive search engine, Google. But we all know that Facebook wasn’t the first social media network as it was first launched in 2004 but did not become available to the masses until 2006. Before that, we all remember a time when MySpace was known as the king of social media or when people found each other on Friendster instead. I wanted to do more extensive research on why, out of all the social media networks available to us, did Facebook beat out the rest, become the most popular and stayed the most popular. It’s was also interesting to note that Google+ launched in 2011 and people expected the masses to make the switch just as people did when Facebook launched. However, many people remained unimpressed about what Google+ offered and no such switch was made. Facebook remained the number one social network site and I wanted to find out why.

            Doing the research for this project was different in the sense that whenever I found any facts I had to see if there was any way I could translate the facts or support them with visuals. This included any screenshots or tables, and by doing a project on Facebook, an actual website, this was quite easy to gather. I kept Cynthia’s notes about PowerPoints and what we learned in class in mind because I wanted my visual aid to supplement my speech. I didn’t want it to overpower my speaking nor did I want it to be irrelevant and unneeded. So while presenting I made sure to point at things on the presentation, explain the images and show how things related to what I was talking about. I made sure not to put a lot of text and to blur out any unnecessary text on my slides to make sure all the attention was on what I was talking about and not on reading what my slide was about.

            I definitely have improved from day one of 204, and I definitely don’t get as nervous anymore. I spend more time preparing and that leads to a less anxiety before my speech. While we don’t have any speeches left, I think that for future presentations, if I can utilize visual aids I am going to because it makes your speech more comprehensive and easier to get across to your audience I feel. I feel prepared in making visual aids now, since I know what to avoid and what works. This was also one of my favorite category of speeches to watch and listen to!

Visual Aid Speech

For this speech, I feel as though I was more prepared than the previous speeches. I liked the idea of having a visual aid/ a powerpoint to reflect on and focus the classes attention on that, rather than it all being on me. I found that I spoke quickly, and read off of my notecards often because of my own nervous habits- which I wish I didn't do. I found my topic of comparing the two smartphones- iPhone vs. Android to be interesting, as well, because if it wasn't for this speech I probably wouldn't have found out all of the information of the two based on individual curiosity. My family and I have always used apple products, therefore I have always had the apple smartphone, but after researching the android products, I found that they actually offer users the same, if not more, and more improved software. As this was the last speech of the class, I wish I would have presented my speech the best of my ability, but I feel as though my nerves get the best of me during presentations, that it holds me back from doing so. My favorite Visual Aid speech would probably have been Rafaella's, because I found her topic to be interesting, as she spoke of the competing soda brands- Coca Cola and Pepsi. I really liked the design of her power point, and how she brought in actual bottles of the sodas.

Visual Aid Reflection

            I believe that this was my strongest speech of the semester. I addressed a serious problem (drug use) and offered realistic solutions. This is highly relevant to the class partially because college students are a big EDM demographic, but also because any person in the United States has likely seen many headlines about deaths from ecstasy, and it is important to fully understand the problem. I am also much happier with my visuals that I usually am when I give presentations with PowerPoints. I had never considered the fact that I didn’t have to do bullet points, and I think not using bullet points allowed me to use visuals that were actually interesting.

            One thing I struggled with was establishing credibility. I do not actually attend raves, even though I do listen to EDM. However, I hope that my research spoke strongly enough for itself. I also think my conclusion could have been stronger by having a better-stated so what, but I am happy with my overall message.

Visual Aid Speech reflection

The visual aid speech topic was relatively easy to come up with which was a first for me out of the previous speech topics. I chose the topic of giving higher wages for professional cheerleaders in the NBA and NFL. It was fun for me to do research on a subject that I knew a little bit more about and also related to (like the previous Charity speech). A lot of the information that I found, I knew to be true even before the research phase but the information I gathered confirmed what I had already heard previously which still had great shock value for me. 

I struggled with what my thesis was going to be because there was a lot that I wanted to talk about and got caught up in deciding my main points. I knew there was a certain stigma when it came to the cheerleading profession that seems to be all about glamour, sex appeal, and the glitz. I wanted to unveil the fact that these women are talented, hardworking, and not compensated for the work that they put into the profession. I wanted to highlight how much they are involved in their respective programs and are taken advantage of due to the fact that they are not paid for the work they do. After discussing with Cynthia about the parameters and arbitrariness of what a "serious profession" is versus a "hobby" and me having to prove that they were not being taken seriously as working professions, I figured that it would be trying to cover too much grounds. So I stuck with just focusing on explaining why it is that the women should be receiving higher wages. 

