Informative Speech Reflection on SI Models and Body Image

Going into the second speech in the class was definitely a little bit less nerve-wracking than the first because I've gotten several chances to speak in the last few weeks and also to know everyone better. I think any pressure that I was experiencing stemmed from the fact that I knew that I would be graded and that I would have to speak for an extended amount of time. I really enjoyed preparing for this speech in particular because I was able to discuss a topic that is very important to me. I've always been interested in the effects of media on society and I thought my topic on plus-size Sports Illustrated models was very relevant to today. The idea of embracing people of all sizes has gained a lot more recognition in recent media, so I thought my audience would be able to connect with this topic. 

With respect to the content of my message, I think I did a decent job of covering all of my main points and including transitions, but I did not articulate them as well as I planned due to nerves/overthinking everything. I loved seeing audience reactions because it was really reassuring and I was able to feed off of their energy. I wish that I had practiced a little bit more so that I could've elaborated on certain points, but overall I'm happy that I was able to cover all of the main points.

Since my previous speech, I've needed to work on projection, and for this speech I tried to maintain a decent volume, hopefully it sounded as loud as I thought! I also had a bad habit of turning to my screen when it was not necessary. 

All in all, I feel like I've improved since my first speech and I also learned so much going into it. I enjoyed watching all of the other speeches as well and finding out what my peers' passions are. It was really interesting to see how unique everyone is, whether it was regarding their topics or their methods of delivery. I'm looking forward to taking the next step and listening to another set of great speeches. Great job everyone!

Informative Speech Reflection

I was really nervous about this first speech because I honestly did not feel prepared at all.  I spent way more time researching for material than actually forming my speech and practicing the speech. Researching was critical in forming my outline, but having researched too much in the beginning, when I was outlining my speech, I struggled because I was so overwhelmed with information.

After reflecting on it, I think I went about preparing my speech in the wrong order. My original outline provided too much historical background and not enough information on the current state of the over development occurring in Irvine. I don't think I was ever too clear about the purpose of what I had wanted to convey to my audience which is why I also had difficulty in finding information. I had wanted to have enough information in hand before I approached Cynthia about what I wanted to convey on this particular topic, but by then it was a little bit too late. I learned the hard way; but now I know that it is important that I know what I want to express and the direction/angle that I want to take in regards to my topic before I start researching. Of course, I can backtrack, but to prevent rewriting everything again, I have to know my argument!

While there are many things I could still improve on, I'm happy with how my speech went (partly because I thought it was going to go terrible). I thought my visual with the map and text in the background may have been a little bit distracting. I was hoping that the map of the master plan would give my audience a sense of how detailed city planners and developers can be, and thereby giving my audience this contrast between the positive and negative aspects to city planning.  I also realized that I started stuttering and looking to my cheat sheet near the end of my speech because I started feeling flustered as I realized I was running out of time. As a result, I wasn't really able to convey "why this topic is relevant and important." It's interesting however, I caught myself entering into panic mode. Once I realized I was getting super nervous, I calmed myself down and slowed down my speech (there may have been a lot of "ums"), and once that happened I actually heard myself talk. Even though I didn't memorize the speech, I think when I'm speaking in front of a large group, I often times don't really know what I'm saying. When I'm unaware of what I'm saying, it's highly possible that I'm not making much sense to my audience. So for my next speech, not only will I practice more but also be more conscious of what I'm saying.

Was my speech Wicked?! (Informative Speech Reflection)

After listening the first speech on the cruel treatment of dolphins,  I was nervous. I thought I could have possibly implemented slides as a way of effectively communicating my message not only verbally, but visually as well. However, I had rehearsed my speech to my twin sisters so many times that Elphaba practically became a third sister to me: this was my strength. From my experience in the theater, I knew how important rehearsals were for any form of public speaking. If you don’t rehearse you have no idea the possible problems that could arise within whatever you are speaking about.  So to conjure (muhahaha… Wicked… get it?) a remedy to this situation, I rehearsed my butt off.

