Javier Bonachea 1st blog

Javier C Bonachea

Professor S. Sinkoff

SPC 2608

21, February 2023

                 

 The beginning and the prologue

     Everyone is always great at talking until it’s time to do a speech. You can see it in the eyes of most the anxiety, the nervousness in their voice, the lack of confidence in their body movements. That’s precisely what made this first project such an essential for this class. It was a great crash course on everything necessary for a great speech. Most people don’t realize how important speech really is. Speech is in essence the skill of being able to sell your idea, to be able to sell your image, whether it’s at a business conference or at a job meeting or even when trying to make friends to be able to properly talk and keep someone engaged is a very underestimated skill. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s chapter and it was a great refresher, I also thought coming into the project that I understood everything about speech but learned new things along the way things I never considered. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly parts of speech 

    The first part of the project I would like to talk about is the small refreshers that many people tend to forget when it comes to giving a perfect speech. Many people forget how important it is to know your subject from beginning to end and around. This is precisely what my

Group focused on. Chapter 4 specifically talks about the beginning of any good speech starts  with setting a goal. Are you here to inform, persuade or enhance an occasion. This chapter directly correlates with chapter 15, in the aspect of logos, mythos and pathos. This was a great refresher to hear these words again, three words that have followed me my whole life. When you’ve set a goal to inform you want to use logos which means you’re trying to appeal to the audiences sense of reason or logic, when you’ve set out to persuade an audience you can use which is when you try to appeal to the audiences emotions and ideals, or you can use ethos to appear to an audiences ethics. A great speaker can combine all three forms of persuasion logos, pathos and ethos fluently and effectively to help further their goal. 

Constructing an impenetrable speech should always be the main goal of anyone trying to give an amazing speech. As I interpreted the project the first  basis which to me stood out the most is that in order to, construct any speech is the research you put into it. I felt incredibly comfortable with the chapter I was given which is based on the art of doing research. Seeing as I’ve spent the last 2 years in college and all of my life in high school learning to efficiently research on any given topic. Even on a subject as simple as this one I wanted to estabilish an immediate connection not only to build my confidence up for the big speech but to also present to the class the most thorough speech I can give on how to effectively research your topic. I was even pleasantly surprised to find out that I truly don’t know everything about researching,  learning new concepts like Metasearch engines, and even learning how plagiarism can play into effect even when giving a speech. The second important aspect of any great speech is tackled in chapter 8 which is the organization of a speech. As previously stated if chapter 4 is establishing a goal then you’ve already begun organizing your speech from there begins the proper construction and begins to bring life into your presentation. When following a methodological approach to constructing your speech you can truly begin to build that impenetrable speech that I  spoke about earlier.

    One main thing of this presentation that I didn’t expect was how incredibly nerve racking it was to still present even if it was done through zoom. I’ve become so accustomed to presenting in front of a class that I wasn’t even sure how to go about this project. This is when I realized just how important audience to speaker connection truly is, because when there’s people

In front of you it’s a lot easier to bounce off of the audiences energy than when alone at home. Another realization I had was how incredibly difficult it would be to even capture the audiences attention. With everyone being home and having any possibility to be distracted or shift their attention from what I had to say, I realized how important it is to be entertaining and to be concise. When you’re in person everyone has no choice but to pay attention to the speaker, at home the viewer can always lower the volume or mute the call. I definitely found myself stuttering a lot more than I normally would during a speech because it felt like at times I was ultimately talking to myself, so to me it definitely made the speech class just a little bit harder in the presentation aspect.

The conclusion and the epilogue 

    All in all it was definitely a fun experience and a new one at that. This was the first time I ever gave a speech during an online class and it felt great to be out of my comfort zone. It was great that the teacher established a very welcoming environment and all the students followed. The class was very respectful, there was minimal to no interruptions and it made for a great learning environment. It was also easier to get over my anxiety of public speaking knowing that everyone else was equally as nervous as me. At the end of the day none of us in the class are professionals just yet. The goal of this class is ultimately to get us ready for whatever career path we choos.We have to eventually get over our fears and anxieties of speaking to others, and this is a great way to start. I loved my first experience in this class and I can’t wait for what’s to come!