speech of introduction

0:09

And this lecture serves two purposes.

0:12

Number one, it's going to explain

0:14

everything we need to know for this

0:16

first speech assignment, speech of

0:18

introduction. And secondly, yes, there's

0:22

quite a few questions on exam one from

0:24

this lecture. So, two-fold purpose for

0:27

this lecture. So, let's get right into

0:30

it. Speech of introduction.

0:36

Next week, we are going to introduce a

0:38

fellow classmate to the class.

0:42

We'll call them our partner. The timing

0:45

of this speech is 2 minutes. Be careful

0:48

not to go overtime, but it's a two-minut

0:51

speech. You want to aim for about 1

0:52

minute and 45 seconds. You will be

0:55

introducing a fellow classmate to the

0:58

audience during that minute and 45

1:00

seconds. And the assignment is worth

1:03

five points. So, not a lot, not a lot of

1:06

points, but it's kind of an icebreaker

1:08

assignment. And what I like about this

1:11

assignment is that early on we will know

1:13

our public speaking strengths and our

1:16

public speaking weaknesses from this

1:18

simple assignment.

1:21

So, first in class, what will we be

1:25

doing together to launch this

1:27

assignment? Well, you're going to

1:29

interview a fellow classmate. We'll call

1:32

them again your partner.

1:34

Collect lots of information during this

1:37

interview. You'll do this in class.

1:40

Write down this information. Document

1:42

everything. Put it on your electronic

1:44

device, whatever you need to do. But

1:46

definitely document this. Don't just try

1:49

to commit this to memory.

1:52

Be sure you have permission to go public

1:54

with this information as well. So if

1:56

your partner tells you something that

1:57

may seem a bit personal, just ask them,

2:00

"Oh, do I have permission to share this

2:03

with the entire class?" So this is what

2:05

we will do in class together. What about

2:08

when you go home privately? Well, at

2:11

home, you want to organize this material

2:15

to fill, like I said, approximately a

2:18

minute and 45 seconds worth of speaking

2:21

time.

2:24

Now, you don't even have to figure out

2:27

or guess how to start this speech. I'm

2:30

going to tell you right now, the first

2:32

words out of your mouth when you're up

2:34

there in front of the audience is to

2:36

verbalize your partner's first and last

2:40

name. Something like like this. So,

2:43

today I want to introduce to you my new

2:47

friend Veronica Castillo,

2:50

first and last name. And then after

2:52

that, just go right into your speech.

2:56

Minute and a half or so, minute and 45

2:58

seconds of talking about the person. And

3:01

then how do you end? Pretty much the

3:03

same thing. Verbalize her first and last

3:06

name. Something like this. So that's a

3:10

little bit bit about my new friend

3:12

Veronica Castillo. And then you're done.

3:17

Again, everything else, there's really

3:18

no rules. You decide what to talk about

3:21

for that in between portion. And I I'm

3:23

really giving you some strong direction

3:26

for your opening line and your closing

3:28

line, but everything in between in the

3:30

middle, I just leave that up to you. You

3:33

can talk about whatever you want to talk

3:35

about regarding your new friend.

3:41

Practice, practice, practice. This, of

3:44

course, you will also do at home. So

3:46

don't try to wing this, but uh practice,

3:49

practice, practice. You'll have your

3:50

notes in front of you. Practice,

3:52

practice, practice.

3:56

Now, this is a slide that is a snapshot

3:59

from our first lecture of the semester

4:01

that we had. And I just want to remind

4:04

you, remember there are two broad areas

4:07

of public speaking, delivery and

4:09

content. You remember that from our

4:10

opening lecture. Well, the reason why I

4:13

circled this in red right here is

4:16

because this speech assignment, speech

4:19

of introduction, is primarily

4:22

an exercise in delivery. That's why I

4:27

circled this in red here because we will

4:29

be focusing on public speaking delivery

4:33

with this project, with this speech

4:35

assignment. Remember, delivery is how

4:37

you present your message. It's not what

4:39

you say. I'm pretty much less concerned

4:44

about what you say in this speech, but

4:47

I'm very concerned how you say it, how

4:52

you communicate it. So, it's everything

4:55

else. And that's what we're going to

4:56

talk about in this lecture right now is

5:00

speech delivery. That's how you're going

5:03

to be graded. In fact, this right here

5:06

is your grading rubric. I'm going to

5:09

call it a criteria sheet. In fact, for

5:11

the rest of the semester, I'm going to

5:12

call the rubric a criteria sheet. This

5:16

is the criteria sheet for this five

5:19

points speech of introduction. There are

5:22

five items on here. Each one is worth

5:25

one point. The first item does have a

5:29

little bit more to do with content, but

5:32

these other four items right here are

5:34

hardcore public speaking delivery areas.

