The secret to living a more fulfilling life (Persuasive speech)

This speech was probably my favorite to give because excessive phone use when with company is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I find it rude when a person gives their full attention to a mobile device instead of the people they are choosing to be around. I think this topic is very pertinent to this class because we are a part of the generation that is guilty of doing this. I'm not perfect and I will admit that I am guilty of committing this "crime." But I will also say that I'm very aware of how excessive cell phone use affects those around you and we can thank my mom for that. My mom was the "cellphone cop" and it all started when I was in the 6th grade after I got my first cellphone. She would always tell me to stop using my phone when I was at the dinner table and/or when her and I were in the car. At first I abhorred her (like really . . . I hated hearing her say that phrase) because I just wanted to use my phone and remember, that was back in 2003 or 2004 when all you could do was play Snake or send an SMS. Years later as I started driving with my friends, I realized how right she was to tell me to put down my phone. It was at that moment when I realized my mom felt like a chauffeur. All she wanted was to spend quality time and talk with her daughter, not drive in silence because said daughter was too busy trying to win at Snake. 

This speech was also the most enjoyable for me to give because I felt like I didn't have to think too hard about its content. So when I got stuck during the speech and couldn't find the word I wanted to use, it was easy for me to get back in the rhythm. I'm not going to lie, I also think presenting this speech was the easiest because I had already been speaking to class for some time. Despite the easier time I had giving this speech, I definitely ran over time (like in my previous speeches) and that was frustrating because I didn't think I would. It was definitely because of the clip I showed at the beginning of the speech. Granted, I could've stopped the clip earlier, but I wanted the class to really feel the message that it was sending because seeing brings people one step closer to believing. I wanted the class to see the impact that excessive phone use can have on others around them so that when I presented my speech, they would be more inclined to WANT to put their phones down. 

This class has definitely taught me a lot. I learn by taking things that I observe from others and utilizing it to better myself. I really enjoyed listening to others speak because it opened my eyes to different approaches and techniques that I could now adopt into the way I think or speak. 

Thank you Cynthia for a memorable semester! 

Are YOU a foodie? (Informative speech)

We live in a world in where trends, as fickle as they are, dominate society. It's all about the latest fad whether it be about food, clothes, or even hair color. That leads me to my why I chose to talk about the foodie movement. Food is a basic necessity of life that not everyone thought about but thanks to this new "trend," people are actually caring about food. Caring about food and what you eat is extremely important because what we choose to eat and where we choose to eat it affects not only the people around you, but it affects the environment around us. We may not blatantly see the negative consequences of making poor eating decisions but we can feel it if we don't change the way we think about food. I really wanted to talk about this movement because it bothers me when I hear so many people calling themselves "foodies" when all they do is take pictures of their food in order to garner likes via social media sites. Like I said in my speech, being a foodie means more than just loving to eat food.

Before I discuss my performance, I just want to put it out there that I did theater and choir back in high school, so being in the spotlight isn't something new. Granted I was a nervous (wrecking)ball of a wreck . . . but after the first minute of being on stage, the stage fright subsided and I was able to continue performing without any fear. And with that being said, I have no idea what it was about giving these speeches that made me so nervous! I was pretty calm BEFORE I got to class but a huge cloud of nervousness or stage fright came over me the minute I stood up in front of the class. Eventually the fright went away but it still baffles me as to why it gets so intense at times. I need to somehow find a way to "ease my mind" of these fears because I feel doing that will really enhance my speaking skills. I find that my nervousness significantly interferes with my train of thought. 

 I hope everyone enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed talking about it! 

Visual Aid Speech Reflection

I definitely struggled again with narrowing down my topic. However, my biggest takeaway in preparing for this speech is understanding and even more so, accepting that in focusing on a specific area for  any topic, I will always have information that will be left out. I had initially really wanted to provide commentary and in many ways, a solution to the social comparison phenomenon because this is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, but because social comparison itself is so broad and everyone engages in it differently than others, in trying to provide one concrete solution would have not been effective. I also drove myself crazy in trying to figure out how to frame my argument. While the outcome of the speech diverted from my original intent, I am happy and relieved that I eventually was able to frame my argument  around Facebook. Hopefully, in the future I will have the chance to expand more on the subject of social comparison and how it relates to identity and happiness. 

In terms of the actual speech and delivery of the speech, I had thought that the Youtube video was slightly too long. I had considered showing only a part of it, but then I felt as though the overall message would not have been as clear. Now that I think about it, I could have even narrowed my argument and framed it around the short film. There was a lot to the video clip that I wasn't able to discuss, and so there might have been a slight disconnect to my speech and the clip itself. I also could have provided more concrete examples to make the speech even more personable. I also caught myself looking up at the ceiling several times. This speech was not my best, and I definitely know I could have performed better if it were not for the struggle in the beginning. But this is not to say I did not learn from the process of overcoming the obstacle. 

Frack

For me visual aids are tricky. Visuals are always tricky. A computer screen bursting with graphics throws my head into an ADHD induced panic. It is safe to say I get distracted very easily; however, this speech gave me the opportunity to try to conquer these-- oh look Facebook-- distractions.

My first visual aid was a short video. Between my friends and I, the video was hilarious. We made it in the New North bathroom, and I got socked with about 20 water bottles. However, watching the video in a classroom setting was a different experience. The video was not received as well, as I would have liked. In addition, the video might have lead to confusion on the purpose of the topic. Was the video meant to swap perspectives to that of an aquatic animal? Or was the video meant to show the perspective of how water bottles do effect human's health and cleanliness as well? However, I tried to alleviate the confusion by introducing the video with a story. The story was about my father's trip to the Cayman islands, and the thousands of water bottles he saw one particular remote island.

