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.