Lackawanna COM125 2022 February Module 3 Discussion (dq1+dq2) Latest

COM125 Effective Speaking

Module 3 Discussion

DQ1 Your text talks about how to select a topic that's right for you in Chapter 10.  They talk about your experience, the audience, and "a timely and timeless topic."

Just how do you go about selecting a topic?  For the first two speeches, the topic is selected for you.  After that it's all up to you.  What do you think the most important things are to consider when selecting a topic? 

 Here's my example:  When I was working at New Jersey 101.5, we had to pick a different topic to talk about for every hour we were on.  It had to be something that was "top-of-mind" for the listeners, and also be "Jersey-centric."  This was really difficult at times, and sometimes I would find myself checking every single newspaper in the state for a decent topic!  Luckily it was not a real political station, and you could get away with "What was your favorite toy as a kid," and meaningless topics like that.  However I did find that people were quite passionate about those lame topics!  Anyway we often ended up talking about stuff I liked, like gardening, or music, or sci-fi.  I also had a few "evergreens" that I would resort to if all else failed, like "elderly drivers should be tested yearly."  In fact anything about driving, or the roads, was always a home run because most of our listeners spent a whole lot of time in the car!

DQ2 Motivational Appeals

Watch two separate commercials for two different products. (Example: department store, candy, car…embed a video or post a youtube or other kind of link so we can watch them). In each one, identify the audience motivations that the advertising are appealing to.  The handout on Chapter 24, Motivational Appeals, will be immensely helpful.

Explain what in the commercial led you to these conclusions. This will be easier if the commercials you watch are locally produced, since they will be much less nuanced and more heavy handed with their appeals.

Quite often the people you see as actors in the commercial actually belong to the targeted demographic.  This is a big clue as to who's targeted.