5:39

And again, we're going to talk all about

5:40

this in this lecture right now. Timing

5:44

is no more than 2 minutes. Aim for about

5:46

a minute and 45 seconds and you are as

5:48

good as gold. All right. So, we need to

5:52

break down each of these items on the

5:54

criteria sheet piece by piece. All five

5:57

items. Let's start with number one.

5:59

Credibility. Give credibility to your

6:02

partner, including pronouncing your

6:05

partner's first and last name correctly.

6:07

Let's spend a few minutes on giving

6:10

credibility to your partner.

6:15

This basically means portraying your

6:17

partner as likable.

6:19

We want to fall in love with them as it

6:21

were by the time you're done with your

6:24

speech. Your job is to portray them in

6:27

this way so that we super super duper

6:30

like them by the end of your speech. So,

6:33

you certainly want to be very positive

6:35

when you speak about your partner. Yeah.

6:38

Like we just mentioned, pronounce your

6:40

partner's first and last name correctly

6:43

and smoothly. Their first and last name

6:47

should roll off of your tongue like

6:49

butter, like you've known them your

6:51

whole life. That, by the way, is giving

6:53

them true credibility as well. and

6:55

you're giving them credit, showing that

6:58

you respect their name and you know your

7:01

partner quite well. Also,

7:05

this could be a little tricky for some

7:07

of us, including my last name. Some of

7:10

us who have last names that are not very

7:12

familiar and even some of us has have

7:14

first names that are a little bit less

7:16

familiar. So, we may have to practice at

7:19

home how to pronounce and how to to

7:22

publicly say or or verbalize our

7:25

partner's name correctly.

7:28

We're going to avoid all forms of

7:30

sarcasm in this assignment. Sarcasm

7:34

typically isn't really

7:37

respected anyway in public speaking in

7:40

general. Audiences typically don't like

7:42

sarcasm, believe it or not. I don't know

7:44

if that surprises you or not, but we're

7:47

going to avoid sarcasm altogether. So,

7:49

when you're talking about your partner,

7:52

only only positivity. Shine positive

7:56

light on them. Please talk about

7:59

positive things. Lift them up

8:01

figuratively speaking. Avoid quote like

8:05

making fun of them via sarcasm. Avoid it

8:09

all together. If we accidentally do

8:10

that, we'll simply lose a point there.

8:14

All right, let's go on to area number

8:16

two. Extemporaneous.

8:19

Yeah, we want to be extemporaneous when

8:21

delivering this speech. This is a word

8:23

we may have heard before, but we're

8:26

going to clarify what it truly means

8:28

when it comes to public speaking.

8:31

It's basically

8:33

carefully planned in advance. Your

8:36

speech that is is carefully planned in

8:40

advance. Yeah. With much practice,

8:44

you spent time putting this speech

8:46

together at home.

8:49

It includes an outline. However, notice

8:52

this. Not a word for word for word for

8:56

word script. You're not writing this

8:58

thing out word for word.

9:01

Now, I will say this, okay? I'm just

9:03

going to be transparent here. I'm

9:05

technically not going to look at what

9:08

you have in front of you while you give

9:11

this speech. I'm not going to collect

9:13

anything for this first speech, the

9:16

speech of introduction. I'm not going to

9:18

see what you have in front of you

9:19

because because yeah, you will be

9:20

bringing your notes up with you at the

9:22

podium. So, I'm technically not going to

9:25

monitor it. However, for this first

9:27

assignment, I will be monitoring it in

9:29

the future. But you want to be careful

9:32

here because if you do write this thing

9:33

out word for word for word almost like a

9:37

paragraph style essay. Ouch. Then you

9:41

will find that you will not be

9:44

extemporaneous. So no public readings

9:46

allowed. Instead speak naturally. You

9:50

can look at the a excuse me you can look

9:52

at your notes. You should look at your

9:55

notes

9:56

but you want to look at the audience

9:58

quite a bit and you want to speak

9:59

naturally.

