Finito

I think the biggest thing that I learned this semester is that you just have to keep moving forward. Speeches are about being confident. If you are not confident and prepared you will make mistakes and you will want to fix them. Even if you are prepared you will make mistakes, but less of them. If you stop and try to fix them, you will waste time, people will get upset with you, lose interest, and doubt you. Everything you will have said is now pointless. 

If you keep pressing forward, you will appear more confident, and some people may not catch your mistakes. I always tell myself to just keep going forward, and not to stop. 

Tribute

Of all the speeches that I gave, I enjoyed the tribute speech the most. Even though it was a smaller speech, it was the most useful. There have been many points in my life when I wanted to give a tribute to someone, such as a funeral or wedding. Before, this class I was always so scared, but now if the opportunity presented itself I would have no problem giving one. 

I think that no matter why you are taking the class, this speech is the most useful for anyone. There is a possibility that I will have to give an informative speech, but I know for certain that I will have to give a tribute speech at some point in my life.

Lazy Man Title

Two things that I really learned that helped me this semester was that the audience was always to be considered. The other thing that I learned was that speeches are always changing.

The first point I mentioned was helpful, because I would always try to start my speech doing something very complicated, that I thought would be interesting. With the repeated emphasize that audiences were important, I would always retailor my speech. In some cases it was to simplify the topic, for people who weren’t familiar with the material I was presenting.

The other point was that speeches are not like papers. You can write an outline, but when you get up in front of your audience, you may change things. If you see something that is not working you can change it. You can add things if you feel it is necessary. You can take things away if you are running too long. You may also change the order.

Technically Speaking

I get into a lot of debates during an average week, sometimes I win and sometimes I loose. The problem I have usually when I loose is that I am arguing with a stupid person and that I am using a strong logos appeal, when the people I am arguing don’t care about logic. They are looking for a pathos or ethos appeal, perhaps even a mythos appeal. So even though I am giving sound evidence that most college students understand I make no ground, because I am using the wrong appeal.

So I end up having to tailor the type of approach  to my audience, which is not always easy because I am more comfortable with a logos approach most times. However, it gets me farther to make a semi-decent appeal with pathos and for the target audience to be semi-receptive, then for me to us a logos appeal and not  get anywhere.

It's appealing

When a person enters a debate, argument, or some type of persuasion they usually start with on form of appeal. Logos, pathos, mythos, or ethos. These all have their places in an argument, typically they are best used when timed right. Say you are giving a speech, to an audience of a college. You are trying to persuade them to stop their over consumption, you would most likely appeal to them with logos. They would be in that type of mindset, if they were on a college campus and showed up.

However, if you want to soften them up or seal the deal, at the beginning or the end of the speech you could use a pathos appeal. Something like dying sea birds or sick children. This would help open them up to your idea making them more receptive or help reaffirm all the evidence you presented them.

So it is good to combined different appeals, as well as, time them or pace them to maximize their effectiveness. The only downside is using to many different approaches to fast or at once. People might think you are “backpedaling.”

Apathetic

A reoccurring theme this semester, is that your speech is all about your audience. So for a persuasive speech, it should be know different. When you are delivering a persuasive speech there are several types of audiences.

The first three that are better for you, as the speech giver, are sympathetic, uninformed, and divided audiences. This way you already half support or could easily build support.

The other two are apathetic and hostile audiences. Both of these audiences are bad, however the apathetic audience could be arguably the worst. A hostile audience, already has some knowledge, that you can play on. Use it to manipulate their point of view, and instill doubt. An apathetic audience, you have to first win over to the idea of caring. Then you have to inform them, and after that win them to your side. It is a great deal more work.

Surfing the Sea of Persuasion

Humans are trying to persuade people often when they don't even realize it. If you look at the way we talk and how we act, it is very evident that we are trying to enact our will, for better or worse, on to others. If I stand in a line, I might cross my arms and take a wider stance without realizing it, just to keep people from standing too close.

