While no two speeches were the same, all of the speeches shared similar qualities, some good and some bad. By far, the most effective speeches came from people who had obviously rehearsed their presentations. There were no extended pauses as they struggled to remember their speech, no filler words, and no confused looks as they searched their notecards for what to say next. The rehearsed speeches had a natural and continuous flow and were delivered with confidence and poise.
Beyond the delivery of the presentations, one of the most important factors of the speeches was the supporting media and technology. The most effective presentations came from people who had multiple pictures of their artifact. These kept the audience engaged by giving them something new to focus their attention on and made the speaker’s point more clear by using more than one example. For some artifacts, of course, there was only one possible picture that could be used, and while this wasn’t inherently a bad thing, the audience was overall less engaged because they only had one thing to focus on. The videos were mixed. I felt that when there was a short segment that was relevant to the presentation and reinforced the speaker’s point the video could be a significant addition to the speech. However, some of the videos were too long and repetitive, and when the technology didn’t work, although it wasn’t necessarily the presenter’s fault, there was a very awkward pause during which everyone in the audience was just sitting and waiting.
For the next speech, I plan on rehearsing much more thoroughly beforehand and writing less on my notecard. I often get into the habit of writing out full sentences on my notecard because I like the way that they sound, but by doing this I become too reliant on memorizing the speech word for word and I am less able to speak naturally and fluidly. I look forward to watching myself and the rest of the class improve in their speech delivery skills as the semester goes on.