Week 9 Blog

I have attended quite a few speeches with the majority of them being within the classroom setting. I always find the speeches that are held outside of the classroom to be more effective, because they are not assigned for points, but done out of an actual interest in the topic. I think that speakers outside of school usually demonstrate the most credible emotional appeals, logical appeals, and the most credible needs-based appeals. Again, I think they are able to do this because they are performing the speech out of interest; they are not being forced by a class. I think I will have to mix the interest in my speech while still remembering that I am being graded and need to meet certain requirements. In order to do this, I will pick a topic that I enjoy and will give my speech somewhat out of interest in the topic and somewhat because I have to give it. I will also pick a topic that my audience can relate to and that way hopefully they will feel a little bit more involved or interested in my speech and opinion. I plan to use logical appeals the most because I find them to be the most effective, because they have concrete facts and evidence to support the appeal. Next I plan to use needs-based appeals, because I believe that they the second most effective. Also, we all have very similar physical, safety, social, and self-esteem needs, so my audience will be able to easily relate to my appeal. I plan to use emotional appeals rarely, if at all, because I believe that people’s emotion change continually and are not as solid as a fact or a need. Hopefully, these elements as well as watching other speakers will help me to create a good speech.

What has been the most influential speech you have heard? Why do you think it was so influential?

Week 5 Blog

The most unproductive group, or in this case team, that I have been a part of was my senior lacrosse team. During my junior year, I started playing lacrosse and I loved it. My junior year team was made up of experienced, dedicated, and focused players. Unfortunately, the majority of the dedicated players were seniors and would not be returning for the next season. At the end of my junior year, my lacrosse team was sanctioned by my school, and it went from being a club sport to a high school sport. This meant that my senior year, my team would be playing against more experienced and established teams. My senior team was made up mostly of lazy underclassmen. They would show up to practice late, they would not hustle, and they would complain constantly. My coach could not make it to practice on time, because of her job, so she would expect the team to do warm-ups by ourselves until she arrived. Most of the team would sit on the sidelines and watch the rest of the team warm up. On top of their poor attitudes and work ethic, my team lost nearly every game during that season, which led to low team morale and low group identity. With weeks left in the season, the varsity goalie quit and the team fell to pieces. My senior year team was a disaster and it almost robbed me of my love for the game of lacrosse. From this experience, I learned the importance of dedication, team unity, organization, and equal sharing of responsibility. In terms of productive groups, I always think of school project groups, but none of those stand out as being overly productive.

What is the most productive group you have been a part of and why do you think it was so productive?