Styles of Speeches

Last week in class prepping for our “This I Believe” speeches, we were taught the four different types of speeches: memorized, impromptu, extemporaneous and manuscript.

Memorized speeches are pretty self-explanatory—the entire speech is memorized and you go to the podium with nothing.  This is a great style for those who have amazing memory to be able to memorize a whole speech.  You will have great audience-interaction because you are forced to look at them instead of being tempted to look at your note cards.  A negative to this is obviously if you forget your next thought and can’t pick up from where you left off. 

Impromptu is a style where you think of everything you want to say on the spot with no time to prepare your thoughts or anything.  This is a great mode for the classroom setting because the teacher usually doesn’t have as high expectations as they would if you were given time to prepare.  A negative to this style is if you can’t collect your thoughts quick enough and just freeze in front of everyone. 

Extemporaneous is a mix of all the modes.  You do have note cards but they only have bullets of the points you want to make and not forget.  This method works well because even though there are some notes in front of you, you aren’t as tempted to stare at the page the whole time since you have to create sentences and continued thoughts, making for a great time for audience eye contact.  Extemporaneous can take a wrong turn when you can phrase the words on the spot and can’t get your point across in the way you want to say it.  You can also forget important points to say and remember it later and can cause for disorganization of hopping all over the place.

And finally, manuscript.  Manuscript is when you are reading off of note cards or the actual essay itself.  A positive about this type of speech giving is that you have all your thoughts and everything you want to say right there in front of you and just have to read it off the page.  Although this makes the job seem much easier, it can cause more mistakes.  Reading off of a written piece of work can lower the amount of eye contact you make with the audience.  Anyone would be more likely to just read off the page instead of taking pauses to look up for audience interaction.  The number one importance of speech giving is to give a personal feel to the audience.  After all, the reason for you giving your speech is for them to hear.

Manuscript is something most of us are exposed to most frequently—on the news.  The newscasters are reading off of a scroll on a TV screen or big note cards in front of them.  This can take turn in the wrong direction when they misread what is on the scroll, especially being on live TV. 

Or things can go wrong when the person writing the scrolls messes up and the newscasters are unaware and just have to read what is given to them. 

These common mistakes provide entertainment for the viewer’s pleasure but humiliation on the newscasters part and I'd consider yourself lucky if you happen to be watching the news and see one of these mishaps just because everyone deserves a good laugh at either 5 am or 11 pm during the news.  Well at least I know I'd love to come across these mistakes while watching. 

The Rhetoric of Jersey Shore

Every Thursday night at 10:00 pm on MTV, people of all ages tune in to the third season of the hit show, Jersey Shore.  The show basically follows eight guidos and guidettes of New York and New Jersey living in a beach house in Seaside.  What we are essentially are watching a bunch of over-tanned, party lovin’ men and women in their 20’s partying and drinking on the beach and in the clubs, and with the usual GTL-gym, tanning and laundry routine.  Most of them only finished their degree to as high as high school and have been just having a blast with their carefree lives since.  So why is it that American’s are so addicted to them?  One is for their attitudes and their fun lives they live during the three-month period of the show.  Another is, is that they are completely different that who and what we are used to.

           Jersey girls and guys have always been different-the way they dress, the way they act and especially the way they talk.  Using words such as “juice-head guido” and “friggin,” it’s just something everyone else not from that area isn’t used to and it becomes addicting to watch such people act in such ways.            

            Their rhetoric completely fascinates me and probably most of who else watches.  Not only is their language crude and full of words no one else would understand unless they were from Jersey, but the way they present themselves when using such vocabulary.  Most people would like to keep themselves classy and presentable on a nationally televised program.  Not this group of eight.  They were raised and brought up used to being able to express yourself using such crude and inappropriate language and acting out such as fighting on the boardwalk if someone is giving you a hard time or having a fight with one of your roommates.  

Something that just leaves me with questions is why is it that only people from that particular area act in such ways?  It seems to me this is something we just will never know but we will all just continue to watch and be in awe and fascination of their unusual rhetoric and presence.