Monday, February 14, 2011
Critiques for Speech #1 Informative Speech
Please post a self critique of your first speech in this blog. Share with us three strengths and three improvements from this first speech experience. Use the comments that you received in class and your own thoughts to critique yourself. Please include a plan of action on how you intend to strengthen the weakest areas of your speech.
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My first speech was a good topic with what I thought had good points, but I did a terrible job at delivering it. I was really nervous and did not follow my outline in the slightest. For my first speech I had good sources, with some good quotes, a personal experience story that related to my topic and essentially proved my point and also I had 30 second YouTube clips as visuals that were pretty good too. But the strengths of my speech were overwhelmed by the weaknesses, which included not looking at the audience when I spoke, not having a good attention getter, and speaking quietly. Next time I have to give a speech I will practice a whole lot more in front of a lot of people, so I can be more confidant in front of a group of people speaking. I also plan to stick to my outline better and try to engage my audience more, maybe make it more interactive so that the audience will not get bored.
I really loved the topic for my first speech, it was one that I have always been interested in, but I think there are things I could have done better.
But, I also had some strengths that hopefully made my presentation interesting.
One of my strengths, I feel, and I think the class felt, was that I was genuinely enthusiastic in what I was speaking about. I really enjoyed that the class said this because I really put my heart into this and researched and felt like I knew what I was speaking about.
Another one of my strengths included the fact that I kept the audience in mind when thinking about what I was going to say in my speech, I even related back a celebrity to my own life, which I think everyone enjoyed. I tried to answer the question "what could the audience get out of this speech", and I think I did answer it.
In addition, I feel that I had a good structured outline which included good transitions through my points and good visual aids. Once a person knows their outline and hits all their points, it is much easier to explain them even if you forget on the spot.
One the other hand, some of my weaknesses included the fact that I kept talking with my hands and moving around. I think this is something I generally have to work on because in regular conversations with my friends I have always used hand gestures, its sort of like a bad habit of mine. I think moving around was mostly because of my nerves, and I am going to have to start practicing my speech sitting down on something or standing and not moving.
In addition to those two, I really feel like I must work on not cutting myself off when I speak. I would say a point, then think of another point I forgot, and try to cut myself off and go back to that point. I need to learn how to clearly state my point, one or two examples, then move on. I feel like I can really work ahead to try to fix these three things if I calmly take the time to acknowledge that they are there and fix them.
I think that my first speech went rather well, overall. I enjoyed my topic, and really had a passion for it. I had learned about it in a previous course, and found it fascinating, which I hope came off in my presentation.
I had good sources, and I feel I rehearsed it enough to feel comfortable with the material. I believe this helped make my presentation come off as confident and enthusiastic.
I also believe I made good eye contact. I tried to look at everyone in the room, and think I achieved this pretty effectively.
If I could do it again, I would have made sure the video would successfully play, but I attempted to work with the hindrance to my best ability.
Next time I give a speech, I would try to cut down on any repetition I give, and might make an effort to use my hands less. As I speak, I get "into" my topic, and begin to use my hands a lot, which I imagine could be distracting. Also, I would focus on my stance. I believe my delivery was clear, but I would like to make an effort to enhance the conciseness of my delivery, as well as to remind myself to speak slowly, and not fade out at the end of a sentence, which I tend to do. I do not know if I did this during my speech, but know it is a concern for me generally.
I have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to public speaking and they were exemplified pretty well in my speech. There were things that went well and there are things that I plan on doing to improve my speeches in the future.
I try to be really well prepared when it comes to public speaking and I researched my topic and went over my speech a lot before I gave it. I had the sentences memorized, which had its good and bad parts. The good part about this is that I was able to say everything I wanted without missing any details. The bad part about this is that I did not speak conversationally, so my speech came out sounding rehearsed as opposed to conversational. Therefore, this is a good point and a bad point about my speech.
Another good point of speech was my eye contact. I tried really hard to look at people and although it might not have been perfect, I felt I really made progress as opposed to prior speeches. I’m definitely going to consider that improvement a good point.
My final good point was my power point. I really enjoy making power points and have fun making everything organized while visually appealing. I liked how my power point turned out and I think it added to the overall effectiveness of my speech.
