BLOG 1 DREW

Drew Altman

SPC-2608

As one of the leaders of this class I did not work on any of the chapter powerpoints. Instead, I, along with my other class leader Caroline, watched and took notes on the three group class powerpoints. We also collaborated with the groups for each separate presentation. We added an introduction and a conclusion to each of the powerpoint presentations. This allowed us to be part of the groups while also just being there to help and give advice. In writing this blog post, I used information directly from all three of the presentations. I will discuss what I learned as well as what I thought each group did well in their presentations. These three group presentations covered our whole textbook. The information they gave was really helpful and important to hear, and I believe they all did a wonderful job with their powerpoints. 

The first group covered chapters one through four. This was essentially a deep dive into the idea of public speaking. This group discussed things such as why we should speak publicly, the presentation process, why the presentation process is important, the different process of communication, unique forms of communication including public speaking, and knowing your audience. They also talked about important things such as guidelines when coming up with topics for presentations, things to say as well as things to avoid saying, plagiarism, being an effective speaker, respecting the audience, listening and its importance, communication apprehension and understanding it, reducing anxiety, and the roots of rhetoric. They also

covered how to prepare speeches, organizing the arrangement and structure of your presentation, preparing a presentation as well as preparing yourself to present, connecting with your audience, tips for a successful presentation, impromptu presentations, presenting other people, looking for topics, methods of brainstorming, internet search tips for a successful information search, appropriate topics, the purposes of speeches, and knowing your audience. This group covered even more topics in their presentation. I thought that group one did a very good job. They seemed very well prepared and ready to speak on their topics. They had good graphics as well. I liked that they talked much more than their slides said. This made it easy to listen while looking at the slides. I enjoyed watching this presentation. I also found group one’s presentation to be very informative and attention grabbing. This was all really important information to know in life as well as in school. I think that this group did a great job teaching us while also keeping us focused and entertained. 

Group two covered chapters five through nine. This group discussed the importance of

using sources as well as citing your sources that you used. They did a deep dive into the foundations of speech as well as speech organization. They covered many more important topics as well including: prioritizing your ideas, verifying your information, interviewing sources, and evaluating sources to make sure they are credible. They also discussed the principles of outlining including subordination, division, and parallelism. This group also taught us the different types of outlines that are available to use, organizing the body of your presentation, organizing the main points of a speech or presentation, supporting material, things that hold presentations together, inductions to presentations, concluding presentations, effective delivery, memorization, and the three types of speech modes. They also covered question and answer sessions, tips for a successful presentation, the importance of strategic word choice, organization and classification, recognizing the differences in language, ethical considerations to look at in language use, steps to improving language use in presentations, the benefits of sensory aids, the different types of visual and sensory aids to use, slide decks, alternative systems to present with, and how to stay focused on your key points and messages. This group did a wonderful job with their presentation. They seemed to really know what they were talking about when they presented to the class. It was enjoyable to watch them. They had a very good powerpoint. It had information, but not too much. They clearly knew what they were talking about and they did not just read off their slides. The information that they gave is important life information to know. It is also super helpful to keep these things in mind as a college student. 

Group three did their presentation on chapters ten through twelve as well as the appendix. This group did a deep dive on the chapters covering many important topics including: presenting to inform, the purposes of informative presentations, how to help people learn, skills for informative speaking, the ethical principles of informative speaking, persuasive presentations, planning persuasive presentations, critical thinking and reasoning and how the two improve your message, fallacies of reasoning, persuasive tactics, and ethical and unethical persuasion. They also discussed speaking on special occasions, purpose, style, organization, and  the types of special occasion speeches and how to present them which include: welcome speeches, speeches to pay tribute, introduction speeches, nomination speeches, dedication speeches, and speeches of recognition. In group three’s presentation they also covered working and presenting as a group, small groups, skills for group presentations, evaluating group

productivity, and types of group presentations, which include symposia, panels, and debates. Overall, this group had a well put together presentation. The group’s slides did have a lot of information on them, but they seemed to add in extra information as well when they were speaking. These topics are extremely important because everyone has to work in a group at some point or another. They gave a lot of helpful information on group presentations that every college student could benefit from learning. 

I really enjoyed all of these presentations. It was interesting to watch how the groups did or did not work together in the beginning and see them progress into what became their projects. This is an important class, and these presentations covered all the information from our textbooks. I am excited to see what and how the next presentations turn out to be. The three groups definitely set the bar high with these presentations.