Hi everyone,
This week's discussion is a bonus. Feel free to use this space as a general place for reflection about any discussions we've had in class so far or any relevant issues. Continuing our thoughts about persuasion is another idea you may want to continue developing. Sharing relevant links, resources, or interesting articles might be nice as well.
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I really like the topic of persuasion. To me it is a powerful tool when communicating with peers. The goal is not to control other people forcibly, but instead a subtle mind game which has to be carefully played so that your peers will agree with you. I have had many formal and informal debates and I have always enjoyed changing people perceptions. It is also personally challenging and for the most part if I can not persuade someone to see my point of view, I gain a whole new perspective which is just as important.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brandon in that persuasion is very powerful. However it is very hard to use. I know that when I listen to speeches if I am not interested in the topic I'll just tune it out then the speech is useless from there on for me. So one of the biggest points that I know I have to try to get to with my topic is simply getting people to listen.
ReplyDeleteFor the first day of our persuasion speeches I thought that they were all really good. I particularly enjoyed the moon landing hoax speech. It had all the elements of good persuasion and it was a very interesting and out of the norm topic. I also thought the biking and powerpoint speeches had great strength in persuasion as well. I didnt feel that any of the speakers were trying to force the issue onto the class at all. Each one had good facts and information to try and sway us. I thought it was a good first day.
ReplyDeleteThese are all such good points... I am looking forward to further discussing these in class, particularly as we move towards the final persuasive speech. Brandon-- that is a good outlook. I agree with a lot of your points. For myself, I always find it hard for me to put together some sort of persuasive presentation.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, you brought up a good point about interest/listening. Even the best prepared presentations may simply bore some audiences, or the listener may develop fatigue over time.
Kris-- Agreed! We had a great first day. Wish we had enough time for more Q&A in this class!
I find the topic of persuasion to be difficult. I'm not sure about the techniques one can use to persuade a group of people one way or another. I've never really been the type of person to be full on pro-something and trying to convinve everbody else to be pro-something.
ReplyDeleteI have always liked speaking, but persuasion is surely the most difficult type for me. My speech teacher in high school realized this and gave us plenty of debates and other activities that involved persuasion. One of our last speeches was even doing sales pitches to customers with characteristics we didn't know about.
ReplyDeletePersuasive speeches might often be more interesting to me than informative speeches, but they're probably also a good deal more difficult to do well in, because simply telling someone about something is a lot easier than persuading someone of something.
ReplyDeleteI've been in countless Internet debates on message boards, and I know first-hand that it's nearly impossible to convince people of anything, at least online (where things are more impersonal), if they really don't want to believe it. In this class it's a more encouraging environment, because of the "in the classroom" factor and the fact that we're expected to treat each other with respect, but out in the world things can be a lot different.
I, personally, have very strong opinions on certain issues (such as moral and political ideals), so I might naturally be drawn to debating in many cases. However, I need to be on the lookout so that I don't throw tact to the winds and become overly aggressive or annoyed due to my strong feelings about something and due to thinking that the other side is being irrational. That sort of thing only causes problems, making me less likely to appear secure in my own ideas (even if that isn't really the case), and thus making persuasion even more difficult. It can also sidetrack the debate and reduce it to personal attacks. Therefore, keeping level-headed while persuading is a must.
The topic of persuasion is a better one, I believe. It's great to hear the different speeches with everyone's spin on the subject. Everyone now and again there always seems to be a speech that completely goes against everyone's beliefs on something. Specifically, I'm really liked the speech on the faked moon landing from the Apollo program.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty excited about the upcoming in class lab days to work on our web portfolios. I used to be into website design throughout high school but have since lost interest. So I am looking forward to getting back in the lab and giving it another shot even though I have forgotten how to do most things.
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