March 15-21 Concept

According to what I have read in chapter 13, gatewatching is an interesting concept. Gatewatching is defined as monitoring news sources to analyze and assess the information they produce. I think that this is a useful concept that can apply to a speech. This is because since the audience is the gatewatchers, the speecher has to be more careful when presenting. Since the information that will be given needs to be accurate, it shows that the information that the speacher gives will be true and it will in fact show that the speech was researched before presented. This is a good thing because the audience will for sure knows that the person giving the speech really did his/her research.

March 15-21 Introduction and Conclusion

For introduction, it is very important to give a clear presentation when the introduction is being announced. This is because the introduction starts the speech and introduces the topic to the audience. Without the introduction, we won't be able to even start our speech. The introduction consists of the attention getter, purpose, thesis, and the three main points. All of these components are important and if one is missing, the introduction will fall. I think that the attention getter is important as well as the thesis. First the attention getter grabs the people's attention; without this, the speech won't be interesting. This is why most of the time attention getters are really interesting to listen to and it is unique. As for the thesis, it enforces the audience what the topic is about and leads to the main points.
In a conclusion, it is also important for one to reinforce this element after presenting the body of the speech. The conclusion ties everything together and reminds the audience what the topic is. The conclusion contains the revised main points, purpose, and closure. The main points are revised to tell the audience that that was what the speech was about in the body. For purpose, it also reminds the audience that what the topic is about. Last but not least, the closure wraps up and end the speech.
I remember how I presented my last presentation. I forgot to tell the main points in the introduction and when I remembered, it was too late because I was on my first main point already. As for conclusion, all of the components were enforced but not the purpose. This is why I think it is a good idea to have an outline of how the introduction and conclusion goes in my note card when I present so I can remember.

March 15-21 Speech Buddy

As I watch videos 9.1 and 9.2, I found that the introduction and the conclusion are very important to enforce the audience the main points and the purpose of the speech. I remembered having my speech and it was terrible for both the introduction and conclusion. As for introduction, my main points were given after I presented my first main point which was a bad thing. For conclusion, I forgot to give a closure to end my speech and so the audience did not know if the speech ended or not. After watching the three speeches from chapter 13, I was amazed how all of their format was the same. There was an introduction and conclusion. The main points, purpose, and thesis was also given. Other materials such as attention getter, closure, examples were also provided in the speeches. If I can use this format, like how the three speeches did, I think that my speech would go smooth enough and that it would meet the time requirement also.

March 8-14 Transitions

Transitions are important when we make our speeches. Although I had my transitions ready and was about to present it, I forgot and had not transition in my speech. It was very weird since there were no transitions from one main point to another. Transitions are similar to connectors and without connectors, the main pieces will fall and it will not flow. After reading the transitions concept section of chapter 8, I had a clearer understanding. There are different types of transitions in which these different types consists of words and phrases. It was helpful how the book gives a lot of examples for transitions words. Other than that, I was amazed how rather than having transitions for only main points, we also need to have it for introduction and also conclusion. At first I thought that transitions are not needed for conclusions but now that I have read it, transitions for conclusions link the last main point of the topic and then the conclusion wraps up all the main points that was covered. Let's just hope that I won't forget to present my transitions again.

March 8-14 Facts and Statistics

Many speechwriters use facts and statistics to supposedly help the speeches they compose. Facts and statistics are powerful tools, but they are also tools that could destroy the speaker’s main idea.While facts and statistics are least effective when their relevance is unapparent in speeches, they are most effective when they clarify the speaker’s point almost immediately. A speech’s first impression is crucial in order to appeal to the audience. If there are facts and statistics that do not register as useful to the audience immediately, it can easily be forgotten. When this happens, it feels as if the speaker wasted words and there lies the possibility that the audience will lose concentration and interest on the idea. On the other hand, facts and statistics could greatly help a speech. Useful evidence clarifies the point in a speech, and presenting facts and statistics useful to the main idea is, in essence, the repetition of the same idea. As the facts and statistics clarify what the speaker means, the idea is ingrained into their minds multiple times.

March 8-14 Speech Buddy

As I watch 7.1, I learned that different types of supporting materials has their own advantages and disadvantages. For narratives, it is good to give a story but it can take away the main idea. Next was examples and it was interesting for me because examples help the audience to understand the meaning but sometimes it does not belong in the same group like how Erin explained in the video. I didn't know what testimony was until I saw the video and it was the way of showing credibility and provide different voices but it may be biased to another. As for facts and statistics, all of us used this which was for example, the powerpoint, to give an idea. After watching video 8, I also learned that there are patterns of organization. The first one was spatial and it gives a visual understanding of the topic. Next was the topical pattern and it explains how the elements come together. After was narrative and it helps the audience and the speaker to interact by participating. The cause-and-effect can be used for informative and persuasive which it might help for my next speech. Since the problem-solution pattern shows the problem and solve it to convince the audience, this would be very helpful for the persuasive speech that is coming up. Last but not least was transtitions: ordering, reinforcing, contrasting, chronology, causality, and summarizing. These transitions can be used as I make my outline and as I make my speech which it can also improve my speeches.

Self-Evaluation

As I look back at my speech and see how I did in my presentation, there were a lot of changes. The purpose was to send a message to the audience of what the topic is about and the importance of the topic. Like before, I was afraid that the purpose was not delivered to the audience and there would be no point of a speech if the purpose was not shown. However, after watching the video that was recorded, as an overall rating of how I performed I think that the purpose that I was trying to prove was accomplished although it was not thoroughly, but the gist of it was presented. As for confidence and comfortable speech, it was very hard for me to express since my weakness was presenting in front of audiences. I did not feel comfortable because I believe that although I knew what I had to say, I was not ready to perform those aspects of what I want to say. As for confidence, it was just that the courage in presenting in front of many people is very weak. Having to do it over again, I would most likely change the way how I organized my speech since I noticed the order of what goes first and what goes after was distorted and I believe this was because through my nervousness.

One goal that I would have for improving the content in my next speech is the organization. As before, my organization was very weak and after watching the video, I found out that my thesis was given after I have presented my first topic. Since things were out of order, I start to lose the momentum and stop at certain points to pick up what I forgot. For the delivery section, I believe that if I put more time into how I present and the step-by-step into making the speech, it would have been better. To add on to this, I noticed that I use a lot of filler words to replace the quietness when I get stuck as I was making my speech. Furthermore, aside from filler words, I also move my hands a lot although I did not move around at all. Another thing I found that was really disturbing was that I kept looking back at the powerpoint slide to point out the details and pictures of what I was saying and that kept me from making eye contact with the audience and if I was to rate my eye contact with the audience, I would give myself a 6 - 7 from a scale of 1-10.

Sources are important and citing them is extremely important because if we don't cite the sources, it would mean that we are plagiarizing. As for the pictures that I have posted up on my power point slide, the last slide was reserved for the citations of all the pictures that I used. However more importantly was mentioning the sources that I used to deliver my speech. Without the sources, I would not be able to even research about my topic and find out facts about it. Although I was making my speech, I did not mention anything about my source such as: "According to.....". It was terrible and I had forgotten to mention the sources as I lay out the facts that I found in these sources. As a result, on a scale from A-F, I would give myself a because although I had all the information, the time management in giving my speech was not efficient and this resulted in leaving out some information. Not only that, I also did not give a lot of eye contact since some of the time I either look at my power point and look at my note cards after stuttering.