What I've Learned

I think I've come a long way since the beginning of class, and my grades reflect that. Each speech has gotten a little easier. For the first speech, I was super nervous. By the time the final speech rolled around, it was walk to the podium, take a deep breath, and jump in. My organization of ideas has even gotten better as the semester wore on. I don't jump around as much, and each idea has a connection to my message.

I know I still need to work on watching my time. My visuals could still use some work, but that will only get better with practice. And I know I need to curb my pacing habit. During the first speech, I paced because I was nervous, and when I sat on the table, I felt more focused. I didn't budge during the decond or third speech, and I got more nervous because I was concentrating on not moving. During the fourth speech, I walked back and forth at some point because I was getting into my speech.

Before this class, all it took to change my mind was a good speaker, and for me to be on the fence about something. Now I'm more apt to listen for the key points and arguments, instead of just the way the speaker presents an idea.

A few suggestions for next semester, if I may:
- a digital stopwatch set to the maximum time on the podium for each speaker
- a blank sheet/chart attached to the syllabus so students can keep track of their grades for each assignment, and make an informed decision about which items to sacrifice. I made one for myself mid-semester and it helped a lot.

Overall, the class was fun. Admittedly, the material was boring, but you had a way of making it fun (the videos, group presentation, etc). The course was perfect for both people who want an A and for people who just want their 3 credits. I wish you taught the other Com classes I'll be taking over the summer semester (1 or 2, not sure yet, but I think they're both lower level).

Speech IV - No Child Left Behind or No Child Left In School?

There was quite a bit of research involved for Speech IV. Both sides of the argument were readily available in equal amounts, I think. The hardest part was trying to figure out who was making informed decisions and who…well…wasn't. Doing both an audience analysis and an audience impact analysis was helpful. It gave me the chance to work on narrowing down my arugment to a specific demographic, while still keeping in mind other audiences. Making the PowerPoint and writing the speech were a breeze. I believe strongly in the argument I presented, so sounding convincing and persuading the audience wasn't a problem. The handout was easy as well. I embellished on ten arguments I've heard against NCLB, then realized it sounded a lot like Jamie Kenzie's "17 Reasons Why NCLB Must Go," so I slapped his name on there to make it seem more authentic.

My audience could have really been anyone, but I picked my primary audience to be the policy makers. It was hard to couch my message in terms that wouldn't bore policy makers, but also wouldn't be too complicated for my secondary audidnces (teachers, tax payers, parents, students, and advocates). However, I think being relatively passionate in my delivery made up for what my speech might have been lacking in intellectualism.

I think I did pretty well on the speech. I worked hard on the whole thing. I did my research, I developed good speech points, and I monopolized the double-mirror on our bathroom for two afternoons. I was worried I went over the time when I saw you check your watch a million times. But if I went over, it could have only been by 30 seconds max, because I hit a seven-minute timer on my cell phone just as I started the speech, and it went off just as I was telling the audience what I wanted them to do, and that was only, like, three sentences.

Speech III – Combat Unemployment!

Gosh, Speech III for me was terrible. Absolutely horrific.

Speech prep was fairly easy. Looking up all those resources and reading that much was tough on top of all my other classes, but each night, I read a little bit and I took notes. I based my visual around my notes instead of around my speech.

My audience was the US Department of Commerce, and I had three audiences within that one audience. There were people within the Department looking for progressive change, people in the Department who didn't want responsibility and change, and the "it's not my problem" group. Obviously, I assumed that the people who were looking for progressive change would be the most educated (or at least have a well-rounded education) about civil matters as well as government policies. Therefore, the "who cares" group would need to be educated the most, and THOSE were the people I wanted to win over.

I thought my speech was terrible. I was prepared, I had note cards, I had my visual, I had everything. But for some reason, all of the things I had been thinking about saying when I got up there went right out of my head, and my notes weren't helping. Who can decipher "1913 DoC X, brd :)" when they're terrified? I don't know why I got so nervous, because I was okay during Speech I, and even better during Speech II. Then, I wanted to kick myself. I speak English, for crying out loud!!! Why could I only think "l'effondrement" and "la ruine"?!? I completely blanked out after I realized that I said the Lehman Bros closed. They didn't close, they just went broke and fired the people who do all the real work! And, of course, when I blanked on the English, I panicked. Panicked BIG TIME! I should have just kept going, but I'm a perfectionist, so I wanted to correct myself… I stumbled my way through the presentation after that… It was just ridiculous…

Something that a few people picked up on in there evaluations was that minority populations are the ones hit hardest by unemployment. I guess its a good thing to bring a feminist twist to such an open-minded audience. I definitely could have used more audience interaction and eye contact. I'm just not sure how to create audience interactions with such a formal audience. It's going to be even more difficult for Speech IV because my primary audience is about as formal as an American audience gets (President, Senate, and Congress), and I still have to engage my secondary audiences on top of all that. What fun...

