Demonstation Self-Evaluation

  I felt that overall I did a good job during my speech and achieved its intended purpose.  I clearly demonstrated how to make coffee with the use of a French press.  Beyond the simple function of making the coffee I taught my audience a little bit about the origins of coffee without getting too bogged down in details and getting away from my main purpose.  I also gave credible sources as to why drinking coffee can be beneficial to your health, which provided a reason why the audience should consider putting in to practice the skill I demonstrated for them of making coffee.  I felt very confident and completely at ease while giving my speech.  I have never had much of a problem with confidence in regards to public speaking and it was especially easy because I already knew my audience and have successfully spoken in front of them already in the past.
  If I had to do the speech over again I would have paid more attention to the details.  I only verbally cited two of my sources, whereas we were required to cite all four of them.  One source wasn't even written on to my note cards and one was on my note cards but I simply forgot to mention it.  I also would have done a better job of deciding beforehand more fluff that should have been cut out of my speech.  When I practiced my speech it originally was almost six minutes and thirty seconds, but with practice and a little bit of editing I had it consistently down around five minutes and thirty seconds.  I cut a few more superfluous parts out at the last minute, but still ended up going over the five minute time limit.  I think that for my next speech I will make a point of improving my preparation by ensuring that my speech is closer to the middle of the range of allowable times so that I am less likely to go over and don't feel like I am rushing myself during the speech.
  My biggest focus for improving the delivery of my speech will be in making sure that I do not forget to cite any of my sources.  I also feel that my eye contact was probably a 7 out of 10.  I need to try and have my introduction and conclusion more well memorized because I think that those are the times during my speech when I look down at my note cards the most.  I do not remember doing anything that I felt was distracting during my speech, so that is one area that I should not have to spend time on trying to improve.
  All in all I felt that I did a very good job on my speech, with the exception of going over the allotted time by twenty seconds and my forgetting to cite all of my sources.  I think that I did a good job of keeping the actual physical demonstration to being around a minute and that I fully showed in an easy to digest way how my audience could make coffee with a French press.  I think that my speech was well structured and if anything that I tried to cram too much information in to it.  I also think that I was persuasive and left a positive impression in the minds of my audience in regards to coffee.  Keeping in mind my technical mistakes I think that I would give myself a low A, maybe around a 93.

MMS

In the section of Chapter 8 that listed and described the different patterns of organization for a speech I was particularly interested by Monroe's Motivated Sequence.  In the past I have been ignorant of the different specific types of speech patterns, but have mostly used Topical and occasionally Chronological speech patterns with just a smattering of Narrative speeches in certain occasions.  Monroe's Motivated Sequence at first reminded me of the type of speech that you might here at a self help seminar.  While I think that this is exactly what would be most effective and most likely to be used in that situation, I don't think it would be fair to give it the negative connotation of associating it with self help seminars.  I am not sure that I will have the opportunity to use this speech structure in our Public Speaking class, but I was very interested in it and am hopeful to use it at some point in the future.  I think that it is a creative way to structure a speech and would be a lot of fun to use.  I always like the feeling when giving a speech that the audience is hanging on my every word and with a well written speech in this pattern and the right dynamism I feel that an audience wouldn't be able to help but be swept up in it.

I think that I have at times used the first of the five steps of getting the audience's attention by relating the topic to the audience in other speech patterns.  I think that the key step is the second step where you get the audience to realize the existence of a problem and that they lack the information to solve the problem.  If you can nail that step then you would have good momentum for giving them the information and helping them visualize how the information would help them toward a solution.  That just leaves the final step and with an enthusiastic call to action you could conclude a very powerful speech.

"We are arrows to the action." -Knapsack

I Need 10 CCs of Facts, Stat!

I believe that giving facts and statistics is most effective when used in an informative or persuasive speech.  Facts and statistics help you to establish credibility and are more likely to influence the opinion of your audience than sole use of narrative and personal opinions.  I think they are most effectively used when interspersed throughout a speech.  It is best to use a fact or statistic to reinforce something that you are saying and not to just throw out a statistic as a non sequitur or stand-alone.  It is also best not to just read off a long list of statistics or facts consecutively as it can lose the interest of your audience.

Facts and statistics are best to be used sparingly or not at all during a speech to entertain.  I also think that facts and statistics should usually be avoided in a short speech.  If you only have a limited amount of time it is best to use that time as creatively and effectively as possible.  I wouldn't say to never use a fact or statistic in a short speech, but if you do use one I think that it should be something that is easy to state very succinctly and simple for the audience to absorb.  I always keep the audience in mind when writing a fact or statistic in to a speech and consider how they will react to it.

"I see it all much clearer since; far past the point of this." -Get Up Kids

Chapter 7, Post #1

I felt like I learned quite a bit from the Speech Buddy videos for Chapter 7, especially Erin's video. One piece of useful advice that she gave was to not allow narratives to go on for too long. While a narrative can purvey information and pique the audience's interest, if you allow yourself to go off on too much of a narrative tangent you can lose focus on the main topic of your speech. Another thing that I realized can detract from a speech is the use of definitions. While giving the definition of something may help to stress the point that you are trying to get across, it will not likely change any preconceived connotations of that word or phrase that the audience brought in with them.

Something from the Chapter 8 videos that I learned can encourage audience involvement and participation is to use the Narrative Pattern as the structure for your speech. For our upcoming Demonstration Speech I think this will be a particularly good idea so that the audience feels interested and engaged during the demonstration itself. This is a good time to draw the audience in early on in the speech and hopefully provide momentum to keep them interested throughout the length of the speech. This overall structure combined with the use of a variety of transitions should lead to a successful speech.