Journal #1: There were very many concepts and ideas in the first chapter in A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking that are important to understand when trying to make yourself a more effective public speaker. Possessing a solid understanding and ability to effectively speak in public opens doors throughout life. Being able to be an effective public speaker is a very important life skill that will help in enhancing yourself as a student, as well as advancing yourself when you enter the work world. It has been stated that the skill of public speaking is even more sought after than leadership skills when looking for new people to hire. I connected with this because it is good to know what new employers will be looking for when I start to enter the workforce. Another important aspect I took from the first chapter was called the Canons of Rhetoric. I had never heard of these before reading this book, but I now find them to be very important. The Canons of Rhetoric is all about the constructions and the presentation of your speech. These five aspects of public speaking help to make the entire process from creating your speech to presenting it seem much less daunting. These are the areas of the chapter that I connected the most with and found to be the most important.

Journal #2: Practicing is a very important step in learning how to do anything and being able to do it successfully and organized. I personally have experience with practice in a multitude of different settings. First, I used to play volleyball at my high school which required me to practice almost every day of the week in order to be prepared for our games. I also used to be an officer for my high school NHS club which would require me to practice speeches when we had formal events such as inductions and banquets. Finally, I had to practice how to make different coffees and how to use my jobs computers when I first started working at Dunkin’ Donuts. The relationship that preparation has with performance is a very important one. If you do not prepare first certain things like sports events, important public speaking events, and your job, you will not be able to succeed and be able to present yourself well when it comes time for the actual event. It’s important to be prepared for events such as these because there are often important people watching and It is important to make sure you show the best representation of yourself. For example, before I would have to speak as an NHS officer, I would practice my speech multiple times to make sure I was able to present everything in the most professional and organized way I could.

Journal #3: After giving my first speech and receiving feedback from my fellow classmates I know what I did well and what I can improve on in my public speaking. I composed my speech very thoughtfully and tried to make it is serious, but also light-hearted as I could. I also practiced my speech multiple times before giving it to ensure I was not going in blind and had a good idea of how I wanted to say everything. All of those practices went perfect. My speech was always the right amount of time, I did not rush through my speech, and I know that I was not reading off my paper. When it finally came to giving my speech in front of my class alot of my practice completely went to waste. I could tell that I rushed through it and did not meet the time requirement and looked down at my paper more than I would have liked. From the comments from my peers they told me I could improve on my eye contact and that the end of my speech seemed rushed, which I completely agree. Once I got up there I knew I was taking fast and was not pausing very much and once I got to the end, even I was surprised at how short it was. As for strengths, I think that I was able to project my voice very well and that everyone, even if they were in the back, were able to hear me clearly. I also think I did well at not looking stressed or anxious while I was up there. I did not feel tense at all and thought I had good posture.

Journal #4: Chapter 11 explains how you can organize the body of your speech in the most effective way. It starts by explaining how to use your main points to express the key ideas for your speech. This chapter tells you to restrict your major key points because often times if you have too many your audience will get bored and will not be able to retain all of the information you are giving them. Another trick the chapter explains is that you should have your most important main points, or at least the ones you want your audience to remember the most, in the beginning or at the very end of your speech. Another important topic this chapter talked about was keeping all of your points coordinated and giving the correct amount of “weight” to each point. This means to not talk about certain points too much and others not enough. Assigning the correct amount of time and effort for your important points that you want your audience to truly remember is a strategy to make sure your audience gets what you want them to from your speech. Finally, this chapter talked about how to use transitions to make your speech flow correctly. I think that transitions are very important in making your speech easy to understand for your audience. Chapter 12 explains the different ways you can organize your speech depending on the information you are giving. The first way you could organize your speech is to put your main points in chronological order. This is a good way to set up your speech if you are trying to explain a series of events that have happened. An example of this would be if you had to explain how the first computers were developed. Another very important way you can organize your speech is called a causal pattern. This type of organization is used when you are explaining a cause and effect. This would usually be set up as having one point as the cause and another as the effect, but to make a longer and more interesting speech you could add sub points to explain the cause and effect more in depth. Finally, an effective way to organize a speech that is telling story is in a narrative pattern. This is a natural and easy way for most people to give a speech because storytelling most often come natural to people.

