Lackawanna COM125 2022 February Assignments Latest (Full)

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 2 Assignment  

Speech of Celebration

In this speech, you will be introducing yourself to us (via video) to the rest of the class. You will present this speech celebrating all your accomplishments. It's a ceremonial speech. Pretend that you have just won an award or election you can decide this.

The job of an introduction speech is to:

introduce yourself

create a welcoming, attentive ready-and-motivated-to-listen anticipation in the audience

focus and unite the audience, ready them for what is to come.

Below are some things you will need to include in your speech. Choose 4 of the following 7:

Current academic/career goals – explain or elaborate in a few sentences

Favorite activity or hobby - explain or elaborate in a few sentences, make it interesting

Person who most inspires you- explain or elaborate in a few sentences, including why

Members of immediate family - explain or elaborate in a few sentences, perhaps how the personality of the family formed the person

One interesting thing about you - explain or elaborate in a few sentences

One interesting thing about your hometown - explain or elaborate in a few sentences

The principle or credo (beliefs) they live by - explain or elaborate in a few sentences, maybe why they are being honored

Introduce yourself and the highlights from your life. Remember, the goal of every speech is to improve the lives of the audience.  What’s in it for them?

Organize the information into some kind of logical pattern that will make it easy for the audience to follow.  Chronological, or otherwise.  The pattern of the speech needs to be very clear.  This can be accomplished by using signposts, or linking devices that cue the audience in to what is coming next.  For example, “Leo originally majored in Nuclear Physics at Stanford, and you may wonder why he’s not a physicist now.  Leo later decided radio was what he really wanted to do with his life.  And that’s why he’s poor and unemployed today!”

This speech will run from 2-3 minutes.  PLEASE keep an eye on the time, and do not run less than 2 minutes or more than 3 minutes.  This is an important part of your grade.

You’ll be graded on whether or not you used 4 of the 7 points above.  You’ll also be graded on delivery (including but not limited to eye contact), energy, poise, creativity, staying within the time frame, and organization.

 

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 3 Assignment  

Demonstrative Speech

You're going to show us and tell us how to do something.  It should be something you already know how to do, or know a lot about.  Think of your own interests.  Make sure it is something your audience can relate to.  If you are REALLY interested in it, and communicate that fascination to us, we will be too.

Think hard about how this relates to your audience.  A bunch of 50 year old women from Northeast Pennsylvania would be FASCINATED by a demonstration of how to make pierogis.  You guys, not so much.  Well, maybe if we could eat 'em after.

I want lots of stuff, things, supporting materials.  Draw on the board.  Show us a car engine.  Bells and whistles, really.  But not for bells & whistles sake.  It has to EDUCATE, somehow.

It will probably be easier for you if you demonstrate something you recently learned, as opposed to something you've known how to do all your life.  If you're relatively new to it, you'll have a better understanding of what you should say to us to get us to understand.  That said, make sure you KNOW YOUR TOPIC and know how to do it.

And remember too, you're going to have to be persuasive to the extent that you have to communicate your interest in the topic with us.  Tell us why our lives would be better if we learn how to do this thing.  Tell us at the beginning of the speech.... this is when you create the need in us.  This is pretty important and if you forget to do it, POINTS OFF!!!!

Allowing for time for you to show us how to do stuff, the speech length will be 4-7 minutes.

The outline will be quite rigid this time.  Only 2 or 3 words maximum for each heading and subheading.  No lengthy sentences.

The purpose of this demonstration speech is to provide interesting, useful, and unique information to your audience, toward the betterment of their lives, and to have them actually retain some of it.

 

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 4 Assignment  

Dramatic Presentation

You’re going to give a 2 -5 minute dramatic presentation.  This can be in the form of a scene from a play or movie, poetry or any other verbal kind of drama.  It will be an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the techniques of the dramatic arts.  And believe me, drama plays a large part in effective oral communication.

You’re going to memorize your presentation.  This will be the only time you have to memorize the whole entire thing, but it’ll be good practice. Yes, you can have your lines printed up and visible off camera somewhere, but you may NOT read your presentation. It has to at least look like you memorized it.

You will be allowed to have another person in your presentation, if you so desire.  But YOUR part should be at least 2 minutes.

Try to avoid curse words or too much graphic content.  This is only because you need to develop your skills in other areas, not shock value.

You can dress up if you want to, and use simple props.  This is optional but if it helps you, you might as well use it.  Important here will be voice modulation, tones, pitch, body movements and gestures, especially facial expressions.  This is one assignment where most of you will not even be able to reach “over the top”.

