1.
The big takeaways from chapter one of A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking are that public speaking is an imperative skill to have in one’s life. Public speaking is very important because it’s a form of communication that will bring people together. This can be between just two people or between a speaker and a large audience. Public speaking would help you voice your ideas and concerns professionally. You will have the confidence to share your thoughts and concerns about topics you care about. In order for you to develop this skill, you will need to understand your topic, the interests of the audience and the occasion of the speech. More importantly in giving a speech is sharing something with value to your audience. When you deliver your message you are engaging with an audience that wants to feel that the speaker cared about what they are interested in. Sometimes when we have to present in classrooms it’s not always comfortable to stand in front of the class when your classmates aren’t engaged because they only care about the grade and not everyone is interested in the topics that were presented. In other cases, you connect with other people that go through or believe in the same things you do.
2.
In high school, I have been part of the Math Team. We would have math meets or like math competitions with other schools from Maine. For me to be able to do well in the competitions, I have to be fast at solving math problems and know how to do very different types of problems. Normally, for each round of the competition, we would have twelve minutes to solve three problems. We normally have these competitions every month. To practice for my upcoming competition I would take packets of practice problems of the same topics from previous years and do the problems for practice and be familiar with the format. I try to time myself when practicing to make sure I’m able to finish on time. If I struggled to understand a method or wanted to find a better and faster way to do a problem I would ask my teammates or my coach. This has helped me very much on days of the competitions because I was prepared and familiar with the topics. I was also able to apply what I learned for the math meets in my math classes. I have received a medal award and have been nominated to go for state competition.
3.
Some of the things that I think went well during the speech, I felt comfortable but at the same time I was nervous. I think I was making good eye contact with everyone. I spoke at a volume that would allow everyone to hear me. I didn’t look at my notes as much as I thought I would and I think that was part of being nervous but it helped. I stayed on topic. Although the speech had a pretty good flow, there were definitely more things I could have added. I did stumble over my thoughts a little. It was funny how in my speech I tired to explain how I practice and still forget things and that’s exactly what happened while giving the speech. Minimizing space words would be something to improve. I didn’t expect myself to use that many space words especially I didn’t when I practiced. Next time I would like to try to speak slower because I tend to speak a little too fast when I’m nervous. Audience was nice and engaged especially that we all had to do it and everyone knew how it felt to stand in front of everyone else.
4
From chapter 11 we learn that a speech must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. The chapter mainly describes how to organize the body of a speech. The body of a speech must cover the main points, the supporting points and transitions to make your claim. Your thesis statement should guide your main points. Each main point should be about a single specific idea. The supporting points should give reasoning for the main points. Using transition words or phrases would tie the ideas of the speech together and that will help the listeners to easily move from one point to another. These are some of the big takeaways because they would help make your speech organized and easy to follow. When I was working on the outline for my first speech, I wanted my main points to flow together and so I used my worst case scenario as a transition from my communication style point to my strengths and weaknesses.
Chapter 12 continues to describe the ways to organize a speech. One of the big takeaways from the chapter is that selecting and organizing speech points into a pattern helps link everything together. There are six different patterns can be used to organize a speech. Chronological pattern can be used when a speaker wants to describe a process or the actions leading into the main point by following the same order of the process. Spatial pattern can be used when describing the physical arrangements of a place or a scene. Causal pattern can be used when presenting listeners with the effects before the causes of the main topic. Problem-solution pattern can be used when the speaker defines a problem and then suggests a way to resolve it. Topical pattern can be used when each of the main points is a subtopic of the speech topic. Narrative pattern can be used when the speaker has a story to tell. Personally I have used a causal pattern for one of my english presentations where I talked about the causes and effects of climate change.
5.
From today’s meeting with my group I got some feedback for my next speech. Since I’ll be talking about how to tie hijab. I think I have the process done. I thought I had the introduction done too but my group had some suggestions. They suggested that I should talk about why I wear the hijab and what a hijab means. I think that’s a very important piece that I will need to make I will make sure that I do enough research to explain it properly and correctly. Another thing I will do is try to make a video or a series of pictures to help guide my presentation, that way it is easier for the audience to visualize what I will be talking about. I would like to find a way to make talking and opening the video or putting the pictures flow easily together. By next class, I would like to work on my conclusion because I still can’t figure out a way to close everything off. I would like to make sure I don’t talk too fast and not move around too much either. I would like to make sure I can fit everything in 3 minutes and not go over or below the time limit and that’s by practicing multiple times.
6.
Chapter 13 talked about how to prepare an outline for a speech. Having an outline organizes your speech. When you are making a speech you will need to make two outlines, a working outline and a speaking outline. A working outline would be used to organize your main points and supporting points. A speaking outline would be used to practice and actually present the speech. When writing the outline, you can use sentence outline format, phrase outline, or key-word outline. For my first speech I used a key-word outline where I didn’t use a lot of sentences and I didn’t go deep into my main points because I didn’t want to rely on reading from the outline, I wanted to focus on making eye contact with the audience. For this speech since I’ll be walking the audience through the steps of a process and so I’ll be using sentence outline format.