The visual aid part of the presentation was not difficult; building a powerpoint is something I feel many students are used to and are good at. I do wish I could have done something more creative with the visual aid part of it. I could have shown video clips, added more enhancing effects or graphics, or used a different tool than powerpoint. I did make some tables and pie graphs to highlight certain points and mostly pictures to depict what I was saying. 

Overall, it was a fun presentation and prepping for the research and formal outline was not difficult because it was something I was interested in. The actual delivery of the speech was okay. I thought that I talked for a bit longer than how I practiced it. It really was a lot of material that I wanted to cover but perhaps some parts could have been taken out. 

Visual Aid Speech

I felt much better about this speech than I did with my persuasive one. I spent a lot more time practicing it orally and that made me less nervous. I felt pressured by the number of topics I wanted to talk about and racing with the clock but I think in the end I covered everything to a good enough level that my audience understood my topic.

I think I still need practice working with a visual aid component because I didn't feel like I got it down just right yet but it was definitely an improvement from using a powerpoint presentation in my last speech. I am also not going to use Prezi next time because I was unable to do some effects that one normally does on powerpoint that helps the transitions of talking points and makes the visual aid more effective for the audience.

Overall, I think my presence was there. My tone and volume were appropriate and I think I made great eye contact with my audience. I saw that there were definitely people interested in the topic and I saw their reactions to points I was making and it was exactly how I hoped they would react. I rarely looked at my index cards and for once, didn't rely on them for big chunks of my presentation.

I feel like this was my best speech so far and I know I will use what I learned from the three speeches we worked on and everything in this class in the future.

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

For my visual aid speech I decided to talk about how sexuality is represented in the show Orange is the New Black. I used a powerpoint to illustrate my point through pictures, graphs, and facts. I believe the overall organization and information of my speech was done in the most effective way possible. Also, I believe I had an interesting topic that the class enjoyed hearing about.

I believe that my speech delivery was my best so far. I rarely looked at my cards and I spoke at a consistent pace. I made eye contact and only looked at my powerpoint when I was pointing at the images it showed. The one thing I still need to work on is my timing. When I am excited about my speech topic, I over explain or share things about certain ideas making me lose track of time. I had to wrap up my speech quickly again, but this time I think I did it a bit more graceful.

Overall, I think this speech went well and it exemplified the improvements I've made over the course of the semester.

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

Susan Lim

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

The purpose of my speech was to inform the audience about what a hybrid electric vehicle is, the positive aspects of owning one, and also the negative aspects of owning one as well. It was a bit difficult to prepare for my topic because there were so much information that I wanted to include in my speech. However, due to the time limit and because I did not want to bore the listeners, I decided to choose only the interesting and well-known information regarding hybrid vehicles. It was really interesting preparing for my topic because I learned a lot of things regarding hybrid vehicles from my research, especially the mechanics of it. It was especially helpful learning about the Regenerative Braking System - which explains the weird noise and feeling when the brakes are pressed. While preparing for my speech, it was very important to keep in mind that my visual aid was informative and not persuasive. In this, I had to be careful not be biased and make sure that my speech did not lean more towards one side of the spectrum. While giving my speech, I found that it was important for me to not use my visual aid as a backbone. Also, I made sure that I did not look at my powerpoint too much/ make it seem like I was reading off my powerpoint. Just like any other speech, eye contact was another important aspect to giving my speech as I was able to engage with the audience.

My informative visual aid speech regarding hybrid electric vehicles is important to me because I am a proud owner of one. Although there are perks to driving a hybrid vehicle, there are also negative aspects that I wanted to inform others about. As for the research, I thought that I did it thoroughly and made sure to use credible sources throughout my speech as evidence. I also made sure to correctly cite any images or information that I used in my visual aid (powerpoint) as well. However, I also felt very nervous while giving my speech- I could tell that I was talking faster and less natural than I usually do. I hoped that I would be less nervous and sound less mechanic this time around but I’m not sure if things turned out the way I hoped.

