Final Self-Reflection

TO: Professor Heather Jorgensen

FROM: Vanessa Lu, COMM 1020
DATE: 12/10/17
RE: Final Self-Reflection

Basic Principles of Public Speaking (COMM 1020) has been a course that pushed students to fulfill expectations,
overcome anxiety, and obtain an abundance of skills. Looking back on the recordings of my speech videos, I learned that
I have improved tremendously from the first time I stood in front of the classroom to the last time I delivered a speech
to the audience. My experience in this course was valuable in my performance as a public speaker. On the first day of
this class, I was hesitant with the idea of giving a speech. However, since then, I have gained additional knowledge in the
categories of organization, appeals/evidence, delivery and visual aids, audience assessment and adaptation, and speech
anxiety management.

Organization
Organization is essential in the process of delivering a speech. Without an outline of what the speaker is going to
discuss, the audience is most likely going to find difficulty following the presentation. As J. Dan Rothwell writes on page
129 of Practically Speaking: Second Edition published in 2017, A disorganized speech creates confusion and
misunderstanding. In my speeches, I included a brief overview in the introduction of what I was going to discuss. For
example, for my persuasive speech on Why You Should Take Naps, I firstly introduced the topic, then explained to the
audience that I was going to go over the benefits of napping, the drawbacks of taking naps, and finally, tips to make the
best out of napping, coming to an end with a conclusion. By doing so, the listeners had an idea of what the purpose of
my speech was. When I was creating the speaking template for each of my speeches, I organized each idea to its
relevant focus. If I was going to talk about the benefits of napping, for example, I made sure to include all evidence and
explanations related to the positive aspects of napping in the same section, while I discussed the details of the
drawbacks of napping in another section of the speech.

Appeals and Integrated Evidence

Logos:
Logos is the logical side of persuasion, which means that reasoning is incorporated into ones speech. Reasoning
is essential in conveying information to an audience, because to convince people to believe your argument, you
must provide an explanation for how you reached certain conclusions. As Rothwell (2017) writes on page 269,
Several strong arguments can be persuasive to listeners who process your message either peripherally or
centrally I incorporated logos in my speech by connecting ideas with one another. For example, in my
informative speech on Why do we Stress-Eat?, I provided some explanations for why our bodies turn to food
as an outlet for stress; this consisted of hypothetical possibilities, such as having higher insulin levels, greater
release of cortisol, and reckless eating. Without speaking about why things occur, the audience would not their
questions answered. One statement that I have learned to avoid are biased claims. Biased claims mean that an
individual is swayed toward one side more than the other, thus they are most likely to support their favorable
party and belittle their opposing party. This type of reasoning is flawed, because only the positive aspects of a
certain group/idea/person, etc. are presented, while only the negative characteristics of the opposing factor are
told. For each of my speeches, I was found mostly using statistics, quotes, or scientific explanations for my logos
examples. These were especially helpful, because they were easily understood by the audience.

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 Ethos:
Ethos in the modes of persuasion theory, means credibility, or the ability to appear plausible before an
audience. It is important that the audience trusts your reasoning, so they can ensure that the information they
are receiving is accurate and therefore, are likely to take your explanations into consideration. As Rothwell
(2017) writes on page 268, You enhance your credibility by appearing competent, trustworthy, and dynamic,
yet composed. I have improved my use of ethos as a result of this class, because speeches such as the
Demonstrative, Informative, and Persuasive speeches required that we perform research and cite sources of
which we obtained new information. I incorporated evidence into my speech mainly by quotes and statistics, in
which I orally cited for the audience who I obtained the information from, where the data was taken, and when
the information was published/accessed. The purpose of establishing ethos is to build credibility between the
speaker and the audience. If the speaker cites sources from professional or plausible references, the information
that is presented is most likely going to be true. When you are discussing a controversial topic, you can maintain
your ethos by presenting opinions from multiple sides, and pulling information from areas that are
professionally specialized on the issue. It was apparent that my sources were authoritative, because they were
from people who were knowledgeable on the subject and had a title that pertained to the study. In my
demonstrative speech on Buttoning a Sweater, I cited a source from the United States Department of Labor,
an official website of the American government.

Pathos:
Pathos, one part of the modes of persuasion, means that emotion is applied in an individuals argument. Using
emotion to appeal to an audience is considered very powerful, because the audience is able to see things from
the speakers perspective and apply it to their own life, or, the speech may appeal to humor for example, which
is entertaining to listen to. The amount of emotion in a speech controls how much an audience is moved or
directly affected. As Rothwell (2017), writes on page 270, Appeals to sadness, pride, honor, hope, joy, guilt,
envy, and shame all have their place as persuasion strategies that ignite emotional reactions and change
behavior (Gass & Seiter, 2011). The main pathos that I used was humor. For example, in my persuasive speech
on Why You Should Take Naps, I ended the conclusion with the statement Thank you, and I hope my speech
did not put you to sleep! I gained a few laughs from the audience with this play-on-words. In my opinion, I feel
that I could have included more pathos, so that the audience felt they could relate more with my ideas,
especially since we are all high school students. I believe that my pathos reached the audience quite well,
because although it mostly consisted of lighthearted-humor, I poked fun at situations many of us were dealing
with commonly on a daily basis.

