Response to Speeches

1) Which speech did you find the most persuasive?

Most if not all the speeches that were presented were very persuasive, however the speech that stood out and appealed the most to me was Dahlia's.

2) What made it persuasive? Inspiring delivery? Topic? Rhetorical techniques?

Considering the fact that I have a "goldfish memory" I will try to remember the most of what happened and appealed to me in her speech.

Dahlia's chosen topic was perhaps slightly different than all the other ones that were presented. The whole audience have witnessed in school the issue that she discussed, and her message clearly came across. What made her speech persuasive was the variety of different tones she used throughout her speech, this made the audience engage more with her speech. Her tone was not formal, like the rest of the speeches, it was more casual. An interesting thing about her speech also, was the story she had in the very beginning of her speech and in the very end. The way she imitated the characters' voices was very amusing and added an interesting tone to her speech. Her body language also was effective and played a major role in her speech as she demonstrated how children will use their laptops and how that will effect their backs. She wasn't very stiff and moved a lot, which contributed to the effectiveness of her body language and speech as a whole.

3) What do you think you did well?

I think that what I did well was the eye contact that I had with the audience. I tried to look at the whole audience throughout the whole speech. Also, my use of metaphors in my speech like referring to climate change as a "dragon" and fossil fuels as"magical mushrooms" also was very effective as when i was presenting I noticed the audience reacting. And finally, the use of rhetorical questions that were asked constantly in my speech made the audience perhaps engage more with my speech.

4) What could you have done better?

One thing I could have done better is my posture and body language, since I barely moved from my spot and did not move my arms a lot. This was due to the fact that I only was the second to present my speech, and I was completely nervous. The use of literary features and rhetorical techniques could be improved as I could add more metaphors in my speech so that it would sound better.