When watching my speech, I was focused most on my tone of voice. While I feel that my tone and speed were reflective of my passions and beliefs about the speech, it sounded like the words were coming from someone else. As someone who speaks very passionately and with a lot of animation, it was weird to hear myself sound robotic and as if I was forcing out emotion. This may just be something that I notice and others don’t because I am so aware of how I typically speak. I also noticed that I had trouble making eye contact throughout the speech. I always tried looking at the camera, but when I am deep in thought or trying to find the right words to finish a sentence I tend to look upwards or to the side, which I feel makes me look unprepared. In order to improve both of these aspects, I think that I should memorize more of my speech so that it feels more as if I am telling a story than reading a script. Practicing my speech in front of others will also help, as I feel that I get more animated and passionate when talking about a topic to someone individually. This would make my tone and speech more natural and add a personal touch that will hopefully appeal to the audience. This would also help me with maintaining eye contact since having more of it memorized will mean that I’m not searching for my words as much. I watched some other people’s speeches, and they did a great job of maintaining eye contact and speaking in a way that didn’t feel robotic or monotonous.
I watched Eric’s speech and think he did a really good job. I enjoyed how he stood up for his speech, which made it feel more formal and as if I was watching the speech live. His speech was also very well written and organized, which made it easy to follow, but still allowed him to use sophisticated language without confusing the audience. The speed at which he spoke was also very easy to follow.
I definitely felt the same way when I was watching the recording of my speech, it felt like I was listening to someone that wasn’t me lol. I think that working on eye contact would be a great goal for you to work on for your next speech, I share the same struggle with maintaining consistent eye contact with my audience as I tend to look to the side or down at the floor, but you did great with your speech overall!
I felt very similarly about mine regarding feeling robotic and not having much passion. I feel like that just comes with presenting to a computer screen. It is very hard to get into it, especially with making as many takes as possible. Every take I took, I lost a little enthusiasm. I also reviewed Eric’s speech and agree with all of the positive things you said. I’m glad you were able to learn through this assignment!
You did a good job analyzing not only your own speech but Eric’s as well! I did not watch his, but I was able to get a good sense of it through your analysis. I also think standing for the recording is a cool approach, as I had not done that! I am glad watching it gave you a better understanding of your own and some things to apply to your next speech.
I feel the exact same way about listening to the tone of my voice, so I understand how you feel. It’s good that you have set goals for your future speeches, and I feel like I could also work on similar things. I didn’t watch Eric’s speech but that is cool that he stood up for it. I didn’t think of doing that, but I am sure it made the whole speech seem like it was in person, which, in turn, probably made it more engaging.