Step up your game

For my S4 presentation, I wanted to come up with a topic that is quite different from all my other previous presentations. I also wanted my topic to be related to my major which is Politics. Our S4 advocacy themed presentation allowed my classmates and I to talk about something of our interest since we weren’t assigned to talk about something specific. My friend helped me chose the perfect topic. She told me about a poster that she saw on campus, “Innocent on a Death Row: A conversation with Kevin Cooper”. We decided to attend the event because it sounded intriguing and our school hosted it. On October 26th, we attended the event. Participating in such an event made me realize how much I am missing out on a lot of events. So I wanted to tell all my classmates about this experience.

On the day of the presentations, I performed my presentation without feeling nervous. I honestly find it easy to memorize my speech especially if was telling people about an event that I participated or a story that happened with me. While performing, I saw how engaged my audience were and how curious they were to know more about the story which made me feel good about my presentation. Overall, I think I did pretty well.

I went to speaking center today and showed my speech to Vannika. She told me that she liked it and found the topic interesting but told me to talk more about the case. She wanted to know why the person was convicted and what was the evidence that these lawyers and fbi agents are trying to use to get him out. I thought about her suggestion but If I wanted to talk more about the case in detail then i’ll exceed the time limit so I chose to leave it off as it is.

First: https://youtu.be/l2Tu3iCbMAs

Second: https://youtu.be/vp6UZ2zcsuY

Third: https://youtu.be/o0_QC-rFv14

Hi everyone, my name is Dina Qubain and I chose to do option four for my S4 presentation so today I will be talking to you about an event that I participated in.

Almost a month ago, on October 26th, the USF Law school decided to organize and host an event “Innocent on Death Row: A Conversation with Kevin Cooper”. Cooper is an African American 58 years old man who is currently in California’s San Quentin prison and under the death penalty. He was convicted of four murders that took place in the Chino Hills area of California in 1983. His execution date has been set however some still argue that he is innocent and had nothing to do with the murders. So, this event was held to tell the audience all about the evidence that these lawyers and FBI agents had gathered throughout all six years and then allow the audience to talk to Kevin Cooper on the phone just in case they had any inquiries.

My friend and I decided to attend the event to know more about the case and see what was going on. As soon as we entered they first introduced us to the panelists who were present at the event. Thomas Parker, who spent 45 years working with the FBI as an agent, and a national crime investigator was there. He was totally convinced that Cooper was innocent. Carole Seligman, who is a part of Kevin Cooper’s defense committee was also there. This was all presented by the University of San Francisco School of Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Criminal Law Society, and Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project. They even told us, the audience, that they are going to record it all and stream it later.

At the end of the event, Kevin Cooper’s lawyer called him and put him on speaker. He told us that we were free to ask Cooper anything. One USF professor, raised his hand and asked “Kevin, you have been in prison since a very long time now and I am surprised how you still have hopes of getting out so how do you do it?” Kevin replied without even taking a minute to prepare or to think about his answer “I am innocent and I believe that every innocent person deserves to live a healthy life away from prison, I will be free”.

I chose to tell you about this event in specific because it affected me in a way and made me realize how I am missing out on a lot of things. All I do or think about is submitting my assigned projects/homework or going out on the weekends. Attending such an event made me feel somewhat different and made me want to know more about what is going on with the world around me.

Chris Anderson’s ideas of public speaking inspired me, he taught me how if my talk does not benefit the audience then they would not be interested and they simply would not care to listen or pay attention. If I wanted to talk about something and I want my audience to hear about it, it has to be specific and should have a beneficial purpose behind it. Therefore,for my S4 presentation, I am planning to introduce something new to the class, something that is real but hasn’t been brought up in class. I am going to talk about an innocence project, a case that took place in the USF Law School two weeks ago. Bringing up this real case to the class, in my opinion, will allow my classmates to know more about what is happening in the real world, what is happening around them. Talking about this case will also show them how if people want to succeed and accomplish what they wish to accomplish, they should stick to what they believe in even if they had to deal with numerous hurdles on the way. The victim has been sentenced in prison for the past 20 years and is still trying to prove his innocence. They set his execution date and so they carried this open house meeting to discuss possible evidence that they could talk about in court to release the charges. The criminal law society, the national lawyers guild and FBI agents were all present just to defend this so called to be a “criminal” to prove his innocence.

The Embarcadero Enhancement Project basically aims for creating a complete street, one which will give each different mode of travel its own specific lane and space. Hence, a safer friendlier environment will be implemented and this will satisfy people’s demands and avoid any further complaints from arising. The people responsible for this proposal, reintroduced this project because of an increase in the number of deaths of many people and the number of injuries suffered by many ranging from pedestrians to cyclists to motorists. The city’s goal is to therefore eliminate any possible deaths or injuries faced by people as a result of such traffic jams and of disorganized lanes. To proceed with their goal, they have to implement their project which includes specific changes in the city such as providing a physically separated bikeway which could reduce conflicts between people on bicycles and loading activities.
When I went to the ferry building with my class, we joined the open house that was held there were the people who came up with the project were explaining to their audience, us, about what the project is, how it’s going to be implemented and why they think this project should be applied. The people displayed posters with images and text boxes beside each image to make it clearer for the audience and easier for them to comprehend all the information in. All the information that was written down was short, clear, concise and straight to the point. Displaying posters instead of a powerpoint, in my opinion, grabs the attention of the audience more since all the information to be addressed is presented on a single poster instead of several slides. I think that the way that these people presented the proposal was effective and successful for they all appeared to be credible and they convinced me and a group of my friends. I firmly believe that this project should be implemented as it will save numerous lives and will satisfy people’s demands.

