Self Evaluation

The purpose of my speech was to persuade my audience as to why they should support gay marriage. Not for themselves, not for their church, but for equality. I think I did a good job bringing awareness of this issue to my audience. If they are religious, homophobic, or unaware of the problem with gay rights, I certainly brought it to their attention by using examples that concerned them. I’m pretty sure the whole class raised their hand when I asked if they knew someone who is gay. In that sense, they are supporting their friends and family. When reading my feedback, only one person gave me a low rate of how persuasive I was. It must have been more of a personal issue, but my reasons of history and equality did not get through to them for some reason. I expected mixed responses though because my topic was very touchy.
As far as confidence goes, I certainly felt more confident this time than I did with my demo speech. After doing the three speeches, I learned how to prepare better, manage my time better, and paid more attention to what was on the grading sheet, like the structure of my speech. I knew who my audience was, and it was a little easier since a lot of people dropped the course since the first meet. The only thing I think could have been stronger was my support. I went crazy researching this topic because there is a ton of information of gay marriage, and millions of opinions for and against it. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence definitely helped with my organization, so out of everything, I could have improved my delivery. I’m still not comfortable enough presenting my speech without note cards or with only a few notes on the cards, but I could have practiced a lot more. I should have tried practicing in front of a group of people, that may have helped. Another thing I could have done better is use a better variety of sources. I didn’t use any textbooks this time, which could have been helpful. I did, however, cite the sources I did use, which was mostly internet and interviews. I counted four sources throughout my entire speech.
In my last speech, I swayed back and forth a lot and got a few comments back about it, so this time, I tried to stay still. It was my nerves that was causing my to move back and forth I think. I didn’t notice anything distracting this time in my speech, except that I could have sounded a little more enthusiastic. I tend to sound very monotone when I speak in public. I used my note cards less this time than the last, which I did unconsciously because I didn’t realize that I actually knew my topic, so there was no need to constantly glance down. My eye contact was much better than my last speech, and I would rate it an 8. I didn’t memorize my speech on purpose, and only used my cards to remind me of what’s next.
Based on my overall performance, I would give myself an A-. I took past comments and suggestions into consideration and focused on not making the same mistakes. I even structured my speech a little better than I did before. I know my speech was not perfect because I went over my time limit for the third time and could have practiced more until it was almost perfect. But overall, I think I did a pretty good job and deserved at least an A-. I didn’t get any negative comments this time, so I’m not sure where I went wrong except for the time limit. This speech was definitely an improvement from the previous two, as I performed the best this time.

Public Speaking

People fear public speaking more than anything else. It is a great sense of confidence to develop. Public speaking classes should be a requirement in middle school because that is when you start to give speeches in front of the class. I used to get red and go blank while giving a speech before I took my first public speaking class in college. The practice and the tips help a lot. It gains your confidence not only for school speeches but in everyday situations, conversations, and meetings. I know next time I give a speech I will use what I learned in this class and even go back and read the book for help with organization.

Favorite Speech

My informative speech was my favorite speech because I actually enjoyed researching my topic on dreams. I learned a lot about dreams and could use what I learned in real life. I felt a lot more confident doing that speech as well because the topic was interesting, I knew my topic, and I prepared for it more than the other two. I also enjoyed doing my persuasive speech, but it is hard to persuade people with such a touchy topic like the one I did on gay marriage. I felt much more confident doing my last speech though, I knew what to expect and how to prepare.

Helpful concept

Delivery gets close to perfection through practice, so I usually worried more about the content and format of my speeches. The concept that was very helpful was Monroe’s Motivated Sequence because it helped me organize the points in my persuasive speech. It would have been too broad for me to use the problem-solution organizational pattern because I have trouble focusing on the main points. With Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, it hints what you should talk about in each step. It helped me know what to research too because it had the need, satisfaction, visualization, and action steps clearly stated.

Chapter 15

The section in Chapter 15 that was the most helpful to me was the section that explains the type of appeals. I heard of the terms logos, ethos, pathos, and mythos before, but I could not tell you off hand exactly what they meant. This section made me clearly understand what each type of appeal is specifically used for. For my speech on same-sex marriage, I need to use all of the types of appeals in order to support my topic and have sufficient evidence. I need to use personal stories (pathos) of friends that I know that are gay as evidence that my view is the best. I also need to use religion or history (mythos) to tune into the audiences personal cultural beliefs. Since I have a touchy topic, these types of evidence will help develop my view into a good, strong argument.

Interactive Videos Ch. 15

The ideas presented in the interactive videos for Chapter 15 could be helpful in my speech. In the first video, the speaker reiterated that a thesis must be supported with a claim, evidence, and reasoning. To help develop a good argument, the evidence should be supported with examples and statistics. In the video for pro-home schooling, the speaker clearly stated the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling. She also clearly stated the problem and what she thought to be the solution. She appealed to the audience by using specific examples that related to and affected the audience's lives. Even in the video against home schooling, the speaker made me think about my own education and how beneficial my resources are now, and how different my life would be if I were to have been a student at home with my parent as my teacher.

Persuasive Discussion

I recently had a discussion with a family member about Prop 8. I was trying to convince him to vote against it, while he was trying to persuade me to vote for it. It was more like a debate because more family members joined the discussion and brought up new arguments. Two of us were pro same-sex marriage and two of us were against it. The arguments for same-sex marriage were valid and included points about discrimination and history (proof of gay’s centuries ago). The arguments against it were based on personal views and morals. In my opinion, we had good reasoning. However, those against same-sex marriage we not persuaded by the end of the discussion because they strongly believe in their morals. For my speech, I need to find stronger points in order to persuade my audience who perhaps may have strong beliefs as well.