Motivational

When I hear about public speaking, i think of speeches that are being given in front of a large crowd with someone standing in front of the audience in formal attire reading the speech off of a piece of paper. In many cases though, the public speeches that I have been around have been given as motivational speeches. I have both received and gave motivational speeches. As team captain of the basketball team it was one of my jobs to motivate the team before and during each game in order for us to go out and compete at our best and try to win. As a member of the team, I had to listen to our coaches give speeches after every game about how we did a good job, or about how we need to come back out next time and do better. During halftime of our games, my coach usually tried to motivate us to come out in the second half and to work hard. As a coach though, sometimes he did not do a very good job at motivating us and belittled us more than encouraged. When he did this it was a negative type of public speaking, instead of encouraging us to do better it made us as a team not want to play. The way a speaker presents himself is a major factor in setting the mood of the audience, especially as a motivational speaker.

Science of Speech

When I hear the phrase “public speaking”, the first thing that comes to my mind is to understand audience. When I was 9th grader, I became one of the presidential candidates of my middle school. I had a speech before the election began. I thought I should inform my policies to voters easily. Although I was getting nervous, I focused on short speeches, clauses, and words. All sentences, phrases, and paragraphs that I used purposed to simplify, clarify, and emphasize to audience, because they are bored if the speech goes long, and hears difficult words. As a result, I headed on the poll, and elected president.
I think observing audience is really important. Every audience has their own identity. Person who knows these identities can win everything. There is one saying in Korea; “If you know your enemy and yourself, you can win every battle.” Like this, you cannot have audience intention even if you had really good speech, unless you captivate an audience. Audience’s power is gigantic. They can change everything such as presidential impeachment.
And, I think speakers are propagators. They spread information that audience should know. If they speak hardly, and longer, no one wants to listen. Speakers have a right to make audience comfortably. For instance, you can tell story when it is appropriate. I love President Kennedy’s speech skill. He used his story that makes his personal message for the audience. Also, his speech was short, and his speech style was direct yet memorable. As Kennedy did, speakers should get close to audience to make audience snugly.

Motivational Speech

Whenever I hear the phrase "public speaking" the most familiar example to me would be a motivational speech. A type of speech that either a captain, player or a coach would give to the team to either prepare or motivate them. I personally was able to find a motivational speech most familiar to be because I have played numerous amounts of sports in recent years and have heard many motivational speeches, and even gave my fair share of them. Whenever my boys needed motivation I was there to feed it to them. Simple phrases and sayings such as "lets go," "pick it up," or even "play hard" was enough to get the wheels turning for them. I played soccer the past four years of high school and watched coaches and leaders provide speeches to get us going for three of those years. When my senior year rolled around I knew that it was my time to take over with the speeches and either prepare or motivate the team. Before each half of every game we would huddle up and talk as a team. That is where I would put my public speaking talents to the test. For a few games we either came out fired up in the first half or bounced back in the second half. Although I will never truly know for sure if my motivational speeches were the cause of it, however I like to believe that they were. It felt nice to be the one that the team looked towards for motivation and for hope.

Motivation

When I think about public speaking and the examples that we talked about in class, the most familiar example is a motivational speech at some kind of competition. This is most familiar to me because I have been in a scenario just like this. I have given many motivational speeches to my dance team. As I speak to my fellow teammates I always try to chose the correct words and tone when giving my speech. I tend to speak very loud to pump the girls up, and I also use words like “lets go” and “we can do this”. I know these words will pump the girls up because in past experiences I have been the one listening to someone else give me a motivational speech. These particular words will always get me ready for the performance. This may challenge some commonly held assumptions of public speaking because this is not the typical example that comes in mind when thinking of the word public speaking. Most people think of a presidential or any other type of formal speech. This speech is very informal however, it possesses many of the characteristics of the definition of public speaking. During the speech I have a goal to influence the girls on my team to do well on their performance and to be excited for it as well. While using the speaking and motivational skills I have, I am able to convince the girls to be excited and pumped up for their dance performance.

Senior Project Speech

When I think of "public speaking", the first and most familiar example that comes to my mind is giving a speech to my peers in school for a class. Recently, I had to give a speech to my government class for my senior project, in order to graduate. Considering that if I did not do well on this speech it could result in me not graduating, the pressure I would normally feel was definitely raised. To prepare for this dreaded speech, I practiced much more than I normally would. I made sure that I was well informed about the topic and ideas that I was trying to convey to the audience. The message that I wanted to send out was about the importance of abortion remaining legal. I knew that most of my classmates already had their set opinions regarding abortion whether they were pro-choice or pro-life. With that being said, I knew that it would be impossible for everyone to agree with me and my pro-choice outlook. The most important thing that I wanted my audience to get from my speech was just an understanding of my viewpoint and I think that I definitely succeeded in doing so. I made a powerpoint to aide my speech and it definitely was effective as I could show pictures, graphs, charts and other visuals. Another thing that I did that really helped me with my speech was that I came in with confidence and tried my best to not seem nervous to my audience even though deep down I was. Usually, speeches are not my expertise but since I prepared so much for it, it was the first speech I actually enjoyed giving and I felt that it was very effective.

