Self Evaluation

The purpose of my speech was to hopefully inform you all about genetically modified soybeans so that you would be more aware of them. I do not think I did this as best as possible because I took too much time giving to many side stories. I think giving real examples is the best way to help everyone knows the scale of genetically modified soybeans but I did not use my time wisely. For this reason I think that I did not achieve my purpose well enough that I could have and next time I will have to pick and choose and maybe reorganize my speech so it’s at maximum efficiency. When I was standing in front of you guys it felt a lot better than sitting down and waiting for my turn. When I got up there I felt better because you guys all looked like you were paying attention (and I thank you for that) it made me feel really comfortable and confident. I don’t know if it was you guys trying to look aroused or that I just gave an exciting speech ( I doubt that) but it really made me feel a lot better standing up there. If there was one thing I could go back and change it would be my facts I decided to present. I should have chosen more interesting facts for my delivery of the speech because they fit my personality better and left out some of the cold hard facts. Sure they were supporting my subject but I noticed that most of us been sitting through a lot of cold hard facts and were tired and that putting something more interesting in would liven everyone up more and would help everyone pay attention more. As for the content of my speech like I said I shouldn’t give to many examples or choose examples more wisely and also I think that adding more variables to my speech (not just talking about Monsanto) would give a bigger grasp and picture to what I’m talking about. That is if I have enough time to talk about the variables or at least mention them. As for Delivery, it’s kinda hard to work on because I don’t give that many speeches alone with PowerPoint so that was totally new to me. I think next time I’m going to be very general with my power point next time and only put more interesting pictures to capture the audiences eyes, unlike last time, and very few typed words. This way I can focus on the delivery of my speech because I just didn’t feel all that happy about clicking to the next slide and talking about it and then clicking to the next… It’s just that one picture is worth a thousand words right? So if I reflected off the picture than it would make a better delivery because now the PowerPoint directly relates to what I’m talking about. Again I’m not sure about this idea but it’s probably something I’m going to try to see if it’s worth putting in my next speech. Moving along, this speech was good in the sense that I got to do a presentation on something I was passionate about but also bad that I was not feeling the PowerPoint like I mentioned. I feel like this speech was neutral and I probably performed average compared to my last speech. Because of that my eye contact was probably average also because I was to focused on that PowerPoint. Because I did nothing to exciting I probably deserve a C but I’m glad about the B-. I did not use time wisely and my PowerPoint along with my speech was nothing special. I think I came out confident enough about my topic ,which is probably the only good thing but I know I can do better. Then there’s citations and I think I only got one cited correctly when I had three that I was going to do. The other citations I just said I got from a video when I did not say the whole name or director of it. Lastly, this speech was a success in my opinion. It wasn’t better than the last speech but I learned a lot and I know I can do better on my next speech now.

Ch 13: Tips for Using Presentation Media

These are something you might want to consider before giving your speech. For example, make sure that you don’t turn to read what’s on your slide. You should be looking forward and you might only look at the power point to point out a something you might want to clarify with the audience. Also keep reminders on your note cards so you don’t forget to change the power point slide to what you are talking about.  The next step is be prepared to improvise. I thought about it for awhile and there’s always a chance that technology just won’t work even at school. So don’t freak out because the audience can probably see that on your face and make use of white boards or explaining the rest of your speech verbally. The last part is that you should always be speaking to the audience and not the media your using. A way to ensure this is to make sure that when your practicing you speech that your facing the direction of where the audience might be and not at the computer screen where it gives you bullet points.

Public Speaking Event

To be honest I’m not a fan of power point and I like to visualize through more story telling tactics when someone is giving a speech. I haven’t to a public speaking event that really required presentation media beyond just bulled notes from history class. From what I can tell that’s what most of my speeches in college and high school required which was bulleted notes of what we were saying. There was one presentation in high school that required pictures for speech and that was our senior project. In this project we would give a speech that showed how we improved over the course of attending school and have a slide show that had pictures of our experiences. Now that I think back on it, the pictures reflected what each of us were talking about very well and were even emotional. By relating media with something everyone was connected by (that is high school) we were all saddened to be leaving on another. In this way pictures had an effect on us that we all could find ourselves relating and understanding what they meant. They were of course very distracting and I would have to scan every picture that came up before listening to the person’s speech. I think the students who choose to give their speech then present their collage of pictures were more successful in getting their audiences attention.

