Reflection on Voice Thread Speech

When reflecting on my performance on my voice thread speech, there were strengths, but also many weaknesses. In terms of the strengths, there was a strong hook and clear explanation about the rhetorical situation surrounding the Stronger Than Hate artifact. Along with the strong opening, came a fairly in depth analysis into the artifact and how several details were symbolic of the commonplaces about Pittsburgh. In terms of the weaknesses, there was a fairly large amount. For one, the delivery was not steady throughout and there were odd pauses as a result of blanking on information. These brain freezes led to there being a reliance on the notes which hurt the overall presentation.

To build off what could be improved, my peers provided excellent feedback that can be applied to when I give another speech in this manner. Some of their comments revolve around there being a strong sense of detail into the artifact, however, there was a heavy reliance on notes. They suggested condensing the length of my notes as a way to avoid relaying on them too much.

Although the feedback given by my peers provided valuable information to use in the future, watching their speeches also gave me a better sense of how to keep improving. Both Jessica’s and Annalise’s speech had strong vocal tone throughout the entity of their speeches. Annalise’s speech in particular used a wide variety of slides to incorporate a comparison point which helped enhance her overall content. Jessica utilized a clear transition between points which made it easier as an audience member to understand the point she was trying to make. The use of more advanced transitions and incorporation of more slides are two pieces from these speeches that I can consider using in the future as a way to improve my public speaking abilities.