This week, as you well know, were the presentations of our rhetorical analysis speeches. Although I wouldn't say our classroom had kairos for the speeches, I do think many of the speakers recreated the kairos that the commercials had when they were aired. Showing the commercial that was being analyzed obviously helped, and then the explanations of the commercials made it so we understood the circumstances under which the commercial was shown. After understanding where the commercial had come from it was a lot easier to pay attention to the speeches. Many of the speakers also made sure to use some kind of reference to things that our generation grew up with or things that all college students could relate to. This helped to make the audience feel like the speaker was truly speaking to them because they could relate to them.
It was very interesting to see how other people analyzed their advertisements because there were so many different things that could be taken into account for the effectiveness of the commercial. Of course many people made sure to explain how he commercial related to the intended audience because this is a key factor in whether or not the commercial is effective or not. Pathos and ethos were also common because without establishing credibility the commercial won't be believable and it won't influence anyone, and pathos is an extremely common appeal to use in advertisements. Emotion has a huge impact on people because a lot of times people can not control their emotions. Overall I thought the speeches were very good content-wise; the speakers thoroughly analyzed the commercials in a way that was understandable to the audience. The only thing I would say is that the presence of some of the speakers was not as impactful as it could have been. Many had weak eye contact and could have spoken with more volume and tone variation. Still the content made the speeches easy to pay attention to.
I agree, I think some of the speeches (mine definitely included!) could have gone better. Although, I think, as a class, most are still getting used to talking in front of an audience (I know I am). I think by the next speech people will have more confidence and that will help those issues you brought up.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that you made an analysis of people's analyses. You also seem to be spot on. I found that pathos and ethos were the easiest to determine and so I think that my speech relied heavily on these points. Your comments on eye contact and delivery style will certainly enhance many of the speeches - I know that I will try to pay attention to these aspects more during the next speech!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree on the point that you make about eye contact. Although, is it just me, or was it a little distracting to have your entire speech text in front of you? It was almost like a magnet to my eyes, I was so tempted to read it the entire time!
ReplyDeleteOverall, though, I feel that everyone did a decent job on the speeches :) And your review is spot on!