- What do you feel you did well on?
Overall, I feel that my speech went as well as it could have. While it wasn’t perfect, I didn’t make many large mistakes either. I am not a very confident public speaker and I usually get lost figuring out what I am trying to say, so I’m glad that I was able to get through all my content effectively and without missing anything. I thought I did a good job of memorizing my information, which helped me to be able to maintain eye contact for a large percentage of my speech.
I was happy with the content of my speech. I spent a good amount of time including the proper rhetorical analysis, commonplaces, and context that the dorm key is used in, so I was satisfied with what I had to say, and I think that I hit the necessary points for the rubric and for the overall assignment for the speech.
- What are some areas to improve?
While I usually get anxious that I will forget my information and content, leading me to attempt to memorize a pre-written speech, I would like to eventually speak extemporaneously just from a few prepared points. By building on my public speaking skills, hopefully I will be able to do that in the near future. I’d like to look and feel more natural, and speaking without a specific script would help me be more conversational than robotic.
Through the same lens, I wish I had looked down at my speech a little less and had some more eye contact. I had it pretty well memorized, so I wish I had trusted my own preparation more and spent more time trying to think of what was next than looking down and reading it. Not printing out the whole speech would help to remedy this.
I could improve on varying my voice and intonation, speaking louder and clearer, and using more gestures or movements. All of these would make me more interesting and engaging to watch and would help me feel more comfortable.
- What are three things that happened that you weren’t aware of?
I was somewhat aware of this while I was speaking, but I noticed while watching again that I looked a few too many times toward the projector screen and windows. I felt that this was kind of distracting because it made me look unfocused on my own presentation, and I should have looked toward the audience more during those points.
I know this has been a problem in the past, but I thought I had improved upon my volume and my gestures. I was disappointed in my lack of energy when I was rewatching my speech, and I kept hoping for some more excitement from myself. I didn’t know that I sounded so monotonous, and I hope to improve that for next time so that I’m easier to watch and be interested in.
Somewhat along the same lines, I wish I had smiled more and been friendlier. I wasn’t aware of this, but I looked like I was not having fun at all, and a few happier faces would have helped. It would probably help alleviate some of my nerves as well.
In terms of content, watching myself, I feel like I hit all of my key points, and I’m proud of that. After finishing my speech, I prayed that I didn’t miss a paragraph that I had practiced, especially since it felt so fast while I was speaking. I was finishing around 3 minutes and 45 seconds in practice, and I see that I finished now in about 3:15, so I know that I had taken my time more in practice, and could speak slower and take some more pauses in the future. I’m glad that I surpassed 3 minutes though.
I did a good job with the written speech, but have a good amount of things to work on in terms of delivering it, from volume to gestures to excitement.