10:01

I like what our textbook says regarding

10:03

being extemporaneous. It says this is

10:06

considered planned conversation. I like

10:09

that expression. You're being

10:11

conversational, but at the same time,

10:14

you have carefully crafted this speech,

10:16

not word for word, but your ideas are in

10:19

front of you in your notes.

10:24

So, like I said, we're still talking

10:26

about extempiraneous. Like I said, do

10:29

not read to the audience. Audiences

10:32

don't like that. They don't want to be

10:34

read to. They want to be spoken to.

10:38

Give generous eye contact to the entire

10:42

audience. Now, I know everybody. I know.

10:45

Trust me, I know this is not easy. I

10:47

totally get it. The comfortable, secure

10:51

thing to do is to stare at your notes

10:53

the whole time and to not look out there

10:56

at that scary audience. Right? It's

10:59

scary with all these people looking at

11:00

us. We have to do it. We have to break

11:03

outside of this comfort zone, outside of

11:04

our box. We have to do it.

11:08

Here's what we're looking at, everybody.

11:12

at least 70% eye contact with the

11:15

audience and 30% yeah it's okay to look

11:19

down at your notes 30% of the time this

11:23

is considered 100% acceptable across the

11:27

board in all public speaking classes in

11:29

America this isn't just my my formula no

11:32

no this is absolutely universally

11:36

accepted at least in western public

11:38

speaking and particularly here in

11:41

America. So, you have that comfort to

11:44

look down nearly a third of the time.

11:47

That's pretty nice. Collect your

11:49

thoughts and then you look back up at

11:51

the audience. There's something called

11:53

the 2 by 2 principle. As we do this with

11:55

the audience, we're looking down at our

11:57

notes, looking at the audience. Look

12:00

down at your outline or your notes.

12:02

Briefly, collect your thought. Then look

12:05

up at one person for about two seconds.

12:07

look at another person for a couple of

12:09

seconds, maybe even a third person for a

12:12

few seconds, and then yeah, you can look

12:14

back down at your notes and collect your

12:15

next thought and repeat the process.

12:17

Now, we're certainly not saying to be

12:20

robotic by any means. No, you're not

12:22

some robot doing this. It's not a rule.

12:25

This is merely a principle, as you can

12:28

see here. It's a guiding principle where

12:30

you just sort of want to have that flow

12:33

where you're looking down, collecting

12:35

your thought, looking back up for a few

12:38

seconds at a few different people. It's

12:39

called the 2 by two principle.

12:42

So all of this represents being

12:44

extemporaneous, plenty of eye contact

12:46

with the audience, being conversational,

12:49

not reading to the audience.

12:52

All right. Next on our criteria sheet

12:53

number three, poise. We want to be a

12:57

poised speaker. What does that mean? It

12:59

means to be dignified and to demonstrate

13:02

composure. Yes,

13:05

dignity.

13:07

Composure. It means we're nervous, which

13:11

is totally normal and human, but it

13:13

means we've got this under control and

13:17

the audience isn't looking at a person

13:19

who is showing all these visible signs

13:21

of being excessively nervous. We are

13:24

nervous but we find a way to rise above

13:28

that and to demonstrate composure.

13:32

We have it under control. But again, we

13:36

don't want those nerves to completely go

13:38

away. Why? Because being somewhat

13:41

nervous keeps us on our toes, keeps us

13:44

humble, and it also means that we care

13:47

about our assignment.

13:50

There's more to talk about regarding

13:52

poise here. Here are some dos and

13:55

don'ts. Mainly some don'ts here. Okay.

13:58

Stand up straight. Don't slouch. All

14:01

right. Stand up straight. Don't slouch.

14:06

Don't lean on the podium. You know, just

14:08

kind of overly casual leaning on the

14:11

podium. Oh yeah, this is a big one.

14:14

Everybody, keep your hands out of your

14:17

pockets. Ouch. If our hands go in our

14:20

pockets while we're giving a speech,

14:22

that is a big fat ouch. We'll definitely

14:24

lose a point there if we do that. Don't

14:28

grip the podium. I mean, obviously, it's

14:30

okay to occasionally touch the podium.

