3 ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT: how to make your argument persuasive
- Logos(logic)
Facts, statistics, evidence
value: hard to argue against (truth)/authrity
danger of overuse: less personal connection/ boring


- Pathos(appeal to emotion)
value: personal connection; strong response
danger of overuse: lose credibility/ less professional/ too much - turn people off


- Ethos(authority; credibility; character)(fair; honesty; trustworthy)
value: believe you/ unbiased
danger: lose focus of your argument

BALANCE

Last night’s presidential debate was the first debate between the presidential candidates that I paid attention to watch and took notes. It was very impressive how aggressive it got. It was also very interesting how my peers reactions were.

Since I am not a US citizen, I don’t have abundant information to decide who is a better choice to be president. As a result, I think I am pretty objective in terms of their debating skills judging only from last night’s performance.

Hilary Clinton is a very experienced public speaker. Being a politician for 30 years, she knows how to seize audience’s attention by heart. She started by focusing on the programs that she wants to emphasize on, which made it easier to build a point. During the course of the debate, she kept a smiling face, which made her same more affinity. She looked confident, but not aggressive, which is an attribute I like. She used personal anecdotes - the story of her father providing for her family as a middl-class. This improves people’s touch.

The disadvantages that she has is that she kept talking about her 30 years experience and attacks Trump for lack of experience. She said "when I was the secretary of state" at least three times. Authority and experience is good, but for debates bragging to much about it seems annoying. She also questioned Trump’s tax report and donation, which seems rather irrelevant for running for president.

On the other hand, I think Trump did a worse job. He was not very respectful because he interrupted Hillary many times which is not very polite. He kept emphasizing that America is in “deep deep trouble.” He pointed out Hillary’s problems directly, accusing her for not doing what she should have done in the last 30 years. However, he did not elaborate what his plan is going to be except for mention that he is going to cut the tax rate from 35% to 15%. Lack of detailed information makes his position seems unreliable.

REVIEW OF SPEECH

REVIEW OF SPEECH

This is my first speech that has been filmed and it was meaningful. There are a few things I learned:

- Although I am used to talk to a group of people, I am not comfortable talking to a camera.
- By watching my classmates, I learned that people don't usually talk the way they normally talk when they are on stage. I guess I am the same.
- After watching the video, I realized that I should probably look up more and have more eye contact to the audience.

Speech Video

https://youtu.be/fIaJW-ERUp8

I AM SPEECH

Leonardo da Vinci once said "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." We don't live at the times of Renaissance, and there is one advantage that we can take as modern human beings - technology. With technology, we can make miracles out of impossibles. This leads to my topic today - photography.

I believe that our interests have already been designed hand hidden deep down in our body. We use our life-long journey to discover the jade hidden inside the stones. My journey is not that much different. I knew it all the way that I loved visual art - actually one of the things that I enjoy most of coming to America is that there are so many fantastic museums - I can stare at Vincent van Gogh's "The Night Cafe" for 20 minutes. As you can see, I am a big fan of impressionism. Also as you know, one of the most essential point of impressionism is to capture the right moment - for example Claude Monet's "The Sunrise", he has to capture the exact moment of the sun bursting from the horizon. Impressionist painters' magic is to recreate the power of the moment.

But compare to painting, photographing has its own elegant attribute. I first picked up camera when I was in middle school. After receiving a few compliments, I started to take it seriously. I got my first digital single-lens camera and started to learn how to play with this new toy.

After I came to Cheshire Academy, I talked with the marketing & communication department. Now I am one of their interns, and I take pictures of lives in school, and they will use my work on school website. Also, I was invited by the American Diabetes Association to take photograph for an event in New York next month.

The point I want to make here is that it is not difficult or never too late to start as long as it's a thing that you truly like. My interest in photographing, you can call it a compromise for not able to paint or draw. But I worked on it continuously, so it is now a hobbit that I am proud of.

Bad TED Talk Classnotes

Henry's
- made joke at the beginning.
- not facing the audience

Tommy's
- speech does not match powerpoint
- monotone
- can't catch her breath

Jay's
- high-pitched voice

Ryan's
- yelling

Bad TED talk: the Master Yo-yo Player
http://www.ted.com/talks/black_my_journey_to_yo_yo_mastery
Altogether this is a fair TED talk. However, I would not give this one a score over 70 for a few reasons.
1. He has accent. English is probably not his first language, and it is obvious that he wants to keeps his sentences simple. However sometimes his words are still hard to understand with out subtitles.
2. His performance makes too much proportion of the TED talk. Since it is essentially a "talk", in order to spread his idea, he probably needs to focus more on the speech.

Morning Meeting Announcement:

This Friday, all the performers for the Mid-autumn festival please come to the rehearsal after school at the music classroom. If you and your partners have not submitted name of your song, please send an email to us so we can finish making the roaster by the end of this week.

Ted Talk 1
- came out with a question.
-  a lot of gestures
- clear structure: question, answer, solution
- humorous element
- good pace

2
- back to the audience
- em...

3
- can't see his eyes
- cool hand gestures
- humor

TED Talk: Female Superheroes

https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_bell_bring_on_the_female_superheroes#t-339659

Why I Choose Public Speaking

Oscar Tao

Mrs. Guarino

Public Speaking

Sept. 5th

                                              Why Am I Taking Public Speaking

As a student who only came to the state of Connecticut for the first time last week, there are a million of things that I don’t understand: new class schedule, new rules in a dorm — it is my first time boarding too. However, there was one thing that was crystal-clear to me: I need to improve my public speaking skills. As a matter of fact, Public Speaking is the only course that I chose to sign up instead of being arranged into. There is a major difference between the two ways: I feel like I am a cheetah haunting down a deer, with the desire in my eyes saying “I am coming after you.”

To explain the reasons why I winded up signing up for this half year course after two days into class, first it is necessary for me to talk about my understanding of the English language. I remember in his book Why The West Rules for Now, Ian Morris made the claim that English is and still will be a common language for the world for now and the days to come. No matter where you are from, it is an advantage to know how to speak English for the sake of both your personal convenience and others’ accurate understanding. Especially for a student born in a non-English-speaking country, I value this theory as one of my maxim: English is power. It is the bridge to communicate to the world. 

After realizing the importance of English, I started to take classes as well as self-study. Although it was not extremely helpful — I was only two chapters ahead of the rest of my class, this certainly gained me some confidence, and I was always the first one who raised hand in my English class. More importantly, this little confidence that I had was the resource of my impetus to put more effort in learning. Besides the advantage in English made me more confident, it gave me an opportunity to look into a different world with has been ignored by other kids. Through this crystal ball, I saw a New World which was discovered by the great Columbus in 1492.

However, the era of leading in English class ended when I moved to America. Even though I put more effort than my peers in China, I cannot compare with my classmates who are born to be English speakers, especially in oral English. Although I gradually got better by keep practicing daily speaking, the opportunities for me to speak in front of public is seldom. 

And this is the ultimate reason why I signed up for this course. Public speaking is a skill that everyone should possess and master in the twenty-first century. The ability to render an idea to the public is essential. Without it, teachers will not be able to teach classes, and CEO’s cannot tell their teams about the agenda. I hope I can improve my public speaking skills with the effort I put in during this Public Speaking class.

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