On October 7, 2016, I had the opportunity to listen to an hour and a half public speech on-campus, therefore at a private college. It featured motivational advice and tips for athletes. The speaker was Joshua Medcalf, former Division I soccer player at Vanderbilt and Duke Universities; CEO and founder of “Train 2B Clutch,” a mental training program; and a mental conditioning coach for UNC soccer and UCLA basketball players. In the beginning, Medcalf announced the purpose of his speech: to inform the audience that we should not allow our identities to get wrapped up in what we do, but in whom we are. The audience on the day of the speech was comprised mostly of University of the Pacific student-athletes, but there were also some coaches and younger athletes from the Stockton community. …show more content…
His main points were that everyone matters, the importance of hard work, and ways to pursue greatness. In terms of connective devices, Medcalf used transitions to let the audience know what he was going to be covering next. Transitional words such as ‘also’ and ‘in addition’ were included. While no internal summaries were included, he did use internal previews at the middle and end of his speech. For example, before telling a hypothetical story, he said, “So now I’m going to tell you all a story of a man named John.” Later on, Medcalf stated, “So the very last point that I want to leave you with is about taking responsibility for your life.” The topical organizational pattern that he used helped the audience clearly understand what they should take away from the speech. On the contrary, the connective devices including the transitions and internal previews came before the main points, which helped the audience know when to expect them. He did a good job at ensuring audience retention of his main