Bel 311 Week 1 Speech Reflection

First, allow me to profusely apologize for my oversight : ( Last night's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst, April Ryan's Speaking Engagement was held on the campus of William & Mary (Sadler Center); not The Sandler Performing Arts Center in Virginia Beach's Town Center. Reading is "Fundamental"!!

One of my first experiences that I can remember is when my Grandmother was having a book signing. I had to introduce her to the audience. Telling all of these people that I did not know, who she was, what she wrote, and why she was having a book signing. At 13, this was an unusual experience but because of my Grandmother’s inspiration, hard work and exceptional gift in poetry, I knew that I needed to do this for her, as well as for myself. Having spoken in front of a crowd like this has boosted my self confidence remarkably, it made me come out of my shy shell and become more outspoken. I felt that if I could overcome that fear, I could overcome anything making myself prepared for everything that came my

I am writing this paper to let you know what benefits I have learneded from class. We do a lot of the things for class like the online discussions, speech presentations and class activities. They have all prepared me for what I need to do. They teach me what a speech is about and how to make one. But when you make a speech the most important is the techniques or the content you used.

When I gave my speech, I felt confident. I don't exactly have a fear of public speaking- anyone who knows me could tell you that. I looked out to the entire audience for the entire speech because I didn't use note cards. I also kept my energy up throughout the speech which helped keep the audience focused on the speech. I made some jokes, and the audience laughed at most of them, which was a good feeling. But because I failed to fully memorize the speech, there were times that I was left trying to figure out the exact phrasing, which took away from the performance slightly, even though I don't believe it was that big of a deal. I also made a pun by ending my speech with "My speech is all ogre now" and very few people caught it. This was probably due to my poor

Of course I was the first to be called up to give my introduction speech! Perhaps because my professor knew me so well? Who knows… but I was actually glad that I was chosen first because I get to set the bar without having to worry about competing with the previous speeches. So with that positive mindset, my anxiety levels were really low. On a scale from one to ten I’d say I was a solid two! As soon as I was about to speak I observed my audience, their faces, movements, and eyes. All the attention was on me and I got right into my zone.

At the beginning, I was someone who dreaded speaking in front of the class and just read off her notecards the whole time in a quiet voice. Now I feel confident in my public speaking skills and can give a speech with no notecards, in a loud and clear voice. Mr. Ferebee helped me become a better speaker through teaching me about all of the literacy skills. I believe that you must use all of them in order to deliver a good message aloud. You must read and truly understand things about your topic so that you can turn that knowledge into things you can say. When you say them, you must listen to other people, to improve upon your own skills in order to speak well. Public speaking is one of the most important things that we use everyday. If we are not good at using all of the literacy skills in our speaking, then nobody will understand what we have to say. Without this class, I would not have been able to improve my speaking skills into something that I am proud

I would describe my speaking style as well structured, yet lacking confidence. I think my speech outlines are organized appropriately and have the potential to be a great speech if delivered properly. I know my greatest weakness involving speeches is my social anxiety though. I have been terrified to talk to people in a non-casual way since as long as I can remember. I have become better at speaking to groups over the years, but I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be able to perform a speech properly. The proper way to present a speech is to make eye-contact as much as possible, to avoid using note cards unless absolutely necessary, and to stand in a professional and confident manner. I, unfortunately, do none of these. Due to my anxiety, I am unable to think straight which causes me to have to completely rely on my notecards to remember what I need to say, preventing me from making proper eye contact with my audience. Also, I do not stand in a professional and confident manner because I am overly nervous, and feel uncomfortable during my speech.

