Journal #2

The four short speeches that we worked on in class were extremely beneficial in my preparation for our first graded speech last friday. Over the course of the four short speeches we covered a wide range of topics, and it helped me to prepare and understand for the different types of speeches that we will be working with later on in the semester. The example speech was very useful because in our next speech this week we have to talk about something technology related, as well as give examples on how it functions and its benefits to society. By already doing an example speech and having practiced it many times, it has prepared me to be confident in my delivery when I speak about my chosen technology. The definition and quote short speeches helped me in my ability to take people's already said words and put my own spin on it. This will truly help when I prepare for my informative and persuasive speech down the road.
The speech that I chose for friday was the definition speech. I chose to define an "urban farmer," which a facebook reference to the game Farmville. I chose to do this speech because I presented my first definition speech with a more serious tone, choosing the word "perseverance." This time around I wanted to show my skills of relating a definition to my life, but at the same time I wanted to do that on the light-hearted side by choosing a comedic definition. I really feel going forward that the short speeches served as a jumping off point to becoming a more successful public speaker, and hopefully that will show as the semester progresses.