Leahs Group Blog

                                 

    Group Blog Presentation

 Leah Albertson Group 3

      Introduction:

In this class, I watched multiple groups present about important parts of public speaking  from the book we have from our class. Each group focused on different chapters, ideologies, and tips on how to speak, but overall, they all connected to the same topic, which was how to become a good and efficient speaker. The presentations consisted of the groups by choosing a purpose, researching, supporting ideas, using language and delivering a speech. As I watched each group, I eventually came to the conclusion that public speaking isn't just reading a piece of paper and talking to an audience. It has multiple factors like planning, organizing, practicing, research and even confidence. 

    Group One:       

The first group was assigned chapters one through four, and essentially the beginning parts of creating a speech in general. From what I understood, they explained how important it is to know what you are going to talk about before presenting, they explained fully that preparing is important to have a good speech. They showed us this with multiple images and facts, the group was very enthusiastic to present and talk about how important this was. They said the best way to know before you speak is to understand the topic, knowing your audience, and making sure your speech has a clear direction, I think this is extremely important considering that if you are confused on your own topic of your speech, so will your audience, and that immediately qualifies of a speech that is unprepared. What I personally enjoyed from this group was that their presentation really reminded me that public speaking starts before the actual speech. Most people think that the most difficult part about speaking is, well, speaking! But if someone prepares it well, it makes the speech much smoother for the audience to understand and follow along. I also think their topic was helpful and useful because it presented that a strong speech needs a strong foundation. Without it, the speech can feel random, sloppy and unorganized at times.

       Group Two:    

The second group spoke about delivering your purpose, researching your topic, supporting your ideas and delivering an effective speech. They mentioned and showed us examples of multiple brainstorming techniques to use like being creative, writing down ideas that come to you, and choosing    topics you know or are willing to know about to say in your speech. I liked this because for me, choosing a topic is almost one of the hardest parts about a speech. I have sat down in multiple libraries    for past classes and only thought about my topic, and then never being able to land on one efficiently. Their presentation made it seem less stressful because brainstorming gives you a nice way to start. The second group also explained the difference between a general and specific purpose. The specific purpose helps the speaker stay focused and organized. One example the second group gave was about informing an audience on how to choose a college major. I thought this was a good example because it was simple and easy to understand. They also spoke to us about the steps  to properly research your topic by using books, databases, search engines and primary sources. This part also stood out to me because search makes a speech a lot more credible than most think. If a speaker only gives opinions about a topic, the likelihood for the audience not to trust or believe you is higher. Another topic that group two spoke about was plagiarism. They mainly spoke about how speakers should keep track of their sources and stick to being honest. This is very important because even in speeches, you still have to give credit to other people's ideologies and words. It is necessary that you are honest throughout your speech. Overall, I think group two had amazing ideas, examples and graphs to explain how to prepare a speech.

Group Three (My group) :

The third group was actually the group that I participated in. My section, chapter nine covered the importance of  the opening and closing of a speech. I explained that the opening and closing of a speech should always be confident and preview your main points. The same goes for the closing, being confident and reviewing your main points is always key. I learned that if a speech starts and ends well, it feels more organized  and complete. They are what help the audience stay focused and connected, improving your speech overall.                                                                                                                                               The third group also covered important information from chapter ten, which was about using                  language effectively. They explained that language can be abstract, active, ambiguous or arbitrary. They also spoke about cultural language barriers like slang, jargon, idioms, and euphemisms. This is extremely important because the way you word things are extremely important and help captivate your audience in an enjoyable way. Overall, I thought the language barrier example was an extremely fun way to talk about delivering the language itself. An example I loved that they used was that an idiom might make sense to one person but confuse another. This tells me how I should use language effectively so everyone in the room can understand what I am trying to say. Our group also spoke about delivery methods in a speech, such as impromptu, memorized, manuscript, extemporaneous speaking. This was extremely useful because different speech situations require different speaking styles. They used a useful example saying that reading from a manuscript might work for a formal speech, but extemporaneous speaking may feel more natural in a classroom presentation. In general, Group three showed me the importance of engaging with your audience with your opening, closing, language, and delivery of your speech.

Group Four:

The fourth and final group was focused on the last few chapters in the book that were assigned to. They covered specific purposes, thesis statements, main points, persuasion, and organizational patterns throughout their presentation. The group went on to say that it was slightly connected to chapter three on s purposes and thesis statements in the book for informative speeches. They then said how a specific  purpose can say what the speech will be and end about, while the thesis gives the main idea. I thought this was extremely important, if not, the most important part of your speech because it really brings everything together as a whole on what you are talking about in your speech. If the speech didn't have these things, then your audience would be extremely confused and lost on what you're talking about.        They also spoke about  brainstorming persuasion topics. This was very useful because these kinds of persuasive speeches need a clear goal. The speaker is not just giving out information, but also trying to    influence the audience's thoughts or actions within the speech. I think this can be difficult sometimes because the speaker has to be convincing without being too forceful with these ideologies. A part that stood out to me from group four was the example they used. They mentioned Monroe's Motivated Sequence, the sequence includes, attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action. I thought this was an interesting and powerful method and example they used because it gives the speech a clear step by step structure. First, you get the audience's attention, then, you explain the problem, give a solution, help them imagine the result, and finally tell them what action to take. This makes persuasion easier to follow as a whole. Overall, I enjoyed the group fours presentation, they helped me understand that organization is what makes a speech feel completed fully. Even if someone has good information, the speech can feel clumsy if it's not organized properly.

Conclusion:

After watching all of these groups' presentations, I learned that public speaking has so many parts and they are extremely crucial. Being prepared, organized, using different strategies and signifying the importance of the steps to write and speak in a public setting is very long. However, these presentations, including my own, showed me the skill and gave me the knowledge to be able to put a speech together and confidently engage my audience with the strategies and steps that were mentioned.In my opinion, the most important lesson that I learned from the groups was that preparation matters.