Journal #5: The next steps I have to take in getting my speech to the point where I am confident in presenting it is fixing my outline, making my multimedia presentation, and most importantly practicing. My outline as of right now is very rough or “sketchy” as we needed for class today. Before next class I intend on practicing my speech and add various notes and figure out exactly what I would like to have in my speech. I will first print out the outline I have now, then practice a couple times, and then retype my outline to make one clean copy that is easy to read or look at when it comes to presenting. This time I am going to make sure my outline doesn’t have full sentences on it to ensure that I wont try to just read off of it during my presentation. After my outline is all set I am going to get my video/powerpoint squared away. I am going to take a few videos of me at my next club volleyball practice (Thursday) so that I will be able to actual be serving with a net in a gym for my videos. I also may try to have multiple videos showing the breakdown of each step or at least put one video into slow motion because serving a volleyball goes pretty fast when you are watching it with the naked eye at full speed. After i have my outline and video all set I plan on setting aside an ample amount of time to practice my speech and the timing of when and where in my speech I am going to place my video. I need to make sure my video isn’t too long and that I can stay in my time limit. After I have done all of these things I will be fully prepared to present my speech in class and teach everyone how to serve a volleyball.

Journal #6: Chapter 13 talks mostly about how to make outlines for your speeches. Writing outlines for you speech is a very important step and the speech writing/presentation process. It is the best way to set up and organize your speech so that you are able to make the best presentation possible. Chapter 13 in forms you that it will be most beneficial if you make two different outlines. One of them is called a “working outline”, this outline will basically be your full speech in more of a sentence form. You would right this first to get all of your ideas down, organize all of your thoughts, and be able to write down any research you may have done for your speech. This outline will mostly be the longer of the two outlines. The second outline you can make is what the book calls a “speaking outline”. This outline is the one you will use when you are presenting your speech in front of a group of people. You can also set up this outline in three different ways, either with sentences, phrases, or just words to refresh your memory when you are speaking. It is also said in the chapter that if you are looking to be able to have the most eye contact when you are speaking then you would likely want to use just words in your speaking outline so you don’t get caught up reading off of your outline. After reading this chapter I am now going to start making two outlines and making sure my speaking outline does not have many sentences on it so that I can look at the audience more.

Journal #7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ9p2GNaPV4

Journal #8: Overall I think both of my dry runs went very well. From watching the videos I felt that I looked very comfortable with my outline and knew what I was talking about. One thing I do have to do is make a word or phrase outline, because I found myself reading off my outline a lot even though I did not need to but sense there were full sentences on my outline I was more inclined to read them. I think that I do also need to practice more just so that my speech flows better and I can easily talk without looking down. Since I did not have my prop for my dry run I can tell how beneficial it will be to have one when I actually present my speech. From watching the videos I could tell there are some portions of my speech that will be much easier to explain if I have a volleyball to show everyone what I am talking about. I think that my outline is the perfect length because both of my dry runs were around three minutes which is good because I did add in the time my video and demonstration parts will take up. Finally, my overall thoughts on my dry runs were that they were good, but I still need to practice a little more to make them even better.

Journal #9: I believe that my second speech on teaching a skill went much better than my first one. I felt much more prepared and really enjoyed teaching everyone how to overhand serve a volleyball. Since I knew the skill so well I felt much more comfortable delivering the speech and felt as though I knew the subject matter really well. I also spent a lot of time on making my video and practicing which I think made my speech much better. I think I still need to get more comfortable with not looking at my outline because even though I knew my subject really well I get nervous and look at my outline way more than I need to. According to the feedback from my peers I also need to work on not using so many filler words which I believe will come with practice and getting more experience and comfortable with public speaking. Overall I think my audience really liked my speech and found it easy to follow. One person even commented on how they wish that they had been taught how to overhand serve a volleyball the way I taught it because I made it really easy to understand. I also felt much more organized with this speech and hope to continue to get better and more comfortable with public speaking as we continue to practice more.

