About The Speeches

Which speed did you find the most persuasive? What about the speech made it persuasive? Inspire delivery? Relevant topic? Strong rhetoric?

I found Mikhail’s speech the most persuasive out of all. I found it the most persuasive because of his use of relevance, humour, tone, body language and contact with the audience.

Mikhail’s topic was something we deal with on a daily basis, it’s relevant and we can all relate to it. When speaking about his issue, he used things we all understood and know. By using things that are relevant, it allows the speaker to connect with the audience, which he did really well.

His use of humour was fantastic. It kept the audience interested and it wasn’t forced. It was well time and well pulled off. I think he was the only person to use humour in their speech. It’s amazing how effective it was. His tone was quite calm but still very persuasive. It didn’t stay monotonous, every strong point he made, his voice and tone changed to match it.

I was amazed by his body language and eye contact. Mikhail was able to walk around the room, yet still command the attention. He didn’t move his arms around a lot, but when he did, it added to what he said. He barely looked at his paper. Maybe once he looked. It was amazing. Also, his body language was quite open and so it was as if he was open to anyone’s opinion and thus making him approachable.

Mikhail also didn’t overuse metaphors. When he used them, they were appropriate and strong. I was defiantly blown away by what Mikhail had to say.

What do you think you did well in your speech?

Honestly, I don’t know what I did well. I don’t really remember doing my speech. I can only really remember the things I thought I didn’t do well in.

What do you think you could have done better?

I could have done a lot of things better. I barely moved as I was afraid that if I started to move, I would lose my train of thought and freeze. I also went really fast during my speech. I get nervous when I speak to people and the thought from my brain pauses before making it to my mouth. It doesn’t matter how much I know something, I’ll always stumble over my words. I could have probably also have used more literary figures to make it sound that much better.

Speech Blog Post

1) Which speech did you find the most persuasive?

Personally, I thought Dahlia's was one of the strongest speeches that were performed throughout the exercise.

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

Honestly, the strongest point throughout the whole of the speech in my opinion was the story that was started at the beginning of the speech and finished at the very end of it. I thought it was an extremely intelligent way of grabbing the attention of the audience, since it was completely different than the rest of the speeches, despite the fact that it was the speech before the last one. There were a number of metaphors used throughout the speech, however the way in which the real life examples were described also played an important role in the success of the speech. The tone of voice that was used was not stern, nor too informal, something once again, that wasn't very popular amongst the rest of the speeches. Many of them were about injustice around the world or humanitarian topics, whereas this one addressed an issue that was not necessarily very popular and brought it out to the audience in an effective way. Posture and body language stood out throughout this speech too, since there was scientific information and orientations of the body that were not only described, but physically portrayed as well. I thought this speech stood out from those performed, since it sent out a different, more personalised, atmosphere around the classroom.

3) What do you think you did well?

From the comments that were said about my speech, I think the strongest points throughout my performance were eye contact and tone. Since I was not part of the audience, I would not know, however I was told that eye contact was spread throughout the whole room and the tone used to address the important issue at hand was appropriate as well. I spoke about the killing of children under the age of 18 at war and a speech about this subject is not one that can incorporate humour or an informal tone. At the same time, it requires the attention of the readers, since the issue is one that might not appeal to some around the classroom. It was therefore important to use as many ways possible to keep sincerity throughout the speech and yet ensure the attention of the audience at all times. I tried to do this by speaking slowly and with a variating, loud tone. In addition, there was a phrase that was repeated at the end of every paragraph, that was supposed to have reminded the audience all the way through of the points that were discussed.

4) What could you have done better?

I used literary features and rhetorical techniques throughout my speech, however I personally think it could be improved by using literary features like alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance and consonance, since they are associated with audibility and will appeal to the audience more perhaps.

Response to speech presentations

1) which did you find most persuasive?

there were many speeches that stood out to me. for example a couple of my favorite was Talas, Sara A , Mikhail, Dahlias, and my most favorite was Byannes. all of the speeches mentioned above i found was presented very well, and had a lot of effort put into them, both with the content and topic of the speeches as well as the presentation.

but the one which i liked listening to the most was Byannes as mentioned above. the topic that she was talking about was what appealed to me the most.