So it is no surprise that on daily basis we are bombarded with hundreds of persuasive ads. They are on the radio, on the television, and even scattered around our campus. I wake up and on my drive to work or school I see billboards, I hear ads on the radios, I see people waving signs for companies (often with arrows telling you were to go).

One great example, is the vector marketing booth, that is often found around Sierra's J building. Just about once a week, they approach me, shove a business card in my hand, and tell me that I should start working for Vector. Although, they are well intended, they are very forceful. They don't give any suggestion that, I shouldn't work for them. The are almost telling me that I should, even though it is a suggestion.

Another great example is the political speeches that were being given over the past year. Many great speeches on how to fix the country and what direction we need to go. These speeches were not only a way to persuade us to vote for candidates, but also persuade us of the path our country needs to take.

Overall, persuasion is everywhere, and in almost everything.

Adapt to Survive

When I was watching the speech buddy videos, I thought, damn I could have used these last time around. I took a speech class before, and even though I did alright, I didn't do well enough. A lot of stuff I have been able to apply to this class, to do even better. One of the things that I've been doing, is just now being brought up. Such things like pacing and your wording.

When I give my speeches, they are never the same twice. I use to write the outline, then write the speech, and then try to regurgitate it verbatim. It worked 50% of the time.

Now, I make an outline and play it by ear. I add tons of detail in my outline and topics I can cover. Then, if have extra time, I may emphasize. If I run low on time, I can cut things out. Allowing for this variability, I can better adapt to the situation that I am presented with.

Mi Amego

I have a friend that is pretty intelligent, but fails to accurately communicate well. It is not so much that his ideas are hard to follow, although sometimes they are really stupid and hard to follow. Almost on a daily basis he gets in serious trouble, due to lack of communication. He always tries to make an effort. So why does he fail so miserably at communicating? It is his voice, among other things.

Nothing is physically wrong with his voice, he can speak clearly. However, he often mumbles, or doesn't enunciate. He doesn't project his voice well, Then, when he is clear, he chooses the wrong tone, often sounding mean. We always have to tell him, "It is not what you said, but how you said it."

Your voice is a valuable tool, that can be double edged. You can use it to emphasize points, or if you are mean, subtly cut people down. Like I said though, if you can't control it well, your voice can hurt you. Making people loose interest in you,

Another example of this, was one of my professors, tried reading the class Dr. Seuss. He was terrible at it. He would read at a nice steady, crystal clear pace. Then, when it came time to rhyme words, he'd emphasize the wrong ones. Trying to rhyme words that had no business together. So watch your voice, it can be a helpful tool, or kill your speech. Mostly though, just kill your speech.

Flickr and the Horror Within

A) That was the most stupid thing I was forced to read, in a while.

B) It took me up until, halfway through to understand what 'lg' meant. Why can't people just become proficient typists and type the whole thing out.

C) What  I am suppose to actually be commenting. 

When it comes to humans we are typically divided on a variety of issues, and topics. Writing this, I could expect some people to disagree on my view.  Which is alright, expected, and often encouraged. One of the reasons this comes about, is that everyone is different. This could come about from social status, cultural origins, what chromosomes you received, or how the genes for your skin are expressed. No two people will have the same experience in life. Many people attribute it to gender, skin color, and socioeconomic status, and for the most part they are right.

However, does this mean that the words that we use and were invented to describe or explain the world we live in are the root of the problem? If they are, is it all one sided?

I tend to believe that words are not the root of the problem. Especially, with their ability to change in meaning, become misused, or loose their value. I had a similar argument with my friend or 'bad words'. When most people hear the word, angry they attribute it as a negative emotion and the someone is upset. When they hear the word pissed, they may think 'what a bad word' and 'why does that person need to use that word'. When they are both considered to mean the same thing.

A word has value not from saying the word, but by the intent behind it. When people use sarcasm, they often say things, that could be taken in a nice tone, but are usually negative because of the tone of their voice. People don't mean, most of the time, to make the word girl sound degragatory. In fact, the word girl could be viewed as positive, as in the female is youthful. Which the same thing could be done, by saying young woman or youthful woman, but that is more to say, write, or type. It could also sound too proper for normal conversation.