Visual Aid Reflection

Choosing the topic for the Visual Aid Speech was difficult for me because there were so many options to choose from that could work well with visual aids. I chose to do mine on the legalization of marijuana because I think it is an interesting topic, and the heated debate would allow me to easily research it. I thought it would work well as the visual aid topic due to the financial impact and the measurable impact it could have on society.

Preparing for the speech was not difficult as I had been through the process twice and making the visual aid presentation made the preparation aspect more fun than usual. It was not difficult to find useful articles on the topic and I was able to find many graphs that fit the speech well.

Delivering the speech went much better than my previous speeches I felt. Having the presentation to keep me on track and remind me what is coming next helped a lot. I also felt more comfortable speaking in front of the class. I felt that it was one of my stronger speeches in the class and that I definitely progressed as the semester went on.

Visual Speech

To prepare for the speech, I did a lot of research through magazine and business sites like Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes. I also tried doing some research about habits and qualities of successful entrepreneurs and how likely they were to succeed through Google Scholar. Although I found the least useful and relevant information through Google Scholar, that process took the  longest... This was probably due to the fact that most content I was looking for was about what's the best way to start a business. I'd have to say, I really enjoyed reading the Entrepreneur and Inc. articles though. They are pretty interesting and relevant.

Additionally, while preparing for the speech, I encountered difficulties in creating a powerpoint. Originally, I didn't want to go through the trouble of citing images and I wanted to be able to make the powerpoint appear as a coherent whole, but when I tried to create my own powerpoint, it looked too simple. In the end, I just ended up using images from the web.

Lastly, during the presentation, I still felt nervous. I tried not speaking too fast, but I ended up making lots of mistakes. I feel that when I purposely try not to go as fast, my mind takes too much time trying to remember what comes next. I stumbled quite a bit. Also, I ended up going past the time limit--if I remember correctly, it was 7:26 minutes. I think during practice, I averaged about 6:40ish minutes. I should have practiced speaking slower, so that I am used to speaking slowly during the actual presentation. That way, I probably would have made less mistakes, too, and timing would have been better.

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

This week I gave my informative/visual aid speech on body language and communication. This topic was relevant because we all communicate on a daily basis, and learning how to decode and be aware of our own body language can help us all be better communicators.

I had the least amount of practice for this speech, but I feel that despite that it still went very well. I feel that I succeeded in being conversational. I looked down at my notecards a lot because I was a bit nervous, but felt that I still did a good job making even eye contact with the room. I noticed I had a bit more "um's" in this speech. My visual aid was successful but I did not use it as a crutch. I got a few laughs out of the audience with some of my visuals, so that was good feedback.

Of all of my speeches I think that the class enjoyed this one the most. I was actually surprised at how good of feedback I got from the audience because I was probably the least confident in this speech compared to the other three. Perhaps this means that I have gotten better with my public speaking skills!

Overall I feel that this speech went well, possibly the best of all three of my speeches this semester.

Persuasive Speech Reflection

Last week I gave my persuasive speech on why I believe that the national legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. This topic is important to me not just because as a young adult I want to be able to go out and drink alcohol legally, but because I believe that there are a lot of reasons that the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one is hypocritical and unfair. Because I feel strongly about the topic, I hope that the audience was able to care more about my message as well. Unfortunately when I gave my speech I was in the process of fighting a cold so I don’t think I sounded great. I definitely did a better job with citing my sources in my speech than I did during my informative speech. I also think that I did a better job of managing my time during my speech, but this is still something that I need to work on.

I enjoyed Sunny’s speech about the benefits of volunteering for charitable organizations instead of just donating money to them. I have worked with a few different organizations and have questioned where all of the money goes. I think that as young adults we are capable of putting in the time and effort to volunteer for a good cause. I also liked Stephanie’s speech about adopting dogs from shelters instead of buying dogs from breeders. She was clearly passionate about the topic and that showed through her delivery.

