Oral Communication sucks but Im SO good at it

Well at least I think I am. Tell me what you think.

ENG 126 Oral Communication
Assignment- profile a speaker and answer:
Does the speaker show an awareness of the audience's needs and interests?
How does the speaker adapt his or her remarks to meet those needs and interests?


"Thomas Friedman has been the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Time since 1995. He has won a Pulitzer for journalism three separate years with The Times, and in the process has written many books on foreign politics and philosophy. But I did not choose to profile him based upon his merits, or even the speech itself. I chose this because of the audience, which happens to be a rather small, casual group of students and professors from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You might also know them as The MIT Group.

I am usually excited to learn about anything involving science and technology, and even though I may not always agree or even understand some of the points presented, I value what The MIT Group represents through their invited guest speakers: the values of openness and honesty within society, the importance of science and technology, how necessary educating people for these fields are, and helping people to understand some very important trends that affect not just this country but the world.

Thomas Friedman is no exception. The speech that he delivered was based around the some of the focal points of a book he wrote called “The World is Flat”. The title was a metaphor for many points he makes: how the world felt just a little smaller after digital internet interconnectivity went worldwide, or how modern social shifts in politics and commerce helped to level the economic world.

I doubt very much that I am anywhere near as smart as some of the teachers, or even the students in that room, but in the 25 minute speech he gives, I understood it all very clearly. He spoke in a way so that anyone could understand. He did make a few jokes or comments focused on technology, science, or education to show common interests. For the small stage and limited seating it was appropriate for the setting to be a little more casual, and he took advantage of it to make the audience more at ease, and to get them involved.

Overall, I am a nerd and this speech just grabbed me from the first time I saw it, back in 2005. There is a second speech from 2007 called “The World is Flat 3.0” that further elaborates his points from the original. The ideas that stick with me the most from both of the speeches, and what I hope to send with each of you as you go on with your day: how learning and bettering yourself should never end, no matter how complex or simple, how simply getting out there and really educating yourself everyday can equip you with the best arsenal to succeed and be happy in the modern world."