Speech Structures Essay Example for Free

Speech Structures Essay As I listened, what I saw as essential in the understanding of the cases was knowing the name of the case and the state or court that was involved, the procedural history, the facts, the legal issue or issues raised in the case by the defendant and prosecutor, the courts holding, the courts reasoning and the disposition. If one of these items was left out you do not get the whole picture and the dilemma at hand. With out some of these parts it would be hard to follow where one part ends and the other part begins. One person that I listened to that I believe had a good speech structure was her case was on Pennhurst State School v Halderman (1981) which dealt with the Mental Institution and Patients rights. She began by telling us what her speech was about and the things that were found within the speech. She then began by telling us an interesting bit of the history of Pennhurst leading to the case. She had all her information set up according to the directions and also did a good job in transitioning from one topic to another providing the correct information. Out of all the speeches I heard I feel like my own speech could have been better. My speech was on Lawrence v. Texas (2003) which dealt with sex and privacy. I feel like I rushed my speech a bit and did not notice some of my mistakes. I believe my speech needed a tighter organizational structure which would have helped me during my presentation because some of my topics were placed in places they should not have been. During all of the presentations I personally do not think that any one of the students failed to follow directions. I believe that everyone did a great job in writing and presenting their speeches. Some were put better then others and some just like myself lacked a bit of structure. But other then that I believe everyone followed the directions as best as they could. Civil liberties and Constitutional rights After listening to the presentations I learned a bit about our country. I learned that even in our recent times there are still some states that had or still have laws that go against individuals constitutional rights. As well as I learned how each and everyone of these important cases changed the aws and the visions of many people till this very day. What impressed me was the courage that many of these individuals had to stand up to segregation, racism, discrimination, and other horrible things. What also impressed me was in the case of Plessy vs Ferguson and how a guy that was almost completely white put him self out there as black to put a point across since in his community he was considered black because of his one ancestor. He was labeled as â€Å"Creole of Color† and arrested for sitting in the â€Å"white car†. One thing that still sticks in my mind is the case of Thompson V Ok. It is unbelievable how a 15 year old child could commit such a brutal murder with no remorse what so ever and not be sent to death because of his age even though he committed such a heinous crime. After everything the discussions at the end of our speeches were very helpful. They helped in further explaining the situations as well as they helped put current issues into perspective with the cases that we wrote about. It was quite interesting in seeing how these cases formed what we are now and where this country is headed. And for the most part I feel like they are headed in the right direction.