Criticism Assignment On John Linke's Speech

726 Words3 Pages

I attended the State FFA convention on April 11th, 2016 in Brookings, South Dakota. Here there was three sessions with different types of speakers each night. I decided to do my criticism assignment on John Linke a speaker on the second night. His speech was a retiring address from the position as Treasure of South Dakota FFA officer. His main goal was to motivate or persuade people to think about the little things they can do to keep their eyes on the big target. Throughout the speech he gave examples on how you can do this.
Johns introduction was done off the stage with a spot light on him as he walked toward a target that he used as a visual aid. He started his speech with a story of when he shot a riffle at a target and all the things he …show more content…

When telling stories, he used different tones to show how he felt at that moment. His speech was memorized because he did not have any notecards but it did not at all sound memorized or monotone. His hand gestures and use of space were excellent. At times where he needed to show the size of something or give more meaning to a sentence, he would use hand gestures. He used most of the stage and walked around instead of staying in one spot. He also sat down in a chair at the point where he was telling the story about him in the boat so that we could visualize him in the boat. Lastly his use of the spot light was crucial in the beginning of the speech because without that I would have never been able to find him in the crowd. Over all I believe he did a great job with delivery and I wouldn’t tell him to change anything.
John Linke’s speech was very well done. He made sure we remembered his main point and his delivery was perfect. The only thing I would recommend is adding in 3 main points or making them more visible. I left with the motivation to focus on the little things. On a side note he also showed me ways I could better deliver my speeches in the future. I learned a lot from this speaker and I’m glad I got to sit in on his