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.

speech post

1) which did you find most persuasive?
I thought Mikheils was the most persuasive
2) why? inspiring delivery? topic?
Firstly because he seemed to know what he was talking about so well without having to read the text or so much as look down. Then there was his humor that really connected with the audience specially because some of the jokes were very related to the audience he was talking to. It showed that he knew who he was talking to. Also he was the only person to walk around and seemed comfortable talking.
3) what did you do well?
I think I did quite well with my tone and speed. It was meant to come across as quite serious. The speed was slow but thats how I had intended to do it since the beginning partially because if I had gone any faster I would have had problems keeping up with myself.
4) what could you have done better?
There was some content I wanted to say that I missed out because I didn't look down at the text often enough to keep note of where I was in the speech. Also I didn't gesture nearly as much as I intended to and I would have preferred if I'd walked around.

Speech Responses

1. What speech did you think was most persuasive and why?
2. What did you do well in yours?
3. What could you have done better?

1. Best speech.  Overall, I think that everyone's speeches were good, and each person with their own style has their strengths and weaknesses.  Also, since people tend to remember what they saw last, the people who presented on the last day have an advantage in this, just because it's fresher in my head.  But if I had to pick one, I'd probably say that Sheikha's was the best, for a few reasons.  The biggest was the way she was able to come across clearly, and show passion and that she cared about the issue.  Also, she used literary techniques well, like rethorical questions.
2. Pretty much nothing.  I didn't fall asleep while presenting it, and that's about it.
3. Everything.  I've given better useless speeches about Kool-Aid than this.  With my speech, I hadn't memorized much of my speech, and had so spend way too much time looking down at my speech instead of up at the audience.  Also, due to my lack of memorization of it, I wasn't really comfortable while speaking, and would go off on tangents freestyling and changing sections of it on the fly.  Also, due to my head being stuck in the paper, I wasn't able to pay much attentioni to what I was doing with my hands gesturing, or how I was standing, so I wasn't really able to use my posture the way I'd planned to to puncuate points that I was making.  In my verbal delivery of it, there really wasn't much passion or strength in what I was saying, and I wasn't able to hold the floor, or control the room like I should've been.  With the speech itself, the biggest of the several weaknesses was the ending.  There really wasn't an ending, since I just said a bunch of vauge things about MUN or whatever while I was making it up.  Though it was an issue that contains a lot of emotional and moral arguments, I didn't feed off of that in my writing.  I should've used more contrasts and examples in my speech.  I also needed to have a wider range of persuasive techniques, like tying it to how famous Nigerians have refused awards from the governement because of how bad the issue is, having anecdotes, or such things.  I also didn't have any memorable line.  There wasn't an abstract hook at the begining to get everyone's attention because they're confused, or a power line that is memorable, sonorus, and can summarize the speech in one sentence.  And that's proabaly skipping a few things I can't think of right now.

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.