Wk 4- Discuss the importance of audience analysis and audience adaptation in the speech development process. Also, discuss how YOU plan on using this

As I've read in the text, audience analysis is very important. The more you know the demographic that you are presenting your topic to, the easier it will be to prepare and present to them. If someone goes into a speech without any kind of audience analysis or prior research, there will be a disconnect with the audience and the speaker. After the audience analysis has been done, adapting to your audience should be next. For example, if you plan on presenting facts to your audience it should be easily understood and comprehensible. So the speaker may have to make certain adjustments to adapt to the audience.
So far I've used audience analysis for my speech by getting to know some people in this class just by reading blogs and comments, this gives me a general idea of how I will prepare my speech. The class is very diverse and with my topic I hope to expand people's knowledge of my culture that is not widely known about. I hope that will be able to demonstrate this to the best of my ability and not bore anyone in the process :).

Speech Buddy: Review Drinking and Light Pollution videos on the Interactive Video website in accordance with Chapter 5. Respond to each video.

Light pollution speech...
I thought that this girl had a well organized and well thought out introduction of the topic. She sort of mapped out her speech and told us where she was going by introducing her main subjects and tying those into how it related to her topic. She did seem a little nervous though by the use of her hand gestures and how she had her hands on her hips.

Drinking speech...
I think this guy had a good speech. It was well thought out and organized. His tone supported the seriousness of the topic. I thought he had a good attention grabber in the very beginning by pretending to vomit from excessive drinking. He had good use of stats that supported his topic very well. Overall, I think that this was a good speech that was very well organized and all the facts supported his topic, which tied everything together.

What I learned...
It definitely takes practice to have a well thought out speech that flows well. Also, I think that having a good intro with a defined thesis statement helps the audience follow where you are going with the speech. Lastly, having good facts to back up your statement does help you reconfirm what you are trying to deliver to the audience.

Week 4--Pick one concept from the assigned reading (Chapter 5) that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

The one concept from the reading that I found interesting in chapter 5 was section of 'gathering demographic data'. I had no clue that this was actually done in speaking, just in business as far as marketing products and/or services to people or businesses. This I found was quite interesting, because we can gather demographic information about the audience and actually tailor our speeches towards them. Which we probably have seen with all the political debates that have been going on in the recent months. I think it is a little more comfortable when you are giving a speech to an audience that you are familiar with and actually have some type of interaction with on a daily or weekly basis. So this concept shed some light to me and hopefully I will be able to demonstrate this in my speech :)

Week 3--Update the class on your speech preparation progress. What topic have you chosen? What have you been researching? What are you main points in

So the topic that I have choosen to present on is a drink called otai (sp?) that my mom's side of the family brought here from the South Pacific, Tonga to be exact. It's usually made during the hot months because its a very cool refreshing drink, and alcohol can even be added to it for a little kick! :) My main points of the speech are going to be, introducing the subject to everyone and where it originated from, let people know the different variations of the drink that people tend to make, and I will go into how to make it. For my visual aids I will bring in the ingredients to make it and some cups so everyone can try it if they would like!

Week 3--What experience do you have with conducting research interviews? What went well? What needed improvement?

I honestly have never conducted a research interview during my years here at SJSU suprisingly. I would guess the way about conducting it would be similar to a qualitative interview, where you would interview a respondant and basically record and understand the subjest matter. I believe this is a more of an in depth interview with a respondant seeking to get quality responses from the interviewee. The person conducting the interview is a very skilled interviewer and has a set number of questions that they have prepared for the interview and may get off course due to individuals different personality types.

Apprehensive about public speaking....

I can honestly say that I am very apprehensive about public speaking. I am currently a senior and this is my last semester at SJSU and I've waited until the last minute to take this class. My first speaking class (Comm40) was when I was a sophomore and it was a total disaster. I've done numerous presentations with groups and also individually, but I think my main problem is getting over the nervousness and speaking with confidence. I really do want to become a great public speaker and I truly hope this class will help me in any way.