Persuasive Reflection Blog

For this persuasive speech, I found myself running into problems early on in the topic decision process. My original idea was to do my speech on why gluten free eating is beneficial towards ones health, then as we discussed topics in the classroom, the feedback from others gave me more insight to steer towards a different approach. I realized it's difficult to give a speech on something when I personally don't even believe that way, I just knew there was a lot of information on it. I decided to change my topic to the gluten free fad, and inform my audience of the amount of people with the actual disease versus those without, whom just choose to eat this way. I personally consume gluten products, so I felt it would be more relatable to have the same viewpoint as my persuasive topic. During preparing for the speech, I found my topic to be extremely interesting, and was looking forward to presenting. On my day of presentation, I of course got anxious and nervous and wished I had done things differently. I find myself speaking quickly when I'm nervous, which I am afraid may have reflected on my score for the speech. I also had complications in opening my video clip, which threw me off quite a bit. Aside from that, I feel good about my speech as I had a lot of content to deliver and think I did better than the last one. Every speech assignment I hold new expectations for myself, so I hope my visual aid one will be that much better.
Of the many speeches we listened to in class, two of which I particularly enjoyed the most was Kayla's on choosing a date of death in some states, and her persuading us to believe this should be legalized in California. I liked her presentation a lot because she seemed very interested in the topic, she had a lot to say and it was clear she knew what she was saying. She also was confident and spoke loud and clear, with constant eye contact which made it easy to follow along. I also enjoyed how Kayla spoke about a specific example recently in the media where a woman was diagnosed with a terminating illness and was able to set a day for her death in order to remove herself from the pain she may be in if she didn't have such a choice. I wasn't aware of this story, so I feel as though her speech was also informative, to me.
I also enjoyed Riley's speech, because she spoke on a topic we don't usually think about, unfortunately. She gave specific examples as well that allowed me to relate, for example, purchasing several water bottles throughout the day, instead of filling up the same bottle from water fountains. I am a culprit myself for doing this, and since the speech have tried to be more cautious in doing so. Riley spoke confidently and clearly, and referred to her powerpoint only when showing pie charts or photographs. Several things she did in her speech I took note of in order to make sure I do better on, myself, for my next speech. :)

Persuasive Speech Reflection

From doing my persuasive speech I learned a lot more about mental illness. I had already known a lot about mental illness and how present it is in our society but by doing this research I learned that it is even a bigger problem than I had known. I also learned that I should have practiced giving my speech a few more time because there were a few times I did get caught up. But overall I feel that this speech was stronger than my first speech and I did feel more comfortable in front of the class than I did last time. This topic meant so much to me because like I mentioned in my speech my half sister Shaylee has borderline personality disorder ad bipolar disorder. I have witnessed how so many of the problems that my family has had with my sister could have been avoided had there been better education and help for her.
For last Tuesdays speeches I really enjoyed Rileys speech on personal waste. I really do think this is a problem that could be helped so easily people just need to be better informed of the problem and then they will be more aware of their own personal waste. For last Thursdays speeches I really enjoyed Stephanies speech on adopting puppies. I agree that it is ridiculous that so many little dogs are being killed because they are not being adopted meanwhile people are breeding thousands of dogs when we do not need anymore dogs. And for this past Tuesday I really enjoyed Troys speech on paying student athletes. Although swimming would not be one of the sports that would benefit from this considering we do not make a profit. I do think that football and basketball players should get some of the money considering they are making a profit because of their work.

persuasive speech reflection

The most difficult part about the persuasive speech for me was picking the topic. It took me awhile to figure out what I was going to argue for or against but I ended up really enjoying the topic that I chose for the presentation. I felt that there had to be a degree of emotional appeal which I wanted to come across as genuine and powerful so I had to take that into account when formulating the content. I strived to achieve the balance between providing good and reliable data and facts and also adding an emotional appeal. Overall, I liked working on the persuasive speech more than the informative because it was easier to get a clear grasp of my thesis and once I found it, everything else worked out accordingly.

I particularly enjoyed Riley's speech on being more mindful of the waste that we create in society. The topic relates to everyone and it was a strong argument because it's pretty difficult to construct an argument against being environmentally aware and being less wasteful.
Stephanie's speech on why we should adopt puppies from shelters instead of buying them from breeders was another argument that resonated with me. She had great arguments that addressed both sides.

Persuasive Speech

My topic choice was relatively easy as I have been following the debate over the payment of student-athletes for months. In the off-season of college athletics, it dominated the sports coverage and a new opinion/report was written almost every day. I decided it would be interesting to read more about the topic for myself and also a topic that the class would find interesting as many of their peers are student-athletes, even some of our own classmates.

