Executions should be public

Intro 

I will start off by introducing myself and my topic. After I have done this I will begin to try and explain how the general population no longer looks at prisoners like people. This will lead me into my argument about how public executions will bring more humanity to the prisoners themselves. 

History

I have a lot of research to do but I want to examine the history of public executions. I want to see how they started and why they stopped. In my opinion they used to be extremely violent and public, but over time they have gotten less violent and less public. This seems to be because as societies grow smarter, the less capable we are to handle violence. I wan’t the history to show that we have become more and more uncomfortable with executions and thats why they became private. There’s a reason that we don’t want to see it and thats because in the back of our minds we know its wrong. Looking at historical facts will be the bulk of my speech. 

Modern day executions and prison system

In this section I will attempt to appeal to our own feelings about prisoners. I want people to see that they really don’t think about prisoners like people, because they don’t see them. They have been hidden away from public view. Then I will say that if we saw them get executed we would be aware that they were in fact a person and it is wrong to kill them, no matter their crime. This is intended to get people to think about not just executions, but the larger issue of prisoner rights and the need for transparency. I believe that public executions can cause all around reform to the whole institution. 

Start, Stop, continue. Speech 2

Start

The first thing I need to do is to plan out my speeches more within the guidelines of the rubric. Speech number two went very well for me, but I scored low on some of the easiest categories. When I was supposed to give background knowledge of the genre, I failed to do so. I really didn't give anything, instead I just made an assumption that the audience knew what I was talking about. Another example is when I failed to do any research and just spoke from personal experience. I wanted to show some charts or statistics that related to my subject, but I didn't know how to properly implement them into my speech. This was a problem, because I was speaking from the point of view of the officer for the whole time. Speaking in first person just confused me a little bit when it came to that. Finally the last thing I would like to start doing is to talk more about the speakers moves. I didn’t explain in detail the reason for why the cop was doing what he was doing. The purpose of his actions was not always made clear. Even though I summed up a lot of his “moves”, I could have done a better job. 

Stop

The first thing that I would like to stop doing is my shaking. Its funny because I don't really feel nervous when I go up to present. The beginning of the speech I’m always fine and then half way through I can feel my legs start to shake. Then a couple seconds later my hands will start to go. For this speech I don’t think it was noticeable, because I was able to move behind the podium once I realized I couldn't control it. I would very much like to get in control of this so that I can put all of my attention on to the speech, instead of trying to control my nerves. Another thing that I would like to stop is focusing my attention right above people eye’s. I do it so that it looks like I’m looking at a person, but I just do it to control my nerves. I think that I could give a much better speech if I actually look at my audience. I’m not connecting with them as well as I could be. Next I would like to stop slouching so much. I didn’t notice this when I was up there but after watching the video of myself, I saw the need for a change. I feel that correcting this problem could really help with my nerves. I could feel more powerful and important if I stood up there in a power pose. I just need to trick myself into feeling more important. Another thing I don’t want to do again is to improvise what I’m saying. I practiced this presentation much more than the other one and I wanted to say things in a very specific way. Unfortunately once I got up in front of people I didn’t say things the way or order I was supposed to. Once I made this mistake I ended up forgetting important aspects of the speech. Luckily it wasn’t noticeable. The last thing I would like to never do again is to hit my head on the TV when I’m up in front of everybody. Its not the best way of dealing with my nerves. 

Continue

One of the things I would like to continue to do is my hand motions. I did a much better job with moving around and being more interesting to the audience. I felt that people were much more attentive to what I was saying and I felt like this had a lot to do with that. Another thing that I would like to continue to do is to speak more audibly and at a pace that moves the speech along. I felt like I had a lot to say and never really had to stall for time. I was also very pleased with how my speech was exactly five minutes long. I practiced a lot to get that time and it paid off. If I can do this again in the future that would be great. 

Student Moves

One of the speeches that I enjoyed was Mackenzie's. I liked how she also did her speech from the point of view of the person she was analyzing, but unlike me she found a way to implement more research into her’s without making the whole thing seem clunky. I thought she did a very good job of acting in a way that resembled an oscars award host and used the same tone of voice that a lot of them do. She also had active audience interaction that is common in many award shows. 

Another speech I enjoyed was Sarah’s. I enjoyed how she gave multiple examples for all the information she was using. At one point she explained how if her friend was the one getting married, she would tell a joke. She then gave us two examples of jokes that she might have used. She was also able to give us research so that we could better understand what it would be like.