Telling Stories

Story telling is one of several great options for a well developed and effective attention getter and/or memorable speech ending...know anyone who can tell a really good story? In addition to startling use of statistics, dramatic and evocative language, stunning imagery and provocative rhetorical questioning....telling a good tale draws people in to recieve your persuasive message...

Let's tell a story together, I will go first--I'll type a short paragraph and whoever responds first should add the next paragraph, and the next post will add to that one, and so on, resulting in a complete and hilarious story I will attempt to read in our next class, OOPS I mean "get together!" So, to be clear, I want you to read all the previous paragraphs and then add a new one to extend our story person by person, ok?

Penelopee K. Finklestein-Kraus was only 19 when she took Sandra's life-altering "Speaking 4 Success" on line course at SCC one summer. Penelopee suffered from SA or "speech anxiety" as they call it in the industry. Sandra, a true wizard at the mysterious art of rhetorical prose had used a highly controversial and some might even say "risky' technique to help Penelopee face her fears and become a great speaker in just 5 short weeks. The way Sandra had helped Penelopee through her on-line course involved 5 items: a rat, an ipod, her cell phone, a bucket of green paint and a snorkel......

big WORDS!

According to Brydon and Scott (2007) "People who hope to influence us choose specific words and phrases to maximize the chance that we will interpret their messages as they intend them to be interpretted" (p. 254).

1. Use the word rhetorical in a flourishing sentence that shows you understand the definition.
2. Tell us about a big talker in your life--someone who uses a flashy vocabulary and/or name drops to impress people. Does it work or just make them look goofy?
3. Is using big or flashy language or insider-jargon in a speech inclusive or immediate? Re-Read chapter 10 and get ready for a quiz...????!!!! Oh the mystery! Smiles--Sandra

References
Brydon, S. & Scott, M. (2007). Between One and Many. " 6th Ed.: Chapter 10. McGraw-Hill: New York.

Blog 5: Information Super Highway

1. Go out and drive somewhere.
2. Come back to the blog and write about it.
3. A speech is like a drive. A journey. Your informative speech should explain, demonstrate, show or tell how and or why something is worth caring about. It's not just the end result but what you saw out the window along the way, doing research, reading, looking around, talking to people, rolling down the window and enjoying the view. Use an analogy (see chpt 10 on language)to compare writing a speech to a summer road trip in 5 sentences of so. Remember, informative speeches don't use the word "should." There's no persuasion, save that for the last speech hotshot! Use vivid language to create a mood and strong delivery to speak in high style. Good luck on your informative speeches!

Blog 4: COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES!!!!!!

COLOR! Make your speeches colorful--how will you use language to paint pictures and be colorful in your important informative and persuasive speeches coming up soon? Think Chapter 10, our theme chapter for our summer get-togethers...vivid language, language that invites EVERYONE to pretty much, join your party! For this blog assignment, write a 5 line paragraph using the most vivid language you can muster up (get out the thesaurus and fund some fabulous synonyms for boring words...for instance: hate becomes: detest...look up to becomes: worship....sophisticated and colorful vocabulary earns big speaker credibility or "ethos"--keep the language rated G please...choose your favorite color and describe how it makes you feel, then turn it up with vivid POETIC words and adjectives...Por ejemplo:

I LOVE GREEN...THAT CHARTEUSE INFUSED DYNAMIC SHADE OF GREEN THAT WRAPS A LIME IN HIGH STYLE. GREEN IS THE SKIP IN MY LIVELY STEP AND THE STRAPS OF MY PERFECT SUMMER STRAW BAG....MEMORIES: HIS EYES WERE THAT DEEP SHADE, THE EMERALD MEETS APPLE TONE THAT DANCES ON THE TIPS OF SHADY OAK LEAVES AND INVITES THE SUN TO LINGER WHEN THE AFTERNOON BEGINS TO FADE.

Summer Musings and Talks With Pics

Pretend like this is our classroom...LOL! Ok, it's not quite that relaxing, but what can I do?!? Visual aids and pictures are important support for any good speech, in fact a beautiful or moving image can set the mood for your talk and draw your audience into your speech. Visuals must be big enough to be seen clearly by all audience members and should have very small amounts of text, in a simple font. They should support your speech and add depth to the mesage. Dream up your most creative idea for a visual aid in a speech/"Chat" titled "Lazy Summer Days." Read the previous postings because i want an original idea that no one else has posted in order to count this blog towards your grade, ok? Take a look at the book chpt on visual support too. --Sandra