Now, if I were to practice with only you I think that it would assist me only a little. You could show me some pointers on how I should project my speech, and give me tips on like what to do with my body. Even though I think there are some parts in my speech that needs work I do know what can make a good speech. For example, your opening introduction should catch the attention of whoever the speech is targeted towards. Make sure your speech is well organized, so that it is easy to flow with. I think that it is important to realize that your overall delivery as to be great to be able to inform the audience. Another aspect on what makes a good speech is keeping your peers engaged into what you are informing them about. Such as, you could use a slide show so, that people can actually see with their own eyes what you are talking about. You could also tell a short story that pertains to the speech or ask a rhetorical question to get people

The best thing I see myself doing during the introduction is catching their attention with the topic. I saw myself move around more than I did in previous speeches, even though it was minimal. My voice was the least shaky throughout the introduction as it was my most memorized part of my speech. I believe overall, this speech was among one of my best speeches given during the duration of the course. I believe I gave my audience great life examples during my speech to help them not repeat the same mistakes I made.

There are many different thoughts and emotions I had while reading 2009 Back to School Speech. At first I almost thought of it as something of the past, yet as i continued reading more connections specifically to the time i am growing up in. One example of this is when he says “-Dont spend every waking hour in front of the T.V. or with that Xbox.” This is something I personally connect to and made me realize that I am guilty of the things he is speaking of. At one point he begins to speak of the students that sat at desks 250 years ago and how they grew up and helped shape our country. He spoke of how students during the great depression and World Wars were able to keep up their studies and help pull us through. The connection to history really helped to pull me out of my head and realize that things I’m TRYING to do right now aren’t

So today I gave my third speech in class. It was my persuasive speech,which is a little harder than the rest. Simply because with the informative and bibliography speech I didn't have to convince or persuade the audience of anything. Therefore the  pressure was on, not to mention I had some errors that occurs in my last speech I didn't want to occur in this speech. I managed to talk for seven minutes ,which was a great accomplishments since I've always been a couple minutes short in my last speeches. I wasn't nervious this time around, because  I almost didn't get a chance to go. It was 11:44 and I had two people in front of me,therefore I was happy when I heard my name. I guess at that moment I wasn't worried about screwing up, I was more

My voice, that is my strongest aspect of my speeches, my voice is what gets the people to pay attention and to stay interested because if you are mumbling it gets boring, for me I talk loud so everyone stays interested in what I am talking about. Another thing is my eye contact, I know I did well on that, I used to never want to look up because speeches scared me, but now I’m fine and can look around. After I was done with my speech how did I feel? I felt good, but kind of awkward at the same time. The topic I was talking about made it kind of awkward, mostly because no one really knew what I was talking about. I felt confident after my speech because I got through it, and had a good time which I was worried about to. Everything went well and I was happy with that. I did well on really giving detail, letting everyone know what exactly sony vegas is. I need to work on maybe adding more detail, for sure not sway back and forth during my speech. I need to work on still being more prepared, maybe expand a little

I am Alexander Ingram, student of Ozark Technical Community College. This is my third year as a student at this school. I am studying in the design and drafting program with possibly only two semesters for my degree after this one. One of the more important courses I am taking during my scholar at this school besides the Drafting classes is Public Speaking. I recently gave a self introduction speech at the head of the Public Speaking classroom. This course will not only help me see several places where I could improve but, also I will learn methods to improve and ways to better inform, deliver, and persuade as on personable speech and general speaking in public.

I need to be more expressive with my body language, as I often stand rigid during my presentation. I will have to actively think about movement during presentations and make appropriate gestures throughout my presentations. I also need to work on my transitions, which are often satisfactory, but can sometimes feel out of place or unnatural. This is something that can be improved through better speech writing and practicing until the transitions are fluid and natural. There is always room for improvement in all areas of speech, and I expect to grow as a speaker through practice and applying what I learned in this class to future public speaking

Initially, when I first registered to enroll for this online Speech class, I did not know what to expect. I thought that we would only meet in order to present the required speeches and then I thought that we would have a virtual classroom to give speeches were we were all online at once. Now I know that both of my guesses were wrong. For our speeches, we either record them online and invite classmates as audience members to watch, or have a live audience of family and/or friends that record you giving your speech in your living room or somewhere similar. When I found out that these were the ways I would be giving my speeches, I was so surprised. When I am speaking in front of a live audience in a classroom, I get so nervous, so I thought that this method of giving presentations might be less anxious for me.