Speech Next Week

      To me, the idea of speaking in front of the audience makes me nervous and scared. I think that most of the people aren’t too comfortable with going on stage and speaking in public since it’s one of people’s greatest fears. Speaking is a form of art, and how to speak well needs lots of practices because practice makes perfect. When seeing speakers that can attract their audience all the time and delivering their speeches fluently and smoothly, I admire these people. The reason that the audience aren’t bored by the speeches is speakers know their topics thoroughly and they enjoy sharing with their listeners.

        I feel differently when giving a presentation than having to put forth a persuasive argument since giving a presentation is harder. After coming up with persuasive arguments, the next important thing is how do you convince your audience. By thinking about this, we have to think about how will we do our presentations in a way that most of our audiences can be successfully persuaded. Maybe we have to provide some graphical data or interviews, which are logical appeals, to better convince our audience to believe in our arguments.

        Before speaking in front of people, my heart would just beat faster and faster, and I can’t control about this physical change. Thus, I will breathe more air in to soothe my nervousness, to calm myself down. Some people tend to talk quickly when on stage because they’re not mentally or emotionally prepared, and the audience would miss some points. I hope that when doing my speech next week, I will have appropriate speed so that my audience can clearly understand what am I talking about.

Your Opposition

      The topic of my persuasive speech is “Abolishing School Uniforms,” and I’m on the supporting side. There must be counter arguments in a persuasive speech so that speaker can show the audience what’s the best choice. My supporting arguments are that first, students can develop their own style and be unique through arranging clothes by themselves for many years. Second, students will be able to buy new clothes. Third, it’s our rights for choosing what to wear, and schools shouldn’t violate this free right.    Moreover, I think this arguments is the most important one.

The opposition to my persuasive arguments are that first, students should spend every second on studying rather than wasting time on thinking what to wear. In addition, this is especially important for seniors, who have to worry about college application and school work. Second, some students don’t have enough money to buy new clothes, so they can just stick with their old ones. By listing out these opposing arguments, I think I am able to anticipate how someone might try to counter what I say.

If I gave my persuasive argument as a speech, I think people in the audience might question about the credibility of it. Throughout the whole speech, I use emotional appeal more than the other two kinds, which are logical and ethical appeals. As for result, in order to prepare for their questions, I could provide some statistics or facts showing percentage of students want to abolish school uniforms is greater than that of keeping school uniforms.

Writing or Speaking

   Among the two different kinds of methods of delivering my argument, I think speaking is more effective than writing. I think audience would be less bored by speeches instead of essays. When seeing audience start to lose focus and can’t pay attention anymore, the speaker can kind of roll away from his or her subject and come up with remarks spontaneously that could grab audience’s heart again. But, if readers are bored by essays, they would just put them aside and never pick the papers up again. However, there are some disadvantages of speaking. Audience can’t remember all arguments that speakers have made, so we have to repeat our points over and over. Nevertheless, I still think speaking is easier than writing. By making speeches with changes in tone and great enthusiasm, we can arouse audience’s emotion and call action upon our listeners. If it’s the case of writing, there are only connotative words rather than a person speaking directly in front of you. As for result, the effect of writing would be less than that of speaking. Moreover, I prefer speaking because it can help gain confidence and learn how to speak clearly. When standing in front of a group of people, no matter large or small, people would get nervous naturally. Thus, they would talk really fast and make the audience hard to catch what their speeches are about. As for result, we have to learn the skill of pacing ourselves when standing in the front. We have to learn to speak slowly and clearly. Most importantly, we have to make our speeches flow smoothly, and organizing notes on flashcards really helps a lot. I like speaking better because we can learn different kinds of other skills while doing the preparation work and on stage.

Your Argument

   The topic of my persuasive speech is abolishing school uniforms, and I would characterize my arguments as more emotional because I use words that would rouse students’ feeling of banning school uniforms. As for result, there’s less logical and ethical appeals, so my arguments are less balanced. I didn’t use a lot of date for either supporting or defending my arguments, and I only use ethical appeal in the very end while saying it’s wrong for schools to tell us what to wear since we should have the rights for our clothing. My supporting arguments are that by choosing what we want to wear every day, we can create our unique style and develop skill of managing clothing. Moreover, our rights of choosing what to wear freely shouldn’t be violated. In addition, the best thing among all is that we can buy new clothes. My counter arguments are that students shouldn’t waste time on their outfit, especially for seniors who are under great stress of college application and heavy load of school work. Some students don’t have enough money to buy new clothes, so they would think that not having uniforms is inconvenient for them.