Journal #10: When I first saw what this journal was about I knew right off the bat who was the best public speaker I know. This person is one of my very best friends is an amazing public speaker. I have known them since I was in middle school and they have always been such a good public speaker. They are so confident and not scared when they are public speaking which I believe is a big aspect to what makes them such a good public speaker. No matter what they are talking about they are always confident and never seem nervous. They always have great posture and never display they are getting nervous even if they get rattled by a question they are asked. They have also had a lot of experience public speaking through many different leadership positions they have held in many different activities both in and out of school. I also think that they are a good public speaker because they overall just really enjoy talking to people. Since they enjoy just talking to people in general it makes them want to be good at speaking in front of groups as well. Overall when ever I have watched my friend speak in front of a group they have never seemed nervous and always presented very well which is why I chose them as one of the best public speakers I know.

Journal #12: So far my speech is going to be a toast to my dad, I’m not sure in what context, but im thinking right now as if I would be saying it at like a 50th birthday party or something like that. I’m also not entirely sure how to right a toast so I plan on asking my group what there thoughts about it are when we get into our “dry dry run” groups in class on Wednesday. As of right now I have an introduction planned out and some points that I want to touch on such as stories and funny times together. I also think that my toast is going to end up being more light hearted and funny and just trying to describe how great my dad is because if I actually had to say this in front of him I would want it to show the funny side of my personality that I get from my dad. I would also want it to be more light-hearted and funny because if I were actually saying it at a birthday party of his it would be in front of my family and my family is nine times out of ten not a serious group. Finally I need to decide on exactly what I’m going to say in the body and what stories/story/examples I may tell or explain and then figure out what a good ending to a toast would be. I think I may need to watch a couple toast speeches in the meantime because I am not sure exactly how they should be written.

Journal #13: I think the dry runs we do in class are very helpful and provide good insight on what we each need to work on individually as well as what our strengths are. Going into our dry run on Monday I believe that my strengths are that I feel well prepared as well as that I have a topic that I care about and that has meaning. Since I am doing a speech (toast) about my dad I want it to be really good so that will push me to make it as good as I can. I also believe one of my strengths going into the dry run is that I know the material well. Seeing that the whole speech is about my dad I am pretty confident that I know alot about him so I won’t have to look at my outline very much. My weaknesses for my dry runs is the acting portion. Since my speech is as if I am doing a toast for my dad at a birthday party of his, but I will actually be standing in front of my class not at a birthday party I think acting as if i was is going to be the hardest part. Another weakness I think I’ll have is that no one knows my dad. I believe incorporating a face to the name for our speech and projecting a picture of the person would be very helpful in delivering this speech. Overall I am excited for this speech and hope it comes out well.

Journal #14: Based off of the two dry runs I did in class on Monday I have noticed the different strengths and weaknesses within my speech. I believe that one of my strengths in my introduction. I think that it is comical and I know it pretty well. I think that these few sentences that I start my speech with will grab my audience’s attention and make them laugh a little which will encourage them to listen more. In regards to weaknesses right before my dry runs on Monday I decided to swap out one story in my outline for another and I wasn’t able to fix my outline entirely before class. This caused me to have a weird open gap in between my second main point and my conclusion. It caused my speech to not flow as well during my dry runs and make me rush the ending. Since then I have fixed my outline now so that it flows much better and doesn’t seem choppy. Finally during my dry runs I was having a hard time pushing my speech to three minutes personally because I think a toast that is three or more minutes long is a little too long for a toast at a party, but when it comes down to my real presentation I just have to remember to take it slow. Overall I think that I have a good overall speech and hope I present it well on Wednesday.

