Andre Aggasi's speech at Steffi's Hall of Fame induction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob_eU-J99HU

Andre Agassi was a great tennis player. He married also a tennis player, Stefi Graf. At this speech, Agassi introduces his wife to the Hall of Fame.
This speech is a good example of an emotional speech. Agassi prepared his speech for his wife, so he just says sweet things about her. It is a good way to make a speech because he did not make a speech that he does not care about. He really likes the subject (Stefi). In this way, he made his speech taking emotional memories to remember the time that they spent together.
In the beginning of the speech, Agassi started introducing the subject. He makes a briefly summary that he will speak about his wife. It works for this speech because it was an emotional speech. But it is a cliché. He would have a better recognition if he started his speech in a different way, not saying that he cannot find words to describe his wife.
The speech has many personal examples, which are common for personal speeches. He was successfully doing it because he explained their personal experience. It provided to the audience a little of their experience as a couple. Agassi was successfully doing it because it is a characteristic for emotional speeches.
One of Agassi’s problems was that he did not look straight to the audience. He tried to avoid looking to the audience, one time looking to the paper, other time looking to Stefi. But in a general way, the speech was a great presentation, showing that the speaker was prepared to make a speech.

Professional Nerds

This presentation was given at a convention to unveil the new Dungeons and Dragons version. The speakers use jargon that is germaine to the auidience so the fact that the average listener would not understand most of their dialogue is not out of place, however, this presentation is very flawed in many many other ways.

To begin with the speaker who is standing next to the podium wearing the blue shirt continues to rock back and forth throughout much of the presentation - this is distracting and takes away from the visual aid behind the two. Furthermore, both speakers stumble over their words at times and appear very unprepared. At 4:27 the speaker behind the podium even says "What am I missing? What am I missing?". The best and most painful example of this occurs at the end of the speech when the speaker in blue exclaims "Thank you!" as though the presentation is over and after an awkward three second pause the speaker in the red shirt goes on to tell the audience the last bit of information.

I chose this presentation because it shows how a poorly made visual aid can make a presentation look even less professional. These two gentlemen are obviously not professional speakers, however, had they used a very engaging and quality visual aid this presentation could have excited the eager crowd. Remember this crowd is composed of people who have been counting the hours until the new version is released and at no point is there any sort of exuberance or excitement displayed from the crowd.

The visual aid used throughout this travesty of a presentation is awful. When the '4 parts of 4th Edition' are revealed it is literally impossible to read the slide. For that matter, every slide in the presentation is difficult to read, the presenters failed to account for the poor projection capability of the room they would be using and left the audience with blurry, small text which made the visual aid a waste of space and energy. Note the awful slide composition at 1:06, there is far too much dead space and the text is unreadable.

This presentation was absolutely terrible, I hope the product these two represent can speak for itself.

Race In America

I know I'm not going to win any creativity points for this one, but it's an important speech and a well-delivered one.





This speech walks right into a topic typically ignored, race, and deals with it openly and honestly. For that alone it should be commended, but that is hardly its greatest quality. For starters, it assumes a level of audience intelligence that political speeches almost never exhibit. The issue is complex and Obama takes a very nuanced stand, but he never belittles the audience by oversimplifying. The assumption that his audience is smart enough to understand his speech is inspiring in that it gives the audience the impression that if we can understand the speech and others can as well, then maybe we are smart enough finally to work through our country's racial issues.

None of that would matter if the speech wasn't rooted entirely in the grave reality of American history. Obama confronts our troubled past on both sides head on, and asks all of us to transcend it. And that's remarkable.

Hitler

No matter how much I want to deny the fact, Hitler was one of the greatest motivational speakers in all of history. This speech was given in Germany during WWII.

He knows exactly what his crowd wants and he plays to that through the whole speech. Hitler also uses the fears of the audience to unite them towards a common goal. Though the movements that he does is very limited, each one evokes the audience to cheer and support his cause. He also pauses to allow for clapping and cheering which is a skill in itself.