You may be asking, how can I “be myself” in a dramatic presentation when I’m supposed to be somebody else?  Glad you asked.  One of the basic principles of acting is, develop the emotion you are supposed to be expressing so that it appears on your face, in your body movements.  This will resonate with the audience because they’ll know the emotion is real.  It’s called method acting and is just a way of really putting yourself into the role.  This is going to teach you how to express the emotions you already have about your future speech topics.

I would like this presentation to have some kind of Point.  Moral.  Focus.  I’m open to anything, but please make it clear to the audience what direction you want us to be going.

Check out the rubric below.  It’s ALL voice and body language-oriented.  Vocal changes, pitch (high/low), volume (loud/soft), and rate (fast/slow).  Gestures, facial expressions.  THIS is what you’ll be graded on here.

 

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 5 Assignment  

Self Critique Paper

You’re going to watch all your speeches, from the Ice Breaker right up to the Dramatic, from beginning to end.

               Then you’re going to write me a two paged (double spaced, 12 point font) paper (at least…longer’s OK) listing how you delivered your speeches in the beginning of the semester, specifically how you have improved through the semester, and where you stand now, on the cusp of your final two speeches.

               Please give me specific examples, and go into painfully lengthy detail about your strengths and weaknesses. This has to be original…in fact if you think there’s something awesome about the way you speechify and you think I haven’t noticed, do bring it to my attention.

 

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 6 Assignment  

Informative Voiceover PowerPoint

When merely presenting information, you may or may not have an agenda.  But you ARE trying to make the audience aware of something.  You ARE promoting something...understanding.  You ARE creating a need...to know.  So it's still advertising, just a milder form.

You've already demonstrated something to us.  This was promotion...you promoted how cool it is to make taco dip, or mac-cheese, or save lives.

Informational speeches can show, clarify, and (believe it or not) inform.

They need to be organized.  Here are some ways to do that:

            Cause and effect

            Chronologically

            Numerically

            Problem/Solution

            Spatial

            Topical (subject)

GIVING AN INFORMATIONAL SPEECH

Explain something the audience is unfamiliar with and will find interesting. What's in it for them?  What reward will they get if they listed to you?

Excite the audience with an attention getter (question, story, strong statement, etc)

Identify your central theme

Concentrate on why the audience may be interested in what you are saying.

Give information and support it with examples.

Summarize your messages because if they're too long you'll lose your audience.

Research so you sound credible. CITE YOUR SOURCES, ex.  "Dr. Ahman Farsi the chair of the environmental science department of the University of Delaware, says litter is bad".

Be familiar with your speech outline and how to use your visual aids so you sound and look poised. This would be solved by PRACTICING.

Refer to the beginning of your speech and the important points made during your closing.

Rules for the speech

This speech will be an "Informative Voiceover Powerpoint." You'll make a powerpoint about your speech, and all your points.  Then you'll RECORD your voice into the powerpoint. Here's a video on how to do that: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/record-a-slide-show-with-narration-and-slide-timings-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c (Links to an external site.)

Speech runs 5-7 minutes. Timing is pretty important here!

Keep it interesting!!!

Cite all sources.  Make sure you turn in your bibliography at the end of the PowerPoint. I want most of them to be peer reviewed academic journals, or at least publications on the subject.

Speeches are due Sunday at 11:59pm

This will be a BIG file so instead of attempting YouTube or just uploading it to the discussion thread, it will be easier to submit it to Google Drive.  We all have an account there, so if you just click on “Share” once it’s uploaded, they’ll give you a URL that you can post in the discussion thread.

 

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 7 Assignment  

Persuasive Speech

You're going to give a persuasive speech.  It will be between 5-10 minutes long. This assignment will also be in the form of PowerPoint with audio.

What have we done this semester?  What have we learned?  What am I expecting from you?  Here's a list:

Attention grabber in the beginning

A compelling reason to listen

A well-organized speech

Credible sources of any and all types.  The more you have, and the more diverse they are, the better

Interesting yet not distracting graphics or videos

Don't go over or under time.

Make me want to do whatever you're asking me to do...Close: don't just quit. Make sure I know EXACTLY what you want me to do and give me EXACT instructions on how to do it. (Remember it is a persuasive speech).

The only topics off limits are the death penalty and abortion.

You will be required to submit a bibliography, it can go at the end of your PowerPoint.

 

This is where it all comes together baby!