Before taking this course, when I looked at presentation, I didn't think much to it or vaguely had ideas of various aspects to a speech. I just listened to them and thought they were nice or bad based on broad and unstructured form of grading. But now I'm more consciously aware of different skills of speech and evaluate whenever somebody speaks in front of me. Early in the quarter I wasn't even aware of some of the aspects of speech such as intonation, filler words, mid phrase pausing and etc. Now I understand very well what definitions of those are and how they affect the presentation. Let us consider each important field to speech and how they specifically influence the overall impression of presentation.
             Loudness is important in giving speeches, low volume tend to associate presenters with timid, shyness and tend to affect negatively. By contrast, loud and projected voice may help presenters to project image of confidence, cheerful upbeat mood and thus elevating the mood of audiences as well. Voice quality often characterizes one's emotional state and that is why we are able to tell if our friend is upset or happy on the phone most of the time. Calm, confident voice is preferred among good presentation rather than shaky and nervous or too high pitched or monotone voice. I didn't know there were so many descriptors for voice quality and I was able to use more descriptor words on the second assignment to give clearer image of presenters.
             Rate and pausing is critical in making audiences understand the presentation. 160~170 wpm rate is the most effective and easiest to understand. I am especially more noted of mid phrase pausing now then before and how appropriate pausing significantly increases listeners understanding of the whole speech and keeps interest. On the 1st Assign, I just noted generally whether the speech was fast or slow but now I was able to catch good or bad use of mid phr...