Meeting on Friday & Speech Tips

For the class meeting on Friday:

Our meeting will be held in HGH223. This is Hugh Gillis Hall located on San Fernando and 5th Street. Please be there BY 11:45am so YOU WILL NOT BE LATE. We will be starting speeches shortly after 12:00pm. Class OFFICIALLY STARTS at 12:00pm.

PLEASE PRINT OUT a copy of the Demo Evaluation Form located on the HANDOUTS Page on Blackboard. Bring it to class on Friday so your speech can be evaluated. PRINT YOUR NAME AT THE TOP, FILL IN THE TOPIC SECTION, and hand it to me right before your speech. If you are feeling particularly ambitious, please bring extra copies in case someone in class forgets theirs.

VISUAL AIDS: What you are demonstrating will be your visual aid. For instance, if you speech topic is making cookies, you NEED TO BRING IN THE INGREDIENTS for making cookies. PICTURES WILL NOT WORK. You are REQUIRED to demonstrate something with your hands. Also, practicing with your visual aid will insure you are actually using your visual aid. I can't tell you how many speeches I have graded where students fail to use the visual aids they have prepared ahead of time.

NOTECARDS: You will be using 4x6 notecards ONLY during your speech performance. Please write out notecards that contain KEY WORDS ONLY. You SHOULD know your speech well enough to have ONLY key words on your notecards (DO NOT WRITE OUT YOUR SPEECH ON YOUR NOTECARDS). This is because you should have about an 85%-90% eye contact rate with your audience. PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR OUTLINE as an aid to remind you of what you are talking about during the speech. NOTECARDS ONLY PLEASE.

VIDEO TAPE: You are required to bring in a VHS videotape for our class meeting. The tape is for your playback. Next week you have an assignment due that reviews your speeches. You need to watch your speech and post a Self-Evaluation onto your blog as an assignment (in ESSAY format).

PRACTICING: This week you should practice WITH YOUR VISUAL AIDS at least 7 times. If you do not practice with your visual aids, your audeince may be able to tell that you are unprepared. Also, practicing your speech OUTLOUD, not in your head, will help to make sure your points are solidified and you KNOW for sure what you are going to say during your speech.

VERBAL SOURCE CITATIONS: One of the reasons why you should have researched your speech is so YOU CAN MAKE VERBAL SOURCE CITATIONS while you are giving your speech. You should be citing ALL 4 SOURCES DURING THE COURSE OF YOUR 4-5 minute speech.

DEMONSTRATION DURING YOUR SPEECH: Please make sure you are TAKLING through your entire speech, even when you are demonstrating. Since your first speech is 4-5 minutes, you should be TALKING THE WHOLE TIME. We will be on a tight schedule on Friday, so please make sure you are WITHIN YOUR TIME FRAME of 4-5 minutes.

INTRODUCTION: In your introduction, please make sure you are USING AN ATTENTION GETTER at the start of the speech AND PREVIEWING ALL OF YOUR MAIN POINTS. Read over the speech assignment AND outline worksheet on the "Writing Page" on Blackboard for more information.

BODY of SPEECH: Make sure you are TRANSITIONING from one point to another with a TRANSITION.

CONCLUSION: During your conclusion, you should be REVIEWING THE MAIN POINTS YOU JUST TALKED ABOUT, and providing closure of the speech. Again, see the Outline Worksheet on Blackboard for more details.

I hope that these tips help you out for our meeting on Friday. I also hope that they Outline Worksheet will give you some guidance with how the speech should flow. Afterall, the outline is how we are "planning" or structuring our speech.

I will be emailing you back your outlines by Wednesday evening at the latest. So please, look over the comments I have made to improve your speeches. The reason why I required the outline prior to the speech meeting day is to catch any mistakes during the speech planning process.

I AM REALLY looking forward to meeting you all face to face. I may be updating the blog a couple more times this week with speech tips, so check back often.

Happy practicing! :)