The use of music, in the opening of my speech, was a big benefactor to my success. It was able to get the audience into the correct mindset of thinking about tones, and mood shifts that are commonly associated with theatrical performance. In addition, it demonstrated the antithesis between the two plays musically. One being a rock opera and the other being a traditional theatrical soundtrack. However, it might have gone on for a little too long. In between people shouting out tone words there were a few awkward pauses, due to the redundancy of the music.  

After, I gave my introduction on what I was going to do. I did a good job, however, I forgot to make verbal roadsigns for the audience to follow throughout the speech. From this speech, I learned that not only do I need to include them, but I need to make sure to reiterate my points. After seeing a few of my fellow classmates speeches I realized that this the was key to actually retaining the knowledge from a speech. I gave people few signs of what information we had passed, and my speech would have been much more effective if I had included said verbal roadsigns.

Finally, my stance might have been an issue. After performing my speech, I realized I completely forgot about my body control. I was jumping up, down and all around the place. In hindsight there was quite a lot of  pacing around. Mind you, for a speech on musical theater, this could be considered appropriate behavior; however, if my topic was on any other subject this would most likely have been disastrous and wildly inappropriate. This unbridled body movement implied a lack of confidence in the topic I had chosen. Safe to say, my iTunes library and I know that this lack of confidence in musical theater does not exist.

Trial and Error

Preparation:

         I found the formal preparation outlines to be incredibly useful. At first, I found them to be a hassle, but later realized that by creating such an in depth overview, I did not need to use filler to meet the 5-7 minute requirement. This outline also made it easy to edit my thesis and focus my ideas as I soon realized that many of the topics I wanted to discuss may not be pertinent. When writing my formal outline, I began to notice there was a lack of available research related to one of my arguments. I searched multiple databases, Google Scholar, and searched various University websites, but later found that many schools did not publish statistics about their students’ health. While this caused me to question their reluctance, I was forced to abandon this topic and redirected my research to the mental health of college students nationally as opposed to comparing the mental health of students at USC to other schools. I did not really use my speech outline and found that because so many of my quotes were incredibly lengthy, it was difficult to condense them into these notecards. Overall, I have learned how effective the formal outline is and have also understood that I need to learn to use the research to support my arguments and elaborate upon these quotes.

Delivery:

I have given many speeches in my life, yet I think this one may have been one of my worst. In this speech, I focused too much attention on providing the audience with a large evidence pool, which ultimately hindered my delivery. Rather than allowing myself to speak freely, I felt very constrained by the overwhelming amount of statistics I had used and I feel as though my speech ended up being approximately 60% findings and only 40% elaboration and personal knowledge. In the past, I have considered one of my strengths to be public speaking; I feel confident articulating my thoughts and beliefs, but I felt that my informative speech turned into a recitation. In terms of body language, I tried very hard to avoid my past mistakes including, swaying side to side, touching my hair, and crossing my legs. I also did not have as much time to rehearse my speech as I would have liked due to an overwhelming amount of other work. However, this experience has taught me that regardless of how many other factors are influencing my preparation, it is important to set aside time to practice speaking. I have learned from my mistakes and look forward to correcting them in the next assignment.

Listening:

         As an audience member, I have found that the best speeches may not have been the “best delivered” or “best researched,” but they all had something in common: the speaker’s passion for the topic was very evident. When the speaker exuded a sense of excitement, the audience felt it as well. In addition, the visual presentations used by a few speakers were very effective. After seeing the power of these visual aids, I would like to use one in my next speech. I though everyone in the class was very respectful of one another. No one was distracting or interrupting the speaker. The audience seemed engaged and genuinely interested in what the speaker had to say. My experience as an audience member was just as educational as my experience as a speaker. Both roles left me with room to build on my strengths and weaknesses and I hope to work toward improvement in my next speech.

Go along with it!

