Sophia Public Speaking

[ctcarl]

I think it was the connection. Sloooooow. When I finally got it uploaded, it was graded within a couple of days. The professor was thorough in his/her comments and they did not seem generic.

Good or bad? I got a good grade on it. How in the world am I going to be able to improve for the next Touchstone? Oh, well.

Increase eye contact with the audience (camera).  I moved the camera to a spot where it was at eye-level, and I used a Teleprompter (scrolling) app on a tablet, also at eye level.

Vary your tone and other aspects of your speech a bit.

Change a few phrases to more verbose, collegiate-sounding ones.

Print out a visual aid and point to it.

[MNomadic]

I recently finished Sophia Public Speaking and all my touchstones were graded within a few days.

A couple tips for the actual speech component that I used but didn't see others mention:

- For a visual aid I created a VERY simple powerpoint. It basically had an intro slide, 3 slides with my 3 arguments(one each), a conclusion slide, a references slide, and a "Questions?" slide. One slide(my logos slide) had a basic graph I created from the data in one of my references, the others just used generic stock photos to elicit the the ethos or pathos response I was aiming for. Clicking through the slides helped me transition to each specific portion of my speech and then move on.
- I picked a subject I was very knowledgeable on so I didn't really write a speech, just made the powerpoint, wrote the bullet points I wanted to hit in a notebook to reference and improvise my way through the whole speech.
-I did do a few timed dry runs to see if I could intelligently talk on the subject for the allotted time.
- At the end I had a "questions?" slide where I asked my audience if they had any questions and my girlfriend asked a question. It actually worked out really well because I had forgotten to have a "call to action" in my actual speech but her scripted question and my response fulfilled that purpose.
-I filmed both my speeches back to back but switched in to nicer clothes and spoke more fluidly after my first speech.

[nomaduser]

'Sophia - Public Speaking' vs 'study.com - Principles of Public Speaking' ?
Which one is better? they're the only two public speaking courses available.
Do you guys think study.com's Principles of Public Speaking is easier?

[rachel83az]

'Sophia - Public Speaking' vs 'study.com - Principles of Public Speaking' ?
Which one is better? they're the only two public speaking courses available.
Do you guys think study.com's Principles of Public Speaking is easier?

If you want easy and you're transferring to TESU, you absolutely want Communications 120: Presentation Skills in the Workplace from SDC. Sophia is cheaper (obviously). If you're not transferring to TESU, I have no idea.

[LongRoad]

Thanks for the advice folks. I thought I'd done my work for the final chapter and just had the speech. Nope. Still a bit more work (and testing) to do before the final speech.

[LongRoad]

While I have not taken other Public Speaking courses, I think that Sophia's is good. I'm not thrilled with some of the questions. While I think they are attempting to see how well you understand the material -as opposed to how well you can search a PDF - I think that the many questions are too oblique.

Now, for the speeches. That's where it shines. Two speeches are required, and now that the free course rush is over, my speeches have been graded in two days. Don't worry about your topic, just find something about it that you can make sound urgent. Like gardening? Tell how to plan tulip bulbs and STRESS how they have to be planted NOW (the fall). Like changing your car's oil? Describe how it affects your car and you have to change it REGULARLY. They're not looking for a deep speech on quantum physics (unless that's your thing), so don't stress about the topic, stress something about it that is urgent. You do not have to work hard on a visual aid. Using a BIG font, type something on a piece of paper.

I'm not part of the selfie group, but doing this was like talking to myself in the mirror (which is how I practiced). Don't worry about your audience, 'cause it's YOU.

[cwendy111]

I agree; the reason why the parts were considered irrelevant was probably because you chose family members as your audience. It probably would've been better if you'd said something like "teachers" or "high school students" or something like that. Unless the Sophia text says otherwise, I'm not sure that family members qualify as an audience when writing a speech for public speaking.

One of the options they gave was a speech celebrating someone's graduation. So the audience was family.

In my community college class, we were allowed also to have family/friends as audience for one of the speeches.  I would have described audience as in terms of "demographics" (members of same family, age range) and "situational analysis" (voluntary attendance, genuine interest in celebrating the graduate).   That kind of stuff that you'd find in lessons and articles like this: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stan...lysis.html

I hate this class with the fire of a thousand suns.

You have probably gone on to become an outstanding public speaker by now, but this thread is cracking me up!!   I'm looking for feedback for my son, who used to be this energetic outgoing actor as a child, but now mostly just mumbles about with his head down. I don't know if Study's Comms 120 is going to fly at his CC, so I'm planning a backup at with either Sophia or Study. Likely Sophia since we are still active there. I'm gong to read on hoping to hear you passed with flying colors!!!

[origamishuttle]

Funny you should reply to this old thread. I recently completed this course, and I found the tips on this thread to be very helpful. Thank you all!

[MNomadic]

Another public speech option that is new would be the ASU EA course. It's obviously more expensive but being RA may be more useful for your purposes depending on where you plan to go to school at. Also, the ASU course might provide better interaction and feedback, though that is just a guess.

https://ea.asu.edu/courses/public-speaking-com-225/