Smiplicity

One thing that stood out to me in this weeks reading was about when using presentation media to keep it simple. The goal of presentation media is to enhance your speech, not the other way around. If your powerpoint or other material you are using is to involved or cluttered you could potentially loose or confuse your audience. I have been an audience member at speeches where the media was either jumbled or full of words, to the point wher I was trying to read everything and found myself tuning out the speaker. I think bullet points can sometimes be useful to help a speaker stay on topic or identify something on the slide for the audience. When you put full sentences or paragraphs in your slideshow, the audience cannot fully concentrate on both the speaker and reading at the same time. Additionally many of the presentations I have seen like this, the speaker ends up just reading the slides. The speeches usually either end up confusing or boring.

Ethical Responsibility When Developing Presentation Media

When using visual and audio files, it is the speaker's responsibility to verify the media is accurate. If something is digitally altered it should only be for restorative or quality purposes. Images should not be altered to enhance to speakers stance on an issue or falsify data. This goes to the speaker’s credibility and over all accuracy of the speech. Additionally presentation media should be up to date and not taken out of context, such as a partial recording. When you take something out of context to prove a point, it will come back to haunt you eventually. If a member of the audience has knowledge on the topic, they may call you on it and destroy your credibility. Once that happens, your audience will become fully disengaged as they will not be able to trust you are providing them with accurate information. Digital media should be used to enhance your speech but should never be altered to falsify information. A speaker should always be mindful of their audience and be sure presentation media used for the speech is appropriate for the setting.

Recent Speech

Recently I attended a speech on power theft given by representatives of a local utility company. The speaker used presentation media in the form of power point. The speaker's use of the presentation media was well done in my opinion. He used the slides to transition between main points. He also used photos to illustrate technical examples for things that the common person may not know. The media added to the presentation by giving great visuals for events that occurred. Parts of the presentation media detracted from the speech by having old photos that were out dated, such as old style meters that are no longer used. It would be more effective to have changed out those slides with updated photos and examples. Although the speech went smoothly, the speaker might have improved his use of presentation media by not only updating the photos, but also organizing the slides in the appropriate order for better flow. There was one small part of the speech where he was talking about a particular panel and had to forward through a couple of slides, then had to back track. It wasn't a big deal, but it detracts from the organization of the speech and might make a less experienced speaker loose his/her train of thought.

Speech Buddies 9/13

The speech buddy videos were very helpful in seeing not only the importance of a good introduction and conclusion, but also creative ways of opening a speech. Some of the techniques used for introducing a speech, such as a story, was a good way to draw the audience in and provoke thought. For my speech, I think I might incorporate statistics into the opening statement of my introduction.I am hoping the statistics will be shocking enough to be an attention getter and grab the audiences attention. I think if people are interested in what is being spoken about, the will be more attentive to the speaker. The challenge for me will be to inform the audience without trying to persuade them. I think the speech buddies help make the information in the text book come alive so to speak. The videos reinforce the importance of having all the components of an introduction and conclusion along with a structured mid section filled with clear main points.

intro/conclusion

According to the book there are several components that go into an introduction and a conclusion for an informative speech. The introduction must get the attention of the audience, indicate the purpose of the speech and thesis, establish credibility, and preview the main points of the speech. In my speech I will use these components in my introduction: Coral reefs are the largest structures of biological origin on planet Earth; sadly one third of reef building corals are facing extinction (attention getter). Today I would like to inform you of the importance of coral reefs, some of the reasons we are loosing these amazing ecosystems and what is being done about it (purpose of the speech/thesis). The author of the article, "1/3 of reef-bulding corals face extinction" addresses the issues that are identified to be the main threats to corals which include "climate change and localized stress resulting from destructive fishing, declining water quality from pollution, and the degradation of coastal habitats," today we will discuss these issues along with what efforts are being made to prevent extinction (credibility and preview of main points).
The conclusion must include a review of the main points, reinforce the purpose of the speech, and provide closure. I will use these components in my conclusion:
To review, we have talked about coral reefs and the main causes for their extinction, including, climate change and localized stress resulting from destructive fishing, declining water quality from pollution, the degradation of coastal habitats, along with what efforts are being made to prevent extinction (review of main points). The purpose of this speech was to inform you of the importance of coral reefs, how they are being threatened and some of the efforts being made to save these habitats (reinforce the purpose and provide closure.)

Concept of Organizational Patterns for Informative Speeches

Different organizational patterns can be used when putting together your informative speech to ensure successful delivery. If you are speaking about a topic that has developed over a period of time or has stages, then you may want to consider using the chronological pattern. With this type of pattern you would usually want to start at the earliest time or stage and work your way current. According to the book, you should be sure to "highlight the importance of each step" in the time line or stages you are discussing. The spacial pattern can be useful if you are discussing a topic that requires you to describe a specific relationship between places or objects. This pattern might work if you are speaking about locations or spaces. Another useful pattern of organization is the Topical pattern. In this method you can divide your topic up into smaller sub-topics to make the subject easier to discuss. This particular pattern can work well for almost any informational speech. The narrative pattern is a more relaxed approach in my opinion. It allows you to discuss a topic by telling a series of short stories. Lastly, the cause and effect pattern might be right for you if you speaking about how an outcome is produced by a specific action. I will likely be using this type of pattern for my informational speech regarding the extinction of coral reefs.

Self Evaluation 1

In evaluating my performance on the demonstration speech, I have identified some strengths and opportunities to help my self better my performance in the future. Overall, I think I did well at achieving the purpose of my speech which was to provide history, demonstration of technique, and my personal experiences to my audience. I felt confident during my speech because I am very familiar with the topic. I felt uncomfortable at the beginning because being on the spot I was blanking out on some of the names and sources for historical facts and found my self having to rifle through my note cards. As the speech progressed into my experiences and the demonstration portion, I began to find more at ease and comfortable speaking to the audience. If I had to deliver the speech over again I would make changes to my preparation by practicing with a timer a lot more. As for organization, having neater more organized note cards would have helped be to recall some of the facts a lot easier and would help me to relax a bit more. I don't think I would make any changes to support and delivery, except maybe pay more attention to the time keeper to stay on track. The one main goal I have for improving the content of my next speech is to really look at the information and only use what is pertinent to my topic. This way I will not get side tracked and loose track of time. The one main goal I have for improving the delivery of my next speech is to practice a whole lot more with a timer. Separating each main speaking point and assigning a time value to it will help me to not go over on my time. The first thing I noticed about my delivery was that the information I was most comfortable with flowed a lot more easily and I did not need my note cards as much. I need to spend more time memorizing names and sources to back up my information so I will not need to rely on my note cards so much. For some reason when I am on the spot in front of an audience the note cards just look like a big jumble of letters. I might have to try a color system or make better use of bullet points. The only thing distracting I noticed about myself while giving the speech is I tend to clasp my hands together when I am nervous or uncomfortable. Also, I could limit my use of ums. I mentioned all four of my sources during my speech however, I neglected to fully name one of the web sources for historical information. On a scale of A to F, I feel like I deserved a B for this speech. I think if I had better memorized the factual data and stayed on time, then it might have been an A delivery. I will work harder on the next speech to hit those marks.