During my research, I found many articles debating the payment of college athletes. Both sides of the debate have been thoroughly defended, so picking a side and forming an opinion was slightly difficult. Preparing my speech was initially frustrating as I could not decide what to use as my main points, considering the topic has so many aspects and variables. I decided to focus on one aspect of the debate and argue in defense of student-athletes. I was far less nervous to deliver this speech than my informative speech as I had been through the process before. I also felt far more prepared having practiced my speech, something I did not do with my first two speeches. I forgot some content and statistics while I was up there, but I felt comfortable.

I went slightly over-time, something I did not consider when I practiced, but I felt good about my overall speech. I need to be more conscious of my time management before my next speech and practice more diligently.

Thursday: I found Sunny's speech on philanthropy to be incredibly engaging and interesting. Coming from a very philanthropic family, my parents have always made it a priority for me to commit time to charity while growing up. We would attend soup kitchens, participate in city clean-ups, and spend time with under-privileged children amongst other activities. Having known many people who simply donate to large charities and well-known causes, it is interesting to hear about the money allocation and action behind donating. I agree that the best way to give back is to donate your time and energy and found her reasoning to be moving. She noted that it is still very important to donate and give money, but emphasized the value of spending time.

Tuesday (11/4): I found Jeffrey's speech on ending world poverty to be very engaging. I enjoyed listening to Jeffrey's speech in particular because it was on the same topic as his informative speech. Having heard his informative speech, it was interesting to see the persuasive aspect of it and how the topic can be flipped from informative to persuasive. He is also very emotionally charged about the issue and the conviction in his voice is a great verbal aspect of his speech. I particularly enjoyed the end of his speech as he finished with a great call to action.

Persuasive Speech reflection

I think I improved slightly from my last speech in terms of the actual presentation. My persuasive speech went more smoothly, and I did not run out of time. Running through my visual aid speech multiple times prior to the day of presentation will be extremely beneficial to me. Once I perfect the extemporaneous aspect of the presentation, I believe my speech will be much more effective and engaging.

Stephanie’s speech on lowering the legal drinking age definitely got me to think about the topic more. I disagree with her argument that the drinking age should be lowered to age 18. She provided one reason why experts argue the drinking age should be 21. Stephanie explained that experts believe alcohol consumption by anyone under 21 could stunt cognitive development; however, she neglected to provide a rebuttal. I believe the drinking age should exist in its current state, partly due to the vulnerable nature of an underdeveloped brain. Furthermore, Stephanie argued that at the age of 18, people are mature enough to make safe decisions while intoxicated. I disagree. At the shy age of 18, I recall making poor decisions. For example, I made the regrettable decision to get a tattoo. As a 21 year old, I deeply regret my choice – a choice that was made with impulse. At 18, people are hormonal and emotional, and may not be mentally mature enough to drink alcohol with proper precautions. I think being allowed to consume alcohol at age 18 will only exacerbate bad decisions teens tend to make.

In many ways I agree with Kayla’s argument that people should have the authority over when and how they die when terminally ill, but there are many illnesses that are currently under researched or little knowledge exists. Therefore, life expectancies are not always certain. Moreover, there are always counter examples in people that make unexpected recoveries.

Persuasive Speech

For my persuasive speech, I definitely did not feel the same level of nerves or anxiety, which I consider to be a large improvement. However, I still was not satisfied with how my speech went. I felt as if in my informative speech that I attempted to cover way too many points and I ran out of time, so when organizing this speech, I made sure to make less points and elaborate on two or three points fully. I don't know how great of a tactic this was because I felt like I ran out of points when I was up in front of the class speaking. I feel like perhaps I spoke too quickly out of nervousness or skipped over some transitional sentences/elaboration that I had practiced beforehand. I think the reason I was able to elaborate on the topic better last time was that I felt a genuine interest in the topic and this time I was just trying to pick a relevant topic. I am not extremely passionate about human euthanasia despite supporting the points that I made, but I am very passionate about health/nutrition. Next time I need to spend more time deciding on my speech topic and perhaps strike a balance between my informative speech and persuasive speech.
I felt I improved because I actually remembered to reference my cards and was able to cite sources during my speech, which I basically neglected last speech. I think that my strong points is that I style maintain a conversational style and do not have a problem connecting with my audience (eye contact, demeanor). I wish I would have used a powerpoint although there were not many visuals I could have referred to in my speech. On my next visual aid speech, I am going to make sure that the topic I pick has relevant images to go along with my speech and that the speech is within my realm of knowledge.