As the book says, we should always consider our audience, making careful not to be ethnocentric, sexists, racists, or act superior to others. Which is a good idea, even if you felt that way. It would get your point across, so if you were worried about a speech and your reason for communicating, and didn't want to loose your point. Yes, it would be a great idea to be more gender neutral.

Overall, I guess I would say that the word is not responsible for sexism, but rather the person. I know that one could make an argument that the way of speaking helps attribute to a continuation of sexism, it is something that is not the root cause. I aslo, believe that people look at sexism as one sided usually, and would fail to notice that words could be sexist for men, such as the use of boy, as in "The boys"

Self Evaluation #2

Overall, I felt that I did well durning this speech. I think I significantly improved on certain areas that were not as great during my demonstration speech. However, their were some things that I would like to have changed or done differently.

First, thing that threw me was the presentation media. Although, I practiced my speech, didn’t practice it with the media primary because I didn’t have a large enough projector screen. This made it harder for me to quickly locate a particular portion of the slide that I wanted to direct my audience attention too. The other thing that was hard, was the location of the controls and the size of the screen. I noticed that I kept falling behind the desk, making it hard for me to connect with the audience. I only made eye contact with the side of the audience that could see me. This would have been easier to fix, with a laser pointer mouse. Allowing for me to not be so tethered to the controls.

Another thing to mention about my eye contact, was that I occasionally talked to my media, when I was emphasizing a point. So overall, I’d give myself a 5.

I did improve on some things from my last speech. I used less random hand motions, and I believe less fidgeting. I also, worked on my credibility, making sure to emphasize why I was an expert speaker on the subject. I did only use 3 oral citations, even though I had planned to use more. During the moment of the speech I forgot to insert the last one and could because I don’t really on notecards. I feel that they are distracting and only hinder me. 

Another thing I noticed about this speech, was that I was able to better stay in the timeframe. I was going to include much more information about my speech, however I realized that it would be too much and so I cut things out. This allowed for me to go into the proper amount of detail for the speech that was required for a basic understanding. This is something that I was failing to do in my last speeches.

Another thing to note about my speech, I had a better introduction and conclusion. I made sure I included a clincher, reviewed my main points, and reinforced the purpose in my conclusion. I had an attention getter, which I felt was a little weak, but I think did the job. I also, provided a thesis and clear agenda. Something that was possible only because I had a good outline.

I definitely did better than my last speech, even though I felt a little less, prepared I was more comfortable with the material. I knew more about DNA replication, and was able to find more research. Overall, I am very proud of the speech, despite having complications with my media material. If I had to grade myself, I would give my speech an 85. I know I made mistakes, I am not sure how obvious they were though.

I am excited and nervous about my next speech. I don’t know if I will be as connected to my topic, however, I want to really look into all arguments. I know that my audience will be extremely important to consider. I want to make sure I can touch on most people opinions, this should help me support me case for or against. As far as content, I am pretty confident that I will be able to included enough substantial support, evidence, fact, and logic to make my case meaningful. 

Don't. Please Don't.

Powerpoint Presentation, Keynote, whatever you use is amazing, until you forget to save or there is an error. However, the point I want to get across is, these programs are powerful and can make a great slide show, if done right. Now I know I already went on about slideshows early, but I really feel the need to get this point across. Slide shows are not notecard. Every time I am subjected to endless presentation with powerpoint, I end up leaving the class because these power points are usually annoying. I'd rather go get a latte.

So things to avoid:

1)Filling up the whole slide. I was talking with my friend who works in advertising, she told me that certain ads are made so overloaded, except for one part, so that the viewer is forced subconsciously to see the simple part. It is too much for the person to take in at once. So when I see a slide with 4 pictures all with captions and text, I find a simple spot. It is usually my phone.

