After watching my persuasive speech and then comparing it to the other videos, it was clear there was a big change in my delivery.  In my other videos I realized that the hand gestures I was making and my posture looked very awkward.  I looked uncomfortable and you can tell I was nervous right off the bat.  In the persuasive speech my hand gestures flowed better and were a lot more natural.  My posture was definitely stronger in that unlike the other videos where I kept swaying back and forth, I kept the moving to a minimum.  I definitely use less vocal fillers than in the other ones.  I was also louder.  I remember watching the older videos and not being able to hear my self because of how low I was speaking.  Even though I think I could have been louder, I was a bit better at volume during the persuasive speech.  I’m going to have to keep working on the volume.

I think I was successful somewhat.  The feedback I got from the class was positive.  I also think I was able to win them over mostly by my use of pathos in the speech.  Another factor had to have been that a lot of them were surprised that this was actually a pretty important issue in regards to the amount of people it effects.  This caused more interest in what I had to say.

After watching all the speeches, I think one of the most important things you can do to make a successful persuasive speech is by getting the audience involved.  When someone talks for a while just throwing numbers and facts out there, it makes us lose interest.  That causes us not to care about what that person is talking about or trying to persuade us.  I also think that when certain people in the class used pathos, it was more of an incentive to listen and it was more likely to move me in their direction.

I’m going into marketing as a major and I believe going for a job in that field will require at some point to give some sort of presentation.  Now that I have taken this class and learned the necessary skills required to give a successful speech, it will be much easier for me.  I think the most important skills that I have learned is how to keep the audience’s attention.  First and foremost, if you don’t have the audiences attention, then there is no point in you standing up there and giving your speech.  In order to get your ideas across, you need to make sure they are paying attention.  Another important skill that I think is important is being able to look at the entire room, left to right, making eye contact.  Before I took this class I was sure never to look any one in the eye, and only to look at one point on the back wall.  Without this class I would have probably kept doing that.  I am really happy I took this class because I know this is one of those classes that will benefit me later in life.