speech analysis
CST 110
06/28/2019
LISTENING WORKSHEET:
1. Provide the url for the speech you reviewed here: https://www.ted.com/talks/michelle_kuo_the_healing_power_of_reading/up-next
2. What is the topic of the speech?
The topic of the speech I chose to review is how important reading is and how it connects us all. Ms. Michelle Kuo discusses her time as a young teacher who met a young man and helped encourage him to come to school. She got in to law school and left her teaching job and after law school she was informed that the young man she had encouraged three years ago to attend school had gotten into a fight and killed someone. She returned and met with the young man, Patrick. She advised him to write letters to his brand new daughter to stay connected to her. She read what he wrote and realized that he wrote like someone who had never had any education at all. She started taking him books and poetry and they read together. She believed that if he would read then he would find the words to write to his daughter. Even after jail Patrick struggled. Helping him read helped him think. Even though thinking was painful because of the choices he had made, he was choosing to think instead of not thinking at all.
3. What is the speaker’s specific purpose?
I believe the specific purpose of this speech is to show us how we can connect and learn the inner most parts about someone and connect with them by reading with them and listening to their thoughts about what they have read. The way a person thinks about the things they read shows an intimate part of them. I think Ms. Michelle wanted to share the power of her experience because even though Patrick still had a hard life he chose to read so that he could write to his daughter.
4. HIGHLIGHT with background color-Which of the following methods of gaining interest and attention does the speaker use in the introduction?
¨ Relate the topic to the audience ¨ State the importance of the topic
¨ Question the audience ¨ Begin with a quotation
¨ Tell a story ¨ Refer to the occasion “My school, where I was placed, had no library, no guidance counselor, but it did have a police officer. Half the teachers were substitutes and when students got into fights, the school would send them to the local county jail.”
¨ Invite audience participation ¨ Use visual or audio aids
¨ Refer to a previous speaker ¨ Begin with humor
5. Does the speaker include a central idea/thesis that previews the main points of the speech in the introduction?
Yes, she begins by stating “ I want to talk to you today about how reading can change our lives.”
6. List the main points developed in the body of the speech.
· Her past and the choices that she made that put her in contact with the young man Patrick.
· She discusses the school she worked at and how they didn’t even have a library.
· She describes Patrick and his life at home. She convinces him to come to school and he started doing well in her class.
· She leaves her job as a teacher and goes to law school and leaves the school and Patrick behind.
· Three years later she is informed that Patrick is in jail for killing someone so she returns to visit him in prison.
· She begins to visit him regularly and encourages him to write letters to his daughter. When she realizes that he can not write very well so she starts to bring him books and poetry.
· She notices the change that reading and writing can do to someone.
7. Are the speaker’s main points clear and easy to follow throughout the speech? Why or why not? (Do not just answer YES or NO)
Yes. I think she told the story and it flowed into why she believes reading is so powerful and how it can change someone for the better.
8. Does the speaker use a transition/signpost or other connective between each main point of the speech? Please list a minimum of one used in speech if they are present (FYI - they SHOULD be present).
I thought the story helped the transition of the main points. She used nonverbal signposts by reading a part of a poem and stopping to let the audience hear it and take time to understand it. Then she picks up with the story.
9. HIGHLIGHT with background color- Which of the following methods of referring to the central idea (thesis) does the speaker use in the conclusion?
¨ Restate the main points
¨ End with a quotation“ I want to close on some of my favorite lines from Patrick's letters to his daughter. "The river is shadowy in some places but the light shines through the cracks of trees ... On some branches hang plenty of mulberries. You stretch your arm straight out to grab some." And this lovely letter, where he writes, "Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the words. I know this poem by heart and I would like you to know it, too."
¨ Make a dramatic statement ¨ Refer to the introduction
¨ Challenge the audience ¨ Call for action
Words 908
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Introduction into Communication
June 26, 2019
1. URL: https://www.ted.com/talks/mia_birdsong_the_story_we_tell_about_poverty_isn_t_true#t-6765 (Links to an external site.) 2
2. What is the topic of the speech?
The topic of the speech is about how we describe poverty and why it is incorrect.
3. What is the speaker’s specific purpose?
The speaker, Mia Birdsong wanted to catch the audience's attention with the fact that we, as a society overlooks a big aspect of poverty. The actual people who suffer from poverty.
4. HIGHLIGHT with background color-Which of the following methods of gaining interest and attention does the speaker use in the introduction?
¨ Relate the topic to the audience ¨ State the importance of the topic
¨ Startle the audience ¨ Arouse the curiosity of the audience
¨ Question the audience ¨ Begin with a quotation
¨ Tell a story ¨ Refer to the occasion
¨ Invite audience participation ¨ Use visual or audio aids
¨ Refer to a previous speaker ¨ Begin with humor
5. Does the speaker include a central idea/thesis that previews the main points of the speech in the introduction? “Our poverty rates have not changed much in the last 50 years. I am here to tell you that we have overlooked, the most powerful and practical resource, people who are poor.”
6. List the main points developed in the body of the speech.
· The way society describes poverty isn’t true
· We must look at the poor from a different perspective
· There are other resources that can be taken advantage of to help the poverty level go down
· One does not have to remain in poverty for the rest of their life
· “Hard work”, doesn’t always lead to success, sad to say
·
7. Are the speaker’s main points clear and easy to follow throughout the speech? Why or why not? (Do not just answer YES or NO)
Mia’s points are very easy to follow. From the get-go of her speech she immediately talks about how high our poverty levels are and why they are. She breaks down the lives of people she knows that have either suffered through poverty or still battling it currently. The audience becomes captivated due to her way of yanking at everyone's heartstrings using Pathos against us and giving a real sense of hope. She had said “Hard work, doesn’t always lead to success.” she is more than correct, that is a sense of reality.
8. Does the speaker use a transition/signpost or other connective between each main point of the speech? Please list a minimum of one used in speech if they are present (FYI - they SHOULD be present).
“Let us remember that we are magic.” Mia had started this with two minutes remaining within the video, she was beginning her final closing statements. The signpost for this particular stage is called “Transition from the body to the conclusion.” She set up the audience for the ending note and review on her previous statements. “We are magic!” “Individually we do not have a lot of wealth, but collectively we are unstoppable” “Instead of trying to alter the fabric of existing ways, let's weave and cut some fierce new cloth.” She ended with hope filling the audience with enough energy to leap up out of their seats and clap immediately after she finishes her speech.
9. HIGHLIGHT with background color - Which of the following methods of referring to the central idea (thesis) does the speaker use in the conclusion?
¨ Restate the main points ¨ End with a quotation
¨ Make a dramatic statement ¨ Refer to the introduction
¨ Challenge the audience ¨ Call for action
Word count: 603