Delivery and Visual Aids

When I presented my speech, the one idea that I remembered the most, was to keep consistent eye contact
with the audience. However, being able to glance at the audience is not enough; rather than looking at one side of the
room for the entirety of your speech, it is crucial that you include the whole crowd by looking at all sides of the audience
while speaking. As Rothwell (2017) writes on page 170, When you do not look directly at your audience, however,
listeners minds can easily wander. I do not believe that I performed many gestures when delivering my speech; I feel
that I could improve this by using appropriate hand gestures at the right time, to emphasize a specific point that is
essential for the audience to know. However, I must remember not to over-do it; if I sway back and forth throughout my
presentation, this may become distracting for the audience. While practicing for my speeches, the main focus that I
learned was to act natural. To appeal to my audience with more credibility and professionalism, I should not appear stiff
or nervous. I feel that the area of delivery I need to improve on most, is to slow down my speech so that I do not stutter
or stumble across my words as often; I should also provide more inflection and emotion in my voice, rather than sound
monotone for the majority of the time. The main type of visual aid that I used was PowerPoint. I feel that the
PowerPoint was the right choice for my informative and persuasive speeches, because the audience was able to have
images to reference to so they could understand more easily what I was talking about. However, one thing I could have
done differently, was design the slides so that they were not as distracting and resulted in detracting my audiences
focus from my voice to what was on the slides.

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Audience Assessment and Adaptation:
I feel that I was able to easily adapt to my audience, because for each speech, there were always highschool
students and a college professor. I felt that I could easily relate to the students since I was in the same age group as they
were, and many of the things they were experiencing were similar to mine. However, from this course, I learned that it is
crucial to take into account the type of people you are speaking to; you wouldnt want to say something that might
offend the crowd. The type of attitude you possess when you present your speech should be appropriate for the
listeners. For example, if you are giving a toast at a wedding, you should be wary about mentioning inappropriate jokes,
because sensitive listeners such as young children are present. As Rothwell (2017) writes on page 42, Your speech
should be prepared with your audience always in mind, so knowing something about your audience is crucial. It is
important to always remain open-minded during your delivery of a speech, because people may criticize your beliefs or
become offended by them, which can damage your credibility. When I presented my persuasive speech on Why You
Should Take Naps, I made sure to include both the benefits and drawbacks of taking naps, in case some individuals felt
the need to question my reasoning. It is especially important to think of your audience when picking a topic for your
speech, because you want to ensure that the individuals in the crowd are not sensitive to the subject, or may not fully be
interested in what you need to say as a speaker.

Speech Anxiety Management:

The plan for managing speech anxiety was helpful for myself because I was able to create an overall goal for the
completion of this course that would help me overcome my nerves when it came to delivering a speech. One aspect of
my plan was to practice verbally presenting my speech ahead of time and avoid procrastinating. This was especially
helpful, because I was able to review the material in my outlines for an abundant amount of times, which aided in how
well I knew what I was talking about and minimized errors when it came to presentation day. Since I was more familiar
with the information in my speech, I believe that I felt less anxious or sounded less hesitant when I spoke to the
audience. The idea that stuck to me most was the fact that there are no such thing as a perfect speech. As humans, we
are bound to make mistakes, thus I should not be upset at myself if things do not go as planned. As Rothwell (2017)
writes on page 27, Flawless public speaking is an unreasonable goal. Even the most talented and experienced public
speakers make occasional errors in otherwise riveting and eloquent speeches. As long as I was able to get the main
point across, there was nothing in the end that I should continue to stress about.

Lessons Learned:
Basic Principles of Public Speaking was a helpful course, because it did not improve only my skills in this class,
but also my ability to do well in other subjects. I learned that it is important to appeal to an audience with your ideas,
because you want individuals to accept the words you have to say; this cannot be done simply by speaking what is on
your mind, however. You must also appear credible to the crowd, which can include citing professional sources. When
you are writing an academic essay for example, you should cite plausible sources to ensure that your information is
accurate, especially if you are going to present this information for an audience. Public speaking in general is a crucial
skill to have. You must be able to speak with confidence before an audience; whether it be one college professor or
hundreds of students in an auditorium, it is significant that you are knowledgeable in how to get your point across. Many
people would rather die than give a speech, but this is a common misconception. Speeches, although seemingly
intimidating at first, are actually rewarding in the end because you as an individual, are able to share your knowledge
with the world, regardless of how much power you hold in the universe. As Rothwell (2017) writes on page 1, Freedom
of speech is the bedrock of a democratic society. There is an inherent recognition in the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution that articulate speech can give voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless.

Works Cited

Rothwell, J. D. (2017). Practically Speaking (Second ed.). New York: Oxford University Press