Public Speaking Class Analysis

Many things must be taken into consideration when addressing a class of students. Many of them share similar interests such as me, seeing that we are both share many things in common as we both attend UW Whitewater. I am familiar with the class and there interests because of the bag speeches so my speech that I will give will be more laid back because I am more comfortable with them. I have also given a speech in front of this audience before, this will help with my nerves as well as my delivery.

Even though this was our class’ first speech, not only did everyone bring exciting topics to discuss, but we were also able to effectively use the conventions of an informative speech. Not everything was perfect yet, as there are still some tweaks or improvements that can be made as we strive to better our public speaking skills. Taking a look at the speeches by Mariapia, Elizabeth, and Ashley I will evaluate their speeches for effective openings, notable transitions, and other achievements in their organization or delivery. In doing so, I will assess the success and potential shortcomings of each speaker in their informative speech, before reflecting on my own speech, in order for the speakers and myself to reflect on our public speaking skills

In this chapter, the author starts off by discussing the two ways of viewing public speaking. In one way, some may view it as terrifying, and even be angry towards it. Others may see it as an invitation to a journey that may last your entire lifetime. The author also discusses how most of our speeches will be impromptu. There is a one-point impromptu speech, as well as a standard impromptu speech. I enjoyed how the author gave helpful suggestions like keeping the speech short, stay organized, and stick to the point. Special occasion speeches are also discussed throughout this chapter. The goal of these is to unite the audience, reaffirm their beliefs, and honor specific individuals or a group. In order to succeed in a special occasion speech,

I have always absolutely hated public speaking for as long as I can remember. To my dismay, I was obligated last year by team tradition to deliver speeches about a few graduating seniors at the Cross Country banquet. My initial reaction was that I was going to write as short of a speech as possible and get it over with quickly. While the temptation was extremely strong, I decided that I was going to suck it up and give my seniors a proper send off. Many weeks and many drafts later I kept rehearsing my speeches in the mirror until I got it right. The banquet itself was by far one of the most stressful events I’ve ever attended. When I gave my speech, it finally felt good for the first time speaking in such a large crowd, something that I never

As the first group to present, there was a lot of pressure to set the bar for the class. As my first speech to be given in front of a class; I was quite nervous. In preparation for the speech, we individually researched “Catharsis”. My position, the conclusion, was important in clarifying what catharsis is and how to properly handle it. As the “wrap up”, I needed to spark interest again to get the audience’s focus that they may have lost mid presentation. I included a video in the middle of my speech to show both what to do and what not to do in regards to controlling emotion. I tried to look as confident on the outside even though I was freaking out in my head as I was waiting for my time to speak. I dressed professionally

I do recall cutting things out as I wrote the speech and telling myself that I wouldn’t have time. I also mentioned in the past how my physical performance was solidly average for my personal narrative. Watching this speech, I’d say that I improved a little. It’s not great and still not particularly noteworthy, but I think there’s less nervous gestures and more purpose behind what I’m doing. I’m well aware of the fact that I had to crank volume up to 75% to even hear myself on the recording, so I’m going to go ahead and say that I didn’t fix the volume problem. I’m not surprised though; that’s been prevalent my whole life and one semester won’t change all that much. There was one other noteworthy improvement though, and that was that I was considerably less nervous for this speech. I was a bit frazzled, but I didn’t lose too much sleep. It’s amazing because I actually didn’t get this done as early as I wanted (read: I prefer doing things a month in advance) because I was bedridden the entirety of break, so I didn’t get to practice aloud until a few days before my

The most challenging part of preparing my speech was to organize my thoughts because I found it hard to wrap my senior year into a speech of no more than four minutes. Once I had done my first draft, I came to realization that I had a lot of “fluff” which was not needed. With limited time, it is hard to decide which examples are intriguing and not too long or short. Turning my preparation outline into a speaking outline was difficult because I’m indecisive when trying to make things simpler like I feel I have eliminated “important” details. I tend to use filler words because I always have the issue of forgetting a lot once I’m up in front of a class. I found that rehearsing was way easier as I found myself with a good rate, but when it was

For me public speaking is a form a communication. People communicate with one another everyday, many times a day. However, we do not always communicate with people in the form of public speaking. Public speaking is used more for as a platform; for instance, delivering speeches and giving presentations is a form of public speaking. Public speaking is a platform used to deliver messages. Not many people are exposed to this form of communication so when they have to do it, it becomes difficult for them. Normally, people are not used to speaking in front of large crowds, so this makes them uncomfortable. The art of public speaking is a useful skill, that everyone should posses.

