Reflective Journal #7: The Specific Purpose for an Academic Presentation.

Now we are looking forward to our final challenge of the term. Hopefully by now, we have had several opportunities to see what people do well, what makes good speeches and presentations, and reflect on our own strengths and weaknesses.

We have analyzed what makes good speakers, and what makes speeches work as either informative or persuasive. Personally speaking as one of your audience members, I am heartened by the commitment of so many of you to the course, and to your own development through each challenge, even under the difficult circumstances that we are in. Thank you sincerely for this.

As always, the first and very important step to high quality speaking is identifying our specific purpose. For this final group presentation, you have to decide on your purpose, to inform or persuade. And then clearly the next question is: Persuade Or Inform... about what?

The same considerations are at play: Who is your audience? What will be relevant for them? What do you need to do to achieve your purpose?

For this post, this is a first chance to propose a topic and purpose. With this post, you can also see what other groups are planning to do, so you want to differentiate yourselves from others to be unique and memorable. And remember the theme: Living in Uncertain Times.

Please introduce your topic idea. Generally, what is the idea? Explain it briefly, and then state your Specific Purpose: We want to inform / persuade our audience that...

Only 1 group member needs to make this post, but please include all group members' ID numbers in the post. I will be responding to each post to give preliminary feedback. Of course groups can change their minds about topic ideas after this post, but it is best to make this decision as early as possible. There is no need to respond to each other's posts for this one. Please make your post by Sunday night. Aj. M

Reflective Journal #6: Persuasive Speaking.

In this week's post, we are reviewing the Lucas Tutorials from Week 9-10 posted by your classmates. As we prepare for our individual persuasive speeches, it is important that we keep coming back to Lucas to help us understand what makes good persuasive speaking.

Speaking to persuade is one of the most challenging forms of public speaking and presentation. For this, you are addressing a skeptical audience, which adds another layer of pressure to this unique situation.

Remember that the unique challenge of persuasive speaking is that we must influence or change the minds of our audience. This means we must know who they are, what they believe, and what kind of argument and evidence will serve to challenge their points of view.

For this blog post, I want you to view 2 of your classmates' tutorial videos. From each, reflect on one key learning you gain that will benefit the preparation of your persuasive speech. Please take these tutorials to heart, as they truly matter to your work.

Please make your first post by Sunday night, and then respond to 2 other posts by next class.

As always, please remember to include your ID# in your posts. Aj. M

Reflective Journal #5: Speaking to Persuade.

As we have now passed the middle of the term, we have gained some experience with speaking to audiences in different formats, learning how to personalize, gain credibility, and integrate research in the process. Now, we are moving forward into a new challenge: to persuade an audience. This means addressing a strongly held opinion, or bias, or perspective of the world...  and destabilizing it, maybe even changing it. 

For this week, I want us to review two models. One is by Mechai Veravaidya, a world leader in the area of family planning. You will see he has a very distinct style, sense of humour, and finds a way to talk about sensitive topics in an entertaining way.

Another example is by Greta Thunberg. Here is an example of a very young and fearless young person who has tremendous power in spite of her age, and largely due to her extraordinary ability to speak with honesty, clarity, and conviction.

Both of these speeches are posted in the Google Classroom in the Week 9-12 folder. Please view them, and make observations. 

Particularly, I want you to decide if you are persuaded by them. If the answer is yes, why and how are you persuaded by them? Is it their delivery? Is it their research? Is it their experience and credibility? These are all possible ideas for discussion.

Please make your first post by Sunday night (the 28th), and then respond to the comments of 2 classmates by class time on April 1. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Reflective Journal #4: Informative Speech Preparation.

By this time, we have all gained some experience of both speaking, and listening. Many of you have given an impressive effort at integrating the learnings from the classes as well as from the Lucas readings into the development of your speech performances. Well done.

As we move forward on to the next challenge--the Informative Speech--let's continue to add more layers on to the nice foundation we have set. 

