week 9 discussion 3

I found chapter 13 the most useful from assigned reading.  This was because it was about informative speeches, and that is our upcoming speech, it had good points.  One point was to remember to keep your speech informative, try and not give personal views your opinions or don't try to persuade them.  The speech is simply facts.  And I also found the part about connecting to your audience helpful.  It tells you that an audience unfamiliar, you will have to connect it to their general life, if they are familiar with your topic you can attract them and try and maintain their attention.  I will try and remember these tips when it comes to my informative speech.

week 9 discussion 2

According to chapter 9 in the book, what is required in a introduction is an attention getter, something to make the audience want to listen to the speech, provide the purpose/thesis, establish credibility, let your audience know your an authority on the topic, and preview your main points.  In my informative speech I think I will start out with "I"m sure many of you here have had a body piercing, as for me I have eleven. "  To establish credibility I am going to say that I work in the body piercing industry and so I am around it a lot and have learned from my job, but I also did research.  The conclusion is much like the introduction, in that it needs a review of main points, reinforce the purpose, and then provide closure.  Providing closure is something I need to work on, I always have trouble ending strong.  

week 9 discussion 1

In the 9.1 video the first speaker looked around the room, making eye contact with many people in the audience.  She only glanced at her cards, she didn't read off of them.  She knew her speech and can tell she practiced it many times.  The second girl had bad body language, with hands on her hips and poor eye contact.  In the video 9.2 the speaker ran his words together and there were few pauses making it hard to understand what he was saying.  in 13.1A you could tell that the speaker was very into his speech and that he enjoyed his topic.  In the video 13.1b this speaker really knew her speech, she had no notecards, and did a very good job.  

discussion 8.3

During required reading this week I found chapter 8 the most helpful when developing a speech.  I found that the part of transitions is the most useful because this is an area that I need help.  They gave the six different types, which are ordering, reinforcing, contrasting, chonology, causality, and summarizing.  It gave the words for phrases that could be used for each of those types.  The chapter also addressed on when each transition is appropriate, and when not.  It explained what transititons are best for the first main points, and those best for between main points.  Overall I found chapter eight the most interesting, and useful. 

discussion 8.2

I find statistics to be helpful esspecially in informative speeches.  Statistics can be used as a comparison, or to show a definite problem of things.  I also find statistics to be useful to show your credibilty, and back up what you are saying.  But, sometimes statistics are not useful in speeches.  Audiences can interpret the statistic differently than that of the speaker, and what the speaker is trying to get a across may not get across.  The other problem with statistics is that you have to make sure that they are reliable, the facts may be wrong, you have to get facts from a credible source.  

discussion 8.1

In the video 7.1 it gave good tips on how to select supporting material.  It told you to use a mix support of material which makes your research more complete.  It also explained differentt types of supporting material, this included narrative, topical, which we have been doing in our speeches so far, cause effect, and problem solve, examples, and definitions.  I found video 8.2 the most interesting, this was because I need help on transitions.  It told the six types of transitios, which are; order, reinforcing, contrasting, chronology, causality, and summarizing/concluding.  It gave examples for each of the six types. I found it the most helpful for my next speech, and I will use the information for it.  

Self-Evaluation #1

I think I achieved the purpose of my speech fairly well.  There are things I wish I would have mentioned that I forgot.  I didn't feel that confident during my speech, I was very nervous.  If I had to do it over, I would practice my speech a bit more, and use less of my note cards.  My goal for improving the content of my speech have more research, and work on my transitioning.  My goal for improving the delivery is to try and remember it completely.  The first thing I noticed about my delivery was that I didn't have good body language, my legs were crossed and sometimes I was not facing forward.  

One thing that might have been distracting is that I held my note cards too close to my face, which led to me reading off of them.  One a scale of 1-10 I would say my eye contact was a four.  I mentioned my source twice during my speech.  One a scale of A to F I would give myself C+.  I say this because I had poor eye contact, and I relied on my note cards too much.  But I feel as though I gave a good visual, and my point was made.