Final Self-Reflection

TO: Professor Adams

FROM: Lucy Barton, COMM 1020
DATE: 12/08/18
RE: Final Self-Reflection

Through taking this class, I have learned a lot about how I face anxiety and how to better speak in front of others. I
learned how to best use the three appeals when writing a speech, and how to appear more confident.

Organization
I have learned a lot about organizing ideas. I learned that the organization of ideas is important so that your audience
can best follow the message that you are trying to convey to them. There are a lot of different way to organize a speech
and you have to chose the one that will best support your data and your subject. “The most common ones are topical,
chronological, spatial, causal, problem-solution, problem-cause-solution, comparative advantages, the motivated
sequence, and the narrative pattern” (Rothwell, 2017, 139).
In my first speech, I didn’t really outline the three main points that I was going to hit, so my audience did not have a road
map of where I was headed in my speech. After that speech, I learned that even though it sounds repetitive to the
speaker to list the main points that they are going to hit, it is not repetitive to the audience because they have not heard
the speech before. In my last speech, I clearly outlined the main points that I was going to hit. They were, “First, political
candidates can share their platform, experiences, and who they are and second, Voters can easily communicate with the
politicians and with each other.”

Appeals and Integrated Evidence

[​In one or two paragraphs per section (logos, ethos, and pathos), include at least one page reference from the text or
from class lectures, and an example from one or all of your speeches. summarize what you have learned about the use of
logos, ethos, and pathos to support the claims of your speech.]

Logos​:
I have learned that it is important to back up what you are saying with credible sources and with statistics. It is important
to verify the information that you find, especially if you get it from an internet site that is not necessarily authoritative.
Some statistics can be purposefully left out to make one side of the issue look better or worse, and it is important to be
aware of that when you are looking at the facts about a subject. As a speaker, “you need to think critically” when
analyzing statistics, facts, and what other people are telling you (Rothwell, 2017, 233).

Ethos:​
Ethos is when the speaker is able to establish their own credibility. Aristotle defined credibility as, “good sense, good
moral character, and good will” (Rothwell, 2017, 51). It is important to establish a link between the speaker and
the subject so the audience knows that they are invested in what you are speaking about. You can establish this
primary ethos by talking about why you chose to speak on a certain subject or the time you spent researching it.
You can maintain your ethos while discussing a controversial topic by including the other side of the argument
while still staying true to your side. I used ethos in my speeches by telling personal stories about my subjects
that showed how I was connected to them. In my informative speech, in which I spoke about Women’s Suffrage,
I encouraged my audience to become active and educated voters. I think I used just enough authoritative
sources. The audience knew they were authoritative because I had to cite them out loud and many of them
were written by multiple people and had long, specific titles.
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Pathos​:
Pathos is the emotional appeal that the speaker makes to the audience. I think that I used a lot of general emotional
appeals. I did not use much fear or anger in my speeches. Most of the pathos in my speeches came from my
personal stories or the stories that I told about people that I researched about in my informative speech. In my
personal artifact speech, I used a lot of pathos to connect with the audience by describing my own experiences
and I was able to get some emotional reactions from my audience. (especially from my mom) I could probably
have used more pathos in my informative and persuasive speeches. I relied a lot on the hard facts for those
speeches and used a lot of logos and ethos.

Delivery and Visual Aids

When I was giving my speeches, it was difficult for me to find the best way to move my hands in order to create those
purposeful gestures​ described in the textbook. In my second speech, I found myself moving my hands a lot more than
necessary when I was trying to explain the more complicated aspects of derivatives. I still need to improve my reading
from an index card. I think I should have rehearsed my speeches more and become more familiar with the sentences
that I wanted to say in my speech. I think that I effectively used my visual aids in the speeches that I did use visual aids.
In my personal artifact speech, I used my swim bag as my visual aid and it helped me to give “a more natural delivery”
and made my speech more “memorable” (Rothwell, 2017, 182). I think that I could have used a visual aid in my
persuasive speech and it would have improved the comprehension of my audience.

Audience Assessment and Adaptation:

For most of my speeches, my audience was a varying number of my older neighbors. For my description speech, I had an
audience of a lot younger people. I was able to adapt my speech to fit what they would already know about math, as I
was describing how to get a derivative. As most of my audience was above the age of 40 for most of my speeches, I was
able to be assured that they would understand certain terminology that I put into my speeches. In my informative
speech, I spoke about Women’s Suffrage and I did not have to define the word ​suffrage because I knew that my
audience would already know what it meant. It is important to tailor your speech to your audience because “delivery is
audience centered” (Rothwell, 2017, 178). If your audience does not understand what you are saying, then there is not
much reason for you to give a speech at all. I think I still need to improve on eliminating “distracting behaviors” from my
speeches (Rothwell, 2017, 178). I am sure that my playing with my note cards or my excessive gesturing could be
distracting from my real message.

Speech Anxiety Management:

Before taking this class, I was always really nervous to give speeches in front of other people. To manage my anxiety, I
made the plan to practice my speeches before I gave them and to convince myself of the good things that were going to
happen instead of only thinking about the bad things that might happen during my speech. For most of my speeches, I
was able to rehearse them beforehand without an audience and that helped me out. During my persuasive speech, the
FedEx guy actually came to the door and my dog started barking so we had to start the whole speech over. Because of
the anxiety management plan that I had made, I was not worried by this. I just saw it as another time to practice my
speech and do even better on the actual speech. It is true that “if you [practice and prepare,] most of your anxiety will
melt away, and your confidence will soar” (Rothwell, 2017, 31).

Lessons Learned:
I have learned that even if I never have to give another public speech again, it is important to be able to communicate
my ideas with other people. It is important for everyone to be able to “present complex ideas, clearly and fluently, keep
an audience’s attention, analyze important issues, conduct research, make reasonable arguments, and support claims
with valid proof” (Rothwell, 2017, 3). I will be able to use the skills that I have learned when I am interviewing for jobs,
presenting ideas in work meetings, or when I am discussing issues with my friends. I could also use these skills in classes
when I have to give presentations.
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Works Cited
Rothwell, J. D. (2017). ​Practically speaking.​ New York: Oxford University Press.