Something I did not like about my speech was my overall delivery. I speak too fast when speaking conversationally and when I get nervous, I go even faster. Therefore, I delivered my speech too quickly. It went too quickly for the audience to understand what I was saying and to comprehend it.
I also moved my feet a little bit when I did my speech. I’ve known about this for a while because I’ve seen myself in taped speeches doing it. It probably made my speech difficult to watch because it was distracting from what I was saying.
To improve my speeches in the future, I plan on practicing more in front of people. I did a lot on my own this time and practicing in front of people would help correct my speaking too quickly and my feet movement. I would also make more effort to know my outline, but not have my sentences memorized. This would help me speak more conversationally. However, I was pretty happy with how my speech went for and am looking forward to improving my next one.
Looking back, I think that my speech went fairly well, but there is always room for improvement. I did a good job trying to relate to my audience and keep them interested in my topic. By asking them a question at the start of my speech regarding the changing of a radio station when an ad begins and then asking how many people took Dr. D’Angelo’s class on Mass Communication kept them participating. They were also familiar with what I was presenting, especially the statistics on the different percentages of commercials since most of the audience took the previously mentioned course.
I also think that my visuals that represented statistics were very good. The pie chart that displayed the different percentages of commercials and the bar graph showing how much time noncommercial and commercial radio dedicate to advertising were clear and easy to understand.
In addition, I think that I was able to show credibility very well. My topic revolved around something that I have firsthand experience with. Therefore, I was able to show real examples (such as part of an actual FCC log and actual underwriting done at WTSR).
I feel like I can definitely improve upon my use of a Powerpoint presentation. I was flustered at the beginning of the speech and completely forgot when I had to move on to the next slide, making me skip over some quickly and not having a certain slide up when I was talking about it. Rehearsing my speech more in order to have a set rhythm would help remedy this.
I also need to prevent myself from stumbling on my words so often. I was thinking too much about what I was going to say next that I would have trouble forming the beginning of the next sentence. It would help to become more conversational in tone so that my sentences would flow naturally.
Lastly, my transitions between my three main points and the next person’s presentation need to be worked on. I had very good transitions on my outline, but I would forget part of them during my speech and struggle to move on to my next point. Again, I think that practicing my speech more in order to remember what I put on my outline would help tremendously.
As my first speech in front of public audience I feel my first speech went okay. I liked the topic our group chose and I found a lot of data to put on my Power point.
That was one of my strengths because I knew my examples well. I did a lot of research on my topic, so I found relevant examples and knew my facts about them. Also, the credibility of my facts and examples were sound so it made my speech much stronger.
I was able to adapt my Power point to the audience well. I used many visuals that were relevant that the audience could associate with. I like how my PowerPoint ended up and I believe that it made my speech more effective.
Lastly, I had a good outline and sources for my speech. My outline made the facts easy to interpret then showed the facts with examples right after it. This made my speech more effective along with the sources because then all the information is presented well and is accurate.
I may have had some good aspects, but I definitely had aspects that I needed to work on and improve. I was very nervous when giving my speech, so as a nervous reaction, I stood and leaned and walked around too much. Next time I have to find a spot on the ground and tell my self that I will remain in this set spot through out my presentation.
Also during my speech, I had very poor eye contact. I didn’t look at the audience very much because my nervousness, so instead I looked at the ground and the ceiling. For my next speech, I need to find three people, one on both ends and one in the middle, that I need to switch back and forth eye contract from to be more effective.
In addition to eye contact, one of my flaws was that I paused a decent amount so my speech was choppy. I was nervous so I paused in order to think what I had next. Next speech, I will practice in front of an audience in advance to get out my nervousness and become more confident with transitions.
After the first speech I feel as if a big weight has been lifted off of my shoulder, yet at the same time I am now aware of the work that needs to be done before my next speech. The first strength that I found in myself was my eye contact. Surprisingly, at times when I was a little flustered I found it reassuring to look at someone within the crowd. As Kudos to my classmates, when I felt that I had made a mistake, they were supportive with their smiles.
Another strength that I believe I had was in my PowerPoint. The pictures and slides used easily transitioned between my main points, which made it easy for the class to follow.
I believe I also had a natural flow which made it easy for the class to take in my speech. I felt as if I was talking to them rather than formally speaking which ensured that the class was comfortable.
