Journal 1
The first chapter of this book gives the reader a background and tips on public speaking Public speaking is one form of communication. Public speaking is used when a speaker delivers a message to an audience, and this skill is one of the most important skills to master for a job. This skill originates from the city of Athens, where they spoke out about policies and their beliefs. Throughout the chapter, what I found significant is the process of delivering and preparing a speech. This is due to my lack of knowledge on doing so. However, I found it interesting when I learned that the language used in a speech is more rhythmic and uses a simpler language. The act of purposely putting in rhythm did not cross my mind. This section of this book has allowed me to see public speaking in a different perspective.
Journal 2
Throughout my high school years, I had many presentations to accomplish in order to allow me to graduate. Each of the presentations, were my worst nightmare. The experiences that I have with practice always seems to be going well, up until my turn to present in class. I would practice how I would present my information to the class alone in my room. As I repeatedly practice, the information I was presenting would also become memorized in my head. At home I found that my confidence level is pretty high; I would go into school feeling confident in my presentation. However, when I got into class and sat in my seat is when I begin to panic. My breathing is no longer even and the confidence I had walking into school diminishes. The teacher calls my name and I am forced to walk up in front of the class and present my information. My pulse races and I start to deliver my information in a fast manner. Throughout the presentation, I forget to take my time when delivering my information to the class and I just start speaking very quickly. The experience that I have with practice go very smoothly, until I stand in front of the class.
Journal 3
I was asked to write an impromptu speech and present to the class. During the process of this, I was very nervous. Throughout the speech, I think I was able to give my speech in a clear voice, which I tried to avoid doing due to my habit of mumbling during my speeches or presentations. However, I feel like that during the speech I had gone through the speech a bit too quickly and I had continuously fidget throughout the speech. Overall, I think I did decent for my first college speech, but I know for sure that I have lots of room to improve on my public speaking skills.
Journal 4
Chapter 11 talks about how to organize the body of an outline. The big takeaway from this chapter is the ways an outline should be setup in order to help you in a speech. The body of the speech consists of main points to support or fulfill the thesis of the speech. The chapter continues with a tip on which points should go first or last. This is because listeners have the tendency to remember the beginning and the end of a speech. After the main points are made, the supporting points are next. Supporting points are made to explain the main point with the evidence found. However, the chapter also talks about the use of transitions. Transitions words direct listeners through your speech. This chapter will be a useful guide to organizing my outline to help my speech flow better.
Chapter 12 demonstrates organizational patterns to help arrange a speech. During the chapter, it shows the different arrangements suggested to be used based on what type of speech you are giving. The patterns makes the points more organized, which will help your listeners follow easier. Personally, the pattern that I connected with was the Chronological Pattern. The chronological pattern is organized by the order of the events of the main points. In high school, I often had history presentations to deliver. This required me to organize my information based on when the events happened throughout history. Therefore, the project was often in chronological order and so was the speech prepared along with it. The main point of the chapter, was to show the variety of different patterns that can be used for one’s speech based on the information that the presenter is trying to deliver to a group of audience.
Journal 5
Monday (September 16th) my public speaking class was assigned to prepare a speech on a skill that we have. I had thought about my skill and prepared an outline. Walking into class I was generally on track for my speech about skill. I had finished a draft of my outline and I thought I knew what I wanted to do for my prop, therefore all that needed to be done was practice. I thought that I was on track to present by the due date, but I was mistakenly wrong. As we were working in class, I realized that the prop was not something that could be done within the classroom. With the help of my classmates I was able to figure it out. My classmates had recommended that I make a video, which will eliminate any possible safety concerns to my presentation. I believe that now I am ready for my presentation. My next steps would be preparing for a video for the class, that way I do not burn down the classroom. Then, what I can do is bring the final product or the equipment needed for the skill. By the time I present I should have my outline, props, and video figured out. That way when the time comes, my presentation will flow smoothly, without any hiccups. I hope that my presentation will go as successful as I hope.
Journal 6
A big takeaway from chapter 13 is the preparation of an outline for a speech. An outline allows the speaker to have a blueprint of what they would like their speech to be like. In the chapter it mentions making two outlines, one for work and the other for speaking. Like one of the previous chapters, this chapter talks about different formats for outlining. Such as the phrase or the keyword outline. The section also shows an example of a working and a speaking outline, which I found helpful to see what it is I am trying to achieve when making those outlines. Personally, I would use the phrase outline for my outlines. This is due to my lack of memory when I begin speaking. If I were to use the key-word outline, I would not remember anything I have to say and I would just stand in front of the class pondering what was it that i meant. Therefore, the phrase outline works best for me, that way in the situation that I do forget i can look to my outline to see what it is that I am going to talk about next.
Journal 9
For our second speech, we were to teach the class a skill that we know well. After giving my second speech, I felt that it was better than my first. This may be because the speech was about a skill that we can demonstrate. I believe that this speech was better than my first speech. Since it was one of our skills of interest, I felt like I was able to explain what I wanted better than the previous speech. This is because of my interest in the topic of the speech and the preparation that was put into this speech. In my opinion, the dry-run for this speech seemed to have helped decrease the anxiety of having to stand in front of the class. With the dry-run, I felt that I was eased into the speech, instead of being tossed in front of a group of people. During this speech, I was able to have a clear voice and I tried not to fidget with my sleeves or my paper. Although, based on the feedback I received, I still need to work on my eye contact and use less filler words. I also think that my conclusion was rushed, due to my nervousness. Overall, I think that besides my conclusion, everything else seems to have gone pretty well.