It was really hard for me to pick a speech that I disagree with, but I disagree with elements of the speech made about Iran. I feel hypocritical or judgmental as I know very little about Iran, but I identify with more conservative political views and many of the things she brought up in her speech just did not resonate with me as being good counter arguments to wide held views about Iran in the United States. I realize that not all Iranians are terrorists, but I do feel as if there is a select group that has bad intentions for US safety. I feel like she tried to stress that the typical Iranian does not fit the US stereotyping. I am sure that this is true. However, for me that was not a very good point because obviously no nation is made up entirely of violent people. I am not knowledgeable enough on the topic to make judgements about the rest of her speech.

I felt as if Emily Walper's speech was the most persuasive for me because it differed from her first speech (as an audience member). The first speech, from the information she provided, I did not see any problem with gender changing operations at young ages because I had been thinking about the young girl that was a focus of a news story. However, in her persuasive speech where she brought up points like mental retardation and other negative repercussions of the surgeries, I was swayed to think otherwise. I still am a supporter of LGBTQ/transgender surgeries, but I feel as if they should be done at a later date and more research should be done to ensure that the surgeries are done at an age that is safe. I also would feel more comfortable if all medications that go along with the surgery are FDA approved and my confidence in the medications would improve over time with no reports of harmful side effects.

My favorite speakers were Rafaella and Sunny. I thought that Rafaella's speech was very well prepared and that she was very clear in the points she made. I really enjoyed the way Sunny presented her speech, however I did not enjoy the topic simply because I used to work in non profits and am tired of the topic.

Persuasive Speech Reflection

Susan Lim

Persuasive Speech Reflection Blog

November 2, 2014

While preparing for the persuasive speech, I found it much easier to research my topic because I was very interested and somewhat passionate about. In the process of preparing my speech, it was very important to keep in mind the counter arguments that people may have regarding my topic. However, since my speech was regarding the high cost of education and the need to lower tuition and interest rates, I thought that it would be appropriate to mention the flaws in the policies that were created to alleviate the issues with high education costs. While giving my speech, I found that it was important to make eye contact with the audience, as this may allow me to seem more credible to the audience. Also, making eye contact with the audience helps them to be more engaged during my speech.

            My persuasive speech topic regarding the burden of a higher education is important to me because I am actually dealing with student loans and tuition. It is also something that most of my classmates also deal with therefore I thought that speaking about high tuition and interest rates would be relevant and interesting to them. I made sure to research my topic thoroughly and made sure to use credible sources throughout my speech. Although I prepared for and practiced my speech many times, I  felt extremely nervous while giving my speech and noticed that I started to speak faster. During my visual aid speech, I will make sure to calm down and talk at an appropriate pace and sound less mechanical. Another thing that I can improve on is organizing my speech better so that I can remember the transitions and main points more easily. Some challenges I faced while giving my speech was making sure that I did not look at my notecards often. I realized that I subconsciously kept reading off my notecards to cope with my nervousness.

            One speech I really enjoyed that informed me as well as persuaded me was the speech about conservation. I really enjoyed the organization of Riley’s speech as she started out with debunking myths and counterarguments about waste/recycling and then stated her main points afterwards. The statistics about how much America as a nation actually wastes resources and materials was very interesting and eye-opening. It really got me to think twice about wasting any resources- I even started using less paper towel after washing my hands! Riley’s speech was also very relevant to the class, as everyone must be aware and conserve as much as we can. Especially living in California, we must conserve water as California is currently in a very serious drought. Riley successfully persuaded me to conserve and think twice about waste.

            Another speech that I enjoyed was Sunny’s speech about donating to charities and questioning the distribution of the donated funds. Sunny’s speech was very convincing as she used statistics of charities that are well known such as Invisible Children. She also made sure to make eye contact with the audience and gave the speech in a more conversational way, which made it less boring and more engaging. Overall, her speech was very well-given which played a huge role in successfully persuading the audience.