He was a great leader and great speaker, if his views weren't as twisted he could have become one of the greatest orators of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KgJQUXr2Ws

rocky bolboa movie

Very inspiring, rocky left his family during his retiriment, but now he's gonna have one more match "a special event" his son is a successful worker by that time and is angry that everyone is talking about an old man (his father) fighting the worlds best boxer. He gave this speech before the fight.



He definately uses ETHOS, being a boxer, he compares life to boxing. "it aint about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can take AND keep moving forward". His hand gestures and facial expressions show his sincerity, then he goes on about how much he loves his son and admits to not being there enough which is a great method for emotional appeal (pathos). Its a great father to son speech, being the father and a successful fighter(somone who doesnt give up easily) establishes enough credability for the speech to be effactive.

Rare video JFK 1960 Speech at the Houston Ministers

As the Democratic Presidential candidate, JFK speaks before the House of Ministers. In this election, there has been grave concern that the Pope would be influencing American politics if JFK, a Catholic, were elected. Kennedy very matter-of-factly responds to this concern. He answers that the presidential race has more critical issues to address other than religion:

-Communism
-Hungry children
-the poor
-American farmers
-Slums
-Race to the moon

He emphatically states that he believes in absolute separation of church and state. That no religious body should seek to impose its will over the US. He never mentions the Pope directly, but does state that he is Catholic and eludes to the issue of the Pope seeking his will over the political direction of the US.

The speech is very typical of other JFK speeches I have heard. His tone of voice is somewhat monotone. His accent is heavy, but he speaks slowly enough that he is easily understood. He makes good eye contact with the audience, although he appears to be reading his speech. It is always somewhat difficult to determine the intensity of the speech...there are no hand gestures, no deliberate voice inflections, and no emphatic pauses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Jr03ADQmk

Bill Gates Speech at Harvard

Bill Gates makes a very heartfelt speech to a graduating class at Harvard University. Although he does read the vast majority of the speech, he makes eye contact frequently and the tone of his voice expresses deep concern for the issue his presents.

The speech is marked throughout the beginning with humor as he shares personal stories about his life at Harvard and his mother's disappointment when he left before graduation. Then the speech takes a serious turn as he begins to speak about the inequalities in the world. As he moves through the speech, he challenges the graduates:

-On where to spend their money
-On how to do the most good for the most amount of people with the resources they have
-On how to turn caring into action
-On using the technology at their fingertips to solve the inequalities of today

Bil Gates speaks specifically about the unfortunate deaths of children around the world due to lack of vaccinations. He talks about this at length giving some dry information about steps that should be taken to understand a problem (like the vaccination one), to form solutions and then to measure the impact of the wrok done through the solutions.

In the end, Bill Gates challenges Harvard University and the graduates to find a vision and make it a part of their life. Though dry at times, I believe his speech was from his heart. I believe he wants great things to come to those who need; and he sees that it can come from thise who have and from the use of today's technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP5VIhbJwFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_YQmRD_q9Y&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdMXquKTzM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlMxltEAwk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdMXquKTzM&NR=1

Brett Favre Retirement Speech

As an avid sports fan, this was an interesting speech for me.

Brett's speech was filled with genuine emotion. His retirement from professional football was probably the hardest decision of his life. His speech had a loosely woven structure. He basically thanked God for his talent; he thanked the Packers for giving him a chance; and he thanked the fans for their support. He did not use any type of notes, but it did not come across as a memorized piece. He appeared to me to be speaking from his heart.

At one point in the speech, he seemed to be trying to answer the critics question of why he was retireing. His answer came across very vague.

At another point in the speech, he attempted to add a bit of humor when talking about his interception record.