I think there is something about the subject of my argument that lends itself to one kind of appeal more than another. For example, I said that students can buy lots of new clothes if school uniforms are abolished, and I think this definitely appeals to their desires, which is emotion. In addition, the point of using time wisely and not having enough money are also emotional appeals.

Reflect on Your Essay

      Recently in the College Research and Essay Writing class, we’re doing persuasive essay, and my topic is abolishing school uniforms. Throughout the process of composing a complete essay, I find what’s particularly easy is thinking about supporting arguments. What’s particularly hard is coming up with mild opposing point of views because I don’t want my supporting points fail to defend thus seem weak and can’t persuade my audience.

        Writing a persuasive essay better uses a combination of logical, emotional, and ethical appeals in body paragraphs. For me, the appeal that’s easiest to make is emotional, because I try to use connotative words that rouse people’s emotions. Also, the most difficult one to make is logical appeal since I don’t have lots of data, statistics, examples, or facts.

        When looking at opposing viewpoints, although they make sense, I still can’t change my position. So, my position didn’t really change at all. In the end, I believe my own arguments, and I have to do so. Nobody would want to listen to your essay and it loses the power to persuade if you don’t even believe in yourself.

        There’s no perfection for everything, so my essay does has some holes in my arguments that an opponent might be able to exploit. In my essay, there’s an opposing point saying that schools shouldn’t abolish uniforms because students would waste too much time on doing outfit, and seniors especially can’t have any time to waste. I think this argument is pretty strong, and it’s hard to refute it. Writing a persuasive essay allows me to learn to think about both sides of opinions, and the technique of using different kinds of appeals.

Reason Sits Firm

   Reasoning is by using facts and logic to persuade your audience into believing or doing something. Thus, using reasons is a logical appeal. Chasm is like large crack on the ground. By saying “not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms,” the author was suggesting that reason, which was firm and wouldn’t need to worry about being defeated, didn’t allow feelings to take over. Heathens were non-Christians, but it also meant uncultured, wild people in the 18^th century. The author was trying to say that although wild emotions might run the things, it’s the logical judgment that had the final say in the end.

     In my opinion, I don’t really agree with the author’s point of view that reason eventually rules over emotion. I think it’s vice versa. I remembered one time I went shopping alone at my favorite store near the Mega 21 department store, and I bought nearly to $10,000. I had about ten new items because I hadn’t been there for about a month, and I didn’t want to lose any latest product, so I told the salesperson that I would like to have all new clothes, pants, and accessories. Although my wallet was already empty, I still had few more clothes that I hadn’t bought yet, so I rushed back home and asked my brother to lend me some money. Because of my feeling of wanting to have every latest product, my heart tells me to buy them all rather than stop buying. Thus, this is an example showing that for me, emotion usually rules over brain.

Persuade Me

    Three more months later I will officially be eighteen years old, and by that time I can finally drive car and ride motorcycle. After school ends in a month, my goal is to learn how to ride a motorcycle. I’m always jealous when seeing my friends riding their motorcycles and go to places wherever they want at any time. Not knowing how to ride a motorcycle limits my shopping area only within walking distances. However, the goal is not easy to achieve because my parents don’t even allow me to learn. They think riding a motorcycle is too dangerous, especially hearing that one of our nurse’s mom died due to a car accident. Moreover, I don’t know how to ride a bike, so it’s harder for me to learn motorcycle. Nevertheless, I’m trying hard to persuade my parents that they should let me learn how to ride a motorcycle.

    First, a motorcycle is more convenient than a car when buying food at traditional markets. If I drive a car to the markets, then I not only have to worry about where to park, but also need to concern whether it will be taken away by toll truck. Moreover, a motorcycle is easier than a car in finding parking place because by moving other motorcycles, there will always be spaces squeezed out. Second, when encountering heavy traffic, a motorcycle, can move freely between cars, which are stuck. Third, buying a motorcycle is way cheaper than buying a car. Seeing all these advantages of a motorcycle, I hope that my parents can change their minds and willing to let me learn.