Journals 1:
Throughout chapter number 1, the key points that I noticed include why public speaking is important as it is a vital life skill, how if you become strong enough at giving a speech, it will help when it comes to applying for a job, and how speeches are just like writing when it comes to preparing for one. Each of these are significant in their own way. The importance behind the first key point is that public speaking, as long as one prepares for it, can help when it comes to school or in the outside world. It can help one get involved in real world issues that need attention to. I connected with this as I have been in marches at my school and in my community to stand up for rights and have been in conversations with others about issues we want to solve, involving being an advocate for the environment, and helping with our school’s garden. The importance around the next key point is that if one has solid communication skills, coming from practice, it will make it much more effortless to get a career. I have been in an interview for my job and to be captain of my swim team, and all it took to become successful was to practice what to say because it makes communicating to others straightforward instead of stressful. The importance of the last is that everyone has been writing for school since a young age, and if we know how to do that, than giving a speech should not be any different. As long as you do research and know what to talk about while engaging with an audience, it should not be a difficult process.
Journals 2:
Personal experiences that I have drawn from when it comes to practice have mostly been involved with swimming. I have been involved with swimming for 12 years now and I have been on both a year round club team and my high school swim team. For club swimming, there is a main meet that one needs to qualify for called the Junior Olympics, and in order to participate, one needs to qualify. In order to reach my goal to qualify, I would go to swim practices five days a week, during the mornings from 5am to 7am. During these practices, I would work on the technique of each of my strokes, primarily, my best stroke, backstroke. First I’d work on my form, then once I mastered that, I’d move onto speed. All this preparation got me to my goal, as the last meet before the main one, I was able to qualify. Other than swimming, there were other times where practice led me to success in performance. Academically, if I had a test, I would read over my notes 3 times and rewrite what I did not know. This study method was proven well for me with each test I had to do. When it did not come to recreation or academics, I practiced playing an instrument as well. I would play the flute for an hour three days a week. This prepared me to be able to play our concert music to the best of my ability. Without putting the work in, I would not have been able to reach my goals in performance.
Journal 3:
For my speech, there were aspects of it that I thought went well and some parts to it that I know need improvement. Some parts that worked well, according to my peers, was that I had a clear voice when I spoke, I was able to talk throughout the whole speech without spacer words, having the right content and I was organized. I was glad to hear these comments because I would call these characteristics apart of my strengths of speech giving. There was also parts, such as people telling me I had good eye contact and a loud voice, That I was proud to hear because those have been weaknesses of mine in the past. However, I know that when it comes to engaging with the audience that needs to be improved. I mostly memorized what I needed to say and did not use as much expression during the speech which is something I know I need to work on. I can do so by talking with more people and trying to add in body movements as I speak. I also could improve on slowing down when I speak. When I have to give a speech, I tend to speak fast to get it done with, but if I practice taking my time and making sure I do not stumble on words, people will be able to understand and connect to the speech much more.
Journal 4:
Chapter 11: The big takeaways from chapter 11 has to do with how to set up an outline to give a more effective speech. The three main key points the chapter referenced include how to set up you main points both correctly and incorrectly, how subpoints are set up and why they are important, and also what transitions can do to make a speech run more smoothly. The importance of the main points are that they represent each key detail to the speech and are the part of the speech that people find most interesting. Main points need to be organized because if they are all jumbled together, it is harder to focus on them. Thesis statements also help with laying out your main points, and helping decide what order they go in within the body of the speech. In the past, I have had to give speeches and my teachers would make sure that we always made outlines and would check our main points to see if they were organized, and if they were not, we had to fix them. Moving onto subpoints, the significance behind those are that they help explain the main points and it is the part where you can prove the point. For my gym class, I had a project that I had to talk about why swimming is important, and my main point was that it is good exercise, and my sub points were all examples were facts about the different muscles swimming works out which demonstrated my point. The last key item from chapter 11 was about the transitions. These are important because without them, it is hard to understand the flow of the speech. They tie each of the ideas together. This is something I need to improve upon in my speech ability as I normally just go from one point to the next without tying it to the last point.
