I’ve always had a problem of speaking too fast in front of an audience. Maybe it helps me on my ultimate goal of becoming the first ever Asian woman rapper in the world, but it sure doesn’t help my clearly get my arguments across . Thus, reflecting on my speech, I feel like I could have really slowed down my speaking pace. In addition, I think I could have looked at my right more often and probably moved less while I was up in front of everyone. In addition, I think my speech could have been more engaging, which would have caused it to be more original and thus, stand out. These are definitely different aspects of public speaking that I will pay attention to more as the semester goes on because I’m sure there will be more opportunities for public speaking.
In terms of content and organization, hopefully it was easy to follow; I tried to make the format so that the audience wouldn’t get lost throughout my speech. It turns out that the content that I wanted to get across was too much for the time we had to speak in class. So the moral of the story is, three to four minutes isn’t too bad! (As long as you know what you want to say). Preparation is key, too. Whether preparing a the weekend before, or the morning of, it is necessary that you know what you’re going to say and where you will move your body and that sort of staging aspect of the speech.
After watching my other classmates so far, I am already impressed by the creativity that each person mixed in their speech. Maybe it was the way they introduced their speech or the civic artifact that they used (something I wouldn’t have thought of), and maybe it was the final conclusion and insightful take from an interview they conducted; nevertheless, our class sure does know how to think and present. By watching and critiquing others, we are helping ourselves as well because there is without doubt that the students in this class are experienced in public speaking, and by watching others, we can internally reflect upon ourselves.
Sarah, your speech was great! You didn’t speak quickly at all, but I completely understand your hesitation beforehand. In high school, I remember speaking in front of large crowds and stuttering and getting laughed at. It wasn’t fun. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember anything wrong with your speech. You spoke in succinct points, and took appropriate pauses. I remember laughing a lot. As I said on Amy’s blog, if you practice enough, then it’s just like your mind and body go on “autopilot” mode during the speech. It becomes a reflex. I am looking forward to next time you speak, hopefully it will be a rap! That would be awesome.
This is inspiring! I really hope you become the first ever woman Asian rapper. That would legitimately be awe-inspiring. But I really don’t think you talked too fast, and your speech was very interesting. I learned from you like you learned from the rest of our classmates. You were passionate yet humorous about Habitat for Humanity, and I was able to easily listen to you for the whole time, which is actually a hard-to-accomplish thing since I am borderline ADD.