All in all, the speech was somewhat rambling with a purpose. But, the rambling is very easily expected based on the reason for the speech.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kACbVGsWN74

Obama's race speech

Great speech.
In this speech senator Barack Obama clearly uses Aristotle's ETHOS method which is a way of persuading through the speakers credibility. "And as long as i live i will never forget the fact that in no other country on earth is MY STORY even possible". The way he associates with the general American culture from his own roots as son of a black immigrant father and an white american mother, is highly effectice in establishing credability with the audience. His movement, eye contact, and posture clearly defines his confidence, which is an important factor in speaking about a sensetive subject such as race. Obama speaks of church attendence , also a key in establishing credability. (like Martin Luther King, he uses religon to give examples which makes his examples sacred and solid).

Malcolm X: An Early Interview (blog #3)

By this time in Malcolm X's tragically-abbreviated life, he was a converter to the growing Nation of Islam, a Muslim sect that demanded racial change and was seen by many, at that time, to be the most radically threatening resistance against White America. Mike Wallace was the interviewer. The following statements made by Malcolm X express his viewpoints and the beliefs he has learned from the Nation of Islam:

-Desegregation laws were aimed to change the white man's mind.
-Negroes need to reaffirm themselves, morally, and a knowledge of self needs to be recognized.
-Cure the indoctrinated slave mentality forced upon negroes from whites. This cure will, in turn, lead to harmonious unity which will help the negro prosper just like how the white man learned to prosper.
-Many negroes can only see success only after having been accepted into white society.
-Negroes brainwashed to the point into believing that white supremacy is justifiable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20AWmXOSN-w

JFK's speech about Space Travel at Rice University

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYb_mhiE-qU&feature=related

This speech is a motivation and persasive speech that President John F. Kennedy used in order to get people interested in space travel. This speech wa given at Rice University in 1962.

In this speech, JFK uses alot of hand gestures throughout the whole speech to give more of an emphasis on what he is trying to get across to the audience. He also uses alot of emphasis on words to show the passion that he has about his subject. I feel that the emphasis and hand gestures give the audience a better perspective of what the speech means to not just President Kennedy, but to the entire United States.

President Kennedy also used words that made himself feel closer to the audience than just there commander in chief. For example, he used words like us, our, and we to make it seem like space travel was benefiting everyone [0:01-0:45]. President also used some unique examples to get his point across to the audience. For example, he used comparisons of Rice University playing the University of Texas not because it was easy[3:00-3:08]; because it was hard. He was trying emphasis the fact that space travel was not going to be easy and that it would make the United States stronger in the end. President Kennedy also kept great great use of eye contact throughout the entire speech.

The only thing that President Kennedy could have done better was to not sway away from the microphones from time to time. He would tend to lean back and not talk directly into the microphone and its was hard to hear him from time to time. Otherwise, this speech was just another great speech by President John F. Kennedy.

Informative Speech on Chicago's Architecture

This is another random college speech I found on youtube.

Link to Speech

He begins his speech with the historical facts of the Chicago fire, but actually grabs the audiences attention with positive outlook of this tragic event in his thesis, which was that this event was the greatest thing that could have happened to Chicago’s architecture. He gives a good preview statement and summarizes his three main points. He cites his sources well, “according to…” but he relies too much on one source, "the AIA guide to Chicago.” He has very good organization . He does a good job of defining his main points and divides them up well into sub-points. He also gives good transitions between them. He gives a good conclusion, summarizing and restating his main topics.

His delivery could use some work. He relies too much on his notes – he is just reading. Also, he rarely makes good eye contact with the audience. He does a good job of moving by walking around a little, but could use more gestures. He is not very vocally expressive either. His voice reflects that he is relying too heavily on his notes.

The biggest problem is that he never really defends his thesis statement. He gives lots of information about the buildings themselves (some of which is unnecessary, like the location of each building – this would mean nothing to most people unless they live in Chicago, and even then it is still unnecessary). The problem is that he never ties in this information with his thesis.

Overall, he has good organization , but he needs improve his speech with more practice on his delivery, and by connecting the dots between his information and his thesis.

Drinking in Poor Health

Link to Speech

This was a random persuasive speech that I found on youtube about why you shouldn't drink soda.