Chapter 12: The big takeaways from chapter 12 have to deal with all the different ways to organize a pattern for the outline of a speech. The main points from the chapter are the numerous ways to arrange speech points and why this is important to have as it pertains to what type of speech you are going to give. For each of the different methods, it introduced how someone could organize their speech that certain way and gave examples. The style that I most connected with was cause and effect. For school, I had to give a cause and effect essay of gay marriage. This essay included all the causes for why people wanted to institute gay rights and how after doing so, there are now laws and gay marraige is legal now in most states. Another style I connected with was chronological. In history class, we had many assignments where we had to state in order times of events of specific years, compiling them into an essay.
Journal 5:
After working on the speech today, developing the outline and practicing in front of peers, I’d say that I have a few things to work on. One aspect I need to do is record my video for the class. I want to make sure I have a video of myself with the right body position and having a jump with a smooth transition into the water. For that, I will make sure I practice a few starts before recording one. Next I want to make sure I practice my speech.I want to run through it a few times and work on the timing. I tend to run short when I give speeches so I will work on slowing down and making sure all my main points and sub-points are expressed. I also want to practice with having the video in my speech. I want to make certain that I can have a smooth transition from talk to video without any complications. I can do so by running through the speech and knowing the best time to press play on the video and pausing the video if I need to point something out. Plus with the practicing, I feel like the last time I gave the speech, I practiced so much that I was so stiff in front of an audience, so for this speech, I want to make sure I am loose and try to not be so nervous. Last thing I want to finalize is my outline. I feel that my outline has everything it needs but if my timing is too short, I want to make sure I adding details into the outline and make sure I use those details while teaching my skill.
Journal 6:
Within chapter 13, it teaches you how to set up a proper outline to give a speech. The biggest takeaways from the chapter were to make sure that for a speech, to have a working outline with all the main ideas and supporting points in sentences, and to have a speaking outline containing condensed forms, either in phrases or key-words, of the sentences in the working outline. The importance of the working outline is that this is where all the collected information and the organization of the main points come into play. It is important to work on the body first because that is where the main points are finalized. Once that is done, the introduction can be created by grabbing the reader’s attention, introducing the topic, having a thesis and establishing credibility. There also has to be solid transitions that made sense with each aspect of the outline. Plus, the conclusion needs to be formed with wrapping up everything and adding points to take away from the presentation. I have had papers in the past where I have had to write working outlines so that my teachers could follow along, and they would tell me if my organization of my key points had to be rearranged or if I needed more transitions to make it flow better. Moving onto the speaking outline, phrases and key-points are important because it will draw you away from looking at the outline and call for optimal eye contact. One helpful tool that was included in the chapter is the preparation of delivery cues. That way someone could jog their memory of the information and could tell themselves to slow down when need be. This is something that could be helpful for me in my next speech as a way to improve my speaking ability to an audience.
Journal 7:
Journal 8:
When it comes to my dry-runs, I was glad we got to do them in class before the big presentation. Because we did this, I was able to do well in some aspects, but there is room for improvement in others. The parts that worked well included using hand motions, not looking at my outline, and my organization. For my first speech, I felt that I was very stiff when giving the presentation, and as practiced for this speech, I made sure I incorporated hand motions to connect more with the audience. With the dry run, I wanted to try to not have my outline out to see how well I could do with not looking at the paper, and it ended up going well since I practiced before giving the speech. Also, as I gave the dry run speech, I was able to present and play the video without any complications. Furthermore, I do have parts to my speech, such as using a few spacer words in my dry runs, that I need to work on. Since I did not have an outline, it was hard for me to remember all of it, so I would trip over a few words. However, as I went through both dry runs, I gradually got better at memorizing what I wanted to say. I feel with a bit more extra practice, and running through my key word outline, there should be an improvement from my first to second speech.