2) Text. Slides are not book pages. A little text is cool, but if I am already reading the slide, why do I need to listen to you? I can probable read whatever you are presenting faster than you can tell me, I can hear and comprehend. I might as well cut out the middle man, and pick up a book from the library.

Plus, you'll look pretty stupid, sitting up there regurgitating.

It's the Right Thing To Do

No body is perfect and sometimes, people use poor sources. However most of the world is unforgiving and will crucify you for your mistake, especially on a professional level. That is why it is important to make sure you have a good valid source, especially on highly controversial stuff. If you have a video or digital recording that is going to rock the boat, ask yourself where did you get it? Perhaps find who recorded it, people who were claimed to be there, and get them to give you on the record quotes.

This will keep you out of trouble and also, make you seem like a good hearted person. You should also ask yourself is it worth using? Will it get me in serious trouble if I am wrong about it? 

Overall, your audience is looking to you to do the "right" thing. They want to know that you checked your sources and used something 100% legit because they hate to be duped intentional, or not.

re-gur-gi-ta-tion

I often find that using presentation media either help or hinder a speak on a massive level. I also typically find that people who are less experienced with speeches, tend to use presentation media poorly. For instance, a lot of times I have seen in class presentation by groups and singular people and they put all their information on the slides and read off the slide. It is particularly annoying because I then read the slide and I am waiting for them to regurgitate the slide to me, so I can read the next slide. When, the point is that the power points are suppose to help accent certain points. 

Like in a science class, teachers almost have to use them to help students understand difficult processes, otherwise they have to use a chalkboard, and unless they are super fast it will take them forever to draw out models and examples to explain. Typically they use these slideshows rather well, often adding in small clips that explain concepts, images, and charts. I remember one of my teachers added a small segment of a cell video, where the class was able to see what was happing to a real cell. It helped emphasized the point. 

So overall, speeches benefit from presentation media, as long as you do it right and DON'T regurgitate off the slide. It is super annoying.

Do you have purpose?

When I was reading about the introduction, one of the things that caught me eye was the consider your purpose section. It is easy to write down a general purpose for your speech, but if you don't connect with that purpose. If you don't like that purpose or believe in the purpose, it will be like you don't believe in your speech. It is easy for a lot of use to think we'll my real purpose for this speech is so I have something to talk about on speech day that will get me a good grade, and allow me to pass the class. However, from what I understand, in order to give a good speech, you must believe in yourself and the speech. You must want to make that connection to the audience. You really have to have a good purpose, otherwise why bother talking about it? If you don't feel the topic is that interesting, that relevant, or that meaningful, then why are you subjecting other to that torture?

Why should I listen?

Like I mention in my other post there are three main parts that go in to an introduction, the attention getter, a review of the main points, and something that provides credibility.

The attention getter is anything that will grab your audience and is used just to wake people up to the idea that you are talking. Short and simple.

Credibility is sort of like the attention getter in my opinion, it is just another way to reinforce the idea that people should listen to you speak. Just done in a more serious fashion. It says, yes I know what I am talking about. An example of credibility would be a question that I might use for my speech. “Have you ever wonder how we all got here?” or “Ever wonder why you have a different eye color that your family member?” (My speech is on DNA)

Review of main points, is something that I thought was silly until the other day. I was reading a book on more effective reading, and one of the things that it mentioned was that if you preview a books main points, you will be able to move through the content more quickly and comprehend it better. This is allows people to warm up to the ideas that will be presented.

Introducing...

The two main topics in these videos were about introductions and conclusions. These are important factors to help guide your audience through your speech, as well as, seem a credible speaker. 

Your introduction has three main parts, the attention getter, reviewing  the main points, and providing credibility. If you fail to have a good conclusion people may get confused and not know what you are talking about. So even if you had eloquently talked about each of your points people may not understand them, because they are trying to catch up to what you are talking about.

The other thing is the conclusion. Sums up everything you talked about and is really just important to help people understand that what you are talking about has a reason. It also helps people know when your speech is over, otherwise it just gets awkward. If you don’t have closure you end up saying things like “and that’s my speech” or “Okay, I’m done”.

