Catabay, Yale Brendan V.

III – BS BAA
December 6, 2016

(1) Write a critical analysis of the speech (persuasive or entertaining) of any of your
classmates.

Romina’s speech about “How to be a head turner by dressing on- point” fits her character
perfectly, so it can be said the ethos, or credibility, is present. It was clear that she is passionate
about the topic and has enough experience to talk about it with confidence. For the same reason,
however, I thought her performance was more like a speech to inform or persuade, where she
suggests some things girls can do and how these could make them feel more confident. Also,
male audiences might not have been impacted by the speech as much as the female audiences
were, due to most of her tips being about girls’ fashion. I wish she could have included more
personal examples of the points she mentioned (such as when she narrated her story of getting
embarrassed because of overdressing) - things everyone in the audience might have been able
to relate to. Doing so would have helped her connect more with the audience in an emotional
level, enhancing the pathos and potentially making the speech more entertaining.

As for the performance itself, Romina being enthusiastic about the topic helped in
lessening her nervousness in delivering the speech. I also didn’t notice any problems with
grammar, volume, pronunciation and articulation, aside from the occasional “umm” verbal filler.
However, because the speech is not structured based on events or personal experiences, but
organized instead according to “tips on how to become a head turner”, there were pauses where
she would try to remember the next point she’s supposed to talk about. These pauses were not
long enough to dampen the momentum of her speech, though, as she quickly recovers from them
to start on her next point.

Overall, Romina’s performance is a good example of the saying “when you enjoy what
you’re doing, everything falls into place”. In contrast with speakers that are either pressured,
nervous, or forced into a topic they are not confident to talk about, she was not discomforting to
watch. Because the theme of the speech was in line with her fashionista character, there was no
fear from the audience that she might break down mentally or emotionally; everyone was just able
to sit back, relax and appreciate the piece.
(2) What specific Comm 3 lesson/activity did you like most or did you find most helpful?
Explain your answer.

The Comm 3 requirement which helped me the most as a performer is the dyad spoken
word activity. At first, as someone who doesn’t enjoy having to consider other ideas in meeting
class requirements, I thought I was going to have a hard time- more so if my partner turns out to
have a completely different personality from me. Fortunately, my partner and I turned out to have
common likes and interests, so we didn’t have a hard time coming up with our theme. However,
there were times when we had differing ideas with regards to the sequence, emotions and actual
lines to be used. This is when I realized the importance of being always receptive and open-
minded to other people’s ideas, because through this I was able to learn new things and
understand other ways of approaching problems. Listening carefully to my partner’s suggestions
and fully grasping them allowed me to search within myself for similar thoughts and ideas, helping
resolve disagreements in making the poem.

Being with a partner gave me a considerable amount of pressure to work and think harder.
Usually, I only practice speeches a couple of times prior to the performance, but for the spoken
word poetry, my partner and I spent a whole morning practicing the speech. It was tremendously
helpful for me to have someone comment on my delivery before the actual performance, because
it gave me an idea of the things I needed to fix or improve. Specifically, my partner reminded me
to give the appropriate vocal and facial emotions depending on the situation in the story.
Conversely, having a partner taught me to not be afraid to give constructive criticism of someone’s
performance. After all, Comm 3 is not just being able to perform well, it’s also about being able to
evaluate others’ performances in a way that will actually help them improve. As a bonus, having
a good friend as my partner helped me loosen up and enjoy the whole experience. If we were to
do the spoken word poetry again, I would have put more effort into memorizing the lines to avoid
looking at the manuscript too often and concentrate instead on connecting with the audience.

(3) How much did Comm 3 help you improve as a speaker? What activities can you suggest
to help attain the main objective of the course?

With regards to delivering speeches, it is with great regret that I say I failed to exert the
utmost amount of effort into practicing my pieces. However, this class was a huge help in all other
aspects of making a speech, especially with choosing a topic for a performance. All the lessons,
starting from day one, emphasized the essence of communication as a two- way interaction, and
not as a mere speaker-to-listener relationship. From this, when choosing my topics for a
performance, I started to put more weight on what I think my audiences would be interested in,
instead of just choosing a topic that I am passionate about but won’t likely have an impact on my
listeners. In observing my classmates’ reactions to the performances, I learned that it’s not
necessary that the audiences share the exact same experiences for them to relate to your speech,
because what’s important is that they have an idea of what you felt during those experiences so
they can put themselves in your shoes. For instance, when choosing my topic for the speech to
entertain, I first thought of events and experiences in my life that my classmates would have also
gone through. After giving it more thought, I decided to come up with something more radical and
unique to my life, while making sure it’s something a lot of my classmates could relate to in an
emotional level. In the end, I felt my topic “Grade school is a War Zone” worked well because
everyone must have known what it feels like to be in a situation where there’s no one else to back
you up, even if they didn’t study in a horrible school too.

I would like to suggest a lecture session about the don’ts of public speaking. Aside from
the usual things to avoid regarding the delivery such as grammar, articulation and pronunciation
errors, I believe there are also a lot of things that can go wrong with the contents of the speech
itself. For instance, the theme might be offensive for some of the audiences. Sometimes, the topic
is too emotionally heavy for the speaker herself. There are also speeches that tend to be heavy
on specific details, overwhelming the listeners and failing to get the message across. A discussion
about some things to avoid in public speaking may not only help students with their speeches, it
can also make them more conscious about how they speak with others in their day-to-day
conversations.

BONUS: Say anything you want in two sentences.