On the other hand, the first weakness I noticed was within my preparation. I found that I was very uncomfortable as I was speaking to the class. Being a naturally extroverted person, this feeling was out of character. I believe that if I had prepared myself more with the material then I would have been more like myself. While I was familiar with the quotes and the material, I need to make sure I practice the speech out loud rather than simply memorizing quotes.
Another weakness of mine sprung out of my lack of preparation. When I began to get flustered I started to talk faster and faster. In the future I need to practice rebounding after a mistake. If I get flustered I need to work on making sure I quickly pick myself back up so others aren’t distracted from my message.
Usage of filler words is another weakness I found within my speech. To my surprise, I wasn’t relying on words such as “um” or “like” but I was randomly using “considerably” a lot. Since I veered away from my written speech, I was using my quotations and research as a crutch and would use the adverb to accentuate the facts. In all, I have found that If practice and prepare myself better next time I should see some improvement, then I will feel more comfortable, speak at a better pace, and select better words when delivering my message.
My first speech could have gone a lot better than it did. Although I did have a successful attention getter, the speech slowly fell from that high point and sunk down in intensity from there. However, I believe the content of the speech in its entirety was well researched and put together. Moreover, I felt I had a genuine conversational style for most parts of the speech. I felt that I was comfortably speaking to the audience. But, for this first speech my weaknesses overshadowed my strengths.
First and foremost, I need to get rid of filler words in my speeches. Personally, I didn’t even notice that I said, “…and things like that,” excessively throughout the speech. However, now that it has been pointed out to me, I have slowly been trying to eliminate this phrase from my daily vocabulary. Moreover, I must have said, “um,” unnecessarily a number of times while speaking. I tend to use these filler words almost unknowingly in many cases. But, the first step to remedying this problem is awareness. I have become alert and aware of the phrases I tend to overuse, and I have subsequently been attempting to eliminate them from my vocabulary. This way, when I stand in front of an audience and present a conversational speech, these filler phrases won’t even cross my mind.
Similar to my excessive use of filler words, I always use my hands when I talk. Whenever I am in conversation my hands are flying all over the place. I am even one of those people who talk on the phone and use their hands while speaking as if the person on the other end of the line can actually see my motions. This is going to be a challenging adjustment to make when presenting a speech. Since, for most all of my life, I have made use of my hands in conversation, it is hard to contain them when speaking in front of an audience. However, in order to fix this problem, I plan on practicing my speeches in a mirror and making sure that I don’t use my hands too much while speaking. Moreover, I will practice my speeches with my hands behind my back. This way I will get used to speaking without using my hands at all and then I can slowly add in hand motions only when appropriate while speaking.
Finally my use of visual aids needs to be more precise, helpful and impactful. My PowerPoint although uniform and organized, did not include enough powerful visual aids that left an impact on the audience. Moreover, although I like uniform slides, I believe variation can go a long way when it comes to using dynamic visual aids to carry home a point. Therefore, I need to stray from my typical use of general completely consistent PowerPoint slides, and branch out to make more exciting and varied slides that not only catch the audience’s attention but also leave them an image to remember. Furthermore, having a more detailed PowerPoint will not only hold the audience’s attention but will also aid me as the speaker to recall certain points I want to touch on throughout the speech.
As I reflect upon my performance as a public speaker, there are many improvements I can work on. Before getting to these improvements one of the things I did well on was my enthusiasm. While researching my topic, I felt that I had a great passion and interest for explaining gender portrayals in advertisements because this topic is not something people notice easily when watching commercials. Overall, I was very happy and delighted to give the speech.
Second, I felt that my stance was stable. I tried to plant my two feet on the floor and not sway back and forth. I felt like I did not sway or move my feet around because I know that this can be a huge distraction to viewers.
Last but not least, my PowerPoint displayed images that were strong and sent a clear message across—that there are significantly large number of commercials that stereotype both women and men’s roles.
As for my improvements, I still need to work on eye contact. I know that I tried as much as possible to give eye contact but in some parts, I was so nervous that I stared at the wall rather than at people. Also, there were times when I looked at the images in the Powerpoint too much while trying to explain what these visuals meant. In the future, I definitely need to practice not only with several people as an audience but also in front of a large group so that I can get used to the different responsive ways the audience can be.
Next, another public-speaking strategy I can work on is speaking a little bit more slowly. I know that I tried pacing myself however, I need to give time for the audience to take in all of the information and to respond back to me through some sort of nonverbal communication.