Presenting my first serious speech was nerve-wracking.  I believe I was more nervous dying my informative speech than my introductory speech. All I could think about was how much my performance would affect my grade. Seeing that this speech would be weighed more heavily than the previous speech, I chose topic that I was passionate about. Since a young age, I have been interested in whales and dolphins. I figured that if I chose a topic that my heart was in, it would be easy for me to show my passion for it and my audience would be more engaged. I decided to inform my peers about how captivity affects bottle nose dolphins.

Along the way, I learned lessons that will be helpful for my future speeches. For my next speech, I will make sure to rehearse my speech aloud several times the night before. The previous night, I recited my speech to my roommate several times, but decided to stop because I felt like I was getting on her nerves. I then thought that I could rehearse it in my head and that would be enough. Unfortunately, it was not. Upon giving my speech, I skipped an entire paragraph. To make matters worse, I also said allowed, “Oops! I messed up!” I wanted to die when that happened. However, now I know to look at my note card more often and know not to be afraid of practicing multiple times the night  before. In spite of what happened, I am glad how my speech turned out. I went along with it as though I had not made a mistake, and it seemed to have worked. Several of my peers came up to me to congratulate me. Guys, I don’t know if you were just saying that to make me feel better— but thank you! From this, I learned that when you make a mistake, pretend as though nothing has happened and your audience will never know!

Tweeting into a New World

The first round of speaking anxiety is over. Regardless of the times I have spoken publicly, I always have a form of pre-speech jitters. I've learned that this nervousness is an energy that can be manipulated by the speaker to engage the audience. So instead of stuttering or freezing after forgetting a point, I try to emphasize the point I am on in effort to draw in the audience. With that being said, I think I had control over my nerves for the informative speech- I didn't let them get to me. I typically feel comfortable when speaking to a group of people but that is something that I have developed with time, plus it helps that everybody in class is attentive and respectful. In addition, I selected a topic that I genuinely cared for and believed in, so that helped in my delivery and familiarity with the topic. I essentially wanted my informative speech to convey the idea that the use of twitter and hashtags are creating a trend of micro-blogging. This micro-blogging is how news is spreading instantly now. Now anyone can take report on what they witness or read about, use a relevant hashtag and contribute to the stream of instant messages on the same topic. It really gives us an opportunity to support actions, witness revolutions and inform ourselves and others more. 

Delivering the speech was an overall positive experience but there are definitely things I can improve on. First on the list would probably be to practice more. I am guilty of developing arguments on paper  and focusing on the written material more than the oral portion. I had arguments and ideas that I had developed on paper and was unable to transfer into words. That means that I should weigh more on the actual delivery and presentation rather than the appearance on paper. However, content remains extremely important. I went over by a minute and forty-five seconds on my speech demonstrating a lack of practice. If I had practiced my speech more and familiarize myself with how ideas sounded, then I might have made the edits necessary on the written portion. By undergoing such preparation, I will be more organized. That will allow my audience to clearly follow what I am saying and will help me out with timing. Other than preparation, I can work on keeping audience in mind and answering the 'so what?' I did make points to answer that in this speech, but it is key that I continue to do so in the rest of my speeches.

With that being said, everybody's speech was a success and informative!   

Informative Speech: Amazon Drones

I have just finished my first ever 5-7 minute long speech! The entire process of researching was extremely interesting to me because it was from a new approach than I ones that I would typically take when researching. Being able to identify what was an academic resource was foreign to me and now I know that it is something that is affiliated with a university press or has been peer reviewed as a journal article. Having to make a long outline and then a shorter outline was extremely helpful for me because I was able to identify key words that would allow me to remember longer pieces of information. It might be time consuming but definitely worth it!
Practicing my speech was extremely important because there were numerous times where I would go way past the given time because of stammering and stuttering over my sentences. I found that each time I practiced my speech, it was never the same and something would be different. I actually liked having a general guideline to follow but also allowing myself room to pivot in the speech depending on how it was going. During the actual speech I found myself pivoting and seeing as I had very little time left I even did not mention everything that was on my notecard. I found that giving myself less pressure to say everything on my notecard made it easier for me and as long as the main points were said, then the supplementary points could be excluded.
It was definitely nervous having to look at my classmates for about 7 minutes. I tried to make sure that I maintained eye contact and hopefully I did! I know that I tend to fidget when I am nervous so hopefully I was not making a lot of movements outside of the safe box with relevant and appropriate hand gestures. Overall, I actually enjoyed giving the speech because I definitely learned a lot about the speech giving process and also enjoyed sharing my informative topic with the class!

