Reflection on Better world Citizen Ashley Dominguez

 Blogging for reflection

October 23, 2022

   

Bryan Rojo's reflection on the Class presentation 

My experience

     In my second class assignment for introduction to public speaking, I was assigned to create a presentation regarding chapters one through four. This class assignment was challenging because I had to work with my peers in a group setting. Working with people that I have not known for a substantial amount of time has always been difficult for me to do. Even though it was somewhat challenging for a lot of us, I felt that everyone knew their parts and there was little to no confusion regarding the assignment itself. There were moments when I did not feel that my peers and I needed to communicate about what the assignment consisted of and how we had to present it since everything was explained so well that it became blatantly obvious what we were expected to do. Something else I found to be a small struggle in the assignment was learning how to maneuver the PowerPoint since I have not had to use any type of Microsoft program in over three years. 

    Taking classes through MDC live is definitely not for everybody and I thought it wasn't for me either but this class is making me start to think otherwise. The reason why I believed that MDC Live would not be the right choice for me was that I thought that there were not enough strong interactions/communication with professors and peers but this class proved me wrong. If this class didn't incorporate the level of communication it has, I would have had a hard time and would have most likely opted to take in-person classes from this point onward. Overall, I can say that the experience I had with my presentation and listening to my other classmates' presentations was enlightening and it gave me a lot of knowledge that I can carry on to future classes. I've gained back many skills that I hadn't put to use in a while and I think it was a good choice to make this class one of the first in my comeback to the academic world. For it being such a short class, my personal opinion is that the work was not as overwhelming as one might expect, and keeping track of everything involved with the class was simple.

Presentations

    To start off, the first group presentation was the one that I participated in which was group one. In group one we were in charge of gathering information and presenting what we have learned from chapters one through four of the book "ISpeak: Public Speaking for Contemporary Life" by Judy C Pearson, Paul E. Nelson, and Scott Titsworth. In these chapters, we learned several things that are pertaining to public speaking. 

The topics that were touched on were:

• That public speaking excites the public.
• That there are a variety of reasons to study public speaking.
• That people have always used public speaking. As a society, we still give speeches often and will continue to do so.
• The reasons public speaking is a unique form of communication.
• The topics should we avoid speaking on when giving our speeches.
• What we should avoid doing when giving a presentation.
• How to become an effective speaker.
• How to reduce the fear of presenting and public speaking.

    In this group, we all had a short conversation about who is going to take what parts of the presented bullet points above. I felt that everyone did a fantastic job delivering their points and explaining what each of the topics were about. The points that I was in charge of presenting were about how public speaking is a unique form of speaking and what topics should we talk about. In the presentation some of things I mentioned was how public speaking is all about appealing to the crowd and how we she talk about topics that affect the audience. My peers focused on why should we study public speaking and how to become a great speaker. They spoke about how speakers have to guarantee to the audience that they are credible, honorable, and honest towards the audience members.

 

    The following group was group two, this group was very informative about their information. The presentations that were given were concise and packed with knowledge. This is the group that I would say I learned the most from. The chapters that they had to cover and present were from chapter five through chapter nine. 

    The topics that were touched on were:

• Research for presenting
• Outlines and introduction to presentations
• Delivering the speech
• Use of language
• Visual and sensory aid

    In this group, they spoke confidently and it was obvious to see how prepared they were to give their presentations to the class. The presenters broke down the steps of preparation that occurs before delivering a speech to an audience.  Additionally, the resources that you can obtain for your speech from videos, articles, books, or even personal stories from your own life. This had an immense impacted on myself since where I usually fall off on is being prepared for delivering speeches. Ever since my very first presentation that I had to give I always had a struggle pushing out the message that I wanted to embed onto my audience due to being nervous. Their presentation taught me that if I were to prepare before giving my speech and know the topic that I were to present like the back of my hand I would not find myself in those scenarios any more.

    Finally, the last group to present in class was group three which were in charge of chapters ten through twelve. This group was also informative and they spoke without any hindrance. They were straight to point and gave lots of examples for their presentation. The presenters were seemingly competent and confident while delivering to the audience members. 

• Purpose of different type of speeches
• Persuasive speaking
• Special occasion presentations

    In this group, what I learned from them is without a doubt going to help me in future assignments. For example, I had no clue what a persuasive speech consist of and they were able to fill me in on the necessities for a persuasive speech. They covered other type of speeches like informational speaking which is used to spark audience members interest on the subject that they are being informed about. Their presentation is what I am going to be going back on to help me with the upcoming persuasive writing assignment.