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. :)