Finally, another improvement is to use stronger words and find a better word choice overall, to send my message across more clearly. I felt that some parts of my presentation—for example explaining the stereotypes of women and men’s bodies in commercials, could have been less redundant and more appealing. This can be improved through more research and reading a variety of sources.
As the class very kindly pointed out, I have several areas of opportunity when it comes to presenting. First, the use of visual aids: if you're going to use a PowerPoint throughout the presentation, you have to use one to close it. Not doing so just served to confuse my audience. I think I was a little bit hampered by the fact that I don't use PowerPoint often (to be honest, I don't have PowerPoint at all on my computer; I was also hindered by technical difficulties due to the conversion of my files into a PowerPoint format. Lesson learned for the next time.)
My second area of opportunity was with citing my research. Although I hit the requirements for this presentation, extra clarity could have been lended by more supporting information and research.
Third, my own nervousness got in the way of what I wanted to say and what I actually said (as in introducing my topic as "how social networking has changed microfinance" instead of "how social media has changed microfinance"). A lot of microfinance websites play into social media, but are not directly tied into social networking. Little bit of a faux pas on my part.
In terms of strengths, the class stated that I was well controlled, had a good credibility story, and did a good job of explaining what had the potential to be a very technical, heavy topic. Professor McManimon: Your educated guess was correct, I have spent a good bit of time giving presentations; I've learned a lot along the way, but clearly, I have a lot more room for growth.
Going forward, I'm going to spend more time getting comfortable with my presentation and presentation software and try to include more substantial supporting details in the context of the presentation itself. I'll have to find a balance between "less is more" and "less is less"—seems like a sweet spot that you really have to find, which can be a little difficult to hit the first time around.
One of the areas I had the greatest concern when starting this speech was found in how much energy I would be able to bring to my presentation, and for the most part I think this is an area where I excelled. The topic was of interest to me, so that probably did help when coming up with how to project my enthusiasm, but I need to find ways to show excitement and professionalism even when I am not completely interested in a subject. Still, in this case I feel as if it was one of my strengths.
Another area I felt that I had success was in the way that I looked at the audience. I know that I did not look at everyone in the classroom, but I think I made an effort to actually look at eyes instead of just looking back at a wall. Still room for improvement here, but for a first attempt it seemed like it was mostly successful.
I was also pretty good about not having to use my notecards during the speech, which I think helped me project a bit of confidence that otherwise would not have been there. It also made me work with the material more in depth, I actually had to consider the material as separate from the cards when I was going through the major points I wanted to hit on.
Still, I think that I could improve in exactly how I deliver my information. Specifically, it was suggested that I do memorize my thesis, keep it conversational but make sure that it is clear and apparent. For the next speech I plan to run through this part a few more times in order to make sure that I am hitting all the points quickly and clearly in that section of the speech. Maybe even re-tool my notecard to help me out if I have trouble when I practice.
I also need to work on hand motions, making sure that I keep my hands in an area where they will not become distracting. There were a few parts of the speech, usually when I was thinking, that I started using my hands without reinforcing anything. In order to correct this I think I am going to make a more aware effort to hold my hands, and to simply script parts of the speech where I should be using hand gestures to hammer home one of the major points. Keep them minimal, keep them effective.
The third aspect I need to work on is keeping my speech more conversational and fluid. It needs to be mechanical in a sense, making sure that I present a point, give evidence and then move on, but it can't feel overly scripted. I think the key to this balance is taking the time to come up with, and stick to, some different transition words. For the next speech when I am making my outline I plan on trying a few different transitions in the spots and actually talk them out in order to determine which one sounds the best. I should probably ask for feedback from some other people as well to gauge which are the most natural.
Still, I think this first speech was successful and, even though I have things to work on, I was glad to find areas that I felt I was shaky with a bit easier to work with than I had initially anticipated.
Overall, I felt like I did a very good job delivering the speech and did a not so good job at organizing my thoughts having a well formed topic. I did not care so much for my topic because it was about something somewhat unprecedented and seems like a topic that would need another 10 years before being developed into something that can be studied by academia. All of my research came from newspapers and magazines, and I really wish that communications and media professors wrote in more detail and/or published their writings about the topic.