Before I watched the Youtube video, I chose to know more about George Carlin’s background to get a broader idea of his video. I researched his name on Wikipedia and I found that “George Denis Patrick Carlin[1] (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic and author. Carlin was noted for his black comedy and his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects”. Watching his video, I could tell how much he made his audience feel engaged as they were all laughing and they were all influenced by his talk. I personally think that the way he handled his presentation was very successful. He changed his tone throughout the whole presentation to keep his audience entertained. He started speaking in a slow place when he was talking about the usage of words but then he increased the pace when he stated all the seven words. He even used the words in sentences to provide funny examples for the audience. Also, he did not appear as if he had his speech memorized; it all sounded natural which made his presentation appear so much better.

I always desired the freedom of speech more than anything else when I used to compare my country to other countries and especially America. In my country, Jordan, people cannot really express their genuine opinions and especially regarding political related matters. People who often do so, get arrested and live most of their lives in prison. Some individuals even threaten to kill the people who talk about politics.So, before I watched this Youtube video, I thought that the speaker will mainly talk about how people in the United States are free to say whatever they want and how there are no consequences even if they criticized certain political situations. However, this was not the case. After I watched it, I finally understood the first amendment regarding freedom of speech.The people in the United states can express their opinions but within certain limits. The freedom of speech that Americans can practice, will ONLY protect them from the government meaning they are not protected from all other associations, groups of people or even individuals.

My S3 presentation was different from my other previous presentations. I had to choose my topic and relate it to bicycles since we weren’t asked to focus on something specific. I had no clue of what I am supposed to talk about and I finally decided to relate my major to bicycles. I am majoring in politics and currently on the prelaw track so I talked about the laws regarding bicycles in Jordan and how I would make a proposal to the Jordanian ministry of transportation to be able to instill the cycling rules that are in San Francisco back home. I chose to do this presentation digitally; I filmed myself and published it on Youtube so I did not perform anything in front of my classmates. I honestly think that I focused more on my creativity rather than memorizing or practicing my actual speech. This was my first time ever to present something digitally, so I am not sure of what my classmates or my professor thought of it.

Outline:

1) Expanding on m previous S2 Topic.
2) Mentioning only four points found in law number 89
3) Mentioning my proposal to the people who work for the ministry of transportation.
4) Raising my arguments
5) Conclusion

Write out:

As I mentioned at the end of my S2 presentation, I hope that one day, I will be able to instill the rules regarding Biking that are in San Francisco back in Jordan. I decided to make use of my S3 presentation to explore my previous topic and build on it. In order to be able to implement at least some of the rules back home, I have to contact at least one of the people in authority and who actually have the power to implement changes in the city. I came with a decision to research more about the transportation laws in Jordan so that I can be able to raise awareness and raise arguments to convince the ministry of transportation, people who are in authority and power, about it, about my ambition:

Some of the laws stated in Law number 89 include:

1) Devising the general policy for transport and overseeing its implementation in coordination and cooperation with all related parties.
2) Regulating and monitoring the road freight transport sector and its services, as well as issuance of necessary permits for individuals and companies operating in the sector.
3) Setting freight transport’s fares and tariffs.
4) Preparing a necessary researches and studies for developing the sector, and issuing periodic bulletins and reports on its activities.

I will try to raise awareness by mentioning to one of those who work at the ministry:

I, Dina Qubain, an 18-year old student who has lived all her life in Jordan, is actually striving towards the wellness of the society and the people so I would like to propose a proposal that would actually benefit our city along with its citizens significantly. As I first moved to San Francisco, I realized how a great number of people use bicycles as their transportation mediums and most of the people are actually fit. Cycling does not cause any sort of traffic because cyclists have their own lanes and some people abide by all the rules. I really believe that setting up bike lanes in the city and raising awareness on how useful it is to cycle to places will benefit our community in numerous ways:

a) Since people complain a lot about all the traffic and how over-crowded the cities are and how it takes them a lot of time to reach their places of destination, riding a bicycle will allow people to commute faster.
b) Cycling will increase a person’s brain power
c) Using bicycles as a way to transport from a place to another improves a person’s physical health and helps them to lose weight
d) Cycling helps people, especially those who suffer from illnesses to beat all their diseases.
e) Cheaper for the citizens, especially since the country is ranked as one of the poorest countries in the whole world.
To conclude, I really hope you take my proposal into consideration bearing in mind that this is not a sort of a child’s dream, as I mentioned earlier, I am an 18-year old student with a Diploma degree, faced numerous experiences in similar fields and I am currently pursuing Politics as my major on the pre-law track at USF as mentioned in the resume that I handed to our earlier.

Audience:

The audience that I would like to address in my presentation are the people who are currently working for the Jordanian ministry of transportation. The people working there have the authority and the power to implement changes in the cities upon people’s requests. They usually listen to what people have to say and take it into consideration and then they assess whether it will actually benefit the community along with the people in it or not and then decide whether they should implement such decisions.

Credibility:
As Horner mentioned in his article, credibility could simply be established if the speaker gives the audience a sense of his/her intelligence and common sense, virtue and good character. The credibility of my presentation is conveyed through that fact that I used factual information and actual stated laws which shows that I am actually serious regarding my proposal. I also decided to post my resume so that my audience will get to know me more and know that I had previous experiences in such fields. I personally think that good character and common sense were mainly displayed in my resume.