week 12

There have been many times when misunderstandings happen because of communication problems. A recent one that I have experienced is when I had to go to a track meet early a couple weeks ago and me and one of my friends were driving down to Knowles in the morning before the meet so we didn’t have to walk. And another friend named Sophie asked for a ride also. We told her that we would pick her up at 6:30. So the next morning we went to go pick her up from her dorm and she wasn’t there. We waited for a little bit and then we got worried because the bus was supposed to leave at 7am and they don’t wait for anyone. We waited for about 5 mins, then called her. She wasn’t even awake yet! She thought the bus didn’t leave till 8 in the morning and she thought we were going to be there at 7:30. I don’t know how she got messed up but sometimes she just isn’t the best listener. So anyways we woke her up and she got everything ready in time and we just got down to the track just at 7 and we left on the bus. Things like that can be a problem because if we were late we could have missed the bus and that would have caused a big problem for not only us but the rest of the track team.

Have you ever been late or almost late to something important because you got the time wrong or some miscommunication between people?

Week 10 Blog

It is very difficult to have a good accurate perception of a person by just looking at them but unfortunately almost everyone does. The first impression is critical in most situations. When I first meet them I look at what they are wearing, how they walk, talk and there attitude. Physical characteristics are very deceiving sometimes when you meet someone. If you see an overweight person, most people assume they aren’t very athletic and they don’t take care of their body. Or if you see an extremely tall person most people think they are a really good basketball player. Well that is not always true, there are many tall people who stink at basketball and there are overweight people who are actually in pretty good shape. I think that these perceptions come from almost everywhere in the world. You grow up with the media and your parents teaching you everything. You go watch a basketball game on tv and you don’t seem many players that are short. I think its important to be aware of your perceptions to make sure that you perceive people correctly and that you make good logical perceptions of people. It is hard to not judge a book by it’s cover, but that is a good thing to think about when you meet new people.

is there ever a time you met someone for the first time and judged there by the way they looked and where totally wrong about them?

Week 9

When I started thinking about the speeches I’ve heard in the past, I realized I’ve listened to a lot of speakers. In high school we had a lot of assemblies where guest speakers would come and talk about all different types of topics, everything from drinking and driving to spending and saving money. Speakers and speeches that would demonstrate the emotional appeals would be speeches about the drunk driving and things like that. I remember one speaker that came in and she talked about how her three sons died coming home one night because a drunk driver hit her son’s car. I remember the auditorium was dead silent as she told her story and showed a slide show of her kids. It was really emotional and everyone was really listening to what she was talking about. Another speaker came in and talked to us about saving money for the future and how things are going to be different in a few years because of technology. This was a good logical appeal because it made people think about what the future Is going to be like and think logically about the future. One of the best speakers I’ve heard was Reggie Dabbs. He is a speaker that goes to schools all around the country and talks about making good choices and not using drugs, and alcohol, and he also talks about religion and how that can help in people’s lives. He was a really good speaker and he is one of the most memorable speakers I’ve ever heard. He did a good job on demonstrating a credible emotional appeal and also a convincing need-based appeal. He used personal experiences to talk about how drugs, smoking, and alcohol can ruin a person’s life but he also made it a convincing need based appeal by telling us how they ruin our body physically and mentally and how they are just not safe. Were there any really good speakers or speeches that you listened to in high school that you really remember and made an impact on your life?

Week 4

Nonverbal communication is very easily misunderstood and is difficult to read. There are many different ways to communicate non verbally that get misunderstood. One example of that is by crossing your arms. Crossing your arms can mean many different things in many different situations. I can simply mean that your cold and you cross your arms for warmth. But people may interpret that in a different way. Crossing your arms may signify that your trying to give space between you and someone else who is in your “bubble” that you are uncomfortable with. It can also mean that a person is annoyed or bored and they cross their arms. There really is no correct way to use this body language It depends on the situation to know if it is appropriate or not. If you were listening to a boss give you instructions to do something, crossing your arms (even if your cold) probably wouldn’t send the right symbol to the boss and he might find it rude.