I think that my strengths mostly laid within how I presented my speech. I believe that I spoke clearly and had good posture, though someone noted I spoke a little slowly at points. I was also told that my connection with Martin Luther was a very good idea, and that it really made a connection with the audience that my failed attention getter did not quite do. To be honest, the Martin Luther connection was my original attention getter, but I had little confidence it would be affective. In my opinion, my biggest strength was confidence. I did not feel nervous being up in front of the audience and was willing to engage them, so I thought I showed that off well.
Of my faults there were many. My hardest one to get over will be lack of eye contact. I have issues looking people in the eyes while talking face to face, so with an audience, this will be even harder to overcome. I was also told that I talked long windily and never actually got to the point, or that I talked too long, and I agree, I did. To combat that, I need to better organize myself and really understand clearly what my points are. Still, my biggest flaw was my organization. I was very much disorganized and did not practice enough. The clear way to improve that matter is my managing my time correctly and making sure I have plenty of time to practice, research, and organize my speech.
From this first speech experience, I think there are some things I did well, and others that can be improved upon. One think I thought I was strong were my visual aids. Every one helped to enhance the audience’s understanding of the topic, and they were all different which helped to keep things interesting. Another thing that was done well was the loudness of my voice. I always try to make sure to smile during a presentation and sound interesting so others will be interested. Judging from the class feedback, I believe I did a good job with being happy to talk about the topic and interested in what I was saying. Finally, I believe I excelled in making good eye contact with the audience. One thing I focused on during my speech was making sure I held eye contact with people and observed how the audience was adapting to my speech. I believe I was able to do this successfully because it was the one thing I was concentrating on doing well.
Although I focused on making eye contact, there were improvements I can make in order to make my speech stronger for next time. One major thing I can work on is talking slower. Talking too fast affected the tone of my voice and hurt my overall speech. If I practice more and write in to pause and take a breath at certain points in my speech, I think I can slow down my speed and hopefully, change my tone of voice. Additionally, I want to work on adding smoother transitions from slide to slide so people can follow my flow of ideas. I will watch videos of strong public speakers to see what transitions they use in order to adapt them into my own speech. Finally, I will try to be more aware of my body movements so I can control the things I do with body and make sure I stand still and not fidget. Overall, I believe with more practice, I will become more comfortable giving a public speech, and will be better able to improve upon these aspects.
In giving my speech today, one thing that I felt I did well was to not fidget when I was in front of the room. I know that this is a problem I have had in the past- I have a bad habit of playing with my hair and moving around when I am speaking. Today though, I made a conscious effort to stay still and keep the hand gestures to a minimum and I felt that, overall, I have improved in this regard.
Another strength that I thought I had was my PowerPoint. I put a lot of effort into making it simple, but still visually appealing. I also spent a lot of time finding images that I felt would really convey the examples I wanted to give. I thought that in the end it came off as a well-put together visual aid which helped me make my points without distracting from what I had to say.
Finally, I felt that I did a good job in projecting my voice. I know that in the past I have had trouble speaking up and conveying a confident and authoritative tone. I also have a tendency to mumble at times. Today I tried really hard to speak loudly and clearly, which I think came across as I made my speech.
There were definitely a lot of things that I know I need to improve upon before my next speech. One of the biggest ones is that I need to slow down when I am speaking. I know a lot of people do this, but I think I was definitely one of the biggest offenders in the class. Whenever I get nervous, I speak incredibly fast which causes me to almost slur my words to the point where they become incomprehensible. I think this definitely detracts from my ability to engage my audience and it hurts the overall presentation. In order to improve upon this, I think I just need to practice more. It would probably be helpful to spend more time speaking aloud in front of other people and have them signal me whenever I begin to talk too fast. There is nothing wrong with taking a few seconds to breathe in between your thoughts and this is what I will try to accomplish before my next speech.
Another improvement which I need to make before my next speech is to make more eye contact. Even though I did not feel like I was relying too much on note cards or my PowerPoint, I still was not looking the class in the eye when I spoke. Rather, I would scan the room and look over everyone’s heads. This is definitely another nervous habit of mine and it is something that I think I would be able to improve upon with more practice. For next time I think I will try to pick out a few individuals in the class and make sure to make eye contact with them consistently throughout my presentation.
