This blog post is a reflection of my civic artifact speech. The beginning is one of my favorite parts of my speech. I felt that I effectively drew the audience’s attention by describing the woman wearing sunflowers at the demonstration. The transition from this captivating start to the thesis was pretty good in my opinion, laying a solid framework for the remainder of the speech. I believe I did well in studying and presenting key ideas about the meaning of the sunflower in Ukraine. I intended to go beyond a simple synopsis and present a thoughtful analysis that resonated with the audience and expressed the significance of the symbol. My speech’s structure into analytical frames helped keep the audience’s attention and made it easy to follow, I think. I felt that I skillfully used linguistic cues to direct the audience through the flow of the speech, maintaining clarity and consistency.
While I maintained continuous eye contact with the audience, I admit that I depended on my notes to some extent. Instead of using note cards, I should work on memorizing the entire speech to improve. This will make me appear more assured and connected to my audience. Despite receiving feedback on my gestures and overall delivery, I believe I should continue to improve my nonverbal communication. Being aware of my body language, facial expressions, and hand gestures can help to improve the efficiency of my communication.
I was amazed by how attentive the audience was throughout my speech. Their active listening and occasional nods of agreement inspired me and enhanced the speaking experience. Despite my initial trepidation, I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I began speaking, my fear went rather quickly. This freed me up to concentrate on presenting the content successfully. Unfortunately, I felt that I stuttered a lot and got tongue-tied during the speech, but when I watched I video, I was pleasantly surprised that I got through the speech relatively smoothly.