14:34

There's no rule against that. But some

14:37

students out of insecurity grip that

14:39

podium for dear life. We want to avoid

14:42

that. Avoid shifting your weight back

14:45

and forth from left to right. It's just

14:47

a nervous tick moving kind of in this

14:50

swaying motion back and forth. After a

14:54

while, as an audience member, we get

14:56

dizzy watching you watching the speaker

14:59

go back and forth. Again, it's just a

15:01

nervous tick.

15:03

Keep both feet flat on the floor. Again,

15:06

we're not being overly critical here.

15:08

Certainly, we can move about, but if

15:12

we're constantly moving our feet and and

15:15

all these nervous wiggle wiggles in our

15:17

feet and so forth, then that's just a

15:20

sign of really a lack of poise.

15:25

Another thing is playing with our hair,

15:27

playing with our jewelry, playing with

15:29

anything we can get our fingers on,

15:31

holding like an object in our hand like

15:33

a pen and playing with it. All of these

15:36

things demonstrate a total lack of

15:39

poise. All right, this next slide is

15:41

important. It's another area of poise,

15:43

but it's a big one, everybody. You ready

15:45

for this? Word fillers, or some people

15:48

call them filler words. Oh my goodness.

15:51

This is such a big one, especially for

15:54

new speakers. Oh wow. What are word

15:58

fillers? I think many of you know

16:00

already. uh um uh like you know,

16:05

you've all heard it many many many

16:07

times. People speaking, whether it's a

16:10

speech or whether it's everyday day

16:12

life, we've all heard it. People spewing

16:15

out loads and loads and loads of

16:17

excessive word fillers, tons and tons of

16:21

ums and h.

16:23

I know it's difficult, everybody. We

16:25

need to flush these out. We need to

16:28

flush them out. Now, if we have maybe

16:31

two word fillers, maybe three for a

16:35

two-minute speech, we may be okay. And

16:39

the reason we say that is because it's

16:42

normal for a human being to have an

16:45

occasional

16:46

word filler. Nobody's losing sleep over

16:49

that. However, the problem is,

16:52

especially when we're insecure and

16:54

nervous, we spew out tons and tons of

16:57

word fillers. And I hate to tell

16:58

everybody this, but audiences really

17:01

don't like that. They annoy audiences. I

17:05

think that's an exam question right

17:06

there. Every slide pretty much is an

17:08

exam question, but I'm remembering

17:10

something about that on the exam.

17:12

Audiences almost hate excessive word

17:16

fillers. Let's be careful here,

17:17

everybody. All right, let's move on to

17:20

number four. A fancy word here,

17:23

modulation. What does this fancy word

17:26

mean? Well, all it means is vocal

17:28

variety. Yeah. Modulation is moving our

17:32

voice around, varying the sound of our

17:36

voice so it doesn't sound monotone,

17:40

right? We want to avoid that monotone,

17:43

that flatline way of speaking where

17:46

there's no variation to the sound of our

17:48

voice. We need peaks and valleys,

17:50

movement with the sound of our voice so

17:53

that our voice has life to it.

17:57

That word monotone is equivalent to

18:00

monotonous, right? We don't want to be

18:02

monotonous with the sound of our voice.

18:06

So, we want to modulate our voice. We're

18:08

going to spend a couple minutes on this

18:10

one, everybody.

18:13

We want to convey ideas clearly and stir

18:16

emotion.

18:18

This is the definition of modulation

18:20

right here. convey ideas clearly and

18:24

stir emotion by doing these three things

18:28

here, varying our volume, pitch, and

18:30

pace. Moving those three things around,

18:34

peaks and valleys, highs and lows, if

18:37

you will. Let's break each one down. All

18:40

of this is on the exam. Let's start with

18:43

number one, volume. Volume is how loud

18:46

we speak

18:49

or how soft we speak. It's our volume.

18:54

Your favorite song comes on, what do you

18:55

do? You turn up the volume so that it's

18:58

louder. Now, this one of the three, this

19:02

one might be a little bit less, I guess

19:05

you could say, important. In a classroom

19:09

the size of our classroom,

19:12

everyone in the room should be able to

19:14

hear us. We do need to always speak a

19:16

little bit louder when giving a speech

19:17

than we do in everyday life. So, our

19:20

volume should be a little louder even

19:22

though we're not miked up with a

19:24

microphone.

19:25

But there's times where we may lower

19:27

that volume as well. Pitch is how high

19:32

or how low you speak. Let me illustrate

19:35

that for you. If we're really really

19:37

excited about something, like we're

19:39

talking about spending a day at

19:41

Disneyland, then our pitch goes up,

19:44

right? We're excited about that, a

19:46

higher pitch.