7.
8.
Giving my speech twice to different groups in class helped me practice presenting to different people and I was able to receive feedback. One thing that went well during the speech was making eye contact. I think I didn’t look at my laptop that much even though it might seem like I did in the videos. Another thing that I think went well is that I was able to recognize what to keep in the speech and what to discard. One thing to improve on for the final speech would be to work on meeting the time requirement. I would like to add more to my conclusion and introduction to make the speech flow better and to add time. I would like to practice my speech more because I didn’t feel confident or prepared when giving my speech. I think it was because I didn’t practice ahead of time that day. Another thing I would like to work on would be minimizing hand gestures, and I think a big part of that was because I didn’t have my prop with me. I would like to practice with my prop more to not seem fidgety and to look more confident.
9.
Before giving the speech I was very nervous and I thought I wasn’t going to remember anything. Knowing that I like to move around to feel comfortable before giving any presentations, this time I moved around a little bit and it helped calm me down a lot. I was more familiar with the people and that helped too. I didn’t want my voice to be too loud or too soft. I wanted everyone to be able to hear me clearly and I think I did a good job with that. I don’t like to read from my outline, I might have glanced down but that’s only to process things, but overall, I think I made good eye contact with the audience. I didn’t want to seem too shaky and so this time I was aware of my hand movements. However, I didn’t pay attention to my use of filler words until it was pointed out to me in a few of the feedback from my classmates. I have made a few mistakes but I tried to pull myself back together. For example, I skipped one of the points that I meant to go over in my speech and so I wanted to go back and talk about it but I stumbled a little bit. I think the biggest lesson I learned from this speech is to not try to read or follow my outline word for word and it’s okay to skip some of the things. Seeing everyone looking at me and paying attention helped me get through the speech especially that I was the last one to go and I thought they wouldn’t be engaged or interested.
10.
I consider professor Collyn a really good public speaker. I think she is successful because she practices her skills. She understands the topics she wants to cover very well. She uses slide shows to present the lessons. She effectively grabs the audience’s attention. She uses different ways to teach the lessons considering there are tactile, visual, and auditory learners. She also involves different group activities in every class. She connects points and conversations together in a way that makes the lesson easy to follow. She asks for feedback on certain topics to start a conversation, especially from the people that are not sharing their thoughts on the ideas. She uses open gestures, smiling and nodding, and engages in the expressions and movements of the other person. She makes very good eye contact. She is calm and has good hand movements.
11.
Chapter 25 talks about speaking on special occasions. There are types of special occasion speeches, there are speeches of introduction, acceptance, presentation, roasts and toasts, eulogies and other tributes, after-dinner, and inspiration. A special occasion speech is made for a specific event and a specific purpose. A speech of introduction is brief and must describe the speaker’s background and qualifications, briefly preview the speaker’s topic, and ask the audience to welcome the speaker. A speech of acceptance is made when you are receiving an award. For that speech, you must prepare in advance, express what the award means to you, and express gratitude. A speech of inspiration is made when the speaker wants to motivate the audience. It might not be necessary to have one of those special occasions speeches when giving a speech in class but knowing that there are different types of speeches for different occasions would be helpful for the future. Especially that there are different goals for every speech. Having guidelines on what to write in an outline makes the speech appropriate.
12.
For my next speech, I think I know who I want to talk about. I would like to do a speech of introduction that way I can introduce the person, talk about their background, and then add some anecdotes to go with what I’ll be talking about. I think writing the introduction would be the easiest part. However, trying to find the perfect anecdotes or trying to remember some of them might be challenging. I want my anecdotes to be meaningful and flow easily with the description of the person. Again, writing the conclusion would be as challenging as previously. I would like to focus on it to make my ending meaningful and not seem rushed. I would like to continue working on my working outline and take some time to practice the things that I have written down. I would also like to start looking for new transition words to try to minimize my space words.
13.
I feel good about doing dry runs next class that way I can make improvements before giving my final speech. Some of the things that are working. I think I have a good theme for the speech. I think the theme fits the style of the speech. I am satisfied with my introduction. I think it does a good job of introducing the person and the theme. I am still working on the body and conclusion. Some of the things that I’m nervous about include not having a good working outline. I’m still not sure what stories to add. I have so many to choose from but I want them to be meaningful and I want once that will go along with my theme of respect and kindness. I don’t want my speech to sound choppy so I would like to continue working on my transitions between the stories to connect everything. I’m nervous if I continue to make changes to my outline, I’ll not have enough time to practice my final speech. I’m nervous about not making the time required for the speech because of not enough practice.
14.