The person who has the information has the power. This is true because they are the ones knowledgeable in that situation and they can control how the information is shared. When anyone is giving a speech they have the information and that gives them the power. When the president gives a speech like the presidential address, they have the power and the information. Most of the time when I am giving speeches and stuff I don’t feel like I have very much power, I feel as though everyone is staring and judging me and if feel like the underdog in most of those situations. I hope to stop feeling this way, and hopefully ill feel the power when I give speeches. Does anyone else feel like they are the “underdog” when giving speeches?

Week 3

There have probably been many times when I have spoken to people about something important and I could tell they weren’t listening. It is frustrating at times because you know what your saying is important and they just blow it off. It sometimes happens when I am telling a friend story about something that happened, and it also happens a lot when I am babysitting and I am trying to tell the child to do something or stop doing something and they just don’t listen. When I am talking to a friend I can usually tell when they don’t care and aren’t listening because they either look really bored or they are doing something else while you are talking to them like texting or looking at their nails or just staring into space. Usually if this happens I just stop my story or whatever I am trying to say and I just move on to something else. It is frustrating and kind of disappointing sometimes but then again I think that I probably do the same thing when I don’t care what the person is saying to me. I should try to be more of an attentive listener and try to listen to people better because I know how it feels to be ignored or just tuned out and I should try not to make other people feel that way.

In high school I had a teacher that was very disorganized during his lectures. He would start off by talking about a subject and he would go off topic so much that I could never follow along. He was a science teacher, so I remember one time we were talking about animal cells at the start of class and by the end of class we were talking about trees. That class was so hard to keep up with and take notes and it seemed like everyone in that class was as confused as I was. If I could go back and give the teacher some advice id tell them to not go off on random tangents and stay on task and organize the lesson outline better.

Week 2

I cannot recall a time when I’ve been to a speech and the speaker didn’t connect with the audience. But that is probably because I didn’t connect with the speaker, so I didn’t remember the speech or care to even try to remember. I can image how I would feel as an audience member though. I would feel not important and I would probably be very bored. I wouldn’t care about the speech and I would probably start day dreaming. It would be very frustrating to understand what the speaker is trying to tell the audience. When I give my speeches hopefully I’ll be able to keep the audience interested in what I’m trying to say and hopefully connect with them. I’ll analyze the audience and make sure what I’m speaking about relates to them and hope they have some interest in what I’m talking about. Also, I’ll emphasize words and phrases so the speech doesn’t sound monotone and boring.

Presentations I’ve heard in the past that really caught my attention and were ones that I remember are speeches where there were a lot of different voice changes, and the speaker changed up the way they spoke. They also used hand jesters and really got into their speech and spoke well. The speeches that were boring were the ones where the speaker stands up front and just speaks with a monotone boring voice and has nothing interesting to talk about and doesn’t move a muscle while speaking. It’s frustrating and very boring, so I hope I’ll be able to speak well and not boring to many people with my speeches this semester.

Week 1

Communication is very important in everybody's life and we use it constantly every single day. Everybody needs to know how to communicate effectively and I think that is why we have it as a requirement for every degree program. I use communication all the time every single day. Throughout the day I talk face to face with a bunch of people, when I sit in class I communicate with the professor and the other students in the class by listening and participating in class. throughout the day i text friends I don't get to see all the time, as well as friends I see all the time but have something I need to tell them. After I take this class I hope I can better my communication skills. I hope to have less of a fear to speak in front of groups of people. Right now my communication apprehension is very high and I hope I can reduce that.

When I think back to an embarrassing moment in my life, many come to mind. But after awhile it doesn’t seem to be that embarrassing anymore and my life goes on. Right now speaking in front of people is like an embarrassing moment for me, but hopefully after this class I won’t be as embarrassed to express my opinion in groups or speak in front of class. When someone is embarrassed, usually they think there life is over and everyone noticed what happened and everyone will make fun of them. Usually that isn’t the case. Most of the time people don’t even notice when something goes wrong and that is especially true when giving a speech. When you know you messed up, people don’t seem to usually catch it so it’s not that bad