JOURNAL #1- What I took away from chapter 1 is that public speaking is a vital life skill and something everyone should get comfortable with. Public speaking is something that you will use for the rest of your life whether in a public setting, work setting, school setting, etc. Overall, your public speaking course could be the most important course that you take in undergraduate school since it is something you will actually use. Being able to public speak is a skill that most employers look for. I also learned that in taking a public speaking class you are able to research topics that are meaningful to you and then you are able to use your voice to talk about the issues. I like how it said none of us are born knowing how to deliver a successful speech and it is something that we learn and get better at over time. I resonated with this because your first couple times giving presentations you feel out of place and you feel as though you could have done better. Then, the next time you give a presentation you know how to prepare better and what to do differently. It is all about trial and error and practicing until you get comfortable.

JOURNAL #2- An object that means something to me is my high school softball glove. This glove made it through 2 undefeated seasons, played in 1 state game and won a northern Maine championship. I got this glove for my birthday after begging my parents for it. They even got it with my name embroidered on it which made it even more special. This might look like just a softball glove to some, but to me it was my most prized possession. 

When I got this glove it was a bright white color. 3 years later, it is now a dull white color with hints of brown. It has a definition to it now and memories that will last forever. It has an American Flag embroidered on the side along with my last name. Before this glove, I had a black and green glove that I used for about 4 years. When I switched to this glove, it was a big deal because the other glove was broken in and allowed me to catch every ball. This new glove was very stiff and the ball would sometimes fall right out of it. This made my coach very upset and he wanted me to go back to my old glove, which made me upset. 

This glove is not only a piece of softball equipment, but it was my security blanket for 3 years. Whenever we played a good game, it was there in my arms as I hugged it while listening to my coach. When we had a bad game, it was there in my arms as I hugged it and cried on the bus ride home. When I first got it and my coach was upset because it was so stiff, it made me want to work even harder to prove him wrong. This glove and I played many good games together proving him wrong after making it to the state championship. 

Outline- What it looks like- white, my last name, American flag

How long i’ve had it and how long I had my other glove 

What games it has played in & what it has accomplished

Why it is so important to me

JOURNAL #3- One big takeaway from chapter 11 is that a speech has 3 basic parts. The introduction that tells the purpose of the speech, the body that tells the main points and the conclusion where you restate the purpose and main points and close out the speech. Another takeaway is that listeners tend to remember the first point or the last point of the speech, so you should save your best point for first or last. Your main points should be points that you can back up with more detail. They should be restricted to a single idea. If your main points are introduced as one, you need to separate them into two or more parts. If your main points don’t relate to each other, they might just have to be a sub point. I also learned that you can use transitional words such as “likewise” and “similarly” instead of just “like”. Instead of “so”, I can use the transitional word “hence” or “as a result”. I have an issue with saying “so” or “like” a lot therefore this checklist on page 86 is helpful for me to use. 

One big takeaway from chapter 12 is that studies show how you organize your ideas affects how your audience understands them. I learned in chapter 11 that they mostly remember the first and last point so those should be the most important points. I learned that speeches can be organized in 12 different ways, some of them being chronological, spatial, casual, topical and narrative. These can be used for all forms of speeches where the problem solving pattern is mostly used for persuasive speeches. I like the chronological pattern because it is the one I am most familiar with. This is the pattern I feel like they teach when you are first learning how to write an essay by using first, second, lastly, etc. Another takeaway is that you can blend organization patterns if it makes sense for that point. You can start off by organizing your speech one way but then you can have your subpoints use a different pattern. This is helpful to know because before reading that tip, I thought you had to choose one pattern and stick to it throughout your speech. 

JOURNAL #4- What went well for my speech #2 is it was rehearsed well. I didn’t pause and have to think about what I was going to say next. I also kept good eye contact the times where I wasn’t looking at my object to describe it. I think my setup was good and I hope the clicking noise wasn’t there this time. I found out it wasn’t a woodpecker but my loud HVAC machine on my wall! I turned it off this time hoping it wasn’t as loud. What I think could have been better is really showing how much the glove meant to me. I think it was so rehearsed that my emotions were taken out a little and I was just reciting what I had practiced saying.

