Reflection/ The Hangover 2

Reflecting on my first blog post, The Hangover Wolf Pack speech does still reflect my understanding of “public speaking”. Prior to taking this class, my knowledge was limited, but now I am a lot more familiar with public speaking and its concepts. I previously mentioned how Alan gave the speech to his three friends, so the occasion would be a special occasion and the speech purpose would to be to celebrate. Simply by presenting speeches in class, I can identify with some of the struggles that he was going through while delivering his speech. I've learned from the readings, however, that speech anxiety is a very common thing, and that the audience can hardly see how bad it is as compared to what you are feeling. It can also be controlled by relaxing before giving the speech.

Alan's genuine love for his friends is an effective use of pathos, which appeals to the emotions of his audience. Alan was aware of who he was speaking to, and by performing an audience analysis, he incorporated humor to catch their attention. Even though this speech is not a historically significant one, I have learned how to not only be a critical thinker, but a critical listener as well. I definitely give credit where credit is due for those who speak in front of others; it can be a very difficult task. I not only admire others for speaking publicly, but I am more confident in doing so now that I have taken this class.

I would like to point out another clip (from 0:07 -0:30) in which Alan gives a different speech from The Hangover 2. I'm pretty sure Alan would be a great CAS100 student. Right off the bat, he uses an interesting statistic to gain his audience's attention. Props, Alan. Another thing that I noticed when viewing it was that he was using note cards. He has incorporated the use of visual aids as if we was following one of our rubrics. I now understand how useful they can be to trigger your memory and guide your speech in the direction that you want it to go. Although his delivery was not quite extemporaneous, it was a good attempt and I can admit that it is a difficult skill to perfect.