19:49

However, if we're talking about the

19:52

death of a loved one, maybe our partner

19:54

gave us permission to talk about the

19:57

death of a family member, we have a

20:01

lower tone to the sound of our voice, a

20:03

somber tone because it's more serious.

20:08

It's a lower pitch. So, that's what we

20:11

mean by a high or a low pitch.

20:16

Number three is a really important one,

20:18

everybody. I'm kind of a big stickler

20:20

with pace. How fast or how slow you

20:24

speak. It's also called our speech rate.

20:27

And it's our speed in terms of the way

20:30

we speak. Everybody, we need to mix this

20:32

up. We really, really do. I'm going to

20:34

give you a public speaking gem I want

20:36

you to take with you for the rest of

20:38

your life. Everybody remember this

20:40

regarding pace. Okay? If we're talking

20:43

about something that's a little bit less

20:44

important, it's okay to speak faster.

20:48

However,

20:49

if we need to say something really

20:52

important, pause,

20:54

slow down, and say it more slowly.

21:00

Then the audience will get the point and

21:03

you just grab their attention.

21:06

And then we can speed back up and talk a

21:08

little bit faster after that.

21:10

Everybody, we really need to change our

21:13

pace. You got to trust me on that one.

21:14

Okay, that's an important one. Move this

21:17

pace around when you give speeches.

21:22

Let's go to number five, our last area

21:24

of speech delivery, gestures. And yes,

21:28

we are specifically talking about hand

21:32

gestures, arm gestures, hand arm

21:35

movement while we give a speech. We're

21:38

not some stiff statue up there. No,

21:40

we're a human being. We naturally move

21:42

our hands and arms when we speak. We all

21:44

do it. We definitely need to do that

21:47

while giving a speech to an audience.

21:49

The problem is when we're nervous, all

21:52

of our muscles tighten up. And we may

21:56

hesitate subconsciously

22:00

to to use gestures because our muscles

22:03

have tightened up because we're nervous.

22:05

We need to bust out of that. Relax. Have

22:09

fun, be comfortable with your audience,

22:11

and move those hands around. We're going

22:13

to spend a couple minutes on this one,

22:15

everybody.

22:16

There are two types of gestures. We

22:18

definitely need to know these two types

22:20

of gestures. Very important right here.

22:23

All right, let's break these two types

22:25

of gestures down. Please know them well.

22:28

Area number one, or I should say the

22:31

first type of gesture we're talking

22:32

about, they're called emphatic gestures.

22:38

gestures that emphasize or reinforce

22:42

what you are saying.

22:45

Of the two gestures we're talking about,

22:48

the first one being emphatic gestures, I

22:50

expect to see a lot of these, more of

22:53

these than the second one we're going to

22:55

talk about. It's what we see going on in

22:57

the image here of Barack Obama. He is

22:59

using an emphatic gesture. There's no

23:02

special meaning to that hand movement

23:05

other than he's just adding support to

23:09

his spoken word. That's it. That's all

23:11

an emphatic gesture is. It's just

23:13

emphasizing the spoken word. It's that

23:17

natural hand movement that we do when we

23:20

speak. That's that's it. There's no

23:22

additional meaning to that particular

23:25

motion of our hand.

23:29

However, this second type of gesture is

23:33

called descriptive gestures. And there

23:36

are very specific meanings to all of

23:38

these descriptive gestures. Here's our

23:41

definition. Hand gestures, including

23:44

signs that communicate information about

23:46

what you are discussing, such as the

23:49

size or shape of objects.

23:53

It's what we see in this image here of

23:55

Condisa Rice. She is displaying a

23:58

descriptive gesture. She is explaining

24:00

something verbally, but then her

24:04

fingers, her hands are helping her,

24:07

right? She's no doubt describing the

24:10

size of something. You can also point.

24:13

I'm from Los Angeles. And you point in

24:16

the direction of Los Angeles, right? You

24:18

can also do this with your fingers.

24:21

First, I'm going to talk about this in

24:24

my speech. Secondly, I will talk about

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such and such in my speech. And then

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thirdly, see using those fingers. All of

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these types of gestures are called

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descriptive gestures because we are

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describing something specifically.

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Please know these two different types of

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gestures.