1000 word blog Yuliesky Marrero

 I Loved All The Presentations!

  I'll admit that while it definitely started off a bit messy with some missing students and some that seemed somewhat at unprepared that the topics they explained made sense and that I was able to understand the specific topics each of them was talking about. I personally think that the first group bore the biggest burden with the presentations but they still did well enough with how they tried to explain it, so I'd like to give them praise for that. Starting with Camilla Carla, she was able to explain the main points very concisely and explained everything that she had to without issue. For example, explaining what public speaking is in the first place, like what makes a good public speaker and how it has shifted into online spaces, as well as the foundations of public speaking, like appealing to Logos, Pathos, or Ethos, or the main 5 arts of public speaking, she made it very easy to understand what she was talking about. After her were Calymar and Romina who explained the simple but crucial aspect of confidence of public speaking. While confidence seems simple though, how it works in reality is far more complex with issues like anxiety, what others might think, even the stage the speaker is on, and building confidence is just as layered. Just as most others do with the example of Miriam, I also believed that visualizing herself as more confident would make her speech better but the fact that it didn't and would only make her more anxious shows that there is far more to this. What could really help is preparation and organization, mindfulness of the subject, talking with others, focusing on the audience and the subject, not necessarily yourself, and other techniques. Then there were Amanda and Darshan who, to me, were definitely the most detailed on their units that it almost made me feel overwhelmed. They had to explain the necessity and components of listening like understanding, empathy, appreciation, and clarity as well as some of it's flaws like certain attitudes, internal and external factors like distracting thoughts or other people, biases, and several others. While they definitely took their time, seeing Amanda's genuine enthusiasm for the subject as well as Darshan's personal aspects like his past made them feel really relatable and genuine. So that leaves us with Adriana and her topic about audiences, somewhat similar to my own, and how to reach them with questionnaires, demographics, and the type of messages on can give to make the audience understand more. It was very informative in seeing how a public speaker should adapt like taking certain groups into account, the attitudes of the audiences, and giving credible information so they could understand your point better. This leads to Group Two who were much more straight to the point and efficient but still made it clear for me why research, facts, and preparation are so important. The main takeaway for me was the many ways a speaker could gather information from so many sources, going off from one's personal stories, and testimonies from credible sources, as no honest, good-hearted person should want to spread misinformation or lies for a cause or belief they don't truly believe in. Despite their much shorter time, they gave great examples in how one should try to persuade their audiences like Aristotle's four appeals, making narratives and examples, and looking into statistics and testimonies to enhance one's credibility. So that brings Group Three next and while I see, or at least feel, that these presentations do get shorter that doesn't take away from the value of their statements as I feel that these presentations get more and more specific on certain topics and aspects on public speaking. Examples like first impressions, their importance, along with the middle and end as well really stuck out to me because even in other situations, first impressions can really make or break a person's efforts, so it makes a lot of sense to me when I have also had experiences with that. There was also the necessity for specificity like with addressing certain genders and language, just to get an idea across clearly and to leave no room for misunderstanding or bias, it shows one's fairness and professionalism. On that end, it also shows why using illustrations and slideshows can be so helpful as they can enhance one's point and make one's ideas more understandable to the audience. Once again, something I took note of and appreciate is how all of these topics connect with each other and become more specific as we go from group to group like being confident and knowledgeable in one's speech, their manner of speaking, how they present their topics with illustrations, slideshows, statistics, and narratives to get their point across. So with that, that leaves the fourth and final group. While I do think that some parts were a bit messy or perhaps excessive, like the slides not working at times or the screen cutting out at certain points, the topics were still well done and given a lot of detail. The main topics we talked about were informative speaking, persuasive speaking, which can more or less be considered opposites, the type of audiences one could be faced with, Argumentation, and more from the others. Something that stood out to me during most of these, whether you're a persuasive speaker, speaking to a certain audience, or even having an argument with someone is the necessity of being truthful as it's not something I hear about often nowadays but I suppose it goes without saying since we want people to understand us and see where we coming from, regardless of whether they're with us or against us. Once again, something I notice is how we delve deeper or go into more detail on certain topics like the many types of audiences one could be faced with like the negative, positive, divided, or other types of audiences or the way way one could present oneself in other types of meetings like video conferences, graphical online presentations, or even something like a telephone meeting, it makes me look forward to how much more we'll learn as the class continues. Our presentation ultimately closing out with the several types of special speeches one could give like tributes, toasts, nominal, and even testimonies, which have been talked about before in a previous presentation. Ultimately, what I've really learned is how important research, facts, and especially confidence, including all the factors that go into being confident, are in this field to get one's point across and make people understand what you're talking about.

From yours truly, Yuliesky Marrero