I think I did an outstanding job with my speech. I made my book shield. And I also made some note cards for myself. I need to practice more with Mrs. Stauffer. My book shield pages kept falling down. I will practice more with Mr. Stauffer, Mrs. Stauffer, and Mrs. Rupp. I need to work on looking up from my note cards. Speaking clearly is what I need to work on. I should have practiced more with teachers. I need to practice more in order to get better at creating and giving speeches. I need to work on making my voice louder and my speech lengthier longer. I needed to make everything I write lengthier than I usually do. I loved how creative I really was in my shield

I identified what kind of speech I would be giving and also created and outline. Furthermore, I also practiced my speech by using notecards. Moreover, when giving my speech I feel as though I improved where I may have failed during my in-class speech. Giving this speech made me much more confident in my public speaking ability. It is thanks to what I learned in class that I was able to efficiently create and give a well-rounded speech. Due to this I was able to pass my test and became a third-degree black belt. You’ll never know when you will need to use certain skills that you learned in school. However, I learned very quickly that what I have been learning in Intro to Communications are strategies that I will use for the remainder of my

My advanced pubic speaking skills have improved over the course of the semester. I have sharpened skills that I already had and have gained new skills. One of my strengths is my confidence during a speech. I do not get nervous when speaking in front of a group of people. This has helped me tremendously when giving personations because I am able to be confident and not appear as though I am nervous. Another strength that I have is that I have a good understanding of what a good volume is. I

1) During my introduction speech, I was able to find out both my strengths and shortcomings, in regards to public speaking. My strengths during the intro speech were in keeping eye contact and a natural ability to hold the attention of the audience. My shortcomings, however, were much more pervasive, ranging from bad timing to using filler words. Most noticeably, was my lack of timing, since the speech I gave lasted roughly 8 and a half minutes.

During speech class this semester, I gave several different types of speeches on several different topics. During this semester, my ability to give speeches in front of an audience has improved quite a bit, I hope. Going into the semester, I had a really hard time giving speeches to people, but now that speech is almost over I feel like I am more capable of doing so. I think the thing I did best during the semester was getting good information for each of my speeches. My favorite assignment was most likely the impromptu speech. I really liked that one because we did not have to prepare an outline or anything like that, we just got to go up there and speak. During this semester, I learned a lot about how to give speeches such as the proper way to stand so I do not rock, or how to use my hands to emphasize my points. In the future, I think that I will be able to control my speed better during my speeches which will help the people I am presenting to understand my message. I think the skills I have acquired during speech will help me for the rest of my life. No matter what career I choose, I am sure that at some point I will have to present to someone about something. The skills I learned in speech will also help me just communicate with people in a one on one situation easier than I do now. I can use these skills throughout the rest of high school and through my six years of college still to come because whenever I have to present a project I will know how to effectively communicate my message to my audience.

Here comes the end of this semester, and I really want to reflect on my overall performance through this course and set goals for future. In the past three months, I feel like I have accomplished a lot not only as a student but also as a speaker. From all the speeches I did this semester including Grab Bag Speech, My Path Interview, Career Path Presentation, Rhetorical Analysis Activity, Pitch Speech, Story Podcasts, and two impromptu speeches, I learned a lot of speaking skills and showed a big progress. In addition, Professor Khalil taught me a very important thing which is knowing people well, which allows me to be more confident and relaxed while doing a speech. I think I improved a lot from the beginning to the end, and I am pleased with my overall delivery in the IDEA Speech. However, there is still more space for me to improve, so I am going to do a self-critique based on my performance not only in the IDEA Speech but also throughout the course.

The first of the three goals was to “improve ability to deliver speeches for a variety of purposes, situations, and audiences.” This goal was to be met by giving both prepared and impromptu speeches both in class and to other groups. My speeches were my introductory speech, my talk from TEC, a persuasive speech about media bias with