Rosie has definitely made some surprising changes! While her nerves used to reach insanely new heights every time she was about to start her presentations, she seems to be much more calm now. Getting up in front of the room and speaking to a small group has become a regular thing in her speech communication class, allowing her to obtain a lot of practice. She no longer minds standing in front of a crowd and speaking for an extensive period of time. Although I think Rosie is sort of still struggling a little bit with eye contact, I think she has made some improvements in this element of delivery. Rosie has also learned how important is is to have a strong stance when delivering a speech, something she had not even thought about prior to her speech class. Minus a few distracting gestures here and there, I think Rosie has definitely gotten significantly better at her overall physical delivery. I also believe she will continue to improve after her current speech class as she should take what she learned and continue to implement it in future speeches.

I tend to think that eye contact and a strong, confident stance are the most important aspects of effective public speaking. In order to get your point across to the entire audience, I believe you need to make sure you look around and show each part of the room you are speaking to them. I also never realized before this class how important my stance is in conveying a message differently. During my first speech as well as a little bit during my second speech I had a strong stance, but I kept doing some distracting gestures that took away from the success of the message being communicated. I’m glad that this course taught me how relevant these things are because although they seem nominal, they actually make a big difference! I want to continue to improve on my physical delivery (particularly the unnecessary gestures) as well as making more eye contact throughout my future presentations.

Being in the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch entails me to make a number of speeches throughout my undergraduate degree. I wish I had taken this speech class even earlier as it would have definitely improved some of my past presentations in my business classes. However, I know I still have a bunch more coming up and I can definitely see myself doing a much better job with the skills I used in this class. In addition to my school work, I also intend to use these skills in future basic communication with my employers as well if I am ever needed to make some sort of presentation for work purposes.

By: Samantha Kublbock

The following video displays Iowa native Zach Wahls delivering a captivating persuasive speech to the Iowa House of Representatives on why he believes gay marriage should not be banned in his home state. I thought of this speech immediately as I was reading option 1 of the assignment because I believe the content as well as delivery has such a powerful impact on viewers.

In addition to delivering his thoughts extemporaneously, Wahls brings up a number of important ideas so concise and emotionally charged that is was definitely hard to disagree with him that day in that court room. He establishes credibility by describing exactly how unaffected he is from being raised by his two mothers and really tries to make everybody understand where he is coming from. I also loved the fact that he brought up he was an engineering student who had scored in the 99th percentile of the ACT. This really helps debunk the claims that were bound to be mentioned in court that day about how being raised by gay parents may negatively affect your education.

Wahls paints such a clear picture of his loving family that makes listeners visualize just how similar his family is to each of ours. Particular moments, such as the mention of his mother’s crippling disease, also helps to heighten emotions of the listeners. Because this speech takes place in a court room of representatives looking to end civil unions in Iowa, this vivid imagery is an excellent attempt to bring the audience members closer to feeling what he is feeling about gay marriage. He ended the short speech strongly, recapping in a single sentence exactly what he believes the decision that day should be, and I think he definitely had a positive impact (at least on some) of the audience.

Rosie, a senior at Baruch College, is finally taking her required Speech Communication course! Although she didn’t intentionally avoid taking the course throughout her two years at the school, she was not eager to include it in her schedule either. Being an accounting major does not provide many opportunities for her to gain experience as an effective public communicator. She has had to participate in about a handful of assignments involving presentations and speeches throughout her college career, but mainly in groups. While working with others was a great way to improve her communication skills in general, it does not prepare you for the same amount of pressure you are under when giving a speech individually. This course will be her chance to improve those skills she is lacking in.

During class, Rosie is carefree about participating in group discussions. She feels that there is much less pressure when you are seated and discussing amongst your classmates. However, when she is placed in front of the room with all eyes on her, her nerves skyrocket. No matter how much she prepares, she still can’t help but feel the pressure of everybody staring at her. When she begins her presentations, she tends to mix up what she’s prepared to talk about, causing her ideas to be much less concise than she had originally planned. Her cheeks sometimes get a bit rosy in front of everybody because she worries she won’t be able to make the point that she was supposed to.

Despite these setbacks, Rosie tends to be good at projecting her voice to ensure that the entire audience can hear what she has to say. Once Rosie can maintain the confidence of an effective public speaker, her quality research and ideas will be become much more persuasive and meaningful than they currently are.