Chapter

The chapter had tips on how to adapt to an audience and the importance of connecting with them. The chapter had info about adapting to a diverse audience and where you can successfully formulate your speech to connect with them. Most of the problems you might run into are diversity of backgrounds and cultures. But keeping aware of these differences you can still have a great speech and a clear message. Another part of the chapter that I might find helpful is an audience research questionnaire. I have never used one or filled one out but it sounds like it could be of some use. Questionnaires have both open ended and closed ended questions. I have experience in making questions for a class survey, but not for an audience. Open ended questions come in handy for interviews because you receive in depth answers. I hope to use some of this audience adaptation during my speech to connect with the audience and keep them intrigued with my speech.

videos

Being someone who loves to practice the intake of alcoholic beverages, as well as enjoy nice wine and beer, I found his speech to be very informative about the effects of drinking. He had great statistics about driving drunk and the death ration for a 160 pound person if they were to drink 2,4,6 and 8 beers. His transparencies had great information. He goes into statistics about college students. This is great to grab the audiences attention because most likely the speech is given to college students. It is amazing how your potential for death exponentially increases as you drink more. It scares me to know how many alcohol related deaths there are even when the victims or drivers are under the legal limit. When he spoke about unconscious drinkers it may me realize that either I or friends have been in that position. Granted, I have never had any bad experiences, but it is good to know how to handle it if it occurs. I felt that parts of his speech were read from his note cards, but to be honest, I become a wreck when I speak and would do the same. His slides were great, but to have more persuasion and feeling portrayed, he could have used pictures to show what could happen in accidents. He didn’t seem to have too much emotion or enthusiasm in his speech. It was monotone and didn’t catch my attention until he referred to important facts.
The speech by the girl was short but I believe it was just an into to her whole speech. Or, it was her whole speech that should have been 8 minutes long. I didn’t learn much because it was very brief. The only information I received was what she was going to touch on if she were to complete the whole speech. She was energetic and didn’t read too much and would have a great speech if she had more content. I learned that you need to be prepared and have a full speech in your head so you can properly give your speech to the class.

Audience analysis and adaptatio

First off, I would like to adapt to the audience to find how they could be interested in my chosen topic. Adapting to the audience in class might be difficult because I have not met any one before. But I will make assumptions that they enjoy food as much as I do. Generally, most students are between the ages 18-21 who take this course and directing a speech geared toward this age group would be wise to gain their interest. I will read the into blogs of classmates to get a general idea of the individuals in the class. During my speech, I hope to get positive responses to help build my confidence. But, I can get this reaction by preparing an amazing speech and visuals to grab the audiences attention. I hope to create a relaxed speech environment to help myself during the speech and allow the audience to listen to the information on a casual basis. It is very important to my success as a speaker to research my audience. In the end, I could give a great speech, but if no one listens, who will know it is great? My visual aids, maybe some humor, and enthusiasm will assist me in gaining interest in my speech. Good luck! See you all on the 30th.

Speech Update

The topic I chose for my demonstration speech was “how to prepare a rib eye steak”. First off, I love Steak!!!! Absolutely in love with tender and juicy cow meat. I have been researching steak marinades, ways to prepare it, different ways to cook it and how to apply physics to cooking it. I also poked my nose into a few books that specialize in steak and beef cuts and ways to prepare them. Each source had break downs of each step and different ways to prepare meat for different cultures. But, with this new information of specific cooking techniques, I still found that my previous technique to be more interesting. The main point of my speech is to share how to properly prepare a steak with applied physics by using water vapor to flavor a steak instead if marinating for a day or two. I hope I can find a good way to demonstrate without it taking up to much time. Ingredients, steak, and proper directions will be mixed in with the actual visuals. Preparation of a raw steak before, a steak during marinating, and then the steak after being cooked should be efficient visuals.