My last and probably biggest improvement would be to have a better attention getter and memorable statement. I know my topic was not the most interesting one out there, but I really made an attempt to keep it relevant and concise enough so that my audience would not be bored. However, in failing to have an engaging and attention grabbing opening, my presentation was ineffective. Furthermore, because I did not leave off with a memorable statement, my presentation failed to leave a lasting impression on the audience. I think to improve upon this for next time, I am going to have to spend more time and effort coming up with an innovative and unique way to begin and end my speech, because that is what will make it more memorable and effective. I think the best way to make sure I am doing this correctly would be to speak with Professor M. prior to my next speech to make sure that my opening and closing are coming off as engaging as I am intending them to be.
There were a good number of both strengths and weaknesses in my first speech. I was very knowledgeable on the topic that I chose because it was of great interest to me, therefore I was able to convey the information with confidence and credibility. Along with knowing the information I was able to project my voice to keep everybody in the classroom engaged in what I was saying. I also took a topic that was potentially very open ended and was able to divide it into three interesting, novel and concise points. This helped keep the attention of my audience.
There are certainly areas that are in need of improvement. First of all, I need to slow down when I speak. Sometimes it is better to take a few pauses. Since I rushed so much through my speech I ended up using a lot of filler words such as um and like. I did not even hear myself say those words, but when my classmates pointed it out I remembered using them quite a bit. Another area that needs improvement is the closing statement. In this speech I merely summarized what I had been talking about rather than leaving an impression on the audience. Next time I will look to find a more powerful statement to end my speech.
I was really nervous about this first speech. Overall, I definitely had a fair amount of both strengths and things that I need to improve on.
I was pleasantly surprised with how infrequently I used filler words. When I practiced, I caught myself saying "um" a lot and was nervous that I would not be able to fix myself for the final presentation in class. However, the practice certainly paid off because I do not think that I used a lot of filler words in my speech in class, so that was one of my strengths.
Another strength was my attention-getter. I was slightly unsure about how it would play out in class. I originally planned on starting off with a sweatshirt on and taking it off at the beginning as I started my attention-getter, but decided that would look too messy and unprofessional. So I think it was a good idea to make the last minute decision to take my sweatshirt off before I started my speech.
But my greatest strength was my use of quotes to enhance my speech. I certainly did a fair amount of research in preparing for this speech because I was unfamiliar with it prior to researching it. I am really glad that it showed in my speech and when people pointed it out as one of my strengths.
One improvement I need to work on is making eye contact with the audience. I will work on this by making a conscious effort to make more eye contact with people in my regular, day-to-day life.
Another improvement I need to work on is using my note cards less. I think that the best way to do this is by simply practicing more. If I were a little bit more comfortable with the material, I think I would have used the note cards less.
Lastly, I need to work on my confidence when I get up there to present. I get so nervous in the days leading up to giving speeches, and this improvement is most important to me personally. My goal is to be able to at least semi-confidently be able to give a speech by the end of this semester.
Overall, I was very happy with myself for not being too nervous. I put a lot of thought and practice into making the presentation a good one, so I am pleased with how it turned out. Now with the knowledge that I can “do it,” I know I can improve on a lot.
First off, I know that my speech came across as very rehearsed. When I wrote the outline, I tried to make it very conversational. However, because I practiced so much, I started to naturally memorize it. Next time when I practice my speech, I will not focus on remembering exactly what sentence I want to say next. I will just be sure to know my topic well so that I can talk about conversationally. I also need to think of a better memory statement!
Also, because I had most of the speech “memorized,” I noticed (as well as my classmates) that I started to speed up at the end. I think I felt that the audience was losing attention, and I just wanted to speed it up for them so they wouldn’t be bored! Next speech, I will assure myself not to worry about something like that and I will try to be aware of my pace throughout the presentation.
I’d also like to improve my PowerPoint presentation. I’m not very artistic, but I know I will at least be able to spice it up a little bit! I will also put a few main points in words on the slides to back-up what I am saying. I also realized that the class loves watching YouTube clips so I can also try to search for a pertinent one to show during the persuasive speech.
I thought one of my strengths was my voice. I thought I projected it well and tried to use fluctuations and emphasize certain words. Also, when I practiced, my friends told me I was moving my feet a lot so I was very happy that I did not do this during the presentation! I also knew my topic and speech very well so I did not have many awkward pauses. I’m definitely eager to start researching a new topic and putting together another speech!
