Need help with my speech about fast food.

[Carnitas]

I have to give a speech in my speech class this coming week, and it has to be a persuasive speech. So I decided to do it on fast food, and persuade people to not eat it. Now I was going over it for a little while in my head, and is it smart to persuade people to not eat it at all? Or to just watch how much they eat of it, and eat it as little as possible?

Also if anyone has any information that they could give me, that would be great. So far I am going to read off some ingredients from a Big Mac, and possibly another sandwich from Mcdonalds, and show how much crap is put into there.



So far, what I got in outline form is:
Ingredients for some food items
Why people choose to eat fast food: conveinience, cheap, easily accesible.
What can happen if you eat too much of it.

Then maybe I would talk about different alternatives to eating fast food.

How does that look so far? I would really appreciate any and all criticism's as well as insight from anybody. Thanks for reading.

[Insex]

I have to admit that one of the best classes I ever took in college was my Public Speech class. I learned how to effectively get my point across to listeners, and how to be more confident in myself while I speak. That's partly due to the fact that I had such a great professor. Carolann Messner was her name, she taught at Saddleback Community College.

Someone in my speech class actually did a persuasive speech topic on the dangers of fast food. It was such a long time ago, so I can't remember exactly what points they used. But basically they went into detail about the large amounts of fat and unhealthy chemicals found in the fast/junk foods, and their negative effects on your health.

When you give a persuasive speech to the class, there is a certain way of presenting yourself to the class:

1. At the very beginning of your speech, your first sentence should be a hook. It should be something that grabs the attention of your audience by the throat. For example: "Chemical X is a chemical that has been linked to certain types of cancers. It also happens to be an ingredient commonly found in french fries at many fast food restaurants."

2. Include cognitive dissonance within your speech. Cognitive dissonance is like a mental earthquake. It's something that makes people become more aware, uncomfortable, and/or curious.

3. Include concrete detail within your speech. This means, give good descriptions as often as possible. You want to be able to give your audience a clear and accurate picture of whatever you're talking about, and you want them to get a real feel for it.

4. Use pictures or helpful aids during your speech. If there's a computer and projector screen in the classroom, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are excellent.

5. Last but not least, site all your sources. You didn't know everything about your topic before you began researching your project, so it is important to mention where you found that information. Example: "According to the American College of Sports Medicine, eating a fast food diet can..." Just like how you have to site sources when you write essays, you have to site sources for giving speeches as well, even if it means you have to mention a source every 10 seconds during your speech.

[Carnitas]

Well, we can't use powerpoint, but we do need a visual aid. So I was thinking of getting a poster, and have the Mcdonalds logo with an arrow pointing to a cow, with a question mark over it, and then one with KFC with an arrow pointing to a chicken, with a question mark over it, and then Taco Bell, with an arrow pointing to a Chihuahu(sp?) and a question mark over it. Adds a little comedy and hopefully some brownie points for the creativity from my teacher.

The only problem is, some bastard took the concept of my idea, cause we had a sign up sheet, and he didnt even sign up on there, and then he went last week, and talked about fast food. Hes was more along the lines of the cleanliness and whatnot of the fast food industry, and talking about ecoli and worms, but yah. I am going to rent Super Size me and take some notes from that as well.

[johnny_on_the_spot]

i was going to suggest seeing Super Size Me... Morgan Spurlock did a very good job in pointing things out about how the food is very bad for you, about how eating it more then once a month is actually considered very detrimental to your health, he actually gets addicted to the cheese they use and becomes very depressed... through the movie he also talks about advertising and about how children cant tell who a picture of simple public figures are (i forget who he used, i think bill clinton might have been one) but know exactly who ronald mcdonald is...

on another note, one of the most important things that i learned through my public speaking class and my writing intensive classes is that you should never use any types of subjective words (describing how something is better or worse then something else) unless you can back it up with info...
i know it sounds stupid, but some people will simply just label something better or worse and not state any facts...

[RAINMAKER]

Carnitas,

Whatever facts, sources, and visual aids you decide to use, make sure that you include the 3 basic steps of speechmaking. They are: the introduction, the body of the speech, and the conclusion. In other words, tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you just told them. Finally, to ensure an effective speech, keep it short and to the point. Good luck and be sure to tell us how it went.

Rainmaker

[PythonPower]

How long is it?

[pliny_2001]

I loved my speech class - I probably use more from that class than anything else that I took in undergrad. While a week's cutting it pretty close, you might want to look over the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser - everything you could possibly want to know about fast food is contained in it. There was a movie this fall, but I haven't seen it, and can't comment.

[Doughboy]

Im takin a speech class this summer, im nervous about it, I mean im good with people but something about gettin up and doing a speech makes me feel funny.

[johnny_on_the_spot]

im a horrible public speaker, but i found that the more i knew about the material and the better i knew it, the more comfortable i was talking about it...

you dont only have to practice exactly what you will say, although practicing it over and over again will help you stay on track, but also knowing the material so if you do get tripped up you can recover

[Carnitas]

Originally Posted by PythonPower

How long is it?

4-6 minute speech.


I think another thing I will add is the Burger King burger that they released a while ago, something about the man burger? Has around 1000 calories and 100 grams of fat or something. And talk about how in no way shape or form this can be beneficial to anyone by eating it. Why they came up with it I have no clue. I am just having a little trouble on putting the whole thing together right now, I have all these ideas jumbled(sp?) around in my head, and I just need to put them all down and once I do that, then I can start making some progress.

Thank you for the advice people. I really appreciate it. I have a lot more confidence going into this speech, because I did so well on my last speech, which was informing people about Metal music. So I think I will go into this much better than my previous ones.

[johnny_on_the_spot]

dont forget to mention the actual Burger King, he is one heck of a football player, he catches passes, plays defense, he does it all, and those commercials are by far some of my favorites in the last few years...

good luck to you

[Carnitas]

Originally Posted by johnny_on_the_spot

dont forget to mention the actual Burger King, he is one heck of a football player, he catches passes, plays defense, he does it all, and those commercials are by far some of my favorites in the last few years...

good luck to you

hahaha thanks man

[Carnitas]

Well I gave the speech, and I think I did a good job on it. Didnt mess up or anything. I got a couple chuckles out of my poster board. Now I got my final for that class on Thursday so hopefully she tells me my grade for the speech then too. Thanks everyone who helped.

[Doughboy]

Congrats man on doin good on the speech.