When I do Speech IV, I'm definitely going to write the whole thing out and read it over and over again. I wrote it out word for word for Speech I and Speech II, and I was fine. Even if I don't use the paper during my speech, it helps me to write things out and memorize them like they're lines in a musical. I'm always on stage, singing, dancing, acting…whatever. And knowing my lines is reassuring, because even if I forget a specific line, I can always improvise around it because I know the general idea of the line like the back of my hand… I really think that's what I'm going to do for Speech IV. Just memorize my lines… And maybe not use a visual… I was really distracted by my visual for some reason. I just don't think it worked well. The visual could have stood on its own and given my speech for me, it was all there. But during the speech, the clicking and having to look at the graphs, it drove me nuts. Maybe just pictures or something very, very simple for Speech IV, if anything at all.

Speech II – Pharmaceutical Companies in Livingston, NY

For Speech II, I had to do a little bit of research to find out what kinds of companies Livingston wanted (actually, I just asked the Town Supervisor, who is a friend's dad). Once I found out that we like green companies, I just picked a type of company that had been in Livingston before. The easiest part of the speech was my audience analysis. I knew there were different parts of a company that were involved in a company moving to a new place (company representatives & financial representatives), and that there would always be people who opposed a company. Then, I basically just wrote a speech that would convince ME to invite a company to Livingston. A persuasive speech is pretty easy if you know who your audience is (I think that applies to all speeches…). The morning of the speech, I got to class early and practiced it about five times when it was just on paper, then I went to the library and practiced it again with the teleprompter (which I'd already done at home too).

I assumed, that since I gave my first speech on Livingston, I would lose everyone's attention if I gave them the Livingston background again (even though, technically, they're a different audience this time around…). When I gave information on Livingston, I kept it very vague, and just told them what they needed to know (lots of open space, lots of open land, people who want jobs).

I'm still my own worst critic, so I wasn't really happy with the way I presented my speech. I was okay with the manuscript, but as soon as I opened my mouth to talk, I just got faster and faster and ran out of breath. I don't know why, because I didn't feel nervous, and I almost had the speech memorized. But I just got faster and faster until I ran out of breath, and then, I pretty much blew it. Otherwise, as far as organization goes, I thought I was okay.

You wrote "good introduction" on the back of the speech evaluation. Maybe you should point out to me what made it a good introduction. I absolutely STINK at writing introductions and conclusions (even though, as an English major, you'd think I'd be good at them). So maybe if I knew what it was that made it good, it would help when I go to write Speech III.

The student evals of my speech pretty much matched yours – good speech, but the pace was off. I just don't know how to slow back down once I start going faster, because I think it just sounds ridiculous when someone takes a big breath in the middle of their speech. However, I'm not really sure how having a vague introduction worked (which is what you wrote in response on my extra credit self-eval). I guess other than not directly identifying an audience…

For the next speech, I think I'll be fine with slowing down, because I won't be reading it from a teleprompter. Having to change note cards and formulate my ideas as I go along will force me to slow down. I just have to get it into my head that pauses are okay. Maybe if I write "PAUSE" on my note card, I'll remember to take a breath. I think the hardest part of the second speech will be dressing up again – I'm definitely uncomfortable with wearing clothes like that, just because the clothes themselves aren't very comfortable. Never was a skirt (or even slacks) girl.

What DO you wear when you address the Dept of Commerce?

Speech #1 - Your Hometown

This was certainly the most nerve-wracking thing I've done in quite a while. I sing, I dance, I act, and I always get a little nervous, but I was nauseous for two days before I had to do my speech!

For this speech, we had to talk for 5 to 7 minutes about our hometown. I figured, ok, easy, I live there now (and I've lived there almost my whole life). How hard could it be to talk about someplace I know like the back of my hand? Honestly, pretty hard.

I actually had to go and research a little bit of the history in my town. I knew before the speech who founded it and when, but other than that, I really had no clue. So, I researched the history of Livingston, NY and went from there. Since my town is so small, it was smooth sailing from then on out. I really only had a few things to talk about - the town hall, the post office, the library, the gazebo, and the rec park. Oh, and the cows. Cows, cows, cows...and corn. So, I had my uncle drive me from one end of Livingston to the other so I could take pictures - it literally took 20 minutes (and that's only because we had to stop every 1/4 mile). I threw together the slideshow in about 5 hours, and made a soundtrack out of one song.

