Speech Structure: Building the Body and Polishing the Conclusion

Task #1

The first task is to write an outline for one of three different speeches. I chose the speech #1.

“Grit: The power of passion and perseverance” by Angela Lee Duckworth at TED Talks Education https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance 

I used the sample outline from paragraph 4.2 in my course book to write an outline of this speech. Let me show you my version of outline.

Outline

Introduction

1. The story about starting teacher career (explanation of the way of work)

• IQ was not the only difference between my best and my worst students.
• every one of my students could learn the material if they worked hard and long enough.

2. After several more years of teaching

• we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective, from a psychological perspective.
• what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?

3. I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist.

• I started studying kids and adultsin all kinds of super challenging settings ( who is successful here and why?)
• in all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success - grit

Body

1. What is grit?

• what does it mean?
• studying grit in the Chicago public schools (grittier kids were significantly more likely to graduate)
• grit matters everywhere

3. Talent doesn't make you gritty.

• grit is usually unrelated or even inversely related to measures of talent.

4. The best idea I've heard about building grit in kids ("growth mindset" )

• the ability to learn is not fixed, can change with your effort.

Conclusion

1. In other words, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier.

Task #2

This task is to write a conclusion to the following speech.

How to Communicate Effectively

     Establishing and developing effective communication is important in order to be heard and change your environment according to your own thoughts. No one will guess what you want or what you think if you don’t tell them, and nothing is going to change if you do not propose a change. The purpose of my speech is to discuss three important skills that will help you communicate effectively. Such skills are not to be afraid of speaking, express exactly what you mean to say, and listen while you are not speaking. 

    The first aspect to communicate effectively is not to be afraid of speaking. Anytime you need to say something, go ahead and do it. Most of the times people are afraid of speaking because they are not sure if it is the right thing to say or the right moment to say it. Be sure, say what you want to say, and do not regret it. If you speak you will be heard and taken into account. You are important so you need to be heard. There is one thing you should not do somehow: Do not say something that will hurt somebody’s feelings. Unless that something has to be said inevitably, say it, but as softly and gently as you can. Never hurt anyone intentionally. Always think twice before saying something. You choose what to say, just be sure to say the right thing at the right time. If you do that, you won’t regret a thing. 

    The second main aspect of effective communication is to express exactly what you mean to say. Pick up the words that will express exactly what you are thinking of. Do not forget that one half of a word belongs to the listener and the other to the speaker. The listener gets their own version of what is said. However your job is to express yourself clearly, so that you can avoid misunderstandings. Although, avoiding misunderstandings is a hard task (not impossible), when it is achieved you will be expressing yourself effectively. Everybody will be able to identify exactly what you say, what you think, and what you want. Words are double edged weapons which can be used either to defend or to attack. If you make a good use of them, you will be able to do almost everything.

    The third main point to effective communication, and probably the most important of all, is the listening part. Listen and do not interrupt when it is no longer your turn to speak. You will surely learn new things from listening to others. If a person is speaking, it’s because she or he wants to be heard. Effective communication is based on both listening and speaking. If communication were based only on speaking, it would be an absolute tyranny. Nevertheless, communication is the means through which you express yourself in order to be heard and change your environment according to your own version of reality. Thus, it would be impossible to change anything if there were no one to listen, learn, and accept new ideas. Listening is a gift, and good listeners are always appreciated because there are only a few. 

Conclusion

To sum up, it is really hard work to develop an effective communication with someone. You should be sure that things you want to say are worth it. If you'll be afraid to say something, you can lose this opportunity forever. Also, it is necessary to be polite and attentive during conversation. It means that you have to be a good listener too. A great listener surely get a lot of attention from his auditory. A huge amount of work should be done by members of dialogue to build really effective conversation.