Journal #1:
After reading Chapter 1 I had learned a little bit about the history of speech, and all the different ways people use speech to get a certain point across. First I never really thought about how long speech has been used throughout history. I obviously know that people have been speaking for a long time, but I never really sat and thought about how important speech was years and years ago because there was no other way to send messages to people far away other than writing it down in a formal manner. I also thought about all the ways communication has evolved with text messages, phone calls, and social media making it easier than ever to get a message across to a group of people around the world. There was a part about people reading the expressions of others around them as they are explaining or sharing something and that connected with me because I never really think about it, but I am always nervous talking about anything because I do not want to say the wrong thing. I also always just thought that was me overthinking a lot of the time and did not realize many other people go through that same kind of process when having a conversation with someone.
Journal #2:
A small object around my house that holds a lot of meaning to me is one of my dog’s toys that he has had for a few years now. It is a stuffed animal and its Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. I love this toy and it holds a lot of meaning to me for a few different reasons.
My dog’s name is Hank and he is a black lab. He has a bunch of toys and some of them get destroyed quicker than others because he likes to play tug of war with some of them and they will tear apart and have to be thrown away. I bought him the Tigger stuffed animal because when I was growing up I loved those movies and TV shows so much and Tigger was my favorite character. I also love my dog so much because he helped me relieve all of my stress and anxiety when I was younger in middle school because I could just sit with him and he would lay with me, so I have always been comforted by him. When I bought him the stuffed animal I gave it to him and could tell he loved it because it still has yet to be torn apart. So when I see the Tigger stuffed animal I immediately feel better because I was comforted by hearing or seeing him and now it also reminds me of Hank and both of them have helped me through stress and tough times my whole life basically. That might be one of the most meaningful objects around my house.
Journal #3:
After reading chapter 11 there were a few good things that I could take away from it to help me with my speech on a day to day basis. One of the most useful things I learned from that chapter was limiting the amount of main points you use when you are speaking with anyone, whether it be with family and friends or in front of a crowd. When reading through this there was a point that mentioned the amount of main points you use can either be very beneficial or crucial to your speech. An audience won’t be able to remember every main point you say if you are using like five to ten main points, which could lead them to getting bored and not paying attention to what you were talking about after a certain period of time. I have never really thought about this when using it in public speaking, but I knew that you shouldn’t use too many main points when you were writing about something and for some reason the carry over did not happen for me until I read that. I seriously wonder how many times I have used too many main points when talking to someone and I wonder how long it may have taken them to stop bothering to listen or I also wonder if I am good at it in a setting of people I know and just might not entirely realize it.
After reading chapter 12 there were also a couple things that I learned and could take away from this chapter. I really enjoyed reading the “Arranging Speech Points Using a Casual Pattern.” I enjoyed this part because as I was reading through it, it reminded me and showed me that was the kind of way I arranged my points when I did my video on a meaningful item in my house. I had talked about how the item I had picked was a stuffed animal and then I went into the causes of why that was the most meaningful item, then after I spoke about the effects that it had on me throughout my childhood into my teen and young adult years. I might use this kind of pattern more than I think when I am talking to people, but I found it very interesting that this was the kind of setup I had used for my video and after I found out what that way of arranging a conversation was called.
Journal #4:
I definitely think I improved from my “dry run” speech of my favorite and most meaningful object to my final run of my speech. After I submitted my “dry run” I got a couple comments back and the most frequent comment I saw for me to work on was for me to use less filler words like ‘uh’ and ‘uhm’. After my first video I could see that I was a bit shaky in my voice and there were some parts that were not very clear. I feel like after watching my final video I found that I had a little bit clearer of a voice and I was not so shaky when speaking to the camera.
I also tried to take the advice of my peers to use less filler words during my speech. One person said that if I had used less filler words then the speech would have come off a lot stronger. After I had done a couple takes for my final run I found that in my head I used almost no filler words throughout the speech. When I had watched it back though I found that I had used less of those words, but not nearly as much as I had thought while speaking. I realize that one of the biggest things I have to work on is not using those kinds of words and that if I get to a point where I need to think I should just pause for a second or two and then continue my thought process.
Journal 5:
I think one of the biggest things I took away from Chapter 13 was the beginning of making an outline. In the chapter it said when you start making an outline for a speech you are preparing you should just use bulleted notes and to just use short phrases with some keywords in it. This is to help you out later in case you forget what to talk about you can use that as a pin point to figure out what to talk about next. I found this interesting because when I have done my outlines for the few speeches we have done in the class, I make an outline that is shaped like that. I just use a few bulleted notes and write a short phrase so I can know what to talk about. It also helps me not have to focus on it too much and it allows me to be free flowing with my words when I am in front of a camera.