I am used to speaking in public whether it is for an organization I am in or for Lions Television. Although talking in public is something I do, this speech was a struggle. Overall, I was not as nervous as I thought but there are definitely things I need to work on and there are also things that went better than I expected.
There were some things I needed to improve with my speech, although I did practice a lot there are a few weaknesses I had. I need to maintain eye contact with my audience members. I know some of the students said I had good eye contact with them and I know I tried hard to maintain eye contact with each person, at times my eyes wandered. I can improve this by practicing in front of a small audience before making my speech in class, instead of practicing one hundred times by myself. Another improvement I need to make is creating better credibility in my introduction. My credibility was there, but I need to find a more interesting fact. I became comfortable with my slides and with my information, but some or one of my slides may have gone over the six by six rule and I must stick with that rule. Lastly I need to stay focused to my audience. I was so wrapped up in the next statement or quote I was about to state, that I lost track and my eyes started to wander. I will practice more and become very fluid with my main points.
Besides my improvements, I also had a few strengths. My attention-getter went better than I anticipated. At first I wasn’t sure if the attention-getter would attract my audience, but it seemed to be very effective. I did practice a lot and did tons of research, so to hear the compliments about everyone enjoying the interesting research I found was beneficial. It was hard to find well cited sources based on celebrity influence, but I think I efficiently found information about my topic and became involved with my speech. I was also worried about filler words and my transitions, but due to my feedback from my audience my transitions were used proficiently and no one mentioned filler words, so I was very glad about my improvements.
I am used to speaking in public whether it is for an organization I am in or for Lions Television. Although talking in public is something I do, this speech was a struggle. Overall, I was not as nervous as I thought but there are definitely things I need to work on and there are also things that went better than I expected.
There were some things I needed to improve with my speech, although I did practice a lot there are a few weaknesses I had. I need to maintain eye contact with my audience members. I know some of the students said I had good eye contact with them and I know I tried hard to maintain eye contact with each person, at times my eyes wandered. I can improve this by practicing in front of a small audience before making my speech in class, instead of practicing one hundred times by myself. Another improvement I need to make is creating better credibility in my introduction. My credibility was there, but I need to find a more interesting fact. I became comfortable with my slides and with my information, but some or one of my slides may have gone over the six by six rule and I must stick with that rule. Lastly I need to stay focused to my audience. I was so wrapped up in the next statement or quote I was about to state, that I lost track and my eyes started to wander. I will practice more and become very fluid with my main points.
Besides my improvements, I also had a few strengths. My attention-getter went better than I anticipated. At first I wasn’t sure if the attention-getter would attract my audience, but it seemed to be very effective. I did practice a lot and did tons of research, so to hear the compliments about everyone enjoying the interesting research I found was beneficial. It was hard to find well cited sources based on celebrity influence, but I think I efficiently found information about my topic and became involved with my speech. I was also worried about filler words and my transitions, but due to my feedback from my audience my transitions were used proficiently and no one mentioned filler words, so I was very glad about my improvements.
I'm terrible at speaking (always getting tongue-tied) so I'm not so surprised with how my first speech went. I was also rather nervous and my leg was uncontrollably shaking. I'm weird. But other than that, it was a total failure.
I had good eye contact with my audience. Posture and stance (minus the leg shaking) was probably decent. I didn't use as much hand gestures as I normally do.
Being a quiet sort of person, I guess I need to step up my energy level so people don't get bored. I probably should practice a few times more so I don't skip over parts like I did. I need to smile more.
To improve in the future I should practice in front of people I'm not comfortable with (girlfriend and housemates were probably a bad audience choice, I was joking around and giving a great speech to them, too bad I couldn't have been that way in class). I'll be more energetic and excited (although that will be tough for the next speech, since I know nothing of politics).
Overall I though my speech was a very good foundation for the rest of the semester. I put a lot of time and energy into practicing the speech, which made me knowledgeable of the subject and the material. Another strong point, was my voice projection. I am comfortable speaking in front of my peers, which helps with this aspect. However my speech was far from perfect, and I look to improve on many of these flaws in future speeches. First, i rush many of my points, which is due strictly to the nervousness that everyone experiences in the first speeches. Next, I need to use transitions better. I think this will help the flow of my speech and make the thoughts more cohesive.
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