I learnt a lot from listening to everyone’s speeches over the last week. The topics were interesting and many touched upon really important and serious issues we see around us.

My personal goal for my speech was to try not to use a lot of filler words, and to speak with an engaging tone. I often get nervous and it makes my voice waver, but I tried my best to avoid this during my speech, which I think I did relatively well. I had rehearsed the speech without referring to my notes too often, which I did in an effort to make the final speech seem more conversational. I think I managed to avoid verbal filler and reading my essay word to word, but I definitely have to work a lot on sounding more conversational and varying my tone, which is also a part of the feedback I received on my performance.

Something I learned upon listening to some of my classmates’ speeches was that they made use of their time in such a way that they were able to use pauses, ask the audience a question or add personal stories. This helped make their speeches more engaging and conversational. This is something I can imbibe in my own performance, where instead of trying to cram as much information as I can into the four minutes, I can instead simplify what I am saying and use the rest of the time to engage with my audience.