Speaking Strengths and Weaknesses

Some of my past public speaking experiences come, obviously, from school presentations, being a lector at Church, and making announcements for sports teams and clubs.  One strength that I have is that I think I do not get too fidgety with my hands and body language during my presentations.  Another strength I have is that I have been told I have a good voice for making speeches, especially when I talk slowly.  This brings me to one of my potential weaknesses.  I think that occasionally I talk too quickly when I get nervous while giving a presentation.  Also, I think that I uses verbal fillers too often which certainly needs to be improved upon.  Instead of using verbal fillers, I am going to try to take pauses.  The larger problem here is that I need to be more confident and well rehearsed when giving presentations.  Depending on the type of presentation— whether the whole thing needs to be memorized or not— I will need to work on really studying my speeches in the future.  In my opinion, my last speech could have been improved if I was more familiar with the script.  I thought I knew it pretty well but I found myself relying on the notecards too much once I got about halfway through the presentation.  This could have been avoided if I had memorized the entire speech or if I had just written down several bullet points to keep me on track instead of the entire script.  I think that I can also improve my eye contact with the audience.  I believe that I am one of those people that is guilty of focusing in on one specific person too much during my speech.  This makes things awkward for that individual and it does not allow me to effectively connect with everyone in the room.       

A Darker Shade of Blue

One major paradigm shift that came to mind when we were given this assignment was how the public's view of police officers has changed in recent years.  Years ago, police officers were largely looked up to and respected by members of the community.  However, due to recent instances of police brutality, there has been an extreme shift in how the United States general public's view police officers.  They are often seen as unethical enforcers of the law that abuse their power and often go too far in the course of their occupations.  There has been large and violent protests across the country in response to some of these instances of police brutality.  It's very unfortunate how the view of law enforcement has changed in recently.

My essay will talk about the history of the United States public's view on police officers and how this changed over time.  I will discuss the specific events that lead to this change in beliefs and what state the country is in right now.  This breakdown in respect for law enforcement has been building over the years and has ultimately reached its climax in the past year.  My father was a police officer in New York City and he tells me stories about how the community used to look up to and respect police officers a lot more than they do now.  He has multiple stories where crowds of people would cheer for him and other officers after they arrested a suspect or did something to protect the community.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/activists-march-in-downtown-st-louis-to-protest-police-brutality/article_39dcacd1-52a9-5710-84f1-a1c4e7eb0fc5.html

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/12/opinion/baez-police-garner-michael-brown-chokehold/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/08/us/fatal-police-shooting-accounts.html?_r=0

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Eric-Garner-Chokehold-Police-Custody-Cause-of-Death-Staten-Island-Medical-Examiner-269396151.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/10/ferguson-protests-st-louis-state-of-emergency

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/22/obama-defends-black-lives-matter-movement/

http://nypost.com/2015/10/21/blue-lives-matter-a-call-from-the-mother-of-slain-cop-brian-moore/

         

Paradigm Shift RCL Blog

The first example that came to mind when I thought of an example of a paradigm shift is marriage equality.  Years ago, gay marriage was illegal and widely frowned upon.  It was unheard of that two individuals of the same sex would be able to marry.  The general consensus of the public was that marriage was supposed to be between a man and a woman.  However, there has been a massive shift in the beliefs of many Americans.  Gay marriage has always been two people of the same sex that are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives with each other.  However, a lot of society has shifted their beliefs on gay marriage and now think that it is completely acceptable for them to be together.  I think that this shift occurred because more people are becoming accepting of differences in others.  More people are becoming compassionate and sympathetic with gay people especially because of the hardships that homosexual people often encounter when accepting their sexuality.  

One other shift that came to mind for me was the idea that both parents work more often in modern society.  For years, men were the primary bread-winners of most households.  Women mostly stayed at home, cooked, cleaned the house, and took care of the children.  However, in recent years, a lot more women are getting jobs and contributing more to the family's finances.   Men are being called upon more often to help out with duties that used to be associated with the role of the wife.  I think this occurred because women have been fighting for equality for many years.  Women were largely successful in earning equal civil rights.  Following this movement, they have been trying to join men in the workforce and become progressive members of the American economy.  As a result, many join the workforce and have successful careers.      

Pathos blog

In my opinion, the most interesting of Aristotle's appeals is pathos.  The other two appeals seem more concrete to me.  A logical appeal is obvious and straightforward.  It includes facts and statistics.  In building ones ethos, they simply have to state what makes them a credible and reliable source.  However, in pathos, the writer must skillfully create his argument in a way that appeals to his specific audience's emotions.  Certain words draw more emotion from readers than others.  For example, "heartbroken" evokes more emotion than "sad."  This intrigues me because it takes a lot of thought and effort from the author to be able to evoke emotion from the readers through his or her writing.

