Last spring semester, during "Love Your Body Week", my current professor, Kathleen Taylor, delivered an immaculate speech called "Selling Desire". Kathleen is an amazing speaker, her words are overall flourished with power and quick stamina. "Selling Desire" did not only contain a particular concept that captured my interest, but also the way the speech was presented, organized, and laid out gave me a positive reaction. Kathleen Taylor was able to layout her presentation with a picture-to-picture based power point. She discussed each slide with slight humor and allowed her audience to guess where each picture display could be found. For example, she displayed a picture of a young girl's lacy bra and matching pantie set, then described how this is for sale at the local Wal-Mart (hence, selling desire at a young age). Kathleen was quick and intuitive with her thoughts and words, she knew how to react timely with the audience's reactions, and explain every aspect of her presentation. Her vocabulary was superb, yet understandable to the common people. I remembered the most how she was so accurate in matching her words to her visuals; I was extremely impressed and focused on her speech.
The worst speaker I have ever heard, would probably be a first timer college student giving a speech and/or presentation in a class. Obviously, because most students are nervous, new, and not an expert on public communication, labeling them as a "speaker" wouldn't exactly be accurate. I also think of certain politicians ( I wish not to name), that I conclude are horrible speakers. The main aspect I can remember about a politician being a horrible speaker is the opinionated, offensive, and not intelligent material they choose to recite in their speech. Yes, they have a right to their own opinion, yet when the material gets offensive to certain groups of people in society, I believe that person is not a good public communicator. Also, with first time college students giving a speech, most of the time they seem to embarrassed and not confident. I couldn't even make out the concepts of their presentation because of the lack of "taking a stand" to their audience. I have come to realize, sometimes people who don't really give great context in their speech, yet deliver it with a strong, boastful manner give great speeches as well, which is another aspect of communication (nonverbal, verbal).
Hello Hazel,
ReplyDeleteI think that people underestimate the power that visuals have in a speech. The fact that your teacher was able to use visuals to prove her point made it that much easier for the audience to agree with her. Using visuals is a part of shaping ones credibility, they have proof that such things exist and therefore show their knowledge of a subject.
I have to say that I hope no one has judged me on any of my college speeches. I am not exactly a shy person but I think that it takes a lot of getting used to being in front of an audience. I have listened to several speeches during my college years and I can immediately tell which ones are more comfortable in front of an audience. I think speeches take practice and we all start at a different level.
I would have been interested in seeing Kathleen’s speech and even bringing my daughter! It sounds really interesting and I always love a speaker that uses humor and captures my attention. I have to admit I am one of those college students who is dreading Speech class because I feel I am one of those speakers you are talking about. I feel that I express myself well on paper, but I too get nervous, forget what I am trying to say and don’t present myself with my best foot forward. There is a complete disconnect with what is in my mind and what comes out of my mouth. I should definitely avoid politics!
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