Discussion

A recent discussion when I tried to persuade others, was when I was in my literature class. I was trying to prove a point about a book we were reading. I was trying to convince them that the failed relationships the main character experienced affected all of the relationships she encountered throughout the rest of her life. The book was "The God of Small Things" and in it the main character goes through a failed marriage and a strained relationship with her parents and children. The reasoning I used was giving examples from the text. I pointed out several quotes prove my case. The reviwed andfollowed with what I was saying and evenutally the majority agreed with me.

The Sea of Persuasion

I'm am immersed in a sea of persuasion as my friend's try to convince me to stay up late and study (when all I really want to do is go to bed), my mom and dad try to encourage me to save money, and internet pop-ups try to get me to buy their products. When I listen to speeches they are usually trying to persuade me to do something that will make my life "better." The media is constantly trying to persuade me to dress a certain way and buy certain products as television commercials seem to be on all the time. To become a more critical comsumer of persuasive messages I can evaluate the information I am getting by thinking about what the seller is getting out of it. For example, think about why they want me to make the product and how reliable and valid of a source they actually are.

speech progress

The progress of my speech has been slow because I have been very busy lately but I am finally getting a start on it. I am researching why people should play sports. It is a topic I completely agree with so I am hoping the research will not be too difficult. M?y main points will be the social aspect and environment sports provide, as well as the good physical exercise a person gets as they participate in sports. I do not know how I will end my speech but I think I will begin with my personal experience with sports. I plan on persuading my audience by relating the importance of sports into their lives and make them realize that they have time for it; then, show the benefits of sports and how they can "implement" them into their life (as explained in Monroe's Motivated Sequence).

Flickr

When I was reading the discussion on flickr I found there were lots of interesting points made. I feel that language in perceived in amny different ways and when it comes down to it, a word is juts a word. I agreed with what "rippie" said when they stated that it comes down to "how one uses the word." Its all about context. As I learned about connotations and denotations in the text I realized that many people can take offense to words just because of how they personally perceive the word. There was an already an argument (controlled but still apparent) on flickr in this conversation we just read (about "webglish.") Personally I think that when it comes to the topic of what word to use to refer to male or female, there will always be an argument and no one will ever be completly satisfied.

Guidelines for using language in your speech

In this section of Chapter 10 I learned a lot of helpful things when it comesto the laguage I use when I am delivering my speech. One important thing I learned was not to get too attached to my words. I learned that using the "perfect" word will not make my speech. Instead, making sure that I get my point across is what is really important. Sometimes when I am trying to shape my speech I try to find the right words to use when really I should be focusing on the bigger picture, and this secrtion really helped me with that. Another thing I learned was to be concise. This means not to be too wordy or make any sentence or process explanation longer than it needs to be. Basically, it means that I need to get to the point. During my last two speeches meeting the time length was a problem because I was worried I would go over. This is because I was too wordy and put in information that could have been shortened or excluded all together. This was a very helpful tip for me because it addressed one of my major problems.