This week, we took some time to overview the course. Let's take some time to think about the first presentation you're going to give. You don't need to respond to all the questions- feel free to just take one and run with it, or perhaps another subject that may interest you. The questions are a starting ground to get us thinking. What types of topics interest you? What kind of choices will you make for your topic/possible topics, given the timeframe?
A couple of other thoughts... how do you best construct your thoughts when organizing information for a project/presentation? What techniques do you use when/if you construct an outline for a project?
Let's begin by discussing within the comments, although individual posts are also welcome.
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I'm not sure what my final topic is going to be but I am very interested in cars, sports, and aviation so my topic will probably fall within one of those topics. I am an aviation management major so I think I have some extensive knowledge within the industry, specifically air traffic control.
ReplyDeleteWhen I begin to construct my thoughts I like to just write things down and brainstorm into a rough outline and add thoughts and topics to talk about during my speech.
I'm thinking about doing something along the lines of hip-hop dancing, specifically krump dancing. I'm not sure if I will give a demonstration or show a clip, but it'd most likely be one of the two.
ReplyDeleteWhen I found out that the first speech will be 2-3 minutes long, I had to come up with another topic from the one I had originally chosen, as to give any information about it would be more feasible in a 5 minute speech, but even that would be fairly succinct. That being said, I'm planning on doing a topic that most of the class may already have experience doing, but I will also be adding in a "how things work on the aviation industry side" twist (explaining some of the things from our side of the fence :D)
ReplyDeleteIf the truth be told, I actually hate doing outlines for speeches/essays :X. I am much better at "winging" it. When doing an essay, I do an "outline" in my head (come up with the things I'm going to discuss). When it comes to a presentation, such as for a speech, I prefer to have a starting point, and just go from there.
I'm interested in useful freeware and am always looking for new programs that make using my computer more fun and efficient. That being said, I'm going to do my presentation on my new favorite freeware program. I'm a Computer & Information Technology major, so I am extremely interested in anything that makes my computer better.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get ready for a speech or essay, I have a hard time doing the introduction and conclusion. I know what I want to talk about, but making up the summary is difficult for me because I feel like I've said it all in the body. I usually build the body first, then determine what I've said, and try to summarize it. I usually don't brainstorm ahead how the paper should flow.
Topics that generally interest me usually are what's going on in the news, or subjects that parallel my interests, activities, and ideals. Being an impromptu speaker from High School, I enjoy being able to pick from ideas that are readily available and relate them back to the topic at hand. I do find that giving a speech on something you are interested, but not yet knowledgable in, is a great way to learn about new subject matter, as explaining it to someone else forces you to know more about a topic.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can speak impromptu, without an outline, i do feel that it helps me to put my points down on paper. Seeing what I will speak about helps me to visualize and therefore, improve upon each point. I always have 3 main points within my body and in the intro and conclusion, cleverly make it clear what those points are. Often times, i will even use three different positions across the room to speak from for each main point. I feel that this makes a verbal transition match up with a physical transition to another point in the room, and helps the audience in futher separating each main point, both verbally through my speech, and visually through my position in the room.
Hey all! I'm not totally sure on my topic yet, but I am very interested in continuous improvement exercises, trying new kinds of beer, working outside. I looove the history channel and discovery channel. I really enjoy learning about the past and how things work.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I do to prepare for a speech, I outline, and then I just practice over and over, though sometimes its like an hour before the speech is due.
The topics that interest me the most are computer/internet, electronics and aviation. For our first speech I plan on giving a very brief overview of how data is sent across the internet and more specifically how DNS works. I figure since this is a technical communications class, I would make my speech somewhat technical.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I prepare for a speech, I always create an outline. The first version of my outline is generally very cluttered and includes a lot of information. I will then make revisions and include only the information I will say in my speech.
I have a few topics in mind so it will come down to what I can manage to keep within the time frame. I'm on the Purdue Waterski Team so I may talk about something related to that or I may talk about the upcoming Olympics, I'm not sure yet. If I can find something to talk about within my field that can make it within the time frame, I will try and run with that.