Journal 9:
When it comes to my second speech, I feel like I showed improvement from my first to second speech, and even improvement from my dry run. Aspects that I thought went well included using eye contact, using hand motions, and volume. While I presented, I wanted to make sure that I would not look at my outline, so I could focus more on the audience. Also, while presenting, I wanted to use hand motions more, because in my first speech, and even a little in my dry runs, I did not use hand motions. I felt that I connected more with the audience by doing so. Plus, in my first speech, I had a quiet voice, so when it came to this speech, I made sure I projected my voice louder. On the other hand, I feel that I could still improve on incorporating a video and not being so nervous. I did have a small amount of technical difficulty while setting up the video, which made the speech not flow as much. This is something I can work on by setting up my computer ahead of time. With being nervous, I can work on that by taking deep breaths and telling myself that I know the material. If I could do both of those, it would make my speaking skills become even more developed.
Journal 10
When it comes to someone I know who is a good public speaker, a friend of mine can to mind. My friend Seth has always been well at talking in public ever since he was younger. He has been apart of the Speech and Debate team at our high school where he has had to deliver over 500 speeches in competitions. I have seen him in person giving a captain’s speech to a group of over 100 people, and I remember how he was able to follow each of the aspects of giving a good speech. While watching him this week, I remember him telling myself and others how his college experience was going. While he spoke, I would focus on what he did well. One part he does well is using eye contact while he speaks, not getting distracted by everything else around him. Next, while he was talking, he did not hesitate and he used a clear voice for everyone to hear, using word choice that people could comprehend. If more people were listening to him, he would change his voice to become louder so that no one would miss his words. He also paced himself while he spoke not speeding up or slowing down the whole time. Other than that, he had good body language. He would use hand motions to connect with myself and others. Plus, he never acted nervous, since I could see that he would not fidget around, moving fluidly throughout. With all those, everyone he was talking to, including myself, was able to know clearly what he was talking about and how he felt about college. He got his point across and kept everyone engaged. From all the practice he has had over the years, he is definitely one person who I believe is an effective public speaker.
Journal 11:
When it comes to chapter 25, one major takeaway included all the different types of special occasion speeches. These included speeches of introduction, acceptance, presentation, roasts and toasts, eulogies, after-dinner speeches and inspiration. Each of these speeches all have importance to them and all are meant to appeal in different ways. I have even done an accepted speech for an award that I have won in the past. I got a swimming award at a banquet and I got to share why I was thankful for the award and thank my coach for giving me the award. The chapter also had another major takeaway which involved the different functions of special occasion speeches which are to entertain, celebrate, commemorate, inspire or set a social agenda. The type of speech that I most connect to is the type of speeches that entertain, such as a speech at a banquet. Since I was the captain of the swim team, I had to give a speech about what it meant to be a captain, but I would also add in jokes with the hope of making it lighthearted and amusing to my audience. It took a long time of preparation, but I was able to have the audience follow me along and laugh. The last take away from the chapter was the sample special occasion speech. This was a speech from Will Ferrel and he used many anecdotes and used humor to connect with the graduates of University of Southern California. He talked about his life lessons, but shared them in a positive light. He even sang a song as the conclusion to give an everlasting impression. I hope to one day be able to give a speech incorporating all of those aspects.
Journal 12:
When it comes to our dry dry run next class, I have been able to figure out what type of speech I want to present. The form of my speech is going to be a toast and it is going to be for my high school swim team coach, Coach French. When it comes to composing my outline for this speech, I have been able to break up what I want to talk about into three separate categories. I am going to mention in my toast the skills he has taught me, the ways he has helped me and how he has put my needs and others needs first. I have also been able to talk about reasons why I broke up my categories that way by showing how he has done each of those things for me. The challenges I see when it comes to this speech is remembering the specific moments he has done this and how to put those moments into words. I have been able to come up with moments for the lessons he has taught, and I have been able to do the same for the other two categories, but those categories have broader examples than the specific moment I put for the life lessons. I feel as I have more time to prepare and as I go through my dry runs, I will be able to practice exactly what I want to say for each of the categories.
