I’ll be honest: public speaking is not my forte. I can walk into a speech, confidant, having my words prepared and my gestures practiced, but as soon as I face my audience, my mind blanks. I forget my speech (and how to string words to make a sentence, for that matter) and my hands begin to flail, my feet cross, and I begin a long slew of “ums” as I try to slowly piece together a forgotten speech. Given my prior history of poorly-delivered speeches, I was content with the speech I gave on Tuesday discussing how the ad for the National Guard connected to civic engagement. I will admit, I was nervous, but I think I was able to convey my message clearly and that my hand gestures stayed gentle and did not flail like years past. I certainly think my speech could have been improved if I spoke a little slower. When speaking in front of a group of people, I have a tendency to talk as fast as possible and have mastered the art of blurting out as many words of my speech in the shortest amount of time. I also think my transitions between points could have been much better and smoother, I did not think it was too terrible. Something I would like to improve for the future would be to reduce my use of “ums” and in general, develop more confidence in giving speeches and hopefully achieve a point where public speaking becomes a comfortable routine.
As I listened to many other speeches, I was impressed by everyone’s poise and enjoyed the content of their discussion. I thought some of the qualities of the well-delivered speeches were that the speaker had a very comfortable and deliberate pace. Oftentimes, many people have the tendency to talk as fast as they can without ever noticing it, and I believe that the speeches spoken at a normal pace not only made the audience comfortable, but also allowed them to better understand the material. I also enjoyed the speeches that had elements of humor, because that put the audience at ease and helped draw the audience’s attention. Some aspects that could be improved include developing an impromptu style of speech. I, along with a few others, have the habit of directly reading off a paper during a speech, which limits the contact a speaker can make with his or her own audience and also contributes to the audience’s unease. Another potential improvement may be to avoid saying “um” (which I have a bad habit of doing, as well). Hopefully, over the course of the class, we will all be able to develop some valuable public speaking skills which will churn out some great speeches in the future.
I like that you are effectively able to analyze your own speech honestly. Not a lot of people can assess their own work with credibility. That being said, I think you were probably a little too hard on yourself. I thought your speech was well-spoken and not too fast, and you know I’m being honest because I actually remember it out the 23 others. But I would agree with you that most of our class had a sense of “comfort” with their subject, and that made it possible for the class to be more relaxed while listening.
I totally understand how you feel! You can be so confident walking in to the room, you are completely prepared and ready to go, but then it all falls apart. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking in front of 600 people or 24, it still happens! From describing your past speeches, I think that you definitely improved and of course we will all improve with more practice…hopefully!
I think this is a very thoughtful post. I thought your speech was solid! I know doing anything in front of a large group can be really tough — whether it is speaking, singing, playing an instrument, playing a sport, or any other activity. And improvement is the only thing you can ask for! For me, I try to pause instead of saying “um.” The speaker processes everything much faster due to their adrenaline — when in fact little pauses in the speech can be a very good thing.