ReplyDeleteAs for the outlines, I like to try and visually run through the presentation in my head and then write down the key points that I will try and speak about in an outline. If I am knowledgeable about the topic, then I typically feel comfortable with a really rough outline and just winging it and going with the flow.
I start to decide my topic by considering something of interest to my audience. The class is mostly made of students from the College of Technology. Choosing a technical subject current in today’s news would be a good choice to engage my audience. Time is the most determining factor in deciding how my speech is going to be constructed. A speech that is short such as 2-3 minutes would only cover three topics about my subject. I then decide the three most important things I should get across in my speech. In the introduction and conclusion I comprise simple definitions of these main topics.
ReplyDeleteThe topics that interest me are usually technology related. Given my time frame and technology oriented interests, I decided on a topic that will be fairly simple for the audience to take in, as well as be helpful to students in the future.
ReplyDeleteGenerally for organizing information for the presentation, I like to read up and obtain as many resources as possible, I feel that in order to properly present information to your audience you need to be a master of that topic or at the very least know how to obtain that answer.
I am fascinated with computers and video games. Many of my interests concern graphics, since they are heavily used in games and since I also enjoy creating digital artwork. I frequently work with image files on computers when creating computer art, game graphics, or website images. Therefore, I think it will be fitting for me to present a technical discussion of computer images, or more specifically of the differences between some common image file formats.
ReplyDeletePart of my reason for choosing this subject is that it provides a fairly narrow field of discussion. If I were to attempt to discuss everything I know about computer images - including, perhaps, such topics as the history of their use and a relatively exhaustive list of formats - I would have far too much material to work with for a 2-3 minute speech. I will likely restrict myself to talking about only 4-6 formats and their most basic characteristics.
My methods for constructing my thoughts for a project or presentation vary depending on what I am preparing for. In the case of a speech like this one, my main preparation method is creating a carefully ordered outline for reference. The outline may start out as a simple unordered list of ideas which I type down in Notepad as I think of them; I subsequently refine the ideas and put them into a logical order. For certain other types of projects, such as website designs and other more graphics-oriented activities, I may find it helpful to draw sketches or diagrams representing the appearance or structure of whatever I am designing.
I like to get a blank piece of paper and just start writing ideas down. they dont have to be in any specific order, just whatever pops into your head pertaining to the topic. after a few ideas get down, you will start to see some kind of natural order form and categories will start to appear. those are potential topics for your outline and then you can start to gather information from there. start with what you know about the topic (if you are already familiar with it) and then some more subtopics will begin to form. pretty soon, you have a rough outline that can be further polished for one that will produce a nice presentation.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I work on my outline from beginning to end. I actually start with my introduction and use that to define what I will talk about. Then from there I work through my points, and then my conclusion. It's kind of different, as I know many people define their points and then make their intro based on that, but I feel as if it is easier to define the points in the intro first and get myself more into them later on just as if I was speaking.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get a project or presentation assigned from any course, they all seem to follow the same line. Get topic for the project, get as many ideas for the project down on paper and then figure out which ones are actually viable due to my procrastination. My outlines are constructed very similar, they start with the topic and then list the ideas from it bellow. Usually the idea with the most support to it leads things off in the presentation. Once all is said and done, I like to keep the speech itself scripted as little as possible so I'm not pressured for exact wording. As long as I know the key ideas and their support, all is well.
ReplyDeleteFor the informative speech I originally wanted to talk about the different sub-genres of metal music but I didn't think I could cover that in two to three minutes. Plus I wanted to do something more technology-related so I decided to talk about drum triggers. Triggers are sound devices for drums but you guys will hear about that tomorow.
ReplyDeleteAs far as outlines go, I usually just put down my main points to keep me organized during my speech. I avoid putting too many words in the outline so that I am talking more than reading during the speech.