Russell Hutson Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin WR13300 Section 09 10 December 2013 Reflection on TED Talk When Dr.

E first presented this assignment to us, it seemed as if everyone had the same kind of fear about speaking in front of an audience. While I have given many speeches during my life, especially during high school, I know that the nerves of standing in front of people never really goes away, it just diminishes a little each time. After we were told we could stem this presentation from our research papers, I began to feel a little less nervous since I would be talking about a problem that I had sources for and already knew a lot about. When I went back to my dorm to start brainstorming ideas, I immediately opened my research paper and began to formulate an outline for how my speech would go. I realized that to give a good presentation, I would need to have something that stood out from the rest. There was one interesting thing about my topic that I thought could make an impact on the audience, and this was the power of emotion. I decided to start out my talk with an overview of September 11th, and how this day has had an impact on all of our lives in some way. Starting my presentation this way would capture the attention of my peers, which was crucial in order for them to accept my proposed idea. After beginning my outline I really began to come up with a lot of ideas on how the rest of my speech would go. I came to the conclusion that I would follow this powerful beginning by defining my relationship between media and terrorism into two separate parts. First I would describe the role of terrorism in our lives and then go onto describe how this new age of media has a potential impact of destruction when thrown into this equation. Finally, I would propose certain solutions

to tie this presentation into a story. I took this outline and began to write my script, which I then practiced numerous times to make sure I memorized the key points I wanted to make. From my script, I was able to create my PowerPoint slides with many pictures to coincide with what I was saying and really enhance the message I wanted to convey. Once these two components were combined and practiced, I was confident that I would be able to get my message across. I continued to practice leading up to the day that I presented and was confident walking into the classroom that morning. Overall, I thought that my presentation went the way I wanted it to. I am happy that I did not stutter too much or forget any of my main ideas, so the talk was successful from my point of view. Watching other students present before me really got my ready to chat because I saw how easily their talks flowed. I think this project was a positive experience because it gave me an opportunity to practice talking in front of an audience about a topic that I am really interested in. This was probably my favorite assignment from the entire semester and I really enjoyed giving my talk.