Mark Komar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E

Jimmy Valvano’s ESPY speech is one of the most inspirational speeches that I have ever come across. Valvano established a strong connection with the audience through his use of humor and anecdotes. The message he conveyed in his speech is one that isn’t directed towards a specific group of people, but to everyone. He shares what he believes to be the key to a wonderful life and encourages everyone to make the best of theirs. At the time of his speech, Jimmy was battling cancer. He, with the support of ESPN, launched the Jimmy V. Foundation for Cancer Research. He stated, “It may not save my life. It might save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love.” As a listener myself, even after twenty years, I still feel the urgency that he once had.

At the end of his speech, he received an outstanding ovation. Some audience members were even reduced to tears. Although my goal isn’t to make an audience cry, I want to be able to form connections with the members. I want them to fully understand what I’m attempting to say. Jimmy lost his battle with cancer. But with those strong words, his message was heard. The Jimmy V. Foundation has given over one hundred million dollars to cancer research and has helped to save many lives. Although he is gone, he was right in every way when he said “Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul.” His legacy will continue to live on in the Jimmy V. Foundation and all the lives it has helped to safe.

Source:

“About Us.” The V Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Aug. 2013. <http://www.jimmyv.org/about-us/our-story/>.

“Jimmy’s 1993 ESPY Speech.” YouTube. YouTube, 28 Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Aug. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E>.

Salma Haque

Honestly speaking, I usually give speeches for myself. And no, I don’t mean literally looking in the mirror and actually giving a speech to myself. I mean throughout high school, whenever I had to deliver a speech in school, I never actually did it to inform, persuade, entertain or whatever the case may be. I did it for the grade. It did not matter if the class would never relate to what I’m talking about, as long as I delivered it and got it over with, I was totally fine. That’s something I really want to change. In a classroom, you need to be able to interact with your peers, have them connect to what you’re saying, make eye contact, sound enthusiastic and establish a sense of confidence and credibility, use and appropriate level of language; none of which I actually did. I would always stare down at a

piece of paper and read my speech of that. The class would get bored and because I never mingled with them they chose not to listen to me. My voice was as monotone as it could possibly be and I did not sound like I really wanted to convey a message to them. This did not only apply to speeches but even class presentations. I want to be able to actually get my audience engaged, and get a response for them. I know not reading off a paper, improvising and memorizing will be tough. Even sounding confident and passionate will be a struggle but I want to be able to overcome that.  In the future when I have to give a presentation for a reputable company and this presentation can either make it or break it for me, I really don’t want to be reading off a piece of paper. Hopefully, Speech Communications will help me overcome these obstacles and better prepare me for and out of the classroom.

Our first round of posts will respond to your choice of the following prompts.  Blog posts should be between 250 and 400 words (longer isn’t always better!), and should include an image that relates to your writing.  

Option 1: Post an image (photographic or otherwise) that conveys a speech situation you have encountered in which you think a speaker has a powerful and positive impact on an audience or individual listener.  What is the nature of the speaker’s impact?  How does the speaker achieve this impact?  What does this image demonstrate about the nature of the relationship between audience and speaker?

Option 2: Describe a particular kind of situation in which you want to improve your communication skills, and post an image (photographic or otherwise) that reflects this situation.  It might be a community you’re involved in, a job, a class, etc.  What qualities of communication are valued in this context?  How would you describe your current communication style in this context?  What communication skills would you like to develop in this context?  What obstacles exist on the path toward achieving this communication style?

We’ll use this site to share thoughts and experiences related to public speaking and the power of effective communication over the course of the semester.

You can find important documents for the course under the tab “course documents” above.

I look forward to our semester together!