He does not really have to analyze his audience, because he chose such a broad topic, that it relates to almost all Americans. He does a good job of getting the audiences attention at the beginning of the speech with the questions he asks. He also does a good job of changing the phrasing of each question he asks to give more variety to it. He also does a good job of referring back to these questions when he gets to the examples dealing with them, "Remember when I asked you..." However, in the introduction he should have given a preview of the material he was going to cover including the main topics. He makes good use of statistics, but relies on them too much for proof instead of for clarification as they should be used. He also needs to make sure to cite all of the statistics and other facts (some were cited and some weren't). It is good that he gives the examples of the tests that have been done alongside his own personal experience (he gives the story of his friend Carl). I like that he re-emphasizes most of his numbers and facts to let them soak in. His scientific explanation of what soda does to bones is too long and hard to follow, it could be better summarized. His conclusion also needs work -- it is too long and drawn out. However, he does do a good job of adding in the three main health risks he talks about -- diabetes, tooth decay, and brain damage.

Overall, he gives a relatively good delivery. He makes good use of pauses, maintains good eye contact, and makes a good attempt of being vocally expressive (although this could still use some work). He also needs to work on adding in more gestures; however, i realize that this was just a practice of his speech and he might make more use of gestures in the real thing. The biggest problem with his speech was the organization. He really has no structure to it and even though he has a few main topics, they are not clearly defined and he needs better transitions between them. Although he has some pretty convincing data, his lack of structure makes it hard to get his message across.

Remember

In this clip from the movie V for Vendetta the character in the mask gives a speech that is meant to inspire everyone that listens to him and persuade them to do something about their government that has does so much to hurt them. He uses soft language and speaks in a rhythm that is easy of peoples' ears and when they hear him everything is absorbed and they are being persuaded to think against the government and against the norm in that society. The masked man uses facts about the lives of the people to persuade them. He tries to persuade the listeners into remember the 5th of November and to act on that day and show that he had gotten into their minds and persuaded them to think about what was really going on in the world.

JFK persuades the UN to ban nuclear testings

This is a video I found that shows JFK's attempt to persuade the United Nations to vote for a ban on nuclear testing. The first thing that I considered when watching this speech was the audience. I think JFK did a really good job of speaking slowly and clearly enough for the people whose first language is not english. By speaking slowly, JFK also makes his points very clear.

The intoduction to the speech starts out with some prett heavy pathos. JFK starts the speech by mentioning a government official who recently died. I'm not sure who he is talking about, but his audience must have been familiar with him. JFK uses this man's passing as the reason why he must speak about nuclear testing. I think this is an excellent attention-getter.

JFK goes on to persuade the UN that nuclear testing and nuclear war must be banned world-wide. He uses strong words such as, "we must" and "resposibility, in order to include the audience and bring the issue closer to home. In reference to nuclear war, JFK uses phrases like "end of the world" and "threats to peace". Towards the end of the speech, JFK warns the UN that they must "save the planet or parish in it's flames." His use of powerful language is alarming and makes one recognize the seriousness of the situation.

While parts of the speech can seem intense and scary, JFK realized he had to use some positive images and thoughts, otherwise he would lose his audience. JFK does this by mentioning peace throughout his speech. In the conclusion of the speech, JFK makes sure to mention the "blessings of God" because it is reassuring.

I think JFK does a good job in convincing the UN of his position. He maintains good body language throughout the speech, however, I think he looks at his notes too often and it is often distracting.

Texas & Ohio Primaries Speeches: Give me your tired, your poor...

Looks like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mike Huckabee all pulled out the same rhetorical strategy during last night's Texas and Ohio primaries speeches. The cast of characters called in to appeal to our emotions included:

• a sleepy student getting only 3 hrs of sleep
• a mother with mortgage woes
• an elderly woman making a $3.01 campaign donation
• a single mother worried about health care
• a little girl wondering about homelessness
• a marine corps guy waiting for medical care
• a Michigan truck driver
• a housewife auctioning off her wedding ring
• a janitor with a wife in a wheelchair

Also seems like the candidates agreed on invoking 3 characters each. I've edited their speeches into a little YouTube video: