Reflection On Speech

Communicating with my peers has been a hefty struggle with me for years. For me to speak with one partner let alone a whole class was challenging enough. Through elementary, I used to speak in quiet stutters that required an ear full to get a word.

An area that I could have improved upon in communication was the speed of the verbal delivery of the teaching session, especially at the beginning, because Quinn and Hughes (2007) advise that this can affect the ability to absorb information and cause loss of attention. The speed of delivery was very important for understanding because the teaching method used in this session was talking, as defined by Jarvis and Gibson (1997), with the majority of the flow of the conversation being from me to the student rather than it being more interactive and involving discussion or demonstration.

Effective communication skills are crucial to my success in both my personal and professional life and this course has helped me tremendously of becoming a more confident speaker. I’ve learned various communication techniques such as listening, active listening, verbal and nonverbal skills to connect with audiences once I speak in front of a large group of people.

In the first speech for this class, my main goals were to gain confidence to voice my ideas and use speech to make a difference in peoples’ lives, and to practice overcoming my speech anxiety therefore be able to use my nerves to focus myself. Overall, I believe that I did improve in both of these areas as a result of information from the book, mini speeches, and the larger speeches.

What was the central idea of the speech? How were the central idea and main points of the speech previewed?

This class gives me an opportunity to discuss with my classmates about various topics, and show my opinion. It is extremely useful because I have to talk and I have to improve my speech. Despite that, I rate 3 my speaking skills. I have to speak more,

In the group discussion, I really enjoyed working in smaller groups. Although I didn’t enjoy the topic as much, I felt I connected with my peers and we made the best out of the situation. I learned much about each students opinion and we actually made some great solutions out of the problems we grabbed out of the reading.

Coming into this semester, I was scared that I was taking a speech class. The thought of speaking in front of a group of people did not fit well with me. I knew in order to earn the grade I wanted, I had to do speeches. I did not know the class would only be about 25 kids, so that made it easier. Professor Workman did her best to make sure we weren’t nervous or had any anxiety before our speeches which helped a lot.

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

I never enjoyed doing any school work in a group. Somehow I always ended up doing all the work while everyone else in my group got to “chill” and not worry about anything. I always saw it as either I do it and get a good grade or I do not do it and we all fail. I knew I always had the chance to let my teachers know I did all the work and let my group get no credit for it, but I was always too nice to do that. I came into this class as a freshman not knowing what to expect. All I knew was that I was not good at doing speeches alone, so this class was probably my best bet. My first group experience in this class completely changed the way I feel about doing work as a group.

As I reflect on the class and how I improved I think first to how nervous I felt about having to speak on camera. In my previous job I had to speak in front of people. It was a routine part of my job and I am comfortable with it. Sometimes it is hard to think about being judged and when one is standing in front of a crowd, the anxiety can sink in. Speaking in front of a computer screen is different and for me, much more uncomfortable. Perhaps in person it is easier to read the audience and give the speaker non-verbal control how he or she will present. For instance; if I am speaking to a group in person I can connect through eye contact and better sense if I need to take another direction to liven things up a bit. One of my strengths is an ability to connect with people, but I do not think that comes through nearly as much as in person. This class prepared me to speak in an unfamiliar medium and will now be less anxious if I have to so a talk or presentation via Skype or other electronic means.

Completing this introduction speech was a great experience for me overall I thought. I was actually first to complete my introduction speech amongst my peer classmates, so I driven to set the bar high and leave an example for the rest the class. Grading myself from the rubric on a scale of 100, I would grade myself at a 79.5% which would round up to a 80% which is a B on the grading scale. For the learning expectations for this assignment, I demonstrated effective delivery techniques and I created an identity that lets the class know who I am. I can admit that I struggled with the ability to organize information and present it a well organized form for my audience to grasp.

For my assignment, I have been asked to do a self-evaluation on my introductory speech. The introduction of my speech was excellent. I effectively communicated my quote, I stated the author, and I told the audience what I have learned because of the quote. My first transition at 0:37 was good, but it could have been a bit more fluid. I wish I would have found a better way to transition from my introduction to my first point, but I couldn’t think of a different way. My other transitions were excellent. I used a timeline to effectively transition to my next story and I think it was very clear and fluid. My conclusion was explicit in telling my audience that my speech was coming to an end. My conclusion was effective in that I reiterated the main takeaways and I repeated the quote. According to my taped speech on my phone, the time was 4:27, which means I met the minimum time. For the organization of my speech, I would rate myself as “excellent.” I would give myself this rating because I believe I really couldn’t have done a more effective job.

Like some people, public speaking is not my forte. When I enrolled in speech communication class, I believed that this class will be a great opportunity for me to improve on one of my biggest weaknesses, and at the end, which I believe has successfully improved on. From delivering the speeches in class and also being a listener to speeches of other members of the class has been an interesting experience. When I initially began this class, I had little knowledge on what is in store aside from that I knew I would be speaking in front of the class. This class has benefited me by allowing to improvise and assess on each speech I delivered during the semester and also learning how to organize a speech from researching a topic till the

Through my introduction, I was able so successful grab my audience’s attention and present my topic in a means that was easy to understand. The use of a simple statistic in the number of doctor visits helped provide my argument with context and provided a connection to the audience. Similarly, I felt describing my work with disease causing bacteria added to my credibility and my overall topic. Once I established the connection and stated my main thesis, I was able to easily transition into my speech. I think offering my audience the idea that there is a problem and a solution provided a simple layout of my speech.