Self Evaluation 2

Status post the informative speech today. I'm still alive and well, nervous already about the next speech. Even though I didn't get the A I wanted, I managed to accomplish it! That alone is a huge improvement from the last presentation. Thank you to the girls that gave me a pep talk beforehand. It really helped! I believe that I did achieve the purpose of my speech. There was the information and I gave it to the audience. It could have been a little more detailed. I felt comfortable with the material but I was not at all comfortable speaking in front of people. It was better though, that the power point was there. It was a measure of comfort that I had something to "lean" on. I would definitely research more than I did. The speech turned into an overview and it could have had more details. I also needed to cite sources in the speech because it would have made it more believable. I think I did pretty well in delivery, my mouth wasn't as dry as it has been. In the next speech I want to have more information to give and I would like it to sound more personable. The speech shouldn't sound like I'm naming things off. For delivery I am planning on doing the breathing relaxation techniques a bit more beforehand. The main thing that was different from my last speech was that I actually spoke. It was incredibly scary for me last time and so I decided not to present. The good part is that I felt better about this speech, the content I knew better. My eye contact could have been better, I think I would give myself a six. I think my grade of a B+ was very reasonable. I didn't feel like I did a great job. My speaking voice is good, I knew the material. I do think it was a little bit boring. Unfortunately I didn't cite sources in my speech and that is something that I plan to change in the persuasive speech. This speech was by far better than my last one, as the last one was nonexistent. I want very badly to improve on the upcoming presentation and look forward to feeling confident while giving it. I have never been a very good speaker. It's very hard for me to stand up and be judged by what I have to say. I know that everyone else is just hoping that you won't go over your time, they want to go home early and they are just thinking about their own speech but it's still hard. I want to choose a subject that I am passionate about so that I can be confident in presenting. I know from my own personal experience that I am thinking the same thing as I described above while listening to other speeches. I just need to relax, be ready in my information and facts and perhaps even practice before a little more. I can do this!

Week 9 Question 3

I thought that the idea of using a paper handout to show ideas was a really cool idea to me! To give the audience the web address of something you are speaking about or to show a smaller diagram of what you are speaking about. I have had a couple people hand out things during speeches and they have been very successful in doing so. It gave the audience just enough information to read over without being distracting from the speaker. I agree when they say that you have to be careful about when you distribute it. It can make a speech very awkward if done at the wrong time. You need to think about when the audience will need the information and you definitely don't want a dull lag of quiet time while you pass them out. The book says that it's better to give the handouts at the end of a speech so the audience isn't distracted. I believe that if done so properly, I may be able to give them out during a speech.

Week 9 Question 2

An event that I attended had a speaker that used power point slides to illustrate his topic. He showed pictures of things that helped to clarify certain things in the speech. He also listed his main points on them. The speech was approximately 15 minutes long and he had approximately 8 slides. It made me think of how many to use for my speech. I want to have enough to illustrate my point but not so many that I am flipping through them. I don't think that his media was any kind of distraction. They added just enough that you could read them and still listen to the speaker. I'm not sure that there could have been any improvement in the presentation only because I was so enraptured in the speech and his passionate presentation that I didn't see anything that could have been improved upon. I see this as being a fabulous example of a speech that I want to base mine on.

Week 9 Question 1

To what do we owe to the audience? Do we really want them to trust us? I believe that we as speakers owe it to the audience to be truthful. If we alter something to serve our own purpose we have the potential to lose our audiences trust. It would be incredibly awkward to have someone know the photo you were using and call you out that it was altered. You also have the potential to have to lie your way out of the alteration of the image. Then you would have to continue the lie or even worse, you may have to explain your reasoning as to why you decided to alter the media in the first place. I believe that there is always media out there to prove your point. You just have to find it. You don't need to alter it to your advantage. There will always be more out there.

Week 8 Question 2

According to the book, an introduction consists of a purpose, something to show the nature of your speech. You have to have an attention getter. There is nothing worse than a speech that is boring from the beginning. Establishing your credibility again is very important. Once you introduce your thesis you can then preview your main points to show your audience where you are going with the speech. The conclusion is equally important. It needs to have a recency effect-the audience needs to remember everything you just spoke about or at least your most important point. You should reinforce your purpose and provide closure. It's really awkward when you either don't have a conclusion or your audience doesn't know when your speech is over. It is incredibly important to leave the audience with a lasting impression of what you were speaking about. The best speeches are the ones that a person will take with them to another person.

Week 8 Question 1

I think that the example videos for Chapter 13 were very interesting. I liked the way the Evan delivered his speech. He had a good introduction, used citations correctly and showed us what his main points would be prior to starting the speech. There were no personal opinions expressed which is required of an informative speech. I am looking forward to my informative speech for that reason alone. I think that by watching the videos, I now have a better understanding about how to give my speech and what the instructor is looking for. It was hard for me to understand the chapter in the book. I found it a lot easier to watch the videos and then relate myself to that. So now that the videos are over, I plan to re-work how I was going to present my speech and will now be making it even better than it was.

Self-Evaluation

I was asked this week to evaluate myself on my speech that was performed last week. I, unfortunately, did not present my speech. Not only was I not comfortable or confident, I was completely unprepared to give the speech, my demonstration things were unavailable for me after work and I did not have the confidence to get up in front of the audience and perform. In a previous post, I wrote about what scares me the most about speaking in public. It was the fear of failure. In my fear of presenting I actually made a worse fear come true. I have failed on a speech by not doing it, by not trying. I had done a fair amount of research for the speech, completed my outline and turned it in. I do believe that my outline achieved the purpose of my speech. It showed this history of my topic as well as part of the demonstration and also my experience with the topic. Reading it should have given the reader a sense of what the speech would bring. I feel as if I gave up, not a feeling I'm liking. Hybrid classes for me have not been incredibly successful and this one seems to be no different. When left to my own devices, it is hard to find the motivation to work. In the future, and the future also means right now, I plan to work a whole lot harder to get a good grade on the next speech.  I am planning on being more organized in content to better deliver my points. To read and research, make the note cards, making sure to do the breathing exercises, be completely prepared for the next speech. I want to better research my topic so that I am more familiar with it to be able to confidently deliver the information. I want it to sound like I am speaking to a friend so that I may have good eye contact with the audience. From the first speech, when I get nervous, I pace back and forth. I think it may be to try to distract the audience from what I am saying. Confidence should help, I hope. There were three mentioned sources in my outline, which is what was required of me. Although overcoming performance anxiety is going to continue to be a challenge for me, I feel that that is what college is all about. To learn and grow as a person while on the way to a degree. The feeling of failure is waning now, to be replaced by a sense of wanting. Wanting to be better, wanting to pass, wanting to feel that I have accomplished the goal. By not presenting, I know I have dropped at least a letter grade. I'm hoping to be able to get the B in Comm 1 that may still be available to me. It would mean putting in a ton of effort, a task that I am willing to take on. As I sit here typing, I am thinking about the next speech. I am determined to make it better than the last one. Bring on the challenge!