Comm 204: Eric Pinashin Informative Speech Reflection

Good afternoon,

After countless hours of preparation for my and buildup of anticipation for my informative speech on Diabetes this past Friday has finally dissipated, I think that I was able to achieve the goals that I had in mind, but like always, there is always room for improvement.

My main goal was to inform my classmates on the different types of diabetes, and the prevalence of it in the United States. Every speech that I heard so far did an outstanding job delivering their speeches and informing us on a new and diverse topics, and I hope that I was able to achieve the same results.

Starting with the positives; I feel that incorporating visual aids and brief text onto my powerpoint slides helped the audience follow along with what I was saying, I was articulate with my words and projected my voice so everyone was able to hear me (I didn't see anyone falling asleep, which was a positive), kept my posture faced towards the audience, instead of staring at my powerpoint slides throughout the duration of the presentation, and I used a quick sampling quiz at the beginning of my presentation to grasp the attention of my audience.

Now time for the negatives. To start, I tried to shorten my presentation as much as possible without trying to leave the class without questions, but I still went over my time limit, and had to skip one slide out of my presentation. Second, I should have probably placed the keyboard on a table in order to transition from slide to slide, instead of holding it in my hands, as this may have been distracting to the audience. Third, even though I did articulate my voice, I should have spoke much slower, since I know that I am a fast talker. I feel that my fast talking probably did not make sense to some people, or this just lost the attention of the audience. Fourthly, I skipped one or two points on my presentation overall, but I had realized that this one or two points would have cost me another minute or two of my already over the time limit speech. And finally, I had only one oral citation of the CDC towards the end of my presentation. I had specifically practiced on reciting the names of the researchers that I wanted to quote, but I guess I got in the moment and was rushing through my speech, which made the names of the researchers that I wanted to quote just exit my mind completely.

I feel that the general consensus was that I should have made a much shorter speech, even if this did leave out some key points which the audience may have had questions with or may have been left confused and yearning for answers. Working on speaking slower and making a shorter speech, instead of rushing to get through my presentation is what I will work on for my persuasive speech.

Overall, I feel that my informative speech went well, especially since I did it on a topic that has hit close to home on many occasions, and I am researching topics that I can present for my persuasive speech, which I will probably talk about prescription drug abuse in America.

Since I will be out on Monday, I wish everyone the best of luck on their speeches on Monday, and can't wait for the next persuasive speech!

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Thanks,

Eric Pinashin

Informative Speech Down. 2 To Go.

         To me, my informative speech went well. Every day I prepared a little, and I am happy that I did that. Other informative speeches were fascinating as well. I especially enjoyed the speech about dolphins at Sea World. It was captivating. And after Eric's speech, I am also glad that I do not have diabetes.
        For improvement, I would like to work on my quivering. It felt like my mouth was vibrating a great deal. I didn't think I was nervous. When my mouth started shaking, though, I realized I was. Also, it would be nice if I got my hands to stop shaking. That is another side effect of being nervous. Like I said, though, I am happy with the way it turned out. It was fun that I got to use my laser pointer.
         Now I am thinking about my persuasive speech. It would be nice to do a similar topic since I already know so much. On the other hand, it would be fun to do something different. That will be a fun speech because the tactics are unique to an informative speech. In persuasive speeches, it involves more personality. That I like because I have plenty of personality!
       With my informative speech, I got good practice for my visual aid speech. Between using the laser pointer and clicking on the powerpoint, I learned to be dynamic with my hands. Now I will know what to do now that I faced those challenges.
        Like I said, I enjoyed doing the informative speech very much. There are five more to go on Monday, so I wish those guys best of luck!