Audience Matters

I felt that Matthew started off his speech with a great attention getter by pretending to vomit and then engaging the audience by asking how many of them had done something similar because of too much drinking.  I actually felt like he did a great job all around on his speech.  It was informative, especially do to his utilization of the overhead projector to display and draw special attention to certain data.  I also felt that he did a good job orally citing his source and because it was a credible source, it allowed him to speak with authority on the subject.  He repeatedly referred to the well-being and safety of his audience, which lent him an air of goodwill.

It was hard to get much of a feel for the other speech since it was such a short clip.  I actually thought that Courtney looked down way too much instead of engaging her audience.  I thought that she did a good job in her introduction of letting her audience the information that her speech was going to cover.  Her topic of "light pollution" seemed interesting, so I would have liked to see where she was going with it.

"If you're the last one left, this is my request:  could you just shut off the lights." -The Jealous Sound

Good Sources Make for Good Information

As the internet has exploded over the last few decades its wealth of knowledge and convenience of accessibility has made it the most commonly used resource for research material.  Gone are the days of heading of to the library for a day of cramming and frantically searching through card catalogs to locate the material you need.  This has greatly increased the importance for all of us to be able to evaluate the reliability and validity of information when researching for an essay, speech, etc.  Wikipedia is probably the most notorious internet location for misinformation.  It is now sometimes the case that I find myself spending almost as much time researching the source of my information to make sure that it's credible as I do researching the information itself.

While the prevalence of less than credible sources can often be a problem, the abundance of information and the currency of that information has certainly been a boon for all students.  Instead of picking up a book whose information could by now be outdated or scouring recent magazines for pertinent and current information a simple Google search can now easily yield up to date articles.  We now have more information, more current information, and more accessible information.  When used properly these tools provide students with everything that they need to educate themselves and make better presentations than might have been possible in the past.

"We don't think we think so, we know." -Maritime

My Limited Experience as an Interviewer

I personally have not had a whole lot of experience conducting research interviews.  As a matter of fact I can only remember one instance of ever having to do so, which was during my sophomore year of high school.  My final project for my English class that year was a large research essay that I believe had to be over 10 pages and include 3 research interviews.  I wrote my paper about HIV/AIDS because somebody in my family that I am very close to has been living with HIV for well over 20 years now.

Of the 3 interviews that I conducted I felt that the most productive and informative one was that in which I interviewed somebody who worked at a hospice caring for AIDS patients.  Part of what made this interview so good was that I branched out of my comfort zone and found somebody who I had absolutely no connection with.  They were an authority on the source and were very knowledgeable on the subject matter.  This gave the information that I obtained from them credibility.  Even though my questions were not as well constructed as this week's reading informed me that interview questions should be, they were still well thought out in advance and had a natural structure or flow to them.

My biggest mistake during these interviews was in choosing to interview family members for the other 2 interviews.  My family member who has HIV was very helpful and gave me exactly the insight that I was looking for, but I think that this was mostly luck.  I also chose to interview another one of my family members about what it was like to have a close family member with HIV and how they had dealt with it.  This was a very poor decision.  I was too familiar with the interviewee in this case and the interview turned out to be rather less formal than I had hoped it would be.  They were too casual about the whole thing and didn't take it as seriously as I would have liked.  I ended up including almost nothing from their interview in my final report.

"It's cool, it's cool to love your family." -Feist

Pssst! Librarian.

When it comes to research I tend to fall in to the same trap that I would imagine most everyone that has grown up in an age where computers are in most households does:  I lean too hard on the internet as a resource.  This isn't necessarily a problem considering the new information I found within the reading this week about the deep web, web directories, and specialized search engines.  I feel that this has opened my mind as to how I can find more credible and relevant information in my research.

But how should I take advantage of these new research options that I am unfamiliar with?  When this week's Speech Buddy videos promoted the idea of seeking help from the librarian it opened my eyes.  Normally I feel bad "wasting" the librarian's time, but as the video said, "providing you with information is what the library is there for."  I am going to try very hard not to be shy in the future when it comes to approaching the librarian, since in the past I have looked at the library as an intimidating place and have not fully utilized it as a tool in my research.  While I'm in there gathering information from the librarian, who knows, I may even actually pick up a book and give the internet a rest for once.

In a much smaller way the opening to the Gastropods speech reminded me of a resource that has always been available to me but I don't often use:  my imagination.  Using information that the speaker was already knowledgeable about she created an interesting anecdote to get the audience's attention.  Anecdotes don't only have to come from your memory, but can also come from your imagination as long as it is germane to your speech's purpose and you clearly establish that it is not a factual story about actual events.

"There'll be room for change, but gradually." -Mae

It's All About You (...Getting to Know Me)

While brainstorming ideas for which topic within this week's reading I should do my final blog of the week about it occurred to me:  Why not do it about brainstorming!?  How appropriate!  (Or I could say "How ironic!" if I had as flimsy of a grasp of the meaning of the word as most people seem to.)  When doing the reading I spent extra time thinking about and paid special attention to the section specifically about considering the audience.  Considering that I hardly know my audience up to this point, I sort of have to take some leaps and think in generalities as to how they might receive things and what they may know about my subject.

Without giving it away (because, believe it or not, I already came up with one instead of waiting until the last possible moment) I will just say that I came up with something that I believe most everyone the class will know of, but that most will not know much about.  This gives me a good chance to speak to inform my audience about the topic.  I feel that this is appropriate since it will be my first formal, pre-planned speech in front of everyone.  I'm sure it's no coincidence that Carol chose Culture as our first speech topic exactly because it provides a great opportunity for all of us to inform our audience about our culture and by extension about ourselves.  This makes my topic very relevant to all of my audience, because all of my audience is getting to know me.  Keeping all of this in mind, I feel excited about the opportunity to tell all of you a little bit about who I am.

"Today I woke up younger than I've been in years.  Not concerned with what's outside and fears: I don't have any." -Alkaline Trio