Paul Flores Reflection #1

    Public Speaking, we have all done it one way or another. From ceremonies to class participation, we have shared our vocal range and expressed ourselves so much through it. But what is Public Speaking? Public Speaking is the process of communicating information to a live audience and is given to persuade, teach, and open ideas for those who are intrigued by the speech. As the title of this class states, we are opening ourselves through public speaking and taking steps to become proficient speakers by learning and committing to assignments that will further educate not just ourselves but others as well. For our first assignment in our introduction to public speaking class, we all split up into groups of four and were given chapters to work on and present to the entire class. Each group will have 30 minutes to present their slides and then later write a reflection. I will be reflecting on the chapters each group were assigned to work on.

Group One: Chapters 1,2,3,5

               Group One starts off the class with their discussion on public speaking with chapters 1,2,3 and 5. Chapter 1 goes over public speaking from its origin of background to the foundations within public speaking. Chapter 2 goes over building confidence by explaining the fundamentals that public speaking has on the speaker from strengthening resilience to the practice of relaxation techniques. Also, it goes over the acknowledgment of uncertainties such as speaker’s role, their ideas, and how the audience responds to the lecture through the Uncertainty Reduction theory. Chapter 3 talks about the importance of listening and creating dialogue with the audience to influence the spread of ideas from each participant. Lastly, chapter 5 talks about audience building as to developing audience credibility by using demographic information, psychographic information, and questionnaires for audience participation.

Comment:

Group one did very well with their presentation, but there were some key factors. While there were images and videos added, it included paragraphs of information which makes it seem like the audience can be ahead of the presenters themselves. One more comment is how they presented. While the reading was fine, they felt lifeless and hopefully for their next presentation assignment they will improve on a little mistake from this one. Hopefully, for our next assignment they can learn from that feedback. Likewise, they still did well.

Group Two: Chapters 4,6,7,8

               Next, group two presents their speech on chapters 4,6,7, and 8. First, chapter 4 begins with the development of a presenter’s main topic and purpose to their speech. Next, chapter 6 goes over topic research with the help of building that confidence as mentioned in chapter two and going over various sources you can use for your lecture. Then, Chapter 7 talks about supporting your ideas within your speech by using supportive narratives such as ethos, pathos, logos, and mythos. The chapter goes over narratives in speeches in ways to entertain the audience. Lastly, the group wraps up their presentation with chapter 8 which discusses the outline of our speech, the parts of a speech, and organizing each section of the speech to make it come together in order.

Comment:

               Group Two’s presentation was interesting. While group one’s presentation had paragraphs, group two had sentences combined with their slide design. Group two read scripts which is okay, but they should pan their face towards the audience as they do it. They used images to represent specific information within the presentation. Overall, group two has minor issues and complaints but they can improve on that with the next assignment.

Group Three: Chapters 9,10,11,12

               Next, group three is ready to present chapters 9,10,11,12. Throughout all this section, each chapter goes over the speech and its necessities. Chapter 9 goes over the discussion of beginning and ending your speech as it goes over the primary effects to the recency effects. It then talks about the introduction of your speech, where you would need to grab the audience’s attention as well as establishing your credibility. Chapter 10 goes over language and the purpose of language within your speech with aspects of gender, culture, and in general. Chapter 11 discusses presentation media integration and our purpose for adding different media within your speech. The chapter also mentions visual designs and the guidelines for specific outlines with visual designs as well as the inclusion of presentation software. Finally, group three ends their speech with chapter 12 which tackles speech delivery such as delivering the speeches through several types of speaking methods like impromptu speaking or manuscript speaking.

Comments:

               Group three’s presentation was interesting. Throughout each slide, not only the information was given in short formats but also each had visual designs to represent the topic being presented to the audience. Each member presented with good vocal tones and were having audience participate withing the slides.

Group Four: Chapters 13,14,15,16,17

               Finally, it is group four’s turn to present the last information on our public speaking presentations with chapters 13,14,15,16, and 17. Chapter 13 discusses informative speeches such as the characteristics of the types of qualities and diverse methods of informative speech. After that, chapter 14 tackles persuasion speeches and explaining coercions, the difference between manipulation and persuasion, and more. Chapter 15 conveys the idea of arguments and understanding the opposite side’s argument in a persuasion speech. Chapter 16 goes into distance speaking such as internal communication, video conference, and graphical online presentations. Finally, chapter 17 goes into speeches for special occasions such as ceremonial speech or a wedding speech.

Comments:

               Out of all the groups, group four’s presentation was full of paragraphs instead of images and sentences. Each member felt lifeless, as if they did not want to be there but still showed themselves to be awake.

Final Words:

               As I commence to wrap up, I would like to say that we all did very well. While some of us presented well or others lacked energy, at the end of the day we managed to get a taste of what the later assignments were going to be like. In conclusion, the first assignment came out a success with many feedback given to help us improve for the rest of SPC2608.