Overall, I would say I feel pretty proud of my speech. I felt so nervous throughout the week, leading up to Thursday, but it ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be. I would say my strengths consisted of projection, my presentation, my ability to look around at the different sections of the class, and not get too overwhelmed when I made a mistake. Some of my weaknesses, however, included my posture and the amount of time I spent looking at my flashcards. I do feel as though I could have looked at them less and still presented my content confidently.
From my peer’s speeches, I learned that everyone can go up in front of a class and give a speech. It is possible, simply put. Everyone seemed very relaxed and confident while presenting, which allowed me to do the same. Their reactions as an audience were also very helpful, during my time upfront. I thoroughly enjoyed watching every speech that was presented; I gained some knowledge in the art of speech giving by all of them.
Furthermore, for my Rhetorical Analysis Paper, I plan to use the artifact of Skin Whitening creams that are of constant advertisement in the country of India. I will use this artifact to contrast with the overall premise of my speech. It challenges the commonplace of assuming people’s race because the product enforces the want of essentially “changing” one’s race. These products make it seem like the fairness of one’s skin equivalates to both their beauty and importance. Overall, this beauty standard has been extremely detrimental for many and should not be accepted in India’s modern society.
The topic of skin whitening creams, I think, goes very well with your previous civic artifact, without overshadowing it. Both are related to the whole “whitewashed” thing, but in different ways.