The two dry runs were the first time I practiced my speech. I noticed that my working outline is weak. I think I have a good idea of what I want to keep in my speech and what to take out. I needed to connect my stories better and make better transitions. Some of the stories didn’t blend in well so I took them out of my speech. I stumbled a lot when I was trying to transition from one thing to another. Because I didn’t do enough practice beforehand I wasn’t able to recall any of my speech so I was reading from my outline the whole time. I find it difficult to memorize the speech because it does not all talk about one thing the person has or has done. I didn’t make the time required for the speech in neither dry runs and I would like to practice more and add more information to make my speech longer. I would like to use less filler words and try to add more transitional phrases instead. I would like to look at my outline less for my final speech and make good eye contact like the previous two speeches.
15.
I organized my speech well and I practiced many times. I think the introduction went well. In terms of content, I couldn’t focus on what I was saying so I ended up telling half of my story and I stumbled transitioning from one point to another. That’s because before giving the speech I lost confidence in what I knew and what I practiced. I felt like I needed more time and the fact that I was presenting on the first day overwhelmed me. I feel like because I was thinking I was going to do bad, I ended up getting nervous and not focused. I tried to get myself together and tried to remember what I practiced but I was too nervous. I ended up standing in front of everyone not remembering anything which led to me looking at my outline more than I liked. Halfway through giving the speech, I noticed I was using filler words, I tried to use better transitional words instead but that just got me sidetracked. On the other hand, the audience gave me positive feedback. They said I looked more confident than my previous speeches. That my voice has gotten clearer. They also suggested that I use fewer filler words and that I need to speak slower and louder.
16.
For speech four, we have decided on making a talk show. I’ll be one of the guests on the show. My role would be to talk about a recent pharmaceutical discovery, educate people on what pharmacists do and the field. To prepare for the show I’ve researched some of the recent discoveries and chose three to discuss them with my group and see which one we would want to talk about. I have some details on what pharmacists do. I would like to talk to my group and see if me and the other person should split up the two topics between us to see if one of us should talk about either the discovery or the job of the pharmacist. Other than that I think I have a rough idea of what my working outline would look like but I need to meet with my group to finalize everything. That way I’ll be able to get started on my personal working outline and then meet with my group again and combine all of our outlines to make a final outline with everyone’s role. That way we can make adjustments and start recording. I would also like to brainstorm ideas for a game and possibly an advertisement within the show.
17.
From watching the dry-dry run video, I noticed the things that are working and the things that aren’t. I think it’s a good idea to keep the advertisement. It makes the talk show seem realistic. It also makes a good transition to the segment, assuming that we were coming back from an ad. We have a solid idea of what we want to talk about but we need to figure out the roles of the guests. This is a very important part to recalibrate on before recording the dry-run. That way we can use what we know and put it into an actual script that fits our roles so we can go off of. Working as a group has its pros and cons. My group was working well together, we all listened to one another and when someone needed help or got stuck on one thing, someone would back them up and build off of what the other is saying. On the other hand, it’s difficult to find a time where we all can meet and work on the outline. We are planning to meet on Monday before class to work on the script and try to get something together for the dry-run.
18.
From watching the dry run, I learned that our choice of having a “professor” and a student as the guests on the show works better with our idea of having a study. The “professor” introduces the study and the student talks about what drew them to the pre-pharmacy program and how they contributed to highlighting the opportunity students in doing research. The study is something different than what other groups have and it brings contemporary research into the project. I think the segment of the advertisement works very well with the show. The advertisement covers the pros and cons of Tylenol which is something most advertisements have. I think the questions help bring thoughtful answers. However, I would like to work on my answers to make them sound more professional since I’ll be the “professor”. I think the time for the dry run was about six minutes, which is good, however, we need to keep in mind the intro and outro music. Some of the things that we need to recalibrate on are background music and background images. However, we have an idea of what we want them to look like.
19.
Overall, speech four was alright. I think the outline of the speech was very well put together. It covers the topic and the questions flow well. The advertisement and the study work very well. I think it was very important to practice as a group but my group kept suggesting that we didn’t need to practice. I think it’s important that way we can figure out what’s to be memorized and what can be read off of the screen. In the final speech we were reading from our outline and the papers were visible in the filming. I think that was the biggest mistake. Not only that but when my group went to the green screen room for filming, we were told the room was tripole booked. There was my group and another group filming at the same time. Even though we were there for 45 minutes, more than half of that time we were waiting for the other group to finish and once it was our turn we were rushed. I believe not practicing and not having an appropriate setting to film lead to a very rushed and not focused on filming.
20.
https://zjabor.uneportfolio.org/final-speech-page/
21.
I would like to thank Kenzie for her honest and thoughtful feedback on my work. I appreciate it, it has been very helpful when writing new speeches. Also, thank you for doing the podcasts with me and Cassidy and for letting us meet in your room to do the podcast. We had good reflective moments and doing that definitely helped bring up my grades for the speeches. Thank you for encouraging me before giving my speech and for telling me that I’ll do well. You are very good and confident when giving your speeches.