Since visuals general keep me in a dizzy, I wanted to keep the pictures to a minimum and the words to a few per slide. This allowed the audience and I to create a visual road map of where the conversation was headed. In addition, I wanted to keep only three bullets on each page. This would allow me to explain each process, rather than read them off the board. In this regard, I believe my visuals were effective, short, simple, and poignant.

However, near the end I was rushed on time. I said a fact incorrectly, and cited my source inaccurately. This comes down to my time management and the time allotted for working with the visuals. I didn't realize that transitioning between visuals would eat up 30 seconds of my overall time. But, it did not mess up the whole speech :). In the end I though it was a pretty good knack at my first real visual aided speech!

California Drought Visual Aid Speech

After a speech intensive semester (I'm in a business public speaking class as well), I have learned so much when it comes to speaking in front of an audience. I'm still working on controlling my nerves, but I think that will come with being fully prepared and confident. For this speech in particular, I did not feel as prepared as my previous speeches because I felt that there were so many facts to keep track of and I kind of freaked myself out, but I think that having a visual aid definitely made it more interesting for the audience to follow my topic. I like to pick topics that are relevant and relatable, and the California Drought is something that I think a lot of us don't know too much about. We might acknowledge that it's a serious problem, but maybe not the details of what is contributing to our water shortage.
Researching this topic was interesting because I was surprised to find that a lot of the food I eat used so much water. I tried to incorporate charts and pictures to illustrate this fact, and I think my powerpoint overall was fairly engaging and straight-forward. For my speech, I think I did a decent job of organizing my message, but at times I struggled to articulate certain points and I had a tendency to look down at my notecards or at the screen. Compared to the beginning of the semester, I think my tone and pace have improved, but I'm still working on being more relaxed with my gestures.
Overall, I thought all of the speeches went really well and it's pretty awesome to see how much everyone has grown since the beginning of the semester. I definitely feel so much better going into speeches (I used to be beyond terrified) and I have a more positive mindset when it comes to speaking in front of people.

Visual Aid Speech Reflection: High heels as the modern day foot binding?

I have had a pleasure presenting and learning with this class. Before taking this class, presentations were something I dreaded (which I mentioned in my introductory speech), but not something that was new to me. I had presented at conferences, but that didn't take away the fear every time I had to present. Out of all the speeches, I struggled with this one the most. It was not because I was not prepared with enough research or that I wasn't interested in the topic. The problem was with what I needed for this speech, my visual aid. I did not use a powerpoint in my previous speeches and that worked out well for me because it made it feel as if I was just conversing with the class, a way of presenting that I was more comfortable with. For this speech, the power point was something extra that I had to think about and since it was behind me, I forgot about it at some point during my presentation. This was evident when I went to show the class some images but forgot about some that I was supposed to show earlier. Thinking back, I should've made a note on my speaking notes about when I was planning on showing an image on the slides so I would remember about it. I could've also opted for an alternative, which was bringing in a physical object for my visual aid (something I could keep an eye on in front of me so I could be reminded of it). I became flustered after that mistake and it made me a bit nervous throughout the rest of the speech. But overall, the mistakes I make during my speeches allow me to reflect on what went wrong and how I can improve in the future. 

I definitely gained more confidence for presenting in front of an audience. Through the feedback after each speech and from the readings, I was able to learn how to better prepare my speeches to be more relevant to the audience. Although I definitely need to work on improving my presentation with a visual aid, overall, I feel like I have made many improvements. Watching everyone else give their presentations with their own unique style was also very helpful in seeing the different ways speeches can be successful. Everyone made improvements and it was a very rewarding and fun class! Thanks, Cynthia, for making this class feel more like a learning environment instead of a lecture class!

eSports Visual Aid Reflection

To start, I struggled a lot with solidifying this topic because of two things.  eSports is not very interesting to many people and even to myself the whole concept is a bit interesting but not that eye opening.  The reason I believe this is the case however maybe due to my constant exposure to the eSports community.  The second reason I found solidifying this topic to be difficult was because I felt compelled to do dance as a visual aid.  I had decided not to use dance as a visual aid in the end because of my confusion of the fine line of speech and performance.

Now the reason I had initially decided to do a speech on eSports is because in my life I am committed to only three things: school, dance, and games.  Being that my past two speeches covered a bit on business and dance, the appropriate thing was to go with my last passion.  Besides my dancing speech I have had to do lots of preparations for my other speeches, but because eSports was something I had a genuine interest and involvement in I felt much of the information I had decided to share was mainly knowledge from what I had picked up.

In terms of the delivery of the speech, a comment that had always come up was that I was too reliant on my speaking notes.  I tend to find it difficult to give a speech when I had already written out how I would want it to come out therefore memorization came into play.  For this speech I tried to write a lot less in the speaking notes and let myself do an extemporaneous speech.  For the most part I was happy with the results and am glad I never felt too stuck anywhere.  Although I did not feel very stuck, there were times such as trying to describe the game in laymen’s that I found very difficult.  League of Legends is such a complicated game and unless you take the time to learn it, it will always be complicated.  I personally felt there is no way to quickly explain the game while doing justice.  Even so, I believe it was the right thing to do, opposed to going through the whole speech with the audience ignorant of the whole topic.

Lastly, what I want to touch upon in this reflection are the visual aids.  To be honest, busy/creative work is oddly fun for me.  I also was finally able to practice creating good slides by using techniques such as dark background white font, no bullet points, only using pictures/charts if it had a comparison, and adding short statements with charts quickly interprets my point.  In addition to these techniques, I tried to have the information on the slides to be understandable within ten seconds maximum and at the same time comfortable to consume.  The mentality I had going into making the slides was, "I'll do the presentation, not the PowerPoint", and I believe this mentality helped my create slides that did a good job accenting my speech rather than competing with me to give the speech.