2) why? inspiring delivery? topic? etc...

as mentioned, the topic byanne used was about the war and conflict in palestine. since im palestinian myself, i could relate to what she was talking about, since i am myself inspired about it as well, and was completely on her side. i feel like she used so many beautiful metaphors to describe what is happening there, the torture, the mistreatment, and the way in which the children and their mothers are suffering. she used a perfect tone of voice and seemed to be very into it while she was talking. i feel like the audience was drawn to her speech because of all the vocabulary she used, and all the strong words in her descriptions.

3) what did you do well?

i feel like i did really well in my delivery. i received positive comments after i was done that i had presented it very clearly, and i seemed very interested in the topic as i was talking which is what makes a speech seem the best. i think i was confident during my presentation, and i had very good eye contact even though i haven't completely memorized my speech, but i tried to make as much eye contact as i could since that is what makes the speech stand out more, and doesn't make it seem boring if i kept looking down at my paper.

4) what could you have done better?

i think that i was abit too stiff during my delivery, because i was just standing in one place and my legs were in the same place as well. if i used more hand gestures or had changed my posture every now and then it might have been a little better.

SPEECH RESPONSES BLOG ENTRY

1) I think the most effective speech that was presented throughout the week was Khalil's. There are a few reasons. First of all, Khalil had a very smooth, persuasive tone that altered in pitch level every time he wanted to convey an important point. This enabled the listener to sink in deeper into the speech and therefore get persuaded/inspired more. Secondly, Khalil found a very effective way of incorporating real life stories into his speech which had an affect over the emotions of the audience and aided in inspiring and persuading them to support his cause. The use of elaborate metaphors (which will be discussed later) and repetition further enhanced   the overall delivery of the speech.

2) Question ONE pretty much answered this question, but I would like to add on more about the literary and rhetorical techniques that Khalil used in his speech. There were quite a few powerful metaphors used in the speech. But, the most powerful and extraordinary metaphor was the one about "Making a deal with the angel of death and end up paying him in misery". This was probably the climax of Khalil's speech and had a very strong effect on me which completely convinced me to support his cause.  The topic was also very relevant in today's society. The reasons behind it controversy are no further than basic human ethics and nature of our emotions.

3) I think the best thing that I did in my speech was the use of humour that kept the audience with me throughout the speech and the numerous list of advantages that the uniforms brought to the wearer, which according to Ms Dellapa, was close to brainwashing the audience into supporting my cause.

4) The first thing I could have done to improve my speech is NOT to break into laughter half way through it. Ok, now lets look at some serious improvements. Next time, I would like to increase the number of literary techniques used in my speech. Even though I had a few, I feel a necessity of having more. Second of all, I would like to touch on more rhetorical devices. My speech about uniforms was mostly Logos based, therefore I would like to bring more Ethos and Pathos into my work the next time.

This is a great sample of a persuasive speech : video

Speech Schedule

Sunday November 27th
Paul Ilori
Rawda Al Suwaidi
Zahrina Stafford Daud
Sara Shiraz

Monday November 28th
Tala Al Taji
Suemya Shabab
Matt Hitchman
Sheikha Al Suwaidi


Tuesday November 29th
Byanne Malluhi
Jana Abu Odeh
Fatima Al Tamimi
Shayan Yazdani

Thursday December 1st
Sara Abbas
Mikheil Ogannesyan
Dahlia Shatila
Khalil Deyab

How a long speech can save your life

Normally, I'll attempt to find any reason to make work I have to turn in as short as possible, in terms of effort, and how long what I write is.  However, I found at least one case when having a long speech was able to save someone's life.

On October 14, 1912, Former US President Theodore 'Teddy Roosevelt (who the Teddy Bear is named after) was shot while leaving dinner.  After being briefly examined by doctors, who decided he merely suffered a superficial flesh wound, he travled to a location where he was supposed to make a speech later that night.  Where he found out that the bullet hadn't killed him because it was slowed down by going through the thick manuscript of his speech.
I personally wouldn't advise this method of bullet protection today, since the 32 caliber bullet he was shot with ovbiously came from a not very high powered gun.
Source

Of course, long speeches still do have their downsides.  William Henry Harrison died 32 days into his presidency, as he gave a 2 hour long Inaugural Address without wearing a jacket in freezing weather, and caught pneumonia, setting a record for the shortest time an American President has been in power that's lasted over 170 years, and causing a major crisis in the US.
Source