Discussion of sources project 4

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For my fourth presentation on advocates and activism I chose to compare two ALS fundraisers; Roll for Rob based out of Western Massachusetts and the Napa Valley Ride to Defeat ALS. I had already known about Roll for Rob before giving this presentation so I had a substantial sense of what the event was about going into further research. I did not, however, know anything about the Napa Valley Ride to defeat ALS going into this project. I gathered much of the information about Roll for Rob from the event’s sponsors’ websites in addition to Rob Pontes’ gofundme page. I also found additional information about the event on youtube. For my research on the Napa Valley Ride to Defeat ALS, I found everything I needed on the event’s website, including elements of the event such as the running leaderboard on their homepage which would eventually help me with my comparison.

Discussion of video rehearsals for project 3

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My video rehearsals for project 3 were fairly easy because the bulk of my script was centered around sharing an experience. Even though I wrote out my script for my rehearsals, I basically just told the story off of the top of my head for each recording.  Each time my speech ended up being a loose variation of the script I actually wrote, which wasn’t a problem because in the long run it helped my actual presentation flow fairly smooth. With each rehearsal, I was able to make mental note of what key parts I would need to emphasize and which points could be left out, which also helped me keep my timing within the four minute time frame. Reflecting on this speech definitely makes me regret not basing more of my presentations off of personal experiences/stories because of how much easier it is to articulate your thoughts on your own experiences rather than someone else’s ideas.

Class 15 post

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In our final class, we presented our 4th presentations on advocacy and activism. The presentations in this class were definitely the most refined out of all of the presentation days we’ve had this semester. I think this is because the speeches we gave last Tuesday were the culmination of the presentations we had given over the course of the semester. Everyone chose a topic that they were passionate about, making for the most interesting presentations to date. After we finished our presentations, Ciarra made some 10/10 waffles and we finished our course evaluations.

Self Assessment/Reflection for project 3

In my third presentation I talked about a community which I am a part of, people who skateboard in San Francisco. I prepared fairly thoroughly for this presentation because I was rehearsing with a goal in mind: to give my presentation without any sort of aid to fall back on. In preparation I ended up writing my entire speech out then paraphrasing it for each video rehearsal I did. I think that this approach to preparing for my presentation worked far better than the formulaic organizational setups I used for all of my other presentations. This technique of preparation definitely helped me articulate what I wanted to communicate to the audience because when I was actually giving my speech, it felt just like another rehearsal. One thing I regret about this presentation though was the lack of visual aids. For some reason, I decided to not incorporate slides into my presentation.

Peer Analysis Post for Project 3

A presentation that stood out to me during our module of Audience and communities was Ciarra’s. Ciarra found a topic she was she was passionate about in talking about her hometown and the community she comes from, which made for an interesting and engaging presentation. One thing that Ciarra did particularly well in this presentation was her use of visual aids. I feel that in my presentations over the course of the semester I did not use google slides to it’s full extent, judging by the success Ciarra had with her visual aids. When I did use slides, I would usually stick to strictly images to avoid conflicting with the material of my speech, Ciarra avoided this problem by incorporating minimal text into her slides to keep her presentation on track.

Class 13 post

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Unfortunately, I was absent from class number 13 so I missed out on the activities surrounding advocacy groups that my classmates posted about on their blogs. I was able to compensate for my absence with a very productive individual meeting with Professor Hunt in which I solidified my plans for presentation four and discussed how to tie in my fourth presentation with the three that came before it.

Individual conference post module 4

My individual conference for module 4 was extremely helpful and helped me gain insight on not only how to organize and prepare for my presentation but also how to orient myself to jump from the B track to the A track for this class. A main reason why I was falling behind in my assignments was my lack of organization. After talking through my organizational problems with Prof. Hunt I went back to my dorm and compiled a concrete list of assignments which had not yet been completed. In cross referencing the ‘grades’ tab on canvas with my blog posts, I realized that some of my assignments had failed to post to canvas but were present on my blog, cutting the number of assignments I had to fulfill by a significant amount. In my final individual conference I was able to prepare myself to shoot for the A track, a feat that I had long forgotten, all thanks to Professor Hunt.

Class 12 Post

Image result for youtube logoDuring Class number 12 we spent the majority of the class learning about the importance of youtube in public speaking today and also analyzed different forms of Youtube voice. What I found most interesting about this class was Prof. Hunt’s view of Youtube. Throughout my childhood, Youtube has basically been an omnipresent source of influence and inspiration for me. Because I don’t remember a time before Youtube, I had never thought of what Youtube is as a tool and what impact it has had on the world. I think that the idea of Youtube providing an enormous potential audience to people who wouldn’t be able to attract the same size audience without the tool of Youtube is especially interesting because I never thought of youtube as a platform for public speaking rather a form of personal expression or a tool to extend information. It is also interesting to see the trends or “formula” to gaining attention on youtube because I personally don’t watch a large amount of public speaking style vlog videos. The similarities in the vlog style videos are bountiful, and will forever be something I notice when watching that style of video.

Discussion of Sources for Project 3

For my third presentation, I shared a story about getting free ice cream from Humphry Slocombe on the Embarcadero solely because I had evidence that I was a skateboarder. I did not reference any actual sources for this presentation because the majority of my presentation was derived from my own personal experience. I did however make use of the guidelines and in-class exercises we were given by Prof. Hunt in the two classes leading up to this project. This project did not require much research because my presentation was based on a personal experience. This left me to contextualize my experience within the guidelines of the presentation which I was able to do based on the explanations of the ‘prompt’ Professor Hunt gave in class.

Module 3 reading response 1

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Because I could not find the proper linked readings to module 3, I decided to respond to past bicycle readings found in the class files page. The first reading I chose was “Self-Driving Ubers and Left Hook turns”, a form of blog post published by the SF bike coalition last December. I found this reading interesting because of how anti-uber of a stance Brian Wiedenmeier of the SF Bike Coalition takes. This reading shows how much the Coalition cares about maintaining a bike-safe environment in San Francisco. In this post, Wiedenmeier expresses his extreme concern in self-driving Ubers in San Francisco and urges a call to action from Coalition members to sign a petition against the premature integration of Self-driving vehicles in the streets of San Francisco. Wiedenmeier uses many tactics to entice people to sign the petition he is presenting, including emotion evoking diction and an overall tone dire circumstances. By using words such as “unleashing technology” and “your streets” Wiedenmeier creates a sense of urgency in his message in hopes to instill the same sense of urgency and partial fear that he is feeling into the readers of his post.

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