Impromptu Speech

This week we presented the famouse and feared impromptu speeches. They were not as bad as we expected, at least a speak for myself. I was chosen to presento almost at the end, something which I do not enjoy alot. The topics were chosen by luck, in which there was a bag full with folded papers each with one topic. The one that I got to talk about was punctuality. As quickly as possible I came up with an interesting attention grabber, and the rest of the speech resulted easily. At the end everything resulted great, I hope I could receive a good grade since it´s the last activity for this semester. Overall I think I will get a good average grade.

Week 13 Speech

This week we had another speech assignment which was carried out by teams of two. Once I had my teammate, we decided we were going to talk about cheating on classes. We thought it was a good topic since it leads to many interesting arguments. We discussed what causes students to cheat, which were mostly because of trying to save scholarships, competitive classmates, and also simply because of those who didn’t like to study on their own.  We also discussed the consequences which were to get caught; therefore, suspended or expelled. The day before the speech I was very busy, so I didn’t have enough time to rehearse; however, I understood the topic completely so I was able to improvise. At the end everything turned out great. We gave a good speech that our classmates and teacher enjoyed. 

The power of one

Last week we say during two periods of class the movie “The power of one”, which I enjoyed a lot. The movie is about the life of an English boy who was born in Africa. Before he was born he lost his parents, and afterwards at a young age so did his mother. The lived his life being bullied. Later on he learned to be a boxer thanks to an African coach, who ended up being murdered by an Afrikaner guard. He grew up with hatred toward racist people. Long story made short, he ends up fighting for the rights of the black people. He lost a lot of good friends during this fight including her girlfriend, but that did not make him stop. This movie taught me a lot. It showed me to show perseverance at all times, and to fight for what I believe is right.  

Second Partial individual Speech.

This week we had our individual speech which was very important since it consisted of 20% of our partial grade. We were given one hundred topic to choose from. After a while of looking for one, I decided to talk about the topic " Should fast food include a warning label and a extra tax fee?". The speech had to be five minutes long and the essay eight hundred words long. It took me a while in finishing my essay, and once I did I started to review it for my speech. Saying the whole essay I lasted approximatly six minutes which was ok. Overall I did a good job and received a very good grade from my professor. I think I am getting better each day in speaking in front of a public thanks to this class.

Second Partial Exam

A few days ago we had our second partial exam por public speaking  and academic writing class. That day when I presented the exam I was kind of tired, sonce one class before the exam I had just had my Math ezam. Thanks to this, I was tired and kind of stressed because it was kind of dificult; however, I felt good during the exam becuase I was able of answering almost everything. Later on I discovered I actually did good on the exam since I had a grade above 90. I was very glad thanks to my grade and I am looking forward in improving even more in order to help increase my efectiveness in this class.

Class Debate

Last week we had our debates at class, in which everyone had to present the topic that they chose by teams. The topic we chose was "Should death penalty be legalized?". The team consisted of one person agaist, the other in favor, and one moderator that presented the topic. I was against the legalization of death penalty, so I presented my arguments to the teacher and class in order to try to convince them. At the end everything turned out great. We were able to give a good debate to the class and received a good grade by our teacher.

Home Session "Passive Voice"

On Friday our teacher gave us the liberty of working by ourselves. That same day I saw the PowerPoint presentation that had all the instructions that needed to be carried out. I chose my teammate and we agreed to work separately and use Facebook to communicate. First thing in the morning on Saturday we started working. I began to work on the essay as my other teammate began to work on the exercise given by the teacher. As we both finished, we exchanged our work in order to check out for any mistakes that may have slipped on each other’s work.  We finished without any problems and we were able to do a solid work, or at least we expected that. Overall, I think this home work was very useful for us since it helped us practice passive voice, which we can now use on our future assignments. 

Mark Zuckerberg Speech

On Wednesday I had to give my informative speech because there wasn’t enough time on Monday. At first I was frustrated because I wanted to do it on Monday to be free of work; however, I realized that this gave me more time to practice what I was going to say. Saying my speech on Wednesday actually worked out for me, since I had a lot of time to prepare myself. At the end, a positive result was given by all my effort, since I received a very good grade. I am looking forward for my next speech given that I realize I am getting better at speaking in front of the class. Thanks to all the speeches I have given, each time I feel more confident of myself as I am giving my speech.

First Partial Exam

My first partial exam was very interesting, since I used the same speech I said that same day at my Spanish class. It took me a very long time to finish my Spanish speech because I wanted it to be perfect; Therefore, I knew I had done a good job so I decided to also use it my Public Speaking Class. If I had decided to do I new speech I wouldn´t have finished on time. My effort was reflected on my grade which was very good. I think I´ll do good on this partial and I hope to keep up with the good work.

Team speech

Last week instead of making a speech and passing by ourselves to the front of the class, the teacher decided to do it this time in teams. The teams were of 3 members each, and we had to talk for at least 10 minutes. Our team got together to work on the speech, and everything turned out to be great. We talked about nuclear energy and its positive and negative impacts. I really enjoyed this activity because I improved my public speaking skills along with my teammates.

First Two Weeks

The first two weeks of my Public Speaking and Writing Skills class have been very interesting so far. I have learned so many things by now, such as overcoming my fear of speaking in public, writing a formal letter, and the use of conjunctive adverbs. The difficulty of giving a speech on public has just risen, since now I have to do it in teams and talk for ten minutes, but I´m certain things will go just fine.

This is a class that I usually enjoy, so learning new things does not complicate that much for me. The most difficult task so far has been the speech I had to give in front of the class; However, with enough practice by the end of the semester I should be able to talk in public with no problem.

I hope I keep learning new things this semester and keep improving my public speaking along with my writing skills. I look forward to the next class to see what´s new in learning.

"Speech day"

On Monday the 19^th of August I gave my speech to the class. It was about a personal experience of my choice, which on this case was about the first time I went to the casino. I felt very nervous about giving my speech in front of the whole class, so I decided to volunteer to be one of the firsts in order to get rid of that feeling. Once I started giving my speech, I felt much better, so I started to speak more fluently. In some parts I had to improvise in order to not stumble with my own words. At the end I finished my speech and I received a round of applause from my classmates.

"Getting to know each other"

Today on our second english class our teacher planned a very interesting activity for us. At first he told us to choose 3 out of 5 different subjects to draw about. I chose family, hobbies, and future plans. After that we formed groups of 4 people in which by turns we had to explain our pictures to the rest of our teammates. Overall I think that this activity was very helpfull for us in order to break the ice and start making new friends. As the second say of class, I am finding this course in being very helpful by helping me practice my public speaking skills. I am looking forward for the next class to see what´s new to be done.