Journal 13:
For the dry run for next class, there are parts to my speech that I am still trying to put into place. When it comes to my outline, I am still trying to work out how to finish off my speech to leave a lasting impact on the audience. I have tried to look up different ways to end a commemorative speech and although I have been able to come of with a few ways to wrap up the ending, I still am trying to make sure it sounds well put when reading it. The other part I am anxious for is trying to prepare and not look so much at my outline. This speech is a sentimental speech and I want to make sure that it does not sound as though I am reading it all off of the paper. I want it to look like I mean what I say and know what I am talking about. Other than that, I do have parts to the speech that are working for me. I have been able to come up with an outline for the person I want to talk about and have broken up why I am talking about him into three separate categories. I also have been able to incorporate anecdotes into the outline to make it more personal. With some more preparation and time, I feel that that dry run next class will go smoothly.
Journal 14:
When looking back at my two dry runs, I could tell that some aspects went well and there are areas for improvement . In preparation for these dry runs, I had my outline all ready with what I wanted to say in my speech which made it easier when giving the delivery. While giving the dry runs, I was able to talk in a clear voice, use hand motions, and use expressions. While I was practicing for the dry runs on my own, I wanted to make sure that I made the speech not as monotoned and was using clear expression. The last part that I thought well in these dry runs was that I used a good volume when I spoke, where everyone could hear me. Even with these parts going well, there are areas that could get better. I feel that I got some eye contact with the audience so that we could connect, but not as much as I would have hoped. The reason for this is because I feel like I needed a bit more preparation. I feel that although I had some good eye contact, I did catch myself looking at my outline a few times. If I could run through it a few more times before my presentation, it would help in the long run.
Journal 15:
I feel that overall, my speech went pretty well in some aspects but there is still room for improvement. When it comes to preparation for the speech, I believe I had the right amount of practice time and it was able to help as I could remember most of what I wanted to say without looking at my outline. Other than that, I feel that I was able to make solid eye contact with my audience and I was able to use hand motions to connect more with the audience. The last part I believe went well was that I tried to make sure that I spoke in a loud voice so that everyone could hear me. Although I thought these went well, there are some parts that I thought could be better. I could tell that I was nervous in the beginning of my speech, which made me seem more stiff, but as it went on, I was able to become more relaxed. Other than that there were a few moments that I caught myself looking at my outline when I did get nervous and I feel like if I just calmed down more and did not get so nervous, I could have remembered everything I wanted to say. With all this said, I feel like if I can work on some of the nerves before giving a speech, it will help in the long run with the two more speeches we have to give this semester.
Journal 16:
For speech four, we have been able to come up with ideas of how we want the speech to go. In our group we decided the style of how we want to present the speech, which is a talk show. With this, we decided what person each of us was, having a host, a pharmacy student, and a pharmacist. From that, we shared a document so we could start making our outline for the talk show. We started bouncing off ideas of how we want to talk show to go, and ways that we can make it both informational and entertaining. We came up with a few ideas such as having the pharmacist answer questions from the audience and incorporating pharmacy related games. We met up as a group outside of class and came up with questions and answers along with one of the games. We are still looking for a name for our show. Other than that, we made a note to make an appointment with digi space and we shared our schedules with each other to know when we can meet up. We shared our numbers as well with one another so that we can contact when we are free. On our own, we are thinking about what we want to say and what we want to add to the talk show. We feel that the more times we meet up, we will have more of a sense of where we want this to go.
