This is the page for: Public Speaking

(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

One Good Thing About You Guys

Hey, I am pretty sure all of you can give better speeches than these government guys.

Congratulations!

Your Midterm Speeches

Here are the speeches (and Q&As that followed each) for your midterm exam speeches:

DAY CLASS:

Remember, you are responsible to give some feedback, and a challenge, to each of the classmates on the same MP3 track that your speech is on. Also (and I forgot to mention this in class!) please submit to me a grade you think is appropriate considering my feedback and your feelings about your performance. Both the feedback and the grade are due on Friday, May 4th.

Group 1: Ran, Jae Ho, Yu Mi, Su Jin, Ok Yeon — MP3 file
Group 2: Dong Hoon, Shin Hwan, Seung Yun, Yae Hyun, So Hee — MP3 file

NIGHT CLASS:

Remember, you are responsible to give some feedback, and a challenge, to each of your classmates. Also (and I forgot to mention this in class!) please submit to me a grade you think is appropriate considering my feedback and your feelings about your performance. Both the feedback and the grade are due on Friday, May 4th.

BOTH CLASSES:

Remember that, in addition to your feedback speeches, you are also expected to think of a controversial topic for your next speech, and to begin preparations for making a speech from a position opposite your own position on that topic. We’ll discuss this more next week, and those students who volunteered to give speeches next Friday should definitely get some planning done before that date.

Your Speeches

Here are your speeches about Childhood Memories, folks! I had to amplify the tracks, so I used the same amplification for all students. (So some people are still louder and some are softer.) For the day class, I used 15.0 decibels of amplification, and for the night class, because I was farther away, I used 20 decibels.

By the way, I used the free audio editing software Audacity to do this. It’s perfect for this kind of thing, and it’s worth checking out because I’m planning to give you a little assignment using it.

Now, go check out those speeches!
DAY STUDENTS

NIGHT STUDENTS

Fallen Behind! (Weeks 3-5)

Hi everyone!

Well, I can’t believe it, but I’ve fallen behind on updating this course page, and it’s still close to the beginning of semester.

During week 3, we talked about Presence, Projection, and Eye Contact. Then, at the end of Week 3 for Day students, and at the beginning of week 4 for Night students, you gave a speech discussing something about which you feel strongly.

During week 4, we talked about Vocal Emphasis — emphasizing words with your voice. We’ll talk about that a little more next week, and move on to using Gestures for emphasis. Then you gave speeches about your First Love or First Date (for the Day class, but the Night class will do this next week).
However, the speech about your First Love/First Date was more about Toughness Training — how to deal with embarrassment — so most people didn’t/won’t pay much attention to spoken or gestural emphasis. Therefore, we’ll focus on that in your upcoming speeches.

Day class: Your week 5 speech will be about a childhood memory, preferably a story of some kind, and will require descriptions of things or people around you. You will use Vocal and Gestural Emphasis in this speech. You will receive written feedback by Thursday of week 5.
Night class: Your week 5 speech will be about your first love or your first date. You will attempt to use Vocal Emphasis as we discussed on Friday. However, I’ll be complicating the speech with something to help you develop toughness in the face of embarrassment, so don’t worry — we’ll be focusing on Emphasis next week too.

Students in both classes should not forget to keep working on Presence, Projection, and Eye Contact. These are all skills which you’re expected to bring together throughout the semester, so we can’t forget the last topic when we move on to the next one!

Week 2 Homework

Here’s the homework for week 2: students should prepare by thinking about a subject about which they have strong feelings. It can be love, hate, fear, anger… any strong feeling or emotion is okay.

Students in both DAY and NIGHT classes will be presenting on this subject next Friday, March 23rd. Until then, we will be doing exercises in class and working on some of the techniques you are expected to use in the speech on Friday.

Weeks 1 & 2: Introductions and, Well, Introductions

Welcome to Public Speaking. I’m teaching two units of this class, one in the daytime (Wednesday 4:00-4:50pm, Friday 1:00-2:50pm) and one in the evening, (Wednesday 6:00-7:45pm, Friday 6:55-7:45pm). I’m going to differentiate these classes on this site in the following way: the earlier class will be called DAY, and the later class will be called NIGHT. The scheduling will differ slightly between the two classes, so it’s important to pay attention to the notes for your class.

The first week of courses involved introduction of the course and some basic ideas. Week two is all about self-introduction. DAY students have already introduced themselves to the class, and NIGHT students will do so on Wednesday, March 14th.

What to expect in the coming week:

DAY:

We’re going to talk about some of the weaknesses in your self-introductions, in a general way. The rest of the week will be taken up with exercises and discussions of forthcoming presentations, including a presentation assignment for the following week (possibly as early as Wednesday, March 21st).
NIGHT:

Night students will be performing self-introductions on Wednesday, March 14th, and we’ll review the problems, weaknesses, and strengths of your public speaking on Friday the 16th. Friday and the following Wednesday will be taken up with exercises and discussions of forthcoming presentations. Expect an assignment for Friday, week 3 (March 23rd).

Here’s a syllabus for our course, and a copy of the student information sheet I asked you to fill out.