Discussion Week 5.3: Chapter 5 Concept

A concept in Chapter 5 that I found useful was the part about Adapting to the Setting. In the Section of Chapter 5 discussing Adapting to the Setting the authors describe the location, the occasion, and the time. In adapting to the setting it is important to be familiar with the location. Knowing what kind of space that you will be presenting your speech in will make you more confident when your speaking since you will know what kind of presentation would be necessary and also you will be familiar with the surrounding technologies and space. The occasion is also important in Adapting to the setting. In the chapter it discusses the difference between a voluntary audience and a captive audience. Knowing the reasons for which the audience is listening to the speech is important to try to adapt to the occasion and the audience. The last thing discussed in this section was time. Time is important for topics of the speech and also time influences the audience a lot. I think time is an important factor. For me it is hard to pay attention in morning classes because I just woke up and in the afternoon I feel like I need to take a nap.

Discussion Week 5.2: Speech Buddies

In the Drinking Video Matthew, I believe, had a good attention getter. He also chose a topic that relates to college students. You can tell that he did his research by all the facts and statistics he said. He had a good introduction and he sums up the main points in the conclusion. From his speech I learned that visual representations are important like how he used the overhead to demonstrate numbers and display information.

In the Light Pollution introduction by Courtney she seemed a little nervous and I noticed that most of her attention was on the podium and not her audience. To be able to affectively speak well I believe that eye contact to the audience is important. However Courtney did have a good introduction in that she summarized the main points in her introduction.

From watching the videos I learned that visual aids are affective and that it is important to maintain eye contact with the audience. I also learned that having an effective introduction and conclusion is important.

Discussion Week 5.1: Audience Analysis and Adaptation

Audience analysis and audience adaptation is important in the speech development process. By utilizing these tools as a speaker we can better adapt to our audience. By using audience analysis we can figure out who the audience will be, what kinds of things appeal to them, and what things are important to them. Audience adaptation is important to keep the audience interested and also so an individual can adapt a speech to the audience. After completing audience analysis it will be easier to find a way to entertain the audience and also to inform them or talk to them about something. I will use audience analysis in my speech by adapting and entertaining my audience. By knowing my audience more I will be able to carry out my message more successfully by knowing what interest them.

Discussion Week 4.3: Chapter 6 Concept

In Chapter 6 I thought the whole part about websites in the section accessing internet resources was very interesting. Usually when searching for topics or material I would just go straight to Yahoo.com or Google.com— basically the generic sites that everyone knows about. The book however informed me about different kinds of search engines and directories that can be very useful. The first type of engine was the metasearch engine. According to the book this is a search tool that compiles the results from other search engines providing for individuals breath rather than depth of a topic. Search engines like Google and Yahoo simply hunts through documents to find the pages associated with keywords. Web directories organize WebPages hierarchically by category. I believe the different types of engines can have different purposes and each can be beneficial to different aspects of researching.

Discussion Week 4.2: Speech buddies

In the videos there was a lot of helpful information about managing the research process. The most helpful thing that I learned during the video was to go to the college campus library. The speaker of the film said that that this is a very beneficial place to go for valuable research especially if you want different kinds of sources. The library is also a great place to do both research and ask for help researching a topic because there will always be librarians willing to help. By going to the library we can have a great amount of research resources besides just using the internet. In the library there are a lot of resources to use including loads and loads of books, media, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, etc. For my preparation process for my speeches in this course I plan to go to the library to do much of my research.

Discussion Week 4.1: Research Interviews

My experience with conducting research interviews:
During Junior High and College I have had a good amount of experience conducting research interviews. For an eighth grade research paper we had to learn more about a profession/ job that we were interested in learning more about. I decided to learn about the disk jockeys on the radio. This was one of the most rewarding academic experiences for me. For this project I was able to visit the Live 105.3 studio and interview Jared, a popular Disk Jockey on this alternative rock station. Along with conducting the interview I had a full tour of the studio in San Francisco where I was able to see how everything worked. For this project I also was able to visit 89.3 KOHL, a local college radio station, and interview the main person in charge. For the second project I interviewed a teacher’s aide about a teacher/student formed band at the school. In college I had experience interviewing two professors with a fellow classmate for my MUSE class called play and creativity.

Things that went well:
There were many things that went well. For each interview I did research beforehand and prepared and organized the questions that I was going to ask. The interviews overall went smoothly from beginning to end since I had secondary questions in case the interview started losing momentum. I also was able to conduct the interview within a reasonable time limit which is important especially when the person being interviewed has different agendas to attend to.

Things that needed improvement:
The most needed improvement was learning how to control my nerves and to be confident in my interview. In any kind of situation where I do not know the person well or just met I just need to be confident in conducting myself.

Here’s some advice:
1) During an interview it is important to bring a voice recorder. These instruments are a great resource to making your interview go smoothly. Just make sure to ask permission before your interview if you can use it. Also test your recorder out before using it during the actual interview.
2) My second advice to everyone is to make sure you know a little about the person and what they specialize in or do. This is important if you want to formalize questions that will greatly be beneficial to the interview and spark the interest of the person you are interviewing.
3) The last advice is to thank the individual before and after the interview for their time.

P.S. I am so sorry that this post is so long but I hope that it's beneficial.

Discussion Week 3.3: Chapter 2 Concept

Visualization is a strategy to build confidence during a speech, discussed in Chapter 2. Visualization is when you imagine a communication event positively and successfully by thinking about your speech and how it would go step-by-step or sequentially. Since I am usually scared and nervous about how the outcome of my speech will be or how affective the message of my speech will come across to my audience I believe that this strategy would be affective for me to use. It will be affective because instead of worrying about my speech I can just become more confident in what message I am trying to tell my audience. In past years throughout my presentations in high school, junior high, and elementary school I have never really known how to build confidence during my speeches. I would say speeches not for the affect of it to the audience or myself but to just “get it over with.” I want this to change and each time I make a speech I want to say it with confidence.

Discussion Week 3.2: Public Speaking Apprehensiveness

Whenever I have to make a speech I get really nervous, no matter how much or how long I prepare for it. Public speaking, especially in front of an audience, scares me sometimes. I always wonder how people will react to my speech. I am also self conscious about what I say wondering if something I said was weird, awkward, or just didn’t make sense. I also get apprehensive when looking out to the audience. When I am presenting a speech individually all I see when I look at my audience is people staring at me as if every action that I said or did was being watched and critiqued upon. In Chapter 2 of the textbook it talks about the sources of speech anxiety. Surely my anxiety comes from my uncertainty about my speaking abilities, my role as a speaker, my ideas, and also the audience’s response.

Discussion Week 3.1: Speech buddies

In the three videos I learned some tips and strategies for managing speech anxiety and for getting over the fear of public speaking. To manage speech anxiety Janine suggest us to use visualization, relabeling, and relaxation. Of the three strategies I think visualization would be the most helpful for me. For visualization Janine suggest us to go to a quiet private place and use senses to feel how the presentation will go and to focus on what will go right. In the 2.2 video Janine and Anthony suggest many strategies they use to get over the fear of public speaking. They mentioned many helpful suggestions, some which I can surely apply to my future presentations and speech preparation process. I like the idea of practicing more on having a strong introduction and conclusion; I also want to visualize my speech going well.