Ethical Responsibilities

A lot of times when writing a ten page essay I get tempted to alter words to quote from a source, only because I get so frustrated after looking at so many sources to find evidence for my topic. I think this is just like the ethical responsibilities that we are entrusted to provide for our presentations. It's easy to show a protest for something unrelated to your speech and say that they are protesting to support your topic, but that isn't right. The way I look at it your in class to educate yourself and your fellow students. So what would be the point of coming if your not interested in doing so? This is the reason why I like to be honest with anything I get from another source. I think the responsibilities for a presenter is to give correct and accurate facts that they are interested in so that the students and themselves can benefit overall from the assignment given to them.

Speech Buddies Ch9 and 13

In chapter nine I was able to read about how to make an effective introduction and conclusion. In the speech buddies video I found the girl who talked about the usage of cell phones while driving a very good speaker. This is probably because her speech had an emotional approach and I can see that this topic is something she is passionate about. It also relates to most of us since we all get tempted to see whose calling or texted us while driving.

In chapter thirteen of the speech buddies videos I found both of the watch it videos rather boring. My first problem was that they weren't so animated and mono-toned. But the biggest problem was their poor choice in subject (at least to me anyways). I don't think that their subjects can relate to most of us that is techno and the history of Kodak cameras. Although I do listen to techno I find his overuse of facts and statistics overwhelming and I lost my interest half way though. Some of them were interesting like how it developed into today's techno but I did notice that alot of the video was skipped forwards so maybe they only wanted to show facts that were used. I found the girl who talked about Kosher the most interesting because I've heard that term before and always wondered what it meant. I think picking a topic that the audience can relate to is the most important/

Characteristics of an Informative Speech

                I’d like to go over the characteristics of an informative speech because it lets you grasp what this type of speech will provide and what to expect. An informative speech is supposed to deepen understanding, raise awareness, or increase knowledge about a topic. The best way to do this is make it personally meaning full, this means connecting the topic with the audience. It should be something they can relate to also. This is kind of hard for my topic “genetically modified soybeans” but I think by giving the statistics of products consumed containing soybeans more people will feel like knowing this information can affect their life. The idea of plagiarism scares me, and this goes hand in hand with being accurate when giving an informative speech. Almost everything I know must come from another source. So how am I going to let the audience know that what I know came from the first and real source and not some Wikipedia page? The best I can do I guess is give facts and statistics along with the credible sources with some of my opinion in between key points. The last step is clarity. Not everyone will know what a GMO is and that is my job to clarify it with everyone. Since my topic goes more in depth this will probably be the most time consuming step. Using meaning, accuracy, and clarity will help make my informative speech better and hopefully my thoughts about this topic will help you also.

My Components of an Intro and Conclusion

                The first step in developing an introduction is a great attention getter. It’s hard to get everyone on the same page; it’s just like music everyone has a different taste. That’s what an attention getter is; it’s to get everyone interested into listening to you even if it’s not their topic. For example, my informative speech is about genetically modified soybeans, boring right? I was thinking I start out by mentioning how much of the products we consume have soybeans in it (that is 60-70% of processed food contain either soy or corn). Then I’d like to inform the class that a company called Monsanto produces 90% of the soy beans grown. Finally I end up telling everyone that their genetically modified soybean their using requires a lot of herbicide that is said to be getting into the soybean itself, soil, and is the cause in the decline in some types of wildlife. Now I can only hope that the audience wanting to know more about Monsanto would be able to hook them in. The next step is indicating your thesis which for me is informing you about genetically modified soybeans and the danger to the environment and others like us is. The last step establishing credibility, which I am no soybean expert but I strive to be healthy and inform others about un-knowing health problems, and previewing a little about what my key point in the body are going to be.

                Now I will just write a little about my conclusion. So, it reviews the main points and reinforces the purpose but what I want to talk about is the closure. In the book I think it should go hand in hand with reinforcing your purpose because it’s the same thing. I think it should be the attention getter of the conclusion. For my closure I was thinking of saying, “now that you know more about Monsanto I’d like to ask you guys if you know who is supporting all the advertisements for proposition 37 that all genetically modified foods had to be labeled (Monsanto)? I’m not telling you how to vote but doesn’t it seem a little cryptic/secretive?”