Journal 10
Someone I would consider a good public speaker is my chemistry lecture professor. Throughout the class, the professor generally stays by the podium, but there are times where he would move around and point out where or which part of a diagram he is talking about. The professor also goes at a reasonable pace and is willing to go back on slides that need to be discussed further. I think the reason he is able to be a good public speaker is because he tends to make multiple references to TV shows and this helps the information connect with the audience better. Being a professor requires a lot of public speaking, and some professors are better than others, but my chemistry professor seems calm throughout the lecture, which makes it seem like he knows what he is doing. Personally, I think that this professor does a good job as a public speaker and the way he does it helps students understand or connect with the material better.
Journal 11
A big takeaway in chapter 25 was the different ways types of special occasion speeches. For example, a speech of introduction, acceptance, presentation, after-dinner, eulogies, and surprising roasts. Knowing what type of speech your speech identifies with, will help in setting the mood to the speech. The chapter also explains what should be included in each particular speech. The chapter also mentions tips to make your speech better. Personally, I think that a speech of inspiration would be helpful in speech 3. This type of speech will be able to helpful, because the next speech is about the importance of someone in my life. With the speech of inspiration, it will allow me to have more emotions or meaning added to the speech.
Journal 12
This week we are working on a speech about someone that is important to us. My plan is to have a speech about my aunt because she means a lot to me. I think that for my speech, I want to do either an introduction or toast speech, that way I will be able to give the information/emotion I want to express. At the moment, my challenge is figuring how my speech will fit into that form of speech, because I know what it is I want to say, however, I am not sure how it will fit in a specific form of speech. My goal is to have a clear idea of what I am going to do for my speech, and hopefully I can figure it out during my dry-dry run.
Journal 13
For speech 3, we are to talk about how much someone means to us. To me, this is personal and my emotions may get in the way of my speech. In my opinion, a strength that I have as I prepare for my speech is the way that I am able to project my voice throughout the class. However, my anxieties outweigh my strength. I feel like I am going to fidget, lose eye contact, and use a lot of filler words. Although, I will try and practice so that those anxieties do not affect me. I am also concerned about my conclusion, I want to be able to ease the audience out of my speech, this was also a problem in my previous speeches. I think that with the dry-run, these anxieties and problems will decrease and I will feel more comfortable when presenting my speech. Overall, with more preparation for this speech, I think that this speech can be an improvement from the previous speeches.
Journal 14
We were asked to do 2 dry-runs for this speech. Personally, I think these are helpful, because the dry-runs ease you into the actual speech. During both my dry-runs, my speech was short of 3 minutes by about 30 seconds. For both runs, I think that my voice was clear and I was able to say everything that I wanted to. In my opinion, this is an improvement from the previous speech, because I had a tendency to mumble my words together. However, the flow of the speech did not flow the way I wanted and I continuously tugged at my sleeves. To improve on this, I want to rearrange my outline so that when I present it does not sound ‘all over the place’. I would also try and calm myself down before the presentation, making my anxiety decrease. Also, I want to add another story about my aunt so that I can extend the time further to about 3 minutes. With the revisions that are to be made and practice, I think I will be ready for my speech on monday.
Journal 15
When presenting my speech I feel like I have improved. Before giving this speech, I was anxious and I did not think that it was going to be great. Prior to this, I had practiced at home and I tried to make my speech better with the help of the feedback I got from the dry runs. Through the dry runs, I was able to feel more comfortable with giving my speech and get feedback on what I should add to my speech. When I presented, I felt like I got flustered then started talking really quickly. Based on the feedback I had received, I had also lost eye contact and started using a lot of filler words. With the feedback I will be able to figure out what I need to improve this skill. Aside from this, I had a clear voice when I was giving my speech. In my opinion, having a clear voice was a goal, because I have the tendency to mumble when I give a speech, therefore I was glad to find that my voice was clear. Overall, I still have room to improve, but I think that this speech turned out better than I had imagined.
Journal 16
In preparation of speech 4, my group has been figuring out what the content of our talk show. At the moment, we have a shared google doc with the group. With this shared google doc, we will have an outline of what we may say during our talk show. So far, we have an idea of who will play what role and we have some questions to be asked during the interview. However, we still need to figure out the technology aspect to the show such as, when we will come together to record this show, what music we will have playing for the introduction, and the sound effects that we plan on having. Overall, I think that with the help of the Digi-Space, our group will be able to stay on track for the in-class viewing of our speech.
Journal 17
After the dry-dry run, there are things that my groups need to get done. Our presentation is a basic interview between the interviewer and the interviewee. The tone of the presentation is more serious compared to other groups, similar to Dr.Oz. The dry-dry run was only 1 minute 45 seconds, which means that we need to make our presentation longer to make our presentation about 3-4 minutes long. To resolve this problem, we are planning on adding a pharmacy related game. However, the addition of the sound effects and music will also take up some of the time. With these minor aspects to be added, I think that we will be able to make the mark. We are on track to present, but we have to figure out some minor details to the presentation. Our group is going to continue practice Overall, we need to figure out the logo, background, and the addition of music.
Journal 18
For the dry-run, our time was a bit short. Although, with the addition of the game and the music we prepare, we should be within the time frame. Since the dry-dry run, we have been able to figure out the small details needed for our talk-show, such as, music, background, and logo. We will also need to have our music prepared (like downloading the sounds) and ready to be added to our presentation. As we prepare for filming, we are going to continuously practice and make sure that our props are ready. Generally, we have everything set in the places they are needed. However, personally, I think that I still need to work on my anxiety problems, because I tend to look down or fidget with my sleeves. I think what might help is the power poses we learned about in a previous class, but also continuously practicing might help to get me comfortable in this presentation. Overall, all that our group has left to do is film and edit our talk-show.
