Journal #7
This chapter is actually one of the chapters that is going to be very helpful later on in life. While the previous chapters we read were all very important, they were more geared toward doing speeches in more professional settings or in the classroom. This chapter about speaking at special occasions is something that will occur far more often than something such as a board meeting, at least for my job and career path. I really enjoyed how they listed the different types of special occasions and what moods to give along with them such as speeches that entertain should be lighthearted and amusing, speeches that inspire should be motivated by examples, and speeches that commemorate should pay tribute and offer remembrance. THere are so many others but I think that stood out to me and will be helpful to me in the future so I understand which direction to take with future toasts, eulogies, and speeches I may have to give. It still amazes me with every chapter we read how many different types of speeches there are just in the special occasion category alone. I also enjoyed the quick tip about trying to make a eulogy commemorate life and not focus on the death. That will be very helpful if I ever have to do one.
Journal # 8
This speech was very important to me as I got to share a bit about my life and my mom. I really liked showing how proud I am of her and how much she has impacted my life. I think growing up poorer than many, it is important for people to understand that even with nothing you can still be happy and have a great life. It wasn’t very difficult for me to write this speech and it all sort of came to me naturally. I think I did well at organizing the speech. I worked harder to try and put together more of a conclusion as that is one of the things I have been working harder on. I believe I stumbled over my words a bit more in this speech than in others which I am trying to work on but I also was doing the speech while sick so that may have been part of it. I think I need to work on slowing down still as I could feel myself get faster at times which I tried to adjust in the speech but it is difficult to remain conscious of all these little details while trying to remember everything you are going to say. I am proud of how far I have come and know I have further to go. Hopefully after our final speech I will be a pro.
