Coms 101

At the beginning of the quarter I made 3 goals for myself in this class, 1) To become better at noticing my use of filler words. 2) To be able to satisfy time requirements for a speech. 3) To get my audience involved in one way or another during my speeches. Over the course of this class I think I was able to accomplish all but one of those goals. I was in-fact able to make the time requirements for all my speeches after a little practice. I was also able to get my audience involved. For example in my last speech I was able to grab everyones attention through our common use of Social Media. I then was able to express the concerns that I had with the repeal of Net Neutrality and its effect on my generation. However I was never truly able to identify and monitor the amount of filler words I actually used. It wasn’t until I went back to watch the video of my speeches that I noticed the amount of filler words that I used. Overall I learned a lot about public speaking in this class and I am very satisfied with the knowledge that I have obtained through Professor Truch’s Coms 101 class.

MMS: Wednesday February 20th, 2019

This was my fifth speech in Coms 101, and this one was about a current event that I am very passionate abut. This speech proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be. It was difficult because I needed to have a lot of sources to pull information from. Finding the sources wasn’t the hard part. Analyzing them and figuring out which ones were relevant and where to put the info from each was the hard part. At one point in my speech I use 4 or 5 articles within a small amount of speaking time. This made for a jumbled section of the speech. However after I straightened myself back out I was able to speak much more confidently.  

Round 2 feedback

For our final group meeting of the year my group met in the UU for some frozen yogurt. We talked about a bunch of different ways to help us study and ways to relax before finals. Im excited to see if any of them help me with my upcoming finals. 

This Tuesday my coms group and I met back up at the Ave. for another meal after class. This time we talked We talked about what we are thinking of doing for our persuasive speeches, the differences in western / English riding, geography & flight times, and my families cattle drives. It was a lot of fun we learned a lot about island geography and flights between different small islands in the south pacific. 

Long Informative Speech: Wednesday February 20th, 2019 

This was my fourth speech in Coms 101, and by far my favorite. This was my favorite because it was about something that I am very knowledgable about. I have informed people about chickens for the past 6 year at work. Due to me being knowledgable about chickens it made for a very conversational speech. However because it was very conversational I used more filler language than I would've liked to.

Impromptu Speech: Wednesday February 13th, 2019

This was my third speech in Coms 101, for this speech I was given a prompt and 10 minutes to prepare. The prompt was “The most memorable experience of my life” and I decided to speak about my road trip to Oregon with my best friend Chance. Overall I thought the speech went well but got stuck on a tangent about me getting pulled over for too long. That ended up hurting me because I was not within the time limit. 

Round One Speech Feedback

Family Tradition Speech: Monday February 4th, 2019 

This was my second speech in my Coms 101 class. In my opinion this speech went worse than the previous one even though I received more positive feedback on my speeches. During this speech I panicked half in the middle and completely lost my train of thought. I think the fact that I panicked reinforces the fact that I need to begin working of breathing techniques to help calm myself down. 

In my coms class we were divided into groups. Yesterday my group for a quick snack and conversation. Adam, Charlie, Camille, Mitch and I talked about what our childhoods were like, and then we flipped the conversation to what do we want to do when we “Grow Up”.

Cultural Artifact Speech: Monday January 28th, 2019

This was my first speech in Coms 101 this quarter. During the speech I was very tense and stressed out, and I think both of those things contributed negatively to my speech as a whole. Due to overthinking and stressing out I forgot a few key points of my speech which is something I’m aiming at fixing throughout the quarter. I think a combination of breathing slower and a note card will help me to give better speeches in the future. 

How to get your audience involved

INC- https://www.inc.com/diane-gottsman/how-to-capture-an-audience-in-8-simple-steps.html

Forbes- https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/03/07/four-ways-to-capture-your-audience/#7b2a39e672fc

As humans we can only connect with something on an intellectual level if it draws our interest. So in order to do that with my speeches I have decided to adopt three new characteristics to my speeches. Being specific, establishing a connection, and the rule of thirds. Being specific is obvious, when you are specific it is harder for your audience to get lost along the way making it easier for them to stay attentive and involved. Secondly making a connection with your audience is key, finding some sort of common ground keeps your audience wanting to listen. And finally the rule of thirds. This means that you have no more than three main points that you want to make sure you get across and each of those main points has no more than three subsections in order to help you make those points. 

How to satisfy time requirements

Publication Coach- https://www.publicationcoach.com/ten-ways-to-write-a-better-speech/

Forbes- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffschmitt/2013/07/16/10-keys-to-writing-a-speech/#45d772d24fb7

Meeting the time limit for a speech has always been hard for me and that is something I personally would like to fix in order to get a better grade in Coms 101. So in order to achieve that I want to make better outlines, utilize note cards, and repeat myself (Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell it, tell them what you told them).

How to reduce filler word use

Forbes- https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/12/17/four-ways-to-stop-saying-um-and-other-filler-words/#757432c42515

NYT-https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/verbal-ticks-like-um.html

In my High School speech class this was a huge problem for me. After practicing in that class I learned that being as conscience of what you’re trying to say while you’re saying it is key. However since that class was my freshman year I have gotten a tad rusty, so in order to get back to being conscience of what I am saying I just need to start actively listening to myself as I talk again.

Goals for Coms 101

1) To become better at noticing my use of filler words.

2) To be able to satisfy time requirements for a speech.

3) To get my audience involved in one way or another during my speeches.