Meece 1
Nick Meece
Professor Finan
English 111
5 December 2013
Inquiry IV: Reflective Essay
The end of the semester gave me the opportunity to reflect upon my remediation that
made up my Inquiry IV, and although it was challenging, I found it to be very beneficial. I
revised my argument in Inquiry IV and decided to argue the other side of my topic that I had
chosen for Inquiry III. The target audience for my presentation was people who drink energy
drinks and those who have considered consuming energy drinks. I chose this audience because I
wanted to educate people who drink energy drinks about the dangers of consuming these
beverages. I also wanted to inform the people who considered drinking these drinks about the
adverse effects that these drinks can have. Additionally, the revision of my Inquiry III effectively
compelled my target audience.
I chose a variety of images to help get my argument across. Some of the images were
meant to generate a feeling of sadness and impact the viewer on an emotional level. Pictures of
the people who have died from consuming the energy drink Monster, were most likely the
images that would evoke some type of emotional response. Also, the graphs used in my
presentation could have impacted the viewer in a variety of ways. The viewers could have seen
the logic to my argument, backed up by these graphs, which showed how energy drinks can
make a consumer crash and how energy drinks have very high levels of other substances. Other
images, such as the infant drinking an energy drink, could have shown the audience how real the
Meece 2
problem of energy drink consumption by children is. The YouTube video in my presentation
gave the audience more information on energy drinks from a credible source, CNN. This video
showed how energy drink companies are targeting children for their product, even though the
companies deny it. The images and the video clip back up my argument and make my stance
more credible.
After my peer review suggestions, I decided to change a few things in my presentation.
One of the main changes that I applied to my presentation was making sure that the font color I
chose was able to be easily read off of my PowerPoint slides. This made sure that the viewers
could follow along easily with my presentation. Another change that I made was to ensure that
the images added in my presentation didn’t disrupt any of the text that I had on my slides. This
also helped the audience to follow along with my topic.
I arranged my spoken words in a way which related to the slides shown and would help
the audience understand what point I was getting across. I provided statistics about energy drinks
in a variety of ways that showed how destructive and dangerous they can be. The audience then
could understand logically where I was coming from and realize the points I made. I followed
statistics with stories and other information about energy beverages, presenting to the audience
how dangerous they can be. Furthermore, I provided information about how energy drinks can
affect people on an ethical level as they can pose major health risks. A key point that I made in
my argument was when I described the deaths of the two teens who both consumed energy
drinks shortly before they died. I think this really is in favor of my side of the argument and
shows that there must be a connection between energy drinks and death. Unless someone has a
death wish, the audience should understand how energy drinks and these adverse effects go hand
in hand and decide to not drink energy drinks.
Meece 3
The only image that was copyrighted that I used was the image of Monster’s logo. This
logo is the big green “M” that is seen as the background in my first slide. I think that this should
be protected by fair use for a variety of reasons. This image is a company’s brand recognition
and shouldn’t be allowed to be used for another company’s recognition. This is a very important
marketing tool for Monster and helps to separate them from the competition.
I learned from this presentation that if you want to win over the audience you have to use
logic and be able to relate on an emotional and ethical level. When people deliver a presentation
I don’t think one should overload the audience with facts and statistics; presenters should balance
his or her argument. Meeting the audience on an emotional level and being able to relate to them
can play a large part. Also, being able to hold the interest of the audience and intrigue them with
what one is talking about is important too. The presenter should balance his or her argument and
be able to effectively win them over using persuasive techniques throughout their presentations.
Hopefully, during my presentation, I was able to successfully do these things.
If I was going to remediate my presentation in any way and deliver it again I would slow
down my speaking. Instead of clearly presenting my PowerPoint I got to talking too fast instead
of taking my time and delivering my speech at a better rate. I also used the word “like” way too
often during my presentation. Instead of saying “like” I should have slowed down my speaking
and thought about what I was going to say next before I said it. However, I really enjoyed giving
my Inquiry IV to the class and this assignment also helped me and my public speaking abilities.