Persuasive Speech Ideas

Persuasive Speech

 Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience that standardized testing not beneficial to students and to their education.
Main Ideas:
1. Teachers must focus on teaching the required material instead of teaching critical and creative thinking.
2. Standardized tests like the ACT and OGT do not always accurately determine ability.
3. Standardized testing and the teaching that results does not motivate or inspire students.

I am assuming by arguments you meant main ideas, but I think these are arguements that will appeal to the different ethos, pathos, logos.

TED Talk: Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement.
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html

If you want to watch something a little bit inspiring, but don't want to waste a lot of time, this speech is perfect. It's only three minutes long and is a bit silly, but still proves a point. To be a leader you have to be the first one to do something different and the next hardest job is to be the lone follower doing something different when everyone else is not. This really struck a cord with me since I've been involved in the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership organization for many years. When you think about it, it is true. I can't wait for the next seminar to show this to the kids at Ohio West.

Now to the Communications analysis.

Who is the audience? How do you know? Identify specific things the speaker does to adapt to that audience.

The obvious audience is the people at the conference. These people are leaders in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. But since this is a public video it's really anyone who accesses it. He does adapt a bit where people find things funny he gives a pause. He also address the audience, if you are the lone leader you must nurture your followers. But the most specific part is he knows most of the people there are leaders. He addresses the leaders there saying we all can't be the ones leading. Sometimes we have to be the person to follow the lone nut. Everyone one being leaders is ineffective. Leaders need followers and the followers are the people who really start a movement.

Speech Self-Assessment

Self-Introduction Speech Self-Assessment Form

http://www.screenr.com/5UWH

	Strong	Improve
Content	The introduction is very strong. I think I gave good reasons and explanations about my interests. I really liked the examples for my favorite websites.	The book section I might have been able to improve on content. I forgot what to say a bit and tried to recover.
Delivery	I thought over my sentences flowed well and didn't sound too rehearsed. I think I sounded very strong in the introduction and conclusion. I really liked my visuals. I think they helped aid people to know exactly what I was talking about.	Struggled in the my section of my talked about my favorite books. Also a bit of a stutter in the Youtube section.  Sometimes the when I list things my voices raises a lot and sort of whines. It sounds like I'm bored. I could work on sounding more convincing. My cell phone happened to go off during the last recording. It was my best recording so I had to send that take.

Questions:

1. What are your top three strengths as a speaker? To what do you attribute your success?

            I think I have confidence in myself which comes across in my speech. I attribute this to the way my parents raised me and my experience speaking in front of others. I think I am good at developing good introductions and conclusion. I attribute this to my high school English teacher. It was always my strongest part of a paper. Lastly, I think I develop good transitions as well so the parts of the speech flow, which again I think I can draw back onto my good writing background.

2. What three things do you have the most trouble with? What do you think are the sources of these problems?

I think I need to work on my tone. Sometimes it comes off unprofessional, and it might just come from the normal way that I talk. I did want it to sound fun a bit, but I wasn't sure how much. I think I struggled sometimes finding the right words. Often when I describe the book Divergent I describe it as post-apocalyptic which it kind of is, but the word I'm looking for is dystopian society and I got hung up when I tried to talk about it and just said it's awesome. Sometimes I have trouble coming up with the right descriptive words. Sometimes I stuttered a bit, but I think I recovered well. I think it comes from a bit of nerves and not sure what I'm saying next.

3. What is your most pressing content problem? How do you plan to overcome it in your future speeches?

      Honestly, I thought my content was very good. I had a bit of trouble delivering on the sections about my favorite books and in the Youtube section articulating. This can be helped with more rehearsal.

4. What is your most pressing delivery problem? How do you plan to overcome it in your future speeches?

I would often forget the right words to say which made me pause or stutter. I also think sometimes I talked in a sing-songy style when I listed. I think I just need practice how I want to sound and record myself and analyze it.

5. If you had a chance to present this speech again, what would you differently? Why?

            I would have practiced more and worked on my speaking voice. I think I need to speak with a little more enthusiasm and more conviction. I think this will help my speech most of all.

Stephen Colbert Commencement Speech

This week in my communications class, we are learning more about speech delivery and how it helps made the speech more audience centered. I chose to write about the strengths and weaknesses of his speech at the commencement for the class of 2013 at the University of Virginia.

Now, we all know Steven Colbert is a hilarious man. He has his own show The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. So we all know he has the humor, but can he pull off a nearly 18 minute speech?

Colbert has many strengths to the speech. Of course, he is a master of the art of telling a joke. Timing and delivery is key and he always nails it. My favorite parts were when he would talk about something serious like,
"You don't owe the other generation anything. Because of us you now owe the Chinese."
He always paused correctly for a joke and when making a statement of importance generally pauses afterward to let the audience reflect on what was said.

He tried to be audience centered by bringing up references to traditions, campus hangouts, rankings, and high quality of education, while making fun of himself the whole time. He had applied to U of Va. but was not accepted. He is great at poking fun at himself and at others with out offending others.

Also I noticed he made sure to make eye contact at the ends of sentences and for important parts of the speech he began to make more motions with his hands while making chopping sort of motions.

To be more realistic, there were many flaws to his speech. Often his humor saved the speech, but the speech was disorganized and didn't seem to have a purpose. He started out saying good morning, which is not a strong opening statement. He then went on and thanked people while making jokes about himself and the people positions. It seemed to take awhile until he finished. Plus he added in this joke about leave your phones on and check my twitter, which he did tweet during the commencement. I was getting bored and wondered where he was going. Now I know he talked often about the school, the traditions, and more but these people already know that. They don't need the whole speech to be about how great the school is and facts about the school, because they attended and graduated. Most people are aware of their schools history.

In addition to the unnecessary compliments he often looked down a lot as he read what was on his papers. I thought he would try and look up more to give us more facial expressions and make the jokes funnier. Also I noticed when he transitioned they didn't seem to flow or he abruptly announced it like, "Now as I move into the advice section."It also took him almost 10 minutes to get to any sort of section let alone advice.

The most confusing moment was all the quote reading in the end. I could not tell what was a quote from what he was saying. I also didn't understand the point of the quote. I tried to rewind it back and listen again, and I still didn't understand the point.

Overall, Stephen Colbert's humor saved his speech. I don't think many people in the audience will remember what he discussed 5 or 10 years from now. It's a shame because he has the abilities to be a great speech writer. If only he had prepared a purpose, an outline, and spent more time on the speech.