Analysis on “How State Budgets Are Breaking Us Schools”
Semester 2 2011/2012 SBLE 2083 Public Speaking (Group E) Prominent Speech Analysis on “How state budgets are breaking US schools” Lecturer: Nurul Nazifah binti Mat Noh Group Members: Koo Chi Haw205634 Thong Hsien Jin205770 Mohammad Azlan bin Annual206955 Muhammad Noorhafizi bin Noor Azay 207278 Title: How State budgets are breaking US schools In the beginning of the speech, the speaker did gained the attention and interest of the audience by relating the topic to the audience and stating the importance of the topic and relating the topic to the audience.
He mentioned that “And these budgets are the key for our future; they’re the key for our kids”. This example shows that he was trying to relate the audience about their future and their children. He also mentioned that “the great universities or community colleges — most of the money for those things is coming out of these state budgets”. This means that state budgets are crucial for education spending in the United States. The speaker did not introduce the topic clearly in the beginning of the speech. He begun his speech only by saying “Well, this is about state budgets. and “And these budgets are the key for our future; they’re the key for our kids”. These might only gave hints or questions to audience about the topic that was going to present by the speaker. The speaker did establish credibility by showing the numbers about the state budgets. He mentioned “State budgets are big, big money — I’ll show you the numbers”. This means that he has the information that is relevant and is qualified to speak on this topic. The speaker did not really preview the body of the speech.
It would not be clear either. He said that the state budgets are important for their future and their kids which only gave hints about how state budgets problems are going to relate to education spending. The speaker should have preview the body of the speech by saying the main points to the audience in the beginning of the speech. The speech indeed related to audience. The speaker already pointed out that the topic is very important for the people to take considerations in the beginning, even though it is boring.
The speaker was consistently informing the audience that if the state budget is not enough to cover all the expenses due to deficit of 10%, the young will more likely to be the victims as the majority of spending from the education will be swift to health-care medical for the old ones. It would affect many people of the U. S. in the future. The speaker also used the word “you” frequently. This indicates that he is trying to relate the audience during the speech. After reviewing the video, the main points are the implications of the imbalanced state budget to the education expenses in current and future.
The speaker aided his main points by using an effective visual aids and further explain the main point by detailed elaborations and examples. Such methods are effectives to the audience to understand the topic clearly and relevant. First, the speaker introduced the state budgets and the deficits that occurred. Then, He moved on to the implication on the education spending which is the system will have a big squeeze if the expenses are mostly swift to health-care program by minimizing the expenses for the education in the deficit state budget.
If such trend happened, the future education level will be weakened such as no bold experiment, no teacher effectiveness measurement and no incentives for the excellence teachers. The speaker used many type of methods in supporting main points. Firstly, the speaker gave extended example about the cause of the state budgets deficit. He mentioned that “When Jerry Brown was elected, this was the challenge that was put to him. That is, through various gimmicks and things, a so-called balanced budget had led him to have 25 billion missing out of the 76 billion in proposed spending.
Now he’s put together some thoughts: About half of that he’ll cut, another half, perhaps in a very complex set of steps, taxes will be approved. But even so, as you go out into those future years, various pension costs, health costs go up enough, and the revenue does not go up enough. So you get a big squeeze. ” Secondly, the speaker also used hypothetical example such as “But we’re spending 36 percent. Well what are we taking in? Simple business question. Answer is 26 percent. Now this leaves 10 percent deficit, sort of a mind-blowing number. ” The speaker also used statistic method to support the main points.
For the example, “But we have a problem. Here’s the overall picture. U. S. economy is big — 14. 7 trillion. Now out of that pie, the government spends 36 percent. ” The speaker used a causal order where he first identified the state budgets deficit and what cause these deficits. Finally, he pointed out on how this affects the education spending by the government. The language used by the speaker is overall clear and concise. The speaker did used some familiar words that are easily understand by the audience. The speaker also used many abstract words which refer to ideas or concepts in his speech.
For examples, “medical innovation”, “gimmicks” and “big squeeze”. However, the speaker used terms like “Medicaid” and “Enron” in his speech that would be not familiar with the audiences who are not living in United States. In the middle of the speech, the speaker also used a repetition as the rhythm of the speech. For example, “Now how did we get here? How could you have a problem like this? ”. The speaker only used signpost as the connective in the speech. The connectives are used as he had begun next main points with questions. For examples, “Now how did we get here?
How could you have a problem like this? ”, “Well what’s going to give? ” and “So what do we need to do? ”. This shows that the speaker invited himself to answer and get the audience more involving with the speech. However, the signposts used are not really effective because they did not show the next or previous main points in the speech. In the end of the speech, the speaker signaled the end of the speech by saying, “And so the bottom line is”, to let the audience know that the speech was going to stop soon. The speaker also used a crescendo ending for his speech.
He made a conclusion in which his speech was built to a zenith of power and intensity that influence the audience to care about the state budgets. The speaker said that the state budgets are critical for their kids and their future. “Now I think this is a solvable problem. It’s a great country with lots of people. But we have to draw those people in, because this is about education. ” The speaker did reinforce the central idea of the speech by making a dramatic statement. He said, “And just look at what happened with the tuitions with the University of California and project that out for another three, four, five years — it’s unaffordable. ”