Nervous Banquet

When I think of the phrase “public speaking”, I immediately picture a person, standing behind a podium, in front of a large group of people. My most recent example of “public speaking” occurred about a month ago at my gymnastics end-of-the-year banquet. During dinner, the president of our parent’s association approached me to inform me that I was to present a gift to the coaches and to give a small speech along with it. I only had about fifteen or twenty minutes to try to figure out what I was going to say. As the other girls got up to make their speeches, I was told that they had found out about the speech a week in advance. Needless to say, I managed to talk about how much the coaches have done for me in the past years and the audience, which was a large group of gymnasts and their parents, did not really mind all of my nervousness. This situation was a pretty good example of “public speaking”. I was dressed up and stood behind a podium and spoke to many people. I was probably not the most effective speaker. I talked really quickly and stumbled over my words. I’m pretty sure that my face was red and that no one could actually comprehend what I was saying, but luckily it was only very short and no one really minded.

BEAT team

When I think of the phrase “public speaking” I think the most effective example is talking to peers your own age. I think that when people hear a speech about and issue or problem, they are more likely to listen and help when it is coming from someone who is similar to them. For example, in high school I was part of the BEAT team, which informs other students about the risks of HIV and AIDS. I felt that because I was closer in age to them, than a teacher for example, they are more likely to listen and understand how dangerous the virus actually is. Being on the BEAT team, I had to go from class to class making a presentation to the students about the seriousness, risks, statistics, prevention methods, and other important information that people should know about HIV and AIDS. I think that this method worked well, because it was people their own age explaining the risks and dangers of the disease, not an adult that was just lecturing them. I think that it is important for everyone to know about HIV and AIDS and how dangerous it actually is, which was a major motivation for me being on the team.

Physics Failure

When I hear the phrase "public speaking", the most common examples that come to mind are Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech or presidential speeches from Barack Obama and other recent presidents. Something else that can be considered public speaking, that people don't always think of, is standing in front of a classroom giving a presentation to your fellow classmates. This kind of public speaking differs from King's and Obama's speeches in many different ways including the audience, formality, and presentation. I may not have been dressed in fancy clothes, standing behind a podium and using a vocabulary that the entire world could comprehend but I was still standing in front of a small classroom at the Bellefonte High School trying to inform my teacher and classmates on what I had researched. One thing that is very common among public speakers is their nerves. When I was in eleventh grade, I had my worst public speaking experience. I was in an honors physics class and I had to give a presentation on the physics of a car. I practiced the speech many times but giving a presentation on a topic that doesn't interest you is never easy. I went to the front of the room trying to be as confident as possible in front of about twenty other kids I viewed smarter than I but unfortunately, I let the nerves get the best of me. My face became red, my voice was quivery, I crumpled my notecard, and I was talking so fast I'm not sure that anyone could retain any information from my presentation other than the fact that I was a jumbled mess. I was unable to effectively teach my classmates about the physics of a car becuase of all of the symptoms of "stage fright" that were present during my public speaking opportunity.

The Importance of Body Language in Effective Public Speaking

Public speaking and body language – these are the two most important and most frequently used forms of communication. An effective public speaker is someone who is not only an articulate and organized communicator, but also someone who can clearly convey a message through body language. Body language plays a huge factor in determining the meaning of a message. Generally, an audience's reaction is based upon the way something was said, rather than the words themselves. According to chillibreeze.com, “the impact of what you say is 7%, how you say it (voice modulation, tone and so on) is 38% and the remaining 55% is body language.”After researching the importance of body language for my high school's graduation project, and then taking a public speaking course in high school, I have learned just how essential body language is to public speaking and to everyday life. Facial expressions, body posture, emblems, regulators, and illustrators are all examples of different types of non-verbal behavior that can be used to improve the quality of public speaking.

Facial Expressions and Body Posture:
Could you imagine listening to and watching someone speak with no body movement and a straight face? Facial expressions and body posture are extremely important in public speaking - it enlivens the message and keeps the audience interested.

Emblems, Regulators, and Illustrators:
Public speaking is normally thought of as a speaker presenting a speech to an audience. However, many people overlook the fact that public speaking is much more than just one person talking to a group of people. A casual one-on-one conversation you may have with a friend is also considered a form of public speaking. We see emblems, regulators, and illustrators not only in speeches, but also in daily conversations. Emblems are hand movements such as "thumbs up" or the "peace sign." These types of hand gestures are another non-verbal way of communicating an idea. Regulators are body movements or facial expressions that help continue the flow of conversation. Head nods and crossing of the arms are just a few of the many regulators. Illustrators are pretty self explanatory – they are hand movements and gestures used to illustrate an action or a message. For example, “shh” and “stop” can be communicated through the use of illustrators. These are only a few examples of body language techniques that can improve the quality of public speaking.

Video about the importance of Body Language and Posture
Courtesy of youtube.com

Works Cited:
Photos: Credits to istockphoto.com and google.com/images

The Basics of Body Language.
01 July, 2011. www.chillibreeze.com

FDR Pearl Harbor Address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

The Pearl Harbor Address by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most rhetoric and motivational speeches in United States history. This speech was given to the people the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks. A video of the speech is provided above thanks to YouTube. The President spoke publicly and motivated the people of the United States to remember the bombings and to gain national pride in order to defeat the enemy. This address is a perfect example of public speaking because it was presented to the entire country. The timing was right as well because the bombings were still in the minds of the citizens and the speech was therefore more powerful. FDR spoke clearly and confidently along with making many great points that are still recited today. This speech remains in my memory from the first time I viewed it because it is one of the greatest speeches of all time.

Welcome to Our Class Blog!

Thought I would take the liberty of posting first (I love a good icebreaker).  A commencement speech seems like a timely and appropriate way to kick things off.  Here's Amy Poehler at this year's Harvard Class Day: