Informative Speech
Human beings need to connect to their fellow human race. In delivering messages, speeches are essential elements that facilitate the process of communicating to an audience. It is through expressions that a speaker becomes at a position of providing the kind of message he wanted to address. The main aim of delivering speeches in communication is to convince the audience to ride to the speaker’s school of thought. However, it is not every speaker who achieves this critical element of speech delivery. To enhance the process, therefore, the speakers employ verbal and non-verbal cues as addressed in this essay.
In the reflective speech delivered by Monica Santana, there are various key elements of speech delivery that can be learned as she talks to her audience. There are different non-verbal cues that Monica employs while in her speech delivery process. The non-verbal cues involve the elements used by the speaker that cannot be in a position to give a verbal translation. Firstly, the speaker keeps eye contact. As Monica introduces the topic of mental problems, she focuses keenly on the camera and therefore maintaining contact with the audience that watches her (Santana, 2020). The effect of this cue is that a connection is built with the audience, and therefore, it is in the position to relate to the topic. The second cue is on her tonal variation. She perfectly and audibly presents her facts making the words easy to be heard by the audience. The non-verbal cue of tonal variation is effective in this presentation in that the words are enunciated perfectly. In addition, the tonal variation exhibited during articulation effectively enhanced positive presentation. Lastly, there is a body language through gestures. She repeatedly moves her hands. The effect of this gesticulation is to reinforce an emphasis on performance (Adler et al., 2016).
Secondly, the speaker uses her spoken language through verbal cues to better her presentation. Firstly it is on articulation. Her tone changes to a sympathetic one as she relates to the experiences that the policemen undergo while in service. Her fluency is also part of the articulation. It is through this aspect that she communicates fluently to her audience. Secondly, as a verbal cue, she introduces a personal account before introducing her speech. This verbal cue aids in owning the presentation, and therefore the audience relates the speaker as being part of the topic. Lastly, she employs the technique of pausing rhetoric questions, for instance, How many of you… (Santana, 2020) the rhetoric effectively enhances the audience to pause and reflect on what she has said in her presentation.
In the speech, there were cases of vocalized pauses. When giving the option of support groups in (Santana 2020), the speaker pauses and uses the uh pause. One can improve in her presentation with less or no vocalized pauses by having a great mastery of her performance and also mastering courage in her delivery (De Waele et al., 2019).
Lastly, from a content standpoint, the content of mental health issues in the armed men and women is effectively delivered. It was a productive and memorable delivery. The effectiveness was that the topic is timely and also easy to relate to. She achieved the easiness of memorializing by giving personal examples and on her repetitive use of words. By even quoting on reviewed articles that are penned down by professionals is an easy way through which her audience was made to recall on her presentation.
References
Adler, R. B., Rodman, G. R., & Du Pré, A. (2016). Understanding human communication (Vol. 10). Oxford University Press.
De Waele, A., Claeys, A. S., & Opgenhaffen, M. (2019). Preparing to face the media in times of crisis: Training spokespersons’ verbal and nonverbal cues. Public Relations Review, 101871.
Santana, M. (2020). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb4UZkvSivc&feature=youtu.be