Your classmates will have posted 11 more tutorial videos for our benefit. While I encourage you to watch all of them at your convenience, for this blog entry, I would like you to watch 2 of them and reflect on your understanding of them.

These topics range from how you develop an informative speech for an audience, how you design an informative speech, and how you use language in different situations. 

For this blog post, reflect on 2 tutorial videos from Week 5 and 6 of your choice. Describe any new learnings that you gain from these tutorials, and explain how you are integrating those learnings into your informative speech performance.

Make your first post by Sunday night. Respond to 2 classmates by class time next week.

Remember to include your ID# and Section # in your post. Aj. M

Reflective Journal #3: Speaking to Inform.

  

At the Google Classroom (and also posted here) is a speech by Prof. Amy Cuddy. This isn't just any regular Ted Talk. It is the 2nd most viewed Ted Talk of all time. And guess what, it is about confidence, and making ourselves powerful when we need to be, in many situations including public speaking.

This is an informative speech. It is also an academic speech with lots of research, data, charts and graphs.

But you will also note that the research and data is also supported with examples and stories that make the academic knowledge real and personal. This is no doubt one reason why this speech has resonated so deeply with so many people.

For this Reflective Journal post, I want you to observe 3 things.

1) Note how she uses Spoken References, mentioning the names of sources whose work she is citing. 2) Consider how she personalizes the speech, and how she uses common and easy-to-understand illustrations to help the audience relate to the academic content. And 3) make one more observation about the speech making. 

Think of 1 more point that we have reviewed from Lucas that you can apply to Amy Cuddy's content and delivery. My hope is that these observations will give you ideas about your own preparation and design for your Informative Speech presentation.

Remember to include your ID# in your post. Please make your first post by Sunday, and then respond to two of your classmates by next week. Aj. M

Reflective Journal #2: Lucas Readings from Week 1 & 2.

We are moving quickly as we prepare for our first speaking challenge, the Personal Speech.

But I think that we'll find that even though our textbook readings are more targeted at face-to-face situations, the principles of public speaking still apply for our purposes. We still need Confidence, as speaking in this format still inspires nervousness and fear. We still need a clear Purpose with strategic Main Points. Even though we are behind a computer screen, our Voice and our Body is still powerful in the way we convey our ideas and our personality.

Thank you to the students who posted their Week 1 and Week 2 Lucas tutorials. And so for this journal post, I would like everyone to select 2 of the tutorial videos that your classmates made for you. View the videos and reflect on your first Personal Speech.

In your post, I would like you to identify one idea from each of the tutorial videos you watch, and share what was a new learning for you. And then reflect on how you may apply it in your Personal Speech. 

Please make your post by next class. 

Please remember to include your ID# and your Section # in your post. Aj. M

Reflective Journal Blog #1: Personal Speaking.

 In this first reflective journal blog post, we are reflecting on the speech performances of 2 unique speakers, Prumsodun Ok and Nong Poonsukwatthana. These are two wonderful examples of personal speeches.

What is a Personal speech? Well... it is what it sounds like; it is personal. It starts with you, a personal experience, characteristic, or memory, and it tells a story about it. It aims to connect the audience with you as a human being with real-life experiences. BUT, the thing is, it isn't only about you. If a personal speech is only personal, then the audience loses its reason to listen. The point of your personal story, in order to be a good speech, must have relevance to the listener. I think the two examples we are reviewing this week do just that very effectively.

For this reflection, I would like you to view both speeches. Pay close attention, not only to the content and what they say, but also to who they are and how they present themselves. Don't feel pressure to write about everything you see, but describe 1-2 observations for each speaker, and consider the following questions:

What makes them effective as speakers? Even though they are personal speeches, what makes them relevant to a wider audience?

Your post is due by next class. Remember to include you ID# in your post. I look forward to reading your thoughts. Aj. M