Journal #15: I personally really enjoyed writing and presenting speech #3. Being able to speak on behalf of my dad really made it easy and made me feel more comfortable while I was speaking in front of the class. I also think that this speak was much better than my others in regards to feeling more confident as well as making more eye contact and projecting my voice better. As we have been doing more speeches and getting the hang of practicing and knowing my strengths and weaknesses my speeches have gotten much better. The one thing that I am still having trouble with and know that I messed up on this speak with is the timing. I always end up talking really fast even if I don’t mean and I really try to slow myself down, but it never seems to work. In connection with that I think that it caused me speech to come in under the time it was supposed to be, which was three minutes. I personally think that toast speeches should be shorter, but I understand that I should still be meeting the time requirement for my speeches. Overall I think that this was the best speech yet this semester and it was definitely the one I felt most confident while doing.

Journal #16: Since last class my group and I have been starting our transcript for our speech/presentation. We have created a shared google docs and have a group chat for the three of us so we can discuss ideas and write our transcript. So far we have assigned role to everyone and decided on the talk show setting. I will be the host, as if I am a graduated and practicing pharmacist, so I have started to write the introduction that I want to say when the show begins. I also watched some intros to actual talk shows to get the “wheels turning” in my head to what I should and shouldn’t be including.We also started to write down some interview questions that I can ask them to answer during the interview portion of the talk show. They will be answering these questions as if they are pharmacy students at the university of new england, which they are. Our next steps will probably be assigning a time we will all practice and solidify our script as well as maybe brainstorming some intro music and logos for enhancement into our overall video. We will also need to come up with a short conclusion to tie everything together and make it so it seems like a real talk show.

Journal #17: After watching our dry dry run I think my group is in a pretty good spot for recording. We have most of our script set up and everything planned out. We have our script written, as well as our background picked out. As of right now I think the only thing we are missing is the music we want to use but that is easy enough and could even be chosen after we recorded because it is going to be edited in anyway. I think that we will need to practice more than we have before our recording but that will be easy and we can always make things like cue card to help ourselves and once we actually “get into character” I think we will be all set. From watching other groups dry runs we got the idea to add in game into our talk show which I think is going to help to lengthen out presentation and make it more fun and interesting to watch. I think overall we just have to come together as a group and practice and when it comes time to recording I think we will be all set and will be able to edit everything together very well and make it look good.

Journal #18: From our last dry run I think that my group and I are on the right track and doing well in getting ready to record next tuesday. I think our outline is well developed and we have everything we need set in place such as our picture, sound effects, and props ready to go. In regards to things we can improve on I think just “practice makes perfect” and the more we practice as a group the better it will get. I also think I have to make my portion of the interview less robotic. By this I mean when we are doing the interview my responses need to flow better and seem more like a conversation. I also think that once we start filming everything will come into play better and we will be able to do multiple takes and edit them together to make the final product seamless. As a group I also think we need to plan out the game we are going to play a little better but that show be easy to do. Finally, I am excited to record next tuesday and see what our final product will end up looking like because my group and I have been putting in a lot of work to this and I hope it comes out well

Journal #19: Overall, I think that my group and I did very well with our presentation for speech four. I found speech four to have different aspect to it were easier and harder than our other speeches. For speech four I thought it was easier to present, except for being embarrassed, because I wasn’t standing in front of the room being put on the spot. In regards to difficulties I think that the editing of this video was harder than I thought it was going to be, and took a little bit more time than I thought it was going to be. After watching our presentation, I think that it came out pretty good and overall had all the aspects it needed to. It looked like one fluid video and we added music and effects and looked like it one whole production that I personally was very proud of. Everyone in our group was very helpful and made it much easier to get this presentation done on time. We all contributed equally and had our own jobs to do to get everything done. I personally helped write my portions of the speech and helped to edit the video. We all also had a fun adventure to the campus store to get the lab coat which turned into quite a process, but we still got it. I liked this presentation a lot and am very proud of how my group and I did and how it all came together looking so nice.

Journal #20: https://ssgueglia.uneportfolio.org/final-speech/