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.