I believe that
this is one of the most moving speeches every given by a president because
Roosevelt speaks to human nature and human rights, while still trying to
convince the country to join in a war half way across the world. When it comes
to my ability to evaluate Roosevelt’s speech, I think I did a very good job of
listening to the speech and picking out the different parts of the speech that
related to a-c. Considering the length of this speech it made it slightly more
difficult to find and remember specific quotes that relate to each area of
evaluation, I just had to go ad re-listen to certain parts after I finished the
speech. My biggest issue with listening to and evaluating this speech can be
summed up by the first line of the New York Times article, “Walking and texting
can save time, but studies show the brain has difficulty switching between more
complex tasks” (Tugend). This was my biggest problem at first, I tried to
listen to the speech and write down different things that I was going to use
for my paper at the same time, it just was not working. So instead I restarted
the speech and timed it and anytime I heard something I wanted to use, I would
mark down what time in the speech it was said so that afterwards I could go
back and find the specific line. The definition of listen is to pay attention to
someone or something in order to hear what is being said, sung, played, etc.
This definition rings especially true when it comes to speeches because
speeches are not always record so if you stray your attention away from the
speaker for a mere second you might miss a very important part of what they are
trying to say to you.
I looked
up the process of listening and came up with these parts: receiving, attending,
and understanding. The site I found uses an analogy between the listening
process and the E-mail system which I think very effectively explains each
stage. Receiving is when a message is sent and is on its way to the recipient,
if the recipient is interested and engaged they will get the E-mail, however if
the sender fails to turn the recipients computer on the message will never be
opened. When it comes to receiving in the listening process self-interruption
can be extremely detrimental in that if you do not pay attention to what is
being said there is no way that you can become engaged and actually receive any
of the information. Next there is attending, using the computer analogy, once
your computer is turned on you will receive the message, but if other
influences force you to delay reading the message you might forget about it and
then never actually read it. This is huge with self-interruption since the only
way to be attending or give your full attention is if you are completely
focused and engaged in what is being said otherwise just like with receiving
the message the speaker has may not be conveyed. Third we have understanding, even
if you “open” the E-mail and read it, if the message is not communicated
effectively then you will not understand what the sender is trying to say.
Self-interruption does not affect understanding as directly as it does with
receiving or attending, however if you do not properly receive the message or
give it the necessary attention it is next to impossible to fully understand
it. Even though I was initially disappointed that I was going to have to do the
final, I am now glad that I went through this process. As someone who has dealt
with ADHD my entire life, being attentive has always been difficult. Through
the process of listening to the speech by FDR and writing this paper I have
realized something’s that I can work on to improve my listening abilities for
the future. The main one is that even if someone is speaking about something
that may not be of great interest to me it is very important to give them your
full attention because you would want that for yourself. Also if you are fully
attentive in listening you might hear them say something that will peak your
interest and therefor make you fully engaged. Overall I have found this whole
process very helpful and informative.
