I feel that I did well on the content of my civic artifact speech. I began with a topic that many people in the class were familiar with, and I think that the introduction to my speech transitioned well into the thesis. I had a developed thesis, and I explained the ideologies embedded in the corset as well as the commonplaces it highlights. I described the history of the corset and how it has created a sense of community for women from the time it was perceived as oppressive to its modern-day symbolism. However, I could have used better transitions and verbal signposts to help separate my main points for the audience. 

An area I could have improved in was my oral delivery of the speech. Despite having practiced for a significant amount of time, I did not perform as well as I had hoped I would, especially in the second half of my speech. I did not vary my oral style like I planned to, use gestures, or maintain consistent eye contact throughout the whole speech. I also used verbal fillers unintentionally as a result of nerves. Toward the second half of my speech, my legs began to shake pretty intensely, which threw me off and caused me to forget a lot of the speech. I relied on my notes a lot more in the second half of my speech and took long pauses between my thoughts. 

Three things happened that I was unaware of. I did not use many gestures or move my hands much throughout the speech. I also did not look around the room and make eye contact as much as I thought I did. Finally, I did not realize how long my speech was. I timed it while I was practicing, but I spent longer in class than I did while practicing.