Journal 17:
For our dry dry run, I feel like we have worked out most of the details to how we want our dry run and our main presentation to go. One part we have figured out is what we want to incorporate in our speech. We wanted this to be a talk show feel with having a Q&A and having a game segment. We even have a name which is “In Our Element”. Other than that, we also have figured out the flow to our speech, being a more relaxed talk show, where the guests feel comfortable answering all the questions. The tone is in the middle where it is not a super serious speech but it is also not very comical. One gets to be entertained by the answers and the game and gets to learn from the whole experience. The last part we have figured out is the backdrop to the speech, as we have found a talk show background that matches what we wanted. The parts that we are rethinking include adding a sort of logo segment to the beginning of the speech to make it look more like the talk shows on television. Also we are thinking about the music we want to add to the speech, trying to find background music and music for the beginning segment that is more on the upbeat side. We hope that in meeting before our dry run, we can work out more of the details to our speech, and it will help with making our dry run go smoothly.
Journal 18:
For our dry run, I feel that we were able to improve from our dry dry run, but there are still some areas that we can work on before our final project. The parts that I felt went well for us were our organization with our outline and being able to run through the presentation without complications. For our outline, we made sure that we incorporated everything we wanted in the talk show. We had introduction, questions from the audience and a game. We took time to prepare for our speech and we ran through a few times to make sure that we understood what we wrote and added/took away parts that we felt needed to be. For the presentation itself, we were able to run through, looking at our outline and at the audience, and we did not have any awkward pauses. We were able to go off of each other and talk as though we were all just having a relaxed and casual conversation which is what we wanted. For the parts we wanted to fix, one part was looking more at the audience. We kept looking down at our outline because we did not fully memorize what we wanted to say. We are going to make sure we meet up before our filming time to practice again what we want to say, trying not to look at the outline. Also, we saw a comment from the audience about the game and how we might want to make it earlier and have more words for the audience to understand. We are keeping this in mind, and are going to fix our game so that the audience will be able to know what we are talking about. We also want to look for more music for our presentation. We feel that if we fix these things, it will be able to make our presentation a success.
Journal 19:
For the overall presentation for speech 4, I feel that it went well. I feel that we were able to improve from our dry dry run and even our dry run. The aspects that I felt went well included being organized and being able to compose it all together with music and background. Before the whole process, we made sure that we finalized our outline. We rearranged it to make it flow more easily. By doing this, we felt ready to film. Going into the green screen room, we ended up filming our presentation in sections, as we had to keep swapping out with another group due to double booking. We made sure we knew what we wanted to say and were able to run through each section without needing to re-film. I even made sure we practiced our parts in between filming to make sure that we were solid on our part. Before even filming, we had meetings outside of class, where we were able to mostly memorize our parts, which helped in the long run. Other than that, the editing portion was able to bring what we wanted our video to look like to life. Hailey was able to put all the sections together and would ask for feedback to make sure she did not miss anything. Through suggestions, I was very pleased with how the whole video came together. Even with all this, there is one portion that could be improved. I feel that throughout the video, I found myself talking more at the camera than at the host. I can fix this by focusing more on my body language during the speech, making sure I am looking where I am supposed to be. From all this, I feel that I have been able to improve on my public speaking skills and will be able to improve even more as I move onto the next speech.
Final Journal
I would like to write a thank you to my class, as they helped me progress into becoming a better public speaker. I want to thank Cassidy and Zainab for all that they have done for me. We were able to do podcasts together and they gave me feedback on how to improve. I have had many conversations with them both within and outside of class, and they have been so supportive of me and encourage me to grow. Without them, I feel that I would not be the speaker I am today. I would also like to thank Hailey and Andrew. Although I do not speak with them often, they both were able to teach me important lessons of teamwork when it comes to speaking. They were in my speech 4 group and we were able to be very productive together, coming up with parts, a working outline and the whole video without any complications. I want to thank them for all they have done for me as they taught me how when it comes to speaking, you are not always on your own. You have people to back you up. In pharmacy, I am going to have to talk with colleagues and interns and from the teamwork I learned from them, I will be successful in doing so. Last, I want to thank professor Miller. He was able to teach many valuable skills when it comes to delivering a speech and I feel much more confident in my ability coming out of his class.
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