For the speech itself, as far as prep goes, I just thought a lot about what I wanted to say. I made a sheet of speech points that were just reminders to myself about what I should talk about. For example, when I was talking about the library, I almost forgot how they ban books. It's a good thing I wrote "banned" on my paper. Then, unfortunately, the morning of the speech, I was in such a rush leaving from work that I left my speech points on the table. So from 8:00 to 9:15, I was frantically writing everything that I thought I was going to say - literally. I even wrote "Hi, I'm Jess Sweet and I'm from Livingston, New York" on the top, like I was going to forget my own name. I'm really glad I only glanced at that paper during the speech though.

I had six different audiences listed on my audience analysis, but really there were only two audiences broken into three sub-groups. I had "NY-urban, suburban, rural" and "US-urban, suburban, rural". All of the people in the audience were UAlbany students and in their 20s. It was when my audience analysis asked "What does the listener know already?" that things got a little messy, so bear with me. Of the New Yorkers in the audience, they may have known: Columbia County is mostly agricultural, the stereotypical rural reputation, the relative area, possibly the region, and what the region is known for (apples, strawberries, etc). Of the students who were not from New York, I thought that they might know that rural areas in NY are mostly agricultural and they probably also know the reputation of a rural town.

Every member of the audience basically needed to know the same information: how to get to Livingston, what to do once you're there, places to avoid, attraction of area, how to travel in Livingston, surrounding area, personal experiences, where to shop, how far away are recognizable landmarks or attractions. Everyone had the same benefits in listening: got to understand other lifestyles and to learn about a place in NY that they may pass on their way to school. The people from rural areas had an added benefit: they could feel connected to someone in the class that also comes from a rural area (aka ME!). After the speech, I just wanted the audience to understand my lifestyle and where I come from.

Self-evaluation is probably the hardest part of this assignment, because I'm usually not aware of what I'm doing in front of a room of people. I just get up there and think "ok, don't let anything distract you, keep a smile on your face no matter how horrible it all comes out...". I'm a chronic "umm"-er, so that was my first thought when I left work was "don't say um!". Of course, I would almost stumble every time I said "um" during my speech. The three most important points I wanted to make about Livingston were: 1) it is the stereotypical, picture-perfect small town; 2) there really is nothing to do for miles around; and 3) although it seems kind of boring, Livingston (and Columbia County in general) has its own charm and it's a great place to grow up. The three areas I excelled in doing the speech were: 1) I really don't think I sounded like I was reading off a paper, which most of the time I wasn't anyways, 2) I sounded much more confident than I usually do, and 3) I projected my voice well (I think...). The three areas I need to work on are: 1) remembering to relax and breathe - I know I looked like a goldfish a few times there, 2) incorporating more pop culture into something that has practically none (maybe by comparing and contrasting?), and 3) looking up and making more eye contact.

When I dared to actually look at people in the audience, I saw different reactions. Some people were very interested (judging by the way they were looking at me), some people were smiling, and others were just staring at me because they knew they had to be polite and pay attention. I saw a few confused looks every now and then (especially when I started talking about WHERE Livingston is), and a couple of incredulous ones when I talked about the library.

The student and teacher audiences were different from each other as well, although the feedback didn't vary much between the two. I could almost tell who was evaluating me, because they were staring at me like they were waiting for me to do something (maybe next time I should pull a rabbit out of a hat...). Similarly, you (yes you, probably the only person who will read this blog), had a range of expressions on your face. At one point (and I didn't dare watch too closely) you laughed, and other times, you looked like you were trying to memorize what I was saying.

I think for the next speech, I will actually remember my speech points. Also, since the speech, I've been pretty stressed out, and I've looked up stress management skills, and I think I might practice a few of those, especially since the next speech is more formal. I'm going to have to practice a lot more for the formal speeches. Also, I might record myself during the next speech just so I hear what I really sound like. I am both my harshest critic and my biggest fan, so it's hard for me to accurately judge how well I did (or didn't do).

After the speech, I walked out of the room feeling pretty confident that I did well. Or at least, I did better than I thought I was going to do. I was picturing myself freezing and losing my voice and forgetting what I was supposed to say. But I think having a little nervous energy is a good thing - it makes me more aware of what I'm going to have to do next.

And I think my Munchkins went over well too. Too bad I can't bribe them all next time! :)