JOURNAL #5- My first big takeaway from chapter 13 is that outlines are very helpful and important for creating a framework for your speech. You should make 2 different outlines, one for working off of and one for speaking. The working outline should be your entire speech in partial or full sentences where your speaking outline is its summed up version using keywords. This is to help you keep good eye contact during your speech. This is a great tip because while giving a speech it is so easy to go blank and forget what you’re going to say. Using this method would be helpful because if I go blank I could look down quickly to see my keyword and look back up to continue my speech. Another takeaway is there is actually an outline format you can use. I didn’t know that, I just wrote in paragraph form. The outline format is your name, topic, general speech purpose, specific purpose, thesis statement, introduction, credibility statement, preview, body and conclusion. The only thing I am confused about is I thought repeating was not good in speeches. This teaches you to talk about your topic in your intro, body and conclusion so I feel like there is a lot of repeating going on. I am going to try out this format for my next speech and see if it was useful. 

JOURNAL #6- What I think went well during my speech 3 is my organization. I did my speech in a step by step order that explained how I make my coffee. I rehearsed my speech well and I even had something to say when my shaker got stuck instead of saying nothing. I like how I did my outline this time by lightly following the one in our book. I had it more organized and in bullet form rather than paragraph form. What I think could have been improved is the length of my video. The first time I recorded my speech it didn’t hit the 3 min mark and the second time it was around 2 ½ mins. This was my third time recording this video so I tried to slow it down and added in the cold foam to add extra time. This caused me to forget to get another mason jar to put my coffee in so that was bad planning on my part and could have been improved as well. 

JOURNAL #7- Chapter 25 was about speaking on special occasions. Special occasions can vary from eulogies, toasts, acceptance, introductions, tributes, etc. The first thing I learned is that they can be either informative, persuasive or both. Although, the main point of a special occasion speech is to entertain, celebrate, commemorate, inspire or set social agendas. I learned that each kind of speech has a different checklist to talk about. For example, an introduction speech warms up the audience and introduces the speaker. An acceptance speech should reflect your gratitude and you should talk about what the award means to you. A presentation speech should talk about the meaning of the award and why the recipient is receiving it. A toast should be prepared but also positive and brief where a eulogy will be positive but realistic. Both are emotional speeches but a different kind of emotion, where toasts are happy and eulogies are sad, but should also be positive. Knowing the different types of speeches will help me be prepared for future special occasions I may have to speak at. At a wedding I will use a toast where at a funeral I will use a eulogy. It would not make sense if I were to present my speeches the other way around, a eulogy at a wedding and a toast at a funeral. 

JOURNAL #8- What I think went well for my speech 4 on someone who is important to me is trying to show the relationship my sister and I have. We are very close but like I said, I don’t tell her enough how important she is to me because I feel as though that would be uncomfortable! I will save that for her wedding one day. When I went back into my room I told her why I had to film my video in my car and we laughed about it. I have always looked up to her in everything she does and I think I did a good job telling all the things I look up to her for whether it was clothes, what she did or sports. I also maintained good eye contact throughout the video which is something my classmates commented on for my first draft. I kept looking at my notes in my first video so this time I made sure not to take my eyes off the camera which means I also did a good job of rehearsing my speech so I didn’t have to look at my notes. What I think could have gone better is my location. I hope I don’t get points taken off for filming in my car but it was my only option! I tried to keep it as professional as I could. It was also raining so that could have been better too for noise reasons. I also think I said “but” and “so” in a few spots where I didn’t need to.

JOURNAL #9- The first big takeaway from chapter 23 is that a persuasive speech is meant to influence the audience and change their emotion or reasoning on an issue. Persuading an audience can be difficult but things that can help are setting reasonable goals, establishing credibility, have your message be relevant to the audience, use positive examples and use stories the audience can relate to. Something I learned about is Aristotle’s persuasive appeals known as logos, pathos and ethos. Logos targets reason and logic, pathos targets the emotions of the listeners and ethos targets the ethical character of the speaker. Aristotle believes that effective persuasive speeches use all 3 of these proofs. A quick tip I learned is that emotion is important for persuasive speeches but relying fully on emotion will most likely fail. What will make your persuasion successful is combining emotion with logic because that way there is justification for the emotions they are feeling during your speech and then they will then act upon what they are feeling. Gaining credibility is also very important because this allows you to gain trust from your audience. Gaining credibility first begins with your appearance with how you are dressed and your non verbal actions like eye contact. I didn’t know credibility could be gained based on first impressions so now I know why what you are wearing and eye contact are so important when giving a speech. Derived credibility is assigned after knowing the message of the speech, the quality of evidence given and how the speech is delivered. Terminal credibility is the overall impression including how they end the speech. That is why it is important to slowly ease out of your speech with confidence rather than just ending it abruptly. 