Journal 6:
After making and watching my final run of my video I found some improvements since my last video and I found that I still have some things I need to work on throughout the rest of this course. I found that I did better with using less filler words. I still used some, but not as much as I had in my first couple of videos. After my dry run I was told that I did pause a decent amount through my video, which made it a bit tougher to focus. I have switched a little bit from using filler words to now just pausing and thinking about what I am going to say next. This leads me to another thing I have realized I need to work on. I have found that with these pauses being so long it could lead to someone losing interest in what I am saying. I need to work on my thought process and be able to gather my thoughts at a quicker pace allowing me to sound more fluent and free flowing with what I am talking about. This will lead to people having more interest and staying focused on my video for longer. Overall I do see that I am improving throughout the course and I hope to keep improving my skills with public speaking.
Journal 7:
I found the part about the after dinner speech to be quite interesting. I didn’t know that some work meetings would have a speech after a formal dinner. I also am happy I read that because it gives me some insight on how to organize a speech like that and it also helped to show me what to stay away from, like not using too many jokes.
I also enjoyed reading through the acceptance speech part. It reminded me of my senior year of high school. I had wrestled all four years of high school and my senior year I was named Captain. At the banquet I was able to go up in front of the team, coaches, managers, and parents and I gave a speech for everyone thanking them all for their support and for helping me grow. I was able to direct part of the speech towards my coaches and told them how thankful I was for them to help me improve. I found it interesting that I had written a speech much like an acceptance speech before I really knew what it was.
Journal 8:
I think in this video I have found that I am improving in some areas of my speaking and I have found there is still so much for me to work on. I found that I am improving little by little with using less filler words and have cut down on my pauses too, but since those are the biggest area of struggle I still have a lot to do to cut that out of my speeches. I have also found that I have been less shaky in my voice when talking and have had more confidence with what I am saying.
Some things I need to work on are the filler words and the long pauses. I did find that I have struggled with introducing or starting a video. It just feels weird to me to just start talking about the topic with no real introduction and no other person there to listen to what I am saying. I have also found that I move around a lot when I am talking and I move my hands a lot too. In some instances it has been fine like when I did my rugby video I was moving my hands to show movement of the ball. When I am sitting I have found that my hands are still active, but not in the best way. I have been seen either scratching at my neck or scratching my beard and that’s something to work on. If people saw that it might make them think that I am uncomfortable in the given situation.
Journal 9:
I honestly think that one of the biggest takeaways from Chapter 23 was figuring out the difference between Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. I knew that there were all different types of ways to deliver a speech, but never knew each generalized way of doing it had a name. I don’t know this, but it would be cool to find out if it is possible for someone to be able to use all three of those to get to each person in a single speech. Meaning I wonder how easy or how often it is used for a speaker to hit each Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in one speech to be able to connect with each and every person in an audience in some way or another. Also how do you know what works best for your kind of audience? Is it based on the crowd or is it what makes you seem most comfortable and relaxed on stage?
I think one of the biggest takeaways from Chapter 24 was the use of Warrants. I had heard what a warrant was prior to reading this chapter, but I never really put it into context of using it in a speech. I knew that you should always use some sort of evidence when presenting or trying to sell something to a group of people, and I knew that explaining the evidence afterwards would always help, but I never knew there were different ways to put it into a speech. I think after reading some of the different warrant ‘types’ I found the one that I use the most is the motivational warrant. I have heard from other people that I can be very passionate about certain topics and that I have sometimes been able to figure out how to tap into some people’s emotions making the motivational warrant the most used in my book.
Journal 10:
I found the biggest improvement to be from the dry run of Speech 4 and the final run of Speech 4. The biggest improvement was that I did not use filler words too much and in the dry run I had gone over the 5 minute mark because of filler words and long pauses between thoughts and when I got to the final run I had cut down on both of those thing so much that I cut more than a minute off of my speech because I was free flowing and quick between thoughts. From 0:24 to 0:30 of my dry run video was just me blankly looking at the camera figuring out what to say and that was not the only time I did that. At the 2:00 mark of my final run my transition from one story to the next was very smooth and quick and it worked well together and I only thought about what I was going to say for about 2 seconds and then continued my story. So I saw significant improvement in those areas between those two videos. I think one of the biggest helpers to help me lessen my thought process was having a more full outline and it was neater so it made it easier to remember what I was talking about or what I was going to say next. Between these two videos I think I found my biggest stride.
https://youtu.be/WF7zC7upMAg (Dry Run)
https://youtu.be/hU6Uf5M_b4g (Final Run)
Journal 11:
After making my sixth and final video for this class I think I have improved a lot. After making that video I thought about my very first video and how shaky of a voice I had and I just seemed and felt very uncomfortable talking to a camera. After this last video I found that I had a mostly clear and loud voice and speaking to a camera felt a lot more natural than before. I also used a lot of filler words and long pauses to go from one thought to another. Now I still do that and I need to keep working and improving on that, but I found that I used less of those pauses and filler words towards the end of my videos, which made the video itself feel more free-flowing which is what an audience wants to hear from a speaker. I also still need to work on not being so nervous and anxious before delivering the speech because that just gets me all worked up and second guess anything and everything I was going to say. I have really enjoyed this class though because it showed me just how much a clear speaking voice can impact the audience and myself to feel more confident. Thank you so much for everything and helping me along in this course!