Self Evaluation #1

Overall, I think the main point in my speech was communicated clearly to my audience. I feel that they understood what I was saying and could follow my form of organization. My points were linear. I did however do, some unnecessary movements when I was in front of my audience that may have served to distracted them, such as pacing. I did notice that I was able to maintain eye contact pretty constantly. It was one of my goals going into the speech. 

My confidence level for this speech was not as high as my first speech, but I was still ready. I believe any fear I had, wasn’t completely from the audience. I was discussing with some of the strangers I was practicing in front of before the speech, that I wasn’t nervous in front of them and that my anxiety may stem from the possibility of a bad grade. The other thing that I noticed about my speech is that sometimes using things, like notecards seem strange and make me nervous. Almost like using them is bad and distracting, even though the are necessary for my statistics and quotes. However, when I do the demo, I can almost expel my excess energy into the process that I am showing and I become less nervous.

If I had to do my speech over again, I would definitely look for more support. Although, I found a lot about the history of my topic, I didn’t have as much credible sources. Even though I gave 4 references and 4 oral citations, they weren’t from people who are experts in their field. However, in such a field as cooking, it is hard to determine what makes a person an expert. Does everyone have to be a chef to make good food? I also, didn’t pick a topic that I had any credible experience in. 

I think for my next speech I will want to have more evidence. I think I will also, want to break my main ideas down into simpler, smaller chunks of information, given the time constants of the speech. This is due to the fact that I feel I am not giving a lot of in depth information, just generic info that is superficial. I also, want to project more confidence, I feel that even though I make eye contact with my audience, I probable pace, which makes it appear as if I don’t have confidence. I want to be able to root myself in front of my audience and make meaningful movements.

I believe I did a good job on the delivery of my speech, and was able to do a decent demonstration. I stayed close to the time limit. I would, give my self a 87.5 to 90 for the delivery.

For the preparation of the speech, I believe that one of my bid downfalls was that my sources were not the greatest, they gave good information, but they weren’t as credible as they should have been. I’d give my self a 85 for the preparation.

Speech Buddies Videos aka The Lazy Title

What did I learn that was useful in the speech buddies video? I learned how to support my speech to make it seem credible. How to use good examples or how to stretch my point when I am trying to persuade people. For example, if I was trying to convince people to drop out of college, there is no good logical reason to do this, but I could use the example in the speech buddies video, and generalize it. Is it ethical, probable not, but I would accomplish my goal. It also, showed me how I could use narratives and testimonials to play on people emotions. Likewise, I also learned how to balance the evidence I need to support my claim, not get the point diluted, and keep it easy to comprehend. Overall, the general theme I guess was how to be efficient and ethical, or on the flip side, manipulative.

Then there was something about organization, it was pretty cool. Basically how to organize your speech based on the type of speech, and how you wanted it presented.

That's a fact!

Giving facts or statistics in a speech can be really helpful. They are super effective at getting some points across, help validate you, and can capture a persons interest. If you start out a speech with a shocking fact, like 50 in 100 people who get cancer x die, it can scare people into curiosity. If you are addressing one of your main points and you follow it up with a few facts, it is validated. People have logical reason to believe it. However, facts can be used too much, like a crutch. If you didn't do research or logically string your speech together, a good alternative may seem to be, throwing out facts. This can get to the point were you aren't actually talking about a topic, but giving out random unrelated statistics. These will only serve to make you seem glib on the subject matter. You could look unprepared, as well. So all in all, it is great to get a wide variety of facts, but only choose ones that can be placed effectively.

Figuratively speaking...

I was in a club meeting today, it was for religion and the bible. The basic idea was that they were reading, studying, interpreting, and generally analyzing the bible. Over and over again, they group leaders would bring in a story or an example to use as an analogy for a specific part of the bible. It worked quite well. Even though I did not agree with the person particular view or interpretation, I understood it better. I could grasp what he was saying, it came across clear. This I believe goes back to speaking to a diverse audience. Even though the stories had nothing to do with the bible. I as a person who never read the bible understood the thinking. I thought at the time of this realization, that I could use this technique to explain scientific processes to non-science majors. Just like an Art major could try to explain art techniques to me. They are an aid to a language barrier.