-Nickw

Research interviews

What experience do you have conducting research interviews? What went well? Share experience

In high school I did a research interview on a person who was born outside the U.S. This was the only one I have ever done. I believe it went well for being my first interview but there is need of much improvement. First off, I wasn’t that prepared because I didn’t know how to ask the right questions or how to get the right answers. Because of this I had to have a second interview to straighten up the information. What I learned was that you need to be thoroughly prepared to interview someone. Have some questions set out with follow up questions. Ask open ended questions as it can keep a conversation going. Remember that you need to have a purpose to the interview and need for some specific information. When I conducted the interview, I had lots of primary questions, but very few secondary questions. But what saved me was the leading questions I asked in the second interview after I had basic information from the first interview. Next time I have an interview I will set out an interview guide as suggested in the reading. This will help me stay on topic as well as asking the right questions. It is basically a play by play of how the interview will end up. Also, I will do a better job of applying the information. This will be easier as I will have more appropriate information to use for my speech or presentation.

Week one post

What I found helpful in the reading:

I found all of chapter 2 very helpful because I have tons of things to work on. The information in chapter 2 will come in handy becuase a lot of the techniques are in preparation of the speech. This will help me be prepared and in the end be able to successfully give my speech with out thinking about the fumbliing of words. I also liked the part about keeping a positive attitude. I have always had negative feelings about public speaking. If i make it a positive experience then i might enjoy speaking and in turn take more time to speak publicly. I hope to apply this asap because i usually get nervous just thinking about speaking. If i put positive words and phrases to speaking then i will eventually view it as a good experience and hopefully look forward to it.

-NickW

Chapter 6

I found all of chapter 6 useful because it clearly lays out how you can research for you topic. On this upcoming speech, I plan to use a few things from chapter 6. Of course, I will use all kinds of sources like the Internet, books, and possibly an interview or two. This chapter really goes into depth of what kinds of Internet sites to use and different ways to research your topic. For my topic, I will use different key words and phrases to get the most up to date information. It also explains how to ask the right questions which will decrease the interview time as well as getting the answers you are looking for. After gathering all the information, it takes time to evaluate the research materials. In my upcoming speech, I hope to have gathered enough information that I need to cut back in order to still get the point across. Proper documentation is important as you do not want to plagiarize. With lots of preparation, research and planning I hope to have a successful speech.

-Nickw

videos

In the breathing video I became aware that we could use breathing to help calm down and promote the speech delivery. I have personally had times where I would be short of breath or even breathe very heavily during a speech. It was very distracting when I had to focus on breathing normally instead of giving the speech. I plan to try and use these techniques for my first speech and make it habit.

Public speaking as a whole is one of my fears. I wish I could better identify my weaknesses because I would then be able to fight those things that hold me back from being a great speaker. In the video I learned that finding your weaknesses and then addressing them could really help with becoming an overall better speaker.
One thing I can definitely work on is practice. If I know the content well enough then I can focus on the delivery of the speech. Some of the advice in this video was to practice the intro and conclusion as well as being comfortable in your speech environment. I feel that overall public speaking is a sour subject and if I am ever to succeed in it I will have to put more time and energy into perfection.
Jessica’s speech was amazing. It drew me in because it was appealing as well as interesting. This was a great overall example because her delivery was perfect and intriguing. A great speaker could get the attention and keep the audience engaged even with a subject the audience doesn’t care about. Her speech took a lot of effort, practice and preparation to get her to delivery so smoothly. I hope to pick up on these techniques and make them a normal part of my public speaking.

What makes me feel apprehensive about public speaking?

Public speaking… one of my greatest fears. Stage freight absolutely destroys any public speaking success that could have come my way. When I speak in front of audiences of more than ten, I end up feeling tense, nervous and even forget what I am talking about. Practice makes perfect… right? Well, not in my case. I have tried to overcome my fear of speaking but seem to always shy away from speaking. Every time I speak I seem to jumble up my words and even forget to say words that connect two parts of a sentence. I even get nervous thinking about a speech that is 3 weeks away. My throat knots up and my hands get clammy. I would love to find a fix for my fear as it has haunted me my whole life. My goal is to become a stronger public speaker as I speak publicly about 4 times a week with the different organizations I am a part of. I hope to take the first steps to conquering my fear of public speaking.