One blatant example that comes to mind when I think of pathos is the ASPCA commercial that tries to entice people to donate to their organization in order to help animals.  They play the saddest music and show gut-wrenching pictures of abused animals that are extremely difficult to look it.  This is a very obvious use of pathos because I think that everyone watching these commercials becomes sad and sympathizes with those poor animals.  This means that the commercial has done its job because many people will decide to act on that and donate to ASPCA.  I think it is interesting to see how effective using sad music and horrific pictures can be to make people open their wallets.  Obviously it is for a great cause but I am just saying that it is interesting to see how they went about marketing their business.

Another example that comes to mind is how products often have a "Made in America" sticker that is set on an American flag.  I consider myself a very patriotic person, so I enjoy seeing this on products I buy.  One could even say it makes me feel like I am completing my civic duty.  This sticker evokes an intense feeling of patriotism from a lot of American consumers.  I think it is very interesting to see how these companies market their products through the use of pathos.    

Embracing the Freshman 15

So since my blog is about fitness and combating the dreaded "freshman 15,” I thought I would start out by telling you a all little bit about my fitness history.  I was a chubby kid all throughout middle school, a major drawback of having an Italian mother.  I finally lost most of my baby fat when I grew about half way through high school.  I played tennis throughout high school and went to the gym consistently for my last two years of high school.  I actually started going to my crazy Chilean bodybuilder tennis coach who was nothing short of a drill sergeant.  

I came into college at 189 lbs and I weighed myself the other day at 191lbs.  That being said, I am not too worried about my slight weight gain.  I have never really been a healthy eater, and I have seen that it can be very difficult to eat healthy, given all of the options they have in the dining halls.  These include ice cream, cookies, other desserts, bread, etc.  Last week I actually ate a salad one day and I texted my mom because I was so proud.  I even texted her when I got vegetable pizza at the Big Onion one day (which I highly recommend by the way).  

Once in a while I'll go through phases where I try to eat only protein and fruit and all that good stuff, but that never lasts long.  However, I think I am pretty good at staying away from junk food for the most part.  My biggest problem is probably just eating too much in general. 

Obviously the quality of food you consume is going to decrease most likely when you go to college.  Thats why I think that exercise is the real key to fighting off those unwanted extra pounds that many students before us have gained.  Being in ROTC, I do a lot more running than I would like, but I am ultimately grateful that it is helping me from falling into the unfortunate trap of college food related weight gain.  In fact, my friends will tell you that I have been complaining non-stop for the past few days about how sore my legs are.  Sitting down, getting up, and taking stairs are always accompanied by groans and complaints.  Indian sprints, alternated jogging/sprinting, running stairs in Rec Hall, and tons of squats and lunges were just some of the exercises that were on this weeks agenda that successfully destroyed my lower body.  

Also adding to my fight against the freshman 15 is my crazy friend Jimmy.  I met Jimmy at NSO and he immediately stood out as one of the strongest kids I've ever seen.  Jimmy and I kept in touch and it turns out that we are on the same floor in Brumbaugh now.  Not only does he ask me to be his gym buddy consistently, but he also acts as my personal trainer and pushes me really hard.  Whenever I start to struggle a little I hear Jimmy yelling in my ear like a Marine drill sergeant and I am forced to finish my rep.  So, up to this point in my freshman year, I have gained 2 pounds and extremely sore legs.  

  

Passion Blog Topics

Picking a topic for my blog was not an easy task, especially because I often have difficulty making important decisions.  Seeing as though I would have to write new and interesting ideas about this topic for an entire semester, I considered this to be a fairly important decision.

My first idea for the passion blog was something to do with fitness, because I like working out and all sports.  Then it occurred to me that this is a very relevant topic for college students especially.  So my first idea was that I would spend this semester blogging about the dreaded "freshman 15."  I was never too concerned about this issue myself, considering I grew up with a very Italian mother that forced food in front of me 24/7.  So, naturally I did not think college food could have too much of an effect on my already horrible eating habits.  However, I realized this is a relevant topic for many people here and I think it would be a good idea to track myself as I go through my first semester at Penn State.  This will help determine if my Italian mother prepared me to not gain too much weight in college or if the "freshman 15" will get the best of me.  I feel that this blog could be fun, humorous, and informative, especially for college freshman in the same position as me.  I absolutely hate running (even though I am required to do it for ROTC) so I might be able to add some humor in that part of the blog.  

My second idea for the passion blog would be a guide for men trying to communicate with women.  Although I am certainly not an expert in this subject, I think I would be able to make an interesting blog about my experiences in this area.  It would include tips for other guys who are trying to communicate with girls.  And no this would not be a blog about how to "pick up girls."  I currently have a girlfriend (who goes to a different college) so it would be about how to effectively communicate with girls and how to keep them happy.  Also, it would certainly include some of my mistakes for other guys that will be in my position in the future.  Since my girlfriend goes to a different college (University of Alabama to be exact), this blog would also provide tips for couples that are in long distance relationships.  I generally consider myself pretty good at communicating with the other sex, since I grew up in the middle of two sisters.  But lets be honest, I'm sure all guys have stories about how they said the wrong thing at one point to a girl and it had disastrous results.