Testimony and Speech Structure

Read about the speech structure and testimony in Sandra Baltz's speech on cross-culturalism and family values. Learn how to embrace cross-culturalism in your life.

Running head: SPEECH STRUCTURE
Speech
Name
ID
Course
Unit
Lecturer
Date

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Testimony and speech structure
Name of the speech: My Three Cultures
Author: Sandra Baltz
Page Number: 372-373
Overview of the speech
The speech concerning my three cultures is a self-introductory that Sandra Baltz tries to
explain the theme of cross-culturalism and family values. Sandra Baltz presented the speech a
long time ago at the University of Memphis. In her presentation, Sandra tries to illustrate to the
audience on how understanding the three cultures have helped her to develop in her personal life.
Sandra’s presentation comes in a time the Middle East is experiencing high tension. However,
she reminds people that it is essential to embrace the difference in culture to ensure that people
live in harmony regardless of diverse way of life.
The two questions after reading the speech
1. How does cross-culturalism assist people to live in harmony among others?
2. How can one learn to embrace cross-culturalism in his or her life?
Part one of the questions
Testimony refers to what an individual saw, what one now concerning an issue or what
has happened to the life of the person. Consequently, giving out testimony refers to the act in
which a person narrates to the audience whatever he or she have experienced in life. For
example, if one has learnt on how to use a computer and he tells the procedures to other people
on what they expect that is a testimony according to Jenkins, (2017). In the speech of m three

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cultures, Sandra Baltz has given out testimonies in various ways. For example, at the beginning
of the speech, Sandra narrates on a story she read in the newspaper in which a journalist from
America talks about his experience in the Middle East. The journalist enjoyed a good treatment
in the hands of the Arab families, this is an example of a testimony that is evident in the speech.
Apart from the above testimony, author Sandra also makes use of testimony in the middle of the
speech where she narrates of living with her mother who is a Palestine origin but was born and
grew up in Central American country. From that environment that their family was living, the
author states that it enabled her to learn both Spanish and English language. From the above
illustration, it is evident that the author has made good use of testimonies in her speech.
Consequently, the types of testimonies from the speech is the expert and lay testimonies.
In the expert testimonies, Sandra uses an example from her life to illustrate to the audience the
issue of cross-culturalism, however, when it comes to lay testimony, she uses the case of the
journalist. The testimonies are appropriate because they all bring out the aspect of understanding
other people’s culture according to Harris, Koenig, Corriveau & Jaswal, (2018). Sandra has also
given the source qualifications such as the journal in her testimonies to ascertain the cause and
importance of knowing different cultures.
Part two of the questions
The structure of a well-organized speech involves introduction, body and conclusion. In
the introduction part, the speaker should elaborate what he or she is going talk about; the body
involves using examples and other technique to engage the audience or the readers. Sandra’s
speech does not satisfy the structure to some extent because in the introduction part, it like the
body part of the speech. The structure is not sufficient because the reader takes time to
understand the topic the author is talking about in the speech. The design option that the passage

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has exemplified is giving the overview of the speech before the actual speech, and this is a good
strategy.
Consequently, the statement develops the main points by making use of the examples to
make the readers understand the points well. When it comes to the introduction and the
conclusion, the introduction part is not clear as the conclusion. The reason is that in the
introductory section the author is narrating a story without a clear topic; however, she has
brought out end clearly by using phrases such as in all. When it comes to transition, it is not
useful because the author jumps from one story to another without expressions to show
transition. It is essential for improvement in some parts of the speech such as introduction and
conclusion. For example, on the opening she may have told the audience on the topic of culture
before going to the story of the journalist, in the end, there are phrases such as on the other hand
which shows one is moving to another scenario.

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References
Harris, P. L., Koenig, M. A., Corriveau, K. H., & Jaswal, V. K. (2018). Cognitive foundations of
learning from testimony. Annual Review of Psychology, 69.
Jenkins, W. J. (2017). Eyewitness Testimony. Macat Library.