Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Bedwell

During my research on a public speaker, I had come across this motivational and leadership speaker Steve Bedwell. On February 17, 2012, he gave a speech on how people tend to act towards different situations and other people. In an auditorium full of business and health care leaders he also jump starts them into effective action with what goes on in the world with people. Steve Bedwell does an excellent job on trying to get the audience’s attention with interesting stories that keep them focused on what he is trying to say. While presenting he tends to keep eye contact with the audience. He also does not use any notecards, which this indicates that he knows his topic enough and is able to talk smoothly through his presentation. Also, to keep the audience interested, he adds humor in his presentation to help explain his connections. Bedwell does such a great job with his speech, that I do not see where he needs any improvement. In this speech he teaches the audience that the things we miss, tends to cripple our thinking and where the things we make up fuels our toxic emotions. When the perspective on any situation is not producing the results that you want, you should ask what am I missing and what am I making up. But usually we do not look at these two concepts of a perspective; we tend to assume the worst of that situation. In this speech Bedwell had explained that he was on a plane and had greeted the guy sitting next to him and the guy replied back to Bedwell by lifting his newspaper between them. In this
situation Bedwell had thought of the guy as a jerk and when the guy tapped on Bedwell’s shoulder, he had tried ignoring him back. Bedwell turned towards him and the guy handed him a note, which said “excuse me can you please call my wife and tell her I’m safely on the plane and on the way home.” Bedwell assumed that the guy was a jerk, and did not think of what could have been the reason for why the guy did not speak to him, and the reason was that the guy was deaf. My personal experience would be when I was at work and this guy came in and I started taking his order and he was getting irritated with me, so he left out of the store irritated and mad. I assumed that the guy was ignorant to get frustrated the way he did. But in a way I should have looked at the situation in that the guy might have been having a bad day.
Speeches usually are informative, or mainly have a great reason for being issued to the audience. Having an effective speech requires the speaker to have eye contact, uses appropriate hand gestures, a positive look on what they are explaining and mainly to present to audience in a way they will understand best. My scoring on this presentation by Steve Bedwell was mostly 4’s and 5’s because I did not see really anything wrong with his speech. Competency 1, on the topic I gave a 4 because, he had chosen a topic and only went over it a little bit. Competency 2, the thesis and specific purpose I gave a 5 because, he explains the purposes on each idea that was in the thesis. Competency 3, the introduction I gave a 5 because, he stated the purpose of his speech and a review on the information that referred to the introduction. Competency 4, I have a 4 because, in some parts he gives supporting information on what he was explaining, but some parts he did not cover what it referred to. Such as when he had the board and he was putting up fingers and the audience had to guess what number was on the board. Competency 5, I gave a 3 because, his information was in good contrasts to what he was talking about, but in some ways the information felt out of place. Competency 6, I gave a 3 because, his conclusion did not bring up anything new but could have went back and summarized more of his topic. Competency 7, I gave a 5 because, all the language that was used in the process of this speech was acceptable for the audience to comprehend and stay focused. Competency 8, I gave a 5 because, Bedwell did show his tone in different varieties of pitch to emphasize important or interesting facts. Competency 9, I gave a 5 because, all of his grammar was fluent and acceptable by the audience in that they understood what he was saying. Competency 10, I also gave a 5 because, his hand gestures toward everything especially toward the exciting parts had shown the emotions he was trying to convey. In order to evaluate a presentation you have many specific parts that you have to look at.
Such as, how the presentation is presented, does the information that is given refer back to the introduction and thesis? The communication skills that are required during a presentation should include eye contact, appropriate language, grammar and organizational pattern, to better connect with the audience and keep them interested in what you are
presenting. In reviewing the speaker Steve Bedwell and his speech on motivational and leadership situations, I now think of looking at all the different parts of a scenario instead of just one. By looking at many you have a better understanding of what is happening. There are many people out in the world today that do not think as critically as others do and this tends to be a problem towards others. Overall I think Steve Bedwell does a fantastic job of explaining what people tend to think and not think on certain situations.
http://youtu.be/8tDwyIkxgjw