The first big takeaway from chapter 24 is how to construct a persuasive speech. The framework of a persuasive speech is arguments. An argument consists of a claim that states the speaker’s conclusion, evidence that supports the claim and a warrant that provides justifications as to why the evidence supports the claim. Your speech can have 1 claim or several claims. The different kinds of claims are fact, value and policy. A claim of fact is if something is true or not or if something will or won’t happen. A claim of value addresses an issue of judgment if something is good, bad, right, wrong, etc. A claim of policy suggests that action is taken or approved. I learned that when using this claim, you have to also include a call to action whether it be telling the audience to vote, join something, etc. You have to explain to the audience how to accomplish the act along with the benefits of doing so. After you have your arguments, you now have to organize your speech. I like how they included that there is no right way to organize any kind of speech but there are choices you can make that will be more effective based on your topic and purpose. For persuasive speeches you can use a problem solving pattern, comparative advantage, Monroe’s sequence or refutation pattern. Personally, I like Monroe’s 5 step sequence because it is most effective when wanting to get the audience to do something. You first grab their attention, address the need of the issue, give a solution, create visualization and then allow the audience to act upon how they are feeling about the issue. I feel as though I used this for my persuasive speech because I grabbed the audience’s attention, I told them about the need of people adopting from animal shelters, I explained how they can adopt from an animal shelter, I created visualization by showing them my cat that I adopted and and now they can use how they are feeling to act upon it. 

JOURNAL #10- MY BIGGEST STRIDES. The speech where I saw the most growth between my dry-run draft and final is speech 3. For this speech, it had to be between 3-5 mins where the first 2 we did only had to be a minute. I think this may have tripped me up since it had to be a minute or 2 longer than I was used to. For my first draft, it was 1:47 and I knew that was going to be something my peers critiqued so when I posted my link I asked for ideas on how I could lengthen my speech. They gave me great feedback and I used Nick’s idea of explaining the ingredients on the table first and then making my drink. I also added in another ingredient of cold foam to lengthen my speech even more. I got my speech to 3:01 which hit the 3 min mark. A specific good moment I can see in my video, that you commented on as well, is at 2:50 when I was pouring the cold foam into my coffee. Not only was I smiling because my cold foam came out good and I was happy to drink my coffee, but also because I made it to the end of the video with everything running smoothly for the most part, so it was also a smile of relief. Although this was not my best work of the semester, it is where I saw the most growth from my dry-run draft and to my final video. 

Draft: https://youtu.be/Nx7aVhRs3fw

Final: https://youtu.be/qZevu70PYvs

JOURNAL #11- What went well during my final speech “The Secrets To My Success” is I think I was well prepared. I made a page with my example’s of the best advice I received, best advice I gave and where I saw the most improvement. I had this behind my camera so I could glance at them quickly. By looking at my notes it may have seemed like I was not prepared although I was. I just had to read what the advice was since I could not memorize a whole paragraph. Going off of that I think I did a good job of not reading the paragraph word for word and summarizing it as I read it. I also think I did a good job of hitting the points I had to make, such as my struggles throughout the course, what I did well, how I improved and explaining specific examples of the advice I received and gave. What I think could have went better is making the video a little shorter where it went over 4 minutes. I could have cut a few parts out or summarized it better but I left it that way because this was the first time I didn’t struggle with coming up with more to say just to hit the time limit. I feel as though what I wanted to say came natural. Although, watching it back, there were a few times I took a break to take a breath which may look like I forgot what I was going to say next but it was actually helpful for me to remember to slow down.