Please drink responsibly.

Well, I was watching the Drinking speech, I thought that the guy was a bad speaker. This was because he was stumbling over his words and wasn't the greatest with his visual aid. However, he did have good credibility, using multiple statistics, and other citations. These statistics are used in such a way that they have shock value, he puts them into a more comprehendible way. Rather than saying there are 120,000 deaths from drunken related accidents, he breaks it down to, four people will die by the end of the class.  He interprets them, which is good to get his point across and bad, because he could interpret them wrong or use this type of technique maliciously. So overall, he wasn't the greatest speaker, but he used his citation well.

Psycho

Psychographics information is something that I feel is very useful. Not only for speeches, but for any form of communication. No matter how good of a point you make, all your effort will be wasted if you audience is not receptive to it, doesn't understand it, or you convey the idea in a poor way. I have much experience talking to other across forums and other online communication, where I will write an amazing argument, making good logical sense, and having good examples. Then, having people responding back, without either understanding the idea, or not wanting to accept the idea. Having had this happen to me a few times I asked myself, why don't they understand or why won't they accept this idea. 

This is when I realized that I was trying to change something drastically to that person. Otherwise, I was expecting that they know or believe something that I did. I began to ask myself before communicating, will this person be open to this idea. Will they have prior background that will help them understand this idea. I found that I was able to take their attitude, beliefs, and values into consideration and make a more compelling argument, tailored to them. My ideas where then better received.

Analyzing The Audience

Audience analysis, also know as reading he audience. Is important for a speech because it allows for you to convey your idea the most effectively to your target audience.  A good example of this would be when you are discussing a complex idea to a group of people who are not familiar with your field of study. You might start talking about an idea that doesn't seem too complex, but after seeing some confusion on peoples faces you could adapt your explanation to be more simplistic. 

Other reasons for audience adaptation is for when you have a group of people who come in with bias, social, or cultural differences. They might not be as malleable to fringe ideas surrounding their beliefs. It would be important to introduce these ideas gently and know when to refrain from saying something that could be inflammatory.

The book gives several good examples as well, one being about a speech for introducing a school, this school just being recently hit with a bacterial outbreak. The speaker started with her usually outline of the school, but quickly determines that the audience was not interested in the school, but with bacterial outbreaks and the well being of the students. Knowing this she was able to shift her focus to the more important issue, and win her audience over.

Preparation is the key to success!

3). Pick one concept from the reading this week and discuss it in detail.

I wanted to continue on from my other blog post on interviews. As these were the most useful for researching my culture speech topic. I was particularly interested in the preparation, as that seems to be the key to a good interview. First I will go over some of the main points from the book and then I will add some more of the things I encountered when conducting my interviews. 

The process looks like:

-Determine the purpose of the interview

The books says that you should look to see if this is one of the most usefully ways to get your information and how will you use this information in your speech. 

I think it would also be important to consider how your audience will receive these information. It is important to have credibility, so if you are talking about say Fast food restaurants it could be beneficially to have quotes from workers. However, if you are talking about more complex sciences, people will be more receptive to the facts.

- Selecting interviewees

This is about selecting a interviewee based on their credibility and willingness to participate. When I was looking for participants, I found a group that was very obviously part of the gamer culture, however, not all of them were willing to participate or were unwilling to have their full names used. 

-Pre-research and Questions

Having a wide variety of questions is good. They allow for you to easily navigate through an interview and hit on the points that are relevant. Also, if the particular person you are interviewing is uncomfortable with a certain set of questions. Then, it is good to have back-up questions. The other issue is you need to know a bit of the basics for the topic you are interview the person on. If you try to interview a gamer and you don’t know some common terminology or what you should be asking, it will be easy to come up empty handed.

