I am comfortable with speaking in public, but watching a recording of myself doing it has been too much for me up to this point. Now I know that these reviews are for my own benefit, and I welcome them.
1. What do you feel you did well on?: I felt that I knew the material that I was presenting very well. My father’s story about the 747 was very easy for me to recall. I am also an air travel enthusiast, and the 747 is a commonplace at airports. I have had the priviledge of flying on the jet and learning about it over time, so the historical information I presented was very familiar to me.
I also felt that I kept the speech at a reasonable pace. I was not rushed, and the speech was not significantly over the limit. In all honesty, I could have talked about this plane all day, and I am proud of myself for compressing so much information into a limited time frame.
2. What are some areas to improve?
As I stated in my post presentation comments, I did not know where to look for this speech. With an in-person audience, it’s easy to gauge where to look throughout your time at the podium, but this new setup threw these guidelines out. The camera view of the audience were located below my presentation slide, so I spent my time looking between there and the camera. I did not want to spend my time fixated on the camera, as that may have broken my concentration when I needed to refer to photos.
There were a few pauses scattered throughout the speech, but they were not detrimental to the message and overall presentation of the speech. I paused when I commented about my grandmother, as it is an emotional scene considering her condition. I would much rather pause to collect myself, rather than going on with upended emotions.
3. What are three things that happened that you weren’t aware of?:
- I thought that my class camera view tab would be visible to the audience, but it is not. If it were displayed in the location lower on my screen, it may have been easier to see why I directed a lot of my eye contact in that direction.
- My voice was not monotone! I always thought that my voice would be monotone in speeches as it has deepened. However, I was able to emphasize points with emotion and make my pronunciation cohesive and easy to understand.
- I did not use my hands excessively for gestures. When I am very comfortable in a speaking environment, and I know my material well, I can become animated with my gestures. I wanted to sit on my hands as a preventative measure, but it turns out that I did not need to. I kept my hands lower down, and placed all of my photos on one slide so I did not need to move my hands upwards. This could have been a temptation for me to keep them there.