Persuasive Speeches

We've come to the end of the persuasive speeches for the quarter. Oh, yeah. Except for the make-up speeches by people who for reasons of illness or slacking didn't get their act together and need to give their speech in the final exam period.

So, what I'm going to do in this entry is talk about the most memorable speeches rather than going over all permitted performances.

Monday/Wednesday Class

Laura's presentation about why we should start saving for retirement now took a dry subject and made it real to the young audience. She proved that social security is collapsing and showed us through her visual aids how much money we could have if we put something away every week. (The audience in the M/W class is largely very young.)

In that same class Tylor showed up in a suit and tie. I love seeing students dressing up in a speech class. When I took speech way back in 1971 we were required to dress up. But the culture has become much more casual. Tylor also spoke with great energy and sincerity. He has a lovely natural style and I think he could become an excellent presenter.

Brian did a good job walking the line between the pro-choice and pro-life believers in a speech in which he tried to convince us that the wording of the abortion laws could lead to confusion in other laws. It was a new argument to me and I thought I would never hear any new arguments in the overwrought abortion debate.

Tuesday/Thursday Class

Andrew's speech about animal cruelty was well adapted to his audience and well structured. He did a good job referring to his source material. He spoke with energy as he told us how we could support PETA.

(An aside: Whenever I think about PETA, though, I gotta tell you that I think about what they would members would say or do about my fur coats. I received a "look" from a young woman on campus last week who asked me, eyebrows down, "Is that a real fur?!?" Yup.)

I was deeply impressed by Ryan's arguments against gun control. He spoke with passion, offered plenty of supporting evidence, and made some excellent points about the necessity of citizens owning and understanding guns. I say this not because I too believe in the importance of an armed citizenry but because he did the work required by the assignment. The speech re-convinced me that all liberals and gays (my people) should definitely be armed and train their children to be capable of handling guns. I'm a big believer The price of freedom is eternal vigilance as Tom Jefferson said. And yes, I have a Deschutes County permit to carry a concealed weapon, just in case you're wondering.

Acacia's speech on homelessness in Central Oregon made excellent use of local statistics. I really love when students choose topics that aren't national and stick to our area. She quoted from governmental sources and gave us the names of organizations we could support, like The Shepherd's House.

What else?

Almost everyone in both classes has improved their delivery over the quarter, which is as it should be. I have been a bit surprised at times when people have chosen not to follow directions and turned in poor outlines. A few folks have turned in essays rather than outlines which, as the directions state, is an automatic zero. But I figure that these folks made their choice to get a zero or made their choice to avoid reading the directions. (I mean, like, there are gigantic arrows pointing to that particular rule!)