Librarians

I learned how to prepare to research a topic. Often I get an assignment and I rush right off looking up generally information about the topic. However, I never asked myself what do I know about the topic or what I want to know about the topic. These videos helped me realize that research is about more that just searching up information using books, media, and expert reports. Research involves preparation and planning.

The other thing that the video help me with is utilization of all resources available. In this I mean, asking the library for help. Sometimes I am shy and do not want to ask strangers questions. I believe I am not alone in this, but it is important to note that librarians are there to help others and that it is part of their job.

Talk to The Experts

For my culture speech I interview several different gamers from different places. This was one of the first times I really did an interview for anything. I found that it was very helpful and gave me good credible quotes that helped support my topic. I can’t say for certain if an interview would be as beneficial for a scientific report, but on something like culture, where it is more opinion based, it was useful.

I went in with a serious of basic questions and I found that I needed to make up more questions as I got deeper in to the interviews. In the future, it would most likely be better to think broader when making the questions. It is always possible to pair down the questions later, you don’t have to use them all.

Another thing I found interesting about the interview, is that by taking people who were “experts” on the topic, I was able to get more ideas for my speech. Certain areas that were not as substantial content wise or weakly supported I was either able to modify, replace, or fully support. Overall, I had fun conducting the interviews and found that people like to talk about areas they are interested in.

Breathing techniques?

When watching the first video 2.1, I couldn't help thinking. I will never use any of the information they are giving to me. Breathing techniques? I would feel like too much of an idiot, sitting around doing these. However, as I got to the second video some interesting stuff cropped up. Like how people prepare for their speech. Using visualization as you practice your speech and pretending that you are in the classroom. It gave me a few ideas like finding an empty classroom, and practicing my speech there because if I can't do my speech there, I won't be able to do it anywhere else. The other idea was, going into classrooms before the beginning of a class and hanging out up front. I had to do this while I waited for my instructor once and at first it felt odd, but eventually I was able to look around the classroom at all the people without minding them.

Another thing that I felt was pertinent in the videos was how to select topics. To research and pick something that is familiar to you. Something that I already was going to do, but makes me that much more reassured.

Visualization

Visualization is one of the most useful things that I learned, not just for speech class, but for life in general. So often people are bombarded with more negative than positive influences in life. These really start to affect people and their ability to complete a task. I read once in a book called Quantum Learning that people receive 6 negative comments for every 1 positive comment on average. The ability to learn to look at the positive and place less emphases on the negative is important. So many times I have stumble doing one task or another, because I didn't have confidence and I let the negative get to me. Being able to see the end result and seeing myself completing the tasks I wish to accomplish helps assure me I will be successful. Knowing I will be successful helps me turn around my anxiety. It instead because a positive energy, excitement.

Unfamiliarity

When I think about public speaking, I immediately think about boardroom meetings, award ceremonies, and those other "boring" occasions. My next thought is, I don't need to know how to do these things. I will never have one of those occasions. However, this is just me covering for myself. I am really afraid to speak in public, but at the same time it excites me. I know that I need to learn to speak in front of audiences and I want to get better at and grow my skills. It is something that I would use for classes, ceremonies, toasts, and later in life to present any possible research I choose to share.

My apprehension towards public speaking, is that I want a perfect speech. I hate to do something and not have it done perfect. When I get in front of an audience I feel like I am being judged and graded. If I don't do the speech perfect I feel like I failed and everyone sees me as a failure.

The other thing that makes me nervous is the speech content. Typically, I could explain things that I am familiar with and have in depth knowledge on, such as how metabolism works. Things like opinions and topics typically found in a speech class I am unfamiliar with. This unfamiliarity makes me nervous because I really have to work hard to remember what I need to be talking about, and it is harder for me to pull from my head knowledge that will help the speech keep flowing if I get side tracked.

Otherwise, I could be really excited about speaking in front of others, mostly in a teaching format. I love to inform others about my discoveries and such.