Self Evaluation #3

My last and final speech for this class was an actuative speech about reducing the use of grocery plastic bags. Overall I wanted to inform my audience about the negative effects of plastic bags in our society and as a whole I believe I was able to accomplish this.

Since this was my third speech overall it was better. First off I was much more confident and comfortable during the speech. During the speech the audience didn’t feel like strangers, as it did my first, but in fact classmates. I didn’t have to talk in front of room with people I didn’t know. I was very confident during my speech because I knew my topic well. Even though I felt as if I wasn’t prepared enough I felt that through my research I knew my topic.

From watching the video I learned a lot. During the duration of the speech I mentioned source citations about three times—once at the beginning, middle, and at the end. In my last speech about dining etiquette I learned that I looked and depended too much on the computer screen and the projector. During this speech that I just had I had learned not to do this and focus on my audience instead. While watching the video I really didn’t notice myself doing anything distracting which is an improvement from the last speech I said when I didn’t look enough at my audience. While watching over the video I also noticed that there were some slight differences between the informative speech and the actuative speech. During the actuative speech I looked more at the audience. Anotehr good thing I did was having a more effective powerpoint because I remember in the last speech there were too many text effects which overall distracted me from presenting my presentation. I really couldn’t think of anything majorly bad that I did during the actuative speech.

My speech I believe was very successful. I was able to achieve the purpose of my speech. During the speech I also believed that I maintained good contact with my audience and I didn’t depend on my notecards and powerpoint so much. For this speech I would rate my eye contact as a 9.5 on a scale of 1-10.

Overall this speech was better than my first and second speech. Even though I was short on time to study my speech thoroughly and to prepare and run through my speech I believe that this speech overall went really well. On a scale of A to F I would give myself an A-. I surely did improve from my last speeches but for some reason I just felt like I lacked the energy of some kind to get a strong A. For example, during some parts of the speech I was hesitant on what to say, or I kept repeating myself. Based on all three speeches I would definitely say this was my best speech. With each speech I did I drastically improved from the one before and fixed my previous mistakes. For example, in my informative speech when I looked too much at the screen and not the audience. If I had to do this speech over again I would probably just prepare more at saying my speech aloud.

Discussion 16.3: Concepts

Concept from the class that I thought was most helpful in preparing my speeches was learning about how to use media during a speech. As far back as middle school I remember using powerpoint as my main visual aid during the speech, however I never knew how I carried myself through the speech. By learning about how to use media during a speech I was able to produce better powerpoint presentations which would better go along with my presentation. By learning about media I also learned how to affectively use presentation media during a speech and how not to speak to the computer or projector image but to face the audience.

Discussion 16.2: Class Lessons

I got a lot and learned a lot from this class that will be helpful toward my future endeavors. First off I learned how to blog. This is an important form of communication in today’s day and age. Another thing I learned was learning to become a better speaker. For jobs held in today’s society communication is very important and learning to speak to other coworkers and supervisors is very important to get ahead in your job and also to be successful at doing your job. Another thing that I learned from this class is learning how to become a better speaker. Throughout the three presentations I had this year, increasingly each time I became better and better at my speeches.

Discussion 16.1: Favorite Speech

My favorite speech that I did was about Dining Etiquette. This was not my best speech I did for this class I believe however I did learn a lot of new information and how to conduct myself better in a speech. During this speech I learned several other things too—for example, how to conduct myself. During the speech I depended on my powerpoint or the laptop too much because it was a safe guard and also because I was not used to presenting with a powerpoint presentation. The dining etiquette speech was also my favorite because it was a topic that was very interesting and crucial to learn about. Every day, dining etiquette is used around the world so knowing about dining etiquette important.

Discussion 15.3: Persuasion in Life

At work the other day my boss was asking for suggestions for raffle items for an upcoming banquet we were going to have. A couple of other coworkers and I had to think of ideas and suggestions of prizes that people would enjoy. I suggested a few and I had to persuade my boss why the other staff members would like the prize. The staff members in the place I work for range from my age all the way to working adults. One of the suggestions I said was buying a board game like Apples to Apples or Cranium. During this persuasion act I used deductive reasoning because I relied on established formal logic. When thinking of ideas I tried thinking of prizes that a whole family would enjoy and based my decisions off of that.

Discussion 15.2: Chapter Concepts

An interesting concept that I learned in Chapter 15 was learning about pathos. This is the “use of emotional evidence and stimulation of feelings to influence and audience.” Pathos is basically speaking in a way that makes your speech appeal to the audiences’ emotions. Ways to use pathos is to use stories, examples, definitions, and testimonies during a speech. Pathos when used effectively can help listeners better be part of the speech and to understand the message that the speaker is trying to accomplish. In the book the authors talk about how humans are motivated by five types of needs. This is physiological needs, safety needs, love/belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. When explaining and relating your topic to these needs a speaker can more likely accomplish their purpose.

Discussion 15.1: Speech Buddy

In the “Schooling Pro” video I learned more about home schooling and its pros. The most important pros that Dixie mentions are its flexibility and its ability to avoid audience and bring stronger relationships between family. In the video “Schooling: Con” Robert talks about the negatives of home schooling. He mentions how home isn’t as great as environment as a classroom for learning and also mentioned how parents weren’t as effective as teachers. In the videos I watched this week I also learned how to identify the elements of arguments which are thesis, claim, evidence, and reasoning. In all the videos the speakers talk about or use evidence to justify their position by using strong supporting material.

Discussion 14.3: Chapter 14 Concept

In Chapter 14 the topic I found stood out to me was persuading different audiences. In the book the authors talked about 5 different kinds of audiences. These include negative, positive, divided, uninformed, and apathetic. To approach a negative audience one has to be sure to remain credible throughout the whole speech because the audience member most likely has an opposed view on the topic from the presenter. It would be easier to speak to a positive audience because they most likely would know what you are talking about and hold a view similar to the presenters. Divided audiences are a little easier to persuade because they have split views on a topic. Uninformed audiences are people that are not familiar with the topic and so it would be the presenter’s job to motivate the audience. The apathetic audience knows the topic but is not interested in it. A good way to approach this kind of this audience is to mention in your speech how the topic impacts them. I think my audience for the next speech will be divided on my next speech topic so I am going to be using the tips given in this chapter to approach this kind of audience.

Discussion 14.2: Persuasion

These days persuasion is everywhere. There are experts and people who work to try to create an image of a product so people will buy it, wear it, use it, etc. Persuasion ranges greatly and can be seen nearly everywhere. They can be found at work, school, magazines, billboards, advertisements, people, etc. In my life persuasion affects me. When going to the mall sale signs make me want to buy things. When buying certain products many advertisements persuade me to buy a particular brand. When communicating with friends they often persuade me to think a certain way or they persuade me to do something. To become a more critical consumer we have to be aware of our surroundings. Make sure that we have done our research on something before we dive into doing or buying something. We need to be aware of our choices.

Discussion 14.1: Next Speech

In my next speech I will be using Monroe’s Speech outline. In the Three main points for my Actuative speech I will cover the main points of my topic including the need, satisfaction, and visualization. Since my next speech is about reducing grocery bag usage I will talk about the need of getting rid of grocery bags. During my next main point I will talk about the satisfaction of using other alternatives instead of grocery bags. In my last main point I will talk about the visualization of our world if we continue to use Grocery Bags. To be able to persuade my audience towards my point of view